CCB

The IHF will give Poland a wildcard for the WCh for sure (like last WCh).So nothing to worry about for the Polish fans.

Don't forget Turkey. They already won a silver medal in de VNL last year, have some big talents and the best coach in the world (Guidetti). My prediction: Serbia, Russia and Italy win a quota in the WOQT; Netherlands, Turkey and Germany fight for the last European spot.

qualifies for the Final Round (9-6 win over Spain)

Dutch media claims the opposite. Only when he doesn't participate for the team, he has a chance to qualify through the World Cup. But hopefully you are right!

Epke Zonderland wins on high bar. Now he is the overall leader after three stages (Cottbus/Melbourne/Baku), but presumably Zonderland will participate in the Dutch team at the Worlds in Stuttgart, so no Olympic ticket for him through the World Cup. Still risky to put everything on team qualification for Zonderland, but that's just the way it is. Hopefully Zonderland chooses for his World Cup chances, but that means on the other hand he won't participate at the Worlds in Stuttgart.

Was the score of Hans Peter Minderhoud overscored as well? Normally he, his friend Edward Gal (Glock's Zonik) and Emmelie Scholtens (Apache) will participate in the Dutch team at the Olympics

Really? Dutch equestrian (dressage) does not mean anything at the moment. Time for Anky van Grunsven (triple Olympic champion) to come back!

Yes, that's still possible. But indeed, very unlikely that Büchli will race some MTB race. Anyway, one of the Dutch world champions won't compete in Tokio :-(

If you pick the first three, they don't have a starter for the teamsprint. I hope Lavreysen, Hoogland and Van den Berg will qualify, and maybe Netherlands can use a quota from another cycling discipline to qualify Büchli as well (for example mountainbike).

Next year both riders will finish behind Kenny ...

Epke Zonderland has a problem. Competing in this year's team competition at the World Championships means he really has to medal there. Otherwise he can't compete at the Olympics (it's very unlikely the Dutch men's team finish top 12). If Zonderland doesn't compete at the World Championships, he has to win the World Cup. But Miyachi from Japan will be a very strong competitor for Epke. Such a fail from FIG to make an Olympic qualification procedure like this, with several medalwinners NOT to compete at the Worlds to increase their chance of reaching the Olympics. Sounds like the FIVB made this Qualification procedure.

The prediction for The Netherlands - 12-12-13 - is ridiculous. I think Netherlands will be happy with 20 medals (1 more than in Rio).

Did l'Equipe forget Belgium? Several world champions (Nafi Thiam/Heptathlon, Emma Plasschaert/Sailing, men's hockeyteam, Nikki Degrendele/Track cycling), but no medals? Belgium has very talented athletes in track cycling, athletics, sailing and basketball. I predict at least 10 medals for them.

FIVB again. Madness!! Still nice Netherlands host the men's tournament, quite unfair the Dutch NEVOBO choose to bet on the men's team and not the women's. Women's team will face Italy in Italy

Netherlands still has to qualify for the Women's 470. After Afrodite Zegers broke up with Anneloes van Veen, suddenly Lobke Berkhout (38) planned a comeback. She is a 5 time World Champion and winner of two Olympic medals (silver and bronze) in the 470. Berkhout wants to qualify for Tokyo together with Zegers. Today they sailed their first races together; an eight and tenth place in Miami - very promising!

Antoinette de Jong wins the 500m allround. With this result I think she is definitely the one to beat.

Dutch media confirm that FIVB has given Italy the right to host pool F. Really don't know why Netherlands may not host this pool. Netherlands is the higher ranked team at both the World as European ranking. But FIVB decides. FIVB sucks.

Unfortunately she retires already at the age of 24, but a lot of respect for her decision. Obviously she doesn't like her sport anymore. She didn't win a lot medals, but the most important she has!!

No longer Helle Thomsen as headcoach of The Netherlands' women. I can't believe it ... such a good coach and the NHV (Dutch Handball Association) doesn't want to work with her any longer. Or did Helle demand too much money?

For The Netherlands it was a quite good year. A very good performance at the Olympics with several (some unexpected) speedskating medals and the first gold medal in shorttrack in history. Our national men's football team became a force to reckon with again. After some horrible years without ECh and WCh, we now qualified for the finals of the Nations League. Besides that we had very good results at the combined European Championships with gold for our open water swimmers, gymnasts and a diver (first time since the eighties). And decent results for our women's teams: European gold for waterpolo, European bronze for handball, Worlds gold for hockey and a 4th place for volleyball at the Worlds. In cycling we had a lot of champions: in track, road cycling and BMX. Maybe the biggest success: 3 champions at the Sailing World championships! Will be difficult to have the same good results in 2019. But who knows ...

But the Official Qualification Document says there's a maximum of 8 men (and 7 women) per NOC. Netherlands won't enter the Team Pursuit, so therefore it looks like there's an possibility to enter one or two extra sprinters. Let's hope so! And indeed, not a good idea to change a team that keeps on winning. But on the other hand: very sad if Büchli doesn't have a chance to grab a medal at the keirin.

Hopefully the highest placed team in each pool has the right to choose the venue. Anyone who already heard something about this?

Hoe groot is de kans de baansprinters toch met 4 man naar Tokyo mogen? In het selectiedocument staat dat er max. 3 sprinters naar de OS mogen (deze 3 rijden dan automatisch de teamsprint), maar dat betekent ook dat deze 3 de overige plekken op de individuele sprint en keirin moeten verdelen. Het ziet er op dit moment naar uit dat de ideale teamsprint gevormd wordt door een starter, Lavreysen en Hoogland. Maar Büchli is by far de beste Nederlandse keirinrenner. Als jullie het selectiedocument lezen, is er dan toch ruimte om met méér dan 3 sprinters naar Tokyo af te reizen? We komen immers niet aan het maximum aantal baanrenners, omdat we geen teampursuit hebben. 3 sprinters, 2 man voor de madison/omnium, maakt totaal 5 renners, dan zou je toch zeggen dat we een plekje over hebben voor een keirinspecialist. Hoe moeten we het selectiedocument interpreteren?

Netherlands Hockey W 95% Hockey M 95% Handball W 80% Waterpolo W 70% Baseball M 60% Football W 50% Volleyball W 40% Softball W 40% Basket 3x3 M 40% Basket 3x3 W 20% Waterpolo M 10% Volleyball M 5%

Captain Danick Snelder (back injury), Nycke Groot (neck injury) and, indeed, Yvette Broch (who suddenly retired). But on the other side: Delaila Amega shows us her talent.