The United Kingdom competed under the name Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The nation was represented by 82 athletes at the 2012 European Athletics Championships held in Helsinki, Finland, between 26 June - 1 July 2012.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country located off the northwestern coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea separates Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom's 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi) were home to an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.
The 2012 European Athletics Championships were held in Helsinki, Finland between 27 June and 1 July 2012. This edition marks the beginning of a new two-year cycle of the European Athletics Championships which were previously held every four years.
Helsinki is the capital and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of 650,058. The city's urban area has a population of 1,268,296, making it by far the most populous urban area in Finland as well as the country's most important center for politics, education, finance, culture, and research. Helsinki is located 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia, 400 km (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 300 km (190 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It has close historical ties with these three cities.
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A preliminary squad of 109 athletes was announced on 18 June 2012. However, due to the proximity of the London Olympics, any athlete who was qualified for the Olympics would not take part in the European Championships. As the Olympic Trials were held less than a week before the European Championships, the complete team was not announced until 25 June 2012. However, automatically selected field athletes were permitted to compete, if the event complimented their training schedule. Reigning European champion, Mo Farah (5,000m), was given special dispensation to defend his title. However, reigning champions Jessica Ennis and Dai Greene were absent due to their Olympic selection and Philips Idowu was injured. Shana Cox and Christine Ohuruogu had qualified for the Olympics, and were taken as part of the relay team, and not permitted to participate individually. A number of high-profile athletes were also seeking Olympic selection following the Olympic trials. Many athletes who won, or finished second, at the Olympic trials, were requiring an Olympic 'A' Standard, to receive automatic selection.
The 2012 Summer Olympics, formally the Games of the XXX Olympiad and commonly known as London 2012, was an international multi-sport event that was held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, United Kingdom. The first event, the group stage in women's football, began on 25 July at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, followed by the opening ceremony on 27 July. 10,768 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated.
Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah, is a British distance runner. The most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history, he is the 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medalist in both the 5000 m and 10,000 m. Farah is the second athlete in modern Olympic Games history, after Lasse Virén, to win both the 5000 m and 10,000 m titles at successive Olympic Games. He also completed the 'distance double' at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships in Athletics. He was the second man in history, after Kenenisa Bekele, to win long-distance doubles at successive Olympics and World Championships, and the first in history to defend both distance titles in both major global competitions – a feat described as the 'quadruple-double'. Since finishing 2nd in the 10,000 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Farah had an unbroken streak of ten global final wins. The streak ended in Farah's final championship track race, when he finished second to Ethiopia's Muktar Edris in the 2017 5000 metres final. In his final track race, the 2017 Diamond League Final in Zurich in August 2017, Farah gained his revenge, edging out world champion Edris to win his only IAAF Diamond League title at 5000 metres.
David "Dai" Greene is a Welsh hurdler who specialises in the 400 metres hurdles, competing internationally for both Wales and Great Britain. In a 'golden' sixteen-month period between 2010 and 2011, Greene won the World, European, Diamond League and Commonwealth titles in the event, in addition to winning the event as part of both the European Team Championships and the IAAF Continental Cup. He is the second fastest British man over the 400 m hurdles, behind the British record holder, Kriss Akabusi.
Finally, at the Championships, 73 athletes took part in the events.
| Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 2012 European Athletics Championships | |
|---|---|
 | |
| IAAF code | GBR |
| National federation | British Athletics |
| Website | www |
| in Helsinki | |
| Competitors | 73 |
| Medals Ranked 5th |
|
| European Athletics Championships appearances | |
