Team GB Daily: Day 15

[mpjmcevoy 362]

46 minutes ago, KingKunta said:

We got screwed in the shooting, the windsurfing was a farce, Whitehouse definitely won that floor final and the Argentine was overmarked in the BMX final. Adding those 4 alone nevermind the near misses in the 1500 and 400m men’s track finals and the two swimming finals and we would be lapping it up.

 

It was just an unlucky games and I don’t think questions need to be asked. We move on. 
 

Would be great if Finucane can get the sprint title and one of the pentathlon girls can win their title tomorrow to end the games on a good note. 

It is always good to ask questions. But:

 

UK Sport work on medals, not golds, and do that for a reason. The number of paper-thin 2nd places this time has been rather astonishing, 2 in the pool, three in the athletics, arguably one on the cycle track. Similarly a lot of hard luck fourths, perhaps most notably Lichfield who swam a blinder. In addition, as sometimes happens some other countries found the superman de jour - Harry Levreysen, Leon Marchand, etc. GB had that previously with Hoy or Kenny, but the table for multiple medalists this time is remarkably short for GB - therein lies your first issue.

 

Building on the last point, a big drop in golds, but no drop in medals suggests underlying relative health. We snigger at the US system of listing nations by number of medals rather than gold first - and its good to mock it - but under their system, GBR are third. More medals than the host, more than Australia. I'd rather be third on our list, but there's no way that's a disaster.

 

One of the biggest failures of the last games, rowing, has come Roaring back after just one cycle. Those sports that have underperformed this time don't need 'punished', they need a decent review, a bit of honesty and some critical thinking.

 

Sport by sport:

 

Archery: Havers and Hall rather took the bad look of the tournament with decent little runs in the individual. but generally, it was a shambles. Healey and Pitman are clearly both talented, but  that's not really cutting it here. I'm not suggesting we copy the South Koreans, because they are, frankly, loopy on this sport. Pure loopy. But there is no reason GB - the GB of robin hood and agincourt should not be looking at how the GB divers have made themselves the significant force beneth all conquering china and saying, we could do that.

 

Artistic swimming: We live in the age of miracles - what those two girls have done is nothing short. I admit, I don't understand the sport, and I'm not entirely certain I want to, but to even have one pair of this talent is the stuff of fantasy. GB Aquatics must be in pieces at this luck.

 

Athletics: As always with a sport this big, a curates egg. I heartily disagree with UKA attitude to selection, and I think the unfancied Fincham-Dukes wonderful 5th place bears that out. The non-medal result for the team for me was this morning Emile Cairess, 4th in the Olympic marathon - in a sense carrying on the good work of Callum Hawkins. This games has been a watershed, probably heavily linked with doping scandals, but the supernatural African dominance of distance events is clearly over - they will continue to be very strong, but they won't be unbeatable.

 

as for the rest, 5 relays medals is both good and bad - Women's 4x1 had gold at their mercy, the rest were brave bronzes. GB has Keely, Josh and Possibly Matthew all able to stretch to LA, it has Phoebe and Amber and Louie coming through, but this feels like a slightly aging team - Georgia Bell is not going to be Laura Muir's successor, sadly, though her medal was magnificent. KJT is unlikely to make it to LA. There is a lot of young talent concertinaed into certain events/areas - notably middle distance, but e need to start envigourating field events and decathlon - Jade's respectable debut suggest heptathlon will be all right long term.

 

UK athletics will be delighted to have justified its funding with 10 medals and a few near misses, and one or two chokes that might fix themselves. But the underlying problems remain. A stay of execution - but when your on death row, and stay is welcome.

 

Badminton, Table tennis: Very poor. just not at the races in these sports.

 

Swimming: Frustrating games, but not at all an actually bad one. Most of the big hitters got something, targets will have been safely met. but like athletics this is an aging team. We have a legendary generation likely to fade out at roughly the same time. And the female side remains frustratingly weak, which is my key takeaway. I have more faith in GB Aquatics than in UK Athletics, but the jr side also seems to be going downhill. Still, their cash should be very safe.

