European Athletics Championships

Jo Pavey - great stuff

Brilliant - Surely got to be SPorts personality of the year - although Rory Mcilroy will probabyl win it.

What an absolute star , ran herself into the ground once again . What an antidote to the pathetic efforts of our footballers in Brazil.

Brilliant. Got me quite emotional.
And even more amazing that its only a week or so after taking on the Kenyans at the Commonwealths.
Even if Mo does the 5k/10k double, it wont compare to what shes achieved.

MARVELLOUS STUFF PAVEY!

What channel is this on?

Well done Jo

Record breaking Jo

.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/28766153

Yes, it was brilliant to see Jo finally win a gold medal at 40 years of age last night!

It was also great to see Andy Vernon take silver behind Mo in the 10,000m just then.

Well done Andy Vernon. Brilliant run and glad he beat the 2 Kenyans... sorry Turks

BBC2, by the way.

How well deserved is this medal ceremony for Jo now.
Really pleased for her.

- and that will probably mean more to her than any other gold medalist this year.

Yes, Andy Vernon beat the two Kenyans for silver but could not quite catch the Somalian!

Great stuff on getting the bronze in the 100m for this girl too. Astounding that it's 40 years since GB women have gained a medal in the 100m.

True, Roy.

Nasty Germans they were Tommy

Hehehehe! They were indeed, Roy!

Oh very good Tiffany Porter!

Think she's American judging by her accent.

She has a British mother though, and dual nationality, so not as bad as some.

Excellent Dasaolu!

- and a bronze for the 'twitcher'!

Relay Gold in the bag ,assuming they don't drop it .

Aye, Sixtwosix - but it's always a big assumption!

Great night for GB athletics tonight.

Good to see Paula Radcliffe commentating. In a sport riddled with steroid,drug and blood transfusion cheats she shines brightly as one of the very few who was successful and Drug free.

Whats story with Mo, he was apparently air lifted to hospital and in hospital for 4 days, now gold medalist. Shirley something fishy going on there

Your default position on, well everything, is "there is something fishy going on"

Don't forget Paula made a stand against the cheats as well with her 'EPO Cheats Out' banner.

Sadly, for one reason or another, she wasn't as successful as she should have been.

Great run by Gemili.  19.98 into a headwind.  GOLD

well deserved for Gemili

A great run, and a great night for the Brits.
Gold for Gemili and Rooney, and a moral Gold for Weightman in the womens 1500 who was only beaten by
a couple of Ethioipians.

Just looked and GB has never hosted the european championships.  Wonder why that is.

Was reading about the 17yo morgan lake this morning, Heptathlete.  She defo seems like one for the future.  Along with Gemili, johnson-thompson and Jodie Williams(hasnt pushed on like I had hoped so far) enlish athletics has a bright future hopefully.

Super Jo Pavey running again

Come on Jo !

Eilidh Child

Can't believe that no one has addressed the most important question of these games......why would a good looking girl like Denise Lewis go out of her way to look so ridiculous by having her hair like that

Could be 5 brit Golds tomorrow ,batons allowing

Lucky enough to spend two days in Zurich this week watching this and even more fortunate to bump into Mo Farah in the lobby of my hotel on Wed night and congratulate him on his 10k win.

Aside from the name dropping and bragging though, really popped onto the thread to highlight the efforts of Eilidh Child's coach Malcolm Arnold who is now 74 years old.

Did n't see the BBC coverage today so not sure whether they covered his contribution - he coached John Akii-Bua to an Olympic Gold Medal way back in 1992 and of course the likes of Colin Jackson and Jason Gardener more recently.

He has an OBE but surely some SPOTY recognition would n't go amiss at the nd of this year.

Akii-Bua in 1972 not 1992.

he coached John Akii-Bua to an Olympic Gold Medal way back in 1992

1972

Superb RH, a memory forever. 

who did you see running ?

Tues and Wed IS - so saw Pavey, Dasaoulu, Farah (and Vernon) plus Tiffany Porter for the Brits...

plus the likes of Harting in the Discus, Schippers, Ukhov and Bondarenko in the High Jump qualifying

....and Kooli break the  mascot pole vault world record with a clearance of 3 metres!

so you saw pavey, epic.

priceless etc.

Superb. what made you go?

because no woman on this planet would make you lean (polite)

really just because I love watching live sport.

went on my tod, not had a proper holiday this year and would rather do something like that than go and lie on a beach or walk around museum and art galleries.

The only thing I perhaps got wrong was going on the first day because you only get two finals - if I do it again will probably go for the middle days.

Thought I had to be back today for the Crewe game, waste of time that was

have you ever seen a finish like the womens 4x400m today

that was unreal

What a team performance The female sprinters are all kids, unbelievable, 30 yo british record gone ,the Sky is the limit for them

Superb team GB


trap 8 in the womens 100m relay

marvellous stuff in the long jump imo

http://bit.ly/1p3eXzc

Not really a british victory though is it, the whole comp is a nonsense, if you are black than you are not really European, because black people are superior when it comes to running both long and short distances to white people, it's got absolutely nothing to do with being from the UK, it's not a british success at all, they are successful because of their genes, I think there were 21 individuals from britain that won gold including the team relay's and 17 of them were black, and 2 of those black atheletes were yanks! not good enough for america but good enough for our level so the british authorities use them to make themselves look better at the expense of true brits, one of them never even stepped foot in the country till her 20's, there were even ethiopians running for turkey ffs! no not the food

Lemaitre was the true european winner of the 100m after finishing second, white athletes are clearly at a natural disadvantage, in the history of the 100m sprint I think 85 have run sub 10 seconds, 84 black atheletes and one white, lemaitre.

