WAF - Benjamin shines in poorly-attended event for Brits

[pegleg]

Some thoughts....

Superb 44.56 from Benjamin, but the lack of British participants in the other events is quite embarrassing.

Still, quite a good meet by the looks of it (didn't get to see any of the TV coverage). Tirunesh had her first serious defeat of the year (not including that lacklustre 5km in Ethiopia - distance races at altitude always produce weird results). Defar really stole her limelight in Monaco.

Virgilijus Alekna has completed his first ever undefeated season. Who was the last male discus thrower (or thrower of any kind) to achieve such a feat?? This man is a living legend.

What has happened to Doucoure? Seems like he hasn't run well since Helsinki. He was 3rd in Zurich (13.23), DQ'ed in Sheffield, 1st in Decanation (albeit in 13.53), 6th in Berlin (13.82) and now 6th in Monaco (13.27). Is he carrying an injury, or is it just lack of motivation?

Another sub-four clocking from Maryam Jamal Yusuf. Shame about what happened to her in Helsinki, but she should have a great year next year (especially if they make the 1500m or 3k a Golden League event).

5.02m is quite an unlucky height for Isinbayeva. She has tried it three times now, failing on all attempts. Not since January of 2004 has she gone three competitions without breaking a WR. Apparently she has a few competitions lined up in Japan in Septermber, so hopefully she can end her season on a high.

Thoughts from anyone else...?

[kima]

Benjamin is definately in the hunt for the silver medal at the CWG. Good performance!
The men's javelin was also a great comp with Pitimaki over 91m again. Such bad luck in Finland -Varnuk's technique was the most suitable for the conditions.

The men's 800m was very slow- I believe Canada's Gary Reed has run out of steam-Perdita ended her season in a very lackluster way. Seems to have temporarily lost her edge- maybe 2006 and the CWG (yes I keep mentioning that outstanding meet ) will lead to her redemption.

2005 was a great year for athletics. Don't think the next year can live up to it but with those CWG around the corner.....

[PatC]

>>What has happened to Doucoure?<<

As an avid hurdles fan (and HUGE AJohnson fan), this year has been great and AJ's win here at the WAF was especially gratifying. As much as I like my favorites to win, it's good when many elites are trading wins, so the conclusion is always in doubt (as opposed to when Alekna or Isinbayeva are competing).

Pegleg - you seem to be a VERY knowledgable fan!

[Alf Shrubb]

I've only read the results of today's meet (haven't seen any TV--I live in a barbaric country where such things aren't televised). It sure seems that everyone is tired... A 1:47 800?? What in the world is that all about? I know that the point in meets such as this is winning, but I reserve the right to discount the value of any win in a time that pathetic. It proves that he (whoever it was--I've already forgotten!) was less slow and lazy than everyone else in the race, but that doesn't mean that he wasn't slow and lazy...

[FlyingFinn]

The men's 5000 was an embarrassment! Just because there was no rabbit is no damned excuse for this pathetic kind of pace. They should have withheld the prize money!

[marknhj]

Didn't see it but I assume it was a race, not a rabbited time trial. That gets my vote every time.

[FlyingFinn]

13:35 is no race - it's a nice little walk in the park. The only good news is that the concession people must have made a ton of money as people streamed out of their seats in total boredom. Nice loo break also.

[daisy]

Flying Finn you're nuts ':shock:', I have to agree with marknhj. Why would you prefer a rabbited race over a tactical run? It's way more interesting to see what the guys without a sprint finish try and do to speed up the pace.

[Common Sense]

So Gatlln was 4th; Benjamin beat Wariner; Dibaba was beaten; as was Djoucoure etc. Surely the mark of great athletes is that they peak for major championships as these great athletes did and when it mattered. As some one who has admiration for Benjamin, I would question his ability to produce a good PB at this meet rather than at Helsinki - maybe Tony Lester still needs to learn something about preparing athletes for big competitions!

[pegleg]

I would question his ability to produce a good PB at this meet rather than at Helsinki

I think that has everything to do with his injury struggles throughout the past winter. Helsinki simply came a bit too soon and his best runs came towards the end of the season. I doubt he's disappointed. Whether he'd have ran 44.93 or 44.56 in Helsinki, it wouldn't have made much difference, as he'd still have finished 5th in the final. I don't think anyone can fault him for his performance in Helsinki, nor Lester's ability to prepare athletes for big competitions. Most of the time, when his athletes are injury-free, they peak very well. Look at Emma Ania (who was running at her best during the peak of the season), Abi Oyepitan (with her 200's in Athens), Chris Lambert (winning Euro indoor 200m silver) etc, etc...

