SalamAkhi

Argentina looks strong and consistent. They will probably qualify at this point if they manage to get to the QF in HK.

Pools are out and could do some huge damages : 

A :    

B :    

C :    

D :    

B and C look quite straightforward, but Uruguay does have a positive record against GB and Spain-USA are always down to the wire. Making it to the QF would be a gigantic step towards maintaining their spot in the World Series. Uruguay have beaten Fiji, NZ and SA in the span of 7 tournaments (I think it took more than 20 years for France to beat NZ and the W are as rare as you could get) but failing to make the quarters in most of these situations, which is harsh. 

And let's talk about the horrible ending of Spain-USA ... Spain butchered a QF by failing to shoot the conversion. Literally. 

A and D on the other hand ... which one of Fiji and Samoa get into the top 4 doesn't really matter as long as NZ and Australia are in too. That last Australian try vs Ireland in the pool stage proved to be VERY costly for Canada. They were on the brink of qualifying for the QF, thus scoring at least 10 points ... and ended up dead last. They're now trailing far behind.

South Africa are back to their worst and they better tidy things up or the qualification will get away from them.

2 hours ago, Grassmarket said:

I don’t know how it’s done elsewhere, but in  we have Olympic aptitude events. Promising young athletes from any background sport can do a range of tests & they will be offered places to train on the less-well known Olympic Sports. That’s how double gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold got started on skeleton. Plenty of rowers, triathletes & pentathletes have come through that.

Same in France. No lol just kidding of course it doesn't, we rely on sheer luck to grab some talents in individual sports (like Mathilde Gros, former basket-ball player, detected when she tried a watt bike for fun). 

Paris 2024 here we come.

Canada does the same with the RBC Training Ground.

13 minutes ago, Belle said:

Yeah let’s hype Norway. The Pole Vault gold was so totally amazing and impressive 

We know Duplantis was not there, no need to remind it every 30s.

As we say here "les absents ont toujours tort", congrats to the winner.

France in a medal position after 6 laps out of 8, who would have thought ? 4th at best but 

South Africa keeps its place in the top 4 but had Uruguay beaten Canada, they would have had a very bad week-end. 

I feel the field is more leveled than ever, that's probably why NZ is faring so well. They are usually the more consistent team out there (with South Africa) and they are now building on this to ensure an olympic spot.

Any team can miss the Cup and reshuffle the rankings, things can change very quickly. The USA and Ireland are not in the best position at the moment but we're only just passed the halfway point. 

The current ranking is not ideal in terms of top team representation though. With Argentina and South Africa in, Uruguay (Chile ?) and Kenya (Uganda ?) have a free bye to the Games, whilst Samoa/Australia and Ireland/GB/(Spain ?) will have to battle it out. This means at least one top 10 team out of the O.G.

I hope Japan will not make it to the Olympics, looks like they are not even trying.

8 hours ago, Monzanator said:

So apparently Norway was unaware they can enter 6 athletes for the sprint if they have a reigning world champion and someone in Top 15 of the overall World Cup? Arnekleiv was a reserve on-site anyway but Stromsheim is only travelling for the men's sprint now...

First, Norway was aware of its 6 quotas in the Men's sprint, but not with the pathway you describe. They had 5 guys in the top 15 + an individual quota. 6 guys were expected to start before F.F.Andersen had to withdraw. They decided not to replace him at first, but then sent Stroemsheim. 

For the women it's all on the IBU. No one knew how it worked before the "clarification". Actually it seems the IBU changed their minds after a German request for a larger interpretation of the "top 15 rule", hence the surprise.

https://twitter.com/zigystardust77/status/1623786050811207680

 fielding a Women's Team Sprint ... with Rachele Barbieri, the fastest of the endurance riders. 

Probably because there is no Elena Bissolati. Of course Vece is in here, with Giada Capobianchi, who's a decent young sprinter. 

 deciding not to try and qualify a Women's Team Pursuit. Odd choice given the recent progress of this young team. Leaves the door open for another country.

 Thea Lafond is a triple-jumper.

Unequal chances in this lot :

 also has Lana Pudar (Women's 100/200m Butterfly) and, though a long shot now, Amel Tuka (Men's 800m). 

 is a fair bet. Let's see how Alfred does in Budapest first. 

 is a decent one. Probably less likely now than it was a few years back but McMaster remains one of the best. Problems are : he's struggling with injuries, and the competition will not allow him any leeway.

 alright. But Gega is not that young though she's at her best at the moment. Women's 3000m steeple is usually quite open when it comes to big competitions, but she'll have a hard time getting a medal. 

