Dragon

What if you come from Tahiti? Is that Western Europe because it's part of France or very,very,very,very Eastern Europe because of where it really is?

Trofeo Princesa Sofia best results 470 19th place Wrigley / Harris 49er 7th place Peters / Sterritt 49 FX 13th place Black/Tidey Formula Kite Men SILVER Conor Bainbridge Formula Kite women SILVER Ellie Aldridge Laser Radial 11th place Hannah Snellgrove Laser GOLD Micheal Bennett IQ men GOLD Samuel Stills IQ women GOLD Emma Wilson Nacra 17 GOLD Gimson and Burnet

Frankie Lucas (boxing) https://www.stvincenttimes.com/vincentian-frankie-lucas-first-commonwealth-gold-medalist-has-died/ and some background https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/boxing-sad-downfall-of-a-former-champion-186277.html

"At least they're paying me more to do this job than Scotland did"

Micheal Johnson's ultimate schedule. 100m 120m 150m 200m 210m 220m 250m 300m 350m 400m And anything that doesn't have big Europeans or Kenyans winning more gold than Americans....

ANGRY WALKER ALERT

Let me stick my neck out and say China for gold...

I asked and got an answer. "World Athletics have not revealed the qualifying standards yet, but I would be very surprised if more than one team per country is allowed as they will want as many nations as possible represented."

"A marathon race walk featuring 25 teams, each comprising one male and one female athlete, who will complete the marathon distance of 26.2 miles in four legs of approximately equal distance, will make its debut at next year's Olympic Games in Paris, it was announced today. Each athlete will complete two legs of just over 10 kilometres each, alternating male, female, male, female, World Athletics announced."

"The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has banned Camilo Santiago of Spain and Ivan Zarco Alvarez of Honduras for six months each – from 9 February 2023 to 8 August 2023 – for violating the World Athletics’ Integrity Code of Conduct (the Code) and the World Athletics’ Manipulation of Sports Competitions Rules (MSC Rules) relating to a well-publicised incident at the 2021 Itelligence Citylauf Invitational Marathon in Dresden, Germany on 21 March 2021. The day after the event, the Spanish running website, Soy Corredor, published an online article stating that Santiago competed in the marathon wearing Zarco’s bib. On 23 March 2021, Santiago tweeted an apology, noting he had no malicious intent and that Zarco suggested he (Santiago) use his (Zarco’s) bib to run the marathon as Zarco was suffering from plantar fasciitis. That same day, Zarco contacted World Athletics requesting the marathon result be attributed to Santiago. Santiago and Zarco told the AIU investigation that Santiago’s bag (containing his bib number) went missing just before the race and they explained to the race organisers that Santiago would run in Zarco’s bib. Meanwhile, marathon organisers said: “No official would have indicated that an athlete could swap race numbers…and there were race-number printing facilities at the starting point of the marathon.” In presenting its case, the AIU highlighted the following: “Mr Zarco’s and Mr Santiago’s accounts of events were directly inconsistent with other evidence and did not demonstrate an honest attempt to correct the Marathon results, particularly in circumstances where Mr Zarco must have known that the result in question would have been a Honduran national record…The fact that Mr Zarco and Mr Santiago swapped bibs at all and were caught out in a public forum demonstrates that their conduct was unreasonable and it brought the sport into disrepute…The bib swap was an intentional arrangement for the purpose of altering Mr Zarco’s Marathon results.” Both athletes signed admission and acceptance forms stating they breached the following Integrity Standards in the Code: Honesty (Rule 3.3.1), Maintain Integrity of Competition (Rule 3.3.4), Failure to Report (Rule 3.3.15), and Failure to Protect Reputation (Rule 3.3.17)."

I think Turkey won 1 game of 9 at last year's mixed doubles World Championships too?

Part 6 Team Sports Curling Men European champions, world champions by beating Canada in Canada, regular challengers for major Canadian title. Pretty much the perfect season for Bruce Mouat Women Winter started with the retirement of Muirhead to be the next Clare Balding on TV. Poor performances in the Worlds but a European bronze medal was won by Rebecca Morrison's Scottish team. Also a world junior gold for Scotland Mixed Doubles Solid performance in the group stage at the World Champs but Scotland were defeated at the quarter-final stage Ice Hockey Men Pretty much perfect. Won all games and instantly promoted back to Pool A. Suggesting a slight possibility of Olympic qualification (if Russia and Belarus are still banned) Women Lost 4 out of 5 in Pool B but were competitive in each game.

Part 5 Skating Figure Skating If you’re under 50 years old then the phrase “once upon a time Britain used to regularly win medals at this” may seem like a fairy tale to you. This year a British couple won a European silver medal and got close to a World Championship medal too. Let’s not kid ourselves this would have happened if Russia had not been banned but the ice dance partnership of Fear and Gibson have made significant progress in a short few years and have established themselves as one of the top six pairs in the world. Also in ice dance, Bekker and Hernandez won a World Junior bronze. The singles and pairs are still very weak in comparison. Speed Skating If you’re under 80 years old then the phrase “once upon a time Britain used to win medals at this” may seem like a fairy tale to you. And for the first part of the winter it still seemed like a fairy tale but then Elia Smeding placed 6th at the European Sprint Championships (including a third place finish in the 1000m). Smeding then finished 8th at the World Championships but it was the performance of her boyfriend, the Dutch born Englishman Cornelius Kersten, that really caught the attention. Kersten finished behind only the American superstar in waiting, Jordan Scholz, and Olympic champion Thomas Krol to claim GB’s first World Championship medal since the early 50s. Short Track The phrase “once upon a time Britain used to regularly win medals at this” won’t seem that strange to you but the era of Elise Christie seems to be over. Britain took two women and a man to the World Championships and never looked like providing a finalist.

