Dragon

British Women's Open 1st Georgia Hall -17 2nd Pornanong Phatlum -15 3rd Ryu So-yeon -13 Another major win for Europe

Yes - But I like repeating it. It makes me look clever if I agree with you.

Nothing can possibly go wrong now...

She competed in the team final yesterday but not in the qualifying. Strange.

By the way the British team made a strange mistake not to let Taeja James try to qualify for the floor final. I know she's only 15 but she's already capable of winning a European medal,

I don't think they would have beaten the Russia but 163-164 should have been possible.

Important to remember GB are missing their 4 best gymnasts this week. A full strength team should have pushed Russia for gold.

The Dutch tactics explained...

You missed "Moscow Region record"...

Some championships have a rule where there must be 5 entrants before a bronze medal is awarded...

They do run the elimination race as a stand alone event at the European Championships but not the Worlds. Men's race tomorrow, women Tuesday

Apologies - The Australian women's 4 x 200 were disqualified in 2001 when the 3 other swimmers jumped into the pool before the last team had finished. Not because their last swimmer left the pool before the race ended,

The Australians lost a gold medal at the World Championships because of that rule a few years ago

The omnium needs a change in the format. 4 nearly identical races gets boring quickly

2016 was a failure because of 1 rider poisoning the atmosphere in the team. 2020 might be a failure because all the good sprinters except one have retired, The funding came from the success that came from training in the new velodromes.

Number of indoor velodromes in Great Britain in 1993 - 1 (120m long track) Number of indoor velodromes in Great Britain in 2018 - 6 ( 5 250m tracks) The success because of this is not a surprise.

I'm assuming they will remove them pretty quickly if the IOC keep threatening.

I agree. Keep for 2020 unless AIBA completely goes nuts. Make decision on 2024 by middle of 2021.

Fighters lose weight to get down to the lowest possible weight division. It's OK if you drop a couple of kilos but if you need to lose more it gets very dangerous https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/sports/olympics/09boxing.html

Totally disagree on your first point. If anything, to be a fairer and safer tournament you need more weight divisions. Maybe 12-14 would be best (but not realistic) for each sex. 8 is the absolute minimum for safety reasons. The difference is, unlike other combat sports, you're primarily using your bulk to generate power rather than speed. You put a guy who naturally weighs 60kg against someone who weighs 48kg and, if you're lucky you get a quick and painful knockout. If you're unlucky you get a sustained beating that seriously harms the loser's health. Agree with the other points you make although pro boxing would have to be cleaned up a lot before they can let them fight at the Olympics. For 2020 it would be unfair to rob boxers who have trained for many years to throw the sport out of the Olympics - but all the people at the top of the AIBA have to go quickly. 2020 would be their final chance. Any problems and they are automatically banned from Paris and LA