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I've been fairly harsh on Sonia in the past (placed a bet with a mate in 1996 that she would never win an Olympic gold) as she falls into my category of athletes who just don't have the mentality to deliver on the greatest stage when the pressure is on: Jimmy Whyte, Colin Montgomerie, Paula Radcliffe, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke etc. I feel that all these have the talent and ability to reach the pinnacle of their respective fields, but alas, all have failed at the final hurdle...its sad but true that they have all bottled it at various stages of their careers...and yes for athletes of their calibre coming second is bottling - as your man says in The Bronx Tale "there's nothing sadder than wasted potential".
However, over the last while I've been mellowing on Sonia. Though I don't think we should go too far (jaysus if only for fear of suffering the wrath of Roy) with this "glorious defeat is better than victory" lark (e.g.reaction to Radcliffe's tragic failure, and article in today's Irish Times on Sonia) there is something about Sonia I feel. True she has failed to deliver the golds that her talent deserved, but the fact is she was beaten into 4th place all those years ago by three drugged-up Chinese who were never heard of again, and recently Gabriella Szabo (or whatever), who beat her into that silver medal, has been linked to drugs (she got away with a hilarious excuse). The one thing I am certain about Sonia is she is clean of drugs, and since it is clear she would have had 2 gold medals had it not been for drug-cheats, I am beginning to think that its not fair to say she bottled it - she was robbed.
With regards to last night, yes it was embarassing and she definitely bottled it (1min 39 secs slower than her season's best I make it, and these bouts of sickness just don't happen to the very very top athletes), but fair play to her for finishing, that required steel that was sorely lacking in the past. I salute her for being an honest athlete who always tried her best...though as mentioned above, the fact that she was our only track athlete who made it to the final is pretty grim.