Gemili to run either the Olympics or the World Junior Championships???

This question may seem a no-brainer for most of us, but his coach is opting the other way around and trying to push him for the World Junior Championships. Having ran a new PB of 10.08s, good enough to get him to the quarters of his home olympics. Seems ridiculous to favour any other event. Probably the only time in his life he'll have a home olympics.

Agree that he should run in the Olympics and that it could be the only time in his sporting career that there'll be a home Olympics.

He has that fearlessness that comes with someone his age. No huge expectation -so why not make the most of it and see where this could lead.

In comparison, Jodie Williams hasn't competed in the big events as much as she could've. In my opinion - and it's only an opinion - it hasn't been to her benefit. Williams' transition into the seniors has seemed a bit bumpy in recent times. There may be a number of factors. But my own personal belief is that she could've been allowed to compete a lot harder and more often, and that that experience would be serving her well now. But instead, it seems we sometimes treat our younger athletes with kid-gloves, when they've got the talent and desire to compete.

Where they are good enough, we have 18 year-olds playing in first team football, at the top flight of the sport. Same should apply in athletics. At 18, Gemili is good enough to compete. His 10.08 isn't a fluke. He also ran 10.11 earlier that day! And further, 10.23 earlier in the season. His coach should not be directing him away from London. If he manages to prevent him from participating, then for me it sums up why we're struggling in the sprints - why we're struggling to get sprinters into the semi's of the World's and Olympic's events. Indeed, in the event of his non-attendance, Gemili should be considering a new coach.

I hope to see Gemili linng up at the UK trials in a bid to establish a place at the Olympics

Sprinters really shouldn't be treated like pathetic wimps. Wrapped up in cotton wool. Yes, train sensibly. But don't hold sprinters back. Its mostly about brute strength and aggression. Its just illogical to try and protect a sprinter from defeat. If it doesn't kill them it should only make them stronger, otherwise they're just being mentored and trained incorrectly.

ryanbailey wrote:Sprinters really shouldn't be treated like pathetic wimps. Wrapped up in cotton wool. Yes, train sensibly. But don't hold sprinters back. Its mostly about brute strength and aggression. Its just illogical to try and protect a sprinter from defeat. If it doesn't kill them it should only make them stronger, otherwise they're just being mentored and trained incorrectly.

Agree ryanbailey. It is hugely about strength and aggression. Another aspect is learning how to manage in competition - and that only comes with being in the races and in the mix; learning early on in a career, perhaps, how to let the experienced athletes drag you to a time of 10.02 or even faster, rather than a time of 10.32 because an athlete crumbled under the pressure. Gemili needs to be in those big races sooner rather than later.

Gemili is phenomenally talented. And you can see he how hard he works. Being as capable as he is in two sports. He should ditch the football. Concentrate on the athletics. His coach and others around him should support him develop an appetitie for the sport by letting him compete at everything he can, and let acquire vital experience

Agree its a once in a lifetime opportunity to compete in a home olympics! How fast do you think he is actually capable of going currently? Is sub 10 beyond the realms of possibilty??

well ha ran 10.08 off the back off one of the worst starts you'll ever see (check the video posted in another thread - he's basically 2/3 yards behind the guy next to him (who seemed to get out very quickly) and a yard behind the others before powering through). With a better start, that would have been close to 10 flat IMO, so no reason he can't go sub-ten sooner rather than later.

Oh and for the record, I agree. If he's good enough he's old enough. Send him to London, surely he'll get more out of competing at that level than beating a few ordinary runners to a junior world title...

lfc91 wrote:Agree its a once in a lifetime opportunity to compete in a home olympics! How fast do you think he is actually capable of going currently? Is sub 10 beyond the realms of possibilty??

I've reposted the link to Gemili's race below;

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/videos/adam-gemilis-10-08/

Agree with Mad for Chelsea - bad start; worth nearer 10 flat on another day. The 10.08 wasn't a fluke or a result of a freak +2.0m tailwind. As mentioned earlier, he ran 10.11 earlier on the at the Regensburg event. See the way he powers through in the race - great stuff That's the kind of fight and determination we want to see! He's been steadily building towards this. I can see him getting very close to 10 flat [ perhaps even sub10 ] at the UK Trials, if he's there.

Makes you wonder what the likes of HAA, Edgar, Williamson, MLF and Pickering etc have all been up to - probably living it large [ I jest of course - well, at least partly ]...

The UK needs a new set of sprinters as the current batch [ other than Chambers ] haven't been producing, even at the Euroepean level

If you're fast enough, you're old enough.

