Rafa Maciel

unlikely to be eligible to compete in the continental qualifiers because we already have Jade Jones and Bianca Cook qualifying through the rankings so only way Williams qualifies is by getting herself into the top 5.

I agree - I've said throughout, that her path to qualification was narrow but not impossible. The question was whether she was willing to drop down to the smaller tournaments and to go chasing the points necessary to keep her in the race. She's shown that she's not willing to give up on her Olympic dream but realistically she needs to be reaching at least the semi-finals this week and the final in Manchester - and even that won't be enough on its own as she will need other athletes to slip up.

Following on from earlier comments about Lauren Williams' schedule, she is now appearing on the start lists for another couple of events: 10-Oct: Taiyuan Grand Prix (G-6 Level) 60 Points 28-Oct: Swedish Open (G-1 Level) 10 Points 3-Nov: Asian Taekwondo Open Championships (G-2 Level) 20 Points 2-Dec: Manchester Grand-Prix Final (G-10 Level) 100 Points I am a bit surprised that she is going to Pakistan for the Asian Open Championship event - but I guess the start list may not be as strong as some of the other events and it gives her a chance to compete in G-2 level event.

State of the Race - Men's Tour UCI Ranking - 3-Oct (Adjusted): - 22433.09 (22024.09) - 18329.98 (18241.98) - 15566.34 (14913.34) - 14012.02 (12857.02) - 13689.09 (13519.09) - 13521.36 (13308.36) This week the following races took place: Grand Prix Urubici de Ciclismo Grand Prix Internacional de Ciclismo de Santa Catarina Paris-Bourges Gran Piemonte Grand Prix Chantal Biya Il Lombardia Paris-Tours Of these races, ranking riders for and featured in Gran Piemonte and Il Lombardia and Paris-Tours. In Gran Piemonte, gained 125 points whilst picked up 20 points. At Il Lombardia, gained 255 points, gained 640 points and picked up 180 points. In Paris-Tours, won 70 points. That would mean the new ranking totals would be: - 14264.09 (14179.09) - 13636.36 (13558.36) - 13237.02 (13237.02) Outstanding Events Before Close of Qualification Window: 05-09 Oct: Tour of Hainan 07-09 Oct: Tour de Kyushu 08-15 Oct: Presidential Tour of Turkey 11 Oct: Giro del Veneto 15 Oct: Japan Cup Cycle Road Race 15 Oct: Chrono des Nations 15 Oct: Veneto Classic ?? 12-17 Oct: Gree-Tour of Guangxi (Not 100% sure whether this will be included in the rankings released on 17-Oct as the race will finish after the reported release time for the rankings however looking at the rankings release for 3-Oct, this includes races that took place on 3-Oct so that would indicate that it will be included.) Ranking Riders in action next week (NB not all start lists are confirmed) : Mark Cavendish in Tour of Turkey; Josh Tarling in Chrono des Nations : Axel Zingle and Guillaume Martin in Japan Cup Cycle Road Race : Pello Bilbao and Ion Izagirre in Tour of Guangxi France will have a cushion of around 300 points going into the last week of racing. In order to overtake France, they will need both of their riders to finish in the points in Guangxi - but unless one of them actually wins the race, it will be difficult to close the gap - even having 2 in the top 5 will not necessarily be enough for them. Projected Paris Quotas: 4 men qualified: 3 men qualified: 2 men qualified: 1 man qualified: The positions of Kazakhstan and Eritrea could be reversed. There are 3 Eritreans taking part in the Tour of Turkey and Girmay was in the Paris-Tours today. I'm not sure how UCI will apply the results from the Asian Games - they are listed as a Continental Games but if they are included in the ranking then Asia would be the only continent that counted 2 continental competitions which would seem to raise issues of whether there was a level playing field. If that was to be the case, all of the continental/world championship quotas would be reallocated: 2023 World Championship quotas: Lucas Eriksson was the only rider to finish from non qualified nation. 2023 African Championship quotas: Christopher Rougier-Lagane & Charles Kagimu 2023 Asian Championship quotas: Kim Euro & Mohammad Ganjkhanlou 2023 Pan-American Championship quotas: Antonio Eric Fagundez Lima & Daniel Andres Bonilla Quiros Reallocated Host Quotas: & Usual caveats apply - this could all be rubbish if I have gone cross-eyed scrolling through results and ranking lists.

