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These 50 comments are related to an article called:

Asafa v Tyson Gay - Where's Your Money?

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posted Jul 10, 2009

I'm not sure the 100m is a forgone conclusion, as much as the 200m is.

If he gets out Bolt will win, no doubt. However a perfect run from Gay over a Bolt mistake could see a shock.

Giving Bolt 2 Golds before he sets foot on the track isn't a sure bet. I'd put plenty of money on it though

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posted Jul 10, 2009

I have to agree with Flying on the 100m. All it takes is a slight mistake or tighten up in your technique (i.e Asafa) and it's over and lost in a flash. It would be safe to say he is favourite to win but it's not as set in stone as everyone makes it out to be!

But going back to the original posters question i would back Tyson for tonights race purely for the fact that Asafa is still not back to full fitness!

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posted Jul 10, 2009

im down with gay tonight smiley lol i think gay will win easy tonight to be honest, making the worlds even more mouth watering

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posted Jul 10, 2009

Does anyone know any links to watch tonights GL meet?

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posted Jul 10, 2009

on eurosport apparently but not checked yet

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posted Jul 10, 2009

please tell me I can watch tonight online or something??

as for the result, I think Tyson will win 9.85 with Powell 9.90-9.95

as for Berlin next month, well I can hardly wait ....

just cant see Bolt losing at the moment, Tyson will need a awesome start & not tighten when Bolt (who undoubtably will) gain in the final 30 metres ... its will be a classic!!

as for the 200m I think Tyson is gonna have to break Michael Johnsons 19.32 American record just to stand a chance ...

I think he will push Bolt in Berlin to breaking the 19.30 set in Beijing last summer .... cant see him beating Bolt over 200 tho!

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posted Jul 10, 2009

it's on eurosport marv

a week ago I'd have said Gay will win this easily. But Powell absolutely slaughtered a decent field the other night. I think he might edge it tonight

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posted Jul 10, 2009

Gay will win it in 9.88.

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posted Jul 10, 2009

how about money on a gay sub 9.8

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comment by FS1978 (U10999439)

posted Jul 10, 2009

"how about money on a gay sub 9.8"

Yeah why not. Gay 9.78, powel 9.87

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posted Jul 10, 2009

I ran the 100m in 9.19 flat. I'm going crazy!

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posted Jul 10, 2009

Powell still isn't sharp enough, don't think he will trouble a mistake free Tyson Gay. Powell has enough trouble with his head without worrying about an injury that is clearly affecting him still.

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comment by ForOne (U5418675)

posted Jul 10, 2009

I dont think Powell is a top form yet after his injury, so the money has to be on Gay.
In a way as far as the Worlds go it would be good if Gay thrashed Powell as it would take some of the pressure off him. Hopefully over the next few weeks Powell will gain his form and then be able to run at his best, but without pressure in the Worlds Final, making for a superb race...

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posted Jul 10, 2009

Its 50-50 IMO. Powell run 10.07 in the pouring rain into a headwind last week, which is good pace for a man 85% fit. I think if he can run 9.85 he will beat Tyson however i think Powell will do well to go sub 10 sec because he has had a struggle this year so far

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posted Jul 10, 2009

I've just ran 9 seconds flat!!!!!!!!

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comment by FS1978 (U10999439)

posted Jul 10, 2009

Has powell not already gone sub 10. it may have been wind aided.

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comment by etuoyo (U14025122)

posted Jul 10, 2009

Yes Powell went under 10 seconds at the Jamaican trials. Was around 9.96 to 9.98. The wind was legal so his Season's Best is under 10 seconds.

Forone I thought the fact that Usain Bolt was favourite for the 100m at the Olympics would take some of the pressure of Asafa. However, he still choked and finished 5th which was the same placing he had at the 2004 Olympics. So I think his problem is just that he can't handle major finals rather than that he can't handle being favourite at major finals.

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posted Jul 10, 2009

Can't believe my post was removed for using Tysons 2nd name. Brilliant stuff BBC.

