Summer Tokyo 2021 - Track & Field

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.
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.

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


 
I was thinking when our last male track medallist was. If you exclude the walk (Tallent got a gold there a few years back), it might possibly stretch to half a century ago maybe? RussellEbertHandball can help there.

Bol might be the talent, but he's already 27 I think. Is there a prospect? Either way if we keep throwing money at it surely we can amp up the medal count as we build towards Brisbane.
The 4x400m relay guys won silver in Athens.

Last individual male track athlete is Rick Mitchell silver medalist in 400m in Moscow. He sadly passed away within the last 12 months, think it was cancer. Darren Clarke got 4th in the 400m as an 18 or 19 year old in LA, 4th in Seoul and 4th in the 4x400m relay in LA and if you add up the margin between his three 4ths and 3rd its less than 1 second.
 
Surely if Poland can somehow develop an elite track and field team then we can as well.
They have 12 or 13 million more people than Oz, and only have 1 football code trying to find players not 4 like we have.
 

17SetMeFree

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The 4x400m relay guys won silver in Athens.

Last individual male track athlete is Rick Mitchell silver medalist in 400m in Moscow. He sadly passed away within the last 12 months, think it was cancer. Darren Clarke got 4th in the 400m as an 18 or 19 year old in LA, 4th in Seoul and 4th in the 4x400m relay in LA and if you add up the margin between his three 4ths and 3rd its less than 1 second.
I didnt know mitchell passed away (im overseas) thats sad

Shame the americans weren't there in '80....
Clarke in 84 and 88 - 4th in both was fantastic , especially in a era of dirty athletes
in LA i thought he was going to break the WR coming into the straight, never seen bruce as excited outside of cyril taking a hanger

So many sprinters die young from that era, mennea comes to mind
 
I didnt know mitchell passed away (im overseas) thats sad

Shame the americans weren't there in '80....
Clarke in 84 and 88 - 4th in both was fantastic , especially in a era of dirty athletes
in LA i thought he was going to break the WR coming into the straight, never seen bruce as excited outside of cyril taking a hanger

So many sprinters die young from that era, mennea comes to mind
Im basically Clarke's age and my mate used to run 400's and ran against him once. I was bloody excited at the 300m mark as well in LA. I thought he is going to take over from Rick Mitchell and go one better.

After I posted, I looked up when Rick died as I was thinking March, but not sure, so I just wrote the last 12 months incase I was wrong. It was actually 30th May from prostate cancer. I remember there were a lot of tributes on Twitter and a few news stories.
 

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Moloney scored 8486 to break Oceania champs December 2020. These points would have seen him finish 5th at the most recent world champs and 6th in rio.

his day 1

- 10.36
- 7.67 long
- 13.62 shot
- 2.11m high
- 45.82 400m

day 1 points - 4613


Tokyo Olympic results

- 10.34
- 7.64 long
- 14.49 shot
- 2.11m high
- 46.29 400m

Day 1 points - 4641


so on track for better outcome.
Warner, Mayer, kaul, shkutynov probably likely to finish above him given their results so far but I’d say Moloney is setting himself up for a top 5 finish and an outside chance at a medal.
 
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My knowledge of the athletes who compete in the decathlon is zero.

For those more well versed, is Moloney a chance to stay top 3 by the end of tomorrow? How strong is he on the second day of events?
The channel 7 specialist commentator didn't think he was. All his best events were in the first day apparently. But, he's 21 so plenty of time to improve before Paris.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
 

17SetMeFree

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Im basically Clarke's age and my mate used to run 400's and ran against him once. I was bloody excited at the 300m mark as well in LA. I thought he is going to take over from Rick Mitchell and go one better.

After I posted, I looked up when Rick died as I was thinking March, but not sure, so I just wrote the last 12 months incase I was wrong. It was actually 30th May from prostate cancer. I remember there were a lot of tributes on Twitter and a few news stories.
i was shocked.
was introduced to him as a junior during an all high school track meet. He was interested in a schoolmate of mine who ran 50sec for a 400m in board shorts and a van halen t-shirt.
He said to me" you can write what that kid knows about 400;s on the back of a postage stamp" he was right
unfortunately, the schoolmate had the same level of motivation. I told him the conversation I had with Rick and his interest, his reply was, "who's Rick Mitchell"?
For many super talented kids, sport was a day off school
 

17SetMeFree

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Moloney scored 8486 to break Oceania champs December 2020. These points would have seen him finish 5th at the most recent world champs and 6th in rio.

his day 1

- 10.36
- 7.67 long
- 13.62 shot
- 2.11m high
- 45.82 400m

day 1 points - 4613


Tokyo Olympic results

- 10.34
- 7.64 long
- 14.49 shot
- 2.11m high
- 46.29 400m

Day 1 points - 4641


so on track for better outcome.
Warner, Mayer, kaul, shkutynov probably likely to finish above him given their results so far but I’d say Moloney is setting himself up for a top 5 finish and an outside chance at a medal.
great AFL footballer stats right there
 

Alfonz

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Moloney scored 8486 to break Oceania champs December 2020. These points would have seen him finish 5th at the most recent world champs and 6th in rio.

his day 1

- 10.36
- 7.67 long
- 13.62 shot
- 2.11m high
- 45.82 400m

day 1 points - 4613


Tokyo Olympic results

- 10.34
- 7.64 long
- 14.49 shot
- 2.11m high
- 46.29 400m

Day 1 points - 4641


so on track for better outcome.
Warner, Mayer, kaul, shkutynov probably likely to finish above him given their results so far but I’d say Moloney is setting himself up for a top 5 finish and an outside chance at a medal.
Kaul is out. Didn't finish the 400m.

