Ogreman

[hide] Knockout Stage October 14th - October 28th, 2023 4 Nations, The Winners of each Semifinal will qualify for Final. The Losing Nations of each Semifinal will play the Third-Place Match. Semifinals Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 October 20th, h. 21:00 Argentina 28 New Zealand October 21st, h. 21:00 England 6 South Africa [/hide]

Gold Silver Bronze Total Olympic Qs Brazil 3 5 2 9 8 Cuba 3 1 0 4 4 Colombia 2 2 3 7 5 USA 2 1 5 8 4 Canada 1 1 3 5 2 Puerto Rico 1 0 2 4 1 Mexico 1 0 1 2 1 Dominican Republic 0 1 1 2 1 Argentina 0 1 0 1 1 Panama 0 1 0 1 1 Venezuela 0 0 4 4 1 Ecuador 0 0 3 3 1 Barbados 0 0 1 1 0 Haiti 0 0 1 1 0 This would be a tremendous result for Brazil. It's strange to not see Cuba at the top of the medal table but honestly this about as good a result as possible for them here. Flip side of things for the US where this would be a very poor result but they are much more likely to outperform this than underperform further. They did definetely get a bit unlucky draw wise certainly compared to Brazil and Colombia. Other than that 5 medals would be a very good outcome for Canada although only an average one from an Olympic qualifying perspective and Ecuador and Venezuela would probably both be left quite disappointed if it plays out like this. (Although Venezuela have already lost a projected medal at 57kg).

Men's predictions part 2. M51kg Gold- Roscoe Hill , Silver- Ramon Nicanor Quiroga , Bronze- Oscar Castaneda , Jabali Breedy . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Yuberjen Martinez , Luis Delgado . The top bracket of this draw is very let's say open. Justin Parina fights Central American silver medallist Junior Alcantara and the winner will face the unproven Oscar Castaneda. I'll take the unproven boxer against this calibre of opposition. The second bracket is pretty loaded though, 2021 world silver medallist Roscoe Hill meets Alejandro Claro Fiz in the last 16. Claro Fiz doesn't have a whole lot going for him other than that he is Cuban and won their selection trials though. The winner will meet Central American champion and Rio silver medallist Yuberjen Martinez. Assuming we get Hill vs Martinez I am not sure which way this one will go although whoever wins will very likely go on to win gold here. The third bracket is fascinatingly even, Michael Trindade likely meets the winner of 2023 panam champ Keymberth Gonzalez vs Jabali Breedy. Breedy is the most established but I honestly don't know. South American champion Luis Delgado got about as good a draw as he could have hoped for with a quarter final against the established Ramon Nicanor Quiroga and one of the above boxers in the semis standing between him and an Olympic spot. I'm going to pick the strandja silver medallist Quiroga though because his 2023 form is better. M71kg Gold- Marco Verde , Silver- Wanderson de Oliveira , Bronze- Jhonathan Arboleda , Christiann Palacio . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Omari Jones . This draw is a bit lopsided as well. At the top Jhonathan Arboleda should medal having to come through only Jhonny Fernandez and Eduardo Beckford who he beat in the semi finals of the Central American champs earlier this year. The secodn bracket here is stacked with 2022 panam champ and 2023 Central American champion Marco Verde taking on world quarter finallist Jorge Cuellar and 2021 world silver medallist Omari Jones taking on promisng youngster Angel Llanos . Verde beat Jones last year and we may well see them matchup again here. Christiann Palacio is very likely to make the semis here having gotten a very straightforward draw up until that point. World bronze medallist Wanderson de Oliveira's toughest fight before the final may well be his first one against 2022 panam silver medallist Jose Rodriguez . M80kg Gold- Arlen Lopez , Silver- Wanderley Pereira , Bronze- Keven Beasejour , Cedrick Belony-Duliepre . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Robby Gonzalez , Christian Pinales . There could have been a really interesting question here of weighing two time Olympic champion Arlen Lopez' recent patchy form against his experience and nous for showing up when it really counts but the draw he got was very straightforward so the risk of him not qualifying is quite low. His quarter final against Central American silver medallist Jhojan Caicedo should at least be somewhat interesting. The draw has opened up for 2023 panam champ Keven Beasejour to win a medal here with only a couple of experienced pros in Julio Alamos and Abraham Buonnarigo or Desmond Amsterdam in his way. On the other side of the draw 2021 world champion Robby Gonzalez got about as tough a draw as posible here meeting Central American champ (including beating Arlen Lopez) Christian Pinales before a prospective quarter final against world middleweight silver medallist Wanderley Pereira in a quarter final. The final bracket of this draw has absolutely nobody. I have no idea who of Eliezer Brito , Charles Cox , Cedrick Belony-Duliepre and Jaden Ecclestone will medal but one of them has to. Cedrick Belony-Duliepre appears to be Canadian or at least based there so I guess I'll pick him. Very little chance any of them even last the full three rounds in the semis though. Despite having the 2021 world and Olympic champions, this really isn't a very strong field. M92kg Gold- Julio Cesar La Cruz ,Silver- Keno Machado , Bronze- Julio Castillo , Bryan Colwell . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Jamar Talley . Julio Cesar La Cruz is not the dominant force he was for so long and he does have a couple of losses this year but he does start as the favourite here. He has got a tough draw meeting 2022 panam champ Jamar Talley in the last 16. The young American is talented but is unlikely to trouble La Cruz. After a quarter final against Andrews Salgado , La Cruz will then likely matchup against only man who can match his experience in Julio Castillo. Although, Castillo does have to beat 2023 panam champ Rogelio Romero first. A potential Castillo vs La Cruz fight would be a battle where the winner would make it to their fourth Olympics. Then again La Cruz has 2 gold medals from those appearances and Castillo hasn't even won a fight. Both should ultimately make it though. Brazil got some good draws especially in the heavier weights and this one is no exception with only a quarter final against either Central American silver medallist Marlon Hurtado or bronze medallist from the same event Daniel Guzman both of which Keno Machado has beaten before realistically standing in his way. Canada didn't get any great draws from an Olympic perspective but do have the opportunity to pick up a couple of cheap medals with a likely quarter final between Bryan Colwell and Emmanuel Pompey deciding the last medal here.

