19th August 2008

The Armchair Blog Part 2 - Young Athletics Fan Nathan Price On The Olympics So Far

19th August 2008

 

Reaction to the first weekend.

 

One of the big shocks of the competition so far was  Liu Xiang, who pulled out of the 110 metres hurdles before the first hurdle, to the disappointment 1.3 billion Chinese, he was their one real medal hope on the track.

 

For those of you who didn’t know, Britain’s Mara Yamauchi finished 6th in the women’s marathon to equal Britain’s best ever result in the event, and more importantly win me 3 points in my Team GB fantasy sweepstake.

 

Paula Radcliffe put in a valiant display under the circumstances but little more could have been expected from an athlete who up until June was walking on crutches. I expect to see the same gritty performance in four years time.

 

It was great to see a British girl in the final of the women’s 100 metres for the first time in twenty something years and Jeanette Kwayke performed to her best, set a new personal best and came 6th in a Olympic final. 

 

Little more can be asked of her or any british athlete, than to improve on their lifetimes best. If you still lose, then clearly the other person was "Swifter, Higher, Stronger". Delete as appropriate.

 

Solid performances from Martyn Rooney, Christine Ohuruogu, Goldie Sayers and Tasha Danvers leave me  quietly optimistic going into the final few days, and if they don’t do it for you, have a look at the embodiment of cool Phillips Idowu in his bid for Olympic Gold. The Brit took only one jump to qualify for the Thursdays final and looked like he was casually jumping over a small puddle on his way to catch a bus.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/athletics/7567246.stm

 

On the major event of the weekend, Usain Bolt was quite impressive. That’s all I have to say on that. I suppose the only thing left to wonder about is by how far he’s going to win the 200metres by and what approach he’ll be taking to breaking the world record. Should he just go and smash it and bring it down to 9.2 seconds or should he follow Isinbayeva’s example and break it by 100th of a second every week on his way to becoming the worlds richest sportsperson.

 

Either way, that record may be around for quite some time.

 

Anyway I’m off to watch yet another action packed afternoon from ‘The Bird’s Nest’.