Yesterday was miserable and there was no way I was sitting outside in 50 degree downpour.
I'll have some thoughts when I get some free time.
The triple jump was great today. The men's javelin will be a battle tomorrow.
The 100 meter final was great. Gatlin is a tough guy to root for, but I'm ok with the result. As I mention in another post, yeah, he had two suspensions but the first was BS. The second was appropriately reduced to 4 years which is still a really long time for a sprinter. And Gatlin was far from the only drug cheat on the track--I am not sure why London singled him out.
I like Mo--he's fun to watch race. I really hope he never tests positive for any of Alberto's crap.
Cragg's performance was one for the ages. I loved watching the whole race--Alyson Dixon trying to gap the pack, even knowing they would likely come and get her. Cragg biding her time and then making a move to try to spread out a lead pack that was still really big really late. The last 400 meters was just bad-ass--I wish that the marathon had been 42.25 km--she'd have had silver. It was one of my favourite events that I have seen in a long time, despite the fact that the field held down the pace for so long.
Ayana is...well...I want to believe she's clean because I have never seen anyone win a 10000 meters the way that she has won the last two. Phenomenal.
van Niekerk benefited from the head-scratching decision by the IAAF to ban Makwala for having norovirus, especially since there is some discussion as to whether he was ever actually tested. And this after they let Elaine Thompson run after puking her guts out for a while. BS decision.
Pole vault was fun to watch. I enjoyed watching the final three take their attempts to sort out the medal situation.
Jenny Simpson ran a great race--I actually watched it a couple of times. Her kick was good, but she benefited from a couple of decisions/mistakes from other runners. First, I liked watching Muir throw it down--a shame that she didn't have enough to hold everyone off. But Simpson really benefited from Kipyegon and (particularly) Hassan kicking too hard too early and fading at the end (Kipyegon held on to win, but she dropped 2 seconds between the first 200 and the second 200 of the final lap). She made a great pass on the inside to take silver in part because Hassan gave up the inside. Bad strategy, but it all made the race seriously fun to watch.
And the young phenom will have to wait for another day.
It's not like if Gatlin had been banned Bolt would have won. Bolt also lost to Coleman.
.. twice been banned for drug cheating and pushed the very popular Bolt down a step on the podium.
Gatlin should have received an eight year ban for the second one, which would have effectively been a lifetime ban. But because he was given a reduced sentence for his first ban, they didn't have an adequate basis for the eight year ban. Gatlin seems like a nice enough guy, but he shouldn't be competing.
He'd been on Adderall for ADD since he was a kid. He was suspended where others have been given warnings. Yeah, he should have been smarter than to get caught with something after that, because he was already on thin ice (whether or not that thin ice was of his own making), but the four year ban was appropriate given the circumstances surrounding the first suspension. Four years in sprinting is still a damn long time.
I do think that the Brits should watch where they are pointing fingers, given that their hero Mo Farah trains with Alberto Salazar's group...
As you say, the clean-cut Brits are not novices to the doping game.
... group are dirty. Somewhat more broadly, the way Nike plays the 900 lbs gorilla in T&F, bullying athletes and coaches, turns me off the entire company. I won't wear Nike shoes.