Chicken picking at feet

[Ain't Nobody Here]

. Glad he's not too badly hurt!

[Tina C]

I don't resent the athletics funding as to me its not just about olympic medals but about encouraging participation nd athletic probably has more youngsters involved (not least because it does not invovle so much expensive equipment so schools can accomodate it more easily).

 

However, as someone said yesterday (was it Brendan Foster?), athletics is going to have to compete with cycling, rowing etc on that front now - which is great news for cycling - especially if more women get involved.

 

What about poor old Louis Smith - he has to train with toddlers running around him - the struggle for funding (the Huntingdon Olympic Gym gets something like £40,000, enough for 2 coaches) means that it has to do whatever it can to make money to keep going.

 

Oh, and Richard, Paula can win marathons - look at her results. Its just sad that she has had health problems and the olympic gold still eludes her because of that. Have a heart ( )

[Richard]

IOh, and Richard, Paula can win marathons - look at her results. Its just sad that she has had health problems and the olympic gold still eludes her because of that. Have a heart ( )

 

I have nothing but admiration for the lady .... but I am thoroughly fed up of the hype and attention that she, and the other track and field guys, have recieved over the years (mind you, its nowhere near as bizarre as the attention given to numpties punting a football around a field but there you go). Sailing has delivered gold medals at the Olympics for many years Remember Rodney Pattison? - no? thats because at the time all you heard about was Brendan Foster and the other runners.

 

At last there seems to be some recognition of other sports, sports that involve more than just running quickly in a straight line; consider the tactics of a sailing series or just watch the Maddison today and you'll see far more intelligence, tactics, all round fitness etc. than in the whole line up of a 100 metres sprint.

 

But never fear, despite the fact that we still have possible windsurfing golds, sprint golds (men and women) etc. what do we hear on the TV?

 

A lady has just squeezed into the final of the jumping into a sandpit.

 

Mind you I understand we do have a medal chance in the ladies throwing a pointed stick a long way. I can't wait.

[ubereglu]

Richard, yes athletics may not be your cup of tea, and yes we're not the best, BUT it is a HUGE achievement just to get to the olympics and qualify for them. Ok, Paula Radcliffe came 23rd, but it was amazing she actually got there after a hip injury and a fracture in her leg.

 

However despite not getting any medals as yet in track and field we're excelling in other events and in swimming we've done amazingly well with Rebecca Adlington as this was the first double gold medalist in years and years.

[gooner.girl]

You make me laugh Richard - and i do see what you're saying - its great that minority sports are getting exposure cos of the Olympics but Tina's right.

 

I coach for Haywards Heath Harriers Athletics Club

 

http://www.haywardsheathharriers.co.uk

 

and we use just a plain grass track.

 

At the moment we have nearly 100 Juniors and Intermediates on our books (ages 8-15) We have a waiting list of about 70 more. Haywards Heath is only a piddly small town. We can't take any more because of lack of training space in the winter and not enough coaches for the older group. We are all volunteers and don't get paid.

 

The Kids joining fee is about £30 for the year which covers a bit of the track hire. Could you take up sailing for that much a year with qualified quality coaches? I doubt it.

 

Not everyone has a velodrome on their doorstep or the money to go out sailing. Tina is right in that at grass roots level Athletics is one of the cheapest sports to do.

 

Oh - and in theory we are supposed to be getting a proper track in the next 10 years - the housing company that have built a whole load of houses in the local town could only do so if they provided a decent sports facility and we have lobbied the council for a track. Though, having said that the original plans showed only half a track (200m) which unbelievably whoever had drawn the plans drew with the 200m starting on a straight and ending on the curve!!!

 

We as a club are gonna have to do a whole lot of fundraising for it in the next few years... Athletics is very much the poor relation compared to the likes of football and rugby in our area.

[Richard]

 

We as a club are gonna have to do a whole lot of fundraising for it in the next few years... Athletics is very much the poor relation compared to the likes of football and rugby in our area.

 

Don't even start about the ridiculous amount of money that is wasted on football. We could have decent cycling tracks, watersports centres (and even maybe some more athletics stadia if you have to) if we didn't waste so much cash on overpaid primadonnas playing mind numbingly dull sports. Grrrr

 

Talk about prozac for the nation. Debate and conversation - don't be daft, there's a football match on the telly tonight, there won't be a functioning neurone in sight.

 

But I still think our elite track athletes are well on the way to joining the footballers in thinking that they are worth loads of dosh just because they exist. However I'm sure you promote a good attitude in all your young athletes.

 

And I hope they are as broad minded and inclusive in their attitudes and opinions as whot I am

[gooner.girl]

I think the track and fieldies heard you Richard - gold and silver this afternoon...

 

Not sure anyone could be as broadminded and inclusive in their attitudes as you!

[Richard]

I think the track and fieldies heard you Richard - gold and silver this afternoon...

 

 

Yes, erm well done (but it was still much better in the velodrome ).

