MHSN

Another "no mark " for Ilyin I wonder if he knows he can't do that anymore. this is funny he was 101.76 for the World Champs not long ago. today he weighted 108.30 ! well I think he is up to something . he is really the biggest cheater ever. no WR in this Qatar Cup but some results in women's competition were so close to the WR. the only notable result in men's comeptition was "Hassouna Fares" (who? ) I wonder if he is the same guy as "Fares Ibrahim Hassouna El-Bakh" or maybe a brother/cousin of him ?!

Guys I have a question from swimming experts. I was checking some Swimming Results from the Asian Games and I found out they consider first 50m of 100m Breaststroke event as the Games record for 50m. I knew they consider the first swimmer in relay events for records but didn't know about this. my question is, is this something new in the rules ? or it was always like that ?

well for IWF, if you participate in weight-in which is 2 hours before the competition you will be listed in results book and that will be counted as a result. that's what exactly Ilyin did in the World Championships. Olympic qualification rules say you need 6 results in these 18 months (at least one in each 6 months period) and 4 best results will be counted. so he can afford having two "no marks" btw for IWF, participating in weight-in and then not showing up is equal to participating but bombing out which happens a lot.

Start list for Qatar Cup which started today https://www.iwf.net/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2018/12/Start_book_DOHA.pdf the most interesting name is Ilya Ilyin ! I wonder if he will really lift anything or it will be another "no mark" for him. he needs 6 results for the qualification. 4 of them will be counted. so he has one more "no mark" to give his entry is very low for 109kg but you never know

Didn't expect Al-Eye playing toe to toe with River Plate let alone winning it ! they also deserved a penalty in 1st half. clear handball but the ref rejected VAR's advise of calling that penalty.

that's simple . swimming is a big sport (I mean relatively big comparing to other individual sports) in most countries while in Iran nobody cares much about it. the general opinion is we are weak in this and we will never win medal in this sport. I mean sport ministry always speaks about how important are these 3 sports (athetlics, Swimming and Gymnastics) and how we should care more about them but in reality those 3 sports always had low budget, and almost zero media attention here. we had some better results from 2005 to 2010 (in 2008 for the first time Iran actually qualified a swimmer for the Olympics and didn't receive a Wild Card) and also almost won a medal at 2010 Asian Games. (4th place finish which is our best ever result in swimming) there were some hopes for improvement but then a disaster happened to our swimming federation which annulled all those improvements and we went back to the stone age. building something good takes years but destroying it is much easier. our current swimming federation focuses more on Water Polo as they believe in short term we only have medal chance in this and 2018 Asian Games proved they are not wrong. they also have long term plans for swimming though but I'm not optimistic. by disaster I mean the "president" we had for a short period in 2010. (less than 2 years) that guy was crazy stupid like Trump but without his money ! he was that bad even when the government later fired that guy FINA didn't say a word (even though that was very clear government intervention) but even FINA was OK that guy leaving. fortunately for the humankind he is in jail now for another crime he committed later.

i just saw this . if you still want an answer let me tell you he is a terrible player he had his NT debut when he was 16 ! but he never improved since then. he was NT second setter sometimes mostly because of his good blocking skills. not really a good setter. always had problems with his coaches. actually he left his club in Iran for Europe because of his problems with the coach. he is 3rd or 4th setter in Iran at the moment.

I calculate the ranking. it's different than what you see in WT website because I already deduced some points (tournaments will lose 25% of their value each year) so the final ranking will be 100% of 2019 event + 75% of 2018 pts + 50% of 2017 58kg: Jang (KOR) 1110 Kim (KOR) 662 Artamonov (RUS) 293 Hadipour (IRI) 270 Chen (CHN) 241 Wu (CHN) 187 I think it's almost a sure thing that one of those Koreans will finish first. they will also qualify through ranking . that will go to the Olympic ranking 68kg: Zhao (CHN) 1050 Lee (KOR) 770 Sindon (GBR) 450 Recber (TUR) 203 Denisenko (RUS) 180 Perez (ESP) 162 I think one of those top 3 will grab that spot. Lee won't need that to qualify. also very possible for both Sindon and Zhao to qualify via ranking. Zhao's chance looks better but if Lee DH takes it serious I think he will win the last Grand Slam and the quota. which means most probably that spot also goes to the Olympic ranking 80kg: Khramtsov (RUS) 1250 Hwan (KOR) 810 Beigi (AZE) 450 Chen (CHN) 305 Khramtsov and Beigi are good in ranking. but the situation is no good for Korea in this weight. I'm sure they will count on this guy Hwan to qualify from here. he has to win the next Grand Slam and hope for Khramtsov not making to the final. Beigi's chance is very slim too. I think most probably Khramtsov will finish 1st here and also qualifies through ranking. again the spot will go to the ranking. +80kg: In (KOR) 950 Mardani (IRI) 930 Kuznetsov (RUS) 300 Song (CHN) 270 Sun (CHN) 266 huge gap between Mardani / In KD and the rest. even though it's still possible for someone out of this list to come winning the last Grand Slam and grab 1000pts and the quota . that can happen if both Mardani and In Kyodon fails to qualify for the top 4. but it's more realistic to think it will be either Mardani or In. the Korean guy is already safe in the ranking. while Mardani has to be careful. he most probably only has to finish higher than In Kyo-don next year to qualify for the Olympics ! I'm a bit lazy to calculate all for the women's weight classes. but taking a quick look in summary I think it's very possible that nobody qualifies from this competition after all !

