mpjmcevoy

FWIW 100m; M - 1. Azu 2. Hinchliffe 3 Prescod W - 1. Neita 2. Hunt 3. Lanisquot 200m M - 1. Quainoo. 2 Mitchell-Blake 3. Efokoku W - 1. Asher-Smith 2. Hunt. 3 Agyepong 400m M - 1. Dobson. 2. Carville 3. Haydock Wilson W - 1. Anning 2. Neilsen La 3. Yeargin 800m M - 1. Kerr 2. Burgin. 3 Pattison W - 1. Reekie 2. Gill 3. Wallace 1500m M - 1. Wightman 2. Gourley. 3. Giles W - 1. Muir 2. Bell 3. Courtney Bryant 5000m M - 1. Mills 2. Dever 3. Atkin W - 1. Muttall 2. Fry 3. Neale Sprint hurdles M - 1. Pozzi 2. Ojora 3. King W - 1. Sember 2. Pawlett 3. ? 400 hurdles M - 1. Chalmers 2 Derbyshire 3. Paul W - 1.Neillsen Li 2. Knight 3. Newham 3000sc M - 1 Norman, 2 Peirce 3. Seddon W - 1. Pratt 2. Bird

Wondering if a quick UK Athletics Trials prediction thread might be in order...

America is incredibly litigious - if they tried discretionary picks, they'd be drowned in lawsuits.

Reekie has a tendency to front run - she must resist that instinct, and basically tuck in behind Hodkinson the entire way - there's just a chance, if she does that, Keely drags her to a medal, possibly even past Moraa.

The loss of a great, great Olympic race overwhelms any partisan excitement for Keely - although I'd say, oddly, Moraa must be cursing - she has a better chance in a race where Keely has to track Mu rather than lay off and run her own race. The Brit who DOES have cause for excitement is Reekie; there's an actual bronze medal chance just opened up in this race...

Agree with the comparison. McdP is going to win a few road world titles, maybe 1 MTB...but he can win CX titles all the live long day. He's also always gonna be a threat on the cobbles. Eventually maybe a crack at GC. Pidcock is a MTB machine, his lighter frame and descent bravery gives him a s real edge even over speialists. He has one CX title from the year MvdP missed but its not his domain, MTB is. He's gonna be competitive on Ardennes classics and on Strade bianche, and while he has GC ambitions, I think attacks on super hilly stages - especially old fashioned ones with descents at the end, is likely his area - he MIGHT even be competitive in San Remo and Lombardia because of the late fast descent in both races. I'd love him to complete the age grade Roubaix set, but I'm not sure that's realistic. Pogecar, of course, will continue to win what he wants, when he wants, as he becomes the first rider since Hinault to make a genuine attempt to rival Merckx..

A seismic shock in this event, and heartbreaking for real athletics fans, robbing us of arguably the race of the meet. From a GBR perspective, however sad, this HUGELY increases Hodgknson's chances of gold and Reekie's chances of a medal. It's not just that a main rival is gone - it's that the whole event has just become tactically much, much simpler for her. Bizzarelly, I think this is probably a blow to Moraa's chances - she profits from the Mu-Hodgkinson stand-off. If she can muck about with Keely's rhythm, she still has a very good chance of gold - but no Mu makes that much harder to do. Intriguing, but also dreadfully disappointing.

My strong understanding is that the death match 3-and-done US policy is directly a result of trying to avoid litigation - a real fear that a disgruntled athlete in third could grind everything to a halt simply by picking a 'friendly' court - there's a Jarndyce v Jarndyce quality to US litigation, and the time frames are of course dreadful.

As I understand it Eurosport and TNT are being kept separate.

Won't work for IOC then. Lebanon Aussies may annoy, but the bottom line is their purported representation of Middle East Africa would be vital to get the sport across the universality line. Same will apply to cricket by the way. mark my words, Asia will be frustrated at limitations. The reason 7's works for IOC is they can point to Argentina, South Africa, Japan, Australia, Fiji, Ireland, France and GBR and USA, Canada in womens. Cricket, if it has to, can point to Jamaica, South Africa, GBR, India, Australia Global. GBR, FRA + PNG, FIJI, AUS, NZL, TON, SAM does not have a chance in hell of being accepted.

I don't love them equally, being from Ireland, but I do like a bit of league, genuinely. The loyalty of its fan base is amusing, but also touching. I personally suspect there's a strong chance a Brisbane Games will try and ;aunch a 'nine's' on us - perhaps as a direct replacement for flag football. Its one advantage may be its weakness - lack of sides allows for a small 6-8 team comp : AUS, NZL, GBR, FRA, TON, SAM, LEB, USA If it survives, it might be worth investigating nines as a CWG sport, at least get on the radar.

Watching Pidcock over the weekend; barely with his mtb shoes on for the first time in months just rip the legs off world class opposition, he's not wrong...he's made for mtb. His lightness gives him a better advantage than in CX, where you need a fair amount of raw strength, mtb rewards W/kg a bit more than CX - which is probably why McdP is so brilliant at CX. Very few cycle races are ever nailed on, but Pidcock goes into MTB red hot favourite, and possibly with a bit of a psychological edge on his main competition. The men's road race is going to be a trip. so many stars are aiming at it, though, that you could actually get a very left field result if they all mark each other.

