Rafa Maciel

Have trade one rainy isle for another - just the rain in is warmer

I've just moved abroad so not had much chance to look at this 2nd OQS - in fact, I actually forgot it started this week It's probably a little early for the commentators to be predicting who could take the quotas - they might feel a bit braver in the lead round of the semi-final. But my thoughts for GB, starting with the strongest: Erin McNiece: Had a great event in Shanghai but it looks like she's had a shaky start in the boulder rounds in Budapest. She needs to put in a solid lead round tomorrow to get into the semi finals. If she misses out on the semis, then that's her chances for Paris gone. Hopefully today was just a blip. If she can get into the final, then she should be safely in a qualifying spot. She could potentially also afford to bow in the semi finals if she can finish in the top 10-12, but it would depend on the results of others. The good thing for her is that there are some nations who have 2 athletes in the mix for a single quota for their nation e.g USA, JPN, FRA so it is possible that a top 14 position overall would still be enough for a quota Hamish McArthur: Like McNiece, he had a great event in Shanghai although he may be disappointed that he didn't finish a little higher than 7th. If he can get to the final then he too should be safe for a quota. Unlike the women's event, there less nations who already have qualifiers so it's likely he will need a top 10 finish to guarantee the spot. Molly Thompson-Smith: She is currently in 11th place in the race for a quota so she could still sneak into a quota spot. Like McNiece, she needs to get through tomorrow's Lead round and get into the semi-finals. Then it becomes a case of trying to finish ahead of the likes of Kim Jain and Mia Krampl. Will try to take a look at the results in more detail tomorrow though.

Oh man, I see our pound-shop Nostradamus is still spraying forth predictions of doom and despair.

It is disappointing - but not disastrous for the team. Admittedly the team pursuit chances probably get downgraded to silver at best and it is difficult to see a medal in omnium but it could work in GB's favour for madison as good chance for Evans and Barker to go a bit under the radar without being marked in the way that a pairing with Archibald would be. Evans and Barker are world champs so have every chance of being in the mix for a medal and it could well be gold.

Bargeron will be eligible to compete in both the 10m and 3x50m (as McIntosh is on the women's side) - but GB wouldn't be able to nominate both Bale and Bargeron as we only secured 1 athlete quota.

Anne Keothavong was pretty certain that Boulter and Watson would get in as a doubles pairing when she was discussing the squad at the French Open but I struggle to see the second pairing getting in though.

As a general rule I don't trust Wikipedia, but based on their list, Schmiedlova is the last auto qualifier in 80th place. Harriet Dart is the best placed Brit ranked 92nd - strip out the nations who already have full squads and I think she would be something like 6th reserve - so not impossible for her to sneak in.

Not sure if it's been mentioned elsewhere but Angharad Evans has repaid the selectors faith as she set new national record at a meet in London at the end of May - would have thought that it would warrant a mention on the GB Aquatics site but evidently not.

Seeing a lot of online chatter that BBC isn't going to be showing the European Champs next week. This seems strange given we've had 2 Diamond League events since the Daily Mail article and on both occasions, the announcer has said the BBC will be covering and the programme pages are up on the website.

Samuel Dickinson likely to have done enough to take the second spot in the men's team after winning the 'GB selection race' at the European Triathlon Cup in Kielce. In a nice touch, they even put on a live stream of the race so could see he finished pretty strongly and was able to sprint away in the last couple of hundred metres. Brownlee put in a decent showing and was among the first group out of the water and led on the bike leg. His running was better than I've seen in a while and whilst he was able to respond to a couple of attacks, when Dickinson went to the front int he final sprint, he didn't have the legs to match the speed.

Looks like GB will only have 1 rider int he men's BMX racing event after disappointing results at Euros - they needed 215 points to overtake USA but it looks like they will only come away with 160 points.

I agree - Bach doesn't want his legacy to be one where he banned a nation from competing so he has been more than happy to perform whatever linguistic gymnastics were required to be able to look both ways at once and say that he took a stand against RUS/BLR but didn't allow politics to take over from sport. But I kind of disagree that the decision is ultimately his alone - some federations are heavily dependent on Russian benefactors to keep their sports financially viable, so were more keen than others to allow RUS/BLR to be readmitted.

I don't think the change in the name is all that relevant - it just means that each athlete application is considered on an individual basis based on the merits of their claim to be neutral.

Under the letter of the regulations, the answer would have to be yes. It would be a completely illogical approach - and that is probably why the ICF and World Rowing elected to limit AIN participation to crews of 1 or 2 athletes - but allowing RUS/BLR to field a crew of 4 would be entirely compatible with their own regulations. Totally agree with your point that the ICF have failed to effectively communicate on this issue. The regulations should have been updated to include specific reference to RUS/BLR participation. This links back to my original point - the IOC did not and have not tried to define team events. It has been clear from the start that the IOC wanted Russian/Belorussian athletes to compete in Paris, but they didn't want to impose sweeping rules that would infringe the autonomy of the international federations. They left the ultimate decisions on RUS/BLR participation to the federations. With regards to the ISSF, their regulations define team events in 2 ways - the first comprising events where ranking is established on the performance of 3 athletes (same sex events) and the second covering mixed team events which have one man and one woman, both from the same country.

