commonwealth games - australia appalling behaviour

[takeittakeit]

The poor scottish marathon runner who collapsed just before the end.

Australia your behaviour ruined the Games

No one there to help him
Taking photos of him lying their distressed.

And your official saying we can not have medics every mile - yes you bloody can.

Am appalled at the pictures coming out - your spectators and officials shame a nation - none of you helped him, comforted him did anything.

Disgusted - even your eventual winner did not even look. True champions care

The officals really should of helped him sooner, it was awful to watch and im on the other side of the world

Australia your behaviour has ruined the games
sums up a nation

Few things here, keeping in mind that it's unfortunate what happened to the Scottish guy. Marathons are tough.

So the taking of photgraphs is gross, and this rubbernecking behaviour is not specific to Australians but endemic all over , in all tragic events. It is not just Australians who do this.Comment on the action, not the country.

It is NOT summer here. It's unexpectedly warm but precautions that would be taken in peak summer don't normally happen in autumn. More water would've been good, but that's not Australia's fault as a nation.

Spectators are forbidden from interfering with atheletes as a term of entry into the Games ,and would be arrested if they crossed the barricades.
How would a pack of untrained, unequipped spectators leaping the barricades and probably interferring with other athletes following him have helped?

To make sweeping statements writing off an entire country is like claiming all British are isolationist racists because Britain voted for Brexit. Most of Australia didn't even bother watching the games, let alone attend them. But yup - it's my fault too.

Complain about the organisers not having sufficent medics at the end of the race would be more appropriate and perhaps less inflamatory.

Jesus.

I listened to an interview with a guy who attend the bull running in Spain. A guy standing next to him was gored by a bull, and the guy being interviewed said everyone just pulled out their phones and took photos. I think that’s just a modern-day response.

They should have had better security and more medics at the marathon. I hope Callum recovers quickly.

It is Lindon marathon on Sunday. There will be maybe 40,000 people at the start lines who have mostly been training in UK winter - unusually cold and miserable - and the temperature is forecast to be 20 degrees.

Hopefully for the elite runners and everyone plodding behind them there will be a lot more support from the crowd should any of us find ourselves struggling with the heat.

Oh more Aussie bashing...yay. . I'm beginning to feel very unwelcome on Mumsnet.

Very well said claws unfortunately, some people are more interested in Aussie bashing than reasoning and facts.

stronger I'm running London marathon on Sunday

Water stop every third mile
St. John ambulance everywhere
Marshall's
Fire brigade hosepipe showers at 3 points
Lots of supporters
London marathon have emailed advice

Emergency purchase of shorts/visor and sunscreen

We've all got time to prepare

Strangely, runners will be more at risk if they drink too much water..... can kill you

Juells

I know, it's so badly written. Looked more like an English translation from a foreign language.

Poor guy, someone could have at least stood around him to shade him and offer some water.

yes it does sum up a nation and the Games

Oh stop being so bloody ridiculous!

Everyone on bikes, cars and officials were Australian and they did nothing.

How do you know that, then?

Less than 2 minutes before help arrived?

I can't believe I'm about to jump in and defend Australia but your reaction is OTT. You can't judge an entire nation based on a few spectators' stupid behaviour at a Marathon. Similarly, the Games weren't perfect but they were generally pretty good. The photo taking was horrible but unfortunately you see that everywhere these days...

Who says I am not Australian! Would have said the same if it was in NZ,Canada,England,India - anywhere.

FFS - no one is asking for the right conditions from each country - but they are asking for water, simple health provision and humanity - not displayed by many on the side of the road.

So - we have not the officials fault, they were not australian, the crowd were not Australian, the lack of medics was not lack of Australian planning, his fault he is Scottish yawn yawn yawn - Australia got it wrong big style - man up and admit the mistake - would go along way.

You suggest giving water after a head injury?

