mpjmcevoy

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.

One of the advantage the 'Commonwealth' team sports have is spread - usually at least one power on each continent, which is handy for Olympics, and in most cases some non CW countries have at least soemwhat taken to it - the Latins in Rugby (in which I include Georgia), the Dutch in Cricket etc

Overall, pretty good outting, couple of frustrating near misses, 1 of which may still 'come in'. Reilly and, probably, Worthington in. Jones very unlucky, but he's probably gone. Lily Strachan has a better chance, I think. GBR will not be involved in Breaking, which is a good result from my window, Elsewhere, Tom Pidcock once more tore the legs clean off his rivals on the MTB, and a strong show from Evie Richards. GBR have reached the men's 7's final, though I think it's South Africa's to lose. Crunching the numbers last night in the tennis, The first women's pair are in - there is no way to create enough combinations to evict them, but Dart is on the bubble twice over; on the mens side injuries to both Evans and Murray raise the peculiar question of whether it might be better - if it's still possible - to swap them out for Murray Sr and Glasspool who I think would have the numbers to get a doubles space. Oh, and GBR table tennis paralympians picked up a pair of bipartite invitations.

Well, looks like he's an Olympian now. And in a 'yuf' sport, no less.

Didn't you just die a little inside writing that? You're a hero, my man.

I think there's an anti-biotic for that.

How many cm has she put on this year alone - she's gone from emerging talent to world star in the blink of an eye! Just checked. She has gone world #7 ALL-TIME!!

"on form" is rather a calm way of saying "sweet mothering jesus!"

Amazing how many of the brits have taken, or just missed, the final spot in these comps - likely to be first reserve in 3, scraping in in another two.

She's in no sort of form, but I think she's...whisper it perhaps...a little bit older than some of her competitors. She'll always be the first Olympic champ though. She can retire on that, frankly.

I think so, she at worst 13th, but with thee guaranteed reallocations.

By my calculation, the lowest he can finsih, techncially is 11th BUT that is only if ALL three Frenchies finsih above him, and since they can only claim 2 spots max AND would cough up the Host spot, I think he;s in. Erin is of course in. With Molly, I think the situation is very complicated, I THINK, I can be corrected. 1. All 8 finalists bar Ragora of Italy are guaranteed to pass her tomorrow - she is less than 33 points ahead of all of of them bar rogora, who could techncailly gain 33 points, rise to 75 and be one below Molly. So Molly will finish either 12 or more likely 13 in the overall table. She needs three 'cancels' I think to be sure, 2 if Rogaro crashes and burns - lets assume she won't. Now, France already has Betone, so has coughed up the host quota, so that's 1 spot and can only claim one more. That's 1 for 'reallocation' japan and Slovenia will both have two inside the top 10, I think, certainly ahead of Molly. but Japan (Mori) and Slovenia (Gambret) already both have a quota, they can only take one more each, so they both cough up one. That's two for' reallocation' I THINK that gets us to thirteen, Molly's lowest position. I think that's enough.

For repeat offences, the bans can go up to 8 years andeven life, and bans can be extended for egregious and deliberate wrongdoing. So I admire your calculation, it's very fair, but it may imho be even a little bit too leniant. But I'll take it for starters. And for the record, I absiolutely would have wanted this done to the soviet Union and especially GDR back in the day, and quite possibly USA too. Even with all the crap we;ve seen from other countries over the years - and we've all been badly behaved whether its BALCO in the US, British Cycling, Italian EPO, Dutch cyclists going EPO hardcore, or Irish swimmers growing chemically induced fins, what Russia has done is one step beyond - indeed, rather a lot of steps beyond - even Kenya today, which is obviously an utter disaster, is not in that league yet.

I don't think that's right CB

Meanwhile Erin McNeice has reached the final, and basically guaranteed a spot. And I think, at this point Molly and Harry can't finish lower than 11th, and probably have enough points for spots, but that's tighter.

Not for host reallocation

1. Russia attempted to subvert the entire Olympic movement in Sochi, from both a state and NOC level - they literally sabotaged a Games they had the privilege to host. That should have led to permanent and complete expulsion, then and there. 2. They also ran a massive state level doping scheme for a decade, and attempted to get an innocent athlete banned. Again, expulsion. 3. They broke the Olympic Truce in their invasion, the third truce they've broken. certainly suspension, better expuslion. Balarus has it hands dirty on this issue. What Hamas did, and what Israel then did, are both heniously foul in different ways. Neither is justifiable. I would not be angry if both Israel and Palestine had been excluded from this edition games. But in terms of sport, specifically Russia is far, far worse.

Indeed, I'm not sure the French could use the host option even if they gave up the OQS one - winning the OQS one seems to enxtinguish the host option altogether. So the top 6 overall at OQS get named spots, GBR have 1 - Keiren Reilly Then unrepresent continents get next : the two unnamed 2022 spaces go to Japan and australia Then unrepresented continents still get next: the first 2023 space goes to South Africa for placing 65(!) Then the remaining two 2023 go to unrepresent NOCS - thats ARG and CAN Finally the rellocated space also goes to an unreppred NOC from 2023 - LAT After that, there are two first reserves : The IOC/UCI really separate the two ways to qualify. A name reserved if one of the OQS 6 pulls out : Jones And an unnamed reserve if ARG, CAN or LAT, or most likely RSA pull out, thats Venezuala In effect, Jones is the unlucky loser now, as Logan probably gets back in via NOC AUS seat, despite screwing up here. Indeed, the top two from the series who will miss out will probably both be brits, given South Africa will probably let Venezual a(Dhers) through