World Athletics Championships (Potential Spoilers)

[Lunatic Dreyfus]

So Laura Muir is going to miss the Commonwealth games because of her exams...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/40917946

I'd have thought she could get special permission to do them earlier/later but I guess this is something she's treating as more important.

Yes, I was bit disappointed to read that, but suspected it would happen. I do think she needs more outdoor championship experience, especially now that she's doubling up regularly and getting used to dealing with the pressure of being a medal contender at global level.

Why does Johnson not work for one of the big American networks? He's an outstanding commentator and pundit and has the history on the track to back up everything he says.

Generally they only really care about Athletics when the Olympics come around, and even then it's only for the "Gold!!! USA !!1!"

I'm just glad the Beeb was able to snag him all those years ago.

 

[semi-pro waster]

I include transcendence....

In that case he is the pre-eminent athlete of this generation.

Nope. He's lost that initial burst of acceleration so he can't get up to full speed as quick as he once could. The 100m proved he still has the overall speed as he started to come back at Coleman and Gatlin, even after a woful start, but the 100m is just too short for him to excel at now.

Begs the question, as someone mentioned above, why he didn't run the 200m because he would've won that imo.

I wondered if perhaps he was either nursing an injury (and therefore pulling up in the 4*100m wasn't all that much of a surprise) or he just didn't think he'd had enough training to be competitive in the 200m plus the 100m is still viewed as the blue riband event for athletics so maybe it was either that or nothing if he'd only got the energy/training for one individual sprint distance.

So Laura Muir is going to miss the Commonwealth games because of her exams...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/40917946

I'd have thought she could get special permission to do them earlier/later but I guess this is something she's treating as more important.

In a slightly weird way I think this is quite nice, it's almost a throwback to the days when sport was something you did for fun but you knew you should really have a "career" to back it up if the sport didn't work out. It's a bit of a pity in that I think she'd have had a very good chance of getting a medal in at least one of the distances but equally I'd have to say well done to her for sticking to her priorities.

So the relay teams managed to get Team GB to the lower end of the medals target, great runs by both the men's and women's 4*400m squads. The other performances on the final day were largely a bit disappointing perhaps apart from the women's 5,000m. I had hoped Robbie Grabarz would at least be challenging for the medals but Barshim is just on a different level to everyone else, literally and metaphorically. Chris O'Hare didn't seem to run a great race tactically but maybe with a bit more experience he'll manage it better. Laura Muir performed well, 6th in the 5,000m and only a few seconds off her PB is pretty respectable considering the first two laps basically didn't count as running for those ladies and Hellen Obiri crushed it on the last lap. Unlucky to Eilish McColgan, again so close to dipping under 15 minutes and 10th place in that company is good going.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with my evenings now.