MHSN

of course I knew, and indeed it was on top of the headlines for couple of days, even though most headlines here belong to an Italian guy Stramaccioni in past couple of weeks Firouzja didn't talk to any media about this. so we don't know his exact reason but forcing to withdraw against Israeli opponents is probably one of the reasons. after Judo now we are in trouble in Chess, apparently until 2019 it was a rule you could use to avoid whoever you don't want to face in Swiss table. FIDE changed that rule and that's when the problem started ! last week two of our players (Iran's #2 and #3 Maghsoudloo and Tabatabaei) were in a tournament in Spain and they both faced and beat an Israeli opponent !! they both claimed they didn't know the guy and it was a blitz competition without a flag on the table next to the players. that caused some "problems" here, and therefore Iran decided to not participate in the World Rapid/Blitz Championship, (or at least not sending a male team, there will be female players from Iran) and that's when Firouzja revealed his old plan, he was living in France for few months and we had rumors he wants to eventually switch nationality, this accident probably forced him to do it sooner. so I can say this is probably not directly related to Israel but that was one of the reasons. this is different than Mollaei, this is his right to live wherever he wants and unfortunately he prefers somewhere else. Mollaei is a cheating liar. The truth is this is not really surprising, he is considered a great talent and the situation in Iran is really bad these days. mostly financially, these guys had to pay for their expenses (tickets, visa etc) another thing is 10 years ago it was considered VERY BAD , treason or something like that but when something happens again and again this is not "bad" anymore. and unfortunately I won't be surprised to hear news about this again in the future.

same as men's tournament, it seems 3 teams withdrew, Algeria, DR Congo, Ghana so it will be a round robin between the remaining teams from 5-9 January https://www.cavb.org/2019/12/21/final-schedule-confirmed-for-cavb-tokyo-womens-volleyball-qualification-2020/

CAVB announced the schedule, no Niger, no Botswana ! it will be a round robing between 5 teams. https://www.cavb.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/CAVB-Tokyo-Mens-Volleyball-Qualification-Match-Schedule.pdf I think there is a chance for everybody except Ghana. and maybe it comes to the last match between Egypt and Cameroon.

at the end of Japan nationals, this will be Japan's squad for the Olympics, wrestlers in bold are already qualified for the Olympics, wrestlers not in bold are qualified for the Olympic qualifiers and Olympic itself (if they manage to win the quota for Japan) in some weights where Japan has the quota (but not medal) and someone else won the Japan nationals, there will be playoff between them on February Women's freestyle 50kg: Yui Susaki 53kg: Mayu Mukaida 57kg: Risako Kawai 62kg: Yukako Kawai 68kg: Miwa Murikawa vs Sara Dosho 76kg: Hiroe Minagawa Men's freestyle 57kg: Rei Higuchi 65kg: Takuto Otoguro 74kg: Keisuke Otoguro vs Mao Okui 86kg: Sosuke Takatani 97kg: Naoya Akaguma 125kg: Tetsuya Tanaka Men's Greco-Roman 60kg: Kenichiro Fumita 67kg: Shogo Takahashi 77kg: Shohei Yabiku 87kg: Masato Sumi 97kg: Yuta Nara 130kg: Arata Sonoda

well nobody asked but I think I mentioned it before, during the World Champs.

Of course, she failed to make the 2019 World Team and her replacement won a medal, that means no second chance for her or anybody else in that weight.

and for all die hard fans of Japan wrestling finals for tomorrow: Men's 57kg: Yuki Takahashi vs Rei Higuchi Men's 65kg: Takuto Otoguro vs Rinya Nakamura Men's 74kg: Keisuke Otoguro vs Daichi Takatani Greco 67kg: Shogo Takahashi vs Tsuchika Shimoyamada Greco 77kg: Shohei Yabiku vs Kodai Sakuraba Women's 50kg: Yuki Irie vs Yui Susaki Women's 68kg: Miwa Murikawa vs Naruha Matsuyuki interesting results World Champion and Olympic silver medalist Shinobu Ota lost in the 2nd round at 74kg. both Mao Okui (who won the quota for Japan) and also world bronze medalist Yuhi Fujinami lost before the SF 4 times World and Olympic Champion Eri Tosaka lost 6-0 to Susaki and can't defend her title in Tokyo Olympic Champion Sara Dosho lost in SF 9-2 to Murikawa , but since she won the quota for Japan, she will have another chance to challenge the gold medalist from here. ---- also these guys won the nationals today and will represent Japan in Olympic qualifiers Men's 86kg: Sosuke Takatani Greco 87kg: Masato Sumi Greco 130kg: Arata Sonoda

