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PS on track numbers, historically, and I think this time, Countries with 4 full teams effectively have one 'substitute' per sex - i.e. a maximum of 16 riders (3+4+1 sub x 2) - hence the need to work out where the sub would do more good, and how doubling up might help in other areas.

I think the advantage of Backstad and Tarling is they represent legitimate back ups to the Team Pursuit team - they won't be racing the final unless there's injury, but by taking them as the TP back-up on a RR quota, you free up a space to take a 4th sprinter. Backstadt is also a legit TT threat. As for the Men's road race, the best three guys GB have for the parcours are all in other events - Hayter and Pidcock are strong 'classics hill' riders, Vernon's a strong 'classics sprinter', depending how the race goes. The men's RR, however is going to be absolutely lit, and GB may legitimately decide not to burn too many matches there - The news that Geraint Thomas is doing a Giro tour double suggests he won't be in paris after two relatively near RR misses; it maybe also suggests they aren't going to push pidcock for the Tour GC either. Personally, therefore, if it were feasible, I'd pop Pidcock in the Road Race only and MTB, Tarling in TT only and back up for track. On the distaff side, I'm surprised Zoe's not considering MTB, as it happens, but I'd defo draft her in for TT, if not RR. Given the strong 'hour' riders in the GB pursuit camp, they don't lack imho for TT riders. To mangle a metaphor, the GB women's road team is a little bit of a case of too many indians, not enough chiefs - i.e. lot of strong team riders, not all that many on form finishers... Anyway, I'd do that with a mind to including 4 track sprinters for the women, with Katy Marchant concentrating perhaps on the Kierin.

Brailsford resigned today as Ineos Grenadiers leader, and is stepping away from cycling altogether towards Manchester United. Seems oddly apt - whatever the dubious bits, the end goal of Sky/INEOS was always going to be to render itself obsolete, with a steady stream of GBR riders coming through in other teams, and today feels like an example of the goal achieved - and without INEOS ever having grabbed the nettle on a women's team, the upcoming Backstedt-Ferguson era looks ti show that side in rude health too. Perhaps a good time, then, to walk away, and let the larger sport in the country move on...

both rugby 7 teams, one hockey team and within a spit of a second hockey team is unknown riches in team sports terms for Ireland, and absolutely wonderful, especially given the dominance here of non-Olympic team sports

Panned out as I suspected, mirror of 2020, Girls miss out last gasp, Boys make it last gasp. If forced to choose, nice for the lads to get a shot at the Games as well as the brilliant women's team

And if the newly qualified refugee qualified in a weight in which his/her new nation already have a quota?

"GB's top team pursuit squad has always relied heavily on their road cyclists" Or GB's road programme has always depended heavily on its track pursuiters...

Both Korea and Great Britain are beatable -Korea maybe slightly more so. Last cycle one team just got through, one team just missed out. Suspect we may have similar this time, but neither Irish team are mugs, and none of the remaining semifinalists are either. By the way, this has been a super cool qualification tournament all round

Huge news. Hard to see this being a solo run given the political nature of Russia, so can presumably expect the other gymnasts, athletes, swimmers, cyclists, wrestlers, boxers, judoka, taekwondoka etc following suit?

Lacrosse strikes me as closer in spirit to hurling than some of the other 'hockey' family sports - the physicality, challenge in the air, etc... - whereas Shinty is much closer to field hockey

Canada don't seem to have much interest in multisports hosting at the moment all round...

