The Athletics Thread...

[Nero Wolf]

Yep,I remember Grete Waitz.

Won the first WC gold in Helsinki 1983,and won NY marathon nine times.

Still..I guess..was having an somewhat easy situation because of the complete lack of african womens sport in the 70`s and 80`s.

A great athlete nonetheless though.

 

[Sniffer]

There is a good blog on Christine Ohuruogu's winter / start to the summer after the last two seasons have been blighted by injury.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tomfordyce/2011/04/chrissie_o.html

 

[Toon Wolf]

There is a good blog on Christine Ohuruogu's winter / start to the summer after the last two seasons have been blighted by injury.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tomfordyce/2011/04/chrissie_o.html

Tha's great, thanks for sharing Sniffer. I've just shared it with the athletes I coach on our club page and I'm going to encourage them all to read it when I'm at training tonight. Hopefully it'll help them realise that when they're all complaining about dying after a track session, it's really all for their own benefit!!

 

[FrankMunro-371]

Sad news that the Olympic marathon winner, Samuel Wanjiru has died, apparently it was suicide. He also won the London Marathon, and ran the fastest marathon ever in USA.

 

[Toon Wolf]

Usain Bolt returns to action for the first time since last August in the Rome Diamond League tonight. It will be interesting to see how his comeback is progressing.

In other news my little club, Blaydon Harriers (we put on the annual Blaydon Race made famous by the song) have won the first 2 matches of their National Young Athletes League competition and are currently top and in pole position for promotion to the Northern Premier Division. The next match we are up against the 2 teams in 2nd and 3rd place. Promotion would see us going up against major clubs like Gateshead, Leeds City, City of Sheffield, Sale Harriers, Liverpool...Given that we are a tiny club from one small part of Gateshead, this would be a fantastic achievement. We don't even have a proper track to train on...

 

[Sniffer]

Usain Bolt returns to action for the first time since last August in the Rome Diamond League tonight. It will be interesting to see how his comeback is progressing.

In other news my little club, Blaydon Harriers (we put on the annual Blaydon Race made famous by the song) have won the first 2 matches of their National Young Athletes League competition and are currently top and in pole position for promotion to the Northern Premier Division. The next match we are up against the 2 teams in 2nd and 3rd place. Promotion would see us going up against major clubs like Gateshead, Leeds City, City of Sheffield, Sale Harriers, Liverpool...Given that we are a tiny club from one small part of Gateshead, this would be a fantastic achievement. We don't even have a proper track to train on...

Toon, how do you keep hold of your talented athletes with a major club like Gateshead on your doorstep or do you attract the ones who are discarded from there? Also what became of the guy with the rugby injury?

 

[Toon Wolf]

Toon, how do you keep hold of your talented athletes with a major club like Gateshead on your doorstep or do you attract the ones who are discarded from there? Also what became of the guy with the rugby injury?

Gateshead tend to hoover up all the most talented kids in the whole of the North-East, from Newcastle, Gateshead, all the way up into Northumbaerland and down to Middlesborough. We rely on developing the kids who come through our induction (under-11s) group and the ones we pick up through our links to schools in our area who are talented but haven't been along to Gateshead. It's tough because they have the stadium, the other facilities and the prestige. But they are pretty ruthless with their young athletes, if they aren't good enough to make their teams, they do kick them to the curb, which is where we can pick up some. The good athletes we do have we are able to keep because we are a much more personal and friendly club who will give kids the opportunity to receive coaching and competition, no matter what ability. The number of our best athletes who leave to join Gateshead is very, very small.

As for Tom, he won't run this season. He went on tour with his rugby club, ostensibly just to watch and for the social side, but got press-ganged into playing whilst on tour and re-injured his knee so it definitely requires surgery. I'm not pleased with him, but more importantly I think it's a total disgrace that his rugby coaches even asked him to play knowing he was recovering from injury. IMO it is tantamount to child abuse.

