Nickyc707

In gymnastics certainly and probably in cycling but canoe slalom? GB has produced world champions in this sport for a long time. Liz Sharnan, Lynn Simpson, Paul Farrant, Albert Kerr, Shaun Pearce and most notably Richard Fox - father of Jessica and Naomi - won world titles and multiple medals prior to 2000.

It was made by an Aussie which is ironic considering that they too rely heavily on those sports at the OG together with one in which they are horizontal most of the time!😊

I think my biggest problem with it is the amount of luck as well as skill that is often involved. Your choice of gate can effect not only your own fate but that of others in both positive and negative ways. Still it's entertaining and as you say it's definitely preferable to breaking! It's a sport for starters! 😎 If nothing else I won't forget Stephanie Horn's decision to swim rather than paddle down the course today! 🏊‍♀️

I liked Je sans Frontieres too but I'm not sure it had a place in the Olympics. Still it is what it is and I'll still watch it. 😊

Je sans Frontieres, I was thinking exactly the same thing! Gennaro Oliveiri and Guido Pancaldi would be right at home. Personally I think it's time to start advocating for the introduction of the egg and spoon race, sack race and three legged race into the OG programme.

Yes, the men's quota is likely to be decided in the final and the women's probably in the semi-final. Poland has a good chance of gaining the women's quota though. https://www.formulakite.org/2023europeans The semi-finals and finals are available on YouTube from 10am GMT I believe.

The fleet racing is now completed. https://www.formulakite.org/2023europeans

Then you'll be able to explain why in the twellve editions that this event has been included in the programme a home paddler has only won twice.

The standings after nine races. https://www.formulakite.org/2023europeans

Exactly. Home paddlers rarely win on home waters in this event.

Not sure that Mallory Franklin is the best person to hang that argument on as she has medalled in the C1 event at seven of the last nine world championships. Of her two failures one was at Lee Valley in 2015 so home advantage doesn't necessarily help her. 2013 - 🥈 2014 -🥈 2015 - No medal 2017 - 🥇 2018 -🥈 2019 - No medal 2021 - 🥈 2022 -🥉2023 - 🥇

Sailing for starters. Knowledge and extensive experience of local currents and winds is a huge advantage as we saw at the recent world championships.

The positions after the first five races. https://www.formulakite.org/2023europeans

While you can't see it you can follow each paddler as they go down the course here. https://www.canoeicf.com/canoe-slalom-world-championships/lee-valley-2023/results Click on LIVE next to the current event and you'll get the rankings as they change as well as the current status of the competitors on the course.

After winds of 40-45 knots on the first two days they appear to be down to 10-15 knots today as the storm abates. Hopefully we'll get some racing today. It's being livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube over the weekend.

Yes, there's a few who had poor first runs who'll definitely be in the running for top twelve spots, notably Jessica Fox who was way down.

Don't know if this is any use, Vlad. https://www.canoeicf.com/canoe-slalom-world-championships/lee-valley-2023/live-replays

After a hot dry September we've been hit by an Atlantic storm - the remnants of Hurricane Lee - over the last couple of days. Should be back to normal Autumnal weather from Thursday onwards.

Thanks. That was a point I tried to make more generally about countries deciding what if any events they will contest at the FQR.

With the provisos that have been made and bearing in mind that some of these crews could qualify in events that have continental qualifiers these were the next best crews at the WC. There are two spots available in each event at the final qualifier. Both single sculls events are complicated by the presence of Belarusian scullers so I've included those who might benefit from their absence should that be the case. MSS -Belarus/Bulgaria/Italy/Serbia MDS- Moldova/USA MLDS - Belgium/New Zealand MQS - USA/Norway MP - Denmark/Lithuania MF - Switzerland/Italy ME - USA/Italy WSS - Belarus/Switzerland/Spain WDS - South Africa/Great Britain WLDS - Poland/Italy WQS - Ukraine/Italy WP - Italy/New Zealand WF - Dennark/Ireland WE - Italy/China As you can see Italy have a lot of potential upside with seven crews (31 quotas) in with a realistic chance of qualification if they choose to contest all the events. The difficulty is assessing the make up of the lineups in each event and the makeup of the crews. Just as an example I can see GB contesting both the men's and women's double sculls but not bothering to enter more than at most one of the other three events they haven't yet qualified in. In the case of the men's double sculls they will have a much stronger crew than in Belgrade and will have a real chance of qualifying. This applies to many of the stronger countries so they may well challenge in boats against which their name doesn't appear on my list. My only cast iron tips are that the USA will qualify in the men's eight and Ireland in the women's coxless four. Other than that my money is staying in my wallet! 😎

I'm not sure that's possible Ben for the reasons others have mentioned about crew changes and resources being diverted into a smaller number of boats for the regatta. Also we don't know which events countries will even bother making an attempt to qualify in.

Actually to be even more specific it was their male scullers. Neither country qualified a single crew in any of the four men's classes.

GB now world and European champions in this event and yet not currently qualified for the OG as no male shooter has won a quota yet.

The US and Australian women actually did a good job with each country qualifying six boats out of seven. It was their male rowers who were below par.

You mean it wasn't John Cleese? 🤔