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AQUATICS: China 5-of-5 in diving, Russia 2-for-2 in Artistic and surprise Chinese open-water win in FINA World Champs

China's Xin Xin and Haley Anderson (USA) race to the finish of the World Championships 10 km in Gwangju (Photo: Xinhua/Yifang Xia)

The 2019 FINA World Aquatics Championships have opened just as expected … with one surprise.

China was expected to dominate the diving events and has won all five. Russia was expected to dominate Artistic Swimming and is doing just that. But China’s Xin Xin pulled off the first upset of the Worlds with a victory in the 10 km Open Water event on Sunday.

A very large group of 64 women started the race and the race finished in a huge sprint, with a large pack of swimmers not only trying to win a medal, but to finish in the top 10 and qualify for the 2020 Olympic race in Tokyo.

A total of 13 swimmers touched within five seconds, but the surprise was seeing China’s Xin make it to the touch first in 1:54:47.20, almost a second ahead of Haley Anderson of the U.S. Xin, still just 22, raced in London 2012 and was fourth in the Rio 10 km race in 2016, but finally won her first medal – and China’s first medal – in Open Water at the World Championships.

Anderson had won a 10 km silver in London and the 2013 and 2015 Open Water golds at 5 km, but this was her first Worlds medal in the 10 km.

“I am really happy with how I raced and I am excited to qualify for another Olympic Games,” said Anderson afterwards. “I can’t believe I qualified for my third Olympics. To get my hand on the touch pads in second is really awesome. I finally won a medal in the 10 km at the World Championships. I really learned a lot during the past two quads.

“It was pretty stressful and brutal in the race today. It was a little cut-throat out there because everyone was trying to finish in the top ten. I was trying to stay calm and confident. Coming down the last stretch was a pretty big pack and I tried to keep the best line possible to the finish and I found clear water. I wanted to avoid fighting with anyone as that isn’t good for either swimmer. I made up some ground on the leaders.

“It was always my goal to be on the podium here, it wasn’t just about finishing in the top 10 today. I am really excited about how I finished, not just where I finished. This is a great ‘set up’ for me for the Olympics next summer. I want to earn another medal for the USA at next summer’s Olympics. I still have plenty of racing ahead of me this summer.”

Ashley Twichell also qualified for the U.S. for Tokyo, finishing sixth, 3.3 seconds behind Xin.

In diving, Chinese victories were expected and delivered. Through five events, the Chinese have not only won, but dominated; the margins of victory:

● 20.10 ~ Men/1 m Springboard: Zongyuan Wang
● 24.72 ~ Men/10 m Synchro: Siyi Xie/Yuan Cao
● 23.45 ~ Women/1 m Springboard: Yiwen Chen
● 32.52 ~ Women/3 m Synchro: Jiaqi Zhang/Wei Lu
● 34.86 ~ Mixed/10 m Synchro: Junjie Lian/Yajie Si

That’s an average margin of victory of 27.13 points through five events, with seven events remaining. A sweep is certainly possible. Here’s how good the Chinese were: Wang was seventh in the 1 m after three of his six dives and said afterwards that he “was in a fog and got lost in the first half of the competition. Then I started to realize I was at the bottom of the ranking and should bounce to the top.” He won the event easily for China’s seventh straight win in the men’s 1 m Springboard.”

The U.S. came through with two medals in diving, including a silver from Sarah Bacon in the 1 m Springboard. No U.S. woman had won a World Championships individual medal since Laura Wilkinson’s gold in the 10 m Platform in 2005. Bacon’s silver was the first American women’s medal in the 1 m since 1991, when Wendy Lucero won the silver.

Bacon, 22, had to come from fourth into the medals with two rounds to go, but moved into third on her fourth dive and into second position after her final dive. Amazingly, this was her first international competition at the senior level!

“I did know how close it was,” she said afterwards. “Paying attention to the scores and being that close kind of gives me motivation going into my dives. It gives me a little more fire to perform them well. I could have hit one or two dives a little better, but it was a very consistent list.”

“I think this will give me more confidence going into 3-meter, which is something I struggle with every now and then. Most of the time I perform better on 1-meter than on 3-meter, so being able to medal on 1-meter gives me more confidence going into the 3-meter event.”

The U.S. got a second diving medal from Murphy Bromberg and Katrina Young in the women’s 10 m Synchro, which unlike the 1 m Springboard, is an Olympic event. The U.S. hadn’t won a women’s Worlds 10 m Synchronized medal since 2009, when Haley Ishimatsu and Mary Beth Dunnichay took silver. The bronze medal also secured an Olympic slot for the U.S. in the event for 2020.

They also came from behind, having to pass Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito and Caeli McKay on the final dive. But the Americans scored 69.12 on their final dive and Benfeito (a three-time Olympic medalist) and McKay scored 62.40 for a margin of 81/100ths and the bronze medal.

“After the event, [coaches John Proctor and Matt Scoggin] came up to us and said, ‘You did it. You got it.’ We didn’t believe them. We were like, ‘No, we didn’t.’ And then we did. We were surprised,” Bromberg said.

In Artistic Swimming, Russia continued to dominate as Svetlana Kolesnichenko won her second gold of the competition, teaming with Svetlana Romashina for the Duet Technical win. Kolesnichenko now owns 15 World Championships golds from 2011-19 and more are coming. Romashina, on a comeback, won her 19th Worlds gold in a career that started in 2005.

In women’s water polo, the favored U.S. team defeated New Zealand in its opening game of group play, 22-3.

Summaries so far:

FINA World Aquatics Championships
Gwangju (KOR) ~ 12-28 July 2019
(Full results here)

ARTISTIC SWIMMING

Solo Technical: 1. Svetlana Kolesnichenko (RUS), 95.0023; 2. Ona Carbonell (ESP), 92.5002; 3. Yukiko Inui (JPN), 92.3084; 4. Marta Fiedina (UKR), 91.3014; 5. Jacqueline Simoneau (CAN), 89.2932; 6. Linda Cerruti (ITA), 88.0378; 7. Evangelia Platanioti (GRE), 86.2921; 8. Vasiliki Alexandri (AUT), 85.6098.

Duet Technical: 1. Svetlana Romashina/Svetlana Kolesnichenko (RUS), 95.9010; 2. Wenyan Sun/Xuechen Huang (CHN), 94.0072; 3. Anastasiya Savchuk/Marta Fiedina (UKR), 92.5847; 4. Megumu Yoshida/Yukiko Inui (JPN), 92.116; 5. Linda Cerutti/Costanza Ferro (ITA), 90.1743; 6. Jacqueline Simoneau/Claudia Holzner (CAN), 88.8659; 7. Paula Ramirez/Sara Saldana Lopez (ESP), 87.2960; 8. Eirini Alexandri/Anna-Maria Alexandri (AUT), 87.0654. Also: 12. Ruby Remati/Anita Alvarez (USA), 84.0190.

DIVING

Men

1 m Springboard: 1. Zongyuan Wang (CHN), 440.25; 2. Rommel Pacheco (MEX), 420.15; 3. Jianfeng Peng (CHN), 415.00; 4. Haram Woo (KOR), 406.15; 5. Patrick Hausding (GER), 405.05; 6. Briadam Herrera (USA), 399.90; 7. Oleg Kolodiy (UKR), 396.40; 8. Kacper Lesiak (POL), 380.05.

3 m Synchro: 1. Siyi Xie/Yuan Cao (CHN), 439.74; 2. Jack Laugher/Daniel Goodfellow (GBR), 415.02; 3. Juan Celaya/Yahei Castillo (MEX), 413.94; 4. Lars Rudiger/Patrick Hausding (GER), 399.87; 5. Nikita Shleikher/Evgenii Kuznetsov (RUS), 396.81; 6. Oleksandr Gorshkovozov/Oleg Kolodiy (UKR), 393.24; 7. Sho Sakai/Ken Terauchi (JPN), 389.43; 8. Andrew Capobianco/Mike Hixon (USA), 388.08.

Women

1 m Springboard: 1. Yiwen Chen (CHN), 285.45; 2. Sarah Bacon (USA), 262.00; 3. Suji Kim (KOR), 257.20; 4. Katherine Torrance (GBR), 255.40; 5. Kristina Ilinykh (RUS), 252.80; 6. Yani Chang (CHN), 251.95; 7. Elena Bertocchi (ITA), 245.60; 8. Elizabeth Cui (NZL), 244.20. Also: 10. Maria Coburn (USA), 237.75.

10 m Synchro: 1. Jiaqi Zhang/Wei Lu (CHN), 345.24; 2. Mun Yee Leong/Pandelela Pamg (MAS), 312.72; 3. Murphy Bromberg/Katrina Young (USA), 304.86; 4. Meaghan Benfeito/Caeli McKay (CAN), 304.05; 5. Iullia Timoshinina/Ekaterina Beliaeva (RUS), 291.30; 6. Lois Toulson/Eden Cheng (GBR), 289.14; 7. Chiara Pellacani/Noemi Batki (ITA), 280.38; 8. Melissa Wu/Emily Chinnock (AUS), 277.44.

Mixed

10 m Synchro: 1. Junjie Lian/Yajie Si (CHN), 346.14; 2. Ekaterina Beliaeva/Viktor Minibaev (RUS), 311.28; 3. Maria Sanchez/Jose Balleza (MEX), 287.64; 4. Noah Williams/Robyn Birch (GBR), 285.18; 5. Olivia Rosendahl/Zach Cooper (USA), 267.96; 6. Maicol Verzotto/Noemi Batki (ITA), 259.62; 7. Jiwook Kim/Halim Kwon (KOR), 247.20; 8. Ingrid Oliveira/Isaac Filho (BRA), 239.46.

OPEN WATER SWIMMING

Men

5 km: 1. Kristof Rasovszky (HUN), 53:22.10; 2. Logan Fontaine (FRA), 53:32.20; 3. Eric Hedlin (CAN), 53:32.40; 4. Matej Kozubek (CZE), 53:33.60; 5. Domenico Acerenza (ITA), 53:34.00; 6. Daniel Szekelyi (HUN), 5:34.40; 7. Bailey Armstrong (AUS), 53:34.80; 8. Kirill Abrosimov (RUS), 53:35.50. Also: 14. Brendan Gravley (USA), 53:37.80

Women

10 km: 1. Xin Xin (CHN), 1:54:47.20; 2. Haley Anderson (USA), 1:54:48.10; 3. Rachele Bruni (ITA), 1:54:49.90; 4. Lara Grangeon (FRA), 1:54:50.00; 5. Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA), 1:54:50.50; 6. Ashley Twichell (USA), 1:54:50.50; 7. Kareena Lee (AUS), 1:54:50.50; 8. Finnia Wunram (GER), 1:54:50.70.

WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES: Japan finishes atop the Universiade medal table in Naples; U.S. wins 40 medals in swimming!

Five golds at the 2019 Universiade: U.S. sprinter Zach Apple

Almost 6,000 athletes from 118 countries attended the 30th World University Games, held in Naples (ITA). Some 222 events were held in 18 sports and 68 countries won medals, led by:

1. 82 Japan (33-21-28)
2. 82 Russia (22-24-36)
3. 52 United States (21-16-15)
4. 50 South Korea (17-17-16)
5. 43 China (22-13-8)
6. 43 Italy (14-13-16)

The U.S. “team” was an odd mix, with some U.S. National Governing Bodies sending quality squads, such as USA Swimming and others essentially ignoring the event. USA Track & Field, for example, does not support the WUG and the entries were recruited by the coaching staff, appointed by an NCAA-sanctioned body called the U.S. International University Sports Federation (US-IUSF).

Of the 52 medals won by U.S. athletes in Naples, 40 were in swimming, and three (0-1-2) in track & field.

The United States Olympic Committee did support the WUG as an international event at which athletes could gain experience, but ended its interest in 2013 and the U.S. entries have been a hodge-podge of talent ever since. U.S. highlights from Naples:

In swimming, the U.S. sent its second team to Naples and overpowered the rest of the world, winning 40 total medals – including 19 golds – to 20 (6-6-7) for Japan and 18 for Russia. Among the highlights:

Zach Apple of the U.S. moved to no. 4 on the 100 m Freestyle world list for 2019 with a 47.79 lead-off leg on the winning American 4×100 m Free relay. He won the 100 m Free as well (48.01), plus the 200 m Free.

Zane Waddell (AUS) swam 24.46, now no. 3 on the year list in the 50 m Backstroke, but American Justin Ress won the final in 24.48 (fifth in 2019). Austin Katz of the U.S. won his semi of the 200 m Back in 1:55.57, fourth-best in 2019, and then won the final as well.

● Japan’s Yuki Ikari won the 400 m Medley in 4:12.54, making him no. 4 on the world list.

Tatjana Schoenmaker (RSA) won her semi of the 100 m Breast in 1:06.32 to become no. 4 on the 2019 world list. She later won the final and took the 200 m Breast in 2:22.92.

American sprinter Gabby DeLoof won five golds, taking the 100-200 m Frees and then swimming legs on the winning 4×100 and 4×200 Free relays and the 4×100 Medley relay. Same for Apple on the men’s side, with five golds in the same events.

In basketball, the U.S. fielded two college teams: Clemson for the men and Mississippi State for the women. The Tigers had a tough time in the knock-out round, squeezing by Germany, 76-74, in the quarterfinals and then 75-73 against Israel in the semifinals. But in the gold-medal game against Ukraine, they had no such problems, winning by 85-63 to finish undefeated at 6-0.

Guard John Newman, a freshman in 2018-19, had 20 points and seven rebounds, and forward Aamir Simms had 12 points to lead Clemson, which piled up a 28-15 edge in the first quarter and was up, 48-23 at half and cruised home.

In the women’s tournament, Mississippi State won its preliminary games, then eased by China, 87-79, and Japan by 89-84 before running into Australia in the final. A tight game at halftime, the Aussies exploded for 29 points in the third quarter and had a 66-48 lead going into the final period. The Bulldogs outscored Australia, 24-14, in the final 10 minutes, but ended up settling for the silver medal, 80-72.

In track & field, the marks were fairly modest for the most part, but:

Gabriel Constantino (BRA) won the 110 m hurdles in a very good 13.22, beating Wil Belocian (FRA: 13.30). Alison Santos (also BRA) won the 400 m hurdles in 48.57, bringing him up to fifth on the 2019 world list.

● Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki won the shot put easily with a throw of 21.54 m (70-8), not too far from his seasonal nest of 21.97 m (72-1).

Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (UKR) won the women’s long jump at 6.84 m (22-5 1/4) just one cm behind her season’s best, which stands eighth on the world list for 2019.

In the sprints, Paulo Andre Camino de Oliveira (BRA) won the men’s 100 m in 10.09, and also took the 200 m in a life time best of 20.28. The women’s 100 was won in 11.32 by India’s Dutee Chand, the woman who initially sued the IAAF in 2011 over its regulations on differences in sex development.

In Artistic Gymnastics, Japan dominated, with Kazuma Kaya winning the men’s All-Around and Hitomi Hatakeda taking the women’s All-Around and also wins on the Uneven Bars and Beam.

In Rhythmic, Russia’s Ekaterina Selezneva (RUS) was a clear winner in the All-Around, with American Laura Zeng taking the bronze.

The complete results from Naples are here. The 2021 Universiade will be held in Chengdu (CHN).

ATHLETICS: World Record for Sifan Hassan, but Gatlin and McLaughlin delivered the heaviest mail

World-record setter Sifan Hassan (left) celebrates her Monaco win with runner-up Laura Weightman (GBR)

Friday’s brilliant Herculis meet in Monaco had a rarity in today’s track & field: a world record, specifically 4:12.44 in the mile by Dutch star Sifan Hassan. But that may not have been the most impressive effort at the Stade Louis II.

Hassan broke away from the field with 600 m to go and only Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay in contact and then rolled away on a final lap of about 63 seconds for a final time of 4:12.33, breaking Russian Svetlana Masterkova’s 1996 mark of 4:12.56.

“I knew I could run fast but the first 800 was a bit slow, so after that I wasn’t thinking it would be a world record,” Hassan said afterwards. “When I crossed the line I was so surprised. After you run a last 400 like that, and set a world record, it gives me so much confidence over 5,000 m. I want to double over 1,500 and 5,000 m in Doha and the way I finished the last 400 there, it’s amazing!”

Hassan won by more than five seconds over Britain’s Laura Weightman (4:17.60) and Canada’s Gabriela DeBues-Stafford (4:17.87 national record). Truth be told, Hassan’s performance is much inferior to the women’s 1,500 m record of 3:50.07 by Genzebe Dibaba (ETH: 2015), worth about 4:07.62 for the mile on the IAAF’s scoring tables, but impressive nonetheless. The official split times had Hassan crossing 1,500 m in 3:55.30, also a world leader for 2019.

But there were other marks of note, and six world leaders in total:

Men/800 m: 1:41.89, Nijel Amos (BOT)
Men/3,000 m Steeple: 8:04.82, Soufiane El Bakkali (MAR)
Men/Pole Vault: 6.02 m, Piotr Lisek (POL)
Women/1,500 m: 3:55.30 (en route), Sifan Hassan (NED)
Women/Mile: 4:12.33, Sifan Hassan (NED) ~ World Record
Women/400 m hurdles: 53.32, Sydney McLaughlin (USA)

Just as stunning as Hassan was the 400 m hurdles runaway by the 19-year-old McLaughlin of the U.S. She tore apart a quality field and sprinted to a runaway 53.32 victory, an amazing 1.14 seconds (!) ahead of 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Ashley Spencer (USA). It’s a world-leading mark, giving McLaughlin two of the top three marks in the world this year and a winning streak of eight meets in a row in 2018-19. Her last loss came in the 2017 USATF Nationals.

McLaughlin has been progressing steadily this season; in her four meets: 54.14, 54.16, 53.72, 53.32. She has a lifetime best of 52.75 (no. 9 all-time), but that will surely not last the season. Is the 52.34 world record by Yuliya Pechonkina (RUS) in 2003 under threat this year? You bet it is.

The men’s 100 m was highly anticipated thanks to the match-up of World Champion Justin Gatlin (37) and new superstar Noah Lyles (21). This time, Lyles got out well, but Gatlin was better off the start and had the lead by 30 m, and never relinquished it. The two ran away from the field, but Gatlin won by 9.91-9.92. It’s not the fastest 100 m this season, but one of the most competitive and the first meeting between the two.

Said Gatlin, “It’s all about putting together a good technical race, to use my experience. It feels great to beat these guys. This season is surreal, I can’t believe I’m still winning here after more than 20 years. Noah is a great runner, so every time I race him, I’m excited!”

Lyles was equally happy, and embraced Gatlin after the finish. “That was a good second place, so I’m not sad. It was a good run. My start was considerably better than other races and that makes me excited going to [U.S.] Trials. It could have been technically better, but the way I started brings me a lot of confidence.”

Those events were superb, and there were others, including the 1:41.89 win in the 800 m for Botswana’s Nijel Amos, the fastest race at the distance since the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where Amos ran 1:41.73 for the silver medal. Pole Piotr Lisek claimed another world leader in the vault, winning at 6.02 m (19-9) over Mondo Duplantis and a resurgent Thiago Braz (BRA), both of whom cleared 5.92 m (19-5). American stars Christian Taylor and Will Claye went 1-2 in the triple jump at 17.82 m (58-5 3/4) and 17.75 m (58-3).

Another definitive statement was made by Shaunae Miller-Uibo (BAH) in the women’s 200 m, running away from Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson – the world leader – by 22.09-22.44. Said the winner, “I’m happy with how the race went. The quicker I get at 200, the quicker I’ll be at 400 and I’m really happy with where I’m at right now. If they can change the timetable for the Olympics, I’d be more than happy to double.” Anyone listening?

American Keni Harrison ran a season-best 12.43 to win the 100 m hurdles, but knows she let a sensational time get away. “I’ve been working really hard, and my mindset is better too. It felt fine. I didn’t get out at the start and my coach is pretty mad. I probably just gave up a 12.2 race but I’ve just got to work on that between now and U.S. Trials.”

Wow! Summaries:

IAAF Diamond League/Herculis
Monaco (MON) ~ 12 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men

100 m (wind +0.3 m/s): 1. Justin Gatlin (USA), 9.91; 2. Noah Lyles (USA), 9.92; 3. Michael Rodgers (USA), 10.01. Also: 5. Cravon Gillespie (USA), 10.14.

400 m: 1. Steven Gardiner (BAH), 44.51; 2. Abderrahmane Samba (QAT), 45.00; 3. Nathan Strother (USA), 45.54.

800 m: 1. Nijel Amos (BOT), 1:41.89; 2. Ferguson Rotich (KEN), 1:42.54; 3. Amel Tuka (BIH), 1:43.62.

1,500 m (non-Diamond League): 1. Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN), 3:29.97; 2. Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR), 3:30.47; 3. Ronald Musagala (UGA), 3:30.58.

3,000 m Steeple: 1. Soufaien El Bakkali (MAR), 8:04.82; 2. Benjamin Kigen (KEN), 8:05.12; 3. Getnet Wale (ETH), 8:05.51. Also: 6. Hillary Bor (USA), 8:09.23.

Pole Vault: 1. Piotr Lisek (POL), 6.02 m (19-9); 2. Mondo Dupllantis (SWE), 5.92 m (19-5); 3. Thiago Braz (BRA), 5.92 m (19-5). Also: 5. Sam Kendricks (USA), 5.82 m (19-1); … 9. Cole Walsh (USA), 5.72 m (18-9 1/4).

Triple Jump: 1. Christian Taylor (USA), 17.82 m (58-5 3/4); 2. Will Claye (USA), 17.75 m (58-3); 3. Pedro Pablo Pichardo (POR), 17.38 m (57-0 1/4). Also: 6. Donald Scott (USA), 17.03 m (55-10 1/2).

Javelin: 1. Andreas Hofmann (GER), 87.84 m (288-2); 2. Magnus Kirt (EST), 87.47 m (286-11); 3. Thomas Rohler (GER), 86.04 m (282-3).

Women

200 m (+0.1): 1. Shaunae Miller-Uibo (BAH), 22.09; 2. Elaine Thompson (JAM), 22.44; 3. Dafne Schippers (NED), 22.45. Also: 4. Teahna Daniels (USA), 22.59; 5. Jenna Prandini (USA), 22.66; … 7. Gabby Thomas (USA), 22.99.

800 m (non-Diamond League): 1. Ajee Wilson (USA), 1:57.73; 2. Natoya Goule (JAM), 1:57.90; 3. Laura Muir (GBR), 1:58.42. Also: 6. Raevyn Rogers (USA), 2:00.16.

“Brave Like Gabe” Mile: 1. Sifan Hassan (NED), 4:12.33 (World Record; old, 4:12.56 Svetlana Masterkova (RUS), 1996); 2. Laura Weightman (GBR), 4:17.60; 3. Gabriela DeBues-Stafford (CAN), 4:17.87. Also: 9. Rachel Schneider (USA), 4:20.91.

100 m hurdles (+0.1): 1. Keni Harrison (USA), 12.43; 2. Danielle Williams (JAM), 12.52; 3. Christina Clemons (USA), 12.62. Also: 5. Nia Ali (USA), 12.80; … 7. Sharika Nelvis (USA), 12.98.

400 m hurdles: 1. Sydney McLaughlin (USA), 53.32; 2. Ashley Spencer (USA), 54.46; 3. Zuzana Hejnova (CZE), 54.55. Also: 7. Kori Carter (USA), 55.63.

High Jump: 1. Mariya Lasitskene (RUS), 2.00 m (6-6 3/4); 2. Mirela Demireva (BUL), 1.94 m (6-4 1/4); 3. Nicole McDermott (AUS), 1.94 m (6-4 1/4).

Triple Jump: 1. Yulimar Rojas (VEN), 14.98 m (49-1 3/4); 2. Liadagmis Povea (CUB), 14.71 m (48-3 1/4); 3. Shanieka Ricketts (JAM), 14.67 m (48-1 3/4). Also: 9. Keturah Orji (USA), 14.20 m (46-7 1/4).

LANE ONE: The end of the 11,000-athlete Olympics is coming, and it is the athletes who will tear it down

Many who have watched the unchecked growth of mega-events like the Olympic Games have wondered when the tipping point will come, when someone will come along and finally reduce the size of this event – and others like it – to something that might be manageable.

Maybe it’s the athletes themselves.

Listen to Callum Skinner, a British gold and silver medalist in Rio in track cycling and the “Athlete Lead” in a new organization call Global Athlete, whose goal is to re-balance “the power” between athletes and administrators. At the recent Sports Decision Makers Summit in London (GBR), he told attendees:

“A recent study showed that 6 per cent of the money generated by the Olympics goes back towards athlete salaries. The rest is spent by the [International Olympic Committee] and athlete bodies as they see fit. In contrast, Premier League footballers pocket over half of their clubs’ revenues. Surely it is not right for athletes to have no direct share of that income.”

This is it! This is how the Olympic Games can become smaller and more manageable, and thanks to the intervention of star athletes like Skinner, thousands of others will be eliminated from the Games. Perfect!

It works like this:

(1) Skinner and his Global Athlete group tie up with the “Equal Pay” movement in women’s sport in the U.S. and over a period of months, convince the IOC – and ex-athlete President Thomas Bach (GER) – to pay prize money directly to athletes from the Games.

(2) The best prize money for individual events in a World Championship at present appears to be with the IAAF. In its 2017 championships, it offered $60,000-30,000-2,000-15,000-10,000-6,000-5,000-4,000 for the top eight places, or $150,000 per event (average $18,750 per place), with $186,000 paid for relays.

(3) The IOC awards diplomas for the top eight placers in every event, so the prize money should be for the same number of places, but – of course – the amount has to be more. Trying to forecast what Olympic prize money might be is difficult because there are so many different types of events: individuals, small teams and large teams.

Let’s take the current IOC limit of 310 events, and with eight placers per event, that’s 2,480 prize-money winners. Check out the cost with some different averages:

● 2,480 x $25,000 average per place = $ 62 million
● 2,480 x $50,000 average per place = $124 million
● 2,480 x $75,000 average per place = $186 million
● 2,480 x $100,000 average per place = $248 million

The Winter Games costs a lot less, since there were “only” 102 events in PyeongChang 2018. So the load would be 102 events times eight placers or 816 per Games at present:

● 816 x $25,000 average per place = $20.4 million
● 816 x $50,000 average per place = $40.8 million
● 816 x $75,000 average per place = $61.2 million
● 816 x $100,000 average per place = $81.6 million

So that’s $82.4 million per quadrennial on the low side and $329.6 on the high end.

(4) According to its audited financial statements, the IOC took in about $5.7 billion for the 2013-16 quadrennial. What happened to that money? The IOC’s Annual Report shows:

● $2.418 billion went to the organizing committees
● $755 million went to National Olympic Committees
● $755 million went to the International Federations

Taking into account payments in 2017 and 2018, including the PyeongChang Winter Games and the IOC paid:

● $829 million for the IOC’s 2016-18 Games expenses, including host broadcasting costs
● $532 million from U.S. TV rights and TOP program to the United States Olympic Committee

That’s $5.29 billion, not to mention $100 million to the organizers of the Youth Olympic Games, $95 million to IOC-recognized organizations like the International Paralympic Committee, Court of Arbitration for Sport and World Anti-Doping Agency, $234 million over four years for the Olympic Channel and so on, against a revenue total of a little over $6 billion.

Adding in another $82.4 to $329.6 million for prize money and the math doesn’t add up for the IOC, which is smart enough to try and keep reserves that would allow it to continue operations even if an Olympic Games or Winter Games was not held.

(5) So now what?

The obvious answer is to cut the number of athletes per event, and the number of events in the Games. Know this: once you’re playing for money, there’s much less room for the “Olympic tourists” – those athletes who attend the Games with no hope of being competitive and are just there to represent their country – since accommodating, feeding and transporting each of them reduces the total pot available for payout.

We already know, thanks to the distribution system agreed by the International Federations themselves, which of the Olympic sports are on the low end of interest, viewership and attendance. Will we say good-bye to Canoeing, Equestrian, Fencing, Handball, Hockey, Sailing, Taekwondo, Triathlon, Wrestling and Modern Pentathlon? Those are the sports on the two lowest tiers of revenue sharing today. Get rid of them and increase the prize money to those who remain, right?

