Day Twelve: Or, Oh my God You've Got to be Kidding Me

Well last night at 12:30am we saw why I love athletics.

Two nights ago I thought "bronze was not an impossibility"; last night I predicted McLellan would do "no worse than 4th" (I wanted to say a medal, but the way I've been tipping I didn't want to jinx her!).

But what a run! At only 21, she had the best start, and kept her head while all around were losing there's, and grabbed the silver (kudos to Bruce for calling her as coming second across the line).

But the best aspect was her reaction. She and the bronze medallist, Canadian Priscilla Lopes-Schliep both celebrated together in a moment of pure exaltation and joy. It is a defining moment of the Games.

The great thing about athletics (and sport in general) is that nothing is written in stone. The winner, Dawn Harper, had the 3rd slowest PB of the field, and the Lopes-Schliep had the 2nd slowest, and McLellan the 4th slowest. Form, history, experience all mean bugger all when you need to lay it down over 100m in an Olympic final.

To do what McLellan did you need to have ice in your veins. In her interview afterwards she was in shock, but displayed the reasons for her run - total commitment of mind and body:

"I walked out into that stadium and I've never, ever been so pumped in my life," she said.
"I was acting really strangely for myself.
"I was yelling out, I was saying `come on' really loud and I was just talking to myself out loud in front of everyone sand I never do that.
"I was really ready to go ... I just said 'no guts, no glory', and I got it."

London is long way away, and a lot can go wrong between now and then (just ask Liu Xang); but from the way she spoke last night, you know she's already focusing on it - and then silver won't be enough.
***
Apart from my call on Sally, my tips last night were pretty bad. Sanya Richards ran a terrible race and blew up in the straight to finish 2nd. Kiprop ran a very good race, but couldn't catch the best man in the field, and deserved winner, Ramzi (my prediction was rather too subjective). Piotr and Elkna came 2nd and 3rd in the Discus, with the victory going to current world champion, Gerd Kantor (why do I think Gerd, is not a name that is going to catch on in Australia). And Lolo Jones fell at the second last hurdle (not too cut up about getting that one wrong!). But I did pick the High Jump.

So apart from the fact I bet my superannuation on Richards, I did ok.
***
The Olympics are starting to wind down a bit now. There's not much on during the day - no swimming, rowing, cycling or gymnastics. There's some things on, but there's no real sense at work that you might be missing out on something good. Part of me is glad - I really should have re-thought the whole "let's do a running diary of each day" plan; but the other part of me is rather down - like you feel at the end of a big night out; it's late, you know the alcohol has reached the point where you know any more will only make the world start to spin; you should go home, but you decide, what the hell, let's have another round.
***
Which brings us to tonight's events.

It's not a big night of athletics (at least compared to last night).

The men's 200m - apparently some bloke called Usain Bolt is running, wonder if he is any good? Here's my tip; he'll break the WR - 19.27secs.

The women's hammer throw. Now you might not believe it, but I do actually have a favourite female hammer thrower (doesn't everyone?), but reigning Olympic champion, Olga Kuzenkova isn't competing here, so I'll go with the current world leader, Polish thrower, Kamila Skolimowska.

The women's 400m Hurdles. Who cares. It should've, could've, would've been Jana Rawlison's but oh well, I'll tip Jamaican Melanie Walker.
***
Te big track event for me tonight is Craig Mottram going round in the 500m heats. He needs to finish in the first 4 (or next 3 fastest losers). He is in a hot heat - Kenenisa Bekele going for the 5k, 10k double; and Bernard Lagat, the reigning 5k world champion. But Buster fancies his chances at getting a medal, so if he's good enough, he'll get through. Also he is in the last heat, so he'll know what time he needs to run to get through as one of the 3 fastest losers.
***
The Boomers take on the USA in the basketball apparently. It's amazing, the sport is dying in Australia, no one can be bothered going to watch a game, and no TV channel would go near telecasting it; and yet there has been more news about the game tonight than any other.

Would love to predict an upset, but if we are within 30 points by the end, we can declare victory.
***
Steve Hooker and Paul Purgess are also up in the pole vault qualifying. Hooker is on fire this year, and should cruise through. Burgess has been struggling, but hopefully can find something and make the final.
***
Big softball game on at the moment... Aussie's down 2-1 against the Japanese with an inning to go... wait a minute! 2-2.

Great throw by the Aussies to get the Japanese runner out at home. They're into overtime. Would be great for the Aussies to get through to the final against America; especially as this is the last time softball will be at the games. In a dumb decision the IOC dumped baseball and softball from the games. I have no problem with getting rid of baseball, but they only dumped softball because the IOC believes there shouldn't be any sports that are for one sex only, and softball was considered the female equivalent of baseball. So why is synchronised swimming still in the games??

Speaking of which, apparently it was on last night on SBS. I missed it. Am not sure if I will ever be able to get over the disappointment. Oh wait, I just have.

Aussies failed to score in the first extra innings... makes it hard.

Double play! Great work by the Aussies.

Rather bizarrely, it isn't being shown live - over on the news.com.au website a running blog on the game is about 5 minutes ahead of the telecast I am watching... (so I know the Japanese batter will fly out)...
***
In a free ad for McDs, the McAustralia burger they've got going for the Olympics is good eating. My Dad thinks it needs a fried egg, but it's the best McDonald's burger I've eaten since about 10 years ago when one summer they had a McKahuna burger (blatant rip-off from Pulp Fiction, but still tasted great).

On the other hand I'm not so sure about the Whopper "inspired by The Dark Knight". I don't how a burger can be inspired by a movie - does it have plot? Are there special effects? Does the lettuce have character development?
***
Aussies get our runner to third. C'mon, need a run here.
Having spent some time in Japan, I can tell you they are mad about softball there.
Bugger side out.
Japan, 1 out with runners on 2nd and 3rd, not looking good.

Also I forgot that on ABC2 tonight they were showing Keating! Bugger, I meant to tape it (damn you Olympics, you've taken over my life!!!)

2 outs... side out! Whew...

Just noticed Lachlan Renshaw got run out in the heats of the 800m. He was in the heat with reigning Olympics Champion, Yuri Borzakovsky and world leading Kenyan Wilfred Bungei. Now that is a hot heat.
***
Oh for crying out loud, can someone just score a bloody run????!!!!
***
I see the silver medallist in the Heptathlon has been done for drugs. Here's the real dumb thing -she had previously been banned in 2003 for steroid use. Why on earth would someone get caught and yet try again?? Surely you would think, well I've learned my lesson etc. But nope.
***
The Boomers-USA game is due to start in 2 minutes, it will be interesting to see what Channel 7 will do if this softball game is still going.
***
10:02pm: Australia score!!! 3-2.

