Daily Mail.
Not sure what to make of it?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ocial-facebook

Hard to know if this means "athletes" or just sportspeople from rowing, hockey or whatever. Certainly pretty much all British track&field athletes have been brought up in schools, youth etc teams from a young age, so there is no chance of some former man appearing out of nowhere.

Good interview with Valerie Adams

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...t-put-champion

Valerie is awesome!

When I was in NZ at the start of the year there was practically daily updates in the news of how Valerie was getting on in her recovery and return. They worship her like a deity and quite right too.

Yep. If it were a track & field athlete (and I have my doubts) a bit of digging on Power of 10 and you'd soon be able to work out who it was.

The Russians have named their list of 68 athletes who they want to be allowed to compete in Rio.

http://www.rusathletics.com/nov/news.15486.htm

Just to take the pee even more they've included 6 race walkers. Yep, good luck with that RUSAF.

Looking forward to the Europeans!

A new thing they're doing for everything up to 400 including the hurdles is giving byes to the semifinals for athletes with a Top 12 Season's Best on the European lists - http://www.european-athletics.org/mm...SF_Neutral.pdf
Wonder if it's only for the Olympic years to make participation more attractive to those thinking of missing it?

Just one final tomorrow, the Women's 10,000 but it looks pretty good quality - plenty of women with SBs under 32 or close to and some old familiars like Moreira, Dulce Felix, and Fionnuala Britton (now McCormack). No Kate Avery it seems (injured or a calculated withdrawal?) but Jo Pavey & Jess Andrews are there. It'll be tough for Jo to medal again I think given the quality of the field, so maybe she'll just time-trial it for a Rio time?

Liking the look of the women's 800 heats too. Most of the European 'big guns' are there although it has to be said that qualification for the semis is easy at first 4 plus the 4 fastest. Once the inevitable intersex sweep of the medals in Rio happens I wonder if Lynsey will regret not going to Amsterdam and trying to win the title again? Arsamasova seems to be the only other big name missing.

Discus & Javelin qualifying will take place at Museum Square, photo here - https://twitter.com/DiscusDan/status...rc=twsrc%5Etfw
From what I've seen the throws and vertical jumps work well in these outside-the-stadium settings though I'm still not sold on the running aspect of 'street athletics'. It doesn't quite seem to work for me.

Breaking news: David King has replaced Will Sharman on the team.

These athletes will be the cleanest you will ever see compete. They will be subject to far more extensive testing than anyone else to prevent claims of unfair advantages.

I notice one of the comments is saying they'd "drop back" if they found themselves in a leading position which indicates an individual sport with a race rather than something technical like shooting or gymnastics.

Assuming the whole thing isn't a hoax, of course.

And in "Crazy!!! How The Hell Did That Happen????" news ...

Cakir Alptekin could be running in Rio -
http://www.athleticsweekly.com/featu...ted-cas-45990/

I don't understand. As it was her 2nd anti-doping violation why wasn't she banned for life in the first place, no negotiation allowed?

Wow!
Thats quite a lot isnt it...

Excited about Europeans. Am gonna record day session, then dun home after work to watch some of it, then evening session, then rest of day session. Gonna be some long days now.

I'm taking the days off, hadn't planned to but when I saw that the teams were going to be pretty credible, changed my mind.

I would have liked to do that but just too busy at work
Should still be able to leave today around 1430 so its not that bad really

Also, who's gonna finish top of medal table?
Can be quite interesting?

UK?
France?
NL?

Have a feeling it's gonna be spread around quite a bit, which is fun

Absence of Russia makes it interesting. Usually Germany are contenders, but they have absolutely no runners at all now. I'm going for Poland, they have a well-balanced all round team, assuming that all their big names are present.

Good one. They have decent athletes in loads of disciplines, both men and women

I would think they have a fair few medal chances in the track events, especially on the women's side. Just off the top of my head - Krause in the W Steeple, Ringer in the M 5k, Reus in the M 100, Hering/Kohlmann in the W 800, Roleder in the W 100H, the W 4x100, maybe Luckenkemper in the W 200 ... Add in a ton of medals they'll probably get in the field and they'll be right up there, I think.

They've got some talented women sprinters now. Gina Luckenkemper who won the European Junior title last year is currently leading the 200m rankings although I think Dina will win. And the German 4x1 relay team ran 42.00 recently which is slightly quicker than the British record. They also have lots of talented field eventers whereas beyond our LJ'ers & Robbie Grabarz I don't see any medals here.

Personally as it's not a proper Euro Champs I'm not bothered about the medal table but more interested in how certain individuals perform like Mitchell-Blake

Anyway, off we go....Jonathan Edwards and Fiona May!!!! - long time not seen - are in charge of the blethering for now.

Whoever is supposed to be doing the translations has slept in.

Sophie Hitchon 68.73 second throw in the hammer, not automatic q but 2nd overall.

Sophie Hitchon 69.48 third throw, still not automatic, 4th place overall. Another pool to come later, so a bit of a nervous wait. Should be OK, though. At least one known doper ahead of her.

Ashley Bryant 10th in the Dec 100m, 11.12 834 points.

Former world bronze Alexandra Tavernier of FRA get a NM in the hammer.

Isobel Pooley 1.85, still alive in the HJ quals, unfortunately had an earlier miss, so marked down. 1.92 is automatic mark.

Isobel Pooley HJ one failure at 1.89.

Lucy Hatton 100H very poor 13:37, only 5th so out.

100H Susanna Kallur wins her heat! Needs to run 12:80 for Swedish Olympic qualifying time.

Serita Solomon also poor 13:39 in 4th so out.

Isobel Pooley second failure at 1.89. And a third, so definitely out, there are already 14 over.

Men's 100m Richard Kilty wins Heat 1 10:24

Ashley Bryant 7:56 in the Dec LJ, currently 2nd in the event, should pull himself up a few places

Ojie Edoborun 2nd in his 100m heat, also 10:24.

Is Gemilli in or out? I thought he was only doing the relay now but the commentators seem to think he's still in .

Christina Ohuruogu wins the first 400m heat against not very much, 52.69

Sophie Hitchon is though in the hammer, qualifies 6th official. Probably the strongest field of the week in global terms.

Jade Lally 58.76 first round automatic qualifier in the Discus, over the other side of town at the Rijksmuseum.

Ashley Bryant 5th overall in the Dec, 1784 after two events. Shot next - his PB is not that great, though.

Jarryd Dunn takes heat 1 of the 400m from lane 8, 46:05.