Epic Failure

Can't find a full start list yet, but some of the big names are listed here - https://zlatatretra.cz/index.php?page=program2024-en

Can't find a full start list yet, but some of the big names are listed here - https://zlatatretra.cz/index.php?page=program2024-en

Congratulations at the winner: @Pablita  and aother medallists  @Epic Failure and @hckošice

Final Standing is available here
 
 Pablita   Epic Failure    hckošice  
 
Here is the presentation of the three medallists. Congratulation to all three medallists of this prediction contest. @Pablita with the gold medal, @Epic Failure with the silver medal and @hckošice with the bronze medal.

Seeing G and Cav coming to the end of their careers just makes me remember how old I'm getting.

The cat is not so much amongst the pigeons as it is enjoying a splendid 3 course meal provided by a particularly plump speckled pigeon!

The cat is not so much amongst the pigeons as it is enjoying a splendid 3 course meal provided by a particularly plump speckled pigeon!

The crowds in Lyon this weekend have been outstanding. Looking forward to similar in Glasgow and Berlin over the summer.

A few things:
 
1. Chelsea Hodges just surprise retired following chronic injuries and surgeries. I’m devastated. She’ll always be an Olympic champion though.
 
2. @NearPup I agree they should aim for 20 swimmers in events with semis. Don’t care if there’s less than 20 if there’s no semis anyway. Could force universality swimmers to only enter events that are low on numbers. That could be fun.
 
3. NearPup again: Your second point kind of defeats the whole purpose of A and B cuts. This would lead to the strong swimming countries, who already have an advantage, sneaking in extra individual swimmers using relay spots. You would end up with swimmers from smaller countries not being invited while slower swimmers from big swim countries racing individually purely because their country has good relays. I don’t think flooding the heats with extra B cut swimmers who have no chance of medalling is necessarily a positive.

Yeah, sadly it´s true.
 
Plus this time you weren´t really lucky I must say, that Austrian fairytale here and Denmark´s imunity thanks hosting next year tournament did not really helped your team neither, however this Norway team was doable so you can still have some regrets from today´s match especially the first period too big respect cost you the top division this time.
 
Anyway, I am pretty sure you will return very soon back

Joking aside, always the likely result.
 
We're in that annoying bubble where we're good enough to win promotion but not really good enough to ever stay up.

Don't disregard BUDGET CUTS!!!!!!

Oh, definitely SpiderBoy Hamish

Men's bouldering for the final just finished. Hamish (or Jumpy-B Hamish as @mpjmcevoy would obviously prefer he be known) finished it in 3rd place in a low scoring round with 43.8 and one top. There were only 5 tops total and only Adam Ondra got more than 1.
 
Lead in about 30 mins.

The Rankings.
 
1 place will go here to the highest placed NOC who doesn't already qualify through the rankings, or who hasn't qualified at one of the continental champs/last year's WC.
 
 

I mean, I'm currently munching my way through an entire pack of Cadbury Fingers in one sitting. I'm not sure if Daniel can do that.

MacDonald is fine and O'Neill is probably passable. They probably couldn't be expected to do much more
 
But Calvert was poor. Unlike Hamish/Erin in the climbing, he has vastly under-performed compared to his ranking coming in today. That's always disappointing to see. When you add in the women's situation, it hasn't been a great couple of days.
 
As George Orwell definitely didn't say, four wheels bad, two wheels better!

The document is explicit that the maximum entries per NOC was 2 which was why I was confused when the commentators this morning said that some nations could qualify 3. 
 
I think the point @Epic Failurewas raising was whether the same athlete could secure 2 quotas for their nation - qualifying through the OQS with a named quota and through the World Championship route with a second quota for their NOC. If I remember rightly back to the World Champs in Glasgow, there was a lot of discussion about whether riders could qualify 2 spots for their nation.  Hannah Roberts for example had "won" a quota at both the 2022 World Champs and 2023 World Champs and that seemed to be acceptable under the terms of the qualifying document as it stood at the time.
 
However, I see that the qualification document has been updated in February of this year which means that the 2023 world champs quotas will be reallocated to NOCs that have not qualified through the OQS although strangely, they haven't changed the terms for the 2022 World Champ quotas. 
 
Anyhow to answer the question @Epic Failurewas raising, no Declan Reilly can't double qualify GB unfortunately. And more than that, if Hessey or Jones gets into the top 6 and he doesn't, then the world champion would miss out on Paris all together. 

I mean, I'm currently munching my way through an entire pack of Cadbury Fingers in one sitting. I'm not sure if Daniel can do that.

Ah, but can you do things he can't?

Oh, as I said earlier, without Anderson our chances are pretty much zero.
 
Although, all that being said, we are the current world silver medalists from the definitely-not-weird Doha WCs.

If he's skipped the Davis Cup the last 2 years, he might not be eligible anyway. Part of the eligibility criteria is the following:
 
The ITF can waive that if they want to and declare him eligible but if your NOC doesn't want to nominate him anyway it might be a moot point.

What does everyone have against Kenya? Also, it's Ineos Grenadiers, thank you very much. I don't know who this "Team Sky" is.
 
I don't dispute for a second that Froome/Sky are disliked. I just don't get putting him and Alberto in the same category as Armstrong.
 
Froome is kinda boring as a person. Armstrong was genuinely mean.

You do know the French organisers included this "sport" just to annoy you don't you? For now all you can do is lie back and think of LA. 

Adrian would never stoop so low.
 
Andy Jamieson, on the other hand...