The Olympic Games 2000
Photo by Mark Shearman
Darren Campbell – "You're the Man" – Olympic Silver and third fastest Briton of all time
200 metres: rounds 1 and 2 – 27th Sep., semi-final and final – 28th Sep.
Any disappointment that Darren Campbell felt after his 6th place in the 100 metres final just seemed to add fuel to his determination to shine in the 200 metres event. A 20.71 run in the opening round behind the USA's Coby Miller was followed a couple of hours later by a scintillating 20.14 to win his round two race. In spite of easing down over the final 35 metres and turning his head to keep an eye out for any fast finishers, he removed a huge chunk off his previous best (20.48) and beat Ato Bolden to boot. Among Britons only Regis and Christie have gone faster.
In his semi-final Darren led down into home straight but eased off again as the finish was approached, allowing the Greek Kederis to claim the win – 20.20 to 20.23. With Cardiff's Christian Malcolm successfully handling his very tough semi, there were two Britons in the final again.
Drawn in lane 6 with Obadale Thompson (Barbados) and Ato Boldon (Trinidad & Tobago) occupying the tracks outside him, Darren started superbly, ran a magnificent bend and entered the finish straight half a metre up on the two favourites to his right and a full metre clear of the rest of the field. Staying relaxed he held everything together but the man from Greece was running a storming final 50 metres. Kederis came from the middle of the field, into second, and finally overtook the Belgrave Harrier with only a few metres remaining.
Darren was so close to gold that for an instant second place seemed a disappointment – but for goodness sake – he'd beaten all the pre-race favourites, confirmed his position as no. 1 Briton and had been run down by an inspired Konstadinos Kederis. Holder of the Greek national 400 metres record, no wonder he was so strong at the end; it was his county's first men's track and field medal since 1912.
Darren's Silver Medal was the first individual Olympic medal by a Belgravian since Stan Vickers' 20 kms bronze in Rome, 1960.
Previous Belgrave Olympic medallists: 1932 – Tommy Green (1st 50 kms Walk); 1960 – Stan Vickers (3rd 20 kms Walk); 1988 – John Regis (2nd 4x100m relay); 1992 – John Regis (3rd 4x400m relay). Past member Etienne Gailly won bronze for Belgium in the 1948 Olympic Marathon.
1, K.Kederis (Greece) 20.13; 2, D.Campbell (GB & NI) 20.14; 3, A.Boldon (Trinidad & Tobago) 20.20; 4, O.Thompson (Barbados) 20.20; 5, C.Malcolm (GB & NI) 20.23; 6, C. da Silva (Brasil) 20.28; 7, C.Miller (USA) 20.35; 8, J.Capel (USA) 20.49.
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Idowu now among the World's finest
Triple Jump: qualifying round – 23rd Sep., final – 25th Sep.
The flamboyant Phillips Idowu, sporting claret coloured hair, took just one attempt in the Triple Jump qualifying round – sailing out to 17.12 metres for a personal and Club record. It was the second longest leap from all the competitors. Into the final and no messin’.
Two days later a 16.97 leap gave Phillips the 5th best performance in the opening round of the final with the two other Britons ahead of him - Larry Achike leading at 17.29 and Jonathon Edwards 4th with 17.12. The Russian Kapustin took the lead with a 17.46 effort in round 2 while Phillips fouled and Edwards moved up to 2nd with 17.37. Round 3 and Jonathon Edwards wrapped up the competition by leaping out to 17.71 for the year's World leading distance and, eventually, the gold medal. By this time the Belgrave man had been pushed down to 7th but another fine jump over the 17 metre mark in the fourth round moved him into 6th place which he maintained to the end of the competition. Phillips now stands at no. 7 on the British all-time list.
1, J.Edwards (GB & NI) 17.71; 2, Y.Garcia (Cuba) 17.47; 3, D.Kapustin (Russia) 17.46; 4, Y.Quesada (Cuba) 17.37; 5, L.Achike (GB & NI) 17.29; 6, P.Idowu (GB & NI) 17.08.
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Chambers and Campbell 4th and 6th in Olympic 100 metres final
100 metres: rounds 1 and 2 – 22nd Sep., semi-finals and final – 23rd Sep.
