Athletics

[Shorty]

http://observer.com/2016/08/caster-semenya-did-not-cheat-but-where-does-she-belong/

This article highlights the complicated nature of intersex athletes, 4 years is a long time but hopefully we get more concrete rulings by Tokyo.
Edit and the chick that was booted for being classed as male and had a baby was Polish not Italian.

 

[drago brelli]

If Bolt was an Aussie he'd be playing AFL. He would have been identified very early on and recruited into that sport. Our best male track athletes are playing AFL. AFL, the game no other nation plays, AFL, the game where 90 000 turn up to watch two suburbs play each other.

 

[Danish]

If Bolt was an Aussie he'd be playing AFL. He would have been identified very early on and recruited into that sport. Our best male track athletes are playing AFL. AFL, the game no other nation plays, AFL, the game where 90 000 turn up to watch two suburbs play each other.

I think you've been drinking the AFL cool aid there mate.
There isn't an AFL player alive that could break 11 seconds over 100 metres, and our field hockey team would destroy them in middle distance events. Seriously, field hockey players are goddamned aerobic freaks.

 

[drago brelli]

I don't care for AFL. I'll make the point again, our best track athletes are playing the 'continuous knock on game'.

 

[Shorty]

I hope we put some more funding in our athletics we have some real stars in our team.

 

[Valheru]

I heard this morning that this is the first time since the 70s that we haven't won a medal inside the stadium i.e. not counting the marathon walks. Still, I think our athletics team can hold their heads higher than the swimmers. From what I saw we had finalists in the majority of track and field events with PBs or close to PBs occurring regularly.

 

[alien]

Did distractions cost Michelle Jenneke in Rio?

SCOTT GULLAN, RIO DE JANEIRO, Herald Sun
August 21, 2016 3:14pm

AUSTRALIA’S track and field coach has questioned the commitment and preparation of dancing hurdler Michelle Jenneke, saying she arrived in Rio out of shape.

Craig Hilliard will sit down with Jenneke, whose face was on billboards throughout the Olympic city as part of a sponsorship deal with Coca Cola, and work out what her priorities are given her early exit in the heats of the 100m hurdles.

“She was certainly one of the athletes that underperformed here, it would be easy to suggest that (distractions) was possibly a scenario,” Hilliard said.

Michelle Jenneke’s preparation for the Olympics has been questioned by Aussie team coach Craig Hilliard. Picture: Getty Images

“It’s something that I need to discuss with her and go through her program as she certainly didn’t arrive here in the shape she should have arrived in.”

Jenneke, who has become famous for her raunchy pre-race routine, ran almost half-a-second outside her personal best, clocking 13.26sec to finish sixth.

Afterwards the 23-year-old alluded that athletics wasn’t the main priority which didn’t amuse the head coach.

“Absolutely (it troubles me), because when it comes to the end of the day ... its about balance, if it’s not a priority then why are we funding athletes if it’s not a priority,” Hilliard said.

“It’s simple, if you are going to be half-baked at doing something, why are we investing in you? I can’t justify that.”

Hilliard pointed out that Jenneke wasn’t the only high-profile athlete to disappoint but his hands were tied as far as selection for a number of repeat offenders such as discus thrower Benn Harradine and sprinter Melissa Breen.


“It is frustrating when some of those athletes, you would call them the perennial offenders whatever you like, that is where it is at,” he said

“You can’t deny them the opportunity though, they have reached what are tough qualifying standards.”

Jared Tallent was one of only two Aussie athletics medallists. Picture: AP

Australia won two medals in Rio, both in the walks with Dane Bird-Smith winning bronze in the 20km event and Jared Tallent silver in the 50km.

One of the biggest disappointments was long-jumper Fabrice Lapierre who came in as a gold medal favourite but finished 10th.

“He is incredibly disappointed about what happened,” Hilliard said.

“He was in great shape coming in here, there were no excuses for him and he didn’t deliver on the night.

“I can’t say any more about it, it’s frustrating and that memory will live with him for a long time.”

