The United Kingdom competed under the name Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The nation was represented by 72 athletes at the 2010 European Athletics Championships held in Barcelona, Spain.
With a squad of 72 athletes, Great Britain and Northern Ireland sent the fifth largest national team of the competition. The nation won a record 19 medals over the course of the six-day championships, beating their previous greatest medal haul of 18 from the 1990 European Athletics Championships. Head coach Charles van Commenee praised a number of athletes, saying that the team performance was good in terms of building towards the 2012 London Olympics. A number of high-profile athletes were missing from the squad due to injuries, including three 2008 Olympic medallists (Christine Ohuruogu, Tasha Danvers, and Germaine Mason), as well as women's marathon runners Paula Radcliffe and Mara Yamauchi.[1]
Both the men's and women's 4 x 100 m relay teams had difficulties with baton changeovers, resulting in poor performances in an event that the country is typically strong: the women's team was sixth in their heat while the men missed the final by finishing in fifth place.
| Event | Athletes | Heats | Semifinal | Final | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Rank | Result | Rank | Result | Rank | |||
| 100 m | Dwain Chambers | 10.21 | 2 Q | 10.10 | 2 Q | 10.18 | 5 | |
| James Dasaolu | 10.40 | 12 Q | 10.31 | 10 | Did not advance | |||
| Mark Lewis-Francis | 10.23 | 3 Q | 10.21 SB | 6 q | 10.18 SB | |||
| 200 m | Marlon Devonish | 20.68 | 4 Q | 20.55 SB | 3 Q | 20.62 | 4 | |
| Christian Malcolm | 20.63 | 2 Q | 20.58 | 4 Q | 20.38 SB | |||
| Jeffrey Lawal-Balogun | 20.93 | 15 Q | 20.85 | 13 | Did not advance | |||
| 400 m | Michael Bingham | 45.49 | 1 Q | 44.88 SB | 4 Q | 45.23 | ||
| Martyn Rooney | 45.72 | 3 Q | 45.00 | 5 q | 45.23 | |||
| Conrad Williams | 46.35 | 17 Q | 46.60 | 20 | Did not advance | |||
| 800 m | Michael Rimmer | 1:49.99 | 10 Q | 1:47.67 | 1 Q | 1:47.17 | ||
| 1500 m | Andrew Baddeley | 3:41.46 | 3 Q | 3:43.87 | 6 | |||
| Colin McCourt | 3:41.77 | 7 Q | 3:44.78 | 9 | ||||
| Thomas Lancashire | 3:41.68 | 6 Q | 3:44.92 | 10 | ||||
| 5000 m | Mo Farah | 13:38.26 | 7 Q | 13:31.18 | ||||
| Chris Thompson | 13:35.58 | 4 Q | 13:44.42 | 8 | ||||
| 10000 m | Mo Farah | 28:24.99 | ||||||
| Chris Thompson | 28:27.33 | |||||||
| 110 m hurdles | William Sharman | 13.60 | 7 Q | DSQ | Did not advance | |||
| Andy Turner | 13.48 | 2 Q | 13.50 | 4 Q | 13.28 SB | |||
| 400 m hurdles | Dai Greene | 50.11 | 4 Q | 49.48 | 1 Q | 48.12 PB | ||
| Rhys Williams | 49.35 | 1 Q | 49.61 | 2 Q | 48.96 PB | |||
| Nathan Woodward | 50.45 | 9 Q | 50.51 | 10 | Did not advance | |||
| 4x100 m relay | James Dasaolu Marlon Devonish Leon Baptiste Jeffrey Lawal-Balogun Mark Lewis-Francis Christian Malcolm Craig Pickering | 39.49 | 9 | align=center colspan=2 bgcolor=honeydew | Did not advance | |||
| 4x400 m relay | Michael Bingham Richard Buck Graham Hedman Martyn Rooney Andrew Steele Robert Tobin Conrad Williams | 3:04.09 | 3 Q | 3:02.25 | align=center bgcolor=silver | |||
| Marathon | Andi Jones | DNF | - | |||||
| Lee Merrien | 2:20;42 | 8 | ||||||
| Ben Moreau | 2:27:08 | 24 | ||||||
| Dan Robinson | 2:24:06 | 19 | ||||||
| Dave Webb | 2:23:04 | 16 | ||||||
| Martin Williams | 2:28:30 | 28 | ||||||
| Event | Athletes | Qualification | Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Rank | Result | Rank | |||
| Long jump | Chris Tomlinson | 8.20m | 3 Q | 8.23m SB | align=center bgcolor=cc9966 | |
| High jump | Martin Bernard | 2.26m | 7 q | 2.29m SB | ||
| Tom Parsons | 2.23m | 11 q | NM | - | ||
| Triple jump | Nathan Douglas | 16.80m | 12 Q | 16.48m | 10 | |
| Phillips Idowu | 17.10m | 4 Q | 17.81 PB | |||
| Shot put | Carl Mysercough | 19.81m | 10 q | 18.19m | 12 | |
| Event | Athletes | Heats | Semifinal | Final | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Rank | Result | Rank | Result | Rank | |||
| 100 m | Laura Turner | 11.45 | 7 Q | 11.41 | 13 | Did not advance | ||
| 200 m | Emily Freeman | 23.44 | 7 Q | 23.21 SB | 9 | Did not advance | ||
| 400 m | Lee McConnell | 53.15 | 12 | Did not advance | ||||
| 800 m | Jennifer Meadows | 1:58.90 | 2 Q | 1:59.39 | ||||
| Marilyn Okoro | 2:01.33 SB | 4 | Did not advance | |||||
| Jemma Simpson | 1:59.18 | 1 Q | 1:59.90 | 5 | ||||
| 1500 m | Hannah England | 4:06.03 | 10 q | 4:05.07 | 10 | |||
| Lisa Dobriskey | 4:06.00 | 9 Q | 4:01.54 | 4 | ||||
| Steph Twell | 4:05.63 | 7 q | 4:02.70 | 7 | ||||
| 400 m hurdles | Eilidh Child | 55.82 | 10 Q | 55.27 | 7 q | 55.51 | 8 | |
| Perri Shakes-Drayton | 55.35 | 4 Q | 54.73 PB | 4 Q | 54.18 PB | |||
| 3000 m steeplechase | Hatti Dean | 9:46.43 | 9 Q | 9:30.19 PB | 4 | |||
| Barbara Parker | 10:20.99 | 20 | Did not advance | |||||
| 4x100 m relay | Joice Maduaka Montell Douglas Hayley Jones Laura Turner | 44.09 | 10 | Did not advance | ||||
| 4x400 m relay | Nicola Sanders Perri Shakes-Drayton Marilyn Okoro Lee McConnell Vicki Barr | 3:28.01 | 3 Q | 3:24.32 | align=center bgcolor=cc9966 | |||
| Marathon | Helen Decker | 2:43:00 | 21 | |||||
| Susan Partridge | 2:39:07 | 16 | ||||||
| Michelle Ross-Cope | 2:38:45 | 14 | ||||||
| Rebecca Robinson | 2:44:06 | 24 | ||||||
| Holly Rush | 2:42:44 | 20 | ||||||
| Jo Wilkinson | 2:44:11 | 25 | ||||||
| 20 km walk | Johanna Jackson | 1:33:33 | 10 | |||||
| Event | Athletes | Qualification | Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Rank | Result | Rank | |||
| Pole vault | Kate Dennison | 4.35 | 3 q | 4.55 =SB | 6 | |
| Heptathlon | Jessica Ennis | 6823 PB | ||||