10:07pm: The Basketball has started - USA 14 AUS 6...

oh bugger Japan just equalized... (into the 12th... bugger, this I'm going to check out the score on news.com... damn it's still going, and the Basketball is on fire - USA 21 AUS 19!!!!) We need more than one bloody channel doing the Olympics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and no, SBS doing the China-Brazil volleyball match doesn't count)

In the basketball it's now 21-21!!!! For the love of God someone score in this bloody softball game!!

At the end of the first quarter, USA 25-AUS 24. Amazing. One of the great quarters in the history of Austrlian basketball, and we're stuck watching an excruciating softball game that is going on and on and on...

Just see on the website that Japan win. Now we just have to wait for the telecast of that to happen so we can go to the basketball (which I suspect will be delayed).
***
Oh well that about sums it up for me. Channel 7 in trying to please everyone, please no one they have a softball game delayed, that runs over so they can't show a basketball game live, which means also they won't show the athletics live... time to hit the record button.

Day Eleven: Or, I think I may have torn a hamstring, or maybe it's just a bad case of tinea.

The big news in China is all about reigning 110m Hurdles Champion Liu Xiang, who pulled out of the hurdles here due to a foot injury. Apparently half of China is sad for him; half thinks he is a choker. What a disgrace. Thank God we live in a nation that never puts the boots into a star going through a rough time...

On an unrelated matter, I saw Jana Pittman on Sunrise this morning. She thinks Sally McLellan can win a medal tonight. Here's hoping so. I would stay up to watch it, but I think I will be better off waiting for Channel 7 to show me the event in slo-motion with some pre-Bobby Brown Whitney Houston playing in the background.
***
This is how bad Channel 7 has made the Olympics - Today Tonight just did a segment on great Olympic moments. They showed Derek Redmond and I switched channels. Maybe it had something to do with having Peter Gabriel singing Don't Give Up in the background, or just the fact the fact the journo referred to Redmond as "the favourite for the 400m"; instead of "outside chance for a medal", still you can always trust Channel 7 to not think reality is good enough).
***
Big night of sport coming up. But I am greatly peeved to discover Australia doesn't have a team in the Madison cycling event. In Athens, Stuart O'Grady and Graeme Brown won Gold, and yet 4 years later we can't even muster up 2 kids on Malvern Stars to go round and defend the title? Damn it, if they had let me know I would've got my old 1977 Dragster out of my parent's shed and hooked a plane over to China. Just what the hell are you doing Cycling Australia???! It's all very well to throw up your arms and say "oh those damn British, how did they get so good?" But of you're not even going to bother entering anyone in the race, why the hell should we bother???!!!!

I am thisclose from using the words "my" "tax" and "dollars" in a sentence...

Mostly I'm upset because the Madison is such a bizarre fun event to watch, and now nothing will be able to stop Channel 7 from showing gymnastics ad infinitum.
***
Over at the Bird's Nest, I'm ready to settle in for a big night of montages. First up for Gold is the Men's High Jump. Now this is a field event, so vision of me in the shower belting out Nessun Dorma has got more hope of getting a viewing on Channel 7.

The High Jump is one of those events that seems to have reached a peak WR-wise. What would win Gold 20 years ago, would still be good now. In 1996, Charles Austin won with a jump of 2.39m, and that would be best in the world this year. My pick for Gold? Andrev Sinov over defending champion Stefan Holm.

The men's Discus Final is also on. I haven't been really into the Discus since man mountain Lars Riedel called it quits, and the big upset was world leading Iranian Ehsan Hadidi not making it through to the final, I would go with the Pole, Piotr Malachowski, mostly because I once knew a guy called Piotr, and he could have snapped my leg off and used it as a tooth pick, and I figure the name has something to do with it, but I must go with Virgilius Alekna to make it three Olympic title in a row (and that would be a moment).

The women's 400m will be won by Sanya Richards (put your superannuation on it - have I ever led you wrong? ahem).

The women's 100m Hurdles - Lolo Jones looks set to become the Gold medallist (expect a plethora of girls named Lolo to be born soon... or maybe not). I'm going to go out on a long limb and say Sally McLellan will do no worse than 4th.

The men's 1,500m is the last event of the night, and is severely lacking in big names. The best in the world this year, Kenyan Shedrack and Komen aren't even in the field (flubbed it at the Kenyan trials); but my tip is another Kenya - Kipruto Kiprop. He looked great in the heats and semi; and I just don't like Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain or Mehdi Baala of France (yes I have 1500m runners I like and dislike!).
***
7:54pm: The Opals are slaughtering the Czech Republic at the moment. Here's why I love the internet: you can find out how the Opals put on their uniforms. The answer? Apparently there are studs on the shoulders. The uniform was also in espn's competition to be the worst uniform in sport. It lost in the quarter finals.
***
Men's 3m springboard diving finals are up tonight, with perennial medal chance Robert Newbery doing the piking and twisting. His wife, Chantelle (gold medallist from Athens), only came 14th in the women's 3m springboard on Saturday. I completely missed it. Oh well, I'll get over it.
***
Here's a newsflash - about an hour ago Anna Meares, who earlier this year broke her neck in an crash in a race, qualified for the final of the women's sprint. If she wins, its going straight to the top of the list of story's of the games. I mean she broke her neck and comes back to win!!! All she has to do is beat the British Victoria Pendleton.

The final is on in 1 minute; but don't worry Channel 7 will cross over to it just as soon as they have finished editing the montage. (I'm thinking Mariah Carey singing Hero).
***
8:30pm:Yes!!!!!!!!! Channel 7 have gone from the gymnastics to the cycling.
***
8:38pm: Meares gave the English woman too big a head start in the first heat. Pendleton is the world champion, so it's a tough ask.
***
Whenever I watch men's gymnastics, my shoulders start to ache. Incredibly a 16yo German in in the lead in the men's parallel bars. He is single-handedly trying to bring down my argument on the merits of men's gymnastics over women's.
***
Some celebrity agent this morning predicted Michael Phelps will be a billionaire. Here's my prediction: in two months during the baseball world series and as the college football season starts and while everyone is gearing up for the next NBA season you could go to America and ask 10 random people in the street and maybe 1 of them will say, "oh yeah, he's that guy who won all those medals in the watchyacallthem Lympics".

In a year's time, more Australians will know his name than Americans. He could win every gold in the pool, but it isn't going to change the fact that he doesn't play basketball, NFL or baseball (and this just in, he ain't an oil painting).

