Grassmarket

Weather getting worse, high winds & snow. Paris St Germain takes the lead!

Brignone DNF....

Vlhova beats her! 0.15.

Shiffrin first out of the gate - takes the early lead!

What happened to the Anna Fernstädtová who competed for last year? Didn’t make the team this time?

Now this is funny.....Well, to everyone in the world except one person. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8970109/Parking-fail-Porsche-hits-SUV-driveway-careers-wall-lands-car.html

Just Eurosport as usual.

Good luck to them: my 88 year old mother survived after five weeks in hospital & is now very much back to normal.

Both the men’s & women’s winners of last month’s Sofia Marathon done for doping. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-athletics-doping/sofia-marathon-winners-khapilina-sbaai-provisionally-suspended-by-aiu-idUKKBN27X28D

YouTube schedules posted for Friday - Winter is Coming!

Adam Peaty broke the ShortCourse Breaststroke 100m WR in Budapest today. He’s usually not as good in the 25m pool as in the 50m. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/swimming/54951688

Track sprinters are an expensive luxury, they don’t usually double up on the road. Distance riders always do road as well, but track races are very tactical & difficult to learn.

That’s football for you. Any game between two evenly-matched teams can be great.

Lack of goals has got to be worrying the Team Manager, though. Maybe time to give the younger strikers a try?

Two good races, recommend you watch the stream which is up for four weeks. Aside from , national teams from on show.

Cheers, think that must have been what it was. Can pick up from the beginning.

Some live cross-country from the USA this afternoon. https://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=14147&do=videos&video_id=300686

Geo-blocked!

It’s the spectators I feel sorry for.

Guess what? They’re all perfect! Best ever, in fact!

The ruler of Turkmenistan has unveiled a 50ft golden statue of his favourite dog breed in the country's capital. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8941969/Turkmenistans-ruler-unveils-50ft-golden-statue-favourite-dog.html#comments Still got a way to go in the “Madder than a Roman Emperor” stakes, though.

The problem is that this week is exceptional because there are so few competitors. Theoretically the 6th-qualified team racing the 1st-qualified team might be able to beat them....but realistically it’s not going to happen even in a hundred attempts. So essentially what you are seeing is not a semi-final but two ranking races Time trials in which 1st & 2nd qualifiers race against each other to determine starting position. Otherwise the races in round 2 & round 3 would be the same match-ups 99% of the time.

Now this is funny. The Trump campaign is posting obituaries of some of the people who rose from the grave & voted last week. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/media/victims-of-voter-fraud-initial-announcement-of-deceased-georgians-used-to-vote-in-2020-general-election/ Naturally they start in Georgia, where The Walking Dead is filmed.

Don’t see many billionaires buying mansions in North Korea though. Doubt their stats are true - there’s lots of people moving between there & China.

I think all tracks built in the last 20 years are circa 250m - it’s mostly old outdoor tracks that are bigger. Moscow is the only big track that gets regular international comps. Bit of a shame to see the medallists having to pick their medals & teddies off the podium!