Summer Olympic Sports in between Olympics thread.

[RussellEbertHandball]

Next week there is another Diamond League meet in China described as Shanghai/Keqiao.

Shanghai is the set meet for this time of year, but its 60k stadium is going thru a redevelopment, so the actual meet will take place a 3 hours or so drive south of Shanghai in Keqiao - southern part of another 5m people city, Shaoxing[, I know nothing about.

 

[The Flying Belgian]

Double Olympic discuss champ Valarie Allman from USA is all woman.

Looks to have great technique. Obviously you have to have the muscle to get it out there, but she looks to be able to keep the discus flat for longer.

 

[Dan Moody]

Double Olympic discuss champ Valarie Allman from USA is all woman.

Probably the most attractive female throwing event competitor I have seen other than that Paraguayan model Leryn Franco who went to 3 Olympics 2004-08-12, wasn't any good at the Javelin, threw about 50m, but got in as the only female from Paraguay who like all nations are allowed at least 1 male and 1 female to compete at the Olympics and world champs, so that the IOC and World Athletics can say, we have over 200 nations represented in the athletics.

100%
She makes women's discus worth watching

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Andy Buchanan already has an auto qualifier for Tokyo, when ran Oz record of a 2:06:22 in Valencia in December.

Now only the third Australian to run 3 marathons under 2:09:30 - joins Steve Moneghetti and Rob de Castella

 

[toxic]

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

 

[magpie_marty]

No stopping the great Ledecky,
Katie Ledecky has never been daunted by history or precedent or even what’s possible. At an age when most swimmers are embarking on new careers or perhaps hitting the speaker circuit, Ledecky, the ageless marvel, is rewriting the record book.
The nine-time Olympic gold medalist broke a world record Saturday night — for the first time in nearly seven years — by blasting the field in the 800-meter freestyle at a TYR Pro Swim Series meet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She won in 8 minutes 4.12 seconds, besting the previous record by 0.67 seconds — a time that made clear to the rest of the world that, even at 28, Ledecky is in no way slowing down with her fifth Olympic appearance just three years away.

 

[Cmarsh]

Notice how the US media don't get all overexcited by making preposterous claims about being the next Usain Bolt like the Australian media have with Gout.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Notice how the US media don't get all overexcited by making preposterous claims about being the next Usain Bolt like the Australian media have with Gout.

Probably because Oz has never had anyone close to being considered the fastest man in the world since Austin Robertson Sr in the 1930s, who was the world professional sprint champion and held the world record over 120 yards and 140 yards.

Roberston missed out on South Melbourne's 1933 flag, he played a handful of games that season, as he went to USA to race 1932 100m Olympic Champion USA's Eddie Tolan at the Chicago World Fair. World Fairs were a big thing between the 1860s and WWII. Tolan was injured and didn't run.

Tolan turned pro, and in 1935 they meet in a series of races. Robertson beat Tolan in one of them, Tolan won another one and someone else won the third one.

Potential world's fastest man titles are a dime a dozen in USA. That's why its not a big deal over there until just before an Olympics. And they have seen plenty of WOW 16, 17 and 18 year olds. Some have made it - most haven't.

Austin Robertson Sr was transfered with work - Holden's to Perth in the late 1930's. When Dennis Lillee broke down with a back injury in the early 1970's and didn't bowl for nearly 18 months, he batted in the top order at A grade dirtrict cricket in Perth in that period, Don Pyke's father Dr Frank, was one of the few sports scientist in Oz at the time, fixed Dennis's back and he employed Austin Robertson to improve his running technique as part of rebuilding his bowling action to prevent further back injury.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou are on this weekend. Saturday is the heats to see who automatically makes the finals and Sunday is the Repecharges to see who qualifies and then the finals.

16 teams will go to Tokyo World Champs in September for each of the 6 events.

Each of the 6 events has 32 teams and 4 heats x 8 teams per heat.

The top 2 in each heat go thru to Sunday's finals, ie 8 teams and also qualify for the World Champs.

