nitinsanker

start of March ranking
the next ranking they publish right after this competition

I think it may be our first semi final in a super 300 or above by a women other than the twosome but need to check on that ....

got the quotas

When Nadeem got his medal in javelin in Budapest 2023 athletics WCH, he was the only one who didn't get a natonal flag from his buddies to cherish the moment with. It was so sad to look at this. It wasn't a totally unexpected medal tbh, so why didn't they prepare sth for him??? We were sitting very close to the javelin inrun, so if we only have green pencils and a piece of white material, we would make it for him. Sad.

First qualification and then medal hopes
 
Pakistan is not in Tripartite Commission so no wild cards this time except in athletics and swimming
Qualification
Athletics - 3. Arshad Nadeem (already qualified) and Muhammad Yasir in javelin throw. One additional quota for female athlete
Swimming - 2 wild card entries
Judo - 0. Two time Olympian Shah Hussain Shah is injured and hasn't participated in this Olympic cycle.
Hockey - 0. With Olympic qualifiers being moved from Pakistan to Oman, its highly unlikely they can qualify
Equestrian - 1. Usman Khan has virtually qualified from Group F in eventing. He shall qualify if he attains MER till next year
Shooting - 3. Gulfam Joseph and Ghulam Bashir already qualified. Kishmala Talat came close in World Championships
Wrestling/Weightlifting - 0
 
So team size - 9
Expected medalists
Arshad Nadeem - Silver/Bronze. If he remains fit and has a good season he could be a huge medal contender
Shooters are also a medal contender if they have a decent day

Can we do Pakistan... It is a country I follow closely 

WTT Feeder Doha II 2023
MS:- Manav lost in QF
          Sharath lost in Rd3
MD:- Manav/Manush play in Finals

Latest World Championships Medal Count in the Road to Paris 2024
 
2020-2024 Olympic Cycle Medal Count in the Road to Paris 2024
 
2023 World Championships in the Road To Paris 2024
 
Updated as of October 18th, 2023

Thanks and also congrats on your great performance overall specially in shooting
 
he is not the most popular athlete here mostly because of what he did and said outside of his career but he is/was indeed our best ever athlete in this sport. it's always sad to see a great athlete like him retires with tears running down his face. I believe he never lost a competition in Asia until today 
 

Harmilan Bains of India won silver yesterday in 1500m This is her second  1500 m in Asiad. Once when she was in her mother's womb in 1998 and yesterday when she won 🥈 in 1500 m Hunagzhou Asian Games.
Her mother also won 🥈 for India in 2002 Busan Asian Games when Harmilan was 4 years old

@MHSN....many congrats on discus performance , finally finally ehsan was pushed to second place ( I remember vikas gowda was always behind him at asian games) but luckily for Iran the guy who beat was also Iranian but 5 golds and now a silver .....what a great athelete he has been for Iran 

@MHSN....many congrats on discus performance , finally finally ehsan was pushed to second place ( I remember vikas gowda was always behind him at asian games) but luckily for Iran the guy who beat was also Iranian but 5 golds and now a silver .....what a great athelete he has been for Iran 

I agree Iran has been just about ok on total medals but low on golds ....

hmm, I think Iran is doing OK in term of number of medals but only 1 gold so far doesn't look good. even though in first 3 days beside volleyball the only sport we had a legit chance to win gold was Taekwondo. specially today we had the current World Champion but she lost in the first round  not the biggest surprise ever to me since I know our girls can't handle the pressure of being #1 favorite. we could win 2 more golds in the men's side but they both lost the finals narrowly. and our other medal-favorite girl lost because of weird electronic system which gave 20 extra points to the Chinese girl. I mean we are probably 1 gold less than expectations so far but that happens. 
 
you know wrestling is our big thing when it comes to the Asian Games but having World Championship only few days before the Games really ruined some of our chances. we still don't know the Asian Games squad and they are considering some changes. most of our top lighter weights wrestlers can't cut weight twice in a short period of time.

I believe people here are more interested in the Olympic weights so I drop the non-Olympic weights even though based on the number of wrestlers you can see they are still matter and we see something like 25-30 wrestlers in each one of them.
 
keep in mind Russian wrestlers are out of competition for a while. they had their own tournaments but I know some of them didn't train 100% since they weren't sure if they are coming or not. so they might underperform badly. 
 