I think you are right about Asafa but this race will be a real opportunity for him to run with almost now pressure or the eyes of the world weighing heavy on him. He was still far more under pressure in Beijing than he will be in Berlin

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posted Jul 10, 2009

you have a few issues pal, I suggest you find something else to add to your life.

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posted Jul 10, 2009

I don't expect much from Asafa these days and Tyson Gay has his number mentally.

Even from the interviews you don't get a sense of grit or confidence exuding from from Asafa. He is still talking times not winning competitions compared to TYson who's said he wants WR and title and looked like he meant it.

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comment by shivfan (U2435266)

posted Jul 10, 2009

My heart says Asafa, but my head says Tyson....
smiley

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posted Jul 10, 2009

Looks like its going to be a fast race. Tyson ran 9.96 in a -0.1m headwind compared to Powell's run of 9.98 with a slight tailwind. Tyson's looking impressive!!

Looks like we have a new kid on the block too, Daniel Bailey, he's been running Asafa close in a couple of races and in fact won the heat including Asafa

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comment by paps83 (U3970803)

posted Jul 10, 2009

Excellent run by Tyson - 9.77 with a meter on Powell. Fairly modest +0.4 wind behind him.

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posted Jul 10, 2009

As predicted Tyson won. Respect to Gay. Dont think he has been given the recognition he deserves. He's a true contender and Bolt may come to regret doubting his ability to break the WR. The WR will definitely go. Powell's coming back nicely and was the more relaxed of the two. Unusually Tyson got a great start. This will be the key if he is to beat Bolt.

And what about Kerron Stewart - 10.75!!. Bring on Berlin

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comment by shivfan (U2435266)

posted Jul 10, 2009

Kerron Stewart just powered away from Fraser!
yikes
What a run!
ok

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posted Jul 10, 2009

I hate to the voice of unfounded suspicion but Stewart's shoulders are awfully broad......


Very impressive from Gay after a poor start. Promising signs from Powell after an equally poor start, would have gone 0.06/7 faster if he hadn't eased off once he knew he had lost (something he needs to cut out).

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posted Jul 10, 2009


Great run by Gay. Powell is comming back.

Please god let all these guys remain fit for Berlin.

History will be made in Berlin.

Gay has two world leading. 9.77 and 19.58 impresive.

I want to see what Bolt has in the 100 now.

I need him to go out at Crystal Palace and give it his all.

Great run by Stewart 10.75 she is now the second fastest Jamaican woman ever. She will go below 10.7 in Berlin.

Jamaica 123 in Berlin for the women 100m.

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posted Jul 10, 2009

well, I got that one wrong ...

Gay looked fantastic. I only think it'll serve to push Bolt on to something even more outrageous though, somewhere in the low 9.6s

Really impressed by the 19 yr old Jamaican Blake. they've been making a lot of noise about him for a few years now and it looks like he's shaping itno something special. Shocking start, but ran on really well for his first sub 10

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posted Jul 10, 2009

Yohan blake has been earmarked for greatness.

He is under the tutelage of Usain's coach Glen Mills.

He is one to watvh for the future.

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posted Jul 11, 2009

I did have a thought of suspicion after that race. We haven't seen times like that since Jones, I'd never heard Stewart before this year, and she looked massive! But what can you do? You have to accept and appreciate the performance for what it was, and assume it was done clean other wise there is no point in watching.

I'm probably less interested in the womens events anyway because I consider a lot of the records to be dubious.

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posted Jul 11, 2009

you can never tell for sure if an athlete is on drugs or not. However some of the posts suggest posters are not up to speed on athletes' performances fastfan said he'd never heard of keron before - she only got the silver and bronze at beijing in the 100m and 200m respectively!!

Even then i thought she was displaying massive raw talent. Let's not all reflexively jump on the PED bandwagon just yet particularly if we haven't been following sprinting closely.