Basketballer Lebron James, who made $40.5 million in the last year will earn more in a month than Phelps will in a year. (Unless you think millions of American kids are going to ditch their sneakers for speedos)
***
9:02pm:Anna Meares up for the second heat. Go you good thing!

Nope - Pendleton too good. But what an effort by Meares. Geez, it'd be hard for anyone in the team to complain about an interrupted preparation and look her in the eye...
***
I'm saying it right here; right now - gymnastics is rigged in favour of the home nation. (yep I really blew the lid off that scandal didn't I?)
***
Well that's it for me tonight. I feel like I've been up late watching sport since Wimbledon. Time to watch some of it from the couch instead in front of a computer! (Just did a time comparison - it's 10:30pm EST, in London at the moment it's 1:30pm; so this time in 4 year's time we'll be watching afternoon events. To watch the track finals at say 10pm it'll be 7am in eastern Australia... not too bad really; so in 4 year's time it'll be lots of early to bed, early to rise).

Go Sally!

Day Ten: Or, what this blog needs is a montage

Well I got the order of the 100m women wrong, but I was on the money with the 10,000m (which is a bit like bragging I tipped the Melbourne Cup would be won by a horse). Bekele's win was amazing - he runs 10,000m like no one else ever has - he ran the last lap in 53.42sec, which is 3 seconds faster than Gebrselassie could do at his peak. He joins Nurmi, Zatopek, Lasse Virren and Gebrselassie as dual winners of the 10,000m.

He is now 11 from 11 over 10,000m, which is Herb Elliott like. Stunning running. His last lap was as awesome and unreal as Bolt's 100m.

The women's 3k steeple was also a great race - the winner, Galvina-Samitova became the first woman to break 9 minutes - it was brave front running; it's one thing to sit and kick, it's another thing entirely to just run away from the field with a kilometre to go and not get caught.
***
Great to see Emma Snowsill win the triathlon - finally Australia gets a gold in the event we have basically owned for the last decade.
***
A big night of athletics tonight, the men's 3,000m steeple is always fun to watch, but it hasn't been a great year for steeplers, and the field is not up to the standard of previous Games - no one has run under 8 minutes. Kenya should still get at least 2 of the 3 medals Richard Kipkemboi is my tip for Gold. Would love to see Youcef Abdi run a PB.
***
The women's 800m will be won by another Kenyan - Pamela Jelimo is a class above the rest - if she is pushed she could get closer to the tainted 25 year old WR, but I doubt she'll break it (that would be too much to hope for).
***
Must admit I don't know much about the field of the men's long jump or 400m Hurdles; but Angelo Taylor looked the best in the Hurdles semis, so I'll tip him to win his second Gold (he won the event in Sydney).
***
The women's pole vault will be won by Elena Isinbaeva. In other huge tips, I'm picking Michael Phelps to win 8 Gold, the USA to get to the moon first, and the Allies to win WWII.
***
Here's a trivia question: who eats this each day?
Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelette. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.
Lunch: One pound of pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayonnaise on white bread, plus 1,000 calories of energy drinks.
Dinner: One pound of pasta, an entire pizza and even more energy drinks.

Yep, Michael Phelps. A bowl of grits??? And they were getting stuck into Ian Thorpe for eating an in-n-out burger.
***
Foxsports, thinks life is pretty cut and dried. Check out the poll on its website today:
How do you rate the Australian swim team's performance at the Olympics?
Great OR Disappointing.

Guess it can only be one or the other. "Good", "About right", or "What we hoped for" are obviously too controversial.
***
For a good laugh, enjoy Jon Stewart's commentary on the Olympic scandals of the first week.
***
A good story on the TV coverage, comparing it with that of NBC. NBC has a live streaming on it's website. Pity we don't have that here (and unfortunately you can't use the NBC stream unless you live in America).
***
10:26pm: What a great run by Sally McLellan to get into the final of the 100m Hurdles. Such an amazing achievement, and to be honest I think she can run a lot better than she did. She came 4th but in reality 2nd, 3rd and 4th were all together. She won't catch Lolo Jones, but you never know... a bronze is not an impossibility.

The Swedish runner in the second semi hit the first hurdle and went down - which just shows anything can happen in the hurdles, and why Sally McLellan is in with a big chance tomorrow night. The greatest female hurdler of the last 20 years was Gail Devers and she never won the Olympic title due to falls.

But even without any falls, aside from Lolo Jones, the minor medals are up for grabs. Let's hope Channel 7 shows it live (though since it'll be on at 12:30am I'll be lucky to make it - but I will though!).
***
11:08pm: Props to Channel 7 for showing the men's 3,000m steeplechase live.... and then they blow it all by showing a minute of ads in the middle of the race... geez you losers, it only goes for 8 minutes, why not wait?

Great run by Youcef Abdi! Another PB and he comes 6th!... 6th!!! An absolutely fantastic effort for a guy who has just kept at it over the years. Two runs in the Olympics, and two PBs - that's how you do it. To put it in context, the guy who came 7th - Ezekei Kemboi - was the Olympic Champion in Athens. The race not only showed that he knows how to peak at the right time, but would have also guaranteed Youcef some invites to major meets in Europe that will help pay the bills for a while. Just fantastic.

My tip of Kipkemboi faltered in the straight and came third.
***
Also well done to Dani Samuels - 9th in the women's discus. Have we seen any of the competition? Of course not.
***
11:33pm: At the moment in the women's pole vault it is down to 2 vaulter - Stuczynski of the USA, who has vaulted 4.80m and Isinbaeva who has done only one vault - 4.7m and has passed every other height. If she doesn't make any other height she will finish 4th, if she makes another height she will win. It's edge of the seat time (of course I'm only guessing it is, because I only know about it by hitting refresh on the web page - Channel 7 wouldn't know it's even on - guess now that Tatiana Grigorieva is doing good work on Gladiators, the pole vault no longer rates...)
***
11:41pm: Jelimo wins the 800m in a cakewalk. She went out hard, and kicked hard with a lap to go. It wasn't even a race. The 800m are usually hustle and bustle affairs, but Jelimo doesn't bother with all of that, she ran tonight like Jepkosgei (who came second tonight) did last year in the world championships - she takes the lead and sees if anyone can keep up - they can't.

Oh and by the way, Isinbaeva cleared 4.85m; Stuczynski passed at that height, and then missed at 4.90m so Isinbaeva wins. What drama, what excitement... refreshing that page just felt like I was at the stadium. Oh well. you can't have everything, and at least they showed the 2 track finals live.

