Dennis

Poland have send skaters before, we even competed in Olympics, you didnt knew about it? 

yesss! nice to see a young Italian girl making a world cup final right now, when we have to survive without Queen Arianna (Fontana)...

apparently has money issues and will join later this season.
 
They lost their head coach as she moved back to China and works there now. The Liu brothers moved to China to follow her, and there are some rumors they will represent China in the future.
 
https://english.news.cn/20220808/3c5cb4ee69b9494a8610faecd0fc9d4c/c.html

Last weekend,  Nao Kodaira skated her last race at the Japanese National Championships in Nagano. She won the 500m very convincingly in a strong 37,49.
 
National champions so far this season:
 
Country 500m W 1.000m W 1.500m W 3.000m W 5.000m W Mass Start W C. Hiller (38,42) I. Blondin (1:15,83) I. Blondin (1:55,50) I. Weidemann (4:00,20) I. Weidemann (6:48,58) V. Maltais F. Gomes Henriques (44,04) J. C. Santos Rodrigues (1:26,42) J. C. Santos Rodrigues (2:14,17) J. C. Santos Rodrigues (4:58,27) n/a n/a Kim Min-Sun (38,33) Kim Min-Sun (1:17,55) Park Ji-Woo (2:05,24) Kang Soo-Min (4:28,93) Jeong Yu-Na (8:05,90) n/a L. M. Rodriguez (41,05) L. M. Rodriguez (1:20,11) L. M. Rodriguez (2:05,99) L. M. Rodriguez (4:33,73) n/a n/a N. Kodaira (37,49) M. Takagi (1:14,63) M. Takagi (1:53,34) M. Takagi (4:05,93) M. Horikawa (7:09,50) A. Sato Country 500m M 1.000m M 1.500m M 5.000m M 10.000m M Mass Start M L. Dubreuil (34,37) L. Dubreuil (1:07,94) C. Howe (1:44,77) TJ Bloemen (6:16,16) TJ Bloemen (12:51,77) C. Howe A. E. Martins Freitas (39,49) A. E. Martins Freitas (1:19,07)
M. A. Abreu Lira (1:59,80) n/a n/a n/a Kim Jun-Ho (35,47) Park Seong-Hyeon (1:11,94) Yang Ho-Jun (1:51,01) Lee Seung-Hoon (6:43,19) Chung Jae-Won (14:24,49) n/a A. Campo (36,61) A. Campo (1:12,30) T. Estevez (2:11,82) G. Tirado (6:58,47) n/a n/a Y. Murakami (34,79) T. Nonomura (1:08,65) T. Nonomura (1:45,73) R. Tsuchiya (6:27,35) T. Ito (13:28,04) K. Kikuchi  

A formal request has been sent to FIFA to suspend Iran’s Football Federation with immediate effect, and therefore effectively ban them from the 2022 World Cup.

Nerve wrecking match between  and  , UAE win and  are through.

UAE pull off a surprise in a great game with Namibia to send the Netherlands through to the next round
 
Group A
 
    4 pts    +0.667     Qualified
    4 pts    -0.162      Qualified
    2 pts    +0.730
    2 pts    -1.235
 
 
Amended groups for stage two.
 
Group 1
 
     plus the runner-up from Group B
 
Group 2
 
      plus the winner of Group B
 
 
 

to me, it's as simple as it looks...
 
diversity can be accomplished in individual sports with at least 32+ competitors/groups/teams in each discipline.
 
if there are less than 32 spots per discipline, only the best must be included in the Olympic tournaments.
 
the Olympics must be the most important and most qualified tournament in each Olympic sport...if you're not good enough, you can always try and get your minute of celebrity at continental (and maybe world) championships.
 
I don't see why the Olympic tournaments must be destroyed and lose all of their interest/competitivness by allowing teams/athletes not good enough to play the same game as the best in the world.

Another week, another Iga Świątek final - this time in San Diego. Due to rain the second SF will be finished today.
 
Well, she won't play in Guadalajara next week though

Outstanding from Ethan Hayter with two golds (team pursuit, omnium) and a silver (madison) from the three men's Olympic endurance events.

have qualified their first athlete to the Olympics

Bulgaria, Montenegro, North Macedonia withdraws from 2023 contest due to different reasons.
 
Also neither of will not return.
 
is still banned and is not allowed to compete.

Filippo!!! OMG!!! it took me an hour an a couple of really disappointing results from Bianchi in the men's KM time trial and Balsamo in the women's Omnium to calm my heart rate down...
 
I didn't think he could do it tonight...now he's really the absolute king of the track in the endurance disciplines.

One of the best matches of the year! 

Krejcikova with the upset of the week, breaks Swiatek's 21 consecutive sets won in finals and wins the title in Ostrava in a 3h16m crazy battle. Iga cried a lot in the end  but didn't understand a thing she said cause she talked in polish 

and  are preparing a joint bid for the 2030 World Championships with…  
 
At least according to some serious rumors. 

