Rich

2026 Week 2 (12-Jan - 18-Jan) Results:
 
 
Badminton:
YONEX-Sunrise India Open (12-18 Jan) - 
A disappointing set of results for the Brits this week...
Women's Singles: Kirsty Gilmour lost in the first round after a 21-14 14-21 17-21 defeat against  Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt.
Men's Doubles: Ben Lane and Sean Vendy also fell at the first hurdle losing out 16-21 21-15 18-21 to  Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan.
Women's Doubles: There was better news for the women's pairing of Julie MacPherson and Ciara Torrance as they overcame higher ranked opponents  Ririna Hiramoto and Kokona Ishikawa 13-21 26-24 22-20 before being outgunned by 6th seeds  Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee 21-8 21-5 in the second round. 
Mixed Doubles: Alexander Dunn and Julie MacPherson couldn't get passed the 7th Seeds  Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet in the first round, losing out 19-21 13-21.
 
YONEX Estonian International (8-11 Jan) -
 
Men's Singles: Ethan Rose was the 6th Seed and dispatched  Jeppe Bruun 21-14 21-15 in the first round but would lose out to  Hsin Tse Tu 11-21 21-16 17-21 in the round of 16. None of the Brits who were in qualifying were able to make the main draw.
 
Women's Singles:  Ann Mok was pretty comprehensively crushed in her qualifying match losing 3-21 3-21 to  Sophie La Cour. 
 
Men's Doubles: The  pairing of Flaaten/Osthassel dispatched Benjamin Horseman and Jia Bin Lee 21-9 21-14 in the first round to set up a second round match up with top seeds Oliver Butler and Samuel Jones. The Brits came through 21-16 21-14 to progress to the quarterfinals where they would defeat  Vojtech Havlicek and Tomas Svejda 21-11 21-7. They secured their place in today's final with a 21-18 21-18 victory over  Johnathan Dresp and Simon Krax. The Brits secured their first title of the year with a 16-21 21-18 21-18 win over  Da Gu La Wai Bao Xin and Yu Hsiang Chou.
 
Robin Harper and Harry Wakefield had a bye in the first round as the 4th seeds but couldn't get past  Da Gu La Wai Bao Xin and Yu Hsiang Chou in round two, losing 15-21 15-21. 
 
Alex Green and Zach Russ faced qualifiers  Andy Buijk and Brian Wassink and progressed 21-14 21-18 and followed that up with a 21-12 17-21 21-19 win over  Jesper Borgstedt and Joel Hansson. In the quarterfinals, they lost 21-13 15-21 14-21to 3rd seed  Johnathan Dresp and Simon Krax. 
 
Mixed Doubles: Samuel Jones and Lizzie Tolman defeated  Jakob Ekman and Fiona Hallberg 21-5 15-21 21-10 in the first round and then beat  Max Svensson and Sofia Stromvall 21-16 21-18 to set up a quarterfinal against top seeds  Timothy Lock and Chloe Hoang. 
 
 
Cycling - Road:
Santos Tour Down Under (17-19 Jan) - Plenty of Brits in the start list.
Josie Nelson was the top GB finisher in stage 1 with second place.  Lauren Dickson was 16th. Claire Steels was 34th with Alice Towers in 37th and Flora Perkins was 43rd - all recording the same time. Isobel Carys Lloyd, and Becky Storrie were among the back finishers with Lloyd 71st 1:31 behind the bunch and Storrie in 74th a further 10 seconds behind.   
 
Nelson was also the top Brit in stage 2 with a third place. Steels was 37th with Dickson in 39th, both finishing 22 seconds behind the leaders. Finishing 1 minute and 11 seconds behind the leaders was good enough for 57th place overall for Alice Towers. Isobel Carys Lloyd struggled with this stage, finishing over 13 minutes behind the leaders down in 72nd out of the 74 finishers. Unfortunately, Becky Storrie was a DNF.
 
At the end of stage 2, Josie Nelson is second overall, 14 seconds behind New Zealand's Ally Woolaston. The final stage takes place tomorrow. 
 
 
Equestrian - Jumping:
Longines FEI World Cup: Leipzig (14-18 Jan) - Sameh El Dahan is the only Brit listed as competing. 
 
 
Fencing:
4 more Fencing events in the calendar week for the Juniors.
 
FIE Epee Junior World Cup (Individual & Team) (16-18 Jan) - Cador Beautyman was the sole Brit competing in  Manama and finished in in 23rd place.
 
