Se Asian Track & Field Contestants

[brahmburgers]

Some Olympic observations:

75% of mens' 100 Meters finalists were from Caribbean islands. All were from western hemisphere.

Same sort of statistics for men's and womens' sprint race finals. I'd get details, but my internet connection is so slow, I can't devote the hours it would take to research - so my stats are what I recall from watching some of the Olympic coverage.

Netherlands Antilles #2 man on the 200 final was disqualified for running outside his lane. I predict he will be given an 'honorary Olympic medal' in the last day - as consolation.

Wassana (can't recall her last name) was Thailand's entry for the women's heptathlon. Despite being SE Asia's only contestant in that event, she didn't get past an earlier event (shot put).

I'd like to submit my offer to coach Thai heptathletes and decathletes for future competitions. Without a doubt I can coach those athletes to produce higher placings. My standing offer to Thai Sports authorities: if at least one woman heptathlete and one male decathlete coached by me doesn't score markedly higher than usual, then I will take no wages. Even among the top Olympic contenders for those two events, I observed techniques that could be vastly improved upon. Examples: a discuss thrower who didn't even do a wind-up before he threw. Serveral javelin throwers didn't have decent run ups to the line, and at least one didn't even extend his arm back, or noticably shift his shoulders before throwing - ....and those were among the top contenders in the world!

Noteworthy: the top SE Asian male runner for the 800 meters was from Burma.

The top SE male marathon runner was Cambodian.

Thai women fielded a team in the 4X100 meter relay - and finished among the leaders of their heat - yay!

Nepal and Guam San Marino and Lichtenstein had better placing marathoners than any SE Asian entrants. India and Thailand didn't even have finishers.

Suggest for scoring medals tally:

7 points for GOLD

5 points for SILVER

3 points for BRONZE

1 point for all finalists who don't get on the medals stand.

included in finalists are large field long distance events, like marathon, 10Km swim, walkers, etc. Given that the scoring system is flawed, and often the difference between one placement and the next is thousandths of a second, awarding points more liberally would be a more fair system. Plus, just to get to the final in many events, means having to win or place in the very top in qualifying heats.

Despite some flaws, the Olympics are a great event overall - for many reasons.