Grassmarket

Good FTA meet coming up on Sunday from - this is one of the big annual sprint meets. It’s up at altitude, so everyone who needs a Q Time for the year’s big major goes here.

I like the way that a team - let us say for example - can suddenly be demoted & another team - hypothetically - can pick up a medal instead. N

His handler was posing as a dentist, so he had a perfect excuse for visiting his office every Monday. An ice hockey player from Poland's major league has been charged with spying for Russia, Warsaw says. The man, a Russian citizen, was arrested on 11 June in Silesia, southern Poland, and is believed to be part of a Russian spy ring. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66063406

Huge amount of coverage this weekend from the Henley Regatta. If you haven’t seen it, a real old school event with all levels represented from Schools, Universities, Clubs right up to full Olympic level, from many different countries. https://youtube.com/@HenleyRoyalRegatta

And the innovative “no on screen information at all & no commentary” approach extends to the ski jumping.

What’s the worst that could happen? No reason not to enjoy the beach on the 4th of July. A massive 395-pound shark named Jekyll is stalking the coast of Maine, north of Cape Cod, just weeks after it left the Hamptons as families gear up for a holiday beach weekend. Jekyll the Shark, who was named after being tagged off the coast of Jekyll Island in Georgia, has been making his way up north since December last year and is now lurking off the coast of Maine ahead of the Fourth of July. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12247313/Massive-395lb-great-white-shark-named-Jekyll-stalking-coast-Maine.html

Preview for Lausanne tomorrow night. Yeah, you probably want the link as well. https://worldathletics.org/competitions/diamond-league/news/athletissima-lausanne-2023-ingebrigtsen-girma-bol-crouser-hodgkinson

We have got calm conditions, beautiful sunshine & thick, thick snow* for the Mixed Team Ski Jumping. *Two out of three ain’t bad.

Meltdown for on last shoot, storming run from for Gold.

Good news is that the Laser Run is pretty close with 7 teams within 12 secs so should be exciting. No distracting timings or shooting graphics of course. But wait, what miracle?

Tv Coverage continues to be pathetic. Not only no commentary, but no on-screen scores, timings or information of any kind.

Restart & reschedule tomorrow 10:30 Polish time.

Looks like we’re heading for a one round competition in the ski jumping, wind is hopeless. But not as bad as Polish pop music.

Gold for Penny Healey in the Recurve Archery, Silver for Ella Gibson in the Compound.

Magic Darts from Penny Healey!

Well, it’s all scheduled to be live on Discovery from Friday so…but we’ve already list the Women’s Tour of so things are spread a bit thin. They did expand very fast in only about five years. I can remember when practically the whole live TV year was a week in Sweden in August & the Worlds.

Same here in . I, and other big athletics fans, enjoyed seeing all levels of athletics, that’s an improvement over the old system with all four divisions at once over the same weekend. Otherwise it’s a flop.

Less exciting even than Billiards?

We're back on Friday with the Lausanne DL - In fact there's a very good city centre women's high jump on Thursday as well, but Friday is the main action. Programme 2023 (diamondleague.com)

Damn, the whole Mongol Invasion story was made up! You'll be telling me next that no town in Holland was ever saved from flooding by a brave boy covering up a crack in the dijk!

It’s not too late to call the whole thing off & give it to London. Fans at next summer's Paris Olympics will not be able to buy alcohol inside stadiums after organisers decided not to seek an exemption to 'Evin's Law'. VIP guests in hospitality areas will be served with alcoholic drinks. The French law bans the sale of alcohol in stadiums to the general public, but allows for exemptions to a limited number of events per year. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/66030110

Ground is so muddy everyone is having to hose down their skis. That’s a pair ruined.

Trial round now going after 20 minute delay so....

Delays for the ski jumping.

I was watching Olympic eSports Chess at the weekend. It was deeply weird. Fair enough, they started with a global tournament for 10,000 players over the internet. Then out of all those they brought 10 people to play in person in . Obviously a nice reward for them. And then they sat them down in front of thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment to play a game of chess, although they were all literally in the same room and indeed played at the same table.