Looks like it has been a bit of a catastrophe with no more of our canoes through today, so we will only have representation in 3/12 events at Rio. A big letdown after two very promising cycles in 2008 and 2012.

More about the canoeing

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/36335053

There's a World Cup at the same venue on Sunday.

https://www.youtube.com/c/planetcanoe

I guess that will see a cut in funding. Feels to me that Canoeing should be 1 of those sports where like Rowing & Track Cycling you can improve results with financial investment

A couple of changes to the British MAG squads at the ECh:
* Whitlock has apparently been ill over the past week, so he has been withdrawn with Olympic preparations in mind. Tulloch will take his spot, so the battle for that last spot in Rio (vs Smith) takes an interesting turn.
* Junior gymnast Hamish Carter (2015 European YOF all-around champion) is withdrawn due to a fractured toe. His spot is taken by Donnel Osbourne.

Can't say that I'm an expert but Ed McKeever looks to me to be suffering from Harry Aikenes-Ayrety syndrome - ie so much time spend in the gym building muscle that you forget that the muscle is supposed to help you go fast.

Jade Jones is on track for a good season as she won her first (!) W-57kg European Championships gold. She'll be on the plane to Rio, natch.

GB Taekwondo got off the mark yesterday, courtesy of a M-58kg bronze medal by ECh debutant Feyi Pearce.

Shame really, as it didn't seem to be necessary. I was lucky enough to be there when he won gold in 2012, was a brilliant performance.

We do seem to be seeing ebb and flow in sports were we have done well/less well in recent years, so I am still optimistic it will largely balance itself out in the end, although my expectation is for less gold medals overall.

I've been enjoying the european championship swimming this week and will be there tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully the GB swimmers are on course to do much better than the last few games.

There is the potential but the guy who won the 200m Breaststroke for example last night isn't actually in that event for the Olympics due to a poor British trials.

Really hope it's nothing serious for Max & not a repeat of his getting glandular fever last year. Anyone know if getting glandular fever makes you more susceptible to contracting it again?

Interesting that they have bought in Tulloch rather than a genuine all rounder like James Hall or Sam Oldham. No All Around comp at the Europeans but Max's absence does weaken the team obviously. Still enough class to hold off the Russians & Ukraine but it'll be much closer.

Pentathlon GB are sending 9 competitors to the UIPM World Championships in Moscow (22-29 May). Olympic selection for the Brits is primarily dependent on how well they do in this comp; individual medals will earn automatic selection.

On recent form, James Cooke is the best of the bunch. A medal for him, which is possible, would also complete the quota Team GB can claim (2 men & 2 women).

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Tulloch did all 6 pieces at the British Championships, so in that regard he's not too far behind Hall and Oldham. However, those two do not have a high 15-pointer (on rings or otherwise) in their skill set - which must be why Tulloch got the nod.

Guess it's horses for courses with the Europeans. Even in the qualifying, its 3 up, 3 to count. Courtney did score well in the Vault & P Bars at British champs although his other pieces were so so.

The British Team were just under 2 marks ahead of the Russians at Worlds. No Max will cost us up to 2.5-3 marks on floor & pommel alone. Courtney will make some of that up on the Rings and also not be too far off Max's score on Vault & P Bars. We will also lose something on High Bar. It's going to be tough to win Team gold without Max

At the qualifying tournament in Japan for the women volleyball, the following countries have (also) qualified for Rio:

- The Netherlands (my country)
- Italy
- South Korea
- Japan

(which means that "we" will have 3 female teams in Rio, only the football and waterpolo women failed to qualify; well and rugby sevens)

These are probably the poules at the Rio games:

Poule A

- USA
- China
- Serbia
- Italy
- The Netherlands
- Dominican Republic (still has to qualify)

Poule B

- Brasil
- Russia
- Japan
- South Korea
- Argentina
- Cameroon

Dutch girls are too proud to wear gum shields, of course.

Back in Montreux, it's W-67kg gold for 17 year-old debutante Lauren Williams - which means Wales now boasts TWO European champions! Tokyo 2020 is some time away, but if things go well for her...

Lutalo Muhammad was beaten in the M-80kg quarters, which leaves the door open for Samsun to make his case tomorrow...looking elsewhere (i.e. Astana), Team GB definitely won't have a full complement of boxers in Rio as Chantelle Cameron was beaten 2-1 in the -60kg round of 32 at the AIBA Women's WCh.

