Late Track season Results

ecoli

Pherekydes wrote: »

It would be a sad day for sport if 'big hitters' just had to turn up to collect their medals.

Great competition, and it always pays to know there's always someone hungrier coming along right behind...

I think you are right in terms of athletics fans its great and that was my initial thought to however looking at it from a casual fans perspective it has hurt the image of many of the sports "characters" so could have a detrimental affect in terms of people who arent following the sport on a regular basis

Pisco Sour

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Just ahead of me.

Seriously though, did you mention anything about olympic tickets to him? I've listened to enough of your moaning here, you had a chance to lodge an official complaint of sorts

Nah, I didn't think it was an appropriate place to say anything about that. Besides he was kind enough to accept a photo so I wasn't going to say anything.

ecoli

walshb wrote: »

It shows how deep the talent pool is. Bekele was not expected to take gold as he has been far from active or in top form. Ennis, though favorite, was not a major favorite, ala Bolt. Oliver in the hurdles was a bit of a shock. Poor performance from worlds number 1.

Although Bekele was not favourite it created an interesting story. If he was fit people were convinced he could compete with Farah but other than them two with the exception of Tadesse controlling the race and making it difficult for Farah (which he really didnt as didnt play to his strength as a notable HM runner) no one saw past them save for perhaps Merga.

No one in there right mind would have though that a guy who has not won anything at senior level and has not broken 27 would have standed a chance (especially when you factor in Ethiopians not running as a close knit team like we have seen in previous years)

To be honest Oliver was the least suprising to me. He has not been at his best this year compared to last and as season progressed Richardson scalped him twice so to me i never thought he was gonna be in the mix for the Gold

Pisco Sour

Absolutely thrilled that Merritt got beaten! Was jumping for joy. James is some talent. Can't believe he is only turning 19! And Borlee getting bronze made my day. There's 2 americans in my hostel who I am heading to the athletics with quite a bit, and although good lads, the arrogance towards the American athletes is sickening, so I am cheering many European medals almost as much as if they were Irish.

Actually have a bet with one of them on medal count, between Ireland in the entire championships, and the USA in all events from 1500m up to Marathon, excluding Bernard Lagat (as he's Kenyan!).

Back to tonight, delighted to see Isinbayeva lose. I've never liked her arrogance. Passing at 4.70 showed a bit of disregard for her opponents and she was deservedly punished. Happy to see Murer win. Good to see Brazil winning major medals, with the Rio Olympics not far away. Will maybe help build the profile of the sport there.

Rudisha = class act. No more needs to be said!

The Koreans are bizarre. The stadium is close to full early in the evening session. Then they piss off home just as the finals are starting!

They do seem to love the pole vault though!

Dan man

I think it's a good thing that there have been a lot of medal favourites turned over and the crowning of multiple new champs. It means at the Olympics next year, there will be some fantastic line-ups, with world champions, former world champions, Olympic champions, former Olympic champions as well as continental champions and world record-holders fighting for those titles in London. Also, I enjoyed the longevity on show in the men's hammer...Koji Murofushi (2004 Olympic champ), Ziolkowski (2000 Olympic champ) and Primoz Kosmuz (2008 Olympic champ) all still at the top competing for the medals. All in all, in London next year, there should be a good blend of seasoned legends as well as young fresh-faced pretenders doing battle. Should be cracking.

Tangle2

Its been a championships with more upsets than usual. Bolt and all the drama in the 100m, Farah overturned by an unlikely Ethiopian. If we were told that Bekele wouldn't finish, we would have expected the Ethiopian challenge to come from Imane Merga and not Jeilan.
Isinbeyeva was odds on to take the pole vault and left with nothing. The kenyans were upset in the steeple chase by a power packed display of aggressive front running from Zaripova.
The controversy in the hurdles was unfortunate - it was a complete accident but we all like to see medals being sorted out on the track rather than in the appeal room. David Oliver hasn't been the force of last year and I wasn't surprised he left without a medal.
Jess Ennis was another odds on shot to come up short. It sets up the Heptathlon very nicely for London where hopefully Jess will storm back to take the Gold.
Rudisha was superb. If allowed to dictate the pace he will win with ease every time.
The highlight of the day for me was Kirani James. The quiet spoken youngster oozes confidence on the track. When Merritt passed him he simply stuck to his guns and fought back heroically. When he gets physically stronger he will be much better and he must be tired after a long collegiate season. He was World Youth champion in 2009, World Junior champ in 2010 and now World Senior champ in 2011. It was a triumph for Granada and a victory for athletics

The womens 20k walk is on tonight and I'd reccommend staying up late to watch it. It could well be the highlight of the championships from an Irish perspective! Best of luck to Olive!

