Federer91

Almost quotas time and the big bonanza.

Hosts announced for all the OQTs. Pan-American QT - Acapulco; African & Oceania QT - Cairo; European QT - Baku; Asian QT - Bishkek; World QT - Istanbul

These archery matches seem short to me. Up to 6 is good for early rounds, but maybe when you reach 1/4 & 1/2 it should be first to 8 and in the final first to 10. Up to 6 leaves very little room for a comeback, if you make a bad round or two.

I always enjoy watching archery, very relaxing sport.

Hmm, you were right, i did not expect Hernandez Morejon to win that match, but he did. I'm still not sold out on his capabilities, but guess he will not go without a chance at the WQT.

Never though something would top the grunts in tennis, but fencing has taken the cake. The women's screams after every single point is unbearable.. Especially Kharlan maniacal screeches. There should be fines and rules for such stuff.

Disappointing 2:3 loss for Kiwan. Our team messed up the tactics, i don't know why thought being passive in the first round was the way. Especially after Kiwan has height advantage over Abbasov and should have led the match from the beginning. That lost first round cost him the win and it was too late to make a comeback after it...

Never mind, was looking at the wrong thing Pity, that all 3 of our girls ended in the same half, we won't have an all-Bulgarian final

I can't grasp this whole seeding stuff.. So, Emma Neykova won 5/6 matches and has a coef. 0.83, but she is seeded only 35? Then Yoana Ilieva, who won 4/6 is seeded 14 and Olga Hramova won 3/6 and is 16th

A little recap of the BG performance so far, even if not many people are considering us for the quotas I still think we should be getting a few quotas on our hands. M 51 kg - Asenov lost in the 1/8 to Slominski, which was a bit of a surprise, but it was expected he won't get a quota, when the bracket came out. There was no way he beats Bennama and MacDonald back to back, so it was an expected miss. Still Asenov was our only man in Tokyo and hopefully he gets it at the WQT. M 57 kg - 1/8 Javier Ibanez vs. Bondarchuk is today. He had a great win in his first match against Gallagher, but Ukrainian fighters are notoriously difficult, so i think this is going to be the tougher match, then the potential 1/4 against Bazeyan. If he wins today, have faith, that Ibanez gets the quota. M 63.5 kg - 1/4 Rosenov vs. Guruli . Direct match and while Rosenov has shown growth in the last year or so, he is not the favourite here. Gurili has bronzes from the last 2 Worlds and a Euro silver and think, they would give him the win. Rosenov should be good for a quota from the WQT. M 71 kg - 1/8 Kiwan vs. Abbasov. Abbasov wasn't at the Worlds for Serbia, so not sure, what his form is right now. Plus he gained weight from last year, from what i see, so would give advantage to Kiwan. Then it's between the winner of and for the quota, which looks like another equal match up. I think Kiwan has a good chance, if the judges let him. M 80 kg - Q loss for Nikolov against Veocic. Nothing surprising here, as Nikolov loses in the first round every single tournament. Veocic should get the quota. M 92 kg - We had no one here, which was strange, as Pantaleev is a former World medalist. Probably he is injured or something. M 92+ kg - 1/8 Hernandez vs. Lenzi . Hernandez is a sand bag, so no chance he wins this. Overall i expect at least 1 quota (most likely Ibanez) and 2 would be job well done. On the women's side: W 50 kg - Q loss for Chukanova against Rok - Watched the match and feel they gave a host nation win for Rok. Doesn't matter, as Cakiroglu is odds on favourite for the quota from this category either way. I hope they give a chance to Sevda Asenova in the WQT, who is in the -48 kg category, but is a much better fighter then Chukanova. W 54 kg - 1/4 Petrova vs. Lehane. Direct match. Petrova is by far our strongest woman and already beat an Ukrainian. Lehane seems like a new name to the Irish team, but they always turn out to be great fighters. Still giving the edge for Petrova and the quota. W 57 kg - 1/8 Kamenova vs. Nechita. First match for Kamenova and i don't know in what form she is coming here. Nechita isn't someone with big successes and i'm fairly confident Kamenova wins this one. Then it is between and , which on paper is a pefect draw. All the big favorites Testa, Walsh and Zidani are distributed in the other sections, so this is the best path to an Olympic quota you could get. But the same goes for the hosts as well. W 60 kg - 1/8 loss for Mehmedova against Beram. Expected loss, Mehmedova has never shown potential of reaching the end phase of a tournament. Maybe if she gets a favorable draw at the WQT, she can squeak a quota, but not counting on it. W 66 and 75 kg - no participations here. Looks like we can't find boxers to fill these heavier categories, which is unfortune, as we have only 4 to 6 boxers fighting for a quota. Overall, frankly i would be disappointed, if both Petrova and Kamenova don't get quotas here.

