Overview

GB's women's water polo team are hoping to end the year on a high in the World Cup Division 2 event in Turkey. Having eased passed yesterday 29-4, they have just beaten hosts 14-8 to secure their place in the quarter-finals. On the men's side, they'll be taking to the pool later in the week. They've be drawn in Group B against and

Winner takes it all situation for GB women's ice hockey team later today. After dispatching 3-2 on Thursday they racked up a 3-0 win over yesterday to maintain unbeaten record in the group. This afternoon they will face off against at 16:00 - whoever wins will top the group and will proceed to the final qualification tournament in February.

To be fair, I think both Giles and Renshall have been ranked #1 within the last year and the current ranking for most of the squad is depressed by the fact that a lot of them haven't competed in the second half of the year. Overall, pretty much everyone on the list is competitive at the Continental Open level. At the Grand Prix level, most of the women in the podium and podium potential group would be in the mix for either a medal or extended podium. Both Giles and Renshall were pretty consistent in the run up to Paris when it came to the Grand Slam events. Nobody on the men's side covered themselves in glory this year and unfortunately nobody performed anywhere near their best when it mattered at the Olympics. I'd guess that the big benefit of being in the WCPP is access to the central support and training facilities at the National Training Centre.

That looks like a lot of very mediocre (on an international level) athletes getting support. I assume the funding is extremely minimal? Only Giles' world ranking suggests an athlete in the right ballpark to do something significant and even then, I don't get the impression that Judo is a sport where the world number 8 is likely to win an Olympic medal (if the Olympics were tomorrow)?

Ahead of the 2025 season kicking off, GB Judo have announced some changes to their performance squad Going into 2024, the Olympic World Class Performance Program was: Olympic Podium: Chelsie Giles (-52Kg): World Ranking 8 Nekoda Smythe-Davis (-57Kg): World Ranking 35 Lucy Renshall (-63Kg): World Ranking 14 Jemima Yeats-Brown (-70Kg): World Ranking 19 Olympic Podium Potential: Kelly Peterson-Pollard (-70Kg): World Ranking 18 Emma Reid (-78Kg): World Ranking 14 Natalie Powell (-78Kg): World Ranking 38 Stuart McWatt (-90Kg): World Ranking 110 Lachlan Moorhead (-81Kg): World Ranking 35 Eric Ham (-73Kg): World Ranking 95 Jamal Petgrave (-90Kg): World Ranking 54 Rhys Thompson (-100Kg): World Ranking 38 Samuel Hall (-66Kg): World Ranking 72 Amy Platten (-48Kg): World Ranking 174 Shelley Ludford (-78Kg): World Ranking 103 Ollie Barratt (-100Kg): World Ranking 95 Charlie Young (-66Kg): World Ranking 69 Harry Lovell-Hewitt (-100Kg): World Ranking 82 Wesley Greenidge (+100Kg): World Ranking 87 Max Gregory (-100Kg): World Ranking 187 Michael Fryer (-66Kg): World Ranking 66 Olympic Programme: Sian Bobrowska (-52Kg): World Ranking 188 Caitlin Barber (-48Kg): World Ranking 167 Isobel Kitchen (-66Kg): World ranking 212 Lewis Fryer Summer Shaw (-48Kg): World Ranking 106 - Seems to be a lot of buzz about her and she's been flagged as 'one to watch.' Could/should definitely be in contention for the TB Squad for LA. Charlotte Jenman (-52Kg): World Ranking 282 Since the Olympics, 2 of the squad have annoucned their retirement from the sport: Stuart McWatt's retirement was confirmed at the beginning of last month. Unfortunately, a series of injuries meant he was never really able to realise his full potential. Natalie Powell's retirement was announced in October. Holding the honour of being the first British female judoka to be ranked world number 1, Powell was on Team GB at both Rio and Tokyo. New additions to the WCPP: Ben Levy (-73Kg): World Ranking 331 Ethan Nairne (-73Kg): World Ranking 138 Lola Hodson ( Chloe Link (-57Kg): World Ranking 168 Eryk Neumann (-81Kg): World Ranking 443 Charlotte Jenman - she's been announced as new addition but she was already on the sqaud according to the announcement made in Jan-24. Charlie Ayre (-60Kg) World Ranking 187 If the normal schedule applies, then British Judo should confirm the funding level for the team at some point next month.

