Games of the XV Olympiad — roleplaying thread

by **Asteran** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 4:29 pm

“Welcome back to Olympics Today, Hanna Baker here at the – video – fireside for the first of hopefully many chats with Asteran’s medalists… just a little too warm for the real fireside. I’m pleased to be joined by Asteran’s first medalist of these Games, bronze medalist in the men’s 10 meter air pistol, Kelvin Dennis. Kelvin, congratulations and thank you for stopping by.”
“Absolute pleasure, Hanna.”
“So how does it feel?”
“It, uh, it’s indescribable. Like all I can compare it to is holding my daughter for the first time, it’s that amazing.”
“Talk us through the whole thing, through qualifying and the medal round.”
“Qualifying was a close-run thing for me, and I’ll admit I almost blew it in the last ten shots. That 96 made me real nervous, just watching and waiting for anyone to overtake me and bump me out of the medal round. Albert was a machine in qualifying, he put up some great numbers. Um, then yeah, it was just us eight and the world.”
“A qualifying score of 586 got you into the top eight with three other shooters, your teammate Albert Groh shot the best qualifying number with a 589. Did you feel confident moving into the final?”
“A little nervous, not gonna lie. Our coach took me aside and had a quick chat, just told me to focus on the target and not on how everybody else was shooting. Once we got to the lanes, I looked down range, and just kept my eyes on the target. That helped, a lot.”

“And in the medal round, we saw something of a nervous start.”
“I-it was, yeah. Um, when I shot that third one and saw the 19 score, I thought I was cooked for sure. But I refocused and shot three great shots after that. Those felt good, I was a lot more comfortable after hitting those three.”
“As competitors started being eliminated, how were you feeling moving into the later stages?”
“I was just trying to keep my focus at the target, not think about how many people were left. I did sneak a glance at the scoreboard when Albert was eliminated, I know I wanted to shoot against him for gold.”
“And then there were eventually three.”
“Yeah, and you don’t really realize it until the crowd noise tells you. And I think that threw me off a little when we got down to the medal shoots, and I put another 19 on the board. That made me sick, especially seeing the great shots from Russell and Kostantinos.”
“Did you think gold was out of your reach then?”
“Not really, y’know? You never know how the others will shoot, if one of them will slip up and make a big mistake. Never over until the last shot’s fired, all you can do is shoot your shots and hope they slip. But both those guys are great shots, and it coming down to a tenth of a point for gold isn’t a surprise. They had great matches, and it was an honor to shoot against them.”

“What does Olympic bronze mean to you and your team?”
“It’s really a supreme honor. Irene, our coach, really deserves a lot of credit for this as well. She’s been pushing Albert and I to really step our game up, and that Albert and I were the 1-2 at the national championships earlier this year really speaks to her coaching and the resources that Aston’s been putting into shooting.”
“A lot of the shooters on this team come from the Aston Sports Club, is it something specific the club’s been doing to attract the top shooters in Asteran?”
“The club’s hired great coaches and really put a lot of money into training, the membership’s been really responsive to the expansion of the shooting section and it’s attracted a lot of new members to the club.”

“What’s next for you?”
“Go back home and get mobbed at the club bar, hehe. No, I think a little time to celebrate with the family and friends, then get right back to training. Gotta make this a different color next time out.”
“We’re looking forward to seeing you do just that. Kelvin Dennis, thank you so much for stopping by and congratulations again on your medal.”
“Thanks Hanna, was a pleasure to be here.”
“Coming up next, we’ve got the highlights of the men’s street skateboarding competition and the women’s 49 and 55 kilogram weightlifting contests, with the replay of the women’s rugby sevens match against Electrum still to come. Back to you, Chris and Julia.”

by **Hopal** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 4:59 pm

The Olympic Show on HBC

"Hello there I'm Brian Hannover and this is a special presentation of the Olympic Show on HBC. We'll get you back to Martini Feits in studio at the Somer International Broadcasting Centre, but I'm here today with our announcers Bob Geurin and Lily Fujimori just outside of Fairleigh Town Hall as we bring you a special presentation of the Men's Road Race, Hopal's first chance at a medal at these Olympics. We have 5 Hopalians in this race, Aaron Huvertes, Justin Yuriyama, Garrett Munson, Josh Jones, and Glen Young all in this race, the Men's Road Race. But it is going to be hard to win a medal in this crowded fields, there are around 200 cyclists in this and let's remember that only 3 will win a medal."

