Athletics 2017

He is some physical specimen in fairness. He reminds me somewhat of a Michael Johnson in how much he differs physically from his competitors. Both are once in a generation type athletes. Bolt is a once in a lifetime person full stop.

Yeah agreed, I can't ever remember Michael Johnson being accused of doping and he produced some astonishing times, he broke the 200m world record twice in 1996 taking 0.4s off it to get to 19.32s. It still is one of favourite sporting moments.
 
Was in the crowd yesterday, and all the booing was embarrassing, no one was booing Blake, so its all very selective the narrative created.
Its better to be muted, than boo, hopefully there's no booing during the medal ceremony, or even boo the national anthem..
 
Yeah agreed, I can't ever remember Michael Johnson being accused of doping and he produced some astonishing times, he broke the 200m world record twice in 1996 taking 0.4s off it to get to 19.32s. It still is one of favourite sporting moments.

Even today the wider public don't understand much about PED's. Even with the rise in popularity of bodybuilding and the ease of acquiring steroids, peptides, SARMs etc, the vast majority of people are still very uninformed when it comes to these things.

In 1996 the public genuinely believed that most athletes were clean. Carl Lewis and Linford Christie were still the good guys and Ben Johnson the bad guy. The fact Gatlin gets booed shows just how naive the public at large, even those interested in athletics, are.

I remember a couple of years ago in the MMA thread I said Anderson Silva was almost certainly on steroids. Yet lots of people rejected that and these were hard core MMA fans, a sport built on steroid use, just like sprinting since the 50's and 60's.
 
Shame about the boos
 
That 400m final is going to be a must watch. I think that Van Niekerk is going to go sub 43s.
 
That 400m final is going to be a must watch. I think that Van Niekerk is going to go sub 43s.
He has to do the first round of the 200m tomorrow and although he'll cruise it the extra race will probably knock a couple of tenths off his ceiling for the 400m final. Could still break his record though.
 
Very unexpected from Elaine Thompson. Ran an almost picture perfect race in the semi and had the exact opposite in the final.
 

Generally, the argument that his times have improved suspiciously rapidly overlooks his junior career. Whilst it's true to say that "Although he was an outstanding junior athlete, there have been many of those", not all of them hold the U15, U16, U17 and U18 world records.

In 2002, he won the world junior championships (U20) by 0.13 seconds - which would be impressive enough even before taking into account that the people he was beating were 3 years older.
In 2003 he won the world youth (U18) championship by 0.64 seconds.
From 2004 to 2006 he kept getting injured at major events.
In 2007, we was still a 400m runner - his PR is from this year. It's not all that odd that by switching to 100/200 gave him a performance boost in the latter event. Even then, the supposed "gargantuan" improvement from 19.91 (2007 WC) to 19.30 (2008 Olympics) is misleading - he'd already run a 19.75 prior to the 2007 WC.

Basically, he was always well ahead of his peers in the 200m.
 
Was in the crowd yesterday, and all the booing was embarrassing, no one was booing Blake, so its all very selective the narrative created.
Its better to be muted, than boo, hopefully there's no booing during the medal ceremony, or even boo the national anthem..
It's nonsense really. There are always these perceptions that the current generation are cleaner than the last. For example, the 'dirtest race in history' saw 6/8 athletes in Seoul '88 test positive during their careers, yet even 5/8 are already offenders from the London '12 100m race. Or that the British and Americans are clean, see how Lewis' and Christie's reputation are largely unblemished amongst the wider public. Or how people reacted to Ayana's wins compared with Farah's. Or that there's one bad apple and everyone else is good - see how Ben Johnson was treated, or how the crowd reacted solely to Gatlin.

Very unexpected from Elaine Thompson. Ran an almost picture perfect race in the semi and had the exact opposite in the final.
Yeah. Everything went wrong for her - a good example of what not to do when trailing in a race. Poor reaction from the gun, poor start, tenses up in trying to reel in Ta Lou - to the point where she stumbled. Pity, she's the fastest in the field by some margin.
 
What is it with the camerman skipping people when they're being introduced?
 
