mpjmcevoy

Gracenote produce via an algorithim, not by analysis, and they routinely and repeatedly have significantly underestimated GBRs gold numbers, almost worse than any other team, Their system is fun, but clearly does not account for some idiosyncrasies of GBR's Olympic targeting. On top of that, they routinely seem to give medals to GB in events they aren't technically in, or athletes who've already withdrawn or are likely to.

Seems a bit bonkers in some ways that Broadhurst will become 'British' quicker than Ngamba, multiple British champion...

To those of us of a certain vintage, British gymnast (or Irish for that matter) was an oxymoron on the level of a Samoan luger. Sure, it was technically possible, but they weren't gonna win much. Neil Thomas was legendary for his seemingly lone bid to make British gymnastics actually mean something, until the arrival of Beth Tweddle, who probably ought to have ben the first Olympic gold. But for Max to be sitting on 3 Olympic golds, 6 medals including an AA medal, and be in the conversation for the greatest pommel worker of all time... He will be missed.

The best teams tend to have a machine and a sprinter - think Brad and Cav, on that basis I'd say Tarling-Vernon might hit the spot, leave Hayter for the Omnium, the me don't really have one dominant rider the way the women's sprint (finucane) and pursuit (Archibald) teams do....Personally, I can see the argument for Bigham doing the TT with Tarling too, though I don't think that will happen.

Angharad won the trial - she's the number one on her stroke. Peters came third. He may be GB #1 but he screed it up - badly. And since Litchfield automatically gets a spot under the rules, there's not the urgency that there is to give Angharad a spot - without Litchfield, there's still a team, using guy. without Angharad, there is no team.

You have to factor in the insane decisions on timetabling that will particularly affect Richards and Scott

TEAM GB ANNOUNCED FOR SWIMMING and MARATHON SWIMMING Big take aways IN : Bird, Whittle, McMillan, Okara, Anderson (probably means Women's 4 x 100 relay in) OUT : Cox, Hanlon (may means no women's medley relay, although Evans selection suggests otherwise, possibly.) Freya Colbert, Loughborough Performance Centre Kathleen Dawson, University of Stirling Anna Hopkin, Loughborough Performance Centre Daniel Jervis, Swim Wales High Performance Centre Max Litchfield, Loughborough Performance Centre Keanna MacInnes, University of Stirling Oliver Morgan, Birmingham University Honey Osrin, Loughborough University Adam Peaty, Loughborough Performance Centre Ben Proud, Bath University Matthew Richards, Millfield Duncan Scott, University of Stirling Abbie Wood, Loughborough Performance Centre The athletes above gained selection after winning an individual event and going inside the relevant event's nomination standard at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, as per clause 5.1 of the selection policy Alex Cohoon, Loughborough University Tom Dean, Bath Performance Centre James Guy, Millfield Medi Harris, Loughborough Performance Centre Lucy Hope, University of Stirling The athletes above gained selection by virtue of the collective times of the first four finishers in the respective 100m and 200m Freestyle events at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, in relation to the 4x100m and 4x200m Freestyle Relays, as per clause 5.2 of the selection policy . Joe Litchfield, Loughborough Performance Centre The athlete above gained selection by virtue of the collective times of the winner of the open final of the Men's 100m Backstroke, 100m Breaststroke, 100m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, in relation to the 4x100m Medley Relay, as per clause 5.3 of the selection policy . Freya Anderson, Bath Performance Centre Kieran Bird, Bath Performance Centre Angharad Evans, University of Stirling Jack McMillan, University of Stirling Eva Okaro, Repton Jacob Whittle, Bath Performance Centre James Wilby, Loughborough Performance Centre The athletes above gained selection at the discretion of the GB Head Coach and Performance Director, as per clause 5.4 of the selection policy. Considerations included potential relay medallists, relay cover for athletes with heavy schedules, performances at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships and medical mitigations. Luke Greenbank, Loughborough Performance Centre Jonathon Marshall, Carnegie Katie Shanahan, University of Stirling Laura Stephens, Loughborough Performance Centre The athletes above gained selection after placing second in a final at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships and going inside the relevant event's nomination time, as per clause 5.5 of the selection policy. Perdue, Robinson and Crisp all selected for Marathon

He does seem to pull up if he feels a twinge, and given his history, that's maybe a good thing. Dina has a habit of pulling up too.

