We're rapidly approaching the conclusion of the first qualification period for the judo team so thought it would be good idea to take stock of progress. Men's 60Kg: (Target Total* - 2360) 4 active judokas with 2 worth watching: Samuel Hall - (Points Total: 295) Should be a strong bet for qualification given his world ranking of 39 but so far he has only competed twice in this weight class during the qualification window. Not sure if he is injured or is looking to make a late push for points. I am assuming he's not injured as he has competed 3 times in the 66Kg weight division. He is currently listed as taking part in the Antalya GS next month but that could still change. At the moment, he is around 220-230 points adrift of direct qualification spot. Qualification Ranking: 46 Adjusted Ranking: 22 Joshua Giles - (Points Total: 135) Has competed in 6 events so far at the Continental Open and Grand Prix level. His best result was runner-up at the Cluj-Napoca European Open and last 16 at the Portugal GP. His next discard score will be 3 points so plenty of room for him to improve but would be good to see him in Grand Slam action if he is looking to make serious attempt to qualify for Paris. Qualification Ranking: 74 Adjusted Ranking: 36 Men's 66Kg: (Target Total* - 2390) 7 active judokas: Michael Fryer - (Points Total: 313) With a world ranking of 70, he has competed 6 times so far including at Grand Slam level. Has struggled to make it passed first round unfortunately. His best result came at the Perth Open where he finished 3rd. His next discard score will be 5 points he has a good chance of being able to increase that score before the end of the first qualification period. Currently around 300 points short of direct qualification. Qualification Ranking: 49 Adjusted Ranking: 26 Charlie Young - (Points Total: 188) Has competed in 5 events - although no Grand Slams so far. That could change next month as he is listed as entrant for Antalya GS. He won the Rome European Open and has a couple of last 16 appearances at Grand Prix level but would need a big step up in performance if he is to make it to Paris. Qualification Ranking: 68 Adjusted Ranking: 36 Men's 73Kg: (Target Total* - 2790) Eric Ham - (Points Total - 418) Has competed in 10 events but hasn't really made huge impact with 3 events where he has failed to win his first bout so came away with just participation points. His best result so far has been a 3rd place finish at the Perth Open. His next discount score will be 18 and he is scheduled to take part in Antalya. If he can get through his first bout, then he will be able to build his score but he needs a decent/lucky draw for that to happen. He needs around 220 points to make it to direct qualification spot. Qualification Ranking: 35 Adjusted Ranking: 26 Men's 81Kg: (Target Total* - 2650) Lachlan Moorhead - (Points Total: 696) If there was a prize for the most frustrating performer in the GB Judo Team, I'd think it would go to Moorhead. On his day, he can be great, but he has been very inconsistent. He has a world ranking of 25 - the highest for any of our male judoka. He's competed in 13 events so far and whilst he has picked up a couple of 3rd places at GP level and banked some good points at Worlds and Masters, he has also failed to win his first bout on 3 occasions. His next discount score is 60, so in order to move his score up, he is going to need to get to last 16 of Antalya GS next month. Despite all that, IJF currently have Moorhead down as a Continental Quota and he is about 40 points shy of the last direct qualification spot. Qualification Ranking: 23 Adjusted Ranking: 19 Men's 90Kg: (Target Total* - 2950) Jamal Petgrave - (Points Total: 645) Like Moorhead, Petgrave has racked up a lot of competition during the qualification window with 12 tournaments entered. His best result has been a couple of 3rd places. On the upside, he generally wins his first bout - he's only failed to do so once in the qualification window - but the downside is that he generally bows out in the round of 32 or round of 16 of the big tournaments so hasn't been able to drive his score forward. His next discount score will be 60 so he will need to get to last 16 of Antalya to increase his points total and even then it would only be an increase of 20 points. Unfortunately, Petgrave has just slipped out of direct qualification following results at Tblisi Qualification Ranking: 23 Adjusted Ranking: 19 Men's 100Kg: (Target Total* - 2400) Rhys Thompson - (Points Total: 381) Thompson has barely won a match during the qualification window. He's competed in 8 tournaments so far and has lost his opening bout on 5 occasions. In 2 tournaments he won 1 match and then lost. His score is pretty much entirely down to his victory at the Perth Open where he picked up 350 points. His next couple of discard scores will be 5 points so if he could string a couple of good results together we could see him make some progress on his qualification score. Thompson is currently around 300 points outside of direct qualification. Qualification Ranking: 36 Adjusted Ranking: 28 Harry Lovell-Hewitt - (Points Total: 236) Lovell-Hewitt has competed in 6 tournaments and has had some decent results at the European Open level after claiming runner-up spot in both Rome and Sofia. At Grand Slam level, he has been fairly consistent in getting through to the round of 16. He has a couple of 3 pointers that will be his next discard and he is due to compete in Antalya next month so we could see his points total moving towards 300 figure but it will still leave him well short of direct qualification spots. Qualification Ranking: 49 Adjusted Ranking: 34 Men's +100Kg: (Target Total* - 2300) Wesley Greenidge - (Points Total: 41) Has competed in 4 events and lost opening bout in 2 tournaments. When he does get through the first round he tends to perform not too bad with a third place finish in Warsaw and a 7th