Dennis

We need a bit of perspective here. At the "disastrous Tokyo regatta" GB had nine top four finishes in the fourteen Olympic classes compared with eight top three finishes this year. The truth is there is often only a small gap between what is regarded as success and failure. GB's performance was disappointing last year but not the disaster it has been painted in some quarters and congratulations to them for turning things around so quickly.
 
Congratulations too to the Netherlands on a series of great performances across a range of boats. Also pleased to see a resurgence in Romanian rowing with the promise of more to come after they topped the medal table at this month's European U23 championships. Great performances too from Ireland who are improving and growing and Ukraine given the circumstances in which they have had to prepare and perform.
 
Disappointing from Australia - no golds, when did that last happen - New Zealand, the US and Canada. How much of this is down to lost competition after Covid? And finally Germany with an outstanding men's sculler and then pretty much nothing. No German men's eight in the A final 🙄. What has happened to German rowing?
 
Overall an interesting regatta with some great racing. The next two years are going to be fascinating.

This week’s World Championships definitely represents a big step forward for Team GB compared to the last few years and the disastrous Tokyo regatta. Given our relative strength in the sport, I was surprised to discover that this is the first time since 2016 that GB have won a gold medal at the rowing world championships outside of the para-rowing classes.
 
Using this week to project Olympic qualification, Britain would have qualified in all 11 of the boat categories that they entered – an improvement of 2 compared to the WCs of 2019.
 
The biggest step forward arguably came from Ukraine who would qualify 5 boats – compared to 0 in 2019 – which is no mean feat given everything that is going on in the country.
 
New Zealand and Italy haven’t had a vintage year with New Zealand qualifying in just 4 events compared to 9 previously and Italy dropping from 8 to 4.
 
Good to see Japan making progress post Tokyo. Ryuta Arakawa’s victory in the B-Final would be an Olympic qualifying spot and would possibly be the first time that a non-Chinese boat had qualified through the World Championships route.
 

 
Still a year to go before the qualification regatta, but I think Team GB will be very happy with their performances this year and if they can get a good winter of injury free training, they could be on track for largest rowing squad since London 2012.

World Cup Calendar:
 
 Stavanger - 11-13 November  Heerenveen - 18-20 November  Calgary - 9-11 December  Calgary - 16-18 December  Tomaszow Mazowiecki - 10-12 February  Tomaszow Mazowiecki - 17-19 February Two double headers, which we haven't seen in a while, if at all? And nothing in Asia or on the fast tracks of  Inzell or  Salt Lake City.
 
Major championships this year:
 
 Quebec - Four Continents Championships - 2-4 December (right before the World Cups in Calgary)  Hamar - European Championships - 6-8 January  Heerenveen - World Championships - 2-5 March  
Junior World Cup Calendar:
 
 Seinäjoki - 26-27 November (outdoor)  Seinäjoki - 3-4 December (outdoor)  Inzell - 4-5 February The Junior World Championships will be from 10-12 February in  Inzell, together with the final senior World Cup event.
 
I'm wondering if  Jordan Stolz will compete in the senior World Cup finals where he could make good money if he managed to continue his strong form from last season, or in Inzell to compete for some world titles in his final year as a junior.
 

11 Dutch boats in the A final, which is a great result of course.
 
Let's see how many medals they can win here!

But yeah, even at the start of the last km, I would have placed a serious bet on no Dutch rider finishing in the top 10 today, and then this happens.  
 
What a crazy finish and once again, what an amazing season for Van Vleuten.
 

Apparently the peloton and team managers were watching the TV producers' pictures in Slovakia today, and so - just like the TV cameras and especially the helicopter - they completely missed the duo of the tiny VolkerWessels team being ahead of them for 15km and scoring a highly improbable 1-2  
 

 

qualified by scoring the 1-0 in the 93rd minute against  in a must win match! 
 
