Dennis

Hahaha, don't have much of a choice with these housing prices here in Amsterdam. That's right! He's a nice guy. He asked me if it was okay that he would come back to Amsterdam as his mother had cancer not that long ago and staying with her would be a higher risk than staying with me. We tried everything we could to keep the virus contained by for example having him only stay in his bedroom and me providing him with food by leaving it in front of his doorstep, but to no avail. I can't wait. Thanks for the support!

Unfortunately I got infected through my roommate who came back from Austria about 1,5 week ago after the town he visited got quarantined due to a Corona outbreak. He and all of his friends he went on the trip with all got sick after returning to the Netherlands. Fortunately, my roommate has already recovered in full and I'm slowly recovering as well, and luckily we both only had mild symptoms. However, I've been locked inside with my roommate for more than a full week now and I'm already slowly going crazy. We can't even go outside to buy groceries or medication and have to rely on friends and family to drop that off at the door. Although I'm very thankful for everyone's support, I can't wait to go outside again in a few days when I'm fully recovered, even if it's only a 5-minute walk to the nearest supermarket.

After the second 500m: Top contenders/outsiders: Best results for: 1. Miho Takagi, 2. Nao Kodaira and 3. Kaylin Irvine Worst results for: 1. Vanessa Herzog, 2. Daria Kachanova, 3. Brittany Bowe Other skaters: Best results for: 1. Hege Bøkko, 2. Li Qishi, 3. Zhao Xin Worst results: 1. Andżelika Wójcik, 2. Hanna Nifantava, 3. Stien Vanhoutte Overall: Expected podium is now Miho Takagi, 2. Nao Kodaira and 3. Olga Fatkulina. Miho will be the only one who will finish below 150 points (even below 149 points). Biggest disappointments this tournament: 1. Daria Kachanova, 2. Brittany Bowe, 3. Vanessa Herzog. Kachanova has retired after this 500m. Andżelika Wójcik now most likely to finish last, even though I expected her to finish more than 5 points in front of Kim Min-Ji.

Final standings: Men: Kiran Badloe - 37 points Dorian van Rijsselberghe - 39 points Thomas Goyard - 56 points Because Dorian finished second here, he won’t get to defend his title in Tokyo as Kiran has now won 2 golds and 1 silver at the latest three world championships, whereas Dorian won 1 gold and 2 silvers. Too bad the two best windsurfers in the world can’t both compete against each other at the Olympics. Women: Lilian de Geus - 46 points Charline Picon - 51 points Noy Drihan - 52 points Lilian wins her second world title after also winning in 2018 and it’s her five medal overall (2 - 0 - 3). Seems like the Israeli women were only looking at each other in the medal race as the finished in the two bottom positions today.

After the first 1.000m: Top contenders/outsiders: On average, most times on this first 1.000m were around what I expected, but there were some great outliers on both sides: Out of the favorites and outsiders, Arisa Go, Jorien ter Mors and Miho Takagi had the best 1.000m. Daria Kachanova, Vanessa Herzog and Nao Kodaira were the biggest disappointments on this first 1.000m. Outside of the top contenders: Kim Min-Ji did a lot better than I expected closing the gap to the rest, but I still think she'll finish last, Hege Bøkko and Zhao Xin/Li Qishi did well to. Hanna Nifantava didn't do well and neither did the two Polish ladies. Thoughts after Day 1: Top contenders/outsiders: Miho Takagi will win the world title by a landslide if nothing unusual happens tomorrow. Not what I expected after her results in Salt Lake City. Olga Fatkulina and Nao Kodaira will fight for silver and bronze. The skaters who did the best overall compared to the rest of their season: Miho Takagi, Arisa Go and Jorien ter Mors. Biggest disappointments for me are Daria Kachanova, Brittany Bowe and Angelina Golikova. Outside of the favorites/outsiders: Top 3 performers for me today were 1. Li Qishi, 2. Kim Min-Ji and 3. Hege Bøkko. Disappointments were 1. Andżelika Wójcik, 2. Hanna Nifantava and 3. Katja Franzen, all having shown much better results during this season.

Close first 500m in the men's sprint tournament. Dubreuil wins the race and won bronze on the 1.000m at the World Distance Championships two weeks ago, so he might challenge the Russians here. Pretty much all 1.000m specialists apart from Kulizhnikov and Dubreuil showed disappointing times.

