OlympicsFan

EAA will offer a free live stream which is only geoblocked in Sweden, Germany and Poland. There should be some interesting events: Mens 400 m hurdles/400 m with Warholm (apparently he wants to do both) Mens shot put with Bukowiecki Mens triple jump Babayev vs. Heß Womens 100 m hurdles Herman vs. Visser Womens 100 m with Swoboda Womens 1500 m with Klosterhalfen, Judd, Hinriksdottir, Ennaoui Womens 5000 m with Can, Reh, Lahti Womens triple jump with Panturoiu, Peleteiro, Diallo And the highlight: Womens javelin throw Kolak vs. Tugsuz You cant expect many world class performances, but you will see a lot of very close (tactical) races and a lot of true joy + you dont have to ask yourself after every event (at least thats how i feel) whether the winner was doped.

What do you mean with "pretty much all other results ..."? Was the canadian team already announced? I get that McBride and Bishop didnt produce world class performances but what about the jumping events (Barber, Drouin, Nettey) and womens 200 m?

Highlights at the german championships last weekend: Womens 100 m: 11.01 in prelims (0.0) for Lückenkemper, 11.10 (-0.7), she stumbled at the start I think she is clearly in sub 11 s shape, probably 10.90, but i dont expect much at the world championships, german sprinter always crumble under pressure ... Sadly she didnt run the 200 m much this year, 2 years ago she ran 22.4 when her 100 m PB was about 0.3 s slower, so you have to wonder how close to 22.0 she could get now. http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/gina-lueckenkemper-rennt-der-konkurrenz-auf-und-davon/ Also interesting: 11.37 for Keshia Kwadwo (born in 1999) in 4th place, would be amazing if she would be nominated for London. Womens 200: Lückenkemper didnt compete, Mayer got injured, so the 2 best german runners didnt compete and probably wont run this distance in London. Laura Müller won in 22.65 s (-0.8) Normally she is more of a 400 m runner and she will run the 400 m at the U23 championships next week. http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/laura-mueller-pulverisiert-ihre-bestzeit/ Womens 1500 m: Klosterhalfen won in 3:59.54 with a solo run (more than 10 s ahead of everyone else), after an opening 400 m in 65 s ... she crushed the 40 year old championships record by almost exactly 7 s. I hope she gets into a really fast race with Hassan, Kipyegon, Muir (Dibaba, Obiri) later this season. If you can run 3:59 alone, off a 65 s opening lap at 30 °C, you can probably run 3:56 on a perfect day. http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/konstanze-klosterhalfen-knackt-der-meisterschaftsrekord/ Womens 110 m hurdles: 12.82 (-0.7) for Dutkiewicz, she could probably run sub 12.90 in her sleep by now ... Harrison seems too far away, but i think she has a chance to beat everyone else, lets see ... Roleder is out for the season due to injury, so she wont be able to defend her medal from 2015. http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/pamela-dutkiewicz-bleibt-auch-in-erfurt-ungeschlagen/ Womens triple jump: 14.40 (-0.1) for Gierisch http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/kristin-gierisch-packt-den-gold-sprung-aus/ Womens pole vault: 4.70 for Ryzih Mens long jump: 8.15 for Howard Mens triple jump: 17.24 (+2.1) and 17.13 (+1.0) for Heß http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/nervenstarker-max-hess-springt-1724-meter/ Mens pole vault: Holzdeppe only jumped 5.60 and got beaten by Bo Lita Kanda Baehre (born in 1999) http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/youngster-schockt-den-titelverteidiger/ Mens high jump: Przybylko jumped 2.30 (cleared everything with his first try) and tried 2.38 (new german record) twice. I think he jumped 2.30 or higher 4-5 times this season already, he should be a strong contender for a medal. http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/mateusz-przybylko-ist-in-der-form-seines-lebens/ Mens javelin throw: Vetter won in 89.35, he also would have won with his 2nd best (89.23) and his 3rd best (87.83) attempt. Röhler had problems with the conditions and was 2nd in 85.24, Seifert set a new PB of 84.62 and was third. http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/johannes-vetter-gewinnt-vor-thomas-roehler/ Probably not a world class performance, but a very nice finish by Benitz in mens 1500 m, beating Tesfaye quite easily: http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/timo-benitz-siegt-mit-fulminantem-endspurt/ Also interesting: Luke Campbell who won mens 400 m hurdles (49.40) has lived in the US since he was 3 and doesnt speak german ... http://www.leichtathletik.de/tv/video-detail/video-detail/detail/luke-campbell-ive-been-trying-to-chase-on-the-50-sec/

Didnt the canadian championships take place this weekend? Results? Especially mens 100 m, mens/womens 200 m, womens 400 m hurdles, womens long jump, mens high jump, mens pole vault, mens/womens 800 m would be interesting, any world class performances?