FIE Foil Junior World Cup (Individual & Team) (16-18 Jan) - 8 British women competed in  Tbilisi -
Megan Elliott was the top finisher for GB in 60th place. Rachael Adams secured a tie for 83rd place ahead of Isabella Johnson in 85th. Zoe Wagstaff was just outside the top 100 in 101st. Indigo Zaffino finished 124th with Abigael McVinnie in 130th. Sophie Mehra was in a tie for 180th and finally Claire Sosnov had a bit of a nightmare finishing 195th (out of 198). 
 
In the team event GB are the 7th seeds but were defeated by 10th seed  23-22 in a tight round of 16 encounter.
 
FIE Foil Junior World Cup (Individual & Team) (16-18 Jan) - 12 British fencers were competing in  Madrid. 
 
David Kelly was top GB finisher in 46th with Callum Penman in 64th, David Sosnov in 68th. with Mohammed Belbouab sneaking into the top 100 with his 98th place finish. Alexander James secured a tie for 103rd, Luca Florea was 111th, Ashley Crees was 119th with Finn Keen 123rd. Sam Barrass and Aarav Chaudhari finished down in 167th and 169th respectively. Yaqub Wagdi could only manage a 229th finish with James Havard the final GB placer down in 248th.               
 
In the team event GB are the 3rd seeds and have a bye in the round of 32. They overcame 14th seed  45-34 in the round of 16 to set up a match against USA in the quarterfinals. Despite going behind, they were able to fight back and sneak out a 44-43 win to set up semifinal against 2nd seeds . A 45-41 win set up a final against Hong Kong where they ultimately fell to a 45-37 defeat. 
 
FIE Sabre Junior World Cup (16-18 Jan) - In  Boston, Coco Guven finished in 22nd place with Keira D-Sallows in 53rd.
 
 
Golf:
PGA Sony Open (15-18 Jan) - Going into the final round, Harry Hall is the highest placed Brit in Hawaii in a tie for 2nd place on -10, 2 shots behind leader Davis Riley of USA. John Parry is in 5th place, 1 shot further behind. 
 
Robert MacIntyre is in 20th place on -5 whilst Dan Brown is in group tied for 32nd place on -4. Aaron Rai is on -2 in 50thplace and finally, Jordan Smith is +1 and is in 70th place.
 
DPT - Dubai Invitational (15-18 Jan) - Matt Wallace and Marcus Armitage finished in a tie for 7th place on -6, 4 shots behind winner Ignacio Elvira. Scotsmen Ewen Ferguson and Grant Forrest were tied for 20th place on -1, just ahead of Tommy Fleetwood who finished in 25th on even par. Paul Waring was +1 in 27th, with Connor Syme and Dan Bradbury +2 to finish in tie for 30th place. Daniel Gavins finished on +5 for 38th place, Danny Willett was +7 in 45th, and Calum Hill +9 for 47th. Andy Sullivan was the last of the Brits in 52nd on +11. 
 
Richard Mansell withdrew from the event.
 
 
Squash:
Squash in the Land 2026 (13-18 Jan) - Joel Makin was due to be the 2nd seed but withdrew prior to the competition starting.
 
Greg Lobban was promoted to 4th seed and had a bye to second round. There, he defeated  Muhammad Asim Khan 11-3 11-3 9-11 0-11 11-5 to progress to the quarterfinals. There he defeated 7th seed  Raphael Kandra 9-11 11-8 11-9 10-12 11-1 to progress to the semifinals where he would lose to 2nd seed  Leonel Cardenas 11-7 8-11 9-11 5-11. 
 
The withdrawal of Makin resulted in a redraw with Nathan Lake defeated  Matthew Lai 11-7 10-12 11-6 9-11 11-5 in the first round before dispatching 5th seed  Auguste Dussourd 11-4 12-10 11-11-6 to progress to the quarterfinals. There he was on the wrong side of a 9-11 11-7 11-7 11-9 scoreline against 3rd seed  Gregoire Marche.
 
Having previously been drawn against Nathan Lake, Perry Malik was against  Marwan Tamer in the redraw and won the match 11-3 7-11 11-4 11-9. In the second round he fell to 7th seed  Raphael Kandra 11-9 11-8 11-5
 
In the women's draw, Jasmine Hutton is the third seed and has a bye in the first round. In the second round, she dispatched  Marta Dominguez 11-2 11-7 11-4 to progress to the quarterfinals where she would beat  5th seed Malak Khafagy 11-5 11-8 9-11 7-11 12-10 to book her place in the semifinals against top seed  Olivia Weaver 11-3 11-4 11-4.
 