The issue the coach has is with having also to go through 2 lots of trials.

He's hoping Gemili will get a discretionary place in at least one of the events.

Probably a no-brainer in terms of Junior event but more an issue in terms of the Olympics.

Jodie Williams has been prioritising her A levels so she's got a bit of catching up to do.

teassoc wrote:The issue the coach has is with having also to go through 2 lots of trials.

He's hoping Gemili will get a discretionary place in at least one of the events.

Probably a no-brainer in terms of Junior event but more an issue in terms of the Olympics.

Jodie Williams has been prioritising her A levels so she's got a bit of catching up to do.

Thanks for the info!

Regarding Jodie Williams, helps to place my comments into perspective - so my apologies Cannot begrudge anyone of their education - no matter what

Hope she's able to pick up where she left off

TBH I can't see any really good reason for him not to end up doing both:

1) Do the Junior trials 16/17th as there's no point putting all his eggs in the Olympic basket if he gets well beaten at the Senior trials.
2) Do the Olympic trials as:
a) there's a chance he could get to run in the Olympics in his home city.
b) it's good preparation for the World Juniors to run against people with faster PBs.
3) Do the World Juniors as it's a chance to win a title and to experience coping with being the favourite as I suspect he will be. It's also only in Barcelona.
4) (presuming number 2 above went well) Do the Olympics about 3 and a half weeks later. A great experience for him as an athlete and as a human being.

My main worry after that is that 2013 could feel something of an anti-climax.

Tricksat i have a feeling that all of the above may be a bit much, but i would love to see him doing all of the above.

To participate in the Junior World Trials, UK Olympic trials, Junior World Championships and then, finally, the Olympics - does sound like a hell of a lot, and wouldn't be easy to do...

But if anyone could do it, it'd be an 18 year old

These are 100m races not marathons.

Aren't 3 of those events in the UK?

It doesn't sound that tough.

The coach will no doubt be thinking of the training and recovery time he'll be missing.

He may be tempted to leave it to the selectors to award him the discretionary third place in the Olympics team. That would leave him sufficient time to prepare for the World Juniors.

teassoc wrote:The coach will no doubt be thinking of the training and recovery time he'll be missing.

He may be tempted to leave it to the selectors to award him the discretionary third place in the Olympics team. That would leave him sufficient time to prepare for the World Juniors.

Very true. I expect Chambers will have to take part at UK Trials and earn his place. Then one other. If Gemili does something similar to his 10.08 again, sometime before the tirals, then that may well be the outright clincher, leaving him able to sit out the trials

Looking forward to seeing how the others respond

I am not 100% sure he'll get picked without meeting and beating a number of the British seniors. However, if he has a number of A standard runs when other contenders have only 1 then his case is strong even if he hasn't really raced them.

Gemili has to show he can handle the pressure and post fast times twice in a day, and over the rounds.

He's run 10.08 and 10.11 on the same day. He'd also ran 10.23 this season. His case is reasonably strong, but possibly not strong enough as yet.

At the World Junior Trials, mid-June, if Gemili puts in another couple of good times, including one below 10.1, then it'd be hard to not consider as an extremely strong candidate. He'd likely go over the 100 and 200 at the World Junior Trials. Strong performances across the two events would make it very difficult to not take him. [ I reckon he could run around 20.30 for the 200m, conditions permitting ].

Anyway, great to have so much to speculate about feels like we've had a few lean years!

SJ is the world juniors under 18s? If so do you think gemilli would be favourite for 100/200 gold?

lfc91 wrote:SJ is the world juniors under 18s? If so do you think gemilli would be favourite for 100/200 gold?

Heya Ifc91 -

The IAAF World Junior Championships in Athletics are the world championships for junior aged athletes (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the year of the competition ^[1]), organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It is held biennially since 1986.

[ Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAAF_World_Junior_Championships_in_Athletics ]

Would've struggled to put that into a more concise, simpler description [ i.e. would've waffled like I normally do ]. So just quoting Wikipidea instead
At the World Junior Trials, I would have Gemili as favourite. Balorinwa is his closest rival [ they've been competing agsinst each other some time, and are the same age - separated by just a few weeks ]. But unless something goes wrong, then cannot see anyone touching Gemili. He's been consistly good this season. At the Worlds though, of course, will be tougher. But saying that, over the 100m, Gemili is the fastest Junior in the world. He has the two fastest times [ his 10.08 and 10.11 ], and the 5th fastest [ his 10.23 ], by a junior this year. And many of us suspect, if the conditions are right, he could go faster in 2012.