State of the Race - Women's Tour UCI Ranking - 3-Oct: - 14399.23 - 7758.43 - 6526 - 5775.05 - 5412.43 This week the following races took place: Binche-Chimay-Binche / Memorial Frank Vandenbroucke Tre Valli Varesine Asian Games - Road Race and Individual Time Trial Grand Prix Urubici de Ciclismo Feminina Grand Prix Internacional de Ciclismo de Santa Catarina There will be no change in the top 5 ranking this week. Australia who are in 6th and around 500 points shy of GB haven't been able to close the gap. Outstanding Events Before Close of Qualification Window: 12-14 Oct: Tour of Chongming 15 Oct: Chrono des Nations The start lists for these events are not confirmed as of today but realistically, there are unlikely to be enough points available to make significant changes to the overall rankings at the top of the rankings but we may see some changes further down the list. Projected Paris Quotas: 4 women qualified: 3 women qualified: 2 women qualified: 1 woman qualified: If that was to be the case, 5 of the 8 continental/world championship quotas would be reallocated: 2023 World Championship quotas: Anastasia Carbonari & Eri Yonamine 2023 African Championship quotas: No Reallocation Required 2023 Asian Championship quotas: Thi That Nguyen (No change) & Phi Kun Pan 2023 Pan-American Championship quotas: Andrea Ramirez Fregoso & Mariana Garcia Britos Reallocated Host Quotas: & For those who have used the PCS site's rankings tracker, you will notice that there are differences between the site's data and the analysis outlined above. I believe that this is primarily because PCS counts the top 8 riders - as per the men's ranking - whereas the UCI ranking for women is based on the top 5 riders.

I don't think the Tour of Guangxi will actually count for the Olympic rankings because it isn't due to complete until 17-Oct. According to the UCI Regulations document, the rankings are updated every Tuesday at 2am CET. That would be 9am in China and would suggest that the last stage of the tour would not be complete by the time that the rankings for 17-Oct were due to be published and would not therefore be included until the 24-Oct rankings release. Looking back to previous releases, I don't think that the UCI include the stage results in the ranking until the whole race is completed which leads me to believe that the last stage race to be included in the Olympic ranking will be the Presidential Tour of Turkey.

Santiago del Estero - World Cup Round 7 Men's BMX Racing 1.) Romain Mahieu 2.) Joris Daudet 3.) Nicolas Torres Women's BMX Racing 1.) Bethany Shriever 2.) Saya Sakakibara 3.) Felicia Stancil

Mont-Sainte-Anne World Cup Last World Cup event of the season: Men's Short Course 1.) Victor Koretzky 2.) Jordan Sarrou 3.) Christopher Blevins Women's Short Course 1.) Laura Stigger 2.) Loana Lecomte 3.) Rebecca Henderson

There is one more week of events to go - but there aren't huge amount of races left in the calendar and a lot of the ranking riders wont be taking part.

add 640 pick up 180 pick up 255 So, by my quick calculation, Spain - who had a really good Il Lombardia in 2022 - will drop below both GBR and France in the next release of the UCI rankings. France should have a cushion of around 60-70 points and that margin should increase again tomorrow with the Paris-Tours event tomorrow.

Great result for McClenaghan and it will give him a huge confidence boost ahead of next year's Olympics, but I do think that going into Paris, he will have to up his degree of difficulty towards 6.6-6.7. He has stuck with his 6.4 DD routine through Tokyo, Liverpool WC and Antwerp largely because he knows that he can nail the execution score but in doing so, he is leaving the door open to his competitors.

have lost Enric Mas to DNF and Mikel Landa unlikely to figure after a big crash. Advantage swings to France and GBR.

