Nickyc707

A great clutch dive by the Mexican pair to snatch the qualification spot from the Russians by 0.3 pts with the last effort of the competition.

Russia was already qualified.

Lack of competition over the past twelve months really seems to have hurt the divers. Even the Chinese are far from their best.

By that logic why keep the second and third fastest strokes either? Breastroke is a stroke that most members of the public use and can relate to. By contrast who in their right mind would use the butterfly stroke outside of a swimming competition? Personally I'm not an advocate of removing any of the four strokes but if one has to go it should be the least natural.

The most successful nations at international level are Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, GB and Ireland. Canada, Malaysia and Zimbabwe have also had a lot of success at the Comminwealth Games. At world championship level countries like Israel and the US have medalled. Like Rugby Sevens it's also a popular sport in many of the Pacific Islands. I don't know how widely it's played in Europe but countries like the Czech Rep, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden are members of World Bowls.

A cheap substitute for having to endure the sight of yet more French failure!! ?

How can you have a trend based on one event however stupid? GB actually have a good record of turning up for events even in the face of terrorism. Australia not so much.

Wow. Not just a UK record of 1:43.63 but the second fastest indoor 800m in history. Only Wilson Kipketer has run faster.

I believe GB Snowsports is working with F1 outfit McLaren to improve their performances across all the Olympic and Paralympic snow disciplines. Engineer Tom Stallard - a former Olympic rower - has been working on things like aerodynamics, waxing and bindings. It maybe that this is beginning to show fruit.

Resting after watching six hours of test cricket from India this morning.

Which is why trying to build on the European Championships concept makes more sense. The truth is we don't need a European Games but the powers that be wanted to bring Europe into line with the other continents. The individual sport's European championships are very competitive and successful in their own rights so why would the governing bodies want to relegate them to the European Games?

Since my last post I've found a minute from a FISA meeting in February 2019 confirming that the organisers have requested that they consider the possibility of using the Long Beach marina despite the inadequate length. No decision on the final venue seems to have been made so you may still get your wish! "Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games – The Council was presented with a proposal to study an alternative venue for the LA2028 Olympic Games. The bid proposal was to stage this regatta at Lake Perris, a reservoir on the east of Los Angeles which would require a satellite Olympic Village. LA2028 proposed that an existing venue in Long Beach, California be considered. The Long Beach Marine Stadium was the Rowing venue for the 1932 Olympic Games and would allow the athletes to stay in the main Olympic Village at UCLA. The Council agreed to proceed with more detailed studies on the tide impacts on fairness and the possible reduction of the race distance."

The one problem they had at Lake Casitas,I think from memory, was early morning mists. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case at Lake Perris.

Do we really need the European Games? Would a better option not be to build on the European Championships which took place in Berlin and Glasgow in 2018?

They've hosted two previous Olympic rowing regattas so it shouldn't be insurmountable. Could they not use Lake Casitas again as they did in 1984? In 1932 they held the regatta at the Long Beach marina.

Deaths of Olympians in January. Pablo Hernandez, 80 - Cycling Harald Maartmann, 94 - Cross-country skiing Naohiro Ikeda, 80 - Volleyball (1×G, 1×S) Andras Haan, 74 - Basketball & Sailing Nghlhav Mehtabs Singh, 72 - Boxing William Windham, 94 - Rowing Mikhail Zhelev, 77 - Athletics John Land, 82 - Hockey Elanga Buala, 56 - Athletics Vladimir Kiselyov, 64 - Athletics (1×G) Jose Mendez, 83 - Rowing Bill Nankeville, 95 - Athletics Mehdi Attar-Ashrafi, 72 - Weightlifting Bruno Ghedina, 77 - Ice Hockey Kathleen Heddle, 55 - Rowing (3×G, 1×B) David Khakhaleishvili, 49 - Wrestling (1×G) Paul Kolliker, 88 - Rowing Wim de Graaff, 89 - Speed skating Alvarez Mejia, 80 - Athletics Bernd Kannenberg, 78 - Athletics (1×G) Nelson Nieves, 86 - Fencing Cliff Burvill, 83 - Cycling Jose Luis Caballero, 65 - Football Simon Crosse, 90 - Rowing Leonidas Pelekanakis, 58 - Sailing Melanio Asensio, 84 - Athletics Muriel Grossfeld, 80 - Gymnastics Carlos Burga, 68 - Boxing Thorsten Johansson, 70 - Athletics Louis Giani, 86 - Wrestling Danial Jahic, 41 - Athletics Giovanni Zucchi, 89 - Rowing (1×B) Jerry Kiernan, 67 - Athletics Anthony Mwamba, 60 - Boxing Ricardo Durao, 92 - Modern Pentathlon Gianfranco Lombardi, 79 - Basketball Raimo Suikkanen, 78 - Cycling Marius van Heerden, 46 - Athletics Sylvanus Blackman, 87 - Weightlifting Abukari Gariba, 81 - Football Harry Perry, 86 - Boxing Nikolay Chebotko, 38 - Cross-country skiing Jaoid Chiguer, 35 - Boxing Margitta Gummel, 79 - Athletics (1×G, 1×S) Gert Blome, 86 - Ice Hockey (1×S) Flavio Alfaro, 59 - Baseball Rafael Heredia, 84 - Basketball Jozsef Csatari, 77 - Wrestling (2×B) Alejandro Gomez, 53 - Athletics I think I'm not taking too much of a gamble by suggesting that Andras Haan of Hungary is the only athlete to compete in both sailing and basketball at the Olympics. A late reported death. Bunki Bankaitis-Davis, 63 - Cycling

