Epic Failure

Yeah, my worries about boxing are more related to the ongoing drama of the governance of the sport than anything else. The mixed medley went about as well as could be expected. A cynical person might argue that it was being used as nothing more than a tryout for Duncan on the fly leg ahead of tomorrow.

And I would be amazed if Mayer doesn't as well.

Again, in Rome last month he had PB'ed 3 times and SB'ed 4 times in the 8 events he took part in. He hit 8600 at the Euro 23s last year. He's been an athlete on the rise. He's just risen slightly quicker than was expected.

Rooth is the reigning Euro U23 champ and was sitting 3rd at this year's Euros before getting injured in the pole vault. This was a surprise gold but not a crazy shock, especially after Warner and Skotheim's PV problems and with Leo's long season.

Amber split sub 49, and was running down her college team mate who had the better of her at the NCAAs. But Bol split sub 48. That's just unreal.

A fine performance in the 4x4m. Smashed the British record. Adam is apparently not 100% yet, so saving him for the men's medley probably the wiser choice. The mixed medalling was always unlikely without a strong 2nd woman.

Richardson saves the boxing team's blushes by winning his QF and collects at least bronze.

Their false start rule is...interesting.

It's getting a lot of coverage on US tv, but that's partially because they have an entire golf channel. I've no real problem with golf being in the Games but I think strokeplay golf being in the Games is dumb and an insane choice. Who is going to commit to watching anything other than maybe the final few holes of round 4?

I'm enjoying watching it. Whether it should be an Olympic event is a different matter. Looking forward to seeing the top paddlers against each other later in the event.

Yeah, that seems to be the consensus of some other people I've read as well. I was just musing about the wider discussion. Like you, I don't know enough myself to voice an opinion one way or another.

Oh completely. And this is a RR, so you can never come in with expectation, only hope. I just think that not even getting a top 10 is a bit of a bad look for both nations. I give you guys a bit more leeway, because MVdP clearly was trying and Dylan worked to try and bring the gap back. But we have no excuse. Pidcock, maybe after his exertions in the MTB, But We were on the back foot all the way through, with the exception of Fred going in that ill fated group and he died very quickly. And I really don't see the reasoning for putting Tarling in there to trundle around in about 50th, rather than using him for the track. Just seems an odd set of tactical decisions.

Great stuff from Remco and kudos to Madouas for hanging tough. As good as it reasonably could have got for the French. Broom wagon for and though.

At least it made it slightly more interesting.

Nice trip to Paris for Remco.

Alaphilippe trying to ruin Madouas's race.

Just mean of the having that 1-2 punch. Not having any in there means that they will have to chase though.

Okay, panic over. For now.

Have to worry about that second group on the road. WVA and MVDP is a large engine. I can imagine they will be shooting daggers at Alaphillipe for just sitting on. From a GBR point of view, think we missed a trick not having someone watching those two. I know we have Fred up front but having a second rider follow that move might have been a better plan long term.

Medal guaranteed on the floor! Jarman in 3rd with Whitehouse the only gymnast left to go.

The British judge was in line with the others for Fry - the Danish judge actually scored Fry higher and the Swedish judge scored the same as the British. For Fry the outlier was the German judge, who scored her 1.6 lower than any of the others. Danish judge also scored the second Danish rider 1.2 more than any of the other judges. For the 3rd rider they only scored that rider 3rd highest. I'm not well versed enough in Horse Disco to know the difference - or indeed whether the scoring really mattered to the fairness of the result - but there does appear to be some weird scoring variance.

I don't think that it would make a blind bit of difference to the results, but you have to laugh at the never changing absurdity of Olympic judging. The Danish judge gave the last Danish rider a score that was 2.5% higher than the score from the next highest judge.

Undoubtedly true. But someone smarter than me would have to explain whether there is a difference in skill in terms of fleet racing with a large pack vs a 3 way battle. i.e. might it not be an inability to handle pressure but rather a slightly different skill set required for this form? It seems slightly odd to me - even though I've defended the system above - that most of the other events have a more traditional 10 boat medal race but this event alone has changed to this.

We are having a disappointing lack of 6th places for my OCD brain. We're at 10s all round for the medals obviously. Then 9 4ths, 8 5ths, only 2 6ths, 6 7ths and 6 8ths. 61 top eights as it stands. For comparison, our total numbers for top 8s since 96 have been as follows: Atlanta -39 Sydney - 69 Athens - 84 Beijing - 106 London - 132 Rio - 125 Tokyo - 135