MHSN

IWF updates the Olympic Ranking with the Asian Championships result. still Pan American Champs is missing.

they have two options actually 1) award the remaining matches 3-0 to the opposite team and leave the previous results the way it was 2) remove North Korea and its results from the table and making it a group of 4 teams. option 1 will be good for us, but option 2 (which is more likely) will be terrible as I explained.

North Korea is going to withdraw from the World Cup qualifiers, that was expected https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sport/covid-19-north-korea-skip-world-cup-qualifiers-football-14737044 and this is a terrible new for Iran, because with one group of 4 teams, they won't count results against the 5th placed teams in each group to detremine the best runner ups. and Iran will lose its huge 14-0 win over Cambodia. by my count, the 2nd team of Group C has a slim chance to qualify, so Iran has to win all 4 remaining matches to qualify

@Benolympique @intoronto for me Karate is impossible to predict, maybe @phelps can help you guys here but in Karate anybody can beat anybody. this is a very competitive sport around the world. normally you can look up the ranking and take the next best 3 athletes as the favorite for quota in France. but I know there are lots of good athletes very low in the ranking simply because they gave up trying to qualify through the ranking. and these K1 events were only open to the best 64 in the world ranking.

no, only Europe and America for Asia, Africa and Oceania, it's simply the best ranked athlete

I'm sure you know this but for the rest who probably doesn't they will award the continental quotas only after the last chance qualifier. some of these guys may qualify directly and that will change everything. it's like a domino, one change will change everything because of the limitation we have on the number of qualified athletes in each weight. (which is 2) but I think Kvesic is almost safe. only Asia may qualify someone before him at +75kg. but yes nothing is guaranteed if Thomas Scott from USA qualifies directly that American quota will go to Brian Irr and that will change everything. kind of weird, you can qualify based on results of someone else from another country in another weight ! btw before COVID, WKF was very quick with updating its ranking. I think maybe only 5 or 10 minutes after the competition. not this time

Most karateka participate everywhere possible. so unless he is injured or COVID positive I highly doubt he doesn't participate in Croatia. and I think in general an European Championship medal matters more than a K1 League medal. (if he participated here, he will go to Croatia too) European Champs is simply important no matter who qualifies for the Olympics. but as someone who follows both of these guys, Poursheib and Ganjzadeh are more or less in the same level. they both win gold in several K1 events and lost in some of them. it happens in Karate, small details matter. actually I slightly prefer Ganjzadeh so I will cheer for Aktas but well Aktas had faced both of them million times, he knows both of them much better.

or sending him the ticket and arrange a 5 star hotel for him , in case he doesn't want to participate. by my count he needs 5th place finish or better. but the number of points also depends on the number of participating athletes. (more than 32 in each weight will add one more round = 60 extra points) they award points based on the number of wins + position in the final ranking. so for example you can get different amount of points for a 5th place finish. (depends on how many wins you get before reaching that) in some situations even a 7th place finish will do for him. he is down 262.5pts but for sure he has to at least advance to the repechage . if he loses to someone and the guy doesn't make it to the final. that will be the end for Ganjzadeh (Kvesic still will have another chance in France) a 5th place finish looks easy for Aktas on paper but this is Karate, you can lose to anybody.

Points for the remaining quotas after the end of K1 League in Portugal . only European Championship is left now Men's 84kg: Zabihollah Poursheib - 10215 Ugur Aktas - 9952.5 Q Ivan Kvesic - 6547.5 Men's +84kg: Sajjad Ganjzadeh - 9187.5 Jonathan Horne - 7642.5 Gogita Arkania - 7620 Arkania and Horne will fight for the 2nd place at the +84kg, whoever finishes higher will qualify for sure. Ugur Aktas will decide everything here, Kvesic, Poursheib and Ganjzadeh can't do anything except watching Aktas ! ====================== Women's 55kg: Wen Tzu-Yun - 7110 Jana Messerschmidt - 6247.5 Messerschmidt can qualify only by winning the gold in Europe. ====================== Women's 68kg Gong Li - 7402.5 Elena Quirici - 6525 Quirici has to win the gold to qualify ====================== Women's +68kg Meltem Hocaoglu - 6097.5 Eleni Chatziliadou - 5355 with 742.5 pts gap between them. and knowing the Turks can add 30pts just by participating, Chatziliadou has to win the gold and hoping for Hocaoglu to get eliminated very very early.

Iran finished the competition with 1 gold, 1 siilver and 2 bronze. not a great result but that was good overall Poursheib won our only gold here by walkover, now he is leading 84kg ranking by 202.6 pts over Aktas Aktas results at the European Championships will determine so many things, if he finishes 5th or better, that will qualify Kvesic and Ganjzadeh, if not, Poursheib and both Horne and Arkania will qualify for sure.

no more gift from the refs for Quirici this time Gong beat her badly 10-0 ! still Quirici can qualify but she has to win the gold in Europe. anything else will qualify Gong for Tokyo.

update about 55kg situation: Jana Messerschmidt wins the bronze, by my calculation she is 862.5pts behind Wen Tzu-Yun, she can qualify if she wins the gold medal in Europe.

