Drugs in other sports and the media.
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stagehopper wrote:And didn't think food was that expensive - about £7 for hog roast roll which is roughly what you;d expect to get ripped off for at a stadium event in rip off Britain these days.
Fixed it...
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TheBigBean wrote:On that note, I think you can probably find a sneaky entrance to Westfield and skip some of the queues if you know where you are going.
You'll already have been queueing for 20 minutes by then, and there are huge barriers stopping you getting in where the restaurants are. If you can get round the other side of the stadium and out to Bow Road, might be better.0 -
or leave before the final event to get a headstart on the rush out - though admittedly I would struggle as its the 400 W final with my girl crush Allyson Felix0
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KingstonGraham wrote:TheBigBean wrote:On that note, I think you can probably find a sneaky entrance to Westfield and skip some of the queues if you know where you are going.
You'll already have been queueing for 20 minutes by then, and there are huge barriers stopping you getting in where the restaurants are. If you can get round the other side of the stadium and out to Bow Road, might be better.
This is a good idea - District line to Fulham, Rick0 -
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Richmond Racer 2 wrote:or leave before the final event to get a headstart on the rush out - though admittedly I would struggle as its the 400 W final with my girl crush Allyson Felix
Leaving before seeing the most perfect running form in the world would surely not be an option for anyone.0 -
KingstonGraham wrote:Richmond Racer 2 wrote:or leave before the final event to get a headstart on the rush out - though admittedly I would struggle as its the 400 W final with my girl crush Allyson Felix
Leaving before seeing the most perfect running form in the world would surely not be an option for anyone.
Agreed; seeing my reflection in the puddles of water on this wet evening would be distracting for anyone, let alone me.
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Andy Murray is far and away the most outspoken star (out of both men and womens tennis) when it comes to the need for professional tennis bodies to up their game on the anti-doping front
He used to moan about the inconvenience of whereabouts. Until the Lance expose broke. Then it was as though something switched in his brain. Bigly outspoken on the subject of AD since then.0 -
KingstonGraham wrote:Richmond Racer 2 wrote:or leave before the final event to get a headstart on the rush out - though admittedly I would struggle as its the 400 W final with my girl crush Allyson Felix
Leaving before seeing the most perfect running form in the world would surely not be an option for anyone.
Perfection and grace indeed0 -
stagehopper wrote:back there Friday and thinking of paying for the Javelin back to St Pancras
Are you competing? How much do they charge for it?It's only a bit of sport, Mun. Relax and enjoy the racing.0 -
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^That was a great win!
And my god, the womens 200! :shock:0 -
Good time, Rick?0
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Richmond Racer 2 wrote:Good time, Rick?
Women’s 400m :P. I was cold with a scarf, thermal feather down coat, jumper, boots etc, and so the lot I was with, who don’t treat the weather like an Italian (i.e. anything under 20 degrees is winter), were struggling towards the end, which was a shame because that was when it all happened. Might as well have been the middle of autumn, which I think explains a lot of the weird results last night.
Everyone was pretty much soaked by the time they go into the stadium, and they’re not the ‘well ‘ard’ football crowd, so they took a bit of warming up. Definitely some weary and grey looking fans by the time the running finals came around.
I did turn up with a print out of every event with the athletes to watch highlighted and a few notes, so I ended up offering commentary for those nearby which got their approval; stadium commentary wasn’t offering all that much!
But yes, fun night, but would have been nice on a hot summer’s night.
These athletes though; hard as nails; some serious stacks in the steeplechase and they just get on with it.
Did they show the hammer that got caught at the top of the net? Much hilarity ensued…..Man they chuck those things far (no sh!t…).0 -
Salsiccia1 wrote:stagehopper wrote:back there Friday and thinking of paying for the Javelin back to St Pancras
Are you competing? How much do they charge for it?
Only competing to get back to Reading quickly. Looks like it's a £3 surcharge on top of a usual travelcard. Might have to bite the bullet (train).0 -
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Rick Chasey wrote:These athletes though; hard as nails; some serious stacks in the steeplechase and they just get on with it.
They showed the British athlete who slipped over in the water jump, then later went completely a over t after catching her foot under a barrier. She finished only 13 seconds outside her PB.0 -
Rick Chasey wrote:
Women’s 400m :P.
That was a very strange race. Has anyone got the bottom of what happened to Miller-Uibo? Even the great Michael Johnson was rather at a loss trying to explain it.0 -
Rick Chasey wrote:so I ended up offering commentary for those nearby
This part of the story I have little doubt about.0 -
r0bh wrote:Rick Chasey wrote:
Women’s 400m :P.
That was a very strange race. Has anyone got the bottom of what happened to Miller-Uibo? Even the great Michael Johnson was rather at a loss trying to explain it.
From my nosebleed vantage point; looked like cramp.0 -
Back on topic... 400m world record time of 47.60 was set in 1985, and is still in the official record books despite all the evidence about East Germany.
https://youtu.be/WIQZAq6J4ug0 -
There was a lot of denial about doping from the fans I was chatting to on my way into the stadium. They were up for a chat about it, but mainly from a ‘it’s not as bad as the press make out’ way, which was surprising.
