Epic Failure

He's doing a Pogacar!

Sometimes those riders benefit from more fancied riders watching each other and giving them leeway. The points on offer and the length of the points race mean that it tends to get valued more than the others. These are the results from Tokyo. Notice that Thomas came 2nd in the first 2 events, then missed the podium. Also notice that the guys in 2nd and 3rd had fewer points that Ethan has right now. I'm not saying that Ethan is somehow assured of a medal or that those other riders might not be on better form. I'm just saying that I've been watching Omniums for about 30 years (admittedly the format has changed from when I started, but still...) and I've seen considerably more improbable performances than would be needed for Hayter to get on the podium.

It's easier said that done. Not all riders are treated equally. Some will be allowed to go off because they are perceived to be not a threat. Others will be marked very closely. Not a great race, but he saved his effort for the sprint at the end to salvage something. He's not out of medal contention yet.

As long as he's in with a shout going into the points, all good. Viviani and Gate need a big ride here.

That's a confusing choice of language. Makes it sound like she lost. Also, it's Keirin. I before E doesn't apply here.

That's usually good for quick cycling!

Aldridge gets gold!

What, the scratch? It's very easy. First cross the line wins, unless you are a lap ahead. Ethan came 6th. Which is a fine performance. The 4 who took the lap are obviously in pole position but also will have expended more energy.

Why should we be at 20 golds? How can we control what people from outside our country do? Some of the events that existed in Beijing don't even exist now - we won 4 medals in the individual pursuit, including both golds! We couldn't match those even if we wanted to, or had the athletes to do so. We're going to pass the number of top 8 finishes from Beijing quite comfortably - we're only 8 behind right now. We're only 2 total medals behind that as well. Again, I'd be disappointed for the squad, not really in them. Because the focus on gold takes away from how they have generally performed. There are relatively few of the 300 plus that I think have under-performed. That's what we can control. Not what others do. If anything, a cycle where we get a large number of medals but not the crazy number of golds might actually do some people some good. It feels like people have taken for granted gold medals and don't realise how difficult they are to achieve. The people that want to have a pop will do. They'll always find a reason. That's what they do.

Genuinely, why? What does it matter what a team 16 years ago did?

I just don't agree with this. There's no *should* in sport. You have to earn it. People seem to think that because I'm praising the performances of some of our athletes that means I'm not frustrated. I'm very frustrated. But here's the difference between me and some of the comments - I'm frustrated *for* our athletes. Some of the comments here seem frustrated *in* our athletes. And I'm trying not to be rude here, but it seems like some people care more about 'winning' some absurd pissing match between us and Australia that means nothing in the grand scheme of things. And seem to think that any medal that isn't gold - and the performances that got that medal - is somehow therefore irrelevant.

Take it up with them, not me.

It's in the medal table.

So am I. I'm very much biting my tongue.

Yes, I know. But the person I was replying to was saying we are only on 999. The BOC says we're already passed the 1000. Someone is wrong.

According to Team GB, we're already there...

Wouldn't say he 'lost it', but rather Hall won it. 5th and 6th fastest performances of all time.

Okay, I never thought I'd say this but some of you are making Orangehair seem reasonable now. It's getting pathetic.

Matt just smashed his PB and the European record by 3/10ths of a second. That's a phenomenal run. Like Josh, sometimes it just isn't meant to be.

Absolute monster turn from Josie Knight at the end there. Given what happened to Katie that's a fine bronze medal.

They really aren't. That's just how you are choosing to 'spin it' yourself. And whilst we have lost gold by small margins, we've also won some the same way. I'd also argue that how you approached the games influences it and what expectations you have coming into it. Our medal haul as is right now is ahead of where I thought it would be in advance of the games.

Most of 'the media" isn't worth the paper that it is written on, so I don't frankly care what they think. Or what 'the general public' thinks if they agree with it. As a wise man once said, people like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis; you can't trust people. There's always frustrations in an event like this. The only ones I'm upset about are the shooting mistake, the boxing judging and the sailing wind fiasco. The others are just sporting incidents. I mean, this TP was almost certainly Ethan being on the ragged edge and expending every ounce of energy. At that level, even the slightest mistake can be fatal to your chances. Fair play to the Aussies for putting us under that stress, in my opinion.

As it should be. Winning *any* Olympic medal is an incredible achievement. Winning a gold medal is a spectacular achievement. Reading some of the comments on here, you would think that people believe that have some kind of God given right to win golds and that the other nations don't train just as hard as our folk do. Yes, it is frustrating that we haven't won as many golds as we would like. But that's all it is. Each and every medal we win should be cheered to the rafters. Not frowned upon because it isn't the colour we want.

Decent flying lap qualification from both Brits, Carlin 5th and Turnbull 7th. A long way and a lot of races to go but if everything were to go by seeding, they would avoid the two Dutchmen in the QFs (they would be against the two Aussies I think). Obviously that would be assuming they got that far, which is far from certain.

It only takes one unfortunate racing incident for a place on the podium to open up. It's not a medal I'm expecting but there's enough jeopardy in the event to not rule it out. I do wonder whether the fact that there's 2 rounds of the TP today might also influence things. We also still don't know their thinking about where they believe their best chances of medals come from. I'm not worried yet (stress on the yet part).