Team GB in 2026

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

A poorly planned itinerary meant that I ended up with a 9-hour layover in Dubai and as I didn't need all that time to pick up the duty free, I have mapped out the year ahead across most of the summer sports. 

 

There's still a couple of sports which don't seem to have published their full calendar, so expect that there will be some updates in the next few weeks.

2028 Los Angeles Qualification Timeline.xlsx

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

2026 Week 1 (1-Jan - 11-Jan) Events:

 

A good mix of events to ease us into the new year...

 

Badminton:

PETRONAS Malaysia Open (6-11 Jan) - We should see quite a few Brits in action. Kirsty Gilmour is expected to compete in the Women's Singles whilst Ben Lane and Sean Vendy are listed in the Men's Doubles. Julie MacPherson and Ciara Torrance will be in the Women's Doubles with MacPherson also competing in the Mixed Doubles with Alexander Dunn.

 

YONEX Estonian International (8-11 Jan) - Currently pending the details of the draw, but we should have Ethan Rose competing in the Men's Singles, whilst Samuel Jones will team up with Oliver Butler and Josh Taylor with Evan Kenny for the Men's Doubles. 

 

 

Equestrian - Dressage:

FEI Dressage World Cup: Wellington (7-11 Jan) - Pending confirmation of the entry list.

 

FEI Dressage World Cup: Basel (8-11 Jan) - Pending confirmation of the entry list but would expect a couple of Brits to be competing. 

 

Equestrian - Jumping:

Longines FEI World Cup: Basel (8-11 Jan) - Pending confirmation of the entry list but would expect a couple of Brits to be in action. 

 

 

Fencing:

A total of 8 different Fencing events in the calendar this week across Junior and Seniors. There's no Brits in the Junior World Cup for Foil or Sabre, but we do have six athletes competing in the women's Junior Epee World Cup - Olivia Eadie, Maisie Everett, Katy Hawthorne, Kseniya Kushtan, Emma Mitzova and Sophia Pickering. 

 

FIE Epee World Cup (Individual & Team) (8-11 Jan) - Cador Beautyman is the sole Brit competing in Fujairah.

 

FIE Foil World Cup (Individual & Team) (9-11 Jan) - Georgia Gardner, Bronwen Granville, Amelie Tsang and Sophie Tsang will compete in Hong Kong in both individual and team events.

 

FIE Foil World Cup (Individual & Team) (9-11 Jan) - 12 British fencers will be competing in Paris. Harry Bird, Louis Guennou, Jake Hurst, Maxwell Jones, William Lonsdale, Callum Penman, Rafael Rhys Pollitt and Oliver Strange will be competing in the individual event. 

 

Jamie Cook, Joe Donaghue, David Sosnov and David Williams are competing in both the individual and team events. 

 

FIE Sabre Grand Prix (9-11 Jan) - 10 British fencers will be competing in Tunis. Maria Chart, Keira D-Sallows, Caitlin Maxwell and Nicole Saunders in the women's individual whilst Liam Croft, Max Cromie, Barnaby Halliwell, Ian Ho, Eiger Swinscow and Jonathan Webb will be in the men's event. 

 

 

Shooting:

29th SKIRCA Open & Trzin Walter Cup (9-11 Jan) - Although it is an international event, it tends to be mostly central and eastern European nations who complete. I'm not expecting any Brits to be taking part. 

 

 

Squash:

Rich Venus Karachi Open (6-11 Jan) - Marwan ElShorbagy is the 2nd seed and has a bye in the first round. Likewise, Mohamed ElShorbagy has a bye in the first round as the number 4 seed. Curtis Malik is also in the draw and will take on  Ryunosuke Tsukue in the first round for the right to take on top seed  Karim Gawad. 

 

In the women's draw, Lucy Turmel has drawn  Tsz-Wing Tong in the first round and Torrie Malik is up against  Menna Hamed. If they're able to come through these matches, they would face 5th seed  Nada Abbas and 6th seed  Rowan Elaraby respectively.

 

 

Tennis:

United Cup (2-11 Jan) -  have been drawn against  and . Their first tie is against Japan on 4-Jan followed by Greece on 5-Jan. Assuming everyone is healthy, Emma Raducanu will face Naomi Osaka and Maria Sakkari in the singles whilst in light of Jack Draper's withdrawal, Billy Harris will face Shintaro Mochizuki and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Billy Harris, Mimi Xu and Olivia Nicholls are also in the squad. 