Dan man

I think Olive will put in a typical battling display. Just looking at tomorrow's forecast...26 degrees C for the start of the walk and a whopping 80% humidity. If these conditions come to pass then it will be gruelling.

Gringo78

Channel 4 pointed out the 'cover curse' earlier today in regard to who appears on the daily programme cover. Day 1 Steve Hooker, Day 2 Bolt, Day 3 Robles, Day 4 Isenbayeva. Who's on Day 5's cover - a walker I assume, hopefully not Olive!

thirtyfoot

Pherekydes wrote: »

Robles was DQed correctly under rule 163.2:

I would contend that Xiang forced Robles to run or hurdle outside his lane at hurdle 9. Xiang broke the plane at 9 as did Robles, they tangled, the natural backward movement of Robles right arm was stopped, this caused his right leg to weaken and sink on landing which then brought him out of his lane. So Xiang being out of his lane at 9 caused Robles to be further out of his his at 10. By the letter of the law they both should of gone, by the letter of it being a mans game and the action unintentional I believe they both should have stayed in. Your pic shows hurdle 10, it's 9 where the damage was done to Robles.

Pisco Sour

Dan man wrote: »

I think Olive will put in a typical battling display. Just looking at tomorrow's forecast...26 degrees C for the start of the walk and a whopping 80% humidity. If these conditions come to pass then it will be gruelling.

Best of luck to Olive. Have no idea what to expect really as there is not a lot of form to go on. She looked good in the European Cup before getting DQ'ed so the fact she was up there in 2nd place is encouraging.

About the weather, it is very uncomfortable. I've never experienced such humidity. I pity those who have to compete here. Having said that, Olive will be fine. She coped in soreing heat in Berlin 2 years ago. The Chinese may be more comfortable in this sort of humidity though.

Pisco Sour

Gringo78 wrote: »

Channel 4 pointed out the 'cover curse' earlier today in regard to who appears on the daily programme cover. Day 1 Steve Hooker, Day 2 Bolt, Day 3 Robles, Day 4 Isenbayeva. Who's on Day 5's cover - a walker I assume, hopefully not Olive!

Even funnier is the fact that they have used the same 3 athletes in all their billboards, posters etc in Daegu: Usain Bolt, Liu Xiang and Yelena Isinbayeva.

Things haven't worked out particularly well for any of them so far!

TeachMealog

I think the Worlds in Korea has been great so far, some great competitions, lots of controversy over the false start rule, not great for the Irish athletes but overall great sport.
Very different being on Channel 4 ( with the dodgy t4 presenters) makes you miss the good oul beeb
still great event

walshb

Anyone else impressed with Dai Greene in the 400 m Hurdles?

TeachMealog

2nd fastest from the semis... and leaving felix in his wake. could he be the UK's first gold?

nerraw1111

Anyone else catch Newstalk's Off The Ball this evening?

Jerry Kiernan was on to talk about the World Champs. They got the Bolt issue out of the way. However five mins later into descended into a row when Jerry Kiernan questioned why Newstalk and others don't cover athletics. They replied the Irish public don't care.

So Gerry went on to say it was a great championships so far. They asked him why this was the case.

He asked Newstalk's sports show a few times if they had actually watched any of the World Champ events, when they said no, Jerry said is it any wonder then that the Irish public don't know what is happening.

Newstalk pretty much says, well athletics is full of drugs as a defence. Descended into farce with both arguing which sport had more participants, rugby or athletics, drug tests in other sports etc.