In the Velo, GB's women side are beginning to look scary, front to back. The men's team pursuit also look the business, but the men's sprinters look some way off, although Carlin nabbed a medal in Milton. On the BMX, things look pretty good, though matching the G.S,G,B from 4 events last time will be a stretch. On MTB I have big hopes for Pidcock, but it's a crapshoot in some ways. finally, on the Road, Tarling is the main chance, Georgi has a punchers chance of a medal, after that its just hit and hope.

Pidcock's win today on a punchy hilly course makes me wonder if we might have two 'cross-overs' come Paris. If Pidcock did the Road Race, Tarling could give it a miss, allowing Tarling to do the TT on the first day and then rest and join the pursuiters as a spare/heat rider. It seems increasingly obvious that Pfeifer Georgie is #1 for the RR on the women's side, with Henderson and Backstedt doing the TT

Does NED not have long track/figure skating rinks?

Strong Gold chance : M 4 x 200 Free Strong medal, possible Gold chance : M 100 Br (Peaty) Strong medal, outside gold chance : M 50 Fr (Proud), X 4 x 100 medley Strong medal, not gold chance : M 200 IM (Scott), M 200 fr (Richards), M 4 x 1 medley Good Medal : M 4 x 1 fr, M 200 fr (Scott), M 200 IM (Dean) Punchers chance of medal : M 100 fr (Richards), W 4 x 200 (if Freya A is fit), W 400 IM (Colbert), M 200 Bk (Morgan or Greenbank but not both), M 400 IM (Litchfield) not beyond the bounds of possibility, but not at all likely : W 200 IM (Wood), W 200 Back (Shanahan) M 100 bk (Morgan) At this stage, all depends IMHO on which China show up - strong China could mean just 3-5 medals, flaky china could mean 7-9,

It's a move toward the "European Championships" model that Glasgow had in 2018, and which was significantly cheaper than 2014. Which sports will survive is an important question, and what can CGF do for those that don't - e.g. separate 'accredited' commonwealth championships (weightlifting and judo technically already have these) - perhaps ad hoc events on the line India proposed pre Birmingham for shooting and archery...

Kilty is surprising, but he's also unofficially a coach to the set up, and the best natural starter they have in the absence of Azu - an absence that may also explain a reluctant acceptance for a return from Ujah (I understand Ujah was actually, unusually, able to prove his story about a supplement by providing receipts and a sample - that may have paved a way back)

The obvious absences are Dina and Darryl in the 100, and Anning in the 4, the latter is easy to explain, the former less so. I have to admit to my concerns about Dina in particular, despite the excellent 4 x 200

You SHOULD be great at ice hockey, but yer all too tall, and they stick all the ice lovers on massive racing tracks at the age of six months. Wheras with Scots, they just give them granite and tell them "it's basically bowls", in Germany they put you in a tin can and push you down it, and in Russia they take all the girls out of ballet school and see which one's react best to the drugs and twizzle on it...

GBR is notable for loving a bit of variety in its sport - no nation - not even the US and China - got golds in as many different sports as GBR at the last Olympics - they LOVE a bit of niche up Albion way! That said, you need, as Basketball has found, a certain tipping point weight to get your team sports to the next level. Women's basketball, amazingly, is not that far away, but men's is miles off despite big playing numbers, so handball will struggle - not least because what tends to happen is that team sport niches fill up with other sports - e.g. how many potential athletics throwers never try because they are quickly spotted as perfect rugby fodder, and in England in particular (and Ireland) rugby has a higher youth sport profile.