THe basic discovery+/Eurosport sub that includes the Games is not expensive - its on offer at the minute for about 4£ a month. The TNT premium sub is about 30£ pm and, imho, wildly overpriced.

No, Kalaks are asking for independence. Kalaks are indigenous people in NC, but they are the minority. Your argument is not helped by reliance on such poor analogies.

There's about six countries play it, CB. IRL have just contracted the world cup back to 10 teams, and the next would be hosts pulled out. Not a chance that's gonna happen. And much as i can enjoy the odd game of League, if ever a sport had a same-y issue, it's RL. No competition for the ball, just roll, run, bang, standup, roll, run, bang, standup, roll, run, bang, standup, kick...repeat.

Attendances at seven's is, increasingly, a bit pathetic - it's become too sanitised and robotic, and the format too same-y.

The course is a puncheurs/'Ardennes' style course, and neither Yates brother is one of those - I don't think choosing Pidcock and Williams is accidental, given the wins in the Amstel gold and Fleche. Fred is also a breakway specialist, and a strong climber... As for tactics? My guess is that Pogacar, Remco, Van de Poel and Van Aert all fancy their chances, and this could be a tear up for the ages - Pog and Remco are quite likely to be knackered after Le Tour (Pogs second grand tour, though he was barely pushed in the first) and Remco has been injured, and looks a little short of form. My hunch is MvdP goes in as favourite, though only just. He's ditching the MTB to do this so he's all in. So how does this play into the GBR team? Well, Pidcock is the Andy Murray of that group. He's very, very, very good...but he's not that quarter good. What he DOES have is an absolute machine in Tarling, and a legitimate 1-2 punch in williams - you don't win Fleche if you're a grunt. My instinct is they will try and get Fred up the road for the breakaway - watch out if he somehow allies with Ben Healy who's also an outside threat, and might fancy a strong breakaway in a race with much smaller teams than usual. Pidcock and Williams then simply sit on the stars, and hopefully let the teams punch themselves out - or put Tarling on the front and try to rip the legs of the rest of the peloton. In any event, I suspect what they want is Pidcock AND williams up there near the sharp end deep in the race, and try and one-two punch their way to a medal. Also, If Pog attacks on pure strength, as he often does, Tarling is one of the few who might be able to slowly drag the boys back up to him....

I think the rugby is a bit stand alone to be honest I definitely think doing something with the combat sports would work, especially if Karate came back; it would have a 'festival of fight sport' feel and would have a wide appeal given the sports tend to have discrete areas of interest and specialism. You could have a lot of silly fun using venues too - I quite like the idea of weightlifting at Muscle Beach in 2028!

Well, by god, they've gone and bloody done it! Tom Pidcock will double up in road race and mountain bike! Ethan Hayter will double up in time trial and Team Pursuit, Tarling pulls out of the team pursuit, who can now maximise quotas https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/c4nnd49w9rmo Team GB cycling squad Men's track endurance: Dan Bigham, Ethan Hayter, Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Vernon, Ollie Wood, Mark Stewart (travelling reserve) Men's track sprint: Jack Carlin, Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnbull, Joe Truman (travelling reserve) Men's road: Ethan Hayter (time trial), Tom Pidcock (road race), Josh Tarling (time trial and road race), Stevie Williams (road race), Fred Wright (road race) Women's track sprint: Sophie Capewell, Emma Finucane, Katy Marchant, Lowri Thomas (travelling reserve) Women's mountain bike: Ella Maclean-Howell, Evie Richards Men's mountain bike: Charlie Aldridge, Tom Pidcock Very interesting Men's road team - no Geraint Thomas, nor Mark Cavendish, Tarling obviously the engine then three climb-capable puncheurs in Pidcock (Amstel gold winner this year, Strade Bianche last), Stevie Williams (who won Fleche Wallone this year) and Fred Wright, perennial runner up, and Ethan Hayters housemate! I meantion those three races because, as one day races, they're basically the ost prestigious after the five monuments - and the ones that have similarities to the Frence parcours. Women's road team yet to be announced, as well as BMX (although Reilly is already booked by named quota), and Women's endurance.

It was, in my view, a brilliant way to showcase slightly lesser known sports, with some olympic stardust sprinkled on them. One could consider the final chance boxing, archery, table tennis and rugby qualifiers to be a not dissimilar construct I think the IOC has maybe got this partially right - they increase their broadcast toehold and influence without 'creating' another olympics - and did it in a thematic way - what would be good would be if IFs could sit down with IOC, and the continental Games, and work out systems of qualification that made as many events as possible a must see - rankings are fair, and absolutely have a place but they aren't really exciting - qualification competitions generally are (mixed triathlon relay final qualifier, etc) But the IFs and the continental Games will want their own events given some Olympic 'juice', and I think IOC should, where at all possible, accommodate that too. Of course some sports, this won't work with - Football, 5x5 basketball, Gold, possibly tennis. But I think there are win-wins here for IFs, including continental IFs, Continental Games and the IOC itself getting more organised on it - and I think the themed nature of OQS shows the way... For example, what if there were 'final qualifiers/OQS' for all the combat sports, in one place. Not the bulk of the quotas, of course, but just those final few spots in Boxing, Judo, Taekwonso, wrestling, possibly fencing, shooting and archery (or perhaps the last three and modern pentathlon could form a separate, "armed combat" pod?) Beach volleyball might be the core of, dare I suggest, a beach and sea based final qualifier? Beach Volleyball, Triathlon, Sailing, open water swimming, maybe High iving, somewhere delightfully hot and sunny - Bermuda, perhaps... some sports don't need that pizzaz on their own events, but I suspect a lot of sports would welcome the kind of three ring circus attention the four urban sports got this weekend.