thanks, it helped a lot. another question. if an athlete finishes first in WT Grand Slam series and also finishes in top 5 of the World Ranking. who will get the quota ? the next athlete from the ranking ? or the 2nd athlete in Grand Slam ranking ? I'm asking this because most of Grand Slam winners will finish in top 5. Oops. I found my answer in the link you already gave us. that will go to the 6th athlete in the World Ranking.

no it wasn't a ranking points event. they gave it N/A instead of G1 or whatever else. this is funny because the qualification event for this was a G2 ! http://www.worldtaekwondo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/World-Taekwondo-Event-Calendar-2018-2020_180731.pdf rules say it doesn't sound like just winning one tournament. it talks about points and standing ! I think when they made this they were thinking about a series of Grand slams not just one in a year. but I can't see any Grand Slam ranking in their website. this is just so unclear

haha yeah I just watched it well it was hard to believe he is going to win the match. I mean I already knew the score from the news but still ! but this is the reason I don't like his style. he always makes his matches like this. doing nothing until the last seconds. even Mahama Cho (who was helping the commentator) mentioned that about his style. I think this format suits Mardani more than other Iranians because of this. but Mardani always sucks when it matters, Olympics and Asian Games. even though it was nice winning the gold but I think this tournament has no points for the ranking, right ? but according to the qualification rules. the winner of WT Grand Slam Series Ranking will qualify for the Olympics ?! I wonder how they will calculate a ranking ?! or is it just 2019 WT Grand Slam Champion ? or they consider results from previous Grand Slams as well

I just watched the match it doesn't look like he is losing intentionally . he almost ipponed the Japanese guy early in the match .and he gave up score on his own attack and he was pretty upset with that final call which was dubious (at least to him) . but in competitions like this against such a good opponent you have to focus 100% to stand a chance but probably thinking about the next round possible Israel draw had some effects on his game even if you are World Champion and World Rank 1. still losing to Japan in judo is no surprise they are always the favorite

Hadipour beat Kim TH for bronze he was lucky the format is different in medal round. this is best of 5 instead of best of 3 for men. Kim won first 2 rounds narrowly 3-2 and 6-3 but Hadipour came back strongly to win next 3 rounds. with some great advises from his coach. both were deadly tired in last 2 rounds . Hadipour was smart listening to his coach changing his style entirely. funny that since Grand Slam is not a part of NT program. both Hadipour and Mardani are here on their own with their own coach. (and not the national coach Askari) turned out to be a good thing for them I'm heading out and will miss Mardani's final . as much as I don't like him still I hope he wins a gold somewhere finally I watched few matches in past few days. I think this format is not a total disaster as it was in wrestling. still I prefer the current format.

Nice work, that's a very interesting list, it's almost impossible to know everything about all 200 NOCs in the world but I wonder what's your criteria to consider "chances" . more than 50% chances ? because our chance to qualify in basketball is surely less than 20% (with China being stronger than Iran and also hosting the World Cup as the main qualifier) on other hand our chance to qualify in every single men's classes in wrestling is more than that for sure . I expect us to fail to qualify in 1 or 2 classes but not in those weights you didn't mention as "chance" I watched the Iranian chances, surprised to see Sailing there !? I have to check is there anybody "not living in Iran" representing our country ? because I'm quite sure we don't have quality sailors here. this sport barely even exists. Edit: I got that you only consider NOCs not qualified yet. so that's no big deal not being "accurate" but still my question stands about our chances in sailing ?!

I see, Hadipour beat him once in Manchester GP final but he lost more to this guy (including 2017 World Champs final). so he will be underdog if Kim TH shows up. Kim lost here and there to Iranians before but the guy who never lost to our athletes is Lee Dae-hoon he won every single match he had vs the Iranians. I remember Yaghoubi, Asbaghi, Hosseini, Bakhshi and Naderian losing to him. (probably there are more names in the list) they are all very good fighters, almost all of them World medalists, but none of them could find a solution for this guy he is a nice guy and also he is VERY popular in East Asia ! they consider him very handsome. but with WT increasing the number of competitions, there are more chances top athletes participating when they are not 100% and pick up some defeats. maybe losing sometimes is not that big surprise. but the money prize for this event is bigger than other competitions, that's quite a motivation

wow so many surprising results. Kim Tae-hun and Lee Dae-hoon losing in the same day (not to even great opponents) Lee DH losing to Sindon is indeed the biggest surprise of the year. also Milad Beigi lost to a guy from Korea. Beigi used to destroy everybody a year ago but he is just another good athlete these days. we had a small team here. only 2. Hadipour will fight for bronze (unfortunately for him that will be against Kim TH) but Mardani !! will be in gold medal match. this guy Mardani is in national team program for few years. and I never liked him. I hate his conservative style and I can't understand how he get some good results sometimes.

