Epic Failure

That was the federation's decision to do that though. Again, plenty of other countries chose to double up some of their athletes.

and both will have to go all guns blazing in Rome to get a timed place.

They are a strong position to take a timed place still.

In fairness several other countries doubled up athletes. The one change rule is to try to prevent the same countries winning it all the time. If the US can change out all 4 each time it gives them a huge advantage. Frankly, I'd be okay with limiting the number of changes that can be made in the men's/women's events as well. Maybe 2 changes between heat and final. I'd maybe change it to being 1 change per gender in the mixed though.

Some fine use of elbows by the there...

The countries looking for a timed qualification are praying that get the job done here.

, , currently leading the timing rankings I think.

Fahnbulleh and Matadi would already have been there individually but now they get to take teammates.

Thanks to the the men's 4x400m team, are officially the first country to qualify all 5 teams to Paris. Yay technicalities!

Not according to the competition information. It doesn't mention the final, just talks about after the first round. In section 4 it says the following: This does not apply to the mixed 4x400m relay where a maximum of 6 athletes (3 men and 3 women) may be entered with only one substitution allowed after the first round. All that being said, I wouldn't be reading too much into some of these docs. We saw in round 1 a bunch of athletes who were not on the entry list who took part in the mixed and others who were on the mixed entry list who took part in the individual. So I'd retain a healthy skepticism of anything official.

There's European, Oceanian and African Championships before the end of the qualification period I think. Although if the WA calendar is correct the African Champs don't seem to have a mixed 4x4 scheduled. Which is...a choice. And that's assuming national associations don't host a race if they think they are in with a shout. That often happens.

Adding Singapore's results to the table 3rd 6th 10th 12th Okay, I'm slightly less defeatist about after this weekend. They thumped both France and Australia, as well as being a botched pass away from beating Ireland in the SF. I'm still worried about South Africa finding a way to win (too many actual rugby world cups have conditioned me to assume they'll *always* find a way) but I at least think GBR should be competitive. Honestly, it's a shame both teams won't be in Paris. Partially their fault, partially the way the qualification system is set up.

HSBC SVNS World Series Singapore Men 1. New Zealand 2. Ireland 3. Great Britain 4. Australia Women 1. New Zealand 2. Australia 3. France 4. Fiji Full Results

See my comment in the other thread. They've brought in Laviai for Ama on leg 2 and then Yeargin to anchor (assuming that they posted the team in leg order). It makes sense. That's probably the biggest differential split they could do differently. Although with the slightly easier level of competition, you would hope that it wouldn't matter as much. Frankly, we're probably already nailed on for one of the 2 timed quota spots anyway even if we don't finish this. Would take some unexpectedly quick races to change it.

Not quite Rafa. Yeargin has come in for Pipi. So the GB teams: Mixed - Young, La Nielsen, Dobson, Yeargin W 4x100 - Bell, Hunt, Williams, Sibbons M 4x100 - Kilty, NMB, Efoloko, Hughes W 4x400 - Ohuruogo, Li Nielsen, Newnham, Kelly M 4x400 - MHS, AHW, Brier, Davey

The top 4 I was referring to was based on the best time individually over the last year coming *into* the competition, not how well they ran here or a prediction about who should be the top 4 moving forward. I don't know why we didn't see Brier or AHW but once they decided not to pick them, the guys selected were the best on time, in theory. My point was that the men's 4x4 is not blessed with an excess of talent right now. We had to split our expected resources between the mixed and the men's. I was just saying that in the circumstances that was a solid run and about as good as we could have expected.

Given they had a couple of guys in the mixed, it wasn't that bad a shout to pick Makwala - the other options weren't much quicker on paper and his pedigree is obviously great. I was just making a joke that he's almost as old as me.

I've just rewatched it and I still think he would have been fine. The Kenyan starts dying as soon as they hit the home straight. Bonavacia not long after. Then the Qatari. Davey is the only one who is actually accelerating on that home stretch. Room opens up quickly in those scenarios. Basically there was always going to be a gap on one side of the Qatari. Had he not left the gap on the inside that Davey took, there would have been a bigger gap on the outside between him and Bonavacia. The only way Davey wasn't likely to find a gap in my opinion is if Bonavacia hadn't died. And even then I think he would probably have been fine with judicious use of elbows. The biggest 'risk' he took was assuming that they were all going to die coming home. That was a chance. But it was a sound choice in the end. That's 4x4 relays for you!

If Botswana can find a 4th leg from someone younger than Makwala they are serious gold medal contenders in the mens 4x4 in Paris. The other 3 legs were outstanding.

Disagree. Davey was smart. Everyone else charged off and died. Even if the gap on the inside hadn't opened he had room to move out. That was always the weakest of our 5 teams. Both Dobson and Young would be with MHS and Davey in the first choice team of those selected today (both AHW and Brier would be on past form but neither were selected today). Getting the job done was the only thing that mattered and they did that.

Mawdsley's PB is about half a second quicker than Lina's, so it probably wasn't a shock. The big moment from that from a GBR point of view was Yeargin's leg of 50.23. Considering that you could make an argument that we have 3 runners who could improve that team - Anning, Pipi and Laviai - it was a good run by GBR.

That was so dumb by Allison.

Jamaica having a bad time here is not good for other countries who are on the cusp. If Jamaica don't get through tomorrow you would say they are guaranteed to get one of the 2 remaining time slots in each relay.

Adeleke outstanding. Really impressive leg from Yeargin as well.