by BigGut » Mon May 21, 2012 7:47 pm
Geoff,
You said that the tops reports weren't predictions. They were and I have given some reasons why I say this. What is wrong with me making my point, OK you choose to ignore the language used but they did say WILL HAVE, not wouldve had. I also had a debate with the author at the time who insisted that they were a good indication of how we would fare in 2012. Just a factual correction as well, the tops figures were based on 2010 rankings not 2011, which is why they were even more irrelevant.
On the point of why the events are filled, I am unsure in some events how the author drew his conclusions. The ladies pole vault is not a surprising event to see progression in over 2 seasons. In 2010 we had an 18 year old vaulting 4.35 and a 16 year old over 4.05. With a home Olympics neither were likely to drop out and since neither had been long in the event big improvement was always likely.
The women's distance events on the track have seen the emergence of several younger athletes. So although we struggled to fill the team in the last few Champs we now have a flurry of qualifiers as our girls who dominated european cross country team events now come through, not all will make it but there were so many near the top that a couple he and there and we are in.
In other events I would suspect that 2011 was a year we would have seen lower performances. Several athletes that could aIm for euro finals wouldn't really have made an impact on the world level. So why not try to make changes and focus on London 2012. Martyn Rooney and Steve Lewis both did this, going back to the drawing board. Some people said that last year saw the demise of the men's 400m I the UK, but surprise surprise this year we see improvement from last year.
Men's jav was an event we would supposedly not have somebody in, but in reality Merv has been gradually improving and no doubt has had London in mind for a couple of seasons. Men's hammer has had a group come through and has had athletes receiving development and talent funding for a while. Men's discus is just freaky and I have no idea why so many made the step up. That said with 6 over 58.50 in 2010 and many of them young for discus throwers I guess it isn't that big an annomolly. Okoyes rise is meteoric, but he is a huge specimen of a man and being relatively new big improvements were always likely in the last couple of seasons.
OK the women's triple jump is covered because of somebody who is British by marriage and 11 years residence, But to be fair we have 3 others who did all time top 10 jumps last year behind her.
On the men's distance scene there is no doubt that the example set by farah and Thompson has been great. That plus successful US college stints mean that far from being a Brit free zone as predicted by Mr Bicourt we will have full compliments in both marathons, both 5000m and probably both 10000m and women's chase. The men's chase is an odd one, but I wish and vernon, Andrew lemoncello and Tom Lancashire would all give it a serious go.
There a re loads of factors at play, but frankly I think that many people just don't realise how incredibly good we are at athletics in this country. A couple of years ago I looked at the world top 50s. Only the US had more events where they were represented than us. OK we may not be a massive success in a small specialist area like Kenya or Jamaica, but as a nation across all events we are amongst the best in the world. When you start from a viewpoint of accepting we are very good at most events, then it isn't that much of a leap to see that by improving facilities, by funding talent and development instead of rewarding people who have reached a mediocre peak and with the incentive of a home Olympics we can get athletes from being top 50 to achieving qualifying standards. I many cases the step up hasn't been that big, it's just that it appears to have happened across the board.
