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.

Can someone explain why there were no medal ceremonies - apart from the marathon team event?

I’ve been saying all week it’s about time they found a replacement for the dinosaur that is Steve Cram. Surely they must be able to find a replacement with a more recent athlete, he’s been awful for years.

His comment on one of the women’s marathon medalists (can’t remember which medalist it was) and her ‘lovely smile’ after completing, urgh. Interestingly he had no comment on how pleasing he found the men’s faces.

I don't mind Steve Cram.
I really struggle with Paula Radcliffe though. She just grates on me. I can't work out why - I know she is experienced and knowledgeable.

I quite liked Greg Rutherford (although, like others have said, he needs to sort his clothes out).

I very much liked Jenny Meadows.

There were medal ceremonies but not many of them were shown.
I couldn't see the point of putting medals round their necks as soon as they finished. Did they take them back to present them again at the ceremony?

Thanks @edwinbear .

I can understand the different styles possibly being more aerodynamic but I can't see that whatever garment being purple, or being blue or being white can make a difference. I've seen the sprinters wearing both the blue and the purple for example.

Yes he was good. Steve Backley is ok - it made me laugh when he was whanging on about what a disappointment the men’s javelin competition was, and immediately the next chap threw over 90 metres, taking Steve’s own record for the Euro Champs. Haha

Steve Cram is such a boring fun sponge.

I disagree with the mixed relay.
I think I disagree with relays in general because they favour the bigger nations.
The sprinters already have an advantage because it's more likely they will be able to double up.

Any Hunt is great but she's already won more European medals than Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Hunter-bell combined which doesn't seem fair.
Similarly, probably the greatest athlete taking part Mondo Duplantis can only win one medal per European championships.

I can’t remember one single thing that Paula said, complete non entity for me.

It's been brilliant - sad it's over. Would be wonderful to get the Worlds in '29; 2012 all over again!

Steve Cram is a dreadful commentator and Paula isn't much better. Agree on Jenny and Greg - worked really well. Enjoyed Jessica Ennis too.

The Spanish kit looked Egyptian - the shorts were awful.

Apparently so.

It was so odd to see people having them put round their necks at a point when they were doing their lap of honour or looking for family in the stand.
Even odder that they did the 'official presentations' outside of the stadium the following day. I did hear the presenters say they literally did have to give them back. So odd all round.

Exactly

Their double act on the marathon was the worst - especially the rambling Steve trying to recall which cities previous events had been in and “was it Amsterdam or was that 2014 “ and then big silences until Paula did a little laugh and “we’ll get back to you on that. “

or the as the men going past a traffic island split into left and right groups “oh they’ve each gone a different way, I wonder why ? “

painful

I disagree with the mixed relay.
I think I disagree with relays in general because they favour the bigger nations.

I mean, Jamaica is hardly a 'big nation' and have managed okay in the relays over the last 30 odd years....

Come to that GB&NI is hardly a big nation.

One could argue we shouldn't have the Winter Olympics then as they favour the snowy and mountainous nations.

Some nations are going to be favoured because they have the infrastructure (which usually means 'the money') to develop certain sports people.

We will never have an equal opportunity for all countries, but the relays have always been my favourite events because it is about so much more than the speed of one person.

Of course, it is fine that we all like different events.

I really enjoyed it too. The relays are my favourite, always high drama!

The medals at the finish line reminded me of sports day at primary where they gave stickers to the top three!
I really enjoyed it all and loved the mixed relay, so much more difficult to pass the baton due to differing speeds and strengths. Would have loved to have gone but fell wrong with chemo dates.

@JustGiveMeReason Vast numbers of athletes no longer train in their own country. Not even Amy Hunt. The world’s best sports coaches and universities scoop them up and they don’t train at home in poor facilities. Coaches are international and top talent gets to travel if necessary. There’s also the issue that athletics is not a big sport everywhere and dc prefer other sports. Definitely in India for example.

What amused and irritated me equally during the week was the emphasis which all the presenters put on how well the event was attended and how the stands were full and the atmosphere was amazing at the end of the week. A directive had obviously come down from high somewhere to shoehorn this information in at every opportunity. It was ridiculous at the beginning of the week when there were huge swathes of empty seats behind the presenters and they were blathering on about how it would fill up later, how the heat was to blame, how there was a traffic incident outside the stadium and people were going to arrive late! We’re not blind, we could see the place was half empty! I found it very patronising.

@AlohaRose. It looked way more than half empty to me on many occasions. Even some athletes said they were disappointed with attendance when they won medals in the evening sessions. It didn’t give much home advantage and they expected a much more lively home team supporting atmosphere.

The issue can be is that other sporting events are available too. Football fans are paying for their season tickets and lots are away on holiday. Difficult to mobilise school and college groups.

Another issue is a 30,000 seater stadium. As West Ham have found, athletics stadiums are crap for football crowds. So we have these potential white elephant stadiums which cannot be used for much else. There were more seats taken at the end but very poor at the beginning. I found it embarrassing.

Yes but the USA often don’t do well in relays as they tend to value individuals and they rarely get together to practice so it’s a bit hit and miss.Team GB have relays camps they won a medal in every relay event.

I didn’t watch but I do like athletics. I get a few clips on IG instead.

The older clip that always moves me (even to tears) is Eilish McColgan winning. Such effort and determination plus talent.

I watch all the big athletics championships on TV and I do miss Michael Johnsons commentary. He was always realistic about the GB athletes and didn't forget that there are outstanding athletes from elsewhere in the world, which the BBC commentary tends to do.
I also liked Greg Rutherford commentating.

@purser25 Yes but they changed the team for the mixed relay 1 hour before the event. They said that they had not practiced as a 4.

USA have won Olympic gold in the 4 x 100 men. But have not got a gold since 2000 in Sydney. Jamaica have only won it twice. It’s been quite a good mix of nations since Sydney.

We are big athletics fans and would have loved to have been there over the weekend.

We were in London for the Diamond league, full capacity, atmosphere was incredible for Josh Kerr's world record.

I like the sprint relays, If athletics is going to reach a wider audience it needs events which bring drama and excitement.

The sport needs big characters like Amy Hunt and Mondo Duplantis.

Part of the problem with the Alexandra stadium is the location and transport. Its a mile walk from Perry Barr which Ive done many many times but not possible in my current circumstances.

Also it would help if the train operators put on extra trains or carriages. The crowd is always well behaved, the police and marshalls are great, but it can take a long time to get back into Brum.

@Ted27 The train operators would have mostly empty trains though. 30,000 capacity is not huge and half the size of quite a few football stadiums. Also how often is this stadium used? Is it a bit of a white elephant?

Where was the Diamond League in London? West Ham stadium?

I don't generally have an issue with the relays but this has got me thinking that it would be interesting to ditch the 4x400m and maybe have a longer distance relay like a 4x800m instead. Races would be less than 8 minutes so it wouldn't take up too much time and you'd be giving middle distance runners a chance to pick up a relay medal if they wanted to.

On Hunt, it's not her fault and she can only beat the field she's in, but she massively benefits from the sprint events being much weaker at European level than the 800m and 1500m are. 4 golds is a lovely achievement but the reality is that her fastest times this year are joint 14th in the world for the 100 and joint 25th for the 200. She's the best in Europe but is operating at a level that wouldn't even get into the final for an Olympics or World Champs, let alone near the medals, whereas Hodgkinson and GH-B are both properly world class.