Joshi

NZ to fail miserably at these games. A bullying culture by sports bodies, infighting, mass retirements I could go on and on 🙄. So all this will probably only reap 8-12 medals. On the other hand it looks like our neighbours Australia are going to bounce back with a bang 40+ for them.

I enjoyed this thread Rafal. It's your predictions and I think you did an excellent job. From a NZ point of view 9 golds would be amazing but I don't think so, it's a bit much. But in the overall medals if all perform to potential and a lot of luck we should crack the 20 mark in overall medals. Also I think this will be a resurgent Australia this time round but it all depends on their swimmers if they bomb yet again they will be lucky to finish in the top 5. I have a feeling though that it could be a bit of a rivalry with GB and it could very well hurt GB a bit but we shall see.

Going on a different tack and that everyone has thrown up all kinds of scenarios. Just imagine if it went down to ethnicities or former empires? Great Britain and Ireland could legitimately claim hundreds if not thousands more. Most of the population in the anglosphere, I'm talking about countries where English is the lingua franca are either mostly of British/Irish stock or even partial. Two classic examples are both Australia and NZ. In NZ so many of us have ties to the UK that it makes me realise how young my nation is. But would actually never go for GB or England in any sport

So we in NZ have our first case of Coronavirus, since the news broke it has caused panic buying.

I know it's early days but the Aussie men's pursuit remind me of the NZ sprint team. They've become stagnant.

I'm still quite devastated for our Aussie cousins. They really should've won that. They actually led by 10 at one stage in the 4th. But the sad thing is mainstream media a lot like NZ probably wouldn't care the slightest and will just overlook it. Even when they were winning. It's AFL season now and I see sellout crowds tonight ?

NZ have qualified for the Olympics. Beating Australia in the 3 match Olympic qualifying series by a goal difference of +1. NZ won 3-1, Aus won 3-2 and a 1-1 draw. The new coach has already done wonders when I thought they had no chance.

Even though we beat Montenegro. NZ's centers still suck. If only Steven Adams would make himself available just this once....

That was quite some devastating last 400m from the NZ W8 and even better to deny Australia

Join the club NZ is in the same boat. Pun very much intended.

It's quite obvious the US only care about the big boats. It will be interesting to see them v Ger/GB and NED in the M8+ and also v NZ in the W8+. They could walk away with minor medals in both though. Which would be a shock for their W8+ which is by far their strongest boat.

So many accusations without any proof is a bit retarded but anyway. The reason for China's shock development if you say is the appointment of perhaps the greatest rower of all time Sir Steve Redgrave (GBR) who oversees Chinese Rowing. Along with former Olympic gold medalist and multiple WC Nathan Cohen (NZL). They have taken rowing to a different ball game by making them live in camp for 50 weeks of the year. Which is I think abuse but anyway. Ireland are there because since the O'Donovan's won silver it's really catapulted rowing in that country in terms of participation and spons

They would've assessed this during the b finals and came up with the conclusion to redraw the lanes hence why we had at least a 20 mins delay between a para rowing event and the W4x. These things happen and it's not unusual for these things to happen in a rowing regatta.

Lane 5 and 6 are the fast lanes. Normally 3 and 4 are. That's where the best boats are because of the redraw due to unfair conditions. Finish 1st in the SF you get the best lanes.

To be honest I think the Italians rowed their final in the SF. I think the Sinkovic bros gave them a huge psychological blow and they haven't really recovered.