A sign of the declining athletics tv interest today - BBC2 will show 90 minutes of the European Team Championships, then the rest of the coverage is red button/online only.
The action doesn't start until 13:00, so there will be plenty of time for blether beforehand.
You mean the BBC's declining interest and it's obsession with tennis for three weeks of the year? Tell us something we didn't already know.
At least the BBC shows an interest in athletics though. ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 have no interest at all, and Sky doesn't seem bothered these days. Eurosport seems to be the only other channel which shows it, but its a fairly low rated, niche channel.
Compare this back to the early 90's, when ITV would show athletics meetings in prime time.
The lack of tv interest in athletics is pretty much global, apart from at the Olympics.
Athletics really needs to do something to boost the sport's popularity. It is one of my favourite sports, but hardly any of my friends have any interest in it, barring the Olympics.
Morgan Lake at Bedford this morning1.94=PB and highest ever by a British Woman outdoors on the UK. Be interesting to see how high Pooley goes today in Russia?
Good to see that Gotzis was seemingly an exam fueled blip for Morgan, hopefully she will find a good quality heptathlon event in a few weeks time to get the qualifier for Beijing.
Morgan Lake at Bedford this morning1.94=PB and highest ever by a British Woman outdoors on the UK. Be interesting to see how high Pooley goes today in Russia?
Good to see that Gotzis was seemingly an exam fueled blip for Morgan, hopefully she will find a good quality heptathlon event in a few weeks time to get the qualifier for Beijing.
Didn't realise that she hadn't qualified yet.
Elsewhere, in the B-league Schippers has run 11,12 yesterday (in not ideal wind conditions) and the 100m relay team clocked up a win in 42,88 (with Visser the heptathlete on the first hand-over).
Will be on holidays myself in good old England the coming week, but I will try to keep up with everything on my phone ;-)
A sign of the declining athletics tv interest today - BBC2 will show 90 minutes of the European Team Championships, then the rest of the coverage is red button/online only.
Team GB don't seem to be interested in this competition either though, hardly any of the 'big' names are there. I'm surprised the BBC have given it as much coverage as they have with the standard of the GB team on show.
Zane Duquemin improves slightly 55.42, currently 7th. Rachel Wallader gets a mark in the shot 15.40. Jax Thoirs gets a jump in the PV, 5.15, has already beaten 3 guys.
Solomon was on for another sub-13 until she smashed into the fifth hurdle - thankfully she didn't fall and continued to the finish.
Apparently DAS has food poisoning and Williams will run the 200m instead.
Shubenkov does the 110mH in 13.22 (-2.6m/s), leaving PML in his wake!
The food there must be awful. Asha had a stomach bug too. Earlier on yesterday she tweeted that the breakfast canteen ran out of eggs so she had chips for breakfast!
And PML better watch out. With performances like that he could be beaten by Belocian, Bascou and Darien in the French championships. Admittedly that's a big if but still something worth thinking about nonetheless.
And Dan Bramble no marks in the triple. >:( It's enough to make you long for Chris Tomlinson.
Correction! Webpage was steering me wrong, he got a legal jump at 15.92 for 11th place. Dunno if he got a rejump, it did definitely indicate that he had no jumped at some point.
Team GB don't seem to be interested in this competition either though, hardly any of the 'big' names are there. I'm surprised the BBC have given it as much coverage as they have with the standard of the GB team on show.
Its is disappointing to see so many top GB names not competing, France seems to have there A team.
Perhaps selectors should be offering auto qualification for the world champs if they compete in this, provided they have the A standard.
Perhaps selectors should be offering auto qualification for the world champs if they compete in this, provided they have the A standard.
Would like to see them using willingness to volunteer for this kind of event as a condition for getting lottery money. See also the World Relay Champs.
Sophie Hitchon throws 71.98 SB, only in fifth though, another two athletes have thrown PBs.
Jazmin Sawyers got her final jump in, 6.39 for sixth.
Bonne Buwembo 66.41 in the javelin.
Isobel Pooley finished at 1.94 in the HJ for =6th.
Britain in danger of getting caught by Italy now.
Especially after a poor effort in the womens 4x400m. It was a very bad weekend for the womens relays. We need to get more of our better athletes competing.
Especially after a poor effort in the womens 4x400m. It was a very bad weekend for the womens relays. We need to get more of our better athletes competing.
With the relays, in particular, it just seems like a massive wasted opportunity to trial out our A teams. Each time this weekend, the commentators give us a "well, that was OK, but there's lots of other people to come into the team". Excepting for injury, why?!
