SalamAkhi

4 hours ago, De_Gambassi said:

 Best looking track stadium in the world ? Yes or yes ?

 

Meh. Looks good this way but the camera angles during the action don't give the same feeling. I actually prefer the older version, this one is still quite small, but much more standardized. Shot put area in the center is also meh.

5 minutes ago, JoshMartini007 said:

I would love for the challenger series to be an actual series, but the travel cost for lower ranked nations likely prevents it from being viable.

Yeah, that's the main obstacle. Back to back geographically near tournaments would be a first step (like Chile/Uruguay usually do). I hope WR, who's not really making efforts to develop XV outside of Tier 1,5, will help making it happen.

In fact they probably used 2021 continental results to define the participating teams. Which would explain Lithuania M and Georgia over Italy and Spain or Kenya W over Madagascar, Tunisia and Uganda. 

Seems odd but this tournament is used to promote a team to the 22/23 WS, starting quite soon. If the Challenger Series are set to come back to normal in 2023 (January ?) then this year's results will be used there.

Actually this would be dramatic for Wales and Japan. They're 99% out of the WS for 22/23. But Japan only finished 3rd in the Asian Champs this year, thus missing the 2022 World Cup, and if none of HK and South Korea gets promoted in August, then Japan is out of next year's Challenger (if format stays the same). Wales did not take part to the 2021 European Champs so they got relegated to the Trophy this year. This means they have no chance of getting a 2023 Challenger spot (if no little arrangement between friends).

Challenger Series II announced. They will take place in Santiago de Chile on the 12-14th of August.

Actually the word "series" is kind of a joke to describe this tournament, as there is no ... series. Pretty much a revival of the HK qualifying tournament. I hope the first format will come back next year and stabilize a World Series DII.

Some notable withdrawals. For the men behind Germany no Belgium, Italy or Portugal but Lithuania and Georgia. For the women no Scotland but Belgium. Scotland is focusing on the CwG, the team is not meant to be viable in the long term (actually a bunch of XV players reunited for the occasion). I guess same applies for the withdrawing men teams, but that's a bit surprising.

Germany has to be the favorite on the men's draw but they will have a hard time getting the job done. Besides the two other Europeans (and they have some pretty good assets), Jamaica and PNG, every team has got a decent chance of winning.

For the women Poland is in pole position imo. Their showings in the EC vs near-full strength France (R1) and Ireland are impressive, so is their appearance in the World Series earlier this season. China would probably be favorite if not for their complete disappearance since Tokyo, what to expect from them is unknown. Japan and Sout Africa are obviously candidates.

On 7/3/2022 at 10:17 PM, Monzanator said:

wins the women's European Championships in Rugby 7 I don't know who schedules rugby matches at 10:00 am on Sunday but the deciding match vs was played around that hour Poland won 14:0.

Rugby 7s tournaments are organized on two days, sometimes three. This time around it was three.

11 a.m is an usual schedule for the first matches of the day, and on Sunday, it's always a knockout (either semi or quarter-finals).

Poland v Scotland was in fact a semi-final, working as an unofficial decider for the overall title since the EC are held on two aggregate tournaments and Poland won the first beating Scotland in the process. 

44 minutes ago, dcro said:

So we have a historic gold in heptathlon. Well done Jana!

 

Looks to be a product of a sibling rivalry. Her sister Klara held the U18 NR before this year, but in two events this year Jana has raised it by almost 500 points.

Could have done more. Actually she probably would have beaten the CR and maybe the WR if not for her elbow injury.

50 minutes ago, De_Gambassi said:

It would be nice if we had these championships every year tbh. 

Yeah, since the U18 WC are no more that would be fair.

Pathetic crowd, at least in athletics. Continous boos and cheering French athletes failures. Isn't it time to get over it, seriously ?

 beat  3-0 in the European Golden League semis.

Second straight win against Croatia after last year's Euro, and still FIVB decided to send Croatia to the WCh to replace Russia. They have proved time and time again that awarding wild-cards was within their capabilities, but not this time. Great progress and hosting the next Olympics is not enough it seems.