Why? Presumably things like wind and rain potentially impact on the shot outdoors so throws made indoors and outdoors cannot legitimately be compared.

Deaths of Olympians in December. Maria Itkina, 88 - Athletics Arnie Robinson, 72 - Athletics (1×G, 1×B) Sol Tochinsky, 91 - Basketball Karim Salman, 55 - Football Alfred Kucharczyk, 83 - Gymnastics Karin Lindberg, 91 - Gymnastics (1×G, 1×S) Mohamed Abarhoun, 31 - Football Rafer Johnson, 86 - Athletics (1×G, 1×S) Bill Spencer, 84 - Biathlon Huba Rozsnyai, 77 - Athletics Kinuko Tanida, 81 - Volleyball (1×G) Henryk Kukier, 90 - Boxing Wojciech Zablocki, 89 - Fencing (2×S, 1×B) Dejan Dabovic, 76 - Water polo (1×G) Laszlo Kuncz, 63 - Water polo (1×B) Neil Robbins, 91 - Athletics Clem Eischen, 93 - Athletics Malcolm Simpson, 87 - Cycling Ildegarda Taffra, 86 - Cross-country skiing Aslanbek Fidarov, 47 - Wrestling Osvaldo Cochrane Filho, 87 - Water polo Andrzej Showronski, 67 - Rowing Jimmy McLane, 90 - Swimming (3×G, 1×S) Barry Sonshine, 72 - Equestrian Sepp Vaino, 83 - Ice hockey Paul Nihill, 81 - Athletics (1×S) Namat Abdullah, 74 - Football Pelle Svensson, 77 - Wrestling (1×S) Charlie Brooker, 88 - Ice hockey (1×S) Marta Norberg, 98 - Cross-country skiing Maria Piatkowska, 89 - Athletics Alberto Valdes Jnr, 70 - Equestrian (1×B) Hamish McLachlan, 53 - Rowing Arkady Andreasyan, 73 - Football (1×B) Ivan Bogdan, 82 - Wrestling (1×G) Danny Hodge, 88 - Wrestling (1×S) K C Jones, 88 - Basketball (1×G) Maria Gasienica Bukowa-Kowalska, 84 - Cross-country skiing Marian Jochman, 85 - Athletics Csaba Ali, 74 - Swimming Nikhil Nandy, 88 - Football Jos Compaan, 62 - Rowing Michael Lindo, 73 - Hockey (1×B)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/55204070 Not an Olympian but legendary golf commentator Peter Alliss has died. At 89 he was still the BBC's chief commentator and last worked at November's US Masters. He was also a successful player on the European tour with numerous Ryder Cup appearances.

Came across this colour film of highlights from the 1948 men's road race. There is a brief bit of tandem track cycling first. Watch out for a fight between two of the riders during the race. Also interesting to see the riders repairing their own tyres during the race when not in the vicinity of the team pits.

