Epic Failure

Yesssss Hales.

Nooooo Brol. Almost more invested in him than Hales. Almost.

Yes Brol! Twice in a row he's held his nerve brilliantly.

Yup. Just a question of colour...

It's the fifth penalty in a penalty shoot out. So much added pressure.

I'm reminded how tense watching shooting makes me. It's like a large scale penalty shoot out. Just nerve wracking.

Women's rugby lose a late one to China 19-15 in the placing SF. Will play loser of France vs Ireland later on for 7th/8th.

If it is the same as the World Cups and WCs, the first elimination is after 25. Then every 5, until the last 10 shots. Not sure about the tie procedures.

A large part of it can be explained just by the difference in strength and speed between men and women, rather than skill. The men can physically do more complicated tricks whereas the women have to focus more on the execution of tricks. It's slightly different from gymnastics because there's an outside variable (the bike!) that isn't there in gymnastics!

In fairness we're probably lucky to have Charlotte competing at all. She's been fairly open about not really enjoying the sport after Tokyo as much. I think at times we forget that sportsmen and women are humans too. They can suffer from the same problems anyone else can. Going back to the dressage, it's worth noting that Hester's score was higher than any of the scores from group 2. So he's looking like a solid bet for a spot in the individual final at least.

We strike late at the hockey again, and get our second successive 2-2 draw. This one against the Dutch slightly better than the one against South Africa.

Normally that would be true of the US men as well. But Fritz is having a really good clay court season.

Oh, I agree. Unless one of the big 4 is ill, I would be surprised to see a change from the Tokyo lineup. But McMillan did all that he could be asked to - it was the 8th fastest split over the 64 swimmers in the two heats. But you would imagine that Dean was given the freedom in advance to back off to save it for later. Better to do that now and hopefully save a bit more for the final if needed.

Both Guy and Macmillan put themselves forward for a final swim. Dean didn't, although it is hard to work out how much he was pushing himself, so wouldn't necessarily say too much about it. Richards and Scott both locks, assuming fitness (honestly my biggest worry). Kieran Bird, bless him, is on track to be one of the luckier medalists I can think of. But he did the job he was asked to.

Gah, results system crashes as Hales was finishing his last round.

Hales update - he's still waiting to shoot his last round but other results have cleared things already slightly - a 25 would definitely get him into the final. A 24 would guarantee at least a shoot off. A 23 potentially could be enough but that window is likely to be closed by the time he shoots.

Bob Bowman. I'm only half joking, they changed the schedule to allow certain swimmers (coughcoughMarchand) more rest time between events.

Misses a fourth late on, which is probably curtains, barring 3 perfect rounds and some odd things going on with the others. Whittle is technically 2nd reserve for the 100m. Could get through if some of those ahead don't fancy the 100m dogfight. Tough decision for Richards - he's good enough to get into the final but it's not a lock. But doing that means that he risks being more tired for the relay. That's assuming the relay gets there. A small amount of risk resting both Duncan and Matt this morning, although looks like other nations have rested people too.

You say that but remember Tokyo, where we had 8 boats in the final and 6 of them came 4th....

Nathan Hales scores a perfect 25 in round 4 to keep himself firmly in the hunt for the final. One round left and there's a 7 way tie for 6 places. Another 25 from Hales would guarantee him at least a shoot off for the final. Depending on how the others shoot, a 24 might be okay but obviously not guaranteed. 23 or below almost certainly knocks him out.

Lucy Hall starts off with a 25, one of only six women to do so. Still very early days obviously.

Question of the Day Artistic Gymnastics: Can we get a medal? No Badminton: Does Gilmour win a game? Yes Canoe Slalom: Is CLARKE in the top ten? Yes Cycling BMX Freestyle: Is REILLY in the top five? Yes Equestrian: Our the TEAM in the top three at the end of the day? Yes Hockey: Do they win? No Judo: Does Renshall fight in the evening session? No Rowing: Do they make the final? Yes Rugby Sevens: Do we come 5th? No Sailing: Is WILSON in a medal position by the end of the day? Yes Shooting: Do either of our MEN make the final? No Swimming: Gold for the RELAY team? Yes Tennis: Do the MEN'S DOUBLES team go through? No Triathlon: Medal for YEE? Not today lolz...but yes in general

It would have been one of the more shocking (in a good way) performances thus far. Even getting to the QFs was a better performance than the team had been putting on during the season. A generally solid day from . I had us getting 7 medals and we ended up with 6. 10 medals through 3 days is the best return in my lifetime. And we've still got many of our traditional medal winning sports to come. No reason to despair yet.

I would prefer to have fast times *and* competitive races. But if I'm only going to get one, I'll choose races any day of the week. However, if the issues with the pools are as true as people are claiming - and I'm not smart enough about the physics to doubt those saying that - my only worry is that the waves might be actually impacting the swimmers in certain lanes more. Which doesn't necessarily then give the best swimmer the best chance. It might be giving more 'limited' swimmers a better chance because of the luck of things like lane draws.

I mean, he's writing them anyway based on their actual swimming. I'm just worrying about the more practical actual worries. Women 7s team fall 17-7 to the US. Gave a solid account of themselves but just outmatched.