as Inter fan I also remember him very well and first he signed with Esteghlal I told my friends this is not a good signing, but he turned out to be very successful. (after a very poor start) even though it's not about just results, his team was playing good and fans also liked him as a person. and I'm sure you know, the level of football is different, an average coach in Italy is considered a great coach here and he is young for a coach and it seems he is improving.

in past few days (something like 2 weeks) one name made the headlines here everyday (no exaggeration here, I mean it), and that's an Italian coach Andrea Stramaccioni, he was coaching the 2nd most popular team of Tehran and Iran, Esteghlal (which happens to be my childhood favorite team ) until he left his club few days ago. because of good results and also his character he quickly became extremely popular between the fans but then exactly the same week he brought Esteghlal to the first place (after 6 years), he just left his club ! and that caused a national crisis here ! he left because his club can't pay him properly, money is not the issue, the issue is how to pay him because of the sanctions ! even after 2 weeks and they already played 3 matches without him (and his assistants ) and already lost 5 points. the club can't and won't hire another coach simply because they are afraid of their angry fans !

I assume this is a good news http://www.fivb.com/en/about/news/fivb-to-introduce-new-world-ranking-system?id=89970 it looks better than the current ranking

if anybody interested in Japan Wrestling, they had a rule, whoever won a medal at the 2019 Worlds, also secured his/her place for Tokyo 2020. in other weights their nationals (which is in process right now) apparently acts as their Olympic team trials. whoever wins goes to the Olympics (or the Olympic qualifiers) Women's 53kg: Mayu Mukaida Women's 57kg: Risako Kawai Women's 62kg: Yukako Kawai Women's 76kg: Hiroe Minagawa Greco-Roman 60kg: Kenichiro Fumita Japan also won quotas in Men's 65 and 74kg freestyle and women's 68kg but since they finished 5th, the Olympic place is not decided yet. I skip the non-Olympic weights and those weights above, this is the list of nationals winners in other Olympic weights. Men's 97kg: Naoya Akaguma Men's 125kg: Tetsuya Tanaka Greco-Roman 97kg: Yuta Nara finals for tomorrow: Men's 86kg: Sosuke Takatani vs Hayato Ishiguro Greco 87kg: Masato Sumi vs Takahiro Tsuruda Greco 130kg: Arata Sonoda vs Ryota Kono there will be important finals on Sunday. beside women's wrestling where Japan is favorite for medal in every single weight, I'm more interested in 67kg Greco and 3 lower weights of freestyle, 57, 65 and 74 and it seems the organizers intentionally put all those important weights for Japan to the last day. we will have women's 50 and 68 + freestyle 57, 65, 74 + Greco 67 and 77 all in the last day. if you are interested, draws are available here, but in Japanese https://www.japan-wrestling.jp/2019/12/20/156279/

that was the "merit standing winners" what they used for the Olympic quota . in most weights it was the same as 2019 GS final winner, simply because 2019 version has more points than previous editions. but for example Jang Jun didn't even participate this year, Walkden and Zhao also lost in the final. the other 5 athletes won the gold medal this weekend.

You mean Grand Slam winners Men's 58kg: Jang Jun Men's 68kg: Zhao Shuai Men's 80kg: Maksim Khramtcov Men's +80kg: In Kyo-Don Women's 49kg: Panipak Wongpattanakit Women's 57kg: Zhou Lijun Women's 67kg: Matea Jelic Women's +67kg: Bianca Walkden

Beijing 2008 was a complete disaster, the exact opposite of London 2012. and reallocations also didn't change anything.