Over the 200m, there are a number of faster athletes; an American, Tyreek Hill [ who's run 20.14!, and there's also Delano Williams [ 20.53 in 2012 ], who has been mentioned one of our other trusted posters. Gemili currently 20.70. Balorinwa 20.69. Both may go fester this year yet. I think Gemili most certainly will if conditions don't conspire against him [ possibly 20.30s or thereabouts?! ]. But Not sure he has a sub20.20 in the armoury - but we haven't seen him go more recently over the 200m so cannot say.

I am not sure many will post personal bests at this years Olympics because of the $&@#% weather, so perhaps the aim would be to take "scalps", do well relative to others, gain experience and reach the semi-finals.

Cheers SJ. Would do the research myself but having laptop trouble atm so using my phone for internet surfing(which is very slow!). I realy believe bolowrinwa could get close to 10.1 if he gets the right race/conditions. Next few years could be exciting for the 100m(from a british perspective) if these 2 continue to progress.

lfc91 wrote:Cheers SJ. Would do the research myself but having laptop trouble atm so using my phone for internet surfing(which is very slow!). I realy believe bolowrinwa could get close to 10.1 if he gets the right race/conditions. Next few years could be exciting for the 100m(from a british perspective) if these 2 continue to progress.

Nay problemo Ifc91! Happy to help - is good to 'join' other fellow athletics fans / enthuiasts feels like we're a rare beed sometimes

Keep your contributions coming

Interesting article about and interview with Gemili;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18414848

Comes across as a top lad with a real good head on his shoulders. Maturity beyond his years

Strawberry Jam wrote:Interesting article about and interview with Gemili;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18414848

Comes across as a top lad with a real good head on his shoulders. Maturity beyond his years

He said that this year he is focussing on athletics to see how good he is, otherwise he will return back to football, where he might have greater prospectives of making some money. I wonder how many other potential athletes there are in Britain who are going down the football / rugby route.

Nore Staat wrote:

Strawberry Jam wrote:Interesting article about and interview with Gemili;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18414848

Comes across as a top lad with a real good head on his shoulders. Maturity beyond his years

He said that this year he is focussing on athletics to see how good he is, otherwise he will return back to football, where he might have greater prospectives of making some money. I wonder how many other potential athletes there are in Britain who are going down the football / rugby route.

Theo Walcott could have made it.

From what i've heard Gemili doesn't quite have the skill to be a top class football player. And as he's already so good at track. It seems like a no brainer. But as i presume already implied he'll have to weigh up the options of an athletics career salary as UK no 1 sprinter for the next 15 years or a mid/low range football career that might not take off and could last less years.

At least you're still well paid in the lower tiers of football. Its probably quite a tough choice.

azania wrote:

Nore Staat wrote:

Strawberry Jam wrote:Interesting article about and interview with Gemili;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18414848

Comes across as a top lad with a real good head on his shoulders. Maturity beyond his years

He said that this year he is focussing on athletics to see how good he is, otherwise he will return back to football, where he might have greater prospectives of making some money. I wonder how many other potential athletes there are in Britain who are going down the football / rugby route.

Theo Walcott could have made it.

We have a number of sports which young athletes
could be drawn towards. Sports which they could make a living from. We know that Athletics is difficult to sustain a livelihood on. So it's
likely that we've lost many highly capable, potentially world-class,
athletes to other sports.

In some of the others nations, fewer sporting opportunity has perhaps
led to athletics - or at least certain events - becoming a big thing.

In the US, athletics is lower down the list - competing against American
Football, Basketball and Baseball. Whereas in certain African nations,
and Jamaica, fewer established sports and sporting opportunities, so
athletics [ or again, specific events ] becomes a bigger draw, with perhaps higher proportion of the sporting elite particpating than might be the case in other countries.

Hope I haven't started something with that

ryanbailey wrote:From what i've heard Gemili doesn't quite have the skill to be a top class football player. And as he's already so good at track. It seems like a no brainer. But as i presume already implied he'll have to weigh up the options of an athletics career salary as UK no 1 sprinter for the next 15 years or a mid/low range football career that might not take off and could last less years.

At least you're still well paid in the lower tiers of football. Its probably quite a tough choice.

If Gemili becomes the class sprinter we believe he has the potential to be, he could make more money though sponserhip than he would earn from football at the lesser levels

Why isnt gemilli running at the under20 world jnr trials?? Looks like another title for bolarinwa.

lfc91 wrote:Why isnt gemilli running at the under20 world jnr trials?? Looks like another title for bolarinwa.

Is he not running in both sprints, or opting out of just one of them?!