 

Diving - no golds for first time since 2012, but 5 medals, all the synchro, possibly dropped a couple more chances in Jack and Andrea, but the depth is excellent, the youth is coming through, Tom and Jack can now go off, their labours complete.

 

Equestrian : Excellent team work, some disappointments on the individuals. The post Games debrief on Dujardin may be brutal - the question will be do they try and rehabilitate her, given she remains a major talent, or do they throw the book at her for the good of the sport. Hester will be a significant player in that game. Other than that, obviously they are in good shape

 

Climbing : Absolutely excellent, topped off with gold from a prodigy. Could not have asked for more, and can see this going on to be a huge thing for GB

 

Canoe Slalom - slightly disappointed not to get a gold somewhere, but all in all a very, very creditable performance with only Mallory missing out, and she held the fort last time; we seem to have good reserves on men's side, not so sure on the women's. But the system obviously works. For slalom. 

 

Cycling - still one important day to go so caveats, but a bit of a malaise seems to have fallen on almost the entire UK cycling scene. Given the pretty dreadful madison today - and, really Netherlands, headbutts? - I'm not convinced there's not some illness in the camp. Pleasantly surprised at the men's sprint under the direction of that stout yeoman Jack Carlin (4 medals in two games - he may not be Hoy or Kenny, but in historic context, that's excellent). not to cross about Beth or Kye, that shit happens, tom did Tom things but the men's road squad disappointed. The problem for cycling is they get a LOT of money as the medal factory, and other sports are possible entitled to say, hold on, they aren't the factory any more. By the same token cycling still produces umpteen medals. rather than lose funds, I suspect there may be some coaching turnover - though CArlins success probably means a bigger role for Jason Kenny who passed his first test.

 

Gymnastics - one of those sports with a lot of near misses. The  women's team nearly produced a team miracle, and if the Gadirovas and Achompng return fit, there's a squad there. Notwithstanding disappointments, the boys side actually look in good shape going forward, as do the trampolinists who will come to the fore now Bethany Page is probably done

 

Golf, not really an issue, great medal for Tommy.

 

Hockey, Rugby 7s...I think GB need a root and branch review of how team sports outside football operate, from grass roots to would be elite. Obviously the current UK sport model doesn't work with that kind of sport, and we should stop trying to make it fit that paradigm, it's pointless.

 

Judo, Boxing...It's been a pretty brutal cycle all round for these two combat sports. Sometimes, the talent is not there...but neither should the sports be waiting around for talent to magically appear. Judo, in particular, concerns me

 

Modern pentathlon - girls doing absolute fine, but boys...disastrous fencing rounds from Joe Choong and Charlie brown killed any challenge - Choong, frankly, looks like he's sick of the whole thing, perhaps understandably. I predict he quits the sport before the obstacle race gets added - indeed, they all might; it's hard to underestimate how important equestrianism is domestically to populate this sport - some countries come  to it through a fencing culture; GB always came through a pony club culture.

 

Rowing - The big winner in my view, they really got their mojo back, A+

 

Sailing - begorrah, but Eli Aldridge saved your bacon this week - very, very mediocre regatta otherwise, and a few questions to ask

 

Shooting - at the other extreme, the shooters have done well. Seoniad was a bit of a disappointment, but what should have been two golds is an excellent return on limited investment

 

Skateboarding - in women's park there seems to be a good clutch of girls to come through. But it's not our natural milieu

 

Tennis: Issues go beyond Olympics as with golf, but it was a fun ride all the same. Thanks, Andy

 

triathlon - excellent returns on investment.  some issues on male side but Sam Dickinson did trojan work, and I see reasons for hope heading to LA

 

taekwondo - 1 medal seems a low return, but it's not really, in context, the arcane qualification rules, and Bradly's unfortunate injury have to be taken into account. Somewhat relieved Jones did not medal in context. Time to move on I think from that generation.

