OlympicsFan

Yeah, because the polish girls are so much faster ... in addition to that Germany rested its best runner and has to compete without Spelmeyer who was the 2nd best european athlete at the world championships last year (better than all polish girls).

Thats true, both he and his girlfriend (Sosthene Moguenara) are massively wasting their talent. We have to remember that Holzdeppe was 7th at the 2008 olympics as an 18 year old. By the way: I recently felt pretty old when i thought about how many german athletes who competed at the 2008 olympics (the first olympics i followed closely) are now retired. This probably doesnt deserve an own thread, but when i looked up how many german athletes who competed at the 2008 olympics will probably also compete at the 2020 olympics i was surprised to see that the number is actually quite high (many athletes in equestrian, but also guys like Timo Boll, Dimitri Ovtcharov or Marcel Nguyen). Would be interesting to see if its the same with other nations.

1 medal out of 2 competitions so far, so a pretty good quota. Also good chances for medals in both high jumps, womens long jump and womens triple jump. Of course it doesnt help that Heß was injured and barely competed this season. Given the level of competition in europe i thought that even at 50% he might defend his title, but it wasnt meant to be. I guess he will be ok, considering that he already is european champion and is bound to win many more european titles in the future (of course unless Portugal or Azerbaijan will naturalize half of Cuba). C. Harting was the only german athlete who openly said that he doesnt care about this competition, but i think many other athletes (not only from Germany) feel the same. If you look at the number of spectators you surely understand that the interest for this competition isnt too high in Germany, sadly only olympic games matter in a sport like athletics.

Yeah, great argument, whenever someone calls you out, just say that it was a joke. I think its pretty clear what you implied about Van Rouwendaal. Italians defending their own swimmers is (sadly) normal, as is many other swimming fans having huge question marks (considering that italy just won about 30 medals in swimming). I cant prove that they are dirty, you cant prove that they are clean, but it would have been a first step to tell me when the last time was that a nation had so many swimmers swim a PB at the same major competition, sadly you didnt want to do that. I hope that FINA or WADA will act quickly, but knowing those federations, i dont think that italian fans have anything to worry about. The only positive thing about all this is that it will be fun to see Pellegrini break the 200 m free world record as a 40 year old in Tokyo.

1) So you are saying if juniors show huge improvements it cant be suspicious? I know very well of all the junior results, it doesnt make it any less suspicious. 2) The chance of italian gymnasts doing anything remotely close to what italian swimmers did is way below 1% (i talked about the italian junior results about a week ago by the way, maybe you should check the gymnastics thread from time to time) 3) Of course it doesnt help that so many italian coaches/managers are involved in african athletics. Like i said before, this is sadly very similar to 2000 when a cheat like Rosolino was at his peak.

Krause jogging to a seasons best ... Lets see what the final will bring, her training performances have been better than ever before, but apparently the training was too hard, so there is a good chance that we will have to wait for next season to see her running fast again.

Compared to the german potential yes, but Germany still has by far the most medals so far and i doubt that any nation will come close to Germany when it comes to number of medals. I think in the end it should be 18-20 medals. Mens track and field events (German coaches should ask Norway about their secret training methods), hammer throw and pole vault are nothing but embarrassing. At least there is some hope in hammer throw, for example Olivia Fromm is 2nd in womens U18 world ranking. Holzdeppe is still easily the 3rd most talented pole vaulter in the world, but if he doesnt change his coach he can as well retire, i dont think i have ever seen such a huge waste of talent. Overall really embarrassing performances by german pole vaulters. There are some talents (Otchere and Wildgrube on the womens side and Baehre on the mens side), but something is going horribly wrong indeed, in 2012 Germany won silver and bronze in mens pole vault at the olympics and now not even one in the final of european championships. Of course it also doesnt help when your 2 best female pole vaulters (Spiegelburg and Ryzih) dont participate here.

