Athletics: Hansen hits Jackson heights

Munich 2002: Last-gasp Ashia leaps to glory as hurdling king follows Backley into history

Even England's footballers in the glory of their 5-1 World Cup qualifying match win of last September didn't produce a one-two of quite such swift and dramatic impact as the golden double Ashia Hansen and Colin Jackson delivered in Munich's Olympiastadion yesterday. On the grass pitch in the centre of the arena, the 45th- minute volley by Steven Gerrard and 48th- minute goal by Michael Owen, that put Sven's men 3-1 ahead of Germany, were separated by the additional 15 minutes of the half-time break. In the space of five minutes at the European Athletics Championships yesterday, on the track in the home straight and the triple-jump pit alongside the back straight, the Great British athletes struck not goals but golds.

First Hansen gathered herself for one last shot at the European title. Trailing to a stunning first-round jump of 14.83 metres by Heli Koivula of Finland, the Birchfield Harrier hit the take-off board plumb on and hopped, stepped and jumped to a distance of 15m. As she had done in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester 10 days before, Hansen had clinched a major championship title with the last of her six efforts.

She had just wiped tears from her eyes with a Union Flag when Jackson shot from his starting blocks in the 110m hurdles final. Precisely 13.11sec later, the most bemedalled competitor in British athletics history had claimed his fourth European gold. In doing so, the Peter Pan of the sprint hurdles followed Steve Backley into the record books as only the third man to win four successive European titles. Backley had achieved the feat on Friday night, equalling the landmark set by the Soviet javelin thrower Janis Lusis in 1971.

Backley, in fact, was central to both British success stories yesterday. Until last summer he was engaged to Koivula. They agreed to split because they both felt they would benefit from concentrating on their respective athletics careers. As it happened, the British javelin thrower was stepping on to the top of the podium to collect his gold medal yesterday just as his former fiancée was emerging from the sandpit after her brilliant first-round effort.

It was Hansen who emerged with the women's triple-jump gold and Britain's haul from these XVIIIth European Championships stands at five, Paula Radcliffe in the women's 10,000m final and Dwain Chambers in the men's 100m final having found a Midas touch in their events before Backley, Hansen and Jackson. And more British gold is promised for the final day of competition today, with Chambers and the rest of the 4 x 100m relay team clear favourites.

For Jackson, it was major outdoor championship medal number 25 in an international career stretching back 17 years. It was also his last. At the age of 35, the world-record holder will be hanging up his racing spikes after the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham in March.

Jackson will be slipping into athletic retirement a happy man, too. "I have no regrets," he said. "The lap of honour out there was an amazing feeling for me. This is very important to me because I've had some rough times in hanging on to my European title and it means a lot to me because of the span too. I won my first one at 25 and to still be doing it at 35 will show everyone that if you work hard you can achieve these things.

"What Steve did in the javelin last night was certainly an inspiration to me. I was sitting down having dinner in the athletes' village watching him on television."

Jackson might have been beaten by the championship schedule, and by the brilliance of Backley, to the honour of becoming the first British four-time winner but there was no beating him on the track yesterday – by his seven rivals or by the 10 flights of hurdles in his path.

In the Commonwealth Games final in Manchester 13 days ago, Jackson had effectively been beaten by himself. Too quick out of his blocks to the first hurdle, his lead leg smashed into the barrier and he did well to retain his balance and take the silver medal behind Shaun Bownes, a South African who served a two-year suspension for anabolic steroid use earlier in his career.

Yesterday he cleared every hurdle and led from start to finish, crossing the line 0.11sec clear of Stanislavs Olijars, a Latvian who escaped punishment after testing positive for nandrolone last year. His winning time, 13.11sec, was the fastest of the season.

"I was pretty cool after what happened in Manchester," he said, "because when you're favourite for an Olympic Games and you don't end up winning that then a Commonwealth Games silver medal blends into genuine insignificance. What happened there was just just one mistake and I paid the penalty. I had no worries about doing the same here."

For Jackson it was very much a home from home victory. The Welshman owns a house in Germany, where he spends part of each year training. He is also a frequent visitor to the Munich clinic of Dr Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfhardt, the sports medicine guru whose celebrated client list has included the skater Katarina Witt and the opera singer Luciano Pavarotti. Jackson credits his healing powers with prolonging his international career into its 17th year.

The finish line is coming into view now, though, for Britain's most bemedalled athlete. Beyond the world indoors next spring Jackson intends to work on a book and a CD that look into the secrets that lie behind sporting longevity such as his own.

He is also planning a television documentary. "I want to do something on what a unique brand of person sports people are," he said. "There are many ways of making it to the top and being a successful sports person. I'd like to show all the different routes that people have taken, because there is no norm."

Jackson, with his Aladdin's cave of medals, is certainly not the norm. He could do no better, though, than focus the camera on himself.