Rafa Maciel

English version is back up

women's 3x3 team made their competing for the first time in the FIBA 3x3 Series in Sumgait today. They won both their matches in the qualifying draw - against a Japanese team and Madagascar - to qualify for the main draw where they were up against Latvia and CS Rapid Bucharest. They were pretty much overwhelmed by Latvia - losing 19-3 - but they kept it much closer in their match against CS Rapid Bucharest going down to a 21-17 defeat. Hopefully the team will also be competing in the next couple of legs - in Edmonton and Bordeaux next month.

The draw for the Women's 2027 EuroBasket qualification was completed this week - this is likely to be the critical qualifying route for '28 Olympics. If it follows previous years, a top 6 finish at the 2027 EuroBasket would give GB a ticket to Olympic qualifying tournament. will enter the competition in round 1 - the 7 teams who are competing in the World Cup Qualifying Tournaments have a bye to round 2 - and have been drawn against , and . are the highest seed in their group so should be able to safely navigate through to the second round. The first round of matches takes place in November this year followed by reverse matches in early March. After a pretty disappointing tournament in 2025, hopefully GB can make some progress over the qualifying window and put themselves in strong position to secure a ticket to LA.

With Wimbledon quickly disappearing in the rearview mirror, the entry lists for the US Open have been announced with 6 players securing direct acceptance. Women's Singles Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartel and Emma Raducanu Men's Singles Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley Fran Jones will feel a little unlucky that the cut off wasn't next week. She is currently ranked 104 with the cut off being 99 so she needs 6 players to withdraw however on the live rankings, she is up to 99 after getting through to the round of 16 at the WTA 250 event in Iasi.

Last month the senior men's and women's 3x3 squads were both in action trying to secure qualification for the Europe Cup 2025. The hopes were high for the men after they had secured qualification for the World Cup in Mongolia. The women opened their campaign with a 17-16 win over . This was followed by a more comfortable 17-10 victory over . In a busy day of action, they finished up with another comfortable win - this time over with GB running out 21-11 victors to maintain their 100% record. made it 4 wins from 4 with a 15-13 victory over to secure their place in Europe Cup 2025. The men's path to qualification was decidedly tougher. Opening their pool with a comfortable 22-12 victory over but couldn't match , ultimately falling to a 21-14 defeat. This set up a winner takes all match against . GB were never ahead and although they managed to keep the score tight, they would ultimately fall to a 20-15 defeat to end their hopes of qualification.

OK - plenty of action to catch up here across the disciplines and age groups. 3x3 Youth Nations League 2025: Both the men and women compete in the Europe 2 league with 6 rounds of competition across July in Bucharest and Szolnok. In Round 1, defeated 15-13 before easing past 21-5 to top their pool. In the final they faced and came through with a 20-17 victory to win Round 1. In Round 2, opened their pool with a 21-18 win over before inflicting a second defeat on , coming through 16-11 to top the pool and qualify for the final where they came up against . prevailed with a 19-11 victory. Having won both of the opening 2 rounds, had an off day when it came to Round 3 falling to a 22-20 overtime defeat at the hands of before another narrow 21-19 loss to leaving them 5th overall. On the women's side, in Round 1, were soundly beaten by in the opening pool game before bouncing back with hard fought 16-14 win over to finish 2nd in the pool for 5th overall. In Round 2, lost their opening pool match to 21-16 before defeating 21-15. Again they finished 2nd in the pool but their performance was enough to secure 3rd overall. Like the men, the women had an off-day when it came to Round 3, falling to a 21-11 defeat at the hands of before being swept aside 21-5 by leaving them bottom of the pool at 6th overall. At the halfway point of the competition, the men are at the top of the league with 250 points ahead of (230) and (200). The women currently sit 5th with 165 points behind (280), (260), (185) and (180). The competition resumes in Hungary with rounds 4-6 running across 28-30 July.