Not what the italian freak show is over, lets look at how the times from this week compare to the Pan Pacs times: If you only count the medal winning times at both meets and give 6 points to the fastest winning time and 1 point to the slowest time for 3rd place, you get 93 points for the european championship times and 96 points for the pan pac times in the events contested so far, which is quite astonishing. In mens 1500 free and mens 100 breast all top 3 times at the european championships were faster than the winning times in the same events at the pan pacs, it wasnt the other way around in any event. The weakest events from a european perspective were womens 800 free, womens 200 free, mens 200 free and the mixed medley relay. On the mens side the winning times at the european championships were faster than the winning times at the pan pacs in all events except for the 400 IM. On the womens side none of the winning times at the european championships were faster than the winning times at the pan pacs. Overall the medal winning times at the european championships were better in mens 1500 free, mens 100 breast and womens 400 IM. In mens 400 IM, womens 200 free, womens 800 free and the mixed medley relay the medal winning times at the pan pacs were better overall.

Like i said, you will find a reason to make all of those improvements seem reasonable to yourself and its for sure a coincidence that all happened at the same meet. 14:55 - 14:36 = 20? No, i could write something about how bad italian schools must be, but thats more your style. Like i said before you trying to act like someone who is above things here is just beyond ridiculous, barely hours after calling Van Rouwendaal a superwoman who completely miraculously was able to recover from yesterdays race, something that the poor italian girls couldnt never do (everyone knows what you tried to imply there ...). Its just sad that you are completely unable to reflect properly about italian performances, only questioning other countries, but of course everyone who frequently reads your comments knows that this is something new. I hope by now you were able to calm down after completely flipping out after every dutch win in the open water events. I asked you a clear question and you didnt even try to answer it, nothing you said even remotely explains in any way why so many italian swimmers massively improved at the same time. Your answer basically was "They improved because they trained", which of course in no way explains anything and what is exactly what every russian or chinese swimming fan would say. All the signs clearly point in a very worrying direction and it makes me sad that Italy learned absolutely nothing from its past.

Here are a few points: - Where did i say that all those other athletes i mentioned are not suspicious? - Kids like those you mentioned improving is not nearly as suspicious as those improvements by athletes in their mid/late 20s like Codia or Panziera. - How fast was Codia before last year? - Codias improvement this year is much bigger than that of Anderson, so maybe get your facts right first. - Wellbrock didnt improve by 20 s this year, so again, try to get your facts right (in addition to that you cant even spell his name correctly ...) - I know that you will find a reason (that makes sense to you) to make it look like something normal whenever an italian athlete is showing massive improvements, nothing new. Just call everyone a talent and if they explode than noone is supposed to get suspicious ... - 2-3 italians having the meet of their life? Vergani + Quadarella + Panziera + Codia + Cusinato + Miressi + Zofkova + Pizzini + Restivo + Megli = 2-3? If you really want to have a discussion about this, then you could maybe tell me when the last time was that a nation had so many swimmers (such a high percentage) improve their PB at a major competition? I think the list of italians not improving any PB this week is shorter than the list of italians improving their PB. To me this looks like 2000 all over again and i dont think i have to give you a history lesson about all the stories during that time. When i noticed the italian development in track cycling (especially on the womens side) and to some extent in athletics (Tortu) i was already suspicious, but now i am convinced.

Or Ennaoui for Morocco ... I would be willing to trade one Lukas Podolski for Iga Baumgart or Maria Springwald, but thats all youll get.

Herman ze German, maybe therer is a chance to get her to compete for Germany in the future.

German athletes dont fail to disappoint, hope this will fuel Roleder and Dutkiewicz on their road to the next olympics, absolutely anti-performance today.

First german gold in mens javelin throw since 1986.

Or you apply for acting as mascot at the next edition and then tackle him during his run? Or you could become his coach and tell him to run with the wrong tactics?

Who knows, if your training goes well you might be there in 2 years. I think the dutch dont have anyone in this event, so you would only have to run the qualifying time.

The spanish guy looking like a mad men and a huge surprise for the italian kid in 3rd.

Would have loved to see Ingebrigtsen vs. Mekhissi, Jakob would have taught Mekhissi some manners.

They are still sailing? Isnt it dark in denmark by now?

Ok, would probably be too much work anyways.

Very bad forecast and where is Dadic?

I think Wilsons time is a NR, dont know whether you want to add that?

Ah, the good old times, him and his motorcycle ...

One of the most amazing sprint i have ever seen, fotofinish between 5 guys for silver and bronze!

And the record lives for another day. Very surprised to be honest that someone looking like Wilson can run 200 m without taking a break ...