Official 2018 Athletics World Cup Discussion Thread

HRE wrote:

No distance events. I'm not interested.

Well, you'll be terribly missed.

.....Maybe there is a local ultra you can go volunteer at and handout food to the relay runners doing it.

HRE wrote:

rojo wrote:

Murphy is in 800 as is Kszczot. That's by far the best mid-d / distance event (they only have 800s and 1500s).

https://www.athleticsworldcup.org/the-event/results/

I know. It's not enough. Really, I need at minimum a 5,000 to get me interested in a meet.

You too have options on this fine weekend.

....Since you have no 10k to watch and your wife keeps telling me about all the chores yiu never do, there's always some paint you can watch dry.

Lewandowski closes in 52.x to win in 3:52. The German Benitz was 2nd, Yorks 4th.

Yeah, any longer than 1500m would have been hard to watch. 2:15+ at 800m.

I get it why a lot of top American stars skipped this thing and I also get if you're a star from a team that might not do very well you don't have much incentive to show up either.

I'm surprised more British athletes aren't there. Anyone got any insight as to why? I guess it's the same reasons as everyone else but with home crowd, TV exposure, I figured at least Nike British athletes might be there.

Briscoe was so close to handing off the baton before her injury. Shame the U.S. couldn't get the stick around.

It was ok. There were a few good events and some were processions.

30k is a good athletics crowd, but it's still a relatively low crowd for a meet in Stratford. Putting it on on the same weekend as the World Cup and Wimbledon finals wasn't a great idea. I imagine today's crowd would have been smaller still. Neither was putting it on the day after a Diamond League meet ideal, as lot of athletes chose Rabat instead.

One unfortunate part of the night was the home straight tickets were at a premium price. Demand clearly wasn't as high as they had hoped and so it was the emptiest side of the stadium.

Having the top three stand on the podium and wave a flag with no anthem playing seemed pretty unnecessary. Especially as that took place in front of the emptiest stand.

As for British team, Lorraine Ugen the captain described as just a bit of fun. Kit sponsors weren't paying bonuses. Looks like it has been seen more as a developmental event for up and coming athletes while senior athletes and looking for more competitive events to prepare for the European Champs. British athletes like competing in front of a home crowd at that stadium, but they get that chance next week anyway.

wejo wrote:

I get it why a lot of top American stars skipped this thing and I also get if you're a star from a team that might not do very well you don't have much incentive to show up either.

I'm surprised more British athletes aren't there. Anyone got any insight as to why? I guess it's the same reasons as everyone else but with home crowd, TV exposure, I figured at least Nike British athletes might be there.

Shoe companies kept many of their top people out due to clashes on wearing a national uniform from a different sponsor.

And there isn't really much TV exposure for British athletes at this event.

The British Diamond League meets are shown on the BBC. As are the British Champs (or at least online), the major Champs, plus stuff like the Great City Games.

This one is randomly being shown live on Sky Sports. Which is not cheap, and probably not worth it unless you want unlimited Premier League football, and not in most households. I'd guess more athletics fans were able to watch the Diamond League in Rabat live on EuroSport (which comes with a lot of reasonably cheap TV packages) on Friday night.

Another irrelevant competition. Top 8 athletic nations???? Poor lies.

I was at the event and although it was fun, I see this as a real opportunity missed. They could have filled this stadium with 3 simple changes:

- Field events started at 18:45 and then there was over an hour before the first track event. London has a massive distance running community. With a 3k, 5k and chase they’d have been there and there was plenty of time to have them.

- It was a shame not to see the big name Brits. British Athletics should have made sure funded athletes attended to draw in the crowds.

- A clash with the World Cup Final and the Wimbledon Final was a tad foolish. If they’d held this on a better weekend and advertised properly, the casual sports fans would have been more interested.

Raevyn Rogers wins 800 gold by almost a second in 2:00.20 over GB's Adelle Tracey (2:01.05).

https://www.letsrun.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Rogers-800-World-Cup-gold-1024x507.png

I was a bit skeptical about this event. But I will say I liked the style of coverage. The commentators were definitely less than stellar. As for distance events, Despite being a retired steeple/5000m man, I have gotten increasingly bored of watching races than only develop with 600-400 to go after jogging for 10+ minutes. That being said tactical 1500’s aren’t much better, but at least it doesn’t take as long to get to the kick. I personally like watching the 800 and 1500, so that was ok.

All in all if I were to give it a grade...B-.

I really enjoyed it but I agree with all the positive criticisms. I liked the announcers they were knowledgeable, especially the jumps expert.

In reality, the only way to bring in more stars is with money- these people are pro's.

China has to go- they couldn't even field a complete team.

Maybe add some individuals from nations not represented? Just to add some stars and to bring in interest from countries not represented.

Keep the top 8 teams and add some individuals from nations not represented.

But, really- Poland is strong, France and Britain, USA, Jamaica, Germany and South Africa- all represented well.

Only China didn't deserve to be there.

Let's face it. We are talking professional sports here. Outside the World Champs and Olympics the best athletes compete for money. As with the Davis Cup in tennis you are always going to struggle to get the majority -some will take part - of the world's elite to compete in an event like this. Even most of UK's best stayed away from this one despite it being held in London. This is why the old World Cup died a death after a promising start in 1977; too many big names simply weren't interested.

Personally, I dislike trying to shoehorn an essentially individual sport into contrived team formats.

Initially, I was skeptical of this meet. After watching it, I give it a huge thumbs up. Even though some of the elite athletes didn't participate, the performances were competitive and respectable. Thoroughly enjoyed the format and concept. The crowd numbers were impressive. Hopefully, the meet will become an annual event. If it does, and more prize money is raised, I think you will see more of the elite performers participate.

The problem is there aren't many other nations that could field a full team of elite athletes that could replace China. Australia? Brazil? Kenya maybe? They do have some 400/400H-types, Yego in the Jav (though he hasn't been the same since '15), and I think they might have a few jumpers. That would still leave a lot of empty events though, and that's assuming everyone wants to show up.

It also needs to be held at a better time, but I'm not sure what would be best for athletes...right after Zurich/Brussels? Earlier in the season before domestic championships?

zxcvzxcv wrote:

The splits above, 54.5/1:21.5/1:46.5 indicate that Murphy ran not only 54.5/52.0 or so, but ran the second lap in 27/25 (not knowing exactly where he was at 400 or 600 but not leading). He may have been sub 25 for the last 200m, pretty strong in an 800m.

I was in the stadium for the first evening, and for me it was the best race of the night.

After Lucerne, where Murphy ran a 1:46.4 with a 26.8/13.1 last 200/100, he went one step further in this race and looked in full control. His splits were: - 54.6/51.9 or 25.2, 29.4, 27.0, 24.9! And a last 100m of 12.6.

Looked very relaxed and seemed to bounce along the home straight. Very impressive.

Here's a link: -

How about this:

Make it part of the Diamond League finals (both meets to cover every event).

Give each nation 1 entry- that way the best will already be there. Any nation that doesn't have someone gets an entry.

Break out the scoring so that only the team entrants count.

The problem would be in the 100, 200, 400, and hurdles with only 8 per event- so I guess they'd need a "slow heat".

I can't think of any other way to get the top people there without putting a ton more money into it as a stand alone event.

Is there a reason that they don't have a World Champs every year there isn't an Olympics? Considering they keep trying with these half assed events like World Relays or World Cup.