dcro

Small correction for the opening post. It's Antonela, not Atonela.

Lol, so glad that I decided to pay zero attention to this race.

It's the intermission in the jumping competition, 6 clears in the 1st round. 2nd round will start in about 30 mins. EDIT: It was Scott Brash who claimed the win at the end. Meanwhile. dressage competitions are completed. Werth won the freestyle with 81%, Dufour second with 80%, Kasprzak third with 78%. Another Dane, Rikke Svane, was also in top 6, so excellent day for them. However, the highlight was Anna Kasprzak performing the incredible "vertigo sequence" of flying changes (or however that sequence is called )... Too bad that judges didn't really reward her that much. Must have been the first time that someone successfully performed such sequence. Incredibly difficult.

We still have a record. And my motto is: "Aim for improvement, not perfection."

Looks like there will be a record Asian participation!

Aaaand.. Kočergina had one of the better shooting performances of the day.

I didn't watch yesterday, but I can kind of see now what's going on with the starts.

Elvijs Misans qualified for both long jump and triple jump finals. A rare achievement these days.

Who knows, maybe the cocaine is the reason why this made up stories exist.

One of my favourite shows of the year, the "Al Shaqab" in Doha, is being held this week. Today we had the Grand Prix qualifier in dressage. Isabell Werth (Don Johnson) - 77.600% Cathrine Dufour (Cassidy) - 76.820% Anna Kasprzak (Donnperignon) - 73.560% ... full results Tomorrow is the final day of the show. Highlights include... Dressage Grand Prix Special at 8:30 (6:30 CET) Dressage Grand Prix Freestyle at 14:30 (12:30 CET) Jumping Main Competition at 17:00 (15:00 CET) Everything will be live streamed HERE.

Didn't watch it, but from what I read Finland had some awful luck. What else is new?

Maria Florencia Manfredi has been invited to take part at the dressage WC final in Omaha in few weeks! @konig I love her reaction in this interview: “Amazing!” the 34-year-old rider exclaimed after she was told she had qualified for the final of the 32nd World Cup Final. “I can’t believe it. I need to go celebrate tonight." http://www.dressage-news.com/2017/03/01/maria-florencia-manfredi-becomes-first-argentine-to-win-dressage-world-cup-final-start/ She will be the first Argentine rider to compete in the history of dressage WC finals. She got invited as the highest ranked rider outside of Europe/North America/Pacific. It's sad that she apparently has zero support from Argentinian NOC & federation, according to this interview.

Well yeah, it's weird that so few nations have capacity to form a relay. Biathlon has way more relays and that's XC skiing + shooting. But anyway, the fact that FIS controls this should explain it. Let's just say that FIS isn't the biggest supporter of diversity in participating nations. WC events have 10 Norwegians and 10 Swedes, while likes of Romania and Latvia can have 1. Completely different than IBU's World Cup...

Damn! I wonder if Finnish women's relay will ever manage to beat Sweden in a sprint finish.

It's World Championships and only 16 relays are competing. It's interesting how the number of relays in XC is always way below what biathlon has (even at World Cups...).

Well, yeah, but that's ridiculous. Especially for a blue ribbon event such as interval starts (and where the technique is most important). Athletes should have one chance in four years for their event, not 8 years like XC skiing.

Too bad that this win means nothing for 2018 Olympics as the 15km will be in free where Niskanen is not so good... How can swimming have four different styles while XC skiing can't even have two for the interval starts at least...

heywoodu noticed the thread.

Since biathlon is his main sport, I suppose he might be in Korea!

50km mass start. Urgh, no thank you. 98% of that race nothing happens.

Sadly I will be busy this week so I will pretty much miss the only races that I really care about (interval starts and relays). Everything else is way too uninteresting for me...

Then how do you explain the fact that certain men who got more than 120 FIS points in qualifying are on the start list for tomorrow?

There is just one more qualifier left before the jumping Finals in Omaha. It will be held next month in Live Oak (North American qualifier). Here is an overview of the other (completed) leagues. ARAB LEAGUE - Al Thani, Alrajhi and Mohammed have earned a ticket for WC final AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE - Beresford and Raymont have earned their tickets. Raymont already confirmed that he won't be going though. Beresford is uncertain. CAUCASUS LEAGUE - Papiashivili qualified, participation uncertain CENTRAL ASIAN LEAGUE - Tuyakbaev qualified, participation uncertain CHINA LEAGUE - Bianba is apparently going to Omaha, Lam is uncertain JAPAN LEAGUE - Koike qualified, participation uncertain NEW ZEALAND LEAGUE - Laurie qualified but will not attend SOUTH AFRICA LEAGUE - Williams qualified, participation uncertain SOUTH AMERICAN NORTH LEAGUE - Vanonoste qualified, participation uncertain SOUTH AMERICAN SOUTH LEAGUE - Rodriguez Vanni and Fernandez Filho will be going to Omaha SOUTH EAST ASIAN LEAGUE - Limpichati qualified, participation uncertain However, Omaha website says that and have both "confirmed" their places. That would be so awesome if true.

Medal for Lorentzen Verbij

Cool. And yes, it's similar to canoe slalom. If you knock a ball down you get five seconds penalty. Here is an example of a full competition run.