The womens times and performances are due a bit of revision - they have stood static whilst men's times have been progressively lowered over the last 15 years.

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posted Jul 11, 2009

"However some of the posts suggest posters are not up to speed on athletes' performances"

Replace athletes' with women ahtletes'.

I'm afraid I tend not to enjoy following performances that can be easily achieved by a good U17 boy! The only reason I watched it was because it was between other events, but thats just my preference.

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posted Jul 11, 2009

haha fastfan.

So my quesiton is what is is that has all of a sudden seem jamaican women dominate the sprints??? Now that they have stopped going to the US to train maybe? Lack of a NADO? Or is it really sunshine and yams??

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posted Jul 11, 2009

Its possible that a lock of a NADO si the reason, but that’s almost impossible to tell. So I'd have to put it down to other members of the Jamaican team performing well, i.e. success breading success.

Powell, Bolt and Gay have taken male sprinting to a new level in the same way. I would expect the female US sprinters to be right on the heels of the Jamaicans very soon.

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posted Jul 11, 2009

Flying Hurdler, I see where you're coming from but you also have to take into consideration:

Greece, Russia and the U.S all have NADO's and look how many of their athletes have failed tests and come out with positives for PED's...
Plus, with a nation as small and ill financed as Jamaica, are we on the one hand going to talk about this nation and similar nations like they are poor, third world places when it suits our superior propagandist agenda and at the same time say this small nation has developed a science so advanced not even the American and Russians have come up with it and none of the testers can test for it?

We are selectively suspicious when we want to be in this country, I must say. But our prejudice towards a small nation shouldn't cloud or judgements and make us hypocrites.

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posted Jul 11, 2009

Bolts on sumthn

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posted Jul 11, 2009


For years Jamaican female sprinters have been cheated by their American counterparts.i

The name Flo Jo, Marion Jones, Kellie Whyte et al. comes to mind.

Merlene Ottey, Juliet Cuthbert, Tanya Lawrence and Grace Jackson Small, all silver, bronze medalist behind american drugs cheat.

Now that the drugs testing is becomming more stringent american female sprinting is going backward.

The playing field is getting level now thats why we are seeing the emergence of Jamaica.

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posted Jul 12, 2009

People say Flo-Jo cheated because of her early death, relating it to drug use. But then it is based on a cynical outlook rather than an objectionable one. There was no proof Flo-Jo was on drugs as she never tested positive, and for people who say she was because of her build, I know girls at my athletics club less in Loughborough less womanly, less pretty and more muscular looking than her which shows how stupid it is to relate PED useage to physical attributes.
People also seem to question her performances based on the fact she has retained the record for so long, but have then don't question how it is that Jonathan Edwards record doesn't look like it's going to be broken within the next five years, making it a possible 20 year standing record.
Plus, if we were to be equal in our criticisms of Flo-Jo, we would apply the same scrutiny across swimming, pole volt (Isinbayeva), men's 100 and 200m (Bolt), Javelin and the whole lot.

But back on topic, Tyson Gay has a chance in beating Bolt if

A) he can get to Bolt psychologically, either by getting a blinding start and putting Bolt off rhythm by causing him not to run his own race or

or

B) Bolt slips, trips, cut's his knee and breaks his ankle and can't crawl to the line.

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posted Jul 12, 2009

Flo Jo beat the old record by 0.3 of a second. If Bolt, Powell or Gay comes out and runs 9.39 I will be highly suspicious!
On another note, do you think that it will ever get that low?

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posted Jul 12, 2009

lol... has anyone seen the women's all time top lists for the sprints 100, 200 and 400m. Nobody has come cloes to breaking those records in the last 20 years! It is crazy that no one has bothered to try and prove whoever was on drugs.

It is crazy to think that todays crop of athletes, with better training, diet, shoes can not beat what we had 20 years ago.

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posted Jul 12, 2009

'It is crazy to think that todays crop of athletes, with better training, diet, shoes can not beat what we had 20 years ago.'


