Tennis: ITF Updates Qualified List Again

With several late withdrawals in tennis the list of qualified athletes has changed again. In total 56 nations will send at least one athlete. As a reminder mixed doubles will be made up of athletes which have qualified in other events.

 

Athletes by Nations

• United States – 11
• France – 9
• Spain – 9
• Germany – 8
• Russia – 8
• Australia – 7
• Brazil – 7
• Czech Republic – 7
• Great Britain – 7
• Italy – 7
• Poland – 7
• Ukraine – 7
• Argentina – 6
• Japan – 6
• Romania – 6
• Serbia – 6
• China – 5
• Chinese Taipei – 5
• Canada – 4
• Croatia – 4
• India – 4
• Slovakia – 4
• Belgium – 3
• Colombia – 3
• Netherlands – 3
• Switzerland – 3
• Austria – 2
• Belarus – 2
• Bosnia and Herzegovina – 2
• Bulgaria – 2
• Chile – 2
• Hungary – 2
• Kazakhstan – 2
• Mexico – 2
• New Zealand – 2
• Portugal – 2
• Thailand – 2
• Tunisia – 2
• Barbados – 1
• Denmark – 1
• Dominican Republic – 1
• Georgia – 1
• Israel – 1
• Latvia – 1
• Liechtenstein – 1
• Lithuania – 1
• Luxembourg – 1
• Moldova – 1
• Montenegro – 1
• Paraguay – 1
• Puerto Rico – 1
• Slovenia – 1
• Sweden – 1
• Turkey – 1
• Uruguay – 1
• Uzbekistan – 1

 

Reference

• ITF. Rio 2016 Olympic Tennis Event entries. Access on July 31 2016.

Russia: Sport Federations Removed Athletes From Result of McLaren Report

With the publication of the McLaren Report on the accusation of government sponsored doping from Russia the IOC has ruled that Russia will not be banned from the 2016 Olympic Games, but gave each sport federation a set of rules to follow and remove athletes should they not meet the standards. The notable rules include the removal of all athletes implicated in the report, the removal of athletes whom have doped in the past and the removal of athletes which have not satisfied testing standards after excluding the results from the Moscow lab. While most sports did not make any changes others have.

Before the report was released athletics had already banned all of Russia’s athletes, with the exception of ones which have been out of the Russian testing system long enough. Currently only Darya Klishina has satisfied IAAF’s standard, she will compete in the women’s long jump. The other 67 athletes chosen by Russia did not make the standard. Yuliya Stepanova was also eligible to compete, but due to her role in exposing the Russian doping scandal she currently has not been selected to compete.

Besides athletics the biggest loss of athlete quotas comes from rowing. Originally Russia qualified five boats with 28 athletes (including 2 coxswains). In total 20 athletes were found to not have sufficient testing, causing World Rowing to remove four boats from Russia; the men’s lightweight fours, men’s eights, women’s lightweight double sculls and women’s eights. Russia was allowed to make a team to compete in the men’s fours out of the remaining six rowers; the two coxswains were technically eligible though for obvious reasons were not going to be selected. The reallocated boats went to Australia (women’s eights), Greece (men’s lightweight fours) and Italy (men’s eights and women’s lightweight double sculls).

Overall only one sport suffered a full banned. Due to multiple athletes getting caught doping the International Weightlifting Federation has completely banned Russia. Earlier Russia lost one man and one woman quota due to excess doping violations, but now they have lost the remaining eight (5 men, 3 women) quotas. The women’s quotas have been reallocated to Albania, Georgia and Moldova while the men’s quotas have been reallocated to Belgium, Croatia, El Salvador, Mongolia and Serbia.

In aquatics only swimmers were removed. Four athletes were removed due to having prior doping violations while three more were removed due to being implicated into the report. One of these athletes was open water swimmer Anastasia Krapivina. This means her quota has been reallocated to Hungary’s Anna Olasz.

The International Canoeing Federation announced five athletes scheduled to compete at the 2016 Olympics will be removed due to their involvement in the report. This has caused Russia to lose athlete quotas in five boats; men’s K2 200m, men’s C1 200m, men’s C2 1000m, women’s K1 200m and women’s K2 500m. The quotas have been reallocated to Austria (women’s K2 500m), Germany (women’s K1 200m), Iran (men’s C1 200m) and Sweden (men’s K2 200m). The men’s C2 1000m was not reallocated. The additional boat in the women’s K1 500m which did not use an athlete quota has also been removed.