Cycling, like Triathlon and Gymnastics, don't select purely on finishing places so the presentation would need to be different to swimming/athletics, but I still think there's gas in integrated able-bodied and Para sport in GB, with C4 and BBC co-operating (and splitting costs), and it having an input into the nomination process while creating a series of 'Road to the Games' events that can be win win for all concerned - at it's most extreme, you can run multiclass para athletics events so that the British championships last significantly longer while still having a full schedule, and introducing folk to the likely Para stars of the Olympics/Worlds/Europeans as well as the able bodied players

There is something wonderfully French about the utter arrogant refusal to consider the possible problems of various Seine related part of their grande fete, despite being warned by everyone time out of number, and now they are going to screw up events athletes trained 4 years for because they didn't have the humility to put their grand design aside when first warned. Yes, I'm cross - even though a run-bike-run creates a completely different and beneficial situation for Yee, Potter,

There are two 'compulsary' sports - Athletics and Swimming. But there are also unspoken necessaries that are part of the character of the event - the key three are Netball, Squash and Lawn Bowls, because until now, these three had no Olympic outlet, and were very particular to the Commonwealth. Track Cycling, triathlon, sevens and hockey are in the next tranch, but those three are key to the brand, IMHO. They'll find a way - FWIW there would be no difficulty finding a host for the Netball - indeed, if the Games did end, I'd be amazed if a CW championship wasn't started in its stead

Brownlee theory is he is saving himself up in the hope of one majestic performance just prior to the Games that gets him selected ahead of Izzard. Given where things are at its not an insane plan, but it absolutely kills any outside chance of a third male berth. I agree that there are a handful of decent guys coming though, but i's the leap to Brownlee-Yee level that's the hardest step, as Djikstra, for example, found.

Not really...but enough key CGF nations really like a snappy track cycling program that you will probably find someone willing to put it on, and able to get a decent crowd - England and Scotland being most obvious, but including any number of venues in Australia, New Zealand and even Trinidad. The key is to have a core program Ghana can deliver still worthy of being called a CWG. Anything on top of that is gravy - but I'm sure CGF would happily test drive a model that included a handful of remote host events, especially in sports individual nations really care about. Gymnastics, for example, would actually go down very strongly in Cyprus, which is a bit of a commonwealth power in the sport, and doesn't get much chance to host. Road cycling, Ghana can handle, but if it could not, Rwanda certainly could. South Africa would have little trouble hosting a range of sports that might trouble Ghana - notably aquatics, gold and triathlon.

That would fit existing venue at QEIi Park, or Melbourne with little fuss. So shooting and archery, India, trac cycling and gymnastics, London

There's always a seat at the Commonwealth Table, should Ireland wish to avail of it - De Valera essentially invented the Commonwealth with "External Association" after all... ;-) More seriously, I'm sure some sort of 'co-planning' can be designed that does not offend Ghana's pride or sovereignty. Looking at the venues for the African Games, They look almost perfect for a slimmed down 2026 event. Events there are no room for should be encouraged to arrange, in conjunction with CGF and Ghana, official Commonwealth Championships at existing sites elsewhere where the events are popular, along the lines invented by the Indians for Shooting and Archery - indeed, this may be such an example - and go with the 'two medal table' route - where every event in the Games is concurrently that years Commonwealth Championship, equal with non-Games commonwealth Championships elsewhere, and the Games are more of a 'peak' in a year of Commonwealth sport, rather than the one and only event. I imagine, for example, the Scots or English would be happy enough to have another Commonwealth Track Cycling Champs if Ghana can't accommodate, so long as they are televised and publicised as if they were part of the Games. If Ghana gets the 100M£ (as it should) for doing this, that still leaves some 'seed' money in the CGF kitty to help out with these separate Championships

Indeed, getting double bang on the venues they already built PLUS a cash bonus may seem like a win win...