Can confirm that Nowacki is very much on the squad - he's fresh off of gold in the 100 and 200m and silver in the 50m Breaststroke at the European Junior Championships last month. Add to that golds in the men's 4x100 Medley Relay and the mixed 4x100 Medley Relay and he's had quite the summer. Let's just hope that GB Aquatics can keep him motivated to continue in the sport - their selection policies aren't exactly renowned for promoting maximum participation.

To be fair, the women's team have been eligible to qualify since 2012 - they were pretty much screwed by UEFA when they introduced the Nations League as the qualifying route instead of the usual World Cup. As for the men, there have been suggestions that we could field a team in LA - certainly believe that the BOA want that to happen - but as you say, the home nations continue to be a stumbling block. That being said, traditionally it has been the Scottish FA who have been the most vocal opponent but this time around it could be Wales who are doing more of the push back.

Interestingly, competed against in the semi-finals of the World Cup Division 2 competition at the end of last year. On that occasion, edged out a 12-15 victory.

The men have fallen just short in their attempt to qualify for the 2026 European Championships. In their qualifying competition in last month, GB were up against , . and needing a top 2 finish to progress to the final tournament. In their first match, they were overwhelmed by - conceding 10 goals in the first half without response - ultimately going down to a 27-3 defeat. Things came together for them in their second match against as they eased to a 13-5 victory. This was followed by a tight fight against with GB edging out an 11-9 victory. The victory over Poland set up a winner takes all match against - but unfortunately it was to take place on the same day as the match against Poland. So, whilst the Slovenian team were well rested having not played since the day before, the GB guys were fatigued and ultimately went down to a 16-6 defeat which meant that Slovenia took the all-important second place in the pool.

actually have an active national volleyball team. Who knew!! This month, the men's and women's Under 22 squads have been in action in the qualifying for the 2026 European Championships. For the men, they were up against pretty tough opposition and would ultimately lose all three of their qualifying matches - (11-25 / 20-25 / 15-25), (16-25 / 21-25 / 13-25), and (20-25 / 26-24 / 14-25 / 15-25) For the women, they too didn't make it out of the group stages but that's hardly surprising given they hadn't spent that much time together as a team. They lost out against (18-25 / 16-25 / 8-25) and (16-25 / 14-25 / 9-25) but were awarded a walkover win over

After a great end to 2024, I was hoping that the Bello brothers would be able to push on this year. The early indications were pretty positive. In the first Elite16 event of the year in Quintana Roo in late March, they finished in 9th place, and that was followed by a 19th place finish at the event in Saquarema in April. This helped propel them into the top 10 in world rankings. They haven't competed together since because Javier picked up a knee injury. Hopefully he will be back to full fitness to allow the pair to make an impact at the European Championships at the end of this month. In Dusseldorf, the Bello brothers are the 6th seeds and have been drawn in Pool F against Boermans / de Groot, Haussener / Friedli and Ehlers / Wickler. Assuming it follows the same pattern as previous years, they will need to finish in the top 3 of their group in order to progress. If they can top the group, they would advance directly to the round of 16. If they finish 2nd or 3rd in the group, they would go to the round of 24.

Last update for Archery, in May, Archery GB confirmed their World Class Programme Recurve Athletes: Women's Recurve: Penny Healey Megan Havers Megal Costall Holly Linfield Thea Rogers Men's Recurve: Monty Orton Archie Bromley Alex Sillitoe-Price Johnny Smart Shay Boyd Edward Gray No huge surprises on the women's side - with Bryony Pitman taking a (hopefully temporary) step away from the sport, Healey and Havers were a shoo-in. When it comes to the men's squad, I'm sure there is a reason, but it doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Patrick Huston is the top British Archer but didn't make the squad. In fact, none of the top 3 British ranked archers - who are all ranked in the top 100 in the world - made the squad with both Conor Hall and Tom Hall also missing out. Based on this list Archie Bromley, at 208, is the top ranked GB archer.

