Epic Failure

Well, with 2 days left to go, this is already GB's most successful World Jnrs since the event was started back in 2006. Headlined by Filip Nowacki's genuinely world class performances, obviously, but some very strong swims across the team. Mills, Fearn, Morgan, Taylor and Smith all continue to have an excellent summers. Blythe Kinsman looked off her best earlier in the week in the 100m back but has qualified 2nd fasted for the 50m final tomorrow, so hopefully the earlier problems were just the inevitable consistency problems of youth!

Pah, shows what I know. Filip's time at the Euro Jnrs is nothing. Now his time at the World Jnrs...that's something to get excited by (For those that don't follow swimming, he today won the Jnr 200m breaststroke WC in a time that would have won the SENIOR WC as well this year).

I've not been paying much attention to squash in the last couple of years; I hadn't realised that the El Shorbagy brothers had switched allegiance from Egypt to England. They are both fantastic players but will be very, very old (in squash terms) by LA, so it's possible that they won't get there. If they limited it to 1 athlete per NOC, Egypt would be more annoyed that British Cycling were when they changed that lol.

I'm not reading too much into the week (or even this year in general) because this was always going to be the quietest year of the current Olympic cycle - with Euros and Commies next year, then 27 WCs and finally LA, there's an obvious build up over those three years, which will each bring their own pressures. So this year, across many of the Olympic sports, is the one to...relax. Obviously they are all still professionals but it is fairly clear that some are not quite at their top. Some have been more open about it than others (Peaty obviously, Dean as well). Which then leads you to wonder whether that is more widespread than we think - to use Oli Morgan again - could he actually not be working at 100% this year and actually capable of even more than he has shown? We'll never know, but it isn't impossible to imagine. And in swimming especially, with the illness that we know hit the US and has seemingly hit others (I believe GBR shared a training camp with the US, so it wouldn't surprise me if they were caught up in it), these Worlds shouldn't be read too much into. But all that said, fly is still very obviously the weakest link, especially in the absence of a WC women's backstroker right now. It's not that our swimmers are underperforming, they just aren't yet quite showing they are capable of keeping the distance to the top nations down right now. We're still looking like we're giving up at least a second in both the men's and mixed relay on the fly and we don't have Adam operating at a level where we know that he's definitely going to be at least a second ahead on the breast like we used to. As you say, Ed and Keanna have both had solid weeks and there are green roots elsewhere - Dean Fearn had a good Euro Jnrs. Theodora Taylor is gifted in pretty much everything, so could develop her fly (although the free is probably her likely spot). And Blythe Kinsman is probably the best bet for the backstroke spot right now. Those latter 3 combined with Nowicki to dominate at the Euro Jnrs in the mixed medley.

Bilbao is older than the other two and hasn't really kicked on yet. Obviously he still could and I believe he is at Arizona State, which seems like a decent place to be. But right now he's not quite there. I have to disagree with you about Adam's arrival. He didn't come from nowhere in 2014, that was just when he had his international breakout. He came from nowhere in 2013. Which is why he holds the GBR records for all 3 breaststroke events for 18 year olds - https://www.swimmingresults.org/downloads/records/BR/BR_Progressive_LC_Male_18Years.pdf Literally no British 18 year old has ever swum faster than him. So what Max and Filip are doing at 17 *IS* impressive. Filip's 200m time from the Euro Jnrs is super impressive - it would have placed him 5th in Singapore this week. Bottom line is that Filip holds the British Jnr records at 100m and 200m, and they are both within a tenth of Adam 50m Jnr record, with another year of eligibility for each of them to improve further before they join the senior ranks. Now obviously that doesn't mean that they will get close to what Adam achieved or keep improving, but the signs are positive. Oli's poor week has still seen him get within 2/10th of his 100m Back British record. Given that there's rumours that the British team has potentially been hit by the same bug as the US team, I wouldn't worry too much about that. The fly issue is definitely the bigger one.

Only some of the weekend finals will be on NBC. Kinda disappointing that so much of it is now not only behind a paywall but on a streaming service that only the most dedicated fans will have. Way too many streaming services out there. From memory, last year was entirely on Peacock. Which is still a paywall but a more affordable one with much more content on it to make it worth getting.

As much as I love Adam and what he has done for British swimming, I think he's got a challenge on his hands, especially in the 100m. Both Max Morgan and Filip Nowacki are as fast/faster at 17 than Adam was at 18. Obviously it doesn't necessarily follow that they will continue that progression but a 33 year old Adam vs 2 hungry 20 year olds? Rather him than me!

Yeah, although looking at the team, I think they consciously went with age rather than even just selecting a B or C team. I couldn't be bothered checking for all the swimmers but the first 4 or 5 I saw from the GB Champs results were all born in 2010. Some of them are obviously talents but I think there's a chunk of older juniors who could have gone in theory and weren't good enough to go to the Euro Jnrs who have been skipped entirely! I guess it makes sense to give the next batch experience.