 

Weightlifting - pretty sure injury has removed any realistic chance of a medal tomorrow, but lets see.

 

 

[Jon 43]

59 minutes ago, mpjmcevoy said:

It is always good to ask questions. But:

 

UK Sport work on medals, not golds, and do that for a reason. The number of paper-thin 2nd places this time has been rather astonishing, 2 in the pool, three in the athletics, arguably one on the cycle track. Similarly a lot of hard luck fourths, perhaps most notably Lichfield who swam a blinder. In addition, as sometimes happens some other countries found the superman de jour - Harry Levreysen, Leon Marchand, etc. GB had that previously with Hoy or Kenny, but the table for multiple medalists this time is remarkably short for GB - therein lies your first issue.

 

Building on the last point, a big drop in golds, but no drop in medals suggests underlying relative health. We snigger at the US system of listing nations by number of medals rather than gold first - and its good to mock it - but under their system, GBR are third. More medals than the host, more than Australia. I'd rather be third on our list, but there's no way that's a disaster.

 

One of the biggest failures of the last games, rowing, has come Roaring back after just one cycle. Those sports that have underperformed this time don't need 'punished', they need a decent review, a bit of honesty and some critical thinking.

 

Sport by sport:

 

Archery: Havers and Hall rather took the bad look of the tournament with decent little runs in the individual. but generally, it was a shambles. Healey and Pitman are clearly both talented, but  that's not really cutting it here. I'm not suggesting we copy the South Koreans, because they are, frankly, loopy on this sport. Pure loopy. But there is no reason GB - the GB of robin hood and agincourt should not be looking at how the GB divers have made themselves the significant force beneth all conquering china and saying, we could do that.

 

Artistic swimming: We live in the age of miracles - what those two girls have done is nothing short. I admit, I don't understand the sport, and I'm not entirely certain I want to, but to even have one pair of this talent is the stuff of fantasy. GB Aquatics must be in pieces at this luck.

 

Athletics: As always with a sport this big, a curates egg. I heartily disagree with UKA attitude to selection, and I think the unfancied Fincham-Dukes wonderful 5th place bears that out. The non-medal result for the team for me was this morning Emile Cairess, 4th in the Olympic marathon - in a sense carrying on the good work of Callum Hawkins. This games has been a watershed, probably heavily linked with doping scandals, but the supernatural African dominance of distance events is clearly over - they will continue to be very strong, but they won't be unbeatable.

 

as for the rest, 5 relays medals is both good and bad - Women's 4x1 had gold at their mercy, the rest were brave bronzes. GB has Keely, Josh and Possibly Matthew all able to stretch to LA, it has Phoebe and Amber and Louie coming through, but this feels like a slightly aging team - Georgia Bell is not going to be Laura Muir's successor, sadly, though her medal was magnificent. KJT is unlikely to make it to LA. There is a lot of young talent concertinaed into certain events/areas - notably middle distance, but e need to start envigourating field events and decathlon - Jade's respectable debut suggest heptathlon will be all right long term.

 

UK athletics will be delighted to have justified its funding with 10 medals and a few near misses, and one or two chokes that might fix themselves. But the underlying problems remain. A stay of execution - but when your on death row, and stay is welcome.

 

Badminton, Table tennis: Very poor. just not at the races in these sports.

 

Swimming: Frustrating games, but not at all an actually bad one. Most of the big hitters got something, targets will have been safely met. but like athletics this is an aging team. We have a legendary generation likely to fade out at roughly the same time. And the female side remains frustratingly weak, which is my key takeaway. I have more faith in GB Aquatics than in UK Athletics, but the jr side also seems to be going downhill. Still, their cash should be very safe.

 

Diving - no golds for first time since 2012, but 5 medals, all the synchro, possibly dropped a couple more chances in Jack and Andrea, but the depth is excellent, the youth is coming through, Tom and Jack can now go off, their labours complete.

