Jon

And to top off the great morning Bryson took two faults in the pentathlon. We might fail to medal today.

Illness.

Kate French withdraws from the Pentathlon. She sat 3rd overall and was the defending Olympic Champion. As Hassan wins Gold for the Netherlands in the Marathon, makes it a trickier path to hold 6th on the table.

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!

Seb Coe will go for it. Not sure he’ll get it though.

Athletics: Any Brits in the top twenty? YES Ceremonies: Who is/are the flagbearer(s)? ANDY MURRAY & KJT Cycling Track: Any golds? YES Modern Pentathlon: Gold? YES Weightlifting: Does Campbell get a medal? YES

Dutch disqualified from the madison (not that it effects any of the standings) and fined €900 for improper conduct. Perhaps van Schip may also face a lengthy professional ban for such dangerous and blatant behaviour. van Schip’s aggression, Telgenkamp’s disrespect and van de Velde… aren’t the Dutch embarrassed?

France sits 1st and 5th in the women’s pentathlon, we sit 3rd and 4th. They also have another shot in the women’s basketball tomorrow. Germany’s remaining chances are now in the women’s cycling sprint (Friedrich) and the men’s handball. Netherlands have opportunities across the cycling. Favourites in the keiran I reckon, but an opportunity in the women’s sprint also. South Korea has opportunities in women’s pentathlon (sitting 6th and 8th). Also has a strong contender in the weightlifting (though likely not able to challenge China for the gold - could put pressure on Emily Campbell for the Silver though). Women’s ominium has Dutch, German and French interest - think the American is tipped though? Realistically Japan and Australia are unassailable. France also I think at this point out of reach - even if we took Gold in the women’s sprint and the women’s pentathlon, and a silver in the weightlifting, we’d still not overtake France. That’s also presuming they don’t make any further gains. The challenge would be to maintain 6th.

I hadn’t realised that the expectation of UK Sport was that a third of medals won would be Gold. https://www.skysports.com/olympics/news/12040/13175218/paris-2024-olympics-uk-sport-expects-team-gb-to-win-at-least-50-medals-and-top-five-finish-in-medal-table

It feels like every time we’ve had a shot at gold it’s slipped through our fingers. Silver nothing to be sniffed at though and Caden is young enough to have another crack at it in LA28. All hopes on Finucane or the Modern Pentathlon to bring us to a nice round 15 golds. If we don’t get there hey ho it’s disappointing but overall medal count is impressive and it would be great to get to above the total medals of Tokyo. Before people jump down my throat, I’m not saying our performance is disappointing, I’m not diminishing any of the athlete’s performances, or any of the amazing medals hard earned. I’m just saying it’s unfortunate every time we’ve just needed a little bit of luck to land the gold it seems to have never gone our way.

Guaranteed at least Silver in the artistic swimming!

Poor show from the Netherlands in the madison swerving to take out Wood. They’d better be careful Carlin’s wheels don’t just slip into Lavreysen in the keiran.

That Dutch swing down really looked intentional.

Choong with a fence down in the pentathlon showjumping.

That’s a medal for Noah Williams! Don’t see how the Aussie can score 110 points?

McGowan comprehensively defeated in the taekwondo quarter final.

Artistic Swimming: Do we get a medal? YES Athletics: Do we get a 1500M medal? NO Cycling Track: Do we win a Madison medal? YES Diving: Do any Brits come top 5? NO Golf: Do any Brits have an par-or-better day? YES Modern Pentathlon: Does Choong come top 5? YES Sport Climbing: Does McNeice come top 5? NO Taekwondo: Does CUNNINGHAM win a medal? YES

And GB gets a lane infringement in the women’s relay. Not clear if dq’d yet.

What the hell was Carlin doing there

If it was a hard fought silver not at all, but there were opportunities which they didn’t take, they didn’t read the race well and kept changing a lap early. Nobody is saying silver is to be sniffed at, but it’s just frustrating to be on the cusp of gold with the capability but not the execution. You could have 75 silver medals and only be 59th on the medal table.

If they had the legs to do that the question is why not make the move one lap earlier to take the 20 points lap gain? What on earth

Poor strategy and tactics here, not sure what our girls are thinking. Maintain we are going to struggle to get 15 Golds.

Fantastic for Toby! Wow!

Artistic Swimming: Do our pair finish today in the top 5? YES Athletics: Do we win a gold today? NO Cycling Track: Do we win a gold medal today? NO Diving: Any Brits in the top 5 of the WOMEN'S FINAL? NO Golf: Do any Brits get at least par for the day? NO Marathon Swimming: Any Brits in the top 10? YES Modern Pentathlon: How many Brits make the final? TWO Sport Climbing: Does ROBERTS medal? YES

I would really love for Thorpe and Shortman to medal. It could do really great things for their sport in this country.