I'm going to have to split the men up between the weights that are being fought today and the ones that don't start yet because otherwise I won't be finished in time. Part 2 and projected medal table on next page. M57KG Gold- Luiz Oliveira , Silver- Yilmar Gonzalez , Bronze- Jahmal Harvey , Yoel Finol . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Saidel Horta . This is one of the more interesting weightclasses. 2021 world champion Jahmal Harvey keeps his spot in the US team despite some mixed form recently and losing to Julius Ballo earlier this year. His path to the semis likely goes through Keevin Allicock who made it to Tokyo with a tri-partite quota. Luiz Oliveira likely awaits in the semi finals in what could be one of the fights of the tournament. Oliveira does have to come through likely Lucas Fernandez Garcia first who had a pretty impressive silver medal at panam championships earlier this year. Oliveira and Harvey have matched up 4 times in recent years and both have won twice although Oliveira as won the last 2. World silver medallist Saidel Horta while he did avoid Oliveira and Harvey didn't exactly get an easy draw. His first fight is against Miguel Vega before a likely matchup with Yilmar Gonzalez in the quarter finals who beat him on his way to winning the Central American championships earlier this year. Not picking Horta may come back to haunt me but lets back the recent form. The final bracket sees Yoel Finol have to come through against Jose de lo Santos and Jean Caicedo . Finol has both beaten and lost to Gonzalez so this sem-final could go either way. M63.5kg Gold- Lazaro Alvarez , Silver- Alexy de la Cruz , Bronze- Yuri Dos Reis , Jose Viafara . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Emilio Garcia , Jesus Cova . So with Olympic champion Andy Cruz having turned pro, the door is open in this division in a way it isn't been for a few year, Three time Olympic medallist Lazaro Alvarez can be pretty pleased with his draw here coming up against Canada's best male Olympic hopeful Wyatt Sanford before a quarter final against Luciano Amayo or Leodan Pezo . The other medal on this side of the draw should be Yuri dos Reis but he does have to come through a couple of fights against boxers I believe are based in the US in Tyshawn Jones and probably Samuel Contreras although it could be Alston Ryan . Emilio Garcia got a difficult draw, first meeting 2023 panam champ Jesus Cova which if he can win he would then face 2022 60kg panam champ and current Central American champion Alexy de la Cruz. At the bottom of the draw South American champion Jose Viafara has a comfortable path to the semifinals where it might depend on who he comes up against. He has beaten Emilio Garcia in the past albeit in a close fight but has also lost to Alexy de la Cruz. M92+kg Gold- Abner Texeira , Silver- Fernando Arzola , Bronze- Christian Salcedo , Joshua Edwards . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Nigel Paul . The top of this bracket should be decided in the last 16 fight between Christian Salcedo and Nigel Paul. Salcedo has won this matchup twice in the past. Abner Texeira should comfortably make the final with fights against Javier Cruz and the winner of the above fight. Fernando Arzola is the world silver medallist but is far from a gaurantee to qualify here. He should cruise to the semis though with only 2023 panam champ Jerome Feujio offering some sort of obstacle. Joshua Edwards will fight the winner the winner of South American silver medallist Gerlon Congo and 2022 panam championships silver medallist Miguel Veliz .

Right prediction time, lets try and break 60% this time. I doubt it but this one should be the most straightforward so far. Housekeeping so draws once again are unseeded although on initial viewing most of these turned out relatively even. 2 Olympic qualifiers per weightclass except W57kg and W60kg where there are 4. W50kg Gold- Ingrit Victoria , Silver- Jennifer Lozano , Bronze- Caroline de Almeida , Gracemarie Quiles Marti . Other Olympic calibre boxers- (Might be a bit harsh on Gomez and Florencia Lopez to not put them here.) Ingrit Valencia Victoria has made the podium of the last two world championships and the vastly experienced Colombian will be looking to make it to her third straight Olympics after winning bronze in Rio and losing in the quarters in Tokyo. She starts out as the comfortable favourite here. Her path to the final sees her face the winner of 2023 panamerican champ (not a strong field) Ingrid Gomez and 2022 48kg world bronze medallist Aldana Florencia Lopez before a likely semi final against 2022 52kg world bronze medallist Caroline de Almeida who herself doesn't have an easy path against the experienced Kathreen Sterling and probably world youth bronze medallist Novoanny Nunez . Their is a pretty cheap medal up for grabs here likely between Gracemarie Quiles Marti and McKenzie Wright . I don't rate Jennifer Lozano and I would have loved to pick against her here but the draw has just opened up for her and assuming she can come through relative unknown Susan Aguas Chala in her first fight she should relatively comfortably make the final. W54kg Gold- Yeni Arias , Silver- Scarlett Delgado , Bronze- Johana Gomez , Estefany Almanzar . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Yoseline Perez , . The US had a variety of mediocre boxers to pick from here and well they seem to opted for potential and picked 57kg world youth champion Yoseline Perez. They will get to make this selection all over again though because she has drawn Yeni Arias in one of just 3 last 16 fights. The Tokyo Olympian and current world silver medallist is the favourite to win here although the draw could have been a little kinder. Johana Gomez likely awaits in the semis assuming she beats Sofia Robles . The last 16 fight between Estefany Almanzar and 2022 South American champion Tatiana de Jesus Chagas will likely decide a medal and a realistic shot at Olympic qualification. Scarlett Delgado got about as good a draw as she could have hoped for having had prior wins against likely quarter final opponent Nicole Mattey and Estefany Almanzar. She is unlikely to trouble Yeni Arias in the final though. W57kg (top 4 to qualify) Gold- Ashleyann Lozada , Silver- Jucielen Romeu , Bronze- Valeria Arboleda , Omailyn Alcala . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Alyssa Mendoza The top bracket here makes you seriously question why there are four qualifying places available as whoever qualifies here will very likely the weakest boxer in this weightclass at the Olympics. Home boxer Tamara Maturana faces the winner of Miguelina Hernandez and Valeria Arboleda. The second bracket of this draw is much tougher though with Ashleyann Lozada who has won a number of various American titles but has never really replicated that success globally and Alyssa Mendoza likely to meet in a quarter final although they both have somewhat challenging oppening fights against Minerva Montiel and Marie Al Ahmadieh beforehand. I'm backing Lozada to win this fight because Mendoza's form internationally this year was a bit hit or miss but she is still young and this was her first year boxing regularly outside of the US. On the other side of this draw we have a rematch of the semi final of this years panam championships between Omailyn Alcala and Leilany Reyes . Legnis Cala Masso likely awaits in the quarter final stage. This is the first female Cuban as they begin their quest to replicate their men's dominance on the women's side of things. Don't expect that to happen anytime soon. Jucielen Romeu is a Tokyo Olympian and reigning south american champion and should get the remaining qualifying spot here. She does have a somewhat interesting prospective quarter final agaisnt Daisy Bamberger who is American but is here representing Peru. A prospective final between Romeu and Lozada would certainly be interesting as they have fought eachother twice and each have one win. Neither of them are exactly medal contenders for Paris though. W60kg (top 4 to qualify) Gold- Beatriz Ferreira , Silver- Angie Valdes , Bronze- Jajaira Gonzalez , Maria Palacios . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Camila Pineiro (this is a complete guess but someone else will qualify here and I don't think it will be Falcon) (First of all does anyone know why the US haven't selected 2022 world champion Rashida Ellis here. I'm assuming it must be injury related but I can't find anything on it) (Also Chile have 1 boxer that had a legitimate chance of qualifying in Valentina Bustamante and she isn't here either.) Even without Rashida Ellis this is one of the strongest womens weightclasses here. The top of the draw should see world silver medallist Angie Valdes cruise to the final. Her preliminary fights are against Tianna Guy and Krisandy Rios who with a different draw could have podiumed here. (I dont know she could be a legitamately good boxer but over the last 4 years she has 2 losses against Beatriz Ferreira, 2 against Angie Valdes and 3 against Rashida Ellis with only 2 or 3 wins total in there to break them up.) The second bracket here is quite weak with Tokyo Olympian and 2023 panam champ (against nobody relevant) Maria Palacios facing the winner of Carribean silver medallist Jessica Munoz and Victoria Saputo . Assuming Rashida Ellis' absence is injury related it will very likely cost her a spot at the Olympics and may well cost the USA a chance at a medal. Jajaira Gonzalez is a decent boxer and did beat Angie Valdes last year. The only significant obstacle standing in her way is Camila Pineiro who is a South American silver medallist. Beatriz Ferreira should win this tournament with minimal trouble with the absence of Rashida Ellis. Her opening fight is agaisnt Tokyo Olympian Esmeralda Falcon . W66kg Gold- Morelle McCane , Silver- Barbara Dos Santos , Bronze- Charlie Cavanagh , Stephanie Pineiro . Other Olympic calibre boxers-Lucia Noelia Perez , Maria Moronta The top half of this draw should be a battle between 2022 world silver medallist Charlie Cavanagh and Morelle McCane for a final spot and the Olympic quota. Charlie Cavanagh does have to come through a tricky quarter final against the inconsistent Lucia Noelia Perez first though. McCane beat Cavanagh on a split decision at the GeeBee tournament earlier this year. Stephanie Pineiro should medal although she does have to come through 2022 world youth medallist Yuliannys Alvarez and Camila Bravo . The bottom of the draw sees Tokyo Olympian Maria Moronta almost cerrtainly face South American champion Barbara dos Santos who beat her last year in a quarter final setting up an interesting semi final with Stephanie Pineiro. There are 6 boxers with a realistic shot at the final here and as a result I doubt the actual results will look remotely like what I have predicted. W75kg Gold- Tammara Thibeault , Silver- Atheyna Bylon , Bronze- Naomi Graham , Viviane Peireira . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Citlalli Ortiz This was always going to be somewhat luck of the draw for Naomi Graham and Atheyna Bylon and unfortunately for Graham she has ended up on the same side of the draw as Tammara Thibeault while Bylon gets the easier side of the draw. Graham has a relatively tough quarter final against Citlalli Ortiz as well. Thibeault herself should be completely untroubled in her first two fights before the semis. Graham and Thibeault have fought many many times, as far as I can tell Graham has never won. Atheyna Bylon and Viviane Peireira should both comfortably win their first two fights before facing eachother in the semis. Bylon won when these two matched up last year.