Day Nine: Or How Can We Top That?

I think we can say without too much dispute that yesterday was one of the greatest days in Olympic history - Phelps wins his seventh Gold, and Usain Bolt wins in 9.69secs (the unofficial time was 9.68). Both events will be remembered forever.

Bolt's run was scary. I can only think of two sprinters who have celebrated so early in a race and still broken the world record - Tommie Smith in the 200m at Mexico City and Ben Johnson in Seoul.


Smith was able to break the world record because Mexico City is a high altitude and thus makes it easier for the explosive athletes (which is why at those Games, new world records were set in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 110m Hurdles, 400m Hurdles, 4x100m, 4x400m, and long jump).

And Johnson was juiced to the eyeballs.

So what to think of Bolt? I have to admit when I use my eyes and common sense his run seems suspicious. But dropping the WR from 9.72 to 9.69 is only a drop of 0.3% - which is pretty much a normal drop. Even if we take the drop from Asafa Powell's previous record of 9.74 it is only 0.5%.

Now Ben Johnson took the WR from Carl Lewis' and Calvin Smith's time of 9.93 to 9.83 and then 9.79 - ie drops of 1% and then 0.4% (or all up a reduction of 1.4%).

Now let us look at Florence Griffith Joyner, who while never having tested positive for steroids certainly has had suspicions raised about her performances. She took the 100m WR from 10.76 to 10.49 - ie a drop of 2.5%. She also dropped the women's 200m WR from 21.74 to 21.34 (or 1.7%).

So statistically his time is not so otherworldly. His winning margin however was. He won by 0.2secs. Justin Gatlin (who has since been done for drugs) won in Athens by 0.01secs. Maurice Greene won in Sydney by 0.12secs. Donovan Bailey won in Atlanta by 0.05secs. Linford Christie won in Barcelona by 0.06secs. Johnson "won" in Seoul by 0.13secs. Lewis won in LA by 0.2secs.

So it's the biggest victory since Lewis in 1984. No one suggests Lewis' victory was tainted, rather it is viewed as one of the greatest runs of all-time. And for now that's what I'm calling Bolt's run last night. Greatest since Johnson? Nope, it was better - the greatest since Lewis.
***

10:15am: Women's marathon. Paula Radcliffe looks strong, but in the marathon that can change quickly. Benita Johnson is in the front pack and also looking good. Back when the marathon was first run in the Olympics (1984) the women's field was pretty thin - 2 or 3 chances only. Now however the field is as deep as the men's, and were Johnson to win a medal it would be a stunning achievement. The great thing about the marathon is it can happen; rarely does either the men's or women's races go according to form.

10:43am: Moneghetti says not good signs for Benita, she's off the back of the pack.Radcliffe has also just dropped back. I didn't see it but just heard David Culbert say of Radcliffe "when you gotta go you gotta go"; which suggests she err.. needed to powder her nose. (yes the marathon is a tough event - you don't see that happen in the 100m).

11:23am: Radcliffe is off the back - destined to be the fastest women's marathoner, but never to win the gold at the Olympics. Will she stay on for London? She'll be 39, so doubtful.

There's no morning session of the athletics today, so all focus will be on the last day of swimming finals:

• Women's 50m freestyle - I can't see Libby winning this one, but the 50m is such a lottery. Can Dana Torres win at the age of 41? Amazing if she can. Torres won a silver in the relay at the 1986 world championships. Libby was 1 years old at the time; Cate Campbell wouldn't be born for another 6 years. But I'm tipping the German to do the double.
• Men's 1500m freestyle - Will probably be watched by more Australians than any other event at these games. Time to see if Hackett will be legendary or "just" great.
• Women's medley relay - Australia to win in a WR.
• Men's medley relay - Call me a spoil sport, but I want Australia to win this event just about more than any other event, if only to deny Phelps his eight. I don;t think we will, but I will say they'll both smash the WR (though in swimming at these Games, that's a given).

***
11:45am: Radcille seems to be suffering leg cramps, but is trying to finish (either way cue hell-fire from the British tabloids).
***
Can someone tell me when Home and Away became a cross between Lost and The Blue Lagoon? Seriously, these promos for it seem a long way from Summer Bay (mind you, I'm still wondering where the heck are Bobby and Roo).
***
The marathon looks all over, but will be a big race for the minor medals. But really, we're in countdown mode for the swimming finals now. That said would there be any better feeling than to running into the Olympic stadium in the lead of the marathon? There aren't many events where a stadium full of people cheer only for you, and where you have a lap of honour before you finish.

The winner, Tomescu, ran the last hour alone. She is 38, so perhaps Radcliffe will be around in 4 years. At the 35km mark Benita Johnson was coming 25th (Radcliffe was 69th - when it goes bad in the marathon it goes terrible).
***
12:02pm: Women's 50m. Bit of a dopey event - how many different events do the swimmers need? ... Steffen does the double! (and Grog repairs his prediction reputation!) Libby misses out on a medal, but Campbell gets the bronze. Torres second. Campbell is all of 16years old. Look for her to be a star in London (no pressure though!)

12:13pm: The 1500m starts... The Canadian Cochrane is taking it out hard...but Hackett stays with him. The thing about Hackett though is he generally reveals how he is feeling early on. Hackett has a much better turn than Cochrane... I remember back in Perkins' day the German Jorg Hoffman won the world championships in Perth in 1991 pretty much by having a better turn.

Cochrane is putting in a big effort in the second 500m, but Hackett comes back. This is going to go right down to the wall.

Who's this Mellouli??? From Tunisia??? What the hell is he doing in front????

Geez he's going away from Hackett. Major boil-over... C'mon!!!!!!!!!

Oh bugger!!!!! What a swim by everyone. Great race. The winner has a bit of a drug record - he was done in 2006 for taking Adderall (a stimulant). He said it was to help him cram for writing a term paper at college. ... He was suspended for 18 months from Nov 2006 (the usual ban is 2 years...). Oh well, sour grapes and all that...

Great response by Hackett in the interview; true champion. (But I'm betting Mellouli's drug record gets a run in the local newspapers!). Now for the relays.
***
12:44pm: Seebhom is the only "weak" link in our relay. We're defending champions (Jones the only one still here from Athens). Seebhom does well - the American Coughlin nearly hits the lane rope.

Great swim by Jones... C"mon Shipper!!! Great swim by Shipper!! Go Libby. Great swim by Libby - Torres surfed on her wave the whole way, but couldn't get past her. Great swim by all!!! woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WR. (Seebhom is only 16 as well, so add her to the can't wait for London list)

From the times - Jones swam 1.37secs faster than the American Soni; the American were faster in every other leg.

