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Journalism of Courage
Sprint trio Dwain Chambers, Darren Campbell and Jason Gardener began their quest to maintain Britain8217;s strangle hold on the men8217;s 100 metres title by easing through the first round heats at the European Championships in Munich on Tuesday.
Britain has provided the gold medallist in the last four championships, dating back to when Linford Christie secured the first of his three titles in Stuttgart in 1986.
Chambers, restored to fitness after pulling up with cramp in the Commonwealth Games 100 metres final in Manchester, clocked the fastest time of the heats in easing to victory in 10.23 seconds.
8220;I8217;m still standing, don8217;t worry,8221; said Chambers, who is the quickest European sprinter this season and has twice beaten world-record holder Maurice Greene this year.
The defending European champion Campbell, who denied Chambers gold in Budapest four years ago, finished second in his heat behind Greece8217;s Georgios Theodoridis, while Gardener ran a fine race to clock 10.29 in chasing home Hungary8217;s Roland Nemeth. Another of Britain8217;s top sprinters, Mark Lewis-Francis, is not competing in these championships after the 19-year-old tore a hamstring in Manchester.
Nigerian-born Francis Obikwelu, who competes for Portugal and has clocked 10.09 this season to put him among the medal favourites, won heat two in 10.38 seconds to comfortably progress. Germany8217;s Ingo Schultz and Britain8217;s Daniel Caines, the two fastest 400 metre runners in Europe this season, both made it through to the semi-finals without mishap. Schultz, World Championships silver medallist in Edmonton last year, clocked 45.79 seconds in winning heat two.
Caines, distraught last week after narrowly missing out on a medal at the Commonwealth Games and later revealing he had been suffering from influenza before the race, finished second in heat four in a time of 46.06. The fastest qualifying time of the round 8212; 45.70 8212; was set by France8217;s Marc Raquil.
British triple jumper Phillips Idowu put compatriot Jonathan Edwards in the shade with a leap of 17.54 metres, easily the best in qualifying.
Olympic and world champion and world-record holder Edwards, bidding for his second European title, qualified with his first jump of 16.99 to reach Thursday8217;s final. Reuters
