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james montgomery

Listed below are comments made by james montgomery between Thursday, 14th August 2008 and Tuesday, 25th August 2009.

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World medals only half story for GB 00:25am on 25 Aug 2009 I wouldn't so so far as to completely agree with Andyz81 but in general I think he's absolutely right. The idea that some of our current lot will peak in 2012 does not mean they'll win anything on the day!

Andy IS wrong when he say's white men can't run. They can but not in the numbers prevalent in East Africa. White men have won Olympic and WC medals, including gold, from 800-marathon which clearly disproves that assertion.

Troj.O:

Goldie Sayers and Tasha Danvers "proven performers"? Sayers never makes it (re medals) in the big comps despite her 4th in Beijing (brilliant as it was) and Tash, again a great run in Beijing but do you really think she'll be around again? Hardly surprising Mason wasn't on the radar considering he's a Jamaican who only popped over here on occasion. And Bingham? He's an American, lives in America, managed and coached by Americans. Why doesn't UKA just advertise in Kenya and Ethiopia and the rest of the world for that matter to invite any potential international athlete who could lay claim to a British passport, after all, Britain was once the greatest Imperial nation on the planet so plenty of it's inhabitants must have ties with us somewhere down the line.

All the optimism is fine but realistically, regarding medals in 2012 we're not that promising to make the number the goverment wants, i.e., 10+ medals with at least 3 gold and 50% of our athletes in finals across ALL events and not just the ones we're currently good or reasonable good in!
World medals only half story for GB 9:31pm on 24 Aug 2009 I certainly wouldn't call a silver or bronze mediocre or even, depending on the expectations for an athlete, making a final 8 for that matter. If an athlete PB's in a championship they've done as well as can be expected even if they didn't make a final.
Yes, relatively speaking, GB did better than many, including me, expected them to do. Bingham (even though he's really an American) Rutherford, Sharman, Freeman, Lewis, Meadows and Green were exceptional and deserve praise. Of course our medallists also deserve praise but they were expected to do as well as they did.
Now lets get realistic. Dorisky was to some people unlucky because she missed the gold by just 0.01 but others, including me, would say she was lucky over the incident in front that would more likely have placed her 4th?
The GB 4x100 team were perhaps also lucky the US got DQ'd as did the Bahamian team in the 4x400. But luck is all part of sport and medals and places can only go to those who make it through within the rules.
The real concern over the future development of GB towards 2012, is the fact that out of a team of 63 (?) less than a third made a final and more significantly,in terms of the supposed development of the talent pool and in the light of the last 10 years of public investment, 17 events had no British competitor and a further 11 had only one!
And just how bad is our, mainly mens,endurance running?
All aboard the Daley Express 12:30pm on 11 Jun 2009 BennyBlanco, It isn't rude at all. I was using it as a quote from the original. But in fact referring to anyone as a 'legend' is incorrect. DT is certainly a sporting celebrity a past superstar but not a legend which is described by the Oxford Dictionary as "a traditional story popularly regarded as historical myth, and legendary is "Of, or connected with legends"

As far as I am aware, Daley Thompson did not reside with the Gods on Mount Olympus or appear in any of their supposed activities!

However, I'm glad you agree the main point of my post.
All aboard the Daley Express 6:16pm on 10 Jun 2009 Any fool can devise masses of exercises for the the naive to undergo in the dumb belief that it will instantly do them good. It will in the long term and as a gradual process of progression but this stupid, "ooh, look I'm training with "legend" Daley Thompson and he's making it really tough" is going to leave every single one with a massive stiffness problem of even being able to move or walk over the next 7-10 days. (Tell me I'm wrong)
Any physiologist will tell you what happens to muscles not used to this kind of work and what they will feel like over the days following- very sore!
Any programme has to be appropriately progressive according to age, gender and fitness. Even a super fit athlete or footballer or tennis player would have problems after spending an hour going through exhaustive exercises their body is unfamiliar with. As with anything, Ssart with a little and progressively increase over the weeks as your body adapts
So for all those who took part enjoy being able to do nothing for the next 7-10 days!
Reality bites for British athletics 00:02am on 04 Dec 2008 So, Matt, what's your take on the idea of rewarding performance not just potential and how might that affect those already funded and those out of the category?
Reality bites for British athletics 00:26am on 17 Nov 2008 And just to clarify my previous post. I am not referring just to those who may be "too old" I am also referring to those who are in the "right age bracket" but who are outside the performance level at this time to get funded.

