Rafa Maciel

Top 5 Points breakdown: Team Pursuit - 900 / 810 / 720 / 675 / 630 Team Sprint - 675 / 6-7.5 / 540 / 506.25 / 472.5 Individual Events - 450 / 405 / 360 / 337.5 / 315

She was in the commentary this morning saying that she was feeling good and back to about 90% so it should be safe bet she takes to the starting blocks for 100m free later in the week. Hopefully she has a good day (health wise) and is able to get the standard and auto selection.

sending a stacked squad to the Varese World Cup event later this month: Great Britain selects team for World Rowing Cup I - British Rowing Only slight concern is the absence of women's scullers - no singe and no pair entered. Hopefully that doesn't mean that GB Rowing have written off those boats for the last chance regatta. No lightweight men's double either, but that is less of a surprise as I get the feeling that the lightweight program on the men's side has been getting wound down for a while now.

I've got to say, threads like this one become more pleasant and engaging when you realise that you can block certain users who want to keep pushing conspiracy theories and endless negativity.

Entry lists for World Cup I in Varese are available online: 2024 World Rowing Cup I - World Rowing Makes a nice change for the first event in the season to have such a strong field. sending 45 rowers with pretty much their entire A-squad going. Good to see Graeme Thomas back in the mix although would be good to see him in M1x as he's probably our best chance of getting the quota at the final qualification regatta.

Vaguely seem to remember it all being tied up with the ban on Russian teams competing and that the fours and eights were classed as team events.

Think they were only eligible to compete in the single/double sculls and the pair right?

The reason qualifies 2 athletes is because Mikhail Yakovlev is top 10 in the ranking for both individual sprint and keirin. In order to be able to take a second rider, they would need to have competed during the qualification window so I think the quota would need to be reallocated.

Direct comparisons to last year's World Champs are problematic because British Swimming had to change their selection policy halfway through the meet, but they did that to get to their 30 team limit so it is a good starting point to highlight the challenges we may have with the team size this year. GB sent a team of 29 swimmers to Fukuoka - Men's Squad (17): Lewis Burras - 50m Free / 100m Free Ben Proud - 50m Free Matt Richards - 100m Free / 200m Free Tom Dean - 200m Free / 200m IM Luke Turley - 400m Free / 800m Free Daniel Jervis - 800m Free / 1500m Free Cameron Brooker - 100m Backstroke Oliver Morgan - 100m Backstroke / 200m Backstroke Brodie Williams - 200m Backstroke James Wilby - 100m Breaststroke Greg Butler - 200m Breaststroke Jacob Peters - 100m Butterfly James Guy - 100m Butterfly Duncan Scott - 200m IM Joe Litchfield - Relay Cover Jacob Whittle - Relay Cover Jack McMillan - Relay Cover Luke Turley didn't make the 400m time and probably won't do it in the 800 either. I think Cameron Brooker and Brodie Williams will fail to get into the top 2 of their events so can also be removed. That creates an adjusted squad size of 14. We definitely need to add in Adam Peaty and probably Luke Greenbank (200m Back), Jonathan Adam (100m Back) and Max Litchfield (400m IM). An argument could be made for taking another freestyle relay cover - probably Edward Mildred, but I'll assume that won't happen. That would take the men's squad to 18. Women's Squad (12): Anna Hopkin - 50m Free Freya Anderson - 200m Free Abbie Wood - 200m Free Freya Colbert - 400m Free / 400m IM Lauren Cox - 100m Backstroke Medi Harris - 100m Backstroke Katie Shanahan - 200m Backstroke / 200m IM / 400m IM Kara Hanlon - 100m Breaststroke / 200m Breaststroke Keanna MacInnes - 100m Butterfly Laura Stephens - 200m Butterfly Emily Large - 200m Butterfly Lucy Hope - 4x200m Relay Emily Large didn't get the standard in the 200m Butterfly and probably won't get it in the 100m so can be removed from the list. I am going to take out Anderson on the basis that she is sick and won't perform this week. I also think Medi Harris will be pushed close in the 100m Back by Kathleen Dawson but for now, I will leave Harris in as an individual and have an adjusted team size of 10. I think Angharad Evans will get the standard (100m Breast) and will need to be added, as will Honey Osrin (200m Back) and Amelie Blocksidge (1500m Free). That would take the adjusted team size up to 31 but it would leave the women's team dangerously underweight on freestyle relay cover so I think they would have to add in an additional 200m Free - Leah Schlosshan - and an additional 100m Free swimmer to give a women's team of 15. That's us up to 33 making it difficult to include Kieran Bird. They could give dispensation for Anderson (and I hope they do) but I'm not sure that would fully negate the need for the additional relay cover as I'm not sure they would want to use her in both heats and finals of the relays.

