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Elpenor

Elpenor

a clown’s heart and a mandolin
I’ve not really followed athletics much lately but a couple of standout British performances today at the final meeting before Paris

Matthew Hudson-Smith ran a European 400m record, going sub 44 seconds. He’s taken 0.6 seconds off the British record since 2022, which had previously stood for 25 years

In the woman’s 800m, Keely Hodgkinson who has won silver in the last two world championships, and also in Tokyo ran an incredible 1:54. Just one second off the seriously dodgy 1980s world record. The woman who won gold in those three championships hasn’t made the American team as she fell in the final, so Keely must be considered favourite. Only 22 so a long future ahead of her. There are a string of British 800m runners being dragged along who could also win a medal.

In the sprints watch for the American Gabby Thomas.
 
We've got as many genuine world class athletes at the moment than we've had for a long time.

The names mentioned above are all amongst the favourites in their event and we've got so many outstanding young athletes at the start of their careers.

Athletics in general should be the very highest quality in Paris, the programme runs from 1st-11th August.
 
If you don't want to rely on the BBC coverage and want dedicated streams to each sport - I just discovered (no pun intended) that Discovery+ has a special offer of £3.99 (from £6.99) that will cover everything via Eurosport.
 
Aything Mu isn't going to be there! Wow. Always thought the US system very harsh, I guess that's one of the reasons why they're so successful, but you would think the Olympic champ would get a wildcard to defend their title.

That said Keeley is running brilliantly and will take some stopping. Hopefully Gemma Reekie can run at her best too.

Genuine chance of gold in the men's 1500 too with Josh Kerr recently breaking Steve Cram's 39 year old British mile record.

Dina will be thereabouts in the 200 and our women sprinters have the world best 100 relay time...so far this year.

It's going to be fascinating.
 
Aaronf said:
We've got as many genuine world class athletes at the moment than we've had for a long time.

The names mentioned above are all amongst the favourites in their event and we've got so many outstanding young athletes at the start of their careers.

Athletics in general should be the very highest quality in Paris, the programme runs from 1st-11th August.
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Yes, I think there are also genuine contenders in men’s 1500m, the sprint relays, perhaps 4x400 too given Hudson-Smith and Charlie Dobson who ran 44 low yesterday. I believe there’s also a mixed 400m relay which is a relatively new event.

Middle distance events are funny for medals - you can be the fastest runner in a flat out race with a pace maker, but championship races have no pacemaker and are often quite cagey, meaning it’s about who can prevail in the final lap. That said I think the British runners can win it both ways, and one of the men’s 1500m runners has a superb final straight kick.

Must admit I’m not very up on the field events as running was always my thing but it’s worth noting that the very longstanding women’s high jump world record was broken recently by Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh.
 
Aaronf said:
If you don't want to rely on the BBC coverage and want dedicated streams to each sport - I just discovered (no pun intended) that Discovery+ has a special offer of £3.99 (from £6.99) that will cover everything via Eurosport.
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Yes I think BBC can’t do multi channel anymore or at least not as much as they did in say 2012 under the new rights deal. I happen to have Discovery + as it’s part of TNT so I should be sorted.
 
Elpenor said:
Yes, I think there are also genuine contenders in men’s 1500m, the sprint relays, perhaps 4x400 too given Hudson-Smith and Charlie Dobson who ran 44 low yesterday. I believe there’s also a mixed 400m relay which is a relatively new event.
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The mixed 4 x 400 is a fab watch. A year or 3 back, I think it was Poland went with the men on the first 2 legs - it was fascinating to see their woman anchor leg trying to hold the gap. Conventional wisdom is man, woman, woman, man (person, camera).
 
Elpenor said:
Middle distance events are funny for medals - you can be the fastest runner in a flat out race with a pace maker, but championship races have no pacemaker and are often quite cagey, meaning it’s about who can prevail in the final lap.
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Same with long distance. Mo Farah got four golds, but isn't in the top 25 all-time fastest athletes for either 5,000 or 10,000.
 
I'm gutted Elliot Giles isn't going to be there. There was a clash between him and Kerr in the home straight of the 800m trials and they both fell. Kerr didn't need to be in that race at all so I think it was pretty egregious tbh. The middle distance races both men and women should be very good.

There's been A LOT of complaints towards UK Athletics not taking eligible athletes to the Games. I won't list them all but a few athletes have now basically given up & retired as even with world rankings & space on the team they are not being picked. Phil Norman who is local to me won the British 3000m steeplechase title, is 6th on the all time British list, ran the fastest time by a Brit since 1993 and missed the UKA qualification time by 0.15 seconds. Pretty disgraceful. So we've got no representation in that race. I think the USA have the correct system - if there's 3 places, the top 3 in the trials are in. Done.

Anyway.... Femke Bol & Sydney McLaughlin Levrone in the 400m hurdles should be a good one. And all the relays, I love relays. The unpredictability of it makes it exciting. You never know who will turn up on the day and who will fuck up the handover.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what Darryl Neita can do in the sprints - she was very unlucky in Rome. It's been all about Dina Asher Smith for years but I think her time has come. The women's 100m and 200m are gonna be interesting. Some of the big names haven't really turned up much this year in terms of time & Elaine Thompson Herah isnt going to be there either. The men are relatively slow these days, we might see a good race or two but we're not going to see anything world beating I don't think. It's a shame Coleman didn't make it through the trials.

The marathon could be interesting. It really depends how people have trained for the heat I think. It's a difficult course - it follows the route of the women's March on Versailles in 1789. I think the organisers have done a great job to really demonstrate the importance of women's sport - the women's marathon is after the men's this time. They've done a few other things as well to prioritise the women's events.
 
