Tonight's Dubai Swimming World Cup available on streaming at 14:00

http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/fina/swimming/index.html

James Guy must be one of the hottest tips for GB gold next summer in Rio...

Another group of Team GB athletes officially selected for Rio - this time it is six athletes from our Shooting Team. Once again, plenty of strong medal chances from athletes who have already proved themselves in international competition.

http://www.teamgb.com/news/six-shoot...gb-at-rio-2016

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/shooting/34764679

According to the BBC there is still the possibility of another two places from the European Championship in Hungary in February.

The big event next week is going to be the Weightlifting World Championships in Houston Texas, full coverage on Eurosport as usual. It's the main qualifying event for Rio. Qualifying is based on Team World Rankings, then it is up to the individual teams to assign athletes to weight categories. There are also places available based on Continental Championships, which is more likely to be GB's route to the Games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weight..._Qualification

Our men are on a grand total of 0 World ranking points so far, so their main competition will be the 2016 Euros, where we will likely struggle to get to even a single quota place. Our women are currently ranked 34 in the world, need to get up to 21st to get an extra quota place, which will be tough.

British team announcement from last month is here, presumably there have been no changes.

http://britishweightlifting.org/news...championships/

If you don't have Eurosport. the weightlifting World Champs are on live stream.

http://m.teamusa.org/USA-Weightlifting/live

Our only real prospects for decent finishes, Rebekah Tiler and Zoe Smith go in the A division of the women's 63kg at 23:25 on Wednesday.

To give you an idea of how far off World Class the men's team are, Jack Oliver just broke the British record for the clean in the 77kg, but will probably only finish in the mid-30s in his weight, not even getting an Olympic qualification point.

News for hockey fans .... the World League Finals, both m + w will be on TV > BT sport
Seeing that they don't have a "NowTV" style option that's many of us in the dark.
Starsports will be streaming all the games I suppose, so they might be viewable that way or even with an unblocker.
Otherwise it's the pirates again.

I noticed that, thought it odd that BT had got the rights all of sudden, it has been on Sky for the last few years. Anyway, Team GB already safely through in both, but it'll be tense for the other teams. And I suppose seedings will be in play as well.

Zoe Smith broke the British record in all three categories of the women's -63kg category in the World Weightlifting Champs in Houston, to finish overall 9th. Still not quite enough to guarantee an Olympic Quota place, but if she's fit she should do enough at the Europeans in Norway in the spring to get a place. Weightlifting is one of those sports where it is actually harder to get good results in the Worlds than in the Olympics.

16-year old Rebekah Tiler also did well, finishing 13th, so hopefully we will soon have a couple of world-class lifters for the first time in I-don't-know-when. Pre-war, probably.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/weightlifting/34929929

Maybe another un-heralded even we might do well in next summer?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/gymnastics/34955983

4 silvers from the Trampoline WCh ain't bad*, although none of those were won in the Olympic-class men's or women's individual trampoline.

That said, Bryony Page and Kat Driscoll made that particular final (and came 5th/7th), which means GB get two berths in Rio.

[* The squad won 3G 1S 4B just two years ago...!]

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Elsewhere, Giles Scott underlined his status as favourite by winning the Finn Gold Cup (and by extension his third Finn-class world title) with a day to spare.

The men's hockey squad appear to be in fine fettle after winning their first two pool matches against Canada (3-1) and Australia (5-2) in the World League Final.

Generally speaking, it has been a great weekend for British sport, whether or not you include the world championship events technically outside this thread's 'remit'.

And another good result in an unheralded British Olympic sport - Richard Kruse took a silver medal in the Men's Foil at the Fencing Grand Prix in Torino, and two more of our fencers made the top 16, a big boost for Team GB's World Rankings and hopes for Rio places.

Today (Thursday) GB men play India (1st v 4th in the groups) in the Hockey World League - QF. Winner plays the winner of Argentina v Belgium.

If GB beat India - which they should - a SF place is about par, maybe slightly above, but it certainly means they are a medal prospect in Rio.