Unbelievable
 
Historic achievement for women Table Tennis for sure. Not sure if it will be enough to qualify the team for the European Games though
 

 
 

Current quota projection based on Sept '22 month-end rankings:
 

 
With the World Championships taking place next week, I'd expect to see some movement in quotas but at this very, very early stage in the qualification cycle, a couple of things are worth highlighting:
 
 projected to gain a couple of extra riders on the women's side, fielding 2 riders in both the Individual Sprint and the Keirin despite the fact that they are just outside the qualification criteria for the Team Sprint event.
 
 projected to gain a spot in the Men's Team Pursuit
 
 is not currently projected to secure any quotas on the track. I've been running these projections for the last few months and across the board China has dropped back in the rankings to the point that they're not even all that close to securing a qualifying position. I assume this is due to the fact that they haven't been fully engaged on the international circuit due to Covid so I expect this to change as we go through the 2023 season. 
 
 are finally projected to close the only real gap in the track team with a spot in the Women's Team Sprint. This would be the first time since London 2012 that Team GB have competed in the event. This also has the added advantage of securing an additional individual spot in the Women's Keirin and Individual Sprint events.
 
 projected to secure 4 additional quotas on the track with 2 riders in both the Women's Individual Sprint and Keirin events.
 
 currently look like they could be heading towards a bigger squad than they fielded for their home games with quotas gained in both the Men's and Women's Team Sprits. This would mean they would have 2 individual berths in the Individual Sprint and Keirin events. They are also projected to take a berth in the Men's Madison.
 

Het viel mij nog mee dat ik er niet alleen zat. Maar hoop wel dat het de komende dagen voller zal zijn. Ik ga niet snel nog een keer naar een volleybalwedstrijd toe. Zo'n volksmenner die de hele tijd allerlei dansjes en handbewegingen en 'My block, my block' opdringt, is niets voor mij. Ik kom daar voor de sport. Helaas begrijp ik ook dat mensen zich tegenwoordig niet meer zelf kunnen vermaken (ook al zitten ze bij een WK volleybal) en dus hoort het 'vermaak' er allemaal bij. 
 
De laatste drie sets waren redelijk van Nederland, maar het vertekent wel, want Argentinië was echt heel erg zwak. Dus mijn voorspelling blijft dat ze er tegen de laatste drie tegenstanders vrij hard af zullen gaan. 

Updated
World championship grand prix wins per country
 
1 United Kingdom 307
2 Germany 179
3 Brazil 101
4 France 81
5 Finland 57
6 Italy 43
7 Australia 43
8 Austria 41
9 Argentina 38
10 USA 33
11 Spain 33
12 Netherlands 31
13 Canada 17
14 New Zealand 12
15 Sweden 12
16 Belgium 11
17 South Africa 10
18 Switzerland 7
19 Colombia 7
20 Mexico 6
21 Monaco 5
22 Poland 1
23 Venezuela 1
 
Verstappen on his own will probably overtake the USA and Spain before the end of this year... 

Hilarious result in Parma. One must wonder if Sakkari would ever win second WTA title. Good for Mayar though, first ever WTA singles title for Egypt

World Cup Calendar:
 
 Montréal - 28-30 October 2022  Salt Lake City - 4-6 November 2022

(10-12 November 2022 - Four Continents Championships in  Salt Lake City)
   Almaty - 9-11 December 2022  Almaty - 16-18 December 2022

(13-15 January 2023 - European Championships in  Gdansk)
(27-29 January 2023 - World Junior Championships in  Dresden)
   Dresden - 3-5 February 2023  Dordrecht - 10-12 February 2023 And the season ends traditionally with the World Championships held from 10 to 12 March 2023 in  Seoul.

UCI ....
 

World Cup Calendar:
 
 Montréal - 28-30 October 2022  Salt Lake City - 4-6 November 2022

(10-12 November 2022 - Four Continents Championships in  Salt Lake City)
   Almaty - 9-11 December 2022  Almaty - 16-18 December 2022

(13-15 January 2023 - European Championships in  Gdansk)
(27-29 January 2023 - World Junior Championships in  Dresden)
   Dresden - 3-5 February 2023  Dordrecht - 10-12 February 2023 And the season ends traditionally with the World Championships held from 10 to 12 March 2023 in  Seoul.

Final Medal Table (Olympic events only)
 
 4 / 1 / 3
 3 / 0 / 0
 1 / 7 / 1
 1 / 1 / 0
 1 / 0 / 2
 1 / 0 / 0
 1 / 0 / 0
 1 / 0 / 0
 1 / 0 / 0
 0 / 2 / 0
 0 / 1 / 4
 0 / 1 / 1
 0 / 1 / 1
 0 / 0 / 1
 0 / 0 / 1