MHSN

time for freestyle 57kg: we have a balanced draw, Spencer Lee will get the top seed Zou in the 2nd round, next will be the former Euro Champ Egorov, I think Lee is going to win these matches, our only entry is in this weight with 2021 World silver medalist Sarlak, we know we are weak in this weight but still I'm trying to think positively he will face Dingashvili and then ROU/KAZ to reach the SF. he is well capable of doing that but I don't think he can beat Lee I always rated Aman (IND) very high and he failed, I'm still going to do that he has so much potential, just needs a better strategy. this time he has Vangelov (won't be easy but I think he can manage) and then Yatsenko/Zanabazar/Metreveli , most probably he will face the North Korean in the SF who only has Hurst Lehr as a serious opponent. I think the loser of Aman/PRK match will get the 3rd quota after beating Sarlak in the last match, so 65kg: that's a big bracket with something like 40 wrestlers ! I see 5-6 guys with a chance in top half, Dudaev, Skriabin, Kim, Arushanian, Sacultan, Duman, or even Clarke or couple more. bottom half is more clear with 3 big names, and they are in the same quarter, Tulga and Retherford will face first and the winner gets Kudiev. I would pick these 3 guys to qualify but maximum 2 of them can do it. I'm also interested to see Sujeet, the new guy of India, he couldn't wrestle in Asia but he most be good and can do something, still my picks 74kg: UWW promised Chamizo to be the 1st seed here, instead he is going to wrestle the 1st seed in the first round no big difference, the 1st seed won't be hard for him. his next match is not easy but he can manage, it will be Kentchadze or Valiev in QF, in the other quarter we have a tough part with Rassadin, Kaipanov, Khadjiev and Kuramagomedov. I think the winner comes from the first quarter. I give it to Chamizo but it depends a lot on Valiev's situation. he is recently hired by Albania in bottom half I don't think anybody can prevent a Demirtas/Salkazanov semifinal. there are few dangerous guys like Mottaghinia or Saipudinov or Jaideep though. my picks 86kg: if Kurugliev is healthy, nobody beats him here but I know he is half-injured and couldn't do a thing in Baku. he has a tough draw and he won't survive it if not healthy, he has Makoev and then Gocen. probably Magamadov or Jezierzanski in QF. the winner of this part will face Deepak or Myakhailov in SF. I pick Kurugliaev but that depends on his health. I also think the winner of IND/UKR will get the 3rd quota bottom half is not that hard, Ramazanov has a good chance to reach the SF with no trouble. In the last quarter Gamkrelidze and Sharipov are probably better than the rest. I think it goes down to Ramazanov/Gamkrelidze SF. so my picks 97kg: Arash Yoshida was unlucky to not win the quota in Asia, if he beats Bataev in the 2nd round he can go further to the SF. in the first quarter we have Thiele, Ibragimov, Nurov and the Mongolian, I expect to see a JPN/MGL semifinal in bottom half I think Baitsaev can beat the Ukrainian and then Habila to go to the SF which will be probably against Baranowski. if Baran was healthy he would have a better chance for Poland. I say 130kg: I think the top half SF will be Ligeti vs Lazarev, only Rakhimov or Sumit can change that. bottom half is harder, Deng will get the winner of Sharipov/Khotsianivski in QF and then Baran/Conyedo in SF. Sharipov was physically terrible in Asia. I'm not sure if he is 100% ready here. only because of this reason I think he will gas badly at some point and can't win 3-4 matches, therefore my picks

I don't think so, but he is in the easier half of the draw, still needs 1 or 2 very big wins, not impossible but I don't think so