Couple of squad announcements made over the last few weeks. Next week, the archery events at the FISU World University Games will take place in Essen. I've always had the feeling that doesn't take these kinds of events as seriously as they could or should but, for the first time since 2019, we are sending a team to compete in the archery events. Selected Squad: Women's Recurve: Megan Costall & Louisa Piper Men's Recurve: Callum Piggott Women's Compound: Grace Chappell, Chloe A'Bear & Hallie Boulton Men's Compound: Ajay Scott & Finlay Clark the squad for next month's World Youth Championships in Canada has also been announced: Selected Squad: Under 21 Recurve Women: Penny Healey, Holly Linfield & Megan Havers Under 21 Recurve Men: Archie Bromley, Edward Gray & Johnny Smart Under 21 Compound Women: Hallie Boulton, Patience Wood & Mia McGuane Under 21 Compound Men: Luke Davis, Finlay Clark Under 18 Recurve Men: Alex Sillitoe Price Under 18 Compound Women: Chloe Scott, Harriet Beckinsale-Smith & Violet Walker

For various reasons, I haven't had huge amount of time to post but with a few days of holiday, hopefully I will have time to take a quick tour of results across various sports. April - Central Florida World Cup Stage I Women's Recurve: Penny Healey & Natasha Homer Men's Recurve: Patrick Huston Women's Compound: Ella Gibson Men's Compound: Ajay Scott Women's Recurve: Penny Healey qualified in 17th place with a score of 637 whilst Natasha Homer was 47th with 597. In the first round, Healey took out Tatyana Muntyan (48) 6-2 before taking out Katharina Bauer 6-2 in round 2. In the 3rd round, Healey dispatched top qualifier Michelle Kroppen 6-2 to qualify for the Quarter Finals. In the QF, Healey defeated Elia Canales (8) 6-2 and then guaranteed herself a medal with a 6-2 win over Li Jiaman (5). In the final, Healey came out on top with a 6-0 win over Alejandra Valencia (7). This guarantees her place in the World cup Final in Nanjing in October. For Natasha Homer, she put in a pretty decent performance in her first round match against Catalina Gnoriega (18), winning the first 2 sets but her level dropped off in legs 3 and 4 allowing the American to come through 6-4. Men's Recurve: Patrick Huston qualified in 45th place with a score of 633. In the knock-out stages, he came up against Christian Stoddard (20). It was all square after 5 sets and the American ultimately prevailed in the shoot-off. Women's Compound: Ella Gibson finished qualifying in 2nd place with a score of 698. She comfortably out-shot Paulina Ramirez Castillo (31) 147-139 in the first round before losing 146-144 to Adriana Castillo (18) in the second round. Men's Compound: Ajay Scott qualified in 32nd place with a score of 685. He came through the first round with a 147-145 victory over Ratanadanai Wongtana (33) before coming up just short against top qualifier Sebastian Garcia 143-142 in the second round. Mixed Recurve Team: Healey and Huston qualified in 13th place with a score of 1270. With a bye to the second round, they were drawn against 6th seed and lost 6-0. Mixed Compound Team: Gibson and Scott qualified in 7th place with a score of 1383. In the first round they defeated 156-151 to set up a quarter-final match against 2nd seed . Unfortunately, they came up short losing out 157-155. May - Shanghai World Cup Stage II Women's Recurve: N/A Men's Recurve: N/A Women's Compound: Ella Gibson, Isabelle Carpenter and Layla Annison Men's Compound: Ajay Scott, Adam Carpenter and Luke Davis Women's Compound: Ella Gibson finished qualifying in 2nd place with a score of 711, Isabelle Carpenter was in 14th with a score of 699 and Layla Annison was 36th with 685. Both Gibson and Carpenter received a bye through to the second round. Unfortunately, neither was able to progress any further with Gibson defeated by Diana Yunussova (34) 144-141 whilst Carpenter lost out to Begum Yuva (19) 143-138. Annison safely came through her first round match against Oznur Cure Girdi (29) 137-131 before losing to Sim Sooin (4) 136-139. Men's Compound: Ajay Scott qualified in 15th place with a score of 705, with Adam Carpenter in 40th with score of 694 and Luke Davis in 46th with 690. All three shooters came through their first round matches with both Carpenter and Davis seeing off higher ranked opposition - Carpenter taking out Isaac Sullivan (25) 138-135 and Davis defeating Sebastian Garcia (19) 147-144. Scott was victorious against Yi Tai Wai David (50) 142-139. In the second round, Carpenter lost out to Rodrigo Gonzalez (8) 140-144 whilst Davis was on the wrong end of a 141-143 result against Elias Reyes Cravioto (51). Scott however reached the 3rd round with a 144-141 victory over Shamai Yamrom (18). His competition was ultimately ended there by Kim Jongho (2) 142-145. Mixed