Outstanding performance from Mark English today 
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He was very comfortable. Great to see.
Finished his studies and has gone full time at it. Big year for him next year.
Noah Lyles looks the real deal.
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Karsten Warholm ran 46.92 for the 400m hurdles in Zurich tonight, the second fastest time of all time.
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That’s from Ian O’Riordan’s athletics column in the Paper of Record on Saturday. Jerry’s gripe is essentially that Irish athletics is in an awful state on the world stage and as a consequence RTE are about the only national broadcaster on the planet who couldn’t be arsed to televise the World Athletics Championship. Presumably because RTE feel that viewing figures would go through the floor with such a weak Irish field of just 7 athletes. Thomas Barr the only Irish athlete, with any real prospect of making a final. The big development since Saturday is that Mark English looks like he has got a late reprieve to compete.
Still, it’s all relative. The staging of the 17th World Athletics Championships has attracted 1,928 entries from 209 countries, comprising 1,039 men and 889 women across 50 different events. Of the 44 individual winners from two years ago in London, 38 will defend their titles in Doha over the 10 days.
The TV rights sold to over 200 countries, which does make RTÉ’s absence seem a little strange.
Doha will also begin in the face of some expected protests over Qatar’s illegal status for homosexuality, plus new research by Amnesty International published this week claiming hundreds of migrant workers in Qatar are going unpaid despite the country’s repeated promises to improve workers’ rights ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
Another part of the concern is that these 1,928 athletes in Doha may not even be the best qualified.
Mark English has missed out on a spot in the 800m under the new quota qualifying system, his 1:45.94 just shy of the automatic 1:45:80. He was ranked 41st of the 48 entries, only for eight places to go to countries permitted to send one athlete without any standard (Oman, UAE, East Timor, Myanmar, Kosovo, Jordan, Equatorial Guinea and Andorra)
It means the Irish team will consist of just seven athletes: Phil Healy (200m) and Michelle Finn (3,000m steeplechase) qualified under the event quotas, with Thomas Barr (400m hurdles), Ciara Mageean (1,500m), Alex Wright (20k walk) Brendan Boyce (50km walk) and Stephen Scullion (marathon) all qualifying on time.
Kiernan’s predictions on that front are equally blunt.
“We won’t have anything really to shout about, and it doesn’t help when they’re bringing in a bunch of countries like East Timor, and I could probably run faster than them at this stage. So I can understand why Mark might have a gripe. But there is something there for next year for him, definitely, and now is the time to start preparing.
Yes indeed, looking forward to reading the opinions of all the TFK Athletics fans who heartily endorsed Jerry’s views.
I’m a big athletics fan and will follow it closely on Eurosport and BBC. That’s the reality with no world class Irish performers though. Little or no interest in it and viewing figures if RTE did show it would be tiny. World Athletic Championships traditionally are held around the middle to end of August. Hosting it in early October doesn’t help either.
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The World Athletics Championships don’t even seem to be on Eurosport. FFS. Will be stuck watching the see no evil hear no evil BBC coverage.
Barr is out today. Will do well to make final
I’ll be attending the athletic championships tomorrow, I’ll report back
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The air conditioning in an outdoor stadium is mental. Keeps it at 24 to 26 degrees.
Thomas Barr into semi final. Second behind the World Champion, Karsten Warholm.
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Gatlin, the stain on the sport, is still going at 37. One of favourites for 100m. Michael Johnson praising his “durability” on BBC
28 of the 68 starters in the ladies marathon dropped out in a race run at midnight in the most benign weather conditions of the day of 32 degrees and 70% humidity.
The IAAF don’t look too good here
Running faster now “clean” than when he was doping.
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The stadium is practically empty.
100m Final At 8.15
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Thats ridiculous
This is what happens when blue riband global sporting events are handed out by corrupt administrators to the likes of Qatar.
I’ve just been in at the stadium and have left, very badly run event, no water for sale in the place, the missus got groped by security on the way in, dead atmosphere and some English wanker on the stadium microphone. MarkEnglish came Paddy last in his heat also
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