MHSN

Turpal Bisultanov maybe this guy is the next big thing in Greco wrestling. he destroyed everybody here without mercy. some of the better guys lost to each other in the other side of the draw and he didn't face them on his way to the gold but I really believe all of them would have the same fate against him. he lost the Euro U23 final few weeks ago but I can see he is improving tournament by tournament. with Beleniuk out of the picture (probably retired) I believe Bisultanov is #1 in the world right now. still to prove that I would like to see him against likes of Datunashvili, Maskevich, Abbasov and those Russian guys. he is Russian himself but I think he mostly grew up in Denmark.

that means they confirmed those 5 weights we heard before in weightlifting out of current 10 wights, it will be #2, #4, #6, #8 and #10 in Olympics for both men and women

based on the number of sessions, looks like volleyball is going to follow the basketball format, 3 groups of 4 teams etc

do we have detailed schedule for each sport ?

that wasn't my prediction actually, I was expecting something like Brazil, Germany and Canada that was my wish group and I still can't believe we got exactly the same group. what were the odds ? people here are already counting on Maguire to give us at least one penalty.

that would be nice. as long as we don't fall in the same group

looks like Canada didn't want Pot 3 after all. it will be Tunisia in pot 3 Costa Rica also beat USA 2-0. they were 4 goals short from direct qualification spot. just 4 goals

best move of the day unfortunately Chamizo was ultra defensive and eventually lose the match but still he deserves some credit for this

watching Petriashvili hopeless and miserable like that in first period was really hard for me, he was always one of most favorite wrestlers at least he gave his everything in 2nd period and made it a bit respectable and lost only 5-2. Akgul's defense on Geno's last single leg attempt was superb. they both deserve all respect in the world UWW commentator talked about his long chat with Geno which was about the Olympic final where he lost 3 pts lead in last few seconds. that was heart breaking to hear Geno's side of the story Russia (despite being absent) ended up with 4 gold medals. (and something around 10 medals) but to me the most impressive wrestler of the tournament was the Turk guy at 92kg. who the hell is this guy? I first saw him during Euro U23 few weeks ago and he is like a bulldozer, he will challenge top guys for the World title this year.

Khosonov beat an Iranian wrestler in the World U23 semifinal so I had close eyes on him since then to understand the level of our own guy. I believe that was just a lucky break for Khosonov. he finished 5th in Euro U23 few weeks ago and I believe that U23 Silver will be the best medal of his career (I might be wrong though) he knows big throws and this sometimes help you in matches when you are the underdog. you can throw the guy and pin him before he start to collect points. on other hand Kougioumtsidis caught my attention during the Olympic qualifiers where he failed to qualify but he was impressive for someone with little international experience and now with more experience he is getting better and better. he still gives up silly points sometimes which is a weakness he should work on it. (and almost cost him the Euro gold yesterday ) but I won't be surprised if he medals this year at the World Championship. but sooner or later he has to make a decision to move up or move down to an Olympic weight. I would advise moving up to 86kg fixing a final ? hmm. that's interesting. I wonder if it was against a Russian wrestler? they are notorious for doing these kind of things . I know they did that at least few times before. I understand his situation. that's always the problem when you are active in a sport which is NOT big in your country. lots of our athletes in minor sports have these kind of problems. but not our wrestlers, this is obviously a big sport here. they are usually relatively well paid. most of them have no other job and only focus on their wrestling career. that's the only way to keep up with the Russians and Americans. I wouldn't say Pilidis can medal in 2024 (65kg is a very very tough weight) but that's not completely impossible for him. he is not that far and they should invest on him.

my favorite group and the winner of (75% chance WAL or SCO wins this play offs and I love to play each of them)

Russia won 3 gold medals despite not even being here ! we had some interesting finals. Kougioumtsidis (I have to copy/paste his name each time ) almost gave up his gold medal in last 50 seconds but somehow survived Ashirov's last attack. but I think Musukaev/Aliev was match of the day, Musukaev was always great technically, his problem was his gas tank and looks like he found a solution for that weakness. he looked scary here. looking forward for Akgul/Petriashvili final tomorrow but I have to say Geno looked much weaker here, he almost lost to Robert Baran in the SF, won the match only 2-1 only by cautions.

that was a crazy end to this fantastic night of football

Friday and teams from the same continent can't be in the same group. (only max 2 UEFA teams in one group is possible)

and will send Tunisia to pot 4 it will be something like this 1) QAT BRA BEL FRA ESP ARG POR ENG 2) DEN NED MEX USA GER CRO SUI URU 3) SEN IRN JPN MAR SRB POL KOR CAN/TUN 4) CAN/TUN ALG/CMR GHA KSA ECU and 3 playoffs winners

South Korea will lose lots of points after losing to low ranked UAE but I believe they will still stay in Pot 3. but I believe you don't want any Asian team but Qatar in your group

Poland will be in pot 3 (right ?), there will be worse teams than Poland in that pot I can name one at least

I watched both matches , the entire 210 minutes, can't remember the lasers in the 1st leg which probably means it wasn't significant. still it's bad but I never saw something like this. it was like an army well trained for this. yeah the ref should stop the penalties but we know African refs are not good in general.

In a fair world Senegal should be banned from the WC for doing this. that was unbelievable , it was like 1000 persons using laser lights during the entire 120 minutes and it clearly affected Egyptian players during the penalties.

I wouldn't put Khosonov in the same league as those 2 . Pilidis and Kougioumtsidis are in another level and between these 2 I believe Kougioumtsidis has a better chance to win World level medals in his career. his name is hard to remember, I mostly know him as the Greek guy with tough name btw in the first day 9 of 10 finalists are from former Soviet countries (or Russian representing another country) the only exception is Kougioumtsidis. well done

surprise surprise. Japan didn't beat Vietnam! Japan had something like 30 shots on goal and scored just one. Vietnam had 1 attempt and scored th same number of goal

and he is in the Senior European Champs final too. have to say he is really impressive and at least in my opinion he won't be the underdog tomorrow in the final.

I'm afraid even that won't be enough now after losing to Korea (and Japan beating Australia) Iran lost its current place in the WR to Japan by 1 point or 2. even beating Lebanon tomorrow won't take it back most probably because Japan will beat Vietnam too. I would like a ENG/USA/Iran/whoever else group I always wanted to see that Iran vs England match. two of the biggest matches in our history were against English speaking countries (Australia and USA) I like to try our chance against England this time I hope Germany gets Qatar to balance the groups. any group with Germany and one of those top teams will be brutal.

Ukraine's men's freestyle team is not participating, another reason ruining the level of the freestyle competition but the UWW commentator guy just said that UKR's women's FS and the Greco team will participate which is a good news at least. I hope they are in good shape too which is unlikely considering the tragedy in their country but still it's good to see them here.

in past couple of months all media here were calculating and considering all situations to see how we can be in Pot 2 (which will be a huge advantage in the draw) but losing to Korea killed that chance completely. even though it was a slim chance from the beginning. no way Iran could be in pot 2, if Portugal or Sweden quality. we have some kind of obsession about advancing to the knockout round but I don't think that can happen this time too. we were very close in 2018 though.