Tokyo Olympics day 3 - Sunday 1 August

[philipo]

If it is so easy to say 'it's my fault', why do so many sports people so regularly blame outside factors then? Anecdotal evidence, of course, but I hear that far more (across all sports, not just athletics) than I hear people take responsibility on themselves.

And surely duff tactics is effectively the same as squandering your talent? Both have the same source - a 'failing' on the part of the athlete in question and the same outcome - not getting the result that you desire.

As someone else said, Asha Philip belongs in the "not good enough at the very highest level" catagory, not the wasting of talent.

Asha has never been anything else in her career than a very fast indoor 60 metre runner at her best.

[treadwater1]

Rowden got shoved about a few times on the last bend and did well to rebound, his finishing pace was good but he just came up against a brick wall

Sometimes things will go your way sometimes they won’t, look at the women’s 800s yesterday, you could say Bell was fortunate to be in Mu’s heat, the race became stretched out and she didn’t have to come into close contact with anyone over the last 200. No such luck for the Brits today. Giles has shown good form this summer but he competed a lot indoors, I don’t feel that’s conducive to an Everest style peak.

3 of our 6 talented 800 runners is slightly disappointing but maybe we got slightly carried away in our enthusiasm with all the competition for places in the team / trials races, on the men’s side at least

We had a middling start at London 2017 and people were ready to start on the inquest on day 4. Ditto Doha 2019. Of course Dina’s injury affects our medal expectations but there’s still a fair way to go.

[MBChristie]

I see Amos has been re-instated for Wednesday's 800 final.

[philipo]

Rowden got shoved about a few times on the last bend and did well to rebound, his finishing pace was good but he just came up against a brick wall

Sometimes things will go your way sometimes they won’t, look at the women’s 800s yesterday, you could say Bell was fortunate to be in Mu’s heat, the race became stretched out and she didn’t have to come into close contact with anyone over the last 200. No such luck for the Brits today. Giles has shown good form this summer but he competed a lot indoors, I don’t feel that’s conducive to an Everest style peak.

3 of our 6 talented 800 runners is slightly disappointing but maybe we got slightly carried away in our enthusiasm with all the competition for places in the team / trials races, on the men’s side at least

We had a middling start at London 2017 and people were ready to start on the inquest on day 4. Ditto Doha 2019. Of course Dina’s injury affects our medal expectations but there’s still a fair way to go.

certainly agree with your penultimate para; the "slightly carried away" bit.

[Croadymeister]

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.

Great post you have got it absolutely bang on, it's utterly humiliating when our athletes aren't even good enough to qualify for major championships. I would say the worst three is Shot Put, Javelin & Discus and seems no talent coming through in any of them at all. Yes we used to have the likes of Backley, Edwards, Rutherford, & Sanderson but that's it really. I wish I had the answer to this problem because no signs of it ever getting better across events.

[marra]

I see Amos has been re-instated for Wednesday's 800 final.

Am I the only one really surprised by this? I've watched it a couple of times and it certainly looks like Amos clips Jewitt's leg.

[Croadymeister]

Bizarre session.

Loved the shared HJ gold.

Rojas is amazing and surely has power to add.

Thought Benjamin looked very good and was less bothered by the win than Warholm. WR surely under threat in the final.

I don’t think Hughes threw away a medal. That would have needed a PB and he’s not looked in that shape. Nonetheless disappointing.

We knew things were going to be tough but if feels like someone needs to do something inspirational to kick start the GB team.

Get Peaty to give them all an inspirational team talk now that the Swimming is over. I completely agree that leaving Tokyo with no Athletics medals is a real possibility and that's worrying to say the least. Any Golds was always a huge ask especially with Dina & KJT not fully fit.

[Sovietvest]

Am I the only one really surprised by this? I've watched it a couple of times and it certainly looks like Amos clips Jewitt's leg.

I heard there was a reinstatement and assumed it was Jewett! Amos could even have been DQ’d.

[thedoctor21]

I heard there was a reinstatement and assumed it was Jewett! Amos could even have been DQ’d.

yeah def looks like amos caused the whole thing. strange

[Sovietvest]

I think people are being harsh with our 800 boys. If they made mistakes, they were marginal mistakes. Rowden followed Murphy on the back straight and top bend, and could have expected the American to make a move sooner. Ran his second best time and missed a place in the final by a whisker. No disgrace. Personally, I felt that once in the lead, Giles could have decided to run a negative split and try to kick off the front. But had he done that, could he have realistically expected to beat Koech, Tuka and Amos? Probably not, so trying to make it quick and earn a Fastest Loser place might have been the best tactic. Maybe, if he hadn’t already got the 1:44 heat in his legs he would have pulled it off.

