“I’m obviously gutted”. And who wouldn’t be if they were just 0.08 seconds away from the gold medal in a world championship race? Commiserations to Keely Hodgkinson, the 20-year-old Brit pipped to the post in last night’s 800 metres in Oregon.
But we shouldn’t lose sight of an essential truth about sport, despite her disappointment: winning isn’t everything. That tired old cliché is usually trotted out every time some blowhard wants to complain about sporting “failure”. But that is to get the nature of the beast back to front.
