Team GB Daily: Day 10

[RussB 189]

Interesting that Jess Roberts is in for Neah Evans for the heats of women’s pursuit tomorrow.

 

I hope that’s to rest Neah ahead of a busy workload for the rest of the week (Madison and possibly Omnium) rather than an indication of form.

[Epic Failure 355]

2 hours ago, TeamGB said:

Watching the womens 3x3 basketball and the Australians had a near identical team to the one that played in the 2022 commonwealth games, and came 5th. England beat those Australians, feels like a missed qualification opportunity.

I'm going to guess that can at least partially because Australia are helped by the qualification system guaranteeing a certain number of slots in tournaments to each continent, whereas we have to fight through a bunch of European teams who are better than us to even have a shot at qualifying for those play-in tournaments.

[Epic Failure 355]

28 minutes ago, RussB said:

Interesting that Jess Roberts is in for Neah Evans for the heats of women’s pursuit tomorrow.

 

I hope that’s to rest Neah ahead of a busy workload for the rest of the week (Madison and possibly Omnium) rather than an indication of form.

The injury to Katie arguably makes the TP the most 'disposable' of the women's endurance events for me, so I'm fine if they've decided the same and put all their eggs in the other baskets. Bit more worried as you say if it is an indicator of form (unless Jess is on a tear of course!)

[Orangehair43 251]

16 minutes ago, Epic Failure said:

The injury to Katie arguably makes the TP the most 'disposable' of the women's endurance events for me, so I'm fine if they've decided the same and put all their eggs in the other baskets. Bit more worried as you say if it is an indicator of form (unless Jess is on a tear of course!)

Don’t the team events show the depth of the squad and success of the programe better than Maddison and Omnium through. 

[Rich 21]

A beautifully made point, @mpjmcevoy but I would say the 'nobility' of such moments often comes from their clarity. Yes, sometimes it's a context dependent clarity, but the most timeless of sporting moments aren't. Kelly running through the line (almost every kid knows what it is to race), Redmond and his dad hobbling down the track. Gemma Gibbons looking to the sky and whispering to her mum. Forgive my British bias.

 

Kayak X may well produce these, but when events become too harum-scarum then that clarity can be lost in the seemingly random and faintly comical.

 

I just think it needs a bit of evolution. A bit more space. To give a 'cross' example, the greatest snowboard cross moment was Lindsey Jacobellis falling on her face, which only happened because the course was long enough for it to happen. If Kayak X is doing its best to encourage incident every single second then the great moments might be drowned in incidents. Stephen Bradbury might disagree with me but, for all the chaos of short track, it is, essentially, just a race.

 

Edited August 6 by Rich

[RussB 189]

7 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

The injury to Katie arguably makes the TP the most 'disposable' of the women's endurance events for me, so I'm fine if they've decided the same and put all their eggs in the other baskets. Bit more worried as you say if it is an indicator of form (unless Jess is on a tear of course!)

I’m hesitant to write off the women’s TP … I know without Katie it’s a huge loss but the first 4 should be winning a medal and I don’t think Italy are out of reach. NZ may well be however.

[Josh 10,322]

10 hours ago, TeamGB said:

Watching the womens 3x3 basketball and the Australians had a near identical team to the one that played in the 2022 commonwealth games, and came 5th. England beat those Australians, feels like a missed qualification opportunity.

Just popping in here as a major 3x3 basketball fan to say that Australian team that played at the Commonwealth Games is nowhere near as good as the one today. I’d say unrecognizable even. Sorry, but Great Britain had no chance even if they were at one of the qualifying tournaments.