Agger

Yeah. I'm pretty impressed by that view That of course also shows something they would need to consider if we ever saw an indiviual pursuit.

Personally it's a dream for me to see a pursuit in cycling. It may be a bit too optimistic to have it in a GT, but I would really love to see it, not only on team level, but as an ITT. Therefore it's lovely to see this here.

With 2 wins on the last day, Oracle secured the win in the group stage, but has now done their part until the actual cup starts in 2 weeks. That win also means that they have a slight advantage in the cup starting it with one point. Meanwhile Land Rover BAR and Artemis took a win each. For the semi finals, Emirates made what seems like a rather surprising decision, when they were able to decide their opponent (as the winner of the challengers) picking 3rd place finishers Land Rover BAR who on the paper seemed like a much stronger opponent than SoftBank, who will be up against Artemis.

Well. Seems like it was the right decision to work on my exam. Did not feel like seeing Real Madrid take another championship...

With one day of racing left in the group stage, it's clear that Groupama will not advance after having won only 2 races. Emirates is looking strong winning all their races except the loss against Oracle on day one, though one win was after a slightly controversian penalty for Team Artemis. Oracle has been looking very strong having only lost their two races against Artemis. But they have races against the two top teams tonight. Artemis haven't been looking too good, especially in the starts, but after they had a rest day, they had 2 great starts yesterday. Are they back on course and ready for the semis? Land Rover BAR will surely be happy about their 2 points from the series, as it has been up and down for them in the group stage with only 3 wins in 8 races so far. Softbank will just make it into the playoffs with 3 wins and one race left.

The only positive thing in that is that maybe the Worlds in Denmark will have stronger teams than usually in Olympic years...

After a massive finish with 7 matches in a row as unbeaten (5 of them clean sheets), my team AGF secured another season in the Danish Super League after a 1-0 win against Viborg in front of more than 17.000 spectators!

Terrible TT by Pinot

A highly interesting first day of sailing showing how close the race is. The only team to take 2 wins in the first 6 match races was the defenders taking a massive win against the French team before beating Emirates (NZL) in an extremely close race. In the 3rd race of the day, Emirates got a win after beating the French team with about 2½ minutes after French problems with manoeuvres. Artemis (SWE) took one win after overtaking the japanese team after a bad start. In their second race of the day, they lost against Land Rover BAR (GBR) once again starting the race slightly worse that the competitor. Land Rover BAR could have put up another win in the last race of the day against the Japanese team, but a collision in the start meant a major penalty for the British team taking away their chances. That means with 2 races for all teams, Land Rover BAR and Oracle USA takes the lead with 3 points. Artemis Racing, Emirates and Softbank got a win each putting them at one point, while the French are last showing that they seriously need to improve if they want to be able to fight for the cup. But there's still a long way with each team having 8 more races before the cut. Tonight the most interesting races seems to be the two for Land Rover BAR against Emirates and Oracle. Will Ainsley's team manage to get back up after the collision and take a lead in the standings or will the other big teams prove too difficult. The American team will have quite a busy evening with 3 races while Groupama only has one race (against Artemis) to show that they're still in the game.

Not really Olympic style sailing, but in a few hours one of the most legendary events starts in Bermuda with the qualification for the 35th America's Cup beginning. We have 2 weeks of qualifiers in front of us with one team emerging as the final challenger to take up the fight against the defending champions, Oracle Team USA. Five teams will take on the challenge going head to head with each team twice (the defenders take part in this as well) before the bottom team is eliminated. Then it's semi finals and a final, all done as best of 5. The teams are: Defenders: Oracle Team USA (Skipper: James Spithill) Challengers: Artemis Racing (Skipper: Nathan Outteridge) Emirates Team New Zealand (Skipper: Peter Burling) Land Rover BAR (Skipper: Ben Ainslie) Groupama team France (Skipper: Franck Cammas) Softbank team Japan (Skipper: Dean Barker) Land Rover BAR comes into the qualification with a slight advantage as they got 2 points as winners of the America's Cup World series. As 2nd Oracle got one point, but that doesn't really matter as they're already in the final. It's hard to say who looks the strongest. Artemis has been strongest in the practice races and should be mentioned as one of the favourites. Emirates are always to be counted on with their innovative designs and several skilled sailors. Land Rover BAR hasn't seemed too strong during the practice races, but with Ainslie in the lead, they should never be forgotten (I still remember Oracle's comeback from 1-8 4 years ago). Groupama has one of the best skippers as well, but will be a slightly smaller outsider after a bad last week of practice racing with no wins. Softbank had a good start to the campaign but seemed to have lost a bit of ground until the last week of practise racing, where they had a 100 % win rate. Meanwhile the defenders have been going up and down with the arrow pointing upwards after a good last week. It's a damn tough race to call, but if I had to do it, I would guess that Groupama lose out after the group stage. Then we'll have Artemis and Emirates in the final which Emirates will win. The cup itself will go to New Zealand as well.

I believe this is the profile (average 9.9 %, 16 % max)

And the winner is...

Congratulations to the podium. Sadly I lost my shot for the podium in the beginning, but I got close.

First World Cup final for Rikke Mæng! Ending up pretty close to 3rd.

It should also be mentioned that being next year's hosts has meant that some of our NHL players decided not to play this year to be sure they can do so next year if they aren't playing for the Cup. We could surely have used some of those guys.

Most likely the groups for next year will be: Group A: , , , , , , , Group B: , , , , , , , Meaning a switch between Denmark and France compared to the rankings. This is because I believe the second most important thing for the organizers (after Denmark in Herning and Sweden in Copenhagen) is having Russia in Copenhagen as some potential problems with some of their supporters will be easier to deal with in Copenhagen. If that happens, I will surely try to secure a ticket to at least a match against Canada, Finland or Norway

Nervewrecking final! Man, I'm happy that we have Henke!

AND THERE IT IS!

That guy should play football/soccer instead!

What was that?

[hide] Knockout Round May 18th - May 21st, 2017 8 Nations, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match and Gold Medal Match. Bronze Medal Match Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 May 21st 2017, h. 16:15, Lanxess Arena, Cologne Russia 3 Finland Gold Medal Match Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 May 21st 2017, h. 20:45, Lanxess Arena, Cologne Canada 1 Sweden [/hide]

Finally back in the final!

[hide] Knockout Round May 18th - May 21st, 2017 8 Nations, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match, Gold Medal Match Semifinals Central European Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 May 20th 2017, h. 15:15, Lanxess Arena, Cologne Canada 2 Russia May 20th 2017, h. 19:15, Lanxess Arena, Cologne Sweden 2 Finland [/hide]

I guess we'll see one of the shames of the sport in the final...

[hide] Knockout Round May 18th - May 21st, 2017 8 Nations, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match, Gold Medal Match Quarterfinals Central European Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 May 18th 2017, h. 16:15, AccorHotels Arena, Paris Russia 3 Czech Republic May 18th 2017, h. 16:15, Lanxess Arena, Cologne United States 2 Finland May 18th 2017, h. 20:15, AccorHotels Arena, Paris Switzerland 3 Sweden May 18th 2017, h. 20:15, Lanxess Arena, Cologne Canada 4 Germany [/hide]