Georgia Adderley also had a bye as the 7th seed. She would ultimately lose her second-round match to Lucy Beecroft 11-8 8-11 10-12 11-7 12-10 after Beecroft had previously dispatched  Hayley Ward 11-5 11-2 8-11 11-6 in the first round. Beecroft would ultimately lose out to 2nd seed  Nele Gilis 6-11 11-9 11-7 6-11 11-5 in the quarterfinals.
 
Grace Gear defeated  wildcard Dixon B Hill 11-5 11-9 14-12 in the first round but was no match for 2nd seed  Gilis in the second round, losing out 11-9 11-4 11-4. Alicia Mead dispatched  Nicole Bunyan 11-4 11-6 11-9 in the first round but lost out in the second round, defeated 11-8 4-11 6-11 11-5 11-7 by  5th seed Malak Khafagy. 
 
Sarah Nghiem defeated  Madeleine Hylland 12-10 11-2 11-9 in the first round before being defeated by  8th seed Hollie Naughton 11-6 9-11 11-5 11-6 in the second round.  
 
 
DR21 Motor City Men's Open (13-18 Jan) - Sam Todd defeated countryman Simon Herbert 2-11 11-7 11-4 11-4 in the first round to set up a match against 2nd seed Marwan ElShorbagy. ElShorbagy would go on to defeat Todd 11-8 11-6 5-11 11-8 in round 2. In the quarterfinals, Elshorbagy defeated  Karim El Hammamy 11-5 11-13 11-7 11-6 to progress to the semifinals where he will take on 4th seed  Dimitri Steinmann. 
 
Adrian Waller was defeated by  Salman Khalil 11-7 6-11 7-11 11-8 8-11 in the first round whilst Tom Walsh was defeated by  Ramit Tandon 8-11 4-11 11-8 4-11. 
 
 
Surfing
WSL Junior Surfing World Championships (11-18 Jan) - Lukas Skinner made it to the last 16 of the men's event where he was eliminated by  Lennix Smith. 
 
 
Tennis:
WTA Hobart International (12-17 Jan) - Emma Raducanu was the top seed and dispatched  Camila Osorio 6-3 7-6 in a rain delayed match. she was then advanced to quarterfinals when  Magdalena Fech was forced to withdraw. In a pretty dismal match, again interrupted by rain,  wildcard Taylah Preston 6-2 6-4. 
 
WTA Adelaide International (12-17 Jan) - Katie Swan was attempting to qualify but fell in the first round against 12th seed  Elena Ruse 7-5 2-6 3-6.
 
ATP Adelaide International (12-17 Jan) - Jacob Fearnley was the 2nd seed in the qualifying draw. Having won his first-round match against  Christopher O'Connell 7-6 7-6, he would lose to  Aleksandar Vukic 4-6 7-6 3-6. In a bonus, he was promoted to the main draw as a lucky loser but couldn't take advantage of his good fortune as he would lose  qualifier Quentin Halys 6-3 6-4 in the first round.
 
Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool were the top seeds in the men's doubles and as such had a bye in the first round. In a surprise result, they would lose in the second round to / pairing of Matthew Romios and Ryan Seggerman 4-6 7-6 9-11.
 
 
ATP ASB Classic Auckland (12-17 Jan) - Cameron Norrie was the 5th seed and defeated  qualifier Hugo Gaston 6-3 6-4 in the first round but couldn't follow it up in the second round despite having chances against  Giovanni Mpetshi-Perricard. He would ultimately lose out 6-4 3-6 7-6. 
 
Australian Open Qualifying (12-16 Jan) - Plenty of Brits were in the qualifying tournament for the year's first Grand Slam and it was a pretty mixed bag. 
 
Mimi Xu made it into the qualifying draw after a couple of withdrawals and put in a decent performance before ultimately running out of steam. She went down to a 3-6 6-2 2-6 loss at the hands of  Darja Vidmanova in the first round. 
 
Harriet Dart fared better, defeating  Destanee Aiava 6-3 2-6 6-2 in the first round before losing out to 21st seed  Lanlana Tararudee 0-6 6-3 3-6. 
 
