was it an inter sex 1-2-3?

It sure was. But Melissa Bishop is the real People's Champion with Lynsey picking up the People's Bronze.

In other news, the IAAF Council in Rio decided some World Athletics Series stuff:

Mixed Relays are the order of the day ...
- A mixed relay has been added to the World XC Champs
- A mixed 4x4 replaces both the M + W 4x4 at the Continental Cup
- A mixed 4x4 replaces the Distance Medlay Relay at the World Relays meet (to be fair the DMR is an American thing; the rest of the world were like, "what's a DMR?")

The World Youth (U18) Championships are being discontinued after the next edition. They will look at other ways of supporting young athletes' development through competition.

A few other things too. PDF document download here.

Oh really?
Must have missed that.
But theyre the biggest crybabies ever so not really surprised.

It was a good reace. Niyonsaba was better compared to semi. It was a bit messy, esp from Arzamasova and also Boshop. One of them might have gotten the bronze with smarter running.

Im sure Caster can crush the WR

The problem is that the US 4x100 always

1) is scratch team put together at the last minute
2) is chock full of competing ego and personality clashes going back for years
3) refuses to practise properly.

So effectively it's a miracle they ever get anything out of it. Contrast with the Japanese, who have been clearly working together as a unit for years. And the British team who always manage to combine the worst of both worlds by having a fixed national team of second-raters who always hate and are jealous of the final-leg runner, who is inevitable far more successful and better-known than the other three.

Okay. It was great to see Sir Mo and Centrowitz win, both displaying great tactical nous and last lap speed, but the infamously poor beeb field coverage almost ruined the night for me. I guess to some extent they're at the mercy of overseas broadcasters but that can't excuse everything. By all accounts both the javelin and high jump were thrilling contests, but you'd never have known that from their patchy cut-aways.

Still pleased for Beita, one of the best comeback stories even if it was a low height, great to see another 37 year-old stalwart, Chris Brown, get a medal and pity Yego got injured, but I don't think it would have affected the overall result. Got to give it to Rohler pulling out that throw when it matterred.

I don't know if Caster will ever break the WR. I don't think it will come in a paced race and I don't know if there's anyone who can put up enough of a challenge to stretch her. Also, I can't help thinking that she doesn't want the burden. Even though she got the silver in 2012 she finished like a train and it seemed she could have easily claimed gold. It was almost as if she didn't want the extra publicity it would bring. Or maybe Gavitar is right. She has a style that makes it look like she is always comfortable, even when she's running flat out.

They did have a relay camp in Texas. Not sure how many orders they practiced with but they were there for days.

Don't accept that crap. I was perfectly able to keep tabs on the field events via the non-BBC stream. It's only the BBC's insistence on showing studio blethering rather than live action that makes it impossible to follow field events.

She would only be able to set a WR time in a field paced by either a women 400m runner or a male 800m runner - Michael Rimmer would be ideal. But she has clearly worked out, or has been advised by her handlers, that she would queer her own pitch if she really went for it, so she won't

Male runners are not allowed as pace makers AFAIK?

Yeah, any time set in a mixed race on the track isn't credited as an official PB so any such time wouldn't be ratified for NR/AR/WR purposes either.

Exactly, that is my point. We will never know what Semenya's true best is because it effectively cannot be tested. If for some reason it was genuinely tested, I think it would probably be so close to the mark of an average male athlete - say 1:48 or something - that it would be obvious that the whole thing is a scam.

Thank you. As I hinted above, those are mostly my thoughts as well but the first time I've seen anyone that thinks the same.

It's not the fault of any of the 1-2-3 athletes and for a while Niyonsaba made a race of it, but it was farcial watching them medal while the obviously feminine runners behind them struggled to the minor places.

I've just seen yet another crying interview with Lynsey Sharp as well.... Coe reckons that the IAAF will soon be able to produce the evidence to overturn CAS's decision. I guess we'll have to wait and see....

...but wouldn't it be funny if Rimmer ran the whole way with Caster and got beaten?

Do athletes who set a world record during the Olympics get the same huge bonus they would get from the sponsors of a non-championship event?