Worth listening to the podcast.

robinph

TeachMealog wrote: »

Very different being on Channel 4 ( with the dodgy t4 presenters) makes you miss the good oul beeb
still great event

Did they fly a new guy out to do the links? Only managed to see small parts of todays coverage but he seemed slightly better in the bits I saw. At least seemed to have some idea of what sport was going on in Daegu during the highlights show this evening when chatting with Johnson.

TeachMealog

Yes the presenter was better today
And the presence of MJ adds gravitas (but it is not the beeb!)

Jerry Kiernan ... RTE's Athletics coverage answer to Eamon Dumphy! (or George Hook!)

bat_573

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Anyone else catch Newstalk's Off The Ball this evening?

Jerry Kiernan was on to talk about the World Champs. They got the Bolt issue out of the way. However five mins later into descended into a row when Jerry Kiernan questioned why Newstalk and others don't cover athletics. They replied the Irish public don't care.

So Gerry went on to say it was a great championships so far. They asked him why this was the case.

He asked Newstalk's sports show a few times if they had actually watched any of the World Champ events, when they said no, Jerry said is it any wonder then that the Irish public don't know what is happening.

Newstalk pretty much says, well athletics is full of drugs as a defence. Descended into farce with both arguing which sport had more participants, rugby or athletics, drug tests in other sports etc.

Worth listening to the podcast.

No point blaming Newstalk or any of the other broadcasters for the lack of coverage and general public attitude towards athletics here.

If people are looking to apportion blame for the bad attitude it lies 100% at the doorstep of the organisations running the sport here i.e. Athletics Ireland/Irish Sports Council/Olympic Council of Ireland.

These organisations are a lot more well known for their power struggling public rows than for doing anything positive for athletes and the sport in general so it's no wonder there is a general negative attitide towards athletics by the public in Ireland. The damage that has been done by people who are still holding very high positions in the sport in Ireland is huge in terms of public interest.

When the people who have the responsiblity of developing the sport place fighting turf wars and holding on to their own positions as more important than genuinely improving athletics (e.g. getting proper indoor facilities built and developing a professional coaching structure) there is a big problem and unfortunately that is the case.

Sadly these people, like a lot of athletics people, live in a bubble and do not seem to be aware (or care) that the average person on the street does not give a toss about athletics and why should they.

RayCun

bat_573 wrote: »

If people are looking to apportion blame for the bad attitude it lies 100% at the doorstep of the organisations running the sport here i.e. Athletics Ireland/Irish Sports Council/Olympic Council of Ireland.
These organisations are a lot more well known for their power struggling public rows than for doing anything positive for athletes and the sport in general so it's no wonder there is a general negative attitide towards athletics by the public in Ireland.

The average person on the street knows less (and cares much less) about power struggles in the AAI/ISC/OCI than they do about the Irish athletes competing in Daegu. I don't think there is a negative attitude towards athletics by the public in Ireland - if you forced someone on the street to express an opinion about athletics it would probably be positive. But it's a minority interest.

Pherekydes

AAI, the OCI and ISC are not the only **** organisations in Ireland. FAI are clueless, GAA are stuck in the past.

The reason the people in the street are clueless about athletics is because the media don't cover it. On Sunday, the RTE 6 O'Clock covered Usain Bolt's DQ, but never bothered to say who actually won the race. Is that the fault of AAI?

Regarding Newstalk's "Athletics is full of drugs attitude", well what can you say to such ignorance, but Athletics in general shoots itself in the foot by highlighting every misdemeanour, little or large, with a puritanical holier than thou attitude. The media loves this and does everything to sensationalise it. The public gets to understand that every athlete above a certain standard is on stuff.

Gerry Kiernan should know better. He should have talked about horse racing or soccer. That's all Newstalk is interested in.

gerard65

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Anyone else catch Newstalk's Off The Ball this evening?
Worth listening to the podcast.

Just listened to this. Jerry claiming sprinters don't practice their starts?? I don't know much about sprinting but when I was in a club many years ago, the sprinters went through their starting over and over. And when he went on about Rugby, cring.
He really has a chip on his shoulder. Why did'nt he just stick to explaining how good this WC has been and talk about the upcoming races, the Irish involvement etc instead of slagging off the presenters.
No wonder Athletics doesn't have the media coverage it deserves if Jerry is wheeled out as a spokesman.