Small mistakes by two runners who came very, very close to reaching an Olympic Final. Worse mistakes and/or worse performances were delivered by better athletes: Lopez, Hoppel, Amos, Arop, Saruni. I’d even argue Murphy had a shocker.

Steve Ovett messed up his first Olympic 800, so did Seb Coe (who also cocked up the 78 Euros), so did Wilson Kipketer, David Rudisha had a shocker in 2009. It’s the hardest race to get right tactically. We’re about to enter a great period of 800m running in the UK and all 3 will have learned loads. I just feel particularly sorry for Giles because I’m not sure he’ll make a team again.

[Occasional Hope]

I think we're disappointed more than harsh. Elliott Giles had been looking so good this year, Rowden perhaps better last year.

[Sovietvest]

I heard there was a reinstatement and assumed it was Jewett! Amos could even have been DQ’d.

I was totally wrong. Just rewatched it and Jewett cut Amos up. Us keyboard warriors aren’t the experts we think we are🤣
The Belgian did the same, but more blatantly, to Hoppel, which I think explains his relative underperformance.

[Afrothletics]

Get Peaty to give them all an inspirational team talk now that the Swimming is over. I completely agree that leaving Tokyo with no Athletics medals is a real possibility and that's worrying to say the least. Any Golds was always a huge ask especially with Dina & KJT not fully fit.

I'm not sure the last time it happened where a GB team left with 0 Gold medals in Athletics in recent times, let alone no medals at all. From looking at Wikipedia there were 0 Golds in 1996 and 1988, but a handful of Silver and Bronze medals to make up for it.

The worst performance in the entire history of the Olympics by a GB Athletics team as far as I can see was in 1976 where they only had 1 Bronze medal (Brendan Foster's bronze in the 10,000m).

[RunUnlimited]

I'm not sure the last time it happened where a GB team left with 0 Gold medals in Athletics in recent times, let alone no medals at all. From looking at Wikipedia there were 0 Golds in 1996 and 1988, but a handful of Silver and Bronze medals to make up for it.

The worst performance in the entire history of the Olympics by a GB Athletics team as far as I can see was in 1976 where they only had 1 Bronze medal (Brendan Foster's bronze in the 10,000m).

Correct. Great Britain is one of the few countries that have medalled at every Olympics in athletics since the inception of the modern Olympics in 1896. (We're also the only nation that have competed in every Olympics since 1896)

Whether this lot will become the first athletics team we've sent to not win a medal, whatever colour, is yet to be seen.

[treadwater1]

I think people are being harsh with our 800 boys. If they made mistakes, they were marginal mistakes. Rowden followed Murphy on the back straight and top bend, and could have expected the American to make a move sooner. Ran his second best time and missed a place in the final by a whisker. No disgrace. Personally, I felt that once in the lead, Giles could have decided to run a negative split and try to kick off the front. But had he done that, could he have realistically expected to beat Koech, Tuka and Amos? Probably not, so trying to make it quick and earn a Fastest Loser place might have been the best tactic. Maybe, if he hadn’t already got the 1:44 heat in his legs he would have pulled it off.

Small mistakes by two runners who came very, very close to reaching an Olympic Final. Worse mistakes and/or worse performances were delivered by better athletes: Lopez, Hoppel, Amos, Arop, Saruni. I’d even argue Murphy had a shocker.

Steve Ovett messed up his first Olympic 800, so did Seb Coe (who also cocked up the 78 Euros), so did Wilson Kipketer, David Rudisha had a shocker in 2009. It’s the hardest race to get right tactically. We’re about to enter a great period of 800m running in the UK and all 3 will have learned loads. I just feel particularly sorry for Giles because I’m not sure he’ll make a team again.

Trawling through some of the American forums - Rowden’s 1:44.35 is the quickest time ever not to advance to a final

[alfie]

Posters tell me that Giles ran the only race he could . What ???. In a stacked race with guys of similar best times, Giles pretends he is the pacemaker, a la Diamond League, for the rest of the guys who ought to kiss his arse, and then he imagines they will obediently follow him round until the tape. What was his coach thinking.??
The very last way to run those 800m races is to lead them round, for goodness sake.All the semis were run with guys tearing it up in the last 100 or so metres.
Of all the 800m male and female races, only Mu knows that she is good enough to hold them all off. The men's final race with failures by many ,such as Lopez, to run a smart race and qualify, will be a frantic rush in the last 100/150 with guys who do not sit back on the inside and think that the others will part like the Red sea, but get into the right position when it counts.
Rowden ran a foolish race. I don't accept the argument about our guys times. What about nice PBs such as possibly the Frenchmen who I had hardly heard of before the race, Tual.

Bol led all the way and got an AR.