A great point about fandom. Everyone complains about our “minor” sport and poor attendance. It seems to me, modestly, that the CG addresses this quit nicely.
Euros a damn sight better & more competitive than the US Champs. Pan American Games might be a joke, but European Champs are not.
Empire/Commonwealth Games = Glorification of colonialism. Surprised Trumster hasn't thought up of starting a US equivalent in his MAGA Golden Age of offical US Colonialism.
as an englishman, i would have no problem in the commonwealths being removed from the calender
most events are a truly abysmal standard. there were 15 starters in the marathon at the last edition. the 10km was good because McColgan had a good race against a Z grade Kenyan but none of the best athletes turn up and behind these you had numerous donkeys running 34mins.
granted, the 1500m was a rare exception which was a classic race but largely, the races are strung out, mediocer affairs. no one wants to host it anymore and you can only pick a certain number of athletes per nation leading to small fields. total waste of time these days, stick it in the bin
Considering Olli Hoare had to beat Tim Cheriyout, Abel Kipsang, Jake Wightman, Neil Gourley and Josh Kerr to get said gold medal I'd argue it's a great achievement.
+1
Considering you can risk to compete against the best athletes from Kenya, Uganda, The UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and more it can be very strong fields. At times almost as strong as at the WC and the OG.
Yawn. Some of the greatest races were at the Commonwealth Games such as the 'Miracle Mile' in 1954 and the 1500m in 1974. It's not the World Championships but it is one of the 4 'majors' for British Athletes: Olympics, World Championships, European Championships are the other 3. The 2022 CGs in Birmingham had packed 35,000 crowds morning and afternoon sessions and put to shame the Eugene WCs in terms of crowds and atmosphere.
Same pool at trials as 94 Comm Games. Perkins set the 800 & 1500 WR in the same race. 2006 Pan Pacs also there and several WR set then including Phelps.
Euros a damn sight better & more competitive than the US Champs. Pan American Games might be a joke, but European Champs are not.
Empire/Commonwealth Games = Glorification of colonialism. Surprised Trumster hasn't thought up of starting a US equivalent in his MAGA Golden Age of offical US Colonialism.
Somehow I don't think an "American empire games" of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Kosovo, and others would be widely attended.
It used to be a really big deal. Jipcho's triple (5 races) was amazing but got overshadowed by Filbert Bayi's world record. Many soon-to-be enrolled in American colleges. Gordon Minty, Josh Kimeto, Suleiman Nyambui, Mike Boit, Randal Markey,
1/25/74 10000m 1. 27:46.4 Dick Taylor NZL 2. 27:48.6 Dave Black ENG 3. 27:57.0 Richard Juma KEN 4. 28:18.8 Dave Bedford ENG 5. 28:14.8 Dan Shaughnessy CAN 6. 28:17.2 Ian Stewart SCO 7. 28:28.6 Tony Simmons ENG 8. 28:44.6 Gordon Minty WAL 9. 28:52.6 Paul Mose KEN
1/26/74 3000m Steeplechase 1. 8:20.67 Ben Jipcho KEN 2. 8:24.8 John Davies WAL 3. 8:28.5 Evans Mogaka KEN 4. 8:29.6 John Bicourt ENG 5. 8:35.2 Euan Robertson NZL 6. 8:36.2 Bernard Hayward WAL 7. 8:40.4 Stephan Hollings ENG 8. 8:41.4 Amos Biwott KEN
1/27/74 5000m Heats 1.1 13:42.6 Josh Kimeto KEN 1.2 13:57.2 Ian Stewart SCO 1.3 13:57.2 Ben Jipcho KEN 1.4 13:57.2 Bryan Rose NZL 1.5 13:59.9 Dave Black ENG 1.6 14:18.4 Mustafa Musa UGA
