Their classless booing spoilt the whole event for me. They carried that over to the medal ceremony. Put me right off them.

The crowd in general were just unknowledgeable. No polite applause for anybody unless you were Brazilian or Usain Bolt. Rio was the first Olympics I have watched that I wasn't sorry to see finish, and that was nothing to do with the great performances.

Little Lausanne managed more in two hours than Rio did in a week ... for me anyway.

Start lists for Paris - featuring a lot of people who right this instant are probably snoozing on the Geneva - Lyons - Paris TGV.

http://paris.diamondleague.com/en/pr...-2016-results/

The men's shot in particular looks like a 100% replay of the Rio last eight. Women's 200m is Schippers v Thompson.

http://paris.diamondleague.com/en/ne...ting-de-paris/

No doubt they will sell out so in that sense they are fairly priced, compared to other sports it feels like daylight robbery to me. Having been to a couple of athletics events before I have to be honest that the in stadium experience is really pretty poor when you consider how little of the action you can actually see. Even leaving aside the prices though the the thing that annoys me just as much is that you can't even buy tickets in the prime areas on the finish straight: https://tickets.london2017athletics....e7.seatmap.png

So they are asking me to pay premium prices for less that premium seats when probably two thirds of the action will be happening so far away from me that I'll only be able to see what is going by watching on the big screen. And they wonder why track and field is a dying sport?

You can't buy seats there because that is where the mixed zone is and where the press are seated.

If you are after a more 'intimate' athletics viewing experience without the vagaries of the British weather then I'd suggest you come to Birmingham in March 2018 for the World Indoor Athletics Championships, ticket details available soon.

Rio Athletics Results book (PDF file) - the distance race results include comprehensive splits for all athletes, down to splits for every 100m for track races.

He's probably still on the mother of all benders.

If he goes to London, I reckon you'll be able to count the number of appearances next season on one hand.

Hasn't she got a name?

As someone has already said, seats right on the finish line are resevered as they nearly always are for big meets/championships. Tickets are quite reasonably priced IMO. After missing out on London 2012 I'm definitely hoping to get a pair of these and have gone for the high-priced weekday tickets just to increase my odds.


Oh tasty. Perhaps revenge for the muscular-necked one?

The women's 1500 is loaded too - All the Top 10 in Rio minus Dibaba but plus Euro Champ, Cichocka. Hopefully, Laura can finish her season on a strong note after disappointment in Rio.

Eithee last year or the year before in Luzern: men's 100m. Asafa Powell and Kim Collins ran to the end if I recall correctly!

Quiet in here!

Ruth Jebet demolishes the 3000m steeplechase WR. 8:52

Should've done that in Rio though. That'd have been two phat pay outs.

If she ever learns to hurdle you can take several more seconds off.

Desiree Henry 22:46 PB over 200m. Looked very good in the final 100, out in lane 8.


No doubt about that.

World lead for Laura Muir and new British record!

I don't care if I am the only regular posting tonight.

Laura Muir going like a train. 3:55 Holy ****!

Well, Blimey O'Reilly Laura!!!!! Talk about yer blown chances.

an absolutely incredible run by muir there, beats her own pb by 2 seconds, 13th fastest all time, better than kipyegons pb by over a second

Such a shame for Laura in Rio.

Not watched any of yet but now really looking forward to it now with all the excellent performances people stated above.

A nice little conundrum how fast would amateurs Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell run in the 100, 200 and 400 (in the case of Eric) with full time modern training and on todays tracks?

10.6 is pretty good for Harold for example.

Well that was a pretty good night's Athletics. That Stadium may be a touch overkill though.

I wonder if that Fearon chap should dump the bobsleigh and sprint full time. He looks pretty handy. Though, admittedly I've only seen him run two races...

No chance - he has a better chance of winning a global championship medal in bobsleigh than athletics.^

Earlier this year, he was in the two-man (fourth place*) and four-man bob (virtual silver until they crashed out during the third run).

[* Best finish by a GB duo for around 50 years, too]
[^ At least until the men's 4x100 get their shit together, which they haven't done at the OG or WCh since 2009]

Forget Jebet, what about magnificent, MAGNIFICENT Laura Muir?! Wow! At 1200 in 3:10 I was thinking she could go 3:55 here and she did! Seven under 4:00 after a relatively slow first 800. Lovely reaction by Sifan Hassan, she always has a few words for Laura at the end. Perhaps this time it was, "You and I will get those Kenyans & Ethiopians in London next year" ...

If we say Dibaba's WR is clean, has Laura just ran the 2nd fastest legit time ever (and a legit European record)? Only Dibaba and 11 dodgy Chinese & Eastern Europeans have run faster - https://www.iaaf.org/records/toplist...r/women/senior . In any case, it's the 2nd fastest time this century!

Not sure if Laura will be in Zurich or Brussels. It was said that soon after Rio she's doing a 2 week work placement at the Dogs' Trust in Darlington.

It was only a matter of time for Ruth Jebet. That WR is now starting to 'get there'. Having crunched the numbers, if it gets down to 8:47/8:48 I think it will be on a par with the men's steeple record. It was only the 2nd time that 8 women went inside 9:20 in a race.

That's 5 WRs in 9 weeks now (though 3 of them were in women's events that are still maturing.) When was the last time something like that happened?

In the men's 3000 Iguider tried to front run after the rabbit dropped out but, let's face it, he's no Laura Muir is he?

FTFY - Dibaba clocked a 3:54.11 in Barcelona before that run.

Kipyegon has the prize that matters most, but a 3:55.22 WL/NR () is one heck of a response - it was almost Radcliffe-esque. (Different distance, but you get the drift.)

Any ideas why Yomif Kejelcha (7:28.19 WL/WJR* in the men's 3,000m) didn't make the Olympic team? Would have been interesting to see how he'd have fared against Mo in the 5,000m.

[* Yes, I know. ]

-----

Should also mention that Tom Walsh produced a 22m AR to win the shot put - he pipped Olympic champion Ryan Crouser by a single centimetre!

Ah yes, forgot about Dibaba's 3:54. Ok, Laura is the 2nd fastest athlete this century.

Re Kejelcha - did they have trials for the 5000 (I know they did for the 10,000 in that Hengelo race)? I know that for the marathon the Ethiopians usually select based on best times over the past year.

The dogs can wait! Just read on AW that Laura said she will be doing the 1500 in Zurich.

There's also the annual women's 4x100m relay to look forward to - unless you're Swiss.


It's about time - considering her speed over 100m, her previous performances over 200m were rather slow in comparison. Also worth noting she's not the first Brit to clock that exact time 5 years after winning the world youth title.