29 December 2015

Jason Gardener with his pick of top moments in 2015:

 As a sprinter, my standout moment of 2015 was Usain Bolt’s glorious 100m triumph at the World Championships in Beijing.

 With the world watching, Bolt once again did what he does best, better than anyone else – and delivered on the big occasion.

 His narrow victory over rival Justin Gatlin was a masterclass in sprinting. Usain clocked 9.79 to win by one hundredth of a second and the world marvelled at his brilliance.

 However, it was his performance at the Anniversary Games in London a few weeks earlier that was almost as impressive.

 At that stage of the season, Justin Gatlin was everyone’s favourite for gold in China. He had consistently produced winning performances across the season, while Usain was struggling for form.

 He came to London with a lot to prove – and duly delivered, running 9.87 seconds in a fantastic final.

 Never write off Bolt, because this was a performance that I wasn’t sure that he possessed this season.

The Anniversary Games in the Olympic Stadium was the perfect launch pad for his Beijing success.

 British sprinting has continued to flourish this year. The current crop of British male and female sprinters are the best that we have ever had.

 CJ Ujah, Dina Asher Smith, Adam Gemili, James Dasaolu, Desiree Henry, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Richard Kilty, Asha Philip – it is quite a list of world-class sprinters.

 Usain Bolt remains the man to beat for our British sprinters but they are closing that narrowing gap almost every day. And they’re chasing him down in numbers.

 Bolt returns to the Olympic Stadium to compete at the prestigious London Anniversary Games in July.

He will view the Anniversary Games as the perfect springboard for his bid for gold at the Olympic Games in Rio but, this time, I expect the challenge from the Brits to be fiercer than ever before.

 Bring on 2016 – a year which will produce a tremendous battle of the sprinters on home soil and abroad.