 

Equestrian : Excellent team work, some disappointments on the individuals. The post Games debrief on Dujardin may be brutal - the question will be do they try and rehabilitate her, given she remains a major talent, or do they throw the book at her for the good of the sport. Hester will be a significant player in that game. Other than that, obviously they are in good shape

 

Climbing : Absolutely excellent, topped off with gold from a prodigy. Could not have asked for more, and can see this going on to be a huge thing for GB

 

Canoe Slalom - slightly disappointed not to get a gold somewhere, but all in all a very, very creditable performance with only Mallory missing out, and she held the fort last time; we seem to have good reserves on men's side, not so sure on the women's. But the system obviously works. For slalom. 

 

Cycling - still one important day to go so caveats, but a bit of a malaise seems to have fallen on almost the entire UK cycling scene. Given the pretty dreadful madison today - and, really Netherlands, headbutts? - I'm not convinced there's not some illness in the camp. Pleasantly surprised at the men's sprint under the direction of that stout yeoman Jack Carlin (4 medals in two games - he may not be Hoy or Kenny, but in historic context, that's excellent). not to cross about Beth or Kye, that shit happens, tom did Tom things but the men's road squad disappointed. The problem for cycling is they get a LOT of money as the medal factory, and other sports are possible entitled to say, hold on, they aren't the factory any more. By the same token cycling still produces umpteen medals. rather than lose funds, I suspect there may be some coaching turnover - though CArlins success probably means a bigger role for Jason Kenny who passed his first test.

 

Gymnastics - one of those sports with a lot of near misses. The  women's team nearly produced a team miracle, and if the Gadirovas and Achompng return fit, there's a squad there. Notwithstanding disappointments, the boys side actually look in good shape going forward, as do the trampolinists who will come to the fore now Bethany Page is probably done

 

Golf, not really an issue, great medal for Tommy.

 

Hockey, Rugby 7s...I think GB need a root and branch review of how team sports outside football operate, from grass roots to would be elite. Obviously the current UK sport model doesn't work with that kind of sport, and we should stop trying to make it fit that paradigm, it's pointless.

 

Judo, Boxing...It's been a pretty brutal cycle all round for these two combat sports. Sometimes, the talent is not there...but neither should the sports be waiting around for talent to magically appear. Judo, in particular, concerns me

 

Modern pentathlon - girls doing absolute fine, but boys...disastrous fencing rounds from Joe Choong and Charlie brown killed any challenge - Choong, frankly, looks like he's sick of the whole thing, perhaps understandably. I predict he quits the sport before the obstacle race gets added - indeed, they all might; it's hard to underestimate how important equestrianism is domestically to populate this sport - some countries come  to it through a fencing culture; GB always came through a pony club culture.

 

Rowing - The big winner in my view, they really got their mojo back, A+

 

Sailing - begorrah, but Eli Aldridge saved your bacon this week - very, very mediocre regatta otherwise, and a few questions to ask

 

Shooting - at the other extreme, the shooters have done well. Seoniad was a bit of a disappointment, but what should have been two golds is an excellent return on limited investment

 

Skateboarding - in women's park there seems to be a good clutch of girls to come through. But it's not our natural milieu

 

Tennis: Issues go beyond Olympics as with golf, but it was a fun ride all the same. Thanks, Andy

 

triathlon - excellent returns on investment.  some issues on male side but Sam Dickinson did trojan work, and I see reasons for hope heading to LA

 

taekwondo - 1 medal seems a low return, but it's not really, in context, the arcane qualification rules, and Bradly's unfortunate injury have to be taken into account. Somewhat relieved Jones did not medal in context. Time to move on I think from that generation.

 

Weightlifting - pretty sure injury has removed any realistic chance of a medal tomorrow, but lets see.

 

 

Really sound points made.

 

That artistic swimming medal is one of the stories of the games for me - they have such a great backstory with their mums competing for GB back in the 90s. Hope it gets the sport some exposure in the country. 
 

