Cinnamon Bun

Will update all the qualifiers from the past 2 weeks in the coming days in anticipation for the final week of the marathon qualification window.

I thought Gowin in the rapid fire and Bale in the 10m had really good chances at getting a quota considering form and ranking, and in a way I was proven right as they both came close to the final. But I have been surprised at the performances of Miller and especially Bargeron who I hope doesn't bottle it today.

I thought we'd get a quota this week but this isn't the event and certainly isn't the athlete I thought would be challenging for it.

Tomorrow at around 2pm our time.

Considering the form he's been in I'm very surprised to see Bargeron here. Hopefully he can capitalise on the ISSF mishandling of this qualifier and earn us not only an unexpected shooting quota but an unexpected mixed rifle quota as well.

Overall a very good squad and near enough what I expected. Glad we actually stayed true to the 30 athlete limit, was worried we might go under. Surprised we took both Whittle and McMillan as I didn't think we'd needed both for relay cover and felt we had good enough cover in other areas for both the 4x1 and 4x2. This has led to Cox harshly being left off as I felt she could've contended for a final spot, just shows how much 1 bad swim at the wrong time can mess up your whole season. I think this also means we see Dawson swimming all relay heats as I doubt that Osrin and Harris will be able to go under the minute mark for the medley and the mixed medley.

Exactly, hopefully we can start doing the same in handball and start capitalising off the back of this.

So the athletes only qualify through this by getting top 5 and not by achieving the time but finishing outside top 5?

We could still go for both as realistically basketball doesn't need too much development in this country compared to handball which needs tons. Either way we need to improve our performances in a lot of Olympic team sports.

I'm not sure it does as there's apparently too many downhill sections for it to be counted as a qualification event. @Josh has commented on this before, I reckon he'll have the answers.

Not really as the group would've had more time to gel as a team compared to as they'd have played an entire 3 week tournament together. Also a week's rest is a long time in football.

Does today's Boston Marathon count towards Olympic qualification or not, it's listed on the World Athletics calendar as a platinum event but I've heard people on here say it doesn't count due to it having too many downhill sections.

Despite getting thrashed in all 3 of our games, I'm quite pleased with our performance this week. We got into double figures against Hungary and Japan and created some good opportunities for ourselves that we unfortunately couldn't convert, which is more than I expected us to do. This is a sport that needs a lot of development in our country, and this is certainly a start to seeing us become competitive whilst trying to qualify for major championships. Just like with our Water Polo teams, this could be the boost we need to go on and qualify for Brisbane and 2036 - which should be our target off the back of this.

Very unlucky not to score another 45 points and win the game.

I think we can also add the men's double sculls to that list too as we stormed the B final but where still a fair bit behind unqualified Australia who were last in the A final and should qualify along with us. As for the other 3 events, we won't qualify anyone in the men's lightweight but I'm still optimistic for us in the women's singles and doubles sculls despite not entering anyone here. The Europeans in two weeks will give us the biggest guide as to what shape the team is in.

We may still have Thomas racing for the quota at the LCR and have Bourne race it at the games, who I thought looked really good today. But regardless who it is, it's pretty safe to say we'll get the quota along with Italy.

Christ the Americans weren't half Burning Down The House with their performances, Tom would be proud.

Just the one athlete for in the men's 20km race walk. Really shows the sorry state of affairs we're in that we don't even want to attempt to qualify for this at Paris.

Easy win for Hungary as expected, but I felt we gave a decent account of ourselves. A lot of work needs doing though, as we missed quite a few clear cut chances due to our throws being too weak.

That's very true, but I believe the likes of basketball and handball can capitalise on the recent downfall of rugby, particularly rugby league, in the UK and Ireland. The less opportunities there are for young players to enter rugby, the easier it will be for basketball and handball to pick up talented, athletic throwers which should help get the ball rolling and enable us to qualify for more continental and global tournaments.

Not really, as hockey, ice hockey and skating are more different compared to football, rugby and handball. I was more coming at from a youth development perspective, as the stark similarities with rugby and football should make handball more appealing to kids at a young age.

Handball's one of those sports where it should be successful over here as it's a solid blend of football and a little bit of rugby. And I think if they can get more people playing it at school and university level and get some sort of competitive league over here similar to the BBL then I believe we have a chance to make ourselves successful in this over the next couple decades.

Puts the open water events in massive jeopardy too. Realistically the organisers should've come up with an alternative to the Seine as backup as cleaning it up was always gonna be a big ask.

Is the top one dedicated to the one and only Welsh sexbomb or someone completely different?

Just found out that have been handed a very surprising wildcard to this tournament. We're going to the Olympics baby!! The others team's don't stand a chance now that the mighty British Women's handball team have entered the fray.