OlympicsFan

It is too early indeed. In general the results at the U23 european championships are a much better indicator. Statistically between 6 and 7 individual medallists from U20 european championships go on to win individual medals at senior world championships/olympic games, so not very much. My money is on 6 or 7 out of Kokhan, Hunt, Seedo, Johansson, Mahuchikh, Karidi, Van Klinken, Vicente, Sotero, Iapichino, Tzenggo, Gataullina and Hodgkinson.

Some observations about this diamond league meeting: - WADA officials must be crazy mad after seeing how blatantly Ingebrigtsen and Warholm are cheating - Jamaica had a slump, but now they just don't seem to give a shit anymore. Blake and SAFP are suddenly world-class again + the girl in women's hurdles who came out of nowhere + the guy in men's long jump + Dacres. To be honest i understand it, considering that Kenya has had half of their athletes banned during the last 12 months but is still allowed to send a team to global competitions. I also have to say that i absolutely understand that russian athletes/officials are angry. Compared to Jamaica/Norway/Kenya/Ethiopia they were playing perfectly by the rules. - I also hope that some of the british athletics officials will talk to Dobbin and tell her that she can't go on like this anymore: Until 2018 her best was 23.31 (and before that her best was 23.94) and then in 2018 she suddenly ran 22.59 into a -1.3 m/s headwind, all that at the age of 24, this is just insulting to all other athletes who have to compete against her.

Celebrate the diversity ... You can't ask for more diversity (if you can call another day with 7 european and one south korean athlete in semifinal really diverse ...) and at the same time be unhappy about Italy getting less dominant. Crazy to see how bad german fencing has become, now even countries like Hong Kong, Brazil, Greece or GB will finish ahead of Germany in the medal table.

Two russian girls (Egorian and Pozdniakova!) in the sabre already out before the competition even started ... Also: There is an indian girl named "Bhavani Devi Chadalavada Anandha Sundhararaman" and she just won against Besbes!

Congrats! Really impressive performance, especially because epee is usually dominated by old athletes. Hungary seems to have an endless pool of talents and constantly produces new world class athletes.

Congrats, both are young enough to compete at the U20 world championships next year.

I think it was a misunderstanding. For me: Clean sweep = all 3 medals (which obviously isn't possible, because China only has 2 athletes in each event, hence the ), but apparently you meant: Clean sweep = winning all gold medals. I think technically i am still right, because we don't know all the gold medallists yet? Also China already won all gold medals a couple of years ago, so this isn't something new.

Isn't this result good for you? Italy, unlike Spain, has already won a medal, so why don't you cheer for Spain? I didn't watch the match, so i can't say whether her behavior was "appropriate" or not, but maybe she was ill or injured? I think the italian girls deserve the benefit of the doubt considering all the medals they have won in recent years. Maybe she is already preparing for Tokyo and didn't completely focus on this event. I think for someone like her one more world title doesn't do much.

Do you have any data that suggests that the situation is different when we look at top 8 instead of only medallists? Also 1999 was 19 years ago ... not quite 20 years but still a completely different era. Not really sure we are watching the same events, but i haven't noticed any clean sweeps by China in diving ... I just looked at the past 10 years, but in 2009 10 nations won medals in diving (in 10 events), while in the same year 14 nations won medals in fencing (in 12 events). In 2017 13 nations won medals in diving (in 13 events), while 14 nations won medals in fencing (in 12 events). So in 2009 we had 1 nation/event in diving (10 nations in 10 events) and 1.167 nations/event in fencing, in 2017 we had 1 nation/event in diving (13 nations in 13 events) and 1.167 nations/event in fencing, so in neither sport the nation/event ratio changed and in fencing the ratio was only slightly "better" with 1.167 compared to 1.000. At the moment it looks as if this time more nations will win medals in fencing while less nations will win medals in diving, but first we should wait till the end of the world championships and even if this proves to be true, it will only be one edition, so not enough to consider it a trend (for now) in my opinion.

Yeah, she was completely schooled by Ebert. Ebert is a great talent, but this still was a rather "uninspired" performance by Mohamed ...

You need to relax ... in the top half Errigo/Palumbo "only" have to beat Kiefer to make the semifinal and there they would be the clear favorite. In the bottom half Di Francisca should half no problem until she meets Deriglazova in the semifinal, so i would say that there is still a good chance for 2 italian medals. More interestingly: I thought that Ebert was the "real deal", but Guo completely "dwarfs" her. Not really sure she can get past Deriglazova today, but nonetheless we are witnessing something historic today. Canada has a new superstar!

