Well, I've been planning this post for a few days - today all I've had to change is the numbers and the feeling of acute disappointment: now it's only slight disappointment.Athletics, sports love of mine, second only to Rugby Union, which is the greatest sport known to man...and women, although I prefer them at beach volleyball... ahem...The European Championships: this is the bit I had to change: yesterday we were about 17th behind huge, highly-populated, sports winning monsters like...erm...Lithuania and Latvia; today a medal rush has seen that improve to 10th...TENTH!...
However, to put things back in a better perspective - only after today, the final day, I hasten to add! - in terms of total medals we finished equal 2nd, with Spain, behind Russia; in terms of bronze medals we finished equal 2nd , with Spain, behind Russia (I could have copied and pasted that bit!); in terms of silver medals we finished 2nd only to Russia...all this sounds great!!...oh, but we finised 10th (tenth!) because this 'game' is about winning, not coming second or third, and winning gets you a Gold Medal.
P.S. We did get one gold- the same total gold as 9 other countries - I get very pedantic when I'm disappointed; the combined population of those other NINE countries is less than 67 million people...ahha...but Great Britain has ONLY 60 million...yes, OK it's a United Kingdom of more than one country...but you see that just makes it worse: one gold just isn't enough.
P.P.S. I care not a jot for egos: if the great Michael Johnson (Double WR holder and all round good guy) said - referring to 'an emotional' Darren Campbell who had said "certain accusations" had made him not accompany his team mates on a lap of honour - that "he was not surprised at Campbell's outburst and urged the British public not to let it overshadow the rest of the team's achievement" then I agree: Johnson has yet to say anything on the BBC that I don't agree with - why can't there be more like Michael Johnson.
26 comments:
Old Dazza was sore that Dwaine was given the solo run instead of him. Considering his age, he ought to know better.
I love athletics too Span. Competed until my early 20's. It woz the kneez wot lost it. Didn't fancy the surgery.
My love of athletics has taken a few knocks over the last few years with all the drug taking or should I say all the positive tests because the drug taking has always been part of the scene. They've just got better at detecting the cheats. Hence Dwaine. Now I'm no puritan when it comes to this. If you do the crime, you do the time and then you get a new start. If you foul up a second time then there are no second chances but if like Dwaine, it's just the once then I do believe that he should be given a fair chance to prove he can do it without the need to cheat. OK so Daz and the boyz lost a few medals that they had contributed to, but I don't think Dazza is as innocent as he makes out. He, like MLF, has lost a lot of bulk over the last two years and I don't think that I am the only person to notice that fact, nor that the bulk loss coincided with Dwaine getting caught cheating.
Funny thing, I always knew Gatlin was a cheat. Four years ago when we were at a meeting, I turned to Mr Mags and said that Gatlin was on something. You sort of get a sixth sense with this now and it is that sense that says to me that Powell is a natural. I hope that sense is never proven wrong.
Michael Johnson speaks a lot of sense and one of the things he has said this last week is that Britain seems to have forgotten that there is an Olympics in two years time, such is the concentration on 2012. That is why we should be supporting someone like Joyce Maduaka. No, she will not be around in 2012 but if her improvement this year is anything to go by, she deserves her best shot at 2008.
The other thing that will definitely improve things for 2012 is if the clubs stop being so damn elitest at a local level. When I was 10 and wanted to be the greatest sprinter the world had ever known, my parents took me down to Birchfield Harriers on a Sunday afternoon where we had a chat with Norma, the junior coach (she's still there!) and then I was allowed to particpate in club training sessions. Now, you have to attend a feeder session having been recommended by your school. If after attending a few sessions they like the look of you, you will be filtered to the 'appropriate' local club. How many enthusiatic children get lost along the way? It isn't always the ones with the most talent that make the best athletes. It's the decently talented children with the greatest enthusiasm, dedication and a decent work ethic, who make the best athletes but they don't get through the selection process.
Rant over!
Wow! Thanks Mags, one comment worth twenty.
