Britain to raise Winter Paralympic targets after finishing Games with solitary medal
UK Sport is set to raise performance targets for the next Winter Paralympics after Great Britain returned from Milano Cortina with only a single silver medal.ParalympicsGB failed to hit a reduced target of two to five medals in Italy, with only Neil Simpson making the podium following a second-placed finish in the men’s visually impaired alpine combination skiing.On Sunday Simpson did not finish either of his runs in the VI slalom, putting a final end to hopes of further success.UK Sport determines public funding for Olympic and Paralympic sport and their director of performance, Dr Kate Baker, said there was pride to be taken from many performances at the Games.However, she said questions would also have to be asked over the future direction of the British winter Paralympic programme.
“I don’t think we could ever be disappointed in this group but I think we’re all committed to making sure that performance happens [at the 2030 Games],” Baker said.“Performance is the thing that gives us the platform to do all of the other important stuff that we’re doing out here.”Asked if UK Sport would set a higher medal target for 2030 when the winter Olympic and Paralympic games will be held in the French Alps, Baker said: “Yes.”UK Sport will now undertake a review process that is expected to be completed by the summer.“Of course we remain committed to Winter Paralympic sport,” Baker said, “but it’s also important that we do things in a way which is efficient and effective.
”Baker raised doubts over whether Britain can effectively compete in some winter Paralympic sports, especially the Nordic events of cross-country skiing and biathlon,Together the events form a third of the winter Paralympic programme, but only one British athlete qualified for competition, Scott Meenagh, and he finished no higher than 14th in his four events,“For disciplines like slalom and curling, you can do those in the UK,” Baker said,“You can do it at a dry slope or you can do it at a low peak,I think we need to be realistic about our prospects across a wider range beyond that.
Getting out on snow is a challenge.It’s a challenge because of Schengen restrictions.It’s a challenge because of climate change.But it’s an absolute non-negotiable.[Without that] we’re not going to be blessed with a wide base of people who are going to meet the classification and be physiologically the kind of specimen that would be required to be successful.
”ParalympicsGB’s chef de mission at the winter games, Phil Smith, said results had “obviously been tough” but that there was reason to be optimistic for 2030.“I still believe there’s a lot of positives that we can take from this going forward,” he said.“If you ran this week again, we could [have been] in the middle of that target with just a little bit more luck.“I don’t think we need to completely start fresh, but I do think there’s some areas that the sport will need to look at.I think we would obviously want to say it after this week, but in 2030, there is an opportunity for us to continue to lay a marker down that we can be really competitive in Winter Paralympic sport.
”
Oil company shares soar to all-time highs as Middle East war turbocharges price per barrel
Shares in big oil companies have soared to all-time highs since the war in Iran began and sparked historic price rises on global oil and gas markets.The combined market value of the six stock market-listed western “super majors” has soared by more than $130bn in the two weeks since the first US-Israeli attacks on Iran.The energy supply shock caused by the conflict has resulted in record stock market valuations for London-listed Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, as well as US oil companies ExxonMobil and Chevron.The market shock is expected to deliver multibillion-dollar windfalls for the industry, even as sites in the Middle East are hit by the conflict.US oil companies can expect a $63
Beyond the strait: why attacks on Kharg Island could keep oil prices high
About 20 miles off the coast of Iran lies the source of the petrostate’s economic lifeblood and the latest target of US military aggression: an 8 sq mile coral island through which nine in every 10 barrels of Iranian crude passes each day.The US president’s decision to launch a weekend attack on Kharg Island, the home of Iran’s processing hub and the heart of its economy, is an unsurprising counterstrike to the Iranian regime’s ongoing chokehold on the oil market’s trade artery.But uncertainty over future oil production by one of the world’s largest producers, is also likely to cause further market volatility after weeks of historic price increases.Donald Trump ordered the US military attack on Iran’s most strategic economic asset on Saturday, exactly two weeks after the US-Israeli strikes which began the war and led to the blocking of the strait of Hormuz.The bombardment took aim at military assets on the island, and has so far spared oil facilities
AI has exposed age-old problems with university coursework | Letter
The frustration many academics are expressing about artificial intelligence and critical thinking is understandable (‘I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff’: professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI, 10 March). But from my experience working with students on academic writing, blaming AI risks masking a problem that universities have lived with for years.In my work with students, I have long seen the ways in which thinking can be outsourced when assessment allows it: essay mills, shared past papers, model essays passed between cohorts, or heavy reliance on tutors and friends to structure assignments. Artificial intelligence did not invent this behaviour. It has simply industrialised a shortcut that already existed
Trump administration reportedly set to be paid $10bn for brokering TikTok deal
Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly poised to be paid $10bn by investors as part of a deal to create a US-controlled version of TikTok.The $10bn, considered by the US government as a sort of transaction fee, will be paid by the administration-friendly investors who took control of TikTok’s US operations from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, according to reporting that first appeared in the Wall Street Journal.The investors in the popular social media app include software company Oracle; MGX, an investment firm based in the United Arab Emirates; and private equity business Silver Lake. These entities, along with other backers, paid $2.5bn to the US treasury when the deal closed in January and are set to make further payments in the unusual arrangement until the total hits $10bn
USA v Dominican Republic: World Baseball Classic semi-final – live
Email!Peter Brown says:“I’m hate watching this purely in the slim hope that the USA mess up - then I’ll watch all the amusing hand wringing that will ensue on YouTube. But I fear a blockade or invasion of if the conjoined twin of Haiti prevails !!”I think you better erase that Peter!MojoUS starting pitcher Paul Skenes was just speaking on FOX TV in the US and he mentioned servicemen and the military and fighting and winning. I have no idea what representing your country in a baseball game has to do with the military, but it seems to be a thing in the US dugout. Personally, I don’t need to hear about all that before a baseball game, but maybe that’s just me.It’s a bit lighter on the DR side
Cameron Young holds off Matt Fitzpatrick on final hole to win Players Championship
The PGA Tour might have lost out in the court of public opinion over whether the Players Championship could be a major. However, the level of drama as shadows lengthened on this Sawgrass Sunday set the tournament aside from most others.It came down to Cameron Young versus Matt Fitzpatrick. As Fitzpatrick agonisingly missed for par on the 72nd hole, Young had secured the biggest win of his career. He had emerged triumphant from a sporting thriller
Stout clobber? Guinness tie-up features £1,295 ‘pub carpet’ jumper
Relief for some of Britain’s poorest lands at right moment to cushion Iran aftershocks | Heather Stewart
One of Britain’s last major chemical plants at risk as energy prices surge
‘The chef is a metre away from you’: the cosy allure of micro-restaurants
Rate rises, helium shortages, EV sales spikes: how is the disruption in Iran’s strait of Hormuz affecting Australia?
‘The sums don’t add up’: UK farmers struggle as Iran war drives up costs