European Athletics Championships

[JustGiveMeReason]

Is anyone else watching ?

I don't follow the Diamond League but do enjoy watching the European / World Championships and Olympic and Commonwealth Games Athletics.

Great to see so many of our athletes performing so well. Shame they got the ticketing and marketing so badly wrong.

Can anyone explain why
a) Some of the German team seem to be wearing Australia colours
b) Why we don't have a team kit ?

I get the different styles - some want to wear shorts and a t-shirt, some a vest, some run in their underwear or a swimming costume - their choice and whatever makes them comfortable but what I don't understand is why all the GB&NI team aren't in the same colours ?
I've just been watching this morning's coverage and some of our athletes are in blue, some are wearing purple, and Jake Wightman is wearing a white vest with blue shorts.

I’ve been volunteering there all week, and imo the ticketing thing has been totally blown out of proportion- there are always empty segments at the big competitions as a lot of seats are allocated to teams, their government vips and others who will literally pop in to just see their athlete compete and go again. As the week goes on there are more coaches and athletes who have finished competition and it fills up (you saw this at the Olympics too if you were in the athletics stadium but it wasn’t shown on tv). Daytime cheapest tickets were £20 for adults and £5 for under 16s which I think were pretty good prices, and people were very happy with the views

Only just found this thread. I've finally had time to watch this weekend.
Jazmin Sawyers is wonderful, I love her cosy leg blanket.

I have so enjoyed the whole week, but the potential peril excitement of the relays always takes it up a notch for me.

Brilliant to see Jazz Sawyers doing so well tonight, as well as all the the fantastic track stars.

What does everyone think of the new mixed 4 x 100 ?

I thought there was always a mixed 4 x 100 😳.
Maybe I'm getting muddled with mixed doubles.

Yeah I’m not I breathe through each change over!

Both BG teams were amazing and I’m so glad for Amy Hunt she got her other gold.

Did anyone else see the videos of the relay teams standing and practicing the baton passing? They stand in a line doing robot arms passing it to each other.

We were able to watch the warm ups for the relay heats and it was fascinating. like a military operation. Loved every minute of it, and being there for all the Irish medals was just wonderful. Apart from Saturday evenings shitshow getting out, the whole thing was fab.

I am not athletic in the slightest but I always enjoy watching this. Jazz Sawyer was brilliant and I really enjoyed the men’s high jump too. I end up really rooting for our team whereas I’m not in the least bothered about the football etc. Amazing achievements by them all.

Yes I loved them.

Couldn’t help but laugh at “hand”

have missed it not being on today. TNT sports is so much better to watch more athletics than BBC. So much chat and so many reruns of VTs.

I did go to the Olympics athletics in London and it was full I went twice. Friends and family/team members spaces is overplayed. The attendance early on was abysmal. Tv pictures don’t lie that much. The prices were too high and athletics is not as popular as it thinks it is these days. It needs a lot of marketing to sell it.

We were a bit short on fast times by British athletes so not very hopeful when the world top performers compete but we did well!

The relays (and handovers) always happen too quickly and all I see are little figures haring round the track. I can't tell who is who so heart in my mouth (think I actually stopped breathing) until Hunt edged ahead. Woo hoo!

I think the 'who is who' is exacerbated by the lack of team branding / uniform team colours I mentioned in the OP.
Our athletes were wearing a choice of 3 different colour kits (not in the relay, but across the team). Why ?

In the middle and long distance runs you can't tell if you are looking for a white vest or a blue or a purple one.
Some of the German athletes' kit looked like the Spain kit and some looked like an Australian top (I know Aus aren't in the European competitions).

Makes no sense to me.

I particularly enjoyed the mascot, Bab, standing behind Jazz with a towel round his legs too.

We went one morning and it wasn't all that well organised. The stands were very empty but it was baking hot. The top athletes being given byes did make the morning sessions underwhelming.

I loved it! So nice to watch it every night last week.

We absolutely loved it. All the relays were great.

Yes, and the Italian kit looked like a British kit too!

I'm missing it this week. We were meant to be going but OH can barely walk so it got shelved. Hoping that the Worlds will come to London in 2029 so we can do that instead.

It did annoy me when they went to the presenters talking when there was obviously live action going on in the background.

With the relays, even when they're over the line I'm still worried there might be a lane infringement or dodgy handover.

I went to a weekend evening session and it was fantastic- so well organised and an amazing atmosphere. Well done to all involved, it was brilliant. The volunteers were much appreciated @CMOTDibbler- as you said, the views were great 😊

We went to the Saturday night session - it was fantastic. Tickets were £26 for adults and £13 for the children - I thought it was really good value. We had a good view and lost our voices cheering on the relay teams.

I read that the different colours are the darker blue are designed for speed, mostly chosen by the sprinters. The white sets are more traditional looser, middle distance set ups. Then there was a different set for finals. I agree though, I can’t understand why they couldn’t be in the same colour. It was amazing to watch though, DD competed there at English Schools at the start of July and she loved watching all the pros at a track she’s competed at. The athletes did us proud!

@Piggywaspushed the Spanish football team play in red but the Spanish were in yellow at the athletics. Some teams even had different coloured shorts; red or blue. Germany was mostly yellow and Norway was blue and a bit like us. Luckily the Dutch stick to orange and Sweden yellow and blue. It did get confusing.

Yes there were cheaper tickets but many were £100. It’s too high.

Only watched on tv, but really enjoyed the relays, pole vault, the steeplechase, 5 k & 10k and the women’s marathon but did not enjoy Paula and Steve’s random commentary

Greg Rutherford has become a much better commentator. I thought there would be a large void when Michael Johnson was omitted but the BBC coverage was really informative.