TeamGB

Noticed there is no women's team for the European qualifiers starting soon. Hoping it's a mistake but does seem strange.

Crisis, what crisis 😅

We have elections in the UK, this Thursday, so if you are a politics nut like me, I thought I would give a little rundown of what to look out for. Blackpool South By-Election Called after the conservative MP was caught being bribed, the seat will most likely be taken by labour. The reform result will be interesting (if it is high that is bad news for the Tories, as vote splitting of the right could hand a lot of seats of Labour at the general election. Local council elections These elections are only in England, and in 107/153 total councils, with the majority electing just 1/3 of the councillors. These elections were last held in 2021 when the conservatives were having a "vaccine boost", so we could see some large swings in some areas. Although local issues play a part, the general voting trends will likely show how each party is performing. Keep an eye out for the projected national share of votes, which shows how the country would have voted if this was a general election. The conservatives and labour are both defending around 900 seats each, with the Liberal democrats on 405 and Greens on 118. The conservatives are expected to lose around 400 and all the other parties to make gains. In terms of actual councils Labour are defending 45, the Conservatives 18 and the Lib Dems 10. The councils to keep an eye on are - Adur (CON loss) - Bolton (LAB gain) - Brentwood (LDM gain) - Bristol (GREEN gain) - Cannock Chase (LAB gain) - Dorset (CON loss / LDM gain) - Dudley (CON loss) - Gloucester (CON loss) - Hartlepool (LAB gain) - Hyndburn (LAB gain) - Milton Keynes (CON loss) - Portsmouth (LDM gain) - Redditch (CON loss) - Rushmore (CON loss) - Solihull (CON loss) - Tunbridge Wells (LDM gain) - Wokingham (LDM gain) London Assembly election Labour will look to take control of the London Assembly, they need to gain 2 seats to have a majority, but it is certainly not a formality. Mayors 11 regional mayors will be elected with labour defending 6, conservatives 2 and 3 being new positions. Realistically labour could sweep all 11 but Tees Valley will be on a knife edge (47% each on Opinion polls) Police and Crime Commissioners The conservatives are defending 30 seats, labour 8 and Plaid Cymru 1. These elections will now be first past the post compared to supplementary vote which could mean the anti tory vote is split. You would expect labour gains but the scale is quite unknown Overall these elections are a litmus test for the parties, but I wouldn't expect many political shockwaves from them, and the bigger vote will likely be held later in the year.

Yeah thats not happening.

Just seen someone comment on Swimswam that it is possible for the European men to sweep the golds in Paris. Obviously on face value this looks ridiculous but the more I think about it it doesn't seem completely far fetched.

1. M - 400m IM 2. M - 4x200m Free 3. W - Triathlon 4. W - Madison 5. W - BMX Race. 328. M - Breaking 329. W - Breaking

So we will know some quotas soon.

So how many are in the final in total? 4?

Has anyone watched the swimming doping documentary, its on the ARD website but it's geoblocked and in German.

I guess, but behind Marchand the depth is weak and really any of the qualifiers could medal, whereas in the 400m free is insanely strong and there are relatively few athletes who could medal.

Clearly what he is trying to say is that they should never compete again.

No he’s not, all he did was post about the 400m free from 2015 and how Sun shouls have lost his medals. Considering your track record of swimming predictions I’m going to politely ignore your opinion.

This whole situation is a bit of a mess, and I think all sides need to come forward and explain what has happened so a proper investigation can take place.

The think that frustrates me the most is that is has been swept under the rug for so long. I'm sure that many of the Chinese swimmers are clean, and the progression shown by Chinese swimming/swimmers is not improbable, but now that this has happened the perception of many swimmers may have been tarnished (unfairly or not). The fact that it took 3 years for this information to come out indicates some dodgy business going on, and the consequences could be dire and should hopefully stir some debate into large scale doping in sport, where I feel the focus has been on Russia for too long.

