Talking athletics when there’s nowhere else to turn
Roar Rookie
By Dixie, 25 Aug 2009 Dixie is a Roar Rookie
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You know it’s been a particularly average weekend for Australian sport when we’re talking up athletics at the water cooler on Monday morning.
Strangely, it seems talking about “the great Hooker” is somehow less confronting than a discussion about our cricketers or the Wallabies.
Thankfully, it may just be that a guy flinging himself over a bar and a girl throwing a saucer has saved us from a desperate round of soul-searching about the fortunes of two national teams on the slide.
At least for a few days.
Looking at it realistically, were our weekend hopes only inflated because of the obvious vulnerability of our opponents?
England were gone. Their top order was in disarray, Freddy was on one leg, and they somehow needed to find 20 wickets on a wicket expected to have as much variation as the Cronulla backline.
Confidence was rightfully high.
Now for the All Blacks. They’re still good, but maybe like our cricketers, just not as good as before. They were coming back from a lay off, visiting Fortress ANZ.
Surely?
Both losses suggest it could be back to the drawing board. Australians, top of the tree for so long, can’t be expected to accept that our teams just aren’t quite that good anymore. But in shifting my focus to the unexpected success in Berlin, I can’t help but dream.
If only the country’s best Hooker threw lineouts and scrummaged. If only Dami Samuels was less brawn and more Warne.
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Brett McKay said | August 25th 2009 @ 1:17pm | Report comment
Dixie, had to laugh at a page in the Daily Telegraph today, which showed just how far they are going to still prove that Australia is suceeding on the sporting circuits. A tthe top of a page highlighting the outstanding effort of our 4x400m relay team in claiming Bronze in Berlin, they’ve run the headline “WORLD BEATERS”.
That is, apart from the Gold and Silver medalists (the US and Great Britain), we’re the best in the world!!!
sheek said | August 25th 2009 @ 4:06pm | Report comment
Dixie,
The first Olympics I ever followed was 1968 in Mexico City. Back then Australia was a somebody in Athletics.
We won 2 gold, 3 silver, & one bronze – 6 medals in total.
Teenager Maureen Caird beat her much-favoured team-mate Pam Kilborn in the 80 metres hurdles. Another teenage girl, Raelene Boyle picked up silver in the 200m with Jenny Lamy taking the bronze.
Over at the mens, Ralph Doubell was a surprise winner in the 800m, while Peter Norman split two champion US runners in the 200m, a stupendous effort.
Three Aussie world champion men all faltered near the end of their races. Champion distance runner Ron Clark picked up 5th & 6th in the 5000m & 10000m, both events in which he held the world record.
In the marathon, world record holder Derek Clayton finished 7th, & in the 3000m Steeplechase, another Aussie world record holder Kerry O’Brien, finished just out of the medals in 4th.
All the men’s jumps made the finals – Allan Crawley 6th in the long; Phil May 6th in the triple & Lawrie Peckham 8th in the high. Back to the women, & Raelene Boyle & Dianne Burg finished 4th & 6th in the 100m. And the women’s 4x100m relay team finished 5th.
That’s 16 top 8 finishes. Wouldn’t we love those kind of results today!
Jameswm said | August 26th 2009 @ 9:16am | Report comment
Unfortunately it’s just a tad more competitive today Bruce!
You’ve got to beat American, Brits, Canadians, Caribbean athletes and others in the sprints. Add in Europeans, Chinese and Japanese in the hurdles.
In the pole vault, all of Europe and North America are strong. In the distance there are the Africans, the East Asians and the odd one (often an import) from the middle east, plus the Europeans again.
It’s a tough gig athletics, and to get 2 gold and 2-3 bronze without our two reigning world champs (Jana and Nathan Deakes), and without reigning bronze medallist Craig Mottram and world no.2 javelin thrower Jarrod Bannister, is an excellent effort.
All three men’s 400 runners made the semis. We have two 400 hurdlers in the top 15 in the world. Sally McLellan at full fitness is as good as anyone. Strong walkers in men’s and women’s.
We’re weak in the sprints and middle distance, though we have some good men’s 800/1500 runners coming through.
I think we’re doing pretty well.
As for people being injured, they train so hard that this can always happen. Even my 9yo is suffering through a bad trot at the moment, and he only trains a couple of times a week (though the rugby semi final in the afternoon after an aths carnival in the morning was the latest culprit).
And Bolt is great – all the kids into athletics (and most of the others) just adore him. I taped each day’s 1 hour highlight package of the WCs and my 9yo loved it for the first time, and even my 5yo liked it (I think he liked the javelin for obvious reasons). My 9yo is good but at State level, his age group is very strong and there are heaps of very talented kids doing really well across various age groups.
I think we’re going in the right direction – give it 10 years and hopefully we can have a world top 10-15 in most events.