Part 4 Snowboarding Men Not a great winter, Huw Nightingale did score World Cup points and gradually improve his results during the season in snowboardcross but only once did he make the top 20. However 16 year old Charlie Lane won gold at slopestyle and silver in big air at the European Youth Olympic Festival. Women A world championship and a world cup title but it could easily have been ever better. Mia Brookes won the World Slopestyle gold and was the highest qualifier in big air (pun intended). The World Junior Champion is still only 16 and is a long range favourite for Milan-Cortina. Also at big air Maisie Hill scored world cup points. Charlotte Bankes crashed out of the World Championships but recovered to win her next three World Cup events and retain her World Cup title. Mixed After Nightingale and Bankes had been foiled in their individual events the two pulled off a surprise by winning the mixed team gold at the World Championships.

Part 3 Ski Jumping Ski Jumping The two GB jumpers who competed last winter didn't compete this winter. Nordic Combined And one of them didn't compete at Nordic combined either...

Part 2 Sliding Bobsleigh Men Brad Hall had an outstanding season. He was third in the two man World Cup standings and won three times to push the Germans close in the four man standings. Added to that Hall won a silver medal at the World Championships – the first time Britain had achieved a place on the podium in a men’s race since 1966. Women A lack of money saw the women’s side of the sport being downgraded at the start of the season but there were a few encouraging results at lower levels after the New Year. Skeleton Men Whoever hired the legendary Latvia Martin Dukurs to coach the British men probably has bruises due to being patted on the back so often. After the disappointments of 2021-22 the GB squad came roaring back with new sleds and new attitudes. Matt Weston won 5 of the 8 World Cup races, the World Championships, the European Championships and was ranked #1 in the world. Oddly he didn’t win the World Cup, a bad result caused by the sled slipping out of the starting groove in an early season race having let him down. Teammate Marcus Wyatt won the first race of the season and placed third in the World Cup and fifth at the World Championships. Craig Thompson, who had an indifferent season, had a brilliant streak of form as spring approached and finished in front of Wyatt for fourth place at the Worlds Women In the women’s events success did not appear so spectacular, at least not on the surface, although Laura Deas and Brogan Crowley appeared on the World Cup podium during the season and both finished safely in the top ten of the standings despite missing races through illness. However hot on their heels are juniors Freya Tarbitt and Tabitha Stroecker who were 1-2 in the European Cup standings despite having missed two of the eight races and won medals at both the European and World Junior Championships. Mixed Britain also won silver and bronze at the World Championships through their mixed teams. Luge Can’t find any report of a British competitor this year at all.

Review of GB winter sport 2022-23 Part 1 - Skiing Alpine Skiing Men At 36, Dave Ryding is one of the oldest skiers on tour but is still a regular visitor to the top 20 in World Cup races and scored his 5th career podium finish this year. He finished 16th in the World Cup slalom rankings. Obviously though he can’t go on forever. Billy Major and Laurie Taylor both scored World Cup points but maybe haven’t made the progress we hoped of them. In slalom, Britain is the 7th best country in the world however we only have one more top hundred skier in all the other events. Women Pretty much a disastrous winter. Charlotte Guest scored a single points scoring finish all winter which was more than Alex Tilley did. Tilley fell in every race. At 39th at Slalom, Guest in now GB top ranked skier. Cross-Country Skiing Men A good year for Dave Musgrave with another World Cup medal, a top ten finish at the World Championships and he finally cracked the top ten of the World Cup distance rankings. A solid year individually for Andrew Young and James Clugnet but some great results together in the team sprint including a 6th place at the World Championships. Lower down the ladder a small injection of talent from the Canadian junior system may mean GB can field a relay team next year. Women Luckily that injection of talent from Canadians with GB parentage should kick in next winter. Really need some. Biathlon Marcus Webb finished 104th in the sprint race at the World Championships and that’s it really… Freestyle Skiing Men. There’s nothing wrong with the men’s side of the sport in the UK, it’s just that it seems a bit Meh compared to what the women are doing. In fairness Oliver Davies did win GB’s first ever World Cup ski cross medal in February and World Juniors mogul medallist Mateo Jeannesson made a breakthrough this winter but mostly the GB men are good enough to be picked for a world championships but not to reach a final Women Is it wrong to be disappointed by the fact that GB only won a single silver at the World Championships? Zoe Atkin was so close to gold in the halfpipe, Kirsty Muir, even at just 18, looks like she will be a major contender in slopestyle and big air for the next decade (barring injuries) and Gerken-Schofield is a regular top 10 finisher in moguls.

Also I think I'm right that Slovakia declared independence in the middle of the game.

A little explanation. In those days if a series of matches was tied before the final game of 5, the rules allowed the final game to be played until it concluded. Unfortunately three days in the middle of the match were completely lost to rain. On the 12th and last day England needed 50 more to win but it started raining again with three hours of play left. It didn't stop raining at all and the train to meet the ship taking them home was due to leave five hours later. One plan was for all the England players to take the ship except for the six players who still had to bat but eventually they all left for home

https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-executive-board-approves-medal-reallocations-from-olympic-games-london-2012-1

Just in case you don't know about this list. https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/recent_deaths

The IOC have had a problem with all kinds of birds ever the great mass dove grilling incident at the 1988 opening ceremony...