 

I know I shouldn't let it niggle at me but I don't understand the business about missing 3 out of season drug tests - I understand that was what happened. I do know that she has not tested positive at all, ever, and so is clean and fully entitled to compete and I know she's done her ban but it still seems all odd to me that an elite athlete can manage to miss those tests. Maybe I have the wrong end of the stick and someone will explain it all to me.

 

BUT - 7 gold medals from 10 events. Track cycling rocks. When another sport comes up with a 70% conversion from base metal to gold, then I'll start to listen!

 

And that doesn't take into account the magnificent Ms Cook's road race gold.

 

And there's still the BMX to come tomorrow.

 

And the windsurfers, and the Star class ... the list goes on and on. Come on out of the bird's nest - its much better elsewhere!

[gooner.girl]

Agreed - the drugs test thing does seem a bit suss. i don't know the full story there.... Anyhow she will have been tested today - no doubt.

 

Sorry Richard but BMXing aside the track cycling is as boring as endurance running! Yawn!

 

Had to ask half a dozen people flying kites to get off our track today - bet they didn't have that problem in Beijing!

[Richard]

Sorry Richard but BMXing aside the track cycling is as boring as endurance running! Yawn!

 

 

You cannot be serious.

 

Someone went on about running being a basic sport (or something like that anyway). But they all run in a straight line! Pursuit cycling is 1000% more fun 'cos they chase each other. There has been nothing more exciting in the games so far than the pursuit team hunting down and nearly catching the Danes.

 

Endurance running is a bit boring - but very hard.

 

Long distance walking is more boring than endurance running.

 

And football is far far far far far far far far far more boring than all the endurance walking you could dream of in your worst nightmare all happening at the same time.

 

Arrgghhhh, the thought of it is horrendous. I hope the football wins the gold medal. Its probably the most talented item in the Olympic football competition and it deserves some recompence.

 

Fancy having to be a referee - I presume that job is given to people who have really really sinned and have to do the most awful penance you can imagine. Do referees have a prophylactic lobotomy so that they can cope with having to go out time after time and endure football matches? Or maybe they are retired long distance Olympic walkers who need something less exciting in their dotage.

 

After the ludicrousness (is there such a word?) of the sychronised jumping into a pool with a friend and making as little splash as possible, I was thinking about other bizarre synchronised stuff that could be Olympic sports.

 

Synchronised golf? synchronised throwing of sharp stick or heavy iron balls on chains? Sychronised very young ladies doing funny jumps on a four inch beam? Sychronised three legged racing - no, I've got it, synchronised hopping, skipping and jumping into the sandpit (sorry!).

 

Mind you, the gymnastic commentator gets my vote for the most enthusiatic commentary - closely pushed by the chap with Adrian Moorhouse commentating on the swimming. They both deserve recognition for being amazingly enthusiastic in the face of immensely boring activities (c.f. Hugh Porter - who I'm sure you all know is married to Anita Lonsbrough - she used to help him with his bike races!).

 

And while we are talking about swimming whats all this fuss about Michael Phelps. I know he's good, but all those medals eh? If they had events in cycling where you just bike a bit differently each time, everyone could have millions of medals. You could even have hop skip and triple jump a bit different - say you did skip hop and jump, hop jump and skip, skip jump and hop etc. That would give you 3 cubed which is nearly nine gold medals! Thats how they do it in the swimming pool isn't it. And they have backstroke - so you do your skip, jump, hop and jump, hop,skip etc all backwards and you have another 9 medals.

 

So a good hop,skip and triple jumper could win 18 medals no bother - makes Mr Phelps look a positive underperformer. And thats without the hop skip and jump relay and the sychronised event (hop hop, skip skip, jump jump) as well!

 

I've got some great ideas to make stuff more interesting. How about the 2000 metres rowing - over hurdles? Actually, why don't they row round corners - it would be much more interesting to have the rowing down a slalom course or round a track.

 

I think it would be really interesting to have the running races through the middle of the stadium instead of round the outside. Then you could have the sharp stick and heavy object throwing from the outside. That would be pretty incentivising (?) for the runners. It might thin down the numbers a bit as well.

 

Oh well. I suppose I have to resign myself to the end of the sailing and cycling tomorrow. No point in watching much else - and Chris Hoy will probably not get sportsperson of the year because some footballer or tennis player will get voted in

[Cate in NZ]

Fantastic photo ANH

 

I'm really gutted that I'm missing so much of the Olympics, usually I spend as much time as possible glued to them, but the broadcasting over here is very limited.....we keep getting stuff about the NZ athletes, but very little else is shown . Even the hockey match the other night where GB beat NZ simply wasn't mentioned after the event. If NZ doesn't win it's forgotten about . In fairness we're restricted to terrestrial TV, not got the Sky alternative that might be more balanced, and they are showing the things that most NZers want to see......but I'm feeling deprived . Great to hear that team GB is doing well though

 

its all on iplayer, the bbc repaly thingy. you should be able to watch loads on there!! we just got our first medal ever in the individual gymnastics with a young guy called lewis smith on the pommel horse

 

