Athletics 2019 (Ft Sheena going for the pole vault WR)

So happy for Dina, but a shame she had to do it in such an empty stadium. Thank God they've yet to be dumb enough to give Qatar the Olympics.
 
So happy for Dina, but a shame she had to do it in such an empty stadium. Thank God they've yet to be dumb enough to give Qatar the Olympics.
It’s great she stepped up and took her chance with all her big rivals missing. Others have faltered in similar situations.
 
DEVASTATED for Adam. He did nothing wrong but just couldn’t get there. I wish he hadn’t entered the 100 as well and just concentrated on the 200.

This champs is not going well for us. It just seems like bad luck and missed opportunities everywhere. Dina should walk the 200 but I have this massive fear something will go wrong somewhere. Don’t let her pull a hamstring or something...

I think he does have a slightly overinflated opinion on his own ability. He called his run that of 'an amateur' despite it being his SEASON'S BEST performance...! 4th is probably exactly where he should be on merit right?
 
These post race interviews do tend to bring up some coulda beens that play to the very upper end of what appear to be their potential abilities. After getting knocked out in her 200m semi Jodie was saying she should have been in the final getting a medal.

When he made the amateur comment I think he was referring specifically to how he tightened up and got messy at the end of the race. It did look like there might be a little more there from the previous rounds and he was in a great spot during the race so his disappointment is very understandable, even if by times he wasn't top of the pile.
 
I think he does have a slightly overinflated opinion on his own ability. He called his run that of 'an amateur' despite it being his SEASON'S BEST performance...! 4th is probably exactly where he should be on merit right?

Don't take this the wrong way, but there is so much wrong with that.

He's run those 20.0 times a few times this season- including in the heat and semi (he ran 20.03 exactly in the semi too, if I remember). You expect to step up for a final. How tired he was after also being in the 100m (which I do think was mistake as he was never going to medal there) can't have helped. His PB is 19.98, which he has run twice, but the latter time was into a really serious headwind and was therefore "worth" much faster. He's in great shape and he can rightly have expected to run his quickest race in a championship final, which he didn't deliver. It absolutely wasn't the run of an amateur, he's being harsh on himself, but I'd rather he was harsh on himself than being pleased with finishing fourth/ making the final. As for the merit thing, this year he had a chance of a medal, for sure. He is totally capable of running 19.8, which was the winning time, and he knew it. Noah Lyles was the outstanding favourite, but behind that, the medals were open- and Lyles didn't even run that well and so Adam is seeing a chance lost, which it was. He didn't underperform, as he kept saying, but he also didn't step up when he is absolutely capable of doing so. In that race, he could have been ranked anywhere from 2nd-5th on this season's form, I'd have said.

You have to remember with Gemili that he is an outstanding talent. He was a brilliant, brilliant junior, and on the world stage he has been a contender since 2013, but without doing anything- he's never medalled at individual global level. He's had injuries and problems but, as he said in an interview before the 200, it's time to step up to the plate now, no excuses. This is his second narrow 4th place (the Rio Olympics and going down to thousandths of a second was even more heartbreaking for me). It's interesting to note that he came through around the same time as Dina Asher- Smith and look at her career trajectory compared to his.

None of this is to slag him off- he's brilliant and he's been unlucky. But the 200 here was BIG opportunity and they don't come along all the time. Just hope it puts fire in his belly to go further...
 
These post race interviews do tend to bring up some coulda beens that play to the very upper end of what appear to be their potential abilities. After getting knocked out in her 200m semi Jodie was saying she should have been in the final getting a medal.

In fairness, a medal was won in 22.5, which Jodie is entirely capable of. I don't think she was ever going to make the final here- she's been in 22.7-23.0 form all year, but again, with everyone withdrawing, if you can't even make the final, you need to question what you're doing. MOVE TO 400M JODIE WILLIAMS!
 
Anyway, last night was incredible. I was SO, SO happy. I got all the Jamaicans in our section behind her as they didn't have anyone in the final, which meant the whole of our section on the finish line was BUZZING. When she crossed the line, I thought it would just be relief, but it was true, true joy. I don't remember much of the athletics after that- it's all a bit of a blur!