1:10pm: The USA win the medley relay and Phelps gets his 8 Gold. Great work by Australia to come second; both USA and Aus break the WR (25 WR have been broken this meet...). Like Jones in the women's relay, Phelps was the difference here. Rickard and Sullivan swam faster than their American opponents.

Oh well swimming over (apart from the open water events). Lauterstein points out that they are younger than three of the Americans, so it seems like they are already thinking of improving and winning next time - great to hear: happy to come second, but eager to improve and come first.
***
So how did Australia go in the swimming? The women's 4x200 relay was unexpected, but the team would have penciled in Jones to win the 200m breaststroke, Shipper to win the 200m Butterfly, and for Sullivan and Trickett to win at least one gold in the 50 or 100m freestyles. But they won a few minor medals that they wouldn't have counted on - Lauterstein in the 100m Butterfly, Stoeckle in the backstroke etc. So all in all a good meet, but not great.
***
Just noticed that last night Kylie Wheeler came 11th in the Heptathlon - but she broke her PB and goes 3rd all-time Australian - only Glynnis Nunn and Jane Flemming are above her. Incidentally Jane Flemming's Australian record set at the 1990 Commonwealth Games would've been good enough for Bronze here - she certainly was one to suffer having to compete against Jackie Joyner-Kersee and her ilk.
***
Here's an interesting site - it shows the medal table weighted according to population, GDP and GDP per capita. At the moment Australia is coming 2nd to NZ on population; we're 25th according to GDP; and 23rd on GDP per capita.
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Another interesting site here that points out in the 100m final Bolt took 41 steps to everyone else's 44.
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7:51pm: In the rowing , it's been a fairly depressing effort by the Australian crews in the men's and women's eights. And in the cycling, have to say the British are doing something very right, because they're looking like winning everything they try their hand out - Anna Meares looks our best chance, but even she will have to go through a British rider.
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8:20pm: Men's gymnastics on now - the floor and high bar. Here's another bit of info about Usain Bolt - he won with his shoe untied.

The more performances I see of the gymnastics, the more I miss Roy and HG. The floor exercises just aren't the same without "battered sav" and "hello boys".

Over on SBS, Rafael Nadal won the first set in the men's singles final (Djokovic beat Blake for the bronze yesterday), Federer and Wawrinka won the Gold in the doubles for Switzerland.
***
8:48pm: In the team's pursuit cycling the Aussies were on WR pace, but then with about 3 laps to go we caught the Dutch team who got in the way and forced the Aussies to go around them, stuffing up their rhythm. In the end we missed out on the WR by a little under 2 secs; in itself that is bad enough, but as the position in the final is determined by times, that disruption by the Dutch could cost the Australian team a chance at riding off for Gold. And yes, we miss out; Australia versus NZ for bronze. I have no idea why they go straight from the quarter finals to finals - what's wrong with semis?
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9:01pm: I see on the ABC web site, that Grant Hackett doesn't worry about Mellouli's doping record: "It's something I am not going to get into, his past is his past, it's not for me to worry about," Hackett said."He was a competitor on the blocks today, in relation to the rules he abided by them, he did a good race and good on him."

Got to give it to Hackett; he is all class.
***
Great Britain are now ahead of Australia on the medal tally; which means Kate Ellis's bet with the British Sport's Minister is looking shaky.
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At the moment the judges are conferring over the score of Russian Anna Pavlova's vault. They have scored her a zero for her second vault (when the commentators were in fact thinking she might take the lead over the Chinese gymnast). There will be more talking and more examination; and yet not one of the commentators will suggest how it just shows what a dodgy sport it is.

Just on the age limit controversy; the argument is over the Chinese gymnasts not actually being over 16; it's worth remembering that Nadia Comaneci was only 14 in Montreal when she scored her perfect 10s.

More waiting around for the score... what a riveting sport.

Great to see a 33 year old take out silver.
***
9:52pm: Amazingly we get to see Sally McLelland run her 100m Hurdles heat. She looks great, and should make the final and is an outside, outside chance of a medal.

We then go back to the gymnastics (should not we didn't see McLelland's race live). The judging seems very biased towards the Chinese gymnasts (funny that). And so we watch more gymnastics, meanwhile the women's 100m semi-finals are on right now. In fact, they have been run and won in the time it takes us to sit around waiting to find out if the judges have learnt how to carry the 1, divide the score by the gymnast's age and times it by the number of spectators in the room, and then just say ... "oh f*ck it, let's give him a 15 point something - as if anyone thinks we know what we're doing".

Nadal just won gold over on SBS (he won it live as well...)

Channel 7 have just announced "coming up the women's 100m semi-finals".
***
The Men's 10,000m is the last event on tonight, but I'll be setting the tape going. Channel 7 just suck the joy out of it. The Montage Olympics 2008 has destroyed it for me. At least on this, I know I'm not alone. I love this quote by a Channel 7 exec from the story on the news.com.au site: "It's about engaging all viewers, not just traditional sports fans - a coverage that reflects all aspects of the Games," the spokesperson said. "Sonia is a star . . . Yum Cha is annihilating the opposition. It peaked at two million viewers on Sunday morning."

Yep, 'Yum Cha' is beating Kerri Ann and Sesame Street so it must be good. And it's good that they have acknowledged that telecasting the greatest sporting event in the world is not about pleasing sport's fans. At least when the World Cup is on, the football comes first; here the sport is just something for the editors wait to happen so they can then quickly make up another montage.
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10:15pm: James Tomkins is not happy with the men's eights performance. The problem with rowing is you really can't work out why one crew went slower than another; they all seem to row at the same rate, and if Tomkins doesn't even know what went wrong, then how the hell am I? At least with running you can tell what went wrong (the others ran faster), but with rowing - especially teams - it's just hard to work it out - did they stroke at the same rate, but the others put more force into the stroke? Why couldn't the eight stroke faster - do they all have a bad day at the same time? If one guy isn't up to it can you tell? I don't know; all I know is Australia got badly beat, and a 6 time Olympian doesn't know why.
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10:21pm: Back to the track to see the rest of the 100m Hurdle heats (these happened 70 minutes ago).

The men's 10,000m has been mentioned a few times, not once have they mentioned Kenenisa Bekele, and why would they? He is only the defending Olympic Champion, current World Champion, and the World Record holder. No better to mention Gebrselassie who won eight years ago, and who has never beaten Bekele over 10,000m (or at any distance since 2000).