Virtually none of our 100m or 400m runners - male or female - have any hope of individual medals at the World Championships this summer. But if they pull together, work out their best orders and get their handovers slick - they do have a hope of relay medals.
Seems obvious to me that they should be taking every opportunity to do those things!
Oh dear... that second day was hard work to get through.
I suppose I can understand the reluctance to travel to the back end of beyond by most of our 'A' team to compete in a relatively unimportant competition, it just makes it a tad tiresome to watch.
Seems that the second day wasn't as good from a British perspective - fewer points in general, and no victories. At least there were still good performances by some individuals.
On another subject, I don't think we've had 2 GB female high jumpers clearing 1.94 outdoors on the same day before.
YES! The Netherlands were promoted to the Super League (alongside the Czechs and Greeks).
Schippers won the 200m in 22,45 (no wind) and she also announced earlier that she will be running in the next 4 Diamond League meetings (amongst them the Anniversary games in London).
Comments
The action doesn't start until 13:00, so there will be plenty of time for blether beforehand.
At least the BBC shows an interest in athletics though. ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 have no interest at all, and Sky doesn't seem bothered these days. Eurosport seems to be the only other channel which shows it, but its a fairly low rated, niche channel.
Compare this back to the early 90's, when ITV would show athletics meetings in prime time.
The lack of tv interest in athletics is pretty much global, apart from at the Olympics.
Athletics really needs to do something to boost the sport's popularity. It is one of my favourite sports, but hardly any of my friends have any interest in it, barring the Olympics.
Good to see that Gotzis was seemingly an exam fueled blip for Morgan, hopefully she will find a good quality heptathlon event in a few weeks time to get the qualifier for Beijing.
Didn't realise that she hadn't qualified yet.
Elsewhere, in the B-league Schippers has run 11,12 yesterday (in not ideal wind conditions) and the 100m relay team clocked up a win in 42,88 (with Visser the heptathlete on the first hand-over).
Will be on holidays myself in good old England the coming week, but I will try to keep up with everything on my phone ;-)
Team GB don't seem to be interested in this competition either though, hardly any of the 'big' names are there. I'm surprised the BBC have given it as much coverage as they have with the standard of the GB team on show.
Zane Duquemin gets a mark in the discus, 55.28 first round.
Apparently DAS has food poisoning and Williams will run the 200m instead.
Shubenkov does the 110mH in 13.22 (-2.6m/s), leaving PML in his wake!
The food there must be awful. Asha had a stomach bug too. Earlier on yesterday she tweeted that the breakfast canteen ran out of eggs so she had chips for breakfast!
And PML better watch out. With performances like that he could be beaten by Belocian, Bascou and Darien in the French championships. Admittedly that's a big if but still something worth thinking about nonetheless.
Correction! Webpage was steering me wrong, he got a legal jump at 15.92 for 11th place. Dunno if he got a rejump, it did definitely indicate that he had no jumped at some point.
Its is disappointing to see so many top GB names not competing, France seems to have there A team.
Perhaps selectors should be offering auto qualification for the world champs if they compete in this, provided they have the A standard.
Would like to see them using willingness to volunteer for this kind of event as a condition for getting lottery money. See also the World Relay Champs.
Sophie Hitchon throws 71.98 SB, only in fifth though, another two athletes have thrown PBs.
Jazmin Sawyers two fouls in the LJ.
Gabby thinks of herself as an expert on the subject which is part of the problem. The BBC overemphasises presenters which is a shame.
Bonne Buwembo 66.41 in the javelin.
Isobel Pooley finished at 1.94 in the HJ for =6th.
Britain in danger of getting caught by Italy now.
Especially after a poor effort in the womens 4x400m. It was a very bad weekend for the womens relays. We need to get more of our better athletes competing.
With the relays, in particular, it just seems like a massive wasted opportunity to trial out our A teams. Each time this weekend, the commentators give us a "well, that was OK, but there's lots of other people to come into the team". Excepting for injury, why?!
Virtually none of our 100m or 400m runners - male or female - have any hope of individual medals at the World Championships this summer. But if they pull together, work out their best orders and get their handovers slick - they do have a hope of relay medals.
Seems obvious to me that they should be taking every opportunity to do those things!
I suppose I can understand the reluctance to travel to the back end of beyond by most of our 'A' team to compete in a relatively unimportant competition, it just makes it a tad tiresome to watch.
On another subject, I don't think we've had 2 GB female high jumpers clearing 1.94 outdoors on the same day before.
Schippers won the 200m in 22,45 (no wind) and she also announced earlier that she will be running in the next 4 Diamond League meetings (amongst them the Anniversary games in London).