RussellEbertHandball
Flick pass expert
That's why the IAAF/World Athletics about 20 years ago came out with the Placing Tables where they give 8 pts for a gold down to 1 point for 8th, given 8 people run in the sprint finals and the final 8 advance for extra throws or jumps in an field event finals.Gold is seriously difficult on the track. Most competitive global sport with the possible exception of soccer. We don't really have any natural advantages in it either. Would love to see some more gold on the track/field but it's not going to be easy. A lot will rely on freakish talents coming along too.
Best chances for Australians are likely in the field, hurdles events or middle distance.
It's a way to measure the depth of a nations athletic talent across many events. Just because one nation might win 1 gold medal and is high up on the medal table, but has no one else that makes a final, compared to a nation who only wins say 2 bronze medals, but has 8 people in total make finals, its wrong to say the nation with the 1 gold but no other finalists is a stronger nation than the other one.
I will put up some stats near the end of the Olympics re where Oz places on the placing tables and how that compares to previous games. Below is the World Athletics site link where you can see the medals table and the Placings Table at the moment.
Athletics Australia has put it into their long term strategy documents to get to a top 10 nation as measure by the Placings Table ie get about 12 to 15 top 8 placings at each Olympics and World Championships.
After Bohl's 4th that will give us a total of 16 pts ie 2x 4ths = 2x5 pts ie 10pts + 1x5th = 4pts + 1x7th = 2pts = 16pts which would move us up to 15th place at the moment once the table gets updated. see
Placing Table | World Athletics
www.worldathletics.org