Birmingham CWG Day 6 - Sunday 7th

[marra]

Never expected to see the Aussies over the last 18 months to indicate that they are building a block of athletes superior to Gb by some margin in a range of events, but then the Gb athletics scene is utterly depressing; the world Juniors have not given much comfort in that department.
I cannot see the GB athletes here over the range of events have been inspired by the great enthusiastic crowd support. Not terribly interested in super soft bronze medals.

Records in non-para events here:

GB athletes record here - 6G, 11S, 11B
GB record in Eugene - 1G, 1S, 5B

Aus athletes record here - 7G, 6S, 1B
Aus record in Eugene - 2G, 1B

Australia have actually won fewer medals here than they did in 2018, by my reckoning.

The idea that they are building a block stronger that GB is NOT supported by the medal hauls, that's for sure. They are strong in the field and in marathon/race walking, as they have been for a while.

[jjimbojames]

We absolutely have opportunities to build on in the field at this level, but finalists and medals in all track, except the w200m, which DAS would have been involved in. m100/5k/10k let us down medal-wise, but we weren’t far off

[Christy93]

Hopefully, with the emergence of Yemi Mary John, the next few years will have a bit more depth for GB's 4x400m team. Jessie Knight did well enough, but perhaps having a 49/50 second runner on last leg would be more preferable

Lots to be excited about for GBR womens 400m running. Two legitimate sub sub 51 runners in Ohuruogu & Williams, supported by reliable 50. relay splitters Yeargin, Pipi, Nielsen... Further supported by the solid Clark, Williams 2.0, Nielsen 2.0 & Knight, and young talents like Anning and John. Maybe Hogdkinson in the next few years too - Easy to forget she is only 20, and we havent had many 20 year olds run 52.4 indoors.

[jjimbojames]

Dare I say it, but the best of all may well be Amy Hunt…even just now, 22.4 speed, long legs, good 300m time…

[Occasional Hope]

But can she keep healthy?

[jjimbojames]

Hopefully, yes…she may just be getting all of the growing pains issues out of the way in one go 🤞

[alfie]

Nice way to finish Too tired to look for details now but would love to see splits : Pipi looked to be a terrific run. Well done to Jessie for that desperate thrust at the line...

[jjimbojames]

DQ just shown up…

[Christy93]

Such a shame, but the right call. The girls need to channel the anger into Munich now - Go there and take it to the Polish ladies.

[alfie]

Oh rats....I should have gone to bed and only heard that later

Suppose we were warned. But what an anti-climax...

[Croadymeister]

How do we do it

[hemlock]

Ama Pipi does not deserve to lose there. Monster leg. :-(

[jjimbojames]

Would love to see her split. Certainly looked a stormer and miles better there than on lead off

[DeeJay78]

Absolutely gutting after such a good performance. Guess we won’t get to know the splits now?

[Croadymeister]

Ama Pipi does not deserve to lose there. Monster leg. :-(

Yeah yet another relay medal taken off us

[marra]

Ama Pipi does not deserve to lose there. Monster leg. :-(

Especially as the reason she might lose a medal would be because of the actions of someone who beat her to an individual medal this morning....that will sting for a good while you might imagine.

[Grassmarket]

Looked to me as though she thought she was running on one of the out-of-lane legs, so cut back towards the kerb. Realised straight away what she’d done, but too late.

[marra]

When? Maybe the Olympics when she ran a pretty average opening leg, but even then I don't think it would be fair to argue that she's cost us a medal, I think we were always up against it.

Pretty much every other relay that I can find that she has been in has won a medal, with one indoor exception. Where she ran the 2nd quickest split on the team.

Anyway, I'm not really mad at Jodie/VO, it happens. I just imagine that the sting for them is probably less painful given their individual medals, whereas Ama has the double whammy of 4th and the DQ.

[jjimbojames]

She has always run poorly on first…she should have been moved off it ages ago, as she’s better mid-pack and both Nicole and Vicky (today aside, potentially) have shown better skills. She rarely runs quicker than her open times - she’s not an amazing relay runner, hence being dropped from the heats at WC - which is fine, as not everyone is a Sanders or PSD - but fair to say, she has often been the weakest link. Even today, if LS is correct, she’s run about the same as her open time, but looked better because she was against poor opposition.

It’s not just about time - we’ve normally been so far out of the race, the others have had to run the first 200m too fast to try and get back in touch

[Ursus]

That was poor from Williams. Totally unnecessary.

The other girls may not say it openly but they’ll be bloody angry about that. It’s not like any has a huge medal haul.

