MALACHI DAVIES - should he represent Britain ?

[Pavilionaire]

I totally agree with you Easy, and not because I'm related to Iwan Thomas (my mum's cousins son!)

The key thing here is he made a choice - either go with GB in the first instance or try for the States.

He chose the States, he wasn't good enough, that's life - live with it.

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

Fiona May anyone .......
Competed at the Olympics for GB and then married and Italian and so competes for Italy ......

British parent ..... british blood. I'm half spanish, haven't lived there and can't speak the 'lingo' particularly well but I do have a very strong affiliation to Spain .... its in my blood .. I'm proud of it (I did however laugh when nadal missed in '96). Maybe he feels the same way about Britian .....

He's gonna win sod all ....

 

[Woodingdean Gull]

What makes it even more interesting, it that I believe he now qualifies for £11,000 of lottery money to help him prepare for the Olympics.

 

[Johners]

As his Mother is English, then he has more right to compete for GB than most of Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland team using Grandparents as their right.

He has not taken anyone's place in the games as only 2 other 400m athletes have achieved the required qualifying standard set by the IOC.

Granted it's opportunistic, but he hasn't broken any rules, so as DTG says:

"If he wins then good luck to him and one more medal to the tally ( probably ending up at 2 gold, three silver and 15 bronze)

if he loses, then he's just a useless yank."

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I think its good
If we have more people fighting for places we rase the standards look at our 100m team now its good however a few years ago we had no one.
This is because all 3 of them are pushing each other the become better which will happen in the 400m now.
Did caines really have to do a lot to be selected for the olympics? no as he is our only decent runner at 400.
thomas is injury prone but still would have got on the team but now they have to make sure they perform to get picked.

 

[Yoda]

Yes, no one else got the 'A' standard to take the 3rd spot in the individual 400m.

I'm a bit sad Sean didn't do it in Madrid at the weekend so we couldn't have had this sort of argument.

 

[m20gull]

What makes it even more interesting, it that I believe he now qualifies for £11,000 of lottery money to help him prepare for the Olympics.

From the BBC (so some of it could be true)

Davis could now become eligible for lottery grants if he is accepted on to Britain's world-class performance plan.

"That decision will be taken at the end of the season, depending on how well he performs at the Olympics," said Jones.

"He will receive some help, with flights to Cyprus and into Athens, but he won't be formally on the world-class performance plan until post-Athens, if he qualifies."

 

[Easy 10]

Right, so if as we didn't get 4 British qualifiers at 'A' standard, we go back to the drawing board and pissing well sort out WHY and put it right, instead of drafting in a bloody reject who has adopted the Union Flag basically because he couldn't make the American team.

I can't BELIEVE some of you are quite happy going along with this.

 

[m20gull]

The question was "Should Malachi Davies represent Great Britain?"

Yes he should.

Should we have better training so that we can produce more better quality athletes?

Yes we should.

 

[Yoda]

I can't BELIEVE some of you are quite happy going along with this.

Because it happens all the time Easy.

Just look at the Kenyan who was paid to change his nationality to Qatar 18 months ago and went on to win the World Champs.

What would you say if that was the situation with this bloke?

 

[Marc]

The Malachi Crunch - NOFX




ANYWAY........I dont know the details but Rudsedski whatever tennis chump is a Canadian, I remember seeing him in a n interview years ago saying "I want to play for GB so I can be the best and No1" - which is'nt hard cos we are shit at tennis but he still joined us for the wrong reason.

As for the olympics....I dont care!

 

[Easy 10]

Should we have better training so that we can produce more better quality athletes?

Yes we should.

But why bother when we can just make up the numbers with other countries' offcasts instead ?

The problems are linked. One problem exists because of the other, and instead of actually doing something about the derth of talent in this country, we're quite happy to bring someone else in from another country instead because, well, (shrug shoulders) "everyone else does it anyway, don't they ?"

NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH.

 

[m20gull]

But why bother when we can just make up the numbers with other countries' offcasts instead ?

The problems are linked. One problem exists because of the other, and instead of actually doing something about the derth of talent in this country, we're quite happy to bring someone else in from another country instead because, well, (shrug shoulders) "everyone else does it anyway, don't they ?"

NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH.

Lottery funding is supposed to have improved the position, but it's not obvious that it has. I'm not impressed by "everyone else does it" logic either but that's the way the Rules are framed; I don't blame Malachi or Athletics GB for taking advantage of them.

 

[CHAPPERS]

But why bother when we can just make up the numbers with other countries' offcasts instead ?

The problems are linked. One problem exists because of the other, and instead of actually doing something about the derth of talent in this country, we're quite happy to bring someone else in from another country instead because, well, (shrug shoulders) "everyone else does it anyway, don't they ?"

NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH.

One runner set to compete in one discipline.

