No Mo, A Major Blow

There are many sports fans who have questioned the hoopla that surrounds the Commonwealth Games as in the last two editions many of the Gold medal winners have struggled to make the podium and sometimes the finals in events such as the Athletics World Championships or the Olympic Games. No longer does the event have the kudos of old.

Next year Glasgow will be the host city and they have had a budget of GBP524million to organise the Games. The signs are good with organisers claiming that they have had 2.3 million applications for tickets with only 1 million tickets available.

It is predicted that around 6,500 athletes from 70 countries will compete in 17 sports over 11 days from 23 July – 3 August next year. The expected television audience is around 2 billion.

However organisers are worried that this could be severely dented if the stars of Athletics fail to attend the games and compete.  Sprint sensation Usain Bolt has yet to confirm his attendance and has been quoted as saying  he is ‘not 100% sure’ he will be there.

Scotland’s six time Olympic Gold Medallist Sir Chris Hoy will definitely not be competing having announced his retirement, but the biggest blow it would appear is the news that dual Olympic gold medallist and world champion Mo Farah is looking unlikely to compete.

Farah is considered to be at the moment Britain’s finest athlete, so to have the 5000m and 10,000m Champion not attending the games will be a major blow for organisers.

The 30 year old Somalia-born athlete has declared he is proud to be British, but has stated his priority is the London Marathon in April. A race for which he is rumoured to be receiving a six figure sum.

He has not discounted participating in the Commonwealth Games but has said he will have to see how quickly his body recovers. Although he is quoted as saying ‘It is not on my list.’ Interestingly Farah has yet to win a Commonwealth Games medal, having finished 9th in the 5000m in Melbourne.

It would certainly be a blow to the event organisers if Bolt and Farah did opt not to attend, it would also be a blow to the Games as a whole. In Farah’s case it may influence many in the Scottish independence vote being held a month after the Games!

It will be sad but their absence will give opportunities to other up and coming athletes, to gain international experience and win medals that may indeed set them on the path to World Championship and Olympic medals. Fans will have the chance to see and remember these athletes first victories.

The Commonwealth Games may not have the same kudos of yesteryear, but they still have an important place in the sporting calendar as a stepping stone to greater things. For that reason success there should be put in perspective, and they should be a barometer of athletes and countries to look out for in two years time at the Rio Olympics.

 

 

The Race for Recognition

The BBC’s Sports Personality of the year awards have always been one of the most prestigious sporting awards to win. Although last year with no female nominees they were shrouded in controversy.

This year the 59th time the award has been given is likely to be very different and probably one of the biggest and most watched in decades.

This year’s shortlist of finalists has been expanded, not surprisingly following Great Britain’s hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. There will be twelve athletes in the final mix and the judging panel has also been expanded to twelve of which half are female.

Our tip would be for a win to either Heptathlon gold medal winner Jessica Ennis or or double gold winning Olympian Mo Farah, but believe it or not they are currently behind sultry Scot Andy Murray in the betting according to bookmaker William Hill.

Paralympian Ellie Simmonds whose personality shone through at the games in a year in which she also had her final school exams is an outsider along with Britain’s first boxing gold medal winner Nicola Adams, who recently broke down an extremely strong wall of resistance in the male dominated sport by picking up an award at the Boxing Writers Club, the first time ever for a woman.

The favourite is cyclist Bradley Wiggins who with his victory in the Tour de France this year became the first Briton to ever win the most gruelling of cycling events. At the Olympics he won gold in the time trial, making him the most decorated British Olympian in the process, with seven medals in total, surpassing the six won by rower Steve Redgrave. This record is now shared with fellow cyclist  Sir Chris Hoy who also obtained his 7th Olympic medal in the Olympics.

Yet many say that he may miss out as a result of the doping scandal surrounding cycling and the fall out from Lance Armstrong’s recent ban, one which has seen Wiggins benefit from him being stripped of his tour titles and being installed as third place finisher in 2009.  It is believed that the whole doping issue in cycling may well convince the judges to move away from Wiggins for fear that down the track should he be dragged into a similar scandal it could tarnish the awards.

Sadly Cycling’s failure to stay abreast of the developments in doping and take a strong line is having a far reaching impact on the sport and those who are doing the right thing.

All will be revealed in December and in the meantime many will speculate as to who will take out the coveted award. Who knows Rory McIlroy with his record breaking US PGA Championship win may be a bolter. As for the team of the year, Wales won the Grand Slam, Manchester City winning the Premiership in dramatic style, Team GB at the Olympics or possibly the Ryder cup team, not an easy one to judge at all.

Tell us who you would pick.

 

A Day to Remember

A quick question that is more of a coincidence probably than anything else. What do cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, oarsman Sir Steven Redgrave, the first man to run a sub-four minute mile, Sir Roger Bannister and double gold medal winner and possibly one day knighted Mo Farah have in common?

Would you believe the same birthday! All were born on March 23rd.

Some bright spark has picked up on this and encouraged those wanting an Olympic athlete for a child to start the process in May next year.  It probably takes a little bit more than just the same  birthday to make a star, after all this author shares his birthday with sprinter Wilma Rudolph, Cricket Sir Leonard Hutton, footballer Zinedene Zidane and golfer Colin Montgomerie. Which simply means I hit a gold ball like a cricketer have to sprint after it before it goes oput of bounds and can kick my divot beautifully in frustration!

On Your Bike!

ABC commentator Glen Mitchell is an avid cycling fan, and calls the sport superbly, but yesterday he maybe let his emotions run away with him.

He was calling Western Australia’s first athlete at the Commonwealth Games to win a gold medal, Scott Sunderland winning the men’s 1000m time trial, and when he realised that he had broken the Commonwealth Games record of Scotland great Sir Chris Hoy, he said that Sir Chris had “Boycotted” the games.

Boycotted would mean that he had decided not to attend as a form of protest, when in truth he along with other British cyclists opted to withdraw from the games in favour of the European Championships in a fortnight.

There is no doubt this decision is very sad for the Commonwealth Games and if they are to continue to be held in high regard the selectors of the various countries athletes need to address this. A simple way would be if you do not attend these games, you cannot represent us at the European event. But sadly money talks and ultimately as we see with so many sports the athletes hold the balance of power.