Its great that you are so into athletics ... how come? Lithuania isnt really a powerhouse, do you have any medal contenders at U18/U23?

IAAF's strategy is obvious, just wait and hope that everyone forgets ... i still wonder what actually changed in Russia? You also have to wonder if it was really and incident that the list with all the supposedly doped athletes (Jager, Farah and so on) was "stolen" recently and didnt contain a single russian athlete ... i guess this shows that all nations are equally dirty, so we can as well allow Russia to compete?

No, i followed her recent results very closely and thats also one of the reasons why i hoped that Kuchina wouldnt be allowed to compete. With the russian doping history her recent results are absolutely outrageous, she must feel untouchable. I guess she is allowed to compete? (Thanks for not answering my question by the way) Everyone who is allowed to compete in diamond league is also allowed to compete at world championships? I dont really care whether russian athletes compete for Russia or not, in the end they will all by honored by Putin if they win anything, noone will be fooled by this stupid trick, IAAF cant seriously think that everyone forgot already.

Is Kuchina allowed to compete? Hopefully not ... Is there actually any russian athlete that isnt allowed to compete? Does IAAF think that everyone forgot that the whole russian team is dirty or do they just not care what the people who finance this sport think?

Congrats, despite missing many of your best talents like Dort or Shittu. RJ Barrett ... MVP despite being 2 years younger, just insane. There is no way that he wont be drafted first in 2019. Canada has a very bright future ahead. Canada, France and Australia should play for the minor medals from 2020 on, maybe together with Croatia and Spain/Serbia.

I hope you know that that's nonsense? It's hard to believe that someone who apparently watches all stages in full could be so clueless ...

Its ok that you dont reply to anything i said, because you obviously have no clue whats going on, but then you should just keep your thoughts to yourself. You are absolutely not helping anyone with your random rants, its sad that we already got used to your misbehavings. Its probably been at least a year since the last time you actually wrote a comment that aimed at discussing something sport-related, since then you are only trying to cause trouble.

Apparently you are done with this, so you don't have to answer, but i just wanted to write one last comment about all of this: 1) I really didn't see german players jumping out of joy right after the end of the match. Do you have any video footage? In the interview afterwards they sounded rather pissed and said that they didn't know whether this result would let them advance. 2) I think that Italy could have avoided Spain in the semifinal if they would have scored one more goal, don't you think that this should have been motivation enough to score a second goal? 3) This may sound arrogant, but who do you think would Italy prefer as a possible opponent in the final: Germany or Slovakia? I think its Slovakia, so they probably didnt want Germany to advance instead of Slovakia 4) I think you could have reached the next round by just scoring one more goal, so its partly your own fault (correct me if i am wrong) 5) I think the referee of the Portugal match was from Slovakia (correct me if i am wrong) and made at least one weird decision towards the end of the match ... what about that? 6) How can you say that you were robbed/that Italy just could have scored another goal if they would have wanted to and why didnt they do it? It might be true that Germany didnt want to score a goal, because England is an easier opponent than Spain, but Italy surely had every reason to try to score another goal ... right? 7) Am i proud about this result? No. Why not? We all know that France would have won the title, if they would have taken this seriously and whoever wins the title knows that. I am surprised that Germany was able to reach the final without Tah, Ginter, Süle, Henrichs, Havertz, Sane, Brandt, Werner, Kimmich, Weigl, Huth, Can and so on, but i dont have any illusions about Germany winning the final and i dont think that Slovakia would have had a chance either, so what are we really talking about here ... ?

The level of competition at the european junior championships is clearly hurt by the absence of ALL german talents and the top british talents. Personally i am happy that the german swimming federation decided to focus on world junior championships, although it will be much tougher to win medals there, especially considering some of the crazy times coming out of the US once again. I think the highlights of the first day were womens 200 butterfly and womens 800 free, most other times were far from spectacular. US trials are always funny to watch, suddenly you have athletes like Zachary Appel, Dakota Luther or Mallory Comerford who completely destroy their PB out of nowhere. I just wish that only once a single german swimmer would show an improvement like that ... it can't be that hard, considering that there are at least half a dozen american swimmers doing it every year ...

You have to be U21 when the qualification starts. UEFA wants that the same players who play the qualification also play the final round and if you are 20 at the start of the qualification you will probably be 22 at the tournament itself. The alternative would be to start the qualification with U19 players, so at the tournament itself everyone is really under 21. But then the U19 qualification would be for 16 or 17 year olds and the U17 qualification would be for 14 or 15 year olds ...