Edit: Sweden has declined the quota, it has been reallocated to Canada

In cycling six athletes were withdrawn, three due to previous doping violations and three others whom were implicated in the report. Currently the UCI has not named the athletes or any potential change in the quotas.

In modern pentathlon Maksim Kustov and alternate Ilia Frolov were connected in the report and have been excluded. The quota was reallocated to Latvia’s Ruslan Nakonechnyi.

United World Wrestling removed one wrestler due to a prior doping violation. Viktor Lebedev has been removed from his event, men’s freestyle -57kg. The quota was reallocated to Belarus.

In sailing one athlete, in the men’s 470 was connected to the report and has been removed. However, Russia has been given an opportunity to make a late replacement.

In total, including athletics the Russian team has shrank by 122 athletes. While most of them were removed due to previous doping offenses or being included in the report others have been excluded due to being teammates of someone who has doped.

 

Net Athlete Quotas by Nations

• Italy – 11
• Australia – 9
• Greece – 4
• Austria – 2
• Canada – 2
• Albania – 1
• Belarus – 1
• Belgium – 1
• Croatia – 1
• El Salvador – 1
• Georgia – 1
• Germany – 1
• Hungary – 1
• Iran – 1
• Latvia – 1
• Moldova – 1
• Mongolia – 1
• Serbia – 1
• Russia – -122

 

Note: Possible cycling reallocations have yet to be announced.

 

References

• The Star. IAAF turns down 67 Russian applications to compete internationally. Access on July 29 2016.
• WorldRowing. FISA Determines Six Russian Rowers meet conditions for participation in Rio 2016. Access on July 29 2016.
• IWF. IWF EB decision on Russian participation at the Rio 2016 OG. Access on July 29 2016.
• SwimSwam. Fields confirmed for Olympic Games golf com FINA Says World Champs Efimova, Morozov Pulled from Olympic Gamespetitions. Access on July 29 2016.
• UCI. UCI statement on the eligibility of Russian riders at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Access on July 29 2016.
• ICF. Canoeing Removes Five Russian Athletes from Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Access on July 29 2016.
• CBC. Canada sending men’s kayak K2 200-metres crew to Rio. Access on July 29 2016.
• UIPM. UIPM Executive Board decides on Russia participation in Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Access on July 29 2016.
• UWW. Wrestling’s Special Commission Completes Review of Russian Wrestlers, Sends Recommendations. Access on July 29 2016.
• ISAF. World Sailing provisionally confirms the participation of six athletes for the Rio Olympic Games. Access on July 29 2016.

Weightlifting: 2014/2015 World Championship Olympic Rankings Updated After Doping Removal

The International Weightlifting Federation has updated the 2014/2015 World Championship Olympic Rankings. This was done to remove athletes whom have been confirmed to have tested positive for doping. This is not the final list as the appeal process has yet to be finished plus Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia could be banned depending on the results of the retesting of 2008 and 2012 Olympic samples.

For the women’s quotas only one major change was done Belarus fell in the rankings where they lost a quota while the Ukraine has moved up to gain a quota. Overall Ukraine will now send four athletes while Belarus will only send three.

The men’s quotas are a bit complicated. Overall Thailand and Moldova have swapped places, resulting in quota changes. Thailand will now send five while Moldova would have initially sent four, but with sanctions due to doping they will now only send two. The big change was Azerbaijan completely falling out of the rankings meaning it fully loses three quotas (in addition to the one quota it already lost due to multiple doping offenses). Overall this results with France moving up from three quotas to four quotas while Japan will now send three athletes.

With Japan now qualifying through the World Olympic Rankings its results from the Asian Championship are now removed. After recalculating Saudi Arabia will now send one athlete. Likewise Azerbaijan’s results at the European Championship will now count. No changes were made. Azerbaijan, however, would have qualified an athlete through the individual rankings, but since they will lose one quota due to multiple doping offenses Azerbaijan will not send an athlete in weightlifting.

As previously said there will be an appeal process plus there is the possibility of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia from being completely banned. Also the IWF has not released the final results from the continental championships meaning there could be more changes due to the result of doping.

 

Net Quotas by Nations

• Japan – 2
• France – 1
• Saudi Arabia – 1
• Thailand – 1
• Ukraine – 1
• Belarus – -1
• Moldova – -1
• Azerbaijan – -3

 

References

• IWF. Rio 2016 Olympic Games Qualification Men’s Team Classification 2014 & 2015 IWF World Championships. Access on June 27 2016.
• IWF. Rio 2016 Olympic Games Qualification Women’s Team Classification 2014 & 2015 IWF World Championships. Access on June 27 2016.