57kg
to me Higuchi is the #1 favorite and he is in the top half alongside Harutyunyan, both of them have some problems with cutting weight. if they do that properly I believe Higuchi is going to win the whole thing. Atli is there too
the bottom half is much much tougher, with Uguev Micic, Aman, Abakarov and couple more guys like Abdullaev, Richards, Rzazade and the Mongolian. our wrestler is here too but he is just a kid and most probably will lose in the 1st or 2nd round. if Uguev is in a good shape (which I doubt) he is my pick for the silver medal. I also can't wait to see IND/ALB match in the 2nd round. Abakarov is technically great but Aman can beat everybody by making them dead tired. if Abakarov really makes it to the SF he will be really tired against Uguev. 
 
my picks for the quota: 

65kg
the top half is just brutal with our World Champion Amouzad, Olympic Champ Otoguro and Russian new sensation Mamedov (they consider him VERY good) I don't give a chance to everybody else but still we have some other big names like Lee (USA) and Musukaev (the best wrestler in the world if it was just 2 minutes ) Otoguro and Mamedov will meet first and the winner will get Amouzad. so if Amouzad wins that will eliminate one of those guys which is a great news for the rest. because I believe they are top 3 of this weight.
in bottom half we will have an interesting match between Haji Aliyev and Tulga (MGL) in the 3rd round. and the winner will get Tevanyan. I'm going to drop the great Aliyev because he is aging but he is a great wrestler and he can always beat anybody. the 4th quarter looks too easy and we will have one lucky semifinalist. 
 
my picks for the quota: 
 
74kg
top and bottom halves look equal but you can see some big names next to each other in the 2nd quarter. Olympic Champ Sidakov has to win 3 back to back matches against former world medalists to make it to the SF. I have a feeling he is not that physically prepared for that. so I hope our guy Emami can beat him in the 1/8 final. and the winner will get former World Champ Tsabolov  Sidakov couldn't ask for a more difficult draw. still you can't underestimate an Olympic Champion, I believe he will go to the final but it's highly possible if he loses to one of these guys (hopefully to ours )
bottom half is no easy too. we have less big names but there are 4 very big names there! I believe we will see two very interesting quarterfinals between Salkazanov/Kadimagomedov and Chamizo/Dake. great matches, but Dake is my favorite to win the whole thing. he lost badly to this Kadi guy at the Olympics and I'm sure he is waiting for a re-match. Salkazanov is a tough guy, I don't know how his match up will work with Kadi. Salkazanov is stronger, Kadi is more technically gifted. I go with Salkazanov simply because Kadi didn't wrestle much recently. maybe out of shape a bit ?
 
my picks for the quota: 
 
86kg
this weight is always easier, Yazdani and Taylor will meet in the final and only a miracle (or an injury) can change that. it's hard to pick the bronze medal winner from the top half. I can't see a favorite , even for the 5th quota. I think that will be between Makoev and someone from the top half (Gocen maybe ?) which will be a close match. Makoev is lucky that he can lose to Taylor early, if he was in the 3rd quarter (which is more balanced) he could lose to KAZ or AZE and I won't be surprised if any of these 2 guys upset the new Russian guy. he wasn't impressive from what I saw
 
my picks for the quota: 
 
97kg
top 3 medal favorites are in the same half! our guy Goleij has to beat Sadulaev in the 3rd round to stand a chance. personally I consider Sadulaev the best wrestler of all time but he looked completely out of shape in his recent matches. but I think underestimating him is a crime. he is always #1 favorite unless proven otherwise. Sadulaev has to beat Baitsaev first and then Goleij to meet his old rival Snyder in the semis. I hope he wins and brings back our guy to the repechage but I have a feeling Snyder has the upper hand this time, yet I can't predict Sadulaev losing, just can't 
bottom half is indeed easier, we have both European finalists from AZE and GEO and I believe Magomedov will win this time. hard to see anybody beating these two guys, but BLR maybe ? or Yergali (moving back from 125kg) or maybe slim chance for Nurov.
 
my picks for the quota: 
 
125kg
we have 3 favorites and I think all 3 of them will easily make it to the SF. I'm a bit biased so I pick our guy Zare to win the whole thing. Zare and Akgul are in the top half and the loser will take the bronze medal but their match is also important to determine who is going to finish 5th from the top half.  at the bottom half Geno lost to this big Mongolian guy last year but I believe it won't happen again. he is going to win the semifinal against no matter who. 3rd quarter is more balanced, I think it will be between the Mongolian and Parris. I go with the experience
5th place match will be interesting too. if Geno goes to the final the winner of POL/RUS match most probably will finish 5th and has to face probably either UKR or BLR (depends on the semifinal result)
 
my picks for the quota: 

Always something i look forward to  mohsain

Hi @Fly_like_a_don, @Prashanth, @Prakash, @nitinsanker, @Roamingrover86, @Dolby, @Shravan Kumar, @Sanjib with Team India's next big sporting event being the Asian Games starting on 23 Sep and all the squads have been announced, shall we start a discussion forum for Asian Games with news, predictions, results and opinions
 

WTA Tour
WTA125
 
Polish:  - Ankita lost in Rd1
              Ankita/Dayana play in QF

We topped the medal tally in WORLD ARCHERY CHAMPIONSHIP. As simple as it gets.  

The full story of this academy reads like a Bollywood movie ....
 
