Rafa Maciel

One swallow does not make a summer... from 2nd yesterday to 23 today

BMX Racing World Cup - Round 4 Brisbane Men's Elite: 1.) Kye Whyte 2.) Cedric Butti 3.) Carlos Ramirez Yepres Women's Elite: 1.) Zoe Claessens 2.) Saya Sakakibara 3.) Alise Whilloughby

BMX Racing World Cup - Round 3 Brisbane Men's Elite: 1.) Izaac Kennedy 2.) Ross Cullen 3.) Jeremy Smith Women's Elite: 1.) Zoe Claessens 2.) Saya Sakakibara 3.) Manon Veenstra

have announced their long-list of 8 riders in contention for their dressage team for Paris: Anna Kasprzak - Rock Star 13 (#58) Anna Zibrandtsen Carina Cassoe Kruth - Heiline's Danciera (#5) Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour - Vamos Amigos (#2), Zen Elite's Bohemian (#3) Daniel Bachmann Andersen - Marshall-bell (#9), Zippo M.i. (#221) Lone Bang Zindorff - Thranegaardens Rostov (#42) Nadja Aaboe Sloth - Favour Gersdorf (#156) Nanna Skodborg Merrald - Atterupgaards Orthilia (#15) NB - the long list relates to the rider only - the horses that I have included are the most likely options based on the world rankings. Selection events confirmed as Herning (6-Mar), Hagen (24-Apr), Compiegne (2-May), Danish Championships and Nations Cup events in Rotterdam (20-Jun) and finally Aachen (poss 2-Jul). Squad to be announced after Aachen

Quite possibly - just the AOC made their formal announcement yesterday.

3-week long Olympic Selection Camp kicks off next weekend. Not entirely sure how the selection process is due to play out - can't access the US Rowing selection document - however from alternate sources, it looks like the camp will be used to determine the crews going to Paris in the W2x, LW2x, W4-, M4- and W8+. The camp will also select the men's eight crew which will go to the final Olympic qualification regatta. Crew selection will also happen for W4x and M4x to determine who will go forward to the Olympic Trials in April - the winner of which will then go forward to the final Olympic qualification regatta.

Am loathed to post this as I really don't care about this "sport" but have announced their initial squad selection for Paris: Rachael Gunn - "B-Girl Raygun" Jeff Dunne - "B-Boy J-Attack"

It's not a sport that I follow but I thought Dillon was the top GB surfer?

Provisional competition schedule has been released: 20240223_Preliminary-General-Competition-Schedule.pdf (athlete365.org) Draw to take place on Saturday 2nd March.

Ranking is based on their top 2 results across the 5 events. Currently Yan is counting a 1st and 2nd for 115 points so is pretty safe for qualifying place. Schmidt has a 2nd and 5th for 93 points and Gouzou has 4th and 6th for 76 points. Stamp currently counting a 6th and a 7th and for him to qualify, he needs to get ahead of Gouzou to make sure that he is in the top 3. (Good news for him is that neither Schmidt or Gouzou made it through to the final but situation is complicated by the inclusion of the Russians)

BMX Freestyle World Cup hits Enoshima this weekend. Always find it difficult to get live results for the freestyle events but I think that the top-10 qualifiers are: Men's Elite: Anthony Jean Jean 91.50 Logan Martin 91.00 Nick Bruce 87.10 Rimu Nakamura 86.71 Marin Rantes 86.36 Jose torres Gil 84.16 Dylan Hessey 82.46 Marcus Christopher 79.30 Alec Danelutti 79.02 Kevin Fabregue 75.30 Kieran Rielly fails to progress after he finished in 31st place on just 43.50. Women's Elite: Hannah Roberts 79.00 Macarena Valentina Perez Grasset 72.40 Deng Yawen 66.90 Charlotte Worthington 65.45 Natalya Diehm 61.80 Nikita Ducarroz 60.10 Nene Naito 59.90 Xia Honglin 58.95 Minato Oike 58.40 Sarah Nicki 57.20

Good news from perspective with both Andrew Stamp and Bryony Page through to the final in Baku. Whilst Page is virtually certain to be in a qualifying position, Stamp is currently in 4th place and therefore needs to finish higher than 7th pace in tomorrow's final to close the gap on Pierre Gouzou.

Results from Qualification 2: pdfjoiner (2)(29).pdf (agf.az)

Qualification results from AGF Trophy in Baku, Azerbaijan: pdfjoiner(82).pdf (agf.az)

Josh Tarling seems to be continuing his good form in the individual time trial event, winning the first stage of the O Gran Camino. I say "seems" because it doesn't really count for much! Due to high winds, it was a neutralised stage, the riders were on normal road bikes and some riders were just going through the motions. Still, I'm in a glass half full kind of mood whilst waiting for BMX racing to start so thought I'd post it anyhow.

Following completion of their trials, have confirmed 3 crews will go forward to the last chance regatta: Womens Pair: Alana Sherman / Kate Haines - Not a huge surprise given the paring finished 13th at last year's world championships so could/should be in with a shout of getting 1 of the 2 quotas available. Women's Quadruple Sculls: Isabella Carter / Kathryn Glen / Georgia Nugent-O'Leary / Laura Glen - Didn't compete in the event in '23 WC or in the world cup series. Nugent-O'Leary competed in Tokyo and finished 8th in W4x. Men's Quadruple Sculls: Ben Mason / Flynn Watson / Zack Rumble / Jack Ready - As with the women, they didn't compete at World Champs or on the world cup. so difficult to gauge performance.

Round 3 getting underway in Brisbane within the next couple of hours

Peter Sagan reportedly had minor heart surgery today which will take him out of action for at least a few days - safe to assume he won't be lining up at this weekend's Shimano Supercup event in Banyoles.

No Laura Kenny on the start list - doesn't look likely that she is going to be figuring in Team GB squad for Paris.

They are currently 6th but... still have their continental championships to come so will gain 600+ points and would overtake France did not compete at Adelaide Nations Cup and France did so Netherlands still have 2 events to count whereas France only have 1 more

Asian Continental championships get underway in New Dehli later today.

Dates for the remaining Trampoline World Cup events for inclusion in world rankings: 23-Feb: Baku, Azerbaijan 22-Mar: Cottbus, Germany

Dates for the remaining World Cup events for inclusion in Olympic Ranking: 22-Feb: Cottbus, Germany 7-Mar: Baku, Azerbaijan 17-Apr: Doha, Qatar

So as things stand, I would assume that Emile Cairess and Phill Sesemann should be in a position to have their selection confirmed after this week's selection meeting. A 3rd spot isn't out of the question if things can come together in London. Unfortunately I can't find a provisional entry list but perhaps best hope will be Mahamed Mahamed (2:08.40 Valencia '23) as I am assuming that Jonathan Mellor wont be doing another spring marathon after Seville. On the women's side, I think there are 8 athletes with the standard - Charlotte Purdue, Calli Thackery, Rose Harvey, Clara Evans, Lily Partridge, Samantha Harrison, Natasha Wilson and Georgina Schwiening. Assuming they are injury free, Purdue and Thackery will likely get the nod for early selection given they are about 3 minutes faster than the rest of the qualifiers. Not sure if Jess Piasecki is looking to run the London marathon but she was another 2:22.25 in 2022 so is possibly another athlete who could challenge for a spot is she has recovered from injury.

Source data for the rankings: FIG - Event Detail - 17041 (gymnastics.sport) Select the ranking information from the event files option.