Viewing Thread:
"And the prize for stating the obvious goes to..."

Steve Cram speaking to the BBC about Paula Radcliffe pulling out of the women's marathon this afternoon.

"This is not the way she would have wanted her Olympic challenge to end."

Vampyr wrote:
> its up there with all the great historical comedy moments.

Yeah, because it was funny.

...

Mong.

What amused me was Brendan Foster repeatedly telling the viewers that Radcliffe had beaten all the other competitors, everytime she'd previously raced them.

So what? The Marathon is a one off race, held under the conditions of its location. I don't care if she could "beat them all easily" in "British" conditions, she's in Greece running under local conditions. She should have prepared accordingly. The Gold medal is awarded to the person who finished that particular race in first place, regardless of previous form. I'm also pleased that the Japanese lady won, as her running technique has been criticised by the media etc.

It's akin to the Enland football team mentality. We're always in with a good chance of winning the next scheduled tournament, never the one we're about to compete in; penalties are a matter of luck not skill; the players are alwayd tired; the other team keep kicking the ball towards our goal...

At least we're not badge kissers and screamers though.

its up there with all the great historical comedy moments. sort of. or just not. =]

Ah bless...

Empireonline was discussing the box office with this:

Elsewhere, Paul W.S. Anderson's AvP (Alien vs Predator) fell away faster than Paula Radcliffe legging it up a Greek hill, dropping a whopping 67.4% to fourth place after its top spot opening last weekend.

Fantastic.

Mr Snuggly wrote:
Giving up in the middle of the race is different from not even trying.

Very true. Maybe she just had a bad day?

Is finishing fourth really that bad?

It is if you were expecting to win, and she was the overwhelming favourite.

They sure are milking her failure a bit.

Hopefully Paula will enter the 10k and win something for Britain.

exactly, scrap the meadals table

The Olympics is about individual sports and their best competitors, not about how well Great Britain is doing.

I personally am glad if a Briton wins a medal, (and I don't want them to beat everyone the whole time and win win win), but not because they're English or whatever and that makes them better than the other guy.

i dont mean to be disrespectful but you english wanna win everything, be it football, egg chasin, tennis, badminton, trampolining, cooking but if you think about it, you should only expect to win things you have good people in so you SHOULD win marathon, egg chasin rowing. y'all get too into it and its too much. if u watch the olympics when britain have won a medal you rarely hear anything else.

if you look at India, we have one silver. thats it. the pressure from fans is for hockey. 2golds were expected. nothing. 1 silver. now there is expectation, but britain have expectation for all things.

ive said my bit now.