European Championship multi sport

[Louzie0]

It’s fairly basic in a relay, getting the baton around.

For all the women’s comments afterwards, I felt the comments about being experienced and appearing unconcerned, ‘We’re a team’, were not helpful. ‘Sorry we screwed up today,’ would have been more honest, because as a professional athletics outfit, they did. Or 2 of them did.

From Germany’s POV, they won their home games, so that was a great outcome for them and I’m very pleased!

[Louzie0]

The men win the 4x100 relay. On to the women.

Superb race and teamwork, great result!
Germany ‘s men had a similar issue (with the GB women’s team) with dropping their baton, so it all evens out in the end.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Only managed to see the athletics today. An enjoyable championships.
After 3 championships on the bounce the guys deserve their rest now.
Jenny Meadows was great as a pundit in the studio.

[Somniloquism]

Can't ever remember seeing us drop the baton in a final, anyway well done the Germans.

I'm assuming you are being sarcastic or just have a really short memory.

[Louzie0]

It seemed strange to be discussing Athletics without Michael Johnson, but I agree with Abbeyfealeavfc about Jenny Meadows as a pundit and I liked Beth Tweddle and Nile with Jeanette Kwakye

[Exeter 77]

The pundits for any sport other than football (or rugby union a lot of the time) seem so much more insightful and knowledgeable particularly for athletics and gymnastics.

[Pat McMahon]

The pundits for any sport other than football (or rugby union a lot of the time) seem so much more insightful and knowledgeable particularly for athletics and gymnastics.

I agree with you, but also wonder if that is because my own knowledge base is so low for other sports that I am easily impressed.

[nigel]

It’s fairly basic in a relay, getting the baton around.

For all the women’s comments afterwards, I felt the comments about being experienced and appearing unconcerned, ‘We’re a team’, were not helpful. ‘Sorry we screwed up today,’ would have been more honest, because as a professional athletics outfit, they did. Or 2 of them did.

From Germany’s POV, they won their home games, so that was a great outcome for them and I’m very pleased!

I’m sure you know the baton changes in the 100m relays rely on split second timing. At that level the receiver starts at a sprint, if they set off even a twentieth of a second early (that’s roughly half a metre at their level) the passer is always struggling. There are other factors, too.
Yes, it probably shouldn’t happen at that level, but it does frequently.
 
They knew they screwed up and would have been hurting.

[Louzie0]

Well, yes, that’s my point, really!

It’s unfortunate that they had to be interviewed straight afterwards, as I don’t think it did them any favours, given the circumstances and how they must have felt at the time.

I don’t know if you’d agree that commentators/pundits banging on about how often the GB relay teams practice the handover technique (the clear implication being that they practice much more than other teams do, so are much better at it) is a bit of a hostage to fortune when there’s a disaster on the day.

[AV82EC]

If there’s one thing that’s really really really getting on my tits about Athletics coverage is firstly every single athlete being interviewed in the mix zone straight after the race. Almost as pointless as Football Manager post match interviews. And secondly no one pundit or commentator ever criticising people who don’t perform or fuck it up. All we hear is what a tough year they’ve had with multiple excuses for why they’ve just no heighted, dropped the baton, run out of the lane, got the tactics wrong etc etc etc. It’s really annoying.

Anyway enough of my miserablism, very enjoyable meet and I really like the European Games feel to it as well.