European Championshps Thread

Pherekydes

ultrapercy wrote: »

BBC are a pain in the hole. People who complain about RTE sports coverage amaze me its best by far.

Huh? Bizarre statement to make when RTE skip the largest athletics championships quite regularly.

BBC jingoistic? Yes, certainly, but RTE are equally so. In 2009 they covered the races with Irish entries at the World Swimming championships and no others!

mikeyjames9

I don't think I can take anymore of brendan foster and steve cram

mo farah's going in the great north run

I can't put myself through that torture any longer

an alternative stream will have to be found

Caprica

A very exciting championship, with lots of great performances. Team GB had an amazing week, a total of 12 golds, with them winning all the mens sprints & relays and them topping the medal table.

A good final day for Ireland, great performance by the 4*400 guys with a NR and Paul Robinson just being pipped for bronze. Any word on C'OL? I was impressed with Hehir in the marathon just of his PB on a tough course in tough conditions.

I'm really finding all of Mo Farah's races so boring, it is just a last lap burn up. He would have won here no matter what way it was ran but I still can't believe that the Africans back of him so much and let him dictate the races. Delighted to see Andy Vernon get two medals.

If the Beeb are having a shake up the first person to go should be Colin Jackson, he is appalling, he just talks rubbish. What does annoy me is that they miss out on so much live coverage (especially the field events) by showing all their pre recorded interviews with athletes. I am no fan of RTE's coverage, I not impressed with Sonia or Gerry. I tuned in after Mark Englishs medal to see the Kathyrn Davies interview, it was appalling, one of the worst sports interview I have every seen.

Felt really sorry for the Swiss girl after having such a great championship to drop the baton in the first few strides was a disaster, they would have been in with a shout of a medal.

I enjoyed Cooly (he was no Berlino) but sill good fun and a decent vaulter
https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/video/mascot-stuns-crowd-taking-pole-135201624.html

the_real_lamp

I think the championships were pretty good overall with a couple of disappointments.

English obviously the highlight and has put to bed the concern over his championship racing ability. Now hopefully he get the Irish record before the end of the season.

4x400m were excellent (that time would have got 6th in London), lots to build on and the women's 4x100m with a NR was encouraging.

Gutted for the two 1500 lads, especially Robinson. Good to see COL back in a major final, hopefully he can have a good winter.

Tom Barr will be back and it was good experience for some of the younger athletes like Sarah Lavin, Christine Major and Phil Healy. Kelly Proper and Brendan Boyce deserve mentions too. Rob Heffernan was a disappointment, hopefully he can put that behind him for Rio.


On terms of Broadcasters, Colin Jackson is awful. The only one on the BBC worth listening to is Paula Radcliffe. Steve Cram in small doses. It is a much poorer package without Michael Johnson.

Ailis McSweeney is the best on RTE, I like Sonia too but the commentary is awful. Completely clueless. Despite their flaws, thank god for Eurosport.

Chivito550

Caprica wrote: »

A very exciting championship, with lots of great performances. Team GB had an amazing week, a total of 12 golds, with them winning all the mens sprints & relays and them topping the medal table.

A good final day for Ireland, great performance by the 4*400 guys with a NR and Paul Robinson just being pipped for bronze. Any word on C'OL? I was impressed with Hehir in the marathon just of his PB on a tough course in tough conditions.

I'm really finding all of Mo Farah's races so boring, it is just a last lap burn up. He would have won here no matter what way it was ran but I still can't believe that the Africans back of him so much and let him dictate the races. Delighted to see Andy Vernon get two medals.

If the Beeb are having a shake up the first person to go should be Colin Jackson, he is appalling, he just talks rubbish. What does annoy me is that they miss out on so much live coverage (especially the field events) by showing all their pre recorded interviews with athletes. I am no fan of RTE's coverage, I not impressed with Sonia or Gerry. I tuned in after Mark Englishs medal to see the Kathyrn Davies interview, it was appalling, one of the worst sports interview I have every seen.

Felt really sorry for the Swiss girl after having such a great championship to drop the baton in the first few strides was a disaster, they would have been in with a shout of a medal.

I enjoyed Cooly (he was no Berlino) but sill good fun and a decent vaulter
https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/video/mascot-stuns-crowd-taking-pole-135201624.html

The general consensus here is that Cooley was even better than Berlino. Theres a lot of crazy sh1t he got up to, only a fraction of it would have been caught live on TV.

I already miss Cooly.

T runner

Chivito550 wrote: »

Fairly harsh stuff. JTG do not get paid for what they do. They are doing more than pretty much anybody to promote the sport.