Thanks Laura. Unfortunately though I can't get bbc iplayer over here . Possibly it could be done if I had Fred's technical ability, but you need a UK based IP address to get iplayer. I know a guy who is a bit of a technical whizz and he's tried 40+ UK based proxy servers, but each time the connection is too slow to be usable. Bufferring every few seconds and audio at least 10 secs out of sync . I had to watch the mens triathalon 3 times yesterday (a Kiwi came 3rd, and did put up a stunning performance, so all credit to him and I understand why they showed it...but 3 times ). Really I fancied a bit of cycling or sailing, or anything really, but the coverage is very NZ centric. I guess though that BBC is probably focussing a lot on events where GBR is represented too, but because GBR has a bigger team of sports people competing mo re sports will be shown. Also the BBC is probably better able to afford good coverage of events compared to the less well funded TVNZ . It does make sense and I can understand it completely, but I do feel sad that I'm missing out a bit. No coverage at all of Louis the British gymnast, didn't know about him , but what an incredible achievement.

 

Oh, well, I'll keep watching what I can and pop onto here for updates.

 

Richard, have to disagree with you entirely about the athletics stuff, but I can't for the life of me understand the whys and wherefores of tennis and football being included in the Olympics, both of those sports have highly paid athletes with far bigger arenas dedicated entirely to their sports to compete in ie World Cup, Wimbledon etc etc. And beach volleyball . Volleyball with your clothes on is a sport, so OK-ish, but volleyball in the skimpiest bikini you can find.....surely that's voyeurism, not sport

[Richard]

Did I really see baseball on the Olympics today? What a joke.

 

Isn't Gabby Logan terrible? Mind you, I understand she's a football comentator - stands to reason.

 

But Adrian Chiles is cool; I really like him and Hazel watsits in the morning.

[ubereglu]

Did I really see baseball on the Olympics today? What a joke.

 

Yep you did, but this is the last Olympics that both that and Softball are events for the foreseeable future.

[BarbaraJ]

Wind surfing, an olympic event

 

come onnnn !! sailing bores me to tears rowings ok but we all have our favourites.

 

personally i enjoy alot of it, gymnastics, swimming (go GB girls) especially, i just choose not to watch the others! my eldest daughter enjoys the horse jumping, not something i'd watch but hey!!

 

 

totally agree with the money wasted and numbing boredom of football though, mind you i love to go shopping when football finals are on!!

[Richard]

Wind surfing, an olympic event

 

come onnnn !! sailing bores me to tears rowings ok but we all have our favourites.

 

!!

 

Oh dear, I do feel sorry for you. If you didn't see the end of the Star class this morning and realise that you were witnessing the most exciting finish of any event in the games, I feel for you. Sailing involves fitness, endurance, tactics, intelligence, stamina etc. Running not very far in a straight line involves ... fitness and um ...

 

But you are right, we all have our favourites and it wouldn't do for us all to be the same. Just so long as you appreciate the superiority of cycling and sailing I don't have any problem with you all prefering your own sports (poor misguided souls that you are).

 

Yet another gold sailing medal this morning, and there's some BMX later if the rain holds off. How are we doing on the athletics track and the throwing things events?

 

I saw some synchronised swimming yesterday - what is all that about?

Edited August 21, 2008 by Guest

[Looney]

 

I saw some synchronised swimming yesterday - what is all that about?

 

It involves swimmers having to do stuff in time with each other.....

[Egluntyne]

I saw some synchronised swimming yesterday - what is all that about?

 

I think there are clues in the name Richard.

[Guest]

My mother made me do syncronised swimming when I was young - I lasted 2 lessons, swallowed most of the water in the diving pool at the Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, nearly inhaled the nose clip and had to be dragged from the pool, bedraggled and half drowned halfway through my second week. Personally, I think I deserved a medal for lasting more than 2 minutes!

[Egluntyne]

Sounds like torture.

 

I've never seen the point of swimming with a full face of makeup either.

 

The nose clips undo all the good that a layer of varnish might have bestowed.

[AnnieP]

I have to admit, I am addicted to the medals table...

[buffie]

Only just started to watch it

 

Buffie x

[Richard]

 

I saw some synchronised swimming yesterday - what is all that about?

 

It involves swimmers having to do stuff in time with each other.....

 

do you reckon they have their breakfast together, lifting their spoons in time. And go to the loo ... sorry no, thats a terrible thought and bound to be moderated so I'll apologise to those who are offended now.

[Mrs Frugal]

Sounds like torture.

 

I've never seen the point of swimming with a full face of makeup either.

 

The nose clips undo all the good that a layer of varnish might have bestowed.

 

I got roped into the school synchronised swimming team in my O level year and boy was it hard work. The nose clips hurt like "Ooops, word censored!"ody's business and leave a mark for hours on the outside of each nostril too! Good fun though despite the awful make up, stupid head gear and torturous nose clips!

[buffie]

Woo hoo Kate, very impressed. I was roped into shot put, honest

 

I wasn't bad, worryingly

 

Buffie x

[Mrs Frugal]

Now that really is scary, Buffs!! You could do a lot of damage with a shot put if you wanted to. Not much you can do with a cardboard tiara and a pair of flesh coloured nose clips though