Rafa Maciel

First IFSC World Cup in Keqiao thrown into a bit of chaos as they have been forced to cancel the men's qualifying competition due to the weather. Everyone is advanced to the semi-finals and then there will be a 20 person final. Not entirely sure that the route setters did a great job today - I don't think I've ever seen a competition where there were so many flash runs. In the women's competition, Janja Garnbret, Nonaka Miho and Oceania Mackenzie all finished with 5 flashes.

Heads up for some athletes in action this week at the Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational Women's Shot Put: Divine Oladipo Women's Discus: Jade Lally Kirsty Law Men's Discus: Lawrence Okoyo Nick Percy Dan Greaves This is the same location that Nick Percy got his Olympic Qualifying distance this weekend so hopefully the others in the team can find the same form.

Setting this one up early as we should have a squad announcement made in the next week or so.

Great qualifying result for McNeice as she managed 4 tops/5 zones to safely makes it through to the semi-final in 4th place. It wasn't such a good day Thompson-Smith as finished down in 41st with just 1 top/4 zones and exits the competition.

Fresh from his Olympic qualifying distance of 67.73 at the Oklahoma Throws event yesterday, Nick Percy returned for the second day of competition and posted a best of 63.87m. In the same competition, Dan Greaves racked up 3 fouls but did achieve a pretty solid season's opener of 58.48m - that's just 40cm short of his result from all of last year. In the women's competition, Jade Lally improved her season's best to 57.23m.

Bryony Page successfully defends her title at the European Trampoline Championships. She took the title with a score of 55.630 which is down 1.2 points on what she achieved at the World Champs last year. Izzy Longhurst qualified for the final and finished in 7th place with 52.010, down around 2.5 points on her World Champs score. In the men's individual, it wasn't a great competition for the Brits with all three making early mistakes. Paris bound Zak Perzamanos finished 23rd.

The 2024 Sport Climbing season kicks off in earnest tomorrow with the IFSC Boulder World Cup meet taking place in Keqiao and there are plenty of Brits in action on the boulders. Men: Toby Roberts - interesting to see if he's been able to hold (or ideally improve) his form over the off season. Max Milne - (Qualified for OQS) Jack MacDougall - (Qualified for OQS) Dayan Akhtar Women: Molly Thompson-Smith - (Qualified for the OQS) Was injured last year and didn't do huge amount of boulder work so will be good to see her do well here. Erin McNeice - (Qualified for the OQS)

BMX Racing Olympic Test Event Men's Elite: 1.) Ross Cullen 2.) Arthur Pillard 3.) Jeremy Rencurel Women's Elite: 1.) Bethany Shriever 2.) Zoe Claessens 3.) Nadine Aeberhard

Don't get too excited folks.... but did the double at the Olympic BMX Racing Test Event! Ross Cullen took the men's race whilst Bethany Shriever took the women's.

Good point with Miller - I'd based it on the Po10 data from 2023 and 2024 and Miller hadn't competed so he didn't make the list. I'm not sure what the story is with him - can't see if he's planning on competing this year or not, but if he posts a distance of mid 70s, then I'll add him in. Likewise also keeping an eye on Taylor Campbell - he's been out for ages but his social media posts suggest he's heading back to competition this year. Again, if he can post a mid 70s then he'll make the cut for the list. On the juniors, if the performance justifies it, they can be added to the list - although I do find them more difficult to track. Domestic meets are not great for posting their results and navigating the US collegiate system is an absolute nightmare.

With the outdoor season having kicked off and the "current form" window for UK Athletics now open, I thought I'd share this for those who are interested. This is the athlete long-list that I think our ultimate Olympic squad will come from. Needless to say, I don't think all or even the majority of them will be selected and some of them may not even compete this year due to injury, but these are the athletes whose performances I am going to try and track over the next few weeks/months heading into trials (although I am always happy to accommodate a few breakout performances). Athletics 24.xlsx

Selected athletes should be notified by Thursday I think

I don't think there is any risk for Robinson in going in the pool - probably no different to a training swim for him - so if he wants to do double up then there shouldn't be any issue.

I think that's where Okara comes in as cover - using her for the heats will gives Hopkin a bit more slack in her schedule.

I'd say the 4x100 will get the OK to go - Anderson was coming in having done little sprint prep and they got a new national record in Fukuoka. I am not as confident that the medley goes. Realistically, they're unlikely to medal in the event so that will count against them. However, the collective time posted this week is a second faster than they got in Fukuoka and a half a second faster than they managed in Tokyo. This is going to come down to whether the selectors believe that they can get into the final come Paris.

That's thrown the cat amongst the pigeons. Think the selectors get out of jail card is Freya Anderson and whether they are willing to make allowances for her illness.

You're responding to his clickbait All that does is encourage him.

Conversely, for me I think this is the swim that gets Hanlon on to the team. She only had the OCT for the 200 breast but in the 100 she got the OQT.

Oh.... that 100 breast was slower than I was expecting. Still think both Evans and Hanlon get selected but it means we are needing a 00:52.69 in the 100 Free to confirm the medley relay

That 800m result takes away one potential complication for the selectors - despite great performances, Blocksidge hasn't got the OQT in any of her events so I think we can probably all agree that she won't be on the team for Paris. Her focus for this year will be the European juniors but I don't think it will be long before she's on the squad for Worlds though. Going forward though, I kind of hope that she drops the 200 free and the 400 IM and focuses on the longer freestyle events.

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.