SalamAkhi

Algarve 7s results : Ireland look dominant. GB really disappointing, losing two times against Ireland (close calls though) and two times against France Development. As I said in an other topic Georgia was unknown quantity, and they mean business. Strong showing in the playoff games after an anonymous pool stage. Disastrous finals for Spain. On the paper they're at least deemed to get a final OQT spot. Germany disappointing once again. Portugal confirm their dark horse status. Not much to take out for Belgium, like I said the pools were utterly unbalanced, with a strong French B squad all in all. So pools for Krakow : A B C

Algarve 7s results : As Ireland and France are already qualified, GB-Poland in the semis was a rehearsal of a potential OQT final. GB have the edge obviously but the match against Spain in QF shows that nothing is set in stone. Belgium look a bit further, the other teams even more. As for Ireland they look pretty toothless without Mulhall/Murphy-Crowe, but their main goal of the year has been achieved so probably some unwinding here. France on the other hand brought a really strong team, the best of the year I'd say, with key players coming back from injury. Pools for Krakow : A B C

As I expected the first leg of the European Championships in Algarve this week-end will determine the seeds for the Krakow OQT. A B C France and Ireland are not concerned, though Ireland was set to take part to the European Games. That could shake the order of those seeds.

As I expected the first leg of the European Championships in Algarve this week-end will determine the seeds for the Krakow OQT. A B C Really unfortunate sequence of events for Belgium, who's probably the best up-and coming team of the tournament (having won one of the Challenger Series leg back in April), but suffer the worst draw of the lot. GB and Ireland promoted from Trophy last year, where they were relegated after missing one season of the EC. None of the two managed to qualify for the Games so they will bring full strength in Portugal. Not the case for France though (on the men's side).

The 400m hurdles only features half of last year's WC finalists, including the bronze medallist, the 4th and the 5th + 2 of the 10 fastest men of all-time + the current n°2 in the world lists. Besides the obvious absences, this is the best lineup we can hope for. I would have dreamt of such a DL field ten years from now.

Ireland qualified for the Olympics, but they're set to take part in the European Games, which work as the European Qualification Tournament. Don't know if they will be replaced, since their participation would take away a team the right to try and qualify (Norway it seems), and would unbalance the tournament. France weren't even invited despite the European Games status, so this is first and foremost an OQT. Also looking forward to the draw. World Series + 2022 European Championships results or Algarve 7s (1st leg of the 2023 European Championships) results ?

There won't. I think I read it will consist of three stages, which is not worthy enough. With the pathway to elite level shrinking the incentives are less and less clear for those nations. Really gutted for Uruguay who have been the best promoted team (ever ?), reaching two QF, placing 12th, one point shy of the 11th, beating Fiji, South Africa and al. in the process. Now they get thrown away in a farcical tournament ... With the Olympic qualification in a few weeks time and no Argentina in sight they might well get to Paris, enough to keep them going ?

Keep in mind London 7s will be a 12-teams tournament since three of the current core teams will play the repêchages : + Depending on which scoring system they decide to use Australia could settle for 5th (women's series with 12 teams scoring). As for the repêchages Uruguay would have started as favorites before Paris but Canada is cooking. It appears all three of the core teams were in the same group and Canada surely gained some huge confidence. Heartbreaking situation for Uruguay, losing to Fiji with Spain edging them by one point as they beat Samoa. Tonga could pull an upset and Kenya seem out of touch. Looking forward to the regional qualifiers Uruguay could redeem themselves should they fail to maintain thanks to Argentina qualifying directly through the World Series. Europe, as usual, will be the most interesting. and are the favorites, but has shown great consistency lately and their renewed core status will give them an extra boost. Then you have the outsiders, namely and . Germany looks to have missed the boat of elite status, failing repeatedly to access the WS and now that the gateway is shrinking they are at their lowest. Belgium on the other hand are steadily improving and the Challenger can offer them some hope to shaken up the established order. Then you have one or two dark horses in and . Don't know which side will turn up but I'd keep an eye on those two.