Dont embarrass yourself ... who exactly celebrated? Germany reached the semifinal without 11 of their best players. I didnt see anyone celebrating, but if they did, they had every reason, England for sure is beatable.

German swimmers who were nominated for Rio (Koch will decide whether he will compete after the meeting in Rome this weekend): Marco Koch (200 breast) Christian vom Lehn (100 breast, medley relay) Marius Kusch (100 fly, medley relay) Marek Ulrich (100 back, medley relay) Damian Wierling (50 free, medley relay + maybe 100 free) Poul Zellmann (400 free) Florian Wellbrock (1500 free) Jacob Heidtmann (400 IM) Franziska Hentke (200 fly) Aliena Schmidtke (100 fly) Lisa Graf (200 back) Celine Rieder (800 free) I really like the fact that Schmidtke got rewarded for her recent improvements, but i dont get why Sarah Köhler and Christian Diener, who both reached the final in Rio, werent nominated. Koch, Heidtmann and Schmidtke got nominated despite missing the qualification standards. All of them, expect for Ulrich, Zellmann, Rieder and Schmidtke should be able to reach the final. Heintz should definitely win a medal, Hentke as well, if she finally manages to perform at her best at a global championships. Graf and Koch might have an outside chance for a medal. Germany will send a pretty big team to the junior world championships, but no team will be send to the junior european championships.

I am not very optimistic about this tournament, considering how many players are missing: Sane, Kimmich, Weigl, Werner, Tah, Brandt, Süle, Goretzka and Can The stars of this team should be Gnabry, Meyer and Dahoud. The only good thing is that this doesnt count as olympic qualification tournament and in 2 years Sane, Brandt, Werner, Tah, Dahoud, Henrichs, Amiri, Havertz, Klostermann and Kehrer all will still be allowed to play, so i am very optimistic concerning the qualification for Tokyo.

It certainly looks as if this is a weaker generation of 400 IM talents, especially from Europe, but: 1) I am sure that some japanese/chinese/canadian/american girls will swim sub 4:40 at the junior world championships, so Crevar will have to perform at her very best if she wants to win a medal. 2) I dont think that a russian girl will come out of nowhere at the european junior championships, so Crevar could very well be the favorite, but i think some british or italian girls will be able to swim close to 4:40 by then + dont forget about Julia Mrozinski (4:42 last year, lets see what she can do at the german nationals this week). 3) Womens 400 IM in general seems to be one of the weaker events + the junior world record doesnt seem as crazy fast as some of the other junior world records + the winning times at junior world championships/youth olympics are normally not that fast either + Russia/China (who often have crazy talents), are normally not that good in womens 200/400 IM, which is certainly one of the reasons why it is easier to win a medal at junior level in this event, compared to some other events (for example womens 100 fly). 4) If you only look at the girls who are 1 year older (born in 1999), then you find a couple of very fast times: 4:36.60 for Harvey from Canada 4:37.25 for Wood from GB So Crevar will need to drop a lot of time during the rest of the year and the beginning of next year, if she wants to keep up with those girls. If you change the date range to 1/1/2016 to 12/31/2017, you can see that some girls born in 2000 had some really fast times last year and probably just didnt taper so far this year, so you can expect some of them to still improve this year (here are all the girls born in 2000, who had a time of sub 4:43 last year and might improve their times later on this year): Runa Imai: 4:41.52 Anna Pirovano: 4:42.06 Julia Mrozinski: 4:42.39 Ajna Kesely: 4:42.53 I think Kesely will focus on 200/400 + maybe 800 free and i am not optimistic about Mrozinski, but i am pretty sure that at least one out of Pirovano/Imai will swim sub 4:40 later on this year. Is Crevar still 16 years old or did she already turn 17? If she is still 16, she would be 8th in the american all-time ranking for 15/16 year olds and if she already turned 17, she would be 18th in the american all-time ranking for 17/18 year olds. By the way: It is really fun to "play" with the junior world rankings and for example look at the world rankings only for girls born in 2002 or later.