Money changes everything, and it will be interesting to see how Skinner and his group approach this. Taking half of all revenues for athletes works fine for a league, which has limited rosters of a few hundred players on defined teams. It doesn’t fit so well in a world of 206 National Olympic Committees, each working in different legal systems and with varying amounts of resources and stability in their countries.

But it’s a good way to break the cycle of growth in the Games, especially with one athlete group pushing against having fewer athletes compete in the Games.

The IOC is well aware of the issue and that’s why it pushes its “Solidarity model” of revenue distribution to try and keep the entire worldwide Olympic-sport program afloat. But it is also fully aware that it has its own cards to play.

Skinner had more to say at the Sports Decision Makers Summit, including:

“The now-famous Rule 40 has further stressed athletes’ finances. In the UK, if you were selected for the Olympic Games, you cannot promote a personal sponsor in any way, including by using phrases such as ‘summer’ for a week prior, two weeks during, and a week after the Games. It varies from country to country and some are even more restrictive.”

The IOC has loosened this rule, but the restrictions are now up to each National Olympic Committee. But as the value of the IOC’s sponsorships are encroached upon, there are other options to maintain or increase that value.

Timo Lumme (FIN), the IOC’s managing director for television and marketing services, said in an earlier session at the Summit that “If you were to give total freedom to athletes, which would potentially break our model of Solidarity and our funding model, perhaps we would have to go to perimeter board advertising.”

The Olympic Games is unique for its clean-venue policy, which does not allow the layers of signs and electronic billboards which ring the playing fields at nearly every other sporting event on the planet.

Is that important to Skinner? Or would he prefer direct-deposit?

These are real issues to be resolved. Whining about how much money the IOC has solves nothing. In 2018, a German athletes group said 25% of the IOC’s revenue should go to athletes, when in fact more than that goes to make many of their sports even possible to be contested on the international level.

The Olympic Games needs to be downsized in terms of athletes and events in order for the event to remain sustainable in the long term. Skinner and his group might be able to accomplish that important goal by re-directing the IOC’s money away from growing the impact of sport worldwide and growing the rewards to those already at the top of the competitive pyramid.

Can’t wait to see the Global Athlete proposal.

Rich Perelman
Editor

AQUATICS: 18th World Aquatics Championships start Friday in Gwangju with Diving, Artistic and Open Water events

Once every two years, the entire competitive aquatics community comes together for the World Aquatics Championships, including Swimming, Diving, Artistic Swimming, Open Water, High Diving and Water Polo.

FINA’s 18th edition of the Worlds is getting set to start in Gwangju (KOR), beginning on Friday and running for two weeks through the 28th. The overall schedule breaks the disciplines into two groups:

Week 1: 12-20 July
● Artistic Swimming: 10 events
● Diving: 13 events
● Open Water: 7 events
● Water Polo: preliminary matches

Week 2: 21-28 July
(Preview coming next week!)
● Swimming: 42 events
● High Diving: 2 events
● Water Polo: preliminary and medal matches

There is some serious prize money available at the FINA Worlds, by far the most in any swimming or diving event:

Artistic: $20,000-1,000 for places 1-8 (Solo and Duet); $50,000-5,000 (Teams 1-8)
Diving: $20,000-1,000 for places 1-8
Open Water: $20,000-1,000 for places 1-8
Swimming: $20,000-1,000 for places 1-8
High Diving: $20,000-500 for places 1-14
Water Polo: $80,000-10,000 for teams 1-8

In all, the prize purse totals $5,847,800 with the largest share going to swimming at $2.73 million. Beyond the prize money in swimming, there is a $30,000 bonus available for each world record set.

All of the disciplines are on the Olympic program except High Diving, although there are more events at the Aquatics Worlds than in the Games. A closer look at the first week’s events:

ARTISTIC SWIMMING

Russia has been the dominant force in this discipline and 2019 promises to be no different. Event in Solo (Technical and Free), Duet (Technical and Free), Team (Technical, Free, Combination, Highlight) and Mixed Duet (Technical and Free) will be held. The leading contenders:

Solo:
● Svetlana Kolesnichenko (RUS) ~ 2017 World Champion in Technical and Free
● Onna Carbonell (ESP) ~ 2017 Worlds silver in Technical and Free
● Yukiko Inui (JPN) ~ 2017 Worlds Technical 4th; Free 4th
● Jacqueline Simoneau (CAN) ~ 2017 Worlds Technical 5th; Free 6th
● Linda Cerruti (ITA) ~ 2017 Worlds Technical 6th; Free 5th
● Marta Fiedina (UKR)

Kolesnichenko has shown no signs of weakness and is the clear favorite. Inui has been exceptional during the FINA World Series events and with the Olympic Games in Tokyo next year, will be at her peak for the Worlds. Carbonell owns a staggering 20 World Championships medals, dating back to Spanish team medals in 2007. She has won Solo medals in 2013-15-17.

Duet:
● Svetlana Kolesnicheko/Svetlana Romashina (RUS) ~ Kolesnichenko: 2017 golds
● Claudia Holzner/Jacqueline Simoneau (CAN) ~ 2017: Technical 7th; Free 7th
● Linda Cerruti/Costanza Ferro (ITA) ~ 2017: Technical 6th; Free 6th
● Yelyzaveta Yakhno/Anastasiya Savchuk (UKR) ~ Yakhno: 2017 bronzes
● Yukiko Inui/Megumu Yoshida (JPN) ~ Inui: 2017 Technical 4th; Free 4th

Kolesnichenko teamed up with Alexandra Patskevich to win the Duet Technical and Free in 2017; Romashina owns 18 Worlds gold medals (no silvers or bronzes) and won the Duet Technical and Free at the World Championships in 2009-11-13-15. Now she’s back and teaming up with Kolesnichenko!

Yakhno also has a new partner; she and Anna Voloshyna won Duet bronzes in both events two years ago. Inui won a bronze (with Risako Mitsui) in the 2015 Technical event; she was fourth in both events in 2017 with two different partners, but she and Yoshida have been sharp in the World Series events. The Italian and Canadian pairs both scored well in 2017 and are back again.

Team:
The Russians won the Technical and Free events in 2017 and did not enter the Team Combination, won by China. This time they are in all three and favored. China, Japan, Ukraine and Canada will also be strong.

The Team Highlight event is new and wide open as neither Russia or China entered.

Mixed:
Bill May/Natalia Vega Figueroa (USA) ~ May: 2015 Free gold; Tech silver
● Pau Ribes/Emma Garcia (ESP) ~ Ribes: 2017 Technical 5th; Free 5th
● Aleksandr Maltsev/Mayya Gurbanberdieva (RUS) ~ Maltsev: 2015-17 Free gold
● Giorgio Minisini/Manila Flamini (ITA) ~ 2015 Technical bronze; 2017 Technical gold
● Atsushi Abe/Yumi Adachi (JPN) ~ 2017 Technical 4th; Free 4th

Pairs change quite a lot in these events, but Maltsev has been a steady medal winner in 2015 and 2017, sometimes exchanging places with the Italian pair of Minisini and Flamini. The Russians were the best during the 2019 World Series, but look out for the U.S. pair of May and Vega Figueroa, as May has been a medal winner in both 2015 and 2017.

DIVING

The question here is how many medals will the Chinese win. They took eight golds (in 13 events) and 15 total medals in 2017, 10 golds and 15 medals in 13 events in 2015 and 13 medals with nine golds in 10 events in 2013.

How dominant will they be in 2019?

Men/Springboard:
● Jianfeng Peng (CHN) ~ 2017 1 m Champion
● Giovanni Tocci (ITA) ~ 2017 1 m bronze medalist
● Patrick Hausding (GER) ~ 2017 1 m fourth; 2016 Olympic 3 m bronze; 2017 3 m silver
Michael Hixon (USA) ~ 2017 1 m fifth; 2015 1 m bronze
● Oleg Kolodiy (UKR) ~ 2017 1 m sixth; 2017 3 m seventh
● Yuan Cao (CHN) ~ 2016 Olympic 3m Champion
● Siyi Xie (CHN) ~ 2017 World 3 m Champion
● Evgenii Kuznetsov (RUS) ~ 2017 3 m eighth
● Rommel Pacheco (MEX) ~ 2017 3 m fourth
● Jack Laugher (GBR) ~ 2016 Olympic 3 m silver; 2015 Worlds 3 m bronze
David Boudia (USA) ~ 2015 10 m silver; 2016 Olympic 10 m bronze

Men/Platform:
● Hao Yang (CHN) ~ 2014 Youth Olympic 3 m & 10 m Champion
● Jian Yang (CHN) ~ 2017 Worlds 10 m bronze
● Tom Daley (GBR) ~ 2017 World 10 m Champion; 2015 Worlds 10 m silver
David Dinsmore (USA) ~ 2017 Worlds 10 m sixth
● Aleksandr Bondar (RUS) ~ 2017 Worlds 10 m fourth

The Chinese are clear favorites in the Springboard events, returning the reigning Olympic and World Champions. The 10 m is more open, especially with Jian Yang and Hao Yang each having won two World Series events this year, but Daley also won one. If any of these slip, Bondar and Dinsmore should be right there to contend for medals.

Men/Synchro:
● Yuan Cao/Siyi Xie (CHN) ~ 2017 Worlds 3 m Synchro silver
● Nikita Shleiker/Evgenii Kuznetsov (RUS) ~ Kuznetsov: 2017 3 m Synchro Champion
● Oleksandr Gorshkovozov/Oleg Kolodiy (UKR) ~ Kolodiy: 2017 3 m Synchro bronze
● Jack Laugher/Daniel Goodfellow (GBR) ~ 2016 Olympic 3 m Synchro Champions
Mike Hixon/Andrew Capobianco (USA) ~ Hixon: 2016 Olympic 3m Synchro silver
● Patrick Dausding/Lars Rudiger (GER) ~ Hausding: 2017 Worlds 3 m Synchro fifth

● Aisen Chen/Yuan Cao (CHN) ~ 2016 Olympic 10m Synchro Champions
● Tom Daley/Matt Lee (GBR) ~ Daley: 2016 Olympic 10 m Synchro bronze
Steele Johnson/Benjamin Bramley (USA) ~ Johnson: 2016 OG 10 m Synchro silver
● Viktor Minibaev/Aleksandr Bondar (RUS) ~ 2017 Worlds 10 m Synchro silver

The 3 m Synchro event appears fairly open based on past performances, but Cao and Xie won all three of their appearances in the World Series in 2019 and are solid favorites. But behind them, Britain’s Laugher and Goodfellow appear to be the best challengers, but the Ukrainian and Russian pairs should contend for medals.

Olympic champs Chen and Cao are formidable obstacles for any other pair in the 10 m Synchro, but could be challenged by Daley and Lee (GBR) and Minibaev and Bondar (RUS).

Women/Springboard:
● Yiwen Chen (CHN) ~ 2017 World 1 m fourth
● Esther Qin (AUS) ~ 2017 World 1 m seventh; 2016 Olympic 3 m sixth
● Elena Bertocchi (ITA) ~ 2017 World 1 m bronze
● Mariia Polyakova (RUS) ~ 2017 World 1 m fifth

● Maddison Keeney (AUS) ~ 2016 Olympic 3 m fifth; 2017 Worlds 3 m fifth
● Pamela Ware (CAN) ~ 2013 Worlds 3 m bronze; 2016 Olympic 3 m seventh
● Jennifer Abel (CAN) ~ 2016 Olympic 3 m fourth; 2017 Worlds 3 m bronze
● Han Wang (CHN) ~ 2013 & 2017 World 3 m silver
● Tingmao Shi (CHN) ~ 2016 Olympic 3 m Champion, 2015-17 3m World Champion
● Grace Reid (GBR) ~ 2016 Olympic 3 m eighth; 2017 Worlds 3 m fourth

The 1 m Springboard is not an Olympic event and Australia’s Keeney is not defending her title there. In 3 m, China has gone 1-2 in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and 2013-15-17 Worlds. And they are favored to do so again. The fight for bronze is wide open.

Women/Platform:
● Yuxi Chen (CHN) ~ 2019 London World Series 10 m winner
● Wei Lu (CHN) ~ 2019 Montreal World Series 10 m winner
● Meaghan Benfeito (CAN) ~ 2016 Olympic 10 m bronze; 2017 Worlds 10 m eighth
● Pandelela Pamg (INA) ~ 2015 Worlds 10 m bronze
● Melissa Wu (AUS) ~ 2017 Worlds 10 m fifth

This is another event in which China has been 1-2 in the last three World Championships and the 2016 Olympic Games, but the players have changed. Chen and Lu are certainly favored for medals, especially with the excellent North Korean divers skipping this event. Perhaps an opening for Benfeito, who was second and third in her appearances in the 2019 World Series.

Women/Synchro:
● Annabelle Smith/Maddison Keeney (AUS) ~ 2016 Olympic 3 m Synchro bronze
● Katherine Torrance/Grace Reid (GBR) ~ 2017 Worlds 3 m Synchro fourth
● Tingmao Shi/Han Wang (CHN) ~ Shi: 2013-15-17 Worlds 3 m Syn. gold; 2016 OG gold
● Melissa Citrini Beaulieu/Jennifer Abel (CAN) ~ 2017 Worlds 3 m Synchro silver
● Kristina Ilinykh/Mariia Polyakova (RUS) ~ Ilinykh: 2017 Worlds 3 m Synchro bronze
● Yan Yee Ng/Nur Dhabitah Sabri (MAS) ~ 2017 Worlds 3 m Synchro sixth

● Jiaqi Zhang/Wei Lu (CHN) ~ Two 2019 World Series wins, one bronze
● Eden Cheng/Lois Toulson (GBR) ~ 2017 Worlds 10 m Synchro seventh
● Meaghan Benfeito/Caeli McKay (CAN) ~ Benfeito: 2016 Olympic 10 m Synchro bronze
● Iullia Timoshinina/Ekaterina Beliaeva (RUS) ~ Timoshinina: 2017 Worlds 10 m Syn. 8th
● Mun Yee Leong/Pandelela Pamg (MAS) ~ Pamg: 2017 Worlds 10 m Synchro bronze
● Melissa Wu/Emily Chinnock (AUS) ~ Wu: 2017 Worlds 10 m Synchro fifth

In the 3 m Synchro, China’s Shi is one of the most decorated divers ever and figures to win with Wang. But after that. It’s anyone’s guess how the medals will come out.

In the 10 m Synchro, China has a new pair who went 1-1-3 in the three 2019 World Series events they competed in. Canada’s McKay and Benfeito beat them once and might be the strongest challengers.

Mixed 10 m Synchro:
● Junjie Lian/Yajie Si (CHN) ~ Lian: 2017 Worlds Mixed 10 m Champion
● Viktor Minibaev/Ekaterina Beliaeva (RUS) ~ Minibaev: 2018 Worlds Mixed 10 m fourth

A very weak field in the Mixed 10 m, with the Chinese and Russians with the most experience, but anything could happen.

We’d like to say something about the 3 m Mixed, but no entries were provided!

OPEN WATER SWIMMING

Of all the athletes in the FINA Worlds, the open-water swimmers have to be the most fit and the most insane. Swimming in a lake or ocean, with wind and waves? These folks are nuts, but they are to be admired for their fitness, for sure.

Competitions are held at 5 km, 10 km and 25 km (15 1/2 miles!!!), but since the 10 km is the only one held in the Olympic Games, let’s concentrate on that:

Men/10 km:
● Ferry Weertman (NED) ~ 2016 Olympic Champion; 2017 World Champion
● Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA) ~ 2016 Olympic 1,500 m (pool) Champion
Jordan Wilimovsky (USA) ~ 2016 Olympic fifth; 2015 Worlds gold; 17 Worlds silver
● Ous Mellouli (TUR) ~ 2013 Worlds bronze
● Allan Do Carmo (BRA) ~ 2013 Worlds seventh; 2015 Worlds ninth
● Jack Burnell (GBR) ~ 2017 Worlds fourth
● Kristof Rasovszky (HUN) ~ 2017 Worlds fifth
● Marc-Antoine Olivier (FRA) ~ 2016 Olympic bronze; 2017 Worlds silver

Women/10 km:
● Sharon van Rouwendaal (NED) ~ 2016 Olympic Champion; 2015 Worlds silver
Ashley Twichell (USA) ~ 2017 Worlds 5 km Champion
Haley Anderson (USA) ~ 2012 Olympic silver; 2013-15 World 5 km Champion
● Anna Olasz (HUN) ~ 2015 Worlds 25 km silver medalist
● Rachele Bruni (ITA) ~ 2016 Olympic silver medalist
● Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA) ~ 2017 Worlds co-bronze, 2015-17 Worlds 25 km gold
● Samantha Arevalo (ECU) ~ 2017 Worlds silver medalist
● Aurelie Muller (FRA) ~ 2015-17 World Champion
● Finnia Wunram (GER) ~ 2015 Worlds 5 km bronze medalist
● Arianna Bridi (ITA) ~ 2017 Worlds co-bronze medalist

Weertman has been the best when the races are the biggest, as has van Rouwendaal. The Americans have a formidable team with Wilimovsky, Anderson and Twichell all capable of medals, and four World Championships wins among them.

Three women to watch are Italy’s Bridi and Bruni and the amazing Cunha from Brazil. Still just 27, Cunha has won the 2011-15-17 Worlds 25 golds, bronze medals in the 2013-17 5 km races and the 2013 silver and 2015-17 bronzes in the 10 km. She plans to – once again – race all three distances in Korea. Wow!

NBC’s Olympic Channel has a heavy schedule of the FINA Worlds in all disciplines; check the full schedule here. Look for results on FINA’s Web site here.

THE BIG PICTURE: More Russian doping, but this time reported by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency!

Russian Anti-Doping Agency chief Yuriy Ganus

There is still considerable distrust of the anti-doping apparatus in Russia, fueled in part by the continuing investigation into the thousands of reports and samples obtained from the 2011-15 which are now being evaluated by the World Anti-Doping Agency and individual International Federations.

But the question of what Russia’s anti-doping efforts are today is actually more interesting.

Margarita Pakhnotskaya, the Deputy Director General of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) told the Russian TASS News Agency on Tuesday (9th) that 102 potential doping positives have been recorded during the first six months of 2019. The story further noted that:

Pakhnotskaya told TASS earlier in the day that RUSADA carried out 5,703 doping inspections collecting 6,792 samples in the first half of 2019.

RUSADA Director General Yury Ganus told TASS earlier in the year that the national anti-doping agency planned to collect 11,000 doping samples in 2019 and to increase this figure to 13,000 in 2020.

That compares to 6,196 tests in 2017 and 8,497 in 2018.

Further, Pakhnotskaya said that 156 cases of “whereabouts” violations were recorded: “In the period between January and June included, we have registered 156 cases of doping tests’ availability violations,” she said. “They include 122 cases of missed doping tests and 34 cases of failure to provide information about the whereabouts.”

There were 266 such cases of availability violations in 2018 logged by RUSADA.

Is this a lot of testing? Let’s compare the numbers to those of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for recent years:

● 2016: 12,756 total
● 2017: 12,754 total
● 2018: 12,262 total

This is not a completely apples-to-apples comparison, as the USADA totals include its agreement for testing of Mixed Martial Arts athletes, which totaled 2,888 tests (or 23.6% of the total) for 2018. The USADA numbers also do not include testing by other U.S. entities, such as other national governing bodies or universities for its athletes.

But it’s a good indicator that the Russians, under Ganus, are doing better. He has not been afraid to criticize Russian sports officials, noting his own view that the Russian Athletics Federation is not yet ready to be reinstated by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

And in terms of positive tests,102 potential Russian positives in the first half of 2019 compares to 37 sanctions announced by USADA in the first six months (17 from Mixed Martial Arts) and 92 for all of 2018 (27 for Mixed Martial Arts).

For many, the jury is still out on RUSADA. But these are encouraging signs.

ROWING: Wide-open World Cup action concludes with a massive field in Rotterdam

Upset men's Pairs winners Martin Mackovic and Milas Vasic (SRB) in Plovdiv (Photo: Detlev Seyb via World Rowing)

The final FISA World Cup of 2019 takes place in conjunction with the Holland Beker Regatta in Rotterdam (NED) from Friday through Sunday, with a massive cast of 712 rowers from 42 countries, who will compete in 26 classes.

Through the first two stages, in Plovdiv (BUL) and Poznan (POL), the racers and strategies varied in the Openweight Division, and except for the Quadruple Sculls – for men and women – there were no repeaters:

Men/Single Sculls:
● Plovdiv: Damir Martin (CRO)
● Poznan: Svierri Nielsen (DEN)

Men/Double Sculls:
● Plovdiv: Zhiyu Liu/Liang Zhang (CHN)
● Poznan: Barnabe Delarze/Roman Roeoesli (SUI)

Men/Quadruple Sculls:
● Plovdiv: Poland
● Poznan: Poland

Men/Pairs:
● Plovdiv: Martin Mackovic/Milas Vasic (SRB)
● Poznan: Joshua Booth/Alexander Hill (AUS)

Men/Fours:
● Plovdiv: Poland
● Poznan: Australia

Men/Eights:
● Plovdiv: Poland
● Poznan: Germany

Women/Single Sculls:
● Plovdiv: Lisa Schneenaard (NED)
● Poznan: Emma Twigg (NZL)

Women/Double Sculls:
● Plovdiv: Shiyu Lu/Yuwei Wang (CHN)
● Poznan: Brooke Donoghue/Olivia Loe (NZL)

Women/Quadruple Sculls:
● Plovdiv: China
● Poznan: China

Women/Pairs:
● Plovdiv: Aletta Jorritsma/Jose van Veen (NED)
● Poznan: Grace Pendergast/Kerri Gowler (NZL)

Women/Fours:
● Plovdiv: Netherlands
● Poznan: Denmark

Women/Eights:
● Plovdiv: Netherlands
● Poznan: Australia

In Rotterdam, the Single Sculls will be one of the points of focus. In the men’s division, both World Cup winners are back: Rio Olympic silver medalist Damir Martin (CRO) and Sverri Nielsen (DEN), plus Rio bronze winner Ondrej Synek (CZE) and 2018 World Champion Kjetil Borch (NOR). And what of New Zealand’s Robert Manson, holder of the world-best time in the event, but who only made the B-Final in World Cup II?

In the women’s Single Sculls, Ireland’s 2018 World Champion Sanita Puspure is entered and will face World Cup II winner, New Zealand’s comebacking three-time Olympian Emma Twigg, plus 2017 World Champion and 2018 Worlds silver winner Jeannie Gmelin (SUI).

World Rowing has an excellent live blog covering the World Cup; look for results here.

CYCLING Preview: Schurter and Courtney protecting seasonal leads as the Mountain Bike World Cup heads to France

Swiss Mountain Bike superstar Nino Schurter (Photo: UCI)

We’re at the halfway mark of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, with competition in Cross Country and Downhill this week at Les Gets (FRA). The standings:

Men/Cross Country:
1. 835 Nino Schurter (SUI)
2. 755 Mathias Flueckiger (SUI)
3. 700 Mathieu van der Poel (NED)
4. 655 Henrique Avancini (FRA)
5. 553 Jordan Sarrou (FRA)

Men/Downhill:
1. 765 Loic Bruni (FRA)
2. 700 Troy Brosnan (AUS)
3. 605 Amaury Pierron (FRA)
4. 565 Danny Hart (GBR)
5. 482 Loris Vergier (FRA)

Women/Cross Country:
1. 890 Kate Courtney (USA)
2. 815 Jolanda Neff (SUI)
3. 645 Anne Terpstra (NED)
4. 499 Anne Tauber (NED)
5. 486 Yana Belomoina (UKR)

Women/Downhill:
1. 790 Tracey Hannah (AUS)
2. 730 Rachel Atherson (GBR)
3. 640 Marine Cabirou (FRA)
4. 585 Nina Hoffmann (GER)
5. 407 Veronika Widmann (ITA)

In Cross Country, Schurter has not dominated the circuit as in past seasons, but he has been steady: third overall in Albstadt, second overall in Nove Mesto and the overall winner – second in the Cross Country Short race and winning the Olympic-distance race – in Vallnord last week. Countryman Flueckiger has finished 2-5-3 so far, but has beaten Schurter only once in the six total races in 2019.

Courtney, something of a surprise with her win in the 2018 World Championships, has been stellar in 2019, winning the first two races and finishing third overall in Vallnord. The scoring includes both the Olympic-distance and Cross Country Short races and Courtney has been in the top four in five of the six total events held so far.

In the Downhill, Bruni’s best-ever seasonal finish was second in 2015; Brosnan was second in 2017, so both are trying to stay ahead of defending seasonal champ Pierron. Hannah would really like to improve on the three World Cup seasonal bronze medals she has won the last three years, while Atherton is a six-time World Cup champ.

Les Gets is the only French stop on this year’s World Cup circuit, replacing La Bresse from 2018. There, Schurter and Neff were the Cross Country winners; Martin Maes (BEL) won the men’s Downhill, while Atherton won the women’s.

Look for results here.

CYCLING: Teuns masters first climbing stage while Ciccone takes the yellow jersey in Tour de France

Tour de France Stage 6 winner Dylan Teuns (BEL)

The first real climbing stage of the 2019 Tour de France was an exercise in exhaustion that started at an elevation of 251 m in Mulhouse and finished – six climbs later – at 1,139 m at La Planche des Belles Filles, with a final ascent of more than 640 m in the final 10,000 m.

This brutal route tore apart the race as it had developed during the first five stages. A 14-rider breakaway from just after the start slowly dissipated during the race and Belgian rookie Dylan Teuns claimed his first career Tour stage win by hanging on during the final ascent.

Italy’s Giulio Ciccone, an accomplished climber, stayed close for second and finished only 11 seconds back as the riders behind him struggled to make it to the finish line. With France’s Julien Alaphilippe finishing 1:46 back of the leader, Ciccone took possession of the yellow jersey as the overall leader – moving from 42nd to first – and is now six seconds ahead of Alaphilippe.

Behind the top two was a serious race for the contenders for the overall victory. Defending champion Geraint Thomas (GBR) pushed hard in the final 350 m and passed multiple riders, finally ending in fourth place, with Alaphilippe in sixth and co-favorite Egan Bernal (COL) in 12th, nine seconds behind.

There are many more climbing stages, but this was clearly one of the classic days of the 2019 Tour. The racing continues with a fairly flat stage on Friday and then three hilly stages before a rest day on Tuesday.

At the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile, Dutch star Marianne Vos won her third stage (of seven), ahead of countrywoman Anna van der Breggen, but Annemiek van Vleuten remained well in front.

With the win, van der Breggen moved into second place overall, 4:08 behind van Vleuten as the race heads into its final weekend. Summaries so far:

UCI World Tour/Tour de France
France ~ 6-28 July 2019
(Full results here)

Stage 1 (194.5 km): 1. Mike Teunissen (NED), 4:22:47; 2. Peter Sagan (SVK), 4:22:47; 3. Caleb Ewan (AUS), 4:22:47; 4. Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA), 4:22:47; 5. Sonny Colbrelli (ITA), 4:22:47.

Stage 2 (27.6 km Team Time Trial): 1. Jumbo-Visma (NED), 28:57; 2. Team Ineos (GBR), 29:17; 3. Deceuninck-Quick Step (GER), 29:18; 4. Team Sunweb (GER), 29:23; 5. Team Katusha Alpecin (SUI), 29:23.

Stage 3 (215.0 km): 1. Julien Alaphilippe (FRA), 4:40:29; 2. Michael Matthews (AUS), 4:40:55; 3. Jasper Stuyven (BEL), 4:40:55; 4. Greg van Avermaet (BEL), 4:40:55; 5. Sagan (SVK), 4:40:55.

Stage 4 (213.5 km): 1. Elia Viviani (ITA), 5:09:20; 2. Alexander Kristoff (NOR), 5:09:20; 3. Ewan (AUS), 5:09:20; 4. Sagan (SVk), 5:09:20; 5. Dylan Groenewegen (NED), 5:09:20.

Stage 5 (175.5 km): 1. Sagan (SVK), 4:02:33; 2. Wout van Aert (BEL), 4:02:33; 3. Matteo Trentin (ITA), 4:02:33; 4. Colbrelli (ITA), 4:02:33; 5. van Avermaet (BEL), 4:02:33.

