OlympicsFan

Pretty easy wins for us against Serbia (+13) and Turkey (+24), even without our 2 most talented players (Bonga and Hartenstein). I think the other group is better overall, France and Italy look very strong. I pray to god that we will be able to play with our best team at the european u18 championships. In my opinion this is the most talented age group we ever had. The problem is that our league is too weak, those players have to leave Germany early, otherwise they will never be able to show their true potential.

Italy looked extremely weak ... I know that they missed some of their best players, but the same was true for us. It will be really interesting to see which of our talents will play in France/Rio, i think we should send our best talents to Rio, then we would be the favorite for the gold medal. In my opinion France, Spain and Germany should fight for the title, Belgium or England might surprise. France has probably the most talented team in the world right now.

In general i agree with you, there shouldnt be any "tourists" at olympic games, but ... ... lets be honest: You wouldve been really happy if your team wouldve qualified?! I think the same about our teams in mens water polo or mens rugby, but they really wouldve been chanceless in Rio, your mens football team probably wouldnt have advanced to the next round, but i think they at least wouldve been a worthy opponent for the other teams. I think your problem is that you play with too many players who grew up in Europe, you should try to "create" your own talents and your second problem is that your league is too weak, your homegrown players cant play at the highest level.

Are you talking about 2016 mens hockey champion trophy?

I know, i thought that i pointed it out, but maybe not enough. I said that Germany has two other athletes who won a quota place (and therefore those athletes didnt win a quota place). I know that the quota places are for nations and not for athletes, but in my opinion those athletes who won the quota places should be nominated for Rio, unless Engleder does something really special in the next couple of months.

Are you talking about France or your own team? Sorry, i probably didnt understand the irony ... Edit: I think your u17 national team will beat us, this age group is the worst in many years for us. Only Dadachov seems to be a really big talent.

Very sad for Durkovic, but i understand your federation. I think in a nation like China this wouldnt happen, they would never give away a possible medal chance so easy. Durkovic could maybe try to qualify in mens 10 m air rifle, taking away the quota place from Gorsa?

Yes i know, you said it before and you dont have to repeat it every day. In my opinion winning the quota place first is also an "achievement", so those athletes should be the first choices for the quota places. Engleder had the same chance as everyone else, but there were two athletes who won the quota places before her, so those athletes performed better under pressure and in my opinion those athletes are more likely to medal at the olympic games.

Not necessarily. For example Germany has won two quota places in womens 50 m rifle 3 positions, so Engleder still could qualify if she beats at least one of those 2 athletes who won the quota places at the german qualification event. There are still some very unlucky athletes: - Durkovic (Croatia) is 5th in mens 50 m rifle prone, but Croatia doesnt have a quota place in this event, so they have 2 options: 1) Exchange quota places: I dont think that they will do it, because it would be unfair to take away the quota place from one of their other athletes. 2) Durkovic could try to "steal" the quota place in mens 10 m air rifle from Gorsa and then he could compete in mens 10 m air rifle and mens 50 m rifle prone, but that also would be unfair for Gorsa. - Mohd (India) is 6th in mens double trap, but India doesnt have a quota place in this event, so they have basically only one option (assuming that Mohd wont try to take Indias quota place in mens trap): They have to exchange quota places, otherwise Mohd wont be able to compete in Rio. - Karsch (Germany) is 9th in womens 25 m pistol, but Germany doesnt have a quota place in this event. The good thing is that Pfeilschifter (who won a quota place in womens 10 m air rifle) retired, so we could exchange her quota place without taking it away from someone else. We still have 3 more quota places in womens rifle events, so Gschwandtner (4th in womens 50 m rifle 3 positions), Engleder (2nd in womens 50 m rifle 3 positions) and Gauß (current world champion in womens 50 m rifle 3 positions and 5th in world ranking) all could go to Rio. The sad thing is that at least one of them wont be allowed to compete in womens 50 m rifle 3 positions (only 2 athletes for every nation are allowed). In addition to that this would mean that Kreutzer (who won one of the quota places) and Beer (who won the last world cup in womens 50 m rifle 3 positions, although it was her first world cup ever in this event ) wont be allowed to compete in Rio. We have a similar situation in mens 50 m rifle 3 positions (China is ranked 1st, 4th and 5th), mens 10 m air rifle (China is ranked 1st, 2nd and 10th), mens 50 m pistol (China is ranked 2nd, 4th and 10th), mens 25 m rapid fire pistol (China is ranked 5th, 7th and 8th) and womens 25 m pistol (China is ranked 1st, 3rd and 8th).