2.1 13:45.6 Brendan Foster ENG 2.2 13:46.0 Suleiman Nyambui TAN 2.3 13:46.1 Dave Fitzsimons AUS 2.4 13:50.2 Paul Mose KEN 2.5 13:59.2 Gordon Minty WAL 2.6 13:59.2 Dave Bedford ENG
1/27/74 800m Semifinals 1/29/74 800m Final 1. 1:43.91 GR John Kipkurgat KEN 2. 1:44.39 Mike Boit KEN 3. 1:44.92 John Walker NZL 4. 1:45.32 Filbert Bayi TAN 5. 1:45.97 Andy Carter ENG 6. 1:46.75 Bill Hooker AUS 7. 1:47.66 Daniel Omwanza KEN 8. 1:48.90 Phil Lewis WAL
1/29/74 5000m Final 1. 13:14.4 GR Ben Jipcho KEN 2. 13:14.6 Brendan Foster ENG 3. 13:23.5 Dave Black ENG 4. 13:34.9 Suleiman Nyambui TAN 5. 13:40.3 Ian Stewart SCO 6. 13:42.8 Dave Fitzsimons AUS 7. 13:43.6 Josh Kimeto 8. 13:45.4 Gordon Minty WAL 9. 13:54.4 Paul Mose KEN 10. 14:00.9 Bryan Rose NZL 11. 14:18.7 Dave Bedford ENG 12. 14:25.3 Mustafa Musa UGA
1/31/74 1500 Heats 1.1 3:44.6 Mike Boit KEN 1.2 3:44.6 Graham Crouch AUS 1.3 3:44.6 Rod Dixon NZL 1.4 3:44.9 Brendan Foster ENG
2.1 3:38.2 Filbert Bayi TAN 2.2 3:39.8 John Kirkbride ENG 2.3 3:39.9 Dave Fitzsimons AUS 2.4 3:40.3 Tony Polhill NZL
3.1 3:42.5 John Walker NZL 3.2 3:42.6 Suleiman Nyambui TAN 3.3 3:42.7 Randal Markey AUS 3.4 3:43.6 Ben Jipcho KEN
2/2/74 1500 Final 1. 3:32.16 WR Filbert Bayi TAN 2. 3:32.52 NR John Walker NZL 3. 3:33.16 Ben Jipcho KEN 4. 3:33.89 Rod Dixon NZL 5. 3:34.22 NR Graham Crouch AUS 6. 3:36.84 Mike Boit KEN 7. 3:37.64 Brendan Foster ENG 8. 3:39.64 Suleiman Nyambui TAN 9. 3:41.30 Dave Fitzsimons AUS 10. 3:41.91 John Kirkbride ENG 11. 3:44.56 Randal Markey AUS
2018 Gold Coast 5000m was an epic kick off between Ahmed and Cheptegei for gold. Those two then went silver and gold respectively in the Tokyo Olympics.
2022 saw Moraa edge Hodgkinson which were the top two in Budapest 2023.
As people have pointed out, 2022 Hoare beat the 2019, 2022, and 2023 world champs to get gold.
Same year Muir had to beat Mageean who was only one second off Kipyegon in Zurich (beating Wetelji and Tsegay in the process) the next month.
Those are all excellent performances with fantastic athletes that I am happy were on the calendar. 2022 the crowds were electric too.
Euros a damn sight better & more competitive than the US Champs. Pan American Games might be a joke, but European Champs are not.
Empire/Commonwealth Games = Glorification of colonialism. Surprised Trumster hasn't thought up of starting a US equivalent in his MAGA Golden Age of offical US Colonialism.
Somehow I don't think an "American empire games" of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Kosovo, and others would be widely attended.
Not a bad idea. The “preferred Tariff rate games”. All countries with a Tariff rate below X% get to participate.
CWGs should be quite a big deal next year with no global champs. Hopefully, top Jamaicans will show up for the sprints. They're also making some positive decisions like switching the 1500 to a mile, which is a point of difference with other champs, and getting rid of the marathon, which always had extremely weak fields.
And it does matter as an event in many countries. I saw someone post in another thread that Jakob shouldn't do Euros because it doesn't matter, but it actually does to people over here. I get that there's no American interest, but the rest of the world can have nice things, too. Most of the world doesn't have a stake in the NCAA champs, but it would be arrogant to say it doesn't matter because it clearly does to Americans