Confident based off recent form and the relative quality of both teams but fully aware that historically this is where things fall apart and our margin for error is razor thin given that it is New Zealand. Basically rational side of the brain is having a fight with every other part of the body to try and get it to actually believe we will win this.

[hide] Knockout Stage October 14th - October 28th, 2023 8 Nations, The Winners of each Quarterfinal will qualify for Semifinals. Quarterfinals Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 October 14th, h. 17:00 Wales 5 Argentina October 14th, h. 21:00 Ireland 12 New Zealand October 15th, h. 17:00 England 10 Fiji October 15th, h. 21:00 France 2 South Africa [/hide]

He performed a 6.6 difficulty routine at the Paris world cup a month ago. Pretty sure he only didn't break it out here because he didn't need to push for a 15.400/ 15.500. It is mostly the same routine just with one different element near the start as I understand it. Now at the same time he did only score 15.100 for that routine in Paris but just to point out that he does have 6.6 D score in him.

Look Khyzhniak is great but he also would have fallen short of qualifying at European games if Kelyn Cassidy was just able to see out a fight. Mouhiidine has a case but l think Khalokov is better than him. Julio Cesar La Cruz is getting old, Still great but not p4p best in the world great and Andy Cruz is no longer an amateur boxer. Khalokov is great like, why would the best featherweight in the world not at least be in contention to be top of a p4p ranking. If you disagree that he should be at the top thats fine but like he is undneniably there or there abouts.

