GB Athletics

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

Quick public service announcement for anyone using the watchathletics.com site to check startlists for upcoming events - it looks like for some events they have been publishing the 2023 start lists instead of the 2024 ones. 

[Dragon 2,034]

Charlie Dobson and Alastair Chalmers should have booked their places on the Eurostar to Paris

[Dragon 2,034]

18 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

Looks like Holly Bradshaw may have withdrawn from the Golden Roof Competition in Innsbruck this weekend - she's showing as "unfortunately injured" on the athlete profile now. Can't see any second source confirmation though 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0hy05tq

From yesterday

[RussB 189]

Charlie Dobson with a 44 mid building on the form at the world relays. 
 

does anyone on here have some info or educated guesses on what Team GB are likely to do with the mixed relay?

a team of MHS Dobson Anning and Nielsen / Ohurougu is looking a little spicy at this stage in the year. Obviously issue will be the timetable and all 4 I suspect will want to run the individual and team relay too.

Edited May 15, 2024 by RussB

[Epic Failure 359]

(Semi) educated guessing here.

 

If Paris uses the same format for the mixed relay as the WC and WR do (ie only one change allowed between heat and final), I suspect that might have an impact on the choices.

 

With the men's individual starting the day after the mixed final, the obvious change would be one of the men, to allow one of them to rest. However, the counter point to that is that the women have much more strength in depth. So swapping a woman would be less of a risk, in principle.

 

Both Dobson and MHS have had injury histories in the past that might make them skeptical of a 3 relay workload. However, they (and UK Athletics) might feel like the mixed is a better chance of a medal than the men's 4x4 is.

 

Obviously if someone else shows top form during the season (AHW or Rio Mitchum being the best options, Davey next so), that would make the decisions easier.

 

My gut tells me that we'll see only 1 of the two men mentioned earlier in the mixed at all and they might only do the final. I'd guess Dobson if I had to.

 

I think we'll see our prospective 2 strongest women, whoever it may be, in both heat and final. I say prospective because I do worry that Amber will not carry the college/indoor form all the way through the summer. History has shown athletes are a mixed bag in terms of whether they can do that.

 

For what it is worth, at the 23 WC, none of our individual runners took part in the mixed. In 2022, 1 did (AHW). In 2019 2 did (Yousif, Diamond). In Tokyo, none did.

 

But that's just all speculation on my part. I realise that I've not really helped clear anything up.

[RussB 189]

5 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

Obviously if someone else shows top form during the season (AHW or Rio Mitchum being the best options, Davey next so), that would make the decisions easier.

 

 

That's interesting, I didn't have the schedule to hand but with the men's starting the day after the final its an interesting conundrum for MHS in particular. I'm not sure how strongly the men's quartet will be in the conversation for medals. The one I'm keeping an eye on socials is Tobias Harris. He ran a great split at the world relays (45.2) and there are positive signs of continuing improvement. I think AHW starts their season this weekend so will be interesting to see where he is at. 

 

Like you say on the women's side it is far deeper and more competitive. Yeargin might well be given at least one run in the mixed relay or Pipi.

[Epic Failure 359]

AHW ran today in at Montreuil. 45.76.

 

The men are bronze medalists from the Worlds last year, so they absolutely should be in the medal conversation. Not to the same extent as the women, but they are definitely in with a respectable shot.

 

What we need on the men's side is a couple of guys in the 45 lows. Not close enough that they qualify in the individual 400m but not far away so that they are still providing respectable relay splits.

[RussB 189]

30 minutes ago, Epic Failure said:

AHW ran today in at Montreuil. 45.76.

 

The men are bronze medalists from the Worlds last year, so they absolutely should be in the medal conversation. Not to the same extent as the women, but they are definitely in with a respectable shot.

 

What we need on the men's side is a couple of guys in the 45 lows. Not close enough that they qualify in the individual 400m but not far away so that they are still providing respectable relay splits.

I’m still not sure what the strategy is going to be by all the big teams as far as the mixed goes. You could make an argument that GB could contend with Netherlands / Poland / USA depending on how the big hitters manage their schedule.

 

45.76 by Alex is not awful for a season opener but like you say 45 flat would be very helpful to the men’s relay hopes.

[mpjmcevoy 375]

24 minutes ago, RussB said:

I’m still not sure what the strategy is going to be by all the big teams as far as the mixed goes. You could make an argument that GB could contend with Netherlands / Poland / USA depending on how the big hitters manage their schedule.

 

45.76 by Alex is not awful for a season opener but like you say 45 flat would be very helpful to the men’s relay hopes.

If Amber can maintain her form, there does come a point where a superstar mixed team of MHS-Dobson-Anning-Neilsen becomes  a better medal bet than the single sex relays

[Grassmarket 4,085]

Preview for the Night of the 10k PBs on Saturday / aka British Paris Trials.  Live on YT - whole event from mid afternoon - and the BBC - the two Senior races.

 

Night of 10,000m PBs: British athletes eye Olympic qualification - BBC Sport