dodge

Maybe they wanted him in the programme so they can give him the good stuff

Indeed. It was a tough standard but 11 got it while she’s talking about being denied a medal by the rules

Sean Kelly, who won the Vuelta, dozens of Grand Tour stages, multiple monuments and was world number one for years still says his day in Yellow is one of the highlights of his career

It’s usually in the last day or so before the boxing starts. They have to make weight

boxers defo there. A few of them posted videos on Instagram, delighted as they flew first class

Confirmation for Men's Rory McIlroy Shane Lowey Women's Leona Maguire Stephanie Meadow

Watching the cycling here on Eurosport (UK) (in the background for now) and they just had a pretty long ad "watch every unmissable moment at the Olympics only on Discovery Plus" Didn't see the small print but I think it's bad news for those of you with the Eurosport player in the UK

It's very odd. Kurt Walker for Ireland has been announced by the team (and is already in Tokyo)

Dylan van Barle is the latest Ineos leader

But there is no international Northern Ireland athletics team (save for the commonwealth games, which is clearly a unique event) - that was my only point. Individuals can choose GBR or IRL. In athletics, the majority choose to represent IRL (for a variety of reasons, including it being easier to get into international squads) If you look at the bottom of the NIA web page you'll see both British Athletics and Athletics Ireland linked. For obvious political reasons, the "Northern Ireland and Ulster" championships are deliberately named. The last story posted is about athletes selected for the IRL under 23 team https://athleticsni.org/ Again, it's a complex issue and thankfully in Athletics, the athletes can choose to represent either as they wish

This is an incredible simplistic post on a very complex issue By law, and as voted by referendum in Northern Ireland with the Good Friday agreement, people born in Northern Ireland are entitled to citizenship of both countries All sports bar football are played on all-island basis. Hockey and rugby in Northern Ireland are predominantly played by people who would call themselves British and the national associations there use a compromise flag and anthem to appease them (not in a patronising way, they actively wanted to encourage inclusion). Hockey is an interesting case as Ireland could not even enter Olympic qualifying until 1992 as the Ulster branch of Hockey Ireland objected to it as they wished to align themselves with GB for Olympic purposes (with several winning gold in 1988). This doesn’t apply at the Olympics. Obviously for individuals it is easier for them to choose federations As there is no physical border, the nearest club/training facility for athletes living near the border may be on the other side of that borderline. Your line about it being known but not publicised is odd because thousands do it for work reasons and no one cares. As mentioned above Rhys McClenaghan won gold in gymnastics at the commonwealth games and he lives and trains in Dublin at the Irish national sports centre (and lives in Bangor, NI when not training). To summarise, people born in Northern Ireland are free to choose British or Irish citizenship and individual athletes from NI are free to represent GBR or IRL in international competition Many others will have family ties in either country (particularly as Ireland has a long history of emigration to GB) and athletes born in either country but with parents or grandparents from the other can represent them The wider issue of why someone from NI would choose to represent one over the other is a different, more complex issue and one that I’m afraid you’ll have to research yourself

We’ll they’ve already mistakenly invited two relay teams so they’re on form already this year

The only doubt is whether it’ll be the Eurosport player or the Discovery Plus app

Delighted for him. Lovely to see him break it in Oslo

This is correct. Wind assisted times don’t count for achieving the qualifying standards (similarly to the way they don’t count for world records) Wind assisted times do count towards the rankings but points are deducted for the wind For example Phil Healy of Ireland should have earned 1153 points for her 22.83 but she got 1140 as the wind was 2.2

Haven’t a clue. Neither relay team mentioned in the swim Ireland press release They haven’t mentioned the divers yet either Presumably they’re reticent to announce anything now

Athletics Ireland have nominated Leon Reid too. That needs to be confirmed too Then we're just waiting on relay teams, the rugby team and the shooter to be named Oh and any last minute miracle reallocations

I really think the lack of a discard score is going to heavily influence the showjumping and eventing team medals

Would it surprise anyone for Warholm to break the world record in his first 400m hurdles race of the year?

Don't know why they haven't announced the European boxing ranks. Kurt Walker has know for months and arrived in Tokyo today with the rest of the Irish boxing team

Unfortunately except for the 100m, the universal places counted against the limits in all other events So in men’s 800m there’s 44 qualified by time, 4 by univseral and none left for the rankings

I still think they’ll bring 4 for the relay with Healy additional. We’ll find out soon though

I think this is the key. The rankings only came into play this year because of a very specific issue if the qualifying events went ahead, this doesn’t arise at all

They steal them from airplanes

Rankings updated. add 11 quotas Though one may not be selected