Compound Team: Gibson and Scott qualified in 4th place with a score of 1416 and received a bye to the second round. There they defeated 13th seed 157-155 to reach the quarter-finals where they faced 5th seed . The tight match ended in a tie 157-157 with progressing after a measure. In the semi-final, were drawn against top seed and advanced to the gold medal match with a 158-156 victory. In the final, prevailed 156-153 over 7th seed June - Antalya World Cup Stage III Women's Recurve: N/A Men's Recurve: N/A Women's Compound: Ella Gibson, Isabelle Carpenter and Chloe A'Bear Men's Compound: Ajay Scott, Kai Thomas-Prause, Neil Bridgewater Women's Compound: Ella Gibson finished qualifying in 3rd place with a score of 602, Chloe A'Bear was 38th with 571 and Isabelle Carpenter was in 41st with a score of 568. Both A'Bear and Carpenter would ultimately fall in the first round - Carpenter losing out against Mariya Klein (24) 154-151 and A'Bear loring 147-151 against Andrea Munoz (27). As 3rd seed, Gibson had a first round bye and defeated Begum Yuva (30) 154-146 in round 2. In the third round, she took out Meeri-Marita Paas (14) 153-149 to reach the quarter-finals where she ultimately fell to Alexis Ruiz (6) 152-155. Mixed Compound Team: Despite being the top qualifiers with a score of 1210, Gibson and Scott couldn't repeat their form of the previous World Cup event and lost in the second-round 17th seed 159-163. July - Madrid World Cup Stage IV Women's Recurve: Penny Healey, Megan Havers, Thea Rogers & Megan Costall Men's Recurve: tom Hall, Patrick Huston & Conor Hall Women's Compound: Ella Gibson Men's Compound: Ajay Scott, Luke Davis & Thomas Lane Women's Recurve: Penny Healey qualified in 42nd place with a score of 633 and was the only qualifier for the knock-out stages. Megan Havers was 69th on 609, Thea Rogers scored 606 to finish in 72nd with Megan Costall just behind her in 73rd also with 606. In the first round, Healey defeated Martin Olivia (23) 6-4 but her competition ended in the second round with defeat to Zhu Jingyi (10) 7-3. Men's Recurve: Tom Hall qualified in 37th place with score of 662 with Patrick Huston in 51st with 658. Conor Hall failed to progress finishing in 84th place with a score of 630. Hall would ultimately fall in the first round against Li Zhongyuan (28) 6-2 whilst Huston would also exit the competition at this stage, losing out to Andres Temino Mediel (14) 6-0. Women's Compound: Ella Gibson finished qualifying in 3rd place with a score of 708. As the 3rd seed, Gibson had a bye to the second round. There she dispatched Sydney Sullenberger (30) 142-136. In the third round, she defeated Meeri-Marita Paas (19) 144-143 to progress to the quarter-finals. In the QF, she eased past Olivia Dean (11) 148-143 to put her in the medal matches. In the semi-finals she defeated Parneet Kaur (7) to secure her first gold medal match of the World Cup series. In a tight match against the top qualifier Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Gibson was ultimately able to prevail 148-147 to secure Gold and take her place in the world Cup final after what had been a pretty mediocre season by her standards. Women's Recurve Team: Healey, Havers and Rogers combined for the team event and qualified in 16th place with score of 1848. After dispatching 17th seed 5-1 in the first round, they faced top seed in round 2 and bowed out 6-2. Men's Recurve Team: Huston, Hall and Hall qualified in 18th place with score of 1950 and faced 15th seed in the first round. Despite putting in a decent showing - winning the first two sets to lead 4-0, they ultimately would fall short in the shoot-off. Mixed Recurve Team: Penny Healey and tom Hall qualified in 19th with a score of 1295, and they would bow out of the competition in the first round with a defeat at the hands of 14th seed . Mixed Compound Team: Gibson and Scott seem to be the established team and qualified in 4th place with a score of 1417 so had a bye to the second round. There, they eased past 20th seed 154-143 but came unstuck against 12th seed in the quarterfinals 151-153. So, after the 4 World Cup stages, emerge with 3 Gold medals with both Healey and Gibson qualifying for the World Cup Final. In terms of ranking movement since the start of the year: Name Event Ranking 1st Jan Ranking 14th Jul Women's Recurve Team 16th 18th Men's Recurve Team 15th 17th Mixed Recurve Team 14th 15th Mixed Compound Team 11th 3rd Penny Healey Women's Recurve 31st 6th Megan Havers Women's Recurve 70th 73rd Imogen Sullivan-Bell Women's recurve 144th 150th Louisa Piper Women's Recurve 242nd 383rd Thea Rogers Women's Recurve 249th 268th Patrick Huston Men's Recurve 26th 32nd Tom Hall Men's Recurve 37th 51st Conor Hall Men's Recurve 56th 67th Monty Orton Men's Recurve 159th 418th

Acelya Toprak seems to have realised that the grass is greener in Britain and has ditched her short lived allegiance to Azerbaijan. I guess the fact that Nekoda Smythe-Davis retired opening up the 57Kg category has helped the decision making process.

Time to catch up on some of the action I've missed over the last few weeks. Men's 3x3 squad have qualified for the World Cup at the end of the month after coming through the Qualifying tournament in Azerbaijan last month. The squad lost their first match against 21-14 before a 21-12 victory over secured their progression in the event and give them 2 chances to qualify for the World Cup. They came up short at the first attempt against Montenegro 21-14 before securing their ticket to the World Cup with a win over 21-13. have been drawn in Pool D against and . A top 3 finish in the group is needed to progress to the round of 16. Both the men's and women's 3x3 squads are now in as they begin look to qualify for the 2026 Europe Cup. The GB men face and in their pool matches today. GB need to top the table to qualify. The women will be facing off against today before facing in the final pool match tomorrow. Pool winners win automatically qualify with the two runners up facing off for the final qualifying spot. Away from the 3x3 teams, the women's team are preparing for the 2025 Eurobasket tournament with matches lined up against , and . Unfortunately, they were well beaten by 95-55.

Obviously delighted to secure qualification but can't help feeling that at the moment, we would only be going to make up the numbers. Hopefully there will be a bit of a shake-up in the squad and we won't see Morrison playing 4th. Maybe the selectors will be brave and drop her in favour of Fay Henderson. She's already been dropped as skip - surely it's only a matter of time before she is moved aside as fourth.

Finally, a bit of a positive result to report for GB Judo as Emma Reid takes silver at the Upper Austria Grand Prix. The rest of the (very) small squad lost in the first round

Results from the Skeet events from this week's Cyprus Grand Prix: Men's Skeet: No British representation Men's Skeet Junior: Charles Worrall finished in 7th place with a score of 109. Women's Skeet: Phoebe Bodley-Scott took bronze after posting the second highest qualifying score. Jessica Burgess finished qualifying in 8th whilst Sophie Herrman was 10th. Women's Skeet Junior: Jessica Hambrook finished in 5th place with a score of 97. Next week it's the turn of the Trap athletes.

The draw for the 2025 Women's Eurobasket took place last night. have been drawn against , and . The ties take place on 19, 20 and 22nd June and GB need to be in the top two to progress to the knock-out rounds. Spain will start as clear favourites to top the group whilst GB will be hoping to reverse the two close defeats against Sweden from qualifying.

This weekend saw the European and Asian seasons opening with the Continental Cup events taking place in Munich and Hong Kong. IFSC European Cup - Munich: Boulder Men's Results: 1.) Thomas Lemagner - 3T/4Z (84.5) 2.) Jack MacDougall - 2T/4Z (69.1) 3.) Leo Favot - 2T/3Z (59.8) 4.) Antoine Girard - 2T/2Z (49.9) 5.) Thorben Perry Bloem - 0T/4Z (38.7) 6.) Samuel Richard - 0T/3Z (29.5) 7.) Ido Fidel - 0T/2Z (19.7) 8.) Lukas Mokrolusky - 0T/2Z (19.7) Women's Results: 1.) Afra Honig - 3T/4Z (84.3) 2.) Flora Oblasser - 3T/3Z (74.9) 3.) Lucia Dorffel - 3T/3Z (74.8) 4.) Lily Abriat - 3T/3Z (74.7) 5.) Lucile Saurel - 2T/4Z (69.4) 6.) Sandra Lettner - 2T/3Z (59.7) 7.) Zoe Peetermans - 2T/3Z (59.6) 8.) Stella Giacani - 0T/3Z (30.0)

A little late, but summary of the performances at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup event in Paris last week. Loya Cenkci was 18th in the Women's Solo: Technical. In the Women's Duet: Technical, Robyn Swatman & Eve Young were 8th. were 10th in the Team: Technical, with a score of 200.915. Ranjuo Tomblin emerges as the big winner for as he secured gold in the Men's Solo: Technical event before partnering up with Holly Hughes to take the top spot on the podium in the Mixed Duet: Technical event.

Francine Gilmour was the athlete competing at the European Championships 10m events in Osijek. She finished qualifying for the 10m Pistol down in 51st place.

Team GB results from this week's Orleans Masters. Men's Singles: No British representation. Women's Singles: Kirsty Gilmour had a Walkover in the first round before getting revenge for her defeat at last week's German Open with a 21-10 / 21-12 victory over Sin Yan Happy Lo. Her tournament ended with a 22-20 / 21-12 defeat to Beiwen Zhang. Men's Doubles: Alexander Dunn & Adam Pringle failed to qualify for the main draw going down 21-13 / 9-21 / 17-21 to Ching Heng Su & Guan Xun Wu in qualifying. Rory Easton & Alex Green failed to qualify for the main draw going down 21-17 / 20-22 / 18-21 to Wen Jun Sun & Yi Jun Zhu in qualifying. Christopher Grimley & Matthew Grimley dispatched Eloi Adam & Leo Rossi 18-21 / 21-11 / 21-18 in the first round before losing out to Wen Jun Sun & Yi Jun Zhu 21-23 / 21-17 / 19-21 in round 2. Women's Doubles: Julia MacPherson & Ciara Torrance lost in the first round against Yin-Hui Hsu & Jhih Yun Lin 18-21 / 14-21. Abbygael Harris & Lizzie Tolman failed to qualify for the main draw going down 16 - 21 / 21-14 / 18-21 to Hsin En Hung & Chih Chen Lee in qualifying. Mixed Doubles: Rory Easton & Lizzie Tolman qualified for the main draw with a 17-21 / 21-16 / 21-18 victory over Bing-Wei Lin & Chih Chen Lee. They then dispatched Sathish Kumar Karunakaran & Aadya Variyath 21-18 / 21-19 in the first round of the main draw. Their tournament ended with defeat to the 7th seeds from Jong Min Lee & Yun Jung Chae 8-21 / 21-19 / 6-21 in the second round. Alexander Dunn & Julie MacPherson suffered another first round loss, this time losing out to Amri Syahnawi & Nita Violna Marwah 14-21 / 13-21