Athletics (General Discussion)

SilentWitness

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To discuss athletics in general outside of major world championships or Olympics.

I was reading an article this morning about Edwards and the fact that nobody has broken his WR yet, and they included a few other long standing men's world records. Interestingly, three of them are related to jumping - long jump, triple jump and high jump. All were made between 1990 and 1995, so it's been c. 30 years since they've been broken.

Are we just terrible at jumping now? Feels weird!
 
The Edwards WR is an anomaly for sure. It looked like it could be broken by Taylor but he never quite got there.

I reckon it's partly because it's not all athleticism, jumping is a skill that requires a huge amount of fluency and every part of the jump needs to be spot on to get it right. Add that to the natural talent that's needed to get a WR and it's pretty rare.

Edwards went through a period where everything was working perfectly and every time he jumped he was getting a WR or close and outside of that period was a fair bit short. I'd equate the same to the Bolt record in a way as although that's obviously power based, the way Bolt ran was as much down to his technique than aggressive running.
 
The Edwards article is interesting because it shows he was a fairly significant outlier at the time, going well beyond the prior record. 7 of the 8 other longest jumps (outside of his 18.29 and 18.16) have been set within the last 10 years. What it shows to me is that there is a gradual improvement, which will mean it falls within the next decade I suspect.

The long jump looks even stronger to me though. In the long jump, the top 5 jumps of all time were all set in 1991 or earlier. The top 10 has no jumps set more recently than 2009. Essentially the best jumps of the last 16 years have been more than 20cm off the WR, which is enormous in long jump terms.
 
Keely Hodgkinson runs the 9th fastest 800m in history after being out for a whole year. If she can stay fit now surely that WR is only a matter of time?

 
Wonder if Mondo wants to set another WR today? (For those who don't know - he has a personal best in training of like 6.35 meters or something. He's deliberately setting new records 1cm at a time to maximize his earnings :lol: )
 
giorno said:
Wonder if Mondo wants to set another WR today? (For those who don't know - he has a personal best in training of like 6.35 meters or something. He's deliberately setting new records 1cm at a time to maximize his earnings :lol: )
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Yeah, it's the old Bubka method with all the bonuses. Mind you, Mondo's 13 world records probably earned him not much more than a million dollars combined, which goes to show the financial differences between Athletics and other sports.

It also should be added that it's probably not just about the money. Suppose he goes and raises the bar by 10cm in one go, makes it, and then finds out he doesn't have much more - if any - extra height in him. Since winning competitions is easy for him and breaking records is the real challenge, it would take a lot of out the interest in Pole Vaulting.
 
Mens 100m heats just started at the World Champs.

Already a time of 9.87 in heat 1 (Leotlela - South Africa).
 
Dan said:
Ingebrigtsen out of the 1500m.
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Rough heat for him. Phanuel Koech and Habz being out are probably more pertinent for the medal conversation though.

Wouldn’t surprise me to see Jakob race well over the 5000
 
Hudson-Smith only 4th in his heat, can only go through if his time is good enough.
 
This track is fast, these 400m times are really good for a first round.

Hudson-Smith scraped through.
 
Semper Fudge said:
What do people think about this "Enhanced Games" thing, then? Basically a competition where athletes are allowed to use performance-enhancing drugs. First I've heard of it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/swimming/articles/c5yevrrv1kwo
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Aside from the ethics, I believe the concept is flawed in what it’s setting out to do. The very best athletes capable of challenging and setting world records are few and far between. That relative handful are not going to sacrifice their current earnings, lifetime reputation and sponsorship. Financially it would probably be short sighted. For example, they are unlikely to recruit sub-10s 100m runners. Even if a 10.2 or 10.4 sprinter jumped across, whatever they take isn’t going to transform them into a 9.5s record-breaking machine. And they won’t get the competition to push them quicker either.
 
Have they changed the rules around false starts these championships? They don't seem to be disqualifying anyone even for blatant false starts.
 
Just seen she's not doing the 400mH but Mclaughlin-Levrone must be massively confident of her 400m ability if she's given up the free gold in the hurdles to do it exclusively. To the point, she feels can push for that 80's Russian doped up record.... which would be an insane feat, she'd be in the Bolt category if she pulls this off.
 
Zen said:
Just seen she's not doing the 400mH but Mclaughlin-Levrone must be massively confident of her 400m ability if she's given up the free gold in the hurdles to do it exclusively. To the point, she feels can push for that 80's Russian doped up record.... which would be an insane feat, she'd be in the Bolt category if she pulls this off.
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Yes but Bobby Kersee is a weird coach so it could just be some weird long term plan because she very feasibly might not medal at all in the 400
 
Her best is over a second off the world record. I’d love to see her beat it though.
 
Molly Caudery once again fails to deliver at a major championships. And Cairess, another medal contender, couldn’t even finish the men’s marathon. Hopefully things will improve for Team GB.
 
Eric_the_Red99 said:
Molly Caudery once again fails to deliver at a major championships. And Cairess, another medal contender, couldn’t even finish the men’s marathon. Hopefully things will improve for Team GB.
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I think describing someone as getting an injury in warm up as ‘once again failing to deliver ‘ is a little loaded and unfair

Especially for an athlete who has been to nine major championships and medalled in 3 and top 5/6 in 3 others.

Recency bias is strong though
 
Men's Marathon had a fotofinish with a closer gap between 1st and 2nd than the 100m final :lol:
 
Lovely to see Beamish win with the textbook kick. For me the best kicker in middle distance still - maybe not off the hottest paces but in championship racing it’s unreal
 
And there it is. Although it looks like he hit the bar harder than he did the second time. The Japanese must have glued it on this time :lol:
 
The level he is performing at is obscene, it does make you wonder just how much further he can go, sometimes he looks like he could vault out of the stadium!
 
I can hardly wait to watch Sydney contest the 400-metre final; it’s an event I simply must not miss( I don’t watch her performance in the qualification round, didn’t have time).
 
ChrisNelson said:
The level he is performing at is obscene, it does make you wonder just how much further he can go, sometimes he looks like he could vault out of the stadium!
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We kinda know his PB in training is like 6.35...
 
Back to that Sydney discussion…. damn. Knew you don’t give up a free gold without strong evidence but that SF time is ludicrous :lol:
 
Zen said:
Back to that Sydney discussion…. damn. Knew you don’t give up a free gold without strong evidence but that SF time is ludicrous :lol:
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She is Sydney aka a goddess of track and field. I hope one day she beats Koch’s 1985 world record. She can do it.:drool:

But damn, the time is pretty unbelievable(especially in “the semi final”), and she has risen as the new world leader.
 
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7th all-time and looked like she had room to spare. Think she might go below 48" in the final which would put her second all-time. Koch's time is probably asking a bit too much.

It still would be a Warholm, Van Niekerk like explosion if she transfers to the 400m and goes below 48 imo.
 
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