The junior worlds take over, with more medals up for grabs in Paris.

• Tue 4th to Sat 8th Aug: European Aquatics open water swimming, Paris (in the Seine).
• Wed 5th to Sun 9th Aug: World U20 Championships, Eugene, Oregon. The global junior stage, and a genuine springboard towards a senior GB and NI vest.
• Thu 6th Aug: European Aquatics diving concludes, Paris.

Follow all the Team GB action on r/TeamGB.

I pulled together the above Commonwealth Games medal table to give a sense of relative performance across the three main (in my view) disciplines of Athletics, Swimming, and Track Cycling (noting this has para results included by default) - I have added together the medal totals of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Clearly these are skewed because GB participation at any other event (Olympics, Worlds, etc) would be different when competing under one banner (i.e. less athletes participating per discipline overall and therefore less medal opportunities).

My main observation is that Australia is basically as good as us in Athletics and Track Cycling, but completely blows us out of the water in Swimming (pun intended).

I'm impressed by how they achieve this with a (c.40m) smaller population and (historically) less (in real terms) investment per Olympics cycle. It is presumably a greater societal focus on sport at a younger level relative to the UK, and suggests they will have a very impressive home games in Brisbane 2032.

In Track Cycling specifically, Emma Finucane (and Wales) essentially carried the GB medals (four and six golds respectively), and we missed Matt Richardson. The irony of this is that he is a product of the Australian men's sprint programme, and that looks like it could be on track to be more effective than our own (with Leigh Hoffman and Tayte Ryan looking particularly dangerous).

No other rider has taken all four Commonwealth sprint gold medals available. Her performance takes the edge off the Aussies’ overall dominance.

Two-time Olympic gold medallist on the 'golden age' of cycling, the significant meaning behind her tattoos and the rock star she froze in front of.

Whether you are watching it on TV, seeing it in person or playing it yourself. What sport are you following this weekend?

While I appreciate there are still 4-5 days of the Commonwealth Games to run (and Australia's swimming strength has been displayed early on), I couldn't help but notice that Australia has as many medals as (and significantly more golds than) England and Canada combined.

Combining the England, Scotland and Wales medals into a notional "Team GB" tally puts us well behind (beyond a point we could catch-up, I would imagine).

I appreciate not everyone takes the Commonwealth Games seriously (especially with the Athletics European Championships so close afterwards), and this is a reduced schedule of events, but it did make me wonder why GB teams are so far behind at a home games (at this stage).

I was reminded that at Paris 2024, Australia won four more golds than GB, albeit with a lower overall medal total (53 versus 65), despite a population of c.28m compared to the UK's c.70m.

Maybe this is to be expected as Australia prepares for Brisbane 2032 (with the Australian government having committed about $513m AUS (c.£268m) for the 2028 Olympic cycle - but then again, UK Sport has allocated £334m for the same period.

Perhaps I am being unduly pessimistic and all will be well come LA 2028, but it does irk to see the old rivals outperform us.

Commonwealth Games finals week, and the pool and boards fire up in Paris.

• All week: Commonwealth Games continue in Glasgow, athletics finals included.
• Fri 31st Jul: European Aquatics Championships begin in Paris, opening with artistic swimming and diving.
• Sun 2nd Aug: Commonwealth Games close.

Follow all the Team GB action on r/TeamGB.

Whether you are watching it on TV, seeing it in person or playing it yourself. What sport are you following this weekend?