mpjmcevoy

You SHOULD be great at ice hockey, but yer all too tall, and they stick all the ice lovers on massive racing tracks at the age of six months. Wheras with Scots, they just give them granite and tell them "it's basically bowls", in Germany they put you in a tin can and push you down it, and in Russia they take all the girls out of ballet school and see which one's react best to the drugs and twizzle on it...

GBR is notable for loving a bit of variety in its sport - no nation - not even the US and China - got golds in as many different sports as GBR at the last Olympics - they LOVE a bit of niche up Albion way! That said, you need, as Basketball has found, a certain tipping point weight to get your team sports to the next level. Women's basketball, amazingly, is not that far away, but men's is miles off despite big playing numbers, so handball will struggle - not least because what tends to happen is that team sport niches fill up with other sports - e.g. how many potential athletics throwers never try because they are quickly spotted as perfect rugby fodder, and in England in particular (and Ireland) rugby has a higher youth sport profile.

Cycling, like Triathlon and Gymnastics, don't select purely on finishing places so the presentation would need to be different to swimming/athletics, but I still think there's gas in integrated able-bodied and Para sport in GB, with C4 and BBC co-operating (and splitting costs), and it having an input into the nomination process while creating a series of 'Road to the Games' events that can be win win for all concerned - at it's most extreme, you can run multiclass para athletics events so that the British championships last significantly longer while still having a full schedule, and introducing folk to the likely Para stars of the Olympics/Worlds/Europeans as well as the able bodied players

There is something wonderfully French about the utter arrogant refusal to consider the possible problems of various Seine related part of their grande fete, despite being warned by everyone time out of number, and now they are going to screw up events athletes trained 4 years for because they didn't have the humility to put their grand design aside when first warned. Yes, I'm cross - even though a run-bike-run creates a completely different and beneficial situation for Yee, Potter,

There are two 'compulsary' sports - Athletics and Swimming. But there are also unspoken necessaries that are part of the character of the event - the key three are Netball, Squash and Lawn Bowls, because until now, these three had no Olympic outlet, and were very particular to the Commonwealth. Track Cycling, triathlon, sevens and hockey are in the next tranch, but those three are key to the brand, IMHO. They'll find a way - FWIW there would be no difficulty finding a host for the Netball - indeed, if the Games did end, I'd be amazed if a CW championship wasn't started in its stead

Brownlee theory is he is saving himself up in the hope of one majestic performance just prior to the Games that gets him selected ahead of Izzard. Given where things are at its not an insane plan, but it absolutely kills any outside chance of a third male berth. I agree that there are a handful of decent guys coming though, but i's the leap to Brownlee-Yee level that's the hardest step, as Djikstra, for example, found.

Not really...but enough key CGF nations really like a snappy track cycling program that you will probably find someone willing to put it on, and able to get a decent crowd - England and Scotland being most obvious, but including any number of venues in Australia, New Zealand and even Trinidad. The key is to have a core program Ghana can deliver still worthy of being called a CWG. Anything on top of that is gravy - but I'm sure CGF would happily test drive a model that included a handful of remote host events, especially in sports individual nations really care about. Gymnastics, for example, would actually go down very strongly in Cyprus, which is a bit of a commonwealth power in the sport, and doesn't get much chance to host. Road cycling, Ghana can handle, but if it could not, Rwanda certainly could. South Africa would have little trouble hosting a range of sports that might trouble Ghana - notably aquatics, gold and triathlon.

That would fit existing venue at QEIi Park, or Melbourne with little fuss. So shooting and archery, India, trac cycling and gymnastics, London

There's always a seat at the Commonwealth Table, should Ireland wish to avail of it - De Valera essentially invented the Commonwealth with "External Association" after all... ;-) More seriously, I'm sure some sort of 'co-planning' can be designed that does not offend Ghana's pride or sovereignty. Looking at the venues for the African Games, They look almost perfect for a slimmed down 2026 event. Events there are no room for should be encouraged to arrange, in conjunction with CGF and Ghana, official Commonwealth Championships at existing sites elsewhere where the events are popular, along the lines invented by the Indians for Shooting and Archery - indeed, this may be such an example - and go with the 'two medal table' route - where every event in the Games is concurrently that years Commonwealth Championship, equal with non-Games commonwealth Championships elsewhere, and the Games are more of a 'peak' in a year of Commonwealth sport, rather than the one and only event. I imagine, for example, the Scots or English would be happy enough to have another Commonwealth Track Cycling Champs if Ghana can't accommodate, so long as they are televised and publicised as if they were part of the Games. If Ghana gets the 100M£ (as it should) for doing this, that still leaves some 'seed' money in the CGF kitty to help out with these separate Championships

Indeed, getting double bang on the venues they already built PLUS a cash bonus may seem like a win win...

