No worries. VP had to drive for the sprinter's line after her aborted 'half charge' in the second round. The sprinter's line is defined by the space between the lowest (black) line and the second lowest (red) line.

There was no infringement in the second sprint. The infringement was in the first sprint at the end of the final turn. AM came down pretty aggressively with elbows out, but she did not seem to cross the red line (and thus enter the space occupied by the 'sprinter' being VP). But sometimes, reflex will cause the person underneath to react, and that looks like what happened. VP reacted and her bike came out of her sprinter's space (once you are in the sprinters line you have to stay there until the race is done of you are overtaken). The incident was on the exit of the last bend just before driving for the finish and that's where most infringements occur.

A rider can 'flick' their rear wheel up sometimes to deter someone, but that usually occurs when riders are outside of the sprinters line, when they are jostling at high speed to enter the line. It cannot be dangerous or acutely aggressive though, but it's pretty objective.

VP definitely came out of the line. The contention is/was (and usually is) whether the top rider 'came down' too aggressively which would have started the whole thing. The commissaries thought not, different comms on a different night might see it differently. But like I say, that all goes around and comes around.

Here it is Matt ... the stat you haven't been waiting for. Go on NZ

Total medals per million population
Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
Medals Total Medals
/Million
1 Grenada 1 0 0 1 9.1734
2 New Zealand 3 2 5 10 2.3106
3 Slovenia 1 1 2 4 2.0034
4 Denmark 2 4 3 9 1.6235
5 Estonia 0 1 1 2 1.5690
6 Jamaica 2 1 1 4 1.3845
7 Australia 5 12 9 26 1.1810
8 Hungary 6 2 3 11 1.1046
9 Qatar 0 0 2 2 1.0248
10 Armenia 0 1 2 3 1.0099
11 Belarus 3 2 4 9 0.9431
12 Netherlands 5 4 6 15 0.8966
13 Cyprus 0 1 0 1 0.8787
14 Trinidad and Tobago 0 0 1 1 0.8154
15 Sweden 1 3 3 7 0.7689
16 Great Britain 22 13 13 48 0.7613
17 Slovakia 0 1 3 4 0.7295
18 Croatia 2 1 0 3 0.6696
19 Georgia 1 1 1 3 0.6563
20 Norway 1 1 1 3 0.6373

FINALLY!!! AUSTRALIA WIN!!!

BUT, lets see those stats as GOLD medals per 1 million population, and see where Australia are..

... and just how does that benefit Australia eh?

well it wouldn't, they would be well below GB.. that table just shows how good Australia are coming 2nd or 3rd.

The funniest thing about that is NZ come out even bloody higher than they are now compared to Australia! Brilliant!

The old 'population' cliche is well past its use by date. A better barometer is medals vs % of funding/ facilities.

True ... on funding that would surely have Team Bee Gees in last place

Or what we could do is let the people playing the sport do their best and if their best isn't good enough they don't win. Sport is not some sort of proportional representation and only non sporting people would say it is. Ask any sports person if they would like the plucky trier to win over them? Ask them if so long as people make the effort they can call themselves winners? I despise having China 1st, given what they put their athletes through and their other endearing features but the fact is that they are first and probably always will be!

Whatever way Aussie want to twist it they have been well and truly spanked :-)

how so? I'm talking individual sports vs % of funding available.

That's very simplistic. You're using both ends of the spectrum to try and make a case. Yes there are some sports/ situations where giving your all is enough. But there are many when it is not. If you put enough funding, facilities, respurces and have a long term plan, there is no reason not to expect results. Skimp on any of these (for whatever reason) then giving your all under the circumstances is all anyone can ask

GB over achieves in the pool, given what they have to work with. They achieve to expectations in cycling, particlarly track, under achieve in football, and so on.

These things take years to build on though. If iI (as a non investment professional) took all your savings for a few years and returned you a loss but said ' I really tried hard hard and gave it my best' would that be ok? maybe. If you gave your money to a financial planner or other investment professional with all their knowledge and available resources and you still ended up with a loss, would your acceptance of the situation be the same? Of course not. Now imagine on top of that, the expert had been shouting their mouth off to anybody that would listen that they were going to get you a massive return, then your disappointment would be magnified.

Being a Chinese athlete, must really suck ass though

Errr..... right..... yeah.

We heard a lot being made of what a waste of money the Olympics were but I reckon the feel good factor I am witnessing in this country is worth every penny. Add to that the long term legacy as well of course.