JoshMartini007

Russia Swimming Trials - Day 8 Men's 1500m Freestyle - Yaroslav Potapov Women's 50m Freestyle - Natalia Lovtcova This concludes the trials for Russia. The final list will probably be delayed to see the status of Yefimova.

Angola - Road to the Olympics For nations like Angola just qualifying to the Olympics is seen as a big achievement. Angola is classified as a tripartite eligible nation due to qualifying few individual athletes over the past two Olympics so it can expect to receive wild cards along with the athletes which it qualified. Currently the nation is qualified in three sports and will likely qualify in at least three more by the time the qualification process is over. The first group of athletes to qualify was the women’s handball team. The team qualified to its sixth Olympics in a row by winning gold at the African Olympic Qualification Tournament. As with previous Olympics the handball team will be a large part of the overall team. Angola will be making its debut in rowing as rowers Andres Matias and Jean-Luc Rasamoelina won silver in the men’s lightweight double sculls at the African Qualification Regatta. Despite having a long history of rowing Angola only began competing internationally in 2010 where Matias competed at the Under 23 World Championships. In sailing Angola will be making its second Olympic appearance as they competed in 1992. At the Men’s 470 African championship sailors Matias Montinho and Paixao Afonso finished sixth, but were the highest ranked eligible boat and thus qualified their nation to the Olympics. The fight for Olympic qualification for Montinho and Afonso is not over as they must better fellow countrymen Francisco Artur and Edivaldo Torres in a series of trials. The most likely sport Angola will qualify by merit between now and the end of July is judo. Currently Antonia Moreira is ranked 23rd in the -70kg event in the Olympic rankings and is certainly expected to receive at least a continental quota once the final rankings are published. Qualifying a second athlete would be almost impossible though. Not only would Moreira have to reach world qualification status (she needs over 200 more points to reach it), but another Angolan athlete would have to reach top two status within Africa to obtain a continental quota. By losing the final of AfroBasket 2015 to Nigeria the Angolan men’s team has a very good chance at missing their second Olympics in a row. They will get one final chance at qualifying at one of the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. They will play for one spot between Serbia, Czech Republic, Puerto Rico, Latvia and Japan. For the most part additions to Angola’s team will come through wild cards and tripartite invitations. In swimming Pedro Pinotes holds an Olympic Selection Time (OST) in the men’s 400m individual medley which means he could be selected if there is enough space. However, should he not be selected it is quite likely that Pinotes will be selected as a wild card. The female wild card will likely go to Ana Nobrega due to being the only female athlete to compete at the 2015 World Championships, a requirement for wild card selection. She will likely compete in either a freestyle or butterfly event. Athletics is currently not a strong sport for Angola with the nation often sending one or two athletes to major events. The athletes that could be chosen are currently a bit difficult to decide. Neide Dias competed in the women’s 800m and 1500m during the 2015 African Games while Adriana Alves competed in the women’s 100m at the 2015 World Championships. 8 athletes also competed during the 2014 African Athletics Championship. We probably won’t get a clearer picture until after the 2016 edition due to be held at the end of June. It is currently unknown as to which tripartite invitation events Angola has applied to receive. Joao Paulo de Silva would be the most likely invitation. He competes in trap shooting and has already reached the MQS in the event. Should he qualify it will be his first Olympics since 2000. Rhythmic and trampoline gymnastics could be an option, though Angola would not be the top choice for the lone spots. Similarly in canoeing Angola loses out to Sao Tome and Principe in priority and it would be difficult to convince the tripartite committee to give African nations the two lone quotas for the sport. Given their history it would be easy to imagine Angola applying for a boxing quota, though Angola has not participated in any qualifiers as they missed the African Championships. Overall Angola will be looking at around 25 athletes once everything is finished. Should the men’s basketball team pull off the huge upset Angola could potentially surpass its largest team which was set at the 2012 Olympics.

I'm hoping Canada can secure a second men's freestyle quota, but it'll be quite difficult over these two tournaments.

For the most part the top 2 had by far the best times in each event so someone would have to win one of the other three events over Kazakhstan.

Top 3 eligible nations after heats at Asian Qualification Tournament Men's K1 - Kazakhstan, China, Chinese Taipei Men's C1 - China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan Men's C2 - China, Japan, Chinese Taipei Women's K1 - Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei, Thailand Remember a nation can only qualify a maximum of two athlete quotas at the continental qualifiers. Hopefully Japan wins the C2 to help avoid all this.

Russian Swimming Trials - Day 7 Men's 50m Freestyle - Vladimir Morozov Men's 100m Butterfly - Aleksandr Sadovnikkov, Evgeny Korotyshkin Women's 200m Backstroke - Daria Ustinova, Anastasia Fesikova Nobody reached the standard in the women's 800m freestyle

If anyone wants to look at the athletes which participated in your chosen nation's history you can check out sports reference.

Bad performance from Azerbaijan eliminates them, provided nothing bad happens Germany, Uzbekistan and Greece will get the quotas.