Thanks, I have been struggling to find the results for this. When you say "internal leg" on the relays, is that a time from this meet or has some takeover time been taken off.

Am I reading this right - 2/3 chance of a qualifier

If GB win only 13 Golds I will be shocked, and honestly same with Australia, I could see them near that target in just Swimming.

James Guy can swim if he proves form

After an extremely disappointing Tokyo, British rowing have really turned this around and I would say that they are the governing body with the biggest improvement from Tokyo. For me the most important thing is having depth and I think the 4 showed that extremely well.

As much as I am a fan of world taekwondo for creating a interesting sport with clear rules and easy to follow for the viewer, I have to say that their qualification system is one of the worst. Personally I don’t think there should be a limit on the number of athletes who can qualify for a team. Imagine being the 6th ranked fighter in the world and not qualifying because there are 2 other athletes in different weight classes are higher ranked for you. And this one is a gripe which can be applied to other sports as well. The Individual neutral Athletes are baisically a team, no matter how hard people try to spin it in neutrality. They even have their own flag, so surely these limits on athletes participation should apply to them, but they don’t. And on a side note their website is appalling.

Normally the morning sessions aren't livestreamed anywhere, even at the world championships.

I think para-cycling and cycling could definitely work as all the events at the Paralympics are time trial format, so integrated classes could compete on a points system. The issue is that a selection meet wouldn't really work for cycling as most events are team ones and the likelihood of a random rider knocking down an olympic champion is much higher, which would kind of be like british cycling. shooting itself in the foot.

Overall I have really enjoyed this meet, and I have enjoyed the integration of the para and able bodied swimmers. The para swimmers have put on a great show with some truly world class times. As a summary, I thought I'd go through the para swimming prospects for Paris, and give the times which would have won medals at last years worlds. Men's 100m Freestyle S12 - Silver Men's 200m Freestyle S14 - Gold Men's 400m Freestyle S6 - Bronze Men's 100m Backstroke S12 - Gold Men's 100m Backstroke S14 - Bronze Men's 100m Butterfly S12 - Gold Men's 100m Butterfly S14 - Silver Men's 200m IM S6 - Bronze Men's 200m IM S14 - Bronze Women's 50m Freestyle S8 - Silver Women's 100m Freestyle S5 - Gold Women's 200m Freestyle S5 - Gold Women's 200m Freestyle S14 - Gold, Silver + Bronze Women's 400m Freestyle S8 - Gold Women's 400m Freestyle S10 - Bronze Women's 50m Backstroke S3 - Gold Women's 50m Backstroke S5 - Silver Women's 100m Backstroke S8 - Gold Women's 100m Backstroke S14 - Gold, Silver + Bronze Women's 100m Butterfly S8 - Bronze Women's 100m Butterfly S10 - Gold + Bronze Women's 100m Butterfly S14 - Gold + Silver Women's 100m Breaststroke S5 - Silver Women's 100m Breaststroke S6 - Gold Women's 100m Breaststroke S7 - Gold Women's 100m Breaststroke S8 - Gold Women's 100m Breaststroke S13 - Silver Women's 100m Breaststroke S14 - Bronze Women's 200m IM S6 - Gold Women's 200m IM S8 - Gold Women's 200m IM S14 - Gold + Bronze Mixed 4x100m Freestyle S14 - Gold Overall, that results in 19 Golds, 9 Silvers and 11 Bronzes. For comparison, we got 8 Golds, 9 Silvers and 9 Bronzes in Tokyo

Is this from the same source that said we are not sending a team to the European Athletics champs. Why would they not send the relay when 3/4 athletes are already selected and I have no doubt that Angharad gets the time tonight.

I agree with the first part, although it doesn't reward failure, as you could just as easily argue that Bird failed by not getting the nomination time. In the end, Aquatics GB will focus on what brings in the funding, which is medals, and if that means bending their own rules then I am sure they will be prepared to do that.