Rafa Maciel

Agreed - they've already sewed up their spot for Paris and with Archibald taking part in the champions league at the end of last year, it is just a case of managing her schedule so that she peaks for Olympics

top the qualifying for Women's Team Pursuit ahead of and although worth saying that this whilst this was the same Italian squad as the World Champs, GB didn't have their strongest rider - Katie Archibald. Germany will be happy to be above GB in qualifying but perhaps worried about the gap to Italy - in Glasgow they were only 0.3 seconds behind but here they were 1.9 seconds adrift. were able to dust themselves off to take the restart and finish in 5th place.

First real surprise of the competition - DNF in the Women's Team Pursuit. They were putting together a great performance and leading the competition before they had a crash after the 2km mark so are currently showing as DNF. If I remember correctly from Glasgow, they would be allowed to ride again to get a qualifying time, if the same squad are passed as fit to ride but I could be wrong about that.

Men's Team Sprint qualifying complete with and taking the top 3 spots. Compared to last year's WC, seemed to drop back a little (although they did field a different team this time around) and will be a bit disappointed to finish behind having been ahead of them in Glasgow.

Women's Team Sprint qualifying completed with no surprises - and separated by just 0.061 seconds. Basically looks like we are heading towards a repeat of the result from last year's world championships for the European nations.

New Brit Oliver Crawford has just won his first match in colours after switching allegiance from . He won his first round of qualifying against Ilya Ivashka 6-3. 3-6, 6-1

Generally I am a bit wary about prophesising medals whilst we're still in the middle of winter training but it would be a major surprise (and disappointment) if Craig and Grant didn't secure the gold medal in LW2x. I guess the good news is that based on last years performances, the men's sweep squad will have medal chances in all three classes but at this stage, I wouldn't say any are nailed on certainties for gold. I think the M2- would likely be the weakest link - not because the crew isn't capable, but the competition in the class is pretty stiff. The M4- should medal - but then we thought the same going into Tokyo - but could emerge as gold medal contenders. It will be difficult as they don't tend to compete as much on the international circuit. Traditional foes, would need to see an improvement on their 2023 pace if they are going to be challenging for top spot on the podium. The M8+ has such a small field and GB has such strength on the men's side that again a medal should be achievable. On the men's sculling side, currently we have only qualified the M4x and whilst it is not beyond possibility that they could sneak a minor medal, it would be a bit of a surprise. I am expecting to be the big winners in the sculling classes. The immediate question for GB is whether we can qualify for the M1x and/or M2x at final qualifying regatta. The women's sculling prospects are much like those of the men. Whilst we have had some great results in the W4x in the past, I think the WC Gold last year was beyond expectations and I think it will be tough to repeat in Paris. Again I expect to be featuring in the medals and are always strong in this boat. Finally, the women's sweep crews will have medal chances in both W4- and W8+. Interestingly, Gracenote's predictions had the W4- slated for a gold medal and personally I would love to see Helen Glover signing off her Olympic journey by standing on the top step of the podium again. The big unknown for the women's side is whether any of the crews will double up. From what I can gather, the selectors are looking to avoid anyone having to double up as it is felt that the fact that Booth and Ford had doubled up in the pair and eight could have contributed to them missing out on the bronze medal in the 8. Ultimately everything is going to come down to who has managed to get through the winter without picking up an injury and then how they perform in the April trials which will determine crew allocations but all things considered, I think there is every reason for British Rowing to be confident going into the new season.

Had me worried there for a minute

Pretty brutal quarter-final for the girls, coming out on the wrong side of a 25-6 shellacking at the hands of . Would be easy for them to be disheartened by the scale of the result, but worth bearing in mind that this was the first time in a decade that they qualified for the Europeans and, in reaching the QFs, they have guaranteed their place in the 2026 competition. Hopefully they can put in a good show in their next couple of matches and secure a spot in Doha.

Whoever wins the tournament this week will secure a quota for Paris - unless they already have one in which case I think it would go to the highest placed non-qualified nation. If that is the case, then the way that the draw has worked out it looks like the quota will go to either or . A fifth place finish here would put GB into the Doha WC draw where 2 further quotas will be available - in fact depending on how the other results go then GB could finish in 6th or 7th and they would still qualify for Doha.