If he has opted out of one [ or both ] then he is possibly counting on a guaranteed spot as a result of his recent performances - and possibly also looking to go at the Olympic trials, and figuring to reduce the workload and burden where he can. All of which makes sense.

He has class times and performances over the 100m. May be he thinks he's done enough in that event to warrant inclusion in the shorter sprint at World Junior Athletics Championships. And I'd agree. So if he can avoid the extra work, and resulting wear, tear and possble injury, then why not

Of course, could be miles off the mark

I dont know SJ, just know he didnt run in the 100m. Your probably right though, and he will be an automatic choice for the 100. To be honest i would say him and bolarinwa are pretty much both guaranteed a spot in both sprints! The wind at bedford seems to be a bad wierd, one heat was -1.5 and the next +0.9!

http://england.athletics-uk.org/

live results from champs.:-)

Huge thanks for link Ifc91!!!

Regarding both getting automatic spots; could it be the case, like with
the Seniors, the top two places at the trials are given a spot each, and
the other spot is at authorities discretion?!

If that were the case, you could see how Gemili would be able to chance
it, and not go in the 100m at the Junior Trials as he's run way faster
than Balorinwa [ on several occasions ] or anyone else in the UK this
season. If protocol for selection in Junior ranks follows the senior's,
then Balorinwa would have to run at the trials - he wouldn't be able to
chance it as if it came down to a choice between him and Gemili then
it'd go to Gemili [ as again, the other 2 spots have to go athletes
placing 1st and 2nd at trials ]. Remembering that Gemili has run 10.08,
10.11, and 10.23 this season. These times are not only extremely good amongst
UK juniors, they place No.1 in world rankings [ he ahs the 1st, 2nd and
7th fastest times by Juniors this season - see IAAF ranking below ].

http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/toplists/inout=o/age=j/season=2012/sex=M/all=n/legal=A/disc=100/detail.html

By the way, Ifc91 - a good spot some time back when you posted about
Balorinwa and Gemili. It was possibly one of your much earlier posts that brought
one of them, if not both, to my attention Have been keeping a keen eye on them ever since!

Keep up the good work!

I have no idea on selection policy SJ, i usually rely on you for that sort of stuff! I think so, the 100m is one of my favourite events so i keep an eye out for youngsters coming through the ranks! As expected bolarinwa takes the under 20 title with a modest 10.40(wind 0.0)

Great pb by sophia papps to take under 20 womens, 11.43(if memory serves)

lfc91 wrote:I have no idea on selection policy SJ, i usually rely on you for that sort of stuff! I think so, the 100m is one of my favourite events so i keep an eye out for youngsters coming through the ranks! As expected bolarinwa takes the under 20 title with a modest 10.40(wind 0.0)

10.40 for balorinwa?! If the weather out there in Bedford is anything like where I am, i would've expcted them to run a little faster - just to get out of the rain [ I joke of course ]

Just checked the link you passed on; Papps' time of 11.47s is very good indeed! And Dina Asher-Smith in 2nd - with 11.57 - but 11.54 in the Heats. Papps is only 17! And Asher Smith is only 16! Huge potential! And checking powerof10 for fruther stats, can see that both have set PB's today. Plus, they're running these times in what must be some difficult conditions

Weather didnt look to good when sky sports news were doing an interview at the champs. Great talent coming through in the womens sprints! Do you think the mens 200m tomorrow will just be a two horse race or is there anyone else worth keeping an eye on?

Kola adeyone(pretty sure that spellings wrong) won the under 20 triple jump with a pb of 16.25 into a -4.0 wind, with more favourable conditions(something like +1.8) i think he could jump 16.75+.

lfc91 wrote:Weather didnt look to good when sky sports news were doing an interview at the champs. Great talent coming through in the womens sprints! Do you think the mens 200m tomorrow will just be a two horse race or is there anyone else worth keeping an eye on?

Think the Men's Junior 200m will be a two-horse - but with Gemili as a possible favourite. Worth checking this stat;

[url=http://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=52687] David Bolarinwa - [/url]20.69 Wind +1.9 ( 2 Jun 12 )

Adam Gemili - 20.70 Wind - 0.2 ( 21 Apr 12 )

The next best times for U20 are 21.30 and 21.31s.

http://www.thepowerof10.info/rankings/rankinglist.aspx?event=200&agegroup=U20&sex=M&year=2012

Both these times, achieved this year, are PB's. On the surface, it would seem that there's not much in it. But firstly, Balorinwa ran his best with a max'd out tailwind. Gemili ran his best into a slight headwind [ though granted, Balorinwa was also present in the race where Gemili set his 200m best - Gainesville, Florida, US - with Balorinwa running 20.78 in that race ].