This comment is unbelievable
In response to the criticism Gold Coast organising committee (GOLDOC) chief executive Mark Peters told the BBC: "We need to check the facts out. You can't have medical people on every kilometre of the road
Er yes you bloody can and should have medics at every Kilometre, especially for the last couple of miles.
With the photo taking yes it was disgusting but can people honestly say that UK spectators would not have done the same thing?. I think some people would have as you get dicks in every single country.

metro.co.uk/2017/11/28/is-it-ever-okay-to-pose-for-selfies-at-auschwitz-7114547/amp/
See British people taking horrible inappropriate photos so I am not sure you can condemn the whole of Australia. This fascination for photographing everything no matter how inappropriate is a horrible modern first world thing.

It's not the fault of Australia as a nation, it's the fault of the planning committee and the spectators taking photos. Basically, two groups of people who were in Australia and who were likely predominantly Australian, but who have no authority to speak for or represent Australia or the Australian people.

And fwiw I'm not remotely Australian and the nearest I've ever got to Australia is the bar at Walkabout.

Think the BBC commentator, Steve Cram, was equally appalled.

Whether there was a question of intervention or not, officials should have been on the scene pretty much immediately to clarify that and - most importantly - to check on his physical condition.

As for the people taking photographs - words fail.

OP, you aren’t Australian as no Australian would bash their own country like this on a worldwide forum. It’s a colossal stretch to blame an entire people for the supposed failing of a few. That you haven’t managed to grasp this leads me to think you might be somewhat challenged.

The whole incident was distressing - it is always awful to see someone sick or injured. Thank goodness he is ok now. Obviously there are things that could have been done better and things that should not have been done (taking of photos - but that is hardly an Australian thing - there is no incident ever nowadays that does not play out to people taking phone photos - rubber neckers are a universal phenomenon)

As for 'Australia' being culpable and the whole games ruined - what nonsense. No one in their right mind blames 'all Australians' for the behaviour of a few (and we don't even know they were all Australian).

In my mind the games has been a success - showing off a beautiful part of the world, and the hosts have appeared to be very welcoming and friendly to all nations who took part. I think the running of the games and the para games alongside each other was a massive success - absolutely loved it and hopefully that will be the way of all games from now on - well done Gold Coast.

Australians have a hard time recently with the cricket incident (do you think all Australians are cheats OP or can you see that it was down to a few individuals?) and now this. That's a shame because Australia is a great sporting nation and hopefully the majority of people don't think that mistakes by the few taint the many.

From what I could see they were possibly caught unawares and so reactions were slower than was ideal, as with everything hopefully everyone involved in staging games all around the world will learn from this incident. But the majority of runners finished the race fine. The Scottish lad was the exception and so maybe the effect of the heat was not allowed for because most were coping OK.

I love the fact that people from all around the world are on this forum, I'd be very sad if some Australian MNers felt unwelcome because a few people can't distinguish between the actions of a few people and the character of a whole nation.

TheClaws: OP, you aren’t Australian as no Australian would bash their own country like this on a worldwide forum.

Additionally, I hope no Australian would be so facile as to condemn a whole nation with such a flawed argument.

Sorry, that should be: with the use of such a flawed argument.

And I purposely did not mention the cricket!!!

But lets be honest - the cricket goes back years - Border, waugh brothers done for betting etc etc.

Officials in a marathon - can not get caught unawares - they should have anticipated this scenario - that people justify the inaction on here is ridiculous.

I am not currently in possession of an indate Aussie passport - mine is 2 yrs out of date!!!

I don’t believe you’re in possession of an Australian passport of any kind.

You’re dopey. Crack on though.

I think it’s very unfair to condemn an entire nation based on the actions of a few. Yes, the marathon was badly organised, and Callum Hawkins was failed terribly, it was profoundly distressing to see him struggle and then fall without assistance coming immediately. That is absolutely something that needs to be addressed in future.
But you can’t write off the whole country and it’s people because of that and the cricket.