The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

A new thread to discuss sporting matters only. There will be a separate thread to discuss gaffes, traffic jams, opening/closing ceremonies, inept American politicians and Boris.

Current affairs comments in this thread please: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/20...l#post35457042

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

First gold of the games to China in the Women's 10m Air Rifle :clap:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Looking not good for cavendish or bradley in road race.

Half asleep was great britain to allow good number to break with number nations in it.

now gap 4 mins with only great britian chasing looks like even this early stage it wont come back.

Great britain needs help why should those with one in the break help why should those who aint got chance against the manx misile.

Only one team possible might help is germany for griple even he might struggle to take cav on.

Edit just got final info only Great britain, france and germany missed the break of 12 riders.

With this gap little help from peleton great britian will struggle to bridge this one

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Still lots of distance left and the gaps that large have been seen before and have been pulled back

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

It's a flat course, apart from Box Hillock. It'll be a sprint finish. My money's on Cav.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Well done to Yi Siling

was Suryani Mohammed Taibi of malaysia 8 months pregnant competing. Hope she survived:D

---------- Post added at 12:29 ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 ----------

aye but if GB dont get help in big way it will be tough call. saying that germany now started to do bit with one man.

We need 3 to 4 riders to help.

Depends on how strong brakers are but with menchov russia he is definate danger powerful rider and stuart o'Grady too.

They probably out the lot 4 or 5 strong so it is doable but how much has tour de france took out of bradley wiggins, chris froome and david miller. Ian Stannard was in tour poland.

Some like menchov had poor tour de france was likely saving himself.

now michael rodgers australia fired off from peleton.

danielf I agree too flat so its likely why dont see it coming back myself.

Hope it does give us chance but nobody helping.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I agree that it's slightly worrying that there's so many nationalities in the break away group, but there's lots of time left. No need to panic yet.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

nearly 7 mins last time check mins now very panicky now:(

Anoying the commentating keeps dropping out:mad:

commentators say GB being careful on boxhill due to not wanting to lose cav.

Personally not sure why they think this he got up some bigger than this in tour de france this year. If he puts his mind in it he can do it.

edit latest now down 5 mins but its cracked open by nibali Italy gilbert belgium as they go attack in group put more pressure on GB.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Down to 1.5 mins now. Are you still panicking Mertle?

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

lol always panick.

this team like sky team only miller is alien lol.

I noticed bosson hagen just infront cav someone should tell him he not riding for sky being leadout for cav:D

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Its not looking good now dan.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Can't believe how far ahead the first 2 riders have managed to get in the last 10k

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

No. It's not going to happen.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

nope not good at all inquest will be why let dangerious threats that much lead.

I think it was not suprising rival nations would let gb control it not help due to cav.

Feel for cav he sacrificed his green jersey for bradley the team screw up big time for olympic gold.

Cancellara looked in bad way after that horror crash.

nice for Vinokourov. gold

He works hard in tour de france

uran silver

Sadly for team GB one almighty disaster of team tactics. Why oh why did they let this one slip there grip.

Maybe tour de france took more out them but they had the main threats from second group break within 24 secs but that last climb they let it complete go out control.

Seems the damage was when Cancellara attacked they let it go like previous breaks but at that stage was suicide.

Certainly this was mega mega tactical messup.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

.........and a bronze for Norway's Alexander Kristoff.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

thanks there was not sure who got bronze

kazackstan gold

columbia silver

norway bronze

lets hope women tomorrow show men how to control the race;)

Wonder if Cook will repeat bejing.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I'm not sure about that. Things looked good after the last climb, but team GB just didn't have enough left in the tank. Normally you'd expect them to be able to bridge one min. in an hours' racing, but the problem was they didn't receive any help. It is a big ask for one team to control the whole race.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I agree the writing was on the wall when they let Cancellara and whole lot of other riders like Boonan ride of the front at the top Box Hill.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

An amazing finish in the Womens Cycling road race...

Vos (NL) Gold, Armistead (GB) Silver, Zabelinskaya (RUS) Bronze

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Yep..We are finally on the medal board.:)

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Yes absolutely brilliant and hopefully the start of many more to come.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

The 66kg mens judo was exciting, especially Jap V Georgia :)

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

fantastic news

well done lizie Armistead got our first medal a silver behind Vos of dutch.

