Athletics Weekly

Cynical stuff indeed. B*gger the Media and the great Brit public and their delight in athletics Medals, which may last for two days, until another sports story in the Media comes up.. In any event,paying a penny piece to to American 400m runners because of their alleged benefit to our Relay teams, a...

The whole business about funding relay runners is utterly beyond comprehension. If an athlete meets tough criteria he gets some funding level.The Relay is about giving the best athletes a short time before the events the opportunity to relay. All the crud last year about spending money on short rela...

Another lucky American who has been put on funding, Mr Michael Bingham, I note. Probably he is on Group C but I would rather have put one of our promising young athletes like Nelson, Shakes Drayton, Twell on the C funding rather than Bingham. Hope he does not become like the other American who took ...

The facts are that her PBs which Nev correctly states, all came together in Beijing, except the High Jump. So what.? Many athletes have done 4 PBs and I am sure that five PBs is not unknown,in Heps. Weird improvements happen at Olympic Games.!!! That said, I repeat, I do not take it for granted that...

I will accept the the International Track and Field Annual 2008 stats and BTW Dobrynska's best is 6387. You are wrong about Kluft, who set 6 personal bests in 2003 at the World Champs, setting a great PB of over 7000 points. You are also incorrect about large margins of improvement since Kluft who w...

Mummy Your figures for Dobrinska's PBs prior tio this year are not correct acc to Athletics 2008. They are somewhat better than you show in most events espec the 17.18 indoors shot and the LJ but it depends if you are referring to all time PB or only in Hep competitions. Her improvement from her PB ...

For me;

Dibaba
Jelimo
Samitova
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Bolt
Bekele

Agreed Kermit; too many British athletes who want to shine indoors in March are not able to shine outdoors in July and August. Kelly S needs a rest from an event that she is getting weaker at; her LJ and the hundred points she generously gifts to her fellow competitors in the Javelin suggest that sh...

Quite right and who do I say is responsible.?? The over rated coaches who have a habit of screwing up our talent. Although I am sceptical that we will see Van Commennee on the scene, it would be great to see somebody as Chief Coach kicking some British coaches and athletes and making them compete fo...

I think we must point out to posters that, in both the number of top 8 places, plus the number of events in which we placed those top 8, and also the number of points, GB are a superior athletics Nation to any in Europe, except the Russians. Furthermore, the time has been reached when we should be r...

Just read the interview given to the Bristol Evening Post by Kate Reed.

Clear, she was not fit after going to Beijing from Macau, nor was she fully fit in Beijing. She is still troubled by a lower leg problem and that's why she is due to have an MRI scan to ascertain what the problem is.

So be it.
The question I pose is was Reed fully fit or not, or as UKA state, competitively fit.? Clearly UKA did not cover themselves in diplomatic glory.

Informative to read , as is necessary, the comments on the front page entitled ''Reed row escalates.'' Not a very bright spark Miss Reed.!!

Thanks Kermit.

When I hit on MyP2P the station applicable has to be hit on and this has varied over the last couple of meetings from TVU which I had to install for Zurich, and WMP for the Lausanne stuff. A real treat to watch it at all ;!!!!

Whilst I do not wish to be drawn into the farago about Reed, may I be permitted to say that this young lady has got a little above herself. She was stated in the local papers as saying that UKA prevented her from medalling, so I understand. Yeah??? Her PB s were this year 15.40 in the 5K in Annecy a...

The African excellence at mid distances is a bit of a red herring when discussing our guys at 800m, and the mention of Coe and Ovett in an earlier post by Droitrob, should remind us of the following names who ran on or under1.45 secs, Elliot,Cram,Steele , McKean , Sharpe, Cooke , Morrell, Ikem Billy...

Excellent coverage via p2p and WMP.

I think I saw a lot of tired athletes out there tonight, except the fab performance from Asafa in 9.72.

Dobriskey looked uninterested in going with the leaders. The first two had more to prove which is usual in post Olympic meets.

No doubt the Finns are wondering how come they had in the Seventies a few world class middle and long distance runners and now ... nothing. I feel a bit fatalistic as regards our lot; quite right about the lack of system and funding not being the issue or relevant; If I had to choose a reason or rea...

Flumpy You said ''good journalism''. Since when did you get journalism in the British sporting press, especially about the subject of Track and Field. Their viciousness is matched only by their ignorance. I am not talking about some elegant, wordy piece by a lead writer in the Times ,but the hard ed...

Good points Patriot in your last post. Iam also waiting to see him perform. Wonder if the new boy will be content to dole out Lottery Funds to Mr. Farah.

I am not talking about Farah's Cross Country in European races. He did not bother to run in Edinburgh because he was too busy concentrating on his 5K training. Now lets see his true record over 5K In 2006 his first decent performance in 5k in 13.09.4 followed by two other performances in the 13.40 r...

I feel ,Kermit, it goes beyond ego and self absorption,, which are naturally part of any top athletes armoury. She is representing her country and when I think of all the great sprinters and 400m runners of the past they all ran with just as much determination, but were happy to run relays for their...

The examples given were interestingly, a Russian, an American and a Turk. No East Africans.

The Yanks and the Russians record over the years re PEDs is and has been atrocious.

Patriot How many years major International experience did Wariner have when he ran 44.00 to win the Olympics in his first year at the top level. His previous in the year before Athens was a mere 45.13. His best over 200m in that year 2003 was 20.78. Ed Moses was even freakier as you must know.! You ...

I cannot remember any 400m men or women World and Olympic Champion in fifty years who runs so appallingly poorly in a Relay. CO says I only train to perform three times a year in the big Champs. Ludicrous argument by Christine to imply, as she has done, that any athlete can train during the season t...

Just thought a few might be interested to know that approx 35 % of athletes who got medals in Beijing also did the same in Osaka. So tough to be great two years running., let alone two successive Olympics. I think that the above %age is broadly speaking about the average from one WC to the following...

I have as much faith in the performances of Mr Kratochvilova and Olizarenko as I do about Flo Jo. I refuse to suspend judgement concerning East European cheats at a time when drug testing was a joke. Olizarenko did her effort in 1980, a great time for ''clean'' athletics, :cry: especially as it was ...

Struggling to see why a Gold Medal for poor underachieving should not be awarded to Mo Farah. Since Jan this year all I heard from Mo was I am concentrating on nowt else but the OG and I will not be bothering with other thoughts and comps if it prejudices my OG form. Ran rather poorly in Valencia I ...

Frankly I found the usual politicians getting in on the act sickmaking as always. This time Brown and Jowell. I find it mildly disgusting that our slightly to the left, Mr. Prudent himself, being quoted all over the Press about the ''tragic mistake'' of left wing Local Authorities not permitting, or...

usedtoit

In Sydney I reckon we got individually and in Relays 20 top eight finishes; we were not so different in Beijing; 16 top eight finishers including Relays.

In the 20 top 8s were 12 men; so much poorer now.