The Tokyo 2020 Non Athletics Thread

[alfie]

Nice start to the day 😊

With silver medallists from both individual events plus high finishers to back them up I thought they'd likely win this. (Also Norway and Bermuda didn't have three to back up their gold winners) Great to see Jonny Brownlee get an Olympic Gold And thoughtful of them to finish in time for the track action too... Well done 👍

[marra]

Jonny Brownlee wins the leg of the race for me. The gap he pulled out allowed Taylor-Brown and Yee to gauge their efforts and force the others to overstretch themselves chasing.

The French have dominated that event at the WCs, so they'll be annoyed at coming 3rd. Which is pleasing.

It occurs that all 7 of our golds thus far have involved either a bike, water or a combination of both.

[RunUnlimited]

Grassmarket One of the BBC commentators was Shanaze Reade, who was one of the best BMX riders in the world back in the mid-late 2000s/early 2010s and had won the BMX world title 4 times in her career. In the Beijing and London Olympics, she'd been the favourite on both occasions to win gold, but suffered a crash in Beijing medal race that put her out of contention, while she could only manage a 6th place in 2012... So when Bethany Shriver won that gold medal, you could hear the relief and emotion come out from the commentator as a Brit finally achieved what she had tried so much to do.

[Grassmarket]

Really well worked race, an example to all our sports.

[trickstat]

Great gold by the triathlon relay team. Alex Yee brilliantly took on the bold attacks of Vincent Luis for France on the bike and then put the hammer down from the start of the run.

[Ursus]

Great stuff in the mixed triathlon. Really enjoyed that!

[marra]

In less contentious stuff, the mixed triathlon is going relatively swimmingly (and cyclingly and runningly as well). If Alex Yee has a lead going into the run as it looks likely at the moment, can't see him being caught.

[marra]

They predicted a final tenth place for GB at the end and we will do better; Marra you are so modest!
So its good that we did better in the swimming than expected by me or others. perhaps . Except you . How many medals did you forsee in individual swimming events. I would like to know. We won two individuals, great. You are not" just saying", you are boasting and when you get it wrong will you say so?
Dont spoil your usual excellent and informative . posts

Yes, of course I'm bragging.

I said after day 1 of the swimming - when you were continuing to say that we would be lucky to get more than 3/4 medals in the pool, that your position was more 'realistic' than others (your choice of words) because 'professional predictors' agreed with you - that we would improve as the meet went on and our medal haul would be good. And that's exactly what has happened. It's also happened in other sports as well, compared to the people who you were championing.

But it is annoying when you say things like "better than expected" as if your opinion somehow carries more weight than any of ours. Rather than saying "hey, I got it wrong, you guys were right", you act like nobody else saw it coming/could reasonably have seen it coming. So, yeah, I'm being a bit boastful. Sue me.

As for swimming medals, like my predictions in general, I was probably too optimistic in part, and not optimistic enough in others.

I had Peaty, Scott (200FR), Greenbank and the men's 4x200 all getting exactly the medals they ended up with. Have Proud getting a bronze, the mixed medley getting gold and the men's medley getting silver still up in the air.

Didn't pick Dean or Scott (in the 200IM) to medal - thought they would both finish 4th.

Thought Wood and Dawson would both get silver and that Renshaw and Wilby (in the 100br) would get bronze each.

[marra]

Lane draw and the wave that he was riding. I'll qualify this by saying I'm no expert in swimming technique myself but I've read several reports from people who are who said that he was essentially in exact the right conditions to get the best benefit - akin to a cyclist drafting. Still a great leg but not one that is repeatable if he didn't have someone next to him as the US were in that race.

[trickstat]

My guess is that there was some kind of personality clash between this Bugajski guy and Grobler which says at least as much about the former than the latter. While clearly a hard taskmaster, I really don't think that Grobler could truly be as divisive as Bugajski makes out and have such consistent long-lasting success with boats that are crewed by teams of people. While these are likely to generally be focussed, determined individuals there will always be some differences in personality and Grobler would have almost certainly at some times have demonstrated an ability to work with those who were physically talented but weren't necessarily as mentally robust as some of the others.

[Taffy2]

Thanks for the tiinetable

[Grassmarket]

It was a bit of a vindication. BMX has been in the Olympics since Beijing 2008 & we have always had lots of good prospects, but there's been a long run of crashes, bad beats, loss of nerve on the big day etc etc. So the sport in the UK never got the attention or funding it deserved. Everything came up roses today for once.

[Grassmarket]

Lots of good medal possibilities today - triathlon, swimming, both shooting events, rugby sevens, sailing & of course athletics

23:30 Triathlon Mixed Relay Triathlon Medal Final
02:30 Swimming Men 100m Butterfly Medal Final
02:37 Swimming Women 200m Backstroke Medal Final
02:46 Swimming Women 800m Freestyle Medal Final
05:30 Shooting Mixed Team Trap Bronze Medal Final
06:00 Shooting Mixed Team Trap Gold Medal Final
06:33 Sailing Women Windsurfer Medal Race
06:50 Trampoline Gymnastics Men Medal Final
07:00 Tennis Men Singles Bronze Medal Final
07:00 Tennis Women Singles Bronze Medal Final
07:00 Tennis Women Singles Gold Medal Final
07:00 Tennis Women Doubles Bronze Medal Final
07:00 Tennis Mixed Doubles Bronze Medal Final
07:33 Sailing Men Windsurfer Medal Race
08:00 Shooting Women Rifle Three Positions Medal Final
08:30 Archery Men Bronze Medal Final
08:45 Archery Men Gold Medal Final
09:30 Women Rugby Sevens Bronze Medal Final
10:00 Badminton Men Doubles Bronze Medal Final
10:00 Badminton Men Doubles Gold Medal Final
10:00 Women Rugby Sevens Gold Medal Final
10:30 Fencing Women Sabre Team Medal Rounds
10:30 Fencing Women Sabre Team Bronze Medal Final
11:30 Fencing Women Sabre Team Gold Medal Final
12:15 Athletics Men Discus Medal Final
13:35 Athletics Mixed 4x400m Medal Final
13:50 Athletics Women 100m Medal Final

[Occasional Hope]

I quite enjoyed the BMXing. It wasn't what I was expecting - I thought it was more mountain biking.

[Occasional Hope]

They showed it on both in the end. Not sure if at the same time bc I was catching up with both.