Grassmarket

Yeah, I’m as one of those teams that goes all-out in the first 5km of the World Champs, gives up at the first railway bridge.

Autumn Marathon season is unusually strong this year with Boston & London being postponed from the spring. First major is on Sunday with Berlin as the first in the newly named Elite Platinum series, as the marketeers at World Athletics show worrying signs of running out of superlatives. https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-label-road-races/news/road-races-elite-platinum-label-marathons-2021

Another two meet weekend. The world’s best are in Malibu for the final race of the Super League Series. For the strivers, it’s the European Championships in Valencia, .

Commonwealth Games European Regional Qualifiers taking place at Portobello Beach, Edinburgh this weekend! Your local correspondent can assure you that it is blowing a gale. Fans of women in bikinis are going to be disappointed.https://www.teamscotland.scot/2021/commonwealth-qualifiers-at-portobello-this-weekend/Live on BBC streaming!https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/scotland/58649390

Bermudan U-23 rider’s bid to recreate Flora Duffy’s success falls 156km short: unable to get past the Antwerp ring road.

Lukashenko is not the only dictator in Europe who arrests dissident leaders when they travel. Our own Scottish Nationalist used to love the Catalans, until the EU started persecuting them. Then they put the boot in, like everyone else. Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained in the Italian island of Sardinia, his lawyer said last night. Gonzalo Boye wrote on Twitter that the ex-Catalan regional president, wanted by Spain for his role in a failed bid for secession four years ago, was being held under a European arrest warrant issued by Spanish authorities in 2019. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10023167/Ex-Catalan-leader-Carles-Puigdemont-detained-Sardinia.html

Now, this is how you reply to the Pope when he criticises one of your policies “I asked Pope Francis not to let Christian Hungary perish,” Orban posted on his Facebook page, along with a photo of the two shaking hands. As a gift, Orban gave the pontiff a copy of a letter written by King Bela IV to Pope Innocent IV in 1250 asking for help against Mongol warriors who threatened Christian Hungary. https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3148496/pope-calls-openness-after-meeting-hungarys-viktor-orban-heading

Livestream is here. You need to turn off your adblocker, but otherwise seems fine. https://sportdeutschland.tv/videos/eiskunstlauf

Except the whole thing is a fake. They ship a couple of plane loads back, they put thousands in buses and allow them to stay. It's just a propaganda show.

And as for New Zealand…

Final Olympic Qualifying event starts this weekend. https://www.rockerskating.com/news/2021/9/20/2021-nebelhorn-trophy-olympic-qualification-preview

Can’t complain that the Rwandan Volleyball Federation are not taking this seriously. The vice-president of the Rwanda Volleyball Federation (FRVB), Jean de Dieu Bagirishya, has been arrested following the country's disqualification from the Women's African Championship. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/africa/58636929

Amusing thing was that British Eurosport’s commentator was Zoe’s father, Magnus. He did a better job than many fathers would do.

Belgian fans when the Dutch are medal favourites are

I like those guys who stand behind the finishing line going “Slow down now, slow down now.” For those of you who don’t know Bruges, these scenes of emotion, tension & drama at taking place at what is normally the west-bound platform of the bus station.

Incredible crowds out on the canal there. Not going to be a week for Colombian mountain climbers, I think.

Ah, the beautiful Flemish Riviera.

Flora Duffy’s homecoming event in Bermuda scheduled for next month is a COVID casualty. Hopefully a postponement rather than a cancellation. https://www.triathlon.org/news/article/the_world_triathlon_sprint_relay_championships_bermuda_will_not_take_place

Sounds like the origin story of a Marvel super-villain.

Last big outdoor meet of the year live tomorrow - Continental Gold from Nairobi , the Kip Keino Classic. Live on YT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK7nIGkj41s Good news is that WA are upgrading their coverage of the Cross Country tour, lots more races to be transmitted between now & March.

Am getting a bit overwhelmed by the profusion of different triathlon formats, but all the big names who won’t be in Hamburg will be in, or on, Jersey competing in the Super League Triathlon event there. Live on BT Sport here in , highlights on Eurosport elsewhere.

Now, strictly speaking we need a new thread for this, but 2022 starts here! Hamburg hosts the first races of the 2022 season. Two Sprints on Saturday, Mixed Relay on Sunday.

Great point made here. At all these huge mega-events hosted by politicians and celebrities in the US, the guests are free not to wear masks. Yet for the poor serfs who surround them, it is compulsory, no doubt on pain of being fired and not being paid. And yet not one of any of the wealthy leftists who so love lecturing the rest of us about social justice ever complain about this Marie Antoinette-level hypocrisy. https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-masking-of-the-servant-class

Last big European track meet of the year is Zagreb tomorrow night - there's a special shot event tonight as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9hTtUSA-Wc

teams for World Championships Elite Women’s Road RaceLizzie Deignan, Anna Shackley, Alice Barnes, Anna Henderson, Pfeiffer Georgi and Joss Lowden.Elite Women’s Time TrialJoss Lowden and Pfeiffer GeorgiMen’s Elite Road RaceTom Pidcock, Luke Rowe, Fred Wright, Jake Stewart, Connor Swift, Ben Swift, Mark Cavendish and Ethan HayterMen’s Elite Time TrialEthan Hayter and Dan Bigham And full teams for all the other races also. https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/about/article/Great-Britain-Cycling-Team-Announced-for-the-UCI-Road-World-Championships