BG: "That's right Brian, there are a lot of good talented cyclists in this race and determining the medalists, it's gonna come down to a few seconds. It's gonna come down to, firstly who can stay in the running while maintaining energy, and who can conjure that energy to make that final push at the end, and who can go the fastest in that final."

LF: "Yeah it's gonna be tough race for the Hopalians. We know that Justin Yuriyama has that talent where he can from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds and can get across that finish line, but he doesn't perform well under pressure and this is a biggest stage in the multiverse and you know that's going to weigh. He can also be quite reckless and isn't always that strategic with where he uses his energy, so he needs to stay in the mix and needs to avoid injury if he wants to get a medal."

BH: "Yeah, and let's talk about Garrett Munson who has that stamina he can stay in the race, and he doesn't that speed and flair that Yuriyama has."

LF: "Yeah and that's going to hurt him especially in this kind of race where there are so many great cyclist and where it's going to come down to the final push."

BG: "Yeah. I want to talk Aaron Huvertes and Josh Jones. Josh Jones is a young newcomer who's burst onto, a lot young energy, there's the raw talent there, but there isn't much of strategy or coaching on on him, he isn't expected to contend, that being said it will be interesting to see where he places and it may tell us where his career is going. Now on Aaron Huvertes, who's ended the previous season on a bit of a hot streak the last two races of the GS SuperSports+ Road Cycling World Series he got second place. Huvertes he's very inconsistent, he's very hot and cold and it's hard to predict where he'll go, sometimes he just has a good and sometimes he just doesn't. So he's the wildcard for Hopal going into this race."

BH: "Alright thank you for analysis, Bob and Lily will be calling this, I'm just here in the background in case I want to say something, it will be Bob and Lily running. Now that said let's go to Nassau Bay where the race will begin and where we have our Peter Koales with our Hopalians cyclists."

PK: "That's right I'm here with our Olympic cyclists, Aaron Huvertes, Justin Yuriyama, Garret Munson, Josh Jones, and Glen Young as they prepare to begin this Olympic Men's Road Race. How are you all feeling into this race and how are you preparing mentally?"

JY: "I'll go first if that's fine with the others. There obviously, as one might expect some sense of nervousness going into this race, I think we'd be lying if we said otherwise. It's the race of your life, it's the biggest stage in the multiverse and the stakes couldn't be higher. I've just been trying to.. um.. focus on.. what I've done in training and what I've done to get here and what this means to me to be here at the Olympics. I am very thankful for the opportunity and I want to do something with it."

GM: "Yeah, we're all very grateful. We've just been trying to stay calm, to stay grounded, to stay focused and to do our best. We're all going to give it our all, and no matter the result we'll all know that we did our best."

AH: "I totally with them, I've just been trying to stay focused on the race and I'll give it my all." Josh and Glen both nodded.

PK: "Well best of luck to you all, it looks like the race will be starting in a few minutes so you should go, I just want to all to know that all of Hopal is cheering you on."

BH: "So that was our Peter Koales in Nassau Bay with our Olympic cyclists, we will begin the Men's Road Race here on HBC right after the break."

Justin Yuriyama sighed as he approached the starting line. The Hopalians would all start beside each other behind a line of cyclists. As Justin waited for the race to begin he began to look around him he saw all of the cyclists all bunched together crowded in, he began to notice how close he was to the other cyclists, he began to think of the risk of an injury, of falling over, of his career ending. He suddenly began to notice how much bigger the cyclists seemed to look, how intimidating they seemed. Then he remembered when he used to race older kids when he was just a little boy around town, he began to remember how much bigger, better, stronger they all were, how they used to bully him, mock him for his size and how he tried to challenge them and always miserably failed. How he began to lose hope, how he stopped racing them.... Now he raced these professional cyclists at the Olympics no less, he had raced them before he thought to himself, and he had lost to them before. He was repeated history he thought to himself, he didn't stand a chance against these cyclists.

"You okay?" Garret Munson asked as he looked over at Justin, he had noticed something looked off about him and decided to check up on him. Justin simply nodded and the race soon began. As the sound went off and the other cyclists went off, Justin was stunned for a moment and didn't know what to do. That was until he went going, he went going full speed ahead and he was soon enough leading the pack, but after 100 Metres of cycling he noticed he was starting to get tired and was beginning to slow down. Then the realization hit him; you have to do this for a few hours.