Climbing looks to be in a good place. I do wonder why we don’t manage to get anyone through on the speed side of things, something to maybe consider. There’s no doubt though the lead/bouldering is absolutely thrilling to watch. 
 

Cycling it’s tricky to say without Kate Archibald what could have been. The Canadian team have been dealing with a nasty sickness bug and you do wonder if something is going around the velodrome, much as it did the swimming teams. 
 

Boxing is a rebuilding cycle but also I think we and many other counties were screwed out of medal chances by dodgy judging. Wouldn’t be bothered if it didn’t feature in LA. 
 

Modern Pentathlon - Choong has already said he wants to take up fencing full time and will leave when obstacle courses are brought in. He has also said he didn’t want to compete and he’s upset because his girlfriend wasn’t selected. Obviously a lot going on there and I think he needs to take some time away to figure out what he wants. Brown seemed a solid competitor who could develop, but questions over the format going forward. 

 

Sailing is really disappointing. Micky Beckett was tipped as the next Ben Ainslie by Shirley Robertson. As you say an overall disappointing regatta salvaged only by Ellie Aldridge on a new discipline. Lessons to be learned. 
 

Major positive is rowing. Abysmal in Tokyo, yet here they are in Paris as the sport providing us with the most Gold medals. Proves that lessons can be learned when needed. 
 

They’ll go away and learn their lessons I’m sure, on to LA2028!

[Cinnamon Bun 609]

63-65 will be the likely split tomorrow between Campbell, Finucane and Bryson/French. This has not been a successful games but any stretch but it's also not been bad - disappointing is the best way to describe it. Our likely final position in the medal table of 6th-8th best reflects our performance as a nation during the entire cycle, and a poor qualification campaign that started off so well and a dissapointing games packed with near misses after having the best 1st week in our history. The truth is we're going through a transition where we have older athletes in their last who aren't good enough any more to get to that top step and younger athletes in their first games who aren't experienced enough or have that clinical edge to take to the top step of the podium and this is reflected in our position in the medal table and our number of golds with our talent pool being reflected in the number of medals won. LA was always gonna be Rio 2.0, this was essentially just try and replicate what we did in Tokyo which we unfortunately failed to do. 

[Cinnamon Bun 609]

11 minutes ago, Cinnamon Bun said:

63-65 will be the likely split tomorrow between Campbell, Finucane and Bryson/French. This has not been a successful games but any stretch but it's also not been bad - disappointing is the best way to describe it. Our likely final position in the medal table of 6th-8th best reflects our performance as a nation during the entire cycle, and a poor qualification campaign that started off so well and a dissapointing games packed with near misses after having the best 1st week in our history. The truth is we're going through a transition where we have older athletes in their last who aren't good enough any more to get to that top step and younger athletes in their first games who aren't experienced enough or have that clinical edge to take to the top step of the podium and this is reflected in our position in the medal table and our number of golds with our talent pool being reflected in the number of medals won. LA was always gonna be Rio 2.0, this was essentially just try and replicate what we did in Tokyo which we unfortunately failed to do. 

Also @RussBI'll have a pint of Strawberry and Lime Old Mount. 

[G-ann 113]

7 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

It is always good to ask questions. But:

 

UK Sport work on medals, not golds, and do that for a reason. The number of paper-thin 2nd places this time has been rather astonishing, 2 in the pool, three in the athletics, arguably one on the cycle track. Similarly a lot of hard luck fourths, perhaps most notably Lichfield who swam a blinder. In addition, as sometimes happens some other countries found the superman de jour - Harry Levreysen, Leon Marchand, etc. GB had that previously with Hoy or Kenny, but the table for multiple medalists this time is remarkably short for GB - therein lies your first issue.

