Rafa Maciel

Paris Grand Prix Results - Day 3 
 
Men's +80Kg
Gold:  Cheick Sallah Cisse
Silver:  Caden Cunningham
Bronze:  Carlos Sansores &  Pasko Bozic
 
Women's +67Kg
Gold:   Althea Laurin
Silver:   Rebecca McGowan
Bronze:  Dabin Lee &  Sude Yaren Uzuncavdar

You seem very bullish on Irish prospects - looks like you expect all of the Irish boats to qualify except for both of the Fours. I am intrigued how you have assessed the form for those crews which have not raced this season across the World Cup or European champs? In the women's pair for example you have the Irish boat finishing in 4th but they haven't raced together this season and the two previous Irish boats that have been fielded recorded a 6th in World Cup II and 7th at Euro Champs. 

It is going to be interesting to see how the crews adapt to the shorter course - so many of them use the 3rd 500 to establish themselves in the race.

would be guaranteed quotas for both the men's single sculls and the women's single sculls but these would only come into play if France were unable to qualify any boats through World Champs or the other qualifying regattas. Given strong likelihood that France will qualify a handful of boats, the quotas for single sculls will be reallocated to the final qualifying regatta. 

Paris Grand Prix Results - Day 2 
 
Men's 68Kg
Gold:  Ulugbek Rashitov
Silver:  Edival Pontes
Bronze:  Zaid Alhalawani &  Marko Golubic
 
 
Men's 80Kg
Gold:  Mehran Barkhordari
Silver:  Apostolos Telikostoglou
Bronze:  Carl Alan Nickolas &   Muhammed Emin Yildiz
 
 
Women's 67Kg
Gold:  Zhang Mengyu
Silver:  Song Jie
Bronze:  Hyo Rim Hong &  Magda Wiet Henin

Why the big difference between the points total - the leader in 1 event has over 20 points but the leader in the other has only 5?

Paris Grand Prix Results - Day 2 
 
Men's 68Kg
Gold:  Ulugbek Rashitov
Silver:  Edival Pontes
Bronze:  Zaid Alhalawani &  Marko Golubic
 
 
Men's 80Kg
Gold:  Mehran Barkhordari
Silver:  Apostolos Telikostoglou
Bronze:  Carl Alan Nickolas &   Muhammed Emin Yildiz
 
 
Women's 67Kg
Gold:  Zhang Mengyu
Silver:  Song Jie
Bronze:  Hyo Rim Hong &  Magda Wiet Henin

That will be Egypt's second quota on the men's side and first on the women's so there wont be any need to reallocate to the Olympic Ranking List. 

Paris Grand Prix Results - Day 1 
 
Women's 49Kg
Gold:  Merve Dincel
Silver:  Adriana Cerezo Iglesias
Bronze:  Wang Xialou &  Mobina Nematzadeh
 
 
Women's 57Kg
Gold:  Jade Jones
Silver:  Luo Zongshi
Bronze:  Hatice Kubra Ilgun &  Aaliyah Powell
 
 
Men's 58Kg
Gold:  Mahdi Hajimousaei
Silver:  Abolfazl Zandi
Bronze:  Bailey Lewis &  Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi
 
Good signs for Team  as it looks like Jade Jones has rediscovered her mojo - that's her third tournament win in a row following victories at the European Games and Rome Grand Prix. 
 

That will be Egypt's second quota on the men's side and first on the women's so there wont be any need to reallocate to the Olympic Ranking List. 

First round matches on Day 1 of Paris Grand Prix completed and have thrown up a couple of surprises with the women's 49Kg class becoming a bit of a bloodbath for the seeded athletes.
 
Women's 49Kg
 Janna Khatab defeated 4th seed  Daniela Paola Souza
 Sofia Zampetti defeated 9th seed  Lenya Kamkasoumphou
Milana Bekulova defeated 3rd seed  Lena Stojkovic
 Camila Bezerra defeated 6th seed  Rukiye Yildirim
 Kyriaki Kouttouki defeated 7th seed  Abishag Semberg
 
Women's 57Kg
 Chaima Toumi defeated 5th seed  Nahid Kiyanichandeh - with 6th seed  Lo Chia-ling advancing to Round of 16, that could see Kiyanichandeh dropping out of a ranking quota position.
 
Men's 58Kg
All of the main names made it safely through the first round, but there were a number of mid-table athletes who were beaten by lower ranked opponents.

Ahead of the action getting underway, for anyone who is interested, I've (hopefully) attached a tracker of each crew's performances across the 3 World Cups and this year's European Championships - there are probably other regattas that I could/should include, but in the end it comes down to time.
 
Given the vagaries of the sport, there's not a lot of value in including a "season's best" time so it includes all of the crews times across the heats, repechage, semis and finals. 
 