 

ATP Bank of China Hong Kong Open (5-11 Jan) - Previously it looked like Cameron Norrie was competing here but he's now listed in Brisbane so it's possible that there won't be any Brits in the draw. 

 

Brisbane International (5-11 Jan) - It appears that Cameron Norrie is competing in Brisbane rather than Hong Kong as previously advised. Jacob Fearnley is the 6th seed in the qualifying draw and will face off against  Wild Card Dane Sweeny. 

 

ASB Classic (5-11 Jan) - Sonay Kartel and Fran Jones will be lining up in the main draw in Auckland whilst Katie Boulter will also be joining them having received a wild card.

 

Sonay Kartel will start against a qualifier. Fran Jones has interesting first round match up against Sloane Stephens whilst Katie Boulter gets a pretty nasty draw as she'll be up against 7th seed Wang Xinyu. 

 

 

Table Tennis:

WTT Champions Doha (7-11 Jan) - Unlikely to be any Brits competing in either the men's or women's events.

 

WTT Feeder Vadodara (7-11 Jan) - Unlikely to be any Brits competing in either the men's or women's events.

Edited January 2 by Rafa Maciel

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

2026 Week 1 (1-Jan - 11-Jan) Results:

 

 

Badminton:

PETRONAS Malaysia Open (6-11 Jan) -

Women's Singles:  Kirsty Gilmour lost in the first round to 2nd seed  Wang Zhi Yi 21-17 21-09

Men's Doubles: A good start to the year for Ben Lane and Sean Vendy.  They took out  Choong Hon Jian / Muhammad Haikal 16-21 21-16 21-15 in the first round before taking out 7th seeds  Goh Sze Fei / Nur Izzuddin 21-13 21-17. In the quarter finals, the Brits dispatched  Takuro Hoki / Yugo Kobayashi 22-20 21-19. Although they pushed the top seed  Kim Won Ho / Seo Seung Jae all the way, they couldn't quite get it over the line for a place in the final ultimately losing 21-8 11-21 18-21

Women's Doubles: Julie MacPherson and Ciara Torrance went out in the first round, losing to 3rd seeds  Kim Hye Jeong / Hong Hee Yong 21-12 22-20.

Mixed Doubles: Julie MacPherson and Alexander Dunn fell in the first round, going down to a 21-16 21-10 loss against 6th seeds  Guo Xin Wa / Chen Fang Hui.

 

 

YONEX Estonian International (8-11 Jan) -

Men's Singles:  Ethan Rose was unfortunately forced to withdrew from the tournament before it got underway.

James Robertson was the only Brit to navigate qualifying and earn a place in the main draw. He lost in the first round to 8th seed  Mads Christophersen 21-13 21-14.

Men's Singles:  Leona Lee was due to be the top seed in the qualifying draw but was promoted to the main draw before her first match. She was defeated in the first round by  Rujula Ramu 21-9 21-13

Men's Doubles: Oliver Butler and Samuel Jones were the top seed and safely came through their first-round match against  Evan Kenny / Josh Taylor 21-14 21-8 before overcoming  pairing Karl Kert / Tauri Kilk 21-12 21-10 to progress to the quarter final where they went down to a 21-12 10-21 19-21 defeat at the hands of 6th seeds  Natan Begga / Gregoire Deschamp. 

 

 

Equestrian - Dressage:

FEI Dressage World Cup: Basel (8-11 Jan) - There were no Brits competing. 

 

Equestrian - Jumping:

Longines FEI World Cup: Basel (8-11 Jan) - Donald Whitaker and Sameh El Dahan are competing in Sunday's World Cup event. 

 

 

Fencing:

FIE Epee Junior World Cup - Best result of the week goes to Tristan Lumineau who finished 13th in the  Basel event ahead of Cador Beautyman in 60th. In the team event  finished in 14th place.

 

FIE Epee Junior World Cup - Kseniya Kushtan was the only Brit competing in  Udine and finished in 53rd place.  

 

FIE Epee World Cup (Individual & Team) (8-11 Jan) - Cador Beautyman was the sole Brit competing in Fujairah and returns with a pretty creditable 41st place finish.

