RussB

My personal favourite by far is Switzerland this year - its a fabulous musical composition to my ears anyway! Looking forward to the shows, lots of good entries this year and it is genuinely wide open (between 4 in my book at least)

I’m not sure I agree on the top 4 at the moment. MHS and Dobson would seem pencilled in but beyond that Young was really bad today and we didn’t see Haydock Wilson. I was also impressed with Toby Harris today doing a 45.2 to get us to the front while Matt died a bit at the end of his leg.

GBR women will be looking at this event in Paris very intently - expect the first choice 4 would be: Anning, La. Nielsen, Ohurougu, and Yeargin/Pipi. Great performance by Adelaike splitting 49.4 after already doing a 400m earlier in the night - insane.

Excellent work by the 4x100 girls, 42.33 is a very solid time without Dina and Daryl

Any ideas why? Given both are running very well at the moment, this would strike me as a "you have to turn up and compete meet"?

Women's 4x100m team seems to be missing our big guns of DAS and DN: Philip, Lansiquot, Williams, Hunt

this would be far more fun if you could mix up the order of genders like you can in the mixed medley swimming relay

Honestly Nielsen made another big tactical error coming off the final bend, she went wide as if she was thinking she was going to have a go at Ireland, rather than keeping the Belgian boxed in on the curb. It might have made the difference with the metres saved and making her go the long way round

well that was terrible. Brodie Young gave the team far too much to do. Pipi's leg did not look too good either. Massively disappointing

I can only find it on Eurovision sport - I’m hopeful for GB across the relays - the mixed lineup young pipi dobson lavaiai Nielson

I have no idea - BBC live stream not working

Georgie may-fenton with a bronze on uneven bars is a bit of a turn up

You see this is the problem with twins 🤣🤣 right well I’m going to be positive regardless.

On the positive front Jessica looks like she is back doing some basic tumbles and recovery really seems to be going well. Fingers crossed that continues

The European rowing championships were held last weekend …! Stupid team GB website

Absolutely devastating news to hear that Ondine has torn her ACL so is the end of her Paris dreams; and by association the chances of the women’s squad. Horrible luck for her; hopefully she has a smooth and speedy recovery.

Not sure if anyone has been following the European championships this weekend, but a few points of summary: - The men's sweep squad was looking dominant with strong wins across the pair, 4 and 8. In particular the 4 looked so much better than their narrow defeat in Varese when narrowly chased down by the Italians. - The women's quadruple sculls looked back on form with a dominant win, after being off the pace in Varese. - The men's quad sculls was 4th in a tight race in one of the few near misses of the event. - GB topped the medal table with 8 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronze including the para events. - Netherlands did not compete with their A crews. - There was a severe crosswind on both days which made lane order vital (determined from the heats performance).

Shriever doing exactly the same thing in the final of both rounds 5 and 6. She can't get round Sakasibara going into the first turn, and then just exits the track stage left in exactly the same place. Just strikes me as giving up when she realises she's not getting the win, despite the electric form she showed in all of the previous races in both rounds 5 and 6.

Anning goes 22.66 with a 2.2 wind.

Great news from the Brits coming through. I'm not sure what is amiss with Richardson but thats another 200m where she is clearly out of form and clocking around the 23 mark. Daryl looked great for a 22.6 clocking, hopefully there is more to come. Initial signs are looking great for the two women's sprint relays in Paris.

Both bits of news are very promising. Dina has been looking more like her old self in the early season … 22.29 is a solid marker in April to be putting down. Curious to see what Amber can do this weekend.

I think very foolish to write off Wiffen but just my personal view he could be one of the stars of the pool in Paris. as for the mixed medley it hinges on the McInnes fly leg on whether GBR can sneak a medal, but it will be challenging. on the 4x100m free, US will be favs (especially if Dressel gets back to peak form - which I don’t think is a given). However GBR had 3 47s and a 48 flat 4th at trials so lots of scope to push those times down to a very competitive relay squad in Paris.

Not having Daniel Wiffen medalling in either the 800 or the 1500 is a bold prediction in my view given what he did the WR in the 800 (short course). Britain will be aiming for 9-10 medals so a return of 4 would be very disappointing. Mens medley and mixed medley fortunes are drastically improved by the progression of Ollie Morgan and Peaty. The 4x100 free team could challenge the US for gold given the level seen at trials.

That’s fair, he looked very ordinary (by his insanely high standards) through the back end of 2023. Still young, as is Matt - I think you’re going to have to go 1 43 in Paris to win.

I think Qin is an absolute beast over 200 when you look at his stroke. Over 100 though I do wonder if he has the capability to get down to a low 57 which I think is what it will take to beat Adam. Either way it’ll be a fascinating race to watch, especially the story behind Adam’s comeback is compelling.