The Aviva GB & NI team celebrated further medal success on Saturday evening at the Atakoy Athletics Arena in Istanbul, Turkey, with gold, silver and bronze medals courtesy of Yamile Aldama in the triple jump, Tiffany Porter in the 60m hurdles and Dwain Chambers in the 60m.
Aldama (Frank Attoh) produced the performance of her life to land the world indoor gold medal after a superb leap of 14.82m meant the rest of the competition were struggling to make an impact thereafter.
The rejuvenated Brit, who has continued to thrive since her solid performance in debuting for Aviva GB & NI in Daegu last year, showed just what she was capable of, and despite suffering a hamstring injury following her third jump, did not need to make any further attempts.
“I had a little bit of a problem with my hamstring so I had to take the competition round by round. But I won so I'm very happy. I think I could have gone further, but I couldn't jump again,” she said.
“It is very difficult to explain my feelings. I'm feeling very proud and very happy and I can't wait to go home and see my family. This is my best moment, I have had silver and bronze before but this is my first gold.”
Almost as if inspired by the early-session gold medal, Aviva GB & NI team captain Tiffany Porter (James Henry) demonstrated the leadership skills that had seen UKA Head Coach Charles Van Commenee nominate her for the captain’s armband, by recovering from a below par semi final run, to win a silver medal in the 60m hurdles final.
In the semi she had looked to be struggling with a slow start but battled hard to secure second spot in 8.03 secs, qualifying third fastest for the final later in the session.
But her final performance was faultless, executing her best possible race for a 7.94secs time, whilst drawn in the lane alongside current world champion Sally Pearson, who went on to blast to a stunning 7.73secs victory:
“I’m very excited, my semi-final didn’t go well as I’m sure you all saw, so I really had to refocus for the final,” said Porter.
“When I gave my captain’s speech I talked about how important mental focus was so I took my own advice and held my focus from the start through to the line.”
