The Birmingham 2022 Non Athletics Thread

[marilyn1]

It always amazes me how many medals swimming has on offer, but also how frequent it is for people to do multiple events - several athletes had at least five medals! I’m no swimmer and I appreciate the variety needed is less in swimming, but it must also be a lot less taxing than running - that, or athletes are lazy and need to start doing all running events / all throwing events etc at a single meet!

Particularly pleased to see Duncan win the 200 m Medley

[marra]

Excellent news on the overall medals front - the Australian gold lead over England is now only 6, which can be beaten.

It's 7 but definitely possible. We have boxing and diving to come, both of which probably do favour us more than them. But athletics might be the one that lets us down - whilst historically you would expect us to do better I'm not sure that will be the case this time. And the real let down was cycling, which is way down from what we've got used to in recent years.

For what it's worth, I've done predictions for all the events at these Games and I've got them down for getting about 6 more golds than us in the rest of the program in my predictions. But it's definitely not outlandish that we catch them.

[alfie]

Yes I think England will be battling to catch the Australian Gold total...mainly because there don't appear to be too many athletics wins likely - pity they can't borrow some Scots Meanwhile the Aussies have a few good prospects in Para events as well as field finals.
Boxing and Diving would need to cause a very big swing ; and there are team events and Rhythmic Gymnastics also likely to favour Australia if anyone.

Not that it matters , really. Maybe good for banter with friends but means little in world sporting terms as WC and Olympics are what counts , surely ?

[marra]

Yes I think England will be battling to catch the Australian Gold total...mainly because there don't appear to be too many athletics wins likely - pity they can't borrow some Scots Meanwhile the Aussies have a few good prospects in Para events as well as field finals.
Boxing and Diving would need to cause a very big swing ; and there are team events and Rhythmic Gymnastics also likely to favour Australia if anyone.

Not that it matters , really. Maybe good for banter with friends but means little in world sporting terms as WC and Olympics are what counts , surely ?

Yes and no. I think Games like this matter because they give more attention to sports that don't get into the Olympics, or don't have the TV sway to get the attention outside of a multi events competition like this. So whilst it matters less for England and Australia, you can bet it matters a bunch to people from Nauru etc.

It's also important in some of the Olympic sports for people from the home nations to be able to represent their home country on the international stage - it doesn't mean they aren't proud to represent GB but you can see how proud they are to represent their own little bit of the UK.

In terms of who tops the table, it doesn't really matter much, except it is better if one country doesn't always top it. The Ashes in cricket, for example, started increasing more attention when England finally won one again back in 2005. Competitive rivalries drive media attention more than one sided whitewashes.

[alfie]

Oh I'm not suggesting the CWG don't matter ! Your points are spot on : just meant it doesn't matter much whether Australia or England - (or Canada : they did once , if I recall correctly) hoover up the most medals.
The games are great for Lawn Bowls , say ; and athletes from the Falkland Islands , etc : and that is not said in any spirit of mocking either : it is definitely a good thing.

[trickstat]

The separate home nations also gives some opportunities to up and coming athletes (even English ones) who can't make the British team of 3 yet.

[Grassmarket]

Wow, Jamaica beat Australia in 57-55 in Netball. Throws all the seeding to pot.

[DerbyCountyinNZ]

Winner of the England-NZ match will play Aus in the semis. Could be a good one to lose!

[Grassmarket]

Got to beat ‘em sometime!

[Grassmarket]

English Tour de France hero Fred Wright leads the cycling ITT at halfway. Has a great chance at a medal.

[Grassmarket]

Spectacular crashes for Geraint Thomas & Dan Bigham. Just not used to British roads.

[marra]

G will be rueing that early spill. Reckon it would have been tight between him and Dennis without it. Dennis is a class TTer though. Chuffed with Fred Wright's silver. What a summer he is having.

[Grassmarket]

Friday another day of mainly prelim rounds before the last big medal rush at the weekend.