Both Damon Sansum and Mahama Cho were knocked out in their respective quarters (M-87/+87kg, albeit by narrow margins), so no men on the podium this time - compared to 4 in 2014.

In comparison, the women have done a sterling job - Bianca Walkden successfully defended her W+73kg title and will head to Rio as the +67kg favourite.

The final Olympic qualification regatta is underway in Lucerne, where the British women are looking to claim berths in the single and quadruple sculls (top-4 and top-2 finish required respectively).

The 2015-16 World Rugby Sevens Series came to an end in London, with Scotland taking the spoils in a dramatic 27-26 win over South Africa - despite trailing 26-15 with 30 seconds to go!! Fiji secured the overall title.

Things may be on the up for our modern pentathlon women as Joanna Muir and Samantha Murray won WCh relay silver! Admittedly it's a non-Olympic event and there were only 7 pairs competing, but it's a good way to start the champs.

Back in Astana, Lisa Whiteside was beaten 3-0* in the -54kg round of 16, so she won't win a third medal in succession. That means three Brits are still in competition; any that win tomorrow's quarters are guaranteed WCh medals (and in Marshall's case, Olympic qualification would be achieved).

The great Irishwoman is one win away from qualification too.

[* Or rather, lost by unanimous decision - earlier phrasing might have been a bit misleading]

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LIve coverage of the UIPM Senior WCh is available on http://www.uipmtv.org/

How on Earth I forgot about Pearce's bronze (which I did a post on!) at the time, I'll never know...

Extremely busy week with lots more last-chance Olympic qualifiers.

Rowing - The final Olympic qualifiers are being held today. Britain had two boats involved - the women's single scull and the women's Quad scull. Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne has already been eliminated from the single, but our women's Quad are in this afternoon's final, where they need to get top two. Chances are not great - they had to qualify via the repechage.

https://www.britishrowing.org/2016/0...a-tough-final/

The Regatta then continues with the second World Cup of the year at the weekend.

Archery - European Championships / Final European Qualifiers being held in Notthingham all week. We don't have anyone at all qualified yet

http://www.archerygb.org/news/7092.php#.V0QePvkrKUk

There are three men's and three women's individual quota places available, but a maximum of one per nation per sex. Finals are on Sunday, streamed on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/c/worldarcherytv

The final chance to get team qualification places are in the next World Cup in Turkey in June.

Tennis - Heather Watson's win in Paris yesterday was enough to lift her into an Olympic qualifying place.

https://www.teamgb.com/news/watson-s...ctory-in-paris

Adams, Taylor and Marshall have progressed to the semis in Astana - thereby ensuring they are WCh medallists once more. Just as importantly, the latter two have also secured Olympic qualification!*

Sandy Ryan goes out by unanimous decision in the -64kg quarters, so she just misses out on a second medal in succession.

[* Courtesy of Marshall, Team GB have matched their 2012 haul of 10 berths - with perhaps a couple more to come from the men's divisions]

They could only manage fourth place - so the tally is confirmed as 12/14 berths, which is still very good. Mind you, the overall W4x quota of seven (which is almost small enough for a straight final) is rather tight.

Live coverage of the boxing semis and finals starts tomorrow morning on BBC Red Button

The Brits are off to a great start in the European AG Champs - team gold again for the junior boys.

Giarnni Regini-Moran also topped the all-around qualification with 85.964, including an eye-catching 15.400 on his first vault...then made the vault final as his second was scored at 15.366 for an average of 15.383, which would have won bronze at last year's World Championships!!

In the Modern Pentathlon Samantha Murray and Kate French both got into Friday's World Cup Final; Freyja Prentice and debutante Jo Muir didn't make it.

http://www.uipmtv.org/ for streaming of the final at 14:30 on Friday.

If you haven't seen it, the stream is about 30 mins highlights of swimming, fencing and showjumping, plus live coverage of the very exciting combined run/shoot, which like biathlon pursuit races always sees lots of changes of position, people coming from a long way back to podium etc.

Men's semis today, finals on Saturday.

And in the European Archery Champs, Britain's men's team are through to the gold medal match and the women's team through to the bronze medal matches on Sunday. Not Olympic Qualifiers, but the men's team have also been going well in the World Cup through the spring.

Solo matches - which are Olympic qualifiers - underway today and tomorrow.

http://www.archerygb.org/news/7100.php#.V0a9-PkrKUk

Nicola Adams into the final!