Dolby

ICC just wants to ensure that all top teams play each other. The so-called minnows have improved a lot in last decade or so. ICC doesn't want a repeat of 2007 WC, where group stages was followed by Super 6 and what was supposed to be Super 6 match between India and Pakistan turned out to be match between Bangladesh and Ireland. India-Pakistan, India-Australia, etc. these are the matches which generate maximum buzz and revenue for ICC. ICC wants to ensure these matches instead of focusing on promoting cricket in newer countries. I would personally prefer a tournament of 16 teams. 2 groups of 8 teams with top 4 from each group qualifying for QF.

Fully agree about our chances. Sathiyan, Achanta and Manika should qualify easily. Men's Team should also qualify without too much problem. There is small chances for Women's team as well as second quota in WS. I am hopeful for Mixed Doubles as well.

Thank God it is is brand new.

Yes, we are safe for the qualification tournament. Anything less than huge wins in all the matches would be a disaster for us.

Chinki's hypothetical quota cannot be given to Mairaj or Sheeraz. This time quota exchange has to be done within the same gender. Thats why I talked about exchanging quota for 50x3 because in our hypothetical, we had full pistol quota and none of our shotgun shooters deserved the exchange. Also, I think even if Heena is not keen on 25m she should still compete in it in Asian Championships as there are 4 quotas available there.

Hockey FIH Series finals for men is going to start on 6th June.

If Manu had won quota in 25m and both Heena and Yeshaswini won quota in 10m, most likely we would have exchanged one of the 10m quotas for 50x3 Rifle quota. Manu has to compete in both. Rahi in 25m is also certain. So, it was essentially between Heena and Yeshaswini for the last pistol spot and the situation is same even now. Heena still has an edge because she can win quota in 25m event as well at Asian Championships. (In that case, Manu and Heena would exchange their quotas to get the desired team). Only those athletes who are going to start in AP event can take part in Mixed team event. So, teams for Mixed event will be Manu/Saurabh (huge medal prospect) and Heena or Yeshaswini with Abhishek (provided they qualify).

Bestmen is talking about Trump and you want to stay realistic.

2019 World Cup, Stage #6 (Munich, GER) Mixed Team 10m Air Rifle Gold: Anjum Moudgil/Divyansh Singh Panwar Silver: Apurvi Chandela/Deepak Kumar Bronze: Maria Martynova/Illia Charheika

2019 World Cup, Stage #6 (Munich, GER) Women's 10m Air Pistol, Shooters Qualified to the Final Olena Kostevych* Julieta Mautone Jimenez Manu Bhaker Anna Korakaki* Tanyaporn Prucksakorn Wei Qian Svetlana Medvedeva Kim Minjung* *NOT eligible for Olympic Quota

2019 World Cup, Stage #6 (Munich, GER) Men's 10m Air Rifle, Shooters Qualified to the Final Haoran Yang* Marco Suppini Oleh Tsarkov Taeyun Nam Alexander Schmirl Petar Gorsa* Alexander Dryagin* Filip Nepejchal* *NOT eligible for Olympic Quota

Gold no. 3 for India. Quota for Rahi and heartbreak for Manu. Hopefully, Manu would come back strong in her pet event of Air Pistol.

Saurabh Chaudhary

ISSF site is acting strange today. If you check his score details for previous round, it shows same pattern 9 10s followed by a 5. And randomly checking scores for other athletes show similar breakdown being shown for others as well.

2019 World Cup, Stage #6 (Munich, GER) Men's 10m Air Pistol, Shooters Qualified to the Final Artem Chernousov* Saurabh Chaudhary* Oleh Omelchuk Jiayu Wu Shahzar Rizvi* Su Yeol Choi* Meng Yi Wang Wei Pang *NOT eligible for Olympic Quota

2019 World Cup, Stage #6 (Munich, GER) Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions, Shooters Qualified to the Final Milenko Sebic Hui Zicheng* Henrik Larsen* Zhonghao Zhao* Petar Gorsa* Jonghyun Kim Oleh Tsarkov Milutin Stefanovic *NOT eligible for Olympic Quota

2019 World Cup, Stage #6 (Munich, GER) Women's 25m Pistol, Shooters Qualified to the Final Olena Kostevych* Doreen Vennekamp* Antoaneta Boneva Rahi Sarnobat Manu Bhaker Oksana Kovalchuk Golnoush Sebghatollahi Celine Goberville *NOT eligible for Olympic Quota

Nice to see an Indian among champions in Greco-Roman. Even if competition is not A level, it means a lot for Indian Greco wrestlers.

Yesterday results were declared here. In a historic result, the ruling coalition came back with even bigger majority. BJP (principal party of ruling coalition) won 303 seats and along with allies won 355 seats out of 542 seats. Rahul Gandhi, president of main opposition party INC and belonging to Nehru-Gandhi family, lost from his family stronghold of Amethi as well (though he did win from another seat). A large number of INC heavyweights including 9 ex-chief ministers lost as well. This is only the third time that a PM has been able to get back to back majorities in India (After Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952, 1957 and 1962 and Indira Gandhi in 1967 and 1971). In a clash of Olympians, Olympic Silver medallist Rajyavardhan Rathore of BJP defeated Olympic finalist Krishna Poonia of INC in Jaipur Rural. Another Olympic medallist, Vijender Singh of INC lost as well while Cricketer Gautam Gambhir of BJP won in different seats of Delhi.

In India, we have 7 national parties (parties who have won a minimum number of votes/seats in atleast 4 different states), around 50 state parties which are confined to a state or two. Apart from these, there are another 50 odd parties which contest polls regularly but are unable to meet the minimum requirements. And after that we have 1000+ parties which are registered but don't contest polls regularly. And at the time of elections, apart from all these parties, we have a large number of independents contesting as well.

2x2x400m Relay Shuttle Hurdles Relay Source

Arokia Rajeev I agree is a long shot. Seema is a mystery, she doesn't take part in many competitions and hence I am not very confident about her having a high ranking. Nayana James and Neena are good enough for a medal at Asian level but I don't see them crossing 6.82. I expect us to have 5-6 race walkers in total. Gopi and Nitendra are indeed long shots for Marathon. Sadly, I don't see any chance for Suriya and very very low chances of Anu.

Thanks for the info. When did this happen. I had not seen her participate for some time but thought she was just recovering from injury.

Baha'i have a penchant for grandeur. Check the Baha'i temple in India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Temple