MHSN

was never this close to a team quota in Archery, but unfortunately that's mission impossible against the best (or 2nd best) team in the world China doesn't even need this, they are 100% guaranteed a ranking quota. why the hell they are even here? but to be honest "team quota" is too good to be true, I will be happy with an individual quota if that happens which is a big if.

WT just published the June ranking which will be used for the Olympic seeding athletes from France will be seeded 4th if they are not ranked better. still it's not possible to fully predict the brackets because of the Wild Cards . some of possible universality place candidates are ranked high and can change the seeding completely. also there are some questions about the "refugee" athletes. Mansouri and conman Mehdipournejad both participated at 87kg during the Euro Champs. not sure which weight they will participate in Paris. both of them are in 80kg ranking for now. and there is another question about 49kg Oceania's quota. Australia apparently took that to the CAS. but even if they lose I'm not sure what Morocco is going to do with this. their original athlete (El Bouchti) already moved up to 57kg and lost all of her ranking points in her old weight. will they give her special permission to go back to her old weight ? or she will be seeded last ?

It's 10 June and still no new ranking announced ! this one is very important because the Olympic seeding will be based on 1st June ranking

these kind of things only happen to our wrestlers he fought very hard for 6 minutes but then did this Esmaeili was just not-celebrating-too-early away from making the Olympic team. per our weird trial system he had to beat the Olympic Champion Luis Orta to dethrone the other Olympic Champion Reza Geraei and make the team. he still has a chance but now he has to win 3 matches to do that

2nd part 86kg: top: Dauletbekov (1) vs Ishiguro (8) /// Shapiev (4) vs Ramazanov (5) bottom: Yazdani (2) vs Kurugliev (7) /// Amine (3) vs Bat-Erdene (6) unseeded: Moore, Ramos, Lawrence, Benferdjallah, Naifonov, Nurmagomedov, Gamkrelidze, Brooks anybody in top half can considers himself very lucky. I think 4 wrestlers here are a head and shoulder above everybody else and two of them are locked to meet in the QF. if Brooks and Naifonov also fall in the bottom half we will have two lucky medalists from the top half ! from the unseeded list beside USA/RUS I think only maybe the Azerbaijani wrestler can do something. Naifonov didn't wrestle in Russian nationals and he also has some problems with IOC's approval. Russia may send Kadiev instead of him but that won't change the seeding. ==================================== 97kg top: Magomedov (1) vs Yergali (8) /// Ciftci (4) vs Matcharashvili (5) bottom: Tazhudinov (2) vs Sadulaev (7) /// Snyder (3) vs Thiele (6) unseeded: Azarpira, Silot, Perez, El Ders, de Lange, Hushtyn, Baranowski, Habila I'm putting the great Sadulaev here because he won the Russian nationals beating quota winner Zhabrailov but as everybody knows he has serious problem with IOC, between Russian wrestlers he is more in danger and has less chance to participate. also there are doubts about Kazakhstan's representative, Yergali and 92kg World Champion Aitmukhan were supposed to face yesterday but Aitmukhan lost to Magomedov (AZE) and Magomedov forfeited the final gifting the gold to Yergali. I'm not sure if that's enough for KAZ coaches or they will order another trial match. if the Russian tank and Yergali do not go, Baranowski (POL) and ElDers (EGY) are next in line to be 7th and 8th seeds if Sadulaev participates this will be insane because all 3 big favorites are in the bottom half ! even without him we still have Tazh and Snyder there. top half looks easy for Magomedov and Matcharashvili. I think only Azarpira (IRN) can do something from the list of unseeded wrestlers. (hopefully he gets the top half ) ================================== 125kg top: Zare (1) vs Deng (8) /// Akgul (4) vs Ligeti (5) bottom: Petriashvili (2) vs Kurbanov (7) /// Parris (3) vs Meshvildshvili (6) unseeded: Smith, Dhesi, Mutuwa, Abdelmottaleb, Batirmurzaev, Khramiankou, Lkhagvagerel, Lazarev only and only in this weight, the top 4 seed are really the top 4 and most probably will end up winning all 4 medals. but of course accidents happen, Petriashvili got pinned by the Kazakh wrestler yesterday.

