Rafa Maciel

Media reports suggesting that Zohaib Rashid absconded from his team hotel and hasn't been seen since Saturday.

End of session 6, we lose and from the tournament.

I think he had said previously that we would have a clearer picture by March, so he has been true to his word. The fact that she hasn't returned to team training and didn't make the squad for Hong Kong is the nail in the coffin for her Olympic hopes although I think she realised that the World Champs later in the year was a more likely prospect for a return.

Well, the early optimism unfortunately didn't last long in Doha - Bello brothers lose to Rossi & Lupo 21-17 / 14-21 / 5-15. Such a shame - that was definitely a winnable match-up.

Men's 63.5Kg - Saparmyrat Odajev def. Mikael Broman

Men's 71Kg - Salvatore Cavallaro def. Hayder Ismael Karrar (5-0)

With Alkandari's defeat to Walsh, exit the tournament having lost both of their fighters in the first round.

Men's 71Kg - Aidan Walsh def. Husain Alkandari (RSC)

Men's 63.5Kg - Ismail Umar def. Andriejus Lavrenovas (5-0)

Looking increasingly unlikely that Laura Kenny is going to feature in Paris: Dame Laura Kenny given only ‘slim chance’ of competing at Paris Olympics (msn.com)

poor run of form continues on day 3 - Shona Whitwell loses to Donjeta Sadiku by unanimous decision.

Women's 60Kg - Donjeta Sadiku def. Shona Whitwell (5-0)

Women's 60Kg - Anna Jenni def. Laura Akram (WO)

Women's 60Kg - Loredana Marin def. Anatu Mohammed

Women's 60Kg - Alessia Mesiano def. Agnes Alexiusson (4-1)

Day 3 underway Women's 60Kg - Rimma Volossenko def. Petra Szabo

I think we are probably heading for the smallest GB boxing team since Beijing. For the last 3 games, GB have had at least 10 boxers qualify - at the moment I can't see us getting into double figures for Paris. In Beijing, we had 7 and we might even struggle to match that this time. Having said that, probably worth bearing in mind that the number of places available in boxing has dropped for Paris - there's about 40-50 fewer quotas available. Perhaps more worrying is the lack of an obvious medal favourite in the squad - if they don't come back with any medals from Paris then GB Boxing will likely see their funding cut significantly.

Should also say that if are to get the quota via the European Nations Cup, then we will need a second pairing as part of the team - that is likely to be Batrane and Bialokoz.

Agreed - would be great to see a beach volleyball event being held in the UK again. The event got an amazing reception at London 2012 and at the Commonwealths in '22. I think the Bellos were targeting LA '28 as their best chance of getting to an Olympics, but they have decent chance of getting the European quota given they were 5th at last year's European Champs. The problem has always been that the size of the draws in beach volleyball events are so small that it is difficult for them to play on the main tour week in week out so they end up playing at lower level events which don't really help their overall ranking.

Women's Draw:

The draw for the preliminary phase of the 2024 CEV Nations Cup took place last month. Men's Draw:

The draw for the preliminary phase of the Europe Nations Cup:

The Bello brothers get their 2024 season underway later today when they compete in the qualifying for the Elite16 event in Dubai. They'll start their campaign against Rossi & Lupo. If they can come through that, they'll face the winner of Canet / Rotar v Pedro Solberg / Guto for a place in the main draw. Their 2023 season was hampered a fair bit by injury, and they didn't compete as on the main tour as they probably would have liked so it's great to see them starting their season so early and doing so in a top tier event. Whilst I am not expecting them to qualify for Paris through the ranking route, I do think they could be dark house for a surprise quota via the Continental Cup.

Just 2 athletes taking part in Baku Apparatus World Cup this week: Harry Hepworth - (Assuming that he didn't injure himself at the English champs at the weekend). Luke Whitehouse With regards to Giarnni Regini-Moran, he has now missed the 15 of the DSEs. I assume he will be back for the British Champs later this month and he is on the start list for the Challenge Cup in Antalya at the end of March, but he is fast running out of opportunities to impress the selectors.

First 2 rounds of the UEC BMX European Cup will take place this weekend. Pretty much a full slate for the men - Quillan Isodore, Kye Whyte and Ross Cullen are all down for the men's elite so only absentee will be Paddy Sharrock. Different story on the women's side unfortunately - no Shriever in the women's elite and no Emily Hutt in the Under-23. So, the only prospect of scoring points will be with Sienna Harvey in the women's junior event - but having done a bit more research, I'm not sure that the points from junior events will count for the Olympic qualification. I now think that the points have to be won in either the elite or under 23 division. If I am right about that, it means that Harvey's double win last weekend will count for nothing and we won't add any points this week either