Dolby

USA never had a plan for Taliban. They were angry at Osama for 9/11 and invaded Afghanistan to get him. And they continue to depend upon Pakistan, one of the only allies of Taliban before 9/11, for strategic inputs to defeat Taliban. Yes, Pakistan will totally help US in defeating Taliban and not milk them for aid in war against terrorism for another generation. Solid logic.

United States is eager to leave Afghanistan but no president wants to leave it and see a number of untoward incidents happen soon. So, United States has been in talks with Taliban for quite some time to co-opt them in local governance which would basically mean pre-2001 government with a nominal peacenik as President of Afghanistan. I still remember Hillary Clinton's famous distinction about there being a good Taliban and a bad Taliban.

Yes. For practical purposes, Argentina should consider that they have qualified a team. I was just telling him why Totallympics or any other website tracking quotas won't be listing Mixed team in Argentina's quotas. And this thing is applicable not just for mixed team but also for other events. For example, Manu Bhaker has won quota in 10m Air Pistol and has MQS in 25m as well. I don't expect quota lists to list that we have 2 quotas in 25m but I have to remember that apart from Rahi who won the quota, Manu would be starting as well.

The reason why we don't add Argentina in Mixed Rifle team is that there is no obligation on Argentina NOC to select the same guy for their 50x3 quota. They are well within their rights to chose another shooter and he may not have MQS for 10m Air Rifle.

It should be but wont be.

First Semenya now this

There is a big difference in head coverings and face coverings from security point of view. I think in the present ban, even Muslim women will be allowed to wear Abayas which are head coverings similar to bonnet that you talked about for super religious Dutch group. Regarding Islamic countries, you should read about the rights that minorities have in these countries. How many countries that have more than 70% Muslim population are secular in nature? Also, majority of these Islamic countries would rant about such bans in Europe but are defending China while it is cracking down on Muslims in Xinjiang.

So, any man who declares himself to be a female can participate in 2028 Olympics in women categories?

So, all 5 Indians are alive in Repechage. Fingers crossed for some medals.

They have given multiple medals to same country in weightlifting even though there is restriction of one lifter per NOC per weight.

I would prefer if you lost the one against Russia though.

It is hard to keep track of tennis qualification. Apart from ranking, there are a number of additional complications like minimum number of Davis Cup ties, maximum number of players from a country plus many players skip the Olympics as well. Due to all this, in Rio, 101 was the cut-off for Men's Singles (not taking into account ITF or tripartite places). So, I think anyone in top 70 ranking is safe. Between 70-100 has a chance depending upon others. Prajnesh is at present on 90, so its 50-50 for him. Bopanna-Divij are ranked 45 and 49 at present. It would be tough for them to qualify with these rankings. I think they need to improve their combined rankings by 20 points atleast in order to be sure of qualification.

Sajan's timing of 1:58.45 is well within the OST time of 2:01.03 but quite behind OQT of 1:57.50. Aryan's time of 15:59.47 is way outside of OST time of 15:28.02. Basically, all swimmers who achieve OQT (A standard) are guaranteed to be part of Olympics. If after inviting OQT swimmers, relay swimmers and Universality places, there are any additional quotas left, FINA starts inviting OST swimmers. So, in order to qualify through OST, one needs luck and needs to be close to OQT timing to be quite high up in the ranking list. Apart from Sajan, Kushagra Rawat and Advait Page have also achieved OST in 800m freestyle.

Fan death is a well-known belief in Korean culture, where it is thought that running an electric fan in a closed room with unopened or no windows will prove fatal. Despite no concrete evidence to support the concept, belief in fan death persists to this day in Korea, and also to a lesser extent in Japan and Russia. Link

Indian team for Wrestling World Championships: Freestyle (Men): 57kg: Ravi Dahiya 65kg: Bajrang Punia 86kg: Deepak Punia 97kg: Mausam Khatri 125kg: Sumit Malik Trials for other freestyle categories will take place in second week of August. Trials for Freestyle (Women) will be held on Sunday. Greco Roman Team: 55kg: Manjeet 60kg: Manish 63kg: Sagar 67kg: Manish 72kg: Yogesh 77kg: Gurpreet Singh 82kg: Harpreet Singh 87kg: Sunil 93kg: Ravi 130kg: Naveen

[hide] Men's Tournament - Knockout Round July 21st - July 27th, 2019 12 Nations, Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Third Place Match  Date & Time (GMT +9)  Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 27th 2019, h. 17:00 Croatia 2 Hungary Final  Date & Time (GMT +9)  Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 27th 2019, h. 18:30 Spain 2 Italy [/hide]

Apart from Men's Doubles, Japan will be favourite to win gold in the remaining 3 categories shown here. Kento Momota (WR 1) is in amazing form. Yamaguchi/Okuhara (WR 2 and 3) are also in top form and Tai (WR 1) has a bad record in big tournaments. In WD, Japan has 4 pairs in top 10. Even in MD, they have two pairs in top 5 so they winning gold is not ridiculous but Indonesians are favourite there. So, with home support, Japan winning 3 golds in Badminton is very likely.

She has a decent chance of qualifying for Olympics. There are two spots on offer at Asian qualification event. Among the not qualified Asian nations, she has finished in 2nd place behind Thai girl in both Asian Games and here. So, Nethra and Thai girl should be favourites to win the two Asian quotas.

[hide] Women's Tournament - Knockout Round July 20th - July 26th, 2019 12 Nations, Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Third Place Match  Date & Time (GMT +9)  Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 26th 2019, h. 17:00 Australia 5 Hungary Final  Date & Time (GMT +9)  Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 26th 2019, h. 18:30 United States 5 Spain [/hide]

[hide] Men's Tournament - Knockout Round July 21st - July 27th, 2019 12 Nations, Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Semifinals  Date & Time (GMT +9)  Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 25th 2019, h. 17:00 Spain 2 Croatia July 25th 2019, h. 18:30 Hungary 2 Italy [/hide]

Waiting for the next US-UK summit

[hide] Women's Tournament - Knockout Round July 20th - July 26th, 2019 12 Nations, Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Semifinals  Date & Time (GMT +9)  Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 24th 2019, h. 17:00 United States 5 Australia July 24th 2019, h. 18:30 Spain 5 Hungary [/hide]

[hide] Men's Tournament - Knockout Round July 21st - July 27th, 2019 12 Nations, Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Quarterfinals  Date & Time (GMT +9)  Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 23rd 2019, h. 14:00 Serbia 5 Spain July 23rd 2019, h. 15:30 Croatia 7 Germany July 23rd 2019, h. 17:00 Hungary 6 Australia July 23rd 2019, h. 18:30 Italy 4 Greece [/hide]

Next stop Olympic gold.

Atleast I am aware of that. It feels nice to win another gold but still it feels inadequate until we can overtake the Africans in medal table in Asian Games. Meanwhile Indian media is going ga-ga over Hima Das winning a series of golds in preparatory meets in Europe in low quality races.