place in Cluj-Napoca European Open. Qualification Ranking: 97 Adjusted Ranking: 54 Women's 48Kg: (Target Total* - 2250) Amy Platten - (Points Total: 318) Has competed in 8 events across Continental Open, GP and GS level. Seems to struggle at the bigger tournaments - she hasn't won a match at GP or GS level in 4 attempts however at the continental level, she has a couple of third places. The majority of her points total comes from being runner up at the Perth Open. She is about 200 points shy of direct qualification. Qualification Ranking: 43 Adjusted Ranking: 27 Women's 52Kg: (Target Total* - 2780) Chelsie Giles - (Points Total: 2185) Don't think I am putting my neck out too far by saying Giles is probably the first of our nailed on certain qualifiers. Currently ranking 1 in the world. She's competed 5 times within the window - her only blip was a first round defeat at the Hungary grand slam, but since then, she has won both the Tel Aviv grand slam and Portugal grand prix, was runner up at the Masters and at World Champs. She's next up at Antalya so expect her points total to take another jump next month. Qualification Ranking: 3 Adjusted Ranking: 3 Women's 52Kg: (Target Total* - 2780) Probably our most competitive weight class with 3 judoka in the race for qualification. Lele Nairne - (Points Total: 979) Wasn't a name I was familiar with before this year, but she has competed in 8 events and has racked up some decent performances - runner up at the Perth Open, 7th place at the Masters and 5th place at Baku GS. She is currently in a direct qualification spot Qualification Ranking: 14 Adjusted Ranking: 13 Nekoda Smythe-Davis - (Points Total: 570) Missed the Tokyo Olympics due to pregnancy, is quickly becoming poster girl for mums returning to sport. Has entered 6 events and has won the Riccione Open, was third at Portugal GP and has a couple of 7th places at GS level. She is due to take part in the Antalya GS next month and her discount score will be a 5. So assuming she can get through her first bout, she has a good chance to increase her points total. 200 points needed to get into a direct qualification spot. Qualification Ranking: 29 Adjusted Ranking: 21 Acelya Toprak - (Points Total: 495) When the qualification window opened, Toprak was the highest ranked GBR judoka in this weight division but she seems to have been eclipsed by both Nairne and Smythe-Davis. She has competed 8 times and has lost her opening match on 5 occasions. Her points total in largely driven by runner up spot at Perth Open and she also had a 7th place finish at Abu Dhabi GS. The good news for her is that she has plenty of low value discount scores available so if she can get a decent result at Antalya GS, her score will begin to move forward. Qualification Ranking: 31 Adjusted Ranking: 23 Women's 63Kg: (Target Total* - 2480) Lucy Renshall - (Points Total: 1924) The second of our nailed on certainties for qualification, Renshall will return to world number 1 this week after victory at Tiblisi GS. She has competed in 7 events during the qualification window and has 2 gold and a bronze medal at grand slam level along with 7th place finishes at both World Champs and Masters. Her only blip was a 1st round loss at Paris GS which is her current discard score. Will be difficult - but not impossible - for her score to increase too much further. Her next discount score is 180 so she would need to get 5th place at Antalya to move her score forward. Qualification Ranking: 3 Adjusted Ranking: 3 Women's 70Kg: (Target Total* - 3020) Katie Jemima Yeats-Brown - (Points Total: 761) Has competed in 8 events with a bronze medals at both Abu Dhabi GS and the Perth Open. More recently, she's got to the round of 16 at both Tel Aviv and Tblisi grand slams. Her next discard score is 56, so she will need to reach last 16 at Antalya if her score is to improve. She is currently in a direct qualification spot but has been dropping down the rankings recently. Qualification Ranking: 18 Adjusted Ranking: 17 Kelley Petersen Pollard - (Points Total: 726) Has been in a close battle with Yeats-Brown for bragging rights in this weight class. Has competed in 9 events, but has reached the podium as yet. Her best results being a couple of 5th places at grand slam level. Like Yeats-Brown, her next discard score will be 56 and the pair will resume rivalry at the Antalya GS next month. Qualification Ranking: 20 Adjusted Ranking: 18 Women's 78Kg: (Target Total* - 2330) Natalie Powell - (Points Total: 1264) Ranked 13 in the world, Powell has competed in 9 events so far. Best result has been victory at Zagreb GP and runner-up at Abu Dhabi GS but equally, she has 3 events where she has lost in the first round. Her next discard score is 130 so will be difficult to push her score much higher. She is pretty well positioned for direct qualification. Qualification Ranking: 7 Adjusted Ranking: 7 Emma Reid - (Points Total: 650) Ranked 18 in the world, Reid hasn't been able to match the performances of Powell so far. Across 8 events, her best result is a bronze at the Portugal GP, and a 5th place at Hungary GS. Like Powell, she has also had 3 events where she has failed to progress beyond the first round. However, she does have a couple of low discard scores available to her, so assuming she can get through the first round at Antalya, she should be able to close the gap on Powell over the next few events. Were it not for the fact that Powell is higher ranked, then Reid would be comfortably in a direct qualification spot. Qualification Ranking: 22 Adjusted Ranking: 15 Women's +78Kg: (Target Total* - 2480) Haven't seen anything to suggest that Sarah Adlington has decided to continue after last year's Commonwealth Games which leaves this weight class pretty empty from a GB perspective. (* Target Total is taken from Tokyo qualification list and represents the points total required for the last direct quota spot in each weight class.)