Stage 6 (160.5 km): 1. Dylan Teuns (BEL), 4:29:03; 2. Giulio Ciccone (ITA), 4:29:14; 3. Xandro Meurisse (BEL), 4:30:08; 4. Geraint Thomas (GBR), 4:30:47; 5. Thibaut Pinot (FRA), 4:30:49.

12 July: Stage 7 (230.0 km): Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saône (flat)
13 July: Stage 8 (200.0 km): Macon to Saint-Etienne (hilly)
14 July: Stage 9 (170.5 km): Saint-Etienne to Brioude (hilly)
15 July: Stage 10 (217.5 km): Saint-Flour to Albi (hilly)
16 July: Rest day
17 July: Stage 11 (167.0 km): Albi to Toulouse (flat)
18 July: Stage 12 (209.5 km): Toulouse to Bagneres-de-Bigorre (high mountains)
19 July: Stage 13 (27.2 km Time Trial): Pau to Pau (flat)
20 July: Stage 14 (117.5 km): Tarbes to Tourmalet (high mountains)
21 July: Stage 15 (185.0 km): Limoux to Foix (mountains)
22 July: Rest day
23 July: Stage 16 (177.0 km): Nîmes to Nîmes (hilly)
24 July: Stage 17 (200.0 km): Pont du Gard to Gap (hilly)
25 July: Stage 18 (208.0 km): Embrun to Valloire (high mountains)
26 July: Stage 19 (126.5 km): Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Tignes (high mountains)
27 July: Stage 20 (130.0 km): Albertville to Val Thorens (high mountains)
28 July: Stage 21 (128.0 km): Rambouillet to Paris (flat)

UCI Women’s World Tour/Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile
Italy ~ 5-14 July 2019
(Full results here)

Stage 1 (18.0 km: Team Time Trial): 1. Canyon-SRAM Racing (GER: Niewiadoma, Barnes, Ryan, Shapira, Cromwell, Amialiusik), 31:41; 2. Bigla Pro Cycling (DEN), 32:05; 3. CCC-Liv (NED), 32:26; 4. Mitchelton-Scott (AUS), 32:34; 5. Boels-Dolmans (NED), 32:45.

Stage 2 (78.3 km): 1. Marianne Vos (NED), 2:15:56; 2. Annemiek van Vleuten (NED), 2:15:56; 3. Lucinda Brand (NED), 2:15:16; 4. Anna van der Breggen (NED), 2:15:56; 5. Soraya Paladin (ITA), 2:15:56. Also in the top 25: 14. Ruth Winder (USA), 2:15:56; … 20. Katie Hall (USA), 2:16:08; 21. Tayler Wiles (USA), 2:16:08.

Stage 3 (104.1 km): Vos (NED), 2:49:11; 2. Lucy Kennedy (AUS), 2:49:11; 3. Cecile Upprup Ludwig (DEN), 2:49:11; 4. Van Vleuten (NED), 2:49:11; 5. Ashleigh Moolman (RSA), 2:49:11. Also in the top 25: 13. Hall (USA), 2:49:11; … 21. Winder (USA), 2:49:20; … 25. Leah Thomas (USA), 2:49:40.

Stage 4 (100.1 km): 1. Letrizia Borghesi (ITA), 2:29:50; 2. Nadia Quagliotto (ITA), 2:29:50; 3. Chiara Perini (ITA), 2:29:50; 4. Vos (NED), 2:30:32; 5. Leah Kirchmann (CAN), 2:30:32. Also in the top 25: 20. Alexis Ryan (USA), 2:30:42; 21. Winder (USA), 2:30:42; … 24. Thomas (USA), 2:30:42.

Stage 5 (87.5 km): 1. Van Vleuten (NED), 3:09:47; 2. Brand (NED), 3:12:44; 3. Kasia Niewiadoma (POL), 3:12:44; 4. Paladin (ITA), 3:12:44; 5. Amanda Spratt (AUS), 3:12:44.

Stage 6 (12.1 km Time Trial): 1. Van Vleuten (NED), 24:32; 2. Van der Breggen (NED), 25:24; 3. Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA), 26:20; 4. Brand (NED), 26:21; 5. Juliette Labous (FRA), 26:26. Also in the top 25: 7. Hall (USA), 26:35; … 9. Wiles (USA), 26:53; … 11. Winder (USA), 27:01; … 15. Thomas (USA), 27:14.

Stage 7 (12.3 km): 1. Vos (NED), 3:19:33; 2. Van der Breggen (NED), 3:19:33; 3. Longo Borghini (ITA), 3:19:22; 4. Van Vleuten (NED), 3:19:22; 5. Demi Vollering (NED), 3:19:42. Also in the top 25: 15. Hall (USA), 3:19:48.

12 July: Stage 8 (133.3 km): Vittorio Veneto to Maniago (hilly)
13 July: Stage 9 (125.5 km): Gemona to Chiusaforte/Malga Montasio (mountains)
14 July: Stage 10 (120.0 km): San Vito al Tagliamento to Udine (flat)

ATHLETICS Preview: Noah Lyles ready to sing in Monaco … on and off the track at Friday’s Diamond League meet

U.S. sprint star Noah Lyles

American sprinter Noah Lyles is one of the most electric athletes in all of track & field, now fourth all-time in the 200 m (19.50) and standing equal-second on the 2019 world list in the 100 m (9.86). But he’s hardly just a speedster; he’s also a singer, having released a single with U.S. vault star Sandi Morris. We’re not kidding:

Friday in Monaco, however, the newest multimedia star will be back on the track in the 100 m at the annual Herculis meet, the latest in the IAAF Diamond League series.

It’s a showdown between Lyles, reigning World Champion Justin Gatlin (9.87) and Nigeria’s NCAA champion from Texas Tech, Divine Oduhuru (also 9.86), with American Cravon Gillespie (9.93) and Akani Simbine (RSA) trying to change the tune.

If Lyles wins this time, they shouldn’t interview him. Instead, ask him to sing a couple of numbers!

Just about every event in the meet is excellent; previews:

Men/400 m: Steven Gardiner (BAH) just ran 44.45 at the Gyulai Memorial in Hungary, but is barely in the conversation with four Americans ahead of him on the world list for 2019. He wants to change that and can on Friday. He will have to deal with 400 m hurdles star Abderrahmane Samba (QAT), himself a 44.60 man this year and world no. 2 Kahmari Montgomery of the U.S., just learning to run as a professional after his NCAA win (44.23) for Houston.

Men/1,500 m (non-Diamond League): We’re starting to get a steady cast in these races and a familiar theme. A lot of really great runners are assembled and none of them can beat Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot, the world leader at 3:28.77 with his brilliant win in Lausanne last week. Back for another try are placers 2-4: Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR: 3:30.16), Ayanleh Souleiman (DJI: 3:30.79) and Filip Ingebrigtsen (NOR: 3:30.82) plus 2017 World Champion Elijah Manangoi (KEN: 3:32.21 this year) and countryman Vincent Kibet (3:33.21). Cheruiyot has had the best finish of anyone in his four wins since losing by 0.26 to Manangoi in Doha; can anyone challenge?

Men/Pole Vault: All the usual suspects are here, starting with new world leader Piotr Lisek (POL: 6.01 m/19-8 1/2), Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis (6.00 m/1908 1/4), reigning World Champion Sam Kendricks (USA: 5.95 m/19-6 1/4), 2012 Olympic gold medalist Renaud Lavillenie (FRA: 5.81 m/19-0 3/4), 2011 World Champion Pawel Wojciechowski (POL: 5.76 m/18-10 3/4) and a lot more. The trio of Lisek, Duplantis and Kendricks have been hard to beat of late and have taken turns beating each other.

Men/Triple Jump: A re-run of the sensational Gyulai Memorial in Hungary, where Christian Taylor (USA) won with 17.93mw (58-10w) and a back-up jump of 17.68 m (58-0 1/4)! Fellow American Will Claye (17.66 m/57-11 1/4) was second and Portugal’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo (17.29 m/56-8 3/4) third. Let’s shake ‘em up again and see if it comes out differently.

Men/Javelin: World leader Magnus Kirt (EST: 90.61 m/297-3) is in, but will be chased by Germans Andreas Hofmann (89.65 m/294-1) and Rio Olympic champ Thomas Rohler (86.99 m/285-4) and Chinese Taipei’s Chao-Tsun Cheng (87.12 m/285-10).

Women/200 m: World leader and Rio Olympic champ Elaine Thompson has run 22.00 and Blessing Okagbare (NGR) just beat her at Stanford with a near-PR 22.05. But Shaunae Miller-Uibo (BAH) just won at the Gyulai Memorial in 22.18 and is undefeated at this distance since August 2017. Something has to give…

Women/800 m (non-Diamond League): With Caster Semenya (RSA) and Francine Niyonsaba (BDI) sidelined while the Swiss Federal Tribunal decides what to do about the IAAF gender regulations for the 400 m-mile, this race has nos. 3-4-6 on the world list for 2019: Ajee Wilson (USA: 1:58.36), Raevyn Rogers (USA: 1:58.65) and Nelly Jepkosgei (KEN: 1:59.00). Plus British stars Laura Muir and Lynsey Sharp and Jamaica’s Natalya Goule (1:59.50). Perhaps a Doha preview here?

Women/100 m hurdles: Showdown time, with the world leader, Jamaica’s Janeek Brown (12.40 at Arkansas to win the NCAAs) facing world no. 2 Keni Harrison (12.47), who just won at the Gyulai Memorial in 12.60, beating fellow U.S. stars Nia Ali (12.63), Sharika Nelvis (12.66) and Christina Clemons (12.73). Who’s the boss?

Women/400 m hurdles: American Sydney McLaughlin has run 54.14, 54.16 and 53.72 in her three races this season, all wins, including defeating world leader Dalilah Muhammad (USA) at the Bislett Games in Oslo. But the rest of the world is coming on, with two-time World Champion Zuzana Hejnova (CZE: 54.11) and Ashley Spencer (USA: 54.11) running 2-3 in Lausanne (SUI) last week. Something really special could happen here.

Women/High Jump: Russia’s Mariya Lasitskene has won 67 of her last 69 competitions and jumped 2.06 m (6-9) this season. No one else in the field has done more than Mirela Demireva (BUL) and her 1.97 m (6-5 1/2). Any questions?

Women/Triple Jump: Scheduled for Thursday, the top five on the 2019 world list are here, so this is about as good a preview of the Worlds as we’re going to get: 2017 World Champion Yulimar Rojas (VEN: 15.06 m/49-5), 2016 Olympic Champion Caterine Ibarguen (COL: 14.89 m/48-10 1/4), Liadagmis Povea (CUB: 14.77 m/48-5 1/2), Shanieka Ricketts (JAM: 14.76 m/48-5 1/4) and American Keturah Orji (14.66 m/48-1 1/4). Orji made her European debut in Oslo (NOR) for the Bislett Games and was a very good second at 14.53 m (47-8). Let’s see if her second trip is even better.

There is also a special women’s mile, renamed “Brave Like Gabe” to honor the late American distance star Gabe Grunewald, whose fight against cancer has been an inspiration. Dutch star Sifan Hassan leads the field, in which five women have run under four minutes this season in the 1,500 m.

The final event of the evening is the men’s 3,000 m Steeplechase, where Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali will be matched against Ethiopian record holder and world leader Getnet Wale (8:06.01), Kenyans Leonard Bett (8:08.61), Benjamin Kigen (8:06.13) and American Hillary Bor (8:08.41).

NBC’s Olympic Channel has coverage from Monaco beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Friday. Look for results here.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S. on Tuesday, a low-key Sunset Tour meet at Azusa Pacific University hosted a series of tremendous marks for American stars:

Men/800 m: NCAA champ Bryce Hoppel proved his NCAA win was no fluke with a 1:44.48-1:44.68 win over Craig Engels (a PR for Engels).

Men/1,500 m: Nine men run under 3:40, won by Ben Blankenship in 3:36.22. Worth noting: Donavan Brazier’s lifetime best of 3:37.18 in third.

Women/800 m: A season’s best of 1:59.58 for Kate Grace was enough to win against a lifetime best of 1:5992 for Shelby Houlihan!

Women/1,500 m: Nikki Hiltz won the “A” race in 4:05.97, but U.S. Steeple record holder Courtney Frerichs won the second race in a lifetime best of 4:11.05.

Women/5,000 m: A lifetime best in a win for Karissa Schweizer by 15:01.63 (prior 15:02.44), the fastest by an American in 2019.

The complete results are here.

TABLE TENNIS Preview: Xu and Liu go for repeat titles in Australian Open in Geelong

China's Olympic champ Long Ma (Photo: ITTF)

The fourth of six ITTF World Tour Platinum events on tour this season has started at the Geelong Arena in Australia, with most of the top players in the world entered in the Australian Open.

The tournament has attracted 15 of the top 16 in the ITTF men’s World Rankings and the top 13 players in the women’s rankings. The top seeds, with ITTF World Rankings for the Singles divisions:

Men/Singles:
1. Zhendong Fan (CHN: 1)
2. Gaoyuan Liu (CHN: 2)
3. Xin Xu (CHN: 3) ~ Defending Champion

Men/Doubles:
1. Youngsik Jeong/Sangsu Lee (KOR) ~ Defending Champions
2. Kwan Kit Ho/Chun Ting Wong (HKG)
3. Woojin Jang/Joon-Hoon Lim (KOR)

Women/Singles:
1. Meng Chen (CHN: 1)
2. Shiwen Liu (CHN: 2) ~ Defending Champion
3. Ning Ding (CHN: 3) ~ 2018 runner-up

Women/Doubles:
1. Meng Chen/Manyu Wang (CHN)
2. Jihee Jeon/Haeun Yang (KOR)
3. Barbora Balasova (SVK)/Hana Matelova (CZE)

Mixed Doubles:
1. Xun Xu/Shiwen Liu (CHN)
2. Chun Ting Wong/Hoi Kem Doo (HKG)
3. Yun-Ju Lin/I-Ching Cheng (KOR)

Both of the 2016 Olympic champs – Long Ma (CHN) and Ding (CHN) are entered, as are the current World Champions – Ma and Shiwen Liu (CHN). Xu is on a nice winning streak, having won the Japan and Korean Opens in June and last week in Busan (KOR).

Look for results here.

SPORT CLIMBING Preview: Garnbret tries for second Lead win; Jaubert and Song fight for Speed title in Chamonix

The site of the first Olympic Winter Games – Chamonix, France – is the site for this week’s edition of the IFSC World Cup, with the seasonal battle in Speed on the line.

The headliner, however, might be Slovenian star Janja Garnbret, who opened the Lead season last week in Villars (SUI) with another win, to go along with her perfect season in Bouldering. She and first-time World Cup winner Sascha Lehmann (SUI) are first-week leaders:

Men/Lead:
1. 100 Sascha Lehmann (SUI)
2. 80 YuFei Pan (CHN)
3. 65 Alexander Megos (GER)

Women/Lead:
1. 100 Janja Garnbret (SLO)
2. 80 Chae-Hyun Seo (KOR)
3. 65 Ai Mori (JPN)

The Speed season is almost at an end, with just one more competition coming after Chamonix. The races are tight:

Men/Speed:
1. 257 Bassa Mawem (FRA)
2. 240 Dmitrii Timofeev (RUS)
3. 206 Vladislav Deulin (RUS)
4. 189 Reza Alipour (IRI)
5. 153 Alfian Muhammad (INA)

Women/Speed:
1. 300 tie, Anouck Jaubert (FRA)
1. 300 and YiLing Song (CHN)
3. 197 Anna Tsyganova (RUS)
4. 192 Aries Susanti Rahayu (INA)
5. 181 Elizaveta Ivanova (RUS)

In the men’s division, Mawem and Timofeev went 1-3 in the World Cup in 2018 and Deulin and Alipour were 1-2 in 2017, to the top four have lots of experience, and anyone could win.

The women’s race has two-time defending champ Jaubert facing the revelation of the 2019 season, the 18-year-old wunderkind Song, who won the first two events and set the world record of 7.10 in the process. Jaubert, 25, has finished 2-4-3-1 in the four events this season, while Song has gone 1-1-16-2 to be tied thus far. This is too close to call.

The Speed finals will be held on Friday and the Lead event on Saturday (13th). Look for results here.

ARCHERY Preview: More than a dozen Olympic and World medalists at Tokyo test event

World Champion Brady Ellison of the U.S.

The World Archery World Cup in Berlin ended last Sunday, but a lot of the top shooters in the world didn’t go home; they headed for Japan.

The archery test event for 2020 – Ready, Steady Tokyo – is underway at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Tokyo, with the Ranking Round on the 12th (Friday) and competition ending with the women’s and men’s finals on 17-18 July.

The event has attracted an all-star field, with more than a dozen medal-winners from either the Olympic Games or World Championships, or both:

Men:
● Woojin Kim (KOR) ~ 2015 World Champion
● Rick van der Ven (NED) ~ 2015 World Champs silver medalist
● Takaharu Fukuhara (JPN) ~ 2015 World Champs bronze medalist
● Steve Wijler (NED) ~ 2017 World Champs bronze medalist
● Jean-Charles Valladont (FRA) ~ 2016 Olympic silver medalist
● Brady Ellison (USA) ~ 2019 World Champion; 2016 Olympic bronze
● Khairul Anuar Mohamed (MAS) ~ 2019 Worlds silver medalist
● Ruman Shana (BAN) ~ 2019 Worlds bronze medalist

Women:
● Ksenia Perova (RUS) ~ 2017 World champion
● Hye-Jin Chang (KOR) ~ 2016 Olympic Champion; 2017 Worlds silver
● Lisa Unruh (GER) ~ 2016 Olympic silver
● Ya-Ting Tan (TPE) ~ 2018 Worlds bronze medalist
● Chien-Ying Lei (TPE) ~ 2019 World Champion

In addition, the Berlin World Cup winners – Mete Gazoz (TUR) and San An (KOR) – are on hand, as is 15-year-old Casey Kaufhold of the U.S., who won an Indoor World Cup stage early in the year.

This is a Recurve tournament only – no Compound competition – and no teams. But it is a first look at what the archers will be looking at a year from now … and that makes it important. Look for results here.

ATHLETICS Panorama: World-leading high jump for Ivanyuk; Coleman 19.91, Taylor 58-10w in Hungary!

Olympic and World Triple Jump champ Christian Taylor of the U.S. (Photo: Mohan via Wikipedia)

With the IAAF World Championships so late in the season, the European season has been especially busy with competitions, and excellent results. At the annual Istvan Gyulai Memorial – named for the former IAAF Secretary-General – in Szekesfehervar (HUN), there were multiple marks of note:

● Russia’s Ilya Ivanyuk won the men’s high jump with a lifetime best and outdoor world-leading mark of 2.33 m (7-7 3/4)..

● American Clarence Coleman won the 200 m in a dominating 19.91 (+0.6), way ahead of reigning World Champion Ramil Guliyev (TUR: 20.23) and Aaron Brown of Canada (20.24).

Steven Gardiner (BAH) won the 400 m in a strong 44.45, easily defeating Tyrell Richard (45.59) and Vernon Norwood of the U.S. (45.62).

Grant Holloway opened his professional career with a win in the 110 m hurdles in 13.16 (+0.8), beating Gabriel Constantino (BRA: 13.18).

● Olympic and World Champion Christian Taylor of the U.S. showed that he is going to be hard to dislodge in Doha. In a revealing preview of the Worlds, Taylor soared to 17.93m (58-10w) and had a back-up jump of 17.68 m (58-0 1/4) to take the triple jump ahead of Will Claye (17.66 m/57-11 1/4) and Portugal’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo (17.29 m/56-8 3/4). Wow!

Shaunae Miller-Uibo (BAH) won the 200 m in 22.18, equal-5th on the 2019 world list, beating Marie-Josee Ta Lou (CIV: 22.76) in the process.

Keni Harrison won what was essentially a preview of the USATF Champs in the 100 m hurdles, running 12.60 (+0.8), ahead of Nia Ali (12.63), Sharika Nelvis (12.66), Christina Clemons (12.73) and Queen Claye (formerly Queen Harrison, 12.81).

The next Diamond League meet is in Monaco on Friday; preview coming soon!

In doping news, the Athletics Integrity Unit filed a provisional suspension against Kenyan marathoner Joyce Chepkirui (2:24:11 in 2015), the winner of the 2015 Amsterdam and Honolulu Marathons and third and fourth at Boston and New York in 2016.

She’s 30 and was suspended for “evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection.” She hasn’t run competitively since last December.

The IAAF approved the applications of 37 athletes to compete internationally, all but two are for the European U-20 Championships and the European Youth Festival. Thus far for 2019, the IAAF’s panel has received 314 applications, approved 117 and rejected 40; the other 157 are in process.

Another amazing performance from 44-year-old Bernard Lagat, who completed his second career marathon at Gold Coast (AUS), finishing seventh in 2:12:10 on 7 July. That now only lowered his lifetime best by 5:10 from his debut marathon in 2018 (New York), but is a U.S. age-40+ record as well.

He’s closing in on the Olympic Marathon qualifying standard of 2:11:30; it will be interesting to see if he tries for that in a fall marathon on a super-flat course such as Berlin!

Niger’s Amina Seyni shocked a lot of observers with her national record of 49.19 in the Lausanne Diamond League meet, battling Salwa Eid Naser (BRN: 49.17) right to the tape.

And there could be a lot more coming from Seyni. Athletics International reported a comment from statistician P.J. Vazel that Seyni’s last 100 m in Lausanne was covered in 12.6, “the fastest ever recorded for that segment.”

What happens when the 22-year-old learns to run the first 300 m with better pace? After the race, she said, “the tight duel with Naser has helped me a lot to push my limits till the very end of the race. With this improvement, it is clear that my objective in Doha is to get in the final and even on the podium.”

CYCLING: Five stages, five different winners in Tour de France; van Vleuten crushing Giro Rosa field with two huge wins

France's Julien Alaphilippe, now the leader of the Tour de France

We’re only in the early stages of the Tour de France, with the opening routes mostly tailored for the sprinters ahead of Friday’s first mountain stage. And the honors are being spread around, with four different winners in the four individual stages: Mike Teunissen (NED), France’s Julien Alaphilippe, Italian Elia Viviani and Slovakia’s Peter Sagan.

The overall leader is Alaphilippe, who took the lead with a breakaway win in the third stage, winning by 26 seconds over Michael Matthews (AUS) and the rest of the chase pack. He’s the first Frenchman to lead Le Tour since Tony Gallopin in 2014. After Wednesday’s stage, he now leads by 14 seconds:

1. 18:44:12 Julien Alaphilippe (FRA)
2. +0:14 Wout van Aert (BEL)
3. +0:25 Stephen Kruijswijk (NED)
4. +0:25 George Bennett (NZL)
5. +0:40 Michael Matthews (AUS)

Two of the top contenders, defending champ Geraint Thomas (GBR) and Colombia’s Egan Bernal, are both 40 seconds back. Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali is 1:01 behind already.

Thursday’s sixth stage is a misery-inducing 160.5 km race starting at 251 m in Mulhouse with six significant climbs that top out at 1,327 m, 1,171 m, 917 m and run up to a mountain finish at 1,139 m at La Planche des Belles Filles. This will be the first real look at who the climbers are and what they are prepared to do in 2019.

In the women’s Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile, Dutch star Annemiek van Vleuten has blown up the race with two brilliant stage wins, especially in the final climb in stage five to Lago di Cancano.

With Poland’s Kasia Niewiadoma leading the race through four stages, van Vleuten had a plan and attacked at the start of the final climb, about 10 km from the finish. This is the stage that was re-routed because the Passo Gavia – an even higher finish – was snowed in and impassable. But van Vleuten stormed last Canada’s Leah Kirchmann and rode away with no one able to stay close.

“I know the roads here very well,” said Van Vleuten. “I knew I had to attack from the bottom to gain as much time as possible, but it was 10 km of epic suffering.

“The Giro is a very big goal for me this year. It was a bit of a waiting game until now and I’m very happy that I could finally use my legs and attack.”

Trailing by 47 seconds going into the stage, van Vleuten won it by a staggering 2:57 and had a lead of 2:16 over Niewiadoma heading into Wednesday’s time trial … in which she is the reigning World Champion.

She won the stage, of course, by a healthy 52 seconds over fellow Dutch rider Anna van der Breggen and now has a commanding 4:17 over Niewiadoma and van der Breggen with four stages left.

Van Vleuten would have to fall off her bike to lose, but it’s happened before. Summaries so far:

UCI World Tour/Tour de France
France ~ 6-28 July 2019
(Full results here)

Stage 1 (194.5 km): 1. Mike Teunissen (NED), 4:22:47; 2. Peter Sagan (SVK), 4:22:47; 3. Caleb Ewan (AUS), 4:22:47; 4. Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA), 4:22:47; 5. Sonny Colbrelli (ITA), 4:22:47.

Stage 2 (27.6 km Team Time Trial): 1. Jumbo-Visma (NED), 28:57; 2. Team Ineos (GBR), 29:17; 3. Deceuninck-Quick Step (GER), 29:18; 4. Team Sunweb (GER), 29:23; 5. Team Katusha Alpecin (SUI), 29:23.

Stage 3 (215.0 km): 1. Julien Alaphilippe (FRA), 4:40:29; 2. Michael Matthews (AUS), 4:40:55; 3. Jasper Stuyven (BEL), 4:40:55; 4. Greg van Avermaet (BEL), 4:40:55; 5. Sagan (SVK), 4:40:55.

Stage 4 (213.5 km): 1. Elia Viviani (ITA), 5:09:20; 2. Alexander Kristoff (NOR), 5:09:20; 3. Ewan (AUS), 5:09:20; 4. Sagan (SVk), 5:09:20; 5. Dylan Groenewegen (NED), 5:09:20.

Stage 5 (175.5 km): 1. Sagan (SVK), 4:02:33; 2. Wout van Aert (BEL), 4:02:33; 3. Matteo Trentin (ITA), 4:02:33; 4. Colbrelli (ITA), 4:02:33; 5. van Avermaet (BEL), 4:02:33.

11 July: Stage 6 (160.5 km): Mulhouse to La Planche des Belles Filles (mountains)
12 July: Stage 7 (230.0 km): Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saône (flat)
13 July: Stage 8 (200.0 km): Macon to Saint-Etienne (hilly)
14 July: Stage 9 (170.5 km): Saint-Etienne to Brioude (hilly)
15 July: Stage 10 (217.5 km): Saint-Flour to Albi (hilly)
16 July: Rest day
17 July: Stage 11 (167.0 km): Albi to Toulouse (flat)
18 July: Stage 12 (209.5 km): Toulouse to Bagneres-de-Bigorre (high mountains)
19 July: Stage 13 (27.2 km Time Trial): Pau to Pau (flat)
20 July: Stage 14 (117.5 km): Tarbes to Tourmalet (high mountains)
21 July: Stage 15 (185.0 km): Limoux to Foix (mountains)
22 July: Rest day
23 July: Stage 16 (177.0 km): Nîmes to Nîmes (hilly)
24 July: Stage 17 (200.0 km): Pont du Gard to Gap (hilly)
25 July: Stage 18 (208.0 km): Embrun to Valloire (high mountains)
26 July: Stage 19 (126.5 km): Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Tignes (high mountains)
27 July: Stage 20 (130.0 km): Albertville to Val Thorens (high mountains)
28 July: Stage 21 (128.0 km): Rambouillet to Paris (flat)

UCI Women’s World Tour/Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile
Italy ~ 5-14 July 2019
(Full results here)

Stage 1 (18.0 km: Team Time Trial): 1. Canyon-SRAM Racing (GER: Niewiadoma, Barnes, Ryan, Shapira, Cromwell, Amialiusik), 31:41; 2. Bigla Pro Cycling (DEN), 32:05; 3. CCC-Liv (NED), 32:26; 4. Mitchelton-Scott (AUS), 32:34; 5. Boels-Dolmans (NED), 32:45.

Stage 2 (78.3 km): 1. Marianne Vos (NED), 2:15:56; 2. Annemiek van Vleuten (NED), 2:15:56; 3. Lucinda Brand (NED), 2:15:16; 4. Anna van der Breggen (NED), 2:15:56; 5. Soraya Paladin (ITA), 2:15:56. Also in the top 25: 14. Ruth Winder (USA), 2:15:56; … 20. Katie Hall (USA), 2:16:08; 21. Tayler Wiles (USA), 2:16:08.