But then it ain't for sport's fans - I must remember this.
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10:29pm: Women's 100m semis finally on. My tip for the final - Stewert, Fraser, Williams. (will not be a WR - well duh!)

Bekele to win the 10k, Gebre to miss out on a medal.
There's also the women's 3k steeple, and triple jump. A great night of athletics, but I can;t be bothered - that 5th viewing of the montage of the 20k walk did me in.

Day Eight: You mean they're still swimming?

Well let me say it's much better to tape the athletics and wake up in the morning and zip through all the adverts and montages.

Well the Women's 10,000m was a great distance race. The big shock for me was the poor performance of the Ethiopians (well 2 of them). Generally they like to run as a team, but last night only one was up to the task - the great Tiranesh Dibaba, Her cousin Derartu Talu won the 10k in Barcelona and Sydney; and now Dibaba has an Olympic Gold to go with her 2 world championships.

She sat on the Ethiopian runner from Turkey, Elvan Abeylegesse(Ethiopian and Kenyan often crop up running for other countries) in much the same way as she did last year in the world championships. And then much the same way Dibaba kicked with 400m to go and won running away.

Perhaps the run of the night was the American Shalane Flanagan, who broke her own American record to win the bronze - and just goes to show you you don't need to come from East Africa to be a top distance runner - here's hoping it's an indicator of things to come for Craig Mottram.

The swimming finals this morning:

• Women's 200m Backstroke: Kirsty Coventry has 3 silvers from these games, but she is the defending champion, so I'll pick her to take Gold.
• Men's 100m Butterfly: If the WR holder Ian Crocker was at his best he might be able to stop Phelps winning, but his heat swim looked pretty rough. They'll swim next to each other, so I'm betting Phelps will make it #7.
• Women's 800m free: Would love to see Kylie Palmer grab an individual medal to go with her relay gold.
• Men's 50m Freestyle: Anybody's. Sullivan seems to be struggling a tad sine the 100m freestyle - perhaps the ex-girlfriend's 3 Golds are weighing on his mind.

***
Some great results this morning.Jared Talent in the 20km walk won bronze and Luke Adams came 6th. Now walking is a very odd sport, but it certainly deserved more coverage than 7 gave it. All we got to see was them walking into the stadium - i.e. the last 100m of 20km... excuse me if I found it hard to get too excited (the only reason I knew about Talent was because I happened to be listening to the ABC).

But the big news of the morning was Michael Phelps winning his 7th Gold in the 100m Butterfly. Now the adage in sport is that it's better to be lucky than good, but Phelps has the unique aspect which the greats seem to possess - he is both good and lucky. He mistimed his final stroke in to the wall, and yet somehow - mostly because the Slovakian had also slightly mistimed his final stroke, Phelps was able to get to the wall 1 hundredths of a second faster.

In years to come, people will forget just how close Phelps was to winning 6 golds instead of 8. Lezak in the men's 4x100m swam better than he ever has and ever will to get the Americans to the gold; and 1 hundredth of a second in the butterfly? Such a margin comes down as much to luck as skill.

Coming into the Games it was reasoned that Phelps would need everything to go for him to win 8 Gold. Well everything has.
***
Good work by Youcef Abdi in qualifying for the final of the men's 3000m Steeplechase. Last year at the world championships while in a good position in his heat with a lap to go he was tripped (or fell - the steeple is bit rough and tumble); he picked himself up and ran out the lap. He has had a habit of falling or losing his shoe in races (he nearly fell in his heat), so here's hoping he runs a strong final and breaks his Australian record.
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Well yesterday I praised Tamsyn Lewis, today I scratch my head in wonder. Why she would bother running the 400m is beyond me. She is not world class, she's barely commonwealth class in the 400m; and yet tonight she is running an 800m semi final, which will require her to be one of the 2 fastest non-automatic qualifiers (I'm assuming she won't finish in the first 2). This will require her breaking her PB; and yet for some reason she thinks the best way to prepare for this is to run a 400m? Stupid.I'll take it all back if she gets through tonight, but I doubt I'll need to.
***
At the moment the Aussie men are playing the beach volleyball and getting a bit of a touch up by the Dutch. Have to admit I'm not focusing too much on the match as the Crows are playing Essendon on foxtel. Near the end of the third quarter the Crows are giving the bombers lesson.

Young Crows Patrick Dangerfield kicked a goal with his first kick in the AFL. It's an understatement to say he's been under a some pressure from the Adelaide media and supporters because he was drafted instead of Brad Ebert. But he looks good. (though now that I've given him a wrap he's kicked a point from a set shot).

And if Dangerfield's nickname isn't Rodney I'll be very disappointed.
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The big event tonight will be the men's 100m. Usain Bolt has so far jogged through the rounds. In the second round he jogged 100m in 9.92secs. The 100m often involves a bit of psychology as the favourites try to use the least amount of effort while still winning each heat. And of the three main challengers - Bolt, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay - Bolt looked to be using the least energy.

He is 6ft 5 - massive for a sprinter (Carl Lewis was 6ft 2; Maurice Greene 5ft 9; Asafa Powell 6ft 3) - and is really a 200m man (which is an odd thing to say about the 100m world record holder). I thought Powell was the fastest jogger; but Bolt has taken it to a new level - and in sprinting, the fastest jogger usually is the fastest sprinter.
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7:06pm: Channel 7 are doing great stuff with the rowing finals. After showing live the win by in the pairs of Drew Ginn and Duncan Free, now we watch the double sculls... 200m to go we have boat length lead. C'mon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!You beauty!!! 2 from 2!!! Scott Brennan and David Crawshay make it 7 Gold for Australia - take that Michael Phelps, anything you can do, a nation of 20 million people can do just as well!

Great start for the night ahead
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Men's fours just started... can we go 3 for 3?
Oh bugger. Watching rowing is damn frustrating, it goes so slow; you want them to just do some quicker strokes. The British just kept coming at the Aussies and got them with 200m to go and went past. Still 2 gold, 1 silver isn't a bad day's work.
***
Only 5 hours till the men's 100m final. The 100m is a tough event to write about. It's hard to describe an event which takes a shorter time to complete than it does for me to type "the men's 100m is a tough event to write about". As a middle distance runner from my youth I am always going to be biased towards the 1500m and 5000m runners, but you can't deny that every kid when they first muck around running in the school year tries to run fast. Those who can't run fast try to run far, and those who can't run fast or can't run far take up swimming.