Weightlifting: IWF Sanctions Nations, Announces Reallocation Quotas

The International Weightlifting Federation has sanctioned eight nations due to their athletes testing positive for performance enhancing drugs multiple times. Overall Azerbaijan lost one male and one female quotas, Belarus lost one male quota, Kazakhstan lost one male and one female quotas, Moldova lost two male quotas, North Korea lost one male and one female quotas, Romania lost one male quota, Russia lost one male and one female quotas and Uzbekistan lost one female quota.

Sanctions could be increased to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia for a total ban depending on the result of the investigation from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Unsurprisingly this will cause a massive change in the World Championship Rankings for Olympic quotas. Sadly the IWF has not published the change in rankings due to wanting to finalize everything. They however, published the reallocation of those quotas lost by the offending nations along with the six women’s quotas that were not allocated from the individual rankings.

The following nations were given a reallocation quota. For the men they are; Chile, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Kenya, Nauru, Qatar and Sri Lanka. For the women they are; Argentina, Finland, Iraq, Latvia, Mauritius, Morocco, Peru, Solomon Islands, Sweden, United Arab Emirates and Uruguay.

 

Net Quotas by Nations

• Argentina – 1
• Chile – 1
• Finland – 1
• Greece – 1
• Guatemala – 1
• Iraq – 1
• Israel – 1
• Kenya – 1
• Latvia – 1
• Mauritius – 1
• Morocco – 1
• Nauru – 1
• Peru – 1
• Qatar – 1
• Solomon Islands – 1
• Sri Lanka – 1
• Sweden – 1
• United Arab Emirates – 1
• Uruguay – 1
• Belarus – -1
• Romania – -1
• Uzbekistan – -1
• Azerbaijan – -2
• Kazakhstan – -2
• Moldova – -2
• North Korea – -2
• Russia – -2

 

References

• IWF. Strong statement by the IWF Executive Board. Access on June 23 2016.
• IWF. Second day of the IWF Executive Board meeting in Tbilisi. Access on June 23 2016.

Archery: Final Olympic Qualifiers Adds 6 Teams and 11 Individuals

The final Olympic quotas were decided at the 2016 Archery World Cup – Stage 3. A special Final Olympic Qualification Tournament was held during the World Cup event. The top three nations from the team event of the Olympic qualification tournament qualified to the Olympics. In the individual event, initially three spots were available to the highest ranked athletes with a maximum of one quota per nation per gender, but should a nation whom qualified in the team event, previously qualified an individual quota that quota will be reallocated to the next highest ranked eligible athlete at this individual event. The Archery World Cup – Stage 3 was held in Antalya, Turkey from June 12th to June 19th 2016.

In the women’s team recurve Germany was the top nation in the ranking round, finishing with a score of 1991. However, they suffered an early upset to Estonia in the first round where Estonia won in an upset. Estonia would continue its unlikely run by defeating Great Britain 6-0 in the quarter-final. In the semi-final they were stopped by fifth seed Ukraine whom won the match 5-3. The other half of the bracket was relatively tame as both the second and third seed Italy and Chinese Taipei respectively faced off in the semi-final. The match went to a tie-breaker where Italy advanced to the final. Ukraine would go on to win the event with a 5-1 win over Italy. For third place and the final Olympic quota Chinese Taipei easily dispatched Estonia to win the match 6-0. Since Chinese Taipei, Italy and the Ukraine all qualified athletes previously the total amount of quotas for the women’s individual qualifiers will be six.

The men’s team recurve saw many upsets. After winning the top seed in the ranking round with a score of 2008 India quickly felt the pressure as the required a tie-breaker to defeat Turkey and then were eliminated in the quarter-final after losing a tie-breaker to Malaysia. Second seed Mexico lost 6-0 in the first round to Canada while fourth seed Russia lost to 12th seed Indonesia 5-3 in the quarter-final. In total the semi-finals consisted of 8th seed Malaysia, 12th seed Indonesia, 3rd seed Germany and 10th seed France. Indonesia booked their spot to the Olympics with a 6-0 victory over Malaysia while France qualified by defeating Germany 5-1. Indonesia would go on to win the event 6-0. The final Olympic quota was decided in the third place match where Malaysia defeated Germany 6-2. Since Indonesia and Malaysia qualified athletes previously the total amount of quotas for the men’s individual qualifiers will be five.

