Epic Failure

Molly, sure. She's established, a world finalist and won the WIC in Glasgow. Gold was always well within her grasp. But Megan is still a relatively inexperienced athlete - that was only her 3rd ever 10000m. Also, 10000m is a race that lots of athletes don't do that often, so her place at the top of the rankings was always something of a false position. Van Es, for example, has run 10k on the roads quicker than Megan's track PB, but that isn't shown in the PBs at the start of the race. Megan did the right thing, she tried to run the kick out of the other two. She wasn't able to. It happens.

I suspect Megan will be pretty happy with her bronze to be honest.

Tamberi is a nutter. Bless him.

Wait, people care about the playoffs once their team is eliminated? I've barely watched any games since the regular season was over. That said, a small part of me would find it hilarious if Edmonton never won the cup after they got so many years of draft luck. So, Go Panthers, I guess.

They've got it wrong in on the men's side as well - it should be Rafa and Murray but they have Stan and Murray. I think they've just been selecting the two highest ranked GS/Olympic winners, not looking at the criteria. Unless they are already adjusting for protected rankings, but if that is the case, Rafa should be showing as Q. Which he isn't.

Alex Seftel, Phil Minshull and Tim Hutchings are the main commentary guys. It's technically just the Eurovision feed commentary, so not something to specifically blame the Beeb for. For the most part I'm fine with them, and tend to prefer them to the Beeb's own commentary team (bar Crammy). It's a bit 'chummy' but it works most of the time. Kath Merry and Jaz Sawyers have both been excellent when they've shown up this week. The only redeeming feature of Jaz being injured is that we get her in commentary. She's a natural.

I'd have Jemma slightly ahead of Sekgodiso because Jemma has shown over several years that she can run 1:56-1:57 times, including 2 1:57s this year. Sekgodiso has only run that 1:57 time once. She may well be capable of much more. But she hasn't backed that up, yet.

A mixed day, but mostly because of athletes expectations rather than actual poor performances. Both Caudrey and Dobson would have fancied their chances of gold. But both still performed creditably - indeed Charlie's time is the 7th fastest by a European ever. He just was facing the 2nd fastest European performance of all time! Both he and Doom were world class and could easily get into medal contention in Paris if they can hold their form. Molly will be more disappointed, but a good close competition might help her more in Paris than a procession could have. She was very close on the second attempt at 4.83m. She's still a solid medal threat in Paris. In other news, good qualification by Neita, Lina N, Keely and Gourley, amongst others. Laviai lowered her PB again, which shows consistency and will hopefully help the relay in Paris. Anna Purchase and Mark Pearce performed about as well as can be expected.

Don't get me started...UKA are a joke of a governing body right now.

Whatever ranking she ends up with, you can probably bump it up by one. As I doubt UKA will take Anna Purchase unless she goes a couple of metres further before the window closes than she has this season.

I mean, she's 4th in the last Olympics and 5th in the last WC (and is world #4 this year). It would be a huge shock if she missed Paris. Also, if Keely and Phoebe ended up 1 and 2 at trials, Jemma would absolutely get the 3rd slot. It would be bonkers to give it to anyone else.

Sub 49. Wowsers.

Charlie met his Doom...Great race from both of them. Bonevacia annoying me by showing up here after messing up the mixed relay earlier in the week.

Molinarolo misses at 4.73, so our medalists are set. Order to be determined.

Obviously form etc is never a guarantee, but Keely, Jemma and Phoebe are a cut about the rest right now - there's over a second gap between Phoebe and Erin Wallace in terms of SBs and you would expect Phoebe to take it out hard. If she does, only Jemma and Keely can go with her, unless Alex Bell gets her 2021 form back. I'd be surprised if the Paris trio isn't Keely, Jemma and Phoebe, unless one of them is dramatically off form or suffers misfortune in Manchester.

If it were an 800m race, I'd be more worried about Jemma. But she was never going to run 1500m in Paris. So it's a lesson learned and a bruised ego but nothing more.

As much as I love Dina, she will have done well if she finals in the Olympics. Aside from Eugene in 2022 she hasn't really been a factor in global finals since Doha in 2019. I think if we're expecting individual medals from her that's putting unreasonable pressure on her at this stage in her career. Jemma was leading because nobody else wanted to. She kept leaving the gap but nobody wanted to take the option up. The more I think about it, the more we should credit Mageean more than anything. She is the class of the field in terms of pure 1500m running - her PB is 3 seconds quicker over 1500m than Jemma, and she's been working on her 800m this year (set a NR last month). She got her tactics spot on. It wasn't ever slow enough to be a complete 800m kickers race. And class won out.

A day of highs and lows for GBR. Dina - despite a dreadful start - back on top in Europe. Will be good for her confidence after a relatively tough couple of years. She may not be quite the athlete she was in 2019 but she's still one of Europe's best and deserved the chance to show it. Amy Hunt creditable although I still think 200m is her better event. A fine bronze for Lizzie Bird, and in an Olympic Q to boot. Two birds with one stone and all that. Charlie Dobson looked very relaxed for a 44.65 showing. But with both him and MHS I'm convinced injury related disaster is only a stride away, so I'm not going to get excited until the final is over. Strong stuff in the half marathon. Happy for Georgia Bird but hugely disappointed in/for Jemma Reekie - that was a championship opportunity that went begging. Katie Snowden also sub par. Likewise Giles. Jake Norris will be disappointed in the final performance but overall a creditable performance in his first senior champs. Morgan Lake performed about as well as can be expected - she's just a step behind the top tier. But she's rarely actively bad. Good from Laviai. Less good from Vicky. Less said about the 200m guys the better.

As I said before, I'm not convinced there was much to the push. I think Reekie was going backwards. I think she was hoping that she could steal a gold here by having too much of a kick for Ciara in the home straight in a relatively slow race (turned out the exact opposite!) I doubt she's thinking of 1500m in Paris - thus far in her career she's not shown that she has the stamina to stay with the very best over that distance. 800m she's still the best of the rest behind the Big 3 for me.

aye, if she can put the first 40 of the SF and the last 60 of the final into one race, there's a good time there.

Well, there's that as well. But even still, he and Reekie had the same problem - no kick to call on in the home straight. That steeple DSQ is very, very harsh, especially with the leniency being shown in the sprints.

Terrible start from Dina there but maybe showing some of the strength that she has been working on over the summer.

Don't think the push was much to be honest, Reekie was losing momentum already by that point. Poor run from her, in a race that should have worked to her advantage. All credit to Mageean (and Bell). Ran their own races and reaped the rewards.

He's been running 1500m for most of this season, so it's possible that his kick just isn't there anymore against some of these guys.

Vicky O has looked relatively poor all season. The only potential silver lining is that she may be employing the same tactics that her sister used, which was expert at timing a season's efforts to get the best at the biggest champs. That's what we have to hope.