SalamAkhi

6 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

Fascinating finale, in its own right and for Paris. Beaugrande finally wins an Olympic length race. Tertsch has a fantastic result, notwithstanding being one of the most awkward looking runners i've seen in a while - certainly has the power but no finesse, and looks like a clash/fall risk to anyone within 4 foot of her. Potter will be happy enough, had a lot less on the line than Beaugrande.

 

Of the other Brits, Coldwell ran herself into near coma to keep out Waugh, Waugh may need to wait for LA now. GTB will be, I think, very happy with that comeback race - she's certainly close to where she needs to be than Duffy, though I never rule out the Bermudan, ever. Interesting that the winner of the last race, Pierrault, had an absolute mare. As the depth increases, perhaps its getting harder and harder to string races together.

Periault and Beaugrand 

3 hours ago, Josh said:

Well maybe, but their freestyle leg is still an issue assuming Grousset swims fly.

Grousset could actually swim freestyle with Secchi doing the fly if he confirms his progress (51.38 this season).

One other "just good" 100 FR guy would be great though.

3 hours ago, Josh said:

Backstroke leg needs some work too. 

How so ? Both Tomac and Ndoye Brouard were finalists in Fukuoka on the 100 and their splits during the medley relay were pretty even with most of the pack. 

6 hours ago, rajiv said:

I think an issue for rugby may be that having 7s in the Olympics might mean that many countries will take 7s more seriously than the main 15s game.

I'm particularly thinking of USA and Canada who take the Olympics very seriously but are very ordinary in 15s- they often don't qualify for Rugby World Cups and are 3rd tier at best in normal rugby

I'm sure rugby wants 7s to be seen as lesser than 15s

It would be like 3×3 basketball being taken more seriously than mainstream basketball

A similar thing may happen with cricket.

All cricket fans see Test cricket as the purest and highest form but Olympic cricket will be the abbreviated twenty20 format

 

That would be an issue if World Rugby actually wanted 15s to grow. They don't. It's a closed party, with personnal interests and historical biases deterring newcomers from coming in.

5 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

I mean a 20 team tournament would literally be 4 groups of 5. Top 2 in each get to the QFs.

Impossible. A 7s tournament is 6 matches maximum. With this format you would go up to 7. 

8 hours ago, Ogreman said:

 

Kenya beating South Africa wasn't that much of a shock though. South Africa's form in the buildup had been terrible. They have bounced back a bit this season but towards the end of last year's sevens series South Africa were really not that much better than Kenya.

 

The surprising part was that Kenya was probably in a en even worse form going in. They're starting to rebuild with fresh players. 

7 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

I mean, my position is that all of the top 10 deserve a spot. Because I'd expand the tournament to 20 teams, to mirror the 15 a side WC.

 

Give the first 12 spots to the top 12 in the rankings, then you open it to 8 regional qualifiers from there. I think there's easily enough competitive teams to do that.

Format would be hideous. Go for 16, or 24 like WC or old HK but stop trying to mirror the broken 15-a-side game. And this is definitely out of the question in the Olympics. 

8 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

Okay, I'll adjust the GBR expected win rate against Uruguay to 98 out of 100 then.

 

This is no intended disrespect to Uruguay or Japan. Both are improving nations, in both 7s and the 15 a side game. But more than anything, it shows how lax both GBR and RSA have been in 7s in the last couple of years.

Japan is definitely going backwards in 7s. They recruit Simon Amor and give him mediocre players to build with. They'd have dominated this Challengers head and shoulders a few years back. Now they're even ousted before the QF.

8 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

 

But nobody else in Asia or South America is close to that level right now. Even in 7s, which is a more even sport than the 15 a side game.

Again I don't agree. HK should have won the Asian Qualifier but they're renown chokers. Chile could have beaten Uruguay too. Actually we'll see in Madrid how both these teams rank compared to the USA/Spain/Samoa/Canada.

H2H between  and  is actually 2-2 with one large victory for each and two disputed games going both ways.

 2 - 1 

It appears the seedings will be determined upon an aggregate score of both last season and this "regular" season (so until Singapore). Will it be a random draw ? In this scenario I hope the bracket will be determined thanks to the serpentine method. Current SVNS bracket is determined by your pool, with top seeds taking place in the three pools by order, the other teams being drawn randomly then. I guess they'll use the same system here, which is a bit unfair. 

At the moment it would mean :

1st pot :  

 244

 224

 190

2nd pot :

 180

 128

 122

3rd pot :

 111

 101

 64

4th pot :

 47

 20

Final OQT qualifier

Like the men, France could snatch a first pot spot at the last moment. If France beat the USA tomorrow they'll kick them out of the QF and will need a QF win to seal the deal. Canada could still climb a pot but Fiji and Ireland seems set to get to the QF so this looks highly unlikely (Fiji losing their two last games and Canada winning the Cup). 

It appears the seedings will be determined upon an aggregate score of both last season and this "regular" season (so until Singapore). Will it be a random draw ? In this scenario I hope the bracket will be determined thanks to the serpentine method. Current SVNS bracket is determined by your pool, with top seeds taking place in the three pools by order, the other teams being drawn randomly then. I guess they'll use the same system here, which is a bit unfair. 

At the moment it would mean :

1st pot :  

 273

 273

 232

2nd pot :

 225 

 202

 200

3rd pot :

( 178)

 159

 142

( 137)

( 90)

4th pot :

 54

( 52)

 40

 18

Not much to play. The only possible pot change is France overtaking Fiji to claim a top seeding. Should Fiji fail to reach the QF (quite likely at the moment), France would only need to win their QF to overtake them. 

