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Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 15th, 2018 Softball 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 7 - 6 Japan Chiba, Japan - Finals | August 12th For more information on this game and how it ties to qualification look below. How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? In order to qualify we must win this Championship or become runner up if Japan wins. 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 7 - 6 Japan Going into this match it didn't really matter if we won or lost as just being in the gold medal match vs Japan means we have qualified for the Olympics! In front of 12,000 fans at ZOZO Marine Stadium it was Kelsey Stewart with a walk off single who won us the game 7-6 and keeping our undefeated streak at the 2018 Softball World Championship alive. The match was close all the way through and it will be interesting to see this rivalry develop in Tokyo. Results:

Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 15th, 2018 Softball 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 4 - 3 Japan Chiba, Japan - Semifinals | August 12th For more information on this game and how it ties to qualification look below. How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? In order to qualify we must win this Championship or become runner up if Japan wins. 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 4 - 3 Japan By far playing against Japan will be our toughest match up yet because they are the 2nd best ranked team in the world after us. To start the first inning in this rivalry match up Japan led off with a single start, Monica Abbott was able to get back-to-back strikeouts before Japan took the lead early, 2-0. In the top of the second Japan almost increased their lead even more but we continued to hold them off 2-0. In the top of the third Japan started leading 3-0 but in the bottom we were able to get 2 points for a closer match of 3-2. We kept Japan off for the rest of the match as we scored 2 more points winning 4-3. With this win it brings us straight to the medal match to play either Japan, Canada, or Australia. Results:

Past few days I've been traveling and very busy on vacation so I haven't had the time to do the posts now but they will start back up today!

The flight was good very long (13 hours in total for both my flights). I love the city so far, I was expecting it to be much smaller than it is, I haven't been to Vienna yet so I'm sure when I go there I'll realize Bratislava is much smaller. But I love the different styles of architecture it's cool to see the different "phases" the city has gone through.

I really wish I'd be able to but the trip is me just tagging along with my mom who is going for work so I've kinda got to stay in Bratislava during the week, If I knew Slovak I would definitely take the train to these places cause they look stunning!

Thanks! I'll just be in Bratislava.

Flying to Slovakia tomorrow and will be there for 2 weeks might head to Budapest one weekend and spend a few days in Germany (my favorite country).

Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 10th, 2018 Softball 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 3 - 1 Australia Chiba, Japan - Group A | August 9th For more information on this game and how it ties to qualification look below. How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? In order to qualify we must win this Championship or become runner up if Japan wins. 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 3 - 1 Australia In the bottom of the 1st inning we were able to get a 1-0 start but heading into the 2nd and 3rd the match remained 1-0 in favor of the US. In the top of the 4 Australia was able to tie up the match 1-1. But we came back in the bottom of the 5th to get back in the lead 3-1. We ended up winning the match 3-1 and moving ourselves into the Semifinals vs Japan! If we win the match we will go straight into the Finals! If Japan meets us in the Finals we will automatically qualify for Tokyo because they are the hosts! Group Results:

Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 8th, 2018 Softball 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 8 - 1 Puerto Rico Chiba, Japan - Group A | August 7th For more information on this game and how it ties to qualification look below. How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? In order to qualify we must win this Championship or become runner up if Japan wins. 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 8 - 1 Puerto Rico Woohoo! With an 8-1 win over Puerto Rico we solidify 1st place in Group A and will play the loser of the Japan vs Australia match (hoping it's Australia). I was surprised with the result of this match I thought it would be a lot closer. The game had an outstanding performance by Monica Abbott, who was nearly flawless striking 11 in the 5 innings to help us win. In the playoffs we will have a double life so if we loose versus Japan/Australia we still have another shot to make it to the Medal Round. Group Results: Pictures:

Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 7th, 2018 Sailing 2018 Sailing World Championships - Day 6 How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? Quota Places! 2018 Sailing World Championships - Day 6 RS:X (Men) 63↓: Pedro Pascual | 136 Points 69↓: Geronimo Nores | 147 Points 75―: Carson Crain | 165 Points A bit of sad performances by our 3 RS:X Men. With only 2 races left it's not looking likely any of them will make it to Round 9. For the Rio Olympics the USA got their RS:X Men quota from the ISAF World Cup (NAM) and I'm expecting that will be the same for this year except the event is the North American Qualification event which will only award 1 quota place. Laser Class (Men) 11↑: Charlie Buckingham | 69 Points 27↑: Christopher Barnard | 96 Points 67↓: Henry Marshall | 149 Points 84↓: Malcolm Lamphere | 174 Points 91↑: Marek Zaleski | 194 Points 97↑: Patrick Shanahan | 205 Points 101↓: Paul Didham | 211 Points 104↑: Ford McCann | 216 Points 137↓: Marshall McCann | 248 Points 146↑: Scott Rasmussen | 278 Points Looks like in the past few races our Laser Class Men have been putting in some great points! With the 14 quota places and 6 races to go Charlie Buckingham might have a shot of giving us a quota place! In 2014 Charlie gave us our quota at the 2014 World Championships so it would be amazing if he could repeat that! Finn Class (Men) 15↑: Caleb Paine | 67 Points 33↓: Luke Muller | 116 Points If in the next two races Caleb can really push himself to get some amazing finishes he might be able to squeeze into the top 8, if not I'm sure at the 2019 World Championships he will be able to give us the quota. 470 Class (Men) 9↑: Stuart McNay & David Hughes | 65 Points 43↓: Wiley Rogers & Jack Parkin | 113 Points With 1 race to go Stuart and David need a great race to get into the top 8 even if they don't they still have a shot at the quota because Japan has 3 teams within the top 8 allowing us to get pushed in. 49er Class (Men) 31↑: Christopher Rast & Trevor Burd | 50 Points 39↑: Nevin Snow & Maximiliano Agnese | 56 Points 47↑: Judge Ryan & Hans Henken | 70 Points 51↑: Ian Barrows & Joseph Kiss | 74 Points 59↓: Andrew Mollerus & Ian Macdiarmid | 82 Points 62↑: Harry Melges IV & William Rowe | 84 Points 73―: Bradley Funk & Samuel Hodges | 97 Points It's looking like Christopher and Trevor will be the only ones who will move into Round 7 meanwhile it's the end of the Championship for the rest of the Men. I'm not sure how much Christopher and Trevor will be able to do but I wish them the best of luck. RS:X (Women) 44↑: Farrah Hall | 88 Points Farrah has improved but she will need to keep on improving if she wants to make the cutoff for Round 9. Laser Radical Class (Women) 2↑: Paige Railey | 26 Points 16↓: Erika Reineke | 72 Points 27↓: Haddon Hughes | 90 Points 49↓: Christina Sakellaris | 141 Points 85↑: Hanne Weaver | 242 Points 105↑: Kelly Cole | 302 Points Paige Railey has been doing some great work! With a big 18 quota's for this class I'm sure she should be able to stay within the top 18. 470 Class (Women) As this event is now finished we failed to grab a quota place but that's alright as there are more events we can get a quota place in. 49erFX Class (Women) 28↓: Stephanie Roble & Margaret Shea | 59 Points 51↓: Kate Shaner & Charlotte Mack | 104 Points Stephanie and Margaret might be able to hold on and make it to the cutoff but it just depends. I have a feeling they won't make the quota though. Nacra 17 Class (Mixed) 19↓: Sarah Newberry & David Liebenberg | 63 Points 33↑: Bora Gulari & Helena Scutt | 88 Points 45↑: Ravi Parent & Caroline Atwood | 122 Points 48↓: Riley Gibbs & Louisa Chafee | 128 Points Sarah and David have been doing alright, they need to start doing better though if they want to get in the top 8. Previously they sat in the 10th rank but due to some worse results they have dropped quite a bit.

Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 7th, 2018 Softball 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 7 - 0 South Africa Chiba, Japan - Group A | August 6th For more information on this game and how it ties to qualification look below. How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? In order to qualify we must win this Championship or become runner up if Japan wins. 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 7 - 0 South Africa Yesterday we defeated South Africa 7-0 and continuing our undefeated streak at the World Championships. In the game we had very strong pitching as well as offense. Rachel and Keilani and Kelly combined to pitch a no-hitter, with 14 strikeouts in total. To our surprise we didn't score as many points as previous games but hopefully we will be saving it for our last game in the Group Stage vs Puerto Rico who is also undefeated. If we can beat them we will top the group and have a very good position to make it into the finals! Group Results:

200M race or would it be swim... in zero gravity

Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 6th, 2018 Softball 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 12 - 0 Philippines Chiba, Japan - Group A | August 5th For more information on this game and how it ties to qualification look below. How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? In order to qualify we must win this Championship or become runner up if Japan wins. 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 12 - 0 Philippines Wow, what a win! We started off the top of the first inning up 1-0 thanks to Valerie Ann who hit the perfect ball to deep right field allowing Cleney to run from third to home. Danielle O'Toole made her first start ever at the World Championships in this game and threw a complete shutout, striking out 5 and giving up two hits to earn her first win. Ali Aguilar and Kasey Cooper both played amazing as they have in almost all our previous games. In the top of the 2nd inning we got 3 more points going up 4-0. The 3rd and 4th innings went out way aswell allowing us to win the match 12-0. Our next game is against South Africa who sits at the bottom of the table with a W-L of 0-5. Group Results: Pictures:

Good 2nd inning from the US!

Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 5th, 2018 Sailing 2018 Sailing World Championships - Day 4 How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? Quota Places! 2018 Sailing World Championships - Day 4 RS:X (Men) 43: Geronimo Nores | 36 Points 61: Pedro Pascual | 52 Points 75: Carson Crain | 69 Points Coming in hot from the 2018 Youth World Championship where he won the gold Geronimo Nores is hoping to get some more experience at the World Championships. Pedro Pascual came 28th for the USA in the Rio 2016 Olympics but has not had a great start here scoring 19,33,(38) in 3 races. Laser Class (Men) 29: Christopher Barnard | 55 Points 33: Charlie Buckingham 57 Points 58: Henry Marshall | 92 Points 63: Malcolm Lamphere | 102 Points 89: Paul Didham | 128 Points 102: Marek Zaleski | 152 Points 103: Patrick Shanahan | 154 Points 119: Marshall McCann | 169 Points 121: Ford McCann | 171 Points 151: Scott Rasmussen | 226 Points Charlie Buckingham competed at Rio placing 11th and almost qualifying for the Medal Final. Charlie is hoping for a good performance. In 2014 he was able to get 7th place but at this World Championship he has not had the best of starts already at 57 Points. Christopher Barnard does have a chance of being able to get in the top 14 if he is able to do good in the upcoming races. Finn Class (Men) 22: Luke Muller | 52 Points 27: Caleb Paine | 57 Points Luke and Caleb will really having to get some good place finishes if they want to be able to get into the top 8. Caleb has had a good Race 6 coming in 4th place. Luke finished 1st in Race 3 and Race 4. 470 Class (Men) 10: Stuart McNay & David Hughes | 35 Points 38: Wiley Rogers & Jack Parkin | 85 Points Stuart and David are very close to the top 8 with wins in Race 2 and 4. Hopefully they will be able to win a few more races so they can get themselves into the top 8. 49er Class (Men) 34: Christopher Rast & Trevor Burd | 42 Points 46: Andrew Mollerus & Ian Macdiarmid | 52 Points 47: Nevin Snow & Maximiliano Agnese | 53 Points 50: Judge Ryan & Hans Henken | 54 Points 58: Ian Barrows & Joseph Kiss | 59 Points 73: Bradley Funk & Samuel Hodges | 78 Points 76: Harry Melges IV & William Rowe | 82 Points Cristopher and Trevor will have to step it up if they are going to want to get within the top 8. We don't really have many amazing teams in the 49er class but hopefully they can show themselves and get some better scores! RS:X (Women) 51: Farrah Hall | 50 Points Farrah having finished 2 races so far sits in 51st place. She needs some very good finishing to be able to push her up into the top 10. Laser Radical Class (Women) 3: Paige Railey | 22 Points 15: Erika Reineke | 48 Points 20: Haddon Hughes | 63 Points 48: Christina Sakellaris | 102 Points 90: Hanne Weaver | 195 Points 109: Kelly Cole | 244 Points Woohoo! Paige Railey is doing amazing winning in Race 2 and coming in the top 10 in all 6 races so far! She should and Erika should be able to place into the top 18 and secure quota places for the USA! 470 Class (Women) 36: Nikole Barnes & Lara Dallman-Weiss | 154 Points 38: Atlantic Brugman & Nora Brugman | 161 Points Nikole and Lara have been doing alright, finishing around the 29th place average. With only 4 races left I'm not sure how much they will be able to do. 49erFX Class (Women) 21: Stephanie Roble & Margaret Shea | 40 Points 47: Kate Shaner & Charlotte Mack | 76 Points Stephanie and Margaret still have a chance to possibly secure us quota places but it will be hard and they will have to show themselves in the upcoming races! Nacra 17 Class (Mixed) 10: Sarah Newberry & David Liebenberg | 10 Points 35: Bora Gulari & Helena Scutt | 31 Points 44: Riley Gibbs & Louisa Chafee | 39 Points 58: Ravi Parent & Caroline Atwood | 51 Points Sarah and David are very close in securing us a quota if they can just do a tad bit better than they have been doing. They had a rough day on Race 3 where they finished 8 but if they can start getting in 5th they should be able to get us a quota!