Stage 3 (104.1 km): Vos (NED), 2:49:11; 2. Lucy Kennedy (AUS), 2:49:11; 3. Cecile Upprup Ludwig (DEN), 2:49:11; 4. Van Vleuten (NED), 2:49:11; 5. Ashleigh Moolman (RSA), 2:49:11. Also in the top 25: 13. Hall (USA), 2:49:11; … 21. Winder (USA), 2:49:20; … 25. Leah Thomas (USA), 2:49:40.

Stage 4 (100.1 km): 1. Letrizia Borghesi (ITA), 2:29:50; 2. Nadia Quagliotto (ITA), 2:29:50; 3. Chiara Perini (ITA), 2:29:50; 4. Vos (NED), 2:30:32; 5. Leah Kirchmann (CAN), 2:30:32. Also in the top 25: 20. Alexis Ryan (USA), 2:30:42; 21. Winder (USA), 2:30:42; … 24. Thomas (USA), 2:30:42.

Stage 5 (87.5 km): 1. Van Vleuten (NED), 3:09:47; 2. Brand (NED), 3:12:44; 3. Kasia Niewiadoma (POL), 3:12:44; 4. Paladin (ITA), 3:12:44; 5. Amanda Spratt (AUS), 3:12:44.

Stage 6 (12.1 km Time Trial): 1. Van Vleuten (NED), 24:32; 2. Van der Breggen (NED), 25:24; 3. Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA), 26:20; 4. Brand (NED), 26:21; 5. Juliette Labous (FRA), 26:26. Also in the top 25: 7. Hall (USA), 26:35; … 9. Wiles (USA), 26:53; … 11. Winder (USA), 27:01; … 15. Thomas (USA), 27:14.

11 July: Stage 7 (12.3 km): Cornedo Vicentino to San Giorgio di Perlena (hilly)
12 July: Stage 8 (133.3 km): Vittorio Veneto to Maniago (hilly)
13 July: Stage 9 (125.5 km): Gemona to Chiusaforte/Malga Montasio (mountains)
14 July: Stage 10 (120.0 km): San Vito al Tagliamento to Udine (flat)

LANE ONE: U.S. women’s football stars are not only champions, but a lot smarter than their supporters

U.S. women celebrate their 2019 Women's World Cup title (Photo: FIFA)

The excitement of the U.S. women’s triumph in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will resound for some weeks, along with a series of “Victory Tour” matches to begin next month.

Jill Ellis’s team was the best in the tournament, set records for the most goals in a game (13) and the most in a single World Cup tournament (26) and played matchless defense to preserve leads in its final three games against France, England and the Netherlands.

This was especially impressive since the defense had been the softest area of the squad in the early-season games, but when it counted, the U.S. women were ready, physically and tactically.

So, too off the field.

The class-action suit filed by 28 members of the women’s team on 8 March of this year argued for “equal pay” and some of the U.S. fans at the Women’s World Cup final in Lyon shouted the same thing at the end of the game and during the victory ceremony.

But on 21 June, the players and the U.S. Soccer Federation were reported to have agreed on mediation to see if the dispute can be resolved without going to a trial.

Very smart.

Despite seeing so many of them in various roles on television and other media, the number of lawyers is now just a little more than 1.3 million in the U.S., or about 1 in 252 Americans. Many of those 251 non-lawyers have no idea what mediation is or what it entails.

As a lawyer myself – a proud Loyola of Los Angeles ‘81 grad – I’ve been in multiple mediations and they are completely different than an in-court trial, or an arbitration, which is essentially an out-of-court trial.

Mediations are discussions between the parties, sometimes face-to-face with a mediator as moderator, but most often with the two parties in separate rooms (or buildings!), with the mediator (or mediators) going back and forth with ideas and eventually proposals. This often keeps animosity between the parties at a minimum, and if the mediator is good, an agreement will often be found.

But there is no guarantee of this.

The complaint filed by the players alleges a variety of issues about discrimination on playing surfaces (grass vs. artificial turf) and travel and some other issues and these will not be the sticking point in an agreement. As stated, they appear to be points that can be ironed out.

The core issue is money, and the agreement of the women’s player union to accept a radically different pay scale than the U.S. men’s National Team in 2017. In it, the women agreed to a minimum annual salary as members of the National Team, plus per-game bonuses, where the men only receive payment as a National Team member when actually selected (and dress) for a game.

The women agreed to this, and it is the crux of their problem. In the meantime, they claim that they perform better than the men, make as much or more money and should be at least paid the same.

So, for 2019, an all-conquering year for the U.S. women’s National Team, let’s check out the numbers:

U.S. Women in 2019:
19 Jan: 22,780 ~ Friendly: at France, 3, U.S. 1
22 Jan: 9,182 ~ Friendly: at Spain 0, U.S. 1
27 Feb: 14,555 ~ SheBelieves Cup: U.S. 2, Japan 2 at Chester, Pennsylvania
02 Mar: 22,125 ~ SheBelieves Cup: U.S. 2, England 2 at Nashville, Tennessee
05 Mar: 14,009 ~ SheBelieves Cup: U.S. 1, Brazil 0 at Tampa, Florida
04 Apr: 17,264 ~ Friendly: U.S. 5, Australia 3 at Commerce City, Colorado
07 Apr: 20.941 ~ Friendly: US. 6, Belgium 0 at Los Angeles, California
12 May: 22,788 ~ Friendly: U.S. 3, South Africa at Santa Clara, California
16 May: 35,761 ~ Friendly: U.S. 5, New Zealand 0 at St. Louis, Missouri
26 May: 26,332 ~ Friendly: U.S. 3, Mexico 0 at Harrison, New Jersey
11 Jun: 18,591 ~ at World Cup: U.S. 13, Thailand 0
16 Jun: 45,594 ~ at World Cup: U.S. 3, Chile 0
20 Jun: 22,418 ~ at World Cup: U.S. 2, Sweden 0
24 Jun: 19.633 ~ at World Cup: U.S. 2, Spain 1
28 Jun: 45,595 ~ at World Cup: U.S. 2, France 1
02 Jul: 53,512 ~ at World Cup: U.S. 2, England 1
07 Jul: 57,900 ~ at World Cup: U.S. 2, Netherlands 0
● Totals: 17 games ~ average attendance of 27,587
● Home: 8 games ~ average attendance of 21,722
● Away: 9 games ~ average attendance of 32,801

U.S. Men in 2019:
27 Jan: 9,040 ~ Friendly: U.S. 3, Panama 0 at Glendale, Arizona
02 Feb: 13,656 ~ Friendly: U.S. 2, Costa Rica 0 at San Jose, California
21 Mar: 17,422 ~ Friendly: U.S. 1, Ecuador 0 at Orlando, Florida
26 Mar: 18,033 ~ Friendly: U.S. 1, Chile 1 at Houston, Texas
05 Jun: 17,719 ~ Friendly: Jamaica 1, U.S. 0 at Washington, D.C.
09 Jun: 23,955 ~ Friendly: Venezuela 3, U.S. 0 at Cincinnati, Ohio
18 Jun: 19.418 ~ Gold Cup: U.S. 4, Guyana 0 at St. Paul, Minnesota
22 Jun: 23,921 ~ Gold Cup: U.S. 6, Trinidad & Tobago 0 at Cleveland, Ohio
26 Jun: 17,037 ~ Gold Cup: U.S. 1, Panama 0 at Kansas City, Kansas
30 Jun: 26,233 ~ Gold Cup: U.S. 1, Curcao 0 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
03 Jul: 28,473 ~ Gold Cup: U.S. 3, Jamaica 1 at Nashville, Tennessee
07 Jul: 62,493 ~ Gold Cup: Mexico 1, U.S. 0 at Chicago, Illinois
● Totals: 12 games ~ average attendance of 23,117
● Friendlies: 6 games ~ average attendance of 16,638
● Gold Cup: 6 games ~ average attendance of 29,596

(The game-by-game attendance figures came from the official match reports as recorded on the Wikipedia pages for the U.S. men’s and women’s teams.)

So the U.S. women, in a World Cup year and as the world’s best team in 2019, averaged under 22,000 attendance for its eight games played in the U.S. The men, a team trying to recover from its worst year since the 1980s, played all 12 of its games this season in the U.S. and averaged a little over 23,000.

Add in the World Cup matches in France and the women averaged more than 27,500 per game for 2019 so far.

That sounds like they’re about equal, but in fact does not speak well to the women’s earning power in view of how good they are and how bad – historically bad – the men are. And all that trumpeting about how the Women’s World Cup Final outdrew the 2018 World Cup Final on U.S. television conveniently leaves out Spanish-language viewers (on all platforms):

2019: 15.87 million = 14.27 million on Fox + 1.60 million on Telemundo
2018: 17.96 million = 12.51 million on Fox + 5.45 million on Telemundo

Who’s picking facts now? Do Spanish-language viewers in the U.S. suddenly not count?

And, tellingly, in the women’s complaint, it did not cite actual discrepancies in the pay between men’s and women’s players, but stated only a hypothetical that “if each team played 20 friendlies in a year and each team won all twenty friendlies” the possible payouts would be much different. That’s the possibility of discrimination, not discrimination in fact, which is what would have to be proved.

OK, so the situation is muddled. The women have some good facts on their side, but accepted a different compensation system and now have to argue against their own decision.

That’s the danger. And it’s why the player-plaintiffs – not all of whom made the World Cup team, by the way – showed as much savvy off the field as on it when they decided that mediation would be a good step forward. It’s also true that they lose nothing by mediation, as they can always go back to trying the case if they desire.

The lack of understanding of the process and of the actual facts of the case reached its height on Tuesday, when U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) “introduced a bill that would prevent any federal funds from being used toward the 2026 World Cup in the United States until the U.S. Soccer Federation agrees to provide equitable pay to the men’s and women’s national teams.”

His own statement notes that his bill would preclude any Federal funds from being “provided to host cities; participating local and state organizations; the U.S. Soccer Federation, Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), and Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)” for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

It may come as news to Manchin, but the U.S. government isn’t being asked to provide funds to any of those organizations. The United 2026 bid noted specifically that “The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be staged with no public financing (other than the assumption of certain cost obligations such as national security measures as well as Host City costs as outlined in the hosting documents).”

The government “obligations” referred to concern security, visa controls, work permits, anti-discrimination measures and limited tax exemption for FIFA, most of which will be Federal obligations and do not require Federal spending. Manchin’s silly, nine-line bill proposal wouldn’t cover any of those things.

But that’s not why he issued a news release, is it?

Among the tangle of actual facts, mis-statements, selective use of facts or lack of any actual knowledge, and all the other debris we all live with in these confrontational times, the women suing the U.S. Soccer Federation have opted for the smart way forward, aimed at actually resolving their issues instead of trying to make points in the court of public opinion that may or may not win in a court of law.

Champions on the field, and looking like possible champions off the field, too. Well played.

Rich Perelman
Editor

VOLLEYBALL: U.S. men host FIVB Nations League Final in Chicago, but Brazil is favored

U.S. Outside Hitter Thomas Jaeschke in action vs. Japan in round-robin play (Photo: FIVB)

The U.S. men’s National Team had a modest 9-6 record in the round-robin portion of the 2019 FIVB men’s Nations League, finishing in sixth place. That was the last spot which qualified to advance to the Nations League Finals, but the American squad wasn’t worried.

They were in the final round from the start, as the host of the six-team playoffs at the 6,115-seat Credit Union 1 Arena at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The competition begins on Wednesday, with play in two pools of three. The top two teams from each pool advance to the semifinals:

Pool A: United States (9-6), Russia (12-3), France (11-4)

Pool B: Brazil (14-1), Iran (12-3), Poland (11-4).

Pool matches will be played on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

The Brazilians are 5-0 against the rest of this field, having lost only to Serbia during the round-robin. What about the U.S.? The Americans beat France, but lost to Russia during the round-robin, and lost to Brazil and Poland from Pool B, but did defeat Iran.

Outside Hitter Thomas Jaeschke of the U.S., who has recovered from a leg injury suffered early in the season, is from Chicago and said, “It’ll be interesting because I don’t remember if we have ever hosted the finals of a big volleyball tournament, besides the Olympics. It’ll be really, really fun.

“It will be interesting to see the crowd, because Poland qualified and Chicago has one of the biggest Polish populations in the world, after Warsaw. Iran also travels really well and there are a lot of Iranians in Chicago I believe. It will be interesting to see how we feel, because when we play against Poland around Chicago it feels like an away match, with 10 thousand Polish people cheering and singing the Polish national anthem. So we’re like, ‘we’re in Chicago, right?’”

The house should be full, as the U.S. played before an average of nearly 5,000 fans earlier this season in nearby Hoffman Estates, Illinois (Sears Center Arena) for its round-robin games vs. Canada, Japan and China.

All four teams that made it to the 2018 Nations League semis are back: Russia (winners), France (second), the U.S. (third) and Brazil (fourth). Three of the four teams from the 2018 FIVB men’s World Championship are back for the Nations League final: Poland (gold), Brazil (silver) and the U.S. (Bronze).

The semis will be on Saturday (13th) and the medal matches on the 14th (Sunday). Look for live scoring and results here.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL Preview: New World Champions immediately challenged at Gstaad 5-star Major

World Champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes (CAN) after winning the 2018 Gstaad Major (Photo: FIVB)

An exciting two weeks of the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championships ended on Sunday.

On Tuesday, the qualifying rounds of the FIVB World Tour 5-star Major in Gstaad (SUI) began. Such is the life of a pro beach player.

This is one of the high-paying events in beach volleyball – there are only two in 2019 – with $600,000 in prize money and $40,000-32,000-20,000-16,000 for the top four placers (per team). The top seeds and their results at the Worlds:

Men:
1. Anders Mol/Christian Sorum (NOR) ~ 2019 World Championships bronze medalists
2. Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Oleg Stoyanovskiy (RUS) ~ 2019 World Champions
3. Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov (RUS) ~ 2019 World Champs Round of 16
4. Nick Lucena/Phil Dalhausser (USA) ~ 2019 World Champs quarterfinalists
5. Grzegorz Fijalek/Michal Bryl (POL) ~ 2019 World Champs Round of 16

Women:
1. Nina Betschart/Tanja Huberli (SUI) ~ 2019 World Champs fourth place
2. Sarah Pavan/Melissa Humana-Paredes (CAN) ~ 2019 World Champions
3. Alix Klineman/April Ross (USA) ~ 2019 World Championships silver medalists
4. Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slulova (CZE) ~ Injured; dnc at World Champs
5. Ana Patricia Ramos/Rebecca Cavalcanti (BRA) ~ 2019 World Champs Round of 16

In the men’s draw, Worlds silver medalists Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler (GER) are not entered; fourth-placers Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb of the U.S. are seeded ninth. The women’s World Championships bronze medalists – Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar (AUS) – are also not competing.

Norway’s Mol and Sorum are the defending champs in Gstaad, winning over Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira of Spain in last year’s final. Worlds winners Pavan and Humana-Paredes won in Gstaad in 2018, beating German duo Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude.

The men’s final will be on Saturday (13th) and the women’s on Sunday (14th). Look for results here.

BADMINTON Preview: BWF World Tour comes to Fullerton with Yonex U.S. Open

The BWF World Tour’s annual stop in the United States is a Super 300 level tournament, this year at Titan Gymnasium at Cal State Fullerton. As a 300-level event, the top players are not involved, but the fields are of good quality. The top seeds:

Men/Singles:
1. Dong Keun Lee (KOR)
2. H.S. Prannoy (IND)
3. Mark Caljouw (NED)

Men/Doubles:
1. Min Chun Liao/Ching Heng Su (TPE)
2. Yang Lee/Chi-Lin Wang (TPE)
3. Ching Yao Lu/Po Han Yang (TPE)

Women/Singles:
1. Michelle Li (CAN)
2. Saena Kawakami (JPN)
3. Ga Eun Kim (KOR)

Women/Doubles:
1. Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida (JPN)
2. Emilie Lefel/Anne Tran (FRA)
3. Rachel Honderich/Kristen Tsai (CAN)

Mixed Doubles:
1. Mark Lamsfuss/Isabel Herttrich (GER)
2. Marvin Seidel/Linda Efler (GER)
3. Ben Lane/Jessica Pugh (ENG)

The top two seeds in the men’s Singles – Dong-Keun Lee (KOR) and H.S. Prannoy (IND) – are the last two winners of the event, with Lee the defending champion.

No U.S. players received a seed; in fact, the last American winner in this tournament was Beiwen Zhang in the women’s Singles in 2014.

Prize money totals $150,000, with $11,250-5,700-2,175 to the top three placers (2x$2,175 for both third-place teams) in Singles and $11,800-5,700-2,100 for the Doubles. Look for results here.

SPORT CLIMBING: Garnbret wins in Lead opener in Villars; who is men’s winner Sascha Lehmann?

Slovenian climbing star Janja Garnbret (Photo: The Circuit/Climbing.com)

The first Sport Climbing World Cup for the Lead event came last weekend in Villars (SUI) and even though Slovenian star Janja Garnbret swept her way to a perfect season – and a World Cup title in Bouldering – she will give away nothing in Lead.

Garnbret, still just 20, zipped through the Villars events impressively, being the leading qualifier, the only one to reach the top in the semis and then reaching the 36+ mark in the final to outlast Chae-Hyun Seo of South Korea – age 15! – who won her first World Cup medal in her first World Cup event!

Because the Olympic competition in Tokyo in 2020 will be a combined event, Garnbret and many of the other Lead athletes also competed in the Speed event. Garnbret placed a respectable 27th in the qualifying, but did not make to the semis. The reigning World Cup champ, France’s Anouck Jaubert, won in the final against new star YiLing Song (CHN: age 18), 7.660-8.415.

The winner of the men’s Lead event was Swiss Sascha Lehmann, who made the home crowd happy by being one of three to reach the Top of the wall and then won by having had a better semifinal score than the other two who also got to the top: China’s YuFei Pan and Alexander Megos of Germany.

This is also Lehmann’s rookie year on the IFSC World Cup tour; he finished fourth in Bouldering at Chongqing in April and with the combined event on the Tokyo program, he’s worth watching. Pan, 21, won his second career World Cup Lead medal and first silver; he won a bronze two years ago.

Russia’s Aleksander Shikov loves Villars: he won his second straight World Cup Speed title in the final as countryman Dmitrii Timofeev fell. Summaries:

IFSC World Cup
Villars (SUI) ~ 6-7 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men/Lead: 1. Sascha Lehmann (SUI), Top; 2. YuFei Pan (CHN), Top; 3. Alexander Megos (GER), Top; 4. Domon Skofic (SLO), 39+; 5. Meichi Narasaki (JPN), 39+.

Men/Speed: Final: 1. Aleksandr Shikov (RUS), 5.542; 2. Dmitrii Timofeev (RUS), fell. Third: 3. Jan Kriz (CZE), 7.765; 4. Bassa Mawem (FRA), fell.

Women/Lead: 1. Janja Garnbret (SLO), 36+; 2. Chae-Hyun Seo (KOR), 35+; 3. Ai Mori (JPN), 35+; 4. Akiyo Noguchi (JPN), 35+; 5. Mia Krampl (SLO), 35+.

Women/Speed: Final: 1. Anouck Jaubert (FRA), 7.660; 2. YiLing Song (CHN), 8.415. Third: Elizaveta Ivanova (RUS), 7.586; 4. Di Niu (CHN), 10.657.

SAILING: Thunder from Down Under as Aussies and Kiwi sweep Laser Standard World Championships

Australia's Rio Olympic Laser Standard Champion Tom Burton

It makes sense that both Australia and New Zealand would have outstanding sailors and they dominated the 2019 Laser Standard World Championship off Sakaiminiati City (JPN), taking not just the medals, but the top four places!

Rio 2016 Olympic Champion Tom Burton won a tight battle with countryman Matthew Wearn and Kiwis George Gautrey and Rio bronze winner Sam Meech, with net point totals of 59-63-69-72.

In the 12-race format where the two worst finishes are dropped, Burton was brilliant from the start, placing in the top eight seven times in the first nine races, including seven finishes in the top five! So, without even winning a race, he had a healthy 18-point lead heading into the final racing days, and won with conservative finishes of 13th, 14th and 51st (dropped) in his final three races.

Wearn had five top-three finishes, including three wins, but was sunk by not-so-good placings of 13-18-19-30 in his four worst races. He, Gautrey and Meech were close going into the final race, but their placings of 5-9-12 confirmed their 2-3-4 finishing order.

Wearn and Meech each had three wins to lead the field, with Britain’s Eliot Hansen winning twice.

The win for Burton was his first world title in this class, to go along with his Olympic title in 2016. He now owns a complete set of Worlds medals, after his silvers in 2014 and 2017 and a bronze back in 2015. Wearn won his second consecutive Laser Worlds silver. Summaries:

World Sailing Laser Standard World Championship
Sakaiminiati (JPN) ~ 2-9 May 2019
(Full results here)

Final Standings: 1. Tom Burton (AUS), 59 net points; 2. Matthew Wearn (AUS), 63; 3. George Gautrey (NZL), 69; 4. Sam Meech (NZL), 72; 5. Nick Thompson (GBR), 73; 6. Jean-Baptiste Bernaz (FRA), 78; 7. Elliot Hansen (GBR), 92; 8. Lorenzo Chiavarini (GBR), 92. Also in the top 25: 11. Charlie Buckingham (USA), 105.

STAT PACK: Results for the week of 1-7 July 2019

The Stat Pack: a summary of results of international Grand Prix, World Cup and World Championships events, plus U.S. domestic events and Pan American championships events of note.

In this week’s issue are reports on 20 events in 15 sports:

Archery: Hyundai World Cup 4 in Berlin
Athletics: IAAF Diamond League 8: Athletissima in Lausanne
Athletics: IAAF Combined Events Challenge: Euro Cup in Ribeira Brava
Athletics: NACAC U-18/U-23 Championships in Queretaro
Badminton: USA Badminton National Junior Championships in Frisco
Basketball: FIBA Men’s U-19 World Cup in Heraklion
Beach Volleyball: FIVB World Championships in Hamburg
Cycling: Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill-XCO-XCC in Vallnord
Cycling: USA Cycling Elite Track Championships in Carson
Fencing: Pan American Championships in Toronto
Fencing: USA Fencing National Championships in Columbus
Football: FIFA Women’s World Cup in France
Football: CONCACAF men’s Gold Cup in Costa Rica-Jamaica-USA
Gymnastics: USA Gymnastics National Championships in Des Moines
Judo: IJF World Tour: Montreal Grand Prix in Montreal
Sport Climb: IFSC World Cup (Lead/Speed) in Villars
Table Tennis: ITTF World Tour: Korea Open in Busan
Taekwondo: USA Taekwondo National Championships in Minneapolis
Triathlon: ITU World Series 6 in Hamburg
Volleyball: FIVB Women’s Nations League Final in Nanjing

plus our calendar of upcoming events through 11 August. Click below for the PDF:

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SPEED READ: Headlines from The Sports Examiner for Monday, 8 July 2019

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: The United States Olympic Committee (now U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee) posted its tax return for 2018, with a lot of interesting information. The headlines were about ex-CEO Scott Blackmun’s severance, but the USOC was telling the Federal government that it spent 81.2% of its expenses on athlete-related programs. Most of the money goes to the National Governing Bodies and another $33.2 on direct assistance of varying kinds directly to athletes. Oh yes, the USOC/USOPC makes good money in Olympic years and loses quite a bit in non-Olympic years. And a lot more details to share …

HEARD AT HALFTIME

Friday: Accused of accepting bribes from ex-IAAF President Lamine Diack to vote for Rio de Janeiro in 2009, IOC member Sergey Bubka (UKR) and ex-IOC member Alexander Popov (RUS) heatedly deny former Rio State Governor Sergio Cabral’s testimony of last week. Plus, FIFA steps up with hundreds of millions more to support women’s football, and now the Mayor of Milan – just awarded the 2026 Winter Games – is convicted of pre-dating some documents when he was the head of the Milan World Exhibition.

ARCHERY

Sunday: Young stars were all the rage in Berlin, as Turkey’s Mete Gazoz – age 20 – repeated his 2018 victory at the World Archery World Cup in Berlin (GER), and Korea’s 18-year-old San An won the women’s Recurve division in her first World Cup! American teen Alexis Ruiz won the women’s Compound Division, her second World Cup win this season.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Sunday:The FIVB World Championships crowned new champs, with Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes edging the American pair of Alix Klineman and April Ross, and Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovsky and Viacheslav Krasilnikov beating home favorites Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler (GER) in front of a big crowd in Hamburg (GER).

CYCLING

Sunday: Four more national titles for U.S. track cycling star Jennifer Valente at the USA Cycling National Track Championships in Carson, California! She now has 20 for her career (and she’s still just 24). But there were three other stars who won their third straight national titles in their specialties!

FENCING

Saturday: The U.S. won five of six gold medals available in the individual events at the Pan American Championships in Toronto (CAN). The Pan Ams finished with the team events, and the U.S. picked up five golds there too, meaning five American fencers won two golds!

FOOTBALL

Sunday: Even though the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup was dominated by Europe, no one could beat the U.S. women’s National Team, which managed a 2-0 win over the Netherlands in the final before 57,900 in Lyon (FRA). It’s the second straight win for the American women and their fourth in history, the most for any nation.

Sunday: The U.S. men’s National Team showed that it is improving, but fell short by 1-0 against Mexico at Soldier Field in Chicago in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Perhaps most amazing was that despite being in Chicago, the crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Mexico!

GYMNASTICS

Saturday: More national titles for America’s top Rhythmic gymnast, Laura Zeng, who won four more titles at the USA Gymnastics National Championships. Although just 19, she has now won five straight All-Around titles and owns 17 national titles!

JUDO

Sunday: All hail the return of France’s 10-time World Champion Teddy Riner, who returned from almost a year-and-a-half off to win the super-heavy division of the Montreal Grand Prix and extend his sensational winning streak to 148 matches! Oh yes, and Japan won seven golds and dominated the rest of the program.

TABLE TENNIS

Sunday: Olympic Champions were in the finals of the men’s and women’s Singles at the Korea Open … but neither won. Instead, these all-China finals pitted the 2016 gold medalists Long Ma and Ning Ding against the no. 1-ranked paddlers of today, and Xin Xu and Meng Chen triumphed and confirmed their status. China won four golds and a Hong Kong duo won the Mixed Doubles.

TAEKWONDO

Saturday: The USA Taekwondo Championships was another step forward for 16-year-old Anastasija Zolotic, who won a World Junior title in 2018, and now won another national titleat the USA Taekwondo Championships. And she wasn’t the only repeat champion!

TRIATHLON

Sunday: Britain’s Non Stanford was the upset winner of the Hamburg Tri for the women after American star Katie Zaferes was slowed by a major bike crash early in the race. Australia’s Jacob Birtwhistle won the men’s race at the tape and the French won their second consecutive World Championship in the Mixed Relay.

VOLLEYBALL

Sunday: The U.S. women won their second consecutive FIVB Nations League final, coming back from 0-2 to defeat Brazil, in Nanjing (CHN). Not just impressive, but it stamps the U.S. as a medal favorite for Tokyo!

UPCOMING

Highlights of the coming week, with previews in the coming days on TheSportsExaminer.com:

Aquatics: The FINA World Championships finally begin in Korea!

Athletics: What will Noah Lyles do in this 100 m race vs. Justin Gatlin in Monaco?

Cycling: Climax of the season, with the men’s Tour de France and women’s Giro Rosa on!

And many more international events coming up this week!

LANE ONE: U.S. Olympic Committee tax return shows $323 million in 2018 revenue, and a lot of other things more interesting that Scott Blackmun’s severance

As a charitable organization under Internal Revenue Service rules, the United States Olympic Committee is exempt from Federal taxes, but is required to file a publicly-available tax return known as IRS Form 990.

The USOC – now U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, or USOPC – posted its 2018 return last week, describing its mission as “To support Olympic and Paralympic Athletes.”

