Team GB at the 2024 World Aquatics Championship

[TeamGB 207]

I can't wait for Paris. Everything seems to be falling into place.

[Mkbw50 449]

Haslam 6th with 438.60

Tomorrow's lineup:

0702 Diving Women's 3m Springboard Preliminaries - Yasmin Harper, Grace Reid

0730 Water Polo Women's Group D - vs

1100 Artistic Swimming Women's Duet Free - Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe

1532 Diving Men's 10m Synchronised Final - Thomas Daley and Noah Williams

[RussB 189]

Absolutely agree with this. GBR are having a great meet despite Jack having a couple of mishaps. The other takeaway is that China as always look almost unbeatable in all of the diving events.

 

So exciting to see the girls seriously contend for medals in the Artistic Swimming in an Olympic year.

[Dragon 2,026]

Possible that GBR could match last year's medal total before the pool swimming gets started.

[Mkbw50 449]

Reid through in 6th with 282.55, Harper 23rd with 238.80. Only Reid advances to the semis. The water polo team wins 14-5 (!) and will play Australia in the Round of 16. Kate and Isabelle win another bronze medal with 247.2626 and the tally is 1-2-6.

[Mkbw50 449]

422.37 for Daley and Williams. So it's 1-3-6... I think, I'm starting to get lose count of all of these.

Tomorrow:

0702 Diving Women's 3m Springboard Semifinals - Grace Reid

0932 Diving Men's 10m Platform Preliminaries - Kyle Kothari, Noah Williams

1532 Diving Women's 3m Springboard Final - Grace Reid

[mpjmcevoy 375]

14 minutes ago, Mkbw50 said:

422.37 for Daley and Williams. So it's 1-3-6... I think, I'm starting to get lose count of all of these.

Tomorrow:

0702 Diving Women's 3m Springboard Semifinals - Grace Reid

0932 Diving Men's 10m Platform Preliminaries - Kyle Kothari, Noah Williams

1532 Diving Women's 3m Springboard Final - Grace Reid

GBR have bagged 3 open water quotas, an Artistic swimming quota the men's synchro 10m and the outstanding men's 3m quota. Grace Reid is the last quota available barring unexpected miracles in the Water Polo. And they've bagged five world medals while getting those quotas. This seems like success beyond their wildest hopes

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

23 hours ago, RussB said:

Absolutely agree with this. GBR are having a great meet despite Jack having a couple of mishaps. The other takeaway is that China as always look almost unbeatable in all of the diving events.

So, I will just throw a slight note of caution here because I think our diving team is actually a step or two behind what they achieved last year - at least in the Olympic classes.

 

In Fukuoka, we won 3 silver medals. In Doha, with 2 more Olympic events to go,  are sitting with 1 silver and 3 bronze and some of our biggest medal prospects haven't been at their best. On the upside, where they've needed to, they have done to secure the quotas for Paris. 

[RussB 189]

I'm in agreement with looking through the lens very positively here. Holding the GBR squad to the 3 silvers in Olympic events from last year as a baseline is an unrealistic high bar given the dominance of the Chinese (essentially making gold medals unattainable) to judge against.

 

Across the board the GB diving team has been the "best of the rest" behind China in both the men's and women's events. I think separate from diving, we can all be agreed that the developments of Izzy and Kate in the duet artistic swimming is hugely exciting, their progression has certainly taken me by surprise this meet. Is it possible GB contend for medals in Paris in both the technical and free duet artistic swimming? We also have Hector Pardoe smashing a surprise bronze in the 10km open water with another big step forward, which alongside two extra quota spots gained by the team were hugely encouraging.

 

Also a shoutout to the women's water polo team for reaching the top 12 in the World! Again - positive development steps.

 

Finally - this is before a race has even started in the swimming meet. The competition is significantly weakened admittedly, with the AUS and USA squads, in particular, looking smaller and without notable big guns, but I fully expect GB athletes to step up and be a force in this competition in both individuals and relays. Let's keep pushing!

[Mkbw50 449]

If we take a step back, compare this meet to say, 2005, then we'll realise just what a great era this is, and we're a powerhouse in diving, the best country present apart from , winning a huge amount of medals. In artistic swimming, winning medals for the first time in my memory (perhaps ever, I'm not sure), and maybe doing it for the first time ever in Paris is believable. In swimming, we don't match or but there are few others that are clearly better than us. A medal in open water and not just a participation but a win in water polo, I think we have to be happy.