Rafa Maciel

Bello Brothers are the 4th seeds and have been drawn against 21st seed Bassereau/Lyneel in their first pool match. Assuming they come through that safely, they'll face the winner of the match between 9th seeds Schachter/Dearing and 16th seed Herrera/Gavira

It would certainly cause waves on both sides of the Irish Sea but she would certainly be great addition to the British squad. Whitwell has had 2 attempts to qualify and hasn't won a single bout yet. I just can't see the logistics of the switch working in the timeframe we have left given the registration window for the 2nd Olympic qualifier closes on the 11th April.

An interesting development... Amy Broadhurst: World champion wants GB switch from Ireland in bid to make Paris Games - BBC Sport

Realistically, they will struggle to qualify via the ranking route. It's not impossible, but it's a very narrow path for them. They are currently over 2000 points shy of the last quota spot and this will get worse as more teams start their season. Even a tournament win in Saquarema will only net them 400 points so to have any real hope of closing the gap, they will need to qualify for the Elite16 events in Tepic and Brasilia and pull off a couple of surprises in the main draw. I still think that they have a good chance of getting a quota, but it will likely come through the Continental Cup route.

Finishing up the tour of the women's events with the 4x100 medley relay, the qualification time set out by Aquatics GB (Wonder how much they spent on the rebrand) is 3:56.89. That's more generous than they allowed for the 2023 World Championships but is about 2 seconds faster than the team achieved in the heats in Fukuoka. With Angharad Evans in the squad, they are likely to see improvement in the breaststroke leg but using the 2024 season's bests for the top swimmer in each discipline would generate a time of 3:57.26. This relay shouldn't be all that impacted by the absence of Freya Anderson so it will be interesting to see how Aquatics GB react in the event that they do miss the target time.

Women's 400m Individual Medley: Freya Colbert is another swimmer who should be virtually assured of a ticket on the Eurostar. After winning the world title in Doha, she followed that up with a win at the Edinburgh meet in a time of 4:37.72 which would have been good enough for bronze in Doha. Colbert should be joined on the train by Katie Shanahan - she achieved the BST at the British Champs last year and followed it up with another sub 4:37.00 clocking at the International Trophy Sette Colli meeting in Italy in June 2023 but she was well adrift of the standard at the Edinburgh meet. Amelie Blocksidge could be the wildcard in the event and she is in PB form but still needs to find over 10 seconds if she wants to hit the BST. Women's 200m Individual Medley: The 200m Individual Medley is perhaps the strongest event in the women's field with 5 athletes having achieved the OQT within the last 18 months although only Abbie Wood has achieved the standard so far in 2024. She will therefore start as favourite but should be pushed by Katie Shanahan. Alicia Wilson has a PB within the BST, but that dates back to 2021 and she hasn't really threatened that time since then.

Women's 200m Butterfly: As World Champion, Laura Stephens is probably the closest to being a nailed-on certainty for selection across women's field. It is perhaps worth saying that she put in a pretty mediocre time in Edinburgh and was beaten in the final by Macinnes. Hopefully that was just a blip but nevertheless, if Stephens wants to medal when we get to Paris, she's going to need a new PB. We could see 2 athletes in the event if either MacInnes or Large can recapture form of 2023. Large swam the BST when she took the silver medal at the British Champs last year, whilst MacInnes was just 11 hundredths of a second outside of the standard finishing third at the same event. Women's 100m Butterfly: Nobody has hit the BST within the last 18 months. Laura Stephens was due to swim the event in Edinburgh but withdrew beforehand. Stephens, MacInnes and Jones are pretty evenly matched in terms of their personal bests but all three would need to find at least a second to be in with a chance of hitting the BST.

Sam Hall likely to rue his poor performance in Tbilisi as he's got a horror draw in Antalya Grand Slam this weekend. Whilst he should be able to overcome Georgios Balarjishvili, that only takes him to the round of 32 where he would be up against top seed Hifumi Abe. Lachlan Moorhead has a great chance for a top 8 finish. He's up against Jorge Perez in round 1 with either Mihail Latisev or Abdelrahman Abdelghany waiting in the round of 32. If he can get through his first couple of rounds, he's drawn to face 5th seed Verdat Albayrak in the round of 16. Jamal Petgrave has a tricky draw. He's up against Komronshokh Ustopiriyon in the first round but would then face 7th seed Noel Van T End in the round of 32. Rhys Thompson has Laurin Boehler in the first round with Boris Georgiev waiting in the round of 32. On the women's side, Chelsie Giles opens her competition against Aleanny Carbonell Julian with Jessica Pereira a possible opponent in the round of 16. As the 8th seed, Nekoda Smythe Davis has been given a pretty kind draw and has great chance to get a top 8 finish. With a bye through to the round of 32, she'll start against Yeung Nok Lam or Bakyt Kussakbayeva. In contrast, Lele Nairne has a tricky opener against Kseniia Galitskaia. Lucy Renshall could have a tricky opener against Yana Makretskaya. Katie Jemima Yeats Brown and Kelley Peterson Pollard are both in action in the 70Kg class and neither have particularly easy draws. Yeats Brown should get passed Ugne Pileckaite in the first round whilst Peterson Pollard has a bye to the round of 32 and will be up against Joana Crisostomo. Finally, Emma Reid is the 8th seed and has winnable opening match against Zanet Michaelidou whilst Nathalie Powell faces Margarita Gritsenko.