Elpenor said:
Y

Middle distance events are funny for medals - you can be the fastest runner in a flat out race with a pace maker, but championship races have no pacemaker and are often quite cagey, meaning it’s about who can prevail in the final lap.
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In the longer distance events in particular the record attempts have become a separate thing to actual races haven't they. I watched Joshua Cheptegai's world record (10k I think) and he had a battalion of pacers, plus the tracking lights around the side showing world record pace, and then a bunch of local runners plodding round (relatively speaking - they were probably all really good but not close to him) just so it could be called a race.

It's a shame really as it means there's not really a chance of a WR in those events in more genuine races.
 
Monkeygrinder's Organ said:
In the longer distance events in particular the record attempts have become a separate thing to actual races haven't they. I watched Joshua Cheptegai's world record (10k I think) and he had a battalion of pacers, plus the tracking lights around the side showing world record pace, and then a bunch of local runners plodding round (relatively speaking - they were probably all really good but not close to him) just so it could be called a race.

It's a shame really as it means there's not really a chance of a WR in those events in more genuine races.
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This is true, but to a certain extent, middle and long distance championship races have generally always favoured more tactical racing which probably provides more excitement than the thrill of someone taking a second or two off a world record in a race that lasts from a few minutes up to nearly half an hour.

I’ve always liked the idea that pacing yourself effectively, and playing cat and mouse with your fellow competitors is as much a decider of whether you’ll medal as your raw speed.
 
Elpenor said:
Yes, I think there are also genuine contenders in men’s 1500m, the sprint relays, perhaps 4x400 too given Hudson-Smith and Charlie Dobson who ran 44 low yesterday. I believe there’s also a mixed 400m relay which is a relatively new event.

Middle distance events are funny for medals - you can be the fastest runner in a flat out race with a pace maker, but championship races have no pacemaker and are often quite cagey, meaning it’s about who can prevail in the final lap. That said I think the British runners can win it both ways, and one of the men’s 1500m runners has a superb final straight kick.

Must admit I’m not very up on the field events as running was always my thing but it’s worth noting that the very longstanding women’s high jump world record was broken recently by Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh.
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Mahuchikh was stunning when she broke the WR not long ago, there's a few ladies hovering around the 2m mark but I don't think anyone saw that coming. She'll be favourite for gold, there's other good Ukrainian's, 2 Aussies and the young Serb to contend with as well. The women's field events are really strong, some are so open as there's several world class performers and anyone could win. Hoping for our Molly to become queen of the pole vault but she'll have her work cut out, she's one of about half a dozen contending for medals imo.
 
Elpenor said:
Yes I think BBC can’t do multi channel anymore or at least not as much as they did in say 2012 under the new rights deal. I happen to have Discovery + as it’s part of TNT so I should be sorted.
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That's good to be already getting Discovery+, I've subscribed to it for the one month, can't argue with £3.99.

I found out during Tokyo that the BBC coverage wasn't really going to cut it. They have their hands tied anyway with what they can show but I found they were repeating the big events and in doing so missing smaller ones that people may want to see. I'll be quite happy to just have the athletics stream on all day although I will watch as much as possible of everything! :)
 
Athletics starts tomorrow with the 20k walk.

The action in the stadium proper begins on Friday.

Decathlon will be one of the first events on the track. The French have the world record holder Kevin Mayer, and want another gold medal in the Stade de France on Saturday night after last week!

Principal British interest on Friday will be heats of the men’s 1500m, women’s 800m and women’s 100m.

Some info from Wikipedia regarding the athletics which I found interesting:

The competition will feature an identical number of medal events for men and women, the first instance in Olympic history. The marathon race walk mixed relay through a marathon course will be contested for the first time at these Games, replacing the men's 50 kilometres race walk in the quest for gender equality.[2]

Another significant change to the athletics program is the repechage-round format in all individual track events from 200 to 1500 m and the hurdles events (110 m for men, 100 m for women, and 400 m for both), a vast opportunity for the runners to have a second chance of entering the semifinal phase. This format will replace the former system of athletes advancing through the fastest overall times (q) apart from those qualifying directly in the first-round heats (Q).[3]
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Steel Icarus said:
21st and 23rd fastest 100m of the year respectively
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Rankings may be a bit of a red herring as should exclude anyone who isn’t at Paris for whatever reason which could include quite a few Americans / Jamaicans

Plus in the past Dina has been quite good at peaking. She hasn’t been at her best of late, and Neita has risen to be around the same standard. Hopefully they can find a bit extra, I can see them both making the final but probably not podiuming. Not really a big follower of the sprints though!
 
I think if Dina and Daryll can get into the final in the 1st instance and just concentrate on that, who knows after?

That will be hard but if you get in a final anything can happen, they could be pulled to a new British Record and medal either of them.
 
Elliot Giles is now replacing Jake Wightman in the 800m due to injury

Real shame for Jake as he's had a tough time lately & should have been in the 1500m

But pleased for Giles as he was unfortunate not to qualify. I take an interest in how he gets on as he grew up a few streets away from my old house in Birmingham.
 
Shame for Jake but hope Elliot does well. He's always had the ability and I've always thought he could push on at the very top level over both middle distances.

The battle between Josh Kerr and Ingerbrigtsen should be something else also.
 
Shame about Mayer, big star like Marchand, must be devastating to miss a one time go at a home Olympics :(
 
He was injured at the world champs wasn't he if I remember correctly. Did he pull out halfway through or something. Huge shame, a home Olympics is something very few will get a chance of.
 
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