Olympics

[paul_e]

Gemili looks a real diamond. We need to protect and preserve him for Rio.

Indeed, would love to see him go under 10 seconds this weekend, that's a massive milestone in 100m and it'll give him huge confidence to get it out of the way early.  He won't have been on a track this quick before and got a personal best of 10.05 recently so there's definitely a chance he can do it.  I think it'll be a requirement to get into the final as well, the jamaicans and americans all look very strong.

[Dante Lavelli]

Gatlin should not be allowed in, banned twice for drugs is disgraceful. Once possibly a mistake, but twice you're just clearly a cheat.

Yes he is a big cheat but we are talking about an American here and their TV money takes priority ahead of sportsmanship and Olympic spirit.

Chambers should not be allowed to run either.  There may be mitigating/unique circumstances that I am not aware of, but if you’re caught using performance enhancing drugs then you should be banned for life.

[hilts_coolerking]

Chambers should not be allowed to run either.  There may be mitigating/unique circumstances that I am not aware of, but if you’re caught using performance enhancing drugs then you should be banned for life.

Yep, I felt very uneasy watching Chambers but, on a purely human level, I admire his pluck for taking part.  He could have been booed mercilessly by the home crowd - and he confessed in his post-race interview that he was shitting himself - but he got a sympathetic reaction and he ran well.  I guess we'll never know whether he's genuinely contrite about what he did but it was a very small step toward rehabilitation today.

[PaulWinch again]

Agree I'm much more comfortable with Chambers, he fully admits making a mistake and has made great efforts to use his error to try and teach young kids not to take performance enhancing drugs. Gatlin has not. Michael Johnson said he's happy to accept Chambers based on that, rather than Gatlin.

[philthebar]

I have been admonished for placing positive posts about the Olympics on the Bah Humbug Jubilympics thread.  So he is my post again, minus the apology.

I have been rather negative about the Olympics up to now, but I was offered a free ticket to the Handball for Thursday afternoon.  I arrived at Olympic Park at 10.30 for a 14.30 start and had a great time.

Entry to the park and security – no queues, took about 1 minute to get through.

Olympic Park layout – excellent, wide open spaces, plenty of benches and picnic tables.

Food and soft drink – expensive but who started the rumour about McDonalds being the only food needs shooting, there are three food villages (that I found) serving Caribbean, Indian, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Thai, English, and more.  Various soft drinks available in the park and stadia.  I took my own food in without issue.

Beer – only Heineken (if that’s beer) and expensive, but available from bars, vendors walking around the park and inside the various arenas.  Yes you can take it in to watch your event.

Big Screens – great layout in the valley to watch what’s going on.  Watched rowing and tennis in the morning and cycling in the evening.  Great atmosphere.

The handball itself – great stuff even though GB were slaughtered by Argentina.

Having got a free ticket and taken my own food I managed to spend only £14.60 (£13.00 discounted rail fare and £1.60 for a bottle of water)

All in all, brilliant layout and organisation.  I take it all back. If you get the chance, go.

[PaulWinch again]

I see Cav is returning to track cycling for the Olympics in 2016.

[danlanza]

Good chance of gold with Mo Fara tonight in the 10,000 meters aswell as Innes in the heptathlon.

[PeterWithesShin]

Wow what a choice of sports at the moment. Tennis with Mr Williams vs Ms Grunter, man in a boat (and not the good kind) race or trampoline. I've settled on the trampoline.

[danlanza]

Wow what a choice of sports at the moment. Tennis with Mr Williams vs Ms Grunter, man in a boat (and not the good kind) race or trampoline. I've settled on the trampoline.

Purely for the love of the sport ? I understand.

[PeterWithesShin]

Mainly as the other 2 would bore me to death. I only look up from the PC when it sounds like someone is going to fall off.

[Flamingo Lane]

Have you seen the footage of the several women who came off their bikes in the triathlon?  Ouch and ouch.

[SashasGrandad]

Todays report from behind the scenes.

Jess came in to first call this morning. The bay where we assembled them was a bit full so the only chair left was in the middle of the 2 rows. When all the kit was checked she sat there in the middle and looked serene, cool but confident. All the others sat in silence, there is only going to be one winner.

A sound long jump and good javelin have left her an easier job at about 8.30 tonight.

Men's 100m heats were very relaxed. plenty of banter in the callroom. Will get more serious later!

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Good chance of gold with Mo Fara tonight in the 10,000 meters aswell as Innes in the heptathlon.

Neil Innes is in the hepthathlon?

[Dante Lavelli]

First set to Murray and Robson (6-1).
Wimbledon is going bonkers.

[AvFc4eVeR]

Anyone see the Senegalese tackle on the Mexican towards end of normal time?? It looked like an ad for the olympic taekwondo, kicked in the head, Twatenberg saw it and only gave a yellow card, Shocking!