Jinzha

I actually believe this incredible athletics tournament by the Dutch is not a fluke at all. It's a concentrated effort by NOC*NSF and the Atletiekunie (national athletics federation) to lift our Athletics to a higher level. They attracted succesful Suisse coach Meuwly for 'Project 400' to improve our elite performances in 400m running. They followed the example of our swimming team (4x100m freestyle women) by creating a relay group that drives each other to greater heights. The project then struck gold by assigning talented young coach Peters as Meuwly's assistent and with the introduction of talents like Bol, Klaver, Angela and others the entire 400m group has found an incredible flow. Peters was actually Bol's youth coach (age 15-16 I believe) and he wanted to grow with her, so he was studying for the elite coaching papers when this 400m project started. Then there's the succes in heptathlon, which has traditionally been the focus event for our athletics federation (Schippers, Visser, Broersen, Vetter and now Oosterwegel). The stars aligned with incredible performances and a barrage of PB's in Tokyo. But Vetter has proven before that she has what it takes to medal internationally before and Oosterwegel has improved steadily since youth tournaments and her international debut in Doha 2019. The federation has put a solid structure into place for talented athletes to develop in a highly professional environment in our national sports centre in Papendal. We still consistently send heptathletes and decathletes to European youth tournaments and it's only a matter of time that a small percentage of them manage to reach the elite level. That Hassan came to the Netherlands after leaving Ethiopia is a coincidence or 'fluke', I'll give you that. But from there her talent was recognised early and she integrated into a highly professional distance running environment. The management bureau of former Dutch marathon runner Jos Hermens is the biggest in the world of distance running, although they don't necessarily focus on developing Dutch distance running. Even if coincidence played a role, Hassan's development as a runner is the result of her incredible talent and drive, good management and conscious decisions. A fluke to me would be if Bol medalled only because Muhammad hit a hurdle or if Vetter only medalled because of KJT's unfortunate exit, neither of those are the case. This success is the result of the hard work, good decisions and dedication of the athletes and all staff involved.

What a day this was! I never expected medals for Braspenninx and Oosterwegel! A beautiful gold, silver and bronze! Before the Games the only serious medal chances I saw for this day were the hockey men team and Van Schip in omnium. Little did I know!

These are two of the best and most unexpected medals of the whole Games. I couldn't sit down during this 800m race, what a beautiful day!!

Van Schip really giving everything away for free this last race.

Damn that makes me jealous! Dutch team sports (including 3x3 basketball) lost 5/6 quarterfinals. Teamsports and especially knockout rounds are a joy to watch, if only our other teams were as good as the hockey women.

I wonder how many gold medal chances have left. It's a close race for the 7-12 ranks. I'm expecting a fairly quiet day for tomorrow, but then an absolute banger on friday with 3 gold medal favorites! Of course Weertman (10km swimming), Vetter (heptathlon) and Van Schip (omnium) are free to prove me wrong tomorrow

France seems strong, but the Dutch are sloppy and absolutely toothless in offense. There was a 30% efficiency for us on screen just now...

Abbingh injured, already 5 points behind. Can't imagine a worse start

Pretty sure Schippers and Vissers are already part of the starting 4. It's usually Visser/Schippers/Samuel/Sedney in an order I can't remember. I assume Van Hunenstijn is the first reserve.

We've won 1 quarterfinal and lost 4 in teamsports so far. Time for our handball women to turn the tide vs today!

Not me, I wasn't Although I do hope they win a medal now that we're elimated of course! This was our 4th quarterfinal loss in 5 team sports already! At least it wasn't as close as the other three in field hockey, 3x3 basketball and football. Hoping our handball ladies do better tomorrow!

We're still on a good pace to break our total medal tally from Sydney 2000 (25 total, 12-9-4). However breaking that 12 gold record is going to be super difficult. To get 6 more gold medals to equal 12, we need perfect performances in 6 out of these 7 events: 1500m, 10.000m (Sifan Hassan), sprint, keirin (Lavreysen), field hockey (women team), open water swimming (Sharon van Rouwendaal) and boxing (Nouschka Fontijn). We still have some other medal chances in 400mH (Femke Bol), handball (women team) and various track cycling events, but right now I don't see any of them winning gold.

Some of our more 'secure' gold medals are definitely in this second week (Hassan, team sprint, hockey women's team), but let's hope everything works out now! Many of our close losses weren't necessarily medal favorites, but it was definitely disappointing to see two quarterfinals lost on penalties (women's football, men's hockey), various relays in 4th places (4x100m women, triathlon, judo, mixed 4x400m) and multiple golden scores for bronze lost in judo. Not to mention Van der Poel, women's cycling team and all the covid cases. The bad news has mostly subsided now though.

I have no idea if there's any truth to this feeling, but I feel like there's so many disappointments, close losses, etc. for the Dutch team already. It might just be that I'm more invested in sports than ever though. Kimman's gold in BMX and the start of the athletics and track cycling tournaments have done a lot to lift my mood though!

My new habit is simply living on a 5 hour delay: I start my day around 7AM like my regular schedule and put on the replay of the NOS broadcast that started at 2AM. Then I slowly work my way through the Tokyo day without checking the forum, reddit or news app. Tomorrow is not the biggest day from the Dutch perspective, I should be able to catch up to live in no time: Swimming 50m free m/w Field hockey men's QF vs Australia Diving 3m women's final Sailing laser radial medal race Water polo women pool match vs Canada Athletics semifinals 100mH women and 400mH men Beach volleyball ro16 Brouwer/Meeuwsen vs Mol/Sorum

Can't wait for the update of the 4th place ranking, we got 3 today! All of them in mixed team/relay events.

Just watched the replays including all semifinal heats this morning. What an emotional rollercoaster! More than pleased with a gold and bronze! A bit disappointed for Laura Smulders, I was rooting for her most of all. Luckily her sister overperformed. Never expected that bronze!

It's time we start adding some more golds to the tally! Another opportunity missed because of an unnecessary mistake today in rowing LW2x. Also we're 13/25 on the road to a medal record! Hopefully two more medals in rowing M8+ and BMX tomorrow.

There we go, first medal for Van Dijke!

It's not our Judo tournament at all yet, just like last games. Never expected Tjakadoea and Franssen to finish higher than Van 't End.

The second semi final was a bit anti-climactic after that thriller. Was really rooting for Van Dijke. It's a shame neither of my favorite Dutch judokas reached the final today.

Wow that was intense

Almost 10 minutes, somebody save these girls!

The eye of the Russian girl looks incredibly painful

TeamNL with one heck of a day! 7 medals and still 2 judokas in the race for a medal!