On Sunday the Repecharges will see the 24 teams in each event who didn't qualify for the final, run in 3 heats x 8 teams and the top 2 in each heat goes to the World Champs. So this allows for top teams who drop the batton or get DQed on Saturday to still get to the World Champs.

The 15th and 16th teams will be determined on world rankings and the times recorded in Guangzhou will be part of each teams rankings calculation to work out the 15th and 16th teams.

The finals are on after the Repecharges.

At this stage they will only be able to watched in Oz on World Athletics live YouTube channel. Each day starts 7pm local time which is 7pm AWST and 9pm AEST. The My Time clock doesn't appear to be working.

https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-relays/guangzhou25

Angus from athsSTATS and some buddies have opened up a new athletics website, TrackAthletes Australia that concentrates on Australian and Irish athletes (click on Irish flag in top RHS) and they will have some info as well and have links to various info about World Relays.

TrackAthletes

Latest updates on Irish athletes, events, and more.

www.trackathletes.ie

 

[toxic]

 

[Dan Moody]

Telemarketing spam to China about to get serious

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Looks like a lot of nations that were invited aren't supplying a team and we don't have 32 teams in each event. Also Nigeria not being granted visa's makes it even less. So lets go thru the 6 events in race order.

If you want to watch the event its via the World Athletics main site Watch page for this event. You have to register an account but its a pretty easy process, given an email address and set a password. The page to watch it is;

https://worldathletics.org/videos?xnpe_tifc=OIe_4fQ_xFPuOFs.hko8bjpsafeWaeiWhFWcRf4gVueDbdLsakpLnkLvEkJLRfXcbdiArkH8bDzDhIbDh.zJ4dbJx.xT&utm_source=bloomreach&utm_campaign=WRE%20Guangzhou%2025%20-%20Friday%20%28no%20EBU%20player%20countries%29&utm_medium=email

From the start list page on the Guangzhou World Relays page at;

https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-relays/guangzhou25/timetable?day=1

4x100m Mixed - new event
Was 3 heats of 5 teams = 15 but now that Nigeria has pulled out and Heat 3 only has 4 teams. Its a bit of a crap shoot event because its so new, but first 2 in the 3 heats + fastest 2 times go thru to the final.

Oz is in heat 3 and if they run Kennedy and Rizzo they probably go thru as other 3 teams are Belgium, Canada and Netherlands. USA, Jamaica, Canada and France will be the main teams viaing for medals in this event.

I've looked far and wide, and at this stage I can't confirm this will be an event in Tokyo in September and its not an event in LA for 2028, but there is time for that to change, especially if the US look likely to win it by not dropping the baton in the lead up years.

4x400m Mixed
Was 4 heats 2x6 teams + 2x5 teams = 22 but now that Nigeria has pulled out and Heat 4 only has 4 teams, Oz is in this heat with USA, SAF and Kenya. US will win easily, Top 2 in each of 4 heats will go thru to the final. South Africa should finish 2nd, but Oz has some chance of getting 2nd. Key is to make top 6 in the repachage (or finish ranked 15th or 16th) as Oz didn't put a team in for last year's event in the Bahamas.

USA and Netherlands are the big 2 with the Irish, Great Britain and Poland in the mix for medals as well.

Women's 4x100m
Is 3 heats x 6 teams = 18, Nigeria weren't sending a team anyway. First 2 in each heat + fastest 2 times go thru to the final. Last year the Oz girls ran well and finished 2nd in their heat to Germany, 5th fastest qualifying time and finished 5th in final behind USA, GBR, FRA and GER.

This year they have drawn GBR, FRA and Belgium in the 1st of the 3 heats. I doubt we will finish in 1st or 2nd, so will have to go thru on times then. Probably have to run a national or near national record to get thru unless a dropped baton or a DQ. But they should be top 6 in the Repechage to qualify for Tokyo and not worry about rankings.

USA, Jamaica, Great Britain and France will main chances for medals.