 

FIE Foil World Cup (Individual & Team) (9-11 Jan) -

Amelie Tsang was the highest placed of the Brits finishing in 100th place (out of 198 competitors). Bronwen Granville finished in 147th, Georgia Gardner was 159th and  Sophie Tsang was tied for 163rd.

 

In the team event  was drawn against  in the first round and was defeated 45-34. 

 

FIE Foil World Cup (Individual & Team) (9-11 Jan) - 12 British fencers will be competing in Paris.

 

Jamie Cook was top performer for the Brits witha 40th place finish. David Sosnov was 99th, Rafael Rhys Pollitt was 111th with Jake Hurst finishing in 119th, just ahead of David Williams in 120th. Harry Bird was 166th, William Lonsdale finished 182nd with Joe Donaghue in 197th. Callum Penman and Louis Guennou were tied for 201st place. Maxwell Jones finished in a tie for 245th place and finally, Oliver Strange was tied for 280th. 

 

Jamie Cook, Joe Donaghue, David Sosnov and David Williams are competing in the team event on Sunday. They are the 15th seed and will take on 18th seed  in the round of 32. If they can come through that, they would likely face  in the round of 16. 

 

FIE Sabre Grand Prix (9-11 Jan) - 10 British fencers will be competing in Tunis.

None of the British women progressed to the knockout rounds with Keira D-Sallows providing the best result with a tied 88th followed by Caitlin Maxwell in 92nd, Maria Chart in 95th and Nicole Saunders in 141st.

 

Likewise, none of the 6 British men could make the final 64. Jonathan Webb was our top finisher at 98th, Max Cromie finished 131st, Eiger Swinscow was 157th just ahead of Ian Ho who tied for 158th. Liam Croft was 164th and finally, Barnaby Halliwell finished in a tie for 165th. 

 

 

Squash:

Rich Venus Karachi Open (6-11 Jan) - 

Marwan ElShorbagy is the 2nd seed and had a bye in the first round. In round 2 he dispatched  Toufik Mekhalfi 11-4 11-7 11-5. His competition ended in the quarterfinal when he lost to 6th seed  Aly Abou Eleinen 11-7 11-1 11-9.

 

Mohamed ElShorbagy also had a bye in the first round as the number 4 seed, and he took out  Karim El Hammamy 9-11 11-8 11-8 11-7 in round 2 to set up quarterfinal against  Noor Zaman. The Brit advanced to the semifinals with a 11-2 11-8 6-11 8-11 11-9 victory. In the semifinal, he would ultimately lose to the 6th seed  Aly Abou Eleinen 11-4 11-8 11-6.

 

Curtis Malik withdrew from the tournament before his first-round match.

 

After various withdrawals in the women's event, Lucy Turmel was promoted to the 7th seed and was given a bye in the first round. in round 2, she defeated fellow Brit Torrie Malik 11-9 11-2 11-7 after Malik had previous beaten  Menna Hamed 13-15 10-12 11-9 11-6 11-5 in the first round. Turmel's tournament ended in the quarter finals with a 13-11 11-7 11-9 defeat to 2nd seed  Sivasangari Subramaniam. 

 

 

Tennis:

United Cup (2-11 Jan) -  failed to progress from the group stage after victory over  was followed by defeat by .

 

Emma Raducanu was rested for the match against  because she wasn't fully fit. Katie Swan stepped in and put up valiant effort against Naomi Osaka but was ultimately soundly beaten 7-6 6-1. Billy Harris came through 7-6 6-3 against Shintaro Mochizuki which left the tie in the hands of mixed double pairing Neal Skupski and Olivia Nicholls. It went to a 10-point tie-break, but the Brits came through 7-5 4-6 10-7 against Nao Hibino and Yasutaka Uchiyama.

 

Billy Harris was able to push Stefanos Tsitsipas all the way before going down to defeat in a final set tiebreak. The final result was 6-4 1-6 6-7. In her first match since October, Raducanu looked a step slow but would have gone into the match against Maria Sakkari knowing she had never lost to the Greek but unfortunately a great effort wasn't enough to keep the tie alive as the Brit lost 3-6 6-3 1-6 to put the Greeks through to the quarterfinals. In the dead doubles rubber, Skupski and Nicholls again teamed up against Despina Papamichail and Stefanos Sakellaridis and the Brits needed another 10-point tie-break before they emerged with the win - 6-2 3-6 10-4

 

Brisbane International (5-11 Jan) -

7th seed Cameron Norrie seemed to struggle early on in his first-round match against  Ugo Humbert but was able to come through 1-6 7-6 7-5. Unfortunately, he was unable to repeat the escape routine in the second round where despite appearing the stronger player, he went down to 6-7 6-4 4-6 defeat at the hands of  Aleksandar Kovacevic

Jacob Fearnley was the 6th seed in the qualifying draw but lost out in the first round 1-6 6-7 to  Wild Card Dane Sweeny. 

Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool are the top seeds in the men's doubles, and they will be competing later today for a place in the final having come through 6-7 6-4 10-0 against  pairing of Tommy Paul and Ethan Quinn to progress to the quarter finals where they then received a walkover when  Sebastian Korda and Brandon Nakashima were forced to withdraw. They secured their place in the final with a 6-3 6-3 win over  Tomas Machac and Matej Vocel. 

 

ASB Classic (5-11 Jan) -

Some pretty solid results from the British women in Auckland this week.

Sonay Kartel reached the quarterfinals after recording wins over 6th seed  Janice Tjen 6-1 6-7 6-3 in the first round which was followed up by a 6-3 6-1 win over  Ella Seidel. In the QF, she pushed the top seed  Elina Svitolina all the way but came up just short, losing 4-6 7-6 6-7.  

Fran Jones had arguably the best win of her career in the first round with a 7-5 2-6 6-4 win over second seed  Emma Navarro. Despite battling some injury issues, she followed that with a 1-6 6-4 6-1 win over  Ella Seidel. Jones would ultimately retire in her quarterfinal whilst trailing 7th seed  Xinyu Wang 6-4 4-3. 

Katie Boulter will be glad to be back to winning ways as she held her nerve to serve out a 6-3 6-3 win over  Yuliia Starodubtseva. She then lost in the second round 7-5 6-4 to  Elina Svitolina.

 

And that's a wrap for Week 1 2026. 

 

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

2026 Week 2 (12-Jan - 18-Jan) Events:

 

 

Badminton:

YONEX-Sunrise India Open (12-18 Jan) -

Women's Singles: Kirsty Gilmour is drawn against  Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt in the first round.

Men's Doubles: Ben Lane and Sean Vendy will be up against  Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan.

Women's Doubles: Julie MacPherson and Ciara Torrance will face  Ririna Hiramoto and Kokona Ishikawa.

Mixed Doubles: Alexander Dunn and Julie MacPherson have been drawn against 7th Seeds  Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet.

 

YONEX Estonian International (8-11 Jan) -

 

Men's Singles: Ethan Rose is the 6th Seed and will face  Jeppe Bruun. With a handful of Brits competing in the qualifying draw, we could see more make it to the main draw.

 

Women's Singles:   There are no women's with direct entry to the main draw, but possible that Ann Mok could come through qualifying.

 

Men's Doubles: Oliver Butler and Samuel Jones are the top seed and have a bye to the round of 16 where they could face countrymen Benjamin Horseman and Jia Bin Lee if they can overcome the  pairing of Flaaten/Osthassel. Likewise, Robin Harper and Harry Wakefield have a bye in the first round as the 4th seeds.  Alex Green and Zach Russ will face a qualifier.

 

Mixed Doubles: Samuel Jones will team up with Lizzie Tolman and will face  Ekman/Hallberg in the first round. 

 

 

Cycling - Road:

Santos Tour Down Under (17-19 Jan) - Plenty of Brits in the start list including Alice Towers, Lauren Dickson, Flora Perkins, Claire Steels, Isobel Carys Lloyd, Josie Nelson and Becky Storrie.

 

 

Equestrian - Jumping:

Longines FEI World Cup: Leipzig (14-18 Jan) - Sameh El Dahan is the only Brit listed as competing. 

 

 

Fencing:

4 more Fencing events in the calendar week for the Juniors.

 

FIE Epee Junior World Cup (Individual & Team) (16-18 Jan) - Cador Beautyman is the sole Brit competing in  Manama.

 

FIE Foil Junior World Cup (Individual & Team) (16-18 Jan) - 9 British women could be competing in  Tblisi - Layla Lang, Abigael McVinnie, Sophie Mehra, Claire Sosnov and Indigo Zaffino are all listed for the individual event whilst Rachael Adams, Megan Elliott, Isabella Johnson and Zoe Wagstaff are listed to compete in both individual and team event.