Now the seeding is final in men's freestyle. I'm trying to predict the brackets. but keep in mind the situation about the Russian wrestlers are still complicated and it's also possible that countries send someone else. one injury can change the order and therefore the whole bracket. I made some changes based on what I know about some teams' rosters. if you are aware of any other change please let me know. 57kg: top: Micic (1) vs Abdullaev (8) /// Abakarov (4) vs Aman (5) bottom: Higuchi (2) vs Zou (7) /// Harutyunyan (3) vs Uguev (6) unseeded: Bravo-Young, Cruz, Mohamed, Iuna Fafe, Tsyutrin, Rzazade, Almaz-uulu, Lee * Uguev's situation is uncertain, if IOC rejects him, Zou will be upgraded to 6th, Abdullaev 7th and Mohamed (EGY) 8th seed it looks balanced, I say the bottom half will be harder if Uguev wrestles. from unseeded wrestlers I think only Spencer Lee can make an impact, there are 3 other good wrestlers but not medal favorite. I think the better wrestlers are mostly seeded. =============================================================== 65kg: top: Tevanyan (1) vs Tulga (8) /// Rivera (4) vs Mamedov (5) bottom: Amouzad (2) vs Dudaev (7) /// Musukaev (3) vs Aliyev (6) unseeded: Gomez, Valdes, Akazawa, Okorokov, Dzebisashvili, Kiyooka, Retherford, Akmataliev it looks balanced, we have couple of big favorites in top and the same in bottom half. Kiyooka is a big favorite and nobody wants him in his half. I think Retherford is the other dangerous wrestler, Akmataliev too but not as dangerous as JPN/USA. =============================================================== 74kg: top: Dake (1) vs Ndum (8) /// Kougioumtsidis (4) vs Takatani (5) bottom: Sidakov (2) vs Salkazanov (7) /// Bayramov (3) vs Tsabolov (6) unseeded: Montero, Garzon, Hussen, Kadimagomedov, Zhamalov, Emami, Rassadin, Valiev, Mahdavi * again Sidakov's situation is uncertain, he didn't wrestle in Russian nationals and is supposed to face the national winner. if IOC rejects him and Russian sends someone else the whole bracket will be different and everybody from seed 3 to 8 will move up one spot and Emami (IRN) will be seed 8th. there are 17 wrestlers in this weight because of one crappy refugee wrestler. two unlucky unseeded wrestlers will have an extra match (which will be terrible and nobody wants to be in that position). it looks balanced but top half is a bit easier. still some of big names are unseeded and can completely change everything, Kadi, Zhamalov, Rassadin and Valiev they are all from Russia and at least 3 of them are Olympic medalist material. beside that Emami is good too. which means draw will play a big role in this weight.

and this should be interesting for our Italian users their favorite guy Turan Bayramov wrestled here and lost 5-0 to our junior team member and the refs were totally against Bayramov, hitting him twice with cautions + point for violating the rules in that weight category Rzamberk Zhamalov won the gold and most probably made the Uzbekistan team for the Olympic over Abdurakhmanov (who won the quota) that means one more Russian mercenary wrestler in this weight

The freestyle competition is done, it's easy to calculate the Olympic seeding now Hassan Yazdani had a pretty comfortable comeback to the mat, beating all of his 4 opponents by 10pts margin his shoulder looked OK and with this performance he earned his spot on the Olympic team. I'm pretty sure his performance made lots of people happy here. without Taylor he will be favorite for the gold in Paris.

ah, they made some minor adjustments but that's more or less still the same shit. ranking period will be cut down from 4 years to 1.5 years ! I would say 2 years (something like Judo) is the best what's the point of having a "Non-Olympic Qualification Ranking Period" if they are going to make everybody start with 0 in June 2026 ? they should have a separate world ranking to use it for seeding purpose etc. and this probably means they still didn't decided about the continental qualifiers. but I assume they will continue the same path with having 1 qualification tournament + those 2 per NOC restrictions

ooof we can't beat even this young Bulgarian team hard to believe what happened to this team in such a short time, two years ago things were completely different but a couple of bad decisions led us to this situation 14th VNL defeat in a row 18th defeat in a row against non-Asian teams 20th defeat in a row against top 20 in the world 9th tie-break defeat in a row those stats are unbelievably bad they are just getting comfortable with losing. no matter who is the opponent.

ICF update nothing we didn't know already, just still no confirmation from Russia (and they have to reject the C1M quota), I assume it takes more time for AIN athletes, BLR confirmed it just yesterday https://www.canoeicf.com/sites/default/files/paris_2024_csp_quota_allocation_as_of_06062024.pdf

so Mehdi Parvizi (I didn't even know him until a week ago) is the last chance to save the face of this sport, otherwise it will be first time in qualification era to have no boxer in the Olympics One of the commentators said he calls the Iranians as "fighters" not boxers, I think that pretty much sums up everything about our boxers guys like Gheshlaghi are very fun to watch but they don't get results because they don't land most of their punches. I'm only upset about Habibinejad , he had a relatively easy draw, didn't saw his bout but apparently he gassed in the 3rd round. he participated in a high level tournament in Kazakhstan a week before this competition (and won the gold) that was a big mistake and cost him the Olympics.

