dodge

Pretty exciting to see John Shortt in action in the 200m back stroke. he’s world junior champion (long course) and set a new world junior record in winning gold here (in a new championship record too) Our only other previous world junior champ won an Olympic medal (Mona McSharry) so fingers crossed now for John

Wiebes is on the way to becoming one of the greatest cyclists of all time. She beats all of these handily in the omnium format

Sprinter Benji Richardson is transferring from South Africa to Ireland. He’s Irish born apparently. I didn’t know

UAE is the de facto Italian team 80% of the staff is Italian. Nearly all the sporting directors are Italian. It’s a continuation of Lampre. They just have about 10-20 times their budget and pretend they’re from the UAE

Sarasota hosted the senior championships in 2017. They hosted the under 23 event in 2019 Not that long ago to be fair

Great surprise gold for Fiona Murtagh in the women’s single. Think she surprised Lauren Henry with a strong start and the GB rower left herself too much to do (just as the gap was only 0.03 in the end) Also Fintan McCarthy kept up his record of winning a gold medal at every global championships he’s entered by winning the mixed doubles. Ha

Good win for in men’s double sculls. in second Very encouraging bronze for who included lightweight champion Fintan McCarthy in his first year as a heavy weight. Olympic champions qualified by winning semi but finished 6th surprisingly

While I’m not suggesting the Kenyan federation is perfect, isn’t it simply a case that athletes who choose to move do so for obvious financial reasons and a guaranteed selection for the Olympics and world championships? It’s hard to see what the home free federations can do differently (without the money needed) Is, for example, the Turkish federation better run than, for example, the Jamaican one? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t but the Jamaicans moving recently have to be financially motivated IMO

I think most people have similar views to be honest. There are plenty of reasons for genuine transfers of nationality (lineage, residence etc). Sure, some of them only do it to increase their chances of getting to Olympics etc, but so be it. I remember the footballer Deco (born in Brazil, played in Portugal to start his career) saying that he felt playing for Portugal was the right thing to do as he “owed” his career to them. I found that interesting at a time I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it The fast track “purchase” of athletes doesn’t sit well though. Turkey and Bahrain being most egregious to me

28 with one 20 with gold The global sport

I celebrated that Samoa medal almost as hard as I did Kate O’Connor’s javelin throw yesterday (when I knew she’d win a medal…) Lovely stuff

Her PB is 2:10 so it’d need an amazing turnaround from KJT to get ahead of her. A simply amazing year for her after years of injury hell. Euro indoor bronze, world indoor silver, world university gold and now this. Our national broadcaster is showing the championships for the first time in decades so she’s on the way to superstardom (locally!!)

Didn’t one of the recent basketball tournaments have similar (gold match before bronze match)? TV reasons of course

It’s only the 8th gold for in the University Games 5 in Athletics, 2 in Swimming, 1 in Golf

Interesting team for Ireland with double Olympic lightweight Champion Fintan McCarthy in a heavyweight double now. His old partner Paul O’Donovan is taking a break The Olympic medal winning double has been split, with Doyle going in a quad and Lynch moving to the pair. Only one of our 2021 women’s four medalists remain with Fiona Murtagh now moving to the single. Ireland instead have entered a women’s quad for the first time

Yes. They won’t compete in the World Series and won’t attempt to qualify for LA Unless a serious rethink happens

For Ireland (men), it means no contracts, no support, no national team. The women’s team will continue

The issue will be qualification for countries outside the US. There might be a ton of Nigerian diaspora talent in the NFL but they’re not going to be playing in regional qualifiers With or without the NFL, gold was nailed on for the US so all this does is heighten the awareness/celeb factor. Likely the last time we see it at an Olympics too

The last 2 Giros have been awful to watch. Roglic too defensive in 2023, Pogacar too good in 2024. Hoping for some competitive action this year

I was joking. It would be a terrible idea

Gail Devers respectably disgagrees

The argument against it was that the existing body had a full programme from cadets to youths to underage while world boxing had not a single mention of any tournaments under the “elite” While I didn’t agree with the vote, I don’t think their worries were unfounded

Over the weekend Ireland voted to join World Boxing. I think the LA decisions made it an easy choice this time

China did too but they’re the biggest, and most surprising, capture for world boxing. Most will now follow that Olympic boxing is back on the cards

Good stuff Ogreman. I find the year after Olympics is nearly always a year in flux in boxing. It’s true for most sports but seems *extra* true for boxing.