As an aside, I do not believe FB's performance was "really great". She came 10th. In the 10000m she was 8th. Why is the 8th place seen as average, yet the 10th in the marathon is bigged up. Why is there such glorification of the marathon? You see it again with the men's. People hyping up a 20th place. If you come 20th in a track event nobody cares.

The decent marathon debut performance gets more emphasis than a 10000 performance because of the greater potential for improvement in the marathon amongst some athletes. To gauge FBs future potential I'm sure many well wishers would have an eye on Jessica Augusto (an erstwhile competitor of FBs on XC) who was 3rd and ran under 2:26.

A P

Cooly was great. Some of his best bits... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wwYQy0I3c4

Some Kind of Wizard

Caprica wrote: »

A

If the Beeb are having a shake up the first person to go should be Colin Jackson, he is appalling, he just talks rubbish. What does annoy me is that they miss out on so much live coverage (especially the field events) by showing all their pre recorded interviews with athletes. I am no fan of RTE's coverage, I not impressed with Sonia or Gerry. I tuned in after Mark Englishs medal to see the Kathyrn Davies interview, it was appalling, one of the worst sports interview I have every seen.

What is it you don't like about Gerry? I find him to have a great amount of knowledge of the athletes competing in the middle/long distance races.

unichick

Berlino is still my favourite. Cooli was great though. Gonna miss the athletics.

Cant believe George Hamilton did not realise the Swiss girl dropped the baton in the first few strides. Stick to soccer George. They cut the Javelin off too. Next time I will watch Eurosport.

hurdles1

good champs to watch, great champs for young British athletes.
great to see the Irish relays give us a bit of hope for the future.
jut a few points to dwell on...
its a pity Gillick make an effort to run with this young relay team
and give them some experience, and maybe continue for next years euro indoors
surely a 3/4 fit gillick could still do a job like Hurtiss on french 4x4 winning team,
cant be injured , hes back playing g.a.a. and surely better than going around
the country giving cookery demonstrations.

also did Tom Barr wear new spikes in his semi [didnt seem to wear his usual ones]

and to finish great runs from martin rooney but kinda funny to see him belting out
god save our queen on the rost and his parents IRISH.

Itziger

hurdles1 wrote: »

good champs to watch, great champs for young British athletes.
great to see the Irish relays give us a bit of hope for the future.
jut a few points to dwell on...
its a pity Gillick make an effort to run with this young relay team
and give them some experience, and maybe continue for next years euro indoors
surely a 3/4 fit gillick could still do a job like Hurtiss on french 4x4 winning team,
cant be injured , hes back playing g.a.a. and surely better than going around
the country giving cookery demonstrations.

also did Tom Barr wear new spikes in his semi [didnt seem to wear his usual ones]

and to finish great runs from martin rooney but kinda funny to see him belting out
god save our queen on the rost and his parents IRISH.

He's British. His parents weren't on the 'rost'.

About the young British athletes. Would it be worth AI's time to study what the Brits are doing to get kids into athletics. They don't seem to have much of a problem right now with young talent.

RacoonQueen

hurdles1 wrote: »

good champs to watch, great champs for young British athletes.
great to see the Irish relays give us a bit of hope for the future.
jut a few points to dwell on...
its a pity Gillick make an effort to run with this young relay team
and give them some experience, and maybe continue for next years euro indoors
surely a 3/4 fit gillick could still do a job like Hurtiss on french 4x4 winning team,
cant be injured , hes back playing g.a.a. and surely better than going around
the country giving cookery demonstrations.

also did Tom Barr wear new spikes in his semi [didnt seem to wear his usual ones]

and to finish great runs from martin rooney but kinda funny to see him belting out
god save our queen on the rost and his parents IRISH.

Gillick has retired.

pistol_75

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Gillick has retired.

GAA player now :rolleyes:

digger2d2

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Gillick has retired.

pistol_75 wrote: »

GAA Chef now :rolleyes:

FYP

wrstan

unichick wrote: »

Next time I will watch Eurosport.

I have mixed feelings about RTE's coverage alright. And agree with a previous poster that the post race interview of Mark English had to be one of the worst ever.

