Birmingham CWG - Day 1 (Tuesday August 2nd)

[jjimbojames]

Yes…on a smaller scale, after the ladies hockey (2016) and netball (2018) wins, people said those sports were going to transform into mainstream…fast forward a few years and neither sport had all matches shown on iPlayer, let alone cutting away from other sports…one off celebrations don’t tend to translate without sustained efforts. Football does at least have more money…but will they spend it?

[MysteryBrick]

Agreed on para sport (and it really does very little for me most of the time), but I suspect women's football will actually see a boost due to pricing and families, and more's the better!

[Ursus]

I noticed that scheduling too and thought it was daft.

Bar the Paralympics (here), para sport in isolation is simply not a big spectator draw. You can debate the reasons and rights and wrongs but that’s the reality and I think it would take a lot to shift the dial.

I suspect that women’s football may be in a similar boat - the Euros were fantastic, but after an initial bounce I doubt that WSL attendances will show a sustained increase. Participation might, but I’m also doubtful there.

[paul]

Oh dear. Apologies all for the following accidental spams! The [unapproved] trap really got me!

[trickstat]

If it wasn't a championship you might get away with it because you could then heavily promote Hannah C being in it.

[Chafford1]

Most annoying when you attempt to amend a post, it tells you it is unapproved and cannot be seen by others.

The other points I made: the CGs should have a mixture of top athletes and those experiencing a big games for the first time. We seem to have lost the latter group of athletes.

I also noted that it was unfortunate that most people had left the stadium by the start of Hanna Cockcroft's race. Possibly not a good idea to put two para races at the end of the session - most spectators don't appear to be interested.

[Ursus]

Olivia Breen's father ran a sustained campaign against Hahn about 4 or 5 years ago where he cast doubt (to put it mildly) on Hahn's T38 classification for Cerebral Palsy. It didn't get anywhere but caused Hahn a great deal of anguish.

Thanks. Yes I’d seen that, but wasn’t sure of the ins and outs. There was an interview with him where he said that he’d done everything through official channels and only saw Hahn a couple of times a year on the circuit. I’ve no idea of all the events / timeline in that particular case so can’t comment, but more generally it’s easy to see how classifications can become very contentious.

[paul]

...
And yes, a great day of athletics overall. Birmingham frankly magnificent.


And if we could just inject the Tottenham squad with Sophie Hahn's hatred of losing, it could finally be 1960/61 again.

^this is part of what I tried to post last night.

[Ursus]

Few random thoughts.

British crowds doing us proud. We really do turn up to the opening of a sporting envelope.

But that doesn’t hide the paucity of many athletics fields. This may be an exceptional year but that needs rectifying or the event dies. They already have trouble finding hosts.

In the hep it’s great to see KJT. We all know she’s nowhere near her peak but at least she’s there and scrapping. Good on her. I think we should have measured expectations on Mills and O’Dowda though - the very best heptathletes are solid at most events, maybe have one Achilles heel but tend to have a couple of stellar events - I don’t really see either having those huge events and as such they may well have very good careers but I’m not seeing obvious successors to JEH / KJT etc - a very high bar admittedly!

Genuine question - Is that Hahn’s normal demeanour? If so, fair enough. If not, she could have made a bit of an effort. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a bit of genuine rivalry and rancour but wow did she not look happy.

Apparently Lally is a really good indoor rower - multiple British record holder and at one point a joint WR holder. Not surprised, she’s definitely got the build for it.

[paul]

A bit disappointing from Holly Mills so far. But for some reason I am absolutely loving this HEP. Maybe it is the search for signs that a slumbering giant might finally be waking? Maybe it is the possibility that someone might yet steal the giant's magic beans before she wakes up?
(I may be over-thinking this.)

And yes, a great day of athletics overall. Birmingham frankly magnificent.

And if we could just inject the Tottenham squad with Sophie Hahn's hatred of losing, it could finally be 1960/61 again.

^this is part of what I tried to post last night.

[paul]

A bit disappointing from Holly Mills so far. But for some reason I am absolutely loving this HEP. Maybe it is the search for signs that a slumbering giant might finally be waking? Maybe it is the possibility that someone might yet steal the giant's magic beans before she wakes up?
(I may be over-thinking this.)

And yes, a great day of athletics overall. Birmingham frankly magnificent.


And if we could just inject the Tottenham squad with Sophie Hahn's hatred of losing, it could finally be 1960/61 again.

^this is what I tried to post last night. LOL

[alfie]

Suppose it was opportunity missed in that she had an excellent first throw and then did nothing until the last round - while the Nigerian lass got steadily better throughout. Her 61.70 was a bit of an outlier and probably Lally was unlikely to beat it but I'd like to have seen her improve on the 57.33 before it came down to now or never...still a medal so half full is fair.

[paul]

Agreed. (I have tried repeatedly to post a comment here, but all posts are apparently rejected as [unapproved]. Grrr.)

[paul]

A bit disappointing from Holly Mills so far. But for some reason I am absolutely loving this HEP. Maybe it is the search for signs that a slumbering giant might finally be waking? Maybe it is the possibility that someone might yet steal the giant's magic beans before she wakes up?
(I may be over-thinking this.)

[alfie]

Indeed an excellent first day. Terrific 10000 race despite (or because of ?) the small field. Some field events fair to say lacking a bit of quality but still entertaining contests ; w800 heats were good , as you'd expect with several runners high on the world pecking order ; and the sprints produced some remarkably rapid times - and not just from the favourites.

The Heptathlon may not be going top produce high scores but it is shaping as a fascinating contest on day two. KJT really needs to maximise her assumed advantage in the long jump as she is surely going to lose ground massively to O'Connor in the javelin. Could we end up with basically a match race for the gold over 800 ? Better assume nothing : strange things happen in multi events under second day pressure...

Big upset in the para sprint. No love lost between Hahn and Breen I think , after all that brouha over classification. But will be interesting to see where their rivalry goes from here.