Aussies Aussie Watch - Glasgow 2014

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Jeremias

Jeremias

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This thread is dedicated to discussion around our athletes competing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Australia has a huge contingent over there this year with in excess of 400 athletes competing in a wide range of sports.

For more information about the team please click on the following link:

Glasgow 2014 Team

australian-flag-hd-wallpaper-2.jpg
 
Wallaby might appreciate this but young athlete Alex Rowe on the weekend finally equalled Ralph Doubell 800m time of 1min 44.40 sec, which won him the Olympic gold medal at the Mexico Olympics in 1968. I think its the longest standing male Oz athletics record.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport...stood-since-1968/story-fnntmmqv-1226994312360

World record holder and 2012 olympic champion David Rudisha, was leading but died and finished 5th but the top 5 all ran under 1:43 so it was a fast race and dragged Rowe to his fast time finishing 7th.

But because he competed in Monaco he was late getting to Glasgow he lost 1/3rd of his travelling fund monies. Go figure that out.

A cut and paste of the article using pressdisplay.com

  • 22 Jul 2014 The Advertiser SCOTT GULLAN COMMENT
Athletics Australia is running in the wrong direction

WANT to know how to turn a positive into a negative?

Get down to Athletics Australia because they wrote the manual on it and staggeringly seem to be getting better and better at this absurd skill.

Alex Rowe is the poster boy for the winning edge environment the organisation is trying to create.

He was a promising junior who stepped up when they took a punt on him — he was a discretionary selection for last year's world championships where he made the semi-finals — and then over the next 12 months has improved greatly.

On Friday night in Monaco, the 22-year-old Melbourne University student did something that no other Australian had managed for 46 years. He ran one minute, 44.40 seconds to equal Ralph Doubell's 800m national record which he set when winning gold at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

This was a significant moment in the sport's history and the perfect tonic for the Australian team on the eve of the Commonwealth Games.

What does AA do? They fine Rowe for running.

Despite making a “sensible decision” (those are AA words) to bypass the team camp in Newcastle, England — Rowe didn't know he was running in Monaco until three days before the event after getting a call when he won a race in Lucerne — because logistically it made no sense, the sport's hierarchy still slugged him $860.

Rules were rules they said. All athletes were told they had to report into the team camp by July 19 or they would be fined a percentage of their preparation fund.

AA high performance manager Simon Nathan fumbled his way through an explanation saying there had to be consistency and other athletes who had made the effort to get to Newcastle had to be rewarded.

So Simon this brilliant piece of management was stopping a potential uprising in the ranks?

Naturally the move has done quite the opposite and outraged all of Rowe's teammates who were left dumbfounded that the young man's great achievement had been soured by the very people who should be supporting and celebrating him.

In his bubbling attempt to explain AA's stance, Nathan produced this gem: “We are, and I know it probably doesn't look like it or feel like it, we are a sensible organisation.”

Yep, you sold us there.
 
On Saturday afternoon, I sat down to watch the replay of the Monaco Diamond League on Foxtel. I kept away from (sports) news reports and the internet to ensure I didn't know the results. I was looking forward to the 800m as the field with David Rudisha, Nijel Amos, Mo Aman, Pierre Bosse, etc; appeared on paper to be a cracker. Plus there was the rare occasion of an Aussie in the field. Alex Rowe had just come off a huge PB and the chances of breaking Ralph Doubell's long standing record of 1-44.40 was a distinct possibility.

As the race evolved I was watching Alex Rowe stick to the back of the elite field. He was holding his own. Sammy Tanui had ensured it was a fast pace for his mate - world record holder David Rudisha. They went through the first quarter miler in 49s and it looked to me that this race was going to be seriously quick. Rudisha looked smooth down the back with Bosse & Amos on his hammer, while Rowe appeared to be within a about 0.12s (about 9 to 10m) off them. As they went through the 600m in sub 1-16, I thought if Rowe could maintain his position, and the winner runs mid 1-42, Rowe can run low 1-44.

As they entered the straight, Amos & Bosse got the better of Rudisha and Rowe looked like he was motoring. When Amos finished in 1-42.53, I was making these calculations in my head. It looked like Rowe was about 10 to 12m away. I was convinced it was around 1-44.40.

When the result appeared on the screen I was delighted that Alex Rowe had equalled the great Ralph Doubell's national record. The longest record in Australian athletics had finally been equalled. I thought how much it would have meant to him and his coach Justin Rinaldi. What a moment it must have been when they met soon after.