While there were relatively few upsets in the women’s individual recurve none of the top four seeds reached the semi-final though three of them reached the quarter-final. The first semi-final was between Moldova’s Alexandra Mirca and Great Britain’s Naomi Folkard. Folkard won the match 7-3. The other semi-final match was between Estonia’s Laura Nurmsalu and Sweden’s Christine Bjerendal. Nurmsalu won the match 6-4. All four nations qualified a quota to the Olympics. The event was won by Nurmsalu whom defeated Folkard 6-0. The other two Olympic quotas went to Finland (Taru Kuoppa) and Spain (Adriana Martin).

One of the largest upsets in the entire qualifier came in the men’s individual recurve in the round of 32 where 80th seed Boris Balaz of Slovakia defeated top seed Bair Tsybekdorzhiev of Russia in a 6-4 match. Balaz was unable to reach the semi-final as he lost to Thailand’s Witthaya Thamwong 6-2 in the quarter-finals, however, it would be enough to grab one of the Olympics quotas. The final was between two Belarussians where Anton Prilepov and Pavel Dalidovich faced off against each other. Prilepov won the match 6-0. Since a nation can only qualify one athlete quota the five quotas went to Belarus (Anton Prilepov), Thailand (Witthaya Thamwong), Belgium (Robin Ramaekers), Norway (Baard Nesteng) and Slovakia (Boris Balaz).

This was the final opportunity for nations to qualify to the Olympics. All that is left is for the tripartite quotas to be announced and for nations to officially confirm their quotas.

 

Athletes by Nations

• Chinese Taipei – 3
• France – 3
• Indonesia – 3
• Italy – 3
• Malaysia – 3
• Ukraine – 3
• Belarus – 1
• Belgium – 1
• Estonia – 1
• Finland – 1
• Great Britain – 1
• Moldova – 1
• Norway – 1
• Slovakia – 1
• Spain – 1
• Sweden – 1
• Thailand – 1

 

References

• IANSEO. Archery World Cup 2016 – Stage 3 + Final Olympic Qualifier Results. Access on June 17 2016.

Judo: Olympic Rankings Published 113 Nations Qualify

113 nations qualified through the Judo Olympic Rankings. Athletes earned points through various world and continental events over a two year period. There were two methods of qualifying. First the top 22 men and top 14 women qualify with a maximum of one NOC per weight class. Second are the continental qualifiers. The highest ranked, not yet qualified athletes across all events can qualify. Each continent has a set amount of quotas; Africa 24 (14 men, 10 women), Europe 25 (14 men, 11 women), Asia 20 (12 men, 8 women), Oceania 10 (7 men, 3 women), and Pan America 21 (13 men, 8 women). A nation can only earn one spot across all events through this and a single continent can qualify a maximum of two athletes in a single event. The qualification period lasted from May 30th 2014 to May 29th 2016.

In total 113 nations have qualified with France and Japan joining hosts Brazil as being the only nation to have qualified a full team of men and women. Also qualifying a full men’s team are Georgia, Germany, Mongolia, Russia, South Korea and Uzbekistan. Overall 53 nations only qualified through the continental rankings while 14 nations did not receive a continental quota. Oceania did not allocate all 10 of its continental quotas thus the unused quota was reallocated to the athlete with the most points and is not yet qualified among all events, specifically Uzbekistan’s Soyib Kurbonov in the men’s -100kg.

The quotas are tied to the athletes by name with the exception of where multiple athletes from the same nation finished in the top 22 for men and top 14 for women where the nation can choose from among them. All that is left to determine in judo is the tripartite quotas.

 