So I hit 18/34 (52.9%) qualifiers which ye know isn't accurate but is pretty much bang on as accurate as I said I woul be. Hit 13/20 women and only 5/14 men but that trend has kinda been true of my previous predicitions as well and it is just much easier to predict semifinalists rather than finalists (or winners in Africa's case). After pan ams I will rank every boxer that has competed (I don't think I will bother to wait for oceanian games as they are unlikely to produce any qualifiers at the world qualfying tournaments.) For completeness I got 31/52 (59.6%) of the podiums right. If I had to guess right now I would say the world qualifiers will likely be around 40% European, 37.5% Asian 17.5% American and 5% African. Why am I trying to estimate this, this will obviously be wrong and these will vary wildly between men and women. Skewing towards Asia for the men and towards Europe (and the Americas) for the women. What's interesting though is especially for the men I had thought becuase of there being less continental qualifying spots available for Asia that the first qualifying tournament would qualify a disproportionate number of Asian boxers and then Europe's depth would prevail at the second tournament but obviously with the first one being in Italy and the second one being in Thailand that might correct for that and even shift things the other way. Anyway enough rambling this tournament. So first of all the judging and refereeing was atrocious. I would lean towards incompetence rather than anything else but after a relatively promising start at Europeans this and African qualifying have been a bit of a mess judging wise. I don't have the time to but I would be interested to see the ratio of split to unaminous decisions at this tournament because surely it must be skewed more so than normal towards split decisions. (Side note, I'm trying hard not to start a corruption conversation here but while yes some of the decisions China got here were outright ridiculous, Judges favouring home boxers in "close" fights is well established and even if was extreme here I'm not sure it was all that different to what India got at women's worlds or what Bulgaria get at Strandja.) I will briefly go through weight by weight but I think Japan's men are a good example of the judging being incompetent rather than anything else. Japan had three men make the podium (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) and all of them are quite similar in that they jump around very stylishly, are very confident, celebrate wildly and occasionally leap in and throw a rally so end up throwing a decent volume of punches. The issue with them (especially Okazawa) is that none of their punches actually land. Basically they are exactly the type of boxers that fool a bad judge (and much to my annoyance commentators) into thinking they are having success when they just aren't. Women's 50kg- I don't want to say I called it because I literally didn't but I did warn you to not be surprised if Nikhat lost and lo and behold Chuthamat Raksat beat her. She is still a medal contender here for the Olympics but she is just a contender and certainly not the favourite or anything. Wu Yu is a decent champion but wouldn't exactly strike fear into me if I was from the rest of the world. Women's 54kg- I'm not sure Yuan Chang deserved to win any of her four fights here (When I say I'm not sure I mean she didn't but I didn't see them all so I can't say for sure) but the look on her face when she wasn't gifted the final against Chol mi Pang made me chuckle. Hsiao Wen Huang, Jutamas Jitpong and Zhaina Shekerbekova all not qualifying here is a bit ominous given the quality also left in Europe. There are going to be some names who have a genuine case as a contender to medal here that ultimately won't qualify. (This is true in most of the men's weights but likely only this one on the women's side of things. Then again pound for pound the best boxers at this weight wouldn't compete with most of the other ones.) Women's 57kg- This Lin Yu ting Karina Ibragimova matchup is kind of fascinating. It is two one to Lin now. Could easily end up being a medal fight at the Olympics. Well done to Parveen, I shouldn't have doubted her. I did not see Mijgona Samadova coming at all. Didn't actually beat anyone especially impressive here but given that she had barely won a fight internationally (albeit she kept getting tough draws) in recent years that is still a significant achievement. Women's 60kg- Won Ungyong ay, Who knew? If it wasn't for that one rogue North Korean I probably would have nailed this podium. (Wenlu Yang might have beaten Oh Yeonji but sure we will never know) Women's 66kg- I simultaneously nailed this podium prediction wise and feel like I didn't deserve to because that Nien Chin Chen Liu Yang fight should have probably gone Chen's way although it certainly wasn't the most egregious decision. Women's 75kg- I mean I got this right too but there were only nine entries so it shouldn't have been that hard. Men's 51kg- I mean my predictions ended up ok. I obviously didn't see So Chonryong coming but given the quality of his opponents maybe I should have just picked him. I don't like Tsuboi style but sure look he wins fights. I managed to not see any of Thitisan Panmot's fights so I'm not sure how good he is yet form an Olympic prospects perspective. There are only 16 qualifying spots available in total here so some big names will miss out. Men's 57kg- First of all Abdumalik Khalokov has to be one of the best if not the best (Jalolov is already a pro so) pound for pound amateur boxers in the world right now. I still don't understand why Carlo Paalam is at 57kg but sure he might have qualified it he hadn't run into Khalokov. There were a couple of controversial decisions here so as they happened. Makhmud Sabyrkhan did not deserve to lose to O Taebom but he also should have won comfortably and not left it up to the judges to make a decision (It will be fascinating to see of he keeps his place ahead of Termizhanov and Assylkulov now). The way the Sachin Ping Lyu fight ended was unfortunate and while if three rounds had played out I would have expected Sachin to come through and win it there was nothing wrong with the decision here. And finally again Rujakron Juntrong absolutely did not deserve to lose to Shudai Harada but again he left it up to the judges when with both boxers at their best Juntrong should win comfortably. Such is the way with this qualifying system but that might have been his best chance. Men's 63.5kg- Chinzorig Baatarsukh produced one of the best performances of anyone here going through a gauntlet to win and while Sofiane Oumiha is the favourite for gold in Paris, Baatarsukh looked good enough to beat him here. Chu En Lai rode the easy side of the draw surviving a scare when the judges just about managed to avoid robbing him against Wang Xiangyang. Again easy draw for Ali Qasim Al Sarray but you don't see Iraq winning boxing medals everyday. My predictions proved to be atrocious. Men's 71kg- I was so close with the Nurmuhammedov pick so close. Chia Wei Kan and Chinese Taipei as a whole and a surprisingly good tournament here. I did not think their men would be as competitive as they were. I mentioned the Okazawa thing earlier. I just don't get it. If you were to slow mo his fights and carefully count how many punches actually land would you get past ten in any of his fights? I didn't see the the Okazawa Eashash fight, and look Nishant Dev hardly landed much himself against him either. Nishant Dev is a decent boxer but as a counterpuncher he seems to really struggle when he comes up against other counterpunchers. Shymbergenov should have won here but at the same time he was pretty unimpressive outside of a brilliant third round round to over turn a lost fight against Asindkhuja Muydinkhajaev. Kazakhstan had a bad tournament here but they did at least deserve to qualify here (They probably got robbed at 57kg and 80kg as well but they were in prelims so they might not have qualified anyway.) 71kg is a weird weightclass. I was unconvinced by the European qualifiers and nobody here exactly screamed Olympic medallist. Men's 80kg- Tanglatihan Touhetaerbieke is a very good boxer but rode his luck big time to win here. All four of his fights could have gone the other way and I thought Turabek Khabibulllaev definitely deserved to beat him although like it was at least close. Turabek Khabibullaev is a major talent even if he fell short here. Eumir Marcial looked good here and a second Olympic medal could be on the cards in Paris. If the Oralbay Tuohetaerbieke fight and just been split the other way these predictions would have looked great. Men's 92kg- I'm still confused as to how we ended with Davlat Boltaev beating Han Xuezhen in the final here. I should have picked Boltaev but Han Xuezhen being good enough to allow him to ride hometown decisions to the final is bonkers. I would bet a lot of money he loses his first fight in Paris. I would complain but this tournament has me gone from thinking Jack Marley was a decent but outside chance at an Olympic medal to a situation where he is probably a favourite to medal. Look there is a lot of talent in the Americas here though, and this is definitely one of the weakest weights in Asia. Men's 92+kg- No shocks and look I got this one right too. Only men's weight where I got both qualifiers right. Based on this it seems clear that if they only capped entries at 13 I wouldn't get a single predicition wrong .

It was pretty close. Halle Hilton was only 0.3 away from a quota and if Emma Slevin didn't have two falls she definitely would have qualifed. Adam Steele had a bit of a disaster but at his best he would have been close. I don't know that I would call this as just one quota yet although it may well end up being. Obviously Rhys hasn't qualifed yet and at least one of Rhys, Kurbanov , Lee Chih Kai and Ahmad abu al Soud won't qualify between this final and the two apparatus world cup spots next year. (Unless Lee Chih Kai gets the Asian championships all around spot) There is still an all around spot available at next years Europeans but basically everyone who hasn't qualified a team will be eligible for that including possibly Russia so that is basically gone already. The apparatus world cup spots could get weird though especially on the womens side of things. I started writing this trying to be optimistic that a second quota might be possible but I am talking myself out of this as a type. Then again it is important to remember that pommel horse (and rings) is as specialised as it gets and on most apparatus most of the top gymnasts are also on the big teams/ qualifying all around. On the positive side though as I understand apparutus qualifiers can compete all around so I believe as long as Rhys qualifies on pommel he can compete on floor if he wants so ye know there is that.

14.933 for Rhys McClenagahan in qualifying. He did flex his hips at one point in the routine but I thought his routine would still break 15. Anyway he will be safely through. Only in subdivision 2 so obviously yet to see a lot of the potential contenders but Whitlock scored 15.266 and notably from an Olympic qualifying perspective Nariman Kurbanov only managed 14.166 so thats one potential contender for the Olympic quota out of the way. Eamon Montgomery and Dominick Cunningham both threatened big scores on floor (well for them- like breaking 14) but faded in their last couple of passes.

