Nickyc707

If don't believe that first sentence for one moment. It defies all rationality and all the evidence of the last Olympic cycle. Even with much stronger squads in 2012 and 2016 they were always reluctant to predict that degree of success and rightly so.

After today's racing in the sailing. Men RS:X 6th after 12/12 races Laser 12th after 8/10 Finn 1st after 6/10 470 2nd after 4/10 49er 1st after 6/12 Women RS:X 2nd after 12/12 Laser R. 10th after 8/10 470 2nd after 4/10 49erFX 1st after 6/12 Mixed Nacra 2nd after 6/12 Medal races not included in race totals. Still a long way to go but currently in either first or second place in seven classes. Giles Scott after two 9th place finishes has had four straight wins. Could still be a sixth gold medal in a row in the Finn class.

Yes, lots. We're continuing to do well in most of the sailing classes. Our boxers continue to win. As mentioned above Howard-Colley has qualified for the men's trap final. Both Kye Whyte and Beth Shriever comfortably qualified for the semi-finals of the BMX racing. The men's hockey team guaranteed their spot in the quarter-finals by achieving a comeback draw against the Netherlands after their prospects had been threatened by South Africa's shock win over Germany. The women's rugby 7s team came from behind to beat the ROC with the last play of the game. Paul Casey is well placed in the golf tournament after an opening round of 67 and Tommy Fleetwood was also going well when play was interrupted by the weather. Shall I go on?

Emma WIlson is guaranteed a medal in the women's windsurfing. Going into the medal race the top three are so far ahead only they can win the medals. China - 30 pts GB - 34 pts France - 36 pts Double pts are awarded in the medal race. Matt Coward-Holley will be shooting for a medal in the final of the men's trap shortly.

I suggest we leave judgement on rowing until the competition is over. We still may end up with only one fewer medal than last time and even that might have been avoided but for the steering of the men's four. Add in a number of fourth places and the outcomes might be seen as not unreasonable given that more than eighty percent of the rowing squad were making their Olympic debuts. Having said that I'd like to know what went wrong with the coaching and crew of the women's eight over the past few months.

Sailing latest Men RS:X 5th 9/12 races Laser 8th 6/10 Finn 4th 4/10 470 4th 2/10 49er 1st 4/12 Women RS:X 1st 9/12 Laser Radial 12th 6/10 470 3rd 3/10 49erFX 1st 6/12 Mixed Nacra 4th 3/12 I haven't included the medal race in the race totals. Early stages in some classes but seven out of ten "boats" are currently occupying top four places and another is in 5th. All have a chance of making the medal races. PS Another sport where we could improve on Rio's medal total.

Looking like you could be right. Think it's going to come down to three from Duffy, Zaferes, Learmonth and Taylor-Brown assuming the former has got over all her injury problems.

True, although most of these guys are not specialist cyclists. Still they race in plenty of countries where they encounter wet conditions so for most of them it shouldn't be too big an issue. The American Rappaport seems to be one of the exceptions to that.

The BBC commentator makes the point Spirig prefers to lead so it may not be a problem for her. Really can't see the medallists coming from anyone but the six leaders though.

Reminds me of some of the World Cup races in Stockholm.

They seem to be using three people. Ed Leigh and Tim Warwood who normally commentate on freestyle skiing and snowboard. In addition they have Mark Churchill who I think is their skateboard expert.

Still better than one of the Chinese pairs! They had never beaten the pair they overcame today before so who knows. The commentators have suggested the slow conditions in the badminton venue actually favour the tactics the GB pair like to employ and hinder most of their opponents who play a different style of game so it could be an interesting contest.

It would be far from a shock if both Scott and Tom Dean medal. I would add a few names to your list. If Kathleen Dawson's turn was as good as her opponents I would be confident of her medalling. As it is she still has a chance. In canoe slalom Kimberley Woods is capable of medalling. And finally over the next 2-3 days we have a chance of winning our first ever medals in weightlifting. Both Zoe Smith and Sarah Davies are competing on Tuesday and Davies at least has a genuine hope of a medal.

Kudos to Ellis & Smith who beat the number three seeds to top their group in the badminton mixed doubles. This should give them an easier draw in the quarter finals and the possibility of sneaking a medal.

The BBC uses the same commentator for both sports which seems to support your argument.

And the USA lost at basketball yesterday. For what it's worth it's a myth that China wins all the gold medals in diving. Today was the ninth time since 2000 that they missed out on gold.

Where are all the doom sayers today? Three gold medals so far and Lauren Williams is going for another in the final of her taekwondo category this afternoon. Just to note that Emma Wilson is also challenging strongly for gold in the windsurfing which is one of the sailing classes which has started. After six of the 12 races she's tied on pts at the top of the fleet with the French sailor

Two days earlier than London.

First Austrian gold medal in cycling since 1896 as I'm sure Grassmarket will remember vividly. Of course that was a 12 hour race rather than a four hour sprint like today's road race.

There is a lot of nonsense being spoken about how GB is doing so far. How many likely medals have we actually missed? Jade Jones has been mentioned but she was up against an opponent who she has had problems against in the past and who won a bronze medal in Rio when competing for Iran. Basically she hasn't able to compete in international competition for three years while her refugee status is being sorted out or she would almost certainly have been seeded here. Jones's defeat was a disappointment but can't be considered a shattering shock given the quality of her opponent. Peter McGrail has also been mentioned. Again he was unlucky to draw another tough opponent. It was his loss in the resumed qualifying tournament that cost him as he would almost certainly have been one of the four seeded boxers otherwise. He was an example of an athlete who was hurt by the delayed Olympics. Others like judo's Chelsie Giles benefited from it. In terms of sports it was obvious that rowing was going to be weaker following retirements after 2016. 33 out of 41 rowing squad members are making their olympic debuts. I still believe 2-3 medals are possible starting with the men's four. The eight haven't suddenly become bad rowers overnight and will I think turn it round. The women's lightweight double sculls and maybe the pair and men's quad may also still challenge for medals. In taekwondo we only had five competitors to begin with and despite Jones's loss we could still match the three medals we won last time with Walkden still to come and both Williams and Cho capable of medalling on their day. In swimming some are suggesting that we are not doing as well as we did at the Europeans which is not surprising given that this is a global event. We have plenty of medal chances to come from Peaty, Scott (×2), Dean, Proud, Renshaw, Dawson and maybe Wood, Guy, Wilby and Greenbank. Add the men's 4x200 free, 4x100 medley and mixed medley and we still have strong reasons to believe that we can surpass the six medals we won in Rio. Overall we are going to do worse than we did in London and Rio but the period after hosting a games is always difficult as top athletes retire or in some cases go on too long. Rowing, gymnastics and cycling are all going to do less well, partly for this reason but also because other countries have seen what we have done and upped their games. Added to which many of the coaches who contributed to that success have now gone on to work for other countries. There will be some compensation from swimming and maybe boxing but all in all I'm expecting a medal haul of around 50 which I think will be surpassed only by the USA, China, Russia and Japan with their vastly greater resources. Instead of hand wringing after just two days of competition wait until we see how the Games pan out as a whole before casting judgement. There have already been plenty of shocks as some of us were predicting after the disruptions of the past two years and there will be more to come.

Andy Murray & Joe Salisbury knockout the No.2 seeds Herbert & Mahut 6-3, 6-2 in the men's doubles

5 3 6 0 Q-Fs v v v v

6 2 6 0

6 2 5 4

Mixed Team 5 3 5 3