Sprinters are the kings of the track because like the test pilots in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff (great book, read it) the sprinters are those who have left everyone else behind. When you look at the 8 men in the final, you need to realise all those who have been left behind: those kids who always won the 100m at sports day when you were at school but who couldn't win the inter-school sprint; the kids who won the inter-school 100m, but then got run out of the state under 15 championships; the kids who could win their under 15 state championships, but then couldn't cut it at the national titles; the kids who won the under age national championships but who were found wanting when they hit the seniors; the men who are able to beat all the other men at their local inter-club events, but not quite everyone; the guys who can beat everyone, but not everyone in their country; the men who can beat everyone in their country, but when they goes overseas they find they are running forever in the B races; the men who can beat everyone in their country, who can win at international events, but who have a got injured 2 months out of the Olympics; and everyone who didn't even beat that kid back in high school (which means you and me). All of us have been left behind.

Those who remain stand at the top of the pyramid, from which they look down on us poor souls who just didn't quite have it genetically, mentally, or physically and then tonight they will line up and discover just which one of them is the pinnacle of that pyramid.

And that's why the 100m is the only event in the world that lasts less than 10 seconds, but which will have people staying up all hours of the night to watch.
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8:30pm: The Men's Points cycling race is on at the moment (I'm not even going to check if it is actually live - that just leads to disappointment); it is total madness - riders going a a lap up, then going for sprints; realising that who is actually in the front may not be in front. It's great watching. Aussie Cameron Myers is doing well - but who knows in a couple laps it all can change.
8:56pm: It did change. Myers 4th. Have to say the only bad thing about the event is it's over too quick. On Tuesday the Madison is run, which is like the points race, only involving teams of pairs - which means even more madness and confusion. Bring it on.
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9:31pm: Tamsyn Lewis runs an absolute shocker - geez she almost looked like she had run to 400m more than the rest of the field...

A terrible post-race interview - Lewis was in distress and really Pat Welsh really should have let her go - no need to rub in the fact that she obviously isn't good enough and also had made a bad choice to run the 400m this morning. But even that choice aside, if Lewis had run her PB of 1:59.21 she still would've come 4th in that heat, and would need no one else to better her time in the next 2 semis (would love to let you know if this has happened, but Channel 7 has decided to show a repeat of a rowing race that everyone saw only 2 hours ago.... checking the website, to qualify she would've needed to better her PB by a full second.
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10:11pm: Semis of the 100m; let's see who jogs and who has to run...Well Bolt absolutely strolled through the first semi in 9.85secs. Scarily fast.

(Just noticed from the website, they seem to be running about 10 minutes behind schedule) .. Medal ceremony for the 20k walk.. gotta admit I like the Russian anthem, kinda makes you feel like invading on a small neighbouring country. Apparently the super slow-mo showed that quite a few of the walkers were running, and yet only 2 got DQ'd.

2nd semi final of the 100m to start now... Gay hasn't been all that flash (hamstring may be suspect), Powell looks ok, just doesn't look as good as he used to (mostly because Bolt just does what Powell used to do, only better)...

Well Powell wins the semi, but he had to run. And Tyson Gay, current world champion and runner of the fastest time ever in any conditions (9.68secs wind assisted) suddenly finds that he has been (dare we say it).... left behind. A hamstring problem? Too bad, at this level if you want to be the mightiest of the mighty nothing can go wrong. The fastest man in the world needs to be an indestructible force - some men are left behind because their bodies won't allow them to run fast enough, some because their body normally lets them run fast enough but on this day it decides to betray its owner. In the first case you're left behind 20 years ago in the playground at school, in the second you're left behind in the semi finals of the Olympic Games.

10:42pm: Channel 7 have a choice to make - Show the men's long jump qualifying that is happening right now? Show the javelin in the women's heptathlon, which is happening right now? Show a 5 minute montage of Michael Phelps? I don't need to tell you what choice they made.

They come back from an ad break with this bizarre montage of Olympic highlights and all the shows Channel 7 wants to promote. I have to say this "Packed to the Rafters" keeps making me think they're doing a reality show (or is that an "observational documentary) of Pat Rafter and his family. Still if I see the promo one more time instead of a live athletics event I think I shall boycott it in protest (yeah, I won't protest the Beijing Games because of human rights abuses, but I'll protest against a TV station's over-use of montages!).

One hour to go; my picks - Bolt, Powell, Thompson. WR? No.

Women's marathon tomorrow - I see Benita Johnson is listed to start (wondered why she wasn't in the 10,000m). Paula Radcliffe is the greatest women's marathon runner of all-time, but she is very susceptible at major championships. She has been injured, so it is doubtful she will win, but it would be great to see her do it. Otherwise it as absolute raffle (as all marathons are).

The men's 10,000m is the last event tomorrow night: give the gold to Kenise Bekele right now. A quick look at his bio reveals this a guy not used to losing the over the 25 laps. Gebreselassie is running purely because the smog was too great for him to contemplate the marathon; which is a pity, because he could have won that; he won't win this.

Just had it pointed out to me that we've got 2 sailing Gold medals coming Australia's way. Sailing is never going to be a great spectator sport (ok the America's Cup had it's moments, but that was 25 years ago), but the Olympics is the pinnacle for most of these sailing classes, so great stuff. That will put Australia on 9 Golds (yeah try and match that Michael Phelps).
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12:17am: Fifteen minutes till the final of the 100m; so does Channel 7 build up the excitement by having a cross to the guys in the stadium to talk about what we can expect; perhaps show replays of the heats to see who has looked the best? Nope, instead they show the USA playing Spain in basketball. Oh well, at least it is live, and I guess some people might be staying up to watch it.

Quick tennis aside; Federer is looking like becomming an Olympic champion he is in the doubles final, and the Swiss are up 2 sets to love; 5 all in the third.

12:31pm: Oh my God.

Wow! 9.68sec slowing down!!!!!! He started jogging in the 100m Final!!!!! Amazing.

Just incredible. Thompson 2nd, Dix 3rd. But really it was Bolt then no one.

Now that is a highlight. (Big tip he'll break Johnson's 19.32 WR in the 200m).

Day Seven: Or, Thanks for the Great Financial Advice

Ok I admit it, my big tip of Leisel Jones taking out the 200m breaststroke, and thus making 7% on your investment was not exactly the hottest advice. But in my defence I based my tip on her being able to the complex things required to swim breaststroke - those things which only true champions can do - you know, breathe:

"It was pretty difficult. I don't think about it when I'm swimming, that's probably why I get to the end and all of a sudden realise I've got to breathe again. I'm not really thinking about it. I'm just thinking about my stroke and holding it and keeping it together so I'm probably not really focused on breathing until I get to the end."

