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Final weekend of the season coming up, and both Championships to be decided in over the weekend. Medals already decided in the two U-23 Races today. Women's Race on Saturday - preview and probabilities World title in Beaugrand’s hands as women hit Torremolinos for championship decider • World Triathlon Men's Race on Sunday - preview and probabilities. Alex Yee ready to roll the dice in Torremolinos Championship Finals • World Triathlon

Always a big day - it's the naming of the fortunate individuals who going to be getting Olympic Funding for the next season. 2024/25 OLYMPIC WORLD CLASS PROGRAMME ATHLETES ANNOUNCED | British Athletics Here's the main winners and losers, shamelessly cut and pasted from a post in the Athletics Weekly Forums. Some of the names dropped are effectively retired anyway, or have already moved to other aspects of the sport like Eiliish McColgan with Road Racing. Others might be preparing appeals.... 19 were dropped from funding Dropped from Olympic Podium (1): Holly Bradshaw Dropped from Olympic Podium Potential (10): Elizabeth Bird, Tom Gale, Elliot Giles, Jake Heyward, Jessie Knight, Eilish McColgan, Lawrence Okoye, Charlotte Purdue, Daniel Rowden, Callum Wilkinson Dropped from Olympic Relays (2): Jodie Williams, Adam Gemili Dropped from Olympic Confirmation Level (Relays) (2): Alyson Bell, Aleeya Sibbons Dropped from Olympic Confirmation Level (4): Ellie Baker, Matthew Stonier, Lucy Hadaway, Samantha Harrison 17 were added to funding Added to Olympic Podium (2): Georgia Bell, Jacob Fincham-Dukes Added to Olympic Relays (7): Toby Harries, Desiree Henrry, Louie Hinchliffe, Amy Hunt, Hannah Kelly, Lina Nielsen, Sam Reardon Added to Olympic Confirmation Level (8): Alastair Chalmers, Phoebe Gill, Romell Glave, Megan Keith, Mahamed Mahamed, Jake Norris, Calli Haugher-Thackery, Revee Walcott-Nolan 5 were moved within tiers Max Burgin (from Olympic Confirmation Level to Olympic Podium) Charlie Dobson (from Olympic Relays to Olympic Podium Potential) Amber Anning (from Olympic Confirmation Level Relay to Olympic Podium) Emile Cairess (from Olympic Confirmation Level to Olympic Podium) Tade Ojora (from Olympic Confirmation Level to Olympic Podium Potential) 43 remained at their level Olympic Podium (16): Dina Asher-Smith, Keely Hodgkinson, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Josh Kerr, Laura Muir, Jemma Reekie, Jazmin Sawyers, Jake Wightman, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Daryll Neita, Cindy Sember, Morgan Lake, Molly Caudery, Katie Snowden, Zharnel Hughes, Ben Pattison Olympic Podium Potential (9): Naomi Metzger, Aimee Pratt, Marc Scott, Jade O’Dowda, Melissa Courtney-Bryant, Neil Gourley, George Mills, Anna Purchase, Jessica Warner-Judd Olympic Confirmation Level (2): Charlotte Payne, Joshua Zeller Olympic Confirmation Level Relay (1): Yemi Mary John Olympic Relays (15): Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, Laviai Nielsen, Asha Philip, Ama Pipi, Nicole Yeargin, Jona Efoloko, Victoria Ohuruogu, Jeremiah Azu, Eugene Amo-Dadzie, Joe Brier, Lewis Davey, Alex Haydock-Wilson, Bianca Williams, Rio Mitcham

Last day of the Round Robin today - here are the brackets to be filled for the weekend starting tomorrow. Doesn't look like any FTA coverage though. World Mixed Curling Championship 2024 - Play-offs Bracket (worldcurling.org)

The full season starts this weekend - it's the Big Air weekend. Practise already underway! Friday - Ski Big Air - qualifiers in the morning, finals at night. Saturday - Snowboard Big Air - qualifiers in the morning, finals at night. It's not all good though - Swiss DJs are threatening to play.

Incredible true story out of ! Seeing is be-leaf-ing! Man single-handedly plants 40,000 trees on derelict city-centre land and turns it into an urban forest that's home to 45 species of bird Seeing is be-leaf-ing! Man single-handedly plants 40,000 trees on derelict city-centre land and turns it into an urban forest that's home to 45 species of bird | Daily Mail Online

Up until clicking on the link I thought these champs were being held in BallerAT . Luckily I didn't book a flight.

Moguls and Aerials World Cup Calendar confirmed. Plenty of AirMiles to be earned. FIS | The 2024/25 FIS Freestyle World Cup – Moguls & Aerials calendar announcement (fis-ski.com)

In the domain of "Amazing true facts I have only just found out".....ice hockey was completely unknown in the until December 1946, when the first National League was created! And yet by 1954 they were World Champions.

Aaaaaaand - we have no wind. Just like the Olympics.

got a bit of work to do, currently 0-15 down to after 4 ends.

TV coverage will be PPV on Curling TV. Nothing on Discovery. However last year semis & finals of all the important events went out FTA on the Olympic Channel at the weekend & usually BBC Scotland also has some coverage of this level of event.

BBC currently predicting wind speeds of 10 times the speed of sound for Edinburgh. But we are used to changeable conditions here, so best keep pets indoors. https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2650225

More World Cup triathlon tomorrow - this time from Rome. https://www.youtube.com/@worldtriathlon

The good news for Iranian worshippers is that sermons will be a lot shorter over the next few weeks. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13924269/Irans-supreme-leader-Ali-Khamenei-holds-rifle-sermon-rants-Israel-not-long-hails-October-7-massacre.html?ico=comment-anchor#comments

Two big wins today for young British cyclists. 20-year old Max Poole won the big mountain stage in the Tour of Langkawi. Might put him in with a chance of the overall, but lots of sprint stages to come. 18 year old Cat Ferguson - after double gold in the World Juniors last week - got her biggest and most prestigious win in the Belgian cobbled climb at Binche-Chimay-Binche. Both on Discovery Plus if you want to catch up.

Maybe can put in a transfer bid?

.......oooh wait a while......gap is coming down.

There we go, 50km left & Pogačar is on his own.

Well, you got it!

And they've let all the big names get back on..... Hoping all this rain is falling as snow in the mountains btw.

Berlin Marathon this weekend - always the focus of record attempts. Sadly no pan-European coverage - in it's on a pay streaming service. https://www.bmw-berlin-marathon.com/en/

Am boycotting all George RR Martin productions until he finishes what he started.

Hey, we have cross country skiing on snow this weekend! It is the German Indoor Championships, using what looks to be some top-secret James Bond villain's lair in the former , filled with artificial or preserved snow. Langlauf - xc-ski.de - YouTube

I watched the first series, will catch up when it's finished. I'm not that huge Tolkein purist, so did like S1.

Very bad news from the Junior Women's today. I noticed also there was an Italian from the first chasing group who fell about 100m from the line and was not getting up. Swiss cyclist Muriel Furrer is in a "very critical" condition after suffering a serious head injury at the Road and Para-cycling World Championships. The 18-year-old crashed during the junior road race - authorities say they are "extremely concerned" about her condition. Road Worlds: Swiss cyclist Muriel Furrer 'very critical' after crash - BBC Sport