Been watching the athletics - probably more people in the local pub than actually in the stadium in Doha (an omen for the 2022 World Cup!?) Dina Asher Smith is a star of the future - a sliver in the 100m in a national record/personal best time at the age of 23. Only beaten by a true legend of the event in Fraser Pryce. They had a mixed 4x400m relay which like in swimming seems to be the vogue these days.
Imaging trying to run a marathon under 2 hours for the first time then being told it won't really count as a world record !! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/athletics/49771509
I watched much of this yesterday morning and was really moved.. A farmer from Kenya has broken an all time record... Good for him...
As the days get shorter, it is good to look forward to next summer. The route of the 2020 Tour de France has been announced, and it looks as if it will be coming close to me. As the route was being shown to the teams, it was good to see that Chris Froome was there, looking well after his dreadful accident. Chauvigny where stage 12 will start is about 40 minutes away from here, and the route is bringing the Tour in my direction, so I might well get out to see it.
https://www.letour.fr/en/overall-route At this point the start and finish towns are announced, but we will have to wait for the details of the roads that will be actually used. As you can imagine a huge amount of detailed planning with road closures etc will now have to take place.
No one as far as I can tell is commenting on the rugby world cup. I decided on Saturday morning to indulge in England's quarter final with the Aussies and we really did a job on them. Great performance. I am not generally a rugby fan nor do I understand much of the rules of the game which seems to depend on each team fouling each other constantly but you get a penalty for falling down in a scrum! I was also impressed how fast and sharp some of these massive blokes can be when they run. Next up NZ and if we can repeat the same performance we are in with a chance of the final. BTW the VAR works, as it does in cricket so FA what's the problem?
I haven't been watching as much as I should, or want to, given that all the sport I watch tends to go against me! LOL! The laws of rugby are quite simple, the interpretation of them is another matter. MotM in the Japan v South Africa Q-F was the smallest guy on the pitch! A pity the Japanese lost, they are a brilliantly entertaining side and their final pool match against Scotland was an absolute joy to watch. Scrummaging requires that the players stay on their feet and neither collapse nor push the scrum up or else serious (life changing) injury can, and does on occasion, occur. England will need to be at their best: ferocious but fair in the tackle; disciplined to keep the penalty count down; clinical in attack, taking the chances that they create and punishing the very few mistakes that NZ will make. I suspect it will be NZ v SA in the final, alas.
Missed the game this morning, caught the last minutes... the England team looked like they'd left everything on the park: as you have to as a bare minimum to neat New Zealand. Astonishing effort from what I can tell. Missing the game this afternoon too. Nasty chest bug I've awoken with... Not for sharing.
yes they did they barely had the energy to shake their opponents hands, superb display. I really like the transparency of the refereeing and VAR in rugby, everything is explained in public and to the teams - why can't this be done in football? Maybe we would see less errors?
Because they think we'll break out into a riot watching a replay and the players will just keep swearing at the officials (if they did jut book them!) Basically no-one trusts anyone in football. Anyway great performance by England - who do we want in the final?
