In preparation for Glasgow 2019, which is 120 days away, we are looking back at the best moments from the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
Great Britain topped the medals table at the National Indoor Arena, buoyed by the home crowd at the 15,000-seater venue.
They finished with four golds, three silvers and three bronzes leaving them above Italy, who came second with six medals, followed by Sweden with four.
Powerhouse Russia, who topped the medals table at the previous Championship in Madrid two years earlier, finished in fourth, claiming 15 medals in total but only two golds.
There were three championship records set during the event, with athletes from 45 countries taking part.
Two British One-Twos
One championship record was set by Great Britain’s Phillips Idowu as he he won the triple jump with a leap of 17.56m. He beat the record previously held by Christian Olsson, Sweden’s 2004 Olympic champion.
Idowu finished ahead of teammate Nathan Douglas who won silver with 17.47m.
Russia’s Aleksandr Sergeyev took home the bronze medal but he finished well behind the two Brits, jumping 17.15m.
There was another double for the home nation in the men’s 60m final. Jason Gardener (6.51s) pipped training partner Craig Pickering (6.59s) to earn gold and silver for Great Britain.
Gardener, a former world indoor 60m champion, almost missed the race as he promised his wife he would be with her in Bath as she was due to give birth.
Drama for Swillims
It was a mixed championships for German athlete Bastian Swillims. He finished second in the 400m in a time of 45.62 seconds behind Irishman David Gillick, who set a national record as he won in 45.52 seconds. Brit Robert Tobin (46.15s) rounded off the medals.
But the German would go on to cost himself, and three teammates, gold medals in the final of the 4 x 400m.
Swillims bumped into Russia’s Artem Sergeyenkov on the home stretch as he guided his team home in first place.
The Russian team appealed and judges deemed he had pushed his fellow competitor. It meant he and teammates Florian Seitz, Ingo Schultz and Simon Kirch were disqualified, losing their medal.
As a result, the British quartet of Tobin, Dale Garland, Philip Taylor and Steven Green moved up into the gold medal position, winning for Great Britain in 3:07.04.
Russia also moved up a place to win silver, clocking 3:08.10, with Poland taking bronze in 3:08.14.
More British Medals
Other home medals were brought home by Martyn Bernard in the high jump (2.29m) who finished with a bronze behind Swedish duo Stefan Holm (2.34m) and Linus Thörnblad (2.32m).
There was another British medal in the women’s 400m final as Nicola Sanders set a national record as she finished clear of the field in 50.02 seconds taking home the gold.
Sanders also featured in the women’s 4x400m relay team who finished in 3:28.69 and took home a bronze medal, alongside Kim Wall, Lee McConnell and Emma Duck.
Gold went to Belarus, who set a national record on 3:27.83, with a silver medal for Russia with a time of 3:23.16.
Legnante Shot Put Gold
Elsewhere two-time Olympic medallist Svetlana Feofanova won gold in the women’s pole vault while Italian Assunta Legnante finished first in the shot put final.
The Italian, who was born with congenital glaucoma in both eyes, went on to compete in the last two Paralympics after losing the sight in her right eye in 2009.
Legnante is now a double Paralympic gold medallist after winning the shot put at consecutive games in London and Rio.
Sotherton breaks national record on way to pentathlon silver
As reigning Olympic heptathlon champion and European Indoor pentathlon gold medallist heading into Birmingham 2007, few in the mid-2000s could get close to matching Carolina Klüft in multi-discipline competition.
She arrived in the UK as hot favourite for more gold and the Swede certainly delivered – but not before being given a run for her money thanks to a remarkable display from Kelly Sotherton.
The Brit’s tally of 4927 points was within just 17 of Klüft and the closest anyone could get in the years of domination, with Sotherton producing a national record and sitting fourth in the world all-time list in front of her home fans for good measure.
Finishing within 0.03 seconds of the Swede in the 60m hurdles, the two shared a 1.88m high jump performance while Sotherton was the head-to-head victor in the shotput by just 14 centimetres.
Klüft then produced a 6.59m long jump – the best of the entire field – to take a narrow lead, and while Sotherton bested her across 800m, the former did just enough to hold on to the win with 4944 points – with the pair more than 100 points clear of the field.
The pentathlon also saw Jessica Ennis compete, her 1.91m high jump proving the best on the day as she ran, jumped and threw her way to a then personal best score of 4716 points, in sixth place, beating her previous haul by more than 300 points.