Looks like Rhys is the last athlete to take to the pommel in the final and I don't think that is necessarily going to help him. Whilst he will know what he needs to do to win - both in terms of the gold medal and a quota to Paris - it puts him under a lot more pressure than he would have if he was going out in the first group of 4. He found himself in similar position in Tokyo and it didn't work out well for him and when he won the World Champs last year, he was up 3rd in final. Maybe I am biased, but I think the start order of the final today could favour Whitlock. We know he is in good form with 2 good routines in the team competition - and we saw in Tokyo what can happen when he goes out early and is able to lay down a big score. Today, Whitlock will be 2nd after Olympic silver medalist Lee Chih Kai of .

Having withdrawn from the individual all-around final, Gadirova has now withdrawn from her individual apparatus finals.

Whilst there are still 10 events left on the men's tour before the end of the Olympic ranking window, today is the last big set piece event on the men's tour and the one which has the potential to have the biggest impact on the size of the teams in Paris next year - Il Lombardia. At this stage, we know that and are going to have a full team of 4 riders. That leaves and battling it out for the remaining 2 full team spots. The official UCI ranking currently has Spain in 4th place ahead of GB and France but on an adjusted basis - excluding any results from Oct-22 - GB would be ahead of France and Spain. (Although the numbers are slightly different, this is in line with the current PCS ranking). Based on the ranking released on 03-Oct, GB had a lead of around 200 points on France and 500 points on Spain (Spain had a very good Il Lombardia in 2022) Since the last ranking release, we have had a number of events in Italy and across these, both France and Spain have been able to outscore GB causing the gaps to close somewhat. GB now have a lead of around 130 on France and around 270 on Spain. With 800 points available for the win today and with top 8 riders scoring at least 200 points, GB's lead is not insurmountable. Ranking riders taking part in Il Lombardia: Adam Yates & Simon Yates Guillaume Martin, Thibaut Pinot, Valentin Madouas, Pavel Sivakov, Romain Bardet Mikel Landa, Ion Izagirre, Carlos Rodriguez, Enric Mas, So from a pure numbers perspective, France and Spain both have the numbers to be able to swamp the points taken by the Yates brothers. If any of the Spanish or French ranking riders get a top 8 finish without that being matched by one of the Yates, then it is very possible that they will move ahead of GB in the rankings.

Looks like Gadirova hasn't fully shaken the knock she took in her team final vault - she has withdrawn from the all-around and has been replaced by Kinsella.

Biles has got to start as favourite but think Andrade will be on a high after the team medal so I think she will be on the podium - probably silver. There is a few gymnasts who could get on to the last step of the podium but it will come down to who is able to put together 4 clean routines. Obviously as a Brit, I would like it to be Gadirova, but I have a feeling she is going to have a wobble on beam.

Anyone know why people seem to have dropped out of the latest ranking list even though their previous weight would have been enough for them to be included? For example Lyubov Kovalchuk lister 274Kg at the Asian Championship but no longer appears on the Olympic qualification list for the +81Kg class.