It was two hours and a quarter into the race and Glen Young was a way's away from the front group, he was in a another group about 100 metres away from the main pack. He was going at a steady pace, but then he felt something hit his bike, it starting moving in a direction he didn't want to go, he felt himself losing control of his bike and then it fell on him. He and his bike fell into a nearby ditch, he felt the pressure on his leg, then a sharp pain, then a sharp pain in his arm, he felt dizzy and sight was blurry, then he went unconscious.

The end of the race was nearing and Garret Munson could see the Fairleigh Town Hall in the distance and he could also feel pain in his legs after over 6 hours of going at. And there was the finish line right in plain sight, just a few hundred metres away. He was near the front of the pack, he could smell victory, he could smell a medal. But he felt those behind him and those around speeding up and they approached the finish line. Garret was tired and he was hurting, but he needed to make this final if he wanted victory, he thought of why he was here, all of the work that he had done to get to this point, he thought of all of the sacrifices he and others had made to get to this point. He tried to conjure the energy to make that final push, but he couldn't find it in himself to do it, he when faster for a bit, but that phased out, he tried to make one more push as he reached the finish line, but in the end it was 23rd for him.

BG: "It's going to be 23rd for Garret Munson, and you can just see the disappointment in his eyes, he knew he could have done better, he just couldn't find the energy for that final push that put Bill Bonnington in the gold position, Hamish Galduroz in silver, and André Venter in bronze. Aaron Huvertes is going to come in 43rd, just under a minute behind Munson. This had been a difficult for Hopal."

LF: "This has got to be a disappointing race for Hopalians at home, Hopal didn't crack the top 20. But then again we knew this was going to be stacked race, that this was a crowded field, and that this was a hard race. We knew the strengths and weaknesses of all of our cyclists and that all came into play here, the Hopalians were never for any medals, and in the end the other cyclists just did better and unfortunately the weaknesses of the Hopalians outweighed the strengths in this race, and the combination of that left the Hopalians on the outside looking in."

BG: "Yeah, and speaking disappointment here's Justin Yuriyama he'll tie for 74th and you can just see the pain on his face."

LF: "It was a lot of badly timed decisions for him, he was very on and off, he just wasn't intelligent with his race and when you're here at the Olympics you need to be intelligent with your race."

BH: "Alright well, that's the end of our special presentation of the Men's Road Race here at the Olympics we'll now return to studio with Martini Feits in Somer to bring up to date on what else has happened here at the Olympics today, but we'll be back here in a minute to speak with our Olympic cyclists."

MF: "Thank you Brian, and what a race that was. A little disappointing but we'll get over it. Let's bring up to date on what else has happened so far today. First up Water Polo, where the Men's team seeks to replicate what the women did yesterday with a win over Lanesolde. They weren't the favourites going into this match, but they were going to fight. Let's hear how Team Captain David Marks summed up the game."

DM: "Well this was never going to be an easy match, you know Lanesolde is a good team and we aren't particularly considered as good as team, but we're fighters and we were going to fight. We got two good goals from Glen [Howden] and we were off to a good start, our offence was amazing and I can't praise them enough. Lanesolde wouldn't just let that be and they tied up the game after the 1st quarter. Coach says that on our defensive game, and I take full responsibility for our defensive mishaps. Second quarter was a close one, we got two more great goals from Glen who was amazing. Lanesolde would fight back and they would earn the lead though. Third quarter was a tough one, Glen stellar as always with another goal, Lanesolde would keep the lead though as we let them hound Brian [Niche]. Fourth quarter was going to be a hard one, but we weren't going to give up, Glen heard our call as always and would get another goal, and there was James [Nylund] who would get us the victory, our offence bailed us and we need to work on our defence before our next game, I take full responsibility for the defensive woes, I'm sorry and I'll do better next time. I can't thank Glen and James enough for being as stellar as always. Thank you."