Yeah its been an interesting one. I'll be honest I haven't managed to watch as many of these fights as I would have liked but anyway. Obviously my predictions are not proving to be particularly accurate but should roughly on track to be somewhere over 50% and similar to my accuracy at the European and African qualifiers. Obviously boxing is a very volatile sport and as such difficult to predict but assuming that someone with perfect knowledge (ie the absolute most accurate possible predictions) which I am far from would only hit on about 75% or so percent of qualifiers I think these predictions are at least reasonable. So quickly running through the weights. The schedule is designed to have 3 days with finals so there are some boxers that haven't started competing yet and others the medals and Olympic qualifiers havve already been decided. Womens 50kg- I should have probably included Yesugen Oyunsetseg in my other Olympic calibre boxers list but I am quite surprised that she beat Kyzaibay. The other notable results are Chuthamat Raksat beating Tsukimi Namiki and Nikhat Zareen hammering Thi tham Nguyen. This one has mostly gone too form though outside of Oyunsetseg springing a bit of a surprise. Womens 54kg- Not too much of note here except Yuan Chang surprisingly beating Jutamas Jitpong it was a 3-2 split decision and she likely got a bit of a hometown helping hand but lets see how she does does against Hsiao Wen Huang. Women's 57kg- So Parveen did beat Xu Zichun. Probably should have picked that to happen but anyway. Women's 60kg- So the unknown North Koreans strike. Won Ungyong beats Oh Yeonji. Nothing especially notable at 66 or 75kg For the men 51kg- The draw gave us a couple of big early fights with Hasanboy Dusmatov once again beating Saken Bibossinov and Tomoya Tsuboi beating Deepak. Thankfully I predicted both of these right though. Unfortunately on the other side of the draw Aaron Jude Bado lost and Rsc-I (injury) in the first round so that pick went out the window straight away. So Chonryong beating Makhmetov probably isn't that surprising but there is an Olympic quota very much up for grabs here between Thitisan Panmot, So Chonryong and Po Wei Tu. 57kg- Still early in tis one but picking Shahbaksh to medal was dumb of me. Carlo Paalam beat Mohamed Abu Jajeh despite the size mismatch. 63.5kg- Possibly the most interesting weightclass here so far. Chinzorig Baatarsukh reversed the result of the world champs final a few months ago and beat Ruslan Abdullaev. I rewatched the world champs fight and Baatarsukh certainly had a case to win that one too. Strange to see a 30 year old suddenly hit their prime. You don't see that too often in amateur boxing but of course most of them rarely get there. Shiva Thapa losing to Askat Toltaev was bad. Even out of form he shouldn't lose that fight. Chu En Lai now becomes the massive favourite for the second Olympic quota now. As I said at the start I haven't seen that many of the fights here so far but the only disgraceful judging decision I've seen was the Bakhodur Usmonov Yertugen Zeinnulinov fight. I have no idea how 3 judges decided the Kazakh won that one. 71kg- So I said Nuradin Rustambek Uulu should cruise to a medal because no one in his bracket was any use at all and sure enough he lost his first fight to Chia Wei Kan. To be fair to me though Chia Wei kan is not a good boxer. My man Bayramdurdy Nurmuhammedov is stilll on for the Olymipic quota. Eashash losin to Okazawa was interesting as well but the most intersting fights here are the two quarter finals at the bottom fo this draw. 80kg- Tanglatihan Tuohaetaerbieke edged past Nurbek Oralbay. Other than that nothing surpising. 92kg- So Lazizbek Mullojonov lost to Han Xuezhen. Did not see that one coming. Apparently I know nothing about heavyweight because I managed to get all of the medallists wrong here I think. 92+kg- Nothing of note yet.

Qualifiers comparison Country Projected Qualifiers Qualifiers Romania 10 11 Netherlands 10 10 Australia 9 9 Great Britain 9 9 USA 9 8 New Zealand 5 8 Ireland 7 6 Germany 4 6 China 4 5 Italy 4 5 Spain 4 4 Switzerland 4 4 Lithuania 3 4 France 4 3 Croatia 2 3 Norway 1 3 Greece 5 2 Canada 1 2 Czechia 1 2 Denmark 3 1 Poland 2 1 Serbia 2 1 Austria 1 1 Bulgaria 1 1 Chile 1 1 Japan 1 1 AIN (BELARUS) 1 1* Mexico 0 1 South Africa 0 1 Belgium 2 0 Estonia 1 0 Moldova 1 0 Ukraine 1 0 Uzbekistan 1 0 As mentioned above the only big country level misses were New Zealand who significantly outperformed their world cup form and Greece who significantly under performed. The only other countries to be more than one away from what I projected were Germany who had a very good champs by their recent standards, Norway who had a couple of surprise qualifiers and Belgium/ Denmark who both underperformed by multiple boats. This could possibly end up playing in their favour with continental qualifiers though of course.

Right, Only two weeks after the event finished, here is my final update. I was going to include the next two best boats in each boat class but it looked chaotic and at least in 2019 although probably mostly pandemic related very few boats that narrowly missed out at worlds actually ended up qualifying for the Olympics. Hit rates Semi finals Finals Podium Winners Olympic qualifiers 122/144 (84.1%) 63/84 (75%) 32/42 (76.2%) 9/14 (64.3%) 91/114 (79.8%) So it held up quite well in terms of predicting medallists and winners so a similar type of ranking may well prove fairly accurate at least at predicting the podium at the Olympics next year. I fell one boat short of hitting my 80% target on qualifiers but sure we will round it up and say we sort of got there. Overestimating Greece's early season form and underestimating New Zealand probably were predictable errors and therefore incorporable into this ranking that probably cost me an extra one or two correct qualifiers.

Parveen could absolutely at 57kg. I just picked Xu Zichun because it is in China. Preeti qualifying would very much surprise me. Ah the myth that it will even out in the end. Sample size is too small even taking into account multiple qualifying tournaments and the Olympics themselves. For most countries yeah overall draws should be fairly even but some will get absolutely shafted. Look this prediction ended up on the pessimistic side for India and the draw while not terrible certainly doesn't help so India probably will outperform my predictions. I'm not sure how they get to 8 medals though. Remember there are only the Olympic weights here and a lot of India's recent major medals have come at non-Olympic weight classes.

