Nickyc707

The riding and laser run in the men's final have been delayed due to high winds. They are now scheduled for 5pm (GMT) and 7.15pm respectively.

That the ninth place finisher will get a quota if finishing behind Choong or Asadauskaite is the part that I'm certain of. It's the other element I'm uncertain of.

I should add that the reason that I'm uncertain whether excess quotas won at these championships will be reallocated is that in the last cycle if countries won more than two quotas they kept them and the selectors then chose which two athletes they sent to Rio. If that still applies then I guess you can only win a quota if you finish in the top eight or nine depending on the performances of Choong and Asadauskaite.

Choong and Asadauskaite have already qualified in the men's and women's events respectively so if they finish in the top eight the ninth placed athletes will win the quota. No country can take more than two athletes to the Olympics in each event, so any excess quotas will presumably go to lower placed athletes at these championships, although I am not certain of this.. Finally no athlete can win more than one quota for his country and the individual who wins the quote gets the place in Tokyo. Hope that makes sense.

Apart from Denmark the UK is also historically a strong European Badminton nation. The All England Championships were regarded as the de facto WC until the late 1970's. It also has a large grassroots social base in this country. Cricket isn't entirely absent from Europe, e.g. the UK, Ireland and to a lesser degree the Netherlands or the mainland Americas, e.g. Guyana. It's also played in many other countries, e.g. Argentina, Canada and the US. It may not be played at the top level but immigration from the Caribbean and in particular South Asia has actually led to a significant growth in the game at the grassroots level in the US.

I would say cricket is our national summer sport and football our national winter sport.

In which case why even bother to have a qualifying tournament? Why not just give Italy the spot at the Olympics. Surely its about the best current team qualifying whether its Italy or GB, not the best team from the past.

The quotas which have been listed for the women's individual 3m springboard should be allocated against the 10m platform event. Qualifying for the former event doesn't begin until tomorrow, while the latter took place yesterday.

Why? If it was a three, four or five day match it would stand as a tie. However, a knockout one day match has to have a winner so they introduced the super over to try and resolve ties. If it still level after the extra over there has to be a tie-breaker. Awarding it to the team who has scored the most boundaries (4s and 6s) is rewarding the team who has played the most positive, attacking cricket. Can you suggest a better way?

Apart from the fact that Froome's dad moved to Kenya long after it had gained independence so it's colonial past is of no real relevance in this case.

Apart from the proviso you have made about football, GB also have a strong record in hockey with more Olympic medals than any country apart from the Netherlands. They also have a good record in rugby/rugby sevens. You're right about the other Olympic team sports but then no country has a record of success in every one of the team sports given their different histories and backgrounds. P.S. One record that is unlikely to be broken is that GB is the only country to have won Olympic gold medals in both hockey and ice hockey.

As the IOC president pointed out at the 2012 Olympics the UK was the birthplace of modern sport with many of the sports either invented or codified in the country in the nineteenth century. Often the first international matches in many sports were between the home nations and they individually formed part of the inaugural international bodies, e.g. football. The presence of the home nations in Olympic team sports like football, hockey and rugby reflects that. From the perspective of other countries it actually benefits them as GB has to try and qualify with teams weakened by the absence of players from the home nations that haven't been nominated for this purpose. GB only get to put out a full strength team once they've actually qualified, although this had now changed with hockey as someone mentioned earlier in the thread.

Chris Froome's dad is from Gloucestershire in England, while his mother is also of British descent so yes he's fully qualified to compete for GB. As for Wiggins he was only born in Belgium because his dad was a pro cyclist and lived there to be close to his team. His English mum took him home to GB when she separated from his father a few years later and he's lived there almost his entire life.

Yes they will. Team GB will be able to select players from all four constituent parts of the UK if they wish. There will almost certainly be some Scottish players in the team.

The same situation applies in hockey and rugby sevens where one of the home nations is nominated to qualify on behalf of Great Britain who then select from all the home nations if successful.

I guess something that might slow the heart rate would perhaps help in rifle and pistol shooting. Not sure about the shotgun events though.

Retiring British Olympians so far in 2019. Kat Copeland (Rowing) Gold 2012 Sophie Bray (Hockey) Gold 2016 Dan Purvis (Artistic Gymnastics) Bronze 2012 Jazz Carlin (Swimming) 2 x Silver 2016 James DeGale (Boxing) Gold 2008 Callum Skinner (Track Cycling) Gold & Silver 2016 Jon Schofield (Canoe Sprint) Bronze 2012, Silver 2016 Anthony Ogogo (Boxing) Bronze 2012

I wasn't disputing the fairness of the result, merely the reason for the possible confusion about the outcome of the contest (see up thread).

In fairness the Chinese and British shooters both hit 30/30 clays and so the result was determined by bib number.

The difference between India and China is that the former is a democracy with other social and economic priorities, while the latter is a one party state which is able to direct it's resources in whatever direction it chooses in order to project itself in the world. According to China's own journal the Beijing Review the country has 85 million disabled people which is more than the entire populations of most of the world's nation states. This vast pool enables them to compete in almost every Paralympic class in each sport which other countries cannot do. China did very well. My only point is that it should not be surprising given the massive advantage they enjoy and it certainly isn't amazing as you described it.

That's a surprising stat! I know Italy haven't done so well recently but I would never have guessed that they had been in the relative doldrums that long. I've been wondering why the big European countries like France, Germany and Italy haven't been performing as strongly at the Paralympics as they do at the Olympics in recent cycles.

I don't think you should be too amazed! After all China's vast population means that they can find athletes to compete across many more classes than most other countries.

Big thanks to hckosice and Gianlu33 for keeping us up to date with all the results during the past ten days. Despite the worries beforehand these Games seem to have reached the Brazilian people in a way the Olympics didn't and it was wonderful to see the way they revelled in the performances of not only their own athletes but those of the other competing nations. It is only when you watch the Paralympics that you realise just how many remarkable people there are across the world fighting to overcome huge barriers in their lives and achieving things that even many able-bodied people can only dream of. From a national point of view a great games for GB with 147 medals and 64 gold medals. The best since 1988 - 183 medals and 65 golds - when the programme was 40% bigger! Always sad when a multi-event games ends not least because it invariably sees the retirement of great athletes who we'll never get to see in action again. But sport goes on and new heroes emerge. Anyway can't wait for the next one!

Dame Sarah Storey is GB's most successful ever female Paralympian with 14 gold medals in swimming and cycling. Afraid the Americans can't have her!

Big congratulations to Kadeena Cox who had already won medals in two different sports in Rio (athletics and cycling) but has now turned that into two gold medals in different sports at the same games.