Quotas by Nations

• France – 14
• Japan – 14
• Germany – 13
• Mongolia – 13
• South Korea – 12
• Netherlands – 11
• Russia – 11
• Cuba – 9
• Canada – 8
• China – 8
• Georgia – 8
• Hungary – 8
• Uzbekistan – 8
• Australia – 7
• Great Britain – 7
• Israel – 7
• Ukraine – 7
• Azerbaijan – 6
• Portugal – 6
• United States – 6
• Algeria – 5
• Austria – 5
• Belgium – 5
• Egypt – 5
• Italy – 5
• Kazakhstan – 5
• Slovenia – 5
• Spain – 5
• Poland – 4
• Romania – 4
• Sweden – 4
• Tunisia – 4
• Turkey – 4
• Czech Republic – 3
• Ecuador – 3
• Iran – 3
• Morocco – 3
• North Korea – 3
• Switzerland – 3
• United Arab Emirates – 3
• Argentina – 2
• Belarus – 2
• Bulgaria – 2
• Chinese Taipei – 2
• Colombia – 2
• Gabon – 2
• Greece – 2
• Kosovo – 2
• Kyrgyzstan – 2
• Latvia – 2
• Mexico – 2
• Puerto Rico – 2
• South Africa – 2
• Tajikistan – 2
• Turkmenistan – 2
• American Samoa – 1
• Angola – 1
• Armenia – 1
• Aruba – 1
• Benin – 1
• Bolivia – 1
• Bosnia and Herzegovina – 1
• Burkina Faso – 1
• Cameroon – 1
• Chile – 1
• Congo – 1
• Costa Rica – 1
• Côte d’Ivoire – 1
• Croatia – 1
• Dominican Republic – 1
• El Salvador – 1
• Estonia – 1
• Fiji – 1
• Finland – 1
• Gambia – 1
• Ghana – 1
• Guatemala – 1
• Guinea-Bissau – 1
• Haiti – 1
• Honduras – 1
• Iceland – 1
• India – 1
• Iraq – 1
• Jordan – 1
• Kenya – 1
• Lebanon – 1
• Libya – 1
• Lithuania – 1
• Madagascar – 1
• Mali – 1
• Mauritius – 1
• Moldova – 1
• Mozambique – 1
• Nauru – 1
• New Zealand – 1
• Niger – 1
• Pakistan – 1
• Palau – 1
• Papua New Guinea – 1
• Peru – 1
• Qatar – 1
• Samoa – 1
• Saudi Arabia – 1
• Senegal – 1
• Serbia – 1
• Seychelles – 1
• Thailand – 1
• Trinidad and Tobago – 1
• Uruguay – 1
• Vanuatu – 1
• Venezuela – 1
• Vietnam – 1
• Zambia – 1

 

References

• IJF. Judo Base Olympic Quotas by Nations. Access on June 4 2016.
• IJF. Judo Base Men’s Olympic Rankings. Access on June 4 2016.
• IJF. Judo Base Women’s Olympic Rankings. Access on June 4 2016.

Wrestling: Olympic Quotas Reallocated Due to Doping

Update: Egypt’s Aly Hamdy also tested positive for doping in the men’s freestyle -97kg. The quota has been transferred to Guinea-Bissau via Bedopassa Buassat.

United World Wrestling has announced some changes to the qualification list. The changes are due to athletes who qualified their nation getting caught doping. Following the qualification document the next highest ranked athlete from the event where the doping infraction occurred qualified their nation to the Olympics. This caused some confusion in two weight classes because the newly qualified nation had qualified in a subsequent event meaning that spot also had to be reallocated. In total seven athletes in five events have been caught doping.

In the men’s Greco-Roman -85kg event Kyrgyzstan’s Zhanarbek Kenzheev was caught doping in the Asian Olympic Qualifier. The Olympic quota was reallocated to India via Ravinder Khatri’s bronze medal performance.

In the women’s freestyle events there were two doping cases. In the -53kg event Mongalia’s Sumiya Erdenechimeg was caught doping in the Asian Olympic Qualifier meaning the quota has been reallocated to India via Kumari Babita. Similarly in the -58kg Ukraine’s Okasan Herhel was caught doping in the European Olympic Qualifier, moving the quota to Moldova via Mariana Cherdivara Esanu.

The men’s freestyle events are bit more complicated. In the -65kg event both Magomedmurad Gadzhiev of Poland and Andriy Kvyatkovskyy of Ukraine were caught doping during the European Olympic Qualifier. This would transfer the quotas to Georgia via Zurabi IakoBishvili and Armenia via Devid Safaryan. This caused Georgia’s spot won during the 1st World Olympic Qualifier to transfer to Bulgaria via Boris Novachkov and subsequently Bulgaria’s spot won during the 2nd World Olympic Qualifier will be transferred to the United States via Frank Molinaro.