MF: "Now that was Hopalian Men's Water Polo team captain David Marks on our victory against Lanesolde. Hopal faces Banija on Day 3, and we face the number one seeded team A Kea on Day 5. Now let's look at the other team event that has happened so far, and that is the Men's Baseball match where Team Hopal faced the host nation of Electrum. It was a close and hard fought match with teams scoring early in the 1st and 2nd innings. It would remain relatively close going into the 7th inning, though with Electrum having the lead, but a home run from Juan Mariola would score 3 points for Hopal putting them in the lead, though Electrum would get back at them in 8th and then eventually win this one in the 9th. It would be a narrow victory though 9-8 for Electrum. Hopal will face number one seeded Vilitian Union on Day 3. Now let's go to Rowing now where Jerry Knighton has the call at Lake Mittiyack."

Mack Roy and his teammates for the quadruple sculls event; Bob Banjo, David Dent, and Terrence Ilko were on the dock at Lake Mittiyack preparing for their qualifying race. Mack was really the only professional rower on the team, his three other really just friends of his or as they call themselves drinking buddies of his. The four of them did drink together a lot, and they were close friends they met with university and when Bob was in graduate school. They quickly formed a bond with each other and became close drinking together soon enough, and when Mack wanted to begin a quadruple sculls team and after his double sculls teammate Gary Hents and some others declined his offer he turned to his drinking buddies, who gladly agreed despite none of them, other than Mack of course having had rowed before. Mack mostly carried the team at events like at Olympic Quailifers, but the others they did get better, sort of, and they had a closeness which they worked well together, or at least didn't argue with each other too much, and here they are at the Olympics.

Before they got into the boat Mack addressed the team "Alright everyone, we are here at the Olympics, remember that. Remember that you are all now going to be Olympians, remember how hard we worked to get here, and savior the moment. You worked as hard for this as I did, if not harder, while you may not be professionals you are now going to Olympians and no matter the result you should be proud of yourselves. How did the band of drinking buddies make it to the Olympics I don't know. But we're here now so let's give it our all, and let's fight for a medal."

JK: "And they're off, 5 incredible teams fighting for a spot in the quarterfinals. The Hopalians are off to a good start, they're establishing a steady pace, they're in the hunt, they're in the race, and they're doing well."

Near the End of the Race

JK: "It's the Liventians for the first spot in the quarterfinals, with a healthy over the Hopalians. The Hopalians are coming in... and... the Hopalians will secure a spot in the quarterfinals. The band of drinking buddies have beat the Electrumites and are off to the quarterfinals in this Men's Quadruple Sculls Event. They established a steady pace at the beginning of the race, and then more importantly they maintained that pace through the entire race even as other teams dropped off a little. They were calm, they were unfazed, and now they're into the quarterfinals."

Near the End of the Heat 3 Race of the Women's Lightweight Double Sculls

JK: "Macari and Busenhart for first place, they will go automatically to the quarterfinals, Mirayanti and Lestari will get second, they also go automatically to the quarterfinals. It's now a race for third... and.. Henningsen and Ramsey will beat the Hopalians Elena Ban and Georgia Pouris. The Hopalians they just didn't have the power and speed that perhaps Macari and Busenhart and they suffered, but they kept at it and now they'll compete in the repechage."

MF: "That was Jerry Knighton calling the two races that Hopalians were in today at Lake Mittyack, Mack Roy and his band of drinking buddies will go to the quarterfinals on Day 5 in the Men's Quadruple Sculls, and Elena Ban and Georgia Pouris will go in the repechage on Day 3 in the Women's Lightweight Double Sculls. Let's look at surfing now where Hopalians had some surprising results in the Women's Shortboard. Let's start off with Jessie Glee who got an incredible score of 16.55 putting her at the top of her heat and second overall. Then there's Karin Guio who got a score of 13.20 putting her at the top of her own heat. This are surprising and amazing performances by the Hopalians here in surfing, and if this is an indication of what's to come the future of Hopalian surfing looks bright. Let's have a look now at Glee and Guio have managed to do.

After the replays of Jessie Glee and Karin Guio's performance are shown

MF: "What an incredible performance from the Hopalian Jessie Glee and Karin Guio. Now let's go back to Brian Hannover in Fairleigh as he's now with some of our Olympic cyclists.

BH: "That's right I'm here with Aaron Huvertes, Justin Yuriyama, Garret Munson, and Josh Jones. They've just recently finished the Men's Road Race here in Fairleigh. How are you all feeling after the that race and are you disappointed in yourself?"

JY: "I'm definitely disappointed in myself, I made some bad decisions, and I just wasn't good enough to win this