A spike in finalists and some impressive performances from a number of young athletes – led by 200m semi-finalist Ella Nelson, pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall and decathlete Cedric Dubler – has Hilliard excited about the next Olympic cycle leading up to Tokyo 2020.

“Two medals I am happy with that and there was scope for more medals there as we had two fourths in the end, that frustrating 44cm from (discus thrower) Dani Samuels and then there was Alana Boyd (in the pole vault),” he said.

“The encouraging thing for me is how many athletes we had in the top eight.

“We are certainly ahead of London in those stats, I think we had six in London and two of those medals came from the one athlete in Jared (Tallent).

New Aussie athletics golden girl Ella Nelson missed the 200m final by the narrowest of margins. Picture: Getty Images

“We ended up with nine athletes in that top eight position and it could have been a few more as we had four ninths which is a really frustrating position.

“But importantly it is the younger kids who really stood up here.

“In terms of scope for the future that is the encouraging sign for me. I could not have asked for more from those athletes and we had 28 athletes out of the 61 who made semi-finals.”

Hilliard also said there would be a priority on relays in the future, in particular the 4x100m men’s team, given Australia only had one team qualified for Rio, the 4x400m women, who finished eighth in the Olympic final.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...o/news-story/8ec575a804b56e67b530df6eb5d1f7e5

 

[Bennyfishel]

I am an able bodied person who really looks forward to,and enjoys the Paralympic games as I have just done with the RIo paralympics,the only thing that has spoiled it for me is the WHINGING by David Weir the British wheelchair marathon competitor, he is a pisspoor loser as well as being an unfair competitor.in the London marathon he set himself behind the Aussie Kurt Fearnley(who was the favourite to win) early on in the race and stayed behind him for all but the last 200 metres,never making the pace once until he went for gold . in the world championships a year or so later Fearnley played him back at his own game for 10 or so Kilometres then said "CHEERIO" and left Weir to grovel. Weir WHINGED about it, in this recent marathon he was nowhere to be seen until his "accident" which was probably self enduced to avoid another embarrassment for himself.he has again done a lot of WHINGING after his abysmal performances in Rio so he is taking his bat & ball home and retiring. GOOD LUCK to him but i hope he isn't remembered as a legend in parasports.

 

[isaiah]

4am tomorrow is the latest diamond league meeting. schippers to win the 100 and de grasse to win in just under 19.95 in the mens 200. amazing numbers of NCAA sprinters this morning either under 10 sec or just outside in just the heats at eugene, oregon. 9.82 was the fastest. i think they said thats makes him 6th all-time [just did my homework, he's actually equal 9th]. and the espn commentators were 5 times smarter than the idiots that call the diamond league for eurosport.

 

[isaiah]

Would it difficult to predict the 8 runners who make the men's 100 metres final in London in a few weeks?

 

[isaiah]

Tomorrow at 5.35am at the Monaco diamond league, bolt v ujah and simbine. You would think all 3 will be in the WC final in a fortnight. Bolt could get beaten into a minor placing tomorrow and still rise to gold in London.

 

[isaiah]

Would it difficult to predict the 8 runners who make the men's 100 metres final in London in a few weeks?

You would think that a 10.10 run in the first round would get you into the semis. Then you would have to get down to 10.02 to make the final. So I believe there are more than 8 regularly running under that. You would start with bolt and de Grasse. add ujah and simbine. Include Gatlin and either of the other Americans. One more Jamaican and meite.

 

[isaiah]

You would think that a 10.10 run in the first round would get you into the semis. Then you would have to get down to 10.02 to make the final. So I believe there are more than 8 regularly running under that. You would start with bolt and de Grasse. add ujah and simbine. Include Gatlin and either of the other Americans. One more Jamaican and meite.

De Grasse pulled out with an injured hammy 36 hrs before the heats. It only took 10.24 to make the semis. Belcher, the 3rd American has a dream semi to now be a shoe in to make the final. Sub 10 could be needed to get the 3rd or 4th places in the other semis to make it. Especially if they are run with a metre or so tailwind

 

[Danish]

Well sometimes the bad guy wins....