17 hours ago, LDOG said:

Despite a "bad" 5th place  is now leading the overall standings because SA and Australia did worse.

  

Fiji won the stage in Paris.

They were alone in Paris then.

The commentators lol. "An accomplished French team".
That's literally the first time ever this team gets to start an official Team Sprint on a 250m track 

1 hour ago, Orangehair43 said:

It be popular among the public of many countries. A poll the ither showed the majority of Americans wanted a ban on Russian players at American tournaments. 

How surprising ... what about Iraq, Afghanistan and so on ?

1 hour ago, Grassmarket said:

BBC has streaming coverage in : don’t know what coverage is elsewhere.  Tissot TV has a Facebook page but expect it to be randomly geo-blocked if some obscure cable channel has the exclusive rights in  or .

 

 

And probably for the evening session only, for whatever reason ... 

Plain shit, well deserved Olympic shame. Hoping for the least possible number of medals.

French individual medal. I can rest in peace now 

6 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

Looks like it's a stadium issue.  They're at Stade de France, so they probably need it to start/finish a couple of days earlier to get the stadium ready for athletics.

It is. It was planned to take place in Jean Bouin (next to the Parc des Princes & RG), which is a rugby stadium (20k). For whatever reason they decided to move it to the SDF ... having most of the tournament (2 days/3 for one of the genders) before the OC is pretty lame.

3 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

Morning session starts at 9:30 CET am tomorrow

Best events first 

2 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

And still no Johannes Dale? Talk about burning out fast

Covid. He was on the brink of making his way back to the WC and then ...

I would not take him out of the picture but this year must have been ... frustrating.

On 3/14/2022 at 1:23 PM, JonPhi said:

Jeanmonnot yes, but Colombo was not selected. Why I do not know. In sprinting she is certainly higher rated than Jeanmonnot. Instead, Botet was nominated again.

It's worse, one quota is actually unused. So both Colombo AND Jeanmonnot could have started (and Botet). I was pretty convinced they would send Botet back, after all she's had a good chunk of experience in the WC on the basis of a small portion of IBU Cup in December, and her results are not particularly excellent. That would have opened 3 spots for Oslo, which is not too much given the excellent form of the whole B team, so Jeanmonnot can be back after some great first races last year, same for Colombo to prove she's WC worthy and one last for Bened (or even Chauveau) who's been up and coming for a few years and deserves a first experience on the big stage.

But eventually one quota is not even used, I'm gutted. 

Colombo is probably not in the staff's good graces anymore (too "old"), but why do they let her take part in the IBU Cup and earn a WC spot if they don't want to call her back in the end (she was told she wouldn't go to Oslo before Val Ridanna) ? And if so, why is her place not occupied by a younger athlete ?

The A staff probably feels Botet is a star in the making, which I get, I was actually the first to hope she would experience Oberhof and all ... but the management of the "B to A team connection" looks shaky to say the least.

So happy 

France IBU Cup globes tally is suffering a Zimbabwean inflation  +400% 

From 1 (Chloé Chevalier Pursuit 17/18) to probably 5.

Nations Cup is looking clear, Colombo has won the sprint, Jeanmonnot has already secured the super-sprint and it seems she's made what needed to be done today to conquer the Big one. 

It shows the density of this B team.

An open-to-public mascot competition ? I'd rather bet on a €500K McKinsey report to provide us with a piece of crap any 7 y.o child could have imagined. 

Business first.

21 hours ago, Jinzha said:

Interesting that Korea sweeps both the 1000m and 1500m podiums on the mens side, but in the relay they finished third in the B final. I don't see any penalties or big time differences that indicate a fall in the results.

The first Korean stumbled at the start and lost a fair amount of time. They had to trail all the way, coming within firing range of France just in the end but the last French skater managed to hold the Korean back. One lap more would have been enough though. 

As for French medals in relay that's not a first. Four between 2004 and 2008 including a win in 2006, although it was a 2000m relay with three skaters.

French Indoor Champs : ...

French Athletics at home in 2024 : ...