After the first 500m: I really overestimated the speed of the track. I'd expected a winning time around 37,25 like the World Cup last year. On average, skaters were about 0,30 slower than I predicted. After the first 500m, I'd say these are the winners and losers among the favorites and outsiders. Winners: Miho Takagi Losers: Daria Kachanova, Brittany Bowe, Angelina Golikova (almost fell), Jutta Leerdam and Letitia de Jong Overall Hanna Nifantava did the poorest compared to what I predicted, whereas Li Qishi did the best as she's more of a 1.000m specialist. This will be an exciting battle between Kodaira, Takagi and Fatkulina now.

About 15 minutes to go. Just for fun, I'll make a prediction for the women's sprint tournament, because in my eyes that's the most difficult one to predict this weekend: Bowe performed poorly in Salt Lake City and Calgary, but perhaps this sea-level track helps her getting back to her high level. Ter Mors is a big question mark for me as she hasn't skated many competitions in the past two years after she had an injury during the 2018-2019 season and this season she was suffering from illness a lot. Leerdam won the 1.000m world title two weeks ago, but she hasn't competed in a 500m since her win at the national championships. Furthermore, I'm not sure if that win was a fluke as the main favorites showed disappointing times there and she outdid herself. Takagi wasn't impressive on the 1.000 in Salt Lake City, the distance on which I think on average she's the best in the world. That's why I put her a little lower than what she's capable of when she's in shape. Herzog is good on the 500m, but hasn't shown much on the 1.000m throughout the season. The Koreans went with a weird choice when you have Kim Min-Sun and Kim Hyun-Yung as well who are better than Kim Min-Ji in both distances. Rank Skater Points 01. Nao Kodaira 149,905 02. Daria Kachanova 150,000 03. Brittany Bowe 150,075 04. Olga Fatkulina 150,085 05. Angelina Golikova 150,400 06. Miho Takagi 150,605 07. Jutta Leerdam 150,800 08. Vanessa Herzog 151,325 09. Letitia de Jong 151,450 10. Kimi Goetz 152,255 11. Jorien ter Mors 152,305 12. Kaylin Irvine 152,685 13. Arisa Go 152,740 14. Heather McLean 153,785 15. Kaja Ziomek 153,935 16. Zhao Xin 154,685 17. Huang Yu-Ting 155,695 18. Li Qishi 155,790 19. Hanna Nifantava 155,835 20. Tian Ruining 156,160 21. Abigail McCluskey 157,020 22. Andżelika Wójcik 157,065 23. Ida Njåtun 157,145 24. Katja Franzen 157,540 25. Hege Bøkko 157,780 26. Stien Vanhoutte 159,065 27. Kim Min-Ji 162,350

Full overview of the tournaments awarded in Cairo today: 2021: Men/Women's U17 World Championships Beach Handball): 2022: Women's -20 World Championships: Women's -18 World Championships: 2023: Men's -21 World Championships: Men's -19 World Championships: 2024: Women's -20 World Championships: 2025: Men's -21 World Championships: Men's -19 World Championships: Men's World Championships: / / Women's World Championships: / 2027: Men's World Championships: Women's World Championships: Not sure if there were any non-European countries who submitted a bid for any of these events. "The 2024 IHF Women’s Youth (U18) World Championship is to be re-announced to find new potential host nations in order to spread the events further." Source: https://www.ihf.info/media-center/news/ihf-council-awards-events-2027

Podium: Bouwmeester Jonker Host Van der Vaart (7th) and Akkerman (10th) also in the top 10.

Next year's World Championships will also be in Rotterdam. Not sure if the ISU wants to hold the biggest competition of the year in the same country twice in a row.

The Netherlands will determine here which man will take the quota. The internal ranking is based on the latest three World Championships: 2018 World Championships: Gold: Dorian van Rijsselberghe SIlver: Kiran Badloe 2019 World Championships: Gold: Kiran Badloe Silver: Dorian van Rijsselberghe Dorian van Rijsselberghe won Olympic gold in London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016. However, Kiran has had a better start during these championships. Whoever finishes the highest will obtain the right to represent the Netherlands in Tokyo.

Aah yeah, I thought Miyachi already won 3. Now it makes more sense. Thanks!