There are no individual pursuit or stand alone points races at the games, only the Omnium and the madison. Full track program : Team sprint, sprint, keirin, Team pursuit, omnium, madison, all x 2 (men and women) FWIW : It's nigh on impossible to draw much from the women's team pursuit here in the absence of Archibald, Barker and Kenny; for some years Archibald in the madison has been in the Redgrave position - i.e. they used to ask what was the best Coxless pair in the world, the answer was Steve Redgrave and whoever he chose to row with. Archibald is in almost that position with Madison, the best team is Archibald and whoever comes with her. The 'superstar' team is Archibald and Kenny, obviously, but I suspect the best team is Archibald and Elinor Barker at this point. Nonetheless the depth for GBR is excellent, with Neah Evans possibly only fourth choice for an individual race, yet capabale of medalling is he does. The men's pursuit team have done what they needed to do, and I'm reasonably confident now they're gonna make it - It wil be interesting to see if the rumours about Josh Tarling are true, if so, you could be looking at a team of 5 including Bigham, Tanfield, Hayter, Vernon and Tarling that will be extremely competitive - I don't know at this stage if reigning Omnium champ Matt Walls is likely to be in a position to compete this time, or if Tarling gives room to possibly take Mark Stewart for Madison only. Women's team sprint have, I believe, booked a spot definitively. Safe to say the emergance of Emma Finucane as the boss of match sprint is very good news, though I do not expect the Germans to give up without a fight. GBR will, however, be very happy with how the land lies at the moment, and will hope that the returning Marchant can come through too. The men's team sprint is a shambles in historic terms. Carlin has not kicked on, though he remains a threat in Kierin. The reality is the Dutch sprinters look more or less unstoppable, certainly in team sprint and sprint. Completely left field, in the spirit of the Tarling rumours, we maybe shouldn't rule out Zoe Backstedt as a back up option in team pursuit AS for My hate, I was very pleased with Laura Gillespies run in the Omnium. If we add that to Ben Healy and Eddie Dunbar on the road, I'm pretty happy.

Am I right in thinking that means GBR are now mathematically as they can't be passed by both of china and japan?

It's a wonderful achievement in context. The Irish set up have really ridden the success of Martyn Irvine to create a nice little programme, which will only improve if we ever get the Velodrome up and running. Throw in Ben Healy and Eddie Dunbar on the road and it should be a good little group.

Glasgow, Manchester, London...what's the fourth, Derby?

If it ain't broke... Seriously, could do worse than put it on a rotation between the five best velos

Cruel. fair, but cruel. Look, Raducanu was much like Tao Geogaghan Hart's giro win, a perfect storm partially caused by COVID. (and for the record, Tao, I think is much closer to the elite bracket generally than Emma). She's obviously a good player, her initial Wimbledon run showed that, but her actual GS win was, to a large extent, a fluke of timing - she coped much better with the oddness of that, period and should have been enjoyed as such without assuming reality wouldn't intervene. FWIW, Littler appears to have been a recognised prodigy for some time now, and the numbers he's hitting are not astonishing for a 16 yo. They're just astonishing full stop. We may be about to hit a golden period for Darts, and if we could only find a couple of international players from North America to inherit the John Part legacy, the sport will be in as good a place, internationally, as its ever been. Darts, as a sport, is built imho for Las Vegas...

GB are chasing points in Men's pursuit, so the big guns will be back. Archibald is doing the Nations Cup circuit, apparently

The main thing for all these events is to step back from the 'Planet Olympic' gigantism and 'monumentalism'. Outside the middle east and parts of China - and possibly India - those days are over. We have all the venues we need, it's a matter of making the numbers work on a sensible scale. The Munich 2022 European Championships event cost 125 Million - a lot, but a fraction of the full Games cost. The Birmingham AL World Games 2022 cost about 80 million. The Billion pound events are taking the mick.

Just beat him. And beat him well. I recall the Bristow Deller final, though this feels more like Boris Becker's first charge at Wimbledon.

Jake Jarman, Matt Richards, Josh Kerr, Beth Potter, Tom Pidcock, Bryony Page, Emma Finucane and Joe Choong all raise a quizzical eyebrow....

Wonder is this the first time a Nordie has won the RTÉ prize (Rhys McCleneghan), but failed to pick up BBC NIs prize....

Bad news, but good timing. Better now than in 12 months

Peaty probably needs the 'reps'. The men's 4 x 1 team is the major one, as they don't have a time yet following the DQ in 2023 - I think they're probably safe in most of the other relays on time rankings, including men's and mixed medley. All the same...

Interesting inclusions Adam Peaty Max Litchfield Interesting omissions - including in relay terms: James Guy Jacob Peters Freya Anderson Katie Shanahan