OlympicIRL

Nuno Gomes in goal for Switzerland

OMG, that is just terrible news, I was just thinking about her this week. RIP

And we begin

Yeah it's true but a lot of those negative commenters probably don't know anything about showjumping.... the rankings aren't that important, current form is way more crucial in my opinion. Greg and Going Global were out for a little while with injury but always perfrom well at Nations Cup (they jumped double clear at last weekend's Nation Cup in St.Gallen and double clear again in the Grand Prix. It doesn't mean I think they will do much at the Olympics though.... they are untested at a major championships, but having said that, I think the Olympic format will suit them rather than a speed competition and accumulated score. The Irish showjumping federation are a joke though.... Robert Splaine has overseen 3 consecutive failed attempts at qualifying a showjumping team for the Olympics, and this time only qualified 1 individual.... that's an absolute disaster..... I cannot believe we have now missed 3 Olympics in a row in the team event, it's really shocking. And of course it's not his fault only, but if you want a professional set up, the federation must not allow someone to keep their job after overseeing this disaster. They really need to freshen things up. Horsesport Ireland in general are run very poorly..... for decades it has been obvious Ireland has real potential in eventing, and yet they do little to nothing to promote the dressage discipline. Also, I get angry every week reading their posts on their website and on Twitter cheering on how Irish show horses are winning big all over the world..... who cares? They aren't representing Ireland.... instead there should be a drive and programme where our breeders are encouraged (financially if needs be) to keep our horses at home.... then we really would be a force in equestrian. It's the same every Olympics, nothing much changes. The one very encouraging thing is how our underage eventing teams are performing in recent years, I hope this continues.... I see some improvement in our eventers dressage scores but God it's a very slow progress.

MHS stands for Mill House Stud so yeah it probably will be dropped for the Olympic competition.

Yeah it definitely is different than usual, but it's nice in a way since blue is the colour of our coat of arms.

Ireland The Team Ireland 2016 Olympic sportswear was showcased yesterday..... I like the shoes.....

Greg Broderick has been nominated by Horse Sport Ireland to represent Ireland in the individual showjumping in Rio. Bertram Allen won the quota place for Ireland but his top horse Molly Malone has not been in top form for a while now. Greg Broderick will ride MHS Going Global at the Olympics.