For 'next year' do you mean Doha or do you think they'll need to wait until 2025 in Kallang?

It looks like over the last few weeks, British Rowing have completed the first couple of events for their 2024 team selection. There are no details published on the federation website, so have no idea of times or any real detail on the results, but I have been able to piece together some information from various news organisations: Men's Sweep Squad Last year's M2- Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George didn't take part in the November trials because George was ill. Wynne-Griffith paired up with Morgan Bolding and finished 4th. Jacob Dawson and Sholto Carnegie were the top pairing ahead of Freddie Davidson and Matthew Aldridge. Will Stewart and James Robson finished 3rd. Neither rower had a seat in the 2023 crews so this strong performance will have caught attention of selectors. It was a relatively poor performance from David Ambler and Oli Wilkes. In the December trials, Will Stewart teamed up with Tom George to take the victory. Given the depth of the sweep squad, I don't think the crew make-up will be clear until after the April trials. Men's Sculling Squad The members of last year's M4x were the top 4 finishers at the open trial in November with Tom Barras taking top spot ahead of George Bourne, Callum Dixon and Matt Haywood. 5th place at November trial went to Cedol Dafydd - he's not someone that I am familiar with but seems to have come up through the GB Development Academy. Graeme Thomas looks like he is back from the injury that kept him out of action for the 2023 season. He won the M1x event at the December trial ahead of George Bourne. In all likelihood, I think that barring injuries, the selectors will probably stick with the same M4x crew from last year whilst Graeme Thomas is probably back in the mix for the M1x. The M2x is more difficult to call - partly because GB don't have a huge depth in the sculling team - and the M2x crew last year had a horror show at the worlds (25th) so the selectors may look to the future and pair up the youngster Dafydd with Miles Devereux as they look to qualify for Paris at the final Olympic qualifying regatta. Women's Sculling Squad Lauren Henry took top spot in the W1x. Her crew mates from last year's W4x Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw were 3rd and 5th. Mathilda Hodgkins Byrne - returning to the squad after maternity leave - took second place. Hodgkins Byrne was part of the squad that finished 7th in Tokyo Olympics. Lightweight pair of Emily Craig and Imogen Grant finished in 4th and 6th and look set to remain best prospect for gold medal in Paris. Lola Anderson won the December trial with a "statement victory" - should point out that in the limited reporting of the December trials, everyone had a statement victory and the news stories are simply copy and paste jobs. Women's Sweep Squad There was no specific sweep trial in November - so the sweep squad took part in the sculling trial. Rowan Mckellar and Heidi Long were the top pairing at the December trial. As with the men's sweep squad, the crew make-up wont be established until the seat racing trials in April. I am expecting there to be crew changes this year, as selectors will be keen to avoid the rowers doubling up. As with the men's sculling squad, the W4x is pretty established and, having won the world champs last year, selectors may be reluctant to make too many changes going into Paris. The return of Hodgkins Byrne does at least give the selectors some options around the W1x and W2x going into the final qualifying regatta with Hodgkins Byrne, Kyra Edwards, Saskia Budgett and Lucy Glover fighting for those 3 seats.

women finish the preliminary round with victory over (if only the basketball team had managed the same result back in the summer!) to top their table. Looks like they will be up against tomorrow for a place in the quarter-finals. Israel haven't had a great tournament so the Brits will be optimistic of pulling off the win - unfortunately they'd then be up against either or so the journey is likely to end there, but if they can get into the QF they qualify for the 2026 European Champs and would give them a chance of qualifying for Doha World Champs.