Being a massive athletics fan who has always favoured the women's sprints over anything else, I've waited 35 years for this. 35 years of watching all the Otteys, Torrences, Devers, Privalovas and Onyalis of this world winning time and time again, whilst we had the Joice Maduakas, Marcia Richardsons and Laura Turners go out in the heats and semi finals at best. Abi Oyepitan and Jeannette Kwakye gave me hope, but to finally have a woman stand on top of the podium was something else for me. It still feels unreal. I cried when she crossed the line and I'm welling up now just thinking about it. At the risk of overstating things, as an athletics obsessive, seeing this in person and being able to "share" the moment with this amazing woman in some small way means the absolute world to me. I didn't just shout congratulations, I shouted "Thank You" to her just as I took this photo. And I meant every word.

71757694_10157618500322008_7275338174635704320_n.jpg
 
Dina's Mum is MAGNIFICENT by the way. Met her a few times at events and she's a proper athletics fan, not just there for her daughter, and she follows her everywhere. You can see the love between them too.
 
Great photo. There is something of 'who is this crazy person shouting at me' in Dina's expression there. :D
 
Stunning 400m from 21 year old Naser. Only Koch and Kratochvilova faster. Surely at 21 if she can avoid injury 47.6 isn’t an impossibility. Seeing as she did this with mixed relay and heard in her legs. Already have seen Twitter comments about her being clean or not gathering momentum, I’m choosing to just enjoy the performance

Awesome score from Kat. The tally shows she really deserves the world title.

Paula Radcliffe is terrible on tv. Her Salazar interview with Gabby was pure car crash.
 
Anyway, last night was incredible. I was SO, SO happy. I got all the Jamaicans in our section behind her as they didn't have anyone in the final, which meant the whole of our section on the finish line was BUZZING. When she crossed the line, I thought it would just be relief, but it was true, true joy. I don't remember much of the athletics after that- it's all a bit of a blur!

Being a massive athletics fan who has always favoured the women's sprints over anything else, I've waited 35 years for this. 35 years of watching all the Otteys, Torrences, Devers, Privalovas and Onyalis of this world winning time and time again, whilst we had the Joice Maduakas, Marcia Richardsons and Laura Turners go out in the heats and semi finals at best. Abi Oyepitan and Jeannette Kwakye gave me hope, but to finally have a woman stand on top of the podium was something else for me. It still feels unreal. I cried when she crossed the line and I'm welling up now just thinking about it. At the risk of overstating things, as an athletics obsessive, seeing this in person and being able to "share" the moment with this amazing woman in some small way means the absolute world to me. I didn't just shout congratulations, I shouted "Thank You" to her just as I took this photo. And I meant every word.

71757694_10157618500322008_7275338174635704320_n.jpg

So pleased for you, this must have been such a special moment. We all have that obsession whether it's athletics, tennis, Madonna, Mariah, Hazell (RIP ThatOne), Eurovision, and it's lovely when someone gets a moment they will remember forever.
 
Catching up on this.
great to see Dina and KJT get their golds.

Naser has been the performance of the champs so far for me though. WOW!

Loved the women's hurdles last night too. World record again. Those times :disco:

Nice to see people getting SHIPPED IN to the stadium the last couple of nights too finally

Now for the RELAYS :disco:
 
KJT was SO GOOD. It was great too see her come through in such style. Some lovely teenage hairstyles brought out to celebrate too.
 
Johnson really does seem to have been quite on the money with most of his statements.

As stated previously, the less said about Paula Radcliffe, the better. I mean, she really did say quite enough here.
 
Martyn Rooney really needs to bloody retire. do we have nobody ELSE? Stick a 400m hurdler on the end leg or something
 
Rooney is blatantly hanging on for the mixed relay next year- presumably they won’t use the top 400m runners and it’s potentially an “easy” Olympic medal. They keep running him on his past relay form- and in fairness, he ran 44.9 on the anchor in the mixed final (after a dreadful heat) but that was such shite yesterday. He has to be dropped for the final.

Our 400m guys are pretty poor behind Matt and Rabah (who ran really well yesterday) in fairness, but there are some youngsters who would do better, surely? The 400m hurdler Chris McAlister could be the option- but no idea if he’s still in Doha. He may not have been part of the 4x4 squad and might have left.
 
Yesterday was annoying. Losing Imani in the relay so late (she withdrew 20 minutes before) meant that it was a different line up to what had been practiced in an odd order- Dina would normally run the anchor. Not sure they would have got to Jamaica but our changeovers weren’t great (unsurprisingly) and actually it was a real achievement to hit silver, but could have been so much more. Likewise with the men- Zharnel pulled a hamstring but kept going. Kudos for the record though! Amazing!

