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Double starters are mentioned and there is no change.

Competition started with the speed round today. Martin Fuchs took the win, ahead of Max Kuhner and Conor Swail. Disaster for the defending champion Steve Guerdat who could only manage 25th. Surely he will not be taking another title here in Leipzig. Tragedy for Petrovas who had the last fence down. In the final analysis that dropped him from 4th to 14th. Still - but could have been . Results https://www.longinestiming.com/equestrian/2022/fei-world-cup-finals-2022-partner-pferd-leipzig-leipzig/resultlist_01.html Standings https://results.hippodata.de/2022/2083/docs/wcf_standings_after_final_i.pdf

Interesting competition to start. More like an appetizer, since scores are wiped out and the results only really matter for the draw order for Saturday. The title will go to Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, barring a major mistake, but the battle for silver and bronze will be wide open between Werth and all three Danish girls! Carina Cassoe Kruth was 5th today, but certainly has a chance to go as high as silver. Losos de Muniz got so close to the Top 10. Glinka was trending towards there but late mistakes pushed her down to 14th. Maybe she can bounce back in the freestyle, but still pretty amazing showing for Moldova. Results: https://www.longinestiming.com/equestrian/2022/fei-world-cup-finals-2022-partner-pferd-leipzig-leipzig/resultlist_30.html

Isabell Werth & Weihegold still got it!! Near 80% in the SGP to take the lead. This is the retirement competition for Weihegold.

Great, so you can be from then, hit 0/125 targets in both Pan Am Championships, and be eligible for the universality spot.

But then again, they couldn't find one MQS universality athlete to fill out the spots for M 25 m rapid fire pistol, M skeet, W 50 m rifle 3 positions, W trap, W skeet in Tokyo. Unless I got something terribly wrong, some athlete can appear at the Oceanian Championships in women's trap. Hit 0/125 targets, but get ranking points and therefore be eligible for the Olympics?

At least they removed the mixed team quotas, so there will be no athletes heading to the Olympics this time just to take part in team shooting of all things.

That's how I read it too. Also, they just decided to scratch all MQS requirements? That's lunacy. Are we going to see universality athletes hitting 50/125 in skeet at the Olympics or something?

Boxing (whoever is running it at this point) just had to introduce that half kilo category (63.5)?

Also for everyone calling out Russian sports ban as injustice... Where were you all for the past two years when Belarus literally decided to throw athletes out of their teams for being anti-Lukashenko and therefore "traitors of the motherland"? Several athletes have been thrown of Olympic teams and replaced by weaker ones. In dressage they went a step further, and decided to rather decline a spot than to send a "traitor". Where is their justice? If it were up to me, Belarus would be banned from all sports events indefinitely and for as long as Lukashenko stays... Russia holds more power so they can be more subtle about it, if you will. From state-sponsored billionaires leeching their way into IFs and state-sponsored doping at home Olympics, to having preferred coaches whose proteges end up taking titles in essentially rigged national championships. Politics and sports can't get interlocked much more than that.

Sadly Milczarek withdrew last minute, so there will be only 17 starters. https://results.hippodata.de/2022/2083/docs/startlist_-_dre_leipzig_wcf_gp.pdf

Sigh, "politics and sport shouldn't mix" always sounds great in a speech because everyone knows it's a total bullshit. If politics played no part, then we would not have nations funding sports programs. Heck, then all athletes would have competed under . Russians love to use it in their propaganda speech even though they mix sport and politics more than anyone else. But it still sounds great. Can't resist

"Each qualification system shall be clear and easy to comprehend for NOCs/NFs, athletes and coaches and should leave no room for interpretation." -the IOC

According to this, "Tripartite Commission Invitation Places" have been officially renamed to "Universality Places". Love it or hate it? https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/News/2021/10/2021-10-08-Qualification-System-Principles-Paris-2024.pdf?_ga=2.129229836.1201290215.1649170497-375143742.1619858130

No new viruses this year. And unless something comes up in the next two days, looks like the Finals are happening for the first time since 2019 ! In 2020 it got cancelled due to COVID-19, of course, and last year the equine virus EHV-1 came along and caused another last-minute cancellation... And here is a throwback of the last, 2019 Finals, with the winning ride starting around 3:23:30...

FIVB just continues to be shamelessly transparent in regards of the beach volleyball. "Continental Cup" as a qualifier makes no sense. Guess who profits from it? But if it ain't broke...

Let's not forget how Putin conveniently waited for the Olympics to be over before he launched the attack. He knew exactly what he was doing. He fully expected Russian athletes to get a blanket ban, one way or another, and doesn't mind to use them as collateral right now. Also, in this short time we have witnessed Ukrainian athletes both missing events and/or competing poorly / well below their level of excellence. To allow Russian athletes to compete would have been nothing more than an international travesty. And finally the sanctions make it pretty well impossible for Russian athletes to actively compete around the globe right anyways, so in the end it's not like the IOC/IF are pulling most of the strings here.

No chance anything gefs added... It is way, way too late for that.

It's all about finding the right format for the stakeholders (wink wink).

Well, I have my hopes for the LNG terminal 30 mins away from my home (not that I am using or would ever use gas at home, but alright).

Looks like Slovakia is the first one to fall under the Putin's ultimatum on gas. One would expect this to be impossible after 1968 etc, but there you go....

The user has previously participated as @Memo, so yes.

Looks like the memo arrived on time this year. @Werloc @konig @rybak

I think the first three days are supposed to be eventing. Looks like they will be going all in with the "sprint dressage". They cut it down to one and half days in Tokyo. Looks to be one day in Paris.

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