dcro

CDI4* Grand Prix of Aachen was held today. On paper a nice win for Dufour & Bohemian. Just over 80%. Piaffe, passage and pirouettes are championship-ready, however extensions, half-passes and flying changes were ridden quite conservatively and averaged below 7.5. Will need to improve on that if she is to become the World Champion this August, even if she is still the favorite. Exception performances from Freese and Wandres (on Bluetooth), but also Galloway who set a new PB and showed promise for even more. Things are looking pretty good for New Zealand. Not that it matters greatly, because she will not be making the American team any time soon, but Tubman & First Apple were so hilariously and outrageously overscored for their non-piaffe. The second one traveled 12 m and somehow got handsomely rewarded with 5.3 (of course, that's a low mark at any rate, but one can make a serious case that the piaffe in question never actually happened and should have therefore been given 0.0). https://resulting.chioaachen.de/show/27/event/165/competition/2/result/ Tomorrow is the stage one of the Nations Cup.

Ali opet, Mediteranske igre jesu kao Challenge Cup. Na parteru je ovo svakako propuštena prilika za Đerek.

San Marino has five medals as of Day 4, including two golds. They are ahead of Spain, Slovenia, Morocco and Portugal in the medal table. They have only one medal less than Greece.

Oh shit. We did it again. If only we were as consistent in the Olympic Games. At any rate, there is still hope we continue the crazy streak (podium at every Worlds since Melbourne 2007).

To be frank, it seems to me the quality of pretty much everything sports related has gone noticeably downhill after COVID came. From result systems to live streams.

And we have a new scandal. As with the women's competition, men's apparatus results took a whole age to be released. Tokyo silver medalist on the horizontal bar was placed 8th and therefore appeared on the start list for the final. The result list was signed by the chief FIG official. However, a day after those initial results, it was announced this evening that Srbić was in fact 9th (on tie break) and was suddenly excluded from the final. No explanation on the mistake was given, not even an apology from the official. And while there is a chance that common sense prevails (meaning horizontal bar ends up having 9 finalists, has happened before), Srbić has already announced that he will not be taking up any such option due to how the whole incident was treated and the poor organization. He is looking to leave Oran on plane ASAP.

San Marino has the wrestling final to come and also some secured boccia medals already. Arguably they are the best sports nation in the World.

Ooooooooh. Morocco defeated Algeria in football.

Libya is in the bronze medal match of boccia this evening. A chance to win their first medal post-Ghadafi.

CHIO Aachen is back this week. Following the sprint edition of last year (during the post-seasonal September at that), it is finally back in full force for the first time since 2019. For the first time this year, it will stage the FEI Youth World Equestrian Games in both jumping and dressage. An event pretty much like the Youth Olympics, with the likes of taking part. Youth Games will be streamed on the Youtube. Here is a thumbnail for the tomorrow's first round of jumping.

Both practiced with Djokovic and Nadal before testing positive. Meanwhile, Fett managed to grab three games against Iga. Pretty good. Just a pitty that her first GS Q in years ended up with this draw.

Well, you weren't at the Olympics since Beijing 2008. Guess it's time for a comeback... https://www.olympedia.org/countries/ALG/sports/BDM.1

Synchronized skating is much more newb-friendly than the ice dance.

How come Algeria is suddenly good in badminton? What's the trick?

Oh well. For me it is always interesting to follow the battle for 5th, 6th or 8th place as well. Nordic combined relay has that unique distinction where lapped teams are not removed from the race, hence why there is always a nice wait for the weakest of teams. I thought this was the general sentiment around the Totallympics (caring for more than just medal placings), but alright.

Quarterfinals vs vs vs vs Huge upset in the Round of 16 as the low-ranked Dominican Republic upset Group G winners El Salvador. Dominican Republic got a bye for the Round of 16. Technically, they are ranked lower than some of the earlier pushovers ( and such). Guatemala defeated Canada in another small surprise. However, as we know, those who create a surprise are very seldom able to replicate it. This will be a very easy quota for Mexico. Top half is more interesting. I suspect however that Honduras' qualification streak will end this time. Surely the States will not mess things up yet again.

Except, you know, Nordic combined losing about 33% of their total quota and the relay event getting massacred. There will be 6 nations allowed to make start at best. Not worthy of the Olympics anymore.

More bad news coming through... Gymnasts themselves still don't know how they ranked in the qualifications. Results are nowhere to be found. They only found out who is going through to the apparatus finals once someone released the start lists (but again, results themselves are still missing). Source in Croatian https://sport.hrt.hr/ostali-sportovi/tijana-korent-i-ana-derek-u-finalu-na-mediteranskim-igrama-8183950

Yeah, it's weird. But I can't really remember Algeria hosting an international event like this (?). Maybe it's just a little lack of the collective spectator experience.

Reportedly, several athletes have suffered from food poisoning. One of our boxers had to withdraw due to severe symptoms which among other things caused him to lose 4 kilos. Just a bad organization or a planned scheme for Algeria to grab more medals?

Jakov Vuković 46.46 na 400 m na prvenstvu RH. Možda dovoljno na upad na Europsko prvenstvo preko rang liste. Ima šanse još to poboljšati na Mediteranskim igrama.

This rant is worthy of the Hall of fame.

This is perfect size for the Mediterranean Games. Nobody wants to see white elephants.

That's insane. The line of common sense needs to be drawn somewhere. Federations can't be allowed to force non existent TBD events onto the program.

Wow this will be a snoozefest.