Great! Thanks, you've been a big help

[hide] Preliminary Round June 10th - June 22nd, 2016 24 Nations, 6 Groups, 1st and 2nd Nations from each Group and 4 best 3rd ranked Nations between all Groups will qualify for Round of 16 Group A Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 June 10th 2016, h. 21:00, Stade de France, Saint-Denis France 2 0 Romania June 11th 2016, h. 15:00, Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens Albania 1 2 Switzerland June 15th 2016, h. 18:00, Parc des Princes, Paris Romania 1 1 Switzerland June 15th 2016, h. 21:00, Stade Velodrome, Marseille France 4 0 Albania June 19th 2016, h. 21:00, Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille Switzerland 1 2 France June 19th 2016, h. 21:00, Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Lyon Romania 1 0 Albania Group B Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 June 11th 2016, h. 18:00, Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux Wales 2 2 Slovakia June 11th 2016, h. 21:00, Stade Velodrome, Marseille England 2 1 Russia June 15th 2016, h. 15:00, Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille Russia 1 1 Slovakia June 16th 2016, h. 15:00, Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens England 2 1 Wales June 20th 2016, h. 21:00, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Etienne Slovakia 0 2 England June 20th 2016, h. 21:00, Stadium Municipal, Toulouse Russia 1 0 Wales Group C Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 June 12th 2016, h. 18:00, Allianz Riviera, Nice Poland 3 0 Northern Ireland June 12th 2016, h. 21:00, Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille Germany 2 0 Ukraine June 16th 2016, h. 18:00, Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Lyon Ukraine 2 1 Northern Ireland June 16th 2016, h. 21:00, Stade de France, Saint-Denis Germany 2 0 Poland June 21st 2016, h. 18:00, Parc des Princes, Paris Northern Ireland 1 3 Germany June 21st 2016, h. 18:00, Stade Velodrome, Marseille Ukraine 0 2 Poland Group D Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 June 12th 2016, h. 15:00, Parc des Princes, Paris Turkey 1 2 Croatia June 13th 2016, h. 15:00, Stadium Municipal, Toulouse Spain 2 0 Czech Republic June 17th 2016, h. 18:00, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Etienne Czech Republic 1 2 Croatia June 17th 2016, h. 21:00, Allianz Riviera, Nice Spain 2 0 Turkey June 21st 2016, h. 21:00, Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux Croatia 0 1 Spain June 21st 2016, h. 21:00, Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens Czech Republic 1 0 Turkey Group E Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 June 13th 2016, h. 18:00, Stade de France, Saint-Denis Ireland 1 2 Sweden June 13th 2016, h. 21:00, Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Lyon Belgium 2 1 Italy June 17th 2016, h. 15:00, Stadium Municipal, Toulouse Italy 2 1 Sweden June 18th 2016, h. 15:00, Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux Belgium 2 0 Ireland June 22nd 2016, h. 21:00, Allianz Riviera, Nice Sweden 1 1 Belgium June 22nd 2016, h. 21:00, Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille Italy 2 1 Ireland Group F Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 June 14th 2016, h. 18:00, Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux Austria 2 0 Hungary June 14th 2016, h. 21:00, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Etienne Portugal 2 0 Iceland June 18th 2016, h. 18:00, Stade Velodrome, Marseille Iceland 2 1 Hungary June 18th 2016, h. 21:00, Parc des Princes, Paris Portugal 2 1 Austria June 22nd 2016, h. 18:00, Stade de France, Saint-Denis Iceland 0 2 Austria June 22nd 2016, h. 18:00, Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Lyon Hungary 0 2 Portugal [/hide]

England are the World Cup champions once again

What a great night of darts, it doesn't get better than this I think Taylor can keep the match alive, he is playing awesome tonight.... but so is Barney....another classic maybe

MVG headbutts Barney in celebration after the doubles

England 1-2 Netherlands

Barney and Taylor are the two on fire at the moment. MVG and Lewis being dragged along

Magnificent 11-darter from Barney to tie it up at 1-1. Match will be alive until after the doubles match

Great performance by Taylor to defeat MVG... England 1-0 up.

Yes of course.... I forgot, Mexico hosted the first TISC Annual.

The winner has only went on to host the contest once so far.... Sweden won the first contest, but declined hosting rights.... Mexico hosted. Germany won the second contest, but declined hosting rights.....Serbia hosted Ireland won the fourth contest, but I declined hosting rights so that there wasn't two in a row here....Denmark hosted So there will be many times in future that the winner won't be able to host....and I'm sure Algeria will be among the top of the list of any bids (usually there are only a couple of bidders anyway). And any country can win the contest.... I don't really get why people make a big deal about the regional aspect....as we saw in this contest with both North African countries in the top 5, Indonesia 6th.... if you have a good song you will generally get a good result. Colombia were 2nd in TISC Open 2014 also.

Wow! Really interesting about Alojz Sokol having BIB 1 at the first ever Modern Olympic Games in 1896!

Sorry buddy, I am watching it on Sky Sports... I'm not aware of a live stream. I'm glad you will at least see the semis and final.... the Belgium v Netherlands clash could be a great one. Though it will be hard to top that Australia v Netherlands game for excitement.

Séamus and I are enjoying our last day in Slovakia. Going to be sad to leave but will return with lots of great memories

What a match between Netherlands and Australia, this is why darts is amazing! Both teams threatening a "team 9-dart leg" also. Great to see Whitlock playing a bit better again, he's been in poor form these last few seasons. Anderson was fantastic too. Bring on the semis

Great, thanks so much for this valuable info . You have a great memory So just these 5 more to complete the collection of TISC entries: Romania, Slovakia, Azerbaijan, Malta and Lebanon. @vlad @Il_qar and @Glen perhaps could help with the Romanian, Azerbaijani and Maltese songs.

Great work....only 9 more to complete the full line-up!