Any crew highlighted in blue is taking part in the World Championships. Underneath the World Champs crews, I've also listed the other crews that have been fielded over the course of the year as there has been a lot of experimenting with crew composition this year. Not all of the different 4s and 8s have been listed if only 1 member of the crew has been swapped out. 
 
Rowing Performance Tracker.xlsx
 
 

Ahead of the action getting underway, for anyone who is interested, I've (hopefully) attached a tracker of each crew's performances across the 3 World Cups and this year's European Championships - there are probably other regattas that I could/should include, but in the end it comes down to time.
 
Given the vagaries of the sport, there's not a lot of value in including a "season's best" time so it includes all of the crews times across the heats, repechage, semis and finals. 
 
Any crew highlighted in blue is taking part in the World Championships. Underneath the World Champs crews, I've also listed the other crews that have been fielded over the course of the year as there has been a lot of experimenting with crew composition this year. Not all of the different 4s and 8s have been listed if only 1 member of the crew has been swapped out. 
 
Rowing Performance Tracker.xlsx
 
 

Ahead of the action getting underway, for anyone who is interested, I've (hopefully) attached a tracker of each crew's performances across the 3 World Cups and this year's European Championships - there are probably other regattas that I could/should include, but in the end it comes down to time.
 
Given the vagaries of the sport, there's not a lot of value in including a "season's best" time so it includes all of the crews times across the heats, repechage, semis and finals. 
 
Any crew highlighted in blue is taking part in the World Championships. Underneath the World Champs crews, I've also listed the other crews that have been fielded over the course of the year as there has been a lot of experimenting with crew composition this year. Not all of the different 4s and 8s have been listed if only 1 member of the crew has been swapped out. 
 
Rowing Performance Tracker.xlsx
 
 

Ahead of the action getting underway, for anyone who is interested, I've (hopefully) attached a tracker of each crew's performances across the 3 World Cups and this year's European Championships - there are probably other regattas that I could/should include, but in the end it comes down to time.
 
Given the vagaries of the sport, there's not a lot of value in including a "season's best" time so it includes all of the crews times across the heats, repechage, semis and finals. 
 
Any crew highlighted in blue is taking part in the World Championships. Underneath the World Champs crews, I've also listed the other crews that have been fielded over the course of the year as there has been a lot of experimenting with crew composition this year. Not all of the different 4s and 8s have been listed if only 1 member of the crew has been swapped out. 
 
Rowing Performance Tracker.xlsx
 
 

This story is quickly straying into the realms of ridiculousness - Rubiales' mother has reportedly locked herself in a church and is on hunger strike in protest against the treatment of her son.
 
Luis Rubiales: Spanish FA president's mother on hunger strike over kiss row - BBC Sport
 

Some of the main results from last week's action on the roads
 
Men's Events
 
Deutschland Tour
1.)   Ilan Van Wilder
2.)  Felix Grosschartner
3.)  Danny Van Poppel
 
 
Renewi Tour
1.)   Tim Wellens
2.)  Florian Vermeersch
3.)  Yves Lampaert
 
In the end,  Josh Tarling, who won the ITT and led the tour after Stage 2, faded pretty badly to finish in 114th place but in winning stage 2, Tarling equaled the record as the youngest winner of a UCI World Tour race - matching the achievement of Remco Evenepoel. 
 
 
Tour de l'Avenir
1.)   Isaac Del Toto Romero
2.)  Giulio Pellizzari
3.)  Davide Piganzoli
 
 
Women's Events
 
Tour of Scandinavia
1.)   Annemiek Van Vleuten
2.)  Cecilie Ludwig
3.)  Amber Kraak

Beginning to feel like this is just becoming the Tennis Player Retirement Thread but here's another one - former World Number 8  Jack Sock has announced he will retire from tennis after the US Open. Although, it is possible that this will be less of a retirement and more of a switch in sport as he is reportedly set to join the pickleball tour. 

This story is quickly straying into the realms of ridiculousness - Rubiales' mother has reportedly locked herself in a church and is on hunger strike in protest against the treatment of her son.
 
Luis Rubiales: Spanish FA president's mother on hunger strike over kiss row - BBC Sport
 

Can't we all just accept that  had a p**s-poor Championships and move on? Much as we all enjoy the endless back and forth exchange of random and largely irrelevant stats it doesn't really move the conversation on much further. 
 
With Mihambo out injured, they just don't currently have the depth of squad that they used to but they do at least have medal prospects for next year. 

Pal Arinsal Mountain Bike World Cup
 
Men's Elite Cross Country
 
1.)   Mathias Fluckiger
2.)  Thomas Griot
3.)  Tom Pidcock
 
Pretty poor result for  Nino Schurter who could only finish in 12th 

Pal Arinsal Mountain Bike World Cup
 
Women's Elite Cross Country
 
1.)   Mona Mitterwallner
2.)  Alessandra Keller
3.)  Pauline Ferrand Prevot
 
Great weekend for  Keller after her win in the short track but a relatively disappointing result for  Puck Pieterse who came home in 7th.