[jjimbojames]

They do all have a WC medal from Oregon, at least. Better here than there. That said, at least one may get dropped from the Euros relay, depending on Nicole and Laviai, so would certainly be unhappy…

[beergut]

100% agree Ursus. Quite frankly it was a stupid way to lose a gold medal.

[LuckySpikes]

Absolutely gutting after such a good performance. Guess we won’t get to know the splits now?

I've rewound the "VT" ...

1:43.0 or 1:43.1 total for the first 2 legs - too difficult to guestimate individual splits
Pipi 51.0 or 51.1
Knight 51.7

[libarun]

I was in the stadium.

Jodie seems to be getting all the blame- is that how it looked on TV? Because from my vantage point the fault primarily seemed to be Victoria’s, she appeared to drift and run the last metre in lane 2 so Jodie received the baton slightly out of position and attempted a balancing act on the line. Victoria then jogged a few metres still in lane 2 rather than 3 while the athlete in 2 was coming into exchange.

But perhaps it was clearer with the camera angles everyone had at home.I could certainly be misrembering, I was just struck by VO doing her slow down jog once Jodie had gone, still very obviously in the wrong lane. I’m not sure they’d realised what had happened. The DQ was completely expected by everyone sitting around me however, it was obvious in real time.

Regardless, it was an incredible atmosphere. Best I’ve experienced since 2012- I really hope whoever decides these things is paying attention and Birmingham wins the bid for the 2026 Europeans. The appetite is clearly here.

[Grassmarket]

Other thing is that it is not necessarily fatal to run out of lane on a straight, but always is on a bend.

[oxfan]

My non-expert thought- It is up to the non-fatigued athlete to make the decision and stay in the right lane - make the incoming athlete run to you

[jjimbojames]

I suspect we’ll hear plenty more studio discussion about it during the Euros, to fill a bit of time for Gabby when the field events are happening…

[jjimbojames]

I think Budapest having the WC next year will play against them, too - spreading the love is important when the number of cities bidding has become a much smaller affair! If Brum get them, and do them as well as this, I would imagine the WC will follow in due course

[DeeJay78]

I've rewound the "VT" ...

1:43.0 or 1:43.1 total for the first 2 legs - too difficult to guestimate individual splits
Pipi 51.0 or 51.1
Knight 51.7

Thanks! I'm sure VO lead of with low 51 at least

[marra]

jjimbojames There's a difference between her being the weakest member of a 4x4 and her costing us medals, which is what you said originally.

These are the relays I can find that she's taken part in:

2021 - Euro indoors - leg 3. Slowest leg of the 4, received in 1st, handed off in 1st. Bol beat us into 2nd
2021 - World relays - leg 2, 3rd quickest, received in 1st, handed off in 1st. Team finished 3rd.
2022 - World indoors - leg 2, 2nd quickest, received in 6th, handed off in 5th. team finished 5th.
2022 - world outdoors - heat only.

The only one where I can buy that she has cost us a medal is Tokyo, which is the only 1 that she has led off on. She was about 1.3 secs off her open 400 PB. We missed bronze by 1.35 secs.

Again - if we're looking for a quicker runner, that's one thing. I'm not against the idea that she's just not quite got the foot speed we need.

But I do have to take issue with the idea that she's cost us medals. I just don't think the facts back that up personally.

[jjimbojames]

To be fair, I did mention both her and Hannah earlier.

You disagree, that’s fine - but check back to posters’ real time reaction to a number of those races, and you will see others who also felt she had been the cause of a poorer result than expected, whether a poor heat run making it difficult for the final, or a final result. I would argue she has had more shockers than just Tokyo, and that running below open times when others step up costs the team - in total time or racing position. To me, “costing us a medal” doesn’t mean we leave with nothing, it could mean just getting a lower one than we might have done.

I do agree with you that leaving without a medal/coming 4th will hurt more than eg getting silver instead of gold, so on the matter at hand, I agree, she will be feeling hard done by yesterday, and I’m sure some sort of combination of Vicky and/or Jodie will feel very bad about it and own it to the others.

[marra]

Fair points, although I would say that we are all guilty of being armchair experts at times, which is obviously a lot easier than being in the heat of the event! I know I certainly am!

[jjimbojames]

Oh absolutely!

[Loop-guru]

Also she is still improving. Last year which was her best year yet she ran 5 times between 51 and 52 seconds in total. She has already hit that target this year with plenty of time left to improve her PB and number of 51-52 performances. With a sub 23 PB there is no reason why Ama should not be ultimately targetting sub 50 over the next few years.