Week in Summer #15 - United States July 29th - August 5th NOTE: Olympic Qualification events are starting up so start expecting more of those posts. On Sunday I will be arriving in Slovakia for 2 weeks so the next 2 posts will be on the 13th and like 22nd or 23rd. Archery No Archery events or news last week, on August 8th - 10th is the 134th U.S. National Target Championships which will be the first Stage of for the World Archery Championships & Pan American Games. Badminton TOTAL BWF World Championships 2018 China | July 30th - August 5th Women's Singles By far our best competitor at the World Championships was Beiwen Zhang. Coming into the tournament she was ranked 12th so Beiwen was able to get a first round bye. In Round 2 Beiwen got matched against Chloe Birch a very good player from England who put up quite a match against Beiwen. In the end Beiwen ended up winning 13-21,21-18,21-15. In Round 3/Round of 16 Beiwen had to go against Tai Tzu Ying the #1 player in the world. Beiwen had a close first match against her loosing 19-21 and in the 2nd match she just couldn't hold on and lost 14-21, thus ending Beiwen tournament at the World Championships. Beiwen is currently ranked 13th in the world now and hopes to bring back up her ranking in the coming months of competition. Women's Doubles Ariel and Sydney Lee came into this tournament ranked 47th in the world so they were matched up against a pretty good duo of Ekaterina Bolotova and Alina Davletova. The match didn't go to well for the sisters who lost 7-21,9-21. Thankfully their ranking didn't go down after this loss but I'm hoping they will continue to improve for the Qualification Season! Men's Doubles Long time no see Phillip and Ryan Chew! Coming into the tournament ranked 50 I was not expecting them to win any games or maybe even not win any matches. But they ended up winning the first match 21-13 but lost the next two 19-21,15-21! Their first match was very good against Jelle Maas and Robin Tabeling but they couldn't continue the groove into the next two. Mixed Doubles Ouch this result hurts... Props to Mathew for competing at 61 years old and still being the best Mixed Doubles team alongside Isabel Zhong but they lost 6-21,4-21 which is not a close match by any means. ---------------- Yonex-Sunrise Vietnam Open 2018 is this week with Crystal Pan and Jennie Gai competing! Basketball Cool little miniseries about the Men's national team is online here --> https://www.usab.com/basketball/media/videos/2018/07/2018-mnt-the-national-team-episode-201-the-transition.aspx Football 2018 Tournament of Nations (Women) United States | July 26th - August 2nd With our last game of this tournament against Brazil we needed a big win to win the tournament and thats what we got! A 4-1 win against Brazil allowed us to win the 2018 Tournament of Nations and take away the defending champions trophy from Australia!