Sifan annoyed the shit out of me. That 3:51 was ridiculous after a super fast 10k. She wasn’t even out of breath. When she came on her lap of honour I shouted “Hey Sifan, where’s your coach?” at her, but she didn’t respond. :D
 
Yeah the sprint relays were good results, two silvers but I couldn't help thinking we could have got closer to the winners in both, and as you mentioned, good result given the problems

4x400m looks more bleak for us. Well the men anyway. The women have a solid team and an outside chance of bronze, I guess we will bring Diamond in on the third leg for Turner.
 
We should get bronze in the women’s if everyone runs to form. It’s us vs Poland, basically. We’ll see.

The men have no chance.
 
Yeah Poland have those two that made the final to bring in don't they. But Diamond and Neilson surely have the determination to take them on. Should be close.

Laura Muir yesterday...5th in 3:55 after an injury, I don't think she could have asked much more
 
Sifan annoyed the shit out of me. That 3:51 was ridiculous after a super fast 10k. She wasn’t even out of breath. When she came on her lap of honour I shouted “Hey Sifan, where’s your coach?” at her, but she didn’t respond. :D

Do you think she's doping?
 
Do you think she's doping?

It’s just too ridiculous to not think that for me. She’s made a major leap forward since she went to the Oregon Project and obviously there’s lots of questions around that training group at the moment. 3:51 is a ridiculous time in a one off race, but with a super fast 10k in your legs and two heats of the 1500? It’s just madness! It was also the way she just runs away from the field like they were nobodies. That was literally the best field ever assembled and she beat them by over 2 seconds.

The interview after and her anger/sadness actually made me warm to her more, though, in fairness, but you have to ask why you’d go to a training group that was already under investigation. I hate feeling this way- I normally do celebrate rather than accuse (I’ve been defending Salwa Eid Naser all week to people) but it just feels too ludicrous for words for me.
 
OMG, Sheena made Sifan swear at the BBC.

:D

I think it’s more likely I pissed Justin Gatlin off when booing him last week. After the relay and beating us, he pointed at me quite aggressively and hit the US flag on his chest, so I clearly made an impression there. I didn’t respond- not fair on his team mates...
 
It’s just too ridiculous to not think that for me. She’s made a major leap forward since she went to the Oregon Project and obviously there’s lots of questions around that training group at the moment. 3:51 is a ridiculous time in a one off race, but with a super fast 10k in your legs and two heats of the 1500? It’s just madness! It was also the way she just runs away from the field like they were nobodies. That was literally the best field ever assembled and she beat them by over 2 seconds.

The interview after and her anger/sadness actually made me warm to her more, though, in fairness, but you have to ask why you’d go to a training group that was already under investigation. I hate feeling this way- I normally do celebrate rather than accuse (I’ve been defending Salwa Eid Naser all week to people) but it just feels too ludicrous for words for me.

It's so disheartening if you're a lover of the sport. The championships, despite their difficulties, have been full of incredible performances, and that feels shrouded by the stuff with Salazar. I will be particularly devastated if it turns out Mo Farah has been doping, cos of the impact it will have on how the sport is perceived in Britain. Also, I really hope Salwa is clean because it was the most phenomenal thing I've ever witnessed and I like her.
 
It's so disheartening if you're a lover of the sport. The championships, despite their difficulties, have been full of incredible performances, and that feels shrouded by the stuff with Salazar. I will be particularly devastated if it turns out Mo Farah has been doping, cos of the impact it will have on how the sport is perceived in Britain. Also, I really hope Salwa is clean because it was the most phenomenal thing I've ever witnessed and I like her.

Thing is, I think Salazar tried to bend the rules rather than hardcore doping. I feel from the report that it’s ethically dubious rather than breaking the rules- I think he pushed things to the limit.

As for Salwa, there are alarm bells there too (Bahrain is dodgy, she used to be coached by someone who has had an athlete test positive) but I suspend disbelief because she was an amazing junior talent and hasn’t just come out of nowhere. You have to or else you don’t enjoy the sport anymore. Let’s face it, I don’t think KJT is doping and her performance was one of the top five ever, which isn’t far off Salwa’s level.
 
Sorry to be that person but some of these javelin throwers in the men’s are particularly hot.
 
Well those relays were a bit of a disappointment for us, but the women did all they could really!
 
Reading the book ‘The Dirtiest Race In History’ led me to a Carl Lewis single which I knew nothing off. Channeling his inner Grace Jones look.

 
I just saw the Final 3 concept in the Long Jump in Stockholm. What a ludicrous idea. Who on earth thought that a good idea?
 
Not a single person likes it. Absolute horseshit. It won’t last.
 

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