OK let's start with Greco, keep in mind we usually see more surprises in this last chance tournament simply because the physical situation play a bigger role here. most of these guys already wrestled in the continental qualifiers , in this sport you can't reach your 100% twice in a month. Asian Wrestlers are more in disadvantage since the Asian QT was the last one. 60kg: to me there are 6 favorite for 3 quotas and they are nicely spread in the balanced draw. Gharibyan has couple of obstacles on his way but I expect to see him in the SF against the winner of Tibilov/Lalaev. I would pick Tibilov but he was bad in Baku and other two guys didn't wrestle there which gave them a huge advantage M. Mammadov is the clear favorite in the other part. but his 2nd and 3rd round matches can be very hard. GEO is entering a different Abuladze. Arnaut (ROU) is a good chance to make it to SF, giving himself 2 chances to qualify. I say 67kg: Vancza can be very happy with the draw, he couldn't hand pick the draw better than this. M. El-Sayed is the biggest name in this part, but he has to beat Amaev and then Etlinger/Petic in his first two matches, he was terrible in African qualifiers, I don't know if he can survive 2 back to back tough matches. I still pick him because he is simply better bottom half looks much harder, Visaitov/Zoidze in the first round, the winner most probably will go far to the SF. I don't know how Selcuk Can can handle cutting weight twice in a short period of time but he is my pick anyway. 77kg: things look good for Gutu until the SF where he will get Levai, Levai was terrible at Euro Qualifiers, which means other guys like Mnatsakanian or the Ukrainian. slim chance for Liu too in bottom half Viktor Nemes will get Kamanjasevic in the 2nd round, if he survives this, it will be Lomadze next. he can lose to any of these solid guys. in the 3rd Quarter, Kutuzov is a very late replacement for Russia, I know he is good but I won't be surprised if he loses to Kamal Bey in the first round. my picks 87kg: we have two big names in the top half, Maskevich and Bisultanov, I don't think anybody else stands a chance but you never know in Greco. the winner of Huklek/Mukubu match in the first round can do something. bottom half has more favorites but no clear fav. I rate Berdimuratov as the better wrestler there but he wasn't great in Asia and had less time to recover. his first round against GER can go wrong easily. I don't think he survives 4 tough matches. first round match between Gregorich/Gobadze is very important too. we also have Bradu and the Armenian, but I go with the grandpa Huseynov. so I say 97kg: Arvi Savolainen should be happy with this draw, even though he can lose to the giant Kyrgyz in the 2nd round. he lost to Baldauf in Euro Q but I think that won't happen again, Baldauf has to beat Basar and then AZE/NED to even get to SF. Artur Sargssian is a monster, he broke his hands last year in World Champs and didn't wrestle much after that, if he is ready he is my pick for sure specially because he has a favorable draw in first 3 rounds. two favorites Szoke and Nikoloz will face first and the winner will get Kajaia. Szoke lost to Nikoloz 1-1 in Euro QT but it's 50/50 between these guys. my picks 130kg: top half is indeed harder with Kajaia, Kuosmanen, Vyshnyvetski, Shariati, Knystautas, Ovasaypan and couple more. it's really really hard to pick one between these guys. most of their matches will end up 1-1 (except the Ukrainian, he knows how to score big and how lose big points) so it's like a coin toss competition Alexuc has an easier road to the SF which gives him a huge advantage in the bottom half. in the last quarter we have Vitek, Marvik and Heiki boring Nabi. again most matches will finish 1-1. but i have to pick 3, so

Yeah sure I know everybody can't wait to see that I will do that today. it just takes time, I'm still "processing" the brackets for myself

it's weird that there is still nothing about East Asian Qualifier in either ITTF or ATTU website. I assume there won't be a separate tournament, they will either mix it with another tournament in the region. or just award the quotas to the best ranked athlete. it's HKG or PRK for the men's quota and just PRK for the women's quota. MGL is there too but too weak to compete.

now that makes sense, so they are waiting for those countries (CHN, KAZ in Asia and USA in MK) to confirm one of those quotas and then they can reallocate the other one so Singapore, Iran and Brazil will get a quota later most probably but that's not 100% confirmed yet.

is this accurate? https://www.canoeicf.com/sites/default/files/paris_2024_csp_quota_allocation_as_of_07052024_v2.pdf Kazakhstan won both MK1 and MK2 quotas which is not possible per rules and China despite already having 4 quotas in WK4, is winning 3 more in WK1 and WK2. (while each country can win max 6 quotas in WK)

