Rafa Maciel

Before the last night of action gets underway I'll be brave and predict the team: Women's Squad: 1.) Abbie Wood - 200m Free / 200m IM / 4x100 Relay / 4x200 Relay 2.) Angharad Evans - 100m Breast / Medley Relay 3.) Anna Hopkin - 50m Free / 100m Free / 4x100 Relay / Medley Relay 4.) Eva Okaro - 100 Free / 4x100 Relay 5.) Freya Anderson - 200m Free / 4x200 Free / 4x100 Free 6.) Freya Colbert - 200m IM / 400m IM / 4x200 Relay / 4x100 Relay / Medley Relay 7.) Honey Osrin - 200m Back 8.) Kara Hanlon - 100m Breast / 200m Breast 9.) Kathleen Dawson - 100m Back / Medley Relay 10.) Katie Shanahan - 200m Back / 400m IM 11.) Keanna Macinnes - 100m Butterfly / 200m Butterfly / Medley Relay 12.) Laura Stephens - 200m Butterfly 13.) Lauren Cox - 100m Back / Medley Relay 14.) Lucy Hope - 4x100 Relay / 4x200 Relay 15.) Medi Harris - 4x100 Relay / 4x200 Relay Men's Squad: 16.) Adam Peaty - 100m Breast / Medley Relays 17.) Alex Cohoon - 50m Free / 4x100 Relay 18.) Ben Proud - 50m Free 19.) Dan Jervis - 1500m Free / 800m Free 20.) Duncan Scott - 100m Free / 200m IM / 4x200 Relay / 4x100 Relay 21.) James Guy - 4x200 Relay / Medley Relay 22.) James Wilby - 100m Breast / 200m Breast 23.) Joe Litchfield - Medley Relay / 4x200 Relay 24.) Jonathon Marshall - 100m Back / Medley Relay 25.) Kieran Bird - 400m Free 26.) Luke Greenbank - 200m Back 27.) Matt Richards - 100m Free / 200m Free / 4x100 Relay / 4x200 Free / Medley Relays 28.) Max Litchfield - 400m IM 29.) Oliver Morgan - 100m Back / 200m Back / Medley Relays 30.) Tom Dean - 200m Free / 200m IM / 4x200 Relay 4x100 Relay / Medley Relays In the end, I've dropped Jacob Peters to hit the 30 target. This would mean that we don't have anyone in the individual butterfly events but then we didn't have anyone in the event in Tokyo as Guy pulled out to prioritise the relays.

I think I'm beginning to come round to the idea that Bird is on the team - I'm currently sitting at 31 and that includes Bird, Anderson, Cox, Hanlon, Guy and Peters. If Blocksidge gets the time this evening that would definitely complicate matters - but it would be a fantastic complication to have

I was surprised how "slow" Colbert's 100m free PB was given what she's managed in previous relay swims.

The freestyle relay was always one of the tougher standards to meet, particularly with Anderson not firing on all cylinders, but I don't think it's as extreme as you make out. If we can get 2 athletes achieving the BST of 00:53.55 - Hopkin and Okaro or Anderson - then the remaining two swimmers need to be quicker than 00:54.50 to get within the 03:36.40 target time. Even if Hopkin is the only swimmer to get the BST, then the three other swimmers would need to average 00:54.25 to qualify - that would still be new PB territory for most of them so not going to be easy but it isn't beyond reach.

Good to see Anderson in the pool and posting a decent heat time. Hopefully she can build on it this evening.

Viviani leaves Paris-Roubaix on a stretcher - wonder if that will impact his participation in Milton.

I put Orangehair43's musings on the same level as Donald Trump's rantings on Truth Social but in this instance, I wouldn't be surprised if GB Aquatics decided not to accept the relay quota if their own selection time is not met. GB Aquatic's criteria for acceptance is purely based on time so it doesn't matter how many of the individual athletes are qualified - we could even have a scenario where we have swimmers achieving the BST across all 4 strokes but collectively they miss the relay nomination time.