We look promising in many sports early on too. In swimming we could be set for having an athlete in every event, and in shooting we could be set for 8-10 shooters and almost one in every discipline - which is more than double from the 3-4 we had at Tokyo.

I agree with that assessment. Early doors though

I could be wrong on this, but it feels like Team GB are doing better than we have in previous Olympic cycles - we haven't had any unexpected quotas, but we seem to be banking those quotas earlier than we have done previously.

https://gbgames.sport.blog/2023/03/12/shooting-mcintosh-qualifies-with-silver-medal/ After a winter without many events we're back with Seaonaid McIntosh earning a silver medal and a quota place at the European Shooting Championships (10m).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/64853103 Finally got reported on

New GB women's 10000m record. Eilish McColgan breaks Paula Radcliffe's long standing record in California

i was thinking top 10 would be amazing!

And you didn't even mention the speed skating...

First medal for Courtney-Bryant, bronze in Women's 3000m

Potentially the greatest winter sports day in the history of British sport coming right up! 07:00 Ski Halfpipe World Champs from Georgia - Zoe Atkin qualified third 09:00 World Junior Curling Championships from Germany - Scotland Women in the Final 09:30 Snowboard Big Air World Champs from Georgia - Mia Brookes qualified first 12:15 Ski Big Air World Champs from Georgia - Kirsty Muir qualified first 14:00 World Junior Curling Championships from Germany - Scotland Men in tonight's Semis.

Good morning as well. Everyone went through their heats in W 1500m + 60m. In pentathlon Mills is currently 5th medal unlikely. Finals later start 4pm on BBC

Good start for us in Istanbul: W High Jump Morgan Lake qualified 8th with 1.91m. No-one reached the Q target (website says 4.65!) as only 8 were left on 1.91 andtop 8 qualified. M 800m Guy Learmonth through. 3rd in heat (1:47.51) (2 per heat Q) but through as the fastest loser (2 fastest losers through) W 800m Isabelle Boffey won heat (2 Q) in 2:03.24, Keely Hodgkinson also won heat in 2:01.67. W 3000m Hannah Nuttall 3rd in heat (6 Q) in 8:53.72, Melissa Courtney-Bryant 4th in heat in 9:00.40 M 1500m George Mills 2nd in heat (3 Q) in 3:50.01, Neil Gourley won heat in 3:41.08 First medals today: W 3000m, M 1500m, W Pentathlon (Holly Mills), W 60m (Daryll Neita, Asha Philip) Heats for W 1500m (Katie Snowden, Laura Muir, Ellie Baker), Heats and Semis for W 60m

Hope to god this isn't true. Athletics is a different kettle of fish to swimming. Swimming has 4 different strokes which can be easily mastered by any talented swimmer, whereas with athletics it's almost impossible for a race walker to become a top level Hammer thrower. I hope the athletes and especially brodcasters and pundits call this out for what it is.

This attitude worked well when Buckner was head of British swimming. Really not convinced if it'll have the same success in athletics

This is disappointing if true: Great Britain to take smaller squads to future athletics championships | Daily Mail Online UK Athletics has always had a somewhat controversial selection policy which has resulted in athletes missing out on places at both Olympics and World Champs but they generally had the cover of the A and B standards. It will be interesting to see how the athletes respond to this given World Athletics have moved to increase the importance of the world ranking in securing qualification. I'd be pretty cheesed off if I had worked my ass off to build my world ranking, earn my qualification only to be told I'm not going to threaten a medal so I'm not going to be taken.

First ever British medal in Ski Cross! Silver for Oliver Davis. His previous World Cup best was 7th, although he had a World Championships 4th. Also, we were just 0.06 short if a 1-2-3 in the Men’s Skeleton! Did get Gold & Silver though. And Silver for Laura Dead in the Women’s Sleleton!

Sky Brown becomes Skateboard Park World Champion & Lola Tambling sixth, so that’ll be two quota places sealed.

https://www.wsportsalliance.com/news/tabby-stoecker-british-skeleton-rising-star Interesting story from the world of skeleton

The sensational GB run of success in winter sport continues... Silver for Brad Hall at the World Bobsleigh Championship 4 man event Gold for Charlotte Bankes in World Cup snowboardcross Silver for Kirsty Muir in World Cup freestyle skiing Slopestyle

We are actually good at Telemark, regular medals.

Bit more obscure but Jasmin Taylor wins a world cup bronze in Telemark Skiing