 

FIE Foil Junior World Cup (Individual & Team) (16-18 Jan) - 12 British fencers will be competing in  Madrid. Sam Barrass, Aarav Chaudhari, Ashley Crees, Luca Florea, James Havard, Alexander James, Finn Keen and Yaqub Wagdi are listed for the individual event whilst Mohammed Belbouab, David Kelly, Callum Penman and David Sosnov are listed to compete in both the individual and team event.

 

FIE Sabre Junior World Cup (16-18 Jan) - Keira D-Sallows and Coco Guven are both listed as entrants for the  Boston event. 

 

 

Golf:

PGA Sony Open (15-18 Jan) - Dan Brown, Harry Hall, Robert MacIntyre, John Parry, Aaron Rai, and Jordan Smith are all expected to be competing in Hawaii 

 

DPT - Dubai Invitational (15-18 Jan) - Tommy Fleetwood, Paul Waring, Grant Forrest, Connor Syme, Richard Mansell, Dan Bradbury, Matt Wallace, Ewen Ferguson, Daniel Gavins, Calum Hill, Danny Willett, Andy Sullivan and Marcus Armitage are all included in the starting list

 

 

Squash:

Squash in the Land 2026 (13-18 Jan) - Joel Makin is the 2nd seed and has a bye in the first round. Likewise, Greg Lobban, as 5th seed will also have a bye to second round. Nathan Lake is drawn to face countryman Perry Malik in the first round with the winner to take on 6th seed  Auguste Dussourd.

In the women's draw, Jasmine Hutton is the third seed and has a bye in the first round. So too does Georgia Adderley as the 7th seed. Lucy Beecroft is drawn against  Hayley Ward; Grace Gear is drawn against  Dixon B Hill and Alicia Mead faces  Nicole Bunyan. Sarah Nghiem's opponent is currently unknown. 

 

 

DR21 Motor City Men's Open (13-18 Jan) - Marwan ElShorbagy is the 2nd seed and has a bye in the first round. He will face either Sam Todd or Simon Herbert in round 2. Adrian Waller is drawn against  Salman Khalil whilst Tom Walsh is against  Ramit Tandon.

 

 

Surfing

WSL Junior Surfing World Championships (11-18 Jan) - Lukas Skinner competes in the men's event and has safely progressed through opening round to the elimination where he will surf against  Connor Slijpen.

 

 

Tennis:

WTA Hobart International (12-17 Jan) - Emma Raducanu is the top seed and will face  Camila Osorio in the first round.

 

WTA Adelaide International (12-17 Jan) - Katie Swan was attempting to qualify but fell in the first round against 12th seed  Elena Ruse 7-5 2-6 3-6.

 

ATP Adelaide International (12-17 Jan) - Jacob Fearnley is the 2nd seed in the qualifying draw. Having won his first-round match against  Christopher O'Connell 7-6 7-6, he will play  Aleksandar Vukic for a place in the main draw. 

 

ATP ASB Classic Auckland (12-17 Jan) - Cameron Norrie is the 5th seed and will face  qualifier Hugo Gaston in the first round.

 

Australian Open Qualifying (12-16 Jan) - Plenty of Brits attempting to qualify for the main draw of the year's first Grand Slam including 9 in the men's draw.

 

Mimi Xu made it into the qualifying draw after a couple of withdrawals. She will face  Darja Vidmanova in the first round. Harriet Dart is against  Destanee Aiava. Katie Boulter was due to be competing in qualifying but has been advanced to the main draw following withdrawals.

 

On the men's side, Ryan Peniston has a tough draw against 2nd seed  Roman Burruchaga. Oliver Crawford will face  Daniel Merida. Dan Evans will start his campaign against  Rei Sakamoto. George Loffhagen will face  Justin Engel. Jan Choinski is the 11th seed and will start against  Leandro Riedi. Jay Clarke is drawn against  Gustavo Heide with Arthur Fery against  Edward Winter. Billy Harris, fresh from his stint at the United Cup is the 15th seed and will start his campaign in Melbourne against  Chris Rodesch. Finally, Jack Pinnington Jones will face  Gilles Bailly. 

 

 

Table Tennis:

WTT Star Contender Doha (13-18 Jan) - Anna Hursey is scheduled to compete in the women's singles. to be any Brits competing in either the men's or women's events.