Just pipped to sprint from the 3 women break.

Foul horrid weather absolute chucked it down.

Think someone up there dont like women road race they had torrential rain in bejing too.

Russian ws third sorry cant prononce her name.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

And a cracking race it was. Well done Marianne Vos for taking the first Gold for The Netherlands and Lizzie Armistead for taking the silver.

Timing info was better than yesterday, but still a bit hit and miss. Luckily, the BBC were prepared and provided their own. :tu:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I've managed to get tickets for the Velodrome next Sunday. My first track cycling event ever.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Cool! We tried to get tickets, but weren't successful. We are going to see the Women's waterpolo final and bronze medal match though.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Keep trying! I only got them last night. I am hoping they keep doing track events at the Velodrome after the Olympics.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Where did you get them?

(Mind you, finding a hotel might turn out to be a bit of a challenge)

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

The official London 2012 Website. If you get them then you collect them prior to the event.

http://www.tickets.london2012.com/br...lable_events=1

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Wow. Tickets still available for the swimming. At £300 a pop and the same for a hotel presumably, we'd be looking at £1000 for an evening out. Just a little steep...

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

You can say that again.:shocked:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Wow. Tickets still available for the swimming. At £300 a pop and the same for a hotel presumably, we'd be looking at £1000 for an evening out. Just a little steep...

:shrug:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

rebecca addlington managed a bronze in the 400mtr freestyle

---------- Post added at 20:40 ---------- Previous post was at 20:37 ----------

liam tancock qualifies for the 100m backstroke final

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Can't believe they allowed British Players into this Welsh side. Giggs and Bellamy tearing it up :D

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

:clap:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Rebecca Addlington done brilliantly well to get a bronze after qualifying in 8th place,she looked as though she put everything into it well done Rebecca.:):clap::clap::clap:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

What is really annoying me about these games is that the BBC has so many channels on this, and yet there MAIN channel has - the games as well, what about the people who don't to watch the games.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Arthur that's for discussion in the other thread. This is for sports results only.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

An excellent Bronze for the mens gymnastics team - GB's first gymnastics team medal since 1912 FGS!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18906623

Men's hockey team currently beating the Argies 2-0 too! :D

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

What are people's thoughts on the Ye Shiwen Gold/World Record?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18910504

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

GB 4 Arg 1

:D

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

People who don't like sport should be imprisoned.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Brilliant result for the Gymnasts, but that Lithuanian girl from Plymouth really stole the day :)

---------- Post added at 23:27 ---------- Previous post was at 23:26 ----------

Dubious, to say the least.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oly...ng-expert.html

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

BBC2, BBC4 or any of the other 100s of channels that the TVL allows you to watch live. Or VM's massive On Demand library.

In fact, overall, there are more channels not showing the Olympics than those that are.

Steady on there! :)

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Exactly, as well... Guardian

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

And we weren't supposed to get a medal in the Mens Artistic Gymnastics (I had to look that up!) but we ended-up with the Bronze! Was that "dubious"too? :confused:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

No. Surprising as that result may be, they didn't have a 16 year old woman whose performance would have been exceptional in the men's event.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

:cleader:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

and given the Chinese reputation for doping their athletes my eyebrows are not only raised they have put a hole in the roof .Taking 5 seconds of your personal best and a whole second of the world record is astounding .She may well be innocent but ,as i said with the chinese record of past doping incidents i would be surprised if she was innocent.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

:rofl:

Once again Arthur won't let facts in the way of one of his puerile rants.

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I dare say that offensive Argie advert was all the pre match team talk they needed.