oh well looks like another trouble for Mollaei, in World Masters, he will get Sagi Muki (ISR) in 2nd round. I wonder if he will try to beat the Japanese guy in first round or not. because Muki beating the Belgium Casse is 50/50. and they will fight after Mollaei/JPN match now he is world #1 it won't be easy for Mollaei to lose like that again.

we just heard an interesting story about 1978 FIFA World Cup. this is about how much England and Scotland hate each other in football The night before Iran-Scotland match, Iranian coach had a surprising guest in his hotel room. Ron Greenwood, England NT manager at the time (England failed to qualify for that World Cup) who came to Cordoba in Argentina to help Iranian coach about the Scotland match !!! this sounds like nothing nowadays because everybody knows everybody but remember at the time Iranian coaches were living in a cave and had no clue about European teams. after 2-3 hours meeting with Greenwood Iranian coaches decided to make a change in startling lineup because Greenwood advised them to put someone "dirty" on Scotland's star Archie Gemmill. they used someone who never played as starter to stop Gemmill. and that guy didn't just stop their star but he also scored the equalizing goal for Iran in second half (which was Iran's first ever goal at the World Cup in history) Scotland was a very good team at the time they were even thinking about winning the Cup , they even beat the Netherlands (eventual runner up) after this but still got eliminated because of that draw against Iran. the whole story came to the light here because the guy who scored that goal "Iraj Danaeifard" just passed away few days ago.

I'm not 100% sure but it seems we will have Golden Score only if they are tried after 3 rounds. if I'm not wrong in case of a tie they consider that round null. they consider that Golden Score round as a separate round that's why we have lots of 2-1 results. some of them are probably 1-1 (plus golden score)

In case anybody didn't notice before they are using a new scoring system in this Grand Slam tournament. set scoring system. something like Tennis. which means each round will be counted separately and you need to win 2 rounds to win a match. something like what we had in wrestling from 2005 to 2012. which is a terrible idea. I hope they won't decide to use it in all competitions. for now this is a test but they are thinking about making it official btw. Vladislav Larin dominated the Grand Prix series in super heavyweight. probably the best Taekwondo athlete in 2018 but I see he lost in the first round here to just some random guy from China !

except Van Dijk should be sent off earlier in first half for that brutal tackle on Mertens. that was just horrifying watching that on reply . and the most disgusting part was the Liverpool fans for booing Mertens !! poor guy was lucky that didn't end his career. (and he was just a shadow of himself for the rest of the match) just because of that Liverpool will be in top of my hate list from now on. even though I like Klopp and Mo Salah a lot

is that really the reason ? of course Qatar should be fine without anybody. they have enough money to be fine no matter what that was a stupid mistake from KSA , they just created an endless crisis. what they request from Qatar is impossibly

Team bus slogans for 2019 AFC Asian Cup which will start in less than a month in UAE http://www.the-afc.com/competitions/afc-asian-cup/latest/news/team-bus-slogans-for-uae-2019-announced I don't know what does it mean for Qatar " We & the Nation of Pride are Fine " and looks like Uzbeks are less creative than everybody else in the continent "Here we are Uzbekistan"

That's the point, this new law (which already existed but they enforced it) is barring the employment of retirees in government, state or public institutions which use state funds or facilities.

time for a little update because of new rules in Iran. people who are "retired" can't work anymore in government-related jobs. and what's a government-related job ?! any kind of organization that gets financial help from the government. by this definition all sports federation in Iran will be applied to this rule. they excuted this few days and this made a chaos in the whole system. so many had to leave their jobs which means right now so many sports federations in Iran are without a president or general secretary etc. but the problem is some international federations considering it "government intervention" and they are investigating this. some "suspensions" are quite possible now. in Iran they only let the "football federation president" to keep his job mostly because they know FIFA is no joke and the guy in head of the federation found a way to stay in his position (at least for now) on a technicality. still some of his stuffs had to resign. which means AFC/FIFA still will investigate this. some people here expect us to receive "suspension letter" from FIFA in next few days right before the AFC Asian Cup. I think right now more than 10 federations are without president here. Handball, Volleyball. Judo. Rowing/Canoeing, Karate, Triathlon plus few more I can't remember now beside them I can add wrestling and Hockey to the list for different reasons. some of them just resigned earlier to not make a mess but some of them (specially volleyball guy) didn't let it go without a fight. he left it in the very last day not before informing FIVB. he was TERRIBLE in his job in 11 months of his job. we will see if FIVB takes action but even FIVB probably knows he was such a jerk and maybe they let it go. while it was a positive change in Volleyball, I can't say the same about other sports, specially Judo and Karate.