On the men's side, Ryan Peniston had a tough draw against 2nd seed  Roman Burruchaga and would lose out 6-1 6-1. There was also first round defeats for Oliver Crawford who wasn't able to take advantage of the chances he had in his 3-6 6-2 3-6 defeat at the hands of  Daniel Merida. It was a disappointing result for Dan Evans after a decent start to the year. He would ultimately lose out to  Rei Sakamoto 6-1 6-2. Jay Clarke was another first round loss, falling to  Gustavo Heide 6-3 6-3. Jack Pinnington Jones lost to  Gilles Bailly 6-4 6-4.  
 
George Loffhagen made it through his first-round match with a 7-6 7-6 win over  Justin Engel. In the second round, he was leading 6-3 3-1 when  Yoshihito Nishioka was forced to retire. In the final round of qualifying, Loffhagen had chances but couldn't capitalise, ultimately losing out to  Nishesh Basavareddy 7-5 4-6 4-6.
 
Saving the best for last, Arthur Fery qualified for the main draw after recording wins against  Edward Winter 6-2 6-4 in the first round,  Bernard Tomic 6-4 6-2 in round two and  Dino Prizmic 6-4 6-1. 
 
 
Table Tennis:
WTT Star Contender Doha (13-18 Jan) - Anna Hursey lost her first-round match 3-1 to  qualifier Tsai Yun-En - 6-11 11-7 9-11 4-11.

6th Place for Tarbit today has given GB a bit of breathing space, she's now the 3rd GB slider in 10th on 664 points.
 
 No 3 is on 516
 
 No 3 is on 414
 
With only 2 races left it's looking more likely all 3 athletes will qualify.

European Junior Swimming Championships
 
A strong showing from Team GB who finished top of the medal table with 9 Gold, 5 Silver and 5 Bronze. 
 
GOLD
F. Nowacki - Men’s 100m Breast
F. Nowacki - Men’s 200m Breast*
D. Fearn - Men’s 50m Fly* 
A. Blocksidge - Women’s 1500m Free
A. Smith - Women’s 200m IM
A. Smith - Women’s 400m IM*
B. Kinsman - Women’s 50m Back
Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay*
Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay
 
SILVER
D. Fearn - Men’s 100m Fly
F. Nowacki - Men’s 50m Breast
E. Price - Women’s 200m Fly
T. Taylor - Women’s 50m Free
Mixed 4x100m Free
 
BRONZE
Men’s 4x100m Free
B. Kinsman - Women’s 100m Back
T. Taylor - Women’s 100m Breast
A. Blocksidge - Women’s 800m Free
Women’s 4x200m Free
 
*Championship Record

Yeah, we have such a strong crop of Juniors, that we can’t take them all. They all have exciting trajectories but to predict what Junior swimmers will is always difficult. Better to let them all swim together at Juniors than rocketing them all up to seniors and swimming a prelim and going home.

and  all took the quotas so  have qualified.

Ah yes, today was the dreaded "IOC news day"... As usual there is barely anything to smile at.
 
Men's boxing losing more weights is absurd, especially since their "gender parity agenda" is out of the window after switching the football.
 
Swimming getting the 50s in an already bloated program was sadly inevitable. With US and AUS the next hosts, I'm surprised swimming doesn't have 100 events to begin with. 
 
All the new mixed stuff is Frankenstein as usual, especially the tennis and gymnastics. No one asks for these, even within these sports, but the IOC only care about "Let's have all the stars interact more with each other for maximum TV talk and social engagement, who cares about sporting traditions".
 
Climbing splitting the events is a positive, though for me personally I didn't see any problem with the combined. It actually showed the true overall best climbers, while now the specialists in one event will get more chances to sneak a medal.
 
Host sports with 6 teams are a joke and shouldn't award medals! Have them as exhibition events with a trophy etc. for the winners, but shouldn't be included in the medal table. But what do I know.
 
And still no news on the most important thing for me - extending the Games to 3 full weeks. Things will be crammed, crammed again..

Rightfully so.
 
If we were to axe / make mixed a further rowing event I actually think the fours makes more sense. Eights is simply the most iconic rowing event, if there was one rowing event in the Olympics it should be the eights.

are the champion of IHF Emerging Nations Championship 2025 beating the home team  29-25 in an epic game.
 
still long journey to compete with top teams but it's very promising start to win our first title. 

men have qualified for the 2025 Eurobasket tournament after fighting back to beat  73-69 last night in Den Haag. They'll join  and  progressing from Group F.
 
Their final qualifying match is against  in Newcastle on Monday night
 

From my calculations, GB is on 13 'proper' world cup win's this year (Figure skating and Curling don't count due to limited fields), which would be second behind the 15 in 2022-2023.
 
