Pierre Ambroise Bosse, the surprise winner of the 800m, is a complete clown. In his previous defeats, his cat became infamous. But with his amazing strike for home, way too early, with 300m to go, that surprised everyone, even himself - and certainly his coach who had told him of all the things to do: DON'T go with 300m to go - his platform for 'lovable nonsense' knows no bounds.

His best story is of the night before his final when he's pacing around his hotel room at gone midnight (the man has ADHD), sipping water from his bottle, and his mate calls. So he throws the bottle onto the bed, picks up the phone and talks to him for 30 mins. Only then to find that the top wasn't on his bottle properly so his bed is now soaked with water. So he now spends the next 30 mins using the hair-dryer to blow the sheets dry. And it's then, in the early hours with hair-dryer in hand, that he decides that life's mad, and he's going to do something mad in the final, because why not???

(Him singing his own words to the national anthem was quite funny too).

Coup Droit wrote:

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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.

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).

 

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 Unfortunately, GB athletics is slightly in a transitional period and the press are trying to hype up the remaining Brits.

The medal target was unrealistic. The star names that would be guaranteed medal chances - Jess Ennis, Greg Rutherford are injured or retired. Mo is the only one left and he retires from the track soon.

So the medal target of 6 medals which is unrealistic.

Mo was always going to win one medal and probably a second.

Of the rest - Laura Muir was in a loaded final, Sophie Hitchon was in a loaded final(ranked 7th). Dina Asher Smith is returning from a broken foot and has come too soon, but still would have been a tough ask to medal. KJT is always unreliable in the championships. The GB sprinters are classy, but in loaded finals. Our male high jumper has an outside chance, but against has had injuries this year. Similarly with our female long jumpers - Proctor is struggling with injuries, Sawyers is out of form and Ugen is very unpredictable. Pozzi was also in a loaded event.

Then we have the relay teams - sprint relays have a medal chance if they can get the baton round and possibly the women's 4x400m, but again they are only outside chances.

  So - there were/are lots of half chances for medals, but very few have materialised.

Give the youngsters a couple of years and 2 or 3 will come through and start being title contenders, but this will not happen straight away.

 

   

 

With reference to "loaded" - normally at this level there are 2 or 3 stand out athletes and the other finalists are bit parts, but for instance the standard of the 1500m women where so many have run sub 4 and any of 7 could have picked up medals.
on the opposite side the triple jump is not loaded as Claye and Taylor are so far clear of the rest.

I went last night but wouldn't normally post although do so after a very morose piece by Matthew Engel published in the Gruniard. Ok so it was not a triumphal annointment of lottery funded excellence, I like Paulsi feel we are in hiatus as that particular goose works on gestation of a few more eggs.

The evening ticked along nicely with Lorraine Ugen's qualifying for the later rounds with her last jump which showed enough promise to justify all or nothing attempts at pulling out a 7m jump in an attempt to garner precious metal.

A master class in Polish hammer throwing punctuated a keystone cops women's steeplechase, the leader missing the water jump, a bit of stock car racing down the back straight and then the two Americans ganging up ( we don't approve of that on this site) on a lone Kenyan to take the lot.

And it all finished with Dina being squeezed out of Bronze in the 200, I loved Daphne's post race interview which game across to me as a Muhammad Ali type what did you expect "I am the greatest" The rest mere mortals.

Mr Engel did make some good points the food is poor and expensive, but it is a football ground! More frustrating the print on the screens too smal to see any details, what's the point of that must be pretty easy to change!

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Saturday 12th of August 2017 10:26:12 AM

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Saturday 12th of August 2017 05:37:15 PM

The scoreboards were not that easy to read from certain positions. I found it difficult from the final bend, where you could only see one board and it was a long way away.

Bolt nor Farah manage a fairy-tale ending.
Nonetheless, they both leave many many volumes of compelling, inspirational storytelling as a legacy.
Thanks to Mo and Usain for lighting up an often troubled sport, for the best part of a decade each, and showing the best of what athletics can be.

Medal target well thrashed !!