Men's 4x100m
Is 4 heats 2x7 teams + 2x6 teams = 26 teams. Nigeria wasn't listed. So top 2 in each heat go thru. Oz is in Heat 3 with 6 teams and main oppisition is Canada, Japan and Netherlands. If they run their national record from about 6 weeks ago, or close to it, they will qualify for the final. Last year they finished 3rd in their heat behind Canada and Jamaica, finished with 11th fastest time and replicated that by finishing 3rd fastest in the repechage.

The USA should start favourites, but they have a history of farking up their baton changes over the last 20 odd years at Olympics and World Champs. Canada, South Africa, France and Great Britain will be pushing them hard for medals. I'm not sure what Jamaica will produce, as they have been scratchy the last couple of years.

Women's 4x400m
Is 3 heats 2x7 teams + 1x4 teams = 18 teams. Nigeria didn't nominate. First 2 + next 2 fastest qualify for the final. Oz is in heat 1 with 6 others but wont challenge seriously USA, Canada and France, so aim is to finish top 6 in the repechage. Finished 5th in the repechages last year in the Bahamas and I'd expect a similar result.

USA by plenty from Netherlands, with Great Britain, Ireland and France pushing for Bronze

Men's 4x00m
Is 3 heats x 6 teams = 18 teams. Nigeria didn't nominate. Oz is in heat 1 with Jamaica, Germany, Spain and China. Its not a very strong team, so no chance to finish top 2 or one of the 2 fastest times and its going to be a struggle to finish top 6 in the repechages. Finished 13th in the repechages last year in the Bahamas.

Should be another exciting USA vs Botswana final. Yanks only beat them by 0.10 in Paris last year.

The USA got DQed in the heats in Bahamas last year and won repechage and their time - with nothing on the line - was 0.84 slower than the time Botswana won the final in.

 

[mighty_lions]

the US DQ was the most bizarre thing ive ever seen, got told what lane he was meant to be in then just decided nah im not doing that

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Since 2005 Athletics Australia / Australian Athletics has produced regular 3 and 4 year strategy documents that are wide ranging in content of organisational goals and aspirations, but when it comes to High Performance section, they talk about being a Top 10 nation as measured by the Placings Table for Top 8 placings in each event. That's why I regularly mention them as that is AA's KPI for big meets like Olympics and World Championships.

The Placings Tables attempts to measue across the board performance ie sprints, middle distances, road events and field events. You know Jamaica will do well in the sprints but not much else. Kenya and Ethiopia in the middle and longer distance events but not much else. Some European nations in the field events but not much else. The medals table, especially ranking by gold medals, if a nation only has 1, 2 or 3 world's best or close to the best athlete in that event and they win medals, dosen't really measure across the board depth in the sport.

For the World Relays there are only 11 nations who have entered in all 6 events - Oz, Belgium, China, Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Poland and USA.

Canada and Switzerland in 5 of the 6 events.

Most of these nations regularly sit in that top 10-15 slots.

 

[toxic]

Time zone at the bottom of tweet

 

[mighty_lions]

world athletics wont open for me


got it

 

[MisterB]

Working OK for me

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

First heat of first event and 2nd female for US and first male **** up the batton change. US out of final.

 

[MisterB]

Yet again USA stuffs up in an international relay. Which I find surprising given their extensive relays competitions in their college events

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Canadian's were always going to be good but great changes by Aussies to finish 2nd and hold off Belgians.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Yet again USA stuffs up in an international relay. Which I find surprising given their extensive relays competitions in their college events

They don't train as a squad, They are all off doing individual stuff.

The swimming college teams train/compete over and over again and competitions hone their skills well, but you don't have to hand a baton over, just get the touch timing right.

 

[Wallaby]

Good changes make up for a lack of outright speed - well done to the guys and girls. I'm watching the US feed - when they stopped mentioning that the US team mucked up, they showed a slo-mo of the australian girls change and had to admit - 'perfect'.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Fantastic leg by Ellie Beer and Reece Holder to get 2nd, a national record and into the final in mixed 4x400m heat