Russian national freestyle Championship finished tonight, this tournament always serves as their trials. as long as Russia concerns this team goes to the Olympics and World Champs (for non-Olympic weights) but of course it's not only up to them 57: Akhmad Idrisov 61: Zavur Uguev 65: Shamil Mamedov 70: Inalbek Sheriev 74: Anzor Zakuev 79: Magomed Magomaev 86: Ibragim Kadiev 92: Alan Bagaev 97: Abdulrashid Sadulaev 125: Abdulla Kurbanov Zaurbek Sidakov (74) and Artur Naifonov (86) didn't wrestle here, apparently a bit injured, they will face the winner at some point (from what I heard in Hungary ranking series) same goes to Zavur Uguev, he wrestled at 61 to avoid cutting weight, but he is still a 57kg. The Great Sadulaev almost got pinned in the final against Alikhan Zhabrailov, some may say he did get pinned (that was dubious to me) but pulled himself together and won the match 8-4. 65kg final was also amazing between Mamedov and 61kg World Champion Abbasgazhi Magomedov which ended up 8-7 in Mamedov's favor.

That was just the preliminary list, in the new update all Chinese #1 wrestlers are back in the list. lots of them will be seeded and that will change a lot for the draw.

I'm sure they are all officially registered as refugee. but the majority of them are not real refugees. they mostly move to a western country for economical reasons. (normal immigration, where they keep visiting the original country) but then later register themselves as refugee to take advantage of the situation. I mean who doesn't want a free ride to the Olympics. to be there, having fun.

it depends on your definition of refugee there are something like ~4 millions Afghans living in Iran and he is one of them. most probably even born here. so technically yes he is a refugee, he lives in another country (with no intention of moving back to AFG) but he has an Afghan passport and represented Afghanistan internationally until few months ago. the situation changes in Afghanistan month by month, one day he can say OK I want to represent my homeland, another day he can say oh no I'm still a refugee.

Everyone who has followed her story knows she is not a refugee, none of them are. They just use this opportunity to either get a free ticket to the Olympics or in her case get some money. I'm not going to bore everybody with details. that doesn't matter anyway. she won the quota herself so at least she technically deserves it. Bulgaria had two female athletes at the Euro qualifier and failed to qualify, (one of them was very close though) this looks like giving them a 3rd chance which is against the rules. if they wanted to "hire" her, they had to do it before the qualifiers. as for Abbasi, he is a refugee in Iran (not from Iran) and he is not really good. he was about to lose his semifinal but he landed one heavy kick and won the match by RSC. (which was pure luck IMO) I seriously doubt any country is interested in his service. but maybe I'm wrong. I follow some websites covering Afghan sport news, (we share the same language) never heard about him going back to represent AFG but that's a possible scenario. or maybe King Tommy and his goons just didn't want his name in their lovely list for pure political reasons. I think he will go Paris anyway, we will find out soon under which flag.

that's not entirely impossible. he was representing Afghanistan 5-6 months ago, he switched to refugee team when he couldn't make the Afghan team (they had two much better guys in two other weights) but in the WT ranking, he is still listed as RTA (refugee team)

two so-called "refugee" athletes qualified in Taekwondo before and none of them are here. Kimia Alizadeh found herself a buyer finally and since her name is not here I assume the IOC illegally let her transfer her quota to Bulgaria but I wonder why former Afghan Alireza Abbasi is not in this list.

Iraq shooting federation claims this girl Zainab JUMAAH received a wild card for the Paris Olympics

