Tokyo 2020: Athletics Thread

Can't beat a kicker that way.

Even Hassan looks distressed.

Super fast 15. Ingebrigtsen sensational. Kerr ran a blinder.

Norway with a similar population to us have 2 generational talents. Shows what can be done

It’s not a case of what can be done..

Sometimes it’s simply natural talent. Small countries can produce natural greats here and there. We don’t have that elite level.

Our guys are training like demons as well. Doesn’t mean they get to run sub 3:30s

but maybe we will produce natural greats in years to come.

I'm in agreement with you on all that.

It's a reason to be optimistic that countries like ours can compete now and again with the more traditional superpowers. Not taking anything away from any our current athletes

I suppose if you ignore the fact he was 4th ranked this year and 2nd ranked last year. He was Asian champion in '17, and Asian Games champion in '18 winning with a PB.

High jump coverage was pathetic, even swapping between Eurosport/BBC/RTE they seemed to all do their best to show as little of it as possible, the same in the qualifying the other night :-( Lasitskene was class when the pressure came on

Sure with right conditions and progress, he may be still not at peak, being only 20…

I wonder is he the fastest ever at 1500 for his age..

So we have the marathon tonight.

Can the greatest of all time, Eliud Kipchoge repeat? There's been hints that time is catching up with him but I'd love to see him do it just to add to his legacy.

There are many danger men to him though and I'll name a couple.

His compatriot Cherono is a huge danger, he won both Boston and Chicago in 2019 and has run in the 2.03's as has the other Kenyan Amis Kipruto.

The Ethiopians send Shira Kitata, arguably the best marathon runner over the last two years and the world champ Lelisa Desisa but it's their third one I'd be looking hard at. That's Sisay Lemma whose never won a major marathon but is a 2.03 man and he just seems like a championship runner who'll be suited by this.

The Japanese no.1 is Suguru Osaka. He's been in the improve lowering his national record last year, a 2.05 run, and running good half marathons and 10k's since then.

Dark horse has to be Bashir Abdi who has lowered his time in each if his four marathons, the last being Tokyo last year where he went into the 2.04's.

Finally I'll throw up the American Galen Rupp. He hasn't the time numbers to win this but it's not going to be super fast. He's been training at altitude fir thus fir some time and that's gotta give him a chance.

Anyways I gotta go with Kipchoge with the main danger being Lemma.

Well the Irish question was quickly answered, Scullion gone right back. Still hard to tell if they're all just completely outclassed, or just going with a conservative approach and hoping to move up in the second half