 

Building on the last point, a big drop in golds, but no drop in medals suggests underlying relative health. We snigger at the US system of listing nations by number of medals rather than gold first - and its good to mock it - but under their system, GBR are third. More medals than the host, more than Australia. I'd rather be third on our list, but there's no way that's a disaster.

 

One of the biggest failures of the last games, rowing, has come Roaring back after just one cycle. Those sports that have underperformed this time don't need 'punished', they need a decent review, a bit of honesty and some critical thinking.

 

Sport by sport:

 

Archery: Havers and Hall rather took the bad look of the tournament with decent little runs in the individual. but generally, it was a shambles. Healey and Pitman are clearly both talented, but  that's not really cutting it here. I'm not suggesting we copy the South Koreans, because they are, frankly, loopy on this sport. Pure loopy. But there is no reason GB - the GB of robin hood and agincourt should not be looking at how the GB divers have made themselves the significant force beneth all conquering china and saying, we could do that.

 

Artistic swimming: We live in the age of miracles - what those two girls have done is nothing short. I admit, I don't understand the sport, and I'm not entirely certain I want to, but to even have one pair of this talent is the stuff of fantasy. GB Aquatics must be in pieces at this luck.

 

Athletics: As always with a sport this big, a curates egg. I heartily disagree with UKA attitude to selection, and I think the unfancied Fincham-Dukes wonderful 5th place bears that out. The non-medal result for the team for me was this morning Emile Cairess, 4th in the Olympic marathon - in a sense carrying on the good work of Callum Hawkins. This games has been a watershed, probably heavily linked with doping scandals, but the supernatural African dominance of distance events is clearly over - they will continue to be very strong, but they won't be unbeatable.

 

as for the rest, 5 relays medals is both good and bad - Women's 4x1 had gold at their mercy, the rest were brave bronzes. GB has Keely, Josh and Possibly Matthew all able to stretch to LA, it has Phoebe and Amber and Louie coming through, but this feels like a slightly aging team - Georgia Bell is not going to be Laura Muir's successor, sadly, though her medal was magnificent. KJT is unlikely to make it to LA. There is a lot of young talent concertinaed into certain events/areas - notably middle distance, but e need to start envigourating field events and decathlon - Jade's respectable debut suggest heptathlon will be all right long term.

 

UK athletics will be delighted to have justified its funding with 10 medals and a few near misses, and one or two chokes that might fix themselves. But the underlying problems remain. A stay of execution - but when your on death row, and stay is welcome.

 

Badminton, Table tennis: Very poor. just not at the races in these sports.

 

Swimming: Frustrating games, but not at all an actually bad one. Most of the big hitters got something, targets will have been safely met. but like athletics this is an aging team. We have a legendary generation likely to fade out at roughly the same time. And the female side remains frustratingly weak, which is my key takeaway. I have more faith in GB Aquatics than in UK Athletics, but the jr side also seems to be going downhill. Still, their cash should be very safe.

 

Diving - no golds for first time since 2012, but 5 medals, all the synchro, possibly dropped a couple more chances in Jack and Andrea, but the depth is excellent, the youth is coming through, Tom and Jack can now go off, their labours complete.

 

Equestrian : Excellent team work, some disappointments on the individuals. The post Games debrief on Dujardin may be brutal - the question will be do they try and rehabilitate her, given she remains a major talent, or do they throw the book at her for the good of the sport. Hester will be a significant player in that game. Other than that, obviously they are in good shape

 

Climbing : Absolutely excellent, topped off with gold from a prodigy. Could not have asked for more, and can see this going on to be a huge thing for GB

 

Canoe Slalom - slightly disappointed not to get a gold somewhere, but all in all a very, very creditable performance with only Mallory missing out, and she held the fort last time; we seem to have good reserves on men's side, not so sure on the women's. But the system obviously works. For slalom. 

