Birmingham CWG - Day 1 (Tuesday August 2nd)

[alfie]

Re the shot : If one of them were to drop out at the last minute , would they still have them all throw ? Seems daft to bother going through a series of throws to eliminate one athlete !

[Ursus]

Some of the fields really are embarrassingly small and / or weak. I know these are exceptional circumstances, but everyone knew they were coming so you’d have thought that they’d have had contingencies for a minimum number of competitors per event (eg 20 in the field)…..and if they really couldn’t, being the Friendly Games, they could have thought outside the box by perhaps inviting home athletes to make up the numbers.

[Grassmarket]

Have been saying that there is an unresolved contradiction between the desire to have lots of Para events & the 5000 maximum competitors rule. There are some seriously weak medals being given aeay.

[PotterHoppo96]

if possible they should allocate some places based on a world ranking before they give smaller nations their places and then where events look small invite more athletes.

[Grassmarket]

Very good crowds for athletics this morning. Not packed like London 2012, but very good for a morning session.

[Grassmarket]

Not a convincing start for KJT - Holly Mills good.

[Christy93]

Looked like a huge PB for Kate O'Connor. I'd have had her as favourite if fit... and she looks very fit

Edit: PB by two tenths.

[drobbie]

jeezo are there only 8 in the heptahlon

[fchd]

Wind all over the place. First round of the Mens LJ Qualification has seen readings from +2.2 to -4.3

[Christy93]

Really disappointing England didn't take Banigo looking at the standard in the mLJ

[RunUnlimited]

Agreed. Banigo has been jumping well this year, over 8m for the first time and close to it on several occasions. Yet he's not here. Some of the omissions for these Commonwealth Games by Team England have been baffling. Charlotte Payne is another one that should be questioned.

[Grassmarket]

I’m DQFing that Aussie for refusing to get on her marks!

[CAML]

O'Dowda's trail leg is so high over the hurdle. KJT may do a Peaty here and not medal.

[jjimbojames]

I think at this stage, we have to focus on who is here, rather than tormenting as to what if… If selectors knew the fields beforehand, they likely would have picked a few different athletes instead, but such is life.

On the action - KJT is clearly lacking the technical gains from racing so little, but her HJ showed a lot of potential in Eugene, so she can make back the points lost with one extra height there….hopefully, a poor hurdles showing makes her hungry rather than deflated

[RunUnlimited]

NMB is through to the 100m semi finals, though Favour Ashe from Nigeria looked very comfortable in beating him to the line 10.12 (-0.5m/s) to 10.14.

[paul]

The stadium looks absolutely awesome. And what a crowd! The atmosphere there must go a long way to offsetting the variability of the start lists.

Would you rather run against Thiam in an almost empty stadium in the middle of nowhere Oregon, or against O'Dowda in a beautiful and roaring Birmingham?!

[PotterHoppo96]

75% of that heptathlon is being competed by athletes from these isles.

[Grassmarket]

Jeez, we haven’t got anyone who can do 7.58 in the LJ.

[MysteryBrick]

We haven't got anyone selected... we have a few who could manage even that (although depressingly not too many...)

[RunUnlimited]

We do... Reynold Banigo has jumped 8.05m (PB), 8.00m (at the British Champs) and 7.94m this year already. He should be there in Birmingham. Why he isn't makes no sense.