Day 2 Athletics Recap (Friday 2nd Aug)

So it's 11pm, we've just walked through a few streets, it is like pumping, um, I mean it's a Friday night, so in summer, so I presume it's probably always like this, but there's a soccer match on at the moment, and like, even from the apartment, you can like hear the cheers and stuff downstairs, a lot of different countries, so it's a lot of different countries. Um, like kits and paraphernalia. So, walked past quite a few South African supporters. Um, and yeah, the, yeah, it's pretty cool.

A lot of police, which, yeah. It's good. I know. I know. Very excited. but also very excited because when I was on the train, a few of the track events started. so yeah, we're going to recap the men's 1500 heats, then the women's 5, 000 meters heats and 800 meter heats. And then we'll do a little bit of a preview of what's to come for tomorrow being Saturday the 3rd of August. did you get up and watch? Yep. I'm bruised. Alright, so, tell me what happened, what happened in the men's 1500s.

Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Mmm. Yep. Yeah, yeah. So should we talk a little bit about, so the repo charge for everyone at home. I mean, I feel like we're all very new to this. so it is, for those wondering, it's like, it's actually loosely translated from French to mean second chance. Um, and like in the past Olympics, athletes have all qualified to the semi finals of their respective races by finishing in the top two or three, um, or qualifying on time.

But then now, like for Paris 2024, um, for like the sprinters and hurdlers, so every, or the distances up to 800 and 1500, if they don't get, um, in the first, like, in the top three of their heat qualified. Yep. No matter what the time is, then they will all go in to have that like second chance record charge round. Um, so in a sense, I mean, it's, I guess it's like a different kind of racing. Cause the times just like don't matter at all.

Whereas previously people still would have wanted to get quite a fast time because on the, Yeah, because if they didn't make it in the top three, then it would be the fastest to go around, um, to go through, sorry. So it's like kind of an interesting dynamic and I guess as well like maybe in these heats and stuff when once people realize that they're not gonna make it through, like you kind of wonder if they might sort of like just save themselves for the repercharge.

Um, but yeah, so strange dynamic. I reckon it will like, yeah, change the dynamic of like a lot of the races, but it would be so hard, especially in the longer, like the eight and the 15, because it means I'll have to do a whole nother race. So like, instead of doing three races, if they were lucky enough to get through the final, they'd be doing four, which is crazy. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not sure. All I know is that there's, there's the reper It's just between the heats and the semis.

There's no repercharge from the semi to the final. Um, anyway. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. They're still so fast. Yeah, it just doesn't happen. Yeah. Hmm. still could. Yeah. And I'll make it. It's like, yeah, it's like pretty famous in the sense, I mean, famous is the wrong word, but like, it's pretty entertaining. Like they, uh, like obviously rivals on the track, and like, yeah, they sort of like, you know, one will get up on the other, then the other will win.

But it's like, it's more so the off track stuff that I think is so entertaining. Like they'll badmouth each other and sort of make their whole like press conferences and interviews, just about being the other person. So there's a lot of, a lot of beef, some may say, between the two. So, uh, yeah, it would be pretty, it'll be pretty interesting to, to watch. Even, yeah, if you're, like, listening to this, Google Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen and, like, heaps of stuff will come up.

Um, if you like a little bit of goss, yeah. Um, which Yeah. Bizarre. Yeah, it's actually crazy. Yeah. Yeah, I know, you gotta have a lot of confidence. alright, should we get on to the women's 5, 000 metres? So, there were two heats. we had Lauren Ryan from Australia in the first. Um, so the heat one was pretty stacked with the pre race favorites. So, the people who we spoke about when we did our little deep dive into the 5, 000 meters.

And so that's like Kenyan's faith, Kipi Agon, and Saffan Hassan from the Netherlands and then Goudaf Sagai from Ethiopia. Yeah, reasonably tactical, I think, because a lot of them are also doing the 10, 000 metres as well, or the 15, or if you're Safaan Hassan doing the 10, 000 metres 5K Ad Marathon. Yeah. so they obviously just like, yeah, we're like scoping each other out and probably trying to get through with like the least amount of energy, Lauren, she ran strongly.