Semi-finals Men : - - As expected, pool A was the pool of death. 3 of the 4 teams made it to the semis. "Good" loss against Chile for HK, they benefited from being 2nd in pool B (thus facing Brazil in QF) rather than 1st (facing Belgium). Tonga looked impressive against Germany, they may be favorites now. Chile and Uganda are, unofficially, out of contention for promotion. Women : - - No surprise here. After a good impression yesterday Poland looked shaky today, quite the opposite for China.

Only good point is that future play-offs will be played between 8 teams, meaning that we could see up to four promotions (and thus relegations) at the same time. But it could also be 0 promotion.

They don't have faith in much in fact. Still the same old boys club as it was a hundred years ago.

Awful coverage. Streams working intermittently (and no replay available), no commentary, loud music in the background, no score, no time, horrendous pitches. An utter shame for World Rugby, and a very bad sign as they plan on shrinking the World Series next year. If that's all they can offer for T2 teams, just stop the circus right away with historical teams (but not XV powerhouses ) such as Kenya and Canada possibly out next year ... No real surprises on the pitch, apart from South Korea, even weaker than expected and the Czech Republic. Germany and Poland still the favorites for now.

Challenger is around the corner, here are the pools for the 1st tournament. Stars (from 1 to 5) are my personal ratings for the title. Men Pool A Germany ***** Belgium *** Tonga ***** Zimbabwe ** Pool B Italy ** Chile **** Papua New Guinea * Hong Kong **** Pool C Jamaica * South Korea ** Brazil ** Uganda *** Women Pool D Colombia ** Hong Kong *** Poland ***** Paraguay * Pool E Czechia ** Madagascar ** Mexico * South Africa *** Pool F Papua New Guinea * Thailand *** Belgium *** China **** Of course I'm not aware of everything going on in these squads, or even all the results they may have had in the last six months or so, but I reckon these ratings might prove to be pretty accurate. The groups don't seem really balanced in the men's competition, especially with Tonga putting things together and Belgium improving (A), and on the other hand South Korea taking once again this Series a bit off-handedly and Uruguay winning last year's edition hence the presence of a weaker South American squad, in this instance Brazil (C). In this very group Uganda is also missing its key player, Philipp Wokorach, staying in France with his 15-a-side club. Among the 4 invitational teams in this year's World Series, HK and above all Tonga made the best impression, Uganda and Chile did not win a single match. The rest is unknown quantity but Germany has been a top seed for a couple of years now. For the women the favorite must be Poland, but they did not take part to any tournament this year (European teams are unfairly biased by these invitational system) and are missing their captain Karolina Jaszczyszyn. China is struggling a tad since the Olympics but their showing in HK 22' was convincing. HK in their home tournament 23' were promising, so were South Africa, at home this time around. Colombia and particularly Papua New Guinea were really poor, the fact that PNG had the opportunity to play two tournaments while others could not even play one ... Thailand is my dark horse despite the absence of their speedster Jirawan Chutrakun, playing pro in the Japanese 7s championship. The two other European teams, especially Belgium, turned pro earlier this year, can do some damage too.

Well, they are not bad teams (I was pleasantly surprised by Sri Lanka at the CG) but let's be honest, they won't feature. Malaysia is not even assured to take part to the OQT as they finished last in the 2022 Asian Series, but the format is not known at the moment. Japan's main opponents will be Hong Kong (China ) , whose team is now fully professional, and South Korea. We've already had a glimpse of what HK can produce these past weeks (1-1 against Japan), and shall see them in the Challenger Series later this month, along with South Korea. Less known and established but capable of a surprise are the United Arab Emirates, with their contingent of naturalized players. Then PR China could cause an upset, like Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

Japan is far from being qualified also. Last qualifier they took part in (for the World Cup), they did not even manage to make top 2.

Would be interesting to see her line up in a competitive 800, with adversity and, of course, pacing. Probably sub-2 ? But we know she can achieve this kind of feats, heptathlon gold is not given.

For Singapore : A B C D

Should be the 8 from Tokyo + Ireland and Japan.

Did (not) age well.