Skateboarding There are 88 quotas available across park and street events - 22 for park and 22 for street for both men and women. I should point out that this does include the host and universality quotas, so perhaps more accurate to say there are 20 quotas in each event available. Park Men's Qualifiers: Tommy Calvert - Currently ranked 28th and carrying forward 8,439 points to the OQS. On an adjusted basis, Calvert would be 21st, so it is possible that he could be in a qualifying position if the host quota is reallocated. To be safe though, it would be better if he could move up the rankings a little - he's currently about 2,500 points behind the last quota spot. Worth keeping an eye on performances of Rune Glifberg and Tyler Edtmayer as Calvert really needs to outperform both of these guys to be in the hunt for the last quota spot. George O'Neill - With 3,301 points, he currently sits 38th in the rankings so realistically, unless he can get a top-10 finish in the OQS events, he probably has too much to do to be able to get a quota. Andrew MacDonald - Currently 40th in the rankings with just 3,056 points so probably won't be figuring in the race for a quota. Women's Qualifiers: Sky Brown - Injury and an attempt to qualify in surfing limited the number of events that she took part in, but she is still 3rd in the ranking and carries forward 130,000 points. Barring absolute disaster, she should safely secure a quota. Lola Tambling - Currently ranked 13th and carries forward 46,261 points to the OQS. If we work on the basis that the top-20 will qualify, then Tambling has a cushion of around 27,000 points so she is well placed to take a quota. Lilly Strachan - Currently ranked 32nd, carrying forward 7,192 points to the OQS. On an adjusted basis she is just outside the top 20 and is about 5,000 points short of the last quota spot so realistically, she'd need to knock it out the park in the OQS events if she was hoping to get a 3rd spot for GB. Street Men's Qualifiers: Joe Hinson - Is ranked 37th with 10,094 points to carry forward to OQS. On an adjusted basis, he would be 27th but even so, he is still about 15,000 points adrift of the quota race so will need some pretty impressive performances in the OQS if he is to move up in the rankings. Women's Qualifiers: No British qualifiers.

Couple of Brits in action in the Continental Tour Challenger event in Johannesburg today Alex Botterill won the men's 800m in a time of 1:46.13 Laviai Neilson won the women's 200m in a time of 23.32 seconds - that's just 6 hundredths outside her PB.

Breaking There are 20 quotas available - 10 for the men and 10 for women. Men's Qualifiers: B-Boy Kid Karam - World number 32 and 16th in Olympic ranking list. Finished 8th at World Championships, 5th at European Games and 8th at European Championships. B-Boy Sunni - World number 19. Finished 20th in Olympic ranking list. 21st at World Championships, 10th at European Games and 17th at European Championships. B-Boy Sheku - World number 24 and 28th in Olympic ranking list. Finished 13th at European Championships. Women's Qualifiers: No Brits in the qualifying event.

Sport Climbing There are 38 quotas available across boulder/lead and speed events - 12 for boulder/lead and 7 in speed for the men and the same for the women's competition. Toby Roberts secured the European quota for boulder/lead. Speed Team GB won't have any entries in the speed events. Boulder/Lead Men's Qualifiers: Hamish Mcarthur - World number 30. Finished 35th in the 2023 World Championships. Has had a number of decent results on lead but tends to struggle on the boulder courses. Max Milne - World number 35. Didn't really compete in the world cup events last year but did manage to finish 49th in the World Championships. Jack MacDougal - World number 43. Backed up his 22nd place from World Championships with a creditable 17th place at the European qualifier. Has been able to put in some decent performances on boulder but looks like he tends to struggle a little on the lead wall. James Pope - World number 50. Finished in 41st place at the World Championships but didn't manage to break into the top-20 of any events in 2023. Women's Qualifiers: Molly Thompson-Smith - World number 21. Had some injury issues last year which kept her out of the European qualifier. Secured multiple top-10 finishes on lead and was 12th in the World Championships. Erin McNiece - World number 50. Finished 35th in the World Championships before competing in the European qualifier where she finished 18th.