What the fuck is going on with Argentina? We beat them 99:44 today, althoug we played without Hartenstein and Bonga, in addition to that we didnt even give our best in the second half. At halftime it was already 56:15 for us ... I dont even want to imagine what the result wouldve been if we wouldve played at 100% with our best team ... We probably wouldve won by at least 80 points. I hope that Hartenstein and Bonga will join the team for the u18 european championships this summer, then our goal has to be the gold medal, everything else would be extremely disappointing. We could build an amazing team with Freudenberg, Mushidi, Hartenstein, Da Silva, Bonga, Herkenhoff, Olinde, Weidemann and Sanders.

No need for that. She has doped and doesnt deserve any respect in the future, i just will ignore her in the future. In the end she never wouldve won a medal, so she can just go back to where she belongs and become irrelevant again. What does it tell us about bulgarian sport that she was athlete of the year in Bulgaria? I think Bulgaria shouldve picked Dimitrov instead, he is also irrelevant, but at least he looks good! Hopefully he didnt spend too much with Sharapova, otherwise he also might be on something ... I am really interested why some of the best athletes from arab countries train in Bulgaria ...

Very good news that Petrova has been caught, although everyone knew that she wasnt playing fair. She suddenly improved her PB by 53 cm last year, at the age of 23 ... Its just funny how stupid many athletes from eastern europe seem to be.

Athletes who are in top 20 of world ranking but didnt win a quota place: Mens 50 m rifle 3 positions: Henry (18th in world ranking) (France has two other qualified athletes in this event) Mens 50 m rifle prone: Grigoryan (2nd in world ranking), Durkovic (5th in world ranking), Sukhorukov (17th in world ranking), Mathis (19th in world ranking), Parr (20th in world ranking) (Russia has two other qualified athletes in this event) Mens 10 m air rifle: Maslennikov (8th in world ranking), Liu (13th in world ranking), Sokolov (18th in world ranking), Kurki (20th in world ranking) (Russia and China have two other qualified athletes in this event) Mens 50 m pistol: Mai (4th in world ranking), Wang (10th in world ranking), Choi (16th in world ranking), Isakov (17th in world ranking), Gourianov (20th in world ranking) (China and South Korea have two other qualified athletes in this event) Mens 25 m rapid fire pistol: Li (7th in world ranking), Strnad (14th in world ranking), Artaud (15th in world ranking), Dumal (16th in world ranking), Podhrasky (17th in world ranking), Lunev (18th in world ranking), Alifirenko (19th in world ranking) Bessaguet (20th in world ranking) (China has two other qualified athletes in this event) Mens 10 m air pistol: Isakov (4th in world ranking), Koulakov (17th in world ranking) (Russia has two other qualified athletes in this event) Mens trap: Sandhu (10th in world ranking), Frasca (11th in world ranking), J.Brol (15th in world ranking), Bindrich (16th in world ranking), Kowalczyk (18th in world ranking), Boivin (20th in world ranking) (Italy has two other qualified athletes in this event) Mens double trap: Eller (4th in world ranking), Mohd (6th in world ranking), Al-Athba (8th in world ranking), Chetcuti (12th in world ranking), Coward-Holley (14th in world ranking), Olejnik (15th in world ranking), Zou (17th in world ranking), Gasparini (18th in world ranking), Almaktoum (20th in world ranking) (GB, USA, China and Italy have two other qualified athletes in this event) Mens skeet: Rossetti (2nd in world ranking), Laitinen (13th in world ranking), Astakhov (14th in world ranking), Achilleos (15th in world ranking), Jin (16th in world ranking), Gazzotti (18th in world ranking) Perry (20th in world ranking) (Italy and USA have two other qualified athletes in this event) Womens 50 m rifle 3 positions: Engleder (2nd in world ranking), Bruns (11th in world ranking), Chang (12th in world ranking), Chuluunbadrakh (18th in world ranking) (Germany and China have two other qualified athletes in this event) Womens 10 m air rifle: Engleder (15th in world ranking), Kim (18th in world ranking), Grande (19th in world ranking) (Germany has two other qualified athletes in this event) Womens 25 m pistol: Karsch (9th in world ranking), Dorjsuren (17th in world ranking), Azahari (20th in world ranking) Womens 10 m air pistol: Arunovic (1st in world ranking), Tien (11th in world ranking) (Serbia has two other qualified athletes in this event) Womens trap: Ashmawy (9th in world ranking), Rodrigues (14th in world ranking), Rossi (15th in world ranking) Kerwood (17th in world ranking), Couzy (18th in world ranking), Alhawal (18th in world ranking), Bassil (20th in world ranking) Womens skeet: Craft (1st in world ranking), Connor (2nd in world ranking), Spada (4th in world ranking), Wei (6th in world ranking), Andreou (17th in world ranking), Shakirova (19th in world ranking), Messerschmidt (20th in world ranking) (USA, China and Italy have two other qualified athletes in this event)

