Athletics EAA Under 23 European Championships 2023

[Vektor 3,326]

Meanwhile we had a fine ECh here with 5 medals. It's not some amazing breakthrough, but at least Hungarian athletics still exists in some form. Boglárka Takács is the best female sprinter we had in ages, at the very least she can be a marketable face for Hungarian athletics if she continues to improve and pushes the 100m national record below the 11sec barrier, which should be possible in the next few years under the right conditions. But sadly we don't have an Olympic medal winning talent in this generation, Bence Halász will have to carry us in men's hammer throw as our only medal contender in Paris and maybe even in LA.  

[mpjmcevoy 375]

39 minutes ago, Vektor said:

Meanwhile we had a fine ECh here with 5 medals. It's not some amazing breakthrough, but at least Hungarian athletics still exists in some form. Boglárka Takács is the best female sprinter we had in ages, at the very least she can be a marketable face for Hungarian athletics if she continues to improve and pushes the 100m national record below the 11sec barrier, which should be possible in the next few years under the right conditions. But sadly we don't have an Olympic medal winning talent in this generation, Bence Halász will have to carry us in men's hammer throw as our only medal contender in Paris and maybe even in LA.  

Hungary and Italy just tore the roof off at the European Junior Swimming so I wouldn't lose sleep; Hungary just has different priorities (mostly involving moving fast in water - which come to think of it is a bit odd for a landlocked country...anyway!)

[mpjmcevoy 375]

22 hours ago, OlympicIRL said:

1-2 in the women's 1500m . Maybe in the reverse order that paper suggested but O'Sullivan is a fast finisher so not surprising that she got the better of Healy in the sprint finish.

Healy as the endurance, but Sophie has the kick, a very familiar one. It's strange, in a nice way how the Celts have come through together this weekend - Reekie joining Muir in the top 5 GB all time 1500, Courtney-Bryant setting a new sub-4 Welsh record, and Sophie and Sarah slamming it at the EU23.

 

Might Keely Hodgkinson have a Cornish granny?

[Vektor 3,326]

6 minutes ago, mpjmcevoy said:

Hungary and Italy just tore the roof off at the European Junior Swimming so I wouldn't lose sleep; Hungary just has different priorities (mostly involving moving fast in water - which come to think of it is a bit odd for a landlocked country...anyway!)

I am actually not blown away by that generation of Hungarian junior swimmers, no matter how many medals they won. We maybe got two talent there who can win an Olympic medal one day, Pádár and Jackl, but I wouldn't be surprised if none of them will deliver Olympic medals in LA and/or Brisbane. Look at the results, not the medals. It's not Italy or Hungary who are the big winners there, it's  with Pudar and  with Mitsin.

[mpjmcevoy 375]

Ireland will be very happy with the Gold and silver for O'ullivan and Healy, both of whom look plausible pro athletes (to go with Rhasidat who turned pro this weekend). Sligh disappointment, perhaps was Olutunde, who's going a little backwards since last years breakthrough, and is so often the case, after a stream of talent in recent years, we were due a fallow year in women's sprint at this level (although great to see gina Moses back on the track - 11.4 at a GB 100m alongside Kristal Awuah.

 

GB topped the table for the first time - they have regularly topped Jr and Youth, but this is the first U23, and will be broadly happy - their sweep of all 5000 and 10000 inflated their counts, but none of them really look like the breakthrough star that might actually challenge globally. FMedals for two women throwers were very encourging

[mpjmcevoy 375]

2 minutes ago, Vektor said:

I am actually not blown away by that generation of Hungarian junior swimmers, no matter how many medals they won. We maybe got two talent there who can win an Olympic medal one day, Pádár and Jackl, but I wouldn't be surprised if none of them will deliver Olympic medals in LA and/or Brisbane. Look at the results, not the medals. It's not Italy or Hungary who are the big winners there, it's  with Pudar and  with Mitsin.

Hard to predict. Jimmy Guy was a really strong Euro Jr, back in his days, you could tell he was going to be good, Duncan Scott likewise. But Jimmy wasn't the standout star of his generation. That was Matthew Johnson, who stormed the Jrs...and then disappeared without trace....meanwhile a relatively unmedalled junior came through and actually did ok for GB as a senior...his name was Adam Peaty.

[phelps 8,287]

2 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

1) I don't care about race walking and think that this shouldn't be a sport, so i can't judge the perspective of your race walkers.

2) Mori hasn't really progressed recently, so it doesn't look good, 69 m isn't very impressive. Women's hammer throw doesn't have a lot of depth, so maybe she can still reach the top 8 some day.

3) Someone born in 2000 wouldn't have been allowed to participate. U23 -> 22 or younger -> born in 2001 or later

4) Women's long jump clearly regressed recently. It looks as if 6.90 or even 6.85 might be enough for a medal at world level currently. Personally i wouldn't call someone an established contender who has never done anything at world level.

1) OK

2)wait, she's just come out from the juniors (where last year she won the world title with meters of margin on everybody else)

this year she's not improved by much (and in fact I'm quite disappointed, even if she had some troubles, so there might be an explanation), but hammer throwers normally mature quite late in their years...I'm still convinced she'll be among the protagonists of the game in the future

3) my mistake

4) well, this year she's won the silver medal at the Indoor Europeans, she's won both DL meets where she's been in the field, she's beaten Mihambo the last 4 times they've been in the same meet (Indoor europeans, twice DL, EGs), she's the world leader (tied with Mihambo)...she's a newcomer, but she's been "on the podium" all season long, which makes her an "established" elite jumper to me

from now on, I expect her to be always among the medal favourites in each and every competition (then, I agree that overall the discipline has gone down compared to the times of the heavy doping cheaters of DDR, URS, USA & Ajunwa...but that's another story...and it's a beautiful story)

[SalamAkhi 330]

2 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

2) Mori hasn't really progressed recently, so it doesn't look good, 69 m isn't very impressive. Women's hammer throw doesn't have a lot of depth, so maybe she can still reach the top 8 some day.

4) Women's long jump clearly regressed recently. It looks as if 6.90 or even 6.85 might be enough for a medal at world level currently. Personally i wouldn't call someone an established contender who has never done anything at world level.

2) Once again, progressions are not linear. It's normal to see athletes face a setback at some point. Especially in a throwing event like the hammer.

4) Well, except for 2015-7-9, 6m90 would have been enough for a medal (sometimes even gold) in every WC in this century. So there's a regression back to normal more than anything.

[EselTheDonkey 834]

17 minutes ago, phelps said:

 

4) well, this year she's won the silver medal at the Indoor Europeans, she's won both DL meets where she's been in the field, she's beaten Mihambo the last 4 times they've been in the same meet (Indoor europeans, twice DL, EGs), she's the world leader (tied with Mihambo)...she's a newcomer, but she's been "on the podium" all season long, which makes her an "established" elite jumper to me

 

It doesn't change much about your original argument, but Mihambo didn't compete at the European Games.

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

1 hour ago, mpjmcevoy said:

GB topped the table for the first time - they have regularly topped Jr and Youth, but this is the first U23, and will be broadly happy - their sweep of all 5000 and 10000 inflated their counts, but none of them really look like the breakthrough star that might actually challenge globally. FMedals for two women throwers were very encourging

It's difficult to be a breakout star in the long distance events because of the dominance of the African nations and so I think the measure of success for these guys probably pivots to an emphasis on being the best in Europe. But nature of GB athletics funding means that in all likelihood, if they can't show that they can be competitive at a global level, they probably won't be funded and then we end up losing them from the sport.