I think you are exaggerating a bit, although the following athletes won medals in 2015 and are now world class: Kipyegon Bett (won silver in mens 800m) Armand Duplantis (won gold in mens pole vault) Sydney McLaughlin (won gold in womens 400m hurdles) Celliphine Chespol (won gold in womens 2000m SC) The following athletes won a medal at youth world championships and also an individual medal at olympic games: Kitum (won bronze in mens 800m at the 2011 edition and bronze in London in 2012) Kipruto (won gold in mens 3000m SC at the 2011 edition and gold in Rio in 2016) Miller (won gold in womens 400m at the 2011 edition and gold in Rio in 2016) Kipyegon (won gold in womens 1500m at the 2011 edition and gold in Rio in 2016) James (won gold in mens 200/400m at the 2009 edition and also gold in London in 2012) Crouser (won gold in mens shot put and silver in mens discus throw at the 2009 edition and also gold in Rio in 2016) Mayer (won gold in mens octathlon at the 2009 edition and also silver in Rio in 2016) Taylor (won gold in mens triple jump and bronze in mens long jump at the 2007 edition and he also won gold in mens triple jump in London/Rio in 2012/2016) Storl (won gold in mens shot put at the 2007 edition and also silver in London in 2012) Muhammad (won gold in womens 400m hurdles at the 2007 edition and also gold in Rio in 2016) Stefanidi (won gold in womens pole vault at the 2005 edition and bronze at the 2007 edition and also gold in Rio in 2016) Spanovic (won silver in womens long jump at the 2007 edition and bronze in Rio in 2016) Perkovic (won silver in womens discus throw at the 2007 edition and also gold in London/Rio in 2012/2016) Mutai (won gold in mens 3000m SC at the 2005 edition and also bronze in London in 2012) Chernova (won gold in womens heptathlon at the 2005 edition and also bronze in Beijing/London in 2008/2012) Krauchanka (won silver in mens octathlon at the 2003 edition and also silver in Beijing in 2008) Richardson (won gold in mens 110/400m hurdles at the 2003 edition and silver in mens 110m hurdles in London in 2012) T. Bekele (won silver in mens 3000m at the 2003 edition and bronze in mens 10000m in London in 2012) Bolt (won gold in mens 200m at the 2003 edition and many gold medals at the 2008/2012/2016 olympic games) Hejnova (won gold in womens 400m hurdles at the 2003 edition and also bronze in London in 2012) Pearson (won gold in womens 100m hurdles at the 2003 edition and silver/gold in Beijing/London in 2008/2012) Shkolina (won silver in womens high jump at the 2003 edition and bronze in London in 2012) Kipruto (won silver in mens 3000m SC at the 2001 edition and silver/gold in Athens/Beijing in 2004/2008) Harting (won silver in mens discus throw at the 2001 edition and gold in London in 2012) Felix (won gold in womens 100m at the 2001 edition and later on she for example won gold in womens 200m in London in 2012) Stewart (won silver in womens 100m at the 2001 edition and silver in womens 100m in Beijing in 2008) Adams (won gold in womens shot put at the 2001 edition and gold in London in 2012) Carter (won silver in womens shot put at the 2001 edition and gold in Rio in 2016) Pishchalnikova (won silver in womens discus at the 2001 edition and silver in London in 2012) K. Bekele (won silver in mens 3000m at the 1999 edition and later on he won 3 gold medals at olympic games) Pars (won gold in mens hammer throw at the 1999 edition and also gold in London in 2012) Kibet (won silver in womens 3000m at the 1999 edition and bronze in womens 5000m at the 2008 olympics) Campbell-Brown (won gold in womens 100m at the 1999 edition and gold in womens 200m at the 2004/2008 olympics) Walker (won silver in womens 200m at the 1999 edition and gold in womens 400m hurdles at the 2008 olympics) Graffor (won silver in womens hammer throw at the 1999 edition and bronze at the 2004 olympics) Defar (won silver in womens 3000m at the 1999 edition and gold in womens 5000m at the 2004/2012 olympics) Chicherova (won gold in womens high jump at the 1999 edition and gold at the 2012 olympics) Isinbayeva (won gold in womens pole vault at the 1999 edition and gold at the 2004/2008 olympics) Skolimowska (won gold in womens hammer throw at the 1999 edition and gold at the 2000 olympics) Cheruiyot (won bronze in womens 3000m at the 1999 edition and later on she for example won gold in womens 5000m at the 2016 olympics) Mikhnevich (won silver in womens shot put at the 1999 edition and silver at the 2008 olympics) So at 9 editions "only" 41 athletes, who later also won a medal at olympic games, won a medal. At those 9 editions we had over 800 different individual medallists, but only about 5% of them later on won a medal at olympic games. Of course i probably missed some (and i didnt include athletes who won only relay medals), but i think this still shows that you cant say that most of them will be olympic champions or even medallists in the future. Note: Kim Brennan from Australia won silver in womens 400m hurdles at the 2001 edition and at the 2016 olympic games she won gold in womens single sculls (rowing)!

