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Post by alkringtonhatter on Jul 31, 2024 20:19:50 GMT
I’m kinda waiting around for the athletics now. Not so much the sprinting and throwing but the middle / long distance track races. As a (quicker than some, not as quick as some) hobby runner from 5K to marathon, it’s just utterly mental how fast the men and women both run. I know the 100m champ is billed as the fastest man on earth, but to me, the men’s marathon winner is going to sprint for just over 2hrs to win!
The blue ribbon event is the men’s 1500m for me. Josh Kerr vs Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Two huge egos, two outstanding athletes. Going to be one very sore loser. Kerr is a bit like Mark Cavendish in that he’s quite bullish about his own strengths, very self confident. Might at times be a bit of a dick? Got that preppy Edinburgh background. Ingebrigtsen races more often, is a phenomenal athlete, but doesn’t take well to losing, as he did in the last two Worlds to different British guys.
Round one is Friday, final is next Tuesday. Can’t wait.
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Post by Bredburyhatter on Jul 31, 2024 20:25:19 GMT
I’m kinda waiting around for the athletics now. Not so much the sprinting and throwing but the middle / long distance track races. As a (quicker than some, not as quick as some) hobby runner from 5K to marathon, it’s just utterly mental how fast the men and women both run. I know the 100m champ is billed as the fastest man on earth, but to me, the men’s marathon winner is going to sprint for just over 2hrs to win! The blue ribbon event is the men’s 1500m for me. Josh Kerr vs Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Two huge egos, two outstanding athletes. Going to be one very sore loser. Kerr is a bit like Mark Cavendish in that he’s quite bullish about his own strengths, very self confident. Might at times be a bit of a dick? Got that preppy Edinburgh background. Ingebrigtsen races more often, is a phenomenal athlete, but doesn’t take well to losing, as he did in the last two Worlds to different British guys. Round one is Friday, final is next Tuesday. Can’t wait. don't seem to see much athletics on tv these days... being a bit of an oldie then used to love the Coe, Cram, Ovett era for 1500(ish) events.
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Post by gatleyhatter on Jul 31, 2024 20:28:22 GMT
I’m kinda waiting around for the athletics now. Not so much the sprinting and throwing but the middle / long distance track races. As a (quicker than some, not as quick as some) hobby runner from 5K to marathon, it’s just utterly mental how fast the men and women both run. I know the 100m champ is billed as the fastest man on earth, but to me, the men’s marathon winner is going to sprint for just over 2hrs to win! The blue ribbon event is the men’s 1500m for me. Josh Kerr vs Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Two huge egos, two outstanding athletes. Going to be one very sore loser. Kerr is a bit like Mark Cavendish in that he’s quite bullish about his own strengths, very self confident. Might at times be a bit of a dick? Got that preppy Edinburgh background. Ingebrigtsen races more often, is a phenomenal athlete, but doesn’t take well to losing, as he did in the last two Worlds to different British guys. Round one is Friday, final is next Tuesday. Can’t wait. Know very little but rooting for Ingebrigtsen just coz i have a Norwegian mate who’s supporting him.
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Post by gatleyhatter on Jul 31, 2024 20:56:59 GMT
I’ve enjoyed the swimming but you seem to be able to win a shit load of medals if you’re ace at swimming like Phelps/Thorpe and now Marchand. Is there a similar sport you can take so many medals if you’re good?
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Post by herbiedumplings on Jul 31, 2024 21:37:48 GMT
I’ve enjoyed the swimming but you seem to be able to win a shit load of medals if you’re ace at swimming like Phelps/Thorpe and now Marchand. Is there a similar sport you can take so many medals if you’re good? Track cycling. Which has served GB well in the past TBF…
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Post by gibbo on Aug 1, 2024 7:36:18 GMT
The blue ribbon event is the men’s 1500m for me. Josh Kerr vs Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Two huge egos, two outstanding athletes. Going to be one very sore loser. Kerr is a bit like Mark Cavendish in that he’s quite bullish about his own strengths, very self confident. Might at times be a bit of a dick? Got that preppy Edinburgh background. Ingebrigtsen races more often, is a phenomenal athlete, but doesn’t take well to losing, as he did in the last two Worlds to different British guys. Kerr also beat him earlier this season over the Mile in Eugene (he broke Cram's long standing British Record to do it), but I think Ingerbrigsten may have been coming off injury and has since broke his own European 1500 Meters record so I'd make him the favourite (though I'm no expert). Keeley Hodgkinson is the other outstanding chance for GB on the track, path cleared a little by Athing Mu falling in the US Trials, though that's a disappointment for me as would have been a similar Kerr / Ingerbrigsten clash (and will be a minor asterisk over Keeley if she wins - similar to Christie in 92 when Lewis wasn't there).
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Mozzer
Contributor
Posts: 1,298
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Post by Mozzer on Aug 1, 2024 7:43:55 GMT
There are no asterisks*. You're there or you're not. If you're there, you beat who is. If you're not, you're nowhere. Everything else is speculation. Fun for pub chat maybe, but meaningless for medals.
* Except maybe for drug cheats.
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Post by timberwolf on Aug 1, 2024 7:46:01 GMT
I’m kinda waiting around for the athletics now. Not so much the sprinting and throwing but the middle / long distance track races. As a (quicker than some, not as quick as some) hobby runner from 5K to marathon, it’s just utterly mental how fast the men and women both run. I know the 100m champ is billed as the fastest man on earth, but to me, the men’s marathon winner is going to sprint for just over 2hrs to win! The blue ribbon event is the men’s 1500m for me. Josh Kerr vs Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Two huge egos, two outstanding athletes. Going to be one very sore loser. Kerr is a bit like Mark Cavendish in that he’s quite bullish about his own strengths, very self confident. Might at times be a bit of a dick? Got that preppy Edinburgh background. Ingebrigtsen races more often, is a phenomenal athlete, but doesn’t take well to losing, as he did in the last two Worlds to different British guys. Round one is Friday, final is next Tuesday. Can’t wait. Yes, the olympics has been and always will be about athletics. No interest in the rest. However i prefer the sprinting as i wasn,t bad at it in my youth but crap at anything over 200 meters.