 
 
World champion archers Aditi and Deotale products of same academy built on sugarcane farmland in Satara
 
 Pravin Sawant, a police constable in Satara in Maharashtra, now hopes his archery training academy, built on one-acre sugarcane farmland, will finally get due recognition, after producing India's two world champions Aditi Swami and Ojas Deotale.
     Both Aditi and Deotale trained under Sawant at the Drushti Academy in Satara's Wadhe Phata area before becoming world champions.
     Hailing from Satara, Aditi on Saturday became the youngest senior world champion at 17 when she secured India's first-ever individual title at the World Archery Championships with compound women's gold in Berlin.

     Later in the day, Ojas Deotale also became the world champion when he bagged the compound men's title with a perfect score of 150.

     Aditi learnt the sport under Sawant. Nagpur's Deotale honed his skills after joining Sawant's academy exactly a year ago.

     "Aditi was really unimpressive, an emaciated 10-year-old when she came to the Stadium where I used to train. But her stubbornness caught my eyes and the journey began," Sawant recalled, in a conversation with PTI.

     "She was really hardworking, would not take any break after a competition and train here for hours. I knew she is a champion in the making."

     Nagpur's Deotale heard about Sawant's newly-launched academy from his friend who trained there and came under the coach's wings in 2022.
 

     "His shooting was unorthodox but impactful. I just had to motivate him and tune him mentally. He did the rest," he said about Deotale.

     The journey to become an archery coach has come with a lot of failures and hardships for Sawant, who is now an NIS certificate holder.

     The 32-year-old had won a silver medal at the school Nationals in Jharkhand but he failed to make it big and worked as a part-time ward boy at a private hospital to make ends meet from 2009-11.

     In the day time, he did his hospital duty and in the evening he would practice archery for long hours at the stadium.

     Seeing his passion for the sport, Manabendra Kadam, a medicine shop owner at the same hospital, became curious about him.

     "I was coaching kids as well as doing my shooting to take part in tournaments. Aditi had joined by then and started winning too," said Sawant.

     "But lack
of a proper facility was a hinderance as I used to teach them at the stadium and then at another makeshift facility."

     Kadam then came to Sawant's rescue and decided to gift him one-acre farmland where he used to grow sugarcane.

     But getting a land was not enough, Sawant needed money to build walls, give the land a shape.

     His wife and mother came to his rescue and agreed to mortgage their jewellery.

     "I got Rs 2 lakh in exchange of the jewelleries, which are still mortgaged to a bank. Parents too chip in with their contributions and Drushti Academy came on it own," he recalled.

     "Last year we have installed floodlights and there is accommodation facilities for about 15 people. I mostly stay here with the kids, and it helps in training," he said.

     But the facilities are still lacking.
     "We still don't have lack proper equipment. I've written to the Zila Parishad, but the files have not moved till now.

     "But I'm sure people will take notice of the archery academy now after their (Aditi and Deotale's) success and hoping it would be given the status of a centre."

Crazy good performance by India .... 92 years not a single gold ....then 3 over 2 days 🔥..... And a 17 year old in her maiden appearance figures in 2 . She  is the youngest ever world champion  .... Aditi Gopichand what an amazing performance a gold in women's compound individual and team.... The men's individual compound  gold medallist is just 21 and this is his first appearance ...... Ojas Deotale 💥...... Incidentally they both are from a tiny academy in a small Indian town satara ....

Crazy good performance by India .... 92 years not a single gold ....then 3 over 2 days 🔥..... And a 17 year old in her maiden appearance figures in 2 . She  is the youngest ever world champion  .... Aditi Gopichand what an amazing performance a gold in women's compound individual and team.... The men's individual compound  gold medallist is just 21 and this is his first appearance ...... Ojas Deotale 💥...... Incidentally they both are from a tiny academy in a small Indian town satara ....

@Sindo when you be adding boxing world champ results ? 

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce runs in her son’s School Sports day.  She makes no concessions to the opposition.
 

 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/athletics/65148492

Entry list for the Asian Championships
 
https://uww.org/article/asian-championships-entry-list
 
this is not exactly a WCh qualifier but countries have to participate in the continental champs to be eligible to send the same number of wrestlers per style to the Worlds which is the main Olympic qualifier this year.
 
four paid Russian mercenaries are in the list for Bahrain but as far as I know none of them are anything great but we can judge them better in action.
 
the level looks OK, lots of big names are missing but still there are some great guys like Makhmudov and Sharshenbekov in the list. the Greco competition looks better in general, more big names are missing in freestyle.
 
as usual we have a mixture of young and experienced wrestlers in our Asian Champs squad. specially in freestyle half of the team are making their debut in serious senior competitions. and I'm surprised to see World Champion Amouzad in the startlist, as far as I know he is not planned to wrestle here. looking forward to see 18 years old Masoumi at 125kg, he is supposed to be our next big thing.