Other possibilities include Canada winning the final OQT, which would upgrade Uruguay to pot 3 (quite paradoxically), or a non-core team winning the OQT, with the same consequence. 

South Africa is not guaranteed a win imo. They always falter as the year goes on. 

4 hours ago, Monzanator said:

Well, obviously the juniors are using lighter equipment in throwing events so her true ceiling is still somewhat a mystery.

Nope, not in the javelin. U18 are but not U20 (600g).

On 4/13/2024 at 12:59 PM, copravolley said:

I mean that France doesn't currently have a top-class cyclist like Elisa Balsamo or even Chiara Consonni. The problem for the Italians is that they rarely train with each other due to the intense season on the road. Therefore, beating UK, which focuses 100% on the track is unlikely but fight of silver and bronze is still open. I hope that Marco Villa has planned it well and will have more time to work with the team before the Olympics. Balsamo and Consonni have a strong position in their teams and will certainly be allowed to train longer for the track.

On the road maybe. Does't matter on the track where less successful road riders can flourish.

7 hours ago, copravolley said:

France also has road racers and they are much less talented than the Italians. 

How so ? The two teams have been facing each other for a couple of years now (since early u23) and despite Italy coming out on top most of the times there has never been a major gap between both.

Women's Team Sprint :  needs to beats  by at least 3 spots to qualify. Seems manageable looking at the squads and recent results.

France 3rd behind China and the Netherlands, with  and  ahead of Canada would do the trick. 

14 hours ago, dodge said:

The draw for Paris will be important 

It seems they will use the current series format (1A/2nd best 3rd, 2B/2C, 1C/2A, 1B/best 3rd) but I hope there will be no draw, only a serpentine assignment. If not this is completely flawed as only the first pot seeds are assigned a group, the rest being randomly drawn. This means you can be the 4th seed and still end up with the 1st, finish second in the group and have to face the group C winner (3rd seed) in QF.

The seeding is also to be determined. Using Madrid results could completely shake up the face of the tournament depending on how it goes (same for Challenger teams).

Anyway, should it be done now, with South Africa taking the last spot we would have :

A :    

B :    

C :    

Finally a win, almost 19 years later 

I failed to wake up in the middle of the night, almost for the first time in 8 years. I've seen France lose to  35-0 and not a tournament win. Maybe I'm the problem 

Argentina is proving again to be the best team in the series. Head and shoulders above the rest.

Fiji is still not finding the mojo, they will be strong in Paris no doubt but I feel they will struggle to make the threepeat. 

For France Dupont will definitely be a X-factor. He already managed to play 14 minutes in the 6th game while being very impacteful both on defensive and offensive ends.

🚨 400m WR ALERT🚨 

Christopher Morales Williams  just broke the indoor 400m WR during the SEC Championships in Fayetteville with a 44.49.

Previous best was Michael Norman's 44.52.

Don't want to throw shade on him but he's an absolutely random guy, at least for breaking a WR  No credential to his name. Still young though, only turning 20 in August. Previous best from last year : 45.48 as a u20. 45.39 indoors this year. 

On 2/5/2024 at 5:35 PM, Rafa Maciel said:

I'm not as pessimistic as that - in my opinion France have a decent shot at getting the last quota but it does need everything to work in their favour.

 

First, they need Mexico to win the continental champs ahead of Canada. That would give Canada an additional 607.5 points, giving them an adjusted lead over France of 168.75.

 

Then, at both of the remaining Nations Cups, France would likely need to finish at least 2 places higher than Canada.  

Quite unlikely looking at the entries for Hong Kong. All of the main contenders will be there, bar Canada. France will have a hard time bettering the 5th place from Adelaide. Everything will then be decided in Milton, where I guess a lot of teams won't appear so good luck making up for those points.

Would have been the third French medallist, but the first in an individual distance.

12 hours ago, Belle said:

Sorry but it’s clear it was fixed. Once again if this happened in Germany what exactly do you think will happen in Paris then? 

And dubious calls were made too against France in its home Rugby World Cup a few months ago. What exactly do you think will happen in Paris then you dumbass ?

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

Fantastic 6:07 for  Loubinaud in the B division  

 

Great fight in the A division as well, with Roest eventually taking the win against Ghiotto, and Bloemen in 3rd after an insanely fast start.

Incredible time. Even more so when you think his fall in the EC mass-start could have been much much worse ... same applies for countryman Mathieu Belloir for that matter. 

Agonizingly close to a WCh spot in the TP but I feel it's just a matter of time. 

25 minutes ago, Belle said:

Cheaters. 

Pleure, chouine.

First Challenger last week in Dubaï :

Difficult tournament for the European teams. Poland seem to struggle a little bit lately. Czech Republic managed to win against Kenya in pool stage but tumbled after that. Belgium, who won't be in Monaco, didn't look dominant and wasted a shot at the SF against Uganda, who overachieved a bit here I'd say.

Kenya didn't make it easy for China but the latter looked the better team overall, though their path to Paris is not written. Argentina is indeed climbing up, I highly fancy their chances in a few months time.

First Challenger last week in Dubaï. Less interesting than the women's competition regarding the Olympic qualification tournament, as the huge favorites will be South Africa or GB, but some notes worth keeping. 

Apart from Mexico there is not much difference between all the teams, despite Kenya taking it in the end. Chile seems to have stepped up a bit, Germany still strong but still unable to wrap things up, as is HK.