Britain's war in the Falklands was over before 1984 - moreover, it was British territory, and the vast majority of its citizens were adamant they wanted tor remain British. There's no comparison with Ukraine. There hasn't been conflict over gibraltar since about 1700. Again, the French colonisation of the pacific was a long time ago. IF New Caledonians want independence they should get it. Tibet is closer; and china's conrinuing threat to RepOChina/Taiwan is closer still as ROC have an NOC, albeit they use the Chinese Taipei name. Does hong Kong have enough functional independence anymore to justify an NOC? Israel and Palestine is horrific, and I would not cry if both were told to sit this Games out. I genuinely fear a repeat of Munich 72'.

I disagree, but it's not a bad argument. As was pointed out repeatedly before Beijing 2022, there are LOTS of conflicts in the world - but relatively few of them are a straightforward invasion of one soverign nation of another, during an Olympic truce. that said, how ROC was not simply expelled from IOC after Sochi, the mind boggles

Sub Poll 1. What were the top 3 close qualification misses (team/individual) which you regret ? Women's football. It was there for the taking and its a big step backward for the sport Men's sevens. That is a really, really, difficult pill for GB Rugby to swallow. BMX Racing, ket two genuine medal chances slip through the fingers Dishonourable mention: Canoe sprint - what the helll has happened there? Sanita in the W1x, just broke yer heart Hard to stomach so few road cyclists and no triathletes 2. Given an opportunity to add sports (not exceeding 5 sports and/or 20 events) with an athlete cap of 280 in total, what all would you chose? ADD: Events: Mountain Bike Short track : extra quotas 0 Individual pursuit : extra quotas 14 (7 per event, plus 2 per nation in team pursuit, and one per nation from omnium and madison not in team pursuit) Matchplay team golf event : extra quotas 0 (teams of 4, 2 men, 2 women, playing mens single matchplay, women single matchplay, mixed foursome matcplay over 9 holes (ties broken with one shot nearest the pin on the 10th) - sum total of 38 holes for last 16/QF/SF and medal matches. 50m in backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke : extra quotas 72 Mixed 4 x 200 medley : extra quotas 0 Sports: Squash : events 4, MS, WS, MD, WD - extra quotas 64 (16, 16, 8 x2, 8 x 2) Snooker: events 2, extra quotas 32 Ms, WS (16, 15) Parkour : events 6 (Speed, Freestyle and Cage Pursuit) extra quotas 88 (32 (16, 16), 24 (12, 12), 32 (16, 16)) (3 sport with 12 events, plus further 12 events, 270 quotas) 3. If you had the opportunity to make 3 changes(3 events/3 sports) to schedule at Paris '24 what would you do? 1. Bin breaking. 2. Bring back Karate 3. Bring back C2 slalom

I think today was quite deliberately the last 'international' day to win quotas, although athletics trials will continue, and here will be a fair amount of chopping and changing yet, due to injury, always is. Eg in Tennis both Murray and Evans could be in injury trouble, I'm not sure if its possible, but I think Glasspool and Murray Sr might have a score to get into doubles if Murray and Evans had to swap out, A lot of sports will now be going through the 'reallocation' process too in vaoious events. On men's skeet, we haven't heard of any withdrawals that would open up a final ranking spot. --- On checking, there are still a few basketball quotas to be decided, but that's pretty much it - Judo qualification quietly ended today with GBR in qualifying places in 5 women's weights; that's 26 sports, and by my broad calculation there are genuine medal shouts in about 23 or 24.

Sadly, this decline has been a long time coming - I think coming together as 'one team', far from focusiing resources, has made the team an orphan that none of the home nations care that much about - not unlike olympic soccer. Even now, embarrassment aside, losts of GB fans will just shrug - "it's only sevens". Twitter was full of that last night, 'purists' more interested in the money spinning friendly between RSA and Wales than either the URC league grand final or the Sevens Olympic qualifier, all but wishing sevens dead and out of the Games. Couldn't make it up. Watch the four times 15s RWC winners reaction to sneaking into the Olympics this afternoon (or the rather delightful Chinese women), or the despondency of the gallant Kenyan's, and explain how the Olympics don't matter. Consider the road to Hell and Back Irish rugby took to create plausible sevens teams from nothing, or Hugo Keenan opting out of 15s for the summer...or DuPont, the greatest player in the world, temporarily abandoning 15s for pursuing home glory in the format.