I Googled this comprehensively but it turned up absolutely nothing about the bonus for an athletics WR at the Olympics specifically.

The IAAF World Record Programme awards a bonus of
- $50,000 for any WR set on the regular 'circuit'
- $100,000 for any WR set in the IAAF World Championships

The mark has to better the existing WR mark. If you 'only' equal the WR, you don't get a bonus. That's a bit rough!

I would guess it would be $50,000 minimum bonus for a WR at the Olympics which would be equal to what they get on the 'circuit'.

They don't get anything from the Olympics, which has a strict no-payment policy. As Gavitar says they might be entitled to the IAAF bonus, and then they will have private deals with their national federation or their own sponsors. I imagine that the Bahraini & Turkish mercenaries will have a very generous deal.

But see this post here, which says that the IAAF does NOT make payouts for the Olympics..

https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-...ecord-breakers

The initial start lists for Lausanne on Thursday are out: http://lausanne.diamondleague.com/en...ults_lausanne/ - quite a few medalists and champions on show.

I don't like Lynsey Sharp's crying and whining. She finished 6th! If Semenya ran the 5th fastest time in the event, who ran the previous 4? Were they also hyperandrogenic?
Also didn't much care for the men's relay disqualification whingeing. Michael Johnson dealt with it very well on air, I think.
I do understand athletes being angry at doping because that's breaking the rules. The nastiness aimed at Semenya (including by Radcliffe) is out of proportion; they say things about her case that they'd not say about anyone suspected of doping.

Lynsey's upset stems from this - if CAS had not overturned the IAAF's 'treatment policy' for hyperandrogenic athletes, she may have an Olympic medal now (and would certainly have had a much better chance of medalling). All of the first 3 in that race are hyperandrogenic and none of the 3 had been a factor in the women's 800 for an age ... until the policy was overturned.

I don't understand what you're saying with the bolded bit.

I think people are able to say something about Semenya because it is known that she has elevated testosterone levels, way higher than is typical for a woman. That is not the case with someone who is just suspected of doping - we don't know for sure in those cases and it would be legally risky to publically say that they're doping or discuss them as if they are doping.

But, yes, the ire shouldn't be directed at Semenya but at CAS who made the stupid decision.

I didn't use BBC1 much for the Olympics as there's too much rabbit at the expense of so much to see.
But I did hear Paula talking about Semenya, explaining that the limits for testosterone was set at 10, over three times that of the average for women, which is 3, but she made no comment other than that Semenya came in at around 9. I didn't hear her say anything detrimental.

The whole things a farce.
I heard Phil, "never mind being out of breath, how do you feel?" Jones, interviewing Semenya and I couldn't help smiling thinking about the Kinks' song about "Lola with her deep brown voice."

Her physicality is not her fault, but it does give her a tremendous advantage over other competitors.

I was fascinated by Margaret Wambusi, Whose hair and features reminded me very much of the jazz trumpeter, Miles Davis.

In a presentation on Saturday, Abbey D'Agostino & Nikki Hamblin received Fair Play awards for their actions during the 5000m heats. Well-deserved!

https://www.iaaf.org/news/news/ioc-f...blin-dagostino

Thomas_Baldwin - Think you did fairly well prediction wise!

I agree with you that it's not in her interest to smash the world record but I don't think she's quite as manly as you think! For them to let her run as female she must at the very least be XX chromosome and that should mean she's much slower than the elite male average at her best.

I'm annoyed that I missed out on a couple events that I'd liked to have seen much more of - the men's pole vault and women's long jump. The worst event had to have been the women's high jump for sure. Terrible competition which the part time jumpers in the heptathlon could have won.

The heights were pretty poor. All three medallists only cleared 1.97.
K J-T cleared 1.98 in the Heptathlon.


I saw it more of another opportunity to watch, Blanka Vlašić.

She only came second in 2008 with 2.05 and has been dogged with injury since those years of her, "winning everything else." I'm glad she got a bronze medal, only lost on count-back. Would have liked to witness one of winning celebration dances.

You have to be pleased for Ruth Beitia winning gold at thirty-seven.

In 2012 she only came fourth with 2.00.