11:18 Diving Men Synchronised 3m Springboard Final
12:00 Lawn Bowls Mixed Para Pairs B2-B3 Medal Rounds
16:14 Rhythmic Gymnastics Women Individual All Around Final Rotation 4
16:30 Lawn Bowls Women Triples Medal Rounds
17:00 Wrestling Men Freestyle 125kg Medal Rounds
17:00 Wrestling Men Freestyle 65kg Medal Rounds
17:00 Wrestling Women Freestyle 57kg Medal Rounds
17:00 Wrestling Women Freestyle 62kg Medal Rounds
17:00 Wrestling Women Freestyle 68kg Medal Rounds
18:05 Diving Women 1m Springboard Final
19:23 Diving Men Synchronised 10m Platform Final

[marra]

Diving started well for England. Laugher Gold in the 1m, with Houlden in bronze, then a 1-2 in the women's 10m - Spendolini-Siriex with Gold and Toulson in Silver.

[marra]

So, boxing QFs are complete and England have the edge, in theory at least. They've secured 8 boxing medals to Australia's 5. But, of course, we don't know what colour those medals will be yet. SFs on Sat.

Northern Ireland having their traditionally strong time in the ring - 7 medals secured for them.

[jjimbojames]

Netball semis will be ENG-AUS and NZ-JAM. Shock win for JAM over AUS and ENG have just beaten NZ by 10

[carterhatch]

Everytime I catch a game of netball on TV involving Team England the atmosphere generated by the crowd is 'electric', indeed I would say very few other crowds could top it - if BBC want to promote female sport I suggest they find a way to harnass the clearly evident enthusiasm for this very exciting sport ...

[jjimbojames]

That was the plan after 2018, but it’s not really gained the traction people thought it might…perhaps Sky having league matches is the issue?

[alfie]

Divers continuing to do their job for the host nation , I see. Very impressive performance from Laugher and his new partner Harding : they were in a different class from the rest 👏

[Grassmarket]

Here's today's medals as we close in on the last couple of days

08:30 Lawn Bowls Women Pairs Medal Rounds
10:00 Rhythmic Gymnastics Women Hoop Final
10:42 Rhythmic Gymnastics Women Ball Final
11:22 Rhythmic Gymnastics Women Clubs Final
11:46 Diving Women Synchronised 3m Springboard Final
12:00 Lawn Bowls Men Fours Medal Rounds
12:02 Rhythmic Gymnastics Women Ribbon Final
16:30 Lawn Bowls Men Singles Medal Rounds
16:45 Table Tennis Women Singles Classes 6-10 Bronze Medal Match
17:00 Wrestling Men Freestyle 57kg Medal Rounds
17:00 Wrestling Men Freestyle 74kg Medal Rounds
17:00 Wrestling Men Freestyle 97kg Medal Rounds
17:00 Wrestling Women Freestyle 50kg Medal Rounds
17:00 Wrestling Women Freestyle 53kg Medal Rounds
17:30 Table Tennis Women Singles Classes 6-10 Gold Medal Match
18:05 Diving Men 3m Springboard Final
18:10 Table Tennis Men Singles Classes 3-5 Bronze Medal Match
18:50 Table Tennis Men Singles Classes 3-5 Gold Medal Match
19:30 Table Tennis Women Singles Classes 3-5 Bronze Medal Match
19:34 Diving Women Synchronised 10m Platform Final
20:10 Table Tennis Women Singles Classes 3-5 Gold Medal Match

[trickstat]

My cousin, as he did in 2018, is officiating at the bowls. Apparently he will be in charge of measuring and marking for the men's singles final.

[marra]

Ask him if he minds marking the Aussie bowls inaccurately to help us in the medal battle...

[trickstat]

Compare the distance of the English bowls in feet with the Aussies in millmetres perhaps?

[marra]

Jack Laugher scores a 0 in the diving qualification, after performing the wrong dive.

Still qualified though, but only 10th of 12th.

[jjimbojames]

Keeping them guessing for the final…cunning! 😜