How well did they do? Pretty well, but certainly not in record territory. Although revenues and expenses were much, much higher than in 2017, that’s because 2018 was the year of an Olympic (Winter) Games, in which the USOC’s revenue jumps wildly because of the payments its receives as a share of the International Olympic Committee’s television revenues. So, let’s compare the last four years, showing the revenues, expenses and set in Olympic (2016, 2018) and non-Olympic (2015, 2017) years:

Revenues:
● 2018: $322.9 million ~ $121.8 million in broadcast rights revenue (Olympic year)
● 2017: $183.7 million ~ $6.0 million in broadcast rights revenue
● 2016: $336.1 million ~ $173.0 million in broadcast rights revenue (Olympic year)
● 2015: $141.6 million ~ $1.4 million in broadcast rights revenue

Expenses:
● 2018: $275.2 million ~ Winter Olympic year
● 2017: $214.6 million
● 2016: $257.3 million ~ Summer Olympic year
● 2015: $199.3 million

Net:
● 2018: + $47.7 million (surplus: Olympic year)
● 2017: – $30.8 million (deficit)
● 2016: + $78.5 million (surplus: Olympic year)
● 2015: – $57.7 million (deficit)

So, the USOC does well when the IOC’s money comes in and loses money in the years when it doesn’t. So much for the “the USOC has all the money in the world” theory.

However, the organization is hardly broke. The return lists its net assets at the end of 2018 as $265.8 million.

How much goes to athletes and athlete support? Those who whine and claim that a trivial portion of the USOC’s money goes to athletes make a specific argument about a single number for direct athlete grants. But to say that this represents the amount of “athlete support” that the USOC provides is simply false. Page two of the return notes a total of $110 million spent on “High Performance Programs” with a caption stating:

“Nearly half of the USOC’s budget is directed toward programming and services that support and impact elite athlete performance. In addition to grants and rewards, this includes athlete health insurance, sports medicine and science, talent transfer, tech and innovation, coaching education programs and Paralympic outreach and development.”

Half of the budget would be about $135 million, and the return shows $110 million for “High Performance Programs” plus an additional $28.9 million for athlete training facilities.

That’s almost $139 million, and the schedule on page 10 itemizes a long list of total expenses and the amount on “Program Services,” which should be athlete support items. The totals shown are $275.2 million in total expenses and $223.5 million (81.2%) in program expenses, with $46.2 million spent on general and administrative expenses (16.8%) and $5.5 million (2.0%) on fundraising.

Who gets all this money? Well, the National Governing Bodies get a lot of it; in 2018, this amounted to $72.6 million, the largest single item in the program-support area. The winners and non-winners:

Summer federations receiving $1 million or more (16):
$3,991,080 ~ USA Track & Field
$3,412,807 ~ USA Swimming
$2,222,601 ~ USA Gymnastics
$2,204,524 ~ USA Cycling
$2,044,281 ~ USA Volleyball
$1,842,924 ~ USA Shooting
$1,738,496 ~ USA Wrestling
$1,682,691 ~ U.S. Sailing
$1,681,691 ~ USA Rowing
$1,277,483 ~ U.S. Equestrian Federation
$1,227,700 ~ USA Rugby
$1,222,703 ~ USA Field Hockey
$1,205,983 ~ USA Water Polo
$1,167,204 ~ USA Triathlon
$1,041,789 ~ USA Diving
$1,036,725 ~ USA Basketball

Winter federations receiving $1 million or more (8):
$6,089,500 ~ U.S. Ski & Snowboard
$2,196,143 ~ USA Bobsled & Skeleton
$2,104,538 ~ U.S. Speedskating
$1,904,573 ~ USA Hockey
$1,389,817 ~ USA Biathlon
$1,251,989 ~ U.S. Figure Skating
$1,135,656 ~ USA Luge
$1,128.431 ~ USA Curling

The 10 least-favored federations (with sports on the Olympic program), where the money is NOT going:

$ 26,737 ~ USA Golf Federation
$ 50,000 ~ USA Roller Sports
$ 81,586 ~ USA Team Handball
$ 90,000 ~ U.S. Tennis Association
$131,140 ~ U.S. Badminton
$156.933 ~ U.S. Synchronized Swimming
$185,443 ~ USA National Karate-Do Federation
$261,410 ~ USA Table Tennis
$278,799 ~ USA Weightlifting
$281,450 ~ USA Surfing

Another $33.2 million was spent on direct-to-athlete payments of $14.3 million (to 1,479 individuals), $7.6 million on athlete health insurance, $4.0 million on additional medal support, $5.3 million for athlete medal bonuses from the PyeongChang Winter Games and $2.0 million on athlete tuition and career assistance.

The USOC paid $5.5 million to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to support its work, $5.2 million to Jet Set Sports for “Games hospitality,” $3.8 million to help operate the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California and $5.3 million to the Ropes & Gray law firm in Philadelphia for its investigative work into the Larry Nassar scandal and affiliated matters.

What’s it all mean?

The USOC is in a good position financially, considering that it has essentially no products of its own to sell and is supported essentially by funds derived from the interest of Americans in the Olympic Games. It will have rough waters to navigate ahead with the Congress and in courts owing to the Nassar scandal and a very inefficient spending structure due to the distribution of funds to National Governing Bodies, which are themselves of varying quality.

The headlines from the release of the USOC’s Form 990 was about $2.4 million in severance paid to former Chief Executive Scott Blackmun, which although extraordinary, made up 8/10ths of one percent of the organization’s expenses for 2018. Better oversight of the NGBs and having some payments made directly by the USOC might be able to save five times that amount and send it to athletes or use it for more coaches, equipment, travel or event entry fees.

That’s where better management and a reformed oversight program for the USOC’s 60 grantees could make more of a difference in the coming months and years. Let’s see if the USOPC’s new management can get there when the 2019 Form 990 is posted a year from now.

Rich Perelman
Editor

FOOTBALL: U.S. men are better, but Mexico wins CONCACAF Gold Cup final by 1-0

Mexico was the clear favorite coming into the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, competing in a confederation so weak that an imploding U.S. men’s team was the fairly clear second-best option.

The final game, played in front of 62,493 – mostly Mexican fans – at Chicago’s Soldier Field, confirmed the two facts which developed during the tournament:

● 1. Mexico is, without doubt, still the best team in CONCACAF.

● 2. The U.S. men are getting better, but still have a ways to go.

The game started under windy conditions and with plenty of physical play with a noisy crowd that favored Mexico. But the U.S. had excellent early chances from Christian Pulisic in the fifth minute and Jozy Altidore in the seventh minute, but neither got past Mexican keeper Memo Ochoa; Altidore’s shot went past, but just wide. Ochoa made an unwise move on Paul Arriola in the 31st minute coming out from his line at the corner of his goal, but Arriola just missed the shot wide, taken at a difficult angle.

Although the U.S. had the better chances, Mexico led in shots, 8-4, and possession, by 53-47% at the half.

The U.S. had more chances to start the second half, including perfectly-placed Pulisic corner that led to a Jordan Morris header in the 52nd minute that had Ochoa out of position, but was headed on the goal line by Andres Guardado.

From that point, however, Mexico had almost all of the possession and the chances. After sending shot after shot either wide or over the top of goal, a back pass in the box found Jonathan Dos Santos in the middle of the box and he sliced the ball to the corner of the net past U.S. keeper Zack Steffen for a 1-0 lead in the 73rd minute.

The U.S. pressure increased after the goal and led to three corners from Pulisic, but none resulted in a goal. There were some wild exchanges in front of the Mexican net, but the U.S. was unable to convert any of its chances.

Mexico’s dominance in the half was confirmed with a 12-6 advantage in shots (20-10 for the game) and 63% possession in the half (58-42% for the game). This wasn’t Mexico’s best team, and it was about as good as the U.S. can assemble at this point in time.

The victory gave Mexico its eighth Gold Cup win in the 15 tournaments that have been held; El Tri has beaten the U.S. in five of the six Gold Cup finals in which the two have met. Amazingly, Mexico has 12 medals (8-1-3) in the 15 Gold Cups all-time and the U.S. has 13 (6-5-2)!

Canada’s Jonathan David ended up as the top goal scorer with six, just ahead of teammate Lucas Cavallini and Mexico’s Raul Jimenez. Jimenez was named the top player and Ochoa as the best goalkeeper. Summaries:

CONCACAF Gold Cup
Canada-Jamaica-U.S. ~ 15 June-7 July 2019
(Full results here)

Final Standings: 1. Mexico (5-0-1); 2. United States (5-1); 3. Haiti (4-1); 4. Jamaica (2-1-2); 5. Costa Rica (2-1-1); 6. Canada (2-2); 7. Panama (2-2); 8. Curacao (1-2-1); 9. El Salvador (1-1-1); 10. Honduras (1-2); 11. Bermuda (1-2); 12. Martinique (1-2); 13. Guyana (0-2-1); 14. Trinidad & Tobago (0-2-1); 15. Nicaragua (0-3); 16. Cuba (0-3). Semis: Mexico d. Haiti, 1-0 (extra time); U.S. d. Jamaica, 3-1. Final: Mexico d. U.S., 1-0.

CYCLING: Four golds for Jennifer Valente as four stars win third straight U.S. Track Cycling titles in Carson

Now 20-time U.S. national track champion: Jennifer Valente (Photo: USA Cycling)

Already a six-time World Championships medalist in both and individual events, the question was not whether 24-year-old Jennifer Valente was going to win more medals at the USA Cycling National Track Championships … but how many?

She came into the 2019 Track Nationals with 16 career U.S. titles and finished her week at the VELO Sports Center in Carson, California with 20, winning the Points Race, Scratch Race, Omnium and the Madison, this time with Megan Jastrab.

In fact, for Valente, it’s her third straight year – all at the VELO Sports Center – to win the Points, Scratch and Omnium races!

And she wasn’t the only to extend dynastic reigns over some of the events:

John Croom won his third straight U.S. men’s Time Trial title;
Ashton Lambie won his third straight U.S. men’s Pursuit title;
Daniel Holloway and Adrian Hegyvary repeated as U.S. men’s Madison champions;
Mandy Marquardt won her third straight U.S. women’s Time Trial title.

The Madison winners, Holloway and Hegyvary were everywhere in the men’s events, going 1-2 (Hegyvary and Holloway) in the Points Race and then 2-3 (Hegyvary and Holloway) in the Omnium, behind Gavin Hoover.

Interestingly, while Valente (4) and Marquardt (2) accounted for six of the eight women’s individual titles, there were no men’s doublers this year in the individual events. Summaries:

USA Cycling National Track Championships
Carson, California (USA) ~ 2-7 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men

Sprint/ Final: Rex Ainsle d. Andrew Carlberg, 2-0 (+0.033; +0.183). Third: James Mellon d. Sandor Delgado, 2-0.

1,000 m Time Trial: 1. John Croom, 1:03.569; 2. Eric Young, 1:03.583; 3. Andrew Carlberg, 1:04.605; 4. Delgado, 1:05.228; 5. Peter Bock, 1:06.206; 6. Zachariah McClendon, 1:06.271; 7. Spencer Seggebruch, 1:06.662; 8. Rex Aisnlie, 1:07.345.

Indiv. Pursuit/ Final (4 km): Ashton Lambie d. Croom, overtaken. Third: Daniel Summerhill d. Seggebruch, 4:30.332-4:33.847.

Keirin: 1. Mellon; 2. Delgado, +1.152; 3. J. Christiansen, +1.438; 4. Joshua Hartman, +1.582; 5. Giddeon Massie, +1.792; 6. McClendon, +2.175.

Points Race: 1. Adrian Hegyvary, 84; 2. Daniel Holloway, 68; 3. Gavin Hoover, 54; 4. Shane Kline, 29; 5. Daniel Summerhill, 24; 6. Daniel Breuer, 12; 7. Jeremy Cottell, 2; 8. James Carney, 1.

Scratch Race: 1. Eric Young; 2. Colby Lange; 3. Summerhill; 4. Ryan Jastrab; 5. Kline; 6. Holloway; 7. Justin Butsavage; 8. Alexander Winter.

Omnium: 1. Hoover, 204 points; 2. Hegyvary, 177; 3. Holloway, 137; 4. Kline, 132; 5. Young, 129; 6. Summerhill, 116; 7. Lange, 83; 8. Jastrab, 81.

Madison: 1. Daniel Holloway/Adrian Hegyvary, 92 points; 2. Eric Young/Gavin Hoover, 39; 3. Justin Williams/Shane Kline, 24; 4. James Hilyer/Justin Butsavage, 3; 5. Brody McDonald/Ian Oelrich, -11; 6. Ryan Jastrab/Colby Lange, -12; 7. Innokenty Zavyalov/Daniel Breuer, -34.

Women

Sprint/ Final: Sophia Shuway d. Keely Kortman, 2-0 (+0.183, +0.161). Third: Mandy Marquardt d. Madalyn Godby, 2-0.

500 m Time Trial: 1. Marquardt, 35.021; 2. Kortman, 36.667; 3. Dawn Orwick, 36.719; 4. Kira Maximovich, 37.298; 5. Ivy Koester, 37.327; 6. Heather Gray, 37.496; 7. Marcy Bardman, 37.538; 8. Janelly Prieto, 39.096.

Indiv. Pursuit/Final: (3 km): Molly van Houweling d. Alijah Beatty, overtaken. Third: Zoe Saccio d. Danielle Morshead, 3:50.879-3:57.521.

Keirin: 1. Marquardt; 2. Godby, +0.233; 3. Ivy Koester, +0.334; 4. Kortman, +1.618; 5. Allyson Wasilelewski, +3:31.822; 6. Gulick, +3:31.963.

Points Race: 1. Jennifer Valente, 71 points; 2. Kate Wilson, 25; 3. Christina Birch, 16; 4. Megan Jastrab, 14; 5. Colleen Gulick, 10; 6. Taylor Sawyer, 2; 7. Lisa Eriksson, 1; 8. Zoe Ta-Perez, 0.

Scratch Race: 1. Valente; 2. Kendall Ryan; 3. Jastrab; 4. Burch; 5. Gulick; 6. Elspeth Huyett; 7. Jessica Chong; 8. Lisa Eriksson.

Omnium: 1. Valente, 140 points; 2. Birch, 117; 3. Kimberly Geist, 114; 4. Jastrab, 107; 5. Beatty, 105; 6. K. Ryan, 103; 7. Gulick, 100; 8. Saccio, 70.

Madison: 1. Megan Jastrab/Jennifer Valente, 41 points; 2. Kimberly Geist/Christina Birch, 31; 3. Elspeth Huyett/Tela Crane, -46;4. Jessica Chong/Kate Wilson, -87.

JUDO: Superstar Riner returns as Japan scores seven golds at Montreal Grand Prix

France's Teddy Riner, winning his ninth world title in 2017 (Photo: IJF/Marina Mayorova)

He came into the Montreal Grand Prix ranked only 35th in the IJF World Rankings, but there was no doubt who was going to be the star of the show once he came onto the tatami.

France’s Teddy Riner, a 10-time World Champion, has been away from the IJF World Tour since November of 2017, when he won the World Openweight Championship. His intention was to fight again, but he was absent during 2018 and for the first half of 2019.

But he was ready in Montreal and had no trouble extending his 144-match winning streak with four consecutive victories at +100 kg, including overcoming 2016 Olympic 100 kg gold medalist Lukas Krpalek (CZE) in a hard-fought match in the semifinals, and Japan’s Hisayoshi Harasawa in the final.

Riner joined five current and former World Champions from Japan on the gold-medal list. Naohisa Takato (men: -60 kg), Soichi Hashimoto (men: -73 kg), Takanori Nagase (men: -81 kg), Shori Hamada (women: -78 kg) and Sarah Asahina (women: +78 kg) all won, as did Rio 2016 gold medalist Mashu Baker at -90 kg.

All together, Japan won nine medals (7-1-1) to lead the medal table, with host Canada (1-4-4) also at nine and then Brazil (0-0-5) at five. The U.S. scored three medals, with Colton Brown (men: -90 kg) and Angelica Delgado (women: -52 kg) taking silvers and Adonis Diaz (men: -60 kg) winning bronze. Summaries:

IJF World Tour/Montreal Grand Prix
Montreal (CAN) ~ 5-7 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men

-60 kg: 1. Naohisa Takato (JPN); 2. Robert Mshvidobadze (RUS); 3. Harim Lee (KOR) and Adonis Diaz (USA).

-66 kg: 1. Kherlen Ganbold (MGL); 2. Kenneth van Gansbeke (BEL); 3. Nathon Burns (IRL) and Jacob Valois (CAN).

-73 kg: 1. Soichi Hashimoto (JPN); 2. Victor Scvortov (UAE); 3. Anthony Zingg (GER) and Antoine Bouchard (FRA).

-81 kg: 1. Takanori Nagase (JPN); 2. Antoine Valois-Fortier (CAN); 3. Aslan Lappinagov (RUS) and Matthias Casse (BEL).

-90 kg: 1. Mashu Baker (JPN); 2. Colton Brown (USA); 3. Rafael Macedo (BRA) and Milan Randl (SVK).

-100 kg: 1. Ramadan Darwish (EGY); 2. Shady Elnahas (CAN); 3. Kyle Reyes (CAN) and Leonardo Goncalves (BRA).

+100 kg: 1. Teddy Riner (FRA); 2. Hisayoshi Harasawa (JPN); 3. David Moura (BRA) and Lukas Krpalek (CZE).

Women

-48 kg: 1. Wakana Koga (JPN); 2. Catarina Costa (POR); 3. Shira Rishony (ISR) and Paula Pareto (ARG).

-52 kg: 1. Gefen Primo (ISR); 2. Angelica Delgado (USA); 3. Sarah Menzies (BRA) amd Bokyeong Jeong (KOR).

-57 kg: 1. Christa Deguchi (CAN); 2. Jessica Klimkait (CAN); 3. Julia Kowalczyk (POL) and Timna Nelson Levy (ISR).

-63 kg: 1. Mokhee Cho (KOR); 2. Amy Livesey (GBR); 3. Alexia Castilhos (BRA) and Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (CAN).

-70 kg: 1. Giovanna Scoccimarro (GER); 2. Kelita Zupancic (CAN); 3. Seongyeon Kim (KOR) and Megan Fletcher (IRL).

-78 kg: 1. Shori Hamada (JPN); 2. Aleksandra Babintseva (RUS); 3. Maike Ziech (GER) and Vanessa Chala (ECU).

+78 kg: 1. Sarah Asahina (JPN); 2. Raz Hershko (ISR); 3. Nami Inamori (JPN) and Melissa Mojica (PUR).

TABLE TENNIS: No. 1-ranked Xu and Chen win two golds each at Korea Open

Facing Olympic Champions in a major tournament final is hardly an easy path, but proved no problem for the world’s two no. 1-ranked players as Xin Xu and Meng Chen triumphed in all-China finals at the Korea Open in Busan.

Xu, an Olympic Team gold winner in Rio, faced 2016 Singles winner Long Ma in the final and came away with a 7-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 victory, his first against Ma after four straight losses. Xu has just become the world’s no. 1-ranked player according to the ITTF ‘s World Rankings and the ITTF’s own report called the match a showcase for “some of the most spectacular shots and rallies across the six-day event. This was champagne table tennis at its finest, the range of strokes and lightning-speed reactions underlining just why the iconic duo has been the bedrock of Team China over the years.”

That was only half of Xu’s success in Busan, however, as he and Zhendong Fan teamed up to win the men’s Doubles over local favorites Youngsik Jeong and Sangsu Lee of Korea in a three sets-to-none shutout. He still wasn’t done; more on that later.

Chen is also no. 1 in the rankings and was face-to-face with the other Rio Singles winner, Ning Ding (CHN). Chen won the first three games by 11-5, 11-6 and 11-5, but lost the fourth game at 7-11. She sealed the win with a tight 11-9 final score and won her third tournament of the season.

Chen and Manyu Wang took the women’s Doubles gold, also in straight sets over Korean foes Hyojoo Choi and Haeun Yang.

The Chinese did not sweep the event – or did they? – as Chun Ting Wong and Hoi Kem Doo of Hong Kong won the Mixed Doubles against Xu and Shiwen Liu, 3-1. Summaries:

ITTF World Tour/Korea Open
Busan (KOR) ~ 4-7 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men/Singles: 1. Xin Xu (CHN); 2. Long Ma (CHN); 3. Youngsik Jeong (KOR) and Chuqin Wang (CHN). Semis: Ma d. Jeong, 4-1; Xu d. Wang, 4-2. Final: Xu d. Ma, 4-1.

Men/Doubles: 1. Zhendong Fan/Xin Xu (CHN); 2. Youngsik Jeong/Sangsu Lee (KOR); 3. Woojin Jang/Jonghoon Lim (KOR) and Masataka Morizono/Maharu Yoshimura (JPN). Semis: Jeoung/Lee d. Jang/Lim, 3-0; Fan/Xu d. Morizono/Yoshimura, 3-1. Final: Fan/Xu d. Jeong/Lee, 3-0.

Women/Singles: 1. Meng Chen (CHN); 2. Ning Ding (CHN); 3. Manyu Wang (CHN) and Yingsha Sun (CHN). Semis: Ding d. Sun, 4-3; Chen d. Wang, 4-3. Final: Chen d. Ding, 4-1.

Women/Doubles: 1. Meng Chen/Manyu Wang (CHN); 2. Hyojoo Choi/Haeun Yang (KOR); 3. Ning Ding/Shiwen Liu (CHN) and Jihee Jeon/Zion Lee (KOR). Semis: Chen/Wang d. Ding/Liu, 3-2; Choi/Yang d. Jeon/Lee, 3-1. Final: Chen/Wang d. Choi/Yang, 3-0.

Mixed Doubles: 1. Chun Ting Wong/Hoi Kem Doo (HKG); 2. Xin Xu/Shiwen Liu (CHN); 3. Kwan Kit Ho/Ho Ching Lee (HKG) and Jun Mizutani/Mima Ito (JPN). Semis: Xu/Lin d. Mizutani/Ito, 3-1; Wang/Doo d. Ho/Lee, 3-0. Final: Wong/Doo d. Xu/Liu, 3-1.

TAEKWONDO: Teenager Zolotic leads five defenders to repeat wins at U.S. National Championships

World Junior -52 kg champ Anastasija Zolotic of the U.S. (Photo: Opro Mouthguards)

USA Taekwondo’s 2019 National Championships continued the upward trajectory of 16-year-old Anastasija Zolotic’s career as she won her second straight national title.

Coming off her of 2018 World Junior Championship gold and a World Taekwondo Grand Prix bronze medal in Rome – the youngest U.S. medal winner in Grand Prix history – she dominated the -57 kg division, finishing with a 23-5 finals victory over Aziza Chambers.

She was one of three women’s Nationals winners who will fight in the upcoming Pan American Games in Lima (PER), including -46 kg champ Monique Rodriguez and -73 kg winner Madelynn Gorman-Shore.

There were three successful repeaters: Alasan Ann at -87 kg and Jonathan Healy at +87 kg, and Kiana Chai Chong in the women’s -49 kg class, who won her title with an emphatic, 20-0 win over Kayla Morales. Healy will also be moving ahead to the Pan American Games. Summaries:

USA Taekwondo National Championships
Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA) ~ 28 June-4 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men

-54 kg: 1. Van Mitchel Bactista; 2. Jesse Boyoon Seo; 3. Juancarlos Norzagaray and Jake Boohyun Seo. Final: Bactista d. Seo, referee stops contest.

-58 kg: 1. James Howe; 2. Isaak Whitworth; 3. Isaac Weintraub and Tyler Miyagishima. Final: Howe d. Whitworth, 17-6.

-63 kg: 1. Alejandro Chang; 2. Luis Orozco; 3. Oliver Largaespada and Juan Carlos Gomez. Final: Chang d. Orozoco, 10-1.

-68 kg: 1. Khalfani Harris; 2. Charles Buset; 3. Benjamin Snow and Davyd Cabrera. Final: Harris d. Buset, 13-6.

-74 kg: 1. Niklas Poland; 2. Dallas Parker; 3. Zak Day and William Henderson. Final: Poland d. Parker, 21-6.

-80 kg: 1. Darrell Woodward; 2. Nicholas Yates; 3. Sir Gregory Salonis and Skylar Kantaris. Final: Woodward d. Yates, 14-5.

-87 kg: 1. Alasan Ann; 2. Mohammed El Kharzazi; 3. Stephon Freeman and Abdul Rahman. Final: Ann d. El Kharzazi, 22-2.

+87 kg: 1. Jonathan Healy; 2. Russell Gresham; 3. Bryan Davis and Ellis Jennings. Final: Healy d. Gresham, 9-5.

Women

-46 kg: 1. Monique Rodriguez; 2. Ashleigh Nubla Ogan; 3. Tiara Antommarchi and Ellie Bezanson. Final: Rodriguez d. Ogan, 39-11.

-49 kg: 1. Kiana Chai Chong; 2. Kayla Morales; 3. Ashley Taylor and Lea Mave. Final: Chai Chong d. Morales, 20-0.

-53 kg: 1. Anastasija Zolotic; 2. Aziza Chambers; 3. Jadae Bezanson and Samantha Leong. Final: Zolotic d. Chambers, 23-5.

-57 kg: 1. Devon Lewis; 2. Naomi Bennett; 3. Luz Elena Garcia and Faith Dillon. Final: Lewis d. Bennett, 29-9.

-62 kg: 1. Amanda Bluford; 2. Danica Deaton; 3. Anna Brajdic and Larissa Gallo. Final: Bluford d. Deaton, 26-3.

-67 kg: 1. Miriam Galecki; 2. Trinity Noble; 3. Cecilia Cozza and Mandy McCutcheon. Final: Galecki d. Noble, 9-1.

-73 kg: 1. Madelynn Gorman-Shore; 2. Ashley Maye; 3. Wendy Louie and Mason Porch. Final: Gorman-Shore d. Maye, 21-1.

+73 kg: 1. Hannah Keck; 2. Taylor Ramirez; 3. Madelynne Douglas and Sanaz Shahbazi. Final: Keck d. Ramirez, 14-6.

GYMNASTICS: Zeng’s four golds gives her 17 national titles at U.S. National Champs for Rhythmic-Trampoline-Tumbling

U.S. Rhythmic star Laura Zeng

There isn’t much doubt that Laura Zeng, an established veteran at age 19, is the best Rhythmic gymnast in the U.S. She proved it once again with four gold medals and a bronze at the USA Gymnastics National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa over the weekend.

Zeng came into the meet with 13 national championships to her credit, including four straight in the All-Around. She extended that to five with a 155.850-154.100 win over Evita Griskenas; only Sue Soffe, who won six in a row from 1976-81, has won more.

In the apparatus finals, Zeng defended her 2018 crowns in Hoop and Clubs and won her second in Ball. But Griskenas was the winner in Ribbon, moving up from second in 2018. Griskenas ended the meet with four medals: one gold and three silvers.

In the Trampoline and Tumbling events – Trampoline is on the Olympic program – Jeffrey Gluckstein won his sixth national title and third in a row by nearly three points over Aliaksei Shostak, 167.080-164.105.

Jessica Stevens was a first-time winner in the women’s Trampoline, out-scoring 2017 champ Nicole Ahsinger, 154.750-154.440. Summaries:

USA Gymnastics National Championships
Des Moines, Iowa (USA) ~ 2-6 July 2019
(Full results here)

Rhythmic Gymnastics

All-Around: 1. Laura Zeng, 155.850; 2. Evita Griskenas, 154.100; 3. Camilla Feeley, 147.400; 4. Stasya Generalova, 141.000; 5. Lili Mizuno, 139.200; 6. Lennox Hopkins-Wilkins, 132.600; 7. Daria Merkulova, 128.600; 8. Nerea Francis, 128.550.

Hoop: 1. Zeng, 20.350; 2. Griskenas, 19.750; 3. Feeley, 19.350; 4. Generalova, 19.250; 5. Mizuno, 18.950; 6. Karrine Denisova, 18.150; 7. Hopkins-Wilkins, 17.950; 8. Heather Chan, 17.800.

Ball: 1. Zeng, 20.350; 2. Griskenas, 18.900; 3. Mizuno, 18.800; 4. Feeley, 18.550; 5. Generalova, 17.600; 6. Denisova, 17.450; 7. Chan, 16.850; 8. Elena Shinohara, 16.750.

Clubs: 1. Zeng, 19.500; 2. Feeley, 18.600; 3. Generalova, 18.100; 4. Griskenas, 17.750; 5. Francis, 17.450; 6. Mizuno, 16.950; 7. Shinohara, 16.650; 8. Shannon Xiao, 16.550.