BMX Freestyle There are 6 quotas available for the men and 6 for the women. currently have 2 quotas secured at the World Champs last year and will be looking to add to that through the OQS. Worth pointing out that unlike other sports, the wording used in the qualification document suggests that it is possible that the same athlete can secure more than 1 quota. Men's Qualifiers: Kieran Reily - Sealed a quota for GB after taking the World Championship in Glasgow last year. Currently ranked world number 1 but hasn't had the best results in 2024. Jude Jones - World number 15. Put in strong performance in Glasgow to finish 6th but has generally finished mid-pack in the world-cup events. Dylan Hessey - World number 16. Has put in a couple of decent performances at his last two world-cup events. No Declan Brooks in the team. Brooks is still British number 2 and world number 10 but hasn't competed since October. Women's Qualifiers: Charlotte Worthington - Hasn't shown the kind of form that took her to the Olympic title but did enough to secure a quota at the World Championships in Glasgow and her world ranking has been on the slide a little of late as she now sits at number 13 - although that is partly because she missed most of the world-cup events last year. Perhaps indications she could be finding form again after finishing 4th at the last world-cup event last month. Sacha Pardoe - World number 21 and like Worthington has only competed in a couple of world-cup events and has finished in top-20 both times.

We've got about 6 weeks or so before the OQS kicks off in Shanghai for Breaking, Sport Climbing, BMX Freestyle and Skateboarding. With the fields set, we can start to identify who could potentially be in line to pick up quotas for Team GB.

Additional details released about the upcoming OQS for Breaking, BMX Freestyle, Skateboarding and Sport Climbing Breaking, Sport climbing and BMX Freestyle all start with a clean slate whilst Skateboarding will carry forward the points from previous events.

Wout Van Aert broke his collar bone and sustained multiple fractured ribs in the fall today knocking him out of the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold Race.

He has been competing - he won the British Championships in 2023 with a new PB of 488 points and that got him on to the squad for Fukuoka but he didn't have a great competition. He missed out on Doha after he finished 4th place at the British Diving Cup in Edinburgh in December. Although he didn't make it on to the international squad, he has been competing domestically - he won the G-Star 2024 event earlier this month with about 450 points so we should see him in the British trials later in the year.

Wout Van Aert involved in a big crash Dwars door Vlaanderen.

One less name in the mix for the men's individual 10m platform spots with Matty Lee undergoing spinal surgery this week. Matty Lee: Team GB diver to miss Paris Olympics after spinal surgery - BBC Sport

Possible that we might lose another key swimmer from the trials. It is being reported on another site that unfortunately Medi Harris's mother has just passed away.

It's weird that the selection policy doesn't have any allowance for illness or injury going into the trials - for example UK Athletics allow athletes to skip the trials if they are injured/ill provided they have been reviewed by federation medical teams. For Anderson, I suspect that British Swimming will be willing to give her time to recover and show form - the good news from her perspective is that in her events, GB don't have multiple swimmers who are likely to be under the BST. Anna Hopkin will probably take the 100m title with Freya Colbert favourite in the 200m, but there isn't an obvious second athlete who you'd think would get below the BST. The more tricky question for the selectors will be around the relays - the 2024 season's best for the top 4 athletes is outside of the GB nomination time for both the 4x100 and 4x200. If the top 4 are outside the BST, hopefully British Swimming will be pragmatic and won't make a decision about the relay quotas until Anderson is given a chance to prove her form/fitness.

Can you please stop this endless BS because your contribution to these boards is beyond tedious and is nothing more than tin-foil hat conspiracy theories. There is absolutely no evidence that British Swimming want to cut the numbers. As per every major competition, they have set a team size in their selection document. This cycle it has been set at 30 which is the same as the target team size for Rio, Tokyo and Fukuoka. Sure, the revised selection document for Tokyo increased the team size to 35 - but that to accommodate Covid-19. If the squad don't hit the selection times that have been laid down, the evidence would indicate that the selectors are willing to flex their selection policy - after all that's exactly what they did at last year's trials for Fukuoka. As for the "optics" that you keep spouting about - clearly British Swimming are fine not having a GB entry in events otherwise they wouldn't be setting selection times that are lower than the official Olympic qualifying time.

Women's 200m Breaststroke: Nobody has achieved the BST within the last 18 months but at least 3 of our top 8 have registered PBs so far this year, cutting at least 3 seconds off their time. Angharad Evans probably starts as marginal favourite for the event - she's in PB shape and has cut over 8 seconds from her time already this year - but this could well be an event where we have no representation in Paris. Women's 100m Breaststroke: Angharad Evans is the swimmer in form having secured the OQT at the BUCS Championships at the end of February before following it up with the BST at the Edinburgh International Meet earlier this month. Kara Hanlon also well placed to get the second spot, but she would need a new PB to secure the BST.

UK Athletics really could learn a thing or two from British Swimming . Whilst athletics struggle to find a broadcast home, both BBC and Channel 4 will be showing the British Swimming Championships next week. BBC will have live coverage of the finals - not as a linear broadcast, but will be on iPlayer and online. Channel 4 will stream live coverage of both the finals and the morning heats. BBC are also confirmed to be providing coverage of the British Diving Championships

If I read that correctly, (and by read it, I mean Google translated it correctly) there is budget allocated by central government for cycling as elite sport and applications for support can be submitted and approved by the minister. Does that mean that the Polish track cycling team applied for financial support and were rejected?