[kima]

And remember the conditions in Helsinki were far from ideal.
Benjamin ran a very competitive race there-the WC are more about that than setting PBs IMHO.

Of course evertyhing peggy said is true too!

[Alf Shrubb]

"Flying Finn you're nuts '', I have to agree with marknhj. Why would you prefer a rabbited race over a tactical run? It's way more interesting to see what the guys without a sprint finish try and do to speed up the pace."

Ah, there's the rub! In obvious fact, "the guys without a sprint finish" did NOTHING to "speed up the pace" and the result--it would appear--is a race that proves next to nothing besides who was fastest over the last 200 meters. In my book, 200 meters is 1/25th of the full distance, so I give these guys 1/25th of the credit they would have gotten for actually competing over the full distance. I know that a fair number of enthusiastic athletics fans hate "paced" races and love the jog-and-kick tactical affairs. My vote is strongly for the former--which are at least honest tests of a 5000m runner's ability to run hard over 5000m. What a radical concept! In my 40 years of athletics fan-dom, I've seen blazing fast races and I've seen bushel baskets of jog-and-kick affairs. I fondly remember the former and immediately forget the latter.

[PatC]

>>"Flying Finn you're nuts '', I have to agree with marknhj. Why would you prefer a rabbited race over a tactical run? It's way more interesting to see what the guys without a sprint finish try and do to speed up the pace." <<

I'm gonna hafta take FF's side in this. Competition is great, but 13:35? C'mon - there's a point at which at which we should expect the elites to run faster than NCAA qualifiers. You can have great competeitive races all the way down into age-group events, but the WAF should produce world-class results too.

[kima]

I'm gonna hafta take FF's side in this.

[PatC]

>>[quote="PatC
I'm gonna hafta take FF's side in this. [/quote] <<

[followed by eye-rolling icons]

What? Is it my spelling? I'm an American and that's how we spell over here!

[daisy]

>>"Flying Finn you're nuts '', I have to agree with marknhj. Why would you prefer a rabbited race over a tactical run? <<

> I'm gonna hafta take FF's side in this. Competition is great, but 13:35?

If they walked the first two laps then 13:35 is not so bad. I have not seen the race or splits so I can't really comment more. I have to say that we see enough time trials each year and a few tactical races won't hurt. I'm especially surprised at Flying Finn since his hero's likely never ran time trials. And Pat we don't spell like that in the US? Possibly you should get some English lessons to straighten out your spelling and style

[PatC]

And Pat we don't spell like that in the US? Possibly you should get some English lessons to straighten out your spelling and style

We don't spell that way? Oh well, I never was any good in English class - I'm more a math/science guy.

[daisy]

I'm more a math/science guy.

You mean you're inarticulate and a social misfit? Join the club i'm in science too.

All joking aside it's time that kids with a science bent start concentrating a bit more in English classes. Not being attentitve in English was one of my mistakes when I was at school. Writing scientific papers is hell when grammar is a challenge and I should know . A great result can be significantly diluted if you can't communicate it to your peers. But I digress, back to track. Does anyone have the splits for the 5000 m?

[pegleg]

Does anyone have the splits for the 5000 m?

0 - 4800m: Slow, irrelevant 13:14.00
4800m - 5000m: 25.0 seconds

[daisy]

0 - 4800m: Slow, irrelevant 13:14.00.

So they all just chatted on the way round? If this is the best we can expect from WAF then then they'll have to increase the insentives. The 800m was the same, as in no one showed up. Wariner in the 400m?

Obviously, no one really cares about this event. Any news on how IAAF plans to reformat the golden league for next season? They need to do something drastic if they want the WAF to be significant. Sorry if I've missed the obvious news, I haven't been following too much recently.

[Pelle3]

Even with rabbits, was the result only one person breaking 1.44 this season?! Tactics are good in the 1,500m and above, but the fans need action in the short stuff!

[nevetssllim]

Yes...this wasn't our best competition with only Clitheroe, Douglas, Ankier and Benjamin competing but Sotherton would've competed in the heptathlon if it was there, Pavey (3000m-5000m), Holmes (800m-1500m) Fenn (800m), Hansen (TJ), Johnson and Tomlinson (LJ) and Gardener was injured.

I agree, the men's 5000m was an absolute bore-there is nothing good about the race and as Steve Cram said "the race is better forgotten apart from the fact that Sihine won." The women's 3000m was slightly better but same tactics.

I thought the women's 5000m was good though. The men seem a bit lazy bar Bekele. The Ethiopian women kick with 400m to go whereas the men leave it until 200m-250m

Both 1500m were decent