Rafa Maciel

Not sure what has happened in Women's Team Sprint qualifying but it looks like are topping the table as the only nation to dip under 47 seconds. seem to have had an issue and are relegated.

Had to do some digging on this as I wasn't sure but then couldn't find the answer in the track regulations manual so I have looked back at what happened in Milton last year when Canada had 2 teams in the pursuit. My understanding is that only the top ranked team scores the points - so I am assuming that will be A. Then for the purposes of the Olympic ranking points, it is as if B isn't there and everyone who finishes behind them moves up 1 place.

If finish higher than 5th in Adelaide, they will overtake in the Olympic qualifying rankings.

men team pursuit finish qualifying in 2nd place behind A who clocked a 3:51.203. GB will now be up against in the 1st round later on. Not sure what happened with - they seemed to be having a great run for the first couple of kms but faded in the second half to finish qualifying in 4th place with a 3:53.553. and both miss out on the 1st round and will finish 8th and 9th respectively for Olympic ranking points.

men's team pursuit finish qualifying with 3:52.509 and now have to wait for the rest of the field to go although they do know that they have qualified for the 1st round. By comparison, their time is about 3 seconds slower than their qualifying time from last month's European Champs.

women top qualifying for team pursuit with a 4:12.311 ahead of in second 4:13.637 and A team in third with 4:14.566. In terms of times, GB and New Zealand were both around 2 second slower than they recorded at Glasgow World Champs. unlucky to miss out on a place in the first-round finishing in 9th place but will be awarded 8th place when it comes to Olympic ranking points.

Seems a bit surprising that haven't entered the team event this time around having been entered in 2022 and 2023. Whilst I didn't expect them to qualify for Paris, it would have been good to see the squad make further progress.

Anyone know if this is being broadcast in UK? Can't see anything on Eurosport or the Discovery+ App.

And Katie Archibald is in the line up for team pursuit - despite only being listed in the omnium and madison in the entry list. Evidently the provision entry list by event document on the UCI page is either out of date or the person producing it got bored of keying in names and gave up half way through.

Both mixed doubles curling semi-finals going into the final end tied at 5-5. GB with final stone advantage in one and Denmark with last stone in the other.

Equestrian - Eventing Policy Document: BEF_BE_Eventing_Olympic_Selection_Policy_2024 Final.pdf (britishequestrian.org.uk) Key Points: Primary objective for GB Equestrian is to win the Eventing Team Gold. Winning an individual medal is secondary. GB Equestrian will select 4 riders to the squad with 1 being designated as reserve pairing - I am reading this as traveling reserve but could be wrong. Further reserve combinations may also be announced by selectors including the use of ranking order. In selecting the combinations, regard will be given to results from 4* and 5* events from January 2023 to the end of qualifying period. 1st phase of selection to take place on or around 19th February - so we may see an initial long list of contenders published by British Equestrian. Only athletes in the A+/A/B+/B funding category can be considered for selection at this time. Another selection meeting will take place in May where 12 athlete/horse combinations will be selected of which 3 will be reserves. Final selection of team to take place around 19th June. Additional Factors: Any rider interested in competing for GB has until 7th May to complete the register of interest but the 1st phase of selection is scheduled for 19th February. Selectors reserve the right to choose a combinations with "outstanding talent" in 1 or 2 of the disciplines.

Sara Benfares has been provisionally suspended after positive drug test. German Anti-Doping Agency reporting positive test for EPO and the steroid testosterone. I have seen on other sources that she has been receiving medical treatment, so it is possible that the adverse finding could be linked to that rather than performance enhancement.

Yeah I wouldn't have got that any time soon - and unfortunately now all I keep hearing in my mind is the guy from Only Fools and Horses shouting "Gary!" (That reference will mean nothing to a lot of international posters)

Interesting article on GB Cycling's ambitions for Paris. Perhaps a little bit of expectation management given how well things went in Glasgow last year, but they are setting a 'realistic' medal target of 10 - 2 less than they achieved in Tokyo. Team gb cuts olympic medal target to ‘realistic’ 10 - 4 Jan 2024 - Cycling Weekly Magazine - Readly If you don't want to sign up for an account, the second section of the article talks about GB Cycling's reduced revenue and lists the main cycling events in the run up to Paris. It also flags that British Cycling had developed its own 3-D printed track bike in-house with the product being priced at 55,000 GBP - I think this may have been the bike that Charlie Tanfield was on when he crashed in Glasgow but I could be wrong. A new line of skinsuits was also debuted in Glasgow. Last up, it talks about Laura Kenny and her prospects to make the squad for Paris with the GB performance director saying that her prospects should become clear around March.