I can't BELIEVE you are getting wound up so much about this.

 

[Easy 10]

One runner set to compete in one discipline.

I can't BELIEVE you are getting wound up so much about this.

I'm not sitting here with veins popping out of my temples over this (or the Leeds thing for that matter), but its just something else that pisses me off. Specially when the UK Atheltics team manager Max Jones basically shrugged his shoulders yesterday and came out with this quote:

"I can understand anyone thinking 'this guy has not been part of the system and has come late in the day', but perhaps that's life"

No, thats not f***ing "life" Jones, thats just SHIT. And its people like YOU that are perpetuating the problem. I'm fed up with the "oh well" attitudes that saturate our sport from top to bottom. And then we wonder why we are a nation of f***ing LOSERS when it comes to sport.

 

[Marshy]

ok so imagine this Wayne Rooney has an Italian father, and decides he wants to play for them and not England all of a sudden...

I think you would be pretty pissed off, basically the same thing in my book.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Tell you what though, the French don't seem to mind about their players' ancestory.

 

[lost in london]

But why bother when we can just make up the numbers with other countries' offcasts instead ?

The problems are linked. One problem exists because of the other, and instead of actually doing something about the derth of talent in this country, we're quite happy to bring someone else in from another country instead because, well, (shrug shoulders) "everyone else does it anyway, don't they ?"

NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH.

Easy 10, you are well respected for your funny and also your more intelligent posts, however this thread seems to be less thought through than your normal points. The fact is that this is, as far as I know, a one off in this Olympic squad. The guy is British if he wants to be, and has qualiffied. He didn't stop anyone else of any quality whatsoever from getting into the squad. Thomas wasn't ready at the time of the trials; that is sad for him, but he didn't make it. If there had been four awesome, fit athletes, one of whom tripped over in the final of the qualifiers and Davis took his place, then yes, I too would be pissed off. The fact is that this is just a bad year.

I don't think that our athletics system is that bad, it's just that we don't have the bankable stars of 5 or 10 years ago. People like that will rise through the ranks again.

I do however have this nagging thought whilst I'm writing that maybe Sport England are being a bit too lenient with this because they desperately want to boost our medal count to justify future athletics funding, and their own positions.

I would like to think that all is being done to boost athletics in this country, and that they aren't just thinking, f*** it, let's just bring in a foreigner if it all goes tits up.

But I'm not in the slightest interested in athletics as I couldn't run a lap of a track unkless I really needed a piss or had a dog chasing me.

I agree fully with your points about Leeds / Leicester though.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Tell you what though, the French don't seem to mind about their players' ancestory.

good point

veria comes from senagal
zidane algeria
henry, trezaguet (spl) are not french

there is only bout 7 of there team that is

 

[Easy 10]

Easy 10, you are well respected for your funny and also your more intelligent posts, however this thread seems to be less thought through than your normal points. The fact is that this is, as far as I know, a one off in this Olympic squad. The guy is British if he wants to be, and has qualiffied. He didn't stop anyone else of any quality whatsoever from getting into the squad. Thomas wasn't ready at the time of the trials; that is sad for him, but he didn't make it. If there had been four awesome, fit athletes, one of whom tripped over in the final of the qualifiers and Davis took his place, then yes, I too would be pissed off. The fact is that this is just a bad year.

I don't think that our athletics system is that bad, it's just that we don't have the bankable stars of 5 or 10 years ago. People like that will rise through the ranks again.

I do however have this nagging thought whilst I'm writing that maybe Sport England are being a bit too lenient with this because they desperately want to boost our medal count to justify future athletics funding, and their own positions.

I would like to think that all is being done to boost athletics in this country, and that they aren't just thinking, f*** it, let's just bring in a foreigner if it all goes tits up.

But I'm not in the slightest interested in athletics as I couldn't run a lap of a track unkless I really needed a piss or had a dog chasing me.

I agree fully with your points about Leeds / Leicester though.

Thanks for your reasoned comments. (dunno about the "respected" bit, mind
Its not so much that Davies has denied another British athlete a place at the Olympics - as you are basically (and rightly) saying, if they havn't come up to scratch and qualified then thay can only blame themselves. But my point is, if we arn't good enough to generate the quality within British atheltics to qualify for these events, then it means that quite simply, we are not good enough. But to then sidestep that crucial issue and bring someone else in (because theres no rule saying we can't) just strikes me as totally wrong, and in the long run will just perpetuate the problem. It might be a "one-off", it might not. It certainly sets an uncomfortable precedent though.

Clearly not everyone is going to agree with my way of thinking on this (as the poll shows, with roughly a 50/50 split) but this is my belief and my opinion on the matter. There probably isn't a black and white "right or wrong answer" on this as such, but its made for a good debate anyway. I like a good rant now and then.