Filed under: Other Sports, Athletics
Helen Clitheroe's emotional victory was the pinnacle of Great Britain's medal haul in Paris - but it is unlikely to win her back any financial help for her Olympic dream.The team GB captain has been without Lottery funding for for the past 12 months and had to finance the altitude training in Kenya which she believes was the foundation for her first ever gold medal in the 3000m.
She has even admitted that she contemplated giving up on many occasions, such have been the disappointments of four fourth placed finishes at previous European indoors events.
And GB head coach Charles van Commenee believes she is a brilliant example to all athletes, young and old, as the clock continues to tick down to London 2012.
"She showed the ultimate example of what experience can do. Her love for the sport has stayed for such a long time and she is a great example for younger athletes and to others who are older and maybe retire too early," he said.
The 37-year-old became the oldest woman to win the event in Paris by a full four years, when she could have easily have walked away from a sport that believed she was over the hill and no longer deserved the funding she needed to train and compete at the highest level.
UK Sport has clear and strict guidelines on how they go about donating funds which can range from as little as £1,000 to as much as £8 million for a key Olympic sport over a four-year period.
Clitheroe, at her advanced age for an athlete will not be considered for UK Sports World Class Performance Pathway - a scheme in which individual athletes are invited to apply and operates at three levels.
Level 1 - World Class Podium - which supports athletes with realistic medal capabilities at the next Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Level 2 - World Class Development - which is designed to support the stage of the pathway immediately beneath the Podium and is aimed at athletes who have shown that they have realistic medal-winning capabilities for 2012 and also some athletes with the potential to be competitive in 2012.
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Level 3 - World Class Talent - this programme will invest in athletes who have the potential to progress through the World Class pathway. Athletes in this category will have the potential to be winning world class medals by 2014 at the latest.
Clitheroe is unlikely to fall into any of those categories now - given the African competition she would face in 2012 - so is she just dismissed and left to fend on her own, when at the very least she can prove an inspiration to the entire female squad in a little over a year's time?
It is a cruel sport which turns its back on someone who has served her country so well for so long. Helen Clitheroe has an awful lot to offer to the GB team in London. Her performance in Paris proved it.
Especially when she captained a young and inexperienced team to eight medals, almost double what van Commenee was expecting and a total which is the team's highest on foreign soil for 22-years, without big hitters like Jessica Ennis and Mark Lewis-Francis.
The future is bright for youngsters like sprinter Jodie Williams, who equalled a lifetime best in the 60m final and for Tiffany Ofili, who claimed silver in the woman's 60m hurdles, in their senior events as GB athletes - but it is not all about teenagers and UK Sport should recognise that.
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