I offered up the stories of PDM’s “food poisoning” scenario, and the hilarious excuses cyclists have used in the past to explain positive tests; phantom twin brothers etc.
There was a lot of incredulity, firstly that anyone would make up such an excuse had they been caught, and then that athletics athletes would do that; ‘they have too much to lose’. There wasn’t much buy in to the idea that they may have only had something to lose because they gained it from doping in the first place.
I offered up a hypothesis that eventually one of the ‘tentpoles’ who holds the sport up will be caught up in it and it’ll all come out Armstrong style. Did not go down well.0 -
KingstonGraham wrote:Back on topic... 400m world record time of 47.60 was set in 1985, and is still in the official record books despite all the evidence about East Germany.
https://youtu.be/WIQZAq6J4ug
The 100m time is worse though as that was wind assisted as well.0 -
KingstonGraham wrote:Back on topic... 400m world record time of 47.60 was set in 1985, and is still in the official record books despite all the evidence about East Germany.
https://youtu.be/WIQZAq6J4ug
Can't remember which event (either javelin or hammer), but the WR visual aid was pretty daunting. Most of the contenders were approx 10m away.
Would be good to see a virtual line, like in swimming, showing how the runners compare to wr times just to show how ridiculous some of the records are. Would stick in the minds of some.0 -
Rick Chasey wrote:I offered up a hypothesis that eventually one of the ‘tentpoles’ who holds the sport up will be caught up in it and it’ll all come out Armstrong style. Did not go down well.
Let's be honest. If you were watching Flanders and someone who hardly watched the sport came up to you and started chatting doping, would it go down well?0 -
Athletics has three different problems.
1) Countries like Russia that have/had an appearance of a robust testing system, but it's all a sham.
2) Countries like Ethiopia that don't dedicate enough money to testing because they don't have it, so the testing isn't done effectively but everyone knows it.
3) Countries like the UK and Jamaica who just don't want to believe anyone like them could be on it and avoiding detection.
and I don't think they have answers to any of them.0 -
Someone in a rag suggested a year amnesty where anyone who's doped is allowed to come forward and spill the beans with no risk of punishment.
Anyone after this period who is found out afterwards is given a lifetime ban.
Re-set all pb's, wr's etc.
But like you say, they don't want to believe. Seb Coe doesn't help when he comes out on the eve of the champs and proclaims drugs aren't the biggest problem they face, it's attracting new fans.
And like Rick says, it'll take a big, big name to force any real change.0 -
KingstonGraham wrote:Athletics has three different problems.
1) Countries like Russia that have/had an appearance of a robust testing system, but it's all a sham.
2) Countries like Ethiopia that don't dedicate enough money to testing because they don't have it, so the testing isn't done effectively but everyone knows it.
3) Countries like the UK and Jamaica who just don't want to believe anyone like them could be on it and avoiding detection.
and I don't think they have answers to any of them.
I look at it the other way. The one problem athletics has is that year round all people are mostly interested in is running against the clock. New WRs are exciting. The clean reality where times are really slow is a bit boring. Other sports don't have this problem because people mostly focus on who is winning and with what tactics. Therefore there is even less incentive to catch anyone irrespective of the reason why they can get away with it.
The major championships are a bit different, but people do watch those.
A good example would be in 2011 the leading tour riders where 4 mins or so slower up Alp d'Huez. No one noticed because it was a great race.0 -
Their problem, as opposed to cycling, is that the sport is so widely dispersed. Cycling is basically 18 teams who all go to the same races, mostly live on the same continent and largely no each other fairly well. It's heavily centralised. In those circumstances is not too hard to change a culture and create a new one if the will is there. And it's easier to police, Athletics is more like the Continental level of cycling - all over the place in every sense. While WT and Pro Conti has cleaned up, I suspect Continental in some areas is as bad as ever, probably worseKingstonGraham wrote:Athletics has three different problems.
1) Countries like Russia that have/had an appearance of a robust testing system, but it's all a sham.
2) Countries like Ethiopia that don't dedicate enough money to testing because they don't have it, so the testing isn't done effectively but everyone knows it.
3) Countries like the UK and Jamaica who just don't want to believe anyone like them could be on it and avoiding detection.
and I don't think they have answers to any of them.
If there are two lessons for athletics to learn from cycling, they are:
1. Doping can only be tackled through centralised governance and policing
2. Nobody is too big to fail. The sport will survive.Twitter: @RichN950 -
TheBigBean wrote:Rick Chasey wrote:I offered up a hypothesis that eventually one of the ‘tentpoles’ who holds the sport up will be caught up in it and it’ll all come out Armstrong style. Did not go down well.
Let's be honest. If you were watching Flanders and someone who hardly watched the sport came up to you and started chatting doping, would it go down well?
I watch quite a bit of athletics, so I'm hardly a n00b, and like I said, they brought it up; i'm not that much of a social moron!0