In my view - in the scheme of world athletics, the Monaco Diamond League carries more weight than the Commowealth Games and therefore equalling the national 800m record (that has stood since 1968) in such a prestige meet, is as important result as we've probably seen from any Aussie middle distance athlete on the world stage for several years.

It was a monumental performance by Alex Rowe. I thought it would be celebrated by the Australian athletics community. But lo and behold, someone from AA had to come along and spoil it.

When I first learned a fine might have been imposed I was staggered. I could not believe it. As I read the reports & twitter comments being sent through by respected athletics journalists Scott Gullan and Michael Gleeson, I was embarrassed for the sport.

How could AA ruin the moment and rain on Alex Rowe's parade by imposing a fine is just unbelievable. Did they not realise this fantastic achievement would forever be tainted by the imposition of the fine? Look at the news reports since the race; the record has been lost in the news about the fine.

This has been a PR disaster by AA. Surely someone in a position of authority could have anticipated the fall-out and stopped it in its tracks. But unfortunately that was not to be. And we now have the Ausie sport media ridiculing and comdemning AA on the eve of the Commonwealth Games.
 

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Well said Scoopar . Athletics Australia have done some good stuff the last few years with their long term planing for juniors to be given scholarships, targeting certain juniors and funding for travel to Euro for big meets, but they continually make stuff ups.

As an athletics fan, I find them poorly communicating with their fan base with very little done outside Olympics and World Champs. They need a healthy dose of professional administrators to lift their game. They dropped the ball after the Sydney Olympics. There was so much goodwill to athletics. They just don't know how to tap into that massive latent support for athletics out there and they then go and make dumb decisions like the above one to alienate their athletes and w fans just roll our eyes at their dumb moves.
 
robbieando said:
You mean like the Eddie McGuire's of this world;):(
Click to expand...

Yep Eddie's on the board of AA and has been for about 5 or 6 years. They need a CEO and chairman with vision and they need a sense of balance about things and get rid of the pettiness.

1.45mil went and watched athletics at the Sydney Olympics. Take out those who went to many session - like me - and maybe 350,000 people went and watched. Take out 50,000 or so from overseas and you still have around 300,000 Australians who experienced athletics at the highest level. AA did very little to tap into that goodwill and win over those fans. Stupid pettiness like what they did with Alex Rowe doesn't win them any fans or prizes.
 
Eddie McGuire left the Athletics Australia board of directors last year.

He got what he wanted - the old Olympic Park becoming Collingwood's training venue with a new athletics track developed at Albert Park.

We lost an iconic track & field venue from one of the greatest sporting precincts in the world and it was virtually handed over to Collingwood.

Then Eddie left the building......
 
Women's 4x100m freestyle team is ridiculous. Can't believe that is our B squad.
 
Rivanwarder said:
Women's 4x100m freestyle team is ridiculous. Can't believe that is our B squad.
Click to expand...

New world record by the women's A team in the 4x100m freestyle. A record that has been held by the Netherlands since 2009. Extraordinary, exciting & spine tingling to watch. Sisters - Bronte Campbell & Cate Campbell, Emma McKeon & Mel Schlanger

3-30.98! You could just about ski behind these girls!
 

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Fairly good night on the track.

The siblings Annette and Alex Edmondson each took Silvers in the Individual Pursuit. Alex finished 2nd to Jack Bobridge, another Aussie. And the Men's tandem finished Silver. So overall 1 gold and 3 silvers from 4 medal events this evening.
 
Mixed Triathlon relay is on at the moment (really cool idea).

Basically 4 athletes, female/male/female/male in a relay fashion, doing a mini-triathlon (approx 20 mins each).
Australia currently 25 sec behind England, but they have the Brownlee brothers who are the best in the business (Gold/Silver the other night). Only 9 seconds off silver medal position at the moment, as the third athletes just starting their swimming leg.
 
The Kookas beat Wales 7-1 but didn't really look all that, though they had more possession than they knew what to do with. I got spoilt seeing them in the World Cup and my standards are now silly.
 
samFFC said:
Aussie 1-2 in the Scratch race (women)
And guaranteed 1-2 in the Women's sprint - Meares v Morton in the final! :thumbsu:
Click to expand...

Go Anna
 
samFFC said:
Aussie 1-2 in the Scratch race (women)
And guaranteed 1-2 in the Women's sprint - Meares v Morton in the final! :thumbsu:
Click to expand...

Bit torn on who I want to win here.

Meares is clearly a champion, and another win would just add to the legend, but her career is approaching it's end, so Morton winning would means another era of dominance for Aus.
 
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