Tokyo 2020: Athletics Thread

From an Irish perspective I hope people who only follow athletics at the Olympics will appreciate that, while we have sent a large athletes team this time around, almost all are well down the rankings in their event and in many cases, have done well just to qualify.

A couple of finals is the best we could hope for here, we have no realistic medal chances in athletics barring something weird happening relating to Covid with large numbers of other competitors having to withdraw.

Really looking forward to following them all the same and it should be a really interesting week in general also outside of the Irish interest.

Very disappointing to see Sam Kendricks out of the pole vault with COVID. He would have been a contender for Gold

Yes. Agree with this. Our best chance of reaching the Olympic final is Thomas Barr in the men’s 400m hurdles. Having said that, the event is ultra competitive and he may need to set a new national record just to make top 8.

I also have a good feeling about Ciara Mageean in the women’s 1500m. She seems to be rounding into form at the right time and has the experience of negotiating rounds in global championships. It also helps that several ‘sure thing’ finalists including Gudaf Tsegay and Shelby Houlihan will not be competing in the 1500m for various reasons. If Ciara can get into the final, you never know what might happen. Top 6 isn’t out of the question.

My gut tells me that Sarah Healy might also surprise a few people in the 1500m. I feel like she is ready to drop a few seconds from her PB. In my opinion, she should be targeting the semi-finals. I’d love for Mark English to do well in the men’s 800m, but can’t see him progressing beyond the heats. Hope that he proves me wrong.

Ciara Mageean ran 4:02:48 finishing fifth in Monaco on July 9th. That’s only two seconds outside her PB. I’m sure she is timing her peak for Tokyo. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her nail a sub-4 there. Most crucially in Monaco, she beat athletes like Esther Guerrero from Spain and Cory McGee / Heather McLean from the US who will be knocking on the door of the final. I feel like you’re underestimating her.

Agree on Nadia Power. She hasn’t a hope. Sarah Healy is far more likely to do some damage in the 1500m.

Can't wait for it to get started, won't sleep for a weejlk.

Barr should have just enough to get to the final, Mcgeehan too,she should be spot on with v little hard racing. Healy could step up and show us all that she is going to be the athlete we hoped she'd be 3/4yrs ago.

There's an Irish woman that I won't mention that I think might suprise us all, she seems to be the forgotton one and she likes it that way, had a big Q a good while now , been quietly pottering away getting the hay in the barn , ready for the big day ,

I hope the rest put in decent pb ish performances, but can't see any get too far.

Our three 800m runners were pretty poor it has to be said (but having said that, expectations would have been very low so it's cool).

I think Shanahan was the best of the three given her youth and inexperience.

Yeah. Disappointing performances in the 800m. No point in sugar coating it.

Thomas Barr looked solid. Unfortunately, he has drawn an absolute stinker of a semi final. He’s in the same race as Karsten Warholm, Rai Benjamin, and Yasmani Copello. Hopefully, he can latch on to them and get dragged into the final via a small q.

Incredibly fast times in the women’s 100m first round. The Jamaicans looked imperious; the Americans much less so. From a European perspective, Alja Del Ponte from Switzerland looked good running a new national record of 10:91. Alexandra Burghardt from Germany also looks to be in good form.

4 golds or the team isn't let back into the country.

Seriously though I think a lot of people don't see just how many people they beat to get there. Since most don't see qualifying competitions (and to be fair there is a lot of them across all sports so I doubt any but an enthusiastic journalist has seen them all) they just see how they perform vs the very, very best instead of the normal international field where they did well and qualified.

McColgan wat d fook, out the back and dying on her arse.she got a bad bump possilbly spiked.

domincan rep out now too.

Wow. Great race. Some strength from Barega to hold off both Kiplimo and Cheptegei who were bearing down on him.

Might get taken down for copyright but it's here for the moment. 4x400 heat. Not a great highlights compilation IMO.

I'd never seen a mixed relay before, thought it was excellent & what a result for Ireland!

Ross Tucker's take on the 10,000m, read now that Kissa was supposed to act as a pace make for the other two Ugandans.

https://twitter.com/Scienceofsport/status/1421075750183133185