Will lightning strike twice?
I dunno how many of you follow athletics but even those who don't it can't have escaped your notice that the new world super star of sports is Usain Bolt.
An amazing World Record in the Beijing Olympics for the 100m (9.69s) that was obliterated the other day in the World Championships (9.58s) - the most it's ever been reduced by since electronic timing began.
He runs the 200m final tomorrow, for which he holds the WR (19.30s) so I was wondering if we could get a book running for what he may achieve in the 200m final tomorrow. Personally I don't think he'll break it. I'm expecting a 19.4x time for him to win and have an added incentive as I stand to win 20 quid if he doesn't with a guy at work.
My guess is 19.45s...
An amazing World Record in the Beijing Olympics for the 100m (9.69s) that was obliterated the other day in the World Championships (9.58s) - the most it's ever been reduced by since electronic timing began.
He runs the 200m final tomorrow, for which he holds the WR (19.30s) so I was wondering if we could get a book running for what he may achieve in the 200m final tomorrow. Personally I don't think he'll break it. I'm expecting a 19.4x time for him to win and have an added incentive as I stand to win 20 quid if he doesn't with a guy at work.
My guess is 19.45s...
Post edited by Vampyre on
Comments
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/8210471.stm
If there was someone pushing him - ie Tyson Gay - then I would say there was a very good chance he would break it, but he's going to win by such a huge margin anyway I don't see the incentive for him. In the Olympics he had a point to prove because of the criticism he got celebrating 20m from the line when winning the 100m.
But then again, he is so utterly brilliant you never know!
I was following this yesterday and it is really bizarre. Okay, she's come out of nowhere in the last three weeks and she's running fast times in comparison to everyone else. But she's nowhere near the world record and she's not running "man" times. As long as she hasn't got a dick, she's a woman, regardless of whether she has the lung capacity of a bloke giving her a so-called unfair advantage.
Hell, if they are going to go that route then perhaps Ian Thorpe should have his swimming medals taken away as he had such huge feet they were tantamount to flippers. Or five times Tour De France winner, Miguel Indurain, should have his titles taken away as he had much greater lung capacity than everyone else and a bigger heart that could pump blood better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Indurain - see Physical Advantages
what sort of test is that? following her to the toilet and seeing which one she goes in or trying to trick her by saying 'did you watch the footie last night?'
Then you get people with more testosterone than a lot of men, but because of a genetic abnormality their cells are completely insensitive to it. They actually develop a more feminine body than most women. They're in for a shock if they ever take a test - it has happened before in sports, in horse riding I seem to remember.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Bit different ! The 'female' looks masculine like anything and i'm sure this has happened before in athletics with a similar story. But yeah either way they'll be able to find out soon, but damn if 'she' is a woman shes one helluva ugly one !
Surely once they've checked out the 'downstairs' apartment they will know for sure
"Oi! You look lika a cock in a frock love?"
and see what his/her reaction is.
I'll go 19.33s for Bolt over 200m as well..close but no cigar.
Not that funny apparently certain "Ahem!" Gymnasts get tested for that every year.
oops, 19.19 it was. Serves you right for betting against superman Bolt :smile:I'm not sure I could do that, bet against a moment of magic, as it would spoil my enjoyment - were you cheering him to break the record or annoyed that he did?
One word: Transgenderism. (Or is that transgenderity? OK, maybe that's not a word. Whatever.) Let's just say that there's a significant minority of the population who would probably lynch you for the suggestion that gender was entirely determined by the lump of flesh between your legs.
To give a silly-but-not-controversial counterexample: a man who suffered a certain unfortunate (and improbable) accident with a combine harvester wouldn't suddenly become a woman.
Although it does start to get a little bit philosophical at this point: what *is* the defining characteristic of female-ness that makes it appropriate for them to have their own category in athletics competitions? I suspect it's not the same as the defining characteristic of female-ness that makes someone eligible for a sex change on the NHS, for example, but I really have no idea. Evidently the international athletics federation *does* have an answer to that question, and it involves more extensive medical tests than "drop your pants, please".
Nah, no way I could be annoyed when an athlete produces something *that* special. I think they're going to have to give him a human-test, not a gender one. Scrap that, just hang some Kryptonite around his neck and see if that slows him down. And he did it tired!!!!!
Seriously though, that was one utterly unbelievable time. I was amazed last year when he beat Michael Johnson's WR as it was probably one of the most unattainable ones out there - when Johnson did it in Atlanta I thought I would never see it broken in my life time. Bolt isn't just breaking records, he annihilating them. Someone ought to tell him he's supposed to knock hundredths off, not tenths.
He is simply amazing. He's running against himself currently, so what sort of times is he going to produce when someone else is pushing him - if anyone ever does! What a breath of fresh air he is to athletics, the horsing around at the start and he comes across as a down to earth bloke when he's interviewed. Make the most of him while you can, because I seriously doubt we'll see another like him for a few decades - the last one to do this sort of record breaking was Jesse Owens.
it's historical, and historically having a dangly bit of flesh was enough of an identifier.
the reason women need their own category is cause they're delicate little things who might hurt themselves..... or maybe it's just old fasioned nonsense and they should just have unisex races. Would certainly get the olympics over with in half the time! :)
out of interest and somewhat related I didn't see what the IOC's ruling on boxing was? are women going to be competing in 2012?
Probably the existence of a Y chromosome, or at least the "SRY" (sex determination region Y). You need that to be male.
Me neither. Let's just say my first post about it I was rather angry for her the way the IAAF and South African authorities handled it. I fully understand the need for the testing and hopefully once it's all cleared up we can enjoy a major, major talent make an assault on the WR.
Back to Bolt - how fast do you think he can go? I think 9.4x and sub 19 eventually.
hmm, not less than 3.3E-7 seconds, I reckon ;)
Oh I'm far too drunk to even make a guess at that :-)
Was nice to see 50-odd thousand people singing Happy Birthday to Insane Bolt after they finished the national anthems for the 200m medals!
*Even* his birthday is perfectly timed for major championships - they really need to check this guy wasn't some type of experiment ;-) Just when athletics hit a point where it was almost impossible for it to recover from controversy after controversy along comes a guy who not only is out-of-this-world amazingly good, but he appeals to just about everyone, is humble when interviewed, comes across as down to earth, and is well-liked by his fellow athletes.
It just isn't natural, but at the same time is exactly what the world of sport needed desperately. He comes across as someone so affable the common man could spend some time with him in the pub.
The rooms booked for next week BTW ;-)