The Bedford Connection

Paula Radcliffe is from Bedford, isn't she? And she is, in fact, the David Bedford of women.

Like Bedford, she holds a world record in an Olympic event, and just like Bedford she never, ever performs in important events.

World record holders are here today, gone tomorrow. World records are always broken eventually - but not winning an Olympic medal is forever.

I found the tv commentary amusing - the absolute total denial of the commentators/pundits, not because they still thought she would win, but because they were so shamefaced about getting it so so wrong. As soon as she lost the lead to the eventual Japanese winner (and what an excellent race she ran), it was all over for Radcliffe. She wins races from the front, because she hasn't got the pace for a big finish - which she proved when she didn't win in Atlanta and proved again when she didn't win in Sydney.

But the commentators were all saying, "It's not over yet," (yes it was) and, "She looks like she's picking up the pace again now," (no, she wasn't), and "There's going to be a lot of changes before the end of the race_ (no, there weren't), and "Has the Japanese runner overstretched herself?" (er... no).

Gotta love it really. They obsess so much on the one British hope that they completely fail to pay attention to the fact that it's the Olympics, that there are other nations competing. They call themselves experts, but they never, ever have any idea of the form of other countries - especially places like Japan and China, which are still treated as the "mysterious, unfathomable, inscrutable orient" by ignorant tv pundits.