Though Leisel's other comments after the race are pretty good:

"There's definitely no disappointment at all... 'Silver medal's still a silver medal at the Olympics. I'm still really happy with that. It has been a really long week and it's hard to get up and down, up and down but I'm still so pleased with a silver medal. I gave it everything, I couldn't have done anything more so I can't be disappointed with that. I dug really deep, she was just better on the day and you can't control that.''

You can't argue with that - not shame in getting beaten by someone who breaks the WR

Libby Trickett as well won a silver, and like Leisel was absolutely fantastic in defeat:

"I wanted to be hurting right at the end of it and I definitely did that. Full credit to Britta [the winner] she swam a fantastic race and I know how hard we have to work to get to where we are right now and to have four one hundredths separating us, it's not much but that's what the racing's about."

Now it does help that both Leisel and Libby already have won a gold medal (and should win another in the 4x100 medley relay), but they were both favourites to win these races, both were world record holders, and both showed a fair bit of class.
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Apparently some of the "ethnic dancers" used in the opening ceremony weren't really from ethnic minorities. My goodness what a disgrace; thank heavens we live in a country where we never fake anything in the name of entertainment...
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The US are complaining that the winning Chinese female gymnastics team contained athletes under the age of 16 (the minimum age allowed).

And while yes that would be terrible if they were cheating, the fact the sport needs a minimum age requirement at all just proves the sport is a joke. Yes I know sports such as tennis and golf have age limits - but that is on the number of tournaments girls can play each year to ensure their bodies are not wrecked by the time they reach 18. There is no advantage in being young (or small).

The age limit in gymnastics is there for two reasons - because the bodies of girls under 16 are still developing and would be harmed by doing such high intensive activities; and because girls who have small childlike bodies have an advantage. Let's be honest, they don't need the age limit in the men's gymnastics, because no 15 year would stand a chance against the men.
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Madonna turned 50 today. Yes, I feel old.
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6:52pm: Despite my poor form tipping Leisel, Libby, and Scott Martin and Justin Anlezak in the Shot Put, I'm still holding firm on Tiranesh Dibaba to win the 10,000m in 6 hours time (I'm just not sure of my tip that Channel 7 will actually show it).
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I'm not the biggest Tamsyn Lewis fan. Nothing to do with Jana Pittman or anything. I haven't been a Tamsyn Lewis fan for many years now. She constantly turned up to major events either not in form, or runs stupidly so that she virtually guarantees herself not making it through her heat. She has generally been the best 600m runner, which is not such a great thing when you need to run 800m; and when she runs 400m, she is generally the best 300m runner.

But this morning in her heat, she knew she was the fourth fastest in the field, and so was unlikely to finish in the top 3 as an automatic qualifier. Therefore she needed to ensure she was one of the six fastest non-automatic qualifiers. She went out fast, faded as usual, but held her form to finish 4th and got through as the fastest non-automatic qualifier.

In the 3 semis the first 2 and then the next 2 fastest go through through to the final. I can't see her being able to do that, but at least she finally seems to have come to an Olympics in form.
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8:22pm: Track cycling is great to watch, but it's all over too quick. In the pursuit for example you ride a qualifying heat, beat your opponent but because your time is outside the top 8 you miss out on the qualifying. Ditto the team sprint. Australia beats the Netherlands in the second round, but because their time is fourth fastest they're only going to be in the run-off for bronze.

My favourite event on the track are the points race and the Madison. Both look completely insane, make no sense and just are great to watch. The points race is on tomorrow night at 7:40pm. Should be fun.
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This Make me a Supermodel with Jennifer Hawkins that Channel 7 is starting to advertise looks close to the most vomit inducing piece of TV this side of Denise Richards It's Complicated. If you haven't seen it because you don't have foxtel, I'll give you quick run down: it's a half hour in which Denise Richards tries to prove that she is the most self absorbed, vacuous, white-trash, bitch in Hollywood. Amazingly each week she succeeds.

I see Pamela Anderson is in Australia to promote her new show, but take note - it's not a reality show; it's an "observational documentary". It's one of those irregular verbs:
"I doing an observational documentary; you are doing a reality show; she is trying valiantly to suck some more minutes of fame out of her talentless existence".
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9:00pm: The Aussies just missed out on the bronze in the team sprint by 8 thousandths of a second. Imagine competing in a sport where success or failure is judged by such small margins.
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9:47pm: Men's 1500m heat shown delayed by 20 minutes (we only see one of the four)- Aussie Mitchell Kealey gets run out in 11th place. So that is delayed, but we must watch the 1500m swimming heats live (that's right 15 minutes of watching Craig Stevens coming 5th, then another 15 minutes of Grant Hackett). And meanwhile the men's 100m second round heats are happening right now. Now why bother showing the greatest field of sprinters ever live? Also Kylie Wheeler is coming 4th after two events in the heptathlon. Have we seen any of her? Nope. This obsession with swimming is sickening.
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10:10pm: Geez this 1500m is boring. C'mon Channel 7, a 100m takes 10 seconds, how about a quick cross??? All we would miss is half a lap!!!!!!

Hackett swimming well (apparently he is sick - isn't he always? I think that's part of his training routine to make sure he get's sick just in time for the 1500m final). But seriously, how can this compete with athletics - all you can see is a head bobbing up and down. We have no idea if he's hurting - Bruce is reduced to asking Dan Kowalski if he looks good - in running you get the facial expressions, the strategy , the physicality. Swimming is great in the last 50m.

That said if Hackett wins the final, in my books he becomes a better swimming than Thorpe: three in a row is reserved only for the greatest.

A new Olympic record. Fantastic. Now for the final on Sunday (and the final will be good watching). There has never been a race where everyone has broken 15 minutes. For this final everyone has qualified in under 14min 50secs. So that means for the first time ever, someone has broken 15 minutes, and not even made the final. Amazing. To put it in context, last year at the world championships Hackett came seventh in 14:59. This year that would be good enough for 13th fastest. At the Athens Olympics 8th in the final was Craig Stevens in 15:13. Here that would put him in 24th fastest.

I think it's fair to say the 15oom has changed - the 15 minute barrier is now like the 4 minute mile - if you can't do it, don't even bother showing up.
***
11:01pm: It's now past 11pm on the first night of the athletics competiton, and we have seen by my reckoning one 1500m heat, three 100m heats and that's it. They haven't even replayed Tamsyn Lewis getting through in the 800m. We now see the 4th of the men's 1500m heats with Australian Jeff Reisley - this happened 90 minutes ago.

I'll set the tape going for the women's 10,000m I have no faith in Channel 7 to be bothered staying up till past midnight. Still confident about Tiranesh Dibaba...