Similarly in the men’s freestyle -125kg event both Ukraine’s Allen Zasieiev and Belarus’ Yusup Jalilau were caught doping during the European Olympic Qualifier. The quotas were now transferred to Bulgaria via Lyuben Iliev and Hungary via Daniel Ligeti. Hungary’s spot won during the 1st World Olympic Qualifier should have been transferred to Bulgaria, but Bulgaria has already qualified through the European qualifier meaning the quota has been given to Kyrgyzstan via Aiaal Lazarev.

There is the possibility that more suspensions could occur in the future, though it would likely be from athletes which only compete in one of the two World Qualification Tournaments.

 

Quotas by Nations (Net Changes)

• India – +2
• Armenia – +1
• Bulgaria – +1
• Moldova – +1
• United States – +1
• Kyrgyzstan – 0
• Belarus – -1
• Mongolia – -1
• Poland – -1
• Ukraine – -3

 

References

• UWW. Adjustments to Olympic Qualifiers Announced. Access on May 11 2016.

Wrestling: 1st World Qualifier Qualifies 28 Nations

28 nations qualified at least one athlete at the 1st World Wrestling Qualification Tournament. The top three athletes from the men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman and the top two athletes from the women’s freestyle qualified their nations to the Olympics. The 1st World Wrestling Qualification Tournament was held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from April 22nd to April 24th 2016.

Belarus topped the Greco-Roman events by winning two gold medals. Aliaksandr Hrabovik defeated Georgia’s Revazi Nadareishvili in the -98kg while Javid Hamzatau defeated Armenia’s Maksim Manukyan in the -85kg. Armenia secured a second quota in the -75kg where Arsen Julfalakyan won the third place bout. The -75kg was won by Hungary’s Peter Bacsi in a walkover after China’s Yang Bin withdrew. China’s Meng Qiang also withdrew in the -130kg to give Iran’s Amir Ghasemi the victory. Uzbekistan’s Muminjon Abdullaev won the third place bout while his compatriot Elmurat Tasmuradov won the play-off match in the -59kg. The -59kg was won by South Korea’s Kim Seung-Kak whom defeated Norway’s Stig Andre Berge. Romania’s Ion Panait won the -66kg event over Finland’s Tero Valimaki. Lithuania’s Edgaras Venckaitis won the third place bout. Sweden also qualified two athletes in the third place bouts via Zakarias Berg in the -85kg and Fredrik Schon in the -98kg.

The United States qualified two athletes in the women freestyle events. In the -53kg Helen Maroulis defeated Greece Maria Prevolaraki while Haley Augello lost to North Korea’s Kim Hyon-Gyong in the -48kg. Hungary also qualified two athletes to the Olympics, but lost both of their final bouts. In the -63kg Marianna Sastin had to withdraw giving Turkey’s Hafize Sahin the victory while Zsanett Nemeth lost to France’s Cynthia Vescan in the final of the -75kg. The -58kg was won by Ecuador’s Lissette Antes whom defeated Germany’s Luisa Niemesch while the -69kg was won by Israel’s Ilana Kratysh whom defeated Venezuela’s Maria Acosta in the final. This will Israel’s first female wrestler to compete at the Olympics.

The final day contained results from the men’s freestyle events. In the -65kg it was Bahrain’s Adam Batirov whom defeated Georgia’s Zurabi Iakobishvili in the final. Third place bout winner Yakup Gor of Turkey also qualified to the Olympics. Turkey ended up qualifying a second quota as they won the -74kg event over Bulgaria’s Georgi Ivanov. Moldova’s Evgheni Nedealco also qualified to the Olympics by winning the third place bout. Moldova won a second third place bout through Nicolae Ceban in the -97kg event. The event was won by Armenia’s Georgy Ketoyev whom defeated Uzbekistan’s Magomed Ibragimov. The -86kg event was won by J’den Cox of the United States who defeated Venezuela’s Pedro Ceballos in the final. The third place bout was won by Poland’s Zbigniew Baranowski. Poland won a second third place bout with Robert Baran in the -125kg event. The event was won by China’s Deng Zhiwei in a walkover against Hungary’s Daniel Ligeti. The -57kg event was won by Romania’s Ivan Guidea whom defeated Azerbaijan’s Mirjalal Hasanzada in the final. The third place bout was won by Sandeep Tomar of India.

With this competition Azerbaijan and Georgia will be sending full men’s freestyle teams. Unqualified nations will get one more opportunity to qualify to the Olympics at a second world qualification tournament due to be held in May.

