Rafa Maciel

You can't help but be impressed by the optimism of some people: Curling Jamaica president eyes for Olympic gold by 2040 (sportsmax.tv)

Japanese squad has now been finalised with the addition of: Women -63Kg: Mirai Takaichi -78Kg: Rika Takayama Men -60Kg: Tatsuki Nagayama -100Kg: Aaron Wolf

squad selected last week: Tim Anderson - Men's Kayak Tristan Carter - Men's Canoe They join Jess Fox on the plane to Paris after her selection was confirmed last year.

A couple of squad announcements confirmed over the weekend: Defending champion Matt Wearn has been selected for the ILCA7 class whilst Grae Morris has been selected for the Men's iQFOiL after a strong showing in recent World Championship. They join Breiana Whitehead who was selected for the Women's Kite late last year.

New Zealand confirmed to be competing in World Cup II in Lucerne in late May: NZ Rowing Team to compete at 2024 World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland 24 – 26 May : RowingNZ Think it is safe to assume this will be pretty close to their Olympic roster but there are a couple of changes to the squads that took part in last year's World Champs: Women's Four - Kerri Williams comes in to replace Ella Cossill Men's Double Sculls - Jordan Parry replaces Benjamin Manson Men's Pair - Dan Williamson joins Phillip Wilson in the crew with Ben Taylor moved to the reserve pair.

will not be defending their Olympic title in the Men's Eight or the silver medal they won in the Women's Eight as they have decided not to send a crew for these events at the Last Chance Regatta. New Zealand Rowing holding trials this week to decide whether to field boats at the LCR for Women's Pair, Women's Quadruple Sculls and Men's Quadruple Sculls.

As I understand it, the winner of each group will be given a bye through to the round of 16: Position 1 - Winner of group 1 Position 16 - Winner of group 3 Position 17 - Winner of group 4 Position 32 - Winner of group 2 Winners of groups 5,6,7 & 8 will then be drawn into positions 8,9, 24 & 25. Group runners-up will be placed in the opposite half of the draw to their group winner and will play against a 3rd placed team - this cannot be a team that they have already played in the group stages.

Internacionales Chelva GSport Challenge Men's Elite 1.) Vlad Dascalu 2.) Samuel Gaze 3.) David Valero Serrano Women's Elite 1.) Savilia Blunk 2.) Evie Richards 3.) Yana Belomoina With her 2nd place, Richards adds 80 points to the total which should extend their lead over in the battle for the last double quota position in the rankings to around 350 points.

Bizarre....just bizarre. Shane Rose: Show jumper competes in mankini - BBC Sport

This weekend was the Oceania Championships although worth mentioning that a lot of the big names didn't take part. Women's Elite: 1.) Sienna Pal 2.) Leila Walker 3.) Megan Williams With no Sakakibara or Reynolds in the field, this will have limited impact on the Olympic ranking. However, Bella May - the 3rd ranking rider for Australia - won the under 23 event, so will add 100 points to their total. Men's Elite: 1.) Joshua Mclean 2.) Michael Bias 3.) Jesse Asmus

I think have finally got a second male athlete over the line with a Paris OQT - Phil Sesseman with 2:08.02 at Seville.

Think Amdouni was close to European Record

Am not sure it is either complete or correct to be honest. The Adelaide entry lists didn't really bear any relation to what we eventually saw on the track.