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Post by gibbo on Aug 1, 2024 7:51:10 GMT
There are no asterisks*. You're there or you're not. If you're there, you beat who is. If you're not, you're nowhere. Everything else is speculation. Fun for pub chat maybe, but meaningless for medals. * Except maybe for drug cheats. Hodgkinson herself has said that she wanted Mu to be there so she can beat the best (sure I've read that or something similar). And the ?? hung over Christie's win until he comfortably beat Lewis the next year at the Worlds.
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Post by gibbo on Aug 1, 2024 7:59:39 GMT
don't seem to see much athletics on tv these days... being a bit of an oldie then used to love the Coe, Cram, Ovett era for 1500(ish) events. BBC still shows the Diamond League highlights, but tends to be on BBC3, or during the day on a weekend on BB1, it's not front and center on Prime Time like several events were back in the day. The London Diamond League was live on BBC1. The UK Trials and European Championships were both Red Button / iPlayer (though the European Championships seems a bit pointless when held same year as the Olympics). World Championships still gets decent coverage.
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Post by bigmartin on Aug 1, 2024 10:08:06 GMT
I love the Olympics. All of it. Lucky that I work from home so can watch every minute of the day's coverage. I like the longer races such as the marathon, cycling road races less. But I'll still watch them and marvel at just how great all those athletes are, even the person who comes last. I'm a fat b*stard and struggle to get up a flight of stairs these days...
It's also amazing to me how different these sports are. This isn't critism it's simply an observation. If you're, say in half a dozen races in cycling, swimming, athletics etc. Or if you do an extremely demanding sport like tennis, boxing and so forth I totally understand this idea that you're preparing for 4 years. Yet, you also get sports like archery and shotgun shooting where basically you're playing out your hobby, albeit I totally agree at the top level of it. Some of the archers this morning fired off 9 arrows in the Olympics and they're out. Done. No second chances.
The disparity in sporting events is really interesting, a bit weird, but absolutely absorbing.
My one, sole criticism of the coverage is all this crap around the personal lives of those Brits (especially) taking part. Is anyone really that interesting in a rower having 3 children and running her sport/career around that. Is it so unusual that it's worthy of constant attention even during the race? Maybe it is. But it makes me cringe. But that's it. 9.9/10 in all respects.
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Post by Henry Pratt on Aug 1, 2024 10:16:23 GMT
My one, sole criticism of the coverage is all this crap around the personal lives of those Brits (especially) taking part. Is anyone really that interesting in a rower having 3 children and running her sport/career around that. Is it so unusual that it's worthy of constant attention even during the race? Maybe it is. But it makes me cringe. But that's it. 9.9/10 in all respects. One of my bugbears, that. The BBC are particular culprits, seeming to need a "story" for every medal contender, with soaring music and a soft-focus film before the event itself. If they then don't get the expected gold, there's a sense of "how dare you, you useless f*cker? We did that film and everything!" Something similar happened a few years ago when during a SPOTY show, they had the Scottish commentator (rugby?) with the gravelly voice read out a poem over some slo-mo soft-focus footage. Tbf it was actually quite good, and affecting, but they did it to absolute death every year afterwards. I suppose TV's like that, in that an original idea is then copied and copied ad infinitum (see reality shows). It's sport coverage produced by people who don't really like sport.
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Post by Henry Pratt on Aug 1, 2024 10:18:46 GMT
We've just won 3 medals in about half an hour in the rowing, albeit no golds. Absolutely awesome performance, should be proud. But there's a real sense of "What, Helen Glover didn't win gold? But she was meant to! Third games! She's had kids and everything!"
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Post by oldroader on Aug 1, 2024 10:18:58 GMT
I love the Olympics. All of it. Lucky that I work from home so can watch every minute of the day's coverage. I like the longer races such as the marathon, cycling road races less. But I'll still watch them and marvel at just how great all those athletes are, even the person who comes last. I'm a fat b*stard and struggle to get up a flight of stairs these days... It's also amazing to me how different these sports are. This isn't critism it's simply an observation. If you're, say in half a dozen races in cycling, swimming, athletics etc. Or if you do an extremely demanding sport like tennis, boxing and so forth I totally understand this idea that you're preparing for 4 years. Yet, you also get sports like archery and shotgun shooting where basically you're playing out your hobby, albeit I totally agree at the top level of it. Some of the archers this morning fired off 9 arrows in the Olympics and they're out. Done. No second chances. The disparity in sporting events is really interesting, a bit weird, but absolutely absorbing. My one, sole criticism of the coverage is all this crap around the personal lives of those Brits (especially) taking part. Is anyone really that interesting in a rower having 3 children and running her sport/career around that. Is it so unusual that it's worthy of constant attention even during the race? Maybe it is. But it makes me cringe. But that's it. 9.9/10 in all respects. I agree. I even enjoyed watching the BMX yesterday! I think the commentary stuff is just a sign of the times. It's the same with news. They can't just report what has happened, we have to hear the innermost feelings of every bystander.
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Mozzer
Contributor
Posts: 1,298
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Post by Mozzer on Aug 1, 2024 11:19:25 GMT
Whilst I'm definitely in favour of sports coverage not going down the reality TV line, I do think the 'had 3 kids, still competing at the top level' angle is a valid one, if only so that people can see it can be done. It is unusual. Should it be? I don't know. But it has value in more than one regard.
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