Agree the diving squad is probably heading into 2024 in the strongest position they have ever been, with a good mix of new names and seasoned competitors. Realistically, I think barring injury, the synchro teams are now pretty much set for Paris - although perhaps there's a question mark over whether it will be Matty Lee or Noah WIlliams teaming up with Daley. (I do think perhaps you are a little harsh with the suggestion that Lee and Williams weren't the best pair for 10m synchro given they were silver medalists in 2022 and at the time, everyone assumed that Daley was done with diving and was focusing on his knitting and crocheting empire.) Based on the British Cup results from earlier this month, I think GB will have good medal prospects for the men's 3m synchro and women's 10m platform. Daley and Williams were 1 dive away from having a global medal winning score. I am less confident on the women's 3m synchro but then I said the same going into Fukuoka and they pulled it out of the bag. In the individual events, it looks like Laugher has recovered from his injury but is perhaps still a little rusty but with him, Goodfellow, Houlden and Halsam there's a strong group of divers on the 3m springboard able to hit around 470-480 points. The challenge over the next 6 months or so is to push those scores up towards 500 if they are hoping to medal in Paris. In the men's 10m, we've got multiple candidates the frame for 2 individual spots but again, they are probably at least 20-30 points short of a medal score at the moment. Big unknown as we go into the new year is whether Daley is going to go for both the synchro and the individual events. For the women, we will have 3 women, fighting for the two spots. With Mew Jensen and Harper already going to Paris in the synchro, it will be interesting to see if Grace Reid is able to muscle her way on to the squad in the individual - she won the British Cup this month with a score that would have been good enough for bronze in Fukuoka so she definitely has the talent. Finally, on the women's platform, Spendolini-Sirieix showed a bit of frailty in Fukuoka when she failed to make it through to the final - but until then she had been a model of consistency and had shown she can deliver on the international stage. That being said, in Doha, it will be important for her to make the final and bury the memory of Fukuoka completely. It will come down to either Louis Toulson or Eden Cheng for the second individual place. Cheng did great at the European Games, but I do think domestically that Toulson has the advantage - her score of 340.20 in Edinburgh at the British Cup this month was just 0.05 off the bronze medal score from Fukuoka. So going into Paris, I would think that UK Sport will give GB Diving a target of 3-4 medals with a stretch target of 6.

Also worth mentioning that the GB mixed duet were top 5 in both the technical and free routines having picked up 2 bronze medals at the European Games and Shortman/ Thorpe took the bronze in the duet freestyle at European Games. The team are getting better, but their acrobatic routine is a weak link that needs a lot of work to put them in contention for Olympic quota. That being said, with the strength of the duets, and if the team can show continued improvement, I think we could see artistic swimming getting another uplift in their funding as we move through to LA '28.

It is a quarterfinal exit for Powell as she loses out to top seed Jie Song 2-0 (0-8, 1-8). Some very weird scoring going on in the fight though with the score having to be corrected twice after Song was awarded points for phantom kicks.

Williams comes up well short losing out 2-1(1-0, 3-10, 9-0). She was "winning" the final round until the last 10 seconds when she basically walked into 3 headshots. Bye-bye Olympic dreams for her

Powell safely navigates her way through her first fight winning 2-0 (2-0, 6-4)

The GB selection policy for the Worlds in Doha is prioritising the Men's 10m synchro - that's now pretty sure to be Daley/Williams - and both the Men's and Women's Individual 3m Springboard. Given Goodfellow has already secured a quota, I'd expect both Laugher and Houlden to make the trip for the men's event. Definitely think the Olympic team is pretty much already decided (barring any major injuries) but as you say, with a packed schedule for 2024, there should be enough competition for everyone in the elite squad to have at least 1 international competition.

British Diving Cup Men's Individual 3m Springboard 1.) Daniel Goodfellow - 476.00 2.) Jack Laugher - 474.55 3.) Jordan Houlden - 470.30 Goodfellow's score is about 40 points higher than he achieved in the final at Fukuoka but wouldn't be enough to trouble the podium. Laugher's Inward 3 1/2 somersaults in tuck let him down a bit and overall his numbers were a bit lower than we're used to seeing but he does seem to be back from his injury problems.