Ribbon: 1. Griskenas, 18.800; 2. Feeley, 18.300; 3. Zeng, 17.200; 4. Mizuno, 17.100; 5. Hopkins-Wilkins, 17.000; 6. Generalova, 16.500; 7. tie, Merkulova and Shinohara, 14.800.

Trampoline & Tumbling

Men/Trampoline: 1. Jeffrey Gluckstein, 167.080; 2. Aliaksei Shostak, 164.105; 3. Cody Gesuelli, 161.250; 4. Paul Bretscher, 158.585; 5. Logan Gilbert, 157.515; 6. Nico Verderosa, 156.400; 7. Ruben Padilla, 155.745; 8. Davy Ford, 155.020.

Men/Double Mini: 1. Padilla, 149.700; 2. Noah Orr, 143.700; 3. Weston Sitz, 139.100; 4. Simon Smith, 138.800; 5. C.J. Rhoades, 133.200; 6. Alex Renkert, 132.600; 7. Joshua Rasoul, 132.100; 8. Jeremy Cooper, 103.900.

Men/Tumbling: 1. Kaden Brown, 151.600; 2. Patrick Lyell, 136.800; 3. Haydn Fitzgerald, 135.900; 4. Drew Collins, 129.300; 5. Alex Renkert, 127.700; 6. Kayne Johnson, 120.900; 7. Ian Castrence, 115.500; 8. Brandon Krzynefski, 98.500.

Women/Trampoline: 1. Jessica Stevens, 154.750; 2. Nicole Ahsinger, 154.440; 3. Charlotte Drury, 154.010; 4. Kayttie Nakamura, 151.005; 5. Lexi Vigil, 149.225; 6. Sydney Senter, 149.025; 7. Casey Primiano, 145.775; 8. Ellen Heinen, 141.855.

Women/Double Mini: 1. Nakamura, 138.500; 2. Senter, 138.200; 3. Kiley Lockett, 138.100; 4. Tristan van Natta, 136.600; 5. Lacey Jenkins, 136.400; 6. Kristie Lowell, 135.500; 7. Trinity van Natta, 134.500; 8. Susan Gill, 100.500.

Women/Tumbling: 1. Eve Doudican, 138.100; 2. Eliza Floisand, 132.200; 3. Hope Bravo, 129.800; 4. Caitlyn Crawford, 123.000; 5. Isabel Steinmetz, 119.300; 6. Ashley McDonald, 119.000; 7. Ellie Kirane, 118.600; 8. Rachel Thevenot, 110.800.

TRIATHLON: Stanford returns to the top of the podium; Birtwhistle wins again in Hamburg World Series

Australia's Jake Birtwhistle is pretty happy to win the ITU Hamburg Triathlon! (Photo: ITU)

Britain’s Non Stanford, now 30, was the 2013 World Champion, but hadn’t won a World Triathlon Series medal early last season. Was she still a contender?

At the Hamburg Triathlon on Saturday, she emphatically answered the question with an impressive win by seven seconds over the 2018 Hamburg leader, Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) and 18 seconds ahead of American Summer Rappaport, who won her second medal of the season.

Stanford broke the race open during the run phase, surprising even herself with the victory.

“I really didn’t expect to do that. I’ve been trying to edge my way back to the podium and this is testament to all the hard work behind the scenes.

“There was a [bike] crash behind me at one point and my wheel was slipping and my saddle dropped down too. Im going to fully focus on preparing for Tokyo now and i want to go there and show the selectors im a genuine contender for that team.”

One of those impacted by the crash was American Katie Zaferes, who was trapped behind a mass of metal and rubber and could not finished better than 34th overall. She still has a big lead of 4,925-4,170 over Jessica Learmonth (GBR) with two races to go this season.

The men’s race came down to who could catch France’s Vincent Luis, who stormed to the lead late in the run phase after another bike crash had narrowed the field considerably. A pack five chasers was closing, but only Australia’s Jacob Birtwhistle could pass Luis, winning his second World Series race in the last three events. Belgium’s Jelle Geens, the surprise winner in the Montreal Sprint, suddenly looks like a consistent contender with his third-place finish ahead of defending Series titlist Mario Mola (ESP).

In the Mixed Relay World Championship, France won for the second consecutive year and third overall, with Luis anchoring for a four-second win over host Germany. Justus Nieschlag brought Germany up through the mix of contenders for the silver medal and Birtwhistle brought Australia in ahead of Spain and Belgium. Summaries:

ITU World Series/Hamburg Triathlon
Hamburg (GER) ~ 6-7 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men/Sprint: 1. Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS), 55:09; 2. Vincent Luis (FRA), 55:10; 3. Jelle Geens (BEL), 55:13; 4. Mario Mola (ESP), 55:15; 5. Leo Bergere (FRA), 55:17; 6. Hayden Wilde (NZL), 55:20; 7. Justus Nieschlag (GER), 55:25; 8. Javier Gomez Noya (ESP), 55;34; 9. Marten van Riel (BEL), 55:41; 10. Ryan Sissons (NZL), 55:45.

Women/Sprint: 1. Non Stanford (GBR), 59:24; 2. Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA), 59:31; 3. Summer Rappaport (USA), 59:42; 4. Rachel Klamer (NED), 59:43; 5. Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR), 59:49; 6. Taylor Spivey (USA), 59:51; 7. Laura Lindemann (GER), 59:52; 8. Nicola Spring (SUI), 59:59; 9. Vicky Holland (GBR), 1:00:03; 10. Annamaria Mazzetti (ITA), 1:00:06. Also in the top 25: 16. Chelsea Burns (USA), 1:00:58; … 18. Kirsten Kasper (USA), 1:01:02.

Mixed Relay World Championships: 1. France (Morier, Bergere, Beaugrand, Luis), 1:20:18; 2. Germany (Lindemann, Wentz, Eim, Nieschlag), 1:20:22; 3. Australia (Van Coeverden, Royle, Jeffcoat, Birtwhistle), 1:20:43; 4. New Zealand, 1:20:46; 5. Canada, 1:21:08; 6. Spain, 1:21:13; 7. Belgium, 1:21:20; 8. Netherlands, 1:21:56. Also: 9. United States (Taylor Spivey, Eli Hemming, Katie Zaferes, Matthew McElroy), 1:22:07.

VOLLEYBALL: U.S. comes back from 0-2 deficit to win second straight Women’s Nations League Final, 3-2 over Brazil

U.S. women celebrate a second straight FIVB Nations League championships, defeating Brazil in five sets (Photo: FIVB)

“I’m proud of us and how we made a lot of nice changes throughout the match and come up with a win.

“Being down 0-2 is really constricting but also it’s now or never. If you’re not swinging and your not going out after it like a house on fire, then what have do you have to lose at that point. We all kind of just buckled up and kind of made big swing and it paid off.”

That was U.S. attacker Andrea Drews, who kept swinging and scored a game-high 33 points to power the United States women’s National Team to a five-set win over Brazil in the final of the 2019 FIVB Women’s Nations League in Nanjing (CHN).

The U.S. and China (both 12-3) had the best records in the round-robin schedule and then the U.S. hammered Poland (3-1) and Brazil (3-1) to reach the semis. There, the U.S. zipped by China, 2-1, for another match with the perennially-powerful Brazilians.

Brazil won the first two sets in the final, 25-20 and 25-22 and the U.S. was in trouble. But the American women rebounded with a 25-15 third-set win and then made a comeback in the fourth set to win, 25-21 and send the match to a tiebreaking set.

The U.S. ran off three points to build an 8-5 lead and nursed it to 14-13, when Brazil touched a side antenna, giving the U.S. the final point in their title defense from 2018.

Drews was named as the Most Valuable Player in the tournament and the U.S. placed four on the eight-member “Dream Team”:

Outside hitters: Liu Yanhan (CHN), Gabriela Guimaraes (BRA)
Middle blockers: Ana Beatriz Correa (BRA), Haleigh Washington (USA)
Opposite: Ebrar Karakurt (TUR)
Setter: Macris Carneiro (BRA)
Libero: Megan Courtney (USA)
Most Valuable: Andrea Drews (USA)

It’s an impressive win for the U.S. and establishes the American women as at least a medal favorite – if not for the gold medal – for Tokyo 2020. Summaries:

FIVB Women’s Nations League Final
Nanjing (CHN) ~ 3-7 July 2019
(Full results here)

Final Standings: 1. United States; 2. Brazil; 3. China; 4. Turkey; 5. Poland; 6. Italy; 7. Belgium; 8. Dominican Republic; 9. Japan; 10. Germany; 11. Netherlands; 12. Thailand, 13. Serbia; 14. Russia; 15. South Korea; 16. Bulgaria.

Finals ~ Pool A: Turkey d. China, 3-1; Turkey d. Italy, 3-0; China d. Italy, 3-1. Pool B: U.S. d. Poland, 3-1; Brazil d. Poland, 3-2; U.S. d. Brazil, 3-1. Semis: Brazil d. Turkey, 3-0; U.S. d. China, 3-1. Third: China d. Turkey, 3-1. Final: U.S. d. Brazil, 3-2 (20-25, 22-25, 25-15, 25-21, 15-13).

FENCING: U.S. finishes with five of six team titles in Pan American Championships

Worlds Sabre bronze medalist Anne-Elizabeth Stone of the U.S. (Photo: FIE)

The U.S. national fencing squad was expected to overrun the Pan American Championships in Toronto (CAN) and did so impressively.

Following the individual competitions, where Americans won five of the six classes, the U.S. did the same in the team events, winning five of the six classes, finishing second in the men’s Team Epee.

By doing so, the U.S. ended with five fencers who won two golds in Toronto: Race Imboden and Eli Dershwitz in men’s Foil and Sabre, and Kelley Hurley (Epee), Nicole Ross (Foil) and Eliza Stone (Sabre). Summaries:

Pan American Fencing Championships
Toronto (CAN) ~ 27 June-2 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men

Epee: 1. Ruben Limardo Gascon (VEN); 2; Jesus Limardo (VEN); 3. Yunior Reytor Venet (CUB) and Jose Felix Dominguez (ARG). Semis: Limardo Gascon d. Reytor Venet, 15-8; Limardo d. Dominguez, 15-12. Final: Limardo Gascon d. Limardo, 15-14.

Team Epee: 1. Cuba (Reytor, Patterson, Henriquez); 2. United States (Jacob Hoyle, James Kaull, Curtis McDowald, Adam Rodney); 3. Argentina; 4. Canada. Semis: U.S. d. Canada, 45-39; Cuba d. Argentina, 45-39. Third: Argentina d. Canada, 42-37. Final: Cuba d. U.S., 45-38.

Foil: 1. Race Imboden (USA); 2. Guilherme Toldo (BRA); 3. Alex Massialas (USA) and Gerek Meinhardt (USA). Semis: Imboden d. Meinhardt, 15-7; Toldo d. Massialas, 15-14. Final: Imboden d. Toldo, 15-4.

Team Foil: 1. United States (Race Imboden, Alexander Massialas, Gerek Meinhardt, Nick Itkin) 2. Canada; 3. Brazil; 4. Chile. Semis: U.S. d. Chile, 45-25; Canada d. Brazil, 45-41. Third: Brazil d. Chile, 45-28. Final: U.S. d. Canada, 45-27.

Sabre: 1. Eli Dershwitz (USA); 2. Daryl Homer (USA); 3. Joseph Polossifakis (CAN) and Pascual Maria di Tella (ARG). Semis: Homer d. Di Tella, 15-3; Dershwitz d. Polossifakis, 15-10. Final: Dershwitz d. Homer, 15-14.

Team Sabre: 1. United States (Eli Dershwitz, Daryl Homer, Jeff Spear, Khalil Thompson) 2. Canada; 3. Argentina; 4. Colombia. Semis: U.S. d. Argentina, 45-21; Canada d. Colombia, 45-29. Third: Argentina d. Colombia, 45-35. Final: U.S. d. Canada, 45-37.

Women

Epee: 1. Kelley Hurley (USA); 2. Maria Martinez (VEN); 3. Nathalie Moellhausen (BRA) and Maria Luisa Doig (PER). Semis: Hurley d. Moellhausen, 15-11; Martinez d. Doig, 15-9. Final: Hurley d. Martinez, 15-7.

Team Epee: 1. United States (Katharine Holmes, Kelley Hurley, Courtney Hurley, Catherine Nixon); 2. Brazil; 3. Canada; 4. Argentina. Semis: U.S. d. Argentina, 45-17; Brazil d. Canada, 45-38. Third: Canada d. Argentina, 45-40. Final: U.S. d. Brazil, 44-33.

Foil: 1. Nicole Ross (USA); 2. Jessica Guo (CAN); 3. Kelleigh Ryan (CAN) and Eleanor Harvey (CAN). Semis: Ross d. Harvey, 6-5; Guo d. Ryan, 165-10. Final: Ross d. Guo, 11-10.

Team Foil: 1. United States (Jacqueline Dubrovich, Lee Keifer, Nzingha Prescod, Nicole Ross) 2. Canada; 3. Chile; 4. Brazil. Semis: U.S. d. Chile, 45-19; Canada d. Brazil, 45-18. Third: Chile d. Brazil, 45-37. Final: U.S. d. Canada, 45-42.

Sabre: 1. Anne-Elizabeth Stone (USA); 2. Mariel Zaguins (USA); 3. Gabriella Page (CAN) and Maria Perez Maurice (ARG). Semis: Ross d. Perez Maurice, 15-11; Zagunis d. Page, 15-13. Final: Stone d. Zagunis, 15-14.

Team Sabre: 1. United States (Chloe Fox-Gitomer, Aleksandra Shelton, Eliza Stone, Kamali Thompson); 2. Canada; 3. Mexico; 4. Canada. Semis: U.S. d. Mexico, 45-42; Canada d. Venezuela, 45-38. Third: Mexico d. Venezuela, 45-36. Final: U.S. d. Canada, 45-34.

CYCLING: Terpstra scores first World Cup win in Vallnord, as Schurter returns to the top of the podium

Back on top in Vallnord: Swiss superstar Nino Schurter (Photo: UCI)

Dutch rider Anne Terpstra had never won a UCI Mountain Bike World Cup medal heading into the Vallnord (AND) stage of the 2019 season, but she cured that with an impressive victory by 38 seconds over 2017 World Champion Jolanda Neff (SUI).

Terpstra started well on the 22.8 km course, but took the lead on the third loop and never looked back. She had a 15-second edge over fellow Dutch rider Anne Tauber and then kept extending it all the way to the finish. Neff came up for second by the end of the fourth lap and held on for the silver.

American Kate Courtney, who had won the previous two races on the circuit this season, also started well, but faded after the first lap and ended up in eighth.

Order was restored in the men’s Cross Country race, with Swiss superstar Nino Schurter claiming his first win of the season, in a tight battle with countryman Mathias Flueckiger, 1:19:34-1:19:36.

The trio of Flueciger, Schuter and Henrique Acancini (BRA) battled together for most of the last half of the race and Schurter was only able to pass on the final lap to score another victory, but only his first of the year. Flueckiger is now the only rider with medals in all three races this season. Summaries:

UCI Mountain Bike World Cup
Vallnord (AND) ~ 5-7 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men

Cross Country/Short (8.37 km): 1. Henrique Avancini (BRA), 21:07; 2. Nino Schurter (SUI), 21:08; 3. Maxime Marotte (FRA), 21:08; 4. Gerhard Kerschbaumer (ITA), 21:09; 5. Titouan Carod (FRA), 21:11.

Cross Country (26.6 km): 1. Schurter (SUI), 1:19:34; 2. Mathias Flueckiger (SUI), 1:19:36; 3. Avancini (BRA), 1:19:46; 4. Kerschbaumer (ITA), 1:20:01; 5. Jordan Sarrou (FRA), 1:20:19. Also in the top 25: 18. Keegan Swenson (USA), 1:21:50.

Downhill (2.5 km): 1. Loic Bruni (FRA), 4:11:055; 2. Loris Vergier (FRA), 4:11.478; 3. Troy Brosnan (AUS), 4:12.257; 4. Amaury Pierron (FRA), 4:13.003; 5. Danny Hart (GBR), 4:16.650. Also in th top 25: 18. Luca Shaw (USA), 4:22.702.

Women

Cross Country/Short (7.44 km): 1. Jolanda Neff (SUI), 22:40; 2. Alessandra Keller (SUI), 22:41; 3. Kate Courtney (USA), 22:41; 4. Ramona Forchini (SUI), 22:42; 5. Anne Terpstra (NED), 22:48. Also in the top 25: 22. Lea Davison (USA), 23:24.

Cross Country (22.8 km): 1. Terpstra (NED), 1:22:59; 2. Neff (SUI), 1:23:37; 3. Yana Belomoina (UKR), 1:23:50; 4. Daniela Campuzano (MEX), 1:23:57; 5. Jenny Rissveds (SWE), 1:24:02. Also in the top 25: 8. Courtney (USA), 1:25:03; … 15. Davison (USA), 1:26:07

Downhill (2.5 km): 1. Rachel Atherton (GBR), 5:00.622; 2. Marine Cabirou (FRA), 5:03.119; 3. Tracey Hannah (AUS), 5:07.753; 4. Emilie Suegenthaler (SUI), 5:13.481; 5. Eleonora Farina (ITA), 5:15.720.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: Russia and Canada finally claim World Championship titles in Hamburg

The men's podium at the 2019 FIVB World Beach Champs (Photo: FIVB)

The traditional power in Beach Volleyball – Brazil – got shut out of the medals at the 2019 World Championships in Hamburg and instead, it was Russia and Canada which walked away with the top honors.

A Brazilian team, either men or women, had won a medal at each FIVB World Beach Championships at each Worlds since 2007, but none made it to the semifinals in Germany. On Saturday, the Canadian duo of Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes who became Canada’s first-ever World Beach Champions by out-lasting the U.S. pair of Alix Klineman and April Ross, 23-21, 23-21.

“There are no words,” said Humana-Paredes. “The last two weeks have been incredible. We had to fight our way here. It wasn’t an easy route at all and that makes it even more special. It wasn’t pretty at times; it wasn’t the best we’ve ever played but we managed to stay together and fight. It was all heart, we wanted this so bad and now we have it, and it’s the best feeling ever.

“You dream of this moment and you try to think of something smart to say, but you can’t because you don’t know what to say because it’s indescribable.”

Ross won a bronze medal with Kerri Walsh-Jennings at Rio in 2016 and is now poised to contend for another medal in Tokyo in 2020 with Klineman.

“I’m pretty upset,” Ross said afterwards. “To get here and have it be Alix’s first World Championships, it would have been so amazing to win the gold.

“We’re obviously very happy to win a silver medal at the World Championships. This is the best I’ve ever done at a World Championships in an Olympic qualifying year by far, and it goes a long way toward Tokyo so we’re proud about that.

“But it stings to not have a gold at World Championships. For me even more it doesn’t matter what match it was, it was how I played, how we played as a team and to not pull that out, it hurts a lot.”

The favored men’s team of Anders Mol and Christian Sorum (NOR) was upset in the semifinals by Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler of Germany, playing before an overflow crowd of 12,000 in the Am Rothenbaum Stadium. The Germans were cheered, but fell in the final to Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov, 10-21, 21-17, 15-11.

It was the first-ever World Beach Championships gold for Russia and Krasilnikov moved up from bronze in 2017, when he was paired with Nikita Liamen. Stoyanovskiy became the youngest-ever World Champion at 22, said afterwards, “It’s very amazing for him because he was upset after last World Championships in Vienna after the semifinal. This is an achievement for him.”

The U.S. pair of Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb were edged by the Russians in three sets in the semis and then by Mol and Sorum in three sets in the bronze-medal match and finished fourth. However, it’s the first time the U.S. has had both men’s and women’s teams in the medal round at the Worlds since 2009, when Ross won the world title with Jen Kessy, and Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers won the bronze medal. Summaries:

FIVB World Championships
Hamburg (GER) ~ 28 June-7 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men: 1. Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Viacheslav Krasilnikov (RUS); 2. Julius Thole/Clemens Wickler (GER); 3. Anders Mol/Christian Sorum (NOR); 4. Tri Bourne/Trevor Crabb (USA). Semis: Stoyanovskiy/Krasilnikov d. Bourne/Crabbe, 2-1; Thole/Wickler d. Mol/Sorum, 2-1. Third: Mol/Sorum d. Bourne/Crabb, 2-1. Final: Stoyanovskiy/Krasilnikov d. Thole/Wickler, 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 15-11).

Women: 1. Sarah Pavan/Melissa Humana-Paredes (CAN); 2. Alix Klineman/April Ross (USA); 3. Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho del Solar (AUS); 4. Nina Betschart/Tanja Huberli (SUI). Semis: Klineman/Ross d. Artacho del Solar, 2-0; Pavan/Melissa d. Betschart/Huberli, 2-1. Third: Clancy/Artacho del Solar d. Betschart/Huberli, 2-0. Final: Pavan/Melissa d. Klineman/Ross, 2-0 (23-21, 23-21).

ARCHERY: Turkey dominates Berlin World Cup as Gazoz defends his 2018 victory

The newest Korean star: 18-year-old San An (Photo: World Archery)

Turkey’s 20-year-old Mete Gazoz loves Berlin, winning the 2019 World Archery World Cup stage on Sunday and defending his title from 2018. Add in a team victory and he left with two golds on the weekend and a place in the forthcoming World Cup Final in Moscow (RUS).

“I really love to shoot in this venue,” said Gazoz. “I can read the wind really easily and know where to aim. I’m really happy to shoot here and everything went really well.

“Our team final went to a shoot-off and before this individual match I said, ‘okay, enough shoot-offs’. No more. I can beat him in straight sets.”

Gazoz dispatched Korea’s first-time World Cup finalist Jae-Hyeon Bae by 6-0 in the final, after his team edged Ukraine in a 27-26 shoot-off in the team final earlier in the day. The U.S. team of Brady Ellison, Jack Williams and Matthew Requa earned a team bronze.

The women’s Recurve title went to a new Korean star, 18-year-old San An, who blanked countrywoman Ina Jeon, 6-0. It was An’s first international tournament on the senior level and she will now advance of the World Cup Final as well.

American Alexis Ruiz, who had scored medal in each of the prior three stages, won the women’s Compound division over France’s Sophie Dodemont, 143-141. That’s pretty good for a 19-year-old rookie on the World Cup tour and she’s also off to Moscow for the World Cup Final.

“It means everything. I worked so hard this year. Being on the finals on every stage, I think it all led up to this,” said Ruiz. Summaries:

World Archery World Cup
Berlin (GER) ~ 1-6 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men

Recurve: 1. Mete Gazoz (TUR); 2. Jae-Hyeon Bae (KOR); 3. Mauro Nespoli (ITA); 4. Jin-Hyek Oh (KOR). Semis: Bae d. Oh, 6-4; Gazoz d. Nespoli, 6-5 (shoot-off: 9-9); Third: Nespoli d. Oh, 6-2. Final: Gazoz d. Bae, 6-0.

Team Recurve: 1. Turkey (Gazoz, Aydin, Ak); 2. Ukraine; 3. United States (Brady Ellison, Jack Williams, Matthew Requa); 4. Canada. Semis: Turkey d. U.S., 5-4 (shoot-off: 28-26); Ukraine d. Canada, 5-1. Third: U.S. d. Canada, 6-2. Final: Turkey d. Ukraine, 5-4 (shoot-off: 27-26).

Compound: 1. Evren Cagiran (TUR); 2. Mike Schloesser (NED); 3. Kris Schaff (USA); 4. Braden Gellenthien (USA). Semis: Cagiren d. Schaff, 144-141; Schloesser d. Gellenthien, 145-142. Third: Schaff d. Gellenthien, 144-141. Final: Cagiran d. Schloesser (145-145 (shoot-off: 10-9).

Team Compound: 1. France (Pierre-Julien Deloche, Jean-Philppe Boulch, Sebastien Peineau); 2. Denmark; 3. United States (Matt Sullivan, Kris Schaff, Braden Gellenthien); 4. Germany. Semis: France d. Germany, 231-229; Denmark d. U.S., 231-230. Third: U.S. 233, Germany, 229. Final: France 230, Denmark, 228.

Women

Recurve: 1. San An (KOR); 2. Ina Jeon (KOR); 3. Ya-Ting Tan (TPE); 4. Qixuan An (CHN). Semis: S. An d. Tan, 6-0; Jeon d. Q. An, 6-4. Third: Tan d. Q. An, 6-0. Final: S. An d. Jeon, 6-0.

Team Recurve: 1. Italy (Giaccheri, Rebagliati, Tonetta); 2. Germany; 3. Korea; 4. Chinese Taipei. Semis: Italy d. Chinese Taipei, 5-1; Germany d. Korea, 5-4 (shoot-off: 26-21). Third: Korea d. Chinese Taipei, 5-1. Final: Italy d. Germany, 5-1.

Compound: 1. Alexis Ruiz (USA); 2. Sophie Dodemont (FRA); 3. Sara Lopez (COL); 4. Yesim Bostan (TUR). Semis: Ruiz d. Lopez, 145-144; Dodemont d. Bostan, 142-141. Third: Lopez d. Bostan, 147-147 (shoot-off: 9-8). Final: Ruiz d. Dodemont, 143-141.

Team Compound: 1. Turkey (Bostan, Tomruk, ElMaagacli); 2. Great Britain; 3. United States (Alexis Ruiz, Cassidy Cox, Sophia Strachan); 4. Germany. Semis: Turkey d. U.S., 231-227; Great Britain d. Germany, 227-221. Third: U.S. d. Germany, 231-221. Final: Turkey d. Great Britain, 232-221.

Mixed

Recurve: 1. San An/Jin Hyek Oh (KOR); 2. Alexandra Mica/Dan Olaru (MLD); 3. Elena Tonetta/Mauro Nespoli (ITA); 4. Bombayla Devi Laishram/Atul Verma (IND). Semis: Mica/Olaru d. Tonetta/Nespoli, 5-1; An/Oh d/ Laishram/Verma, 6-2. Third: Tonetta/Nespoli d. Laishram/Verma, 5-3. Final: An/Oh d. Mica.Olaru, 6-2.

Compound: 1. Ella Gibson/James Mason (GBR); 2. Toja Ellison/Stas Modic (SLO); 3. Viktoria Balzhanova/Alexander Dambaev (RUS); 4. Marcella Tonioli/Elia Fregnan (ITA). Semis: Gibson/Mason d. Tonioli/Fregnan, 148-145; Ellison/Modic d. Balzhanova/Dambaev, 148-146. Third: Balzhanova/Dambaev d. Tonioli/Fregnan, 151-149. Final: Gibson/Mason d. Ellison/Modic, 156-155.

FOOTBALL: Dutch are game, but U.S. too strong and wins fourth World Cup, 2-0, in Lyon

Europe dominated the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, but the best team was the no. 1-ranked United States, which overcame a tight Dutch defense with two strikes within 10 minutes in the second half to win, 2-0, before a crowd of 57,900 in Lyon (FRA).

It’s the fourth World Cup victory for the Americans and back-to-back titles, the first since Germany won in 2003 and 2007. But it wasn’t easy.

The first half was bruising and scoreless, the only time in the tournament that the U.S. did not score in the first 45 minutes, despite having most of the possession (53-47%) and putting constant pressure on the Dutch defense. But keeper Sari van Veenendaal was outstanding, turning away shot after shot; the U.S. had five shots to one at the half.

The second half started the same way, with more U.S. pressure and the Dutch tiring. On a ball into the box intended for striker Alex Morgan, defender Stefanie van der Gragt tried to kick it away, but missed and nearly hit Morgan in the head. A video check resulted in a referee’s on-field review, and the U.S. was handed a penalty.

Megan Rapinoe took the shot and deked van Veenendaal, easing the ball into the right side of the net for a 1-0 lead in the 61st minute. Given the difficult time the Dutch were having getting off a quality shot, that looked like enough. It was only the second penalty ever awarded in a Women’s World Cup final and first to be scored.

But one of the stars of the next generation of U.S. soccer, 24-year-old Rose Lavelle, came alive on a dribble drive in the middle of the field in the 69th minute, releasing a left-footed laser from just inside the box that flew into the goal for a 2-0 lead and essentially ended the issue.