:)

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I actually stopped up to watch that game. (Usually in bed by Midnight.) I was cheering lilke a mad thing as each point was one :)

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Britain win team silver behind Germany in the Olympics eventing team event.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18901761

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I'm saddened by this story. Yes she smashed the world record but to immediately assume drugs cheat, rather than enjoy the achievement, is a sorry affair. Unfortunately we have the cheaters of the past to blame for this attitude.
So what if she swam a section faster than Ryan Lochte, Rebecca Adlington did the same in one of her races.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Michael Jameson gets a new British record in the 200m breaststroke
:clap::clap::clap:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I think it's also because of the massive upgrade in her own performance.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I think it's more the way she did it winning a race so convincingly and breaking records by so much is bound to raise a few eyebrows especially when she has been no where near before .I do hope that she turns out to be a outstanding swimmer rather than a cheat though

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and now Andrew Willis has just broken that ,2 swimmers in the final tomorrow :D:D

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Brilliant and now lets hold our breath for tomorrow and hopefully our first gold medal shall arrive.:)

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Which was kinda my point. And isn't it always the US looking making these sort of complaints. You know... like anyone that beats them has to be on drugs :rolleyes:

---------- Post added at 21:34 ---------- Previous post was at 21:20 ----------

And we just won the Women's Football preliminary round!

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

No it isn't. Have you followed the case surrounding Lance Armstrong? US officials are still hounding him and are actually putting him on trial, and he's never tested positive. The reality is that the Americans are very serious about catching their own cheats.

About this particular case: yes, we'd all like it if the girl is the real thing, but sadly there will always be cheats, and despite what people are saying, it's not easy to test for doping. People will always be looking for and finding ways to beat the tests. Unfortunately, passing a test does not necessarily mean there was no cheating.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

True, but she did set her PB when she was 14.

Plus in the race where she set her PB, the second placed woman finished 4 seconds behind her, so you could assume she didn't go all out at the end.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Is it not a little surprising then that (for such a young girl) she's not improved her PB over what's likely to be around 1.5 years, and then smashes it with a world record on the biggest stage of all?

Surely, you'd expect her to at least show some gradual improvement?

---------- Post added at 22:01 ---------- Previous post was at 21:53 ----------

Meanwhile, in other news: Bradley Wiggins has his knickers stolen.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

It happens. I'm not a swimming expert by any means but it's not unknown for swimmers to smash their personal bests. Stepanie Rice took something like 5 seconds off her PB in the same event at the last olympics.
Phelps has taken over 7 seconds off the world record in this event over 6 years.

People talk about how she was faster than Lochte, yes but only for one length - he was 20 odd seconds faster overal.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

But those examples are over many years. We're talking about a massive improvement in one race all of a sudden. It's going to raise questions, it would in any sport when an athlete posts such a sudden and unexpected improvement in performance.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

How great was Chad Le Clos. It really was what the olympics is all about. The interview with his Dad was great as well, you could see how very proud he was of his son.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Rice's was in one race. She was labelled a wonderkid rather than a cheat.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Yes, I'm no swimming expert either. I've also just seen Ian Thorpe saying it is possible at that young an age. Sadly, following the cycling a bit has made me into a cynic. They will try all sorts to mask doping. Riders are taken out of competition not because of traces of banned substances, but because of deviations around values in their biological passport. Presumably, that's because the masking of banned substances is so successful. Then there's the can of worms of blood doping. It all becomes a matter of probabilities, which makes you wonder if a passed test means a clean athlete.

As you say, it's a sad state of affairs, but I'm afraid it's reality.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Yep i saw that ,a wonderful Olympic moment .Couldn't have been closer though 0.05 secs faster than phelps

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Le Clos senior was great (as was junior) :D

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Hats off to John McEnroe for mentioning the best Olympian ever...

Eric Heiden

Heiden took 5 individual Golds in the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, winning all distances in the Speed Skating: 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 5000m and 10000m. A bit like winning all running events in track athletics.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I know. I forgot the "only kidding" smiley :blush:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Yeah, and yesterday you got your figures wrong claiming that CDs have an effective bitrate of 110Kbps. A word of advice: Engage brain before posting :p: :angel: ;)

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Olympics badminton: Four pairs charged with not trying.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19072677

Lets hope they all get thrown out.:td::(

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Is Phelps the greatest ever? I dislike measuring it in terms of medals since swimming has a absurd amount of different events which differ from each other only slightly (in comparison in Athletics where people have sprinting, hurdles, high jump and so on). Even having the chance to win 8 gold medal during a single Olympics is crazy.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I was not entirely wrong; though :p: I knew that :) Like I said. Not sure how the 128k fitted in though.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Despite what I said earlier about Eric Heiden, I think Phelps probably is the greatest ever. Just look at Bejing. Even disregarding the relays, Phelps took Gold in 100 and 200 m Butterfly, 200m Freestyle, and the 200 and 400 m Individual medley. That's 3 distances, two strokes plus the medleys. You'd be hard pressed to find a track athlete that excels in the 100-400m range, and it's not that common for swimmers to compete over that range either. It's still tough to compare him to Heiden who won everything from 500m to 10,000m, but Heiden did that 30 years ago when people didn't specialise as much as they do these days. Then consider Phelps's haul in Athens, as well as London. So yes, I do think he is the greatest ever.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Rule saying you have too? that`s a question there may well be one :erm:

Did not the same thing happen in that rowing "show" Bert and someone on The BBC the other night. Nothing is new. :dozey:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Personally, I blame the format. What do you expect if teams can get an easier draw if they lose a match? It's not that different to a football team resting players for a game when they've already qualified. Or a relay team that fields lesser athletes for the heats. I think the organisers should come up with a format that doesn't incentivise a loss. This is four pairs out of the last eight, i.e. half the qualifying pairs. That should tell you something's wrong with the format.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

first to congrats amy oliver archery she ranked 37 just beat this morning world number 1 indian Deepika Kumari 6-2.

great result for GB. In the last 32

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

And we just got our first GOLD for Women's Pair in Rowing :D

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

apparently this is the first year that we have had group stage format for badminton......... and i suspect the last

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Terrific effort!:clap:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Wonderful news.:clap:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I'm not so sure now: All eight have been disqualified:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012...ified-olympics

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

The right decision.:clap:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I'm not so sure. We've lost 4 of the 8 quarter finalists, due to a format that incentivises losing. I think they need to look at the format, not the players.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Perhaps we do need to change the format dan but at the end of the day cheating is cheating and in a lot of peoples mind that what they did.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I don't consider it cheating, although what they did was rather blatant. There's plenty examples of athletes who don't perform at their best in races that don't matter too much in order to avoid showing the opposition how strong they really are. Are they cheats as well?

Is a football team that rests players for less important matches cheating?

I think you're better off thinking of a format where losing doesn't help.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

It hardly epitomises the Olympic ideal though does it? So I think it's the right result..Format or not they had a duty to do their best and they patently didn't.

After all the Athletes oath is

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

True, but the question also is if we're now seeing the best Athletes competing for the medals. Not having the best Athletes isn't exactly in the Olympic spirit either is it?

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

But dan they cheated themselves and they cheated the crowd who paid all that money only for them to do that and perhaps cheating is a strong word but l can't think of any other word to describe it.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I agree that it must have been a shambles for the crowd that paid good money to watch some quality sports, but I don't think the outcome makes for the best spectacle either. Presumably, 4 other couples that were beaten will now be reinstated. So the crowds will be looking at poorer couples in the quarters now.The alternative is to scrap two quarter finals. Hardly a crowd pleaser either.

I do think it was a blatant attempt to affect the results, but I don't think it's that different from a football team that rests key players, or decides that coming second in the group gives you a more favourable opponent, so they don't give it their all. It's not pretty, but it does happen. Perhaps not as blatantly as in this case, but it does happen. Personaly, I think a stern warning would have been the better option here.

---------- Post added at 15:15 ---------- Previous post was at 15:07 ----------

Amazing to see these crowds on a British road for the time trial :)

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

There is a difference between resting or taking your foot off the gas to absolutely blatant attempts to lose.

I’d would say it was more like a football team deliberately and repeatedly scoring own goals.

Yes it was an error to have the format of the competition to put players in a position where losing was beneficial for them but I do think they deserved to be disqualified.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Nice analogy :)

I can see your side of the argument, but I don't think that taking potential champions out is the right solution either. I'd be looking at a different format for the tournament.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Ge...A_World_Cup%29

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Come on Wiggins!

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Well sorry that's not the point..It's about competing and if the result is that the best are disqualified for cheating too damned bad..they have broken the oath.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Look, they didn't cheat. They'd already qualified. No-one (except the crowd) lost out because of what they did. And don't give me that rubbish about the oath. Nobody cares about that. They tried to get the best result they could, and the format encouraged them to lose.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I think you will find that they do.Which is why the disqualification.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

GOLD!!!!

Arise Sir Bradley Wiggins!

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Brilliant.:clap::clap: