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OCA published the number of events and sports for the 2018 Asian Games, this is from few days ago but I didn't notice that before. they made revolutionary changes in the program, huge huge changes. I understand Indonesia saved OCA after Vietnam gave up hosting the event very late but still I can't believe they let them make such big changes ! they have this program to benefit Indonesia, we were supposed to have Kurash, Roller skating, skateboaring and Sambo here as well but fortunately they removed them from the program. these changes will change the medal table A LOT, I mean China, Japan and Korea will be in top 3 for sure but that will change a lot for the rest. here I'm comparing the events with previous program, the only sport they completely dropped from the program comparing to 2014 was Cricket, not a bad idea when top Asian countries (India, Pakistan etc) didn't take it serious. Diving (10) - no change, we will have Olympics events plus 1m events. Swimming (32) - they cut 6 non-Olympics 50 meters evens, can't say I'm sorry about that Synchronized Swimming (3) - no change Water Polo (2) - no change Archery (10) - We already had compound in the program They added two more events, both mixed team events. not a good idea but Indonesia wants that. Athletics (46) - they dropped one event from 47, most probably the 50kg walk event. Badminton (7) - no change as expected, this is their national sport ! Baseball (1) - no change Softball (1) - no change Basketball (4) - Surprisingly they added 3-on-3 basketball as well. Bowling (6) - They cut it from 12 events to 6 ! A very good decision, this is not fair to award several medals for doing EXACTLY the same things. Boxing (12) - They dropped one from 13. I don't know how, did AIBA change the weight classes again ? Bridge (6) - what the hell is this ? is this even a sport ? what a shame Canoeing (16) - no change Cycling (16) - They dropped 3 track events and added 1 MTB event ! track event was already tiny thanks to IOC, this is really disappointing, I wonder which events won't be in 2018 program. Equestrian (6) - no change, this is in the program at the moment but apparently not finalized yet and they may drop the whole sport, will decide about it after the Asian federation election. Fencing (10) - unbelievable ! they did the same as IOC probably dropping two team events. but no details I don't know which events will be gone. but I guess this will be the same as 2020 program. Football (2) - no change Golf (2) - They dropped both team events, not a bad idea in my opinion. Gymnastics (18) - no change Handball (2) - no change, believe it or not, Indonesia wanted Handball go but OCA at least didn't let this one happen. Hockey (2) - no change Jet Ski (3) - No comment ! Judo (14) - They dropped both team events, don't complain about this as well Kabaddi (2) - no change, surprised they didn't drop this one as a non-Olympic sport Karate (13) - no change JuJitsu (8) - This is another stupid new addition, I don't know what's the deal between OCA and Jujitsu, but they are supporting this sport A LOT, only this one is not probably an Indonesian addition. Pencak Silat (16) - LOL , I knew this will be in the program but seriously 16 events ??!! this sport almost doesn't exist outside of Southeast Asia ! Wushu (12) - They dropped 3 events, I'm almost sure that's from Sanda and not Taolu cuz Indonesia sucks in Sanda. the sanda program was already very tiny, if they drop men's Sanda events that will be a VERY bad news for my country. Modern Pentathlon (4) - no change, surprised they kept the team events Paragliding (6) - No comment ! Rowing (15) - they added one more event here, I have no idea what's that new event, Rugby Sevens (2) - no change Sailing (10) - They cut 4 events here. making it similar to Olympic program probably. Sepak Takraw (6) - no change, this is exactly where we needed to drop something, only "regu" event should stay Shooting (18) - This is where the BIGGEST change happened. we had 44 events in Incheon, and now only 18 !!! with 18 I don't know if we will have any mixed team event or not but I guess this is 2016 Olympics program + 3 more individual events. Soft Tennis (5) - they probably dropped both team events, I would be happier with the whole soft tennis gone. Sport Climbing (8) - The only new addition that I fully support. but having 8 events making me wonder what's the last event ? a mixed event the same as 2020 Olympics or a speed team event to help Indonesia ? Squash (4) - no change Table Tennis (4) - unbelievable , this sport is QUITE popular in Asia and we always had full program in this sport and now they dropped 3, most probably all doubles events. what a shame. Tennis (5) - They dropped both team events the same as soft tennis. well we always had team events in tennis, that was traditional at the Asian Games Taekwondo (16) - no change, there were rumors about dropping non-Olympic weights but I'm glad they were not true. Triathlon (3) - no change Volleyball (4) - no change Weightlifting (16) - they added the new weight of women's 90kg to the program as expected. Wrestling (18) - Very sad for a wrestling fan like me, they dropped non-Olympic weights, that was expected though but very disappointing

Why they are using such a weird system this year ? was it hard for them to find a host for a 16-team tournament ? or maybe they were just bored of having a decent tournament and they came up with such stupid/strange idea.

Iran will send a big delegation this time as well, after finishing second in Indonesia 4 years ago they want to repeat that again, with all of our favorite sports in the program Wrestling, Weightlifting, Taekwondo, Karate and Wushu we would probably even able to top the medal table but I guess that's always reserved for the host nation in multi-sports event like this with the exception of Football, Handball, Basketball Rhythmic Gymnastics Iran will send team to all other sports even in Tennis and Gymnastics Artistic This is a good chance for some minnor sports like those to do something and get results. for example we will never win medal in table tennis at the Asian Games, but here there is a good chance. from what I see in the squads, in volleyball we are sending the junior team, in wushu and men's taekwondo this is our B or C team. (women's taekwondo will be A team only without olympic medalist Alizadeh) in weightlifting this is a mixture of A and B teams since none of our stars are available right now , in Greco-Roman wrestling this is a mixture of A and B team (will be held at the same time as the Asian Championship) for other sports we are sending our very A team ! the biggest surprise was sending the A team including our Olympic medalists in freestyle wrestling, apparently our NOC pushed the wrestling federation to ignore the Asian Champs and send the whole team here. will be a nice competition with Azerbaijan and Turkey. I think out of all those sports, Karate competition will have the highest level, with Egypt, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey and few more good countries like Malaysia.

now I can answer this question, based on their proposal, the draw will take place the previous day

oh yes he is, in China open looks like he gets more headlines outside of Iran he always writes about that in his instagram posts, have to say he is very upset about this.

I thought I'm the only one here in this forum following Snooker btw we could have a player in main draw for the very first time, Vafaei lost a match he could win to Ford in the last qualifier after missing some easy shots in last frames, most probably because lack of experience. first time I started watching snooker in Eurosport (almost 10-12 years ago) this sport almost didn't even exist in Iran . so having two players in the pro tour is quite a progress in such a short time.

A surprise, the referee didn't buy in to Barcelona's theatrics. Barcelona's players are unbearable. Every tackle on any of them they are screaming for a foul. really disgusting, and how come they expect "fair play" from Juventus when they did the opposite when Mandzukic was down. not a Juve fan when they play in Serie A, but I really hope Buffon wins the champions league, he deserves it.

Iranian team of Raoufi/Salemi won the Asian Championship today in Thailand ! that was a big surprise since they were 15th seed before the event ! Does anybody know what's the tiebreaking criteria in beach volleyball ? I assumed it's the same as indoor volleyball but I was wrong look at Pool A here http://asianvolleyball.net/2017-avc-beach-volleyball-championships-men-schedule-results/ the Iranian team who eventually won the competition should be eliminated in 1st round if set ratio was the tie breaker, is this point ratio ? or only points ratio between tied teams ?

well forget my previous post, based on some Iranian sources (who has informant in UWW) the new proposed weights classes are something like this for both freestyle and Greco-Roman (Olympic classes in bold) 59, 62, 65, 70, 75, 80, 86, 92, 100, 130 This one makes more sense but some countries like Iran and Japan are not satisfied by these daily crazy changes in the rules without asking others' opinion.