I haven't ever watched Sailing before so if I understand this correctly you want the lowest amount of points?

Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 5th, 2018 Softball 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 11 - 0 Netherlands USA 7 - 0 New Zealand Chiba, Japan - Group A For more information on this game and how it ties to qualification look below. How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? In order to qualify we must win this Championship or become runner up if Japan wins. 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 11 - 0 Netherlands First game of the day was against The Netherlands who previously had a score of 1-2. Going into this match we were feeling confident after a great day yesterday beating Chinese Taipei. This game started slowly but in the third resulting in an 11-0 win. The Netherlands is currently ranked No. 8 in the world and surprisingly we beat them pretty dominantly. The first two innings were scoreless but a three-strikeout in the bottom half of the third put us back out on the plate. USA 7 - 0 New Zealand After the 11-0 win earlier in the day against Netherlands our spirits were high and continued to be high throughout the game. In the first inning we had a two-run thanks to Arioto and Moultrie. New Zealand is currently ranked No. 11 in the world and has not had the best few games coming into this match with a 0-2 W-L. Group Results: Finally tied for 1st place in the group along with Puerto Rico. I believe with one more win we will lock ourselves into playoffs. Pictures:

Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 4th, 2018 Softball 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 7 - 0 Chinese Taipei Chiba, Japan - Group A For more information on this game and how it ties to qualification look below. How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? In order to qualify we must win this Championship or become runner up if Japan wins. 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 7 - 0 Chinese Taipei In the World Championship 2nd game, we defeated Chinese Taipei, 7-0. Head Coach Ken Eriksen said "It was great to see the hard work Keilani Ricketts has done the last month pay off today with a stellar performance". We has a great start in the top of the first after Haylie McCleney singled and second baseman Ali Aguilar was issued a walk. This win helps stay undefeated so far along with Puerto Rico. Group Results: Pictures:

Road to Tokyo 2020 United States August 3rd, 2018 Softball 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 5 - 2 Mexico Chiba, Japan - Group A For more information on this game and how it ties to qualification look below. How does this help us qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? In order to qualify we must win this Championship or become runner up if Japan wins. 2018 Women's Softball World Championship USA 5 - 2 Mexico In the World Championship opener, we defeated Mexico, 5-2. Head Coach Ken Eriksen said "I thought we played well for Game 1 of the tournament. Anytime that you come out for the first game, there's always going to be butterflies and nervousness. We have one of the youngest teams in the tournament, from player 1-17. Team USA is still developing and working towards not only this week but the future." In the fourth inning we were ahead 2-0 which was a good start! Group Results: Pictures:

[hide] Knockout Round July 30th - August 5th, 2018 12 Nations, Quarterfinals Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match, Gold Medal Match Semifinals Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 August 4th 2018, h. 14:00 Ireland 2 Spain August 4th 2018, h. 16:30 Netherlands 3 Australia [/hide]

[hide] Knockout Round July 30th - August 5th, 2018 12 Nations, Quarterfinals Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match, Gold Medal Match Quarterfinals #2 Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 August 2nd 2018, h. 18:00 Ireland 2 India August 2nd 2018, h. 20:15 Netherlands 3 England [/hide]