But, I am soooooooooo glad RTE covered the Championships last week. I was out in Saorview land for the week, with no access to the Beeb, Eurosport or any broadband. Without our beloved national broadcaster I wouldn't have seen any athletics. I watched most of the coverage and enjoyed every second of it. I would love to encourage RTE to give more athletics coverage.

dna_leri

ecoli wrote: »

Relay splits

GREGAN Brian 45.7 (6)
ENGLISH Mark 45.0 (7)
MORRISSEY Richard 45.55 (3)
BARR Thomas 45.31

Some run from the lads and a deceptively fast split from English

Deceptively fast is right, especially since that (7) after English's name means he was the 7th fastest on that leg, only the Czech runner was slower. In fact all 8 times on the 2nd leg were faster than all 8 times on the 3rd leg. That does not make sense.

It is difficult to get accurate times for relay splits. The 2nd leg starts when the baton passes the 400m stagger point and the 3rd leg starts when the baton passes the finish line. These can only be manually recorded and as such as are only accurate to 0.2 at best.

No decisions should be made on the basis of these numbers. English even said he slowed down when he felt a twinge in his hamstring. In both relay heats and finals, Morrissey ran great legs in relation to his competitors which is what really counts.

Itziger

dna_leri wrote: »

Deceptively fast is right, especially since that (7) after English's name means he was the 7th fastest on that leg, only the Czech runner was slower. In fact all 8 times on the 2nd leg were faster than all 8 times on the 3rd leg. That does not make sense.

It is difficult to get accurate times for relay splits. The 2nd leg starts when the baton passes the 400m stagger point and the 3rd leg starts when the baton passes the finish line. These can only be manually recorded and as such as are only accurate to 0.2 at best.

No decisions should be made on the basis of these numbers. English even said he slowed down when he felt a twinge in his hamstring. In both relay heats and finals, Morrissey ran great legs in relation to his competitors which is what really counts.

Finally someone makes this point!!

unichick

This might be a stupid question but has Ailish Sweeney retired or is she just injured?

Oregano_State

unichick wrote: »

This might be a stupid question but has Ailish Sweeney retired or is she just injured?

retired as far as I know

thirstywork2

My highlights was English getting the bronze from an Irish point of view.
The Swiss winner in the 400m hurdles was epic but France winning the 4 x 400m relay,the last leg was crazy.Also the Steeple & 1500m double by Bennebad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JorGHdTBP6k

Itziger

thirstywork2 wrote: »

My highlights was English getting the bronze from an Irish point of view.
The Swiss winner in the 400m hurdles was epic but France winning the 4 x 400m relay,the last leg was crazy.Also the Steeple & 1500m double by Bennebad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JorGHdTBP6k

Imagine being a French athletics fan watching that. You'd be doing your nut for the last 50 metres! 100 to go, meh. 75 to go, is a bronze on here? 50 to go, bronze could be on! 25 to go, bronze, maybe even silver......, 10 to go..WTF! 5 to go, GO ON BABE!!!!

pc11

More great Cooly shenanigans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-98f92AMW2k

rom

Itziger wrote: »

Imagine being a French athletics fan watching that. You'd be doing your nut for the last 50 metres! 100 to go, meh. 75 to go, is a bronze on here? 50 to go, bronze could be on! 25 to go, bronze, maybe even silver......, 10 to go..WTF! 5 to go, GO ON BABE!!!!

49"71 Her PB is about 51"3 for 400 !!!

RayCun

rom wrote: »

49"71 Her PB is about 51"3 for 400 !!!

yes but a running start

Gringo78

rom wrote: »

49"71 Her PB is about 51"3 for 400 !!!

Mark English was about 2 sec faster than his PB....

Oregano_State

Those relay splits have to be taken with a large pinch of salt. Some legs run slightly longer than 400m, so others will be shorter. English was clearly knackered after 3 rounds in the 800, and he said himself he had to ease off a bit after about 180m after he felt a twinge in his hammy.

pajor

English has been invited to the Diamond League in Zurich on the 28th.

dna_leri

pajor wrote: »

English has been invited to the Diamond League in Zurich on the 28th.

I hope he gets in but at the moment he is not listed:
http://www.diamondleague-zurich.com/Results/Overview/800m-Men/

Slowest man is Lewandowski with 1:44.42 this year.

the_real_lamp

dna_leri wrote: »

I hope he gets in but at the moment he is not listed:
http://www.diamondleague-zurich.com/Results/Overview/800m-Men/

Slowest man is Lewandowski with 1:44.42 this year.

They are only provisional starts lists at the moment and already 12 are listed, so perhaps he might be running in a B 800m. There is a B 800m in Stockholm tomorrow and it is still a pretty hot race.

Chivito550

Here's a few of the audio interviews from last week. More to come:

http://www.therunningreview.com/2014/08/19/zurich-2014-reaction-interviews-part-1/