at the end of the second day in Portugal. only two more athletes are qualified for Tokyo both in women's 61kg Merva Coban Jovana Prekovic for other quotas we have to wait till the end of the European Championships ====================================== here is the full list of qualified athletes Men Kata: 67kg: 75kg: +75kg: * quota is guaranteed for Iran at +75kg, we just don't know who Women Kata: 55kg: 61kg: +61kg:

here is the women's +68kg after tonight, Hocaoglu made it to the final. she can adds 240 more to her tally tomorrow. Chatziliadou is in the bronze medal match and can add 120pts more. Berultseva is out of the race, she is not European. Ferracuti will be out too if Hocaogly wins the gold tomorrow. after all Hocaoglu is in the pole position and only Chatziliadou has a realistic chance to challenge her for the quota. Sofya Berultseva - 5677.5 Meltem Hocaoglu - 5857.5+240 Clio Ferracuti - 5017.5 Eleni Chatziliadou - 5355+120

despite losing the semifinal, Ganjzadeh secured the first place in the ranking for himself but that's not enough for the quota !! if Poursheib also finishes first at the 84kg ranking he will beat Ganjzadeh by having more points. Arkania reached the final while Horne will be in the bronze medal match, they will be very close in the ranking after this event, if Poursheib wins 84kg, they are both qualified, otherwise they will fight each other for the quota in the European Champs.

at the end of 68kg preliminaries Gong and Quirici advanced to the final, their final on Sunday will be somehow a direct Olympic qualification match. Gong was leading by 637.5, if she wins the gold tomorrow, Quirici can qualify only and only by winning the gold in Euro. if Quirici wins the final tomorrow she will cut down the gap to 397.5. in that case even a bronze in Euro will be enough for her. (or even a 5th place finish in case more than 32 athletes participate) and I have to say Quirici won 3 matches here by Hantei (tied match decided by the refs) at least her semifinal against EGY was very dubious where she got the call 3 to 2.

the situation got complicated for 84kg/+84kg. Kvesic lost early but that doesn't really matter, he had to wait for Poursheib/Aktas results. Poursheib made it to the final to keep his hopes alive while Aktas lost the semifinal to Araga Aktas was leading by 160pts. Poursheib will take his place in the ranking after the finals. but we still don't know by how much. Aktas still can make up for that at the Euro. after tomorrow we will know how much Aktas needs to surpass Poursheib and helps Kvesic and Ganjzadeh (at +84kg) to qualify

990 to be accurate

after a crazy night of football , now we know the quarterfinal pairs in west Asia (eight finals in general) for the AFC Champions League crazy because of so many very surprising results, missed chances, missed penalties, even empty goals. 2 on 1 situation in 95th minute etc. the richest club in Asia (Al-Hilal KSA) lost embarrassingly 2-0 to an already eliminated club (while even 1-0 defeat was enough for them) still they qualified because two other teams in another group couldn't manage to beat each other in a crazy match. and all of a sudden 3 Iranian clubs made it to the knockout round while we always claim our league is very weak and our clubs suck. looks like the rest of west Asia suck even more. but the biggest surprise came from our Northern neighbor, for the first time in history Tajikistan was allowed to have a club in the AFC CL and that club made it to the knockout by some miracles. they scored some crazy goals you rarely see anywhere else.

Prekovic made it to the final in style to secure her quota, Coban also is in the bronze medal match, with this they are both mathematically qualified for Tokyo. which concludes the qualification race in 61kg weight with CHN, EGY already qualified now Merva Coban and Jovana Prekovic are joining them

on paper they even even overtake Turkey, 1000+1000pts are available for European athletes, while for non-Europeans it's just 1000pts from this tournament

2nd day preview men's kata: we already know who is qualified Damian Quintero Ali Sofuoglu Antonio Diaz Mattia Busato women's 61kg, Coban is almost safe, Prekovic can make it safer by having a good result here. 4 other girls are still chasing her Yin Xiaoyan - 10545 Q Giana Lotfy - 7710 Q Merva Coban - 6037.5 Jovana Prekovic - 5452.5 Haya Jumaa - 5137.5 Rozita Alipour - 5107.5 Leila Heurtault - 4515 Gwendoline Philippe - 4440 men's 84kg, Kvesic can't surpass Poursheib but he can hope Poursheib doesn't get Aktas ! Ugur Aktas - 9382.5 Q Zabihollah Poursheib - 9225 Ivan Kvesic - 6517.5 women's 68kg, for China and Egypt this is the last chance to collect more points. Gong can qualify by winning the gold, with anything else she has to wait for the other results. Irina Zaretska - 9217.5 Q Gong Li - 6412.5 Feryal Abdelaziz - 6075 Elena Quirici - 5775 Silvia Semeraro - 5160 men's +84kg, Ganjzadeh is guaranteed a top 2 finish but that's not enough for him to qualify he needs to outrank the other Iranian Poursheib at the 84kg. Arkania can still catch Horne, he also can qualify if few things happen at 84kg. Sajjad Ganjzadeh - 8617.5 Jonathan Horne - 7072.5 Gogita Arkania - 6630 women's +68kg, Berultseva is the non-European here, she needs a great result to widen the distance otherwise one of those girls will catch her by wining the gold in Euro Hamideh Abbasali - 6997.5 Q Sofya Berultseva - 5467.5 Meltem Hocaoglu - 5107.5 Clio Ferracuti - 4987.5 Eleni Chatziliadou - 4905

Did I write anything else ?

at the end of the first day in Portugal. the following athletes are mathematically qualified for Tokyo karateka in bold were already qualified before today, only one question remains about the 2nd quota in women's 55kg. Women's Kata Sandra Sanchez Viviana Bottaro Grace Lau Sakura Kokumai Men's 60kg Darkhan Assadilov Angelo Crescenzo Men's 67kg Steven Dacosta Ali El-Sawy Men's 75kg Bahman Askari Luigi Busa Rafael Aghayev Stanislav Horuna Women's 50kg Serap Ozcelik Sara Bahmanyar Women's 55kg Anzhelika Terliuga

Stanislav Horuna will be in the bronze medal match on Sunday and because of that he will rank higher than all 3 guys behind him which means Stanislav Horuna is now 100% qualified alongside Askari, Busa and Aghayev