The is list is getting updated everyday One more big name is being added into 74kg (which was already loaded) Cherman Valiev is apparently cleared to wrestle for his "new country" another big change is Edmond Nazaryan being removed from the list, apparently still injured

actually that's a long/funny/sad/weird story after losing to Taylor badly last year in World Championship final and winning the Asian Games title it was revealed that he had a serious shoulder injury. he decided to not wait and therefore undergo a shoulder surgery. he is not recovered yet to train on the mat. our wrestling federation announced a very very complicated trial system for each weight. giving the advantage to the quota winners but each one of them had to meet certain criteria to make the Olympic team. in most weights everybody else had to wrestle at the nationals and the winner (I call it the challenger) facing the last year world team member at some point. for Yazdani since he was recovering there was no direct match scheduled. the challenger had to win the gold at the Asian Championship to stand a chance, he didn't and settled for bronze. therefore per "rules" Yazdani is already selected. but few months ago our federation decided to bend its own rules, we had another very good wrestler in this weight in Kamran Ghasempour. he is great but simply couldn't beat Yazdani. he moved up to 92kg and despite being undersized he won two World titles in 2021 and 2022. from 2023 he decided to move up to 97kg, after a year he didn't gain much weight and despite being great technically he couldn't handle guys 10kg heavier than himself. after losing to Kyle Snyder at 97kg in Zagreb Open semifinal he said enough is enough and our federation (realizing/fearing Yazdani might not be recover) accepted his request and therefore unofficially announced there will be a trial match between him and Yazdani for the 86kg spot. I have to tell you both these guys are extremely popular and just one 6 minutes match between them would fill a 12,000 seat stadium. people were so excited to see this match again after a while. but then Taylor losing in US trials apparently changed everything , our Wrestling Fed just announced couple days ago (this time officially) that there will be no direct match between them, Yazdani is going to the Hungarian Raking Series event. if he shows he is physically ready and his shoulder is fully working he is going to Paris, if NOT they will think about another solution (aka Ghasempour) I'm sure Yazdani now regrets having that surgery before the Olympics. he could manage the pain and beat everybody else in the world. his style works perfectly against everybody not named David Taylor. now we have to wait another month for Hungarian event to see if Yazdani still has the same quality or not.

despite having the best team of the competition and playing against the weakest possible opponent in the semifinal, Uzbeks were about to choke once again, Indonesia scored few minutes before Uzbekistan's first goal. but the VAR cancelled it for a bogus offside call. that would have changed everything

that was their first ever AFC Asian Cup. so yes that will be their first World Cup too anyway interestingly out of 5 AFC teams in World Cup, 4 of them belong to CAFA (Central Asia) and the next team KGZ also finished 6th. quite an achievement for a region with just 6 teams (TKM didn't make it) Iran won the title for the 13th time, which is good, but they can't dominate other AFC teams anymore. Iran even struggled against Bahrain in the group stage beat Uzbekistan only on penalties I believe they played two "good" matches, QF vs Kyrgyzstan and the final vs Thailand. they were shaky the rest of the tournament.

ah, losing like that sucks nobody expected a quota here but Esmaeil was very close. leading 14-13 against the 1st seed with just 5 seconds to go. that could be huge for other weapons since our fencing is just Sabre for so many years.

That was the most entertaining penalty shootout ever Indonesia GK was terrible in most of his moves against easier kicks but then he saved two very hard kicks and also scored his own penalty who would have thought that Indonesia of all teams can end Korea's brilliant U23 run from 1992. the last time Korea failed to qualify for men's football most of this forum's member weren't even born

This is probably the worst U23 team I ever seen for both Japan and Korea. Japan managed to beat Qatar only because of a dumb mistake by Qatar GK which made his team to play with 10 men for 80-90 minutes and now Korea is struggling ! interestingly Korea never failed to qualify in Olympic football U23 era. that's an unbelievable achievement

Iran athletes of the year Male: Amin Mirzazadeh (Wrestling) Female: Nahid Kiani (Taekwondo) and if you wonder why now ? we have a different calendar

I have no idea about Guinea's quality to compare them but this is football, anybody can beat anybody Iraq can even end up winning the AFC tournament

They are making Chamizo #1 seed for the last chance qualifier, somehow to make up for this I took a look at the entry list and I think it's not that bad for him. at least he will avoid both #2 and #3 seeds Salkaznov and Demirtas. (that can change if China sends a different wrestler who has a better seed than both of these guys) Salkazanov is the worst possible matchup for Chamizo. not facing him is the best news for the Italian