First skeleton Gold of the Season to - Marcus Wyatt. Matt Weston in silver. Current World Cup leader Christopher Grotheer was injured and could not compete, but we'll take the points, thanks very much!

As always, plenty of medals for in Turkey this morning. We did not manage a medal for every single runner, which we have done a couple of times before, but certainly either a team or individual medal in every single race. Antalya 2024 - Live Results

So in the final Mugrave 11th Davies 16th PB Andrew Young 43rd Gabriel Gledhill 51st on his debut Pretty good - was worried that after the two Andrews came to their career end we'd struggle, but seems not.....

For one brief moment 3rd & 4th at the finish of the Cross Country!

BBC have got the rights to this and are showing it online at least. Don't know about geo-blocking yet European Cross Country Championships: Watch live athletics on BBC Sport - BBC Sport

Was that a PB for Zoe Backstedt In the Dublin Cyclo-Cross World Cup last weekend? Winner in the U-23 sub-section, and third in the overall.

Couple of good results from lower level skeleton events. Isabella Fassnidge, silver in the women's Europa Cup event in Altenberg. Laurence Bastock, bronze in the men's event on the same track

Two big results this weekend. Mia Brookes got her first World Cup Gold - she has already been World Champion - in the snowboard Big Air in Beijing. Plenty of silver and bronze, but that's the first Gold. 'I didn't plan on winning!' - Great Britain's Mia Brookes wins big air gold - BBC Sport And a 16th place for Cross Country skier Joe Davies in the 20km Freestyle in Ruka this morning. Joe had done a few WCs before, but was mostly on the NCAA circuit this last couple of years. So that's a great result for him.

Team Announcement for the Cross Country Euros in next month. https://www.britishathletics.org.uk/news-and-features/gb-ni-team-announced-for-european-cross-country-championships-in-antalya/

Yes, looks like "Mancs Matty" is going to be a handy addition to the team.

Including some sensational GB results

If you have access to S4C then there's highlights of the Champions League track event at 9.45 tonight.

Some great shots from the guys, but consistency was not there, so only.a Silver. Not so very long ago that two curling medals was the start of the winter season for Team GB, but here we are with piles of medals already.

Just reminded elsewhere: top 6 in the Worlds this year is an automatic first-tranche Olympic Qual, so that is the target.

Bronze for the curling lassies! Things looking good for the Olympic Q, they look like a stable, settled team at last.

Phew, Men will play.for Gold, Women will play.for Bronze. Vital to keep World Rankings high at this stage in the Olympic cycle. Women have been.a bit.inconsistent but looks like they are finding a balance.

Wow, incredible result against https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/basketball/articles/c2e7ynke18vo

First important meet of the Winter this weekend - the Liverpool Cross Country Challenge including the trials for the European CC Champs in Ankara next month. Timetable here https://www.entryhub.co.uk/british-athletics-cross-challenge-liverpool-2024 It's all on YouTube

Team Mouat remain undefeated at the European Curling championships having notched up wins against Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands and against an English team skipped by Moaut's brother. They should be able to extend that to 5 wins later today when they take on . Their first big challenge will come tomorrow when they take on . Team Morrison continues to frustrate with 2 wins and 3 losses to sit equal 5th overall. So far they've only managed to beat and but have lost to , and . They should be able to notch up a couple of wins in their matches as they'll face and before they finish up against and . Realistically, the best they can hope for is to finish with 5-4 record.

And a second Ice Dance Gold of the season for Fear & Gibson in the Finnish Grand Prix. They are going to be getting the big treatment from the BBC going into 2026, that's for sure.