Deaths of Olympians in November. Don McDermott, 90 - Speed skating (1×S) Yalcin Granit, 88 - Basketball Matti Laakso, 79 - Wrestling Anne Covell, 70 - Athletics Taymi Chappe, 52 - Fencing Gennady Bukharin, 91 - Canoe sprint (2×B) Abdul Rashid, 73 - Hockey (1×G, 1×S, 1×B) Leonid Osipov, 77 - Water Polo (1×G, 1×S, 1×B) Barbara McAuley, 91 - Diving Sakari Paasonen, 85 - Shooting June Foulds, 86 - Athletics (1×S, 1×B) Willie Smith, 64 - Athletics (1×G) Heidar Shonjani, 74 - Swimming & Water polo Mohammed Bakar, 75 - Football Shkelqim Troplini, 54 - Wrestling John Kinsela, 70 - Wrestling Virginia Bonci, 71 - Athletics Fernando Atzori, 78 - Boxing (1×G) Amir Yavari, 88 - Boxing Gunther Pfaff, 81 - Canoe sprint (1×B) Giuliana Minuzzo, 88 - Alpine skiing (2×B) Jorge Llopart, 68 - Athletics (1×S) Boris Gurevich, 83 - Wrestling (1×G) Attila Horvath, 53 - Athletics Peter Florjancic, 101 - Ski jumping Osmo Ala-Honkola, 81 - Shooting Egidio Cosentino, 93 - Hockey Jagmohan Singh, 88 - Athletics Walt Davis, 89 - Athletics (1×G) Eitaro Okano, 90 - Athletics Anneliese Schuh-Proxauf, 98 - Alpine skiing Resit Karabacak, 66 - Wrestling Helen Morgan, 54 - Hockey (1×B) Hannu Lahtinen, 60 - Wrestling Jacques Deprez, 82 - Athletics Ernesto Canto, 61 - Athletics (1×G) Jens Sorensen, 79 - Cycling Billy Evans, 88 - Basketball (1×G) Doris de Agostini, 62 - Alpine skiing Anwar Aziz Chaudhry, 89 - Swimming Jozef Rysula, 81 - Cross-country skiing Mohammad Khadem, 85 - Wrestling Peter Lichtner-Hoyer, 93 - Equestrian & Modern pentathlon Yasil Yakusha, 62 - Rowing (1×S, 1×B) Vladimir Ivanov, 65 - Athletics Sir James Wolfensohn, 86 - Fencing Paul Nyman, 91 - Cycling Dimitar Largov, 84 - Football Kevin Burnham, 63 - Sailing (1×G, 1×B) Clifton Bertrand, 84 - Athletics Tan Eng Bock, 84 - Water polo

Deaths of Olympians in October. Tony Blue, 84 - Athletics Maurice Houdayer, 89 - Rowing Manuel Guerra, 92 - Swimming Charles Moore, 91 - Athletics (1×G, 1×S) Choi Yun-chil, 92 - Athletics Pat Hooper, 68 - Athletics Fernando Lopes, 55 - Swimming Stelio Craveirinha, 70 - Athletics Edward Nabunone, 52 - Athletics Armando Herrera, 84 - Basketball Mauricio Mata, 81 - Cycling Danil Khalimov, 42 - Wrestling Sonja Edstrom, 89 - Cross-country skiing (1×G, 2×S) Joaquin Pardo, 74 - Football Laszlo Branikovits, 70 - Football (1×S) Lucien De Brauwere, 69 - Cycling Aurora Chamorro, 66 - Swimming David Kushnir, 89 - Athletics Tomas Herrera Martinez, 69 - Basketball (1×B) David Cunningham, 92 - Ice Hockey Tor Torgerson, 92 - Athletics Krisztian Vereb, 43 - Canoe Sprint (1×B) Ernesto Contreras, 83 - Cycling Juan Rafael Torruella, 87 - Sailing Glenn Florio, 53 - Rowing Richard Adjel, 37 - Bobsleigh (1×S) Ryszard Witke, 80 - Ski jumping Stanislaw Gazda, 82 - Cycling Slaven Zambata, 80 - Football Roger Closset, 87 - Fencing (1×S) Zarko Knezevic, 73 - Basketball

The qualification period doesn't recommence until 1st December, so the answer to your last question is no. Next year's London marathon will count towards qualification though.

Deaths of Olympians in September. Terje Steen, 76 - Ice Hockey Sheila Ingram, 63 - Athletics (1×S) Nada Birko, 89 - Cross-country Skiing William Yorzyk, 87 - Swimming (1×G) Frantisek Vanek, 88 - Ice Hockey Felix Suarez Colomo, 69 - Cycling Karel Knesl, 78 - Football (1×S) Zelmar Casco, 94 - Fencing Orlando Bauzon, 75 - Basketball Dickson Wamwiri, 35 - Taekwondo Sergey Belyayev, 60 - Shooting (2×S) Alan Minter, 69 - Boxing (1×B) Srecko Stiglic, 77 - Athletics Laszlo Galos, 87 - Volleyball Azmi Mohamed Megahed, 70 - Volleyball John Ferris, 71 - Swimming (2×B) Andrzej Stalmach, 78 - Athletics Karoly Fater, 80 - Football (1×G) Sune Wehlin, 97 - Modern Pentathlon Amos Lin, 87 - Basketball Steve Smith, 68 - Athletics Zlatko Portner, 58 - Handball (1×B) Janos Dalmati, 78 - Athletics John Russell, 100 - Equestrian (1×B)

Pretty meaningless though given how rarely 300m hurdles is run and even more so this year.