 

[Toon Wolf]

So Bolt runs 9.91s in his first 100m in 9 months. Not bad, and he overcame an appalling start to win, though it looked as if Asafa Powell was going to beat him until his late surge.

Question: is Bolt the greatest current sporting star in the world?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

He is definitely up there. An absolute phenomenon.

In terms of global recognition he must be fighting with Messi I would imagine.

 

[Toon Wolf]

Here's the video of last nght's race:



Interesting to see Christophe Lamaitre beat Olympic silver medallist Richard Thompson.

 

[Toon Wolf]

Encouraging news on Jess Ennis:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/13543533.stm

 

[Toon Wolf]

Match 3 of National Young Athletes North-East division One featured the 3 previously (and only) unbeaten clubs. My club, Blaydon, won by a fair margin despite having the smallest number of athletes available we've had in about 4 years. Personal best performances all around from the athletes I coach, producing their best races on the most important day of the season so far...Quality coaching IMO!! :vuz: (That's me blowing my own trumpet!) One more match against 2 clubs down near the bottom of the league, should see us promoted to the Northern Premier Division for the first time in the club's history. The best thing about it for me is not the promotion itself, though that is good kudos for the club, the best thing is that our athletes get to test themselves against a higher standard of competition, which will hopefully enable them to raise their own level of performance. Compete against the best to make yourself the best...

Next week is one of the 3 remaining opportunities for English Schools qualification, this really is the race that most of my athletes have been training for, Schools County Championships. fingers are crossed.

In other news, Daniel Awde recorded the best decathlon points score by a UK athlete in more than 20 years over the weekend. Finally, we may have someone to take up the baton handed down by Daley Thompson...

PS: One thing I forgot to mention about my club- club colours are gold and black...:happy:

 

[Sniffer]

What a run by Mo Farah at the weekend. Broke the Bristish and Europeean records in winning a 10,000m race against a high quality field. He knocked almost 45 seconds off his personal best.

 

[Toon Wolf]

What a run by Mo Farah at the weekend. Broke the Bristish and Europeean records in winning a 10,000m race against a high quality field. He knocked almost 45 seconds off his personal best.

Mo Farah is brilliant, and a top, top bloke. He's the best distance runner we've had in years. It's possible he could go on to become considered the best we've ever had. I'd love to see him finish on the podium in 2012, it's just so difficult to see him beating the Ethiopians and Kenyans.

 

[FrankMunro-371]

It would be a magnificent achievement if Mo Farah could get on the podium. It will take some doing though

 

[Toon Wolf]

It would be a magnificent achievement if Mo Farah could get on the podium. It will take some doing though

He's got very little chance. Which is a great pity as he is just about the nicest person in athletics.

 

[North West Wanderer]

Farah in a tactical battle has a chance, at pace, no chance.

Looking forward to seeing Dai Greene this season, and if Usain Bolt ever runs a serious 400 too. I remeber when a similarly built athlete ran the 400 Hurdles and set a record yet to be beaten over 15 years later. If Bolt took it seriously I could see a comfortable sub 43 no issue.

 

[Toon Wolf]

Gateshead has been awarded the European Athletics Team Championship for 2013. Woohoo!

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

The Golden League from Oslo is currently live on BBC Three and Usain Bolt is running in about 15 minutes.

In their infinite wisdom, the BBC chose not to publicise this in any way so I only just noticed it idly flicking through the channels.

 

[Toon Wolf]

The Golden League from Oslo is currently live on BBC Three and Usain Bolt is running in about 15 minutes.

In their infinite wisdom, the BBC chose not to publicise this in any way so I only just noticed it idly flicking through the channels.

Knew nothing about this or would have set my Sky+ to record as I've been out all night at the Blaydon Race (organising/marshalling, not running!) Stupid BBC. Bolt ran 19.86s for the 200m, comfortably the fastest time in the world this year.