Balorinwa's best is recent. Gemili's in April. Since then, Gemili has been making some serious advances. I'm sure many are thinking if not talking about Gemili running very close to 10sec over the 100m - perhaps even sub10. With Balorinwa, hard to know what condition he might be in and whether that would be enough to push Gemili close enough. And hard to work out what todays 100m performance of 10.40 might mean in terms of his ability to push Gemili. Especially since 2nd [ Josh Street ] and 3rd [ Chijindu Ujah ] finished at 10.43 and 10.44 respectively [ following the link you provdied Ifc91 ]. I expected there to be a bigger gap between Balorinwa and the others, but seems tight [ with 2nd and 3rd getting PB's in tough conditions ]. Was Balorinwa saving himself?! KNowing that he's got Gemili tomorrow?! And knowing that Gemili weren;t running the 100m so would be fresher?! Without any video evidence at this point, or soem report to confirm, we just won't know. Also worth crredting competition; seems that two sprinters came out and gave their very best, got close, gaining PB's in the process [ in those conditions ]. Could be simlar tomorrow in the 200m. Interesting though that the Juniors U20 race was faster than the U23's - with the U23's having more favourable wind too. Some links with stats;

http://www.thepowerof10.info/rankings/rankinglist.aspx?event=100&agegroup=U20&sex=M&year=2012

http://england.athletics-uk.org/results/u23u20/T27.pdf

http://england.athletics-uk.org/results/u23u20/T28.pdf

lfc91 wrote:Kola adeyone(pretty sure that spellings wrong) won the under 20 triple jump with a pb of 16.25 into a -4.0 wind, with more favourable conditions(something like +1.8) i think he could jump 16.75+.

16.25 is an excellent effort indeed! And absolutely - more favourable conditions would've seen something more remarkable. That 16.25 makes him 5th all time in the U20 Triple jump category. And that's with that -0.4 headwind!

http://www.thepowerof10.info/rankings/rankinglist.aspx?event=TJ&agegroup=U20&sex=M&alltime=y

Yes i expected bolarinwa to finish with a bigger gap between him and 2nd. Would be phenominal if gemilli went sub 10 and its not that far fetched to think he could. As for bolarinwa if he gets goid conditions and a good race i think hes capable of running the oylimpic A standard.(10.18?). What do you think?

lfc91 wrote:Yes i expected bolarinwa to finish with a bigger gap between him and 2nd. Would be phenominal if gemilli went sub 10 and its not that far fetched to think he could. As for bolarinwa if he gets goid conditions and a good race i think hes capable of running the oylimpic A standard.(10.18?). What do you think?

10.18 for Balorinwa is possible in the right conditions. He's been competing with Gemili for a while, and seeing him go 10.08 must make him want to go quicker. Would be great if he could get some favourable conditions and compeition to help push him. His PB at the moment is 10.29 - but agree he can go much quicker this season.

People should check out Gemili's 10.11 in the heats of the same Regensburg meeting where he ran 10.08. He took the opportunity the race gave him to put it all out there, and judging by the expression on his face at the end, couldn't believe it! Took the heat by a proverbial mile and was shocked by the time he'd achieved. Absolute magic! [ Video includes a lot of build-up to the race - to watch actual race, go towards end of video @1mins 45secs ].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI3jjVJ7SI8

Gemili has a very idiosyncratic means of slowing down after crossing the line - he waves his arms and legs around in a helicopter motion - it looks like he is going to injure himself or go flying head over heels.

Nore Staat wrote:Gemili has a very idiosyncratic means of slowing down after crossing the line - he waves his arms and legs around in a helicopter motion - it looks like he is going to injure himself or go flying head over heels.

Yeah - he does! In fact, think he was quite an unusual running style all-round. - which you can't tell from the angle this run is shot. This video shows a different angle and a more complete picture;

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/videos/adam-gemilis-10-08/

Also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlZ3VJMh5gQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRpbCgqRj_o

In a previous interview, he's talked about having worked on his technique [ may have copied a link to the interview in an earlier post somewhere ]. I don't think he may be able to change his technique that much - [ goes without saying that everyone has their own style an technique - and whatever works best ]; but he can certainly develop a way to harness that raw power and speed

I do believe - like probably a few others here - that we have something special in young Gemili - and like with so many others, I've probably gone and jinxed him

We definatley do, not many 18 year olds capable of running 10.08! Just hope we dont have another MLF on our hands!