RussB

I must admit this is another positive takeaway from today, that quota looks likely to be gained.

We may still have Thomas racing for the quota at the LCR and have Bourne race it at the games, who I thought looked really good today. But regardless who it is, it's pretty safe to say we'll get the quota along with Italy. 

i would say its more akin to boxing with the different weight classes, but this did make me laugh!

Speaking as someone who is 1.64m tall I'm in favour of that rule
 

lots of positive performances by GBR this morning; coming 1-2 in the women's 4 with a dominating win over NED particularly eye catching with GBR-2 going in the womens 8 final later this morning.
 
Should be strong contenders in Paris in a number of boats.

It does make it easier and better to view for non-regular viewers if the differences in the categories are only limited to the number of athletes in the boat and the oars (or however it's called) they're using, and something less visible like weight isn't really a thing anymore. Lightweight classes have often felt a bit like a category for rowers who are too small, like if there's a special volleyball competition for people under 1.65m  
 

Unbelievable mess in the men’s omnium points race. Hayter wins but somehow isn’t credited with a lap leading to a 20 min delay while the officials try to figure out what happened.
 
Shambles 🤣

Sometimes points races are messy and scoring can be difficult, but this wasn’t the case here! He took a lap with 3 other leading contenders, and they somehow just forgot to give him 20 points. It was obvious what had gone wrong but still took ages for them to rectify it, with mins of camera shots of about 20 UCI officials looking hugely confused. Just a bad look at such a significant event.

Unbelievable mess in the men’s omnium points race. Hayter wins but somehow isn’t credited with a lap leading to a 20 min delay while the officials try to figure out what happened.
 
Shambles 🤣

- I think Proud has put himself in the category of a good chance for gold category. Cam seemed to succumb to the pressure at World’s and proved he isn’t infallible and That time Ben posted at trials puts him in a great spot to be pushing 21 flat at Paris. He seems mentally in a really good place so I’m excited to see what he can do
- 4 x 200m free for mens = gold barring something unusual
- 4 x 100m free = I’d say favourites for silver at the moment, can we challenge US?
- 4x100m men’s medley = I think we need Jacob Peters on the team, so it’s hard to judge pre selection. But surely a medal contender with the other 3 legs.
- 4 x100m mixed medley = don’t love our chances at retaining this without a fly swimmer. You need one of the 100m fly girls to push on hard in the months before Paris (Morgan Peaty mcinnes Hopkin)
-men’s 100m breast = Peaty vs Qin. Hard to know who is favourite right now but my head slightly thinks Qin. Peaty takes silver most likely.
- 200IM men = Scott beating Marchand is looking like a pipe dream of mine now after US NCAAs, but a medal is likely in my view. Tom Dean outside chance of a medal too.
- 200IM women = outside chance for Abbie Wood as she looked great at trials with new PB. Will need to knock another second off to go 2 07 to medal most likely.
- 400IM men = bronze chance for Max but will have to beat Clareburt among others.
- 400IM women = I was dismissed on here in the other thread but I’m sticking to my prediction that Freya has a great chance at wins bronze behind Summer and Katie.
- I don’t see our girls medalling in 200m back but could both final.
- 200m fly women = very outside chance of a medal for either of the 2 girls.
- men’s 200m free = 2 good medal chances but it’s very hard to predict. Gold chances.
- women’s 4x200m free = I’d love to see the girls win a bronze here, but it’s going to be tough. Need Freya A back to her best.
- backstroke men’s 100m = outside medal chance for Ollie
-200m back men’s = bronze chances for our 2 boys. Both capable on their best of going very fast.
- 100m free = I don’t rule out Matt Richards but it’ll be very tough to get on the podium

Think our strongest quartet come summer will be Nielson, Anning, Ohurougu, Pipi… at least on paper although it’s refreshing to see depth in the squad with Jessie, Yemi, Nicole Yeargin and Lina N

I'm here for the entertainment for that mens 4x100m squad :D

There's high hopes for Roberts after the huge progress he made last year - he's world number 2 in combined boulder/lead so it would be surprising if there wasn't talk of a podium for him. It will be tough though with the strength and depth of the Japanese and the Korean teams amongst others. If Roberts can keep it close in the boulder stage, then he will have a great chance when it comes to lead.
 
Prior to last year, Roberts was regarded more as a lead specialist but he has put in a huge amount of work in on his boulder technique and he is becoming a lot more consistent in his result. 
 
As for the rest of the GB squad, there's a lot of new names coming into the squad and we've got quite a few qualified for the OQS. It's not out of the question that we could end up with another couple of athletes qualified for Paris. 

Is the top one dedicated to the one and only Welsh sexbomb or someone completely different? 

Great start to the season for Erin McNeice as she qualifies for her first IFSC World Cup Boulder final. 

Jacob would do well to beat Bird tonight, as Jacob didn't make the A final! I suppose it is possible that he does a quicker time in the B final.

Wow, that's quite optimistic for you mate. You sure you're feeling alright? 

Proud’s days of doing 100 relays are long gone for sure 🤣

Colbert just looks like such a strong swimmer across all strokes. Down to a 4m 34 flat and a real contender to everyone except Summer in Paris

2 seconds beneath the relay Q time combined, they're in. Anderson, if regains fitness and form, will slot in as Colbert won't race the 200 Free in Paris, so won't take up an excess quota.

Phoebe Cooper with an impressive 2m flat 200m free...Great junior prospect.

Seems like the expectation is that Wilby will get selected. Backup for the medley relays at least

A number of the evening sessions are sold out which is really positive, alongside the TV pick ups from BBC and C4.

I think the team limit was fine when GB probably didn't have all that many individual swimmers who were likely to make global finals, but the British squad has come on a huge amount in the last couple of Olympic cycles. 
 
Where I begin to have a problem with the team limit concept is if swimmers meet the British Selection Time but are not selected because of the limit. Bearing in mind that the BST is basically the time that was needed to reach the final at '23 World Champs then by not taking a swimmer that achieves the BST this week, we run the risk of leaving a potential Olympic finalist at home.   
 
The performances from this morning give cause for optimism that we could see quite a few PBs over the course of the week so I think there's every chance that the selectors are going to have plenty to think about in terms of the squad they take forward. 

It looks like Reese Lynch is back to full fitness - he's been included in the squad taking part in the Socikas International tournament this weekend in Lithuania and he has won his first round fight against  Aleksandras Petrovskis. 
 
I think the selection for Bangkok needs to be done by about 17th of April so I guess this will be an important tournament for him as he will need to prove he's back to full fitness for the selectors to give him the nod for the final Olympic qualifying tournament. 
 
Also in the squad this week are Scott Richards and Hamza Mehmood in the 51Kg, Joe Tyers in 63.5Kg, Harris Akbar in 71Kg, Ramtin Musah in 80Kg and Isaac Okoh in 86Kg.
 
Alongside the victory for Lynch, Richards, Tyers and Musah all recorded victories on the first day, but Harris Akbar was defeated.