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Agreed re medals and admittedly two of our best athletes had injuries, but let's not forget there were several underperforming events early on. We have also not made any progress in quite a few field events.
On balancebalance well but are our views tempered by a good feel factor as the wider team ar the Olympics have done so well?Comment
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Agreed re pandemic.Comment
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Any excellent result. Very difficult given Covid - remember we were into Covid earlier and had harder restrictions than most. On a global scale other countries were impacted a lot later than us. We had a very young team with no returning team GBgold medalists from Rio. We are well ahead of some predictions of no athletics medals. Our young team gives us so much to look forward to in only 3years time. We broke the African middle distance dominance. Add in injuries for KJT, Gemilli, Farah, Dina….. there’s a lot to get genuinely excited about for next years world champs as a springboard to Paris.Last edited by Runny; 08-08-21, 08:16.Comment
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I think where athletics may suffer is that in a bid to keep the medals coming, UK Sport seems to be encouraging the talent into sports where fewer countries compete / the technology needed is prohibitive. The pool of top-end talent is finite, and that will affect who stays in the sport (think: athletes being ID’d for winter sports, runners heading over to triathlon).
Re “Covid-effect” - interesting to note that the events where restrictions didn’t really affect training (middle distance) were good, if not better, than expected. Yes, some athletes have home gyms etc, but very few and tracks were shut for the vast majority. Places like Poland have been quite open (even hosting major events when we were in lockdown) - so have trained much more normally and they’ve maximised that.Comment
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I think Covid will have some effect long-term as the lack of competitions and access to tracks will have reduced the numbers of school age athletes entering the sport at club level. There will be some currently aged about 14 or 15 who have basically missed the years at which they were most likely to seriously take up the sport. Including the relays and excluding Zharnel Hughes who didn't grow up here, the 11 athletes who won medals in Tokyo all took up the sport between the ages of 15 (CJ Ujah) and 9 (Keely Hodgkinson and Josh Kerr), according to Power of 10.
I know that my local club is currently really struggling in terms of numbers as there are limits on how many athletes a coach can be in charge of at a training session and they don't currently have many coaches.Comment
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regarding ability to train, it is worth noting of course some of the team reside abroad so were not limited by track closure. Those on the list of 'elite athletes' in home countries (this list ran very deep to people who had less than a snowflake in hell's chance of approaching qualifying) had special exemptions on travel and track assess.
A bigger unspoken issue in terms of developing events is the failure by some club coaches to permit athletes to try alternate events, to the extent that they forbid them to compete in an England Schools championship so they can compete for the club in an area event. End result? They are no longer in the sport. So determined are these coaches to protect a personal fiefdom at all costs. Or the pigeon-holing of athletes at 11-13 years of age into one discipline (who are shorter and thinner then it is the middle distance/cross country squad for you!) and who when the inevitable happens and they change body shape or others catch-up to them in physical maturity (the U/15 who is chronologically 14 and physiologically 18), they are cut adrift or walk away because they cannot adjust. People can poo poo this but look at CBP or best performances at championships and see how many are the bed-rock of senior teams.
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Agree, too much specialism at a young age. And absolutely shocking that any coach would deny an athlete the opportunity of competing at an English Schools champs.
I also hate the pigeon holing of athletes by body type. Kerr is bigger than your 'archetypal' 1500 runner, Jess was 'too small' for Heptathlon etc. There are always plenty of exceptions to the rule.Comment
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Track closures would have been different in differing countries - some athletes were filmed in another country doing sprints up and down a road. Nicer weather, for sure, but may not have been ideal. I think even the approach by different home countries was different.
WWIK - The start of your second para shocks me - who is stopping a kid doing English Schools to turn out for the club 😳🤬. Yes to the rest - we often don’t see child prodigies kept in the sport, but I also wonder how many move to another sport for a fresh start and how many don’t like it so much when they are no longer winning (I’ve had experience of both happening), rather than the fault lying with coach etc? There is a double-edged sword with clubs - they are the heart beat of the sport and easiest way to attract people in, but can be less keen to see someone move on to a new, more suitable for their current status, coach or environment.Comment
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Mystery the medal table for athletics and the entire games is
based on gold and then silver etc. Stop pulling the usa stunt because it suits you to quote medaI totals. I quote facts ; the table in question shows GB 24th below venezuela who won 1 goldie and we have no gold medal for the first time since 1996 in athletics. You are spouting your usual flag waver no sense.
Try and face realities.Comment
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It is, of course, convention to rank based on gold first, but it depends what you’re trying to judge. Based on medals alone, GBR is ranked seventh as a nation for athletics. Venezuela isn’t a power house just because one person is the best, but it does show medals are worldwide and not just the developed nations that dominate cycling and rowing, eg. I remember some at the time saying we can’t hide the fact that 2012 looked good because of three individuals and there was a less positive story beneath that once e.g. Mo retired - a fair comment, but it works both ways!Comment
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I generally rate the placing table as the best guide to overall performance (even if it isn't as exciting to the general public as the medal count.)
GB down from 93 to 65 points and 8th from 4th. Not the only one though : USA down from 310 to 263. Kenya 131 to 104 . China 81 to 67 . Germany 73 to 50. In fact Jamaica (steady on 106) was the only leading nation that didn't have a dip.
Netherlands had a spectacular rise (20 up to 68 !) Australia up from 34 to 52 Italy 16 up to 50 Poland 46 to 74.
What all this proves is hard to say due to the obvious disruptions of Covid . But I think it also serves to suggest that with 24 teams getting 20 or more points (19 in Rio) the depth of competition isn't getting any less.
Next year's WC will be interesting for what it might say with regards to trends...Comment
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