UK Athletics performance director Paula Dunn admitted it was “time to reset” after Great Britain failed to win a gold medal at a World Athletics Championships for the first time since 2003.
The British team in Tokyo finished 21st in the medal table with five podium appearances after Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson claimed respective silver and bronze medals in Sunday’s 800m final.
Injuries to a number of strong medal hopes in Japan had already altered expectations, but fourth place in the women’s 4x100m relay on closing night confirmed there would be no relay podiums one year after Team GB claimed medals in all five at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“I can definitely say it was a mixed bag,” said Dunn. “There were some good points, but it’s a time to reset. Definitely we will be speaking to all the coaches and all the athletes. Standards are rising.
“We’ve been really unlucky with the injuries, you have no good fortune. We did have good fortune in Paris. We just didn’t have it here.
“But we are where we are. Obviously people are disappointed, but it’s a year one of the cycle, and if you’re going to have a disappointing one then this is the one to have, to be fair.”
Great Britain did enjoy some memorable moments in Japan. Katarina Johnson-Thompson split heptathlon bronze, banishing her demons from the Tokyo 2021 Olympics in the process.
Silver medallists Jake Wightman (1500m), Amy Hunt (200m) and Bell (800m) all wrote inspiring next chapters in their comeback stories, as did Hodgkinson, who bravely battled for her own bronze just over a month after returning from a 376-day injury layoff, a year she described after the final as a “sh**tshow”.
Cambridge graduate Hunt has emerged as an especially exciting talent.
In the last 24 to 48 hours, the best-selling sessions for next summer’s European Championships in Birmingham have been for the 23-year-old’s event, the women’s 200m.
Hodgkinson, who had raced just twice outdoors before travelling to Japan, said she was battling stomach issues during her semi-final, and after the final Dunn revealed: “She’s been unwell. She wouldn’t make any excuse, but she has been unwell for the last few days.
“I look at Keely and Keely could quite easily have not come. When I spoke to her in April, when she wasn’t training, I suggested, because she’s had two massive years, and we have to remember she’s only 23 years old, did she want to miss it?
“And she said ‘absolutely not’. For her to come and put her reputation and everything on the line, to run unwell, with minimal races, in that sort of environment, is amazing.”
Dunn pointed out the relay teams were different from those in Paris, largely due to injuries, but added she was “not going to sit here and make excuses”.
“We want to be one of the best nations,” Dunn added. “But sometimes you have those years where it’s a big build year, and I think it’s a really good eye-opener for us.
“Nobody is complacent now, so even though everybody is disappointed, there’s nobody more disappointed than the athletes”.
