Athletics 2024 (Mod note #869)

I was laughing at the men’s 200 metre final when Greg said it’s wide open. Anyone from lanes 3-9 could win it. Next thing the Swiss lad wins it in lane 2!

I’m enjoying the RTE coverage though it is patchy at times. Well done to all the athletes who’ve made this the best one for Ireland ever!

Mawdsley out again this morning in the relay heats. Some effort from her. Cadden in for Adeleke. Presumably they felt they needed to get one of the two out to make the final. Hopefully it's comfortable enough that she doesn't need to go full tilt at it.

Swiss guy in lane 9 won it.

Decent performance from Men's 4x400m on what is a weakened team. If anyone remembers the days of Project 4x4. We've come a long way.

As an explainer. Please don't get roped into this persons relay split or that persons split. There's a hefty changeover zone and not everyone gets away cleanly from changeover traffic.

Jesus, Mawdsley is just the anchor queen!

Mawdsley incredible in the relays again. Made up a huge amount of ground on the Belgian there and won pulling up in the end. Absolutely needed her in there though, it was competitive and if they had rested both Adeleke and Mawdsley as was I think the original plan, they'd have been out. Another huge medal chance tomorrow now if Adeleke comes back in.

Im just a bit in love with this athletics team, so great to have something to cheer on in shorter distances.

Although 400m has to be near on one of the hardest races there is

Just caught the women's 4 x 4. Mawdsley is a freak of a runner….strangely, she always seems to run much better in the relay format than individually.

I'd be a bit concerned about the effort put in by Mawdsley there, it will be her fifth race in 7 days - is Adeleke in the final?

I get the impression she really enjoys the tactics of running a final relay leg - it's something that suits her and something she is very good at.

Phil is on her way back from a bad luck injury series. It's remarkable that she's there really.

I'd even go further and say that the reason we have such a current womens 400m pedigree is down to Phil Healy.

Bol certainly has experience of coming through from a mixed zone post win and then running a blinder the next day.

It's exciting stuff for tomorrow. Klaver getting an absolute rest before it.

Becker, Adeleke, Healy, Mawdsley.

Goosebumps

Yeah 5 qualified from the race, even 5th placed time would have won the other semi final. Almost all will be upgrading teams for the final though.

Dutch still favourites as Bol is unlikely to be tested tonight and they’re bringing in Klaver too. Blessed to qualify but can make 3 strong changes.

The Polish will bring in Kaczmarek too.

However if we get things right, we will win a medal and if we get a bit of luck, we can get gold

Do they give medals to the athletes who ran in the heats but don't run in the final?

And Dogget is there on merit. Check the ranking.

Cillin Greene is minding himself which is a worry. Hopefully he's OK.

As for Jack. I'll have to take a look at the outgoing runner to see Jack's split and its relevance. Mid 46 for an opening leg is good. Chris O'Donnell ran 46 low for his leg in the final soni wouldn't crucify anyone for mid 46

I have checked the rankings. It’s clearly great experience for him that he’ll take a lot from it going forward. He was a boy amongst men out there.

I respectfully disagree that a 46.6x opener is a good opening leg in a continental level championship, particularly from a relatively experienced athlete.

Sorry man. Had to come back to this. Jack's pb is from 2023, so a stagnation since 2022 doesn't really make any sense. Can you explain that please?

No worries. He’s obviously a great athlete and achieved far more already than I ever did!

Remember the mixed relay in Oregon and those great third legs he ran? I thought he’d be getting down to the mid-45s by now. I know progression isn’t linear and it’s still early season, so let’s see how it goes.

I think it's more a case that Mawdsley will have to sacrifice her individual chances in Paris to help the team. Realistically she's not going to make the individual Olympic final anyway, but with Adeleke dropping in and out she will have a huge role to play in two other decent medal chances in the relays. We're going to need her to run both relay heats for us to have a chance. That way we can just bring Rhasidat in for the two finals without damaging her individual medal prospects.

Also looking for any channel that has it on this evening

Thanks very much. Disgraceful RTE don't have even have half decent coverage

money I’d say. Rte need to make savings. The public aren’t happy with their expenditure. This, I’d say, is what you call one of the downstream impacts