Epic Failure

It's my own diginity I worry about - I don't want to sit by the TV as Adrain Moorhouse cheers on H2O-Boy Ben tries to edge out H2O-Boy Cameron,

In fairness, if everyone in sport simply performed to their previously established best times, sport would be very dull. Great swimmers can perform well at their trials and then get their taper wrong. It's not unheard of.
 
Andrew in the 200IM is a prime example that a fast time is not a guarantee of a championship performance when the pressure is on. On the other hand, who predicted Hafnaoui would win the 400m free title in Tokyo? Of the 900 people who entered Swimswam's prediction competition that year, nobody had him even finishing in the top 4.
 
So whilst some of your points are correctly identifying where are not a medal favourite, none of the predictions the other poster made are beyond the realm of possibility. The women's 4x200m free, for example, would only require a poorly timed takeover for GBR to be in with a shot of the podium (although they probably would still be fighting Canada for that spot).
 
I said the following after the trials in April, and I stand by it.
 
 

Yeah, Sjoestroem has 6 times which are quicker than any other active swimmer in the 50 free.
 
Cam, as great as he is, isn't even the fastest on paper if Dressel qualifies. It would be much more of a shock if Sarah lost than if Cam did.
 
That's true of many of the other strong Aussie gold chances on the men's side. As great as they are, they are often matched by a couple of other greats - the 100 free has Pan and Popovici, the 200m breast has Qin, the 400m free has Lukas Martens, the 4x100m free has the USA. And so on.
 
Obviously the Aussie men are absolutely still gold medal threats. But the women's side has more "nailed on" Aussie favourites for me.

On the other hand, I'm completely on board with Splashy Proud representing us in the pool.
 
Clearly, I value his dignity slightly less than you.

Given that the LJ qualification is the morning after the decathlon finishes, I'm going to say that even he probably doesn't know right now and it might depend entirely on how he feels that morning!
 
I'm guessing he'll be entered into both anyway, unless something goes wrong this weekend in Gotzis that puts him off the Decathlon.
 
But that's just my gut. I can't find any press release etc about his plans.

I'm really worried. Last four Olympics I've predicted 15-18 gold medals every time and been delighted when  they won more.
This year I have GB winning 30. Perhaps this is the year when it goes the other way?

The Arena just exploded ! Literally exploded !
 
 

Yeah, Sjoestroem has 6 times which are quicker than any other active swimmer in the 50 free.
 
Cam, as great as he is, isn't even the fastest on paper if Dressel qualifies. It would be much more of a shock if Sarah lost than if Cam did.
 
That's true of many of the other strong Aussie gold chances on the men's side. As great as they are, they are often matched by a couple of other greats - the 100 free has Pan and Popovici, the 200m breast has Qin, the 400m free has Lukas Martens, the 4x100m free has the USA. And so on.
 
Obviously the Aussie men are absolutely still gold medal threats. But the women's side has more "nailed on" Aussie favourites for me.

I don't think Keely would get in our relay squad without a substantial drop anyway and you would think she's probably more focused on her main event this summer. I'd be surprised if we didn't see her at trials though, she's always seemed a "racer". And it's not far from Leigh to Manchester.
 
My comment about Phoebe wasn't specifically directed at you, it was just a general thing that I always worry about young athletes that make this kind of breakthrough.
 
Obviously we (and the rest of British sport by the headlines etc) are all super excited about her. I just hope that she's got a good group around her. Similar to Blocksidge in the pool - obvious talent but giving them time to develop without pressure will hopefully bring long term rewards for both them as an athlete and us as fans. If that is Paris, great. If it is Rome or Lima, also great.

It's been an exciting day for with just turned 17 year old Phoebe Gill running 1:57.86 in the 800m in Belfast earlier today.
 
Assuming that the time is ratified it would be the 2nd fastest time in the world by any age group this year, and the 2nd fastest by an U18 ever.

Surprised that nobody has mentioned it yet but the performance of the weekend (so far) from a GB runner has come over in the sunny climes of....Belfast.
 
At the Belfast Irish Milers Meet, Phoebe Gill ran the 800m in 1:57.86.
 
Phoebe only turned 17 last month.
 
Assuming the clock etc are accurate, it's hard to overstate how amazing that performance is. To put it in context, it's the second fastest U18 ever, behind only a very suspect Chinese athlete from the 90s. It's the second fastest European U20, behind only Keely. And Phoebe has several years more eligibility in that category. It's quicker than Mary Moraa won the Doha DL yesterday.
 
Obviously, goes without saying that it is an Olympic Q time.
 
Phoebe has been on the radar for potentially being one of the future stars of GB athletics for a while, but I don't think anyone expected her to achieve a time like this quite so quickly. I was hoping that she could drop below 2m this year. That would have been a perfectly good improvement!
 
Race is at the 4h 06m mark:
 
-
Astonishing.

Yep 
 
Thanks for the correction 

Think you've mixed up the conferences there a bit.

I guess my worry is that with that setup the Olympics will always greatly overshadow everything else.
 
I think that is somewhat supported by the fact that Dupont and Hooper want to get into their Olympic teams - I don't remember either rushing to get in the WC team. Obviously the 7s skillset isn't quite the same but I think that shows the mentality in the sport about how the various comps are perceived.
 
I think at heart, I'm just an advocate for bigger fields in any sport.
 
I realise that isn't practical but it just feels more romantic to have more teams having a shot. I can't really explain it any better.

Urgh. I hate injuries. Can't we wrap all the athletes in cotton wool until Paris?!?

Urgh. I hate injuries. Can't we wrap all the athletes in cotton wool until Paris?!?

Urgh. I hate injuries. Can't we wrap all the athletes in cotton wool until Paris?!?

Ondine Achampong - Artistic Gymnastics
I think it's now safe to say,  that with 3 of the 5 woman world championship medal team likely to miss Paris, Britain will not be winning an Olympic team medal

Confirmed as a serious injury - ruptured ACL. 

France is completely secular, that's why there are no religious signs on any official poster.

No. I didn't say that. I can see how you thought I was. But I wasn't.
 
I was saying that RSA and GBR are generally better than Uruguay and Japan. And, most importantly, I'm saying that the route that Uruguay and Japan had was easier than the route RSA and GBR had.
 
I was literally saying that Kenya, Ireland and Spain are much tougher challenges than anything that Uruguay or Japan faced in their qualifiers. Obviously Ireland are much tougher - they've consistently been better than GBR for the last couple of years (although we should have won on Sunday. But I digress).
 
And of course on their day, anyone can beat anyone. I said above that 7s closes the gap greatly compared to the 15 a side game. But the gap is still there.
 
Spain beat Fiji in LA, for example. But is anyone really arguing that Fiji are not the better side overall?
 

This all wouldn't be happening if South Africa didn't bottle it against Kenya. So because of that they deserve to miss out and GB deserve to win and go through to the Olympics. 

You're not including the race walkers relay then? I'm pretty sure that neither GB or the US will qualify for that one. 

HSBC SVNS World Series Singapore
 
 
Men
 
1. New Zealand
2. Ireland
3. Great Britain
4. Australia
 
Women
 
1. New Zealand
2. Australia
3. France
4. Fiji
 
 
Full Results
 
 
 

Mawdsley is so impressive in relays, she elevates her performance to another level!