Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The Commonwealth Games - part 1

My opinion only, but the track events were great to watch. Shame our local free-to-air TV broadcaster is so swimming-focussed, but that's my fault for not paying the extra for cable, isn't it? Finning taking an extraordinary 5 laps in the points race is a highlight, as were the sprint competitions. Cyclingnews covers the points race nicely.

The amazing thing (to me) about the Commonwealth Games is the all-inclusive nature. I like to see the times of the so-called 'also-rans'. Firstly it's great to see other nations encouraged to ride and secondly the times are realistically achievable by most of us in club-cycling. I find that reassuring!

For example the Fijian male sprinters recorded 200m times in the range 13.5-14.8 seconds. Now they had reportedly never seen the inside of a indoor velodrome before and probably have limited facilities back home, but it's still reassuring to see times that many of us could reasonably hope to achieve, too.

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