Category: sport

Sprinting: Surely the basics are pretty straightforward?

Posted on

Because it literally is straight forward.

I know. I know!

You need talent, genes, determination, skill, power, dedication, a bit of luck along the way, perseverance and a whole lot more to achieve great things in professional sport.

But in sprinting, surely the basics are pretty straightforward? And here, I mean the real basics.

How have Noah Lyles and his fellow competitors risen to the top of this sport when they are struggling with even the most simple of sprinting concepts?

Is this a failure in overall athletics organisation, something that their coaches have overlooked or just plain stupidity on their behalf? Because I don’t know much about sprinting, but what I do know is that they all line up on the starting blocks – facing in one direction – a gun goes off and they run as fast as they can to the finish line.

It’s absolutely straight.

And even in the 200m, where you have to go around a bit of a bend, there are lines to help you.

Honestly, if he’s right and actually nobody does know which direction to go in, either they’ve been extremely lucky that athletes haven’t veered into the crowd or onto the javelin landing zone, or someone has been making sure that they quietly tell the runners which direction to go in just before the start, and that’s been enough.

But sooner or later, the luck will run out or the person won’t be there to tell them, and chaos will ensure.

I look forward to that day. It will be messy, but it should be fun to watch.

Let’s move on

Posted on

After all the exciting football news, it’s time to remind ourselves that this blog isn’t actually a football blog. No, here at 6000 miles…, we like to see every sport represented in its own right. And so is some other news from other recent sporting events that might otherwise have passed you by.

The Austrians claimed victory on home soil in the 2025 Tram Driving WM event, held in Vienna. You might remember that last year Hungary won it in the last European only event in Frankfurt.

But there was no stopping the Austrians this year, and with Poland taking second, and the Championship moving to Warsaw next year, I know who my money is on.

It’s Poland.

In the World Ploughing Championship (remember this post?), just over the border in the Czech Republic, a Yorkshireman took the honours.

Sue Frith, chief executive of the Society of Ploughmen, said: “This is a tremendous result for James Witty and for England. To say we were delighted when James was announced as World Champion is an understatement.”

Witty had previously also won the [checks notes] “World Reversible Ploughing Championship” in 2003, and becomes only the third person in history to have won both titles. I think we’re aware that the reversible plough is more efficient than the conventional plough, which throws the furrow slice to one side of the travel direction because it has a lower draught requirement and a larger field capacity. So being able to master both techniques is very impressive.

Obviously.

And then OUTRAGE in Scotland at the World Stone Skimming Championship – it is a very addictive sport:

…where some competitors had suspiciously circular stones.

Entrants choose their own stones and judges use a measuring device, the “ring of truth”, to ensure they are no bigger than three inches in diameter.

Organiser Dr Kyle Mathews, also known as the “Toss Master”, told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland that judges heard “rumours and murmurings of some nefarious deeds”.

“There was a little bit of stone doctoring,” he said.

“They had shaped it so that it was perfectly circular and fitted our three inch measurer.”

The event is held annually in an old slate quarry that was filled with water from a tidal wave in 1881, and was won this year by American Jonathan Jennings with a 177m total over three throws.

That’s your round up of all the big sporting action of the last few days, and plenty of fodder for upcoming pub quiz answers as well.

The Return of the Prodigal Son

Posted on

Guess who’s back?

I’ve been watching football for long enough that I understand a lot of it. Business, though? Not a clue.

That’s why I leave running the club to the people who do understand the business bit. But it seems like they might not quite have understood the football side of things.
And if you want to run a successful football business, well, you need to know both.

But look here. Maybe our American owners have learned a bit about the football side of things from this whole affair. That there’s more to managing a football team than just an allegedly pretty face and a seductive accent. And while the strict facts and figures approach might work for a biggest clubs, we aren’t them. And when you need to grind out results, week in, week out, then you need grit, passion and someone who understands the club.

Chris Wilder is absolutely that.

Fan, ball-boy, player, manager (manager, manager).

Is he the right man for the job long-term? I’m not 100% sure. But already – thanks to his usurper/predecessor – this season is just about establishing ourselves again, steadying the ship, and not getting relegated. Making up that lost ground on the teams at the top of the league will certainly be the aim, but that might already be too big a job.
Sure, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, but who starts a marathon 13 points and 19 goals behind the leaders?

That’s not even how marathons work.

And so I think this two season deal is just perfect. Consolidate and build this time around, and mount another charge for Premier League glory next time around. It seems absolutely ridiculous that we’ve basically lost a whole season thanks to this weird, unwanted, wholly unsuccessful 3 month intrusion, but here we are.

So. Onward and upward. And pity help Charlton Athletic this weekend*.

* T&Cs always, always apply.

Tired now

Posted on

I’ve mainly been taking hundreds of photos of a Dodgeball tournament today, and it’s left me rather knackered.

It also means that tomorrow will bring a World of Editing™.

But that’s tomorrow. I’m going to get some dinner and get some sleep.

Finally!

Posted on

Finally feeling a bit better today, and ready to actually do stuff. Well, that was until I actually did stuff, and now I’m a bit knackered. But I am on the mend and that’s good news.

I do plan to take things easy for the rest of the day though.

And that’s why I hope that if we are invaded by giant anythings this afternoon (and given just how crazy the news has been just lately, who would rule that out?), it’s these guys…

Yeah, even in my current condition, I’d fancy my chances of escape here.

What I’m actually going to do is go horseriding (not me) and then watch some football, hopefully involving a big turnaround in our fortunes (and given just how crazy the news has been just lately, who would rule that out?).