Tokyo Olympics day 3 - Sunday 1 August

[Christy93]

I don't think GB athletes are performing overwhelmingly badly. Some good, some bad, all a bit middling. The problem is, in my opinion, simply that we are miles off the pace in the majority of events. Most have to perform very well/their best to scrape into finals, and perform out of their skin to even approach medals. That isn't conducive to success. We are a diverse nation of 65m, with a well funded system, we should have entries in every event (yes, even throws), finallists in most and at least half a dozen strong medal chances (i.e more likely to medal than not). Something has gone very wrong imo - We need to tackle this rut and stop beating around the bush.

[Occasional Hope]

Not even any top 6 finishes yet, apart from the unheralded mixed relay.

[Laps]

There again only 8 out of 48 finals have been decided yet. Is this gloomfest really necessary? Only Dina in the 100m had any realistic chance of getting near the medals so far.

[Occasional Hope]

That's fair enough, medals aren't givens, but a number who should have got to finals haven't, and virtually no SBs let alone PBs either.

[jjimbojames]

From Athletics Weekly twitter:

"UKA have lodged a protest on behalf of Daniel Rowden on grounds that he was impeded by Clayton Murphy."

I think he’ll lose out through Botswana getting there first and getting Amos the 9th lane, unless they double up a lane - quick work by the BOT team!

[Occasional Hope]

If successful he would get Murphy's spot.

[jjimbojames]

It’s rejected. As soon as the 9th lane went to Amos, and it would then mean kicking someone else (an American, no less!) out of the final, he was done for.

[philipo]

Oh yeah. Told you athletes are capable of any excuses.Family texting me from abroad Dont you teach your athletes how to start.
Really proud of our lot. Even CJ ran his worst race this year possibly

These athletes are decimating our Brit Top 6...
Hope Muir and our 1500m guys are not getting too depressed.

[marra]

I don't think GB athletes are performing overwhelmingly badly. Some good, some bad, all a bit middling. The problem is, in my opinion, simply that we are miles off the pace in the majority of events. Most have to perform very well/their best to scrape into finals, and perform out of their skin to even approach medals. That isn't conducive to success. We are a diverse nation of 65m, with a well funded system, we should have entries in every event (yes, even throws), finallists in most and at least half a dozen strong medal chances (i.e more likely to medal than not). Something has gone very wrong imo - We need to tackle this rut and stop beating around the bush.

I'm willing to bet that even with our underperformance, our record will generally stand up to similar sized/funded nations in terms of top 8 finishes. We just tend not to focus on other countries in the same detail we do ourselves, understandably. If you think about the French/Germans (who I always think of as our most natural comparators for size/funding/location reasons), we've got more people into finals than they both have thus far I reckon.

It's not helped that several of our best chances have clearly come into these games either carrying knocks or dealing with the aftermath of them - imagine Super Saturday in 2012 would have felt very different if JEH and Mo had come in with the questionable form that Dasher and KJT have here.

Also, we should never overlook the impact of the pandemic and what impact different lockdowns in different countries might have had. It may have got some athletes here in better shape than normal years. For others, it might have hampered them. We'll never know or be able to reasonably gauge that, for good or bad.

Finally, on a more general level, I think one thing that has happened more over the last 20 years in athletics than in a lot of other sports is the emergence of athletes from non-traditional powerhouse nations. Which is great for competition but not for us necessarily!

[Christy93]

I think reality is somewhere between our 'takes'. We aren't worse than similar nations, but we *could* be doing a lot better than we are in recent years.

[marra]

Yeah, that's fair enough. I certainly don't disagree we could be doing better. There are certainly sports in Britain that I think are organised/run better and perform more consistently than athletics seems to.

[sportsfan]

Looking at the Olympics since 2000 they get about 4-8 medals. For the investment in the sport -this does not seem much - how many are expected this year?

[marra]

I don't think there was set a target for these Games because of the pandemic. depending on who you listen to, somewhere between 5-8 was most people's predictions but you have to imagine that was assuming a fit Dasher/KJT.

[RunUnlimited]

Looking at the Olympics since 2000 they get about 4-8 medals. For the investment in the sport -this does not seem much - how many are expected this year?

I think for these Games, because of the exceptional circumstances, UKA didn't set a medal target.

[Christy93]

Yep, UK Sport didn't set targets by sport, they set a team target. Obviously some sports have been more severely impacted so that is fair to me, but BA will be feeling very lucky.

[LuckySpikes]

More on Krystsina Tsimanouskaya being forced to fly home by Belarusian officials ...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9849421/Belarusian-200m-sprinter-forced-travel-airport-board-flight-home.html

(Also, less detailed info on the BBC News site under European news)

Apparently she sought the protection of Japanese police at the airport and is refusing to board the flight to Belarus.

