How can a 10,000m Runner Outsprint an 800m Runner? / Werro tops Hodgkinson, Again / Ansah's Missed Doping Test / Swimming World Record Watch

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Show notes

On the show this week, a European Championships wrap featuring Nadia Battocletti's astonishing 10,000m finish and Audrey Werro's win over Keely Hodgkinson, a German sprinter under a doping cloud, world records in the pool, and a follow-up on peptides.

• (00:01:41) A follow-up to the peptides show with Mike, and the thing Ross wishes he had said. The anecdote that BPC-157 failed to fix someone's Achilles is the human version of publication bias, because nobody ever tells you about the thing that didn't work.
• (00:12:23) The European Championships format and the broadcast, which featured more talking heads than athletics on the BBC, and an athletic programme with far too little action relative to downtime.
• (00:16:52) The women's 800m, where Werro beat Hodgkinson for her fourth sub-1:55 of the year, and Bol ran a national record in third. Whose trajectory looks best in the medium to long-term?
• (00:28:26) Batocletti's exceptional sprint finish, and a Tim Noakes tweet asking why she could speed up at all. Ross explains the end spurt, the reserve we all hold back, and why this particular race proves rather less than it appears to.
• (00:31:52) A stat from Jason Henderson: Batocletti's last 200m was 28.17, Werro's in the 800m was 29.11. Not a typo, and we explain why the fatigue of an 800m is a completely different animal, and speculate that it's probably more common than you'd think for the 10000m races to finish faster than the 800m ones
• (00:34:37) Andreas Almgren's solo 10,000m, run at 26:43 pace for the final 8.8km. Tactical optimization and a signal for a sub 26:30 in the future?
• (00:40:22) Amy Hunt's four golds, and a newspaper headline that poured cold water on them.
• (00:43:42) Owen Ansah wins European gold under a doping cloud, having refused a test because he had a flight to catch. What counts as "compelling justification", and why a 2016 case suggests he is in trouble.
• (00:52:26) The tragic death of Fin Tarling, the near-impossibility of policing a 1,300km course, and Adam Hansen's call for better helmets, which are certified only to 19.5km/h.
• (00:59:47) Swimming, where Kate Douglass broke the 50m freestyle world record twice in a day, a 19-year-old German went under 14:30 for the 1500m free, and Lani Pallister beat Katie Ledecky over 800m for the first time.
• (01:10:46) And finally, South Africa versus New Zealand has branded itself "Rugby's Greatest Rivalry". Gareth is not buying it. Ross offers the context for why it's about more than rugby, but also great rugby

No news show next week, but there's an interview show planned for Monday, and the members' Applied show will take overtraining next week Friday.

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