Election time in Iran and today Ahmadinejad surprised everybody by registering for the election ! he said twice, (the last time only 7 days ago) loudly and clearly that he won't run for the presidency yet he still did that ! I know all politicians lie most of the time but this guy is beyond all records in term of lying ! Because of the weird system here, all candidates should be approved by a council and I know it's likely for them to disqualify him but still that won't be easy for them to drop the two time "president", things will change if he enters the election, Rouhani's position is weakened now and losing the election is not impossible at all. with a moron like Trump in office, the last thing we want is another idiot here, things can get out easily of control with all these US military forces in Persian Gulf not far from the Iranians.

Rumors say the new weights in men's wrestling will be 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 100 125 no idea which 6 weights will be at the Olympics but I guess 60 65 75 85 100 125

Talakhadze broke the snatch world record in last day of the Euro Champs. 217 is the highest snatch ever in weightlifting history, we had max 216 even before changing the weight categories in 1998. less than a year ago, all 3 super heavy weight records belonged to the Iranians , Talakhadze already took two of them, only CJ record left for him to break.

World Youth Championship: 69kg winner, Clarence Cummings (USA) 322kg European Senior Championship: 69kg winner, Bernardin Matam (FRA) 320kg looking forward to see this Cummings kid in senior level soon, meanwhile I'm disappointed by the first ever women's 90kg competitions. the level is quite poor, I was hoping for a new world record here

well we heard about that few months ago, about both him and Fedoryshin and UWW didn't deny that. (they denied rumors about Togrul Asgarov which means they deny false rumors) and to be honest we knew this for a long time. he was my favorite non-Iranian wrestler but still we knew he is up to something, this is not a good day for wrestling fans I wonder if they already tested his 2012 sample and it's negative or that's for the future.

https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-sanctions-three-athletes-for-failing-anti-doping-test-at-beijing-2008-and-london-2012 IOC sanctions three athletes for failing anti-doping test at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Artur Taymazov (Wrestling - Men's 120kg Freestyle - Gold medal) Vasyl Fedoryshin (Wrestling - Men's 60kg Freestyle - Silver medal) Svetlana Tsarukaeva (Weightlifting - Women's 63kg - Silver medal)

OK I didn't sign for this can somebody tells me what is this exactly ? I didn't see anything about this " Festival of Music 2017 " in the first page

more simple probably for the fans to understand bodyweight used to have much more importance before 2005, at that time you could not increase the weight less than 2.5kg , which was a big deal when these athletes reach their max at lifting weights, when they make 1kg, you could simply lift 1kg higher than your opponent if you were heavier.

the order of the lifts, whoever lifts first

IWF announced this months ago but I think it doesn't hurt to remind everybody that bodyweight is no longer the tie breaker ! this is kind of a big change, as far as I remember bodyweight was always the tie breaker in this sport. I think they should not write the bodyweight in results book anymore when it doesn't matter.

European Championships start list http://www.ewfed.com/2017/Split/start_book.pdf Russian team looks strong on paper but they didn't post very high entries. maybe just because they didn't need to.

Waiting for the Start list but based on the entry list the level will be quite good. Russia is sending a strong team after missing the Olympics and since there is a big possibility for them to miss the next WCh. and this is the first ever Women's 90kg competition, so we will probably have some new world records there. ps: based on IWF rules, countries with more than 3 positive tests from 2008 and 2012 Olympic re-testing will receive 1 year ban from the competition but nothing yet since the process is not finished yet !! Moldova, Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Ukraine and Belarus are in this list. (plus China and Kazakhstan from Asia) Imagine European Champs without those countries I listed when IWF said they will ban countries with 3 doping violences , I'm sure they didn't expect to have this list in their hands to ban !

well, you have a point here, but I doubt World Games organizers want their event to be considered as a "warmup" for the Olympic Games. beside that, we have full program Climbing event with 12 athletes per event, mean 36 per gender, 36 is still bigger than 20 at the Olympics

as far as I can remember, we always had limited number of athletes for each event at the World Games. 12 athletes per event looks fine for me,

Qualified athletes in sport climbing http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/images/media-centre/2017/2017_The_World_Ganes_Wroclaw_Qualified_Athletes.pdf

They still did nothing special, Australia was always weak in U18 tournaments . their real test is in second round