So at the end of the competition, only 1 athlete actually qualified by "Grand Slam Ranking" which was Zhou Lijun but even Zhou didn't need this ! because she was also 6th in the World Ranking !

3rd day medalists: Women's +67kg: 1. Lee Da-Bin 2. Bianca Walkden 3. Zheng Shuyin Men's 58kg: 1. Bae Jun-Seo 2. Lee Min-Yeong 3. Liang Yushuai

so what ? that was really a stupid and irrelevant comment, what does that mean ? Iran do not want to win medal in women's sport ? and who's Iran btw ? how many Muslim countries have the same number of medals won by men and women ? maybe just 1 or 2, probably even nobody. this is more a cultural thing. even before the "Islamic Revolution" Iran never had any kind of achievement in women's sports. all of female Olympians almost finished last in their competitions. nowadays it's different girls are more interested in sports, but still it will take years to make up for those years being far behind, and there are also some limitations in some sports because of the dress code. and Iran is not a "person" to cares about anything. it's a country. most people in the country care but some do not care and even do not believe in equality. but things don't improve overnight. it takes time (Iran already has better women's team in some sports) and off course the current situation doesn't help. improving women's sport is not a priority right now in the country, there are million other priorities right now. that's a lengthy topic and I'm not going to write more for you. and apparently human right is a relative thing, people talk about it only when it's in their benefit to do so,

as of last night, IWF officially disqualified the 2012 Olympic Champion Oleksiy Torokhtiy ! we knew that for a year but in situations like this , first we hear the news of IOC disqualifying the guy, and then few months later IWF modifies the result but IWF website shows IOC already banned the guy, probably few months ago but they just forgot to make it public ! now officially Navvab Nasirshalal from Iran will be upgraded to the gold medal position. Bartlomiej Bonk of Poland will receive the silver medal. but still we have to wait for the bronze medal because eventual 4th placer Ruslan Nurudinov is also banned by IOC (not yet by IWF) and when they finish his case, the bronze medal will go to his countryman Ivan Efremov. and this will be Iran's 3rd gold medal after re-testing ! and 2 of those new Olympic Champions were last minute replacements ! if someone checks this guy Nasirshalal's resume, his next best result is bronze at the Asian Championships speaking of luck and having the best day of your career at the right time. now Iran has 7 gold medals in that Olympics, same as Japan ! and only 1 less than sport powerhouses like Italy and Australia only if they could win those medals in the competition and not 7 years later ---------------------------- Edit: checking IOC website, actually they disqualified him tonight ! still it should be months ago though, https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-sanctions-one-athlete-for-failing-anti-doping-tests-at-london-2012-4

he was 7th place and yes I assume he will receive the quota even though you better wait for the official confirmation, but I'm something like 95% sure about it. I was checking the result, it should go to the Azerbaijani guy who had "3 wins" (against 2 wins of the Polish guy) but UWW has some stupid classification points and tie breaking criteria. Rybicki had two wins by fall and superiority (against 2 relatively weak guys though) and while both of them had 10 classification points, Rybicki wins the tie by having more "fall wins". feel sorry for Gadzhiyev he beat 3 World and Olympic medalists "narrowly" while Rybicki only had to beat Egypt and Mexico. but that's it. you got lucky sometimes. and the bronze medal goes to Daniyar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan

2nd day medalists: Women's 67kg: 1. Panipak Wongpattanakit 2. Wu Jingyu 3. Zuo Ju Women's 57kg: 1. Zhou Lijun 2. Jade Jones 3. Luo Zongshi Men's +80kg: 1. In Kyo-Don 2. Mahama Cho 3. Rafail Aikuev