The European crowd know what's up, exploding in boos when Gatlin was officially named the winner in a photo finish

 

[Valheru]

Bolt was beaten by another runner though so he still would have not won if Gatlin was banned.

 

[Danish]

Bolt was beaten by another runner though so he still would have not won if Gatlin was banned.

Yep, another American Gatlin clone.

Let's hope he turns out still clean after a few years, because there basically aren't any clean truly fast runners left besides Coleman now that Bolt is gone

 

[isaiah]

It would be a shame if makwala of Botswana dropped out of the 200 metre heats to hope to win the 400. He can only win silver in the 4 but could have won another minor medal in the 2.

 

[Frankus]

Yep, another American Gatlin clone.

Let's hope he turns out still clean after a few years, because there basically aren't any clean truly fast runners left besides Coleman now that Bolt is gone

Lets also hope Bolt turns out to be clean. Considering he is the only man not to have either tested positive or been ousted by those in the know (i.e. Maurice Greene during the BALCO investigation) to ever run 9.80 seconds or faster.

His improvement from consistently running 10.0 in from 2005 to 2007 to then running 9.69 in Beijing in the space on 12 months surely raises questions not to mention him being more than 0.1 seconds faster than a juiced to the gills Blake, Gay or Gatlin.

 

[Danish]

Lets also hope Bolt turns out to be clean. Considering he is the only man not to have either tested positive or been ousted by those in the know (i.e. Maurice Greene during the BALCO investigation) to ever run 9.80 seconds or faster.

His improvement from consistently running 10.0 in from 2005 to 2007 to then running 9.69 in Beijing in the space on 12 months surely raises questions not to mention him being more than 0.1 seconds faster than a juiced to the gills Blake, Gay or Gatlin.

I didn't think he'd even run the 100 professionally until 07? He was a 200 and 400 runner originally. A 0.3s improvement from your first attempts at the distance compared to when you have perfected your form and mechanics (and Bolt truly was the perfect model for a 100m sprinter) isn't that great a leap.

As for Blake, Gay, and Gatlin... one only has to compare their physiques to see why Bolt is so much faster. He has a solid 5-6 inches in height in each of them. His form once at speed is perfect she strides like a gazelle barely even touching the ground while they are pumping like little roided nuts.

I like to be optimistic that Bolt will remain forever clean. There's never even been a whiff of doping around him (besides from jealous yanks who can't hack their blokes not being the best) so hopefully it stays that way

 

[Frankus]

I didn't think he'd even run the 100 professionally until 07? He was a 200 and 400 runner originally. A 0.3s improvement from your first attempts at the distance compared to when you have perfected your form and mechanics (and Bolt truly was the perfect model for a 100m sprinter) isn't that great a leap.

As for Blake, Gay, and Gatlin... one only has to compare their physiques to see why Bolt is so much faster. He has a solid 5-6 inches in height in each of them. His form once at speed is perfect she strides like a gazelle barely even touching the ground while they are pumping like little roided nuts.

I like to be optimistic that Bolt will remain forever clean. There's never even been a whiff of doping around him (besides from jealous yanks who can't hack their blokes not being the best) so hopefully it stays that way

Even in that case, he dropped his 200m (he was consistently running 19.9ish or a whisker faster for years) time by 0.5 or 0.6 of a second in the space of a year. The argument that it is purely through genetics and new training regimes just doesn't wash with me. His off the scale of normal improvement is reminiscent of Flo-Jo.
He reportedly had Angel Heredia (going by the name Hernandez) as a coach (a former BALCO chemist turned snitch) for a large period of time and has basically never really come close to his 2009 times since. The fact that Marion Jones (also a teenage prodigy in track and basketball) and Maurice Greene for example never tested positive indicates to me that the designer drug chemists are well ahead of the WADA analytical capabilities curve.

I live in hope he is clean, just as I was hopefully Armstrong was clean. I can PM you further.