Welcome to The Sports Examiner SPEED READ, a 100 mph (44.7 m/s) review of what happened over the last 72 hours in Olympic sport:
LANE ONE
Monday: Is the new LA 2028 budget of $6.88 billion really serious, or just for show? The numbers themselves aren’t what’s important; we have some added information from an organizing committee source on what they are doing … and most importantly, what they are NOT doing.
HEARD AFTER HALFTIME
Saturday: More hot distance running, at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford plus a 3×3 tie-up between USA Basketball and Red Bull, Katelyn Osmond retires from figure skating and what Olympic gold medalist Ryan Murphy sees as the central focus of the 2019 World Championships season.
ATHLETICS
Friday: Brilliant Diamond League opener in Doha, with eight world-leading marks, including a 1:54.98 victory for South Africa’s Caster Semenya. The big winners include Swede Daniel Stahl (discus), Ryan Crouser (USA: shot put), Hellen Obiri (KEN: 3,000 m), American Dalilah Muhammad (400 m hurdles) and more.
Friday: Semenya’s comments after her 800 m win show she is hardly considering retirement, plus a great showing for American steepler Hilary Bor in the Doha Diamond League opener.
BADMINTON
Sunday: New stars on the horizon? Surprise singles wins for Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie, 21, and Se Young An, 17, of Korea in the New Zealand Open, and a bad tournament for 2012 Olympic champs Dan Lin (CHN) and Xuerui Li (CHN).
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Saturday: A new Brazilian pairing of Alison Cerutti and Alvaro Filho won their first tournament together in their second event, in the Port Dickson Open in Malaysia, over Theo Brunner and Reid Priddy of the U.S. The women’s title went to Czech stars Barbora Hermannova and Marketa Slukova, in a tight match with Brooke Sweat and Kerri Walsh Jennings of the U.S.
CYCLING
Friday: As usual, the Eschborn-Frankfurt race came down to a final sprint, but for the first time in five years, it wasn’t Norway’s Alexander Kristoff who won it. Instead, Germany’s Pascal Ackermann and John Degenkolb went 1-2 for the cheering home crowd.
Sunday: Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic dominated the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland and has now won three multi-stage tours without a loss this season: the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico and now the Romandie. It’s time to take him seriously, starting with next week’s Giro d’Italia!
Sunday: The U.S. women continued to own the Pan American Championships Time Trial, held this time in Pachuca, Mexico. For the third year in a row, the U.S. went 1-2, this time with Leah Thomas getting the win over three-time champ Amber Neben.
FENCING
Sunday: Veterans Andrea Cassara (ITA) and Inna Deriglazova (RUS) won the Foil World Cup in Russia and Germany and between them now own 92 “regular-season” medals in World Cups and Grand Prix events! They led 1-2 finishes for Italy and Russia. In the Epee Grand Prix in Cali, rising talents Kazuyasu Minobe (JPN) and Yiwen Sun (CHN) were the winners.
MODERN PENTATHLON
Sunday: Wild World Cup in Szekesfehervar (HUN), with a dream home victory for Tamara Alekszejev and a surprise win for Germany’s Christian Zillekens in the men’s division over now-no. 1 Valentin Prades of France.
SPORT CLIMBING
Sunday: After newcomers shined at the start of the season, veterans took over in the Bouldering and Speed World Cup in Wujiang (CHN). Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret won her fourth Bouldering World Cup in four tries; two more and she’ll complete perfect season! Former World Champion Tomoa Narasaki of Japan won the men’s division, and reigning World Champion Aleksandra Rudzinska (POL) won the Speed event with the no. 3 time in history!
SWIMMING
Sunday: You’ll be seeing familiar faces on the U.S. Open Water squad at the 2019 World Championships, with Jordan Wilimovsky, Ashley Twichell and Haley Anderson all qualifying for the American team. But at the USA Swimming Open Water Nationals, none of them won the headline 10 km race, and Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri won both the men’s 5 km and 10 km events!
UPCOMING
Highlights of the coming week, with previews in the coming days on TheSportsExaminer.com:
● Athletics: The IAAF World Relays in Yokohama (JPN), with World Championships qualifying positions at stake.
● Cycling: Start of the first of the 2019 Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia, this time in Bologna.
● Ice Hockey: The last winter world championship – the IIHF Men’s Worlds – finally gets started in Slovakia.
And a look at the second of the three stages in the new FINA Champions Series, in the swimming hot spot of Budapest (HUN).
