The Athletics Thread...

[Toon Wolf]

Schools county championships today. 7 athletes I coach were competing, 4 ended up earning top 2 finishes (1 winner, 3 runners up) that means that they go on to represent the county next week. Another girl who was defending champion (and I thought she could be an English schools qualifying contender this year) finished 3rd despite running a season's best time- it's never fun seeing a young athlete so disappointed that they break down in tears.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Never mind mate, you do a sterling job. Given the size of your club and the competition around you, they're excellent results.

 

[Toon Wolf]

Never mind mate, you do a sterling job. Given the size of your club and the competition around you, they're excellent results.

Thank you for those kind words, Deutsch. I'm pretty philosophical about things really. The thing with athletics generally, and this is what makes it a tough sport for kids to get into IMO, is that you will have more bad/disappointing days in a season than you will have good days. Once an athlete starts to get their head around that fact they are much more able to deal with disappointments and move on from them in a positive way. This particular girl is the probably the best athlete I've ever coached, not just in terms of her ability but also in terms of her personality, so I'm sure she'll bounce back strongly. Next year when she steps up to 400m (under 17 women can only do 300m) she'll have another great shot at English Schools qualification, as surprisingly, it tends to get easier for the older age groups.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Even Usain Bolt loses races (well, the odd one). Like you say, it's all about character. The impression I get from your posts on here is that your athletes appreciate the time and effort that you (and doubtless, the other coaches) put into it and that's why they stick around. A team ethic doesn't have a price because you can't buy it. So you carry on, lad, and she'll do you proud, I'm sure.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Euro Championships on BBC One now.

 

[Toon Wolf]

Some good and some not so good performances. Dai Greene was great and looked very easy. Goldie Sayers was impressive in the javelin, beating the Olympic Champion and world record holder, the men's 4 x 100m team looked good. I thought the women's team were unfortunate to be dq'd if they were basing it on the last changeover, looked just inside the box to me. Probably worth an appeal. Shame about the missing athletes, Odowu, Farah and Ennis, though I certainly understand their reasons for not competing. The furore around Odowu 'tweeting' his non-participation seems a little misplaced- he had already informed the selection team he wouldn't be competing days before his tweet, it's just Charles Van Commenee being a bit of a twat.

 

[Toon Wolf]

Missed day 2 as I was out all day and forgot to set Sky+ to record it. D'oh!

In other news, "We are Premier League, we are Premier League"...Well, Young Athletes League Premier Division North at least, but that doesn't trip off the tongue quite so easily...

 

[Lord Knows]

First time I have ever seen a baton thrown from one athlete to another in a relay, those guys are meticulous in preparation yet under pressure do daft things.

 

[Prawn Sandwich]

A little off topic but that useless ticket allocation system....has now become a system of organisational genius - since I got all the tickets I requested!

 

[Toon Wolf]

A little off topic but that useless ticket allocation system....has now become a system of organisational genius - since I got all the tickets I requested!

to be fair, if they'd done it on a 'first come first served' basis it would have been just as much of a nightmare, and many, many more tickets would have fallen into the hands of touts. It hasn't been a great success, but they were in a no win situation really.

 

[Templeton Peck]

to be fair, if they'd done it on a 'first come first served' basis it would have been just as much of a nightmare, and many, many more tickets would have fallen into the hands of touts. It hasn't been a great success, but they were in a no win situation really.

They could have just sold them like you do tickets for any event. Price them based on expected demand and location and sell them accordingly. Its really not that difficult. I can't see this system catching on for Madonna or Take That tours anytime soon.

 

[Toon Wolf]

They could have just sold them like you do tickets for any event. Price them based on expected demand and location and sell them accordingly. Its really not that difficult. I can't see this system catching on for Madonna or Take That tours anytime soon.

I disagree it is different. They want all the events to have a crowd, not just the blue riband ones. If they'd put them on sale in the same way as a Take That concert the athletics, swimming, cycling etc would be MASSIVELY oversubscribed with sparse crowds at some of the other venues. At least this way it has meant that all the events are going to have a crowd. I don't think you can compare ticketing the Olympic Games, with its multitude of events, to a pop concert to be honest.

 

[Templeton Peck]

Or they could have given people a limited amount of time to register and THEN sell tickets as you would anything else but only to those who've registered. They should have also opened it up to only those with a London postcode (as we're the ones paying for it) for a while before extending it to the rest of the UK.

The latest farce for the second chance tickets was that the ticketing system wasn't 'live' so people thought they were booking tickets but getting a message a few days after saying you didn't get any!

 

[Toon Wolf]

:disco::Victory:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spor...y-young-stars-earns-promotion-72703-28961086/

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Lynn Craig, part of the management team, was delighted with the efforts of everyone during the current campaign, where the composite squad competed in four rounds and were victorious in all four.

She said: “It was a super effort by everyone, the athletes, coaches (except one, who's a right twat, more interested in arguing about pointless rubbish on some forum, and he reckons Ronald Zubar is a good player, I'd like him to take a drug test really), team managers and parents."

I wouldn't have that if I were you mate.

 

[Toon Wolf]

:ursofunny:

:emot-fuckoff:

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

:icon_lol:

Congrats though, great stuff. :tiphat:

Diamond League on BBC Three now btw.

 

[Toon Wolf]

Great run by Dai Greene. Talked about the Birmingham Grand Prix meeting, will be getting support from the 'Stourbridge Massive' apparently! If anyone likes their athletics enough, a day out at one of the Grand Prix events is well worth the money.

Although I've just checked and the Birmingham event on 10th July has sold out. Which is good news unless you wanted to go and don't have a ticket!

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I think Greene has a real chance of a medal next year.

 

[Toon Wolf]

I think Greene has a real chance of a medal next year.

Definitely. The Americans have some good 400 hurdlers, but he is without question a rising star. We'll be able to see how possible a 2012 medal is for him in August at the World Champs. A top 3 finish there and he's a good bet for a medal of some colour barring injury.