LAST night in Helsinki's Olympic Stadium, Lynsey Sharp timed her late dash for the line to perfection.
Now, the Scot can only wait to see if her belated push to earn a place at the Games in London next month will be as richly rewarded.
Just days after her surprise 800m victory at the British trials in Birmingham, the 21-year-old last night emerged from her first major final with a silver medal, recovering from a shaky start to seize a podium place with an astounding final 100m.
That late charge, having been bumped on the opening lap then found herself 20 metres off the medals coming down the home straight, earned the Edinburgh athlete second place behind Yelena Arzhakova of Russia. Crossing the line in a personal best of 2:00.52 should have been a further source of happiness but, instead, Sharp was left to rue her failure to run the 1:59.90 time needed to meet the Olympic A standard.
"I would never have thought that I would get a silver medal and I'm so happy with that, but later on I'm going to be frustrated at getting a PB and getting so close to the 'A'," Sharp admitted. "I know it's there, I am just a few weeks behind in my training and come the Games I am going to be in the best form of my life. It's out of my hands now. I rise to the occasion [in championships] which is a good thing, but I just need to make sure I do the time in future."
Her efforts over the past week have ensured that she fulfils the selectors' criteria of 'current form' but three of her rivals – Marilyn Okoro, Emma Jackson and Jenny Meadows – have all run quicker during the selection window, even if doubts persist over the fitness of the latter two.
Missing out would be rough justice on the Scot, who is clearly a fast-improving athlete who can cope with pressure situations, in stark contrast to Okoro, whose crazy tactics continue to frustrate, underlined by her woeful showing in Birmingham last weekend. Indeed, if Sharp been competing in the US trials this week, where the first three past the post in the trials qualify, the she would have booked her place already.
Another Scot sweating over inclusion on Tuesday is Lee McConnell, who tried to take the positives after failing to make the podium in the 400m. A decade after her breakthrough bronze in the event in Munich, she had to settle for fifth on this occasion in a time of 52.20 seconds, 0.65 of a second slower than her Olympic selection standard target.
It means the two-time Olympian will likely to focus her ambitions on the relay, in which she is a two-time world bronze medallist. "I felt that I had a little bit more to give," McConnell said. "We will have to see what team they want to run. I have had a fantastic time over the years running relays and that's not going to change."
n Brought to you by SPAR, Official Sponsors of UK Athletics. For more information visit www.spar.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article