The sum of the best three results in the World Cup are taken into account when determining these rankings. Both Miyachi and Zonderland have won three World Cups. In that case, they look at the average of the best three scores during the finals of these world cups, if I understand correctly. Zonderland now has a better average if you take his winning score in Melbourne into account, but the average of his three best scores isn't that much higher than Miyachi's. That's why I'm surprised that apparently Miyachi congratulated Zonderland with the ticket stating that he will not take part in the last two World Cups. Now he's dependent on being selected for the Japanese team. So I wouldn't be surprised if Miyachi said this in the heat of the moment, but will show up in the last two World Cups to see if he can surpass Zonderland.

Yeah, I was also surprised by this, although Kazakhstan is steadily climbing the ranks in pretty much all distances. The great track in Nur-Sultan is slowly proving its worth, I guess. When you see the amount of skaters taking part in regional competitions in Kazakhstan, you'll see the number of athletes increasing every year. On the women's side you also have Morozova improving event after event. I'm curious to see how this will develop over the next years.

Strong time yesterday by Kim Jun-Ho in the men's 500m (34,59). Too bad most of the top skaters are missing, especially the best Americans despite this tournament being held there.

Jaap Eden awards (most well-known sports awards in the Netherlands) Men: Mathieu van der Poel (cycling) [other nominees: Virgil van Dijk, Max Verstappen] Women: Sifan Hassan (athletics) [Annemiek van Vleuten, Suzanne Schulting] Team: women’s national handball team [men’s track cycling national team sprint team, Ajax, women’s national football team, rowing Mx4] Paralympic athlete: Jetze Plat (cycling, triathlon) [Diede de Groot, Jeroen Kampschreur] Talent: Keet Oldenbeuving (skateboarding) Coach: Hugo Haak (track cycling) [Sarina Wiegman, Erik ten Hag]

According to the website of the Dutch Handball Federation (https://dames.handbal.nl/berichten/emmanuel-mayonnade-nieuwe-bondscoach-nederlands-damesteam/) he has a contract up to and including Tokyo 2020.

Zo onverwacht ook! Ik had er totaal geen vertrouwen in voor aanvang van het toernooi en het verlies tegen Slovenië bevestigde dat gevoel alleen maar. Dat ze dit toernooi zouden winnen van Noorwegen en Rusland had ik totaal niet aan zien komen. En nu de titel! Naast de hockeyvrouwen nog een team dat als wereldkampioen begint aan de Spelen. Ik kan niet wachten om te zien wat ze straks in Tokio kunnen!

World Champion and qualified for the Olympics! Still can’t believe it! So many times during these championships I thought we were going to be eliminated. After our loss against Denmark, against Germany and even after losing against Slovenia during our first match. When we miraculously made the semis I thought we would finish fourth for sure. After so many top 4 spots at major championships in a row but without a title, they finally won!

http://ihfeducation.ihf.info/referees/rule-explanations/details/tag/step-by-step-guide/item/last-30-seconds

Aah. It’s a new rule, there needs to be 3m distance.

What an anticlimactic end of the match! Was that call correct? Does anyone know what the rule is? She wasn’t inside the circle right?

Indrukwekkende resultaten wel van de judoka's in Qingdao bij de Masters waar alleen de 36 beste judoka's op de wereldranglijst per gewichtscategorie voor worden uitgenodigd: Goud voor Kim Polling (vrouwen -70) Goud voor Michael Korrel (mannen -100) Goud voor Tessie Savelkous (vrouwen +78) Zilver voor Sanne van Dijke (vrouwen -70) Brons voor Henk Grol (mannen +100) Nog een 7e plaats voor Guusje Steenhuis (vrouwen -78) en Roy Meyer (mannen +100). Daarmee is Nederland als tweede geëindigd in het medailleklassement achter Japan (5-2-5), maar nog voor landen als Frankrijk (1-3-3) en Georgië (1-0-2). Vorig jaar kwamen de Nederlandse judoka's niet verder dan 2x brons voor Frank de Wit en Sanne van Dijke.

Congratulations . Wasn't able to watch the match, but that final score looks impressive. Should be an exciting final on Sunday. No idea who will win that one. Both teams have never won the World Championships, so there will most likely be a lot of nerves on either side. I expected a - final . So I won't share my predictions for next Sunday.