Shooting His Bolt - World Athletics/Para-Athletics Championships 2017

[Janik]

Golf! That is the sport where one-at-a-time isn't an insoluble problem, isn't it? So there are some. That said, I stand by the basic assertion.


Solutions? Well, I don't see moving it to somewhere more central helping with TV all that much, seeing as you often can't really tell where in a stadium the field events are located whilst watching them on the box. It would be a change that addresses the wrong problem.

You could get all 12 javelin throwers throwing at once. I guess that would interest people. But maybe for the wrong reasons, i.e. rather too dangerous. However what could conceivably happen is that competitors go up in pairs, like, for example in long-track speed skating or velodrome cycling. So there is a race/competition element, even though the important thing is the time set and not beating the other girl on the track/ice at the same time as you.

[Janik]

Janik, individual (and team) time trials in Grands Tours are often covered in their entirety (as were events like the shotput and discus here when Americans dominated them).

My (very vague) recollection is that the BBC didn't have any problem with the Triple Jump or Javelin when Edwards and Bracknell were always in contention for gold.

That is patriotism trumping structure, I reckon. Even then, I wonder if they showed every jump or throw or just the leading contenders i.e. those who might pip the Brits?

As for the first bit, that weird set-up for the second La Course stage this year stemmed from an acknowledgement of this very issue with time trials. It was an experiment (failed) to find another way of running such stages which did away with the lack of head-to-head competition.

[ursus arctos]

But that is exactly why they show the whole 10,000 metres now.

They won't once Farah retires, unless a plucky British successor appears.

[Lang Spoon]

I'm sure Balding is very nice and all, but that Who Do you Think You Are? episode where she was gushing over her grandee relatives, made me wish that the British assault on the Upper classes got a bit wee more severe and crushing than Death Duties and Inheritance Tax. And she is terrible terrrible rah rah Britnat patriot as an anchor. God knows what Michael Johnson makes of it all.

[Janik]

I'm sure I've watched Gebreselase for half-an-hour before. They definitely cover marathons in full, pre- and post-Radcliffe and pre-Farah.

[ursus arctos]

That's generally because marathons are contested when there are no other events going on.

But it isn't worth arguing about. The structure does pose certain challenges. I'm just sure that they would be quickly overcome if flag-waving opportunities were available.

[tee rex]

It's trite to say being there in person is so different from telly, but that is never more true than in field events. I've only been to one World Champs (1991) but I was fascinated by the way those competitions unfolded. Without the artificial close focus of the camera, it was as untidy as a school sports day.

Throw/jump ... then wait for a race to go by ... then wait for an anthem ... then some other delay ... all the time wandering around, resting, looking at the coach, having a ciggie (well, they may as well have). It's the difference between seeing the singer only on stage, and seeing all the backstage activity as well. So yeah, I can see how TV networks see all that as time to be filled with ads or chat, but it's really distorting.

As much as anything, you see how field athletes could get eaten up by nerves. 90 minutes of running around a field is a doddle by comparison.

[Antepli Ejderha]

They've got the red button here on the BBC where they could show other events, they did that for the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games.

[johnr]

I'm sure Balding is very nice and all, but that Who Do you Think You Are? episode where she was gushing over her grandee relatives, made me wish that the British assault on the Upper classes got a bit wee more severe and crushing than Death Duties and Inheritance Tax. And she is terrible terrrible rah rah Britnat patriot as an anchor. God knows what Michael Johnson makes of it all.

Balding doesn't do the athletics, does she?

[Duncan Gardner]

Logan rather than Balding as the BBC anchor?

They're professional broadcast journos working to a script obviously- although to be fair both have fallen off plenty of (pommel) horses in their day.

Compared with the Olympics (especially in 2012) this has been relatively restrained.

[Satchmo Distel]

The 10,000m was (still is) the last event of the day and starts (started?) after peak viewing time, unless London switched it for the Farah factor. I remember the pre-Farah 10k events being shown in full but it would be BBC 2 at 10pm, not Beeb 1 at 8pm.

