Track Beauty of the Week: Tiffany Porter

Tiffany Porter is this week's Track Beauty!

Photo from SuperSport

Porter is an American-born sprint hurdler who competes for Great Britain. Before carrying Team GB's colors, Tiffany had won bronze for her country of birth at the 2006 World Junior Championships. [1] She started representing her mother's country in 2011, to some degree of controversy. 

Her impact on the British record books has been instantaneous, as she rewrote national sprint hurdling records many times over. Porter's personal best of 7.80s in the 60m hurdles is the standing British national record. [2] However, Tiffany's national benchmark of 12.56s in the 100m hurdles was bettered by the prolific Jess Ennis at the London Olympic Games. [3]

To date, Porter had won silver medals at the 2011 European Indoors and the 2012 World Indoors, on top of her 4th place finish at the Daegu World Championships.[4] With her appointment as British team captain for the 2012 World Indoors team, and the warm reception she received from British fans at her home Olympics, the so-called "plastic Brit" controversy seemed to have taken a back seat.

References:

1. "Tiffany Porter." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffany_Porter. Retrieved 12-2-2012.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.

Track Beauty of the Week: Goldie Sayers

Goldie Sayers is this week's Track Beauty!

Amidst the pouring British rain, Goldie stamped her class on a loaded javelin field a month before the London Olympic Games. Sayers threw a new personal best of 66.17m in Crystal Palace to snatch the win at that particular leg of the Diamond League. But her emphatic victory came at a huge cost, as Goldie injured her right arm in the process.

Sayers at the Crystal Palace. (Photo from Robbie Dale)

She still managed to compete at her home Olympic Games, albeit at a sub-par quality. Sayers crashed out of her third Olympics without reaching the final.

For the better part of the past decade, Sayers has been the poster girl of British javelin throwing. As a junior, she placed sixth at the World Junior Championships in Chile. [1] She did even better at the European Junior Championships in Grosetto a year later, winning the silver medal with a throw of 55.40m. [2]

Her first senior final came at the Helsinki World Championships in 2005, where she came in  at 12th place. Although she threw three centimeters shorter than at the Athens Olympics,  Goldie fared much better in Helsinki in terms of overall placing. Sayers almost barged into the medals in Beijing, but her impressive 65.75m throw was only good enough for fourth place.

Judging by her sterling performance in Crystal Palace, 2012 should have been Goldie's year had she not succumbed to injury.

References:

1. "Goldie Sayers." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldie_Sayers. Retrieved 10-7-2012.
2. Ibid.

Helsinki European Champinships: Women's 4x400m Relay

The 4x400m relay has traditionally been the final event of athletics competitions. From low-key schools meets to the Olympics, the grueling yet exciting event has always been the curtain-ender. 

The recently concluded European Championships in Helsinki were no different. With the Russian Olympic Trials being held the week after, the European athletics powerhouse opted to send its "B" team to Helsinki. With the absence of the perennial favorites, other countries had the opportunity to step up and rise to the occasion. Coming into the European Championships, the Ukrainian quartet were the favorites, having run the fastest time by a European team (3:26.36) this season. The British squad, the reigning World Indoor champions from Istanbul, were also well-regarded. 

The German team (Esther Cremer, Janin Lindenberg, Christiane Klopsch, and Fabienne Kohlmann) sped to an early lead in the first lap. The Ukrainians eventually ate up the gap. By the third leg, the experienced Natalya Pyhyda Наталія Пигида padded Ukraine's lead by around 10 meters. France, Germany, and Great Britain ran head-to-head coming into the final lap. 

The Ukrainians lived up to their top billing, as the foursome of Yuliya Olishevska, Olha Zemlyak, Pyhyda, and Alina Lohvynenko stopped the clock at 3:25.07 - the fourth fastest time in the world in 2012. France (Phara Anacharsis, Luina Guion Firmin, Marie Gayot, and Floria Guei) came in second (3:25.49), almost two-tenths of a second ahead of the gutsy Czech squad (Zuzana Hejnová, Zuzana Bergrová, Jitka Bartoničková, and Denisa Rosolova - 3:26.02) composed mostly of 400m hurdlers. The favored British (Shana Cox, Nicola Sanders, Lee McConnell, and Eilidh Child) wound up in fourth place.

Source:
ECH 2012 Results