Taking Anderson would, at least in theory, still need to happen within the limit of 30 swimmers though? So, although she wouldn't be depriving anyone from taking the spot in the individual event, someone else would potentially have to miss out on the discretionary pick.

Juniors across the board have been on pretty good form today, posting some impressive drops to their PBs.

And he has good chance to get the 200m standard later on in the week but either way, I'd be pretty sure he'll get a spot on the team

Need to distinguish between OQT and BST - British Selection Time. Kieran Bird got the OQT but missed the BST by 0.2 seconds and James WIlby got the OQT but missed the BST by 0.02 seconds

Freya Colbert, Abbie Wood, Medi Harris and Lucy Hope should be on the train. Hopefully Wood also takes the quota for the individual event. 6 quotas allocated...

Women's 4x200 relay should be safe with that result. Disappointing result from Lucy Hope though - would have liked to see her getting under 1:58.00

First 2 quotas for Paris secured. Great result for Macinnes although Stephens hasn't looked great since her Doha win. 28 spots left in the GB Aquatics carriage on the Eurostar

Got to say that I am quite impressed by the staging of the event so far - it seems pretty slick (except for the broken lane rope this morning. There's a fair sized crowd creating a decent atmosphere and the pool seems to be fast given the number of PBs we've had so far.

I think the team limit was fine when GB probably didn't have all that many individual swimmers who were likely to make global finals, but the British squad has come on a huge amount in the last couple of Olympic cycles. Where I begin to have a problem with the team limit concept is if swimmers meet the British Selection Time but are not selected because of the limit. Bearing in mind that the BST is basically the time that was needed to reach the final at '23 World Champs then by not taking a swimmer that achieves the BST this week, we run the risk of leaving a potential Olympic finalist at home. The performances from this morning give cause for optimism that we could see quite a few PBs over the course of the week so I think there's every chance that the selectors are going to have plenty to think about in terms of the squad they take forward.

Yeah - it's not like we would be leaving at home a medal chance on the women's side but it would be good experience for Emily Hutt. It would be a disaster on the men's side if we can't take two though given we have 4 world class riders in the elite ranks.

No - the World ranking quotas taking precedence so the World champs quota will be reallocated to the highest placed NOC which has not qualified anyone through the rankings.

Fastest time in the world this year I think? - although Qin was sub 58.00 in Berlin last year.

The disappointment is purely on the basis that it opens the possibility of another event with no GB representation - particularly if Anderson isn't on the team. Of course, if Colbert wins a medal in the IM, my disappointment will be quickly forgotten

Peaty's 'tache has gone and he means business - 00:58.53 in the heats. Think I am right in saying that is the fastest he has gone since his return. On a more disappointing note, Freya Colbert confirms she wont swim the 200m Freestyle in Paris even if she gets the standard - her focus is going to be the IM.

It's part of their concussion protocols for an athlete to be suspended for 30 days if they have a head injury/concussion.

I think the 100m Free is so stacked that it wouldn't surprise me if he did take the second spot - there's a few commentators who have argued that Whittle could put in a flyer to take second and get the BST. In the end, I've opted for Scott to get the second place, partly as he's a fellow but equally because not having competed, it is difficult to know what kind of form Dean is in. As I've spent more time looking at results, I am more inclined to think that Dean finishes off the podium but it has also made me wonder whether Lewis Burras will be able to recapture his form from last year and spring a surprise.