Noorderling29

Half time 18-6: the Czechs scored their first goal after 10 minutes.

Dutch team blows the Czechs from the court: currently 18-5, just before the end of the first half

In the end the difference in quality paid off in a 34 - 22 Dutch victory. This oqt may be decided today if the Dutch and Spanish teams win their second match

You’ve missed Justin Kluivert in the centre.

Wishful thinking. If Wilders had his way, our country would leave the EU.

The,oppos The opposite is also true. I’m old enough to remember the Dutch women’s table tennis team making the semifinals of the World championships twice (IIRC) in the 1980s. And three different players becoming individual European champions in a short period of time. Both totally unthinkable now.

Given that TeamNL won a total of 6 medals in athletics in the 17 games from 1952 to 2016, nobody would have predicted 4 medals at the start of 2020. Bol’s rise started that year (but more clearly in 2021) and Vetter dropped out of the 2019 World Champs with psychological complaints and was far from certain to compete again, let alone at top level. Even in 2021, my guestemation was 4 medals at the very best, with the kamikaze schedule that Hassan chose meaning I had serious doubts about her achieving multiple medals. At least 3 medals (Oosterwegel’s bronze in the hepathlon, and the silvers in the men’s marathon and 4 x 400 meter relays) were totally unexpected. Multiple medal chances for instance in sailing. But my point is really how surprising it is that a sport where we basically were dependent on a single talent once in a while, now delivers multiple athletes, likely to make finals and capable of vying for a medal, and a significant number of athletes below that (who on a good day are capable of making a final). In the past our teams consisted almost completely of athletes in the second category.

Gracenote predicts 38 medals, with 16 golds, for TeamNL. Both would be a record (currently 36 and 12). I haven’t seen the details of their prediction yet, but 16 golds seems to be on the optimistic side. Predictably the main medal providers are rowing and cycling (both road and track). More surprising the third sport mentioned is athletics. Just 3 years ago you would have been laughed away for making a prediction like that about athletics.

Same in the Netherlands, although IIRC the athletics federation sent every invited athlete to Budapest. Our National Olympic Committee is known for sticking to that B-standard. In the past a marathon runner was not sent to the Olympics, because she failed to make the national standard by just a few seconds. Because of corona the last two Olympics were an exception, and athletes were given the benefit of the doubt, but I’d be surprised if the NOC would repeat that for Paris. For example, I’d be mightily surprised if our NOC would nominate the C1-Slalom canoeist who won a quotum. His results are just not good enough by a long shot.

The result on the ISU website has also been adjusted

According to our national broadcaster the result has indeed been changed, with NL as winner, South Korea as second.

Let’s wait for the official confirmation.

According to the specialist speedkating website, schaatsen.nl, the Dutch team has lodged a complaint: they claim the Korean women skated one fewer round. As I understand it, according to our national coach, the jury has acknowledged this, and the expectation is that the result will be changed accordingly, hopefully before the next World Cup event in Beijing in early December .

Pigeon was a bit of a kamikaze pilot in the 1000 meter final.

Not unimportant to mention that Ajax has two fewer matches than most of the other teams. Jong Ajax is also bottom of the Eerste Divisie (the 2nd highest division).

Very little chance of Jonker being selected ahead of Bouwmeester in the Dinghy.

This can be used tactically. In Tokyo, one of our road quotas was used to take an extra man for the team sprint and one of our two Madison riders took part in the road race. He did not finish the race IIRC.

Thank you for jogging my memory. So indeed our best achievement. There’s dancing in the streets of Amsterdam tonight.

We’ve beaten South Africa before at a World Cup and haven’t we also defeated England once

Fair point, I don’t know. But then, neither do you know for certain that’s he’s not and he has had help.

Why should the security level be raised for a match when there are no evident signs of a threat or of hooliganism? Even if it has been raised, would that have prevented an attack of this kind? Most large cities have a significant amount of visitors, both foreign and domestic, every day. Football fans are perhaps more recognizable, especially when they are wearing their team jersey,so are a bit more vulnerable. Unfortunately people get killed by violence, often unprovoked by the victims. It happens in Western Europe, but also for instance in India. Of course an inquiry must be held and where possible lessons must be learned.

Can you explain what exactly the Belgian police did wrong or failed to do? How do you stop a lonely gunman from shooting people?

3 great matches, the England game I enjoyed far less.

Well, Wijler finished 6th at the World Champs and 5th in the men’s team event in 2023 (9th in the mixed event). so not so bad. Schloesser was part of the women’s team that took a completely unexpected 4th place in the team event.

Hope not…