Others are highly unlikely. 

13 minutes ago, phelps said:

and don't forget the Orlen Cup in  Lodz (16.30 CET, live on TVP Sport -needs a VPN from outside POL).

highlight of the meet, 100m and 4*100m relay Olympic Champion  Marcel Jacobs season's debut (preliminary heat at 17.10 CET, maybe final at 18.35 CET).

And don't forget the Tallinn Combined Events  

57 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

3 good meets tonight.  Time

 

 Val de l’Eure 17:30 YT European Athletics

Well it's the Meeting de l'Eure, in Val de Reuil 

5 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

Slettemark finished in 21st place and should also make the mass start (together with Stremous, Jislova, Dzhima & Steiner).

I know this seems strange but it's Roeiseland, not Steiner, for the last spot.

Rastorgujevs throwing away a potential win on the last shoot in an individual, how unusual 

19/20 for Laegreid

4 hours ago, JoshMartini007 said:

PNG tends to win that match more often than not.

No way PNG wins that match, even less with Samoa's current level.

But having the 4 Oceanians teams qualified through the World Series is not out of the picture.

As for Vittozzi's prone, it appears her shooting was actually "good", very concentrated but just on the, wrong, edge. 

Great showing from Maya Cloetens  nearly getting points in a sprint with 8/10 on her debut ... 

4 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

Maybe people rate 4 olympic golds higher than 2 Olympic golds and also remember that Boe didn‘t compete After the olympics (which might be the Main Reason why fillet mignon won the overall World Cup).

Dude, winning relay golds with Norway is like a German winning in luge, nobody cares.

Also considering how far back was Boe after Oberhof your point is off track.

Don't want to seem overly patriotic but why does Johannes Boe appear multiple time in the nominees and not Quentin Fillon-Maillet ?

At the Olympics (individual events of course) they're even, with a slight edge for QFM (2-1-0) vs JTB (2-0-1). Apart from the Olympics QFM won 6 races in 2022, JT Boe 4 and last but not least QFM clinched the 2022 Big Crystal Globe.

Well I know it so it doesn't work 

He's not far off the truth 

27 minutes ago, FireRun said:

Finally we have someone after Teja Gregorin. 

The rest of the team could match these performances soon. Polona Klemenčič is establishing herself as a more than decent skier, 15th ski time today, almost getting points while shooting at 7 ... 

Of course Repinc is a star in the making, but when will she make her individual debut in the WC ? Then you have Zorc, K.Vindisar, with Z.Klemenčič doing the job.

5 hours ago, SalamAkhi said:

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.

I was so wrong 

Very very impressive indeed on the skis, and above all her shooting may not be as erratic as it could. Didn't see her prone but 5/5, 36s, that's fair enough. Then the standing, with three mistakes of course but look at how she managed to put the last two, in 31s total which is quite decent. 

Will be very interesting to see her in a peloton (or alone then) and shooting in confrontation, but this performance is encouraging. 

Also really exciting as for the skiing abilities of the young IBU Cup guns 

11 hours ago, phelps said:

well, not so much...

 

I mean, in most Countries many athletes of the socalled "minor sports" have to enter the military groups to have a salary and time to train professionally...

 

also in Italy 99% of the top athletes in almost every individual sport (except for tennis, golf, motorsports) are enrolled into the military corpse (we have many: the main police -aka Fiamme Oro- the jail police -aka Fiamme Azzurre- the Financial Guard -aka Fiamme Gialle- the regular Army, the socalled "Carabinieri" -which is a selected corpse within the Army- the Aviation and the Marine Corpse)...

 

and once their sport career is over, if they want, they can continue another career in the actual job they are going to be prepared for.

Same in France. In winter sports (meaning on snow here, kinda) most of the elite athletes are enrolled in the Gendarmerie, the land Army or the Customs.

21 hours ago, FireRun said:

Anamarija Lampič is confirmed to start the sprint in Hochfilzn this week. Let's see how it turns out. I recon she can get points if she has a decent shoot. Say seven out of ten. 

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.

58 minutes ago, NearPup said:

John-Henry Krueger will also no longer compete for Hungary.

Lol. End of the joke.