Pan Pacs

 It was 24 yar ago that a few of us entered the World Masters Games mainly because the games had come to Melbourne, so let's give it a go we said. In about two months time I will be in Brisbane and an hour down the road they are running the Pan Pacific Masters Games. Last time we picked an event (8km cross country) at the time of entry and tried to prepare as best as possible in the eight weeks that were left.  It seems much the same this time around as I now have 9 weeks left having just spent my money on the entry fees.  I think it will workout at $65 per throw but it does take a lot of cash to organise these things.  I did a throws session this morning. It was across the road. However I found a more stable grassy patch which I could practice launching into a sandy patch. Not ideal conditions. On the way back I cleared up a mess from some party people who left empty packets and empty bottles at our favourite rock seat.

Two results to note. The womens list wasn't online so Debbie should have her time recorded somewhere. I note the men's shot category had seven competitors back then.

for someone else to pickup

Award Two Golds

 It seems to me that trying to separate two guys who are sprinting at the end of a 42km race and you have to take it to thousands of a second, then give them both a gold medal. Two golds have been awarded in athletics previously.  The Tokyo championships have come alive since spectators were banned at the previous Olympics and we have a favourable time slot from here. We can thank covid for an athletics rerun in Tokyo.  Mind you there can't be to many wins for Tanzania previously.

Bein Sports

 I was trying to watch the women's high jump yesterday. Channel 7 used to do the world athletics coverage but for some reason the Bein sports are doing it.  This can be seen as part of Foxtel and it has to be the worst standard of coverage.  Minimal cameras, minimal commentators. The guy yesterday was calling a track race and by the time he swings back to the field, the jumping has moved on. So he starts reading the result board giving us the latest view but we are waiting to continue from where it left off. So no spoiler alert then they replay the jump he just described and he is embarassed but shrugs it off. This happened more than once and in the end I don't think we saw the actual finish of all the jumps.  They have more than one channel. Use one for track and one for field, it's not that hard.  

Eleanor Patterson

The NAGA Award

I think the the award should be shared equally between all the golfers although the preceding and trailing groups seemed it bit worse.  The number of balls that were lost was numerous but by the time the ninth hole came there were genuine birdie chances.  The scorecard is laid out below so there can be no arguments.  The tallies were JO 49 JA 54 D 56 P 49 T 52 C 60

9th hole birdie chances

NAGA for you

Dragons

Boats that is!  Years ago Melbourne Water (or was it BOW)  ran a dragon boat.  I went down to a trial day just to observe but I never actually got in the boat.  It was more of a team building thing and Melbourne Water looked after the waterways so it was a good fit.  These guys and gals today are all serious about these races and they were head down and all sprayed paddles.  There was a guy trying to recruit us, yes there are seniors races, its only a 200 metre course.  But it's a summer season and you travel all over Victoria to compete.

Just beat it

Era of non dominance?

Not sure how far back you have to go to find another premiership trend like this one where the Premiers have not won for decades like Bulldogs last year and Tigers this year.  Where two different teams have played off compared to the year before, where no player on the field has ever played in a Grand Final before.  This could be the era of non dominance where back to backs are a thing of the past due to the evenness of the teams.

Post match critique

Footy Live Site

Because we were in the area we called in to the MCG to check out the Live site which is where the teams arrive after the cavalcade. I assume some of the screens will stay in place to watch the game outside the ground.  I think next year we will try for a bike ride to see more of the action.  The AFL doesn't do anything by halves and I would say there was a Grand Final size crowd along the whole route particularly at the end. I was impressed with the Tower of Torp mind you every kick I saw off the top was a drop punt.

T he whole car is ball bearing

Tower of Torp

Tiggy

Just had my first look at the World Tiggy Championships. Not sure if my eyes were deceiving me. I notice AFL players in the Australian team.  I have heard of a lot of things ending up as a ticket buying sport but your average school yard tiggy, complete with hand holding, can't be a real a sport. There were multiple cameras for reviewing the merest touch just like last week's Grand Final of the footy. At the same time it is also a tackle and wrestle game. The sledging is classic like "You can't touch me". Who would have thought.

It's a load of Kabbadi

Pick the highlight

My Aussie highlights are the surprises like the Modern Pentathlon. Are there even any competitions in Australia?  Interesting how they grade everyone before the final race. The low light would have to be the BMX riding. Oversized people on undersized bikes. How inconsistent is it to win 6 semi final races and get not one medal from that position? Why is it the best of three lead up races then it is just one medal race? My non Aussie highlight would be Schooling beating Phelps in his last Olympics and getting Singapore's first gold medal ever.  I remember being in Singapore where there was a bar that threw a party after every Australian Gold Medal because Singapore could not get any of their own.

Phelps out Schools in

Calm during fire

Rio

Its not often you see a medal count without the US somewhere prevalent let alone Australia at the top. This will change but it is a good start. I can remember in Sydney great pains were taken to get a schedule where Australia would get gold on day one. They determined that women's triathlon was the way. It almost worked when the Aussie got run down at the end to get Silver but by another Aussie who had switched to Switzerland.

The Count

Just saw the Brazil v Russia beach volleyball. The place was half empty. Go figure!  Where and when do Russians play volleyball on beaches?

Digital Olympics

I'm working through the digital options to view the Olympics. As usual the time zone is a problem although evening sessions are occurring during our morning. I tried recording the main channel last night to get the men's road race but they switched channels half way thru.  If you pay $20  you can get 36 channels live on your Ipad but that still doesn't help if you want to record for later viewing. The web page is possible for a catchup but that may not cover everything.

Belgium has a win

World Cup of Cricket

We bought these tickets 18 months ago for the opening match Aust v Eng, so a long time in the planning. My mate Mick got us into the members at the MCG as well, which largely means we were in the shade. A good result all around.  The poms were outplayed in all facets but I think their fielding was typically down. I believe you should increase your intensity in the field if you are bowling first. Four dropped catches before they held one late in the innings not good. With 342 on the board Aust could afford a slight relaxation.

As far as the unusual end to the match goes there is no instance in cricket where two batsmen can be got out from one ball. In this case the striker was given out LBW and the non-striker was run out trying to steal the resultant leg bye.  The ball is declared dead when the umpire gives a player out, so Anderson becomes not out. However half pint James Taylor appealed via the DRS to successfully change his Out to Not Out, this means the ball is not dead so Anderson changes from Not Out to Out. Simples!  Half wit commentators are trying to suggest that the ball is still dead after Taylor is given not out. If that's the case then there would never be an over throw.

Mitch Johnson at 150 kph

Marathon Man

I can recommend the I-view method of watching some Games events.  For one thing there was only two ads at the start of the broadcast, after that uninterrupted and dedicated coverage of the marathon. Mind you the organisers in Glasgow ran the men's and women's marathons in a staggered arrangement so the coverage swapped from one to the other.  Not to mention that the aussie Michael Shelley pulled away from the Kenyans for a memorable win. So those Africans can be beaten to the utter amazement of the English broadcasters. The quality of the display was a noticeably chunky in full screen mode however the half screen option was passable and with no extra charge, you can't argue. This is where pay tv will get its competition. I have been on cable internet delivery for years but when the NBN gets around the place, live streaming will really become a better quality flood.