The Dutch were game, but the U.S. defense – which had been the big question going into the tournament – played soundly and with good work from keeper Alyssa Naeher, kept the Netherlands away from goal.

There was too much U.S. offense for the Netherlands to deal with and even when the game was scoreless, it seemed unlikely that the Dutch could score and put pressure on the Americans to play from behind.

The U.S. ended with a 15-6 advantage in shots an 52% of the possession; even more tellingly, the U.S. got nine shots on goal to only one for the Dutch.

The U.S. set a World Cup scoring record with 26 goals – half in that first-game, 13-0 rout of Thailand – surpassing Germany’s 25 goals in 2003.

Three players scored six goals to lead the scoring: Morgan and Rapinoe of the U.S. and Ellen White of England. Sam Kerr had five for Australia.

Sweden won the third-place game on Saturday, defeating luckless England, 2-1. The Lionesses had another game-tying goal by Ellen White disallowed in the second half and the Swedes rode two goals in the first 22 minutes to their third third-place finish in the tournament. Summary (records shown as W-L-T):

FIFA Women’s World Cup
France ~ 7 June-7 July 2019
(Full results here)

Final Standings: 1. United States (7-0); 2. Netherlands (6-1); 3. Sweden (5-2); 4. England (5-2); 5. Germany (4-1); 6. France (4-1); 7. Italy (3-2); 8. Norway (3-2); 9. Australia (2-1-1); 10. Brazil (2-2); 11. Canada (2-2); 12. Spain (1-2-1); 13. Japan (1-2-1); 14. China (1-2-1); 15. Nigeria (1-3); 16. Cameroon (1-3); 17. Chile (1-2); 18. Argentina (0-2-1); 19. Scotland (0-2-1); 20. New Zealand (0-3); 21. South Korea (0-3); 22. South Africa (0-3); 23. Jamaica (0-3); 24. Thailand (0-3). Semifinals: U.S. 2, England 1; Netherlands 1, Sweden 0 (extra time). Final: U.S. 2, Netherlands 0.

HEARD AT HALFTIME: Bubka and Popov fiercely refute Cabral’s testimony on Rio bribes; FIFA steps up for women’s football and Milan’s Mayor convicted

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

Games of the XXXI Olympiad: Rio 2016 In the wake of the stunning testimony of former Rio State Governor Sergio Cabral on Thursday, explaining in detail how he approved $2 million to bribe members of the International Olympic Committee in 2009 to assure Rio’s election, the two IOC members named both rejected his accusations as false.

Cabral named current IOC member Sergey Bubka (UKR), the 1988 Olympic pole vault gold medalist and Alexander Popov (RUS), a four-time swimming gold medalist and former IOC member, as having been bribed by then-IOC member Lamine Diack (SEN).

Popov provided a statement to the Russian news agency TASS that included:

“With great regret for the city of Rio de Janeiro and the former governor Sergio Cabral, I am ready to officially declare that, first, I did not vote for Rio de Janeiro at all, and second, I did not participate in any negotiations and I am not familiar with the topics and with the people who are mentioned in information sources, and have never had contact with them.

“In this regard, I consider it necessary to start cooperation on this issue with the Ethics Committee of the IOC and ready to provide any information. In turn, I begin to prepare a lawsuit on the protection of rights and dignity, which I propose to consider at the location of the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee [in] Switzerland.”

The Russian government also commented on Cabral’s testimony. Presidential spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said on Friday that “We have certainly paid our attention to this information and this is a very serious accusation” and that “in any case such statements must be based on evidence as they cannot be unsubstantiated and ungrounded.”

The IOC’s Ethics and Compliance Office will start asking questions and the Ethics Commission – chaired by former United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon (KOR) will consider the matter if any evidence beyond Cabral’s assertion can be uncovered.

The man in the middle of all this, of course, is Diack, already awaiting trial for corruption, extortion and money-laundering in France.

British-based writer Tariq Panja tweeted a statement from Papa Massata Diack, son of Lamine, that:

“I never [met] any IOC member for Rio de Janeiro 2016. This 1,5 millions $ was wired to secure the eventual sponsorship of the IAAF World Relays. I have never met Sergio Cabral or Eduardo Paes.

“The event was cancelled and Nuzman asked me to keep it to support continental events in Africa, South America and Caribbean!”

≡ REAX The younger Diack’s comments are more than a little hard – actually very hard – to believe. The IAAF’s World Relays wasn’t announced until August 2012 (for a 2014 event), some three years after the 2009 bribes were allegedly made, and while Lamine Diack was still IAAF President, so the son would have known exactly what the situation was with the status of the meet.

Diack the younger, even while sitting safely in Senegal, would have been better off keeping his mouth closed.

Doping If you want to read a lively Twitter feed, you might want to tune in to former Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission head Renee Anne Shirley. She’s hardly a believer that the doping situation is being fixed, by the activities of the World Anti-Doping Agency and others. These tweets were from 1 July:

https://twitter.com/RAnneShirley/status/1145691763761451009

https://twitter.com/RAnneShirley/status/1145896957619126272

Football FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI) praised the 2019 Women’s World Cup in a Friday news conference ahead of the medal matches this weekend and delivered good news to those asking for more investment in women’s football. They got it, including:

The creation of a FIFA Club World Cup for women, starting as soon as possible.

The creation of a Women’s World League, to be played in tournaments all over the world.

Expanding the FIFA Women’s World Cup from 24 to 32 teams, potentially already as of the 2023 edition (host to be selected in 2020).

To double the prize money for the next FIFA Women’s World Cup.

To double the investment committed to women’s football over the next four-year cycle, from $500 million to $1 billion.

He also acknowledged the dominance of Europe in the 2019 tournament, with seven of the eight quarterfinalists: “We need to do more to make sure that this gap [between Europe and other continents] doesn’t become bigger. We want to channel part of this investment into the grassroots of the game all over the world. We need to invest much more where there is no women’s football, rather than where the women’s game already exists.”

Critics will note that doubling the prize money pool for the participating teams from $30 million (2019) to $60 million (for 2023) will still leave the women way short of the payout in the men’s World Cup of $400 million (with $38 million to the winner). But it is also true that the men’s World Cup brings in far more revenue than the women’s event, at least at present.

Infantino also reflected on the great interest worldwide in the tournament, and added a silly comment that will not endear him to whatever friends he might still have in Lausanne: “What other event, other than the men’s World Cup, can unite 1 billion people around the world to come together like this?”

≡ REAX Infantino can now join American striker Alex Morgan – she of the tea-drinking mockery of England in her scoring celebration during the semifinals – as unsportsmanlike and dumb. After Justin Gatlin beat Usain Bolt in the latter’s final race at the 2017 World Championships, he hugged him and acknowledged his great career. Both Infantino and Morgan could profit from a lesson from him … oh, no, can’t do that! Gatlin has been suspended twice for drugs. Sorry for thinking out loud …

At the BuZZer If you thought corruption and cheating in and around the Olympic Movement was over, get this: Giuseppe Sala, the Mayor of Milan (ITA), which just won the right to stage the 2026 Olympic Winter Games with Cortina d’Ampezzo, was convicted on Friday for “pre-dating works contracts” prior to the 2015 Universal Exposition in Milan, of which he was Chief Executive.

Reuters reported that he was given a six-month suspended sentence, which converted the conviction’s penalty into a fine of €45,000 (~$51,000). Sala can appeal the verdict, of course.

Oy vey.

SPEED READ: Headlines from The Sports Examiner for Friday, 5 July 2019

Welcome to The Sports Examiner SPEED READ, a 100 mph (44.7 m/s) review of what happened this week in Olympic sport:

LANE ONE

Wednesday: The International Olympic Committee released its Annual Report last week and it’s all good news, with more than $2.2 billion in revenue for 2018 and assets of more than $4 billion. But it doesn’t take too much imagination to see that there could be problems coming when the current U.S. television contract expires after the 2032 Olympic Games. There are measures the IOC can take now to help, but will it?

Friday: Former Rio State Governor Sergio Cabral told a Brazilian court on Thursday that he approved $2 million in bribes to assure that Rio de Janeiro would get the 2016 Olympic Games. His explosive revelations finally tie together the details of how former IAAF head Lamine Diack was used to help Rio win.

THE BIG PICTURE

Wednesday: The World Anti-Doping Agency confirms that 298 possible (probable?) doping cases have been identified – so far – from the Moscow Lab data and the information has been sent to the relevant International Federations for further action. It’s just as Canadian law professor Richard McLaren predicted …

HEARD AFTER HALFTIME

Monday: French indictment of Lamine Diack and others shows millions in extortion, spent on luxuries like watches … major changes in Track Cycling that are not being well received … the World Equestrian Games might not be dead … USA Synchro educates against concussions and USA Swimming begins ticket sales for the 2020 Olympic Trials.

ATHLETICS

Monday: NBC’s Craig Masback says Swiss Federal Tribunal unlikely to overturn IAAF gender-eligibility rules as appealed by Caster Semenya … how the new pros did at the Pre Classic … Nafi Thiam injured, but Mutaz Essa Barshim finally returns!

Friday: Lausanne (SUI) turned into Speed City on Friday, with sensational sprinting in the Athletissima meet! American Noah Lyles ripped through the men’s 200 m in 19.50, making him no. 4 all-time in the event, with the fastest time in seven years! Justin Gatlin won the men’s 100 m in 9.92, Jamaica’s Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce won the women’s 100 m in a superb 10.74 and there were world leaders in the men’s 1,500 m by Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN: 3:28.72) and men’s vault by Poland’s Piotr Lisek (6.01 m/19-8 1/2). And much more!

CYCLING

Tuesday: The USA Cycling Track Nationals are on in Carson, California, with star Jennifer Valente looking for more national titles; at 24, she already has 12, including four last year!

Thursday: The Tour de France starts in Brussels on Saturday, with defending champ Geraint Thomas (GBR) in and four-time winner Chris Froome (GBR) is out with an injury. But there are multiple contenders, and the home crowd is hoping for a French champion for the first time in 34 years!

Thursday: All the Dutch superstars are lined up for the 30th Giro Rosa, the top women’s road race on the UCI Women’s World Tour, with 10 stages in northern Italy on this year’s route. The favorite has to be current World Tour leader Annemiek van Vleuten, but there are other options, both Dutch … and Italian!

FENCING

Tuesday: Five first-time individual champions at the USA Fencing Nationals in Columbus, but also a familiar face in Alexander Tsinis, the U.S. Epee champion from way back in 2012 and 2013.

FOOTBALL

Tuesday: It was tight, but the U.S. women squeezed past England, 2-1, in the semis of the FIFA Women’s World Cup on Tuesday. Leading 2-1, the U.S. had to weather a equalizing goal that was called offsides and got an Alyssa Naeher save on a terribly-struck penalty kick by the English. But it’s on to the final against the Dutch or – can it be – the Swedes on Sunday!

Wednesday: The Dutch women out-lasted Sweden, 1-0, in extra time to get to its first Women’s World Cup final on Sunday.

Wednesday: It wasn’t pretty, but the U.S. men finally unlocked Jamaica’s defense and compiled a 3-1 win in Nashville in a game that had goals, fouls and a lengthy 87-minute lightning delay, sending the U.S. into the CONCACAF Gold Cup final against Mexico on Sunday!

GYMNASTICS

Tuesday: The USA Gymnastics National Championships in Acrobatic, Rhythmic and Tumbling & Trampoline are on in Des Moines, with Rhythmic star Laura Zeng looking for her fifth All-Around title in a row and to add to her total of 13 senior-level titles in the past four years.

HOCKEY

Monday: The inaugural FIH Pro League finals were held in Amsterdam, with the home crowd happy that the Netherlands won the women’s title over Australia in a 4-3 shoot-out after a 2-2 tie in regulation time. The men’s championship went to the Australian men, who overcome Belgium by 3-2 in the final.

SHOOTING

Monday: Olympic Rifle champ Ginny Thrasher and emerging Pistol star Lexi Lagan each won two events at the USA Shooting National Championships in Ft. Benning, Georgia, and Nick Mowrer and Mike McPhail also defended their 2018 titles.

TRIATHLON

Friday: American Katie Zaferes has dominated the first five races of the 2019 ITU World Series, winning four and finishing second once. This week’s stop is the biggest tri of all, a Sprint in Hamburg (GER). Can she do it again?

VOLLEYBALL

Tuesday: The U.S. women are the defending champions in the FIVB Nations League and after a 12-3 round-robin season, are in the final in Nanjing (CHN) with a good chance to advance to the semifinals.

PREVIEWS

Archery: Brady Ellison tries for a third World Cup win this season in Berlin
Cycling: Can anyone stop American Kate Courtney from a third straight XCO win?
Judo: Three World Champions and two Olympic gold medalists in Montreal Grand Prix
Sailing: Men’s Laser Standard class holds World Championships in Japan
Table Tennis: Strong fields, with Olympic champs, in Busan for the Korean Open

UPCOMING

Highlights of the coming week, with previews in the coming days on TheSportsExaminer.com:

Aquatics: The FINA World Championships finally begin in Korea!

Athletics: What will Noah Lyles do in this 100 m race vs. Justin Gatlin in Monaco?

Cycling: Climax of the season, with the men’s Tour de France and women’s Giro Rosa on!

And a look at the finances of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee!

TRIATHLON Preview: Will Katie Zaferes sprint away from the women’s field in Hamburg?

The Hamburg Triathlon, the world's largest!

American Katie Zaferes has been just about unstoppable this season, winning four of the five races so far and taking both sprints, in Hamburg and Montreal. Another week, another sprint, another win?

The sixth of the eight stages of the 2019 World Series is in Hamburg (GER), one of the great triathlons in the world, with a sprint event for the second consecutive race. The course features a 750 m swim, 21 km bike phase (six laps) and 5 km run (two laps). The series leaders:

Men:
1. 3,282 Fernando Alarza (ESP)
2. 3,200 Vincent Luis (FRA)
3. 3,108 Javier Gomez Noya (ESP)
4. 2,905 Henri Schoeman (RSA)
5. 2,377 Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS)

Women:
1. 4,925 Katie Zaferes (USA)
2. 4,170 Jessica learmonth (GBR)
3. 3,925 Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR)
4. 3,249 Taylor Spivey (USA)
5. 2,435 Non Stanford (GBR)

Only Zaferes has won a medal in every race this season, but Learmonth has four medals so far. Last year in Hamburg, the surprise winning was France’s Cassandre Beaugrand, followed by home favorite Laura Lindemann (GER) with Zaferes third.

The men’s season has been one of confusion, with five different winners in the five races held so far. Defending World Series champ Mario Mola won the opener in Abu Dhabi, but then hit a slump with three finishes in the 20s before last week’s second in Montreal. He’s won at Hamburg for three straight years, and is looking for a fourth this weekend.

He finished ahead of 2019’s no. 2-ranked triathlete, Vincent Luis of France, who was also the last other than Mola to win in Hamburg, back in 2015. Spain’s Fernando Alarza, who has finished 3-9-6-9-6 in his five races this season, jumped back into the Series lead after Montreal.

The balance in the men’s racing her been so severe so far that only Mola (2) and Javier Gomez (ESP: 2) have won more than a single medal in the first half of the season.

A Mixed Relay will be held on Sunday. Look for start lists and results here.

ATHLETICS: Lausanne is Speed City: Lyles, 19:50! Fraser-Pryce, 10.74! Gatlin, 9.92!

Noah Lyles (USA) on the way to becoming no. 4 all-time in 19.50! (Photo: Athletissima Lausanne)

There are special athletes whose performances are must-see moments. Jamaica’s iconic Usain Bolt was that way. American Noah Lyles – who will turn just 22 in 13 days – is moving into that class.

On a warm night and against a good field in the 200 m at the IAAF Diamond League meet in Lausanne (SUI), Lyles charged through the turn and flew into the straightaway, hitting top speed with about 60 m to and ran away with a sensational victory in 19.50!

19.50! The fastest time run in seven years, moving him to no. 4 on the all-time list, with the eighth fastest time ever run:

● 19.19 Usain Bolt (JAM) ‘09
● 19.26 Yohan Blake (JAM) ‘11
● 19.30 Bolt ‘08
● 19.32 Michael Johnson (USA) ‘96
● 19.32 Bolt ‘12
● 19.40 Bolt ‘11
● 19.44 Blake ‘12
● 19.50 Noah Lyles (USA) ‘19
● 19.53 Walter Dix (USA) ‘11
● 19.54 Blake ‘12
(10 performances by five performers)

It was Lyles’s eighth career race under 20 seconds, in his eighth year of running the 200 m, vs.

● 9 for Blake, over 15 years (2005-present)
● 22 for Johnson, over 13 years (1988-2000)
● 34 for Bolt, over 16 years (2001-16)

Lyles, who lost his last 200 m race to Michael Norman, 19.70-19.72 in Rome, was delighted with his reply in Lausanne:

“The track here is burning up. I’m feeling good here. Me and my coach [Lance Brauman] have been working really hard. I know I’m running exactly what my coach wants me to run. It was a good, well executed race. It was about getting out strong. There is nothing better than seeing the accomplishments of what you have put in. Each year I’m making a huge jump. I’m very satisfied. It’s time for the next race.”

What was even more amazing was that Ecuador’s Alex Quinonez came on in the last 50 m to finish second in an outstanding 19.87, and 2016 Olympic silver medalist Andre De Grasse (CAN) was third in 19.92 … and they weren’t in the race!

Lyles plans to run the 100 m next week in Monaco, where he will take on Justin Gatlin, who looked very good running and winning the 100 m in 9.92, a week after a 9.87 in a tight loss to Christian Coleman at Stanford:

“It was a smooth race. I was coming here to finish strong. I was instructed to have a clean start.

“On the last ten meters I felt like I was winning. I’m going to go home after Monaco. I’m feeling strong and more competitive. The podium is not promised at the World Championships.”

There were three world-leading marks during the meet:

Men/200 m: 19.50, Noah Lyles (USA)
Men/1,500 m: 3:28.77, Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN)
Men/Pole Vault: 6.01 m (19-81/2), Piotr Lisek (POL)

Cheruiyot continues to show that he’s far-and-away the best miler on the planet, charging to the lead after the 1,000 m mark and holding nearly a 10 m lead with half a lap to go … and then extending it to the finish in 3:28.77, just off his lifetime best of 3:28.41. Norway’s 18-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen continues to improve, sprinting for second at the line and setting a lifetime best of 3:30.16. Cheruiyot ran the last lap in 56.66.

Lisek and reigning World Champion Sam Kendricks of the U.S. were the only ones to clear 5.95 m (19-6 1/4), then missed three times at 6.01 m (19-8 1/2), but then agreed to a jump-off at 6.01 and Lisek made it for a new lifetime best and a Polish national record to win the meet.

There were more highlights:

● Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce showed that her 10.73 at the Jamaican Nationals was no fluke, with a dominating win in the women’s 100 m in 10.74. Only 2016 Olympic champ Elaine Thompson (also 10.73) has run faster this season.

Shamier Little of the U.S. won the 400 m hurdles by going out fast and forging a big lead. She had to chop her step on hurdle 10 and two-time World Champion Zuzana Heinova (CZE) and American Ashley Spencer got closer, but Little sprinted away to win in 53.73, no. 3 on the world list for 2019 behind fellow Americans Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney McLaughlin.

● Spain’s Orlando Ortega won the 110 m hurdles in 13.05 to move to no. 3 on the 2019 world list, beating Daniel Roberts, who made his professional debut. Roberts, who ran 13.00 for second at the NCAA Championships, hit hurdle four and clipped another hurdle, but found some rhythm over the 10th barrier and the run-in and was closing fast in 13.11, a very good start to his international career.

● The men’s 800 m was supposed to be a heat check on Kenya’s Emmnauel Korir, but it was countryman Wyclife Kinyamal who got to the line first in 1:43.78, no. 3 in the world for 2019. Korir was in position to win down the home straight, but lost form and faded to third (1:44.01) behind Kenyans Kimyamal and Ferguson Rotich (1:43.93).

The strangest race of the day was in the men’s 5,000 m, where Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet made a decisive move at the 4,300 m mark and crossed the line at 4,600 m believing he had won … but with a lap still to run! His error cost him the race, but gave fellow Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha – the guy who fell and tried to keep himself up by pulling at Selemon Barega’s shorts last year – the opportunity to run away from the rest of the field. He wasn’t challenged on the final lap and won in 13:00.56. Barega (ETH) ended up second this year at 13:01.99, and Gebrhiwet fell to 10th.

Wow! The circus moves on to Monaco next week; summaries:

IAAF Diamond League/Athletissima
Lausanne (SUI) ~ 4-5 July 2019
(Full results here)

Men

100 m (wind +0.2 m/s): 1. Justin Gatlin (USA), 9.92; 2. Michael Rodgers (USA), 10.01; 3. Aaron Brown (CAN), 10.07. Also: 5. Cameron Burrell (USA), 10.18; 6. Devin Quinn (USA), 10.19; 7. Kendal Williams (USA), 10.20; 8. Devon Allen (USA), 10.33.

200 m (-0.1): 1. Noah Lyles (USA), 19.50; 2. Alex Quinonez (ECU), 19.87; 3. Andre De Grasse (CAN), 19.92.

800 m: 1. Wyclife Kinyamal (KEN), 1:43.78; 2. Ferguson Rotich (KEN), 1:43.93; 3. Emmanuel Korir (KEN), 1:44.01. Also: 5. Clayton Murphy (USA), 1:44.47.

1,500 m: 1. Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN), 3:28.77; 2. Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR), 3:30.16; 3. Ayanleh Souleiman (DJI), 3:30.79.

5,000 m: 1. Yomif Kejelcha (ETH), 13:00.56; 2. Selemon Barega (ETH), 13:01.99; 3. Telahun Haile Bekele (ETH), 13:03.09. Also: 6. Paul Chelimo (USA), 13:05.70.

110 m hurdles (+1.0): 1. Orlando Ortega (ESP), 13.05; 2. Daniel Roberts (USA), 13.11; 3. Ronald Levy (JAM), 13.25. Also: 7. Devon Allen (USA), 13.35.

400 m hurdles (non-Diamond League); 1. Luke Campbell (GER), 49.54; 2. Rasmus Magi (EST), 49.54; 3. Mamadou Hann (FRA), 49.90.

Pole Vault: 1. Piotr Lisek (POL), 6.01 m (19-8 1/2; won on fourth attempt jump-off with Kendricks); 2. Sam Kendricks (USA), 5.95 m (19-6 1/4); 3. tie, Mondo Duplantis (SWE) and Renaud Levillenie (FRA), 5.81 m (19-0 3/4). Also: 5. Cole Walsh (USA), 5.71 m (18-8 3/54).

Long Jump: 1. Juan Miguel Echavarria (CUB), 8.32 m (27-3 3/4); 2. Militiadis Tentoglou (GRE), 8.19 m (26-10 1/2); 3. Luvo Manyonga (RSA), 8.13 m (26-8 1/4). Also: 7. Will Claye (USA), 7.74 m (25-4 3/4).

Women

100 m (+0.2): 1. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM), 10.74; 2. Dina Asher-Smith (GBR), 10.91; 3. Marie-Josee Ta Lou (CIV), 10.93. Also: 5. Kayla White (USA), 11.16.

200 m (non-Diamond League; +1.0): 1. Gabby Thomas (USA), 22.69; 2. Jodie Williams (GBR), 22.75; 3. Anthonique Strachan (BAH), 22.81.

400 m: 1. Salwa Eid Naser (BRN), 49.17; 2. Aminatou Seyni (NIG), 49.19; 3. Stephenie Ann McPherson (JAM), 50.88. Also: 7. Courtney Okolo (USA), 51.85.

800 m (non-Diamond League): 1. Nelly Jepkosgei (KEN), 1:59.54; 2. Halimah Nakaayi (UGA), 1:59.97; 3. Gabriela Gajanova (SVK), 2:01.25.

400 m hurdles: 1. Shamier Little (USA), 53.73; 2. Zuzana Hejnova (CZE), 54.11; 3. Ashley Spencer (USA), 54.11. Also: 7. Kori Carter (USA), 55.55; 8. Cassandra Tate (USA), 56.90.

High Jump: 1. Mariya Lasitskene (RUS), 2.02 m (6-7 1/2); 2. Karyna Taranda (BLR), 2.00 m (6-6 3/4); 3. Mirela Demireva (BUL), 1.97 m (6-5 1/2).

Pole Vault (non-Diamond League; held in city center): 1. Katie Nageotte (USA), 4.82 m (15-9 3/4); 2. Anzhelika Sidorova (RUS), 4.72 m (15-5 3/4); 3. Holly Bradshaw (GBR), 4.72 m (15-5 3/4).

Triple Jump: 1. Caterine Ibarguen (COL), 14.89 m (48-10 1/4); 2. Yulimar Rojas (VEN), 14.82 m (48-7 1/2); 3. Liadagmus Povea (CUB), 14.77 m (48-5 1/2).

Shot Put: 1. Christina Schwanitz (GER), 19.04 m (62-5 3/4); 2. Brittany Crew (CAN), 18.46 m (60-6 3/4); 3. Fanny Roos (SWE), 18.41 m (60-4 3/4). Also: 6. Chase Ealey (USA), 18.15 m (59-6 3/4).

Javelin: 1. Christin Hussong (GER), 66.59 m (218-5); 2. Kelsey-Lee Barber (AUS), 65.63 m (215-4); 3. Barbora Spotakova (CZE), 63.79 m (209-3). Also: 9. Kara Winger (USA), 56.99 m (186-11).

CYCLING Preview: Can anyone stop American Mountain Bike World Champ Kate Courtney in Vallnord?

Mountain Bike World Cross Country champ Kate Courtney (USA)

The third leg of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Cross-Country schedule – and fourth stage of the Downhill – is this weekend in Vallnord (AND), one of the more exotic and popular stops on the circuit.

But there are many questions that come with this week’s stop, including:

● Can anyone stop American Kate Courtney from winning her third straight World Cup race this season?

Her victory at the 2018 World Championships was something of a surprise, but she has been brilliant in winning at Albstadt and Nove Mesto, first over 2017 World Champion Jolanda Neff (SUI) and then Rebecca McConnell (AUS).

Courtney, of course, leads the World Cup with 700 points, with Neff second (490) and Chloe Woodruff (USA) third with 385.

● What’s happened to Swiss star Nino Schurter, the seven-time World Champion and 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the first two races of the year? After winning four of the seven races ib the tour last season (and medaling in six of seven), he’s only posted a second in the Nove Mesto race so far in 2019. Swiss Matthias Flueckiger has finished 1-3 in the two races and Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel was 2-1.

Van der Poel leads the World Cup points standings with 700 points, followed by Flueckiger with 500 points and Schurter (485).

Last season, Gerhard Kerschbaumer (ITA) won in Vallnord, with Schurter second. Norway’s 2004 Olympic champ Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja won the women’s race, ahead of Neff.

The non-Olympic Downhill events have been dominated this season by the French in the men’s division and British riders in the women’s. Three-time World Champion Loic Bruni won at Maribor and Leogang, with teammate Amaury Pierron winning at Ft. William. But Australia’s Troy Brosnan has won medals at all three events: 3-2-3.

Britain’s Tahnee Seagrave won the Maribor opener and five-time World Champion Rachel Atherton (GBR) won at Ft. William. But as with the men, an Australian is the only one with medals in all three races: Tracey Hannah, who has finished 3-2-1, taking the gold in Leogang.

Look for results from Vallnord here.