The initial round of the 100 metres saw Belgravians Dwain Chambers and Darren Campbell both comfortably progressing to the next stage but then drama struck for the second round when Chambers found himself suffering from cramp as the starter called the runners to their marks. A false start by another competitor didn’t help and the powerful Belgrave man sank to the track with his face contorted as he urgently tried to rub his knotted calf muscles back to life. Somehow he lined up again and when the gun fired, a pattering stride instead of his normal ground devouring gait kept him competitive without the spasms returning. Amazingly he won his race in 10.12 before veering straight off the track and into the physio’s room. Darren Campbell had no trouble in the following race, winning in 10.21.
Next day both the Belgrave boys came through the semi-final stage with flying colours. If Chambers’ legs were troubling him it didn’t show now as he won his race in 10.14 with Campbell 3rd in 10.19. Almost inseparable in so many races this summer – it stayed that way to the end as both now lined up for the Olympic final.
Both had good starts but if there were ever any doubts about the World Record holder Maurice Greene, they were all swept away by 50 metres when the American was clear. Trinidadian Ato Boldon looked looked pretty safe for second but Chambers and Campbell were in the thick of the action with 20 metres remaining, the former just about in the bronze medal position. That finish line just wouldn’t come quick enough though. With tensed up shoulders Chambers dipped a shade too early and instead of snatching a medal, the chance was lost as Obadale Thompson slipped past to book his place on the rostrum.
1, M.Greene (USA) 9.88; 2, A.Boldon (Trinidad & Tobago) 9.99; 3, O.Thompson (Barbados) 10.04; 4, D.Chambers (GB & NI) 10.08; 5, J.Drummond (USA) 10.09; 6, D.Campbell 10.13; 7, K.Collins (St. Kitts & Nevis) 10.17; dnf, A.Zakari (Ghana).
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Douglas and Rawlinson reach the semi-finals
400 metres hurdles: round 1 – 24th Sep., semi-final – 25th Sep.
Matt Douglas and Chris Rawlinson successfully moved through the heats of the 400 metres hurdles in spite of the howling gale against them in the back straight. Rawlinson won his race in 51.30 – over 2 seconds slower than his best but Douglas was a mere 3/10ths down on his best mark as he ran home 3rd in 49.62 in the fastest heat of all, won by Zambia’s Matete in 48.98.
Sadly neither of our boys progressed beyond the semi-finals. If he had been able to reproduce his very best form Chris would have gone into the final but as it was, he was reduced to 6th place in 49.25. For Matt Douglas it was back to his favourite lane (!) – the outside one – for his semi-final. He ran a storming 300 metres but he too was run down in the straight to finish 6th in 49.53. On the world rankings list Matt was outside the top 120 in 1999 with a best ever of 50.20; he's come a long, long way in 2000.
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Ben and Bren unable to reach final
High Jump: qualifying round – 22nd Sep.
High jumpers Ben Challenger and Brendan Reilly were unable to get into qualifying mode, Ben in particular looked only a shadow of the jumper who cleared 2.30 metres twice last year to win the World University Champs. and European Under 23 Champs. He placed equal 13th in his pool with a first time clearance at 2.15 before three failures at 2.20. In the other pool Brendan entered the competition at 2.20, which he cleared at his second attempt, before finding 2.24, his season's best, beyond him on this occasion. They both would have needed 2.27 to progress to the final.
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Sean shocked by below-par 400 metres
400 metres: round 1 – 22nd Sep.
A recent 400 metres personal record of 45.20 by Sean Baldock gave him and his supporters every hope that he would get to the semi-final stage of the one lap sprint; but athletics doesn’t always go the way we'd like it to. Racing in the lane just inside World Record holder Michael Johnson, Sean found himself up on the maestro’s shoulder at the half-way point – where it all went wrong. Whereas Johnson was cruising, the Belgrave man had already pushed the pedal to the floor without realising it. Coming out of the turn he had nothing left at all and as runners streamed past him it was all he could do to keep moving towards the finish line.
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One "barrier" too many for Chaston!
3000 metres Steeplechase: round 1 – 27th Sep.
Justin Chaston found that he had to hurdle one "barrier" too many when a Mexican competitor fell in front of him as they came off one of the hurdles but it didn't really upset his rhythm and the US based Belgravian ran to his second best time of the season – 8:31.01 – to place 7th in his heat. A solid enough run but unfortunately not enough to take him into the next round.
THE OLYMPIC GAMES 2000
Sydney, Australia
Track & Field Results Index
2000 Olympic Games
100m
200m
400m
400m Hurdles
3000m Steeplechase
High Jump
Triple Jump
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.