Looks a strong line-up for the Women's 1500m final.
 
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Congrats to McLeod. Executed a good race and won it in a fast time. I hope this revitalizes the camp going forward.
 
Very unexpected from Elaine Thompson. Ran an almost picture perfect race in the semi and had the exact opposite in the final.

Apparently she was sick during the warm up. Was vomiting a lot at the warm up track. That's according to Ta Lou anyways.
 
Not been a good meet for the British athletes so far. Makes you wonder where the medals are going to come from when Mo Farah retires. Other than maybe the relays and Mo's 5000m I can't see a single realistic medal prospect... and we often feck the relays up.
 
Not been a good meet for the British athletes so far. Makes you wonder where the medals are going to come from when Mo Farah retires. Other than maybe the relays and Mo's 5000m I can't see a single realistic medal prospect... and we often feck the relays up.
I don't think we'll get any to be honest. Best hope would be a bronze in a relay if one of the big hitters mess it up. A few emerging talents though who should push on with a little luck and be more competitive in the 2019 championships and the 2020 games.
 
Unfortunately those prospects won't have the money / facilities. If British Athletics don't hit their medal target, funding gets cut and chances of medals in future championships reduces. The sport funding model that we have means that you have to continually hit your targets otherwise your sport goes down the shitter. Plus there are no obvious world beaters in our system, unlike the South Africans who are, frankly, taking the mick at the moment with the level and age of their prospects. Suppose these things are circular in some respects as it was Jamaica doing the same about 10 years ago, but its frustrating as a big athletics fan to see so many "plucky Brits" lose time and time again.
 
Was in the crowd yesterday, and all the booing was embarrassing, no one was booing Blake, so its all very selective the narrative created.
Its better to be muted, than boo, hopefully there's no booing during the medal ceremony, or even boo the national anthem..

Blake got done for a supplement that wasn't yet banned but was related to amphetamines (DMAA I believe). Gatlin was done for amphetamines and steroids/testosterone. So Gatlin is definitely more blatant.

In 1996 the public genuinely believed that most athletes were clean. Carl Lewis and Linford Christie were still the good guys and Ben Johnson the bad guy. The fact Gatlin gets booed shows just how naive the public at large, even those interested in athletics, are..

Lewis was done on ephedrine, which isn't the same as roiding up. Linford might have been roiding or he might have mistakenly taken 19nor/4andro which were legal supplements which triggered positive tests when many were getting positive drug tests. Linford tested positive for Nandrolone, which isn't a steroid you take if you're looking to avoid being caught but it was a hormone that 19nor is a precusor for.

Personally I've used all the supplements mentioned, all good stuff.
 
Disgraceful treatment of Makwala by the IAAF
They've just hidden behind Public health England
 
He looked like he eased up at the end. Might have threatened the WR otherwise.
 
Disgraceful treatment of Makwala by the IAAF
They've just hidden behind Public health England

Really strange situation. I suppose the most likely thing is Makwala did tell the doctor he vomited the night before, but when he realised that disqualified him from the race he changed his story. Otherwise it's a bizarre conspiracy. The way the IAAF have handled it have lent credibility to the latter. Makwala should get his own tests done privately to prove or disprove it was norovirus.
 
Makwala is being allowed to run an individual 200m time trial tonight to try to qualify for the semis.



Well i've never seen anything like this before.
 
Makwala is being allowed to run an individual 200m time trial tonight to try to qualify for the semis.



Well i've never seen anything like this before.


It's the right decision - and I'm delighted to have the chance to see him tomorrow! - but this looks laughably bad from the IAAF from start to finish. Big feckup.
 
Blake got done for a supplement that wasn't yet banned but was related to amphetamines (DMAA I believe). Gatlin was done for amphetamines and steroids/testosterone. So Gatlin is definitely more blatant.

As if the crowds are that knowledgeable, they are just feeding off what the media is painting as the villain against Bolt. There were other athletes who were previously banned worse than Blake competing in the championship that were not booed.

So what if he took a supplement, supplements do not strictly coinhere with WADA's list. He ended up being banned for 3 months.
Gatlins first ban was overturned
 
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