Predicted medal table Gold Silver Bronze Olympic Qs 1 Uzbekistan 6 0 1 7 2 Kazakhstan 3 3 2 6 3 China 2 1 3 5 4 India 1 2 2 3 5 South Korea 1 0 0 1 6 Philippines 0 2 1 2 7 Turkmenistan 0 2 0 2 8 Chinese Taipei 0 1 4 3 9 Thailand 0 1 3 2 10 North Korea 0 1 0 1 11 Japan 0 0 3 2 12 Jordan 0 0 1 0 12 Kyrgyzstan 0 0 1 0 12 Tajikistan 0 0 1 0 12 Syria 0 0 1 0 12 Vietnam 0 0 1 0 12 Bahrain 0 0 1 0 12 Iran 0 0 1 0 Total 13 13 26 34 This is how the medal table/ Olympic qualifiers would look if my predictions were accurate. They will not be but the final medal table should at least look vaguely similar. Mongolia is the only notable country that entirely missed the podium in my predictions.

(I ran out of emojis) Men's 92+kg Gold- Bakhodir Jalolov , Silver- Kamshybek Kunkabayev , Bronze-Danabieke Bayikewuzi , Narendar Berwal . Other Olympic calibre boxers- N/A. A draw where the best two boxers are on opposite sides of the draw. It's a miracle. Kunkabayev will likey comfortably beat the winner of Olympian Danis Latypov and Mohamed Mlaiyes in his quarter final. Narendar has a very straightforward path to joining Kunkabayev in the semis but is very unlikely to beat him. Danabieke Bayikewuzi also should have an easy path to a medal with just a quarterfinal against probably Byeknur Khali . Bakhodir Jalolov has a quarter final against Asian bronze medallist Muhammad Abbrordinov but his only potential "test" will be the final against Kunkabayev. Jalolov is unbeaten since 2018 and has beaten Kunkabayev 3 times in that span all unanimous decisions. This is definitely the easiest weightclass to predict.