TheRoadRunner

Haven't listened to newstalk podcast but they generally do cover the odd athletics story well. Mcdevitt runs regularly now so probably has some minor interest in athletics. Gerry is wasting his breath if the public wanted more athletics we would have it.

Caprica

04072511 wrote: »

Absolutely thrilled that Merritt got beaten! Was jumping for joy. James is some talent. Can't believe he is only turning 19! And Borlee getting bronze made my day. There's 2 americans in my hostel who I am heading to the athletics with quite a bit, and although good lads, the arrogance towards the American athletes is sickening, so I am cheering many European medals almost as much as if they were Irish.

Actually have a bet with one of them on medal count, between Ireland in the entire championships, and the USA in all events from 1500m up to Marathon, excluding Bernard Lagat (as he's Kenyan!).

Back to tonight, delighted to see Isinbayeva lose. I've never liked her arrogance. Passing at 4.70 showed a bit of disregard for her opponents and she was deservedly punished. Happy to see Murer win. Good to see Brazil winning major medals, with the Rio Olympics not far away. Will maybe help build the profile of the sport there.

Rudisha = class act. No more needs to be said!

The Koreans are bizarre. The stadium is close to full early in the evening session. Then they piss off home just as the finals are starting!

They do seem to love the pole vault though!

Isinbayeva is a great champion, who has been a real trailblazer in the pole vault and probably the only real global female track and field superstar. It wasn't arrogance it was tactics, you can not expect a vaulter to attempt every height. Of the top 6 only the german girl attempted every height, all others passed some height. The sport and her event has been much poorer without her, I am glad she is back.

Another great days athletics. Shocked that Ennis lost but she had a disaster in the javelin, Chernova could really put it up to her in London. Rudisha was hugely impressive in the 800, controlled it from the front and ran away from the field in the home straight. Great to see James win the 400, for guy who is not yet 19 he showed great strenght to hold of Merrit and great to see a European on the podium.

Most impressive run of the day was Zaripova in the chase, I thought she was just acting as a rabbit for the Kenyans but their challenge just faded. Cheymos was talking of taking the world record but she was a long way from that tonight. From watching both the 1500s I can not believe how tactically naieve some of these athletes are, some very poor decision making.

Well done to O'Lionard, very impressive run and good luck to Olive tomorrow.

Pisco Sour

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Anyone else catch Newstalk's Off The Ball this evening?

Jerry Kiernan was on to talk about the World Champs. They got the Bolt issue out of the way. However five mins later into descended into a row when Jerry Kiernan questioned why Newstalk and others don't cover athletics. They replied the Irish public don't care.

So Gerry went on to say it was a great championships so far. They asked him why this was the case.

He asked Newstalk's sports show a few times if they had actually watched any of the World Champ events, when they said no, Jerry said is it any wonder then that the Irish public don't know what is happening.

Newstalk pretty much says, well athletics is full of drugs as a defence. Descended into farce with both arguing which sport had more participants, rugby or athletics, drug tests in other sports etc.
Worth listening to the podcast.

Where can I find a link? It's sh1t like that that makes me happy I am in Australia these days!

Fingers crossed for Olive. Heading down to support her now.

robinph

04072511 wrote:

Where can I find a link? It's sh1t like that that makes me happy I am in Australia these days!

You're in South Korea mate.

Think the heat/ humidity is getting to him, some one call him an ambulance.

bat_573

Pherekydes wrote: »

AAI, the OCI and ISC are not the only **** organisations in Ireland. FAI are clueless, GAA are stuck in the past.

The reason the people in the street are clueless about athletics is because the media don't cover it. On Sunday, the RTE 6 O'Clock covered Usain Bolt's DQ, but never bothered to say who actually won the race. Is that the fault of AAI?

Why would the media be too interested in covering athletics when most of our athletes get knocked out in the first round?

Rightly or wrongly, the masses (i.e. most non-athletics people) want "success" and something to cheer about and that's what the media cater for.

