heywoodu

And a fantastic final part brought Wright his second world title. This was truly a good final

And since I have no clue and only just started searching, is Zakopane a bit easy to get to? Like, the ski area? Main option seems to be a 'Gettransfer' ride (sort of like a taxi), which isn't cheap, but better than a 17 hour train trip...

And now Smith is the one giving it away.

Wright gave away the set at 4-4 by going for a 170 finish at a moment where it just wasn't necessary at all and he could have easily just left a better double. Hit some random number, failed with the next 5 (?) darts for a double and Smith took it

More puzzles for Brazil: Zlatibor and Ravna Gora are said to be likely to be cancelled, this week's races in St Ulrich aren't happening for them as the coach and manager had completely missed the big red letters in the invitation saying "This event is for OPA nations only" If Zlatibor and Ravna Gora are indeed cancelled, the 11 and 12 January races in Zakopane (Poland) will be very important, for Bruna at least. With the different restrictions everywhere, let's see how getting to Zakopane will work (and back to Austria after that)...

Shut up and dance with me Go Bully Boy!

I love Dutch speed skating. Now Roest is pissed because they put Bosker in the 1500m instead of him (since Bosker had to do an individual event in order to be eligible for the team pursuit....which could and arguably should have been the mass start, but they gave that spot to Kramer to 'scare' the competition ) Roest, Bosker and Kramer are all actual teammates, mind you. And Bergsma's coach is also pissed because the second mass start spot wasn't automatically given to one of his riders a year before the Olympics (Arjan Stroetinga).

Interesting, I'll try and figure out who or what is on Facebook, related to these races Edit: they seem to be...not very active, to say the very least https://www.facebook.com/belarusskiunion/

Anyone here have any idea where to possibly find start lists or results for Belarussian FIS races? Other than the FIS website itself

Yeah but I've already been on a Coca Cola boycott (also known as just not really drinking it) while I do still like and so drink Fanta

Fanta is tastier anyway.

And there it is. For a moment it looked liked Wade had managed to bring Smith's level down, but that only took a short while Definitely the best player so far this entire tournament, Smith

And then Wade missed some clear darts to stay in the set aaaand it's 4-1 Smith Wade is playing better than he has been this tournament, but Smith still isn't giving him too many presents.

A rare Shanghai 19 finish

If Kramer goes into the breakaway, it'll be curious to see if he can stay ahead of the Bergsma-led chase

Wade is as mediocre as he has generally been so far this whole tournament, the difference is that unlike every single one of Wade's previous opponents, Smith isn't really playing terrible

Let's go

The other one disappeared into oblivion I think, Lais Souza got paralysed...that was a horrific story to follow back in 2013 (?), right when I was really getting into following Brazilian winter athletes Something that shows how obscure aerials is: the calendar is eerily empty. There's the World Cups and some national championships, and other than a few random competitions here or there...that's it. Even bobsleigh and skeleton have a significantly larger overall calendar outside of the World Cup.

Well yeah, you do still need more than just fast sprinters Just like for aerials you still do need people with actual talent for it than just good gymnastic skills.

To be fair, any good sprinting country can get a decent bobsleigh team, just need finance & coaching & learning the handful of tracks there are in the world

Sad for Ntab and Snel, but yeah....this is the result of a system like this and simply having too much quality overall Although the reason for Kramer's mass start selection is somewhat laughable, to say the least: "A big name like Kramer entering the Olympic mass start might 'startle' the other riders." Sure. Granddad without his final sprint will surely scare the likes of Swing, Giovannini, Chung, Lee or Mantia

I know I don't It's cool for Nilsson, but I had hoped for Brorsson and especially Skottheim.

Where did Tim Singer go?

I wouldn't say that so easily. There has been only one team pursuit this season where the Dutch did not start with a random selection of riders put together to form a B/C-team, and they won that one (and were significantly faster than the USA's top team, including Mantia, in the B group). No way Snel has a chance in court, if he'd try to defend his potential 8th place or something against a potential gold medal chance. No matter how you look at it, Roest - Kramer - Bosker form a team which has way, way, way more of a medal chance than Snel in the 1500m. Which is nothing against Snel by the way, I feel sad for him if he doesn't make it, but if they go for medal potential above anything else, they really should select Bosker over him.

Dutch team will be announced at 17.30 CET, live on TV The biggest question is which of these eleven names will be left out: Krol Roest Nuis Verbij Bergsma Scheperkamp Otterspeer Snel Ntab Kramer Bosker Personally I think Ntab and Snel.