2016 Summer Olympics Rio

[gallsman]

Van Niekerk was the reigning World Champion and is the only man to ever run under 44 seconds for the 400m, 20 seconds for 200m and 10 seconds for the 100m. People shouldn't really be that shocked at all.

"Fairly good" ffs. He's the reigning world champion and is the only person in history to break the 10, 20 and 44 second barriers for 100m, 200m and 400m. Yeah, he's "fairly good" alright.

[oakleaflad]

Van Niekerk was the reigning World Champion and is the only man to ever run under 44 seconds for the 400m, 20 seconds for 200m and 10 seconds for the 100m. People shouldn't really be that shocked at all.

"Fairly good" ffs. He's the reigning world champion and is the only person in history to break the 10, 20 and 44 second barriers for 100m, 200m and 400m. Yeah, he's "fairly good" alright.

Completely missed that. I agree with gallsman then so. It was a matter of when not if he was going to break that 400m World Record in my opinion.

[muppet]

Van Niekerk was the reigning World Champion and is the only man to ever run under 44 seconds for the 400m, 20 seconds for 200m and 10 seconds for the 100m. People shouldn't really be that shocked at all.

"Fairly good" ffs. He's the reigning world champion and is the only person in history to break the 10, 20 and 44 second barriers for 100m, 200m and 400m. Yeah, he's "fairly good" alright.

Completely missed that. I agree with gallsman then so. It was a matter of when not if he was going to break that 400m World Record in my opinion.

Two years ago he ran his first sub 45 aged 22. Bolt was close to 45 aged 21 and didn't even run it competitively.

Some improvement from 45s to 43.03.

His 100m time is 9.98 and the 200m time is 19.94. Both a long way from world class. Having said that, it is certainly an achievement being the first to break those barriers at all 3 distances.

[gallsman]

How are sub 10 and sub 20 second times anything other than "world class"?! Especially for a 400m runner.

[imtommygunn]

You get to the olympics with sub 10 easy. Even the british sprinters have guys who can barely, if at all, go sub 10.

Sub 20 200 likewise for 200.

[gallsman]

You get to the olympics with sub 10 easy. Even the british sprinters have guys who can barely, if at all, go sub 10.

Sub 20 200 likewise for 200.

You don't think that's world class? 9.98 would have had him 7th in the Olympic 100m final. Again, you don't think that's world class?!

[imtommygunn]

I agree with you...

It is quite clearly world class.

[muppet]

You get to the olympics with sub 10 easy. Even the british sprinters have guys who can barely, if at all, go sub 10.

Sub 20 200 likewise for 200.

Getting to the Olympics is one thing, breaking long-standing world records is another thing entirely.

[imtommygunn]

Yeah but breaking a world record and being world class are 2 different things. Sub 10 and 20 for 100 and 200 respectively are world class.

He clearly has very good speed endurance,

[gallsman]

Sorry Tommy, misunderstood you.

I've had this argument before in relation to football. Just because someone (I dunno, let's say Zlatan) isn't as good as Messi, that doesn't stop him being world class.

I agree that the scale of the improvement would certainly lead to raising an eyebrow, but you can't just dismiss it as coming from nowhere. This isn't the same as Flo Jo or Kratochvila.

[imtommygunn]

Yeah it's not that big a stretch. Interesting that he did it from lane 8. First time that has been done since 1924 apparently...

I love the athletics but it is sad that these days any significant record etc will automatically be questioned. I'd like to give Ayala the benefit of the doubt to be honest as well. just because the person who's record she beat was doped doesn't mean that she dopes. It's an easy conclusion to make. Of course I could be completely wrong.

The more I read on Farah the less convinced I am. On Dibaba too which is a pity as she is a fantastic athlete. They are raising questions on themselves though by associating with suspect people. I am not sure Ayala or the dutch guy have. (Be they guilty or not)

[AZOffaly]

Ayana's was so bizarre though. I remember Ben Johnson blowing the field away at the 100m, with his arm raised. It was unheard of, and I remember being in awe of it. And then the truth came out. This sort of performance by Ayana ticked a lot of the same boxes, and the fact that she literally came from nowhere to do it, blowing apart a doped world record by so much, would make you extremely skeptical. Then you find out that Ethiopia has a shite drug testing program, that WADA scored as a zero, and allegedly phoning competitors when drug testers were coming. The whole package with her just seems off.

Mo Farah is another where his stories just don't ring true.

There are other winners who seem fine, and legit, but who knows. I prefer to believe what I see, but sometimes it's hard.

[gallsman]

Ewan McKenna put Farah under a good bit of pressure the other day asking about the company he keeps. Testing in Kenya and Ethiopia is appalling.

[NAG1]

Ayana's was so bizarre though. I remember Ben Johnson blowing the field away at the 100m, with his arm raised. It was unheard of, and I remember being in awe of it. And then the truth came out. This sort of performance by Ayana ticked a lot of the same boxes, and the fact that she literally came from nowhere to do it, blowing apart a doped world record by so much, would make you extremely skeptical. Then you find out that Ethiopia has a shite drug testing program, that WADA scored as a zero, and allegedly phoning competitors when drug testers were coming. The whole package with her just seems off.

Mo Farah is another where his stories just don't ring true.

There are other winners who seem fine, and legit, but who knows. I prefer to believe what I see, but sometimes it's hard.

The problem with a lot of these athletes is a one time massive jump in performance level. All along they are doing OK times and then next thing they are world class. These are the ones that need explaining and to the sceptical eye you would be asking how did they make such a leap with training/ nutrition alone?

AFAIK Mo fits into the category.

[muppet]

Yeah but breaking a world record and being world class are 2 different things. Sub 10 and 20 for 100 and 200 respectively are world class.

He clearly has very good speed endurance,

We'll have to agree to disagree on the definition of world class then. He was the 107th person to break 10 seconds, a good achievement no doubt. But take Trayvon Bromell as an example, last in the 100m last night, he has a PB of 9.84. Jimmy Vicaut, who was 2nd last, has a PB of 9.86. They didn't run well last night, but they are vastly superior 100m runners. To my mind, he isn't near their class at 100m.

As for Jarmila Kratochvílová, she was a joke altogether, along with the East German women of that era. I haven't seen anything like the domination of a single sport (Athletics) by a relatively small country such as East Germany (compared to the US & USSR), other than maybe British cycling in the last few Olympics.



Some from across the water tend to sneer at Kratochvílová, but how does she compare with Mutolo?



Or Kelly Holmes?