 

Quotas by Nations

• Hungary – 4
• Armenia – 3
• China – 3
• Turkey – 3
• United States – 3
• Uzbekistan – 3
• Belarus – 2
• Georgia – 2
• Moldova – 2
• Poland – 2
• Romania – 2
• Sweden – 2
• Venezuela – 2
• Azerbaijan – 1
• Bahrain – 1
• Bulgaria – 1
• Ecuador – 1
• Finland – 1
• France – 1
• Germany – 1
• Greece – 1
• India – 1
• Iran – 1
• Israel – 1
• Lithuania – 1
• Norway – 1
• North Korea – 1
• South Korea – 1

 

References

• UWW. 1st Olympic Games World Qualifying Tournament – Schedule and Results. Access on April 24 2016.

Taekwondo: 25 Nations Qualify Through Olympic Rankings

In total 25 nations qualified 48 quotas based on the Taekwondo Olympic Rankings. The top six athletes from each weight class qualified their nation to the Olympics, with a maximum of one athlete per nation per weight class. The final event which gave ranking points was the Grand Prix Final held in Mexico City, Mexico from December 5th to December 6th 2015.

The Olympic rankings were constructed in a weighted system through eligible events ranging from 2012 to 2015 with events taking place in 2015 having more weight. Eligible events included the 2012 Olympics, World Championships, Grand Prix, Continental Championships, various Multi-Sport Games and various G2 and G1 level tournaments.

One of the major changes in qualification in taekwondo was that nations can qualify athletes in all four events in each gender through the Olympic Rankings. Previously nations can only qualify a maximum of two athletes per gender between the four events. This gave stronger nations an opportunity to qualify more athletes. Through this method France was able to qualify three women, Iran qualified three men and South Korea qualified three men.

The final quotas will be decided at the continental qualifiers to be held in 2016. Nations which do not have two athletes per gender can participate to qualify the continental maximum of two athletes per gender.

Update 13 Jan 2016: Brazil and Chinese Taipei have both withdrawn in the women’s -49kg and women’s -57kg events respectively. Therefore the next highest ranked nations have qualified, specifically Mexico and Sweden respectively.

 

Qualification Per Event

Women’s -49kg

1. China
2. Croatia
3. France
4. Thailand
5. South Korea
6. Mexico

 

Women’s -57kg

1. Great Britain
2. Spain
3. Egypt
4. Japan
5. Croatia
6. Sweden

 

Women’s -67kg

1. France
2. Sweden
3. Chinese Taipei
4. South Korea
5. Russia
6. Turkey

 

Women’s +67kg

1. China
2. Serbia
3. Great Britain
4. United States
5. France
6. Mexico

 

Men’s -58kg

1. South Korea
2. Iran
3. Portugal
4. Germany
5. Mexico
6. Belgium

 

Men’s -68kg

1. South Korea
2. Russia
3. Belgium
4. Mexico
5. Turkey
6. Spain

 

Men’s -80kg

1. Iran
2. Moldova
3. Great Britain
4. Russia
5. Germany
6. Ivory Coast

 

Men’s +80kg

1. Uzbekistan
2. Azerbaijan
3. Iran
4. Gabon
5. France
6. South Korea

 

Quotas by Nations

• South Korea – 5
• France – 4
• Mexico – 4
• Great Britain – 3
• Iran – 3
• Russia – 3
• Belgium – 2
• China – 2
• Croatia – 2
• Germany – 2
• Spain – 2
• Sweden – 2
• Turkey – 2
• Azerbaijan – 1
• Chinese Taipei – 1
• Brazil – 1
• Egypt – 1
• Gabon – 1
• Ivory Coast – 1
• Japan – 1
• Moldova – 1
• Portugal – 1
• Serbia – 1
• Thailand – 1
• United States – 1
• Uzbekistan – 1

 

References

• WTF. Qualified through WTF Olympic Ranking For Rio 2016. Access on December 27 2015.

Weightlifting: After Delay, 31 Nations Qualify After 2014&2015 World Championships

In total, 31 nations qualified athletes to the Olympics based on the Weightlifting Olympic Qualification Rankings. The weightlifting quotas were decided by a ranking system based on the results of the 2014 and 2015 World Championships. The top 25 eligible athletes from each weight class are given points for their nations. Only the top 6 men and top 4 women from each nation are counted towards the rankings. The men ranked 1st-6th will be given 6 athlete quotas, 7th-12th will be given 5, 13th-18th will be given 4 and 19th-24th will be given 3. For the women 1st-9th will be given 4 athlete quotas, 10th-16th will be given 3 and 17th-21st will be given 2. The 2014 World Weightlifting Championship was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan from November 8th to November 16th 2014 while the 2015 World Weightlifting Championship was held in Houston, United States from November 20th to November 28th 2015.

