London 2017

blob · All-time great

London 2017

indiana · Tennis legend

Ah not be too long before the truly magnificent athletes of our time like Andy Carroll take over the stadium again.

But Mo's not bad

paulisi · Tennis legend

Terrific event - I was there all weekend. Standard across the board is very high. Crowds massive, very loud and patriotic.

steven · Tennis legend

Doesn't surprise me that the crowds are really good - when the tickets first went on sale, I thought I'd be back in the UK in time for this and had tickets for a few sessions. Realising I wouldn't be back (a water main burst in my UK house in February and it's going be a few more weeks before it is habitable again), I put the tickets on the official resale site a few weeks ago and they all went in a couple of days.

Presumably there's a higher percentage of big athletics fans doing multiple days this time than there was at the Olympics. Apparently, the roar for Mo on the final lap was louder than the one at the Olympics, and the one in 2012 nearly deafened me (though I was making it worse by contributing to it too) so I can't quite imagine what it must have been like this time!

paulisi · Tennis legend

Initial tickets sold out 18 months ago.
I was there for the Bolt final and it was loud, but very surreal. Of course everyone stayed for the lap of honour and it was chaos getting out and back to the stadium.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
Terrific event - I was there all weekend. Standard across the board is very high. Crowds massive, very loud and patriotic.

Strangely enough I don't think it's come across that brilliantly on TV.

I've actually really enjoyed it. And watched practically all of it.

But the commentators have tried SO SO hard to build up the British athletes, and their medal hopes, that when they have then 'failed', it's left them with a ruined story and all flat. So, for a lot of very pro-British fans, it feels a disappointment. And the times have been 'slow'.

Which seems to me such a shame. Even Michael Johnson said it was daft (he was talking about all the hype about Sophie Hitchon who was 'only' 10th best this year coming into the event and would have needed a new British record to medal and yet you'd have thought that she'd blown a slamdunk).

indiana · Tennis legend

I do like Michael Johnson. Jess was talking up a bit KJT's improving competitive attitude and Gabby asked Michael did he see that and he simply replied "not as much as I would like" It is great to have his honest perspective.

Re KJT, if she could just nail both the high and long jumps in one big competition. The remaining 5 events are much easier to predict. Essentially running - very good, throwing - relatively poor. In the jumps at her best she is a class act in both but they are likely to be more variable. A couple of hundred more points in the high jump ( and evidently that's about what it cost her compared to more around what she would have hoped for ) and she would have been right in there.

Into Wednesday and still just Mo's gold in the medal tally but agree a bit overhype re some of the Brits kind of then adds disappointment. Sophie Hichon was a good example though I did like her own attitude to it all - she looked to outperform her best but in reality it was a a fair outside bet and her Olympics bronze was a real upset and very pleasant for it. The Laura Muir countdown clock was well OTT and some more mention of her prior injury time out before rather than after the event might have been useful. It may indeed have been that time our that cost her in the final 50 metres. I do hope her big time will come.

paulisi · Tennis legend

I know a lot of info about KJT as she is from our club. She is now based in France after needing a change in direction. Her mentality has improved, but I'm not sure her performances have been better than when she was based in Liverpool.
She has all the talent and potential, but cannot switch this into consistent improved performances.
I would suggest she specialises in an individual event - 200m, 400m, 400mH, HJ or LJ. She could be world class at any.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Contrast the attitude of Dina Asher-Smith, KCL history student managed 2 months of training after breaking her foot running with no fear and blasting through her heat. You can sense the feeling that she is driven to produce her best by elite competition as opposed to intimated by it. Probably too early in terms of recovery from injury to medal but regardless an athlete you feel excited to watch.

She has a very weak tennis connection in that she is a Newstead Woods alumni others include the Oxford educated comedian Josie Long who is a "doctor who" obsessive, Gemma Chan (Jack Whitehall is better known as her boyfriend) the Oxford educated actress who was in the most scary doctor who episode ever "The waters of Mars" so scary we had to remove any reference to it in the magazine before my son would read it, and of course Gemma rhymes with Emma and Emma Radacanu (our promising 2002 junior) is presently a pupil, do you think she will end up playing college tennis?

steven · Tennis legend

Oakland2002 wrote:
Contrast the attitude of Dina Asher-Smith, KCL history student managed 2 months of training after breaking her foot running with no fear and blasting through her heat. You can sense the feeling that she is driven to produce her best by elite competition as opposed to intimated by it. Probably too early in terms of recovery from injury to medal but regardless an athlete you feel excited to watch.

She has a very weak tennis connection in that she is a Newstead Woods alumni others include the Oxford educated comedian Josie Long who is a "doctor who" obsessive, Gemma Chan (Jack Whitehall is better known as her boyfriend) the Oxford educated actress who was in the most scary doctor who episode ever "The waters of Mars" so scary we had to remove any reference to it in the magazine before my son would read it, and of course Gemma rhymes with Emma and Emma Radacanu (our promising 2002 junior) is presently a pupil, do you think she will end up playing college tennis?

The name Newstead Woods rings a bell - if it's the one in Orpington, one of my best friends at university went there too ... and wasn't Gemma Chan the lead humanoid in Humans? (I only saw the first series so even if she was, maybe she isn't any more)

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Yes you are right she was also a robot and a number of other things that attracted Whitehall junior, unfortunately in my particular corner of South London she induces a different effect, "water on mars" just needs to be alluded to in our house to induce a pile on behind the sofa.

Each time I look at Dina, I feel slightly frustrated as to what could have been in that the Bromley tennis centre is within the school grounds! She is so fast even if she didn't know which end of the racket to hold she could have had two swipes at the ball for Emma's one! It is a very academically selective state girls school which would be entirely consistent with meeting your friend at university as opposed to any other environment. Stanford should started sniffing around Emma she may actually be able to get in!

JonH · All-time great

I have also really enjoyed the athletics and watched it most evenings to my wife's annoyance. Agree re the building up the Brits, but loved watching Kyle Langford in the 800m final - he was almost jet propelled along that finishing straight, just left too much to do in the end.

One thing I have observed is how generally far off the times are though from the halcyon days. Someone mentioned Michael Johnson, and they showed a clip of him and Frankie Fredericks in the 200m finishing in 19.5 or somesuch time, 15 years or so ago. Even in events like the 400m hurdles or the 800m , times generally are well down on the past and even the era of Coe and Ovett, Cram etc or Kris Akabusi and Sally Gunnell. It clearly cant be drugs (I refuse to believe any of those athletes were into doping) so what else could explain the general fall off in standards?

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Well 0.4 of a second comes off the 100m times of clean athletes (not using steroids).

Flo Jo, Marion Jones great names that mean nothing, if the girls were doing it one does have to question the subsequent male dip in times when the fiscal incentive for the fellas was even greater.

paulisi · Tennis legend

i'm not convinced the standards are much lower - some events have dips, whilst other events are on the up.
Men's LJ was so strong in terms of performance and depth.
2 Men ran sub 44 for 400m etc

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, was great how Kyle Langford performed and I felt so sorry for him. He and Kszcot of Poland ran well judged races in a race that went through the bell so quick and you can't ask a lot more than a PB in a world final. Just a pity that split second or so in the back straight when he didn't get right on eventual silver medalist Kszcot's coattails. He was still so close to following him through for bronze.