SalamAkhi

Well, I think points with a 7/10 is maybe a bit far-fetched. She impressed in IBU Cup, skiing-wise, that's for sure, but the field was not as strong as usual. It was more or less a very strong Junior Cup. Without the Russians and with most of the Norwegian B-team in WC, only the Germans were fielding their "journeywomen", who are not the fastest out there. My call is she will be within 30-50s of the best ski time today. Considering her pedestrian shooting speed (44s in Idre) it's like she's starting with only 9 bullets, so "6/10" would be short of the top 40.

Bakken's problems are related to his third covid jab.

Lol. End of the joke.

The mighty Fijians have fallen ! too strong in the final minutes edges them out (20-17). First loss for in HK for the first time since 2014 ... overtakes for the bronze. Since their return, Samoa have qualified for every semi-final (5), only to finish 4th each time. Very interesting first tournament as a core team for without key players such as F.Etcheverry, T.Inciarte or B.Amaya. They win they "Shield", dominating their likely direct opponents towards relegation, and . So, with the new rules : at the moment would be relegated without ceremony, , and would play with the Challenger Series winner in a 4-teams tournament to keep their spot in the WS.

Xandra Velzeboer has just OBLITERATED the 500m WR by half a second 41.936 -> 41.416 And the times overall aren't this good, she's really standing out on her own. Her start is not particularly strong, I guess she could take a second off it in a mixed race.

But the real information from this first day is that the World Series will go from 16 to 12 teams next year ! I guess they want tot reduce the tournaments' length. But the Challenger Series will need to be really established, not like what we've seen so far, or 7s will unfortunately become another Commonwealth/rugby inbred sport.

Well, the squad is pretty much team Scotland (8) with a bunch of Englishmen (4) and a token Welshman, the lack of cohesion is therefore a bit odd. None of the three program was going well before the merger anyhow, so seeing GB struggle now is quite logical though the impression left this morning is concerning.

Does anyone know what kind of nationality transfer is at stake ? Regarding his ability to overpower Lavreysen I'm all eyes. His unofficial WR was set on a very quick track so he may not have the edge that this performance suggests. And the gap itself is not that big time-wise, mind that even when Hoogland manages to equal Lavreysen's times, he's still unable to beat the latter. Yakovlev is really good strategically though, so we'll see, in the Track CL hopefully.

Kouamé

First ever medal for a French women's team pursuit, unthinkable even a couple of years back. Still a young squad, pretty much following Italy closely but always a bit late. Not the same pool as the Italians but hopefully the successful youngsters will provide the team with talent in the years to come.

Don't see anyone stronger than Capewell or able to do better than her today in the British squad.

So is Olympic runner-up Olena Starikova . Surprisingly so Emma Hinze only managed the 6th time of the qualifying round, not that it would take the favorite status away from her but the title is not awarded yet. I would give Van Riessen the edge over Grabosch.

Women's sprint qualifications underway, with first rider Yuan Liying (17) taking the Junior World Record (10.697), previous was held by Mathilde Gros since 2017 (10.709).

The Dutch have been beaten ! At last the "lack" of a leading rider is felt, with van den Berg being sub par even for his standards (17.45) and a very strong Australian team overall.

Harsh loss for the French team sprint. Don't know why the race restarted so quickly since the French n°1 went all out for about a half-lap. As a result he lost 0.4 compared to the qualifications, which cost his team the win and a real chance to earn the bronze medal.

Not surprising, Brennauer has retired, Klein is injured and their alternates (Süssemlich and Reissner) are noticeably weaker, hence the gap.

It's the same every time, I don't understand why. I can't think of any other sport processing this way.

There is a misunderstanding here. The so-called challengers are the minnows, while those who can cause an upset are the real "challengers" as we may understand it.

Nope. 4 spots in the 2023 World Series, then one spot for each continent, then one spot at the final repechage tournament. This time WR included the case where both USA and Canada qualified via the WS, in order to avoid a team like Mexico getting a free ticket, before it happened. Surprised they didn't foresee the possibility that Australia, NZ and Fiji did. If so I doubt they would award PNG a continental spot. @rybak this window is probably the best for Poland to qualify (assuming they won't progress to an even better status in the coming years). France is automatically qualified, Russia excluded, Spain rebuilding. The only issue is that both Ireland and GB probably won't qualify through the WS.

Next year's World Series will be interesting. Lots of teams will be in contention for the 4 automatic spots and the outcome will be decisive towards the continental representation. If Argentina can repeat last edition's performance then Uruguay/Chile could have a huge shot at making the Olympics. Should South Africa continue to crumble (though the CG proved they're far from over), Kenya would be in big trouble etc.

🍀 , and with the best performances. , and with the worst. Really pleased with Uruguay, they could fight for more than the relegation in the World Series though I fear most of the squad won't appear much of the time.

Pre-round of 16 results : 🍀 - : 24-0 - : 31-7 - : 33-7 - : 24-7 - : 19-0 - : 33-10 - : 7-19 - : 12-15 a.e.t Round of 16 : - 🍀 - - - - - - -

Top 8 in Europe, nothing new for a French Olympic sport team If they want to get some recognition they'll have to achieve more.

Annoncer ça à deux ans des Jeux c'est osé. Poids j'ai du mal à y croire mais en javelot avoir un athlète ne me parait pas impossible, en tout cas impossible de dire que cela ne sera pas le cas.