Going way back, Brendan Foster races would be in full but those games were late nighters: Montreal 76 Alberta 78. And again that was pre-talking heads.

[Ray de Galles]

The Men's 10,000m started at 9:20pm in this Championships, as late as it possibly could given that every session finished by 10pm.

[Various Artist]

Glad to have helped spark a debate with my previous "rant", as Kev put it.

One small additional point in conclusion, SHUT UP ABOUT THE FUCKING HEDGEHOG MASCOT ALREADY!

And I really should have added that to my list, shouldn't I?

They even had Tony Minichello, who was even better, and even less used.

This is also a great point. He only ever seemed to appear on the end-of-day supplementary programme with Ore Oduba, standing down near the Orbit Tower and doing 'lighthearted' pieces to camera with the fans after the action was over, which was a waste of his natural talent and charisma.

As AE says, the BBC have the Red Button channel so I was surprised not to see supplementary coverage (i.e. live footage on ongoing field events) there for example, nor a live stream or three available on the website so far as I know.

"So, with Chelsea scoring their second just after half-time, let's take a break from the live game and talk about the Liverpool game on later tonight ..."
- and all made worse when you can see and hear the action and crowd reaction in the background. What was the ooh? A near miss? Who is that waving to the crowd? What did they just do? Go back to the bloody studio if you must, but put it in a building across town. Don't make us feel like kids on the terraces trying to peer through the gaps between the grown-ups.
Plus the whole lying about live action thing, especially for field events. Why are those runners racing around the track even though they've already had the medal ceremony? That's one fast lap of honour.

Heh, I'd like to see them try to foist that onto the football coverage as well... You're quite right about the effect of the delay, tee rex, when we've already heard the background oohs and groans during the live coverage of whatever was happening on the track. There's no suspense when they cut back five minutes later to Backley describing Robbie Grabarz's last attempt in the high jump, say, when anyone with the slightest perceptiveness will have put two and two together already and figured that they've already heard him crashing out.

It's trite to say being there in person is so different from telly, but that is never more true than in field events. I've only been to one World Champs (1991) but I was fascinated by the way those competitions unfolded. Without the artificial close focus of the camera, it was as untidy as a school sports day.
Throw/jump ... then wait for a race to go by ... then wait for an anthem ... then some other delay ... all the time wandering around, resting, looking at the coach, having a ciggie (well, they may as well have). It's the difference between seeing the singer only on stage, and seeing all the backstage activity as well. So yeah, I can see how TV networks see all that as time to be filled with ads or chat, but it's really distorting.
As much as anything, you see how field athletes could get eaten up by nerves. 90 minutes of running around a field is a doddle by comparison.

This is all true, meanwhile – I like your description of the "untidiness" of it, having been there on the first Saturday morning and seen in person things like heptathletes about to take their high jumps being haphazardly shepherded back off the track onto the infield, apparently oblivious there's only seconds before the 400m runners around the other side of the stadium burst from their blocks.

That said, I don't need to see all that live on TV, I'd just like to see the succession of jumps or throws of as many of the competitors as possible. It doesn't matter that they're not going head-to-head in real time (and as intriguing as Janik's idea of mass simultaneous javelin chucking is), the drama is still there in the constant ebb and flow in the standings as the rounds progress.

I have to say, mind, I found that the field events seemed almost as marginalised 'live' as they appear on TV. The fact there are several happening at once at various extremities of the arena made it hard to keep an eye on the triple-jump off in the middle distance to my left, for example, while trying to concentrate on the shotputters and heptathlete highjumpers down in front of me, let alone the hammer throwers flinging things from the far end of the field, whilst the live in-stadium commentary over the PA was – again – forever highlighting what was happening on the track in preference to updating us on what was going on in the field.

