RussB

Seems to be a swelling of support for Switzerland’s entry by Nemo. up to a clear second on ESC scoreboard and odds tightening all the time into 7/1 (roughly 3rd fav) listening to it you can see why, vocally very challenging and I think could score very well with juries and hold their own with the public.

Impressive from the GBR sprint ladies to convincingly beating GER, feels like they have moved to favourites for Paris with Marchant on lead off.

It’s looking that way. A few individual finals possible but I’m not sure where a medal would come from

Does anyone actually know what the situation is with Ngamba and whether she is still being considered to represent GB or is her only avenue as a Refugee given the citizenship has not been granted yet? there is a video feature of her on Olympics.com which she seemed to be intimating she was only focused on the refugee route.

Article on the female sprint team: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/68397869

Let's be honest, they are both long shots for a medal. Accordingly, we do disagree purely because for either to medal you will need a significant jump on entry times. I view there being more of a higher ceiling in the medley than I do the 4x1. Would require big jumps by Keanna and Evans, and I would hope Cox can crack 58s by the time Paris comes round.

As I said, this is the problem with sacrificing any of the relays to make the 30 quota stick. Of the 3 female relays in Paris my personal view is that the 4x1 has the weakest chances.

I think the issue with this is that the women’s 4x200 has made big steps forward lately and is genuinely competitive. the 4x100m medley also gets interesting if you have Evans going a NR and McInnes making noise in the butterfly. A team of Cox , Evans, mcinnes, Hopkin is one I think we would go with. leaves the 4x1 freestyle as the only relay I can imagine British swimming sacrificing.

On the 30 limit I imagine if enough swimmers make a strong case to go by going the hard qualification times they will most likely extend it. they need the relay depth to rest key swimmers to maintain the medal chances, and so if bolters make the time then I think you take them; these include: Blocksidge (I’m not convinced Fleur lewis will be able to go a 16m 01, Amelie I imagine will win trials convincingly) Evans/ Hanlon (whoever finishes 2nd in the 100) Bird Jervis Mcinnes / Stephens (whoever comes 2nd in 200m at trials if 100m time isn’t made) swimmers I have concerns over are Freya Anderson and Tom Dean… Tom hasn’t shown much since Worlds and Freya didn’t go to the Bath training camp in Oz… not sure what the story is there but she isn’t racing so perhaps injury concerns?

You don’t see Keanna making the team? She was so impressive last night. I assume she will be the butterfly female relay swimmer and may qualify via the 200 if not the 100.

It’ll be interesting what Evans can do in the 200 where we don’t have anyone close to reaching the qualifying standard at the moment. She dropped 7 secs of her PB at the end of 2023 so who knows how low into the 2 20s she can go. the consideration time is a 2 23 flat and her PB from Dec is 2 26.8

As we commented after BUCS, Angharad’s progression looks genuine with a time 0.04 outside the British record. my other takeaway from day 1 was the performance of Duncan Scott. He goes a 1m 46 flat in the 200 free and then a 1m 57.7 in the 200 IM off no taper in the same session. Bodes very well for trials and Paris. Also shall give a shout to Keanna Mcinnes who smashed Laura Stephens in the 200 fly going a 2 08 which was surprisingly quick!

Anyone with knowledge on why Joe Choong withdrew after the fencing? edit: sorry my webpage hadn’t loaded the info above !

I agree my instinct is similar although I’m interested to see how Kate Waugh does this season. It felt like she really arrived on the scene last year with the Super League title.

The women side is so interesting for GB with return of GTB, the step forward Beth Potter took last year and the progression of young Kate Waugh. The team relay should have a good chance of repeating, alongside strong medal hopes in both men’s and women’s events in Paris.

I believe Stephen Park used very similar wording last year when discussing Laura's involvement in Paris. I think it has always been less than likely she will be in the team, and as discussed above it is actually a difficult conundrum to figure out how the team can actually accommodate her even if she was able to return to a level that genuinely competed to make the team pursuit / an individual event. I'm a bit sceptical how much she could really improve GB hopes if she did return. You have Evans & Barker (madison), Archibald (omnium), plus Knight or Morris for the team pursuit (if we are able to take 5, then potentially Backstedt or a road racer can round out the team).

Thats a very useful view, thanks for this! Is there no chance Max competes on floor for the team given he is a former Olympic champion if Giarnni isn't selected? I've always wondered why since Rio his programme has been limited to the Pommel when he is such a talented gymnast. Giarnni will take a spot on floor obviously if he makes the squad. It looks like GB will have a very competitive chance on floor, vault, pommel and p-bars, with the issues of rings and horizontal bar. Rings is limited if you take Tulloch/Harry but you're right we don't seem to have any specialists on H-bar.

Rafa how does this impact the standings?

There are injury concerns across 3 of the squad, as far as I'm aware. As it stands I don't think she makes it, but sure, she potentially could be in the mix with more injury disruptions and/or definitive improvements. She has previously been open to competing for either USA or GBR. And clearly she isn't going to make the USA team so more opportunities with GB if that's the way she goes.

I don’t think there is much expectation even if she chose GB that she would make the team … unless she has recently improved.

Whitlock is such a professional, it bodes well for Paris with Fraser back to form. Jarman is incredibly talented but beyond the vault, it’s hard to count on consistent scores. Tulloch place being under threat is interesting, I’ve always assumed his rings score was a necessity while the team relied on Hall / Fraser for reliable scores across the other pieces. disappointing news on the women’s side, but I feared this would be the case without the Gadirova twins

The Croatian entry is an absolute banger. Could easily see this winning the televote 🇭🇷

I tend to be in agreement with you on the quotas for GB. Obviously if Sienna shows some positive results in the juniors then we can hope they do enough to sneak a second quota. British cycling is looking very strong at the moment in terms of current and future prospects, we seem to have a variety of riders who can excel across multi disciplines. Cat Ferguson was fantastic in the junior world race last year, and was extremely unfortunate not to win.

British swimming will take Amelie if she wins trials and gets vaguely close to that insane qualification time of 16m 01 IMHO. What an experience Paris will be for her in her development, she is probably British swimmings biggest talent for a long time. I’m also interested in seeing if she can drop time in the 800m to get close to that QT. As others have mentioned, UK swimming setting a cap of 30 swimmers looks like it MAY cause them problems as a few of the non headline swimmers are making strides in various events.

Well done Molly 🇬🇧!!