Not really sure why you think that fencing has "grown", but for example in 1999 we had 15 nations winning at least 1 medal, last year we had 14 nations winning at least 1 medal ... In my opinion fencing always was a sport where some random athlete from a small nation could win a medal on a good day (like shooting, judo, taekwondo), but i don't really see that as a sign that this is a global sport. At the last 5 regular world championships (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018) only 13 nations have won team medals (in a total of 30 events), 10 of those nations are from Europe (Germany, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, France, Ukraine, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania), 2 are from Asia (China, South Korea) and 1 is from Northern America (USA) (surprisingly Japan hasn't won a single team medal if my research is correct ... ! ).

Can anyone tell me how the seeding worked? It seems very weird that Germany and Australia are in pool 1, while Greece is in pool 3. To me it almost looks as if the "plan" was to make the german way to the quarterfinal as easy as possible. First the weakest of the 4 groups (which Germany almost won) and then New Zealand/South Africa in the round of last 16. Let's say Croatia and Hungary qualify here, Greece qualifies at the european championships, USA/Brazil qualify from Panamerica, Australia qualifies from Oceania and Kazakhstan qualifies from Asia, then Germany could actually have a chance at qualifying for the olympics (alongside Italy, Spain and Montenegro). I think the most difficult "opponent" would be USA/Brazil at the world qualifier ... ?

What about Metella?

Awesome choke by Laugher! With a good last jump he could've set a new world record and even with an average jump he could've easily won the gold medal. Still i think he shouldn't be completely sad about this competition. Looking at the advantage he had over the chinese guys before the last jump i would say that it will be very hard for the chinese guys to catch up to him until Tokyo.

What happened with Dujardin and Langehanenberg? Are they competing with their best horses here? I guess this means that Rothenberger should make the german team?

Disgraceful performance by Hartung, he was in command until 7:5, then he fell asleep until 7:11 and when he woke up again it was too late. Very surprised to see Dershwitz losing, but maybe the home advantage helped the hungarian guy ... The german athletes today were handed historically weak draws and still weren't able to profit from it, this once again shows in what bad of a state german fencing is in. I also have to say that i am very surprised to see that you don't have to be remotely in shape to be successful in fencing. The girl from Luxembourg and the guy from Iran both looked clearly overweight and still (almost) won a medal. For me sabre is by far the least interesting weapon, it is just too fast and for someone who doesn't watch fencing very often, it is most of the time almost impossible to determine who should get a point.

Funny that she reached the quarterfinal while all italian girls are out. I guess she switched nationality when Italy was still stronger in this event ... or did she just become much better after switching nationality? Would also be interesting to know where she trains?

Not really sure if you are right about the girl from Luxembourg, she was never ranked better than 40th at junior level.

It could be a golden day for Korea. I think after the exit of Ndolo they are the only country with a chance for a medal on both sides.

What do you mean? I think Curatoli is the only italian left ... ?

Another far from convincing performance by Hartung, he has been very lucky with the draw, but now he probably needs a miracle against Abedini. At this point i would be shocked if the final wouldn't be Dershwitz vs. Oh, they seem to be on another level.

True, crazy that the Netherlands still have two medal contenders in this event. Van Klinken should be able to bounce back with a gold in shot put. Overall the Netherlands have more than enough gold medal contenders left, so this shouldn't be a huge blow for them, especially because Seedo's result was much more important. If Seedo (who reminds me of SAFP a lot) keeps progressing at this rate, she should be in the dutch relay in Tokyo next year and in a couple of years she could be a medal contender at the global stage, not sure whether Van Klinken has the same kind of talent.

The girl from Luxembourg is having a once in a century competition for her standards, but Ndolo still wasted a huge chance here. With a medal she could have made a huge step towards Tokyo, but now she will almost need a miracle to qualify. The part between 7:8 and 9:13 was some of the worst fencing i have ever seen, she looked completely clueless against an opponent who looks like a hobby atlete (easily 20 pounds overweight).

Ndolo once again proves that she is in great shape. I just hope that she stays focus and won't waste this huge chance for winning a medal. I have the feeling that in general epee seems to be the most unpredictable weapon. Sadly in the men's sabre all german athletes except for Hartung are already out. Now he has to try to save the german honor.