The World Athletics Championships

1) Is it just me, or does the whole thing seem REALLY badly organised? People coming onto the track while people are on teh starters block, hammers falling onto the track, dodgy electronics resulting in iffy disqualifications - this isn't random frog bashing here, but I really hope we don't see anythign major in France for a long time ater this fiasco.

2) Yes, chambers underachieved, but fair play to our other Brit - a bronze is prety good, especially after the season he's had. And fair play to Collins as well - me and my bro took 10 minutes working out what SKN meant on the line-up screen!

3) Commentry team same as always, so no change. Sally Gunnel, looking more like a female bodybuilder every day, is annoying, but Johnson upstairs makes up for it.

4) Kluft looks iffy to me. Nice bod, but funny eyes. Classic BOBFOC (body off Baywatch, face off Crimewatch)

Has anyone ever been to one of these things? I'm curious to know how impressive it is live - not sure whether I could tell I was watching incredible feats from the back of the stand

Usain Bolt is completely made of awesomeness.

9.58

crazy

Seriously, that was outstanding. Guy is phenomenally freaky mad good.

He must be able to beat 9.5 some time soon.

Yeah, he still kind of doesn't even look like he's even trying properly.

Ridiculously awesome, he didn't even get that good a start, lol.

yeah, he's really not trying very hard, is he?

xxpost har :)

Any comparable step changes in athletics performances people can think of? I suppose Bob Beamon's long jump would be up there...

Brilliant stuff. Tyson Gay's must've been the third-fastest time ever too, the poor fella.

I love him. When I was a kid it was 100ths of seconds being shaved off 100m records. So much for diminishing returns.

Gay looked pretty fucked off when interviewed by BBC guy.

Michael Johnson's 200m xp

Sergey Bubka's pole vault records, maybe?

xposts

lol at Michael Johnson's reaction

I would let this guy sodomise me if he agreed to look like he was trying and see how fast he can actually go.

Bubka kept breaking his own record by 1cm though, didn't he? I think it was the case that no-one else was within 10cm of him though.

It was a perfectly good start, btw - 0.146 reaction isn't the best (2/1000s slower than Gay) but is OK and he straightened up a bit smoother than usual. I think he was trying all right. Imagine if sprinting at altitude hadn't become a bit passe? He could go to Mexico City and run 9.35 or something.

I love the guy. Not sure today quite matches the WTF of Johnson's Atlanta '96 run, but it was up there.

Nah, it's all part of the charm. I love this guy. I just want him to come out on to the track nibbling a chicken nugget before the race.

Pole Vault WR progression, courtesy of Wiki:
5.85 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Bratislava, Slovakia May 26, 1984[1] 1
5.88 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Paris, France June 2, 1984[1] 2
5.90 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union London, England July 13, 1984[1] 3
5.91 m Thierry Vigneron France Rome, Italy August 31, 1984[1] 5
5.94 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Rome, Italy August 31, 1984[1] 4
6.00 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Paris, France July 13, 1985[1] 5
6.01 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Moscow, Russia July 8, 1986[1] 6
6.03 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Prague, Czech Republic June 23, 1987[1] 7
6.05 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Bratislava, Slovakia June 9, 1988[1] 8
6.06 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Nice, France July 10, 1988[1] 9
6.07 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Shizuoka, Japan May 6, 1991[1] 10
6.08 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Moscow, Russia June 9, 1991[1] 11
6.09 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Formia, Italy July 8, 1991[1] 12
6.10 m Sergey Bubka Soviet Union Malmö, Sweden August 5, 1991[1] 13
6.11 m Sergey Bubka Ukraine Dijon, France June 13, 1992[1] 14
6.12 m Sergey Bubka Ukraine Padova, Italy August 30, 1992[1] 15
6.13 m Sergey Bubka Ukraine Tokyo, Japan September 19, 1992[1] 16
6.14 m Sergey Bubka Ukraine Sestriere, Italy July 31, 1994[1] 17

And that's just the outdoor records.

Ah, OK, I thought he'd smashed the 6m one by more than 6cm from his last record.

Thierry Vigneron?

That 6m vault - that was Live Aid day! Guy must've been inspired by the prospect of Hall and Oates.

xp

bubka motivated not in any small part by his ?nike? contract, which granted him substantial bonuses each and every time he broke the record.

Anyone been following the Semenya story?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/8210471.stm

I can understand the gender test based on the masculinity of her appearance, but why are they citing a sudden improvement in her times as the reason? Is there a suggestion that she's been taking testosterone ? If so, wouldn't that be picked up in the usual blood test?

http://www.iaaf.org/mm/photo/competitions/competition/04/96/47/49647_full-prt.jpg

19.19, just how fast can he go in future? I feel sorry for the guys who have to compete against him.

Still made of awesome, btw. Also props to the mascot for the posing for the photos.

surprised there isn't more talk on the semenya story. appallingly handled by the iaaf...unbelievable that they thought 3 hrs before her final was an acceptable time to announce that a sex test was under way.

what's awful is that she may have some sort of intersex condition which she's not aware of - cf the sad story of santhi soundarajan.

the results have surfaced:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/09/10/2009-09-10_caster_semenya_.html

semen? ya...

(sorry)

Tests show that controversial runner Caster Semenya is a woman ...and a man!

oh, nice opener. the exclamation mark really kills it.

Begins in two weeks. Does anybody else on ILX care about this?

Yikes false-start rules pretty draconian; poor Christine O...

Why did they drop warnings?

Makes for better TV I guess, fewer false starts?

Bolt looked incredibly easy winning his 100m heat.

The draconian one-and-out false start rule just DQ'd Usain Bolt from the 100m final! Crazy.

So Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay are out after failing drugs tests.

omg

Pretty sad these people need to resort to cheating to beat Bolt

LOL Britain

The BBC coverage of athletics almost always has the effect of making me want British athletes to lose. I've had to turn the sound off just there because I want Mo Farah to win.

ffs even Mo Farah is losing now, Britain is shite, now Brendan Foster please shut up and go away and never come back.

http://www.nbcsports.com/video/2017-iaaf-worlds-emma-coburn-wins-gold-steeplechase-breaks-us-record this is as weird race with strong last lap attacks by frerichs and then coburn over the water to win and go 1-2. frerichs over her pr by like 12 secs?!

That steeplechase was a crazy and excellent race

Oh my good God, Bolt pulls up in his last ever race and GB+NI win the 4x100 relay!

Not even sure bolt was going to catch them tbh

No, the old man was toiling.

That high jump medal ceremony with the neutral winner was a bit awkward, but at least we've all heard the anthem of the iaaf now

now Brendan Foster please shut up and go away and never come back.

Good news, he's retiring, at long last.

Great idea to hold these in Qatar. Inevitably Sebastian Coe is involved.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/30/doha-world-athletics-championships-crowds-iaaf

Hi I’m here.

Now there are much worse places to be. #WorldAthleticsChampionships pic.twitter.com/iqcz8Q3ESY

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) July 15, 2022