JUDO Preview: Three reigning world champs, two Rio gold winners entered in first-ever Montreal Grand Prix

After a hiatus in June, the IJF World Tour resumes in North America – for a change – with the first-ever Montreal Grand Prix, with 249 judokas from 50 nations ready for a fight at the Maurice Richard Arena. The top seeds (with IJF world rankings):

Men

-60 kg:
1. Robert Mshvidobadze (RUS: 1)
2. Naohisa Takato (JPN: 4)
3. Eric Takabatake (BRA: 11)

-66 kg:
1. Kherlen Ganbold (MGL: 10)
2. Imad Bassou (MAR: 36)
3. Kenneth van Gansbeke (BEL: 38)

-73 kg:
1. Soichi Hashimoto (JPN: 5)
2. Arthur Margelidon (CAN: 9)
3. Victor Scvortov (UAE: 18)

-81 kg:
1. Matthias Case (BEL: 4)
2. Aslan Lappinagov (RUS: 11)
3. Antoine Valois-Fortier (CAN: 15)

-90 kg:
1. Eduard Trippel (GER: 12)
2. Rafael Macedo (BRA: 16)
3. David Klammert (CZE: 18)

-100 kg:
1. Ramadan Darwish (EGY: 7)
2. Karl-Richard Frey (GER: 17)
3. Sandy Elnahas (CAN: 19)

+100 kg:
1. Lukas Krpalek (CZE: 2)
2. David Moura (BRA: 4)
3. Hisayoshi Harasawa (JPN: 16)

Women

-48 kg:
1. Paula Pareto (ARG: 4)
2. Catarina Costa (POR: 12)
3. Shira Rishony (ISR: 14)

-52 kg:
1. Gefen Primo (ISR: 12)
2. Agata Perenc (POL: 14)
3. Angelica Delgado (USA: 15)

-57 kg:
1. Christa Deguchi (CAN: 3)
2. Jessica Klimkait (CAN: 7)
3. Timna Nelson Levy (ISR: 9)

-63 kg:
1. Catherine Beachemin-Pinard (CAN: 9)
2. Katharina Haecker (AUS: 10)
3. Kiyomi Watanabe (PHI: 22)

-70 kg:
1. Maria Perez (PUR: 8)
2. Assmaa Niang (MAR: 10)
3. Kelita Zupancic (CAN: 14)

-78 kg:
1. Shori Hamada (JPN: 5)
2. Beata Pacut (POL: 16)
3. Aleksandra Babintseva (RUS: 19)

+78 kg:
1. Sarah Asahina (JPN: 5)
2. Ivana Sutalo (CRO: 29)
3. Nina Cutro-Kelly (USA: 30)

Although Mshvidobadze (RUS: -60 kg) is the only top-ranked fighter in the tournament, Japan has three reigning World Champions entered: Takata in the men’s -60 kg division; Hamada in the women’s 78 kg class and Asahina in the +78 kg group.

Two Rio 2016 Olympic champs are also in the field, with Krpalek in the men’s +100 kg group (he won at -100 kg), and Pareto in the women’s 48 kg class.

As usual in Grand Prix events, prize money will be $3,000-2,000-1,000 for the top three place winners. Look for results here.

LANE ONE: Ex-Rio governor tells court of $2 million in bribes to buy Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic win for 2016

Former Rio State governor Sergio Cabral (BRA)

Sergio Cabral, who served as the governor of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro from 2007-14, told a Brazilian court on Thursday that he authorized the payment of $2 million in bribes to former International Olympic Committee member and International Association of Athletics Federations chief Lamine Diack (SEN) to buy votes of IOC members for Rio de Janeiro’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

The testimony was presented at a hearing that, according to Reuters, was requested by his defense team as part of an effort to reduce his prison time; he has been convicted in multiple corruption schemes and sentenced to nearly 200 years in prison.

Cabral’s testimony tied up multiple open questions surrounding Rio’s bid for the 2016 Games, which it won in 2009:

● Cabral said that Carlos Nuzman, then head of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and later head of the Rio 2016 organizing committee, approached him with the idea.

“Nuzman came to me and said, Sergio, I want tell you about the president of the International Athletics Federation, IAAF, Lamine Diack, he’s someone who is open to taking bribes.” Nuzman assured him that this was worth doing since Diack had arranged votes previously.

“I said, Nuzman, what are our guarantees here? And he said, ‘traditionally he sells 4, 5, 6 votes. There is a risk that we don’t get through to the second round (of voting).”

Cabral told Judge Marcelo Bretas that Diack “guaranteed” six votes for $1.5 million, but asked for an additional $500,000 to obtain three more votes. Cabral approved the payment, which was funded by American businessman Arthur Soares, who obtained contracts from Brazilian government offices worth about $960 million during Cabral’s tenure as governor, and was made through Nuzman.

● Cabral, now 56, said that neither former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (currently imprisoned) and former Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes did not know of the bribery plan, but were informed afterwards.

Cabral said he told Paes about the payoffs prior to the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin (GER), held in August, prior to the IOC’s 2009 vote in Copenhagen (DEN). This is an edited online translation from the original Portuguese:

“I said, ‘We have to go to Berlin. And here I want to tell you something.’ I said, ‘Boy, Nuzman had it here … I got it right. Arthur Soares is going to give money so we can have a number of votes. You have to go there to see the head of the president of the Athletics Federation, greet him. Imagine if the host of the house will not? Is there anything more important to you, in the first year of your term, than the Olympics? We now have that guarantee. Are you afraid of being defeated? I was afraid too. But now that fear is far away.’”

Diack was President of the IAAF from 1999-2015 and is set to be tried for bribery, extortion and money-laundering in France later this year. He was elected to the IOC in 1999 and was suspended (later resigned) in 2015.

● Cabral named two then-IOC members who he says were bribed: Ukrainian Sergey Bubka, the 1988 Olympic champ and six-time World Champion in the pole vault, and Alexander Popov (RUS), the four-time Olympic gold medalist in the 50-100 m swimming freestyles in 1992 and 1996.

“They assured me that Sergey Bubka, a Ukrainian athlete, was given a tip. Another athlete who is not athletics, but, according to them, also received the Russian Alexander Popov, great world champion.”

Bubka is a current IOC member; Popov was a member from 2000-2016 and is currently an Honorary Member.

● Cabral noted that Rio’s worry was the first ballot, where the vote was expected to be close and the city with the lowest vote total would be dropped. He proved to be correct:

= Round 1: Madrid 28, Rio 26, Tokyo 22, Chicago 18 (Chicago eliminated)
= Round 2: Rio 46, Madrid 29, Tokyo 20 (Tokyo eliminated)
= Round 3: Rio 66, Madrid 32 (Rio selected)

Cabral’s testimony was challenged by former Rio 2016 Director General Leonardo Gryner, also implicated, as false and Soares “said he will provide clarification in a timely manner.”

This explosive testimony will have repercussions for Nuzman, still on trial for corruption in Brazil relating to the 2016 Games, and for Diack, who has been under house arrest in France since 2015. Now 86, could Diack now feel cornered and willing to confess to some of the details of his bribery schemes?

The bribery allegations concerning Rio surfaced two years ago, but similar questions have been raised about Tokyo’s victory for the 2020 Games at the 2013 IOC Session. And Nuzman’s comments about Diack to Cabral that he had been involved in note-buying previously may open the selections of prior Games – 2004 to Athens or 2008 to Beijing, perhaps? – to investigations. Nuzman, now 77, was a member of the IOC from 1995-2012.

Cabral’s revelations – if judged to be true – fill in the details of the Rio bribery story, of a bid city which was desperate to win, had correctly identified its weakness in the voting rounds, and willing to use illegal means to assure its position.

This creates new problems for the IOC and current President Thomas Bach (elected in 2013), further degrades the legacy of previous IOC President Jacques Rogge (BEL), brings into question who else was bribed – there are only two still-serving members from Africa who were on the IOC in 2009 – and impacts the ongoing trial of Nuzman and the forthcoming trial of Diack.

It also raises questions about the government of Senegal, which: (1) refused the extradition of Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, implicated in all of his father’s dealings and who has remained in his home country, and (2) is the host for the 2022 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, the first-ever Olympic event to take place on the African continent.

The testimony also validates Bach’s efforts to essentially eliminate the IOC’s all-or-nothing bid process with the reforms passed last month at the IOC Session in Lausanne. While IOC members will still vote on the city/region/countries to host the Games, it’s likely that only one candidate will be put forward, following a “dialogue” process that will end up as a courtship.

Slowly, the truth about the Diacks and Rio 2016 appears to be coming out. But as Winston Churchill famously said in another context: “This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Rich Perelman
Editor

CYCLING Preview: Another British win in the 106th Tour de France, or is the race wide open in 2019?

The world’s most important cycling race is the Tour de France, but it has been owned by British riders for six of the last seven years. While defending champ Geraint Thomas is back for more, the four-time winner and six-time medalist Chris Froome is out due to a training crash during the Criterium du Dauphine last month.

That changes everything.

The famed race will start in Belgium this year and cover 3,460 km (~2,150 miles), with six flat stages, two time trials, eight hilly stages of varying intensity and five high-mountain stages:

6 July: Stage 1 (194.5 km): Brussels to Brussels (flat)
7 July: Stage 2 (27.6 km Team Time Trial): Brussels to Brussels (flat)
8 July: Stage 3 (215.0 km): Binche to Epernay (flat)
9 July: Stage 4 (213.5 km): Reims to Nancy (flat)
10 July: Stage 5 (175.5 km): Saint-Dié-des-Vosges to Colmar (hilly)
11 July: Stage 6 (160.5 km): Mulhouse to La Planche des Belles Filles (mountains)
12 July: Stage 7 (230.0 km): Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saône (flat)
13 July: Stage 8 (200.0 km): Macon to Saint-Etienne (hilly)
14 July: Stage 9 (170.5 km): Saint-Etienne to Brioude (hilly)
15 July: Stage 10 (217.5 km): Saint-Flour to Albi (hilly)
16 July: Rest day
17 July: Stage 11 (167.0 km): Albi to Toulouse (flat)
18 July: Stage 12 (209.5 km): Toulouse to Bagneres-de-Bigorre (high mountains)
19 July: Stage 13 (27.2 km Time Trial): Pau to Pau (flat)
20 July: Stage 14 (117.5 km): Tarbes to Tourmalet (high mountains)
21 July: Stage 15 (185.0 km): Limoux to Foix (mountains)
22 July: Rest day
23 July: Stage 16 (177.0 km): Nîmes to Nîmes (hilly)
24 July: Stage 17 (200.0 km): Pont du Gard to Gap (hilly)
25 July: Stage 18 (208.0 km): Embrun to Valloire (high mountains)
26 July: Stage 19 (126.5 km): Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Tignes (high mountains)
27 July: Stage 20 (130.0 km): Albertville to Val Thorens (high mountains)
28 July: Stage 21 (128.0 km): Rambouillet to Paris (flat)

The field of 176 riders includes two returning winners and six prior medal winners:

● Geraint Thomas (GBR) ~ Defending Champion
● Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) ~ Winner in 2014; third in 2012
● Romain Bardet (FRA) ~ Second in 2016; third in 2017
● Nairo Quintana (COL) ~ Second in 2013-15
● Rigoberto Uran (COL) ~ Second in 2017
● Thibaut Pinot (FRA) ~ Third in 2014
● Mikel Landa (ESP) ~ Fourth in 2017
● Adam Yates (GBR) ~ Fourth in 2016
Tejay van Garderen (USA) ~ Fifth in 2012-14
● Roman Kreuziger CZE) ~ Fifth in 2013
● Riche Porte (AUS) ~ Fifth in 2016
● Fabio Aru (ITA) ~ Fifth in 2017
● Steven Kruijswijk (NED) ~ Fifth in 2018

Of course, the home crowd would love a French winner, but the last was in 1985, when Bernard Hinault won his fifth and final Tour.

Thomas and Team INEOS teammate Egan Bernal (COL) are among the most favored in the race, but Giro d’Italia runner-up- Nibali, Dane Jakob Fuglsang and France’s Bardet and Pinot are certainly contenders. The high-mountain stages in the final week of the race are the likely deciding points.

In terms of stage wins, Slovakian star Peter Sagan – six times the winner of the Points Classification at the Tour – co-leads the field with 11. Germany’s Andre Greipel also has 11 Tour stage wins; he’s finished second in the Points standings to Sagan three times before. No one else has more then five (Nibali).

Sagan shares the record for the most Points trophies in the Tour with Germany’s Erik Zabel at six; he could set the career record with another Points win in 2019.

The race will celebrate the centennial of the yellow jersey in 2019 and a special design for each of the 21 stages will be presented.

NBCSN has blanket coverage of the Tour, with most of the stages shown live, but also with replays and highlights packages; NBC will have coverage on 6-20-27-28 July, but check the schedule here. Look for stage results and standings here.

CYCLING Preview: Star race of the Women’s World Tour – Giro Rosa – starts in Cassano Spinola

What the Tour de France is to men’s cycling, the Giro Rosa – the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile – is for women and the 30th edition, with 10 stages, starts on Friday and will wind through northern Italy for 10 days.

The stages are mostly hilly, with two time trials and two important mountain routes:

5 July: Stage 1 (18.0 km: Team Time Trial) Cassano Spinola to Castellania (hilly)
6 July: Stage 2 (78.3 km): Viu to Viu (hilly)
7 July: Stage 3 (104.1 km): Sagliano Micca to Piedicavallo (hilly)
8 July: Stage 4 (100.1 km): Lissone to Carate Brianza (hilly)
9 July: Stage 5 (87.5 km): Ponte in Valtellina to Lago di Cancano (mountains)
10 July: Stage 6 (12.1 km Time Trial): Chiuro to Teglio (hilly)
11 July: Stage 7 (12.3 km): Cornedo Vicentino to San Giorgio di Perlena (hilly)
12 July: Stage 8 (133.3 km): Vittorio Veneto to Maniago (hilly)
13 July: Stage 9 (125.5 km): Gemona to Chiusaforte/Malga Montasio (mountains)
14 July: Stage 10 (120.0 km): San Vito al Tagliamento to Udine (flat)

As you would expect, the 144-rider, 24-team field includes several returning medalists, including three former winners:

● Marianne Vos (NED) ~ Winner in 2011-12-14
● Anna van der Breggen (NED) ~ Winner in 2015-17; third in 2014-16
● Annemiek van Vleuten (NED) ~ Winner in 2018; third in 2017
● Tatiana Guderzo (ITA) ~ Second in 2013; third in 2010
● Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA) ~ Second in 2017
● Ashleigh Moolman (RSA) ~ Second in 2018
● Amanda Spratt (AUS) ~ Third in 2018

Three-time winner Vos has the most stage wins in this race all-time, with a staggering 21. Van Vleuten has eight and Kirsten Wild (NED) has four among the active riders.

In terms of the current season standings, three of the top five riders are in the Giro Rosa: van Vleuten (leading with 948 points), Kasia Niewiadoma (POL: second with 910) and Vos (NED: fourth with 624).

Dutch riders have won eight of 13 races on the World Tour so far, with van Vleuten taking Strade Bianche and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Vos won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and van der Breggen grabbed La Fleche Wallonne and the Amgen Tour of California. Wild won the Three Days of De Panne (a one-day race this year) and Gent-Wevelgem back in March.

An Italian rider hasn’t won the Giro Rosa since Fabiana Luperini won her fifth title back in 2008. Perhaps this is the time for Elisa Longo Borghini, the 2017 runner-up? She won the four-stage Emakumeen Euskal Bira stage race in Spain in May and this will be her eighth Giro Rosa. She has done well, finishing 5-8-11-2-10 from 2014-18.

Look for results here.

FOOTBALL: U.S. overcomes 87-minute lightning delay and Jamaica, 3-1, to reach Gold Cup final on Sunday

Star U.S. midfielder Christian Pulisic scored twice vs. Jamaica in the U.S.'s 3-1 win

The United States men’s national team showed energy and patience – at the appropriate times – to score a 2-0 victory over Jamaica in Nashville, Tennessee and move on to the championship match of the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The American side came out on fire, pressing Jamaica and scoring in the ninth minute as a Jozy Altidore pass across the box left Wes McKennie wide open at the left of goal and he buried the chance for a 1-0 lead.

The U.S. had a 5-0 edge in shots during the first 15 minutes and looked ready to do some more damage, when a weather delay was called due to lightning in the area.

The delay ran 1:27 and the game didn’t re-start until 10:20 p.m. Central Time. And it was much different. Jamaica was more aggressive and in the 30 minutes of remaining first-half play had an 8-3 edge on shots vs. the U.S. and much more of the possession. But Zack Steffen was ready and held the Reggae Boyz off the scoreboard.

In the second half, the U.S. was creating chances again and controlling the game, until a brilliant pass by McKennie in the 52nd minute opened the door for a right-side run into the box by Jordan Morris. His shot toward the far corner was blocked with authority by Jamaican keeper Andre Blake, but the rebound came out in front and was finished by Christian Pulisic for a 2-0 lead.

Jamaica wasn’t done, and in the 69th minute they scored the first goal against the U.S. in the tournament. Leon Bailey’s cross into the middle of the box was headed by 6-3 striker Shamar Nicholson past Steffen into the far corner of the U.S. net. U.S. 2, Jamaica 1.

The Jamaicans poured on the pressure in the succeeding minutes, but the U.S. found a clincher in the 87th minute when Pulisic rammed home another rebound, this time a laser from Paul Arriola from 35 yards at the left side. Blake’s save came to Pulisic’s right foot and he whistled a cross into the far side of the net for a 3-1 lead, and that’s how it ended.

The game finally ended 3:20 after it started, with Jamaica out-shooting the U.S., 18-16, with the U.S. holding 51% of the possession.

In Tuesday’s semifinal, Haiti frustrated Mexico again and again and keeper Jhony Placide was sensational through a scoreless 90 minutes and into extra time. Three minutes into the first extra-time period, Mexico’s Raul Jimenez was brought down by Herve Basile and a penalty was called. It was Jimenez who took the penalty and made it count, for the only score of the game.

Mexico had 70% of the possession and a 23-10 edge in shots, but the game was tight throughout, with Haiti showing the consummate skill for a huge underdog.

The final of the 15th Gold Cup will be at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Sunday (7th). For Mexico, it will be their eighth appearance in the championship match; they have won seven (goal aggregate 21-5) and have a 4-1 record against the U.S., having won the last two gold-medal meetings in 2009 and 2011.

The U.S. has the most appearances in the Gold Cup final with 10, and a 6-4 record (77 goal aggregate), winning its last appearances in 2013 (1-0 vs. Panama) and 2017 (2-1 vs. Jamaica).

TABLE TENNIS Preview: Top-ranked Zhendong Fan and Ning Ding headline Korea Open

Chinese star Ning Ding (Photo: Wikipedia)

The sixth of 13 stops on the 2019 ITTF World Tour is in Busan, Korea. It’s the fourth straight tournament in Asia; the circuit will go to Australia next and then head to Europe for the final five events prior to the Grand Final. The fields are excellent; the top seeds (with Singles World Rankings):

Men/Singles:
1. Zhendong Fan (CHN: 1) ~ 2017 Worlds silver medalist
2. Xin Xu (CHN: 3) ~ 2017 Worlds bronze medalist
3. Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN: 4)

Men/Doubles:
1. Youngsik Jeoung/Sangsu Lee (KOR)
2. Kwan Kit Ho/Chun Ting Wong (HKG)
3. Woojin Jang/Jonghoon Lim (KOR)

Women/Singles:
1. Ning Ding (CHN: 1) ~ 2016 Olympic Champion; 2011-15-17 World Champion
2. Meng Chen (CHN: 2) ~ 2019 Worlds silver medalist
3. Manyu Wang (CHN: 3) ~ 2019 Worlds bronze medalist

Women/Doubles:
1. Meng Chen/Manyu Wang (CHN)
2. Barbora Balasova (SVK)/Hana Matelova (CZE)
3. Ho Ching Lee/Wai Yam Soo (KOR)

Mixed Doubles:
1. Xin Xu/Shiwen Liu (CHN)
2. Chun Ting Wong/Hoi Kem Doo (HKG)
3. Maharu Yoshimura/Kasumi Ishikawa (JPN)

The men’s Singles draw also includes 2016 Olympic gold medalist and 2015-17-19 World Champion Long Ma; the women’s draw includes 2019 World Champion Shiwen Liu of China.

Look for match schedules and results here.

FOOTBALL: Groenen’s goal in extra time enough for the Dutch to advance to the Women’s World Cup final, 1-0

Dutch midfielder Jackie Gronen's strike was the difference in the 1-0 semifinal win that sent the Netherlands to the Women's World Cup final (Photo: FIFA)

A bruising game in which neither side was technically brilliant and the goalkeepers were outstanding – except for one play – saw the Netherlands defeat Sweden, 1-0, in extra time in the final FIFA Women’s World Cup semifinal in Lyon (FRA).

There was no scoring through the first 90 minutes, with excellent defense on both sides and crucial saves by Sweden’s Hedvig Lindahl and Dutch keeper Sari van Veenendaal. Both tipped chances that ended up hitting the woodwork and kept the score sheet clean.

The defensive nature of the match was underscored by the fact that there were only 20 shots combined in regulation time, with 11 for the Dutch and nine for Sweden. As expected, the Dutch had 58% of the possession.

For the first time in Women’s World Cup history, a semifinal went to extra time.

The first extra period was more of the same, but in the 99th minute, a Dutch attack saw the ball go to the right and midfielder Jackie Groenen made a right-footed strike that sailed toward the far post and dribbled past Lindahl for a 1-0 lead. It was the first goal of the World Cup for Groenen.

Sweden got back to work, but was unable to get the ball past van Veenendaal.

Netherlands won the European Championship in 2017 and will meet the U.S. for the World Cup title on Sunday. This is the first time the Dutch women have made it to the medal round of the Women’s World Cup; Sweden will meet England for the bronze medal on Saturday.

The U.S. will be overwhelming favorites in the final; the last meeting between the teams was in 2016. The Americans won by 3-1in a friendly in Atlanta in September, with goals from Carli Lloyd and Allie Long. The Dutch suffered an own goal, but actually had a 1-0 lead from the second minute off a goal from star striker Shanice van de Sanden.

ATHLETICS Preview: Lyles looks to regain 200 m supremacy, Roberts makes pro hurdles debut in Lausanne Diamond League

U.S. sprint superstar Noah Lyles

If it’s Sunday, it was Stanford; if it’s Friday, it must be Lausanne, as the eighth of 14 IAAF Diamond League meets gets ready in the Olympic capital.

The fields are quite good, with many of the stars from the Stanford meet making the trek to Switzerland. The headline events:

Men/100 m: This is not a Diamond League event, but is noteworthy for the presence of Justin Gatlin, who ran 9.87 behind Christian Coleman last week and is getting into shape for the World Championships in Doha. He’s the only entry with a season best under 10 seconds.

Men/200 m: We’ve seen Noah Lyles twice in the Diamond League this season: 9.86 to the 100 m at Shanghai over Coleman, and a 19.72 loss to Michael Norman (19.70) in a sensational 200 m in Rome. What now? Canada’s Andre De Grasse (19.91) and reigning World Champion Ramil Guliyev (TUR: 19.99) are both in; can either challenge, or should we get ready for another Lyles dance?

Men/800 m: Last year’s world leader, Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir (1:42.05) has finished second in two his Diamond League races and for him, a 1:44.50 season best is not what he’s looking for. There’s a good field in Lausanne, with countryman Ferguson Rotich (1:44.11 this year), American Clayton Murphy (1:44.59) and Polish stars Adam Kszczot (1:44.74) and Marcin Lewandowski (1:45.32). Time for someone to break out …

Men/1,500 m: A too-large field of 17 runners includes Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot and the familar cast trying to beat him: Kenyans Bethwell Birgen (3:33.12 this season), Vincent Kibet (3:33.21) and Ronald Kwemoi (3:33.99) plus Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera (3:31.04 indoors) and both Filip (3:37.04) and Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR: 3:36.81). At Stanford, Cheruiyot won the mile from Aylaneh Souleman (DJI), 3:50.49-3:51.22, with Jakob Ingebrigtsen third in 3:51.30.

Men/5,000 m: A ridiculous field of 24 runners is entered for this race, including six sub-13 racers in 2019: Telahun Haile Bekele (ETH: 12:52.98), Selemon Barega (ETH: 12:53.04), Birhanu Balew (BRN: 12:56.26), Hagos Gebrhiwet (ETH: 12:54.92), Abadi Hadis (ETH: 12:56.48) and Kenya’s Nicholas Kimeli (12:57.90). Add in American Paul Chelimo (13:13.94), who always seems to find his way to the front in important races and this should be pretty interesting …. if we don’t have multiple crashes.

Men/110 m hurdles: The professional debut of the world no. 2 Daniel Roberts (13.00) is planned, with a lot of competition from 2016 Olympic silver winner Orlando Ortega (ESP), 2018 European champ Pascal Martinot-Lagarde (FRA), Jamaican champ Ronald Levy, China’s Wenjun Xie (13.17) and American Devon Allen.

Men/Pole Vault: This event has the feel of a traveling circus. The same folks we saw at Stanford are ready to go in Switzerland: world leader Mondo Duplantis (SWE), 2017 World Champion Sam Kendricks (USA), Poland’s 2017 European champ Piotr Lisek, plus France’s 2012 Olympic gold winner Renaud Lavillenie and 2016 Olympic champ Thiago Braz. Kendricks suffered his first outdoor loss of the season at Stanford, as Duplantis cleared 5.93 m (19-5 1/2).

Men/Long Jump: Cuba’s Juan Miguel Echevarria is always the attraction when he jumps and he’s no. 3 in the world for 2019 at 8.34 m (27-4 1/2). But American Will Claye, who had one of the greatest one-day doubles ever last weekend at 8.21 m (26-11 1/4) and 18.14 m (59-6 1/4 – no. 3 ever) is here, as is 2017 World Champion Luvo Manyonga (2019 no. 2: 8.35 m/27-4 3/4). Is Claye the catalyst to see someone pass 28 feet (8.53 m) in 2019?

Women/100 m: Double Olympic champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ran a co-world-leading 10.73 at the Jamaican champs two weeks ago, but could only manage 11.39 at Stanford, then had to fly a long way to Lausanne. Waiting her for are Stanford winner Marie-Josee Ta Lou (CIV: 11.02 in 2019), Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith (GBR: 10.94), 200 m World Champion Dafne Schippers (11.06) and American Kayla White (10.95).

Women/400 m: The nos. 2-3-4-5 women on the world list are here, led by Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson (49.78), followed by Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser (50.13) and Amina Seyni (NIG: 50.24). Naser won the Diamond League meet in Rabat; it may be time for her to explode.

Women/400 m hurdles: Americans Dalilah Muhammad (53.61) and Sydney McLaughlin (53.72 on Tuesday in Marseille) have been the only ones under 54 seconds this season, but here’s a chance for Americans Shamier Little (54.40 in 2019). Ashley Spencer (54.49) and 2017 World Champion Kori Carter (55.09) and 2013-15 World Champion Zuzana Hejnova (CZE: 54.82).

Women/High Jump: Russia’s Mariya Lasitskene continues as the dominant force in this event, having won 66 of her last 68 competitions, and has seven of the top eight jumps on the world this season, topped at 2.06 m (6-9). No one else in the field has cleared 2.00 m (6-6 3/4) in 2019.

Women/Triple Jump: Anytime 2016 Olympic champ Caterine Ibarguen (COL) and Venezuela’s 2017 World Champion Yulimar Rojas meet up, it’s worth following. They’re 1-2 on the 2019 world list, with Rojas at 15.06 m (49-5) and Ibarguen at 14.79 m (48-6 1/4). Does 34-year-old Olga Rypakova (KAZ), the 2012 Olympic champ, have a surprise in store in her seasonal debut?

Women/Shot Put: The nos. 2-7 on the 2019 world list are here, with the leading contenders considered to be American Chase Easley (no. 2: 19.67 m/64-6 1/2) and Jamaica’s Danniel Thomas-Dodd (no. 3: 19.48 n/63-11). The two have already met five times this season, with Ealey holding a 3-2 edge. Is this the time for German Christina Schwanitz, the 2015 World Champion, to make a move toward a Worlds medal?

There are more events, including a women’s vault on Thursday on the Esplanade du Flon in central Lausanne with Rio2016 champion Katerina Stefanidi (GRE), European indoor champion Anzhelika Sidorova (RUS), U.S. indoor champ Kate Nageotte, 2015 world champion Yarisley Silva (CUB) and British record-holder Holly Bradshaw.

NBC’s Olympic Channel has coverage of the meet at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Friday. Look for results here.

There were a couple of world leaders in smaller meets, including 77.43 m (254-0) for DeAnne Price of the U.S. in the women’s hammer at the Bloomington High Performance meet on 22 June, and Poland’s Wojciech Nowicki, with his hammer throw of 81.74 m (268-2) in Poznan on Tuesday.

As noted above, American star Sydney McLaughlin posted the no. 2 time in 2019 in the 400 m hurdles, winning in 53.72.