Dwain Chambers

craner

Beast of Burden
Forgotten Cardiff 400m metre firebrand Jamie Baulch makes some sobering, but true, comments:

It is hard for him now at the age of 30 as he hasn't got that much time left in athletics," Baulch told BBC Sport.

"I don't know what he is going to do, has he got other skills or is he going to end up working in a coffee shop?"
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Here's the race. Simeon Williamson demolished the lot of them.

I wish MLF would just withdraw quietly, it's too painful to watch.

MLF should be forced to stick around in his new role as a dreadful warning to British sprinters and our absurdly over-optimistic press

Mind you, that Williamson looks good, fastest man in the world by the 2012 Olympics, mark my words ;)
 

craner

Beast of Burden
To be fair, MLF was one of the fastest World Junior Champions in history. In 2000 he was the first teenager to go sub-10 seconds in a competition. He was a very exciting runner, with more potential than Chambers ever had. It's just one went to an American drugs farm and the other stayed at home and got stoned and chunky.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
MLF just ran 10.70 to come 7th in the 1st 100m heat at Crystal Palace. It's like a sore wound that won't heal.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Has anyone posted this before (this is the athletics rolling thread, right?)?


Apparently he's the best high jumper in the world.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Johnson just said that Gay broke the US record, and lost by 2 metres.

fucking hell

There was a story on Popbitch a couple of years back about right-wing Christian websites whose software automatically changed gay to homosexual. So whenever they wrote about the best sprinter in America, it was Tyson Homosexual. he deserves a medal just for that.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Ha ha ha! That was the most amazing 100m I've ever seen.

Anyone else noticed how Bolt has transformed the 100m beyond all recogintion: no longer is it the tense and torpid non-event of 3 years ago, with pumped-up record-toilers like Montgomery and Gatlin shaving milliseconds off PBs while we all waited for them to get busted and fuck off. It's now the heart-stopping and grin-inducing, hysterical and OTT Blue Ribbon event it's supposed to be. How great was the TV line-up? The fact that even Asafa Powell is playing up to the camera like a cocky boxer is quite something.

To be fair, Chambers aquitted himself very well this weekend.

And Jessica was brilliant seven times and lovely about it.

Roll on Men's 200m and Women's Pole Vault!
 

craner

Beast of Burden
9.71 for Gay, and nowhere near! Ah, bless. I like him a lot - he has a very soft, melodic voice matched to mesmerising, intense eyes, and runs like a maniac. But you have to feel sorry for him. What's the motivation now? To run a faster second place?
 

don_quixote

Trent End
i know what you mean about 'like a cocky boxer', but for some reason it seems so less pent-up aggressive than that. i absolutely love it. they're out there enjoying their sport! i think it's really really helped asafa powell actually, he's been taught that to win you've got to enjoy it - and he FINALLY gave a decent performance in a world final.

i think ap kicked it off with his interviews talking about how fast he reckoned he could go, but usain bolt has taken it stratospheric and blown apart ideas about what 100m runners should do, look like, how they should behave after they win.

i don't think they'll need a photo finish in the 100m for a while.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Yes, I agree, and that's what I mean - cocky, as in arrogant, but with levity. I think Bolt has a very well developed sense of self-irony, also, which is part of it. He's saved the 100m from itself. Even if you watch the beginning of the Beijing race, you catch the difference; this is still the race of Ben Jonson's spawn (not even Carl Lewis!) But Bolt relaxed the whole thing, by laughing his way over the finishing line, or pissing around at the starting blocks. This is why, apart from being so fucking fast, he's already so great. It's style. He's changed his sport.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Seriously, that was ridiculous. I was jumping around the TV for 5 minutes!

And then as Phil Jones interviewed Ennis after her epic win, Asafa Powell bounced into the frame ("well done, Asafa!", said Jessica) followed by gobby Louise Hazel to big up Jess, followed by Tyson Gay, then Usaine Bolt, then Tyson Gay again to congratulate Bolt...getting a bit crowded here, Phil!

Ace day of Track & Field.
 
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don_quixote

Trent End
i assume you saw the second round yesterday where he shared a joke before finishing with his training partner?

louise hazel clapping tyson gay was hilarious. they were tiny compared to them!

i honestly can't think of someone who has transformed their sport with such immediacy as usain bolt.
 

jenks

thread death
My boys begged to stay up and watch Bolt - they love the whole showboating thing at the start and even they realise tehy arewatching something phenomenal. Don't suppose they would have been begging to stay up and watch Montgomery et al in the past.

Craner's right, the 100m is back as the event everyone watches.

There is a real sense that he has single handedly made T+F worth watching again.

I think Michael Johnson's face when the BBC played back their reactions in the studio said it all - absolutely shocked that someone could come along and rip it all up and do it all whilst smiling.
 
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