dcro

Meanwhile, no joy today for Karaevli. Now he can overtake Poland only if he wins tomorrow's Mechelen WC. Yeah, that's not going to happen...

For individuals, yes. But for teams the deadline to get the NOC Certificate of Capability is December 31st. NOC Certificate of Capability means having at least three riders with MER.

So... How many athletes have won all four hills in one calendar year? Kobayashi just completed that now.

There is nobody left in Group A, so it would go to the next best overall - Italy. Next in line are Slovakia and Estonia. Seems like these 14 points that Miloserdova has on Bugan could prove to be very unfortunate for Slovakia...

They must do it before 31 Dec.

I can confirm now that the Thai rider failed to score any new points in Al Ain. This means that Mathilda Karlsson has qualified. So exciting. In case you are wondering what's the connection between a name like Mathilda Karlsson and Sri Lanka - you can check it here. Now we just need to wait and see what happens with , and whether Karaevli can overtake Poland in the last moment.

What the hell! Popović made her first ever 2nd run in slalom with Bib 69.

Final overview of dressage... Teams qualified - Individuals qualified (spots are awarded to NOCs, not the specific athletes) Group A Henri Ruoste (Rossetti) - 981 Ellen Birgitte Farbrot (Tailormade Tahennya) - 478 Group B Nicolas Wagner (Quater Back Junior) - 974 Birgit Wientzek Pläge (Robinvale) - 952 Group C Inna Logutenkova (Fleraro) - 969 Hanna Karasiova (Zodiak) - 909 Groups D/E Yvonne Losos de Muñiz (Aquamarijn) - 915 Annabelle Collins (Joyero VG) - 760 Bernadette Pujals (Curioso XXV) - 714 Brazil - reallocated from failed team qualification Group F Ismail Jilaoui (What A Feeling) - 673 South Africa - reallocated from failed team qualification Group G Wendi Williamson (Don Amour MH) - 853 Hwang Young-shik (Despino) - 828 Additional Laurence Roos (Fil Rouge) - 916 Incomplete MERs - Question with Norway is not - "Can they get MER?". It is - "Will they bother?".

I like how it says: "If an NF finds it impossible...". I guess it really was impossible for the billion people of China. They were the first nation who used this rule (already back in June).

This! Whenever I try watching speed events, I always end up losing interest because of this. I don't even know who are the top seeds anymore, and it's just boring to see mid-tier skiers mixed up with favorites. I very much preferred the previous system, when there was a real build-up before the favorites got on the start.

It was a total meltdown for Belgians in fact. Instead of chasing personal best scores, Verliefden scored 68%, while Roos retired right at the end, after many, many mistakes (I had her on 61% in the spectator judging app). Nevertheless, they will get an individual spot, as will Switzerland.

Verliefden (somewhat expectedly) gets 2s and 3s for flying changes today... It's over. Quotas for Austria and France.

If you are that willing to settle, you shouldn't ever complain about anything.

I don't remember seeing Qatar/Ukraine on entry lists in recent weeks, so most likely they went for 5.1 route. Apparently the list of MER athletes hasn't been updated since November, so we may have to wait a bit.

Onto the Group F for jumping. Virtual standings look like this... Ahmad Saber Hamcho - 871 Ibrahim Hani Bisharat - 824 Ramzy Al Duhami - 684 Syria and Jordan have no competition, but one of them could miss out if Qatar fails to keep its team... Saudi Arabia failed to qualify for the second Olympics in a row. Really weird, considering they won a team bronze medal in 2012! Interestingly, all those Damascus competitions could prove very costly for Syria, as Bisharat might be able to overtake Hamcho on December 30th (of all days). But then again, even winning both remaining Damascus competition might not be enough (if too few athletes are entered).

And it was always largely inconsequential.