Thanks

Many thanks to "Millwall Fan", "Music Man", "The Hat", "Ess Squared" and "The Dude" without whom these Championships would never be the same!!

Swoosh not the first!

Matisse had a custom shoe last long before Nike

Confused of Florence

                      Apparently Michelangelo had difficulty with the orthodox starting position!

How's That?

From the San Francisco Chronicle
"CHIMP GIVES BIRTH DESPITE VASECTOMIES 

A Special Moment

A highlight of any Championship is getting together with a very special man!

For those of you who only know him as the man patrolling/controlling the "mixed zone", there was a time when he moved very fast!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs-MELdxN2M 

Bill Snelgrove

A lunchtime gathering today to remember our greatly missed, dear friend.
Sadness for a wonderful man taken from us far too early, but also the happiness of shared memories.

RIP 

I will return. ..

... eventually!
I am plagued  by the loss of the use of my laptop and this is almost impossible to do from a tablet

And The Three Ladies Match Them!

After the disappointment of not making the Olympic team MB was nearly lost to athletics. Lucky for us she gave it one more go, and with a race of great maturity easily qualified for the next round.

PSD moving very fast (!) continued her improved hurdling form, and won her heat very comfortably.

ED did what was necessary to qualify, easing through the line in an automatic qualifying position.

The Mankiller!

The event didn't kill our 3 men as each of them made it through to the next round.

Coming off his fine Silver at the European Junior 3 weeks ago SB ran a well judged race, coming through strongly over the final 3 hurdles in a time faster than his two compatriots. 

The Champion clearly had a tough time, but secured one of the fastest loser positions to fight another day.

RW was as fuzzy as this picture - but eventually was safely in the first four automatic qualifying places.

Splish Splash

This was as close to the action as JW got - 2 successive kilometres of 2' 52 allowed him to stay in contact, but while he covered the last one slightly faster, the front end of the field ran theirs in 2' 40.

Walk, Don't Run!

Race walking shoots itself in the foot!  This athlete broke the rules of her event, and yet she is still awarded Gold!

This athlete broke the rules of her event, and yet she is still awarded Gold.

At 200m. from the finish Lashmanova broke into a trot for 20m. or so believing she had crossed the finish line - she was far enough ahead that her "cheating" wouldn't have affected the result, however the rules don't provide for that discretion. The athletes had to enter the stadium in the middle of the second turn (while a javelin event was going on!) complete the remainder of that lap, and then do one more lap to finish. Most of the spectators were following the leader's progress as she had already stopped at the finish line a lap early, and so most saw her running, but apparently the judges didn't, or they chose to ignore it! Prior to this incident, the second athlete had entered the stadium and came to a complete stop (possibly she had been disqualified) but was quickly waved on her way! As she is also Russian it is understandable a protest wasn't made, but what is baffling is the fact that the next 2 finishers are Chinese and they didn't file a protest.

Weird s--t man!

One Up, One Down!

After an enforced slow start to the season Osagie emerged from the darkness and surprised with his semi performance, and made another championship final with a season's best time. He appeared to be struggling to maintain contact and too detached to make it, but a strong last 120m. got him through.
Rimmer attacked his semi and did everything for 550m. and then his lack of fitness took it's toll

Lost and Found

Essentially DC and HA-A were lost before they got to Moscow.
As in 2011 and 2012, our male sprinters (with obvious exceptions) peaked at the trials and were unable to do themselves justice at a championship.
After a farcical heat JD found himself in the semi, with a performance that closely resembled his run at the trials - now the test (which was avoided in Birmingham) will be to run a second fast race in one day.

It Fizzled Out!

The promise of a great competition fizzled out early because it didn't matter what she tried ..

... or what she tried ... 

... once Ms. Reese did her party trick it was all over.

The experts (usually on TV, and both sides of the Atlantic) usually twist themselves into knots (Mr. Storey and Mr. Stones) trying to describe/explain what is arguably the most "perfect"  modern long jump technique. It is a so "perfectly simple" and "simply perfect" bio-mechanical model that they cannot see the "forest for the trees"!

Oh well ...

  ... I could have had more fun in the sand like this!





Having nothing to celebrate isn't stopping             
me getting dressed up and going out!        

Quick March!

The wait's almost over - at thr start of the Men's 20K. Walk

... and they are off, to complete a lap and a half before exiting the stadium

The first part of the field ...

... and the second part, with Alex Wright in his first major championship, 5th. from the left.

Alex demonstrated the same sound championship racing strategy as our 2 women marathon runners, moving from 48th. place at halfway to 36th. at 15K. and 31st. at the finish, in a time of 86' 40 and after all that was lucky to finish!

A careless TV camera moved backwards from the infield into his path with about 300m. to go on the track - skillful footwork, without "lifting" once, enabled Alex to complete the course.

It's been a Running, Jumping Throwing couple of days!

The beginning of 2 long days

A good start with 13.49 in the Hurdles - only 1/100th. outside her best

A hug from Mum always helps!

Coming down to earth - a safe landing at 1.83m. - but probably expected another height or two

The thought of the Shot next is not very exciting.

It didn't go too well - a little short of her best at 11.52m

Glad she's done with that ...

... but the 200m. produces a happy face and a new PB of 23.37, together with a new best first day total of 3739

Beginning of Day 2  - Listening to Mike

It must have worked - a new PB of 6.56m!