The failure of the past 10 years of lottery funding is that too many have been kept on well past their sell by date (injuries/ poor performances over too long a period) because their name, their coach or their face fits. While in the meantime others banging on the lottery door for at least the chance to get necessary medical support and inclusion on warm weather training camps are still left outside in the cold to go home and get on with it on their own.

No problem when the playing field is the same level for everyone but this highly subjective "elite" system is a sure way to erode motivation when every other athlete should be made aware that any top ranking performance at any time will provide appropriate support reward even if only on a trial period to help potential further progression.
Reality bites for British athletics 00:05am on 17 Nov 2008 By all means fund those young athletes deemed potential to final and possibly win a medal in 2012. BUT, don't leave out a Performance Reward System for anyone else. Otherwise what is motivating enough other athletes to sustain training at the level required to even get to the Olympics.

A 30 year old very good international athlete (and we have a few) who has struggled to get on the global podium over the previous 8 years would naturally be totally overlooked as having no possibility for London in 2012. Simply too old if they haven't done it by now! In fact it would be laught at to even consider funding such an athlete!

Well, Kelly Holmes was one such athlete. Four years before Athens she was 30 and considered by most to be well over the hill......and we all know what happened four years later when she was 34!

She's not the only "oldie" success story either, from Olympic Games. So don't lets purely support only the ones thought to be on the way up, at least keep the options open by rewarding and supporting whoever produces the right level of performance at any point between now and London because if that incentive isn't there we will be leaving too big a comfort zone, without challenge for those assuming they've already booked their place on the team!
Beijing, over and out - follow that, London! 6:07pm on 24 Aug 2008 Pity somebody from Boris's PR dept didn't tell him to keep his jacket button. He looked untidy and and shabby.

And what on earth was the bit about screwing up newspapers and throwing them away when the bus came in? Do we have to re-inforce what a couldn't care less, litter strewn city London is?!
Coe's London legacy challenge 08:24am on 21 Aug 2008
"Legacy"????

Perhaps Coe could tell us exactly how ten billion £pounds worth of Olympic venues in Stratford, East London will be a "legacy" and for whom, when no other previous Olympic city in the world has ever managed to even remotely utilise the facilities fully once the Games are over? The Sydney and Athens Olympic sites are virtually derelict.

For a while after the Games, even deserted, the stadia will be lovely to look at, nice to stroll around on a Sunday afternoon with the family but essentially they all become costly to maintain white elephants because the crowds they were built to accommodate have gone and won't return.

The main athletics stadium is already planned to be reduced from 80.000 seats to 25.000 after the Games and at what cost?

Only one athletics meeting a year will possibly fill that reduced stadium and what of the swimming pool, gymnastics hall and cycling velodrome? Events will occasional take place but never to capacity unless a world championship for that particular sport is awarded and after London's failure to deliver in 2005 for their award of World Athletic Championships, that is highly unlikely.

Then there's the athletes village supposedly to be made available at budget prices and rents to local people and essential public sector employees like nurses, teachers, police and firemen. But that remains to be seen. And what of the massive Media Centre, built to accommodate, during their work hours only, 5000 journalists?

Coe says the London Games will be far more modest. Currently the cost is already almost half that apparently spent by China/Beijing and by 2012 we can be sure the cost will have risen yet again.

The Olympics are a wonderful sporting event but the hype and political speak that goes into covering up the real cost and value of this jamboree and who personally benefits most, needs to be better questioned, exposed and controlled.
Capturing the youth market 09:43am on 14 Aug 2008 To answer the question as to whether a "Youth Olympics" will capture the imagination of young people and inspire them to follow a sport you only have to look at youth football, youth swimming, youth athletics and every sport where there are the younger catergories.

First of all there is plenty of participation BUT absolutely no audience relative to senior levels, hence it never justifies major media cover.

Young people don't aspire to be youth champions. Those that take up a sport seriously when young have ambitions only to be good at senior level. Youth competition is purely the pathway to the top.

Who is going to watch junior Wimbledon?
The public simply does not have an interest except for the best and that's at senior level.

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