blonde poker forum

Love Athletics since the Olympics, I'm not that familar with this event, starting a thread for bigger fans than me (Boshi) to give me the lowdown on which events will be 'must watch' and whom our best medal hopes are.

Am I missing a joke with the thread title?

Dave is from Sheffield.

Sorry Freudian slip, I have the 2012 Olympics on my penis....I mean mind.

In the athletics, for once our 4x100m team looks solid (as in they manage to get the baton round).  However, being up against Jamaica in that of course.  In fact, the 100m should be an interesting one all round.

Standard ones to watch (if they run) are Rudisha in the 800m, Farah (think he's doing both the 5k and 10K) and Bolt of course (who hasn't been at his brilliant best so far this season).  No Rutherford in the long jump, which is a shame.  No Ennis or Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the Heptathlon unfortunately. Eilidh Child should win a gold for Scotland in the 400m hurdles. 

Outside the athletics, I'm looking forward to the hockey (expect the Aussies to win that in both the men's and women's), and the rugby sevens that is always good to watch.  Also watching random sports that I'd never usually see is fun, just like with the Olympics.

Anyone heard of an Aussie runner (800 metres I think) called Brittany McGowan?

She got any chance of a gong?

less of the "our" sassenach - this is an international forum for international gamblers

Looking forward to it, going up for a few days Sat to Tue for Rugby 7s, Athletics, Boxing, Hockey and whatever else we can squeeze in.

Sorry, my bad.

England have a strong team in the 4x100m.
The Sweaties and the Leeks have no chance though.

Better?

;)

Not heard anything about her to be honest.  There's a Scot called Lynsey Sharp who could be in for a medal, although the Kenyan Jepkoech should be a shoo-in for the gold (if fit, etc.).

Just remembered this nice lady will be there

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMgmYutL9W0

Oh forgot, there's the Triathlon as well.  The Brownlees should do well for England, even though they haven't been on top form this year.  The Welsh would have been favourites for Gold and Silver in the women's event, but both of their athletes are out of the games.

I miss London 2012.

England getting a big cheer at Celtic park wtf? lol  :D

The red arrows flew directly over my house on the way to the fly over, absolutely shit myself, I thought a plane was coming through the roof!

+1

Somerled on here said the following on Facebook, and it pretty much sums up the opening ceremony:


:D

Anyway, the men's triathlon is on now, and they're coming towards the end of the bike ride. 

The Brownlee brothers might be on for Gold and Silver?

:D

Could you imagine how awesome it must be for their parents to see almost gtd Gold & Silver (assuming they maintain their big ass lead)?

Yorkshire one and two is guaranteed, unless one of them gets shot.

Got to fancy Alistair if they're both fully fit, but could be a very interesting finish.

Alistair has put his foot down early doors, and there's a gap between them.

lol tandems in the velodrome, didn't expect to see that  ;D

I'm heading through Glasgow next weekend, I see there are loads of tickets for the closing ceremony, I assume that means it will be shite and just handing over flags and shit?

Top bombing

Awwwwwww, remember this http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19124775

"We won the Olympics!"

:)

England has two sprinters who have put up sensational 100m times, the two fastest UK runners ever apart from Linford Christie. They are already faster than Dwain Chambers, Jason Gardener or Darren Campbell ever achieved. One of them has the fourth fastest time in the world this year, behind Gay, Powell and Gatlin, but ahead of Bolt and all the other Jamaicans and Americans. So they should do well in Glasgow, right?

Guess what? Neither of them has been picked. Neither of them is injured, and both are in good form, but they aren't even in the relay squad. Chambers was the only one in the squad who has beaten 10 secs, and that was 15 years ago. But, due to strange administrative rules, you won't see James Dasaolu (9.91) or Chijindu Ujah (9.96) in the Commonwealth Games.

Now Chambers has withdrawn from the team and has been replaced by........no-one - although they have the option to bring in someone else if they wish.

Sometimes this country shoots itself in the foot.

They've both had difficult seasons. Ujah hit the time but outside the qualifying period, so they decided to take a hardline stance, which seems completely fair. Dasaolu has been injured and you can understand them not including him.

Kilty should be better than he is. He has so much speed off the line, picks up well and drives, but doesn't seem to have the power in the last twenty.

Commonwealths are just an exercise for the younger lads really.

Now, if you can explain to me how Ujah has made the relay team for the European Champs but not the individual (with Henry AA making the cut), I'd be impressed

Swimming has been enjoyable with the British teams competing well with the Aussies. Huge progress from the Worlds, looks promising for Rio.