European Short Course Swimming Champs started yesterday in Israel, runs until Sunday 6th. Silver medals already for Adam Peaty and Hannah Miley.

http://www.isr2015ec.org/

Not seeing any sign of streaming coverage, though.

GB get beaten 2 -1 in the hockey by India; very disappointing. Doesn't help when you can't trap short corners when the heat is on.

As for the TV coverage - don't like the running ticker at the bottom of the screen. Just the score will do....if anyone hasn't seen it it's the same as cricket. In cricket there's an excuse because there are plenty of stats to show...not so in hockey where all we need is the score, remaining time, whether referrals have been used (green and red flags) and if here are any suspensions. All of which can be done in box on the top corner of the screen?

GB claim another taekwondo berth as Mahama Cho won the men's +80kg category in this weekend's European qualification tournament. To get that berth, he had to beat Olympic champion Carlo Molfetta in the semis, which is impressive.

In total, they can send 4 competitors to Rio.

GB will have presence in the Olympic fencing programme as the men's foil team claimed ninth place in the Bonn World Cup - though they are ranked below the top 4 nations, they are the top European squad in positions 5 to 16 inclusive.

It's good to see their status as European Games champions has spurred them on to Olympic qualification.

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Just as I posted that, Natalie Powell and Sally Conway have both won bronze medals in the Paris round of the Judo Grand Slam.

There are still 4 sailing disciplines for which selections are not yet made. After winning bronze at last week's 49er/49erFX World Championships in Clearwater (no, really), it looks like Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign will be selected for the 49er class.

Crucial Diving event this weekend - the first round of the year's World Cup is also the Rio test event, and final qualifying opportunity. Full-strength British squad in place. This is one of the events where we need to iincrease our medal total over London - one bronze for Tom Daley - if we want to match that overall performance.

http://www.swimming.org/britishswimm...orld-cup/26037

Olympic qualifying situation - this is the last chance to grab quota places. Individual assignments will have another set of criteria. We still need to get qualifying places in 3 out of 4 synchro events, and already have at least one entry in all solo events, but can get two.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving..._Qualification

TV coverage is live streaming via Eurovision Sports

http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/fina/diving/

The team has made a good start - Sarah Barrow and Tonia Couch won a bronze medal in the women's 10m synchronized platform, which is also enough to clinch an Olympic berth.

Next up is the men's 3m synchronized springboard - Chris Mears and Jack Laugher earned that berth back in last year's WCh with a bronze medal, so it's just about winning another medal today.

They led after the penultimate dive, then fell to fourth place at the last...better that happens this weekend than in six months, anyway.

Stacked field in the women's 3m synchronized springboard, with the top three from last year's WCh; Alicia Blagg and Rebecca Gallantree finished in sixth place (they were second after the penultimate dive), which gets another berth. Just one more synchro event left now.

Georgia Ward came sixth in the women's 10m platform prelims and qualifies for the semi-final, which also nets the second berth for that discipline.

In the men's 3m springboard prelims, Freddy Woodward just about qualifies for the semi-final in eighteenth place - which nets GB a second berth for that event too.

Tom Daley and Daniel Goodfellow will be competing in the men's 10m synchronized platform today.

And they win a bronze medal as well! That's the last synchro berth done and dusted,* which also means GB will have representation in all eight diving disciplines.

Top-18 finishes in both outstanding prelims over the next two days will make it a full house.

[* Interestingly, the only other nation to qualify all 4 berths in competition is China. Brazil is automatically entitled to them as host nation.]

Today, it was the women's 3m springboard - Grace Reid makes the semi-final with a fourteenth-place finish (another berth gained).

Last prelim tomorrow is for the men's 10m platform.

Some very encouraging results in the Diving. Like their swimming cousins I can see more medals being won in Rio than in London

Back to the men's 3m springboard - special mention goes to British-born Yona Knight-Wisdom, who not only became the first ever male Jamaican to secure an Olympic berth, but went on to win his country's first WC medal!

(Silver, for the record.)