mcordi wrote:
I'd like an answer to this question, if anyone has it. I thought they had lousy coverage of the women's mile.
First, they focused most of their pre-race hype on Jen Toomey (it was her right?) and talked about her home track advantage and she finished 8th and was never a factor. They barely mentioned anyone else. During the race they never really talked about the Irish girl who finished 3rd (she is already in the Olympics in the Steeple).
Notice on all those videos of old races from Europe how the English announcers are calling out names like a horserace? We need more of that and less crap coming out of their mouths.
Yes, it was pretty lousy coverage. I understand the Toomey thing (local), but the organizers made it difficult to get into the race. To their credit, they did run through the credentials of the competitors before the races, and they seemed to want to keep the meet moving above all else - and they did a good job of that.
The crowd just wasn't into it. I was on the first turn just in front of the finish line (an arm length from Defar's husband who was reading splits for her!) and I was literally getting glares for cheering. What the hell? People complain about the sub-par performances in the shot, etc, but to me it goes both ways. When Geb made his Boston appearance it was CHAOS. Just electric, and it produced an exciting meet. The Ethiopians were literally dancing and singing together, it was incredible. This year I tried yelling "Alright Reese!" during the shot and people were like "Hey, shut up! What's wrong with you?"
As for Kim Smith, it's early in the year but DAMN, she fought hard in that race. She's looking good, I like to think she'll be mixing it up in the Beijing finals.