Why are GB Athletes Flops on the big stage?

Why are so many of our Athletes Flops on the big stage?

Once again our so called top athletes have failed to bring home the medals baring one or two, why is this?

Is it they were just out performed by better athletes on the day or are they over hyped primadonna’s who are weight down with the height of expectation as well as all their bling! (take it off guys and girls and leave it in the locker room)

Maybe more of them should have took part in the Commonwealth Games instead of believing that they were too big a stars to do that, as some of them look short of big event experience.

Not looking so good for 2012 now is it.

Why are you such a hopeless troll?

Why is this a troll?

The GB athletes have flopped, they've had great funding to get it right in time for 2012 but most of them seem to have spent the money on bling instead!

I want medals not excuses

Looks like other Athletics fans agree with me!

2 gold isn't a disaster for Britain, alot of improvement needed though.

Idowu would have jumped further if he wasn't wearing all his metal, what a plank

We finished 6th in both the medal and placings table behind:

USA, Russia & Germany - who each have larger populations (5x bigger in the case of the USA).
Kenya - outstanding in distance running.
Jamaica - outstanding in sprinting.

Ahead of France, Italy, Ukraine, Japan, China etc.

I agree there were quite a few disappointing performances but overall we did reasonably well.

Hersh - let's face it you are a troll who doesn't really know what he's talking about.

The medal tally was good and progress, the top 8 finishes were poor and a couple of steps backwards.

It is the empty events and lack of depth that is our undoing.

It is good to be above France Italy etc.
China will come through in years to come with their vast population and perhaps a generation or so later India.

Hersh - let's face it you are a troll who doesn't really know what he's talking about.


and you do!

It's called an opinion, and I have followed Athletics all my life, I was never good enough to represent my county or country, but I did represent my school and Uni at several events, Shot, Discus and Javelin

they were a few real disappointments (Meadows, Bleasdale, Proctor, the sprinting, etc.) but overall it was a pretty decent effort. Ennis, Farah (10 000) and Idowu could easily have won but for outstanding performances by their competitors (in Idowu's case a bit of a fluke really), while we had a couple of fourth place finishes too.

HERSH wrote:Hersh - let's face it you are a troll who doesn't really know what he's talking about.


and you do!

It's called an opinion, and I have followed Athletics all my life, I was never good enough to represent my county or country, but I did represent my school and Uni at several events, Shot, Discus and Javelin

Yes of course you are entitled to your opinion, I just think that you have somewhat unrealistic expectations of how many medals we should be winning and where we should rank amongst other nations in the sport. Also the inflammatory way you tend to word things suggests to me (and I suspect others) that you cannot be taken particularly seriously.

As for me I have never really been an athlete or a coach but various family members have been. I am an official with 30 years experience up to national champs and Grand Prix level. I have attended over 20 international championships as a spectator. The "stat" part of my nickname was originally given to me by others.

I would not call it a resounding success, but failure?

2 gold medals... pretty good
4 silvers... some were close to being gold
1 bronze... ok we would have like more

We forget that 6th place in the medals table is not bad for a country of our size and it was the target set by the governing body..

If GB athletes failed, then others from different places did as well, but it was a pretty good games.

What is true is that we took a relatively small team and that we were not represented in all finals, but only 2 nations really were.

There might be many challenges in the sport, but failure on the big stage?? not really on this occasion.

I never watch athletics to see athletes from my own country in the running for gold medals anyway, I watch because I like to see the best. There are many larger countries than GB who also struggle on the big stage, like France or Spain for example, so using GB as a scapegoat is really silly. The only real disappointment I saw was the relays, as usual they can't even pass a bloody baton around, conspiracy theories should be on the go with the relay teams!

Hersh, who in your opinion was a flop then? I saw some very good performances by some athletes and some encouraging ones. Unfortunately in some events we arent storong but that is the same for every country

There were some disappointments - but then there were some exceptional efforts and performances

On balance, reasonable - not great, but nor a disaster...

Not a bad performance really. Mo Farah was outstanding. Jessica Ennis captured a reasonable points score and could easily improve in 2012. Biggest disappointments for me were Chambers false start in the 100m and Jenny Meadows not qualifying for the 800m final. It's not likely she would have won a medal given the fast times in the final but it would have been good to see her there.

Looking forward to the remainder of the season and 2012.

HERSH wrote:Idowu would have jumped further if he wasn't wearing all his metal, what a plank

You're right. Piercings do weight alot. Of course, even if Idowu had jumped further he'd have had to have beaten his PB by 16cms. He got beaten by the 11th longest jump of all time. No shame in that.

Medal tally was fine. Pretty much as expected , though could easily have been more golds as Ennis , Idowu and Farah in the 10000 were all beaten by quite exceptional efforts from opponents. Which is fair enough , it is the World Championships!
The disappointment was in the dearth of 4th-8th placings - CVC was hoping for a much larger number of finalists. As was I , though I'm not surprised at the actual result. Several of the hopefuls were at their first major championships and the experience will help for next year, which is more important. And several other possible finalists who underperformed were clearly not in top form leading in for one reason or another so optimism should perhaps have been tempered somewhat.

All in all I'd call it a goodish performance.

Interesting that Christian Malcolm says he thought Charles was harsh by his criticism.

Anyone watch the diamond league last night? Powell was back in action.

My feelings are that CVC has set more than very achievable targets, with a view to ensuring that at the very least GB would secure the minimum, with ample room for GB to excel...