So miss out on both team medals which, whilst disappointing, isn't necessarily a bad thing. Getting a reality check the year before Olympics will hopefully fuel the team to make the necessary adjustments over the winter. My thoughts on the individual performances across the team events: Max Whitlock - Whatever happens in the pommel horse final, I think he has established himself as the elder statesman in the team and will have 1 foot on the Eurostar. He knew that as a single apparatus specialist, he would not be able to fight his way on to the team but he's come back with ability to contribute across pommel, parallel bars and horizontal bar - his scores on P-bars and horizontal bar won't necessarily trouble the top of the leaderboard, but they are safe routines scoring high 13 to low 14s which is what they are looking for in qualification. Harry Hepworth - Had a great qualification competition - competed on three apparatus and was top GB scorer across all three. He wasn't as consistent in the team final which whilst disappointing, will still have been a great learning experience. It will be interesting to see how he performs in his individual finals but he has certainly done his chances of making the team next year no harm. Jake Jarman - Probably one of the most frustrating gymnasts across the squads because despite his abilities, he has never been able to put together a complete round. In the team final, he had a great vault and floor routine but was down across the rest of the apparatus. He definitely has the difficulty, so hopefully he can spend the winter focusing on delivering on execution. Nevertheless, barring injury, he too has 1 foot on the Eurostar. James Hall - The work horse of the team, he's going to be disappointed by two falls in the team final particularly as he had a good qualifying competition. Courtney Tulloch - I'm not 100% convinced that Tulloch is fully fit this week - he didn't seem to be on top of his routines. His value to the team comes through his potential to post big rings and vault scores, but neither were brilliant in qualifying. Given it is unlikely that he will be in the rings final - unless someone withdraws - I would have expected him to go all out on his rings routine in the team final and yet his score was down 0.2. With Hepworth stepping up with some solid rings scores, Tulloch's place in the team begins to look a little less solid than it has done in previous seasons. Jessica Gadirova - Will be disappointed by her vault and I wonder if that impacted her as she went through uneven bars and balance beam with both scores down a fair bit on qualifying. Nothing that happens this week is likely to jeopardise her place on the team next year. Ondine Achampong - Put in great scores on both vault and balance beam and still has a place in the all-around final to look forward to. She'll be on the team for Paris. Alice Kinsella - Despite having a fall on balance beam, she didn't have a bad qualifying competition. She may have been disappointed that she didn't get the nod to be in the vault for the team final. On both uneven bars and floor, she was one of the few gymnasts who managed to maintain her scores from qualifying. If she can cut out the mistakes on balance beam, she has potential to post good scores and she'll be on the team next year. Ruby Evans - Solid performances across qualifying and in the team final. She has a good level of difficulty but needs to work on moving those execution scores out of the high 7s and consistently into the 8s. Georgia-Mae Fenton - Not a great team final for her with falls on both uneven bars and balance beam. The selectors will know that these performances aren't true reflection of her ability and will probably keep faith with her for next year.

Badminton Policy Document: FINAL-Paris-2024-Badminton-Olympic-Selection-Appeal-Policy.pdf (badmintonengland.co.uk) Key Points: Any singles player insider the top-16 of the Race to Paris Ranking List will be automatically selected. For singles players ranked outside of the top-16 of Race to Paris Ranking List, they will require a World Ranking of at least 75 as at end of Apr-24 to be considered for selection. When considering singles players, consideration will be given to their position in the world ranking, their results at Tier 1 events - e.g. Sudirman Cup, World Championships, Thomas Cup - alongside their performance against players ranked inside the top-16. Any doubles team insider the top-8 of the Race to Paris Ranking List will be automatically selected. For doubles teams ranked outside of the top-8 of Race to Paris Ranking List, they will require a World Ranking of at least 25 as at end of Apr-24 to be considered for selection. As per process for singles selection, when considering doubles teams, consideration will be given to their position in the world ranking, their results at Tier 1 events - e.g. Sudirman Cup, World Championships, Thomas Cup - alongside their performance against players ranked inside the top-16. Additional Factors: Document includes reference to "future Olympic medal potential" which will allow the selection panel to select a lower ranked player/team if they believe that they have potential for a top-8 finish in LA 2028. The future potential clause can only be exercised where declining the quota of the higher ranked player/team would not result in losing the quota. Badminton probably had one of the most contentious selections going into Tokyo 2021 when Ben Lane and Sean Vendy were selected for the men's doubles ahead of 2016 bronze medalists Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis. That was despite Langridge and Ellis being the higher ranked pairing and being both Commonwealth and European champions. It is unlikely that we will have a repeat of this controversy ahead of Paris - not because the selection policy prevents it, but rather GB's badminton performance has dropped off so the selections should be relatively straightforward. Athletes in the mix for GB Selection: Women's Singles - Kirsty Gilmour - she's pretty much nailed on for selection - barring injury - as she currently sits 27th in World Ranking and is in line for 18th quota. Men's Singles - Johnnie Torjussen or Rohan Midha could squeeze in. Both have World Ranking around 140-150 so would need a big shift up to be considered. Currently Midha is ranked 110 in the Race to Paris with the last quota currently being awarded at 85 so not beyond the realms of possibility that he could be awarded a quota but it is unlikely. Women's Doubles - No team is currently in a qualifying position but we do have a couple of pairings that are not a million miles away from the cut-off. Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith are 31 in World Ranking and 42 in Race List whilst Julie Macpherson and Ciara Torrance are ranked 36 and 47. Both teams are over 10,000 points shy of a qualifying spot so they need to put a major shift on if they hope to qualify. Men's Doubles - Lane/Vendy are in the box seat for selection as they currently sit 18th in World Ranking and 21st in Race to Paris. This is one of the events where there is a chance (albeit very slim) that GB could get 2 quotas. Alexander Dunn and Adam Hall would be the second pairing. They are currently ranked 28th in World and 26th on Race List. Even if they don't get a 2nd quota, this is an event where selectors could reject the first named pairing without losing the quota. Mixed Doubles - Historically GB's best event in badminton. Whilst there are 3 teams that could have an argument for selection, Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith have to be regarded as favourite. They are 28 in World Ranking and 21 in the Race List. Gregory Mairs and Jenny Mairs are not a million miles behind them at 34 in the world and 39 in race list. Finally Adam Hall and Julie Macpherson are 39 in world ranking and 52 in the race list.