Very good point.

People should ask themselves - What happened to German and Eastern Bloc (Former soviet republics) sprinting?

Remember in the 70s 90s and early 90s they produced some great female athletes. I for one believe that some of those performances were questionable.

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posted Jul 12, 2009

Well in Swimming the records are coming because of the new suits.

As for Flo-Jo, she never tested positive but her post-mortem gave more damning evidence of drug abuse than was needed. It wasn't just about the fact that she look manly and muscular.

Marita Kochs (400m) program has been well documented and commented upon by her and her coach so that is proven.

As for Johnathan Edwards you only have to look at his power to weight ratio (the guy was a 10.3 runner) and speed through the phases compared to the best we have today to see why he was so successful in his event and don't forget people like Olsen were definitely capable of getting close to Edwards best mark

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posted Jul 12, 2009

True FH, but it's all relative. Yes FLo Jo's heart condition may have suggested anabolic use but then there are a number of different causes for her heart condition.
As with Jonathan Edwards, his power to weight ratio would actually, if we were to go by unbelievability and phenomenal feats, suggest drug use from anabolics which aid more on CNS and skeletal muscular strength. At around 73 kilos he squatted 250 kgs, cleaned 150kgs and bench pressed 120kgs. At that weight.
Now I am not saying he was on drugs because he was one of my childhood heros and I believe he was truly clean but if you are to point accusatory fingers towards athletes of today or in the past then you must have impartiality across the board. His record has stood since 1995 and I don't think it will even be broken by 2012, which will push it up to the period of Flo Jo's current standing record. And if you're saying todays leading women are on PED's, bearing in mind PED's have become far more clever and effective, plus technology of track and running gear have developed in leaps and bounds, then it would still suggest, even without 'drugs' that Flo Jo would be acres ahead of her competition.

Either way, we can't make statements and accusations a) without unfounded proof or b) without passing the same judgement on everyone else, apst and present.

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posted Jul 12, 2009

Are you seriously suggesting that we have to Look at Flo Jo and consider she wasn't on anything??

They could get away with an awful lot in those days which is why modern PEDs aren't as effective. Modern stuff has to be secretly effective and therefore doesn't have the obvious effect as it does in the past. That is why Flo-Jo's WR is so far away and that is why the womens LJ and 400 are as well. These PEDs effect women much more than men so its far more obvious.

If you think Flo-Jo deserves the benefit of the doubt then I'm sorry but your very naive on that subject.

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comment by FS1978 (U10999439)

posted Jul 13, 2009

Have to agree there FH. Im not a betting man but if I had to I would oput all my pennies on Flo Jo being up to the eye balls in it. Her physical appearance (and significant change in appearance over a short period of time) alone should be enough to give even the most optomistic athletics fans a fair idea what she was up to. That uisnt however to say that she was the only one at that time dabbling. Unfortunately I'm fairly cinical when it comes to athletics in the 70's and 80's. I suspect it my have been the more the norm to be geared up rather than clean.

Im sure the IAAF were thinking of scrapping alot of the recorsd in 2000 as they felt many were PED assisted. I think legal wranglings prevented this as there was never any proof of wrong doing.

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comment by etuoyo (U14025122)

posted Jul 14, 2009

I don't see how any one can realistically think Flo Jo was clean. Her improvement from 1987 to 1988 was unreal and you don't see that kind of development so late in a career. Her times were out of this world at that time and remain out of this world 21 years later. Most telling of all (even much more telling than her early death) was the fact that she retired as soon as out of competition drug testing was introduced. Coincidence? I certainly don't think so. You don't retire immediately after your break through season.

The women's 100m to 1500m world records are all drug records and I wish they could be scrapped from the record books.

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posted Jul 14, 2009

Britsprinthope - I'll give you the 150Kg clean being mightily impressive, but for a 73Kg guy, 120Kg bench and 250Kg squat aren't that special - certainly don't suggest chemical assistance.

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