Maybe something else happens to one of the others who would normally beat Moloney. Cuthbert said the pole vault can cause problems. Warner has done what the Aussie did in the main pole vault final ... miss all 3 at first height.

Moloney should be up there with 110m hurdles and has a decent pole vault. The other 3 will be quite weak looking at his PBs.
 
AEST times

1628123554353.png
 
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They have 12 or 13 million more people than Oz, and only have 1 football code trying to find players not 4 like we have.

Rugby League and Rugby Union are losing many young athletes due to players of Pasifika background trampling them from 12 to 18 years of age. Caucasian boys can catch up at around 19-20yo, but they are lost to the game by then. I work in Rugby League Pathways system and I'm seeing representative teams easily made up of 60-70% Pasifika boys now. It's not that they're necessarily better. They're just bigger at the teenage years and the white boys (and parents) aren't patient enough to wait until they've physically developed to see it through. Look at the NRL today, as well as Super Rugby and the Wallabies.

At the moment, many of the caucasian fellas are moving to Aussie Rules. It would be great to make Athletics more attractive to these guys, and girls.
 
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Peter Bol was magnificent. He was smart to avoid the pushing matches in all of his heat, semi-final and then the final. His determination to push for every placing was brilliant. I loved how he's peaked in time with the Games and fourth is an incredible achievement.

I hope there's still room for improvement and the natural inclination is to talk about 'better luck next time', but the history of the 800m suggests otherwise - he'll be 30 by the time Paris 2024 rolls around, competing in an event that has only ever had one Gold Medalist older than 28 (Alfred Hill, who was 31 when he won against a depleted field in Antwerp in 1920). Not having anyone of the calibre of David Rudisha helped this field too.

Hopefully a compressed international program in the next three years means that he can be an exception to the rule and become even better in his late 20s.
 
3 finals this morning early arvo sessions - all potential winners are American - NBC adjusted schedule.

There are 12 moring finals - the 2 marathons and 50km walk are always early morning starts - with I think Athens an arvo men's marathon to try and finish just before the closing ceremony.

All times Japan time. 11am Japan time = 9pm NY time.

1628123825053.png
 
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3 finals this morning early arvo sessions - all potential winners are American - NBC adjusted schedule.

There are 12 moring finals - the 2 marathons and 50km walk are always early morning starts - with I think Athens an arvo men's marathon to try and finish just before the closing ceremony.

All times Japan time. 11am Japan time = 9pm NY time.

View attachment 1196396

Your thoughts on the women's high jump? International rankings suggest both McDermott and Patterson are a chance to sneak a medal.
 
Rugby League and Rugby Union are losing many young athletes due to players of Pasifika background trampling them from 12 to 18 years of age. Caucasian boys can catch up at around 19-20yo, but they are lost to the game by then. I work in Rugby League Pathways system and I'm seeing representative teams easily made up of 60-70% Pasifika boys now. It's not that they're necessarily better. They're just bigger at the teenage years and the white boys (and parents) aren't patient enough to wait until they've physically developed to see it through. Look at the NRL today, as well as Super Rugby and the Wallabies.

At the moment, many of the caucasian fellas are moving to Aussie Rules. It would be great to make Athletics more attractive to these guys, and girls.
Yeah, I lived in Sydney for best part of 20 years and that was a big concern in the late '00's, before I left, and it really stood out at U/10 levels where the Pacifica kids at that level looked 13 or 14. i remember an article just before I left Sydney and said almost 40% of NRL lists are made up of players with Aboriginal and Pacific Islands heritage.

Rohan Browning was a leaguie, who happened to be seen by an athletics coach and said this guy can run and asked him to try some sprint training.

Our women do a lot better than the men at Olympics in terms of gold and medals. Part of that reason is because the 4 football codes take kids away from athletics where as in Europe its only 1 and there are a lot of sports because of population over small area mix, that you can make a living like athletics and the Diamond League, that are olympic sports.

The women haven't been able to make a decent living from women's sports in Oz until recently, and its still small number and not great, so why not take up a sport you can get an AIS or state institute scholarship an education and get a chance to go to the Olympics.

If the 4 football codes get to a point where the women's game can offer a decent living to young girls as a carrot to play that code, it will impact the depth of the talent pool in women Olympic sports.
 
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