WINNING TACTICS OF THE PELOTON
STEVE SMYTHE SUGGESTS BRITISH ATHLETICS COULD LEARN FROM BRITISH CYCLING’S SUCCESS
STEVE SMYTHE
BRITAIN’S track cyclists won six of the ten events in Rio and every member of the team returned with a medal, whereas GB track and field athletes won seven medals in forty-seven events.
The comparison is not entirely fair. There are no Jamaican sprinters and no Kenyans or Ethiopians in the longer events. Athletics is a true worldwide sport – 42 different nations won medals – while cycling success is limited to the wealthiest nations with the best bike and equipment.
Laura Muir: seventh in Olympic final but general form suggests she could have placed higher with different tactics
PICTURES: MARK SHEARMAN
Even if you add in mountain bike, road cycling and BMX, there were still only 21 different nations winning medals. However, athletics could surely learn something from cycling’s methods and success.
If Laura Muir were a cyclist, would she not have known exactly the best way to win a medal? Olympics aside, the Scottish runner has produced the two best runs by a British 1500m runner this summer, in London and Paris, since Kelly Holmes’ Athens victory. She ran bravely in Rio but her performances in those two Diamond League races and her clear improvement from the 2015 World Championships, where she was fifth, show Rio was hardly a true reflection of her ability.
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