Going back to the coverage of field events, this seems to have been acknowledged as a problem by athletics federations and I've read a few articles recently speculating that there are discussions to move all of them to centre field in an attempt to increase the focus on them.

I'd heard mention of that too, and it would be certainly one way to avoid the above, perhaps. That said I can't imagine how moving everything into the centre can possibly work, as surely there can't be time to schedule them all separately? So unless they're deliberately looking to add a frisson of danger where someone might plausibly get speared out of the air in mid pole-vault by a passing javelin, say, I fail to see how this is all meant to work logistically...?

[Ray de Galles]

A bit of an 'After the Lord Mayor's Show' feel to the Birmingham Diamond League meeting on now.

Lots of athletes clearly shot after the Worlds, Gemili out of the 100m after a false start and two more out of the Men's 110m hurdles for the same reason.

Good wins for Elaine Thompson in the Women's 100m and CJ Ujah in the Men's. Hassan won a fantastic Women's 3000m and Dwayne Cowan backed up his brilliant 4x400m leg on London by winning the individual event.

The big finish is the latest stop on Farah's farewell tour with his last UK track race at 3000m. A less heralded retirement appears to be Phil Jones (who has just been surprised on air by Eilidh Child with a bottle in a bag like a proper works leaving do, it was quite sweet) - is he leaving the BBC or stopping broadcasting altogether?

[Ray de Galles]

Barshim just delivered the probable highlight in the High Jump though, a world leading 2.40m. He is a fucking star.

[Various Artist]

A bit of an 'After the Lord Mayor's Show' feel to the Birmingham Diamond League meeting on now.

Gawd, I forgot this was even on. I was thinking a week or two ago, why the hell does the Diamond League season not culminate with the World Championships, instead of leaving a couple of lame-duck events to be held after them. This has done little to change my mind.

[Satchmo Distel]

My understanding is that these events allow medal winners to cash in, and are a victory lap as such. Exhibition events.

[ursus arctos]

Yes, there is an element of the post-Tour criteria to the final meets of the season.

[Ray de Galles]

Also, the two meetings that form the climax of the Diamond League (Zürich and Brussels) predate the World Championships as does their position in the Athletics season.

[Various Artist]

Ahh, now that's fair enough. It still rather ensures that their prestige gets undermined by the WCs' presence just ahead of them in the schedule every other year, mind.

[Ray de Galles]

That problem will be temporarily solved next time out as the Doha Worlds are running in late-September/early-October in an attempt to ameliorate the problems caused by the high temperatures.

It'll cause plenty of other problems, mind. Disrupting the 2019 Athletics season as well as that of the subsequent (Olympic) year being the most obvious.

[Various Artist]

Good point – I keep trying to blank the impending Qatari hosting of the Worlds out of my mind, and very nearly succeeding. Like you say, the effective promotion of the Zurich and Brussels meets within the calendar will be a small silver lining to a pretty obnoxious cloud.

[Satchmo Distel]

Seoul 1988 was also in late-September/early-October but that was obviously a bigger deal and seemed to grab the entire culture's attention.

I would think that the timing will also bring greater conflict with the football season, and also schoolkids will be less likely to be staying up to watch it. The August window has many advantages that only become apparent when they are lost.

[Ray de Galles]

Oh yeah, there have been plenty of Olympics later in the year; Sydney, Mexico City, Tokyo '64 (though 2020 won't be) and Melbourne. However, that is an event which justifies the Athletics season being altered in a way a biennial Worlds in a pre-Olympic year really shouldn't (especially when it's because it's in a place like Doha).

[Kevin S]

Oh, is athletics to suffer from having a Doha world championships too? Road cycling had to endure that last year, and it was also moved back about a month from usual.

Just look at the vast thronging crowds lining the course, dozens deep, as the greatest racers are sent through the desert to battle it out for the gold medal and rainbow jersey.

So, yeah, it's awful bullshit. Hopefully once is enough, for any sport.