Mixed Relay - World Athletics Championships

@andyoldlabour CAS's upholding of Dutee Chand's appeal against the IAAF's earlier hyperandrogenism regulations in 2015 is where CAS made it clear that they would uphold appeals against any regulations which weren't based on data.

There is already a 400m individual event and a 4 x 400m relay. Adding an extra, mixed relay makes it nearly impossible to put the best people out for all 3, thus devaluing one or other of the relays. Obviously, some people's default setting is to assume misogyny everywhere.

Thankfully, the properly collated scientific data showing the bleeding obvious is on its way, and the chances of the Swiss Federal Court backing Semenya are slim to vanishing. It is not even an appeal court. It can only rule on whether CAS has the right to come to the decision it found.

"So it's CAS who are largely responsible for this situation."

After reading up on the case I am not entirely sure which party is to blame. The following would infer that it is the IAAF who put the new rules in place.

"Semenya is challenging new rules from the sport's world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, that she and other athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) must either take testosterone-reducing medication in order to compete in track events from 400m to the mile or change to another distance."

Semnya tried to use CAS to overturn that decision.

"In May, Semenya filed an appeal to the court after failing to have new IAAF rules overturned by Cas."

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/49169509

Whoever made the rules, they are still wrong, as no XY person should be competing in women's sport.

For the Euros and the Olympics you can switch to Eurosport who (gasp) cover the whole programme without favour.

Oh yes, I much prefer Eurosport where I have the choice. Furthermore you sometimes find the same commentators on both BBC and Eurosport but on the latter they demonstrate their in depth knowledge so it is obviously an institutional choice, not a problem of individual commentators.

@andyoldlabour The restriction of the testosterone limits on athletes with 46XY DSDs to distances between 400m and 1500m was essentially forced on the IAAF by CAS's (Court of Arbitration for Sport) requirement for the limits to be based on data and not just theoretical arguments. So it's CAS who are largely responsible for this situation.

Sports Scientist Ross Tucker has written some excellent, detailed blogs on this issue. I don't agree with 100% of his opinions, but he's extremely well-informed and generally sensible.

For the Euros and the Olympics you can switch to Eurosport who (gasp) cover the whole programme without favour.

So for this you're stuck with the parochial broadcasting corporation and their obsession with GB medal prospects.

The radio coverage is better, (TV with sound down) but its intermittent.

"I don't want to watch people sitting in a studio wittering. I want to watch the damn athletics."

I agree, and if they are going to witter, then make it a bit challenging. Talk a bit more about the Salazar doping case, explain to the viewers about Seyni, giving the comparison to Semenya. Get Ross Tucker on to explain scientifically why athletes such as Seyni should not be competing in women's sport.

I'm also annoyed at the BBC neglecting to cover the women's javelin. And ignoring the bronze medallist in the men's pole vault. They also completely failed to show the bronze medal jump in the men's triple jump earlier in the week.

I don't want to watch people sitting in a studio wittering. I want to watch the damn athletics.

Arghh!

The relay was fun to watch but doesn't address these type of issues

After yesterday I am officially annoyed by this relay.

Yesterday I watched the semi finals of the women's 200m. And the semi finals of the women's 400m.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo* has had to choose between these two events because of scheduling. In the past athletes were able to double up. The time slot taken by the mixed relay could have gone to the women's 400m. Stupid, stupid organisers.

*others may have been forced into similar choices

I'm a massive sports fan and work in the industry. I'm not interested in watching unfair competition, it totally undermines women's sport. Will spectators switch off and sponsors follow?

If they want to improve attendance at events they could start with holding them in places where people are actually interested. Just a thought.

"I'm quite glad I have retired from teaching sport science but I am utterly staggreded that human physiology has changed so much since my last lecture on the effects of testosterone on fast twitch muscle performance. I don't know if I could keep up with modern evolution!"

I agree Curious, this new "science" is a strange beast indeed.
Perhaps the powers that be, think that sprinters are powered by the aerobic system rather than the anaerobic ATP/CP system. They probably have not heard of the lactate system which kicks in from 15 - 20 seconds.

Forme it makes enjoying the world athletics not so enjoyable

I feel I have to keep looking at the women athletes and wondering

The commentator called him he last night in the 200 metres semi

"Andy not losing your marbles. Why is he even in the women’s events ?"

Because the IOC/IAAF lack a spine, they put feelings and hurts above biological reality.
As far as I can see, Seyni has only been running at this level for 3 years (23 years old) and has made quite rapid progress.
Seyni managed a 2nd place at the Diamond League Lausanne meeting on 5th July, setting a time of 49.19 seconds, which I believe is quicker than Christine Ohurugu's British record - not bad for a virtual unknown from Niger.

www.iaaf.org/athletes/niger/aminatou-seyni-321277

Micheal Johnson is my athletics hero.

His point was that there are many things that need to improve in athletics, innovation needs to fix these issues no just bring excitement. I thought it was great fun to watch and I love the equivalent in triathlon. However, athletics needs to solve its drugs problem, invigorate grass routes sports, improve attendance, stop ignoring field events at many competitions and figure out why so many excellent athletes stop competing as teens (and many, many other issues). The relay was fun to watch but doesn't address these type of issues.

Erm! If DSD is rare how come so many people with "differences in sexual development" are world class athletes, female ones at that?

I'm quite glad I have retired from teaching sport science but I am utterly staggreded that human physiology has changed so much since my last lecture on the effects of testosterone on fast twitch muscle performance. I don't know if I could keep up with modern evolution!

Andy not losing your marbles. Why is he even in the women’s events ?

I must be losing my marbles, because Seyni is from Niger. - assuming I have not made another error.
Anyway, who in their right mind would think it is OK to let a 200/400m runner with XY chromosomes run in the 200m for women and not the 400m for women?
The reasoning given, as I understand it, was that testosterone doesn't make as much difference in the 200m.
Yes you heard that correctly, testosterone, an anabolic steroid doesn't make as much difference in a sprint event???
So why do sprinters who dope, such as Justin Gatlin, always use testosterone or some similar product - stanazolol in the case of Ben Johnson.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Gatlin#Doping_bans

DH just called Seyni as a man as the camera panned without even hesitating.

I see who you mean now.

Back in June there were obviously a few people who were aware of this. This twitter feed contains a video of a quite remarkable 400m run from Seyni - impossibly remarkable in fact.
I have to correct my previous post where for some reason I stated that she is Nigerian. She represents Indonesia.

twitter.com/pjvazel/status/1138918409419264001

So that’s a woman denied a place in semi finals 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I watched this race and thought it was a powerful illustration of why women need to compete with women. I don't think it added much in terms of entertainment value to the championships and the scheduling of it was very poor.

I enjoy the mixed relay in triathlon where it's now become an established fixture, but it didn't have the tradition of single-sex relays that athletics has, so there was room for it. I don't think it's needed in athletics.