A Belarusian journalist says she wants to apply for asylum in Austria (she competes quite often at meetings in Austria).

[Christy93]

If Belarusian Olympic officials are tangled up in this, they simply have to be booted. This is horrifying. To think of the things they were taking that young woman to face makes me boil with rage.

[LuckySpikes]

Hopefully the Japanese police realise what a piece of work Lukashenko is and the lengths he goes to to shut down dissent. The police asked her if she's scared to fly back to Belarus and she replied, "Yes".

[Occasional Hope]

Good luck to her.

[philipo]

I don't think GB athletes are performing overwhelmingly badly. Some good, some bad, all a bit middling. The problem is, in my opinion, simply that we are miles off the pace in the majority of events. Most have to perform very well/their best to scrape into finals, and perform out of their skin to even approach medals. That isn't conducive to success. We are a diverse nation of 65m, with a well funded system, we should have entries in every event (yes, even throws), finallists in most and at least half a dozen strong medal chances (i.e more likely to medal than not). Something has gone very wrong imo - We need to tackle this rut and stop beating around the bush.

Thank you for telling it as it is,, not some of the stuff on this site from the excuse makers
How many of our athletes have stepped up for the OG.
.a few happily. Very few.
Wonder what our PC chosen national coach will be saying.
Rowen ran a stupid race and Giles just sacrificed himself to no effect.
So far a Tokyo nightmare

[drobbie]

we will do as well as other nations of a similar size and funding, like we always do

[philipo]

So individual medals from whom one
wonders.
BA are no doubt praying for relays.
Will DAS be running in the 4x100?

[philipo]

I live in hope that one of our 800m women do something amazing but if they reckon that sticking to the inside lane will do the business I think I they will be disappointed.

[alfie]

What a night... The good , the bad and the ugly : One of the best HJ I've ever seen - delighted to see the two of them share top spot. Brilliant TJ WR by the obvious "goat" in that event. More Italian success in the wide open sprint final . And a very good performance from the young Aussie Bol to take his semi with his second AR in a row and give himself a real chance of a medal - maybe even the gold.

Now the GB efforts (yes they go down as both bad and ugly I'm afraid.) I will excuse Giles who was a bit unlucky with the heat draw : after the fast 2nd semi he had to take it on at the front (someone had to) and was set up to be run down at the end. If he'd drawn an earlier heat I think he might have got through but we'll never know...
The rest : oh dear. The hurdling sisters never got warm. Rowden got boxed - maybe a bit unlucky not to get a dream run like the Polish chap , and he did set an SB so fair enough. Gale OK too I guess but nothing very inspiring in any event tonight.

And of course the False Start Fiasco : what on earth has infected them all ? At least Prescod put his hand up and admitted he blew it - really hope he learns from it and comes back strong , the talent is there for sure. Needs a good mentor ?

Don't want either of them leading off in the relay 🙄

Hopefully better to come as the week goes on...

[Sprintfan]

Good summary - and lets hope so.......

[marra]

Looking at the Olympics since 2000 they get about 4-8 medals. For the investment in the sport -this does not seem much - how many are expected this year?

This got me being inquisitive about how we've done historically.

We've only got more than 8 medals in athletics 6 times in our history. We average out around 6 medals. Since WW2, we've done it 3 times - Tokyo 64 (12 medals), Moscow80 (10) and LA84 (16). When you consider the boycotts that affected the latter two, it's fair to say that Tokyo last time is arguably the most impressive.

None of this means that we aren't underperforming this year. But it's interesting to note that we've rarely been that successful.

[CAML]

Some of our athletes may not be good enough, unlucky or employ duff tactics. Its the fourth category, Okoye, Prescod, Asha Philip, who are or have squandered their talent, that there are no excuses for. Prescod had the most potential of any British male sprinter I'd seen, in my time following the sport. It's beyond embarrassing the way he's conducted himself the past few months. It's easy putting your hand up in interviews saying it's your fault. It's a cop out, and something he's becoming rather good at.

[jjimbojames]

Hopefully the two DQs will fire them up for the 4x1.

On Hughes - I thought the post-race interview was the first misstep by Kwayke - not sure if she had been given poor orders, but she’s normally so good with the athletes. Making him repeat the same thing “for the people at home” he’d just said seemed at odds with her usual style. She’s now pushing back on criticism on Twitter, saying he felt more uncomfortable than viewers did by her interview - I’m sure he did, so why keep asking!!?!