Dwaine I always liked, Darren Campbell too, but (hero) Michael Johnson spotted them both. He was right re Dwaine because he just 'bulked up' too much, too quickly - same as Ben Johnson and now Gatlin and a few others in between. It's obvious when you know what muscles should and could look like. Anyone who looks like they're a pumped-up body-builder just isn't an athlete - Linford did the same. Re Darren, I think it was the last Olympics (Athens) when he pulled up in a semi (he was losing) and siad afterwards that he had pulled a hamstring earlier blah blah blah... and Michael Johnson said that was bullshit (it was) because if you've pulled a hamstring you don't move , you can't walk and you ceratinly can't run the next race (Campbell did, in the relay) Johnson said he should have just been honest and said on the day he wasn't good enough, which was true.
Re Joyce, I believe she was cheated at Sydney (by the rules!) she ran a better time than some of those that actually went through...correct me if I'm wrong.
...can't think of anything else except to say that it's in the genes. Your comment "It isn't always the ones with the most talent that make the best athletes. It's the decently talented children with the greatest enthusiasm, dedication and a decent work ethic, who make the best athletes but they don't get through the selection process" is true...but it's in the genes...did I ever tell you that I played in a RFU Colts side with an England International, we were both centres? - Six, I apologise because I know you've played at a far higher level than me - but...I was better (not my opinion) than someone who went on to play for England. I even ran rings round him after he had...mind you that was a Boxing Day 'game'!...in fact everyone always said I was better than him...he went to Wasps...and I went to...the army. Can you tell I've been drinking?
Listening to the radio this morning it seems we were lucky our men's relay team all ran in the same direction. Oh, and Span, let's get back to the only medal table that counts... China!! 37! :-)
Span, the Soviet photograph has been located and posted. No jokes please. If the photograph was taken in 1979, then I weighed all of seven stone soaking wet. My, I was a muscley young woman!
Mr Mags had a trial with Bath. For various reasons he couldn't fulfil his potential. Seems that with him, you and Six, I am surrounded by rugger buggers!!!
No, I would never have guessed you had been at the pop.
xx
Well i got China before you!...just....now Qatar was a surprise yesterday but life is full of surprises :-)
Mags..on my way over for a look! Shall refrain from commenting until I see it ;-9
Is there an athletics event on then?
Yes, Mags is going at the weekend...Alexandria I think, (it's on her blog) you could go too.
oh, hang on, you're being sarcastic aren't you :-/
;-)
Lucy ;-)
Only half I' afraid Span, Having been away for half of last week (I've blogged it) and generaly doing the mother bit I had issed it /blush\
Oh dear the letter after n key is broke. Any tips on how to get it fixed?
My! Miss Lucy, you Must be Mortified and feeling eMpty, Maybe try Mailing M people or dialing M for Murder. Many coMMiserations.
Hmmmmmmm
heheheh Sorry! Don't know how to fix that, it could just be stuck rather than broken in which case a shake and a tap may loosen it but I wouldn't advise that...maybe computer shop/PC world?
New keyboard Lucy? I've got loads in the loft, shall I post you one?
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
:-)
Lovely offer /\/\ags but its a lap top. It is still on waranty but not sure if this is covered.
If I can use a spell checker it so^^eti^^es puts in the issing ^^ but otherwise I'^^ cut and pasting.
Life is too short...
If it's under warranty get it back and checked or changed ASAP!
P.S. For God's sake! You've missed the M in 'missing'...
Span,
I'm hijacking again your blog again...any idea when uploading photo's from a service like fickr or picasa2, if you can add pictures to a blog entry that you are writing and more than one photo to an entry as the attempt I did regarding Donovan's image, it sent it to a new entry rather than the one I had already written.
So I had to copy and paste my text to the new entry and delete the original post.
Also, can you add more than one image as so far I can only seem to add one image per blog entry.
Thanks...
