Milan

Great news that Maric is in. Finally some luck. Loncarek and Muzaric are out. Ana Simic was disappointing, too. I was hoping she could have an outside chance for a medal at the Olympics, but it doesn't look good. Our Basketball team would now have to beat Greece to reach the final (probably against Italy). Its not over yet but I don't think this team has it in them.

I should not bother watching Cilic matches anymore. He has such a loser mentality. Second time during this tournament (after Konjuh-Radwanska) that a big win was possible for us, but they couldn't close out the match.

I was starting to watch at 2:0 set lead and 3:3 in the third set for Cilic. Then I saw him losing three games in a row and wasting numerous break Points. Would be a huge disappointment if he still manages to lose this.

I am cautious about expectations. If I had to guess I would probably say that Croatia will win 6-7 medals. Perkovic and Sinkovic brothers should be a safe bet, but you never know. Vlasic would also be quite sure in the absence of russian high Jumpers, but she has been out for a while now after surgery. Besides that there are some more chances (e.g. in Shooting, Sailing, Handball, Boxing), but nothing is certain. I doubt that our Water polo team can win something this time.

Are you sure this is true? The qualification system states that "Swimmers invited through OST/”B” Time are only allowed to compete in the events for which they received the FINA invitation." Calic has won his quarterfinal match at the boxing qualification tournament. Too bad this category does only have one qualifier.

But its the first time they achieved something like this. Actually they usually don't even qualify for major tournaments and Wales isn't that much smaller than Croatia population wise. But nonetheless our results in Football (and Basketball) should be better than they are. Its funny that Wales qualifies for a major tournament for the first time in decades and straightaway reaches the semifinals whereas England qualifies for nearly every tournament and hardly ever comes that far. They haven't been in a semifinal since 1996.

Konjuh has fulfilled the requirements. Seems that Lucic-Baroni is the only player who is not allowed to play because of missing Fed Cup requirements. All others who don't already have four players from their country in front of them were allowed to enter the competition (except for Sharapova).

Seems that the Portuguese surprised our team and manager with their tactics and style of play. We were anxious and inhibited nearly the whole game. When we finally took risks we conceded the goal with a counterattack.

They depend on Belgium or Italy not fulfilling their potential. Italy still has a much better squad than Ireland and Sweden, though without Verratti and Marchisio they lack creativity in central midfield. But who knows, maybe Italy will fail as they did in 2010 in a weak Group.

The fall in number is mainly (though not entirely) due to lower number of qualified teams, but that is also part of the problem. Our Handball and Basketball women didn't do particularly well since the last Olympics. I also wouldn't expect much more than 73 athletes. 3-4 quotas in Tennis are safe, likely are 1-3 more quotas in Swimming (OST). Still possible is a quota in Diving and Archery. Realistic but unlikely are more qualifiers in Track and Field and the qualification of our Basketball team. And then there are two more qualification tournaments in Boxing. (And possibly 49erFX through reallocation?)

Disappointing game from France. It was not like Romania parking the bus. If they had done, I would understand why France struggled. But it was an open game and Romania still could keep up with them and probably deserved a draw. I have serious doubts right now about the French team.

Guys like Isner, Thiem and Tomic make it look bad. Wozniacki and many others who in fact don't meet the requirements will probably be allowed to play.

I think a Player must be qualified for either singles or doubles event to take part in mixed doubles. Our best possible combination in women's doubles would be Lucic (57) and Jurak (47). With Konjuh and Jurak it would be 47 and 76. I'm not sure, but I don't think this combined rankings would be good enough to enter the competition.

Maybe there is a chance if Lucic made herself available for Fed Cup. I'm not sure if she did this year (and it probably would have to be this year). Konjuh also might get one of the ITF places. But there will surely be players who will skip the Olympics or miss it because of injury. I assume she will be qualified one way or another, if she is healthy herself.

Konjuh retired today in her mach against Minella. She apparently still has Problems with her back. Taiwanese Hsieh has overtaken her in the rankings with her win in Marseille SF today. I think now Konjuh can only gain a place in Rio through reallocation. Well, I guess next up for us is the open water swimming qualifier in Setubal. Karla Sitic is our only participant there.

Yeah, this qualification campaign is pretty much a mess. We will probably have less than 80 participants in Rio in not more than 15 Sports. I still have hopes for the future as we at least in some sports seem to have some good young athletes. Like Kolak, Mihaljevic, Horvat, Greguric and Markovic in Track and Field, Obrovac and Paut in Swimming, then there is Novakovic in Canoe Sprint, Barbara and Brigita Matic in Judo, Coric, Konjuh and Vekic in Tennis, Saric, Hezonja, Arapovic and Bender in Basketball, Babic and Runtic in Taekwondo, Gustin in Shooting, Rakovac and Pucar in Table Tennis, Mihalic is still young as are Marcela Maric and Maja Boric and even Hrgovic in Boxing. This gives me hope that we will have medal candidates in the future and maybe can make progress in some sports.

http://coric.top/en/rank/wta/before_UO/ If this ranking is correct Konjuh will need a few wins in Bol next week to qualify. I guess that Pennetta will not participate, but Wozniacki probably will.

Cilic will from now on be the laughing stock of Tennis and rightly so. What a disgrace his performance today.

Both our boats at the Rowing qualification regatta are out. I didn't expect them to qualify anway, although I did think they could make the final.

Five of our six women Boxers at the World Championship have lost their first match (including Anamarija Marsic). Its a neverending story I guess. Our Swimming is really worse than it was, but there seems to be at least some progress in Diving and Synchronized Swimming. Pity that Domika and Sestan are not qualified.

So no quota in Canoeing. We will probably only be represented in 14 or 15 Sports (compared to 17 in London). I don't think we can make it in Archery and Basketball. In Judo and Tennis at the moment it looks like the worst case too, because only Matic will qualify and in Tennis possibly only Cilic, Coric and Dodig with Konjuh still having a Chance. I remember the times when we were basically only good in team sports, so i thought our sport was developing quite good recently. After all we are a small nation. But all in all this Olympic qualifying is a disappointment to me.

Your're right. And apparently they did choose Starcevic. GR Events will be tomorrow.

Seems that Lizatovic (- 59 kg), Etlinger (- 66 kg), Starcevic, Neven Zugaj (both - 75 kg), Nenad Zugaj (- 85 kg) and Lavric (- 130 kg) will participate at the Qualification Tournament in Istanbul. Would be a disappointment if we won't have a wrestler in Rio. Our Handball Team will play against France, Denmark, Qatar, Tunisia and Argentina. Seems to be a tough Group at first sight, but in the other Group are four strong European Teams (Germany, Poland, Sweden and Slovenia) and the host Nation Brazil. Not sure how good Qatar really is though.

Barbara Matic has a shoulder injury I read a few days ago.

I guess that double sculls is our 'surest' medal at the Olympics (ahead of discus throw). But you actually can't be too sure about anything. As expected Lavric is out in the first round. Toncica Topic wasn't bad, but not good enough.