Rafa Maciel

So I know we're all still basking in the glow of Paris but it's never too early to start thinking about the next games. We probably wont have the qualification pathways for LA until late 2025 or early 2026 but in the intervening period, I am going to be using live events to model the quotas.

One of the many disappointments of the Paris qualifying window was the Bello brother's missing out on a spot in the beach volleyball. They'd been showing some good form and were increasingly able to hold their own with some of the best teams in the world. Hopefully we'll see them in LA in '28 and the first step on that journey is this week's European championships where they are seeded 18th and have been drawn against: Herrera / Gavira 15th Seed (World Ranking 17) Marchetto / Windisch No.2 Seed (World Ranking 75) Schnetzer / Kindl (World Ranking N/A - scratch pairing) Looks like the top 3 in the group qualify for the knock out rounds.

Get the feeling that Sport Climbing is going to see a big uptick in interest over the rest of the year and it will be interesting to see if we can continue to develop new talent ahead of LA '28 With that in mind, the Youth world Championships will be kicking off in China at the end of the month and there's a good number of Brits taking part: Junior Males: Jack Macdougall (Lead & Boulder) Rhys Conlon (Lead & Boulder) James Jenkins (Lead & Boulder) Youth Males: Sam Hammond (Lead & Boulder) Tom Steele (Lead) Harveer Seikham (Lead & Boulder) Tom Bouwknegt) (Lead) Kishan Fillingham (Speed) Junior Females: Hannah Kerr (Lead) Emma Edwards (Boulder) Isabella Edgington (Boulder) Saveena Fillingham (Speed) Youth Females: Fae MacDougall (Lead & Boulder) Connie Bridgens (Lead & Boulder) Lucy Garlick (Lead & Boulder) Seren Wills (Lead) Imogen Lilley (Lead & Boulder) Isabella Rinaldi (Lead 7 boulder) We've also got the European championships to look forward to in early September. Hopefully by then, GB Climbing will have sorted their comms strategy out - they have an Olympic champion and yet haven't posted anything on Twitter (I refuse to call it X) and or included it on their website.

With the track and field action being all but over, we can start to turn our attention to next year's World Champs. Looking at the results, I think 21 athletes secured the WA qualifying standard this week: Men's Events: 100m: Louie Hinchliffe (9.97) 400m: Matthew Hudson-Smith (43.44) / Charlie Dobson (44.48) 800m: Max Burgin (1:43.50) 1500m: Josh Kerr (3:27.79) / Neil Gourley (3:30.88) Women's Events: 100m: Daryll Neita (10.92) 200m: Dina Asher Smith (22.22) / Daryll Neita 22.23 400m: Amber Anning (49.29) / Laviai Nielsen (50.69) / Victoria Ohuruogu (50.59) 800m: Keely Hodgkinson (1:56.72) / Jemma Reekie (1:58.01) / Phoebe Gill (1:58.47) 1500m: Georgia Bell (3:52.61) / Laura Muir (3:53.37) / Revee Walcott-Nolan (3:58.08) 3000m SC: Elizabeth Bird (9:04.35) 100m Hurdles: Cindy Sember (12.72) 400m Hurdles: Lina Nielsen (54.65) Heptathlon: Katarina Johnson-Thompson (6844)

Huge amount of credit for that gold belongs to . Kaarle McCulloch came in after Tokyo and completely revamped the women's sprint squad.

Nothing we've seen in the last couple of seasons would have suggested that kind of result from the GB men was likely - they've been battling for 4th and 5th for most of the qualifying period. I had them down as the weak link in the squad and wasn't expecting them to come back with any medals across the 3 sprint events, but clearly the team are in good form, and it definitely looks like GB Cycling have done the business again with the new bike design.

3rd? I could see us finishing behind but who else did you have finishing ahead of GB?

Let's have a working assumption that we're not going to see a repeat of Tokyo. There will be no catch, no slip stream, no ignominious failure this year

GB were at a disadvantage there as they had to set a time for the others to chase. All they needed to do was get into the top 4 and I think when it comes to the head-to-head, they will be confident of their ability to go a bit faster.

So should line up against in round 1 with against . have potentially tricky ride against and will fancy their chances against

Yes.....quite literally.

Consequences of the Seine swim being felt by Belgian team: Belgium pull out of mixed relay after triathlete falls ill ‘with E.coli’ | The Independent

That's nuts - they've got video reviews at ISSF events so why don't they have it for the Olympics?

There's no ties for the gold match

We're all agreed that we're claiming a win for Cindy Ngamba would count as a win for right?

Her performances this week make it all the more frustrating that Llewellin didn't manage to qualify. Definitely think they could have been in the mix for a team medal.

Another classic Chalmerism on the BBC as they wrap up the golf..."Setting up to be a fantastic finish to the golf. A bit of a battle between the US and the Americans"

Not without the RSPCA getting involved

I'm sensing that you might be a little upset about that - but I could be misinterpreting your post.

Damian Warner no heights in the pole vault and Skotheim is out too.

After a shaky start, Hannah Snellgrove has moved into medal contention with two race wins back to back. She sits in 3rd on 25 points.

BBC evidently not expecting a medal from Jarman or Whitehouse on the men's floor today - didn't even mention it in the preview and instead focused on Whitlock and Biles.

To be honest it was entirely predictable. It's happened multiple times that Wilson is able to dominate the opening fleet racing series but she struggles in the head to head format.

That's a disappointing score from Hester. GB probably had a chance of silver but they needed Hester to step up and post a score in the 77-78 range. But on the upside, they have a 10 point lead over the Netherlands so bronze looks safe.

Dutch second line rider complete with 70.775 - down about 4 points on qualifying. Nothing to suggest they are going to be able to challenge for the medals