dcro

Norway suddenly has sprinters too. Right... The modern .

San Marino has a 16:40 athlete entered for the W 3000 m s'chase. Curious if she will be able to improve her PB by like a minute or something.

In 8 events, Hungary has 7 podiums and one 6th place. And yet they are projected to finish mid-table, sureeee...

Japan is entered in full force for Strzegom next week. Probably too late as they have already missed several events. They would probably need to sweep the season to qualify at this point.

Bit late, but a really nice picture of Zaneta Skowronska-Kozubik in tears of joy after capturing the team quota for Poland.

Stage fright.

Filip Pravdica 8.09 m u skoku u dalj danas na ekipnom PH.

And yet we constantly get new nations on board, just not yesterday. Sure from the dark it can look expensive, but given that dirt cheap horses (sometimes the ones who were literally free, or coming from a Craigslist ad) have made it to the very top of the sport, including the Olympics, it's not nearly as simple as that. Just take a note of Laura Graves and Verdades for instance. And as for Hungary, there is a tradition. From Gyula Dallos winning a medal at the European Championships to Hungarian sport horses taking part at the Olympics (even if for other nations). Obviously there is something going on in Hungary... Just because nobody is actually watching taekwondo in Croatia, it doesn't stop us from collecting medals at every World Championships.

Oh come on. Rain had nothing to do with Sobierajska's poor ride. Pachl was in heavy rain too, and today Sobierajska just replicated her performance and got scored more appropriately (64%, but yesterday the German judge Elke Ebert was spot-on with 62% ). I truly hope Zaneta Skowronska-Kozubik makes the team for Paris instead of some other fancy names who could get their hands on more quality horses. She is the one who delivered this quota to Poland after all.

Huge kudos to Skowronska-Kozubik though. She never looked this polished. And she is rewarded with a PB!

Poland qualifies by virtue of making much, much fewer mistakes. In all honesty a very boring outcome. It would have been much more fun to get a new nation for this very uncompetitive spot.

Skowronska & Romantic P have scored above 67.229% in the last four Grand Prix starts so... Given her vast experience as well and everything, it would have to be rather a flop. Romantic P is not really spectacular though, just steady.

Welp... Talk about losing the quota in a span of two movements. Poland might never get this much of a chance. Skowronska-Kozubik needs just 67.229%.

Hungary increases the lead but this will all come down to the last rider. Poland is still just 1.577% behind.

Reasonable test for Aniko. Especially after the nightmare start, but she pulled it back with elegant piaffe and passage.

Ultrablue de Massa has a non-walk and Sobierajska crumbled under pressure as well. 65.5% seems very generous.

Fantastic test for Cichon. Solid for Pachl. At this point Poland is seriously knocking on the door.

Yes that is correct.

Some very expensive mistakes for Szokola. Bad start for Hungary, even if this should be their discard normally.

So Yom Tov says Konfucius is indeed a secret weapon, but I still wonder if this is all just smokes and mirrors. We'll see I guess. https://www.fei.org/stories/sport/dressage/jazmin-yom-tov-olympic-dream-hungary

Olympic ranking qualification simulation as of May 31st... Eventing Group A - Group B - Group C - Groups D/E - Group F - Group G - Overall - Everything is still wide open here. Nobody has collected more than 100 points yet.

Huh looks like the Hungarian team got weaker. Toth is out and Yom Tov went for an 8-year old Konfucius with only one previous GP. Toth will be replaced by Szokola, who is unreliable at best. He has been scoring as high as 68.5% (2021 Europeans), but also as low as 63% last month. Konfucius must be either a late replacement or a secret weapon. I guess the competition will be tighter than it seemed. Maybe it will come down to Komjathy-Losonczy whose scores have been also unsteady lately. Who knows? At this point I even wonder if Israel can do something insane and steal the prize.

Result system: https://www.horse-events.at/horse-events/_230584 Both Grand Prix tomorrow and Grand Prix Special on Friday will count towards the Nations Cup aka Olympic qualification.

Olympic ranking qualification simulation as of May 31st... Jumping Group A - Group B - Group C - Groups D/E - Group F - Group G - Overall - Still a long way to go in jumping as the best 15 results will count individually. Also, many more teams are yet to qualify. But at any rate, it's nice to see Lebanon doing reasonably well. Maybe with a chance to make their equestrian debut.

Olympic ranking qualification simulation as of May 31st... Dressage Group A - Group B - Group C - Groups D/E - Group F - Group G - Overall - Ecuador, Finland and Norway have riders above 1000 points. Effectively they are guaranteed an Olympic place. Ecuador will be back in the dressage arena for the first time since 1984, but Mendoza will be aiming for something much higher than just participation. Top 10? Certainly a possibility. Belgium, Spain and Lithuania likely have already enough points to qualify too. It will be interesting to see whether both will qualify teams which is possible too. is not even trying to obtain the Certificate of Capability so I guess the Group F team quota will be reallocated to another European team, I suspect it will be Austria or Belgium in the final analysis.