Hi Gildy, no worries re hijacking as it helps you and me plus who knows who else! Not entirely sure re the bit about the uploaded picture going to another entry...perhaps Blogger just don't like Donovan! :-/...and also you've already done at least one post with various photos of your town, no?
but...I always used to upload to the post I was writing and often more than one picture although now (as you can see I tend to have one small image in the top LH corner of my posts - some shorter posts with no image), as I have said in another comment a while back there are often problems uploading but more often than not it's OK, I think the problems occur when the picture file is either too big (heavy) or the format (jpg/gif/tll/cdr/ whatever, OK jpg etc accepted) is not accepted.
Re Flckr and Picasso they are both OK and I assume they work in the same way as photobucket, which I use. This way, with photobucket anyway, it resizes your picture as you upload it to your album and then gives you the URL/ other format text ready to be used on your site.
I now save a lot of time by having a template (below is the one in the form it appears in my latest post) which allows me to have the picture the right size and shape for my posts.
(a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_medal" target="_blank")(img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" height="120" alt="There can be only one" src="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c61/SpanOws/Owsblog%20other/Gold20Medal.gif" width="120" border="1" /)(a/)
Now, clearly the first web address is the picture link and I change it each time (you click and go to that website) Then the words after "alt" are those taht appear in a little window when you rest the cursor on the image so I change that too to aomething appropriate, finally the second web address (URL) is teh one that my album provider gives me for the picture in question.
NOTE: obviously I have removed the "sideways v's" at the beginning and end and replaced them with brackets to allow posting the text.
P.S. Also please note the two brackets in the middle if you copy and paste that text. Another easy advantage is you can fiddle with the height/width etc just by changing the appropriate numbers in the text.
Thanks for your input, I'll try again...I managed to get 4 pictures to upload into one blog entry last night but...could not get the remainder to and I wanted to compare views and cover everything in one post.
It still does not like my photo's if uploaded using blogs own upload facility but will allow one of the picture sharing accounts.
Picasa2 seems suitable as it is part of google's setup and is associated with this particular blog service.
As to the post on Frank...I have let so much time go by in the last 15 years where I have let many old favourites and new films pass me by. I seem to have difficulty sitting down and watching a film for a couple of hours.
I really must try again...
Oh and I also found that when the photo's went up on site that I could not write text next to the photo's, only above the first photo and as I wrote the text it just kept pushing all the photo's further down the page.
Perhaps your template may cure the problem...
Hopefully Gildy.
Lucy, I've turned on the word verification again. I've just had to delete a porno link, no holds barred click teh link straight to hard core...deleted forever...mind you I had to study it for a few hours to get the gist... :-/ You KNOW I'm joking! I hope...
Yes, I saw the link but didn't go there...
but thanks for trying for me and the one you have on now is easier to navigate 'hugs'
Happy Birthday by the way. It is today isn't it, the day the A levels come out?
How did he do?
Look mmmmMMMM 1111!!!!
They are both magically working again. How they are linked I don't know but when one went silent the other did too, very puzzling, but
Have a great day :)
Happy Birthday Span! Half way to 100 is it?
Ho hum.....
Whoa! Hold up you two...it's next Thursday (24th...I'm a virgo of course!) He's 16 so he's expecting what I still call 'O' levels (I could blog that!) so I presume they come out nationally next Thursday or are teh West Country a bit behind? DON'T answer that!
P.S. Thanks for remembering anyway!
Kisses!
Oh shame, still hugs again next week then.
Have you joined a Fantasy footy league yet? I've put details on my blog...
No, but usually do the Telegraph one...I'll come over to your blog and tell you why I'm not bothering this year.
Personally I think that Darren Campbell was rightly resentful. He should by rights be a solo Olympic Gold Medalist. Had Kostas Kenteris not been such a cheating bastard he would have been immortalised. In the light of that I can understand his stand against Chambers - who incidentally I believe should have been banned for life.
A drug cheat is a drug cheat eh Six? You're right but where does it stop? You have to test all participants after every event or you're being unfair, I know that sounds a bit wierd...many cheats go undetected, it has to be all or nothing.
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