It wasn't a blind draw, it was based on seedings, but of course we had the rankings, so the draw was predictable for the organizers since they had the full list of participants. maybe Chinese federation added 1 or 2 more athletes to the list to make the draw "better" for Liang but that's it. Liang is getting a bye in the first round because he is the 2nd seed. the draw is good for him because everybody else withdrew. I'm quite sure Chinese federation had nothing to do with Jang Jun, Kim Tae-hun, Hadipour, Tortosa, Vito, Artamanov and Popov withdrawal ! even Woolley himself ! this is really funny, this tournament was crucial for Woolley, how the hell he didn't participate ! this is the seeding procedure #1 2018 Grand Slam Final Winner / Jang Jun DNP #2 Manchester 2019 Champion (Heavier) / Jang Jun DNP #3 Manchester 2019 Champion (Lighter) / Bae Jun-Seo ==> Seed 1 #4 2018 Grand Slam Final 2nd Place / Liang Yushuai ==> Seed 2 #5 2019 Grand Prix Final Winner (Moscow) / Vito Dell'Aquila DNP #6 2019 Grand Prix Series 3 Winner (Sofia) / Jang Jun DNP #7 2019 Grand Prix Series 2 Winner (Chiba) / Jang Jun DNP #8 2019 Grand Prix Series 1 Winner (Roma) / Jang Jun DNP #9 2019 Grand Slam Open Qualification 2 Winner / Lee Min-Yeong ==> Seed 3 #10 2019 Grand Slam Open Qualification 1 Winner / Liang Yushuai already seeded from here, the rest are seeded based on their November rankings, even if Woolley was here, he could be seed 4 and on the top half but still he didn't know that, he had to participate.

yes it doesn't look hard ! none of the top guys in this weight are in the draw, specially those 2 Koreans ! and I'm also surprised why Jack Woolley himself didn't participate ! there was 50% chance for him to be in the same half of the draw with Liang and stop him from reaching the final. only 2 athletes can mathematically grab the quota, Liang and Chen Xiaoyi, Liang needs a silver but Chen needs the gold medal. and they will most probably meet each other in the QF ! if I was the Chinese Federation president I would tell the other Chinese athletes to be "nice" with Liang but I don't know how these things work in China and for the Women's +67kg. the only athlete capable of winning the quota is Madelynn GORMAN-SHORE (USA) but it's kind of mission impossible for her, she has to win the gold and Bianca Walkden losing in QF. with anything else the quota goes to Kowalczuk of Poland.

Mardani out in the first round, so it was all for nothing winning 2 quota was easy in Asian qualifiers, but Mardani lost 9-1 and 17-5 !!! I don't think the Chinese guy scored that much. it was a system error and the system was too generous to him ! once it gave 2pts while they were just watching each other, they only erased those 2pts but I think more than half of his points were wrong. but it doesn't matter anymore. so all 3 quotas are already decided Women's 49kg: Wu Jingyu Women's 57kg: Zhou Lijun Men's +80kg: Mahama Cho

2nd day draw http://www.worldtaekwondo.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Draw-SheetDay-2-No-Contest-Number.pdf +80kg: Mardani is the main chance for the quota but he has to rank higher than In Kyo-Don and most probably win a bronze. but on paper there are chances for some athletes but most of them need both In Kyo-Don and Mardani losing in their first matches ! Radik Isaev has a better chance than others because he can qualify if he wins the gold and both thoese guys do not medal. 49kg: it's a sure thing China will grab the quota. Only 2 athletes are capable of grabbing the quota, Wenren Yuntao and Wu Jingyu both from China and even if both of them fail that will go to Wu Jingyu ! and it doesn't really matter who wins the quota, China can send any of these two girls (most probably Wu) 57kg: the only athlete capable of winning the GS quota is Zhou Lijun and she is also the 6th place ranked in WR ! which means she will win the quota 100%. ================ no much competition for 49 and 57, both quota go to China. only men's +80kg is a serious competition for the Grand Slam quota. Mahamo Cho is 6th in WR waiting for the results here.

1st day medalists: Women's 67kg: 1. Matea Jelic 2. Doris Pole 3. Guo Yunfei Men's 68kg: 1. Lee Dae-Hoon 2. Zhao Shuai 3. Lin Wenye Men's 80kg: 1. Maksim Khramtcov 2. Hwan Nam-Goong 3. Nikita Rafalovich