: Knotten is a reliable athlete, low ceiling but strong enough to make the cut and a secure option for the relays. I reckon Arnekleiv has guaranteed herself a spot now. Then Lien, Johansen, Erdal, Femsteinevik. : They have been very cautious with Tilda Johansson but I think it's time she makes it to the WC team. Brorsson is 32 and her form this year has been underwhelming. Skottheim is a tad younger, it seems she's in the staff's good graces but her shape is highly inconsistent and the good results very scarce lately. Will they try to make some room for Sara Andersson, whose development this year has not been as expected ? : Carrara's shooting is still erratic, but her speed could make up for it ... if no one emerges. Zingerle has stalled, Fauner, Trabucchi or Scattolo are too soft at the moment. : Braisaz will be back. So her, Simon, ACB (but she could well call it a career this week), Chevalier (who talked about retiring last year, she probably changed her mind with this "breakthrough" season) and Jeanmonnot. Chauveau and Colombo (fast skiers but not quite reliable on the range) will be in balance with Botet and Guigonnat (WC ceiling seems high for her but same applied for Jeanmonnot and look where she's now). Richard could get in the mix, but not before Autumn. Same goes for Bondoux, not precise enough.

That's the point. You seem bewildered about Repinc's evolution just to praise to the skies the most precocious athlete immediately after. Sometimes I think "OK this one is particularly mature. Maybe his/her progression will be hampered by whatever, but if he/she only manages to have a constant curve he/she will be one of the best in a few years time" ... and it just doesn't happen.

Well, all three are pretty much established as, at least, competent IBU Cup athletes, if not WC. So no big surprise to find them here, they were in the mix as a dozen others before the race. Overall the Norwegians are not particularly dominant (often the case at this age group), only Nevland and Frey have been seen outside of Norway (which is telling about their abilities in itself), with very decent results but not enough to deem them as n°1 favorites. No Russians also. The French are particularly poor this year. Combined with the performances in the IBU I fear we might have to reduce our expectations in the near future, but that's something to be expected as French biathlon has a lean production process. Repinc has had recurring health issues. But I don't consider Slovenia as an "exotic" nation and I reckon they have the means to get athletes to the top level. Maybe below what could be achieved if the athlete was German, but still. And look at Sara Andersson, just like Repinc she was the next big thing two or three years ago ... and she's Swedish. In fact a lot of young athletes never make it to the senior level. But the bigger nations' pool is wider, with more promising athletes. We're biased because we tend to remember the couple of ones who fulfilled the expectations while failed talents fall into oblivion. The umpteenth Norwegian is more easily forgotten than the one and only Serbian. Overall building expectations over such young athletes is more often than not destined to fail. Particularly young women, with early puberty, unknown margin for progression, most of the time unknown workload, unavoidable health issues ...

Track cycling : Mikhail Yakovlev to

Argentina looks strong and consistent. They will probably qualify at this point if they manage to get to the QF in HK. Pools are out and could do some huge damages : A : B : C : D : B and C look quite straightforward, but Uruguay does have a positive record against GB and Spain-USA are always down to the wire. Making it to the QF would be a gigantic step towards maintaining their spot in the World Series. Uruguay have beaten Fiji, NZ and SA in the span of 7 tournaments (I think it took more than 20 years for France to beat NZ and the W are as rare as you could get) but failing to make the quarters in most of these situations, which is harsh. And let's talk about the horrible ending of Spain-USA ... Spain butchered a QF by failing to shoot the conversion. Literally. A and D on the other hand ... which one of Fiji and Samoa get into the top 4 doesn't really matter as long as NZ and Australia are in too. That last Australian try vs Ireland in the pool stage proved to be VERY costly for Canada. They were on the brink of qualifying for the QF, thus scoring at least 10 points ... and ended up dead last. They're now trailing far behind. South Africa are back to their worst and they better tidy things up or the qualification will get away from them.

Same in France. No lol just kidding of course it doesn't, we rely on sheer luck to grab some talents in individual sports (like Mathilde Gros, former basket-ball player, detected when she tried a watt bike for fun). Paris 2024 here we come. Canada does the same with the RBC Training Ground.