The one about the Olympic Games 2024

Yeah 100m was a thriller. Craziest drawn out build-up too

BBC coverage has generally been poor, too much waffle and not enough variation of sports. And what is the fascination with Biles, they seem to mention her every chance they get…

Luckily I have Discovery+ and the amount of different things to watch  there is great via Eurosport.

Struggling to focus on the sports as Clare Baldings hair, it’s like she’s styled it on a bike or horse helmet.

It’s a bit Robbie Rotten from Lazy Town TBF

5 milliseconds between first and second. Which at 10m/sec is 5 cm. Still 2% slower than Usain though. Bolt would have finished 2m ahead on his world record pace, and a metre ahead on his London 2012 Olympic record pace.

Which at 10m/sec

It’s mental, I first read this and thought that’s a typo, then read it again and thought no that is obviously correct, then thought about covering 10 metres in 1 second. Wow!

that’s really interesting – the finish looked tighter than a gnat’s chuff but 5cm is quite significant.

It was still the fastest race of all time, last place was 9.91!  Bolt was just a phenomenon/ once in a lifetime athlete so hard to see 9.58 ever being beat.

didn’t Ben Johnson’s unofficial drug fuelled ‘record’ 9.79 stand for ages.  Interestingly the same time as these guys

The are a couple of threads running about rioting and right wing scum shaming our country so I feel the need to highlight the story of Cindy Ngamba who’s just won the Refuge Team its first medal (colour to be decided).

Surely though she shouldn’t a refugee. This country needs to get its act together, give her citizenship & hold her up as a role model. It’s an amazing story.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/articles/cqqll47dvdyo

didn’t Ben Johnson’s unofficial drug fuelled ‘record’ 9.79 stand for ages

Approx 11 years when Mo Greene equalled it.

Prob a bit slower at that point, but that opens the discussion on the science of the 100m. I read a great article on it, I don’t remember the full details but the gist is that the race is in three phases; getting out of the blocks and into stride and into an upright position; phase two of max speed, and then the last phase…. where even the best sprinters can’t maintain speed and start to slow down. So the end point of the article was that the winner isn’t the guy that can run fastest (in phase 2), rather the one that slows down least. Hence Bolt’s advantage, the physiology means that everyone has burnt their max up in a certain number of strides but where Bolt takes 10% less strides than others, he’s closer to the finish when he starts to slow down.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/03/how-fast-can-we-go-the-science-of-sprinting

They can’t be slowing too much as Bolt’s world record for 200 meters is 19:19. And that’s with a bend.

They’ll be doing more than 10m/s across the line. Top speeds will be somewhere around 12m/s but it takes a while to accelerate up to that.

Cindy Ngamba who’s just won the Refugee Team its first medal

Predictably, the social media comments were absolutely horrific

You’re probably right, the longest phase of the race is getting up to top speed which is after about 50-60m (a bit further for Bolt because it’s actually strides) and then they start to slow down again. The 60m WR is 6.34s, assume that Bolt isn’t as fast as that (he’s not the record holder /we know his height makes him generally a slow starter) so he’d be slower than 6.34s to the 60m mark and then does the last 40m in about 3.something seconds. So I agree, the speed is likely to still be more than 10m/s at the line.

IDK in the 200, by the same logic they can’t be at full sprint but same calc would say 6.34s to 60m and then 140m in 13s or so. Practically pedestrian ;-), but the inefficient first 50m is then outweighed by more at speed.

I’d never realised that – average speed for the 200m WR is almost identical to the 100m WR. I wonder what the flying 100m time in the middle of a 200m is?

I wonder what the flying 100m time in the middle of a 200m is?

Dunno, but Asafa Powell did an 8.68 split in a 4×100 relay :-)

200m is the fastest athletics event. But if you think 10m/sec is fast, the current flying 200m on the velodrome track is 9.099s or 79.13km/h. That’s just under 50mph. This record may go this week, because the Paris velodrome is 8m wide instead of 7, so riders can start higher on their flying lap.

A moving 100 meters I’d imagine, would be notoriously hard to measure.

just need two timing beams, they do that for the flying cycle sprint seeding runs in the velodrome.

Flying 100m can be measured, just as per velodrome. On the bike there is a sensor on the track that the wheel passes over. In the athletics track, you just need two finish line sensors. You could run the event as per the velodrome with flying 100, then fastest vs. Slowest and whittle it down until a head to head for gold.  Probably want to run it over 130-150m to get a good start. None of those track stands or sitting behind the opponent. Strictly in your lane and go!