The Throwing part's not much fun, but the Javelin goes better than the Shot with another PB - 40.86m!

... and happy face time again as she runs another PB in the 800m. of 2'07.64 - a performance of commitment and determination that evoked memories of J E-H last year!

... is the same as the "old" Christine!!

... she just keeps winning!                                                                  

Possibly just me, but somehow Michael Johnson's comments come off as less than fulsome - maybe because he stated that Christine would never run under 49.5" !!

The "Will" of Mr. Sharman

After a slow start to the season and some mediocre results WS came through to equal his second best ever time, another 5th. place in a WC final, following a 5th. in 2011 and 4th. in 2009!

                                           (operator error!! Will's there somewhere)

The New Christine ...

CO completely controlled her semi, as did each of the other winners.
I now feel the final will be a 2 horse race - CO and Montsho are the most experienced -  Hastings and McCorory have both shown a tendency to get too "excited" in finals and blow it.

p.s.  have now heard that Co is drawn inside Montsho - definitely very optimistic if the "new" Christine is still with us!

Dasaolu-llusioned!!

I can't tell who they are from here - their names are on the front!
James D got a lesson in humility (if he needed it) - but more importantly Donovan Bailey felt moved to comment on his commitment - words he would be wise to consider.

Lady Dash

Qualifying in the women's 100 was never going to be difficult with the first 3 in each heat and a total of 6 fastest losers to go through.
Asha P controlled what ever nerves she may have had with a very tidy run and an automatic qualifying place (not surprisingly a "big Q" in our announcers lexicon!). Probably going to need a new PB to make the final.

One Time Around

Levine scrapped into the next round with a "small q" as the announcers like to call fastest losers, in a race that on time he should have won.
It was by far the easiest heat, but had no point was he involved in controlling the race, instead a furious charge down the finish got him through.

Another 13 hour day

Will Sharman had the task of making us happy at the beginning of our second 13 hour day!
He succeeded in the sense he qualified, but that new found sharpness at the "Sainsbury's Games" was missing - he is going to need it to get through his semi.

Oh oh ....

.... this feels like yesterday

Weightman struggling to maintain contact before fading over the last 1500 - clearly not recovered from her injury.

England in her favourite position after one lap ...

... and still there the next lap, but further back, before unleashing a furious run in the last 300m. to qualify. A little effort between 1100 and 1300m. would have saved all this agony

It's My Fault ..

As most of you you know I'm stumbling through this venture and sometime the cracks appear.
Unfortunately through one of those cracks a couple of post disappeared yesterday!
My apologies to DC, HA-A, JD and CO for "losing" them.
So let's pretend the blogger "time machine" has taken us back.
Men's 100
It appears that the high point of the season for DC and HA-A was the trials and although both got through the first round neither performance was sparkling.
JD seemed intent on mimicking Bolt and "spotted" everyone a couple of yards at the start, but then put in some strong running until he inexplicably he didn't just slow down but applied the brakes at 95m. I'm sure he feels qualifying for the semi justified what ever he did!
Women's 400
Some very impressive running by CO being the fastest qualifier by half a second. With a couple of small blips along the way her "new" way of racing has held up this season. A good example of getting through her heat with the minimum of fuss - it was fun to watch after some of the agonies with gone through with her in the past.

Night Night!

Sweet dreams everyone!

Let's Get This Done!

I had such a nice evening playing in the sand - I'm so happy for Shara and all my British fans!

Meanwhile ...

"Lost" during the men's 10k. were the early rounds of the women's long jump qualifying, but Shara took care of business with an automatic qualifier and the leading jump. Nice!
Reese again flirted with danger qualifying in last the final place - past experience suggests she'll come out in the final and jump 7.30m - oh dear!

Britain Expects ...

I guess a Knighthood will have to suffice as the next 3 Kings are already accounted for.

Mo didn't disappoint, but the rest of field did - yet again the rest of the world's top distance runners thought they could out run him over the last couple of laps - and they allowed him to win with a final lap of "only" 54". Guys he's run 50.9" for  a last lap what do you think's going to happen. 

Thinking back on what was an almost languid display, I began to realise that it's really Mo's fault!

He only does enough to win, and because his rivals are so close they are encouraged to think they can get him next time.

A wise man said recently that the other runners should wait for Mo to get old - then they'll beat him!

Brighter Still!

After an injury disrupted year, Eilish qualified for the final with a new personal best that was faster than the winning time of the other heat.
Now if only she could improve her approach to the hurdles .....

Moscow Madness!

It beggars belief that "our masters" decided that having a marathon race at 2pm. in 80 degrees and goodness what humidity, was good for the athletes - there weren't too many of them in the "royal box" for the finish.
We were treated to an intriguing race and the "birth" of a new star, and a continued improved outlook for the British camp.
Expected, at their best, to maybe finish in the top half of the field, Susan and Sonia put on a display of controlled championship running (ideally suited to the weather conditions) to finish 10th. and 16th. respectively.
Brave ladies there will be no better British performance this week!

A Little Brighter!

Things got a little brighter for the Brits in the men's 800

Osagie nicely placed at 500m and although he had to work hard he qualified for the semi

Rimmer seemingly out if it at 500 (after going through the bell in 51") but a tremendous closing rush saw him qualify for the semi - easily his best race of the year