Indeed. It seems to my admittedly biased eyes that the commonwealth games has actually been one of the few vaguely successful concilliatory mechanisms - and the move to recognise indigenous people explicitly going forward shows it knows that's the direction. In my own eyes, the UK competing as its four home nations, and all its islands and territories having autonomy, is a good thing, and a sign of attempting to find equality. Very far from perfect, but still, a good thing. Arguably the continent that rejected the trappings of Empire most fully is Arica- it has far fewer residual 'Commonwealth Realms' (countries that remained kingdoms and kept the British king) than the other Continents - and yet, they seem - in the main - to still enjoy having their voice heard in those Games, and all four non-empire countries that actively ASKED to join are from African - Rwanda, Mozambique, Togo and Gabon. (I understand Surinam may be next, but technically it was British Willoughbyland for a brief moment - certainly South Sudan and Burundi have made noises, so - unlike Asia where India always seems on the Brink of leaving- there still seems an appetite in Africa for whatever benefits CW and CWG can bring). India is a very big country with designs on being a nationalistic superpower - I can see how that continued Commonwealth membership doesn't really sit with that, but I think that's a pity in some ways. As for a possible Ghana 2026, there would be something rather pleasantly preparatory if Ghana got to host the first Africa Commonwealth Games, saved the event, and used money handed over by the Commonwealth, from a 'white dominion' to do it!

Would solve a lot of problems, including helping reposition the Games as explicitly 'post-colonial' - i.e far from celebrating Empir, they now celebrate the END of empire.

Curiouser and curiouser - rumours now that CGF are about toward TWO games, in succession, to West Africa - Ghana has apparently offered to host 2026 using African Games venues (which makes obvious sense), with government approval, while Nigeria is interested in 2030. Tempted to wonder if a combined ghana nigeria 2026 would be better, but whatever works.

It's an interestingly bullish statement. Suspect from this statement they may bite the bullet and separate the Games out into individual Championships for 2026, and style it out, before swinging toward a centenary games in 2030

I thought this weeks excuse was geopolitical tensions?

I would like to see more of this CH4/BBC working together ( in some ways they are a better fit than BBC/ITV - ITV, oddly, fit better with Sky and pay TV) - the way that the two channels sort of deferred to each other in their area of expertise was excellent, and adding the MC para swims did a great job of bulking out the timetable, keeping things moving, and helped introduce major Paralympic players to an audience who might not follow them. I'd say this format might work pretty well in cycling and athletics for GB too

Not so sure about Hanlon as a relay only swimmer, because realistically they don't need female breaststroke back up - the women's medley is not going to win anything, and they are not going to swim a female breaststroke in the mixed. Wilby is different because he actually is back up for Peaty in two medal possible events. However, it might be McMillan who misses out if the Litchfields and Bird are considered adequate 4 x 2 backup. Guy and Dean can definitely swim the heats. In a good world both Scott and Richards get a rest, but this is not a good world. However, if you could find other places to rest those two (4 x 100 free heats using whittle and possibly guy or even Proud) and men 4x1 medley using dean), you could put one in the 4 x 2 heat alone with Guy and Dean, and they would almost certainly be able to carry Bird or Max Litchfield in that scenario and still make the final. FWIW I'd prefer to take 31 and bring Hanlon for insurance.

I wonder are we in a situation where they try and put together the women's medley from 'existing resources'...Poor anna's gonna be knackered if she's doing 12 swims, and they'll want her to prioritise mixed medley, I suspect. Freya A's obviously not at her best. However, that was no bad swim in that context, and she probably doesn't need to swim quite as many relays as previously...

The issue here is that it involves a minimum of two discretionary picks.

Hopkin needs to swim 52.69 for the medley relay to get in. Bizarrely, Mixed medley is already safe as the FMFM version squeaks under consideration time

She looks in very good nick already.

Are you counting the confirmed relay swimmers in the 25 - Cahoon, Joe Litchfield, Medi Harris and Leah Hope?

Peaty needs the cover - if there's any space on the boat/plane/train, Wilby goes. some of tonight's results, particularly the 2-3 in the 50 free and 1-2 in the 200 IM take a certain amount of the pressure off, tomorrow they'll want the obvious 4 for the 4 x 200, so they'll be keeping a nervous eye on Guy - if he's top 4, a lot of the issues resolve. Tomorrow they'd like one of the three key breaststrokers to punch the ticket, Luke Greenbank to hit his straps, and no shocking surprises in the freestyles. Id Blocksridge did a miracle, that would be ice but it's not really likely. Bt my raw count, we have 24 guaranteed or 2nd with consideration time. Tomorrow they'll want Guy, Greenbank, Hanlon or Evens to do likewise, and would quite like Freya Anderson to swim - she is listed, all the other 4 x 1 major players are already on the boat. That would, in theory, bring the team up to 28. After that, if its me, I'm bringing Wilby, I'm bending the rules by saying Tobias is an openwater quota place, and then its a toss up for me between Bird and Blocksidge, leaning toward the latter. I think in that scenario, Whittle and Cox lose out.

Orangehair can meet with victory and defeat and treat those two imposters both the same...that is, he can be ridiculously, wildly wrong in both directions!

I think Cox (and Wilby) is closer than Whittle on the simple basis that the 100 and 200 free relays will already have cover, but Dawson (and Peaty) won't for the medleys. Dawson and Peaty, in particular, are likely to be pulling double duty as I think GB will be going WMMW again for the mixed medley, so it makes sense to cover them. We are also getting to the part of the week, however, when Richards, Scott and Dean, and possibly Guy start piling up quotas in 100 fly, 200 fr and 200 IM, which may relieve some of the pressure.