General Sports Thread

Lesser team currently I agree .

 

So this year we have been fortunate to witness great performances by two of the greatest sportspersons ever, CR7 and Roger Federer. Hopefully, this will inspie Usain Bolt to put on a show that we shall remember forever.

 

Fell asleep halfway through the gp

Turned into a great day for Mercedes. Looking forward to Hungary now.

Well done Federer too. Absolute legend

 

So Emperor Mo is saying goodbye to the running track in August. Let's hope he wins the 5,000 and 10,000 at the World Championships, and everyone on here gets behind him and votes for him to be this years SPOTY. It is about time after his fantastic achievements.

 

Is that what F1 does to people?

 

Did it to me every time. In the end I got the message. That was 15 or so years ago. Go and do something less boring, I thought. Plenty of choice.

 

TSS! Shhhh!!!! We better keep quiet about this as it is enormously popular with many of our fellow Saints!!!! Anyhow I do things that many on here would regard as even more boring. I photograph the HSTs at Reading when I am there, the Brittany Ferries at Portsmouth. And that is for starters.

 

Hey, amongst loads of other things, I watch volcanoes, mate. Each to their own, eh?.

 

In fairness there is something FAR more boring than F1 that's easy to find.

People drivelling on about how they find F1 boring.

 

Justin Thomas just scored a 9 on a par 4 hole at The Open, including an air shot where he dropped his club because his ball was so deep in the rough.

I feel like a pro now, as I can do that

 

In the Monaco Diamond League meeting Usain ran his first sub 10 for the season. Meanwhile in the men's 800m, Emmanuel Korir continued his fine year with an easy victory in a world-leading time of 1:43:10 to send a message to fellow Kenyan David Rudisha. Let's hope for a Kenyan 1 and 2 in that particular event. It would be wonderful if the Kenyans could put in a decent performance in the Men's 1500m as well by taking the first three places in times close to 3.30. They are capable of it. Strong possibility that runners from the African Continent or of East African descent (Mo) will take all the gold medals from 400m to the Marathon in the men's, and from 800m to the Marathon in the women's.

It is hard to see where Team GB, Mo apart, will get golds with Rutherford struggling on the fitness side.

 

Appalling this.

 

Reasons I prefer City, part #254.

 

The lack of... Chris Froome wins his 4th Tour de France post, apart from this one, helps to bear out, either that road cycling just doesn't cut it in this country [track cycling is an altogether different kettle of fish], or that Chris Froome isn't particularly liked. He's not a big personality, he just gets on with it. This BBC article argues the latter: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/40692045

But I think it's the former. Competing road cyclists, with little or no history of success on the track, are very much in the second place to the track stars. Mark Cavendish bucks the trend slightly. He had/has a big following because he has/is associated with the track, with his track buddies, and gets coverage for all his road stage sprint wins. But he's no marathon cyclist. He's never going to win an overall event with hills and mountains. That's not his thing. But he has personality with character. Bradley Wiggins bridged the gap, and he has that same colourful character. Froome is almost a metronome, by comparison. He suffers and doesn't show it. He's a squeaky clean rider who is so good that even the French have been known to throw urine at him because they can't believe that he rides clean. At least they notice him, even if it's in the negative. We don't seem to give a toss. Here's betting he doesn't make the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Top 3. For his achievements, he should win it.

 

Agree 100%. When you think that Wiggo only won the first TDF for Britain just 5 years ago, Froome's 4 maillots jaunes since then ought to be celebrated like England winning the World Cup. Considering British cyclists only used to win the occasional stage in the world's greatest bike race, actually winning the whole thing 5 times out of the last 6 would have been simply incredible a few years ago.

Mind you, on the green jersey, this year won by Australian Michael Matthews, I like most cycling fans have huge admiration for them. Someone said the other day on ITV4's brilliant coverage of the event that if you imagine Usain Bolt having to run a marathon just to get into the stadium and then compete for the 100 metres with a rolling start, it's a bit like what the sprinters have to do 8 or 9 times in the 3 weeks of every Tour de France. And on the mountain stages, when the sprinters form the so-called "laughing group" behind the peloton, they still have to complete the stage within the elimination time or risk expulsion from the whole Tour.

The Tour de France, by virtue of the number of people who stand by the roadside and watch it flash past, is arguably the greatest annual sporting event in the world. Anyone who wins it 4 times, without being chemically assisted, whatever their nationality, deserves recognition from their public. Any other country would have honoured Chris Froome by making him sporting royalty by now.

 

I think the same applies to Mo Farah! He deserves an equal amount of recognition from the public. I have said it before, he surely desrves SPOTY for his achievements over the past 8 or 9 years.

 

I think the whole drug scandal etc. just means a lot of people are indifferent to cycling at the moment.

 

I think you're a few years behind the times TLL. People aren't indifferent to cycling at all, if the crowds that follow any major event in this country are anything to go by.

 

Maybe I am, I used to know quite a few people who liked it but lost interest in recent years mainly due to that.

Clearly a small sample size though so will bow to your superior knowledge as I've never been all that interested

 

http://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/40725984

Following the example set by RF and RN by recuperating and allowing his body and mind time to rest, he should come back a much stronger player.

Wonder what Andy Murray will do? Bet he plays only one tournament pre-US Open, and whatever the outcome there will take the rest of the year off in order to give his body and mind much needed recovery time. Fran?