Just watching the men’s individual archery semifinal/final. Two South Koreans, and it’s as close as I’d expect.

The men’s 100 metre final was a cracking race, difficult to believe just how close it was.

Archery first semifinal to be decided by a one arrow shootout!

Second semifinal between Germany and the USA. USA gets it, so final for gold between USA and S. Korea, silver and bronze between Germany and S. Korea.

Arrows are hitting the target at around 240 kph.

S.Korea gets bronze. USA level with S.Korea with a one arrow shootout to decide gold/silver! Both had perfect scores on the final set.
S.Korea gets gold, closer to the centre by a few centimetres!

Anyone who hasn’t been watching, this photo gives a rough idea as to the distance the archers are shooting at. Excuse the moiré effect, I took a photo of my telly screen.

This is an amazing photo, it’s shows the whole 100m race in one set of images, from beginning to end.

https://x.com/worldathletics/status/1820218219480715472?s=61

Ouch – that’s a rough one – we won the Silver in the Triathlon Mixed Relay but it has been downgraded to a Bronze after they actually bothered to look at the photo properly. TBF, I do think it was the right decision but I am surprised they did that.

Kayak Cross, short course but pure bedlam.

I thought this was a “monkey tennis” thing where you were just making up sports, I didn;t realise it was a thing. It’a ACE!

@CountZero that is superb. It was a brilliant race, so tense in the build up, and so incredibly fast for all 8.

(ETA, didnt notice previously, wonder why they ran in lanes 2-9 and not 1-8…. I guess the proximity of that inner barrier/hoarding).

Team GB doing their thing plus Lotte Kopecky descending rue de Menilmontant yesterday. I assume that’s @ernielynch in the background (just kidding, mate :-). ). Got to feel for Blanka Vas – cycling is a cruel sport sometimes!!

Cindy Ngamba who’s just won the Refugee Team its first medal

Predictably, the social media comments were absolutely horrific

It doesn’t surprise me, social media seems to bring out worst in people and the worst of people.

I can’t help thinking that there ought to be more of an outcry over this story. I had a quick Google to see if I could find a petition or something to promote her fight for citizenship, but I couldn’t find anything. Hopefully things are still progressing.

Anyway, there’s a bit more on the BBC website about her struggles and achievements – https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/articles/cy63ywplg4no

Blimey, blink and you’ll miss the womens speed climbing, WR gone twice this morning and they’re up that wall in 6sec!

Just came to post about the speed climbing! Holy shit. That’s unbelievably impressive.

They’re not “climbing”, it’s more like flowing. They just flow up a vertical wall!

Yep, not sure I can run that distance on the flat in 6sec!! :-)

They just flow up a vertical wall!

5 degrees overhanging. Actually, it would be harder on a vertical wall!

Toby Roberts did pretty well in the boulder semis. I thought the routesetters had misjudged it but they got it pretty much spot on.

Not yet seen the kayak cross so hoping to catch h it this afternoon

Just came to post about the speed climbing! Holy shit. That’s unbelievably impressive.

I find it unbelievably dull. To me the essence of climbing is precision.

You don’t think it requires precision?

It’s the least interesting of the three disciplines to me, though, and I’m glad they’ve separated it from the boulder and lead comps for the overall.

The problem with presenting climbing to a lay audience is they have no idea just how much physically harder any of the boulder problems are compared to the speed route. Most relatively fit adults could conceivably pull onto the speed route, but have no chance of getting feet off the floor for 99% of world cup boulders.

It’s amazing, but without the problem solving of regular climbing as the route remains the same.  So, yes it has rightly been separated from combined boulder and lead. Even better would be individual boulder and lead, but every sport wants more.

The kayak cross is great to watch too. GB in the women’s gold medal final. The multi angle slo-mo replays are very good, the way the camera will pan around the action.

Dame Laura Kenny being interviewed on BBC, she reckons GB will be getting a big medal haul from the velodrome, says it’s a top-notch team.

Bronze for Woods in the Women’s Kayak Cross after she got tangled up in one of the gates as the winner went through it first.

Could Kayak Cross pave the way for MTB 4x?

Could Kayak Cross pave the way for MTB 4x?

The problem with introducing new sports is that one of the old ones needs to go cos it’s limited to a certain number of races. You may remember the 1km individual sprint (track) being removed as an Olympic discipline – the one that Chris Hoy specialised in. It got removed cos something else was added, can’t remember what.

Track cycling on now – Women’s Team Sprint qualifications. GB up now.

Wow, new WR in Women’s Team Sprint for Team GB, top of the qualification chart!