Federer91

Uggggg, Polis outfit Hope it does look better in motion, than on pictures. Mixed reactions i've read so far. The press there seem very optimistic with the whole performance, but the fans who loved the song seem to think that the staging is gone overboard.

Okay, semi-final 1 is done with their first rehearsals, so i'll give my thoughts from the short clips. 100% qualifying - Russia, Armenia, definately first and second in this semi-final. Iceland and Malta are also going through, though Ira could go down a few notches from pre-rehearsals, but she will have no problem qualifying. Big improvements that put countries in contention - Greece, Netherlands and Czech Republic. Greece has a bad song, but their staging is a vast improvement and they are surrounded by duds, so with them being very popular country i think they will squeak in, which i didn't think before. Netherlands and CR have a simple, but classy staging and with the good singing performance it will make an impression surrounded with all the visual stuff from others. I think juries will rank them pretty high. Countries that lose positions - Croatia and Azerbaijan. Croatia was a front-runner in the beginning of the campaign, but Ninas weird space video first and now that weird asian dress and very bland staging has it losing positions fast. It can qualify, but i won't be surprised if it is this years big flop from pre-season favouritism. As for Azerbaijan, just Samra looking amazingly beautiful () won't cut it, she needs to sing properly too. I read that she has the flu, but that rehearsal was dead awful. Could we see Azerbaijan not qualifying for the first time? Countries with no change - Hungary, Cyprus, Estonia. I was very optimistic that these three would qualify, but now i'm not so sure that all three will make it. Nothing drastical happened, but they didn't struck me that much. 100 not qualifying - San Marino, Montenegro, Moldova (though i liked the nice routine they have, but that won't be enough), Finnland, Bosnia and Austria. If i had to pick the 10 finalists - Russia, Armenia, Iceland, Malta, Hungary, Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Czech Rep. and Netherlands. I'm reserving to make changes after the second rehearsals.

Our team is pretty much the same in the mens side with the exception of Daniel Aleksandrov who retunrs from injury. FS - Borislav Novachkov (65), Dragomir Stoichev (97), Luiben Iliev (125) GR - Ivo Angelov (59), Konstantin Stas (66), Daniel Alexandrov (75), Miloslav Metodiev (130) The women are all new and i don't except much from them bar Evelina Nikolova in 53. The other two are Gabriela Peicheva in 75 and Victoria Bobeva in 69. So far we have 8 quotas and 10 is the bar minimum for me. I hope for 12, but that would be hard and anything above that would be a miracle. Angelov and Novachkov are probably the strongest from our team, but Novachkov already lost twice, so i don't know what is going in his head and Angelov is in the toughest weight class of them all, so i'm preparing myself for bad news. Our two heavyweights were closer, but anything is possible in their categories. Aleksandrov after the injury and in a new class is a big mystery, but i hope he finds his form from last year. Like i said, i will be happy with 4 quotas and anything more will be bonus.

The Giro starting in a couple of days and some teams have announced their rosters. Astana looking to be the strongest again, but i have my doubts about Nibalis form. He was dead awful in the last couple of weeks and i'm not so confident in his win, unlike i was in the beginning of the season. Landa will make a strong push, but with 3 time-trials, he will need to be full on in the mountains to make up time. Plus SKY have a weaker team, for their standards, so that won't help him either. Valverde is also here and he is the most consistent rider in the world. There is not a single race he performs badly, so he is a pretty solid bet for a podium. The big three aside the rest of the top 10 should be a mix of old faces Uran, Majka, Pozzovivo with new upcomers Chavez, Dumoulin if he isn't a one GT wonder. There are always some surprising top 10 finishers and i could see Atapuma and Geniez sneaking in. I hope Ulissi and Cunego to do something, because they haven't been on the map too long for my liking, but that is in the whishful thinking department. Also i'm surprised to see so many of the best sprinters starting, should be interesting for those stage hunters. Overall should be a good GT.

First rehearsals today. So far i've read that Armenia has got an awesome staging and that their odds have increased significantly.

http://www.rio2016.com/tickets/ticketingguide/guia_de_ingressos_en.pdf

Ooops, didn't see it.

Maybe it is time to open a thread for the flag-bearers for Rio. Unsurprisingly after his 2012 absence Rafael Nadal is chosen to be Spains flag-bearer.

And any chance for Petya Nedelcheva or is she too far behind in the rankings?

So, the European Championships start today and i hear they are the final qualification for europeans for Rio? A final chance to score good points for the rankings i suppose? Does someone know how important is the championship for the quotas?

I slightly prefer Moment of Silence to be honest. I think before it was pulled it was on the fence of qualifying, maybe 9-12 place. But like others have said, EBU should have taken that decision either before this year, or after the show, not 2 weeks when the guy has done promotion and expected his participation etc.

In a statement today, the European Broadcasting Union confirmed that it has withdrawn member services from Romanian public service broadcaster Televiziunea Romana (TVR) after the broadcaster clocked up debts of over 16 million Swiss franc (14.5 million euro). This means that as of now, Ovidiu Anton cannot compete in Stockholm with his song “Moment of Silence”.

"Great" day for us, just wonderful...

Yes, you have 2 finalists - A and B And all the wrestlers that lost to A and B go to the repechage rounds. Path 1 - losers to finalist A - 1 round loser in the 1/8 goes against the loser in the 1/4. Their winner goes against the loser in the 1/2 for the bronze medal. The same goes to Path 2 for the second bronze medalist. And then the two bronze medalists go against each other for the olympic quota.

Normal repechage system for getting the two bronze medalists. Then those two fight for the olympic quota.

Still no draws, why are they doing it so slowly...

Wow, great story All the best to them then and one day in the World Cup. It would be a lot of fun having Brazil in a winter sport.

I may have missed it, but was is your obsession with Brazils biathlon team?

Actually i think Thiem said that he won't go a couple of weeks ago.

By the way those countries aren't banned as of now, but could be in the future. April 20 is the date when things could be more clear, because that is the date FIBA has given all federations to state their position, based on this letter that i passed by. It is to Turkey and i'm sure the other countries received more or less the same letter.

I think FIBAs initial idea was to weaken ECA with the loss of the Eurocup and strengthen the Champions league with the teams that came from the Eurocup. And then when the Champions league became much stronger and the conditions better they would take a swing against the Euroleague with much better offering than it is now. But many of those second tier teams from the Eurocup didn't want to switch for some reason and FIBA has to make another attack to split things up. I'm all for FIBA controling basketball and don't have this private corporation catering only for itself, but they are swinging a bit chaotic. Instead of banning the national teams, they should have banned the players from the teams that stay with ECA from national teams. That way those players lose their chance of competing in Olympics and Worlds. Plus bann those players from transfering to clubs associated with FIBA. And finally and most important FIBA should give all they have to their relationship with the NBA, because if they reach an agreement that the NBA teams don't transfer players from the ECA teams, now that is a real gamechanger. Let's see with those factors if the rich european clubs can take FIBA so lightly.

Gasparotto lol, now with double win in the Amstel Gold. By the way, why no Sagan today?

Awful performance, only 1 quota...

All it takes to take out Jordi Bertomeus ClownLeagues out of european basketball. There is enough time till Eurobasket, so i think FIBA is just trying to see if the countries will rethink their participation in ECA/ULEB next season before it starts.