This is shown by how we met our Target with what still felt like a flat overall performance. Indeed, we could've and possibly should've won more medals at the worlds. Frustratingly, CVC has set a target of only one more for 2012. Too easy in my view. The target should've been set higher. The target should be more challenging. But CVC clearly wants to give himself every chance to look like he's achieved his goals and met his end of the bargain - indeed, with room to excel and over-achieve with regards to medal target, he gives himself the opportunity to appear like the saviour of British athletics...not impressed!

That is one way to look at it Izzy

Another view might be that CVC wants to take some pressure off the athletes ?
Heaven knows the newspapers (let alone internet experts) are only too ready to kick the team to death for perceived failures anyway - set the bar too high and you just invite complaints even after modestly successful efforts.

I think his real target is a bit higher - and does it really matter what he announces to the press , as long as the result is a decent one?

alfie - I understand what you're saying...and I agree there can be an enormous amount of pressure on athletes.

My comments are aimed at CVC and the processes, structures, mechanisms, and ultimately, the pressures and reasons that bring us to a place where CVC can and must set a target. I don't think he sets a target taking into accountthe amount of pressure that it may place upon athletes. He is effectively a bureaucrat, brought into to set up the systems that are meant to enable athletics excellence, and that is measured by performance; and like we observe in so many instances, success is measured by stats, tangible numbers etc.

It is clear that athletes do feel pressure from CVC. In some instances, they bite back i.e. Idowu. CVC will criticise athletes where he thinks it is deserved [ rightly or wrongly, I leave that for others to judge ] - see below article from the daily Mail;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2033702/WORLD-ATHLETICS-CHAMPIONSHIPS-2011-Charles-van-Commenee-hits-British-performers.html

Critically, while we met our target, CVC was still critical of others who did not perform well...that suggests to me that, on the whole, he likely expected more medals ( though I do understand that some of our medals were unexpected i.e. Turner, England etc ], but that the target of 7 was established in order to provide room for a bad championship, but still leave him not having to be heavily criticised; while also ensuring the opportunity for team GB do really well. In other words, he set that target lower than his real expectations, so that in the instance of a bad or average case scenario, you meet your target; while leaving room to apparently over-achieve, if things go according to plan, so to speak...

Ultimately, CVC's job is about the numbers...purely quantitive...

This is simply a personal viewpoint I have - and I'm sure others may see it different...

Yes, I think the target was a bit soft. In business terms, more like a slightly conservative budget than a target that would have really stretched the team.

No matter, they achieved that particular target. A bit of a reality check who might have expected more. Next year with home advantage and more experience for the younger ones, we should do better than 8. That is a particularly modest target given the money that has been spent.

The disappointment is in terms of so many of the athletes who under-performed. Not many of whom would have medalled at top form, but nevertheless could have made finals. The relays were a particular disappointment. In the women's 4 x 400 Ohuruga with 52 seconds (so I read), may have cost them a medal. The men's 4 x 100 could have medalled as well if they had handled that last take-over better.

The disappointment is as someone noted earlier not in the medal tally but more the lack of finalists in general. You can be in the final/top 8 and have no chance of medalling but gives an indication of the "teams" overall progression across ALL events.

Lets face it medal tally wise lucky to get 7. Andy Turner isn't by any stretch of the imagination the 3rd best sprint hurdler in the world. Hannah England great personal performance but unforeseen.
Van Comedy must have been relying of Tomlinson or Rutherford/Meadows + relays for the other 2.

If only interested in medal tally may as well have sent just Mo, Phillips, Jess and Dai. Would have saved a shed full of money - and avoided difficult questions

Let's face it if it wasn't for the relays why bother sending a single Male or Female sprinter at all

Billy that is an interesting point aobut the British sprinters.

How can we compete in the Relay if we can't compete in the Individual?

Is it to do with our amazing baton changes or that we can't start from the blocks?

Marlon Devonish can run sub 15s for 150m but can't do sub 10 or sub 20 for 100m or 200m.

Did anyone see MLF get run down by Frater? That was hilarious. MLF needs to loose about 4 stone. He is so over weight it is ridiculous. Pickering, what is wrong with his attitude?? Talk to the camera, bring some charisma???

Do we lack the top end speed or is our starts or can we not run 100m convincingly like Chambers?

ryan - Pickering has a serious disadvantage in the charisma stakes - he grew up in Milton Keynes!

We look to the relay because of the uncertainty aspect related to it. We do not have the best sprinters by a long shot. But in the relay, there is a chance the others may bugg3r up, letting us in ( if we can get the baton round )...however, too frequently, it is us Brits that are providing the comedic material in the sprint relay...

Saw MLF get run down by Frater...he made Frater look like Usain Bolt - MLF should take stock, and cut down on the munchies

Question; What is up with our sprinters? Why are we so far behind?

MLF, HAA, Williamson ( last time I saw him compete - anybody know how he's getting on? Need for 2012, sharpish! ), even Pickering...they all need to shed some weight. Even Michael Johnson has commented on HAA being too big...has HAA received any advice from others within the sport? Has he had the chance to hear Johnson's comments? Or does HAA prefer to be that big, regardless of the implications to his prospects over the sprints?

The best sprinters out there aren't overly big - they are toned, with reasonable muscle-mass; they are, critically, incredibly well conditioned. I think this has helped a great deal with regards to the development and progress of the sprints i.e. the times we have been seeing over the past few years...