In swimming definitely more looking to 32. Most (potentially all, I've not checked) of the team are swimmers born in 2010. If they are ready for LA they'll be ahead of schedule. In fact, our "senior" juniors (if that makes sense) didn't attend this meet. They went to the Euro Jnrs in Slovakia at the beginning of the month, where they topped the table with 9 gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze. The pick of that team will be going to the World Jnrs, happening mid August in Romania, along with Max Morgan and Jacob Mills, who didn't go to the Euro Jnrs as they are with the senior team in Singapore this week.

I can't talk to the motivation, but the vast majority of countries are sending their top ranked athlete on SB in most events. And if not the top ranked, the second ranked (and I'm sure some of the absences can be explained by injury etc). I'm sure the athletes themselves are competitive by nature and will want to do the best that they can. Who can forget the Belgian shot putter who ran the hurdles in Poland a few years back, just to help her team. That's the natural competitive nature these folks have.

She apparently knocked out a 2:08 in the SFs of the 200 fly. I genuinely hope there's nothing nefarious here and that she's treated well by the coaching, for her sake as much as anything.

This was announced last week, but England Athletics confirmed a quote of 58 last week, as well as announcing the selection policy - https://www.englandathletics.org/news/glasgow-2026-commonwealth-games-selection-policy-announcement/ Assuming they fill the quota, would be a slightly smaller team than previous years (72 in Birmingham, 69 for Gold Coast). But that's at least partially explained by the removal of the single sex 4x4s and marathons. Scotland announced their team quota as well, which is 25 (down 2 from Birmingham but up 6 from Gold Coast, in terms of size) - https://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/team-size-25/

Hanlon is the most unlucky, in my opinion. Aside from relay cover, she's the 50m champ and they made a point of including consideration for those events being in LA for the other discretionary picks. Essentially she has the same case for selection as Max Morgan (albeit without the trajectory right now). Blocksidge's form was way off this week (compared to her previous bests). Obviously being still young you could put that down to relative inexperience. Still, she has World and European Juniors that she could still be selected for this summer. There's an argument that performing well at those might be as beneficial as going to Singapore. That said, I'm happy that they did take a bunch of discretionary picks. That's not always been the case.

Has the quota for Canada been offically confirmed anyway, or is that just a rumour? I can't find anything on google about it (nor the suggested quota for England's athletes someone posted earlier). 12 per gender would make sense (it's roughly what Canada sent to Birmingham). 12 overall seems dumb.

Yeah, I'd be shocked if they didn't enter a medley team, especially where it comes in the program. By that stage it isn't like any of the likely swimmers will have another event to prioritise, unless Evans decides to do the 50 (which she didn't even take part in this week. Shame about the mix up for the 4x100 free, although I wouldn't be surprised if that team goes (although whether they will take Taylor is more debateable). You'll have Okaro, Anderson, Colbert there anyway, along with Wood and Hope. If they don't enter it, you have to imagine it is because of workload issues more than anything else. The mixed free relay is the only one that you would say is really doubtful, especially not being an Olympic event. But even then you've probably got enough swimmers there to field a team if they want to.

It was the last event of the meet anyway, so they were never likely to do a swim off. If they wanted to decide in advance based on a race, more likely on a meet like Mare Nostrum. Both are pre-selected anyway because of the relay, so they both will be there anyway. Whichever gets the nod, we probably won't know until the week of. With GB's history of messing about, especially in the first year of a new Olympic cycle, who knows what we'll do. Knowing us, stick Tom Dean in there, make Duncan do the 200 fly and Jimmy the 400 free.

That's the funniest possible result in the 200m free.

All the sessions are also being streamed on the Aquatics GB youtube, which is helpful for those of us outside of the motherland not having to mess around with a VPN! At the halfway point of the champs, and about what you would expect from the first national champs of a new Olympic cycle. Nice to see some young swimmers (Mills, Schlosshan etc) start to make waves. Stand out performance thus far being Olly Morgan in the 100 back for sure.

My entirely snap judgment is that Judo and Badminton are *extremely* lucky to receive uplifts considering their recent record, and also that UK Sport clearly has little support for UKA right now.

Technically he became known as the 'brains' behind a small independent trade team that was outperforming national teams, before then working with the Danish TP in Tokyo. It was after all that happened that INEOS/GB finally came calling. I think they never fully appreciated his talents until it was almost too late.

The Red Wings' maverick approach of having practically no competent defenders or goalies has started about as well as you would imagine that it would. Looks like it could be a long season....

Completely dumb and unnecessary.

Well...mostly unstoppable.

Got a bit hairy late, but pull away from 58-55 in the rugby.

lead in the rugby 28-27 at the half.