dcro

From what I remember, studies have shown that meldonium stays in body for some 3 months, not 6 months...

This is great for Guinea-Bissau. I was already afraid that there might not be justice for them.

Anyway, this is the first Eurovision that I watched since 2012 Grand Final. And the first impression is that Eurovision completely lost its variety. Everyone is singing, mostly cheesy songs in English? What's the point of even representing "nations" if the main idea of everyone is to copy American hits basically? Kudos for Macedonia for being authentic, but they will probably drop out so...

Host: "Belgium won Eurovision 30 years ago. It later turned out that their singer Sandra Kim was 3 years old at the time". Was that supposed to be some (bad) joke? Sandra Kim was 13 years old when she won.

I sincerely doubt that, considering that Australia withdrew from TISC.

I see that Belarus is relying on kids votes with their animations.

Alright. IWF still didn't publish anything on their website. Surprised that America apparently wasn't given a single wild card.

If true, Rwanda won't be accepting any wild cards. http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2015-01-26/185336/

Source?

Tomorrow is the final day of African championships... In men's events qualified nations can't change anymore. The five qualifiers are In women's events qualified nations are all pretty safe (unless Morocco makes a HUGE upset tomorrow and overtakes Algeria).

Australian dressage selection trials start this weekend in Odense, Denmark. That's the first of two selection events, the other will be in June in Rotterdam. Selection policy seems straight forward, Grand Prix scores from both events will be averaged and top 4 will be selected. But we already have some situation. Sadly, Lyndal Oatley (Sandro Boy) will miss Odense because of an injury. I wonder if Australian selectors will make an exception for her, since she is by some margin the best Aussie. In theory though, her score from Odense will be the average of the lowest three Aussie scores at that event. That's the official policy if someone has to miss a selection event (because of a valid reason). She is better than others, but I'm not completely sure if she can make up that difference in the second selection event.

Looks like I missed -77kg yesterday. A whole bunch of lifters didn't show up there (6 out of 14 from entry list). 2x 2x Libya seems to be out of it in fact. It's sad for them, but they might get a reallocation/wild card. As DR Congo also didn't show, Ghana only needs to finish to earn a very easy men's quota.

Israel is also well inside qualification zone in men's mountain bike at the moment.

Rowing Single Sculls +1 -1 Rowing Lightweight Double Sculls +2 -2

Rowing wild cards added. All three nations will be making their Olympic debuts in rowing.

We also have Tripartites! Libya and Vanuatu in men's and Togo in women's! Looks like the other women's quota might be unused.

Asian quotas have been confirmed. http://www.worldrowing.com/mm//Document/General/General/12/26/16/2016OlympicQualification_090516_Neutral.pdf Thailand received reallocation in women's single sculls while Hong Kong got in women's light double sculls. Vietnam chose LW2x, South Korea W1x.

So, we miss out on 2nd quota in men's singles by one place... I knew it! Thanks a lot Asian nations for giving Uzbekistan an easy quota, among others... -.-

Looks like that's not a trend so far. So far we had 0 pop-up lifters that magically appeared, but we had quite a few that didn't, despite being on entry list. Congo and Sierra Leone didn't show up today. Tomorrow will be an important day, if Libya doesn't show up once again then they are certainly out.

Looks like no disqualification of Egypt in -97kg... At least not so far.

I always preferred Tero Pitkamaki in their duels.

Croatia is in the final for the first time since 2009.

I see that Azerbaijan still has those songs that sound awfully "artificial".

Meaning that Australian organizers host it in a European country?

I haven't watched or followed this in years. Just curious as I see that is now participating, what happens if they win? Eurovision held in Austrlia?