Grassmarket

Remember the era when a second false start by any athlete would be an automatic DQ? Think that was Beijing 2008. It quickly got to the point where you could tell which 100m runner in a heat - invariably the fifth-ranked by time - would do the first false start. So I don’t share your faith in sporting honesty.

I can see THIS initiative going badly wrong….. Athletes have been told they can snitch their rivals and get them thrown out of the Olympics for breaking Covid rules. The International Olympic Committee have published new regulations which states that 'any person' may inform them of an alleged infringement of the Games playbook by a competitor, which would then trigger a disciplinary process https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-9696499/Tokyo-2020-Athletes-rivals-THROWN-Olympics-break-Covid-19-rules.html

Ok,I’m going to officially start getting excited now. Was holding off before because I thought it would all be cancelled but now….

Over on the athletics forum I’m on, everyone is convinced this is a broken wind gauge. Watch the flags at halfway.

Does she ever ride in full road races? I’ve only ever seen her in TTs.

To do well in triathlon now you need to be international standard in at least one of the three elements, so it’s difficult for small nations to divert people if they’re needed in their primary event.

gets a retrospetive 4-Man World Cup Gold, our first ever, after a Russian Doping Ban. Shame it has come too late, our teams could have done with the funding & recognition this last few years. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/57513365

Hey, steady on old boy, we don’t go around mocking Indian wrestlers, do we?

Well, not so much her underperforming, as there being new competitors emerging.

TEAM GB & NI MEN Alex Yee Jonny Brownlee WOMEN Vicky Holland Georgia Taylor-Brown Jess Learmonth

Groan of despair from the street downstairs, what can that mean? Aha. 0 2. Back to my book.

Full squad. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/triathlon/57471497

Important win for Mark Cavendish in Belgium today - beat all the big sprint names straight up. Really was a career defining moment, if he hadn’t got something out of this Tour he’d have been hanging up his shoes, I think.

Ok. I think we have max Olympic quota in both m & f.

Sadly here in we only get highlights on Sky about a week after the event. In the past it has been on the BBC, we often get medals.

Richard Mäder very sensibly brought along a book to read while he was sitting in the leader’s chair.

Jousting. Just sayin’. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=jousting+pictures&t=brave&iax=images&ia=images

Another story from my days in . Every year there was a national sports meet, of which the highlight was the Slow Bicycle Race, sort of like a track stand. For many years consecutively it was won by the father of the Monarch, the elderly Seri Begawan Sultan, who somehow always managed to beat the cream of the nation’s young, fit, jungle combat-trained Army Officers. People in Brunei are very polite, everyone clapped.

Just passing this on in case, y’know….. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9677153/Man-failed-drugs-test-new-job-eating-slices-favourite-Tesco-poppy-seed-bread.html

Catching up on this week’s NCAA Finals from earlier this week, continuing over the weekend. The new Heyward Field in Eugene, Oregon is looking absolutely superb now. Proper athletics stadium, not the usual track surrounding a football pitch.

Rui Costa can count himself a lucky man if he gets to keep his win in today, after coming outrageously off his line on the mountaintop village sprint.

OK, I don’t completely agree with this, but I can see his point. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9675957/Kim-Jong-calls-K-pop-vicious-cancer-introduces-harsher-punishment-listeners.html

Same with us and facemasks.

Women’s 4x400 is an outside chance as well.

Another PB & NR for Femke Bol - 53.44