dcro

Meh, very few changes when compared to Tokyo. Eventing will have 16 teams instead of 15. Pan America made slight changes to their individual qualification in all three disciplines. That's about it.

Andrew Nicholson Countless achievements, but he already stopped campaigning for championships after a conflict with the NZ federation during the 2014 WEG.

Malta won a medal at the European Championships for 49er FX.

Damn, these nasty Belgians just decided to move the men's ITT to a primetime slot instead of the amazing mixed TTT. HOW. DARE.

Imagine crossing from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina then.

CHIO Aachen is being held this week. Will Coleman won the eventing aboard Off the Record. They also helped Team USA to the second place finish, just 0.3 penalties behind Gee Bee. Sure, not the strongest Aachen (usually it's held in July), but this is a pretty significant result for the USA. Easily the biggest success in a very, very long time (10+ years) for this once powerhouse of a nation... Final results

China probably kills thousands of dolphins each day, intentionally or not...

Niyonsaba set a new WR over 2000 m in Zagreb.

On the sidenote, I stumbled onto this today which finally confirms beyond any doubt that it was a simple, dumb mistake which prevented a Slovak equestrian debut in Tokyo. https://www.michaelbugan.com/2021/07/05/3-4-7-2021-šamorin/ But... Floretto appears to be his second iron for Paris, and quite a promising one so far... It's already officially listed as Slovak-owned so no worries there.

Isabell Werth has announced she plans to retire after Paris. Should she win one gold medal there, she would become the 6th most decorated Olympian of all time. And with two golds, she would potentially climb to 3rd all-time, behind Phelps and Latynina...

Well, now we know why Belarus declined their Tokyo qualification in dressage. Olga Safronova is anti-Lukashenko, so the state-sponsored veterinarians deemed her horse unfit for Tokyo and thus ended her dream. She has defected to Poland since. https://www.eurodressage.com/2021/09/10/belarusian-dressage-rider-olga-safranova-seeks-asylum-poland

Well, the judges got the podium right this time. Gold for von Bredow-Werndl, silver for Werth, but bronze for Dufour this time in the special. Doesn't make up for Tokyo though. Especially since Dufour lost the silver on the final centerline. But then again, Bohemian is a sensitive horse so I guess we will have to get used to these blips.

Germany gold, Gee Bee silver, Denmark bronze. GB getting overscored again and again, but nothing new here. I guess that lottery funding must be going straight into judges pockets. Hughes was awarded 74% for a sloppy test worth of maybe 69%. Dufour dropped the silver for Denmark on her own though (spook coming out of pirouette), much like she did at Rotterdam 2019 (and possibly in Tokyo too...). Every time it happened on that first pirouette. And on two different horses. Unbelieveable. Sweden got 4th. Nilshagen was severely underscored. But the real stars are the "B" nations for whom this event was basically staged... Finland had three riders scoring over 70%! Crazy. Usually they are happy to have one breaking this psychological barrier, but this time they collectively stepped up to the team total of 218% and 6th place. They also have three riders advancing to the Special (Top 30), which is unheard of. Wagner outscored two (!) Dutch team riders with 73%. Aniko Losonczy 29th with 70.046%. And she even came back from a large error mid-test, so good on her. She has qualified for the next round which is massive for Hungary. @Vektor Bugan got 50th. Improved his score from Rotterdam, but dropped two places. Glinka and Vanagaite debuted their respective nations finishing 57th and 58th, respectively. Team results - https://www.longinestiming.com/equestrian/2021/fei-dressage-european-championship-2021-hagen-a-tw/resultlist_D01T.html Individual results - https://www.longinestiming.com/equestrian/2021/fei-dressage-european-championship-2021-hagen-a-tw/resultlist_D01.html

We defeated Slovakia too. Three wins in the group stage surpasses all expectations, even if we got lucky with the draw.

Zero chance of having foreign spectators. They would basically have to allow it overnight and hope fans can get organized on short notice. No way.

Too bad his horse had an off day in Tokyo (spooked at a camera person). Finland is having a nuts championships across the board. Their team result will smash their usual placing (12th-14th).

I think the souless part of the Olympics without spectators played their part. Sure it was fun, for a while, but these Olympics hardly offered any optimism going into the fall (mostly due to the politics of course).

Just catching up with the Day 1 of the European Dressage Championships. What a test for Vanagaite. "Only" 66% today, but there is so much more in the bag with more practice. She was trending at 71-72% for a good while.

7 medals is a pretty good number for us, but zero golds is a disappointing outcome. I think we had a couple of World Champions before COVID, so I would assume our athletes suffered more than some of the others. Historic medal in taekwondo. First one outside of athletics, swimming and table tennis. One very good result in paratriathlon as well (5th).

Andre Thieme wins it for the hosts in a dramatic conclusion. Silver for the defending champ Fuchs, bronze for Mr Silver Fredricson.

And the pressure got to Mytilineou. Refusal at the fence in a thick shadow. She will be placed 11th in the final analysis.

Line-up for the final 12. Thieme Fredricson Mytilineou Fuchs Devos Will Kukuk V Gulliksen Guerdat McMahon N Philippaers Coyle Greece has never won an equestrian medal. Heidi Antikatzides got 4th once back in the day.

Another clear jumping round for Mytilineou. Drops behind Fredricson due to a single time penalty, though. You know, Fredricson, the four time Olympic medalist.

This should be enough for V Gulliksen to qualify for the final 12. Best result for Norway in years.

One wonders how much of those 0.004 came from the guide pulling...