18th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships - Birmingham 2009

News

The Beauty of Birmingham

06 Oct 2009

As Birmingham prepares to stage another world-class athletics event, is it possible that an area can breed success?

When you think of the glory that has emerged from the city, the answer is probably yes.

On Sunday morning, the IAAF/eDFENERGY World Half-marathon Championships takes place in the city, two-and-a-half years after Birmingham played host to the European Indoor Championships which followed on from the IAAF World Indoor Championships in 2003.Great events, to go alongside an area that has developed and nurtured some of the world’s best athletes.

Ian Stewart, Ashia Hansen, Denise Lewis and Mark Lewis-Francis, are just some of those who have either been born in Birmingham or its neighbouring vicinities or have developed their skill at UK Athletics’ High-performance centre at the Alexander Stadium near the city in Perry Barr as members of Birchfield Harriers.

And more than two years away from the Olympics in London in 2012, Birmingham is preparing for the arrival of the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, after Jamaica this summer announced they have chosen the city as their base to prepare for the Games. Jamaica will prepare at the University of Birmingham where their squad, that includes Bolt, the triple Olympic gold medallist and world record-holder in the 100m and 200m, will use the running track and weights. As Zena Wooldridge, the university’s Director of Sport, said at the time: “It confirms our status as a great sporting city.”

So which athletes put Birmingham on the map?
Stewart was born in Handsworth, Birmingham on 15 January 1949, and from the late 1960s to mid-1970s he was one of the world’s greatest runners. His major outdoor international success began in Athens in 1969 when he won the 5000m at the European Championships before this athlete with Scottish roots triumphed over the same distance at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh the following year.

At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Stewart won bronze as legendary Finn Lasse Virén won gold while he also won the World Cross Country title in 1975 to go with European Indoor 3000m glory from that same year having also taken that gold in 1969.

Stewart remains a key figure in the sport as both meeting director for UKA’s televised events and the organisation’s Head of Endurance Strategy.

Success literally ran in his family with his brother Peter following Ian’s success with 3000m gold at the 1971 European Championships and their sister Mary taking 1500m gold at the 1978 Commonwealth Games.

In 2000, in Sydney, Birchfield Harriers could proudly boast an Olympic champion. Lewis, born nearby in West Bromwich, won Heptathlon gold with a fantastic performance and four years later the same club was back on the podium at the greatest show on earth – but this time had two sensational successes.

Kelly Sotherton, who lives in Birmingham, followed Lewis by winning Heptathlon bronze in Athens before on the final night of the track and field programme, in the last 100m of the last race, Lewis-Francis, born 10 miles away from the city’s centre in Darlaston, produced the run of his life.

Bursting from his changeover zone in the final leg of the 4 × 100m final, he held on to beat American 100m champion Maurice Greene and lead Britain’s men to gold.

In 1998, Hansen, again a member of Birchfield, won triple jump gold at the European Indoor Championships in Valencia with a world-record performance of 15.16. Her coach Aston Moore the very same man who guided Phillips Idowu to Triple Jump gold in Berlin in August this year. Idowu himself is now based in Birmingham to be with his coach.

Birmingham can lay claim to many other home-grown successes, such as Daniel Caines, born in neighbouring Solihull, who won the World Indoor 400m title in 2001 in Lisbon, while other athletes from the city include Sidney Abrahams, the brother of Harold, the Olympic 100m champion in 1924. Sidney, a long jumper, was 12th in the Olympics in Stockholm in 1912.

On Sunday, the next chapter in the city’s love affair with this sport will begin.