British Diving Cup This week Edinburgh has been hosting the Scottish National Diving Championships/British Diving Cup. This is the key selection event for the 2024 World Championships and saw the competitive return of Tom Daley. Men's 10m Synchro Tom Daley & Noah Williams: 422.46. Score is marginally higher than that achieved by Williams/Lee in the final at Fukuoka. The score was depressed a bit by a poor back 3 1/2 somersaults in pike which only scored 55. Looks like this will be the pairing going to Doha in the only synchro event where GB don't have a quota secured. Women's 10m Synchro Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix & Lois Toulson: 317.10. Score is about 7 points higher than they achieved when they took silver in the final at Fukuoka. Men's 3m Synchro Jack Laugher & Anthony Harding: 437.88. Score is up by around 13 points on their score from Fukuoka. This kind of score would certainly put them in the mix for silver/bronze at any international competition. Yona Knight-Wisdom & Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson scored 351.69. Good to see the smaller nations progressing in the sport - this is 10 points more than they managed in Fukuoka and would probably put them in the mix to qualify for the final. Women's 3m Synchro Scarlett Mew Jensen & Yasmin Harper: 284.34. The only synchro team who weren't able to match their score from Fukuoka. This is a drop of about 12 points and would not have been enough for them to medal. We've also had the preliminary round of the men's individual 3m springboard: 1.) Jack Laugher - 469.85 2.) Ross Haslam - 455.30 3.) Jordan Houlden - 411.10 4.) Daniel Goodfellow - 385.40 5.) Leon Baker - 366.50 Jake Passmore scored 361.45, Yona Knight-Wisdom scored 358 - both outscoring their 2023 World Champs performance.

The team was supposed to be selected at the beginning of October and announced at the end of November but not sure that they stuck to their own schedule.

Day 1 draw for Grand Slam Champions Series Final has been released. Neither of the in action - Aaliyah Powell or Lauren Williams - have a great draw in the -67Kg event as they have been drawn against the number 1 and number 2 seeds in the quarterfinals (assuming they make it through their opening fight). Aaliyah Powell is drawn against Ozoda Sobirjonova in the round of 16. They fought in the quarterfinals of the OQT earlier in the week and Powell came through in a tight match so every chance that she could repeat that tomorrow. If successful, Powell would then be against top seed Jie Song. Song is currently ranked 11th in the Olympic qualifier list and Powell is in pretty good form so she'll have every reason to think she could win that fight. If she gets through to the semi-finals, Powell would face either 4th seed Hyo rim Hong or 5th seed Ruth Gbagbi who face each other in the quarterfinals (this will be a repeat of the OQT Quarterfinal which was won by Hong). Hong Lauren Williams will fight Lilliia Khuzina in the round of 16. They fought in the semifinals of the OQT and Khuzina overwhelmed Williams. The hope is that having had a couple of days off, Williams might be a bit fresher when they fight in the morning. If she can prevail, then she would face 2nd seed Cecilia Castro Burgos. The Spaniard lost in the first round of the OQT so not sure what her form is like.

OQT Grand Slam Champions Series Final Qualifiers - Day 2 (X) indicates the athlete's current Olympic Ranking List. Women's 57Kg 1 Yu-jin Kim (29) 2 Chaima Toumi (18) 3 Tian rui Zhan 4 Tatiana Minina 5 Megawati Maheswari(87) 6 Yirao Sang (346) 7 Gahyeon Kim(51) 8 Margarita Blizniakova Women's +67Kg 1 Polina Khan 2 Fatima-Ezzahra Aboufaras(19) 3 Lei Xu (10) 4 Seungju Oh(153) 5 Sujuan Zhang(124) 6 Anna Pekonnkina 7 Wenzhe Mu(80) 8 Zeqi Zhou (13) Men's 58Kg 1 Gashim Magomedov (23) 2 Huichan Yang(45) 3 Abolfazl Zandi (15) 4 Barbod Jabbari Asyabi(334) 5 Luiz Aquino(90) 6 Georgii Gurtsiev 7 Junsong Yu 8 Alireza Hosseinpour (66) Men's 80Kg 1 Jasurbek Jaysunov (16) 2 Maksim Khramtcov 3 Shukhrat Salaev(15) 4 Mirhashem Hosseini(23) 5 Nedzad Husic(12) 6 Abolfazl Abbasi Pouya 7 Amir Mohammad Bakhshi(58) 8 Vladislav Budin -18 Qualifiers - 14 Qualifiers - 9 Qualifiers - 7 Qualifiers - 3 Qualifiers - 2 Qualifiers - 1 qualifier

The athletes I've flagged as missing out were in the qualifying tournament and were seeded to make the quarter finals but lost out in the early rounds. That being said, looking at the entry criteria for the GS Series Final, some of them could still be in the Final if they are a pre-registered athlete.