For the life of me I can't think who Gary Roberts is and it is going to bug me all night.

I don't think they publish the breakdown - or at least not for free The only way I've been able to find information about specific predictions is by trawling through various media outlets. Unfortunately, a lot of them are just quoting the headline numbers without going into specifics.

Ever the pessimist, but I have a feeling he is going to miss out. His form is just way too hit-and-miss (pardon the pun) and he hasn't been able to perform when it really matters so I don't think he will be able to get it done at either the World qualifier or European champs. If he doesn't get a quota at those events, then I don't think he'll get it through the rankings as there are at least 2 athletes ahead of him who don't currently have quotas in that list.

Gracenote took the decision not to include them in the analysis because they have been absent from international competition so they couldn't be factored into their model.

Gracenote's gold medal projections for seem uncontroversial (although the keirin is always a bit of a lottery): Men's Rugby 7's Team Women's Rugby 7's Team Women's Keirin: Ellesse Andrews Canoe Sprint - Women's K1 500m: Lisa Carrington

Nielsen's Gracenote Virtual Medal Table - January 2024 At the 6-month countdown to Paris, Gracenote have released their updated virtual medal table: NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total Change Since Last Release 37 46 46 129 Up 3 medals overall - 2 additional silver and 1 additional bronze 35 28 22 85 Up 7 medals in overall - 3 additional silver and 4 additional bronze. 26 16 11 53 Down 1 medal overall - 1 gold downgraded to silver and 1 bronze lost. 17 22 25 64 Down 2 silver medals offset by 1 additional bronze for overall drop of 1 medal in total. 17 15 24 56 Down 2 medals in total - 1 additional silver medal gained offset by drop of 3 bronze medals. 16 9 10 35 Down 2 medals in total - dropping 1 silver and 1 bronze medal. 15 17 16 48 Down 2 medals in total - dropping 2 bronze medals. 13 12 22 47 Down 1 medal in total - 2 silver medals dropped offset by an additional bronze medal. 10 14 15 39 Up 2 medals overall - 1 additional silver and 1 additional bronze. 7 6 10 23 Moves into top ten (replaces Canada)

GB Cycling will keep their cards close to their chest until closer to Paris. Obviously Tarling wants to compete in both road and track, but we'll just need to wait and see whether he has done enough during the off-season to impress the selectors enough for that to happen. Happy to be corrected, but I am struggling to think of a rider who made their debut in the team pursuit squad at the Olympics without first having been part of the European/World/Nations Cup squads. Going for the Madison is perhaps an 'easier' option than putting him into the team pursuit - it's a single ride rather than the 3 required for the TP, less technical (although more tactical) and would perhaps give GB an element of surprise. Talking of Team Pursuit - it looks like Katie Archibald is focusing on the omnium in Adelaide.

So after all of our debate about Tarling and what he could possibly bring to the team pursuit squad when it comes to Paris and he isn't on the Adelaide provisional entry list. As it stands, he is down to do the Madison with Oliver Wood and is the reserve rider for the elimination and the omnium. GB's team pursuit squad is Charlie Tanfield, Oliver Wood, Will Tidbell and Josh Charlton with Michael Gill as reserve. They will be up against very strong team who will have Filippo Ganna back in the squad. On the upside however, there will be no so GB could/should be able target a top 3 finish.

I think that the only quota the ICF confirmed when they covered the event in their reporting was Brodie Crawford in the Men's C1: Rohan issues timely reminder while Fox wins again | ICF - Planet Canoe (canoeicf.com) They haven't updated their quota tracker since the Asian Continental qualifier: quota_allocation_publication_paris2024_after_asian_q.pdf (canoeicf.com)

Doesn't the marathon qualification window run through to May?

I think Caudrey already had the qualifying standard from Budapest WC last year - she PB'd with 4.75 in the final if I remember correctly.