Maturing with Age

Modern advances in conditioning, diet, and training methods mean some athletes can now compete at the top level well into their thirties & beyond.

I’ve posted on this before, thought it was quite recently, but a trawl of the archive shows it was a 2008 vintage.

http://ronstersramblings.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/no-country-for-old-men.html

Anyway, that post used boxers as an example of athletes disproving  the ‘over 30’ rule. This month  Floyd Mayweather put on another exhibition, schooling  Canelo Alvarez. Mayweather,  36, conceded 13 years to his previous unbeaten opponent, plus 15 pounds on fight night, but was far too slick for the Mexican.

Chris Horner, 41, was the oldest starter of the Vuelta but became the oldest man ever to win a cycling Grand Tour. The previous record for oldest tour winner was 36.

There were thrilling sprint finishes in two endurance events, the Great North Run (Bekele v Farah) & the deciding event of the men’s Triathlon world series (Gomez v J Brownlee).

Rafa Nadal continued his brilliant, unbeaten hard court form this year, winning his second US Open title.

Performance of the Month

Horner.

Honourable mention:

Wilson Kipsang set a new world best today for the marathon, he completed Berlin in 2:03:23

Mo at the Double

There were several stand-out performances at the World Athletics championships. There was Bolt, of course, who did the sprint treble (100, 200m, 4x1 relay) again. Tirunesh Dibaba continued her record of having never lost a competitive 10k race, & is now 11 for 11. The devastating kick finish is now a Mo Farah trademark, and he used it twice as he had to dig deep  to complete the 5 & 10k double. Bekele is the only other man to have done the ‘double double’ at both the Olympics & worlds.

Rafa Nadal’s awesome form continues. He won two Masters titles on hard courts in August, including on the fast courts of Cincinnati, which is supposed to be his weakest surface. His only blip has been Wimbledon, with a staggering 11 finals & nine titles this year.

Performance of the Month

Mo Farah.

Honourable mentions:
Nadal.
Katie Ledecky , successor to Becky Adlington as the long-distance swimming queen. She set 2 world records and won 4 golds at the worlds.