Predictions Part 2 Top 2 to qualify for the Olympics in all men's weightclasses. Men's 51kg Gold- Hasanboy Dusmatov , Silver- Aaron Jude Babo , Bronze- Tomoya Tsuboi , Azat Makhmetov. Other Olympic calibre boxers- Po Wei Tu , Thitisan Panmot , Deepak Bhoria , Saken Bibibossinov . Straight off the bat, we have a ridiculously uneven draw. The top of this bracket sees an opening round fight between Chonryong So and former (failed) Kazakh Azat Makhmetov in a fight that will probably ultimately decide a bronze medal. The second bracket is fascinatingly poised and with the weakness of the top bracket will likely decide an Olympic place. The first round sees Asian under 22 champions Aaron Jude Babo face Thitisan Panmot in what could prove the deciding fight for an Olympic quota. Po Wei Tu had an impressive run to the quarter finals of this years world championships and likely awaits the winner in the last 16. The winner of that fight will then likely see home boxer Jiamao Zhang in the quarter final stage. The best four boxers in this draw are all likely on the bottom half of this draw but that can just be how it goes. Former Bantamweight world champion Tomoya Tsuboi will almost certainly face controversial Indian selection and world bronze medallist Deepak Bhoria (I for one think selecting him over former world champion and commonwealth champion Amit Panghal is perfectly reasonable regardless of the outomce of the Tsuboi fight but I'm sure the Indians here will have something to say about it especially if he loses.). The winner will probably face Nurzhigit Diushebaev who Deepak beat at the quarter final stage of world championships earlier this year. The ridiculous element of this draw is seeing probably the two top ranked flyweights in the world Saken Bibbosinov and Hasanboy Dusmatov meet in the last 16. Bibbosinov does have to beat surprise Mongolian selection Unubold Orkhontungalag (Ekhmandakh Kharkuugiin was an Asian bronze medallist at this weight last year while Orkhontungalag lost in the minimumweight prelims) and Dusmatov, Sehyeong Jo first. Dusmatov won this fight in the Asian final last year and is reigning world champion although Bibossinov won this fight on his way to winning the 2021 world title. This is the first of many potential blockbuster Uzbek vs Kazakh matchups. I've gone for Dusmatov based off recent form but either of them could win this. I also would definitely not rule out Deepak or Tsuboi shocking the winner in a semi final. Men's 57kg Gold- Abdumalik Khalokov , Silver- Makhmud Sabyrkhan , Bronze- Daniyal Shahbakhsh , Asror Vokhidov . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Munarbek Seitbek Uulu , Mohamed Abu Jajeh , Carlo Paalam , Sachin , Rujakron Juntrong . The top of this draw throws up some fascinating fights with flyweight Olympic bronze medallist Carlo Paalam(I know he is naturally a bantamweight but it is bizarre that he has opted to come up to featherweight rather than go down to flyweight again) facing Mohammad Abu Jajeh of Jordan who is Asian champion and world bronze medallist at lightweight. It is about as big of a size mismatch as you get and both are excellent boxers so it should be a fascinating fight. The winner of that fight will face world bronze medallist Munarbek Seitbek Uulu in another quality fight. These interesting matchups will likely be made completely redundant with world champion Abdumalik Khalokov almost certainly waiting in the quarter finals. Khalokov's likely opponent in the semis is Daniyal Shahbakhsh who he beat in the 60kg world championship semi finals in 2021. Shahbakhsh faces home boxer Ping Lyu in the last 32 before another size mismatch fight in the quarter finals against Sachin who surprisingly got selected over world and asian bronze medallist Mohamed Hussamuddin. In the bottom half of the draw the weakest bracket will likely see Tajikistan get themselves a medal through world quarter finallist Asror Vokhidov. His biggest test will be a likely quarter final against either Lundaa Gantumur or Shudai Harada . However bantamweight world champion Makhmud Sabyrkhan is the massive favourite to take the second Olympic quota. Getting himself selected ahead of Serik Termizhanov and Orazbek Assylkulov (who beat Khalokov at Strandja) is perhaps more impressive than his bantamweight world title. Anyway his path involves South and North Korean boxers before a probable quarter final against Rujakron Juntrong. This would obviously set up an Uzbek vs Kazakh final. Men's 63.5kg Gold-Ruslan Abdullaev , Silver- Shiva Thapa , Bronze- Bunjong Sinsiri , Chu en Lai . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Bakhodur Usmonov , Chinzorig Baartarsukh . The top of this draw is very barren of talent with Asian bronze medallist Chu en Lai the only notable boxer in one bracket and Asian silver medallist Shiva Thapa the only notable one in the other. Chu's toughest fight before the semi finals will either be against home boxer Xiaoyang Wang or youngster Mark Ashley Fajardo . Chu is not likely to qualify though. Shiva Thapa meanwhile has only one even remotely challenging fight in the last 16 against Askat Kultaev . The third bracket sees reigning welterweight Asian champion Bunjong Sinsiri who faces a whole lot of nothing. His tough prelim fight may well be a quarter final against Cholman Choe . If most of the draw is quite weak then the bottom of the draw must be and is absolutely loaded. 3 of the 4 world medallists this year are all here plus Yertugen Zeinullinov (Probably be the weakest of the Kazakh boxers though) and Olympian Obada Al Kasbeh . The winner of the Zeinullinov Al Kasbeh fight will face Bakhodur Usmonov in the last 16. The other last 16 fight will almost certainly see a repeat of this years world championships final between Ruslan Abdullaev and Chinzorig Baartarsukh. This draw is ridiculously harsh on Baartarsukh who should end up being one of the favourites to medal in Paris. Abdullaev vs Usmonov should be an excellent fight too in an at this point hypothethical quarter final. Abdullaev while he is world champion couldn't really have asked for a tougher draw almost certainly meeting the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ranked boxers on his way to the final. The one most likely to beat him is probably the somewhat unknown Bunjong Sinsiri and if there is a men's weight where neither the Uzbeks nor the Kazakhs make the final it might be this one. Men's 71kg Gold- Aslanbek Shimbergenov , Silver- Bayramdurdy Nurmuhammedov , Bronze- Nishant Dev , Nuradin Rustambek Uulu . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Zeyad Eashash , Sewonrets Okazawa , Asadkhuja Muyddhinkujaev . Well, This is the most uneven draw of the lot and it's not close. I did not expect to be picking Turkmenistan to get an Olympic quota here but well I am. The top bracket of this draw sees Asian bronze medallist Nuradin Rustambek Uulu fight absolutely nobody even worth mentioning on his to way to at least a bronze medal. The second bracket isn't much better but does have some I suppose "international" calibre boxers. Bayramdurdy Nurmuhammedov has a straightforward last 32 fight before coming up against Nidal Foqahaa in the last 16 prior to a likely quarter final against Peerapat Yeseungden . All three of these boxers won at least one fight at world championships but Nurmuhammedov's wins were the most impressive. Picking him to beat the much more established Rustambek Uulu might prove a bad choice but Rustambek Uulu really isn't particularly good. (I will be so annoyed if I got this pick wrong). Anyway all the actual talent is in the bottom half of the draw. The third bracket sees Asian silver medallist Zeyad Eashash face the awkward former world welterweight champion Sewonrets Okazawa. Eashash beat Okazawa last year for what its worth. That will set up a likely quarter final against world bronze medallist Nishant Dev which is a tough one to call given how inconsistent Eashash tends to be. We have another early Kazakhstan Uzbekistan matchup in the final bracket with reigning Asian and world champion Aslanbek Shimbergenov facing welterweight world champion Asadkhuja Muyddhinkujaev. Both are excellent boxers and I honestly have no idea who will win this fight. Men's 80kg Gold- Turabek Khabibullaev , Silver- Eumir Marcial , Bronze- Nurbek Oralbay , Ahmad Ghossoun . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Hussein Iashaish , Tanglatihan Tuohetaerbieke , Weerapon Jongjoho . Its amazing how many of these draws seem so unbalanced. So the top of this draw sees last year's world youth champion Turabek Khabibullaev almost certainly face last year's Asian champion and two time Olympian Hussein Iashaish. I'm backing the youngster here. Then we have yet another case where the two world championship finalists face off in the opening round. Nurbek Oralbay prevailed on a narrow split decision on that occasion although of course Tanglatihan Tuoheaebieke now has home advantage. I'll stick with Oralbay but I don't feel comfortable with that one. He will face the winner of Lakshya Chahar against Asian bronze medallist Omurbek Bekzhigit Uulu . Regardless of the different potential outcomes here it sets up a fascinating semi final for the quota spot. I don't entirely trust Oralbay so I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb here and say the young Uzbek wins it. On the bottom half of the draw sees Asian medallist at 75kg Seyedshahin Mousavi face Shabbos Negmattuloev in what should be a good last 16 fight. The winner will likely face Arabian champion Ahmad Ghossoun in a hypothethical quarter final. Mousavi and Ghossoun met twice in 2018/2019 with each getting one win apiece. Eumir Marcial hasn't boxed as an amateur since winning bronze in Tokyo but in theory has a fairly straightforward route to an Olympic quota here. He faces Dalai Ganzorig (who doesn't seem to have boxed outside Mongolia before) in his first fight before facing a vietnamese boxer who he has beaten multiple times before in the last 16. His quarter final will likely be against former world middleweight medallist Weerapon Jongjoho. I have to say this feels like one of the toughest weightclasses to predict. Men's 92kg Gold- Lazizbek Mullujonov , Silver- Arslanbek Achilov , Bronze-Odai Al Hindawi ,John Marvin Noble . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Sagyndyk Togambay . Lazizbek Mullojonov won last years superheavyweight Asian title but has moved back down to heavyweight to accommodate the return of Bakhodir Jalolov. He opens up is tournament here against Sanjeet before a quarter final against home boxer Han Xuezhen . He should breeze threw both of these fairly handily. The second bracket sees surprise Kazkakh selection Sagyndyk Togambay (Aibek Oralbay won this event at last years Asian champs) opens up against Bariakhaan Dorj (who also doesn't seem to have boxed outside Mongolia before) before facing Odai Al Hindawi in a likely quarter final who he lost to at last years cruiserweight Asian champs. Al Hindawi himself does have to come through Asian bronze medallist Toufan Sharifi first. The third bracket is quite weak and will see John Marvin Noble almost certainly beating Rabin Nepal (That can't actually be his name can it (I mean there are Irish people with the surname Ireland but even still)(They aren't really Irish though)) (Google says Nepal is a real surname). (That was a weird tangent). and Jaemin Jeong . The last bracket is a battle of the smaller stans. Arslanbek Achilov doesn't seem to have boxed since 2018 but back then he was half decent boxer meets Davlat Boltaev who made the quarter finals at world champs this year in the last 16. The winner then faces 86kg Asian bronze medallist Erkin Adylbek Uulu in a quarter final. All three of them could medal and by extension secure an Olympic quota (I would pick any of them over Noble) but bizarrely for the second time I'm backing a Turkmenistani boxer to qualify albeit based off results he had five years ago.