Encouraging result for men as they take silver behind Italy at the Kahraman Bagatir Spring Arrows Tournament in Turkey. Team was Conor Hall, Tom Hall and Alex Wise. In qualifying, they comfortably outscored the 1932 achieved by the team at last year's world championship. Indeed, if they had scored 1991 in Berlin they would have finished 3rd in qualifying. However, this was a much higher scoring event - France topped qualifying with 2041 - so GB's improvement was broadly in line with what the other teams achieved. En-route to the final, they took out Uzbekistan in the first round and defeated Egypt in the semi-finals. Probably their most impressive win was in the quarterfinal when they defeated top-seed France. In a reversal of usual fortunes, the women have had a pretty mediocre tournament. The women's team of Bryony Pitman, Penny Healey and Megan Havers finished n 9th place. GB finished qualifying in 6th place but, unlike most of their competition, GB were unable to outscore their qualifying from Berlin. They then lost their first-round match to Australia.

Between them, Evans and Hopkin need to find 0.11 seconds on their 2024 seasons bests. Makes it sound much more manageable.

Looking ahead to the final day and the women's medley relay, with the backstroke and butterfly times set down, by my calculation, I think we have a little over 1:59.00 to play with for freestyle and breaststroke. That should be achievable if Evans can get down to 1:06.00 and Anna Hopkin can hit 00:53.00

Amber Anning clocks 22.47 for 200m in Arkansas. Don't think it will stand as an Olympic qualifier though - I think the wind reading was +7.3

Who'd have thought that the first athlete to get an Olympic standard inside UK Athletics "form window" would be a field athlete? and a too

Decathlete Jack Turner was due to compete at Arkansas Spring Invitational this weekend: 110m Hurdles: 14.22 Discus: 45.23m - I think this is a 30cm+ PB but don't quote me on that. Pole Vault: DNS

It's all working out pretty neatly for the women: Freya Colbert - 400m IM / 200m IM Abbie Wood - 200m Free / 200m IM Katie Shanahan - 400m IM / 200m Back

Is Matt Richards really thinking about doing the 50 in Paris? If not Alex Cohoon will be eligible for the second spot. Can't remember the last time we had 2 men in the 50 free.

He does at least get the OCT so he can still be entered into the event.

Laura Stephens really has dropped off from the form she showed in Doha - still think she goes to Paris but I had expected her to at least be hitting the BST in both the 100 and the 200.

Ah right enough - he wasn't on my radar cos he didn't enter the event here. Unfortunately that probably makes the case for taking Bird a bit harder to make.

I think we only have 1 in the 800?

Toby Robinson now eligible to go in the 800 and 1500 Free and the open water. Will be interesting to see which events he elects to go for.

Andy Pozzi opens his season with a 13.63 to finish 3rd at the Miramar Invitational.

Storming run for Sember in the final - 12.83 into -1.3m/s. Unfortunately, it's just outside of both the Olympic qualifying standard (12.77) and the UK Athletics time (12.80) but it bodes well for the rest of the season.

Strong opening run for Cindy Sember at the Miramar Invitational - 13.03 into a -2.3m/s headwind. Qualifies for final in 4th overall.

Missed chance for the double though. Both sides making mistakes going into the second half

Have been giving this some thought and there is a way that Litchfield, Guy and Peters could all get selected...and all come away with medals. Take Litchfield purely as a relay swimmer and use him in the heats of the 4x200 and either the heats or final of the medley relays. Take James Guy as a relay swimmer for the 4x200 and for the medley relays Take Jacob Peters for the individual 100 fly and use him in either the heats or final of the medley relays. Unfortunately, that scenario would probably mean that Kieran Bird would miss out and wouldn't work if we have any surprise qualifiers over the next couple of days but would probably put the relays in strong positions to get on to the podium.