Monaco in the 1/2 and close to get a medal with their Chinese player.

Finally we won some kind of medal in taekwondo This is a sport, that has seen a surge in the last couple of years, but we never managed to get through to a medal. And it's a special medal, as a 17 year old beat one of the best Bianca Walden for the bronze.

Russia could show their sports muscles in the single European Championships either way (if they were led to). I fail to see what is threatening for about 20 sports of their regular continental Championships. Are fencing, rowing, wrestling, weightlifting, gymnastics, canoeing etc. doing these blockbuster ratings and revenues, that i am not aware of? If the European Games are built into a big deal, then the benefits for these sports would be much better, then their week long regular Europeans, which come and go. Maybe the only thing i can think of, is that they don't want other sports to overshadow their EC, when it is in a multi-sport event. I agree on expenses being higher now, which is why team sports shouldn't be included (in addition to their calendar already being stuffed), though having volleyball in Baku was great, even if it wasn't with A players. Tennis has it's own thing, they are out, which leaves only athletics and swimming. Both of those are the only ones, which are strong enough to generate big revenue through their European Championships and don't need the European Games. Maybe the only way this could work is if the IOC took the European Games, Asian Games, Pan-American Games etc. like stepchild's and help with the organization and intertwine the Olympic qualification with these continental Games.

There must be something wrong with me, because these combined EC always felt like an empty shell and in theory a much weaker concept, then an European Games. It's like the individual European Championships for the different sports, just under a nice banner. The European Games are at one place, this stuff is at one place... Of course the difference is who gets the revenue money i suppose, but from a sporting stand point, the so called combined EC are completely pointless

I wouldn't call it a revolutionary change in the calendar. They haven't done anything, bar adding an additional WC. Which is funny given the sentence from the article "These adjustments are part of the FIVB’s ongoing efforts to streamline the international volleyball calendar, aiming to enhance the overall fan experience while prioritizing the health and wellbeing of the athletes" Nothing screams "athletes health" like adding more competitions. Now during Olympic years, they would kill 2 competitions - the Nations league before them, because all teams would be preparing for the OG and then Continental Championships after it, because the big teams would have given their all at the OG. If they wanted to make a revolutionary change, then they should have moved the VNL from it's current slot. Won't even commentate the lack of proper Olympic qualification and the absurd world rankings.

Possibly, but if there were 20 000 Poles in the stands, the picture would be completely different.

From the pit of the European Games to the people for whom it's raining from the heavens. Europe - 12 teams South America - 6 teams Africa, Asia, Concacaf - 4 teams Oceania - 1 team Hosts - 1 team

Of course they won't. After all, with all due respect, the UK won't be winning 200 medals here, even if the UK athletes were taking the EG seriously, which they aren't. If these are the results we would get from all aspects, then better have no EG at all. There is no point in wasting time for something that is valued by almost no one.

The fight for escaping relegation is going to be brutal. If you had asked me this morning, i would have chosen Finland as one of the 3, but they are doing very good so far.

This is still one of the most bonkers things in the sporting world for me. I don't have a logical explanation. These should be the European Olympics. The continent with the biggest sporting depth by far, having it's own mini-Olympics. In times when you need to make something big to grab the headlines, the EG haven't been embraced neither from the NOCs, the sports governing bodies, nor the regular people. On the contrary even, these Governing bodies, who's sports are on life support from one OG to the next, have been actively sabotaging the EG. The only times they get attention is during the OG and instead of trying to grab another big opportunity to promote and elevate their sport, they discredit them and prefer to have their own backwater events somewhere somewhere. You can exclude team sports and tennis from the list, but there is no reason for the other ones to not have this as one of the most important events in the calendar, especially when it occurs every 4 years. Only in 2015, the lead up and the Games themselves felt like a big deal. Every year after that has been downhill, downhill, downhill... Heck, the nonsense Commonwealth Games get 5 times more attention and interest for competing against Samoa and Antigua & Barbuda.

Italy going strong for the title from the get go.

Who said, that people would come, when we reach Division 1.. Imagine having 4 years to promote this big event, that your country is hosting, that you should be proud of and then the first 3 days have a lower combined attendance then a single Ekstraklassa match. I refuse to believe, that Poland, one of the biggest European sporting nations in my opinion, doesn't care one bit about this event. Even if you don't know karate, BMX, taekwondo etc. this is most likely the golden age for Polish athletics and they can get even 5000 people, let alone 50 000.

Anyone lobbying for e-sports to be included in the Olympics should be ashamed of themselves.. Also, if you think, that standing straight for 40 minutes and keeping your body in perfect concentration and precision without flinching is less physical, then sitting on a chair and chopping the keyborad...

As expected, very tough match against Gallagher, but Ibanez had slightly more energy in the last round.

My bad, there are links for boxing, they just were put late.