Right prediction time. My hit rate on qualifiers at European Games was 25/44 (56.8%) and at the African Olympic qualifying tournament it was 9/18 (50%- Should have been higher but for some dodgy judging). So again first of all, the usual fun that comes with unseeded draws. (There is a slightly under 50 50 chance that the best two boxers in any weight class in an unseeded draw so close to half of these won't have the best two boxers actually make the final. So just under 25% of the qualifiers where only the finallists qualify are "wrong". (I could figure out the number for the events with 4 qualifiers but the maths gets much more complex) The combination of most of these only offering two qualifying spots and unseeded draws is surprisingly disastrous but sure anyway.) Starting with the women. Obviously I have virtually no guage watsoever on the North Korean boxers although historically they do tend to qualify a couple of boxers to the Olympics. Women's 50kg Gold- Nikhat Zareen, Silver- Nazym Kyzaibay , Bronze- Wu Yu ,Tsukimi Namiki , Other Olympic calibre boxers-Aira Villegas, Sabina Bobukulova , Thi Tham Nguyen ,Chuthamat Raksat . Certainly one of the more interesting weight classes. At the top of the draw Nazym Kyzaibay has a relatively straightforward path to the semifinals with only Aira Villegas potentially offering much resitance. Wu Yu is reigning world champion (Obviously take all of this year's world champs results with many grains of salt) at 52kg and starts off against North Korean opposition and then likely faces Sabina Bobukulova who is reigning Asian under 22 champion but has basically no results at senior level yet although her getting selected over Aziza Yokubova indicates she must be at least decent. On the other side of the draw last years Asian silver medallist Tsukimi Namiki fights Chuthamat Raksat in what effectively serves as a qualifying fight given the quality of the boxers they would face in a quarter final. While most of this draw was fairly even last years Asian champion and world silver medalist Thi Tham Nguyen gets a nightmare draw with world champion Nikhat Zareen in the only round of 32 fight in this weight class. Nikhat Zareen got one or two questionable close fights go her way at her home world champs so while she starts as favourite here she is only a marginal one. Womens 54kg Gold-Zhaina Shekerbekova ,Silver-Cholmi Pang, Bronze- Hsiao Wen Huang , Nigina Uktamova. Other Olympic calibre boxers Preeti , Enkhjargal Mungunsetseg , Jutamas Jitpong , Yuan Chang , Rinka Kinoshita . Zhaina Shekerbekova is reigning Asian champion and has a fairly straightforward path to the semis with just Preeti offering some level of competition. The second bracket of this draw is chaos. If you had told me before the draw that Enkhjargal Mungunsetseg, Hsiao Wen Huang, Jutamas Jitpong and Yuan Chang were the eventual qualifiers I would have believed that as a perfectly reasonable outcome. Hsiao Wen Huang is reigning world champion so starts as favourite for the qualifying spot although she lost to Shekerbekova at last years Asian champs (So did Jitpong). Jitpong has consistently medalled at this level in recent years but just gets a nightmare draw here. I'm not sure why Yuan Chang has moved up from flyweight to bantamweight and not Wu Yu but sure. Chang is a former flyweight world champion so it feels weird to not pick her as a home boxer but. The bottom half of the draw is weaker but not empty Cholmi Pang was world champion back in 2018 at flyweight but hasn't competed since 2019. She faces Tokyo Olympian Im Aeji in a korean derby followed by likely Thi Ngoc Tran Nguyen . The final qualifier is likely to be Asian under 23 champ Nigina Uktamova although her likely quarter final against Rinka Kinoshita will likely be close. Women's 57kg Gold-Karina Ibragimova ,Silver- Lin Yu ting , Bronze- Xu Zichun , Satsuki Yoshizawa . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Parveen , Nesthy Petecio . Xu Zichun has effectively an qualifying fight against Parveen in the last 16. Parveen was a world medallist and Asian champion in 2022 but at 63.5kg so it is a bit strange to see her pop up on the startlist here but she beat out some 2022 world bronze medallist Manisha for this spot so she must have adjusted to the new weight fairly well. One of the more interesting fights is former* world champion Lin Yu Ting (barring eligibilty issues) against Olympic silver medallist Nesthy Petecio. Karina Ibragimova should retain her asian title here and has as straightforward a draw as possible to make the final with only the unknown element of Jinhyang Paek as a potential stumbling block. Satsuki Yoshizawa does have a win against Olympic champion Sena Irie on her resume but is only really a likely qualifier here based on being on the easy side of the draw. Women's 60kg Gold- Oh Yeonji ,Silver- Wenlu Yang, Bronze-Thananya Somnuek , Wu Shihyi . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Rimma Vollossenko , Ayaka Taguchi , Nominerdene Tugsjargal . The top of this draw is very weak and effectively sees a quarter final battle between Asian under 23 champion Thananya Somnuek against Rizwa Pasuit in a fight that could easily go either way. Oh Yeonji has been the dominant force in Asia at lightweight in recent years especially since Sudaporn Seesondee retired. She opens her tournament against Won Ungyong before a likely quarter final against world bronze medallist Jaismine . Wu Shihyi has a fascinating fight against Rimma Vollossenko in her opening fight in another very even fight on paper. Taguchi and reigning Asian silver medallist Tugsjargal meet in their last 16 fight for the chance to likely face world bronze medallist Wenlu Yang in a hypothethical quarter final. This is one of the weakest weight classes relative to the rest of the world. Women's 66kg (Top 2 to qualify) Gold- Liu Yang ,Silver- Janjaem Suwannapheng , Bronze- Natalya Bogdonova , Nien Chin Chen . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Navbakhor Khamidova . At the top of the draw Natalya Bogdonova has basically no pedigree but Kazakhstan is typically strong at this weightclass and her only competition for a medal is Tsetsegdari Myagmarsuren . The quality in this draw is in the second braket where multiple time world medallist Janjaem Suwannapheng faces reigning Asian Champion (weak field) Navbakhor Khamidova in her last 16 fight. The winner will have an easier quarter final against Mito Kai or Sujin Seo. Yang Liu is reigning world champion (in somewhat controversial circumstances (Imane Khelif )) faces an intriguing path facing Hyoson Hwang followed by 2021 youth world champion Arundhati Choudhary prior to a likely semi final fight against experienced Nien Chin Chen. Women's 75kg (Top 2 to qualify) Gold- Qian Li ,Silver-Lovlina Borgohain , Bronze-Baison Manikon , Diem Quynh Luu . Other Olympic calibre boxers- Valentina Khalzova . There are somewhat surprisingly only nine entries here and thankfully the two likely qualifers are on opposite sides of the draw because otherwise there was the potential for a very weird qualifier here. Baison Manikon should medal against Aziza Zokirova and Erdenatuya Enkhbaatar . Lovlina is world champion albeit with a disproportionate number of the top middleweights being absent due to boycotts. Qian Li is the Olympic silvermedallist and current world bronze medallist*. Valentina Khalzova is a tough draw but one she will likely come through. Unsurprisingly given the lack of entries one of these medals was always going to be weird and here we have a fight between Diem Quynh Luu and Saraswati Rana . Neither of them have a recorded win on boxrec so . While Lovlina did get the decision over Qian Li at world championships, that was a blatant hometown decision and now of course home advantage is reversed so that is not a result I see being repeated here.

Kenya!!!!!!!!!!! Poor Brits. Should have had a straightforward path and now they have to deal with South africa.

https://gym.longinestiming.com/2023/Artistic-17187/en-us/Default

[hide] Knockout Stage September 5th - September 10th, 2023 Third-Place Match Date & Time (GMT +8) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 10th 2023, h. 16:30 Canada 5 United States Final Date & Time (GMT +8) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 10th 2023, h. 20:40 Serbia 2 Germany [/hide]

That was too close. I have never celebrated another boat catching a crab before but I celebrated that French one.

The group stage one is right but they lost 3 consecutive test matches last year (Ireland, Ireland, South Africa)