Provisional entry lists for leg 2 of Nations Cup in Hong Kong have been released: Team_Publication_as_16.02.2024.pdf (ctfassets.net) The cliff notes: - Strong sprint squad with Richardson, Cornish, Hoffman and Glaetzer all included. - Lotte Kopecky likely looking to get in some Omnium practice. - All three members of World Champ bronze medal winning women's sprint team are taking part. Expect men's team pursuit to also take to the track - but not the same squad that competed at last year's Asian champs or the World Champs in Glasgow. - Sending a second-tier squad for men's team pursuit, but we've seen before that a Danish B-Team is still good enough to get on the podium. - Important for the women's team sprint to put in a strong showing if they want to secure the quota. Gros, Michaux and Kouame all in the entry list gives them good chance. - Women's Team Sprint will want to put their Adelaide DSQ behind them and look like they will be putting out their strongest team. - Men's pursuit team looks pretty solid - Ethan Hayter, Josh Charlton, William Perrett, William Tidball, Michael Gill are all on the start list. For men's team sprint, there is no Jack Carlin (Not sure that is a huge loss though). Instead Jo Truman, Alistair Fielding will likely be joined by Harry Ledingham-Horn or Hayden Norris. On the women's side, it's full strength for the sprint side (although Katy Marchant is also listed under trade team so not sure if she will be racing as part of GBR). Finally, looks like there is no GB squad in the women's team pursuit (or indeed in any of the endurance events). - Full strength for both of the team sprint events. - Looks like they are putting out their A-team for both men's and women's team pursuits. No place for Ellesse Andrews as she recovers from collar bone injury. - Important event for their men's team sprint hopes. This year's European bronze medalist are all back and will be looking to take advantage of the fact that there is no Canadian team taking part. A podium finish would really put the pressure on Canada going into the final stage of the competition in Milton. The event specific entry lists also available but should be take with a pinch of salt if they are anything like the entry lists that were published ahead of Adelaide: Entries_by_Event_as_16.02.2024.pdf (ctfassets.net)

He got it over the line in the end, but it should have been done in straight games. Jarvis v Kurmangaliyev will be interesting. On paper Jarvis is the higher ranked player - 183 v 212 - but it could go either way.

Draft entry lists for Edinburgh International Meet in early March have been published. As expected, there's plenty of names there - including a lot of our prospective Olympic team - but also a fair few swimmers from draft-programme.pdf (eism.org.uk)

They still think they can get out of the group stage - I'm not sure how but they think it is doable.

Japan were awarded a walkover but I think it may have been because Nigeria didn't have enough players available to compete. Quadri Aruna had withdrawn from the squad before the competition begun and Bode Abiodun was late arriving. They are however competing today against so assume they haven't withdrawn.

Don't think any of the action we've seen this week will have all that much relevance when it comes to Paris. If the guys aren't hitting the target times when we get to the British Champs in April then may have to reconsider the medal prospects but from what I've seen so far, the majority of the GB swimmers are producing faster times than they were at the same time last year which can only be viewed as a positive sign for the rest of the year.

Looks like the season kicked off in earnest this weekend: HERO Abu Dhabi - Women's Elite 1.) Rebecca Henderson 2.) Noelle Buri 3.) Martin Berta HERO Abu Dhabi - Men's Elite 1.) Ben Oliver 2.) Thomas Litscher 3.) David List Shimano Supercup Massi La Nucia - Women's Elite 1.) Pauline Ferrand Prevot 2.) Nicole Koller 3.) Savilia Blunk Shimano Supercup Massi La Nucia - Men's Elite 1.) Tom Pidcock 2.) Samuel Gaze 3.) David Valero Serrano Action continues this weekend with the Internacionales Chelva GSport Challenge.

In a sign of how relaxed the GB squad have been about these championships, I understand that Matthew Richards was still in heavy training at altitude two weeks ago. Whilst it is disappointing that he didn't make the podium, 47.82 is still half a second quicker than he was swimming at the same time last year.

Cairo marks a return to competition for Joe Fraser after sitting out 2023 with injury and illness. So far: Floor - 11.833 Pommel - 14.666 Floor score is pretty poor but that's a decent pommel routine. He'll be on the horizontal bar tomorrow.

Ross Cullen did not make a single World Cup final across 2023 and his best result was a 1st at round 4 of European Cup in April which was devoid of most of the top names. Granted he looked in decent form at Rotorua before he went off course in the semi-finals but there is nothing in his results which would suggest he could be challenging for medals without a fairly dramatic shift in performance. Am becoming increasingly aware that I am coming across as the prophet of doom when it comes to prospects, but I do try to be as balanced as possible.

In some ways I can see it as a good thing, but then again, if you are a gymnast from the likes of Fiji or Samoa, are you really going to be able to travel to Hungary to compete or is this going to be another Oceania championship which is basically v

Understand from Gymnastics New Zealand that the Oceania Championship for Rhythmic Gymnastics is taking place in conjunction with the European Championships in Hungary from 22-May.