Team GB Fencing Team for Rio named - for the first time in many years going as medal hopefuls rather than also-rans.

https://www.teamgb.com/news/fencing-...ted-to-team-gb

Looks like GB have claimed a berth in all 5 badminton disciplines. Not bad considering the maximum possible is 2 per discipline (China is the only country to have claimed all 10).

Best chance of a medal would be Adcock & Adcock in the mixed doubles, though they've yet to repeat the form that took them to victory in last year's Super Series Finals.

British team named for the European Taekwando Championships coming up in two weeks from Montreux, Switzerland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/taekwondo/36219157

Can't believe I almost missed this one - this weekend sees the NCAA Women's Beach Volleyball Champs. Important that everyone gets up to speed on this, sure to be a big draw in Rio.

http://www.ncaa.com

Charlotte Taylor and Kat Copeland will not be in tomorrow's LW2x A final, which is a surprise for the world silver medallists. No Alan Campbell in the M1x A final either.

Despite that, there should still be a good medal haul from the GB squad.

Quite a few British judokas seem to be doing well in the Baku Grand Slam, which is just as well since GS tournaments offer more ranking points than continental championships (e.g. 500 v 400 for the winner).* With tomorrow to come, it's women's -63kg gold for Alice Schlesinger, women's -57kg silver for Nekoda Davis and men's -60kg bronze for Ashley McKenzie.

British Judo press release

The qualification window will end upon conclusion of the World Masters in Guadalajara (27-29 May), which offers 700 points to the winners. A full breakdown of who's in a qualifying position and how they scored points is available on judobase.org.

[* They're not the equivalent of GS tennis tournaments, in case you're wondering]

Some good news re. modern pentathlon - in Sarasota, James Cooke has become the first British man to win the UIPM World Cup Final! The way things are going, he is more likely than not to claim an Olympic berth in two/three weeks' time.

Freyja Prentice came sixth in the women's race - no impact on Rio as those berths have already been claimed.

2 golds already in the European Rowing Championships including for Heather Stanning and Helen Glover.

GB win 7 medals in all; LM2- gold excepted, the following were won in Olympic classes, as follows:
3 Gold: W2- M4- W8+
2 Silver: M2- LM4-
1 Bronze: M8+

The British men's eight were tied to the thousandth with Belarus for third and still got the nod! Conditions were pretty tough - winning time by Germany was almost a minute off the world best!

Cracking win for the women's eight, came from a long way back at halfway to grab it. Horrible conditions, though, worst I can remember seeing.

Five competitors have been selected for the upcoming AIBA Women's World Championships in Astana (19-27 May).

Nicola Adams (51kg) is just there for the 'missing' gold.

Chantelle Cameron (60kg) and Savannah Marshall (75kg) must make the semi-finals in order to qualify for Rio; don't know much about Cameron but 2012 world champion Marshall tends to be hit and miss.

In the non-Olympic weight classes, Lisa Whiteside (54kg) and Sandy Ryan (64kg) will look to better their silvers from 2014. (Whiteside did 51kg that year as Adams was injured)

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In table tennis, Liam Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall have done enough to earn men's singles Olympic berths.

Giles Scott does it again - Finn world champion for the fourth time in his career!

He's one of the strongest GB contenders for Olympic glory in Rio.

Two main things this weekend

Triathlon World Series from Yokohama, Japan. It's the final Olympic Qualifier for all nations, so most countries still have either quota spots to earn, or team places to be decided.

http://wts.triathlon.org/news/articl...ed_in_yokohama

The highlight of the women's race will be the return of Gwen Jorgensen for only her second race this year. None of the Brits are competing.

http://wts.triathlon.org/start_lists...okohama/280982

For the British men it's the last chance to earn the third place in the team, which will be a domestique, so the real race between the four entrants will be over the swim/cycle phases. The race win will probably between the three Spaniards: Mola, Alarza & Hernanadez. Brits are Adam Bowden, Gordon Benson, Matthew Sharp and Tom Bishop.

http://wts.triathlon.org/news/articl...ts_in_yokohama

Canoe Slalom European Champs from Lipovsky Mikulas, Slovakia. It's another last-chance Olympic Qualifier - but not for the Brits, who already have earned maximum quota places and have picked our team.

http://www.canoeicf.com/news/europea...-championships

Some live coverage on Eurosport Player.

Still no Gomez in the Triathlon. He's got a very different schedule this year. Normally he races as much as possible. Time will tell whether a different approach works. Probably his last chance of Olympic gold.

Disappointing, but understandable, if none of the well known brits are taking part.

As it's live on BBC red button early hours of tomorrow morning, which I had no intention of being awake for, at least now I don't have to worry about spoilers before the highlights on Sunday (BBC 2 2pm).

This would be a shame for her..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rowing/36295601

Sure the BBC will snap Grainger up for their rowing coverage if she isn't selected.

Not surprised that Grainger & Thornley have been disbanded. Simply not getting results or even showing signs of improvement.

I do think they have a good chance of being added to the 8 but rightly they need to be fair to all & they need to earn their place.

Final total for Team GB was two GOLD!!! and two BRONZE!, but sadly not one of them was in a current Olympic discipline, where we struggled to reach finals. The golds were both from the women's team events, bronze for the men's canoe team, and bronze for Mallory Franklin in the women's C1.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/canoeing/36299006

British Gymnastics Team named for the European Champs in Berne, Switzerland at the end of the month - pretty much full strength

https://www.teamgb.com/news/strong-b...-championships

I anticipate that barring injury, the men's Gymnastics team will be the same for Rio. They'll want to win the Team Gold & also win a number of apparatus medals. No All Around European titles in even years. The men's Junior team is very strong & will look to dominate as they have at this competition for a while now.

The Women's team is missing Amy Tinkler who is sitting her GCSE'S but I'm sure will be back for Rio. The Europeans may well be a big factor for deciding the 5th spot for Rio between Rebecca Tunney & Ruby Harold. They will be competing for Team gold with the Russians & again will want to win some apparatus medals. Always difficult to know the relative strengths at Junior level but GB will want to do well at this level.

See the BG press release for the full list of senior & junior selections.

Regarding the men, their performances at a four-nation friendly last weekend (also in Switzerland) make for good reading. Pick of the bunch was Wilson, who scored 89.150 (all-around) and 15.550 (horizontal bar).

The qualification window for triathlon ended on Sunday.

Here's confirmation (if it were needed) that Jenkins and both Brownlees have earned berths courtesy of their world rankings. TeamGB have the maximum 6 berths, of which only one remains unfilled.

Last chance saloon for canoe sprint qualifying is on Thursday at the European Olympic Qualifiers in Duisburg. Britain still have some big names that need to qualify, including Ed McKeever, London Gold Medallist. Qualification will be tough with only the winners guaranteed places in most events.

https://www.britishcanoeing.org.uk/n...ld-cup-series/

European Taekwando Championships start tomorrow in Montreux, Switzerland.

Full British team going - they will be fighting for individual places.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/taekwondo/36219157

Bear in mind the 16 weight classes are merged into 8 at the Olympics; barring a disaster, Jones (-57kg) and Walkden (+67kg) look to be assured of selection for Rio.

I may have said the same about Cho (+80kg), but Samsun is doing -87kg at the ECh - I don't know what to make of that as he's an -80kg competitor like Muhammad AFAIK. This article suggests the latter two are still battling each other for Olympic -80kg selection, anyhow.

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In Mexico, it's gold for defending champion Nick Thompson at the Laser World Championships! All-in-all, three British sailors will compete in Rio as world champions* (plus a few medallists), so the squad is in a very good place.

[* All on one-man dinghies, for what that's worth]