awinningformula!

The Athletics World Championships came to a close yesterday with the mens 4x400m relay. Team GB came away with some real silverware as they clinched silver behind the Americans on Sunday night.

The team spirit was clearly evident as 4 grown men hugged and jumped around to celebrate. Team GB's total medal haul was 6, one more than expected - that should keep the powers that be at UK Athletics happy.

Jessica Ennis definitely set the tone with her win in the heptathlon, with Phillips Idowu and Jenny Meadows following suit. Some team mates said that they were inspired by those performances and it certainly seemed as if this was the case. Athletes who finished in the top 8 were disappointed with those performances, whereas normally they wouldn't be and would be happy to just be there competing on the world stage. It is refreshing, and about time we saw some hunger from the British athletes.

Athletics is pretty much an individual sport, apart from the relays, but watching these recent Championships it is evident that team spirit was alive and well and it makes a difference to individual performances. Time and time again you would see those athletes who competed in the individual 100m and 200m races raise their games when competing in the relays. Asafa Powel, in particular, looked positively relaxed when he romped home to take gold in the mens 4x100m relay.

As medals were won and personal bests were achieved athlete upon athlete thanked their 'teams'. These 'teams' were made up of coaches, physios, doctors, fellow competitors, and of course friends and family. These people make up the invisible team that without being there these great performances would not exist. The Jamaican's dominated the Championships on the track and they thanked literally the whole of Jamaica, and the rest for their support and help in getting them to this point.

awinningteam is what it is all about, regardless of whether you are an individual or actual compete in a team sport. This 'team' we can all create and have for ourselves allows us to take the power of one and multiply it, and it is the quality not the quantity of the people in your team which determine how successful you will be. No man is an island!