I chose to get to work very early in the morning. I can get more done in the hour between 0700 and 0800 than I can for the next three hours. My choice. It has the added advantage that I get about twenty minutes of driving at a time of day when you can actually drive as opposed to crawling along in a jam. Pre (or peri as it is becoming) dawn through the late winter countryside at just over the speed limit, hoping for an EnviroWaste semitrailer to overtake before Albany Hill (and there was one this morning) - marvellous. And then there is the choice of in car entertainment. Radio Hauraki? The CD stacker (well the car is nearly ten years old so no really good stuff like an iPod interface)? A news Channel? Nope to all the above. The early morning drive is Radio Sport.
This morning in amongst the nonsense we had live commentary from Berlin of the world athletic championships. Now I am far from athletic in an athletic sort of way. My times for running any length of foot race would be best measured with a sundial. Less than average height, a tad over ideal weight and a day short of my fifty eighth birthday would not gain me a place in the Berlin Olympic Stadium this week. I'd probably even be barred from buying a ticket as a spectator. My interest in athletics over the years has been fleeting (pardon the pun). I used to go to Crystal Palace of a Friday evening in the early '70s to watch the likes of Dave Bedford and saw Wottle run in his golf cap. If I were honest I would have to say that these trips to South London were more fuelled by the available female company than a real interest in the athletic pursuit. However I was absolutely gobsmacked by Mr Bolt's effort this morning.
This guy is a freak and hell I hope beyond hope he is for real and not the product of pharmaceutical manipulation. Earlier in the week he lowered the 100m world record, his own world record of course, by a margin that over the last decade or so has taken years to remove. And he did this looking like he was strolling down to the corner dairy for a yam. This morning he appears to have moved to a new level of absurdity. I have yet to see the race but can't wait - it sounds phenomenal. In the time it took me to drive past Albany Toyota, the Shell station and the Husqvarna dealership he had lowered the world 200m record to 19.19 seconds. The silver medallist ran a close (sic) second at 19.83. That sounds like he was 6 metres behind. In a 200m race.
Addendum: I have now seen the race. It is totally unbelievable, better than the 100m final by miles. Best 19 odd seconds of sport you'll see until his next trick.
Also in these championships there have been calls for a gender test for the winner of the wummin's 800m. We don't need a gender test for the winner of the men's 100 and 200m, we need a species test.
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