"Success" in this case means athletes making finals, challenging for, and winning medals at World Championship and Olympic level in particular. This may or may not be fair compared to other sports but it's the way it is and the way athletics is designed.

Making a World Championship or Olympic Games is more than likely a much bigger achievement than winning an All-Ireland Football or Hurling medal but the vast majority of the public (who are ignorant for the most part) don't view things this way.

Unfortunately with the way the sport is run in this country (a very amateurish manner) Ireland will only ever have a couple of athletes who have the ability of making major championship finals with even less who can win medals. That is why there is very little media interest and the media has a huge influence on most of the public.

If the organisations involved with running the sport want to increase the popularity and profile of athletics they need to put in place a system where Ireland consistently has a good crop of athletes capable of making global finals. This is not happening. Why not? Why isn't there one decent indoor track in this country for example? Why are there no professional athletics coaches in Ireland? Why are people who have no experience of developing a world class athletes system continuing to call the shots as they have been for as long as most can remember?

No point complaining about broadcasters giving little coverage to athletics. The responsibility of making the sport popular lies with the sports bodies, not the media.

myflipflops

I'm sure it was tough for Jerry to resist having a go but he should really have gone on and been entertaining in the hope of getting called back in again (maybe he was entertaining and they will have him back). He's not everyones cup of tea but he's the type of pundit the fairweather Irish sports fan (and that's most Irish sports fans) like.

I know Ian O'Riordan, a journalist I have great respect for, was on Newstalk before around the 2009 championships. He was fine on the show but then wrote a pretty scathing piece about how they were only interested in drugs stories and do not cover the sport enough. The Newstalk guys were not happy about it and I believe O'Riordan has not been asked back.

The sport is never going to get much coverage unless we either a) produce a number of regular world/european medalists or b) a chronic change in the attitude of Irish people towards athletics. It's a sad fact of life when supporting this sport in this country. It's a great pity that we don't have more sports column writers like Eamon Sweeney in the Indo (a great pity he writes for a rag too!). He always writes accurately and informatively about the plight of athletics in this country.

Pisco Sour

myflipflops wrote: »

I know Ian O'Riordan, a journalist I have great respect for, was on Newstalk before around the 2009 championships. He was fine on the show but then wrote a pretty scathing piece about how they were only interested in drugs stories and do not cover the sport enough. The Newstalk guys were not happy about it and I believe O'Riordan has not been asked back.

Have you got a link to that article by any chance?

It is tough for athletics to get more media coverage than the likes of rugby, gaa, football. Athletics is a truly global sport and the competition is fierce. Medals are very rare for countries our size. We have actually won more World and Olympic medals per population than the majority of Western Europe. But the public dont see it this way. They only see getting to the top as success. In rugby, getting to the top is a lot easier. The sport is played properly in about 12 countries (3 of which are tiny islands). As a result we will always be up towards the top, so the public will be more interested. The Irish people just don't comprehend this though.

Very disappointing for Olive. From very early on it looked pretty obvious that she didn't have it today. The humidity was 51%. Not as bad as was feared yesterday, but it cant have been easy for the athletes.

Pisco Sour

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=63694786

I did an analysis here 2 years ago about how we have historically compared to other Western European countries in the Olympics and Worlds. In terms of just medals (which is all the general public is interested in) per capita we have outperformed a good two thirds of Western Europe. It is extremely unrealistic to expect a tiny country like Ireland to be winning medals all the time, when other countries our size aren't either. Sure look at the French. They will only come away from Daegu with 2-3 medals and they are a nation of 60 million people.

It's so unfair on our athletes that to be considered a success you need to be in the top 3 in the world, while in rugby and gaa, the standards set down by the public to be considered a great are much more lenient.

myflipflops is right. It is tough going at times following the sport.

myflipflops

04072511 wrote: »

Have you got a link to that article by any chance?

Article is from a long time ago. Maybe able to find it through the IT archives when i get time. I know Eoin McDevitt from Newstalk a bit and it was him that told me about it. At the time, he thought O'Riordan was good on the show and was shocked at the follow up article.