OlympicsFan

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.

11.37 for Seedo in women's 100 m prelims. If nothing completely crazy happens, she will win U20 gold at the age of 16 ... I think the european U18 record is 11.24, she could very well break that record here with one more year of eligibility left! For the top 10 on the all-time U18 list she would need 11.20.

I had mainly Van Klinken and Bol in mind. Seedo shouldn't fight for a medal unless she drops a lot of time. Which events are Sedney and van Daalen entered in? At this stage it is hard to predict who has the best chances to be successful at senior level, but i would say from a german perspective the most promising talent is Leni Wildgrube in women's pole vault. Other interesting talents are Marie Scheppan (women's 400 m), Talea Prepens (women's 100 m), Lucie Kienast (women's long jump & heptathlon), Samantha Borutta (women's hammer throw), Stefan Volzer (men's 110 m hurdles), Leo Neugebauer (men's decathlon) and Malik Diakite (men's decathlon). Sadly some of the most promising talents will compete at the EYOF instead.

You should do much better at the U20 european championships, i think you will win at least 3 gold medals there and will probably finish ahead of Germany in the medal table.

I wonder if there will be any events where the winning marks will be better than at the U23 european championships ...? Sadly some big names (Ingebrigtsen, Burgin) are missing, but there are still more than enough very promising talents left (Kokhan, Lillefosse, Vicente, Seedo, Nacheva, Van Klinken, Miller, Sclabas, Mahuchikh, Tzenggo, Healy, Hunt, Scotti, Van de Velde, Bol, Carmoy, Iapichino, Johansson, Sotero, Ivanenko, Sorgeloos). I think out of the smaller nations Switzerland, the Netherlands, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Belgium and Belarus should do really great. Interesting note: In the men's discus throw there will be twins from the Czech Republic competing who could both win a medal. Also Belgium and Belarus seem to have tons of medal contenders across many disciplines, those nations seem to do a great work at junior level.

Thanks! I wonder why they show every diving competition, but not open water swimming where Germany actually can win medals ...

Congratulations, GB is starting to pull away from Germany, also some very surprising athletes on that list, for example Amy Hunt. Who do you see as main candidates in the field events? Lake (high jump), Proctor (long jump), Hitchon (hammer throw), Gale (high jump), Duckworth (decathlon) ... someone else? I have a hard time imagining that GB will have more than 6-8 athletes with the standard in field events, which is quite surprising for such a big nation. Germany on the other hand is doing fine in field events (In the end it should be over 30 athletes with the standard there) and in track events on the women's side (probably 10-15 woman should achieve the standard in their respective events), but they will have trouble in the track events on the men's side, i don't see more than 4-6 guys with the standard there.