Rafa Maciel

Spanish coaching staff have resigned en-mass and Rubiales has been suspended by FIFA. In response, Spanish FA are threatening legal action against Hermoso. Has nobody told them that when you find yourself in a hole, you stop digging?

I should have put a caveat in previous message on the likelihood of qualifying via rankings - it is still very early days (I think there have only been counting events and they have tended to favour European nations) Natalia Dominiak - Probably your best chance of quota in the women's event. She is currently ranked 22 in the world and has had a couple of good results in 2023 - 12th in World Cup Final and 11th in Budapest World Cup so the fact that she didn't make it out of qualifying at the World Champs this week is a bit of a surprise. If she can replicate her form in the 2024 World Cup season, then she should be well placed to qualify. Oktawia Nowacka - Difficult to make a call as she doesn't have a lot of recent competition experience to make the judgement on. She didn't do much at European Games (37th) or the Poland Challenger Event (24th). So I guess it could happen but I would be surprised. If you're aiming for 2 quotas on the women's side, I think your best chances are going to be through Dominiak and Maliszewska. Sebastian Stasiak - Currently Polish number 2 (behind already qualified Lukasz Gutkowski) is ranked 39th in the world. He had a good Cairo World Cup leg but had to withdraw from the World Champs during qualifying which is going to hit his Olympic Ranking but he should still be able to get himself into a qualifying position. Kamil Kasperczak - Ranked 60 in the world but hasn't really put in any stellar performances this year that would suggest that a quota spot is likely. I think you're going to end up with a repeat of your 2021 quotas - Gutkowski and Stasiak

Semi-Final B Result 1) Mohamed Elgendy - 1211 pts 2) Jun Woongate - 1210 pts 3) Lee Jihun - 1210 pts 4) Csaba Bohm 18V - 1209 pts (Quota) 5) Roman Popov - 1208 pts 6) Giorgio Malan - 1207 pts 7) Myles Pillage - 1207 pts 8) Valentin Belaud - 1206 pts 9) Jo Choong - 1206 pts (Quota)

Semi-Final B After Swimming 1) Lee Jihun - 544 pts 2) Jo Choong - 542 pts (Quota) 3) Jun Woongate - 539 pts 4) Patrick Dogue - 533 pts 5) Mohamed Elgendy - 532 pts 6) Myles Pillage - 531 pts 7) Csaba Bohm 18V - 527 pts (Quota) 8) Valentin Belaud - 527 pts 9) Eslam Hamad - 523 pts

The weird thing for me is that GB is very strong in paracanoe - they topped the medal table in Tokyo - so clearly the programme is there, they just haven't been able to attract the talent to the sport since the likes of Tim Brabants and Liam Heath retired

Semi-Final B After Fencing Bonus Round 1) Lee Jihun 21V +10 - 240 pts 2) Patrick Dogue 22V - 235 pts 3) Jo Choong 22V - 235 pts (Quota) 4) Mohamed Elgendy 22V - 235 pts 5) Valentin Belaud 21V - 230 pts 6) Jun Woongate 21V - 230 pts 7) Eslam Hamad 16V +16 - 221 pts 8) Jan Kuf 18V - 215 pts 9) Csaba Bohm 18V - 215 pts (Quota)

Semi-Final A - Result 1) Emiliano Hernandez - 1203 pts 2) Martin Vlach - 1203 pts 3) Charles Brown - 1202 pts 4) Zhang Linbin - 1202 pts 5) Mohanad Shaban - 1202 pts (Quota) 6) Ahmed Elgendy - 1202 pts 7) Marvin Dogue 18V - 1200 pts (Quota) 8) Jung Jinhwa - 1200 pts 9) Bence Demeter - 1200 pts Strong run by Vlach - 13 seconds quicker than the rest of the field and moves him comfortably into qualifying spot. Demeter in contrast was one of the slowest in the run but had enough of a cushion to hold on to last qualifying position.

Semi-Final A - After Swimming 1) Bence Demeter - 540 pts 2) Mohanad Shaban - 538 pts (Quota) 3) Jung Jinhwa - 536 pts 4) Oleksandr Tovkai - 536 pts (Quota) 5) Zhang Linbin - 535 pts 6) Emiliano Hernandez - 532 pts 7) Ahmed Elgendy - 528 pts 8) Matteo Cicinelli - 518 pts 9) Charles Brown - 516 pts

Semi-Final A - After Fencing Bonus Round 1) Zhang Linbin 22V +6 - 241 pts 2) Bence Demeter 23V - 240 pts 3) Mohanad Shaban 22V - 235 pts (Quota) 4) Jung Jinhwa 21V - 230 pts 5) Oleksandr Tovkai 21V - 230 pts (Quota) 6) Emiliano Hernandez 21V - 230 pts 7) Ahmed Elgendy 17V +10 - 220 pts 8) Marvin Dogue 18V - 215 pts (Quota) 9) Matteo Cicinelli 17V - 210 pts Not much movement in the top 9 - predominantly because Elgendy kept winning but he was just a little too far back to be able to capitalise on it. Charles Brown had a decent bonus round, picking up 2 wins to move within 1 point Cicinelli.

But if the K2 boat is made up of athletes already qualified through the K4/K1 boats or is made up of 1 new athlete and 1 already qualified athlete, then they would be able to use all three quotas?

Mary Moraa?

played really well in their match against and on balance, probably deserved to win - Germany simply weren't able to take the chances that they generated and ultimately paid the price for failing to convert 1 of the 4 penalty corners in the 2nd quarter. Although will go into the final as favourites, England will believe that if they can play like they did this evening, then they could pull of a surprise win - their last match against in July ended in a 1 all draw but the 2 previous matches in 2022 were won by by 3 goal margins.

But realistically, it is only the European pentathletes who have had the opportunity to qualify up to this point, and I can't help feeling that it puts them at a disadvantage because of the way that the qualification pathway has been constructed. We could have a scenario where there are no quotas awarded at the world champs because the top three are European athletes who have already secured quotas in which case there would be reallocation to the ranking list and so they could go anywhere. Personally I think it would have been fairer to have hierarchy of qualification - the top 3 at the worlds should have qualified and if that included someone who had already secured standard at the European Games, then that quota should have gone to the next athlete based on the European Games result.

Yes, Gutkowski qualified for the semi final and recorded 16 wins in the fencing - he is currently 12th in Semi-Final B (I've just recorded the top 9 because it is only the top 9 in each semi who will qualify) As for Maliszewska, she starts the final in 12th place overall after the fencing round. Her swim in the semi was 2:19.47 which was off the back of a 2:21.12 in qualification. The only other recent result I have on file for her was in the Ankara World Cup leg where she swam 2:23.52 so indications are that the swim leg isn't a huge strength for her, and the likelihood is that she will be in the bottom half of the field. Her run leg in the semi final was 11:21.80 which was the quickest I seen from her - she ran 11:59.50 in qualification, and she has a 12:40.60 from Ankara. Given it's only the top 3 to qualify here personally, I wouldn't be considering Maliszewska as a favourite. Nevertheless, at the moment, despite the fact that she is ranked 53 in the world, she is well placed to qualify through the UIPM Olympic Ranking where she is currently ranked 5th and is the first non-qualified athlete in the list.

holding their own against to finish the first half 0-0 despite some questionable refereeing decisions. Not often they would be able to successfully defend 4 penalty corners within the space of 3 minutes. Germany still looking the more likely to be able to raise their game and sneak the win though.

That's why I think that World Athletics should centralise it

As my grandmother used to say "It's not what you've got, it's where you stick it that counts"

81 players have so far announced they will not play for the national team whilst Rubiales remains in post - they're quite a militant lot these Spanish footballers

World Athletics really need to provide the medalists with their national flag to celebrate. The Venezuelan flag used by Rojas is tiny compared to the Ukrainian and Cuban. Flag envy is real!

Eurosport commentary saying she picked up injury during her warm-up

Not sure if the replacement policy was only for track events.

Keeping on with the tennis retirements - Mikael Ymer (although to be fair he was in the midst of doping suspension so perhaps not huge surprise)

Is it usual scheduling to have the sprint relay in the same session as the individual 200m?

The fencing round for tomorrow's men's semi-finals has just finished: Semi-Final A 1) Bence Demeter 23V - 240 pts 2) Zhang Linbin 22V - 235 pts 3) Mohanad Shaban 22V - 235 pts (Quota) 4) Jung Jinhwa 21V - 230 pts 5) Oleksandr Tovkai 21V - 230 pts (Quota) 6) Emiliano Hernandez 21V - 230 pts 7) Marvin Dogue 18V - 215 pts (Quota) 8) Ahmed Elgendy 17V - 210 pts 9) Matteo Cicinelli 17V - 210 pts Semi-Final B 1) Patrick Dogue 22V - 235 pts 2) Jo Choong 22V - 235 pts (Quota) 3) Mohamed Elgendy 22V - 235 pts 4) Valentin Belaud 21V - 230 pts 5) Lee Jihun 21V - 230 pts 6) Jun Woongate 21V - 230 pts 7) Jan Kuf 18V - 215 pts 8) Csaba Bohm 18V - 215 pts (Quota) 9) Valentin Prades 18V - 215 pts (Quota) Titas Puronas and Myles Pillage also finished with 18V for 215 points.

This news story doesn't seem to be dying down any time soon - Spanish government have started legal proceedings to suspend Rubiales. Luis Rubiales: Spanish government takes FA chief to tribunal after World Cup final kiss - BBC Sport