 

Cycling - still one important day to go so caveats, but a bit of a malaise seems to have fallen on almost the entire UK cycling scene. Given the pretty dreadful madison today - and, really Netherlands, headbutts? - I'm not convinced there's not some illness in the camp. Pleasantly surprised at the men's sprint under the direction of that stout yeoman Jack Carlin (4 medals in two games - he may not be Hoy or Kenny, but in historic context, that's excellent). not to cross about Beth or Kye, that shit happens, tom did Tom things but the men's road squad disappointed. The problem for cycling is they get a LOT of money as the medal factory, and other sports are possible entitled to say, hold on, they aren't the factory any more. By the same token cycling still produces umpteen medals. rather than lose funds, I suspect there may be some coaching turnover - though CArlins success probably means a bigger role for Jason Kenny who passed his first test.

 

Gymnastics - one of those sports with a lot of near misses. The  women's team nearly produced a team miracle, and if the Gadirovas and Achompng return fit, there's a squad there. Notwithstanding disappointments, the boys side actually look in good shape going forward, as do the trampolinists who will come to the fore now Bethany Page is probably done

 

Golf, not really an issue, great medal for Tommy.

 

Hockey, Rugby 7s...I think GB need a root and branch review of how team sports outside football operate, from grass roots to would be elite. Obviously the current UK sport model doesn't work with that kind of sport, and we should stop trying to make it fit that paradigm, it's pointless.

 

Judo, Boxing...It's been a pretty brutal cycle all round for these two combat sports. Sometimes, the talent is not there...but neither should the sports be waiting around for talent to magically appear. Judo, in particular, concerns me

 

Modern pentathlon - girls doing absolute fine, but boys...disastrous fencing rounds from Joe Choong and Charlie brown killed any challenge - Choong, frankly, looks like he's sick of the whole thing, perhaps understandably. I predict he quits the sport before the obstacle race gets added - indeed, they all might; it's hard to underestimate how important equestrianism is domestically to populate this sport - some countries come  to it through a fencing culture; GB always came through a pony club culture.

 

Rowing - The big winner in my view, they really got their mojo back, A+

 

Sailing - begorrah, but Eli Aldridge saved your bacon this week - very, very mediocre regatta otherwise, and a few questions to ask

 

Shooting - at the other extreme, the shooters have done well. Seoniad was a bit of a disappointment, but what should have been two golds is an excellent return on limited investment

 

Skateboarding - in women's park there seems to be a good clutch of girls to come through. But it's not our natural milieu

 

Tennis: Issues go beyond Olympics as with golf, but it was a fun ride all the same. Thanks, Andy

 

triathlon - excellent returns on investment.  some issues on male side but Sam Dickinson did trojan work, and I see reasons for hope heading to LA

 

taekwondo - 1 medal seems a low return, but it's not really, in context, the arcane qualification rules, and Bradly's unfortunate injury have to be taken into account. Somewhat relieved Jones did not medal in context. Time to move on I think from that generation.

 

Weightlifting - pretty sure injury has removed any realistic chance of a medal tomorrow, but lets see.

 

 

I’ll only comment on the hockey as that’s the sport I actually have in-depth knowledge on and insight into some of the inner workings. 
 

In short yes, agree. Alex Danson has a lot to do in the next 4 years as new president of EH and whilst I’m aware of some general governance challenges I’m optimistic she can bring that lived winning experience and make it a reality for the top tiers of my sport. It’ll be interesting as Danny Kerry (aka Medal winning wonder coach) has stepped out of taking up performance director, but that may be for the best. So perhaps the tides are turning already and the much needed change is on its way. 

 

I’m also hoping that the bid for the Men’s Eurohockey tournament in 2027 is successful and brings in some purpose, drive and inspires the next generation.  
 

Either way until I get to the point I can run the sport (apols this gal has a mortgage and I ought to stay in my current line of work to actually pay it), I’ll be listening intently to the hockey grapevine and keep you all posted. 
 

Here’s to a more successful 2028 where I don’t have to make silly claims that the Dutch will win it all!

 

(Or we do a China and find someone with a lot of £££ to poach and pay for Alyson Annan…)