Looks like Qatar might qualify a female rower. Iraq might grab the men's quota after missing out in 2012. Samoa and Vanuatu look the best for the race for the tripartite quota.

Russian Swimming Trials - Day 6 Men's 200m Backstroke - Evgeny Rylov (ER), Andrei Shabasov Women's 200m Breaststroke - Sofia Andreeva, Daria Chikunova* * Will be replaced by Yuliya Efimova if she avoids getting suspended. Nobody made the standard in the men's 200m IM and women's 100m free.

I don't think points are a huge deal. The culture is also a bit different in tennis. Everyone playing tennis now grew up watching their idols playing at the Olympics, it essentially has become part of their schedule. Golf doesn't have that and it will take these pioneers to set things on the right track. Of course losing more top 15 players will not be helpful for the sport.

South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen (Ranked 12) has also withdrawn. A couple more big names and we could hit point where people feeling neutral to the idea will drop out to rest.

We will know tomorrow.

Great Britain will post their team tomorrow, China we have no idea when while the other nations haven't had their trials/won't finalize their team until later.

Costa Rica or Malaysia aren't tripartite nations though. Tripartite nation status is calculated based on the number of athletes from the past two Olympics (team sports notwithstanding). Farah Abdul can qualify if no tripartite is awarded and someone drops out (South Africa?). Cayman Islands is an option, but she isn't that good based on her results from the Youth Olympics and Pan American Games.

Russian Swimming Trials - Day 6 Men's 100m Freestyle - Vladimir Morozov, Andrey Grechin Men's 200m Breaststroke - Anton Chupkov, Ilya Khomenko Nobody qualified to the women's 200m Butterfly

Angola - A Brief Olympic History Angola is a nation located in southern Africa. It gained its independence from Portuguese rule on November 11th 1975. The Angolan Olympic Committee was established on February 17th 1979 and was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in the following year. Angola made its Olympic debut during the 1980 Summer Olympic Games. It participated in the Soviet led boycott during the 1984 games, but has since then participated at every Summer Olympic Games. Angola has yet to make its debut to the Winter Olympic Games. Currently the nation has yet to win an Olympic medal. Despite the lack of medals Angola has had a long history in participating in team sports, most notably men’s basketball and women’s handball. The men’s basketball team made its first Olympic appearance in 1992 and has been one of the dominant forces within the continent. They appeared in every Olympic tournament until missing out in 2012 however, Angola had representation as the women’s basketball team qualified that year. 2016 may be the first time since their debut in the sport that Angola will be absent from basketball as the men’s team will have to qualify through a secondary path after the team lost to Nigeria in the final of AfroBasket 2015. The women’s handball team first qualified at the 1996 Olympics and has participated ever since, including already being qualified to the 2016 Olympics. The team is a powerhouse in Africa where they have medaled at each African championship since 1989. Internationally they also do well, finishing in the top 16 at every world championship since 2005, including two quarter-final appearances. Looking outside of team sports Angola has participated in athletics and swimming at every Olympics. Typically the athletes never make it past the heat round. Angola’s most accomplished Olympian was Joao N’Tyamba whom competed for his nation in athletics for six Olympics from 1988-2008. His early Olympics had him running the 800m before he expanded to the 1500m before settling on the marathon where he finished 17th in 2000. He was the flag bearer for his nation twice, at his first and last Olympics. Swimmer Nadia Cruz was also a well accomplished athlete as she participated in four Olympics from 1988-2000 where she competed in the breaststroke. During the early Olympics Angola was often seen participating in boxing and to an extent judo. With stricter qualification rules the number of combat athletes for the nation has dropped considerably though the nation has competed in judo with Antonia Moreira in 2004 and 2012. Moreira will also be looking to qualify again in 2016. Other sports Angola has competed in its history include beach volleyball, canoeing, sailing and shooting.

Also the host quota gets reallocated meaning Paraguay and Bahamas qualify in the men and women events respectively.

For my first choice I will do Angola

Yes, I (or someone else can) will open a thread once the first wild card places have been released. We should be getting our first ones within the next few weeks, if not at the end of May.

Thanks the wording of the document made it sound like they needed to get a certain score. I guess Monaco and Panama would be the favourites provided that they applied.

Does anyone know what the minimum technical standard for artistic gymnastics are? I want to know the chances of a tripartite being awarded.

Russian Trails - Day 4 Women's 200m Freestyle - Veronika Popova, Viktoriia Andreeva Women's 200m IM - Viktoriia Andreeva Nobody qualified in the men's 200m butterfly. Very impressive that Andreeva qualified in two events on the same day.

I'm planning to do something similar with my blog once teams start to become finalized. I've always had a soft spot for Pacific nations, though I like to keep up with all small nations. Are we allowed to do multiple nations (assuming we do one at a time)?

Ireland will be making its Olympic debut in field hockey as an independent nation. Technically an all Irish team competed under the Great Britain and Ireland flag in 1908.