I think Germany will also compete and Germany is one of the best nations in athletics ... I think we will still see a high level of competition, in all middle/long-distance events the best athletes come from Africa anyway and i think that the level of competition in some field events also will be pretty good. Japan, China and South Africa always have some good talents there too. We will also have the european under 20 championships this year, so except for some american athletes, everyone will get a chance to shine at the international stage this year. Preview (30 days to go): https://www.iaaf.org/news/press-release/iaaf-world-u18-championships-nairobi-2017-30 South African roster: https://www.iaaf.org/news/news/world-u18-nairobi-2017-south-african-team The stars are Zazini Sokhwakhana (who leads the 400m hurdles world ranking with a time of 48.84s, the second best athlete this year has a SB of 51.44s , he is also 4th in the 400m world rankings with a time of 46.20s only behind 3 american athletes), Ntuthuko Ndimande (who leads the 800m world rankings with a time of 1:49.69), Breyton Poole (who is first in the high jump world rankings with 2.18m), Julian Bogner (who is 4th in the 110m hurdles world rankings and 3rd in the long jump world rankings ), Robert de Villiers (who is first in the 2000m SC, an other south african athlete is 2nd in the same event) and Zeney van der Walt (who is 2nd in the 400m hurdles world rankings). From an international perspective, the most promising talents should be: Marisleisys Duarthe (Cuba) in womens javelin throw Yaroslava Mahuchikh (Ukraine) in womens high jump Heather Arneton (France) in womens long/triple jump Britany Anderson (Jamaica) in womens 100m hurdles Keely Small (Australia) in womens 800/1500 m Tamari Davis (USA) in womens 200m Maikel Vidal (Cuba) in mens long jump Jordan Diaz (Cuba) in mens triple jump De'Jour Russell (Jamaica) in mens 110m hurdles Zazini Sokhwakhana (South Africa) in mens 400m hurdles Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway) in mens 1500m Tyrese Cooper (USA) in mens 200/400m Let's hope that many of them will decide to compete. I noticed that South African seems to have a lot of talents in events where they normally arent very good (mens 2000m SC, mens 800m) and its also surprising to see that Norway could very well win 2-3 gold medals (if they decide to compete).

German 200/400 free "star" Florian Vogel announced his retirement on Friday, at the age of 22 ... Sadly i have to say that you have to be pretty crazy to train multiple hours a day as a german swimmer, because you will have a clear disadvantage in your career later on and you basically don't earn anything, so this is probably a smart decision, but a huge blow for german swimming, considering that he was by far the best german 200/400 free swimmer. Now the situation in men's 200/400 free seems to be pretty hopeless without Vogel and Biedermann.

You seem to be one of the very few users here who are interested in swimming outside of world championships/olympics, so you might have a use for it: https://www.usaswimming.org/Home/times/data-hub (Here you can find world rankings by age/date of birth) For example Steenbergen is currently 5th in the 50 free world rankings of all girls born in 2000 or later (0.03 behind Anderson), 3rd in the 100 free (only behind Ikee and Oleksiak) and 5th in the 200 free (behind Ikee and 3 chinese girls, but Ruck and Oleksiak should also be able to go faster). BTW: Have a look at the womens 100 free world rankings for girls born in 2000 or later ... the depth of the canadian girls is crazy (53.84 Oleksiak, 54.62 Sanchez, 54.97 Smith, 55.03 Ruck), if they all compete at the junior world championships, then they should absolutely destroy the junior world record in the 400 free relay and i think only Canada might be able to challenge Australia in 2020. I probably agree about Anderson beating her in the 100 free, but the 50 free might be a different story and Gose improved her PB to 1:59.12 this year without even having tapered, so you would expect that she is able to go a lot faster at the german nationals next week, hopefully at least sub 1:58 (which would be a great time for a 14 year old). Last year she dropped 1.6s at the german nationals.

How is she the huge favorite? Did Kesely decide to not compete? And what about Anderson (100 free) and Gose (200 free)?

Overall the line-ups for tomorrow's diamond league in Rome are pretty weak, but women's 5000 m could be really fun. Personally i am pretty excited for women's 1500 m, it is the first time Konstanze Klosterhalfen competes in the diamond league and many think that she is ready to run sub 4 (after her 14:51 5k and 1:59 800 m solo runs earlier this year). Sadly Kipyegon and Muir withdrew, so Hassan might be the only one able to run sub 4 and i doubt that she will be willing to make the pace for Klosterhalfen, so it seems pretty unlikely that it will be a sub 4 pace and instead more of a tactical race with a winning time somewhere between 4:00 and 4:02.