Women's 48Kg Class Assunta Scutto OR Francesca Milani Wakana Koga OR Natsumi Tsunoda OR Hikari Yoshioka Milica Nikolic OR Andrea Stojadinov Maria Cella Laborde Abiba Abuzhakynova OR Galiya Tynbayeva Laura Martinez Abelenda OR Mireia Lapuerta Comas OR Julia Figueroa Catarina Costa Baasankhuu Bavuudorj Marusa Stangar Shira Rishony OR Tamar Malca Mary Dee Vargas Ley Katharina Menz Sabina Giliazova Guo Zongying Leyla Aliyeva Khalimajon Kurbonova Natasha Ferreira

Women's 52Kg Class Diyora Keldiyorova OR Sita Kadamboeva Distria Krasniqi Reka Pupp Gefen Primo Chelsie Giles Odette Giuffrida Uta Abe OR Kisumi Omori Mascha Ballhaus Soumiya Iraoui Khorloodoi Bishrelt Larissa Pimenta OR Jessica Pereira Sosorbaram Lkhagvasuren Gultaj Mammadaliyeva Angelic Delgado Estrella Lopez Sherriff Fabienne Kocher Yerin Jung

Women's 57Kg Class Christa Deguchi OR Jessica Klimkait Haruka Funakubo Rafaela Silva OR Jessica Lima Nora Gjakova Mimi Huh Marica Perisic Eteri Liparteliani Timna Nelson Levy Enkhriilen Lkhagvatogoo Veronica Toniolo Chen-Ling Lien Telma Monteiro Kaja Kajzer Daria Bilodid Pauline Starke Nekoda Smythe-Davis Cai Qi

Women's 63Kg Class Laura Fazliu Gili Sharir OR Inbal Shemesh Miku Takaichi OR Megumi Horikawa OR Nami Nabekura Katharine Haecker Angelika Szmanska Lucy Renshall Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard Szofi Ozbas Prisca Awiti Alcaraz Andreja Leski Barbara Timo Renata Zachova Ketleyn Quandros Joanne Van Lieshout Maylin Del Toro Carvajal Lubjana Piovesana Iva Oberan

Women's 70Kg Class Elisavet Teltsidou Lava Cvjetko OR Barbara Matic Saki Niizoe OR Shiho Tanaka Sanne Van Dijke OR Kim Polling Michaela Polleres Ai Tsunoda Roustant Aoife Coughlan Elvismar Rodriguez Miriam Butkereit OR Giovanna Scoccimarro Maya Goshen Gabriella Willems Anka Pogacnik Katie-Jemima Yeats-Brown Gulnoza Matniyazova Fidan Ogel Madina Taimazova Luana Carvalho