2023 European Indoor Championships (Istanbul, 2- 5 March)

[RunUnlimited]

Exactly drobbie.

7 meters has always been the benchmark of truly world class long jumping for women. Aside from the insane 1980's where jumping that distance was no guarantee to even *medal* at a major championships, you are usually going to have a better than 50/50 chance that going to 7m is likely to land you a gold medal, or at least a medal of some colour.

If she stays fit for the remainder of the year, with the way she's been jumping since pretty much the Commonwealth Games, where she was unlucky to miss out on the podium, I'd say Sawyers is a definite contender for gold in Budapest. Her performance last night would certainly gotten the notice of not only Mihambo and Vuleta (and Iapichino), but of the other top LJ talents in the world, like Brume, Brooke Buschkuehl and Deborah Acquah.

[drobbie]

7 metres won gold at the last olympics, a legit winning distance

[Ladyloz]

Stef is originally from Canada not USA.

[RunUnlimited]

Just a bit more on Jaz Sawyers fantastic win yesterday.

This wasn't the case of a plucky underdog managing to get to the top because her rivals were below-par or off form.

She did it by going toe-to-toe with two of long jumping's greatest exponents of the last 25 years or so, who have won multiple World, Olympic and continental golds, indoors and outdoors, during their careers, in Mihambo and Vuleta. Jaz also prevailed against one of the great young long jump talents Iapchino, who set an Italian NIR during the competition. And it took a World Lead leap and NIR for Jaz to grab the gold.

This was also a deep competition, with just 9cm covered 1st through 3rd, and Mihambo's 6.83m best jump, I believe, is probably the longest distance to not win *any* medals at a EIC in a long time too. (Actually, just doing a quick look back at past editions of the EI, 6.83m was only good enough for 4th place as recently as the 2019 edition in Glasgow.... and the unlucky athlete on that occasion? Why none other than Malakia Mihambo herself!)

It should also be remembered that for all of Sawyers usual consistency of performance at major championships, it actually hadn't been the case in recent times at the European Indoors. In both 2019 and 2021, Sawyers had failed to get out of the qualification round. So this victory must be doubly sweet for her.

[LuckySpikes]

Stef Reid ... Yes, a very good addition to the team. She knows her stuff and clearly follows the sport on a daily basis. I don't get the impression with the likes of Backley and Denise that they are watching much athletics inbetween major championships.

Also, with all the time Stef has spent in this country she seems to have lost all the annoying phrasing and pronunciations that American commentators have!

[CAML]

Backley has been winging it for far too long. With Denise and Jess, its one or the either, having both makes for a very bland spectacle. Its not a hard call, Denise is a far better pundit.

[philipo]

The only BBC coverage aspect that afforded me pleasure was the addition of Stef? whose technical backup to Backley was with her articulation very helpful
The usual BBC waste of time and money wont change. They are much too arrogant!

[philipo]

I'm not too fussed with the overall British performance, our stars did the business, Jaz was great, etc. Some of the usual people disappointed.

And it seems a really competitive field in regards to which countries are winning the medals, Norway finished top of the medal table. Them, Belgium, Switzerland, Dutch womens seemed to have someone in every event. Some of the 'bigger' european nations are behind.

What is most evident is the poor performances of the French and German athletes and that will be replicated in August I am sure.

[LuckySpikes]

I really think that the flow of following the field events was (and always is) affected very negatively by all the returning to the studio for "Gabbin' with Gabby". If you watched the world feeds they were pretty well covered I thought and there were regular on-screen graphics showing the current positions.

[LuckySpikes]

Yep, agreed.

[RunUnlimited]

Though it must be remembered that GB could have sent another team of athletes who had gained the Q standard for Istanbul but didn't compete due to it not being in their plans or not doing a winter season at all, (Dina Asher-Smith, Lansiquot, V.Ohuruogu, Yeargin, Pipi, NMB, Heyward, Stonier. Burgin, Kerr, Rowden, Atkin), late injury (AHW, Metzger), or are currently involved in the hyper-busy NCAA indoor season and wouldn't be able to come anyway (Anning, Yemi Mary John, Marcia Sey, Tade Ojora, Zeller). Heck, the top *4* women in the UK rankings over 400m alone were unavailable because of this, so you can easily imagine that the 4x400m squad would have looked a whole lot different to the one we ended up seeing.

And despite all of the absentees, GB ended 3rd on the medal table with 3 golds and 6 medals overall. If the team was at it's full strength, then it wouldn't be far-fetched to suggest it would have topped the medal charts on both medal total *and* golds.

[alfie]

Oh wow...I gave in to the awkward time zone and just started watching replays today : happy but hardly surprised to see Keely dominate her event ; a few other performances about as expected/feared ... But then that WLJ !
Was thinking Jaz would miss a medal because of miniscule overstepping on big jumps - and then she produces that monster : the look on her face as she saw the distance has made my week ...

What a competitor she is. Nobody I can think of more deserving of that gold medal : just brilliant 👏👏👏

[Balgair]

Hah, true I guess, would just really have benefitted from more context!

[Occasional Hope]

Actually, being left to the mercy of the host broadcaster probably meant we saw more field coverage than usual even if it wasn't always the bits we wanted.

[Occasional Hope]

There were live results on the championship website. They could have looked at those. but perhaps feared spoiling a later clip.