Week in Summer #14 - United States July 22nd - July 29th Archery No Archery events or news last week, on August 8th - 10th is the 134th U.S. National Target Championships which will be the first Stage of for the World Archery Championships & Pan American Games. Badminton Yonex Akita Masters 2018 Japan | July 24th - July 29th Women's Singles Jennie Gai competed in the Yonex Akita Masters and in the 1st Round got matched up against Shiori Saito and ended up loosing 8-21 and 5-21. Overall it was good experience for the 17 year old! Jennie is currently ranked 108th in the World! Russia Open 2018 Russia | July 24th - July 29th Women's Singles - Crystal Pan Crystal Pan competed in Russia facing off against Lianne Tan in the 1st Round. In the round it was close but Crystal lost 21-23. In the second round Crystal lost 17-21. Crystal currently is 97th in the World Rankings. Women's Singles - Iris Wang Iris Wang had a good competition in Russia making it all the way to the Semi Finals! In the 1st Round she beat Olga 21-4 and 21-9. In the 2nd Round she beat Mugdha from India 21-4 and 21-13. In the Quarter Finals she faced off against another opponent from India and beat her 21-17 and 21-13. In the Semi Finals she lost to Shiori in a close third match loosing 16-21,19-21,20-22. ---------------- The TOTAL BWF World Championships 2018 is going on this week the action on the Olympic Channel and root for Beiwen Zhang! Basketball Last week was the Team USA Men's Basketball Mini Camp, as said by the head coach multiple times the mini camp was mainly for team bonding. Here's a few photos from the camp. Fencing 2018 Fencing Championships Wuxi, China | July 19th - July 27th Medal Table Not bad for us in the overall medals taking home 2 of each for a total of 6! Team Epee - Men's (Section 1) In the Round of 32 we beat Sweden 39-34 which allowed us to head to the Round of 16 and play against the Czech Republic where we beat them 42-36. In the Quarterfinals we lost to France in a close match 44-45. Team Epee - Women's (Section 4) We started against DR Congo in the Round of 32 and beat them. In the Round of 16 we beat Hong Kong 45-30. In the Quarterfinals we beat Estonia in a close match 24-23. Team Epee - Women's (Finals) In the Semifinals we found ourselves against Russia and we won that match 27-25. In the Final we beat South Korea 18-17 allowing us to win the Gold Medal! Field Hockey 2018 Women's Field Hockey World Cup England | July 21st - July 29th (for the US) The 2018 Women's Field Hockey World Cup continued last week with 2 more games. As we were down 0-1 we needed wins to let us not be eliminated. Our next game was against England where we tied them with a score of 1-1, giving us one point. The last match was against India and we also tied with them with a score of 1-1, again giving us one point. Sadly even though we tied for points with India the next classification was for goal difference which we had -2 meanwhile India had -1. This was our worse finish in a Women's Field Hockey World Cup, so thankfully this doesn't affect Tokyo. Football 2018 Tournament of Nations (Women) United States | July 26th - Ongoing We had two games for the Tournament of Nations last week. The first match was agtainst Japan, we beat Japan with a score of 4-2. In the second match we tied with Australia (defending champions) 1-1 with an amazing 90' minute goal. Our next match is against Brazil on August 2nd.

[hide] Knockout Round July 30th - August 5th, 2018 12 Nations, Quarterfinals Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match, Gold Medal Match Quarterfinals #1 Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 August 1st 2018, h. 18:00 Germany 3 Spain August 1st 2018, h. 20:15 Australia 3 Argentina [/hide]

[hide] Knockout Round July 30th - August 5th, 2018 12 Nations, Quarterfinals Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match, Gold Medal Match Quarterfinals Play Offs #2 Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 31st 2018, h. 18:00 Italy 3 India July 31st 2018, h. 20:15 England 2 South Korea [/hide]