This doesn't include the world championships which would give another 4 to 2023
 
 
 

Story about that here, by coincidence.  Most of Team GB including Joe Choong are knuckling down.
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/articles/cdxng025xw8o

While I as a TV watcher would love this, it would be a disaster. Part of the appeal is all the athletes and fans being in one place all celebrating and cheering together.

Reeves clearly spent too much time watching Keely etc and not enough time watching hockey and other relative disappointments.

Reeves clearly spent too much time watching Keely etc and not enough time watching hockey and other relative disappointments.

The UK won't be building new pools sadly. It would be nice if local government, underfunded by central government in massive debt, stopped closing them. This is an article from 2023:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/12/england-has-lost-almost-400-swimming-pools-since-2010
 

Today definitely falls into the "bad luck" argument for me.
 
We lose a potential gold medal hope to illness, we lose 2 minor medal hopes to crashes in front of them, and we get a bronze in an event where there's not an unreasonable chance that had she been on the other side of the draw it might have been silver.
 
The only real disappointment today is the selection of Evans, who looks hopelessly off form.
 
Thanks to Emma and Emily we get through the Games winning a medal every day, which is a first for us that I know about, at least in the modern era.
 
 
 
 
Overall, a good games for me. Not a great games, the drop in gold clearly prevents that. I've no doubt that it will be seen as worse in public perception than it actually was, because of that drop in gold.
 
We increase our total medal tally from Tokyo, as well as our top 8 finishes (as things stand; please no drugs failures taking things away!). We match the tally from Tokyo of medalling in 18 different sports, including 2 new ones (artistic swimming and climbing). That to me shows that our sports are generally in a good place.
 
Clearly I'm sure there will be serious conversations happening, as there should be.
 
But - for me at least - it's easier to have those conversation when you have some silverware to back it up. It shows a system that is mostly working but needs tweaking, rather than a system that needs ripping out and starting again.

Some of you need to be lovers not Hayters in this thread.

Some of you need to be lovers not Hayters in this thread.

Sorry, but this is an absolutely ridiculous comment. Hayter absolutely rode his balls off in an excellent Team Pursuit performance, and is still well in contention in the Omnium.

Fingers crossed for a fun day! How sweet will a gold be if we get one? And maybe that's the point? Highs and lows creating the extreme emotions that wake us all up, not just coasting along feeling smug.
 
Either way, I'm determined to enjoy the ride today. The Olympics come but once a (4) year(s) and feeling glum is just not the way to savour them.

That's not really the press having a go. Nobody has been called a flop of a turnip. I've seen four back pages and it's words like 'pipped'. They reflect frustration not anger.

Sure, but it's also a target that you can't really hold anybody accountable for. If each governing body has met their target then what you going to do.
 
The rest of the world had raised its game. And just like we learnt from the Aussies post 96 so, in turn, others have learnt from us - the Aussies themselves to some extent but also the Dutch and others I'm sure.

Gutted for Matt. Love watching him. Same with Josh and Molly. But there's no divine right and I'm sure the two men would take their performance over Molly's. I'm equally sure both would have good words for her - they've lived through their own athletic disappointments.
 
The silvers are frustrating when so close, no question. But there is a reason that the target is about medals not golds and it's because GB success has been built on controlling the controllables. Sometimes, like tonight and yesterday, no matter what you do to prepare, no matter how extraordinarily fast you run, no matter how much you want it, somebody else is just better.  Medals not golds allows for that uncontrollable.

Gutted for Matt. Love watching him. Same with Josh and Molly. But there's no divine right and I'm sure the two men would take their performance over Molly's. I'm equally sure both would have good words for her - they've lived through their own athletic disappointments.
 
The silvers are frustrating when so close, no question. But there is a reason that the target is about medals not golds and it's because GB success has been built on controlling the controllables. Sometimes, like tonight and yesterday, no matter what you do to prepare, no matter how extraordinarily fast you run, no matter how much you want it, somebody else is just better.  Medals not golds allows for that uncontrollable.

Gutted for Matt. Love watching him. Same with Josh and Molly. But there's no divine right and I'm sure the two men would take their performance over Molly's. I'm equally sure both would have good words for her - they've lived through their own athletic disappointments.
 
The silvers are frustrating when so close, no question. But there is a reason that the target is about medals not golds and it's because GB success has been built on controlling the controllables. Sometimes, like tonight and yesterday, no matter what you do to prepare, no matter how extraordinarily fast you run, no matter how much you want it, somebody else is just better.  Medals not golds allows for that uncontrollable.