Federer91

Setting aside the Sprints debacle, the people at Dorna have also fumbled the calendar.. Why have these people put half the calendar in September - November I don't know what genius thought, that only 3 races in April-May is good, when this is the best period. Spring-summer is the most exciting period in the motorsport season, after the long winter layouts. By September things are winding down and when October hits people are switching their interests to other things and are just waiting for the end of the season. 3 of those Asian races could have been slotted in the March-May period easily.

Italia won't screw this qualification right, RIGHT ?

I will be traveling in the country tomorrow and sadly won't be able to post my votes. Let's hope for a tight battle and can't wait to catch up on how it goes down afterwards.

I'm torned. On one hand, this is the only opportunity to qualify and we couldn't have gotten a better draw. Having Argentina, Canada and Holland as the direct opposition is as good as it gets. But on the other hand we are having a shit season, after a shit season, after a shit season. Just can't get optimistic about this. People here still think we are having a better team, then the 3 above and should be beating China, Mexico and Belgium in our sleep like before. It would be much more frustrating to not qualify from this group, then expectingly losing to Brazil, Italy, USA..

This seems like a specific problem to biathlon more so. We are seeing so many sports, where people are playing way over 35, up to 40 almost and you can't get rid of them. It was usually like team sport, where you can hide behind your teammates, but in the last decade it is visible in tennis, cycling, alpine skiing, other less popular Olympic sports. But biathlon is one, where top starts very easily call it quits at a youn age, or after 2-3 good seasons.

Perfect draw all the way, couldn't have been better, even if i had picked it myself. Napoli - Bayern final please.

One of our best boxers Stanimira Petrova won't participate, as she undergoes an emergence operation for a kidney problem. She already had pain before going, but the team thought she could push through, but on the flight to India things have gotten worse and they've decided to do the operation and prepare for the European Games.

Especially after having those amazing 2 seasons.

A rare football ban to grace this topic Today, after a 7 month investigation, UEFA have given a 4 year ban to CSKA-Sofia's Georgi Yomov, who tested positive after a match in the Conference League in august. Of course CSKA have said, that they would appeal the case in front of CAS.

Is this the Hunger Games of women's biathlon? There won't be anyone left by the end of the week.

It speaks volumes the below zero interest here for the Oscars, as the past year hit another milestone for awful movies. Last year ceremony had some glimmer of light in the movies, but this one wasn't so lucky. Though i had fun at Angela Bassett's skank face, when Jamie Lee Curtis won and her refusal to stand up, until she was the only one left and had to do it out of spite.

Just voted. As usual lot's of trouble in finalizing my ranking. Don't know what people are talking about, i found a dozen songs to be very listenable and good. Songs and artists, which i wouldn't have stumbled across, if it wasn't for our contests

Drawing of lots? Wasn't there going to be a fixed pool composition based on the rankings? Also let's see who is going to be "lucky" and get the Brazil group

An extra day is welcomed from me as well.

Just like people 40 years ago thought there would be flying cars by 2020? A little less sci-fi movies i would say.

It may seem funny to you, but retirement age is steadily rising for some time and it doesn't seem like stopping anytime soon. I fully expect by the time our generation retires it would be like 75 years. The current system is heavily flawed and people should be looking at ways to improve it. With every passing year, there are less and less young people to work and pay for the more and more elderly. And their only solution is to work longer and longer and delay retirement, until your arms fall off more or less. The chart is going downwards now, unlike the 20th century. I had grandparents in the 90s, who retired at 53-54 and lived 30 years of retirement.

As per usual, i will most likely vote in the evening of the last day.

I've been a fan of team Norge for 15 years, but evident from these Championships (and the season) is that i really miss Bolshunov.

The fellow Canadians are already making plans for her Phelps like winning streak, and you are doubting only her schedule

So in the end, Slind didn't win as expected and she wasted both races instead of concentrating on one of them.

Oh man, Kristen Faulkner gets caught in the final km by SD Works, after doing a great long range attack

Yeah, i know she hasn't stopped, just that there were rumours, that she is going to retire a few times and it never happens

I somehow remember Ivana Spanovic retiring for 3-4 years now, but surprise, she is in the startlist

No problem at all having more races in NA, i actually admire it. But the place in the calendar isn't the best, as evident by last weeks conditions in Taho or this weekends.. It's better to have a swing in the beginning of the season, when there is a lack of snow in Europe.

Second places for Poland all around