1) I think being mentally weak makes her something special ... 2) There cant be any doubt that she has the quality to fight for a medal in Rio, but of course you could say that someone who cant stand the pressure at qualification events doesnt deserve to be in Rio and probably also wouldnt be able to stand the pressure at olympic games. 3) There are only 3 athletes in the top 20 of womens 25 m pistol world ranking who didnt win a quota place: Karsch (9th in world ranking), Dorjsuren (17th in world ranking) and Azahari (20th in world ranking) (The number 3 in world ranking from China also didnt win a quota place, but only because China has two other qualified athletes in that event) That also makes Karsch something special and shows how unlucky Germany got in womens air pistol or you could also call it mental weakness ...

Great argument! Being 9th in world ranking and the 4th best european probably isnt good enough. Karsch also won the world cup final in 2014, the 2014 world cup in Gabala and the bronze medal at last years european games. In the last 2 years only Zhang and Otryad (top 2 in world ranking) won more gold medals in world cup, but i guess thats also nothing special ... She has the same problem that Pfeilschifter used to have, she cant compete at her best at the biggest competitions.

Why?

1) Karsch is better looking! 2) Karsch is clearly better ranked in womens 25 m pistol and only 1 place behind Dorjsuren in womens 10 m air pistol. 3) Karsch is clearly younger 4) Dorjsuren already competed at multiple olympic games, unlike Karsch. 5) Dorjsuren won her last international medal in 2013, Karsch won 2 golds and one silver medal in 2014 and one bronze medal in 2015. In the end DSB (german shooting federation) wont just pick one of them, if we get a spot in womens air pistol or womens 25 m pistol. There will be a competition for that spot and the winner will be allowed to compete in Rio.

You are very quick, great work! I think i will also look up the situation in fencing concerning team events and maybe also relays in swimming/athletics or teams in track cycling (sprint, team pursuit).

At the moment the Albert Schweitzer tournament, also called "Mini Basketball World Cup" takes place. In the past a lot of famous players competed there, for example Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum, Pau Gasol, Miroslav Raduljica, Andrei Kirilenko, Arvydas Sabonis, Hedo Turkoglu, Dario Saric or Enes Kanter played at the AST. Yesterday results: Group A: Australia-Serbia 58:87 Turkey-Argentina 72:54 Germany-Japan 89:59 Group B: Egypt-Greece 58:104 Italy-China 78:74 USA-France 78:80 Todays schedule (CET): 3 pm: Serbia-Turkey, Greece-Italy 5:15 pm: Japan-Australia, France-Egypt 7:30 pm: Germany-Argentina, China-USA I cant say anything about the strength of other teams, but Germany is missing their best player (Isaiah Hartenstein) due to injury and for some reason we played without our best PG (Isaac Bonga) in the first match, i hope he will play today or in some of the following matches. Most of the games will be streamed on "sportdeutschland.tv", i dont know if its possible to watch them from outside of Germany, maybe you need a german proxy to watch it.

Rea Really? Very interesting! I dont think that its a good sign for womens water polo ... It would be interesting to know if its the same in other team sports.

The best solution would be to give Kreutzers quota place to Engleder and Pfeilschifters quota place to Karsch, but that would be unfair. Engleder and Karsch have to be in Rio, everything else would be unacceptable.

I know that we only have one spot, but Karsch would have a medal chance in womens air pistol and womens 25 m pistol, in mens double trap we wont have a medal chance. I know that we wont do this, because it would be unfair for the athletes in mens double trap, but it would be the best thing to do if we wont to improve our medal chances. I think (but i am not sure) that there will be a competition for the quota places, the first (and second) athlete will qualify for Rio.

Canada played really good, i never thought that they would come that close to qualify! I dont think that we can qualify in mens water polo. For some reason we always loose against Romania and Russia also should be too strong.

I am very sorry for the Netherlands, they deserved to be in Rio. Its very interesting that home teams in olympic team sports always seem to underperform this year ... Netherlands didnt qualify in womens football or womens water polo Germany didnt qualify in mens volleyball Turkey didnt qualify in womens volleyball Poland didnt qualify in mens handball ... At least Poland in mens handball, Turkey in womens volleyball and Netherlands in womens water polo should have qualified.

I hope everything will stay the same on the womens side. Petkovic and Kerber should be safe and the 3rd spot will hopefully go to Beck. On the mens side Zverev should have no problem to qualify.