In the men’s events in the 2014 world championship were dominated by Asian nations as they were able to win gold in seven out of the eight events. Only Ruslan Albegov of Russia was able to go against the trend with a gold medal in the +105kg category. China, Kazakhstan and North Korea won two gold medals a piece with Liao Hui of China setting a world record in the -69kg category. The other gold medal went to Kianoush Rostami of Iran in the -85kg. The rankings by the end of the competition had China, North Korea and Kazakhstan holding the top three positions.

The women’s events at the 2014 world championships were similarly dominated by Asian nations with China winning three gold medals. Like with the men Russia was the only non-Asian gold medalist as they won two gold medals and set a new world record in +75kg event by Tatiana Kashirina. The other two events were won by Kazakhstan in the -53kg and North Korea in -69kg. The rankings by the end of the competition had China, Russia and Kazakhstan holding the top three positions.

Between the 2014 and 2015 world championships Bulgaria was banned by the International Weightlifting Federation for repeat drug offenses meaning they were stripped of all their points earned at the 2014 world championships. In the same vein Romania was sanctioned where they would lose one quota spot should they qualify. This caused a delay of the release of the combined results for about a week as the International Weightlifting Federation had to recalculate the scores.

China, Kazakhstan and Russia led all nations in the men’s events as they won gold in two of the overall events. Their performance was capped by world records by China’s Chen Lijun and Russia’s Aleksey Lovchev in the -62kg and +105kg events respectively. North Korea’s Om Yun-Chol retained his world title in the -56kg while the final gold medal went to Belarus’ Vadzim Straltsou in the -94kg. The 2015 rankings were led by Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus as China and North Korea finished a bit lower due to failed lifts by some of their athletes.

China continued to be the powerhouse in the women’s events as they won gold in 4 out of the 7 overall events. Azerbaijan’s Boyanka Kostova set a world record in the -58kg event. The other gold medals went to Hsu Shu-Ching of Chinese Taipei in the -53kg while Tatiana Kashirna of Russia retained her crown in the +75kg event. The 2015 rankings were led by China, Russia and North Korea.

For the most part the combined rankings gave the expected nations the expected quotas. One of the bigger surprises was that Iran failed to get 6 men’s quotas, mostly due to their poor performance in the 2015 championship. After only sending three athletes in 2014 and receiving relatively few points Azerbaijan’s 2015 performance gave it enough points to send a team of four males. On the women’s side there was heartbreak for France and Spain as a poor 2015 championship placed them on the outside of the quotas where before it was thought they would easily qualify.

The rankings aren’t completely set in stone as the results need to be confirmed by the drug testing results. Nations not qualifying any quotas will get another opportunity at the continental qualifiers where they will compete to gain a single quota per gender.

 

Men Rankings by Nation

1. Russia – 6
2. Kazakhstan – 6
3. North Korea – 6
4. Belarus – 6
5. China – 6
6. Egypt – 6
7. Indonesia – 5
8. Armenia – 5
9. Colombia – 5
10. Uzbekistan – 5
11. Moldova – 5
12. Iran – 5
13. Thailand – 4
14. Poland – 4
15. Germany – 4
16. Azerbaijan – 4
17. Ukraine – 4
18. South Korea – 4
19. France – 3
20. Vietnam – 3
21. Georgia – 3
22. Romania – 3*
23. Spain – 3
24. Chinese Taipei – 3

 

Women Rankings by Nation

1. China – 4
2. Russia – 4
3. North Korea – 4
4. Kazakhstan – 4
5. Thailand – 4
6. Chinese Taipei – 4
7. Colombia – 4
8. Belarus – 4
9. Japan – 4
10. Ukraine – 3
11. South Korea – 3
12. Egypt – 3
13. Venezuela – 3
14. United States – 3
15. Mexico – 3
16. Turkey – 3
17. Dominican Republic – 2
18. Ecuador – 2
19. Armenia – 2
20. Indonesia – 2
21. Romania – 2*

 

* Romania will have a reduction of one quota

 

References

• IWF. Weightlifting Olympic Men Qualification Ranking List. Access on December 5 2015.
• IWF. Weightlifting Olympic Women Qualification Ranking List. Access on December 5 2015.