Rio 2016 : Athletics Session 1 : Fabulous Friday

The first Friday night of the athletics and you don't see much of the decisive action. Why entitle this Fabulous Friday? It's because in the initial rounds you see the nuts and bolts, you cannot see people win medals but you can see how they can lose them. Sometimes it's those who are there to do their personal best that are the exciting ones to watch. A favorite might not qualify but if you were there in round one, you will have seen them.

I didn't witness Van Niekerk break the 400m record but I saw him win his first round. I didn't see Matthew Hudson-Smith go out in the semi-finals I saw him run one of the races of his life and qualify faster than Van Niekerk. I've seen the fastest women in the world & not just the top 8. I can't share the photos because sadly they move too fast, well, the 100m were the other side of the track & 400m spread out. When you see them live it's even more difficult to work out who is winning particularly on the 400m bend.

I have a confession to make regarding Greg Rutherford. I saw him warm up, I saw a foul for his first jump but then got caught up with other events so only found he'd qualified on looking at the scoreboard.

The hammer qualifying was at the other end and you could tell the Pole was due to go on to great things qualifying with her first throw. It was enormously satisfying to applaud Sophie Hitchon's delight in qualifying.

I'm excited about what happens next in the women's 1500m. The other thing to remember is that the finals do not include everyone's favourite athlete and there is a much better atmosphere if there is a Brazilian around & the different heats attract different support. Helps if there's a Brit or a certain Jamaican. The Brits were once again out in force. Not the greatest photos but they are the ones that didn't run away ...

The most fun moment was the introduction of the women's shot put finalists. Why? The samba band of course. All athletics meetings should have them!

The competition of the night belonged to these three athletes.

The headlines might have belonged to the Saturday and that javelin throw but seeing Jessica Ennis-Hill run over to her coach during the shot-put, their total focus on the 200m at a time when they had all to play for. Unforgettable.

This may not have been the result but I left satisfied looking forward to what was going to happen next, knowing that I witnessed a part of the story.

There have been so many comments regarding the athletics so let me add my views. It's not the prices per se, they are similar to other sports finals. It's certainly not the location, whatever Michael Johnson might say, as it's one of the easiest to get to. If you are going to spend the sort of money that is being charged for sports events then you are going to be choosy about what you go to. 

It is the classic demand vs. supply scenario. Tickets are expensive but people will pay those prices if they really want to go but there are an awful lot of seats to fill in that stadium twice a day. Athletics has limited appeal in Rio. Ultimately there isn't the demand at that price for those number of seats.

Let's face it, there aren't the Brazilian heroes that there are in football. Kids in Brazil dream of being footballers, it means their way out of poverty and the favela. Athletics does not have the same pull / the same means of escape.

The sports that Brazilians follow in real life are volley, handball, boxing and of course football. These are dominating the TV output and I think reflects the priority that athletics has.

Let's look at athletics stadia. They are white elephants. Manchester City now play at the purpose built Commonwealth Games stadium, West Ham at a reduced capacity London stadium. Botafogo lease the Rio stadium. 

My question is this. Did the Olympics need such a large stadium for a limited audience?  I fell in love with watching athletics at Crystal Palace. It was small, it had a great atmosphere. You could see lots. I preferred that atmosphere to that of the Olympic stadium in London. I enjoyed Friday because I sreated the seating as unallocated and was close to the action. The velodrome was amazing because the atmosphere was intense and I think that athletics should learn from that.