For the unintelligent on here who will whip out the racism card after they've finished the climb to the top of the moral highground, just for clarity purposes, if you are black and born and raised in this country of course you are British, but calling black athletes in power / speed / endurance events a British success is ridiculous, the country have next to nothing to do with it. They owe their success to their heritage.

A pretty fair assesment, and France, the 2nd best country in the medal table also relied heavily on their  colonial background. Even Switzerlands 1 gold medal was won by a North African.
Its time the Euro qualification was changed to either you, or one of your parents must have been born in the country you represent, or you must have lived there for a minimum of 10 years. Otherwise countries are just going to "buy up" the 5th or 6th rated Kenyan/Ethiopian/American etc who cant get in their own team but know they can win medals in the Euros.

One gratifying point to make is that it would appear that the authorities' efforts to clamp down on doping have had some success. The brief Spanish flourish - long suspected to have been influenced by illicit pharmacology, along with some of their other recent sporting gains - has abated, and the relatively moderate success enjoyed by the Eastern European countries appears also to bear this out.

It's all very well harping on about the influx of disgruntled Ethiopians and migrant Kenyans, but that ship has long since sailed. We must, I'm afraid, accept that people of non-Aryan backgrounds will represent GB and other nations, but we should at least delight in the fact that clean athletes can once again enjoy the fruits of their labours - I think the times, as well as being a testament to a foul week weather-wise, are also a vindication of the current drug-testing procedures.

if you are black and born and raised in this country of course you are British, but calling black athletes in power / speed / endurance events a British success is ridiculous.

Who should they compete for then?

Or maybe they should compete for Britain, be applauded as Britains actually receive medals as Britains - but then when we come to records and medal tables, we should set up (and remind viewers they are watching) the Anthropological Medals table, where the former Eastern Block and Scandinavia dominate and plucky old Greg Rutherford and Elidh Child are our only representatives.

In other words - a load of old impractical codswollop to achieve precisely what ends?

...and I would suggest the talent recognition, coaching and athlete funding programme of a nation has a hell of a lot to do with an athletes success, in addition to any genetic advantage they may have.

That may be so rtb, but one has to laugh when commentators suggest that Mohamed Farah has broken the African domination of distance events.

some people having trouble distinguishing between colour of vest and colour of skin

There has always been Black Athletes competing for Britain ,I suggest the current young team will prove to better than the previous athletes..,most of them were born and bread in the UK ,regardless
of Colour they are British ...

...and I would suggest the talent recognition, coaching and athlete funding programme of a nation has a hell of a lot to do with an athletes success, in addition to any genetic advantage they may have.

Spot on Roger

I also suggest some of the fkin idiots on here get a fkin life

They're British.end of. What's the colour of their skin got to do with anything ?

oh here we go, the thick idiots do not know how to read properly and also have severe comprehension problems, where did anyone on this thread in any given post say that they were not British people?

You're just trying to make yourself look good by going all PC on us FFS, grow a brain cell, I said their success was down to their genetic make up, the lottery funding has sod all to do with it, how much money do these poor Kenyans and Ethiopians have? they get where they are through hard work and good genes for the events in which they compete in. Please spare me your pc bollox.

acquiesce12    18 Aug 14 12:51
if you are black than you are not really European

oh dear

The sentence in full.

Not really a british victory though is it, the whole comp is a nonsense, if you are black than you are not really European

So acquiesce. what was that about brain cells ?

I don't think you can be Chinese and white.

No that was a mistake because Chinese people are white.I will give it some more thought..ignore
previous post.

Adam is not black IMVHO ,he is now sub 20.00 how has he managed to this please ?

the lottery funding has sod all to do with it..

So someone would have to work and then fit training in ,and that makes no difference

ur avin a foookin larf guvnor

Black sprinters representing Britain are British citizens, they are European citizens so they can and do represent Britain and call themselves British athletes in European Championships, they are British people because they were born and raised in the country (excluding the yanks) but you cannot call them British athletes or European athletes when their success has little do with being  British or European, they have a genetic make up that is different to white athletes, the indigenous population of the continent, black people are designed to more powerful, have more stamina and generate more speed, perfect for long and short distance running, I honestly cannot explain this clearer. If you are so desperate to make a race issue out of nothing to suit your agenda that is up to you, they are British people but I do not consider them British athletes. And I can't be prejudice in any way, my keyboard is black and I touch it every day.

OK, I think its pretty well established that being of African/Carribean heritage gives you an advantage
in track athletics, and although its only a small percentage can still make a big difference. However, it still requires a
huge amount of hard work, good coaching, talent, and adequate funding to produce a succesful athlete.
Our women sprinters are a prime example, as they have been pretty mediocre over the past 30 years, but we now seem to have a lot of very promising youngsters.