Entry list for Budapest ranking series https://uww.org/article/budapest-ranking-series-entry-list I'm a bit disappointed with the entries in freestyle. in most weights it doesn't look like a quality tournament. Greco looks strong as usual in a European competition. this is the last decent international event before the Olympics and most importantly the last ranking tournament. the Olympic seeding will be finalized after this. unlike most other sports, people don't care much about ranking here. simply because lots of better wrestlers (specially the Russians) are unseeded, therefore being the top seed doesn't give you much advantage unless you want to avoid certain wrestler before the final. for us this is somehow our last round of trials (and I know some other countries are doing the same in some weights) in 60 and 67kg Greco both contenders are here battling each other for the Olympic spot. 77kg Greco is a bit different, both of these guys here were banned for disciplinary reasons, if any of them wins the gold here he will have a chance to face the guy who won the quota. and while we are sending a young team in freestyle but the biggest name in our wrestling (and maybe our sport) Hassan Yazdani is here. this is his first competition after a shoulder surgery. the federation didn't set any clear goal for him but if he wrestles "good" here he will go to Paris. they just want to see if his shoulder can manage few not-so-hard matches or not.

UWW simply pardoned everybody (almost everybody) involved in that Chamizo/Bayramov match https://uww.org/article/uww-appeal-committee-concludes-investigation-olympic-qualification-match the whole news is bullshit, during the World Qualifiers in Istanbul, the national wrestling federation of those refs had a meeting with the boss Lalovic and simply dictated him to do this and of course he did to be honest I was surprised they did something against Cicioglu in first place. he was always a big part of this corrupt organization, they would never hurt one of their owns

Iran NOC already announced the flagbearers Neda Shahsavari (Table tennis) and Mehdi Olfati (Gymnastics) Shahsavari was OK, 3 times Olympian, oldest member of the delegation at the age of almost 38 but Olfati was a terrible and surprising choice. first there are lots of more experienced guys in the list and second (and most importantly) he is going to compete the next day but I suppose wining a quota in Gymnastics made them too excited. back in Tokyo the male flagbearer was almost twice the age of the female flagbearer. it will be the opposite this time.

Finally something useful from the InsideTheGames https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1145623/australia-taekwondo-three-athletes-paris

we always had at least one boxer in the Olympics since 1992, this is the last chance to keep that record going, even though I'm not hopeful but some of our better boxers got OK draws which means if they do their own job they can advance few rounds and maybe win something at the end. but tomorrow will be a nervous day for Ali Habibinejad, not because of his own bout, but because his fate is not in his own hands . he needs some help from the Spaniard to stay in the draw.

IWF published the final ranking https://iwf.sport/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2024/05/Paris-2024_Olympic-Qualification-Ranking_FINAL_24052024.pdf but yet it's not really final. there is a note in the document "Following the relevant Anti-Doping Result Management processes are concluded, the Olympic Qualification Ranking may be updated further. With special regards to cases of Member Federations with multiple Anti-Doping Rule Violations referred to the Independent Member Federations Sanctioning Panel as per art. 12.3.2 of IWF Anti-Doping Rules."

ITTF awarded the East Asian quotas based on 21 May ranking. Wong Chun Ting and Pyon Song-Gyong source https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Paris_2024_WS21May24.pdf https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Paris_2024_MS21May24-2.pdf

The Green movement, the first time the IR saw millions of people in the streets against itself, most importantly those protests were completely peaceful (unlike the recent protests) yet they didn't tolerate it. used brutal force to end things. obviously the elections were never totally fair here. but it was OK within the regime. I mean they would disqualify whoever they didn't want before the race. but the race itself was usually OK. I believe 2009 was the first time they completely threw away the votes and published some fake numbers to keep that monkey (you know him as Ahmadinejad) in charge. The monkey is not part of the regime now but at the time he was supposed to be loyal. The guy who could win the election Mirhossein Mousavi is still under house arrest.

one person celebrating something in his private is always possible but I'm pretty sure it's not safe to go out celebrating this very loudly. it's not humane to celebrate someone's death and I try hard not doing it myself. but since 2022 we passed a point of no return, for some people it happened in 2009 and for some others in 2019 but it feels like 2022 was really the end of that "let's hope things get better" era. I don't think like that myself, being radical is always a bad idea. but for lots of people, specially the younger generations, this is a war and they are the enemy. so they will indeed celebrate such a thing. even exaggerating to piss off the enemy

no fireworks certainly those are old videos. it's early morning here. (could be some street celebrations if it was evening or night) but I think it's fair to say the majority of people are "happy" (or at very least not upset) to hear the news. of course the regime has its own shrinking group of supporters. they will try to control the narrative as usual. since yesterday I saw/heard hundreds of jokes about him, lots of photoshopped pics of him with a bear (there were supposed to be wild animals in that era "greeting" them) that pretty much shows the general reaction specially among the younger generations.

Calling that guy the ayatollah is a common mistake. that's a title you get when you finish some religious school (of whatever else they call it) and no he never boards anything remotely unsafe

Hend Zaza made history last time by going to the Olympics at the age of 11 (12 because of COVID) pity she couldn't repeat the success the Lebanese lady is 47 years old ! it was 47 vs 15 in the final