So it seems like the young Brits are really good at Swimming this year. Would our boys and girls get crushed by the Yanks or is this really the start of some great years ahead for British swimmers?

We always look decent in commnwealths.....

Halsalls gold was world class. Basically you need to look at events where there is a world class swimmer like le clos and then judge the performance.

We underperformed at major events across a couple of groupings of swimmers from 2002-12 (especially up to 2007 under the coach Sweetenham), with the odd exception like Adlington, so much so that funding was cut as results did not meet targets

since then the training methods and regimes have changed, from top down, and we have a talented set of 19-22 year old swimmers for rio and beyond

ben proud especially looks like he could be a world star. only 19 and even though le clos has had a down year (training problems, injuries) proud beat him fair and square here

Good that they let the 13 year old swim early so she didnt miss her bedtime.

The commonwealth's are the lowest regarded of the major comps.  For many athletes they won't be peaking at ths event so I'd take the results with a pinch of salt sure its great for the competitor and the family etc to see them win medals but more often than not commonwealth form will not translate into world form.  

Depends on the event and strength of other nations in world terms in that event. Australian sport is in the worst I can remember and they would be looking at this to build towards the olympics.

If you dont win here you wont win in rio so its the first box to tick.

it doesn't change my point. the 19-22 year olds that the united kingdom have now have a lot of potential, only a few of these will be world class but its encouraging to see them turn up at a major and perform PBs, with a British history of often flopping at majors in the last decade

Why is Radisha @ 1.57. Seems huge odds. Isn't he far beyond everyone. Injuries?

Just back from injury, but on the basis of his heat and improvement from his recent diamond league win then should win reasonably comfortably

He was over 3 seconds quicker than Amos of Botswana, his main rival, and silver medalist in london, in the heats

Rudisha only went favourite for the event after the heats. Amos was rightful favourite before that as he soundly beat rudisha in the last meeting.

Times arent relevant as rudisha front runs so his heat will always be faster.

It would be like comparing kingman to frankel based on todays times.

what did Ginger jump to win gold in the long jump?

8.20m I think

Joke.  I remember when 8.20 didn't even get you in the final of major long jumping events 20 years ago.  The event is a shadow of the old days.

This.

[/quote]

Joke.  I remember when 8.20 didn't even get you in the final of major long jumping events 20 years ago.  The event is a shadow of the old days.
[/quote]


Yeah I wouldnt mind be he seems to think hes something special and not just top of a dung pile. Same as 400m hurdles was bemused they were interested in weather the english guy would be fastest loser for the final after barely going under 50 seconds. ed moses would have finished before they got to the last hurdle

It's hard not to like the kid.  He has made the best of his natural talent.  (my gf at school was an english schools long jumper back in the early 90s so i know a fair bit about the event and loved watching it back then.  Even in a regional meet back then in the midlands i saw a guy jump 8.10 in 1993).  I just hated the bbc comm's talking about him winning the grand slam of long jump golds and struggled not to fall off my chair laughing during the medal presentation!

I can feel a boxing rant coming on.

And breathe...

Suppressed. Back to long jump.

I agree with everything you've said - although I don't find him all that loveable; I'm completely indifferent towards him; neither one way nor t'other - but it's not his fault the competition is weak.

If I entered the WSOP main event and only three other people bother entering and I won, I won't care who tells me it was a farce world title.

No different to David Haye winning the world heavyweight title.

(Dammit!!)

Not at the commonwealth games.  Plus it was infinitely harder to test for roids 20 years ago.

Not

Don't want to derail, but isn't Haye one of the top heavyweights in the world? A lot more credible than twenty years ago when Bruno found himself with a world title.

And Greg Rutherford is one of the best long jumpers in the world.

TBF I could have picked a lot of more/less deserving people but Haye had more hype than most and was better for illustrative purposes.

Is haye even a heavyweight never mind one of the best in the world?

Let's not do this or I'll be upsetting everyone again by mentioning Calzaghe.

Anyone watching the gymnastics?

I'm a bit behind, watching on iPlayer. Just heard Denise Lewis say that this means as much to Rutherford as the Olympics. What?

I know the bbc effort tonight in the studio was very bad at times.

I am a massive Michael Johnson fan. I think he's a fantastic analyst: clear, logical, well paced explanations, nicely balanced views and doesn't rubbish anyone else, even if they say something utterly stupid.

Looking forward to a typical night out in Glasgow...


At least Lulu is singing live.