Beyond Osaka
How will people rate ? Not highly if you consider no world records were broken or you judge them by the size of the crowds which were on the whole disappointing. Nevertheless, and produced many .
Who were your athletes of the Games?
I suppose , including the 100/200 double, put him in pole position. Indeed the American team did very well with the likes of and reaffirming their undoubted talent. Female athlete of the Games? Well must have a good claim but impressed too.
British athlete of the championships - has to be , doesn't it? More of that later but we should be impressed overall by the performance of the British team; their best since . They came 10th on the medal table with a haul of 5 medals - 1 Gold, 1 silver and 3 Bronze - and got thirteen top eight finishes, just one short of the target of fourteen.
It's churlish though to dwell on that. After all, with three athletes achieving ninth places and numerous personal and season's bests set, there do seem to be grounds for genuine optimism for Beijing next year. It's also worth saying, as Trevor suggested in his post to my last blog, that if you look at the IAAF placings table, which gives points for top eight finishes, we rise to sixth in the table.
Back to Christine Ohuruogu. Judging by all your comments and the , the issue really divides opinion. We found it tricky to get the balance right. Yes, we wanted to celebrate her outstanding achievement, becoming World Champion in such dramatic circumstances, but also knew that we had a responsibility to put the by highlighting all the facts surrounding the case.
For example, our commentators and presenters explained that she was being tested continuously both before and during her ban and had indeed taken many tests; something that was not clear from some of the more hysterical media headlines. We also got the informed views of our pundits Michael Johnson and Colin Jackson and as she was trying to digest what had happened in the aftermath of the race.
We also , the Chief Executive of the , who joined us the day after the race; ultimately it will be the BOA will decide in October whether she is allowed to compete in . Overall though, you will all make up your own minds about Christine's Gold medal performance and it will be interesting to see what level of public support she has when it comes to the voting for in December.
There was really no contest as to which ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ team member provoked the most comments during Osaka! While you were keen to tell us what you thought of all of them, with the majority of comments being very positive, it was who topped the popularity poll. You said "his no-nonsense comments …are brilliant", he is "articulate and perceptive" and it was an "astounding privilege to hear him on British television". Praise indeed and I can promise that he will be in Beijing as part of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sport team for the Olympics next year.
We were also pleased with the viewing figures too despite the awkward time difference. The daytime figures for the evening sessions were favourable as were the evening highlights shows. Over the weekend too, we had good peak audiences at lunchtime with over two million watching both the and the relays.
We've not reached the end of our Athletics season yet. There are to report on radio and the website, the and to be featured on television as well, plus the weekend to savour across all our output.
However, following Osaka, it's definitely the Beijing Olympics which are uppermost in my mind and in those of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ team - only 338 days to go and counting!
