Athletics 2019 Discussion Thread

[Wumo 3,000]

Jesus Angel Garcia Bragado will end his career after the Olympic Games next year at the age of 50.  

https://www.marca.com/atletismo/2019/12/02/5de4f8bd22601d831c8b45b5.html

 

Journalist:

"En Tokio disputará sus octavos Juegos Olímpicos. ¿Será su última gran competición?"

 

Jesus Angel Garcia:

"Mi decisión personal es poner punto y final a mi carrera deportiva en los Juegos Olímpicos. Y así lo afrontaré. Será la última vez que me ponga un dorsal."

 

In short, he is asked if Tokyo 2020 is going to be his last big competition. He answers that he has made the decision to end his career at the Olympics. "It will be the last time I put on a bib", he says.

Edited December 3, 2019 by Wumo

[heywoodu 14,946]

Already  

[heywoodu 14,946]

On the other hand, walking possibly the last ever Olympic 50k at age 50, that's something.

[heywoodu 14,946]

Jakob Ingebrigtsen competed in the U20 race at the European cross country championships this morning, that's just not fair  

 

Silver for Ayetullah Aslanhan of Turkey, ahead of Irish Efrem Gidey.

[Nickyc707 382]

On 03/12/2019 at 18:08, heywoodu said:

On the other hand, walking possibly the last ever Olympic 50k at age 50, that's something.

Race walkers are a durable bunch. Don Thompson the 1960 Olympic champion in the 50 km walk wore his country's vest for the last time at the age of 58 in 1991.

[heywoodu 14,946]

Jimmy Gressier won the U23 race and of course can't cross the finish line in a normal way  He very much likes himself, it seems  

[heywoodu 14,946]

One of the commentators on the European Athletics stream has been regularly coughing into the microphone all day long, with that incredibly disgusting cough smokers have  Turn off the microphone when you feel that coming up man  

[Nickyc707 382]

Five of the six individual winners were retaining titles they won last year which is pretty unusual. I do wonder whether we need an U23 age group race. It spreads the talent pretty thinly between that race and the senior race, particularly in the women's events where the fields were a bit sparse. Surely U20 and senior races are sufficient together with the mixed relay.

[Nickyc707 382]

10 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Jimmy Gressier won the U23 race and of course can't cross the finish line in a normal way  He very much likes himself, it seems  

When people do stuff like that I always think back to Mekhissi-Benabbad's disqualification from the 3k steeplechase at the 2014 European Championships after taking his shirt off to celebrate winning before he crossed the line. Athletes work incredibly hard to achieve success and then inexplicably some choose to put it at risk because of their egos. 

[heywoodu 14,946]

7 hours ago, Nickyc707 said:

When people do stuff like that I always think back to Mekhissi-Benabbad's disqualification from the 3k steeplechase at the 2014 European Championships after taking his shirt off to celebrate winning before he crossed the line. Athletes work incredibly hard to achieve success and then inexplicably some choose to put it at risk because of their egos. 

Well he did his "Look at me, I am fucking awesome" thing mostly after the finish