SalamAkhi

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

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

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. 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 ?

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.

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.

Actually there is one. It just doesn't seem to be displayed anywhere. I tried several locations, geoblocking every time.

Is the stream blocked for everyone ?

That is quite clear. Riethmüller was a very promising junior, then took a lot of time to find his way. Don't try to tell me you would have deemed him as "very promising" two years ago. Looking at his junior career your analysis would have been "why is this guy so far from the promises he once shown". That's exactly the point with Grotian. Things are not linear. And how exactly do you manage to actually assess this "regression" ? She's not dominating the WC charts but still register top-20 ski times regularly, nothing last year ensured us she would match with the fastest girls as of yet. Again, we could expect it but not consider it done. In fact, if we compare apples and apples (IBU Cup Ridnaun Sprints) between 2023/23 and 23/24, we can see that she was 21st on the track last year, 11th this year, with a fall. Take it as you wish.