She put herself right in the mix covering the early moves and sitting in the first handful of runners. But then once the race got going and the others started to like speed up a little bit, she sort of fell away a little. She, yeah, she finished strong 13th. but yeah, I feel like she probably wouldn't be so strong. I'm super stoked because I feel like her, I think it's just over 30 seconds slower than her PB.

And like I know it's always different in these championship races, but I feel like she probably would have been wanting a little bit more from it. Yeah. Chill. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Mm. Mm. Actually, go off the front. Yeah, yeah. so, yes, then we go to Heat 2. So, the other two, Aussies, Izzy Bat Doyle and Rose Davies, were both in, this Heat.

Which is, I feel like they're, like, As we said before, Lauren's doing the 5K and the 10K, whereas both Izzy and Rose, um, are focusing just on, like, they're just on the five. it was actually a great race for the Australians. Rose Davies, who's the national record holder, she ended up getting through to the final, which is insane. I think she's only the fifth. I think she's the fourth Australian to ever make it through to a Olympic Games 5k final as a female, which is like absolutely sick.

And then Izzy Bat Doyle, who's also Rose's training partner, she got so close. She came ninth and unfortunately the top eight qualify. But she, like, she's such a workhorse, like she literally was on the front of the race, like the whole, not the whole, but like the majority of the race, which is insane. Yeah, yeah Yeah, this, yeah, the thing, yeah, I think it was like three quarters of a second or something.

The thing, like, even when she sort of started to fade a little bit, she, uh, just like, she was just so courageous and just, like, went again. Like, she was just, like, so gritty. Um, and yeah, it's just, like, it's so, I don't know, I'm like, I'm really sad that she didn't make it. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I agree. She's with them. Yeah, I know. Yeah, especially considering, like, I remember watching her in Tokyo, in the 5, 000 metre heats, and she just, like, wasn't in it at all.

whereas like this, watching this, I mean her and Izzy, like this heat, they were like contenders kind of thing, rather than just like there to participate. So, yeah, we'll look forward to seeing our Rose in the final. So, first up, we had Kat Bissett, who was in Heat 4, with my gal, Keely Hodgkinson, from Great Britain. Kat was sitting in third, and actually looking really good and comfortable, at the, Bell lap.

So with 400 meters to go and then kind of struggled, got clipped, and like lost her way a little bit. And so the race got away from her. So she ended up finishing seventh in her heat, but, it, it didn't look like she was, you going full gas at the end. and like we were speaking before, obviously there's a repercharge rounds for these events.

So I mean, I wonder if she sort of, once she was out of the race, I wonder if she sort of thought, Oh, you know what, let's just like, not go absolutely ham and try and save a little bit left for the repercharge. But I don't know, who knows? that's just what I hope. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which, yeah. Yeah. so then Abby in Heat 5? Mmm. Yeah. It's such a shame. Oh, that's sad. Yeah. Yeah. then finally in heat six, we had our national champion out there, 19 year old Claudia Hollingsworth.

so she like, as always, she just looks so strong when she runs. She looks like she's been doing it for so many years, yet she's only 19. so yeah, she came out of the gates firing, got herself in a great position, just looked really comfortable and relaxed the whole way. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah. Like, almost, yeah. I'm so excited to see her in the semis. I reckon it'll be so good. Yeah. so we've got all three of the Australian men in the 1500 metres.

And then the two unlucky women, Kat Bissett and Abby Caldwell in the 800 metres. we'll be seeing them in the repercharge tomorrow. So this will be the first time. round, like the first repercharge, that's gone on. So actually it'd be really interesting to see how it plays out. I'm really excited because I genuinely just have no idea. Like, I don't know if they're just, I don't know. part of me is like, probably they're all going to like sprint because they're like desperate.

But then at the same time I'm like, Oh, but I don't know. There's sort of like tactics to it because if they just like, all out sprint, then they're going to be cooked for the semi final anyway. I don't know. I think Kat and Abby, I think they'll both make it through. I don't think any of the guys will. You are? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Intense. Yeah. As in like, doesn't actually do the repercharge? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like if he's on the start line, he's going to be leading it.

I didn't think he'd go to the start line and then just see how you feel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, alright, excited to watch. I think that's all for our first little recap and preview. I I know, so good. Well, yes, keep your eyes and ears peeled on our Instagram. DM us if you have any questions or if you, want to hear anything in particular, cause we'll be doing these every day, almost days of the athletics. So get used to us. All right. Bye.