Don't think that's the correct interpretation of what the rule means - irrespective of the age-group, the C2 class is an individual event under the ICF rules. According to 14.1.4.b, an under-23 athlete can only compete in 2 team boat events - but that doesn't change the definition of what a team event is under the regulations i.e. that a team comprises of 2 or more boats as opposed to 2 or more athletes. It's difficult because I can't actually find any details of team events at ICF sprint regattas - easier to see it in the slalom events where there are team events comprising 3 individual boats. Ultimately I think the issue has been brought about by the fact that the federations have cobbled together compromise solutions that don't really make sense when they are pulled apart and don't satisfy either side.

I get why people are making this argument - applying a strict definition of the term 'team' - but that wasn't what the IOC did. In their decision, the IOC did not define what constitutes a 'team' and instead delegated that responsibility to the international federations: Source: Q&A regarding the participation of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport in international competitions (olympics.com) So, the question of what constitutes a team in canoeing will be determined by reference to the ICF Canoe Sprint Competition Rules 2023 v3.3: Source: 2023_icf_canoe_sprint_competition_rules_with_8-lane_allocation_tables_1_v3_update.pdf (canoeicf.com) I appreciate that this is not a popular opinion on this thread, but on the basis of the above, I don't see any reason why they would not be eligible for the quota in the C2 event. I'd also say that this approach - allowing crews of 1 or 2 athletes - is the same approach taken by World Rowing at last year's World Champs where Russia/Belarussian athletes were allowed to compete in the single and pair events. It will also be the same approach taken by the ITF when they inevitably allow Russian/Belarussian doubles to take part in the tennis tournament.

The men's under 23 short course event at Nove Mesto took place today. net 93 points so will need to gain at least 183 points to move back into the top 8 and gain that 2nd quota spot for Paris.

Speaking from the painful experience of trying to collate and report the results from the first qualifying tournament, there's no central resource for the results - so it is basically a case of relying on the individual boxing federations posting the results on their Instagram or Facebook pages.

I kind of agree with @Cinnamon Bun - The GB shooting squad was actually one of the bright spots for Team GB last year as we banked quotas early, but they simply weren't able to build on that success through late 2023 and into 2024. Bargeron has been the lone bright spot in an otherwise bleak season for the team when it matters the most. Llewelin is the most frustrating miss of the squad. He is one of the highest ranked athletes in his event, but never really came close to winning a quota at the qualifying events - perhaps his best chance came in 2022 Euros when he finished 3rd. He's been able to clock up decent results at World Cup events which is great but when it really mattered, he was more likely to miss the final. He's not the only British athlete who has been in this position - it's pretty ridiculous that Matthew Coward-Holley only just scraped in through the ranking.

After missing the Golden Roof event, looks like Bradshaw will start her season tomorrow in Recklinghausen

Not looking great for Llewellin - he's had 3 steady rounds but the 22 in round 1 has been really damaging. On the upside, we could have 2 finalists with Killander and Brooker-Smith both sitting inside the top 7. Hopefully they can have another clean round tomorrow and confirm their places in the final. BUT of the top 7, only 1 athlete is ineligible for the quota - so basically would mean they would need to win the event to get the spot in Paris.

Last qualifying event for BMX Racing takes place next week in Verona with the European Championships. After a pretty mediocre World Championships for us, are now 125 points behind 5th placed USA. To overtake them, I think GB will need at least 2 of our ranking riders to make it to the semi-finals - that would net 140 points - or one rider to secure a top 6 finish.

Think it was always expected that would get 2 quotas particularly given the rich vein of form that Niek Kimmann has been in in the last few weeks - winning both of the world cup events in Oklahoma and then finishing 2nd at World Champs. GB in contrast haven't been able to string together consistent results - often failing to make the final. All eyes on Verona next week for the European Champs to see whether can do enough to pick up 125 points needed to overtake

A 22 opening round for Ben Llwellin and in a tie for 63rd. Karl Killander and Mitchell Brooker-Smith are among 17 athletes with clear rounds.

There are more than 24 qualified spots for sprint - I think the only question outstanding on the women's side was what Italy was going to do with their 2nd quota but even that may have been resolved by now. Apologies for making assumptions but I am guessing you've used Wikipedia as the source for the 24 qualified spots but whoever has updated that page has got it wrong (again!). They haven't applied the cross quotas for sprint and keirin (i.e. those who qualify in sprint also qualify in keirin and vice versa). So, France for example have qualified a rider through the sprint rankings and a rider through the keirin rankings and therefore should be shown as having 2 quotas for both events but Wikipedia is only showing them with 1. Long story short, I don't think we're going to see a huge number of quotas being reallocated in track cycling.