They had more than 25 shots on goal and only converted 1 though

The qualification window for Judo opened at the end of June and so far there have been 8 qualifying events staged - 2 Grand Slams, 1 Grand Prix and 5 Continental Opens. Annoyingly, the IJF haven't got their act together for the last couple of months and they haven't been publishing the Olympic Ranking list on their website. 
 
I've gone through the results from 7 of the 8 qualifying events - I haven't included the results of Tahiti Oceania Open - to generate my own tracker of current qualification position.
 

 
Couple of caveats:
1) This only covers the top 17 in the rankings (and France as hosts) - it doesn't take into account the continental quotas
 
2) Russia are included in the list despite the fact that they haven't been competing on the tour. At the moment, the rankings are heavily driven by the results from the Grand Slams and Russia were included in and performed pretty well at the Ulaanbaatar GS. I guess with the World Champs taking place in Uzbekistan, there is a possibility that Russian judokas may be there too. 
 
In terms of the team event, at the moment, by my reckoning the following nations would be qualified:
 
         
 
It's still early days and a lot will change will change before the end of the qualification window

Sterke openingswedstrijd van de heren en ook een hele overtuigende overwinning van de vrouwen op Hongarije. Ziet er heel goed uit tot nu toe

Seventh 4th place for  in the athletics tournament 

Seventh 4th place for  in the athletics tournament 

In Albania, they are pretty sure Gega will win a medal in Paris:
 
Source: https://sport.rtsh.al/artikull/luiza-gega-kampione-europe
 
Translation (Google Translate): "So a phenomenon that honors Albanian athletics, while "Paris 2024" will have one more certainty for an Olympic medal in the 3000 meters steeplechase."

In Albania, they are pretty sure Gega will win a medal in Paris:
 
Source: https://sport.rtsh.al/artikull/luiza-gega-kampione-europe
 
Translation (Google Translate): "So a phenomenon that honors Albanian athletics, while "Paris 2024" will have one more certainty for an Olympic medal in the 3000 meters steeplechase."

Gega! 

Haha, me too. Maybe I should follow Femke too 

Triple gold for Bol and a gold medal for Lieke Klaver on her birthday 

In Italy she's way more relevant in Summer...
 
ah, those Ibiza bikini pics!  

Some speed skaters do, but it’s never broadcasted on tv or online. Jutta doest compete in inline skating as far as I know. 
 
Nope, they broke up a couple weeks ago. Verweij cheated on her, or that’s the story at least. 

Haha, me too. Maybe I should follow Femke too 

Swimming Gold for , you don’t see many of them.

En het is zilver! Daarnaast Olympische kwalificatie voor Zweden, NEDERLAND, Ierland, Groot Brittannië en Duitsland.
Dat had ik niet meer verwacht. Het parcours zorgde voor veel fouten. Een erg spannende wedstrijd. Het was weer genieten.

Klopt inderdaad, deze landen zwommen op het afgelopen WK in Boedapest een stuk sneller dan de Nederlandse dames. 
Verenigde Staten 7:41.45 Australië 7:43.86 Canada 7:44.76 China 7:45.72 Daarna kwam Hongarije pas. Maar nogmaals het is natuurlijk geweldig om de beste van Europa te zijn en er zit nog groei in deze groep, dus wie weet kunnen ze zich kwalificeren voor de Olympische Spelen in Parijs.

was echt een mooie race, net terug gekeken, moest helaas werken :-( Wat een geweldige prestatie van dit Nederlands team. Dit smaakt naar mee. Tijd nog wel ver verwijdert van de wereldtop, maar dat doet niets af aan deze prestatie. 

Leuk voor het - voor mij ook onbekende - Nederlandse team. Vooral mooi hoe Silke Holkenborg heel brutaal aan Katinka Hosszu voorbij zwom. En een mooie 1.56,26 als split voor Marrit Steenbergen: de snelste van het hele veld.

10 minuten geleden wist ik niet eens dat wij een 4x200m vrouwen estafette hadden, en nu dit