The World Athletics Championships in Osaka were the last major championship before the Olympics in China next year. Therefore, it was vitally important that all the major contenders for the medals in China put in a good performance to stay on track for the Beijing Olympics. The British squad of 56 was set a fairly modest target of 3 medals and 14 top eight finishes. Could the Brits make amends for the disaster of the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki? Could Tyson Gay join the legends by becoming a double gold medalist? And who else could shine? We were about to find out in 9 days of fierce competition.

The most successful event for Britain was the women's 4OOmetres both individually and in the relay. A total of 3 medals were claimed over these 2 events for Great Britain and there was to be a World Championship I-2 finish in the individual400 metres for the first time in nearly 15 years.

Christine Ohuruogu ended a nightmare 12 months by claiming gold in the 400 metres. The reigning Commonwealth champion was banned for a year after missing 3 drugs tests. Just 24 days after completing the ban, she was stood at the top of the podium with a world championship gold medal around her neck. Fellow Brit Nicola Sanders managed to take 2nd place in the same race. ohuruogu beat sanders by 4 hundredths of a second whilst Sanders pipped Jamaican Novlene Williams by t hundredths of a second.

The l-2 provided a huge lift for British athletics and then, the women's 4x400 metre relay team took bronze. Marilyn Okoro and Lee McConnell joined Ohuruogu and Sanders to win Britain's last medal off the championships. Sanders passed the Russian athlete Antuykh in the final 50 metres to win the bronze behind the Jamaicans (silver) and the Americans (gold).

In another relay, the men's 4x100 metre, Great Britain managed to win a bronze. The quartet of Christian Malcolm, Craig Pickering, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis held off the Brazilians to take another medal. Lewis-Francis couldn't quite hold offJamaican powerhouse Asafa Powell but held on for abronze. The Americans took the gold.

Great Britain won their first medal in the heptathlon. Kelly Sotherton repeated what she achieved in the Athens 2004 Olympics by claiming Britain's first medal of the championships. coming into the final event, the 1500metres, Sotherton needed to beat the Lithuanian Skutje by 2.5seconds.

Sotherton comprehensively beat the Lithuanian to claim the bronze. Another Britain, Jessica Ennis finished outside the medals after being in the medals after the first2 events before a disappointing shot put scuppered her chances.

The star of the championships was American Tyson Gay. He claimed gold in, first the 100 metres and then in the 200 metres. Gay v Asafa Powell was billed as the big showdown of the championships, but powell was disappointing. As Gay streaked away, Powell gave up 10 metres from the end to allow Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas to steal silver leavine Powell with a disappointing bronze.

In the 200 metres, Gay came up against another powerful Jamaican, usain Bolt. Bolt started powerfully, but Gay matched and moved away to become the latest in a long line of Americans to win the sprint double. whilst Bolt won the silver, another American, wallace spearmon, won the bronze.

There was another American double gold medallist, as Bernard Lagat took 1st in both the 1500 metres and the 5000 metres.

Britain had a mixture of success and failure in the other events. Mo Farah took a creditable 6th place in the 5000 metres whilst fellow Brit Andy Baddeley came 9th in the 1500 metres. 400-metre runner Tim Benjamin failed to make the final. In the 100 metres , Craig pickering and Mark Lewis- Francis narrowly missed out on making the final whilst Marlon Devonish reached the final, but could only make 6th place. Triple jumper philips Idowu also came 6th whilst chris Tomlinson failed to reach the long jump final.

The women's 4x100 relay were squeezed into 4th by Belgium. Jo pavey came 4th in the 10,000 metres and 9th in the 5000 metres final. LauraTumer got to the semi-finals of the 100 metres, the furthest any Britain has reached in that event.

Despite being hailed as the worst team ever, Britain proved their critics wrong with 5 medals, 13 top eight finishes, 18 personal bests and 17 seasons bests. with Beijing less than 12 months away,the British team did well and if they can get more medals at the olympics next year, London 2012 might prove to be really successful for British athletics.