Time to talk horses.....because I've either spent way too much time looking into the Modern Pentathlon or I've pledged to help the French government out by reducing their current excess wine lake 
 
42 horses were included in the initial line up for the Jumping Test. These will be reduced to 18 selected and 4 reserves. Of the 42, 4 were either withdrawn or failed to finish the course so will be unlikely to be selected for use in the final. Add to that, one was way faster than the rest of the field so probably won't get used and there were a fair few who basically knocked every possible pole down. 
 
So although I don't take part in any of the prediction contests, I am going to take a stab at predicting the horses that will be used for the finals
 
Tonka - 1 refusal and 1 knock down in the jumping test. Used 3 times in 2022 British Championship and had 11 faults, 33 faults and an elimination. Probably one to avoid.
Arthur - Clear round in jumping test. Used 3 times in in 2022 BC and had single pole down each time. One of the best horses in the field.
Rupert - 1 fence down in test. Used twice in 2022 BC and brought down 2 poles each time so not a disaster.
Layla - Quicker than most of the field so may not be selected but she brought down 2 poles, so decision could go either way. Probably not a disaster if drawn.
Verdi - Another quick round, but not error free having brought down a pole in jumping test. Again, not a disaster if drawn.
Oscar - Good draw - just the one pole down in the jumping test and set a good pace.
Kitty - A bit slower than some of the other horses in the field, but only had 1 pole down so most riders would be happy with the draw.
JB - Clear round in the jumping test but a little bit slower some of the others in the field but a good draw nonetheless.
P - Single fence down in a steady pace so definitely worse horses in the field.
Gracie - 2 fences down and a refusal in the jumping test would suggest this would be one to avoid.
Daisy - Single refusal and quite slow. Good riders could probably nurse her round safely but equally could be dangerous.
Star - 1 fence down in jumping test but racked up bigger scores when used in 2022 BC Open. Probably one to avoid if possible.
Branston - a refusal and a knockdown in the jumping test - so not a disaster, but equally probably not one you would celebrate drawing.
Genius - 2 fences down in the test. Not a bad selection.
Jimmy - Single fence down so with good handling, could go clear. Likely to be regarded as a good draw.
Roland - 2 fences down towards the end of the test could raise questions on stamina. Probably one to avoid.
William - 2 fences down in the jumping test so whilst not a disaster if selected, there are stronger options in the field.
Cruise - Similar card to William above so not a disaster but not the best.
Roo - Dropped the first pole and then went clear so should be regarded as a good draw.
Derwin - Clear round in steady pace - would be very pleased if selected.
Miller - 1 fence down towards later stages of the test so could produce a decent round.
Jack - As Miller above, 1 fence down in the test so no reason to think couldn't produce a good round.
Clarke - Had a refusal and a knockdown in the test so would probably be one to avoid if possible.

Hugs - the horse which was resulted in the elimination of Gulyas will not be used in the men's event. Splash and Freddie have both been kept in. 

Women's Final - Standings After Swimming 
 
1)    Elena Micheli - 230 pts + 287 Ridings + 286 Swim = 803 pts (Quota)
2)    Mariana Arceo - 230 + 293 Riding + 4 FB + 274 Swim = 801 pts
3)    Zhang Mingyu - 225 + 286 Riding + 10 FB + 279 Swim = 800 pts
4)    Olivia Green - 225 + 293 Riding + 279 Swim = 797 pts (Quota)
5)    Rebecca Langrehr - 235 + 286 Riding + 268 Swim = 789 pts
6)    Kerenza Bryson - 230 + 286 Riding + 6 FB + 266 Swim = 788 pts
7)    Laura Asadauskaite - 225 + 291 Riding + 270 Swim = 786 pts (Quota)
8)    Alessandra Frezza - 245 + 272 Riding + 265 Swim = 782 pts (Ineligible) 
9)    Alice Sotero - 200 + 285 Riding + 2 FB + 293 Swim = 780 pts (Quota)
10)  Ilke Ozyuksel - 205 + 293 Riding + 279 Swim = 777 pts
10)  Jess Varley - 225 + 272 Riding + 272 Swim = 769 pts
11)   Emma Whitaker - 200+ 292 Riding + 274 Swim = 766 pts
12)   Kim Sunwoo - 225 + 260 Riding + 2 FB + 279 Swim = 766 pts
14)   Salma Abdelmaksoud - 200 + 272 Riding + 277 Swim = 749 pts
15)   Laura Heredia - 200 + 272 Riding + 10 FB + 265 Swim = 747 pts (Quota)
16)   Anna Maliszewska - 215 + 263 Riding + 269 Swim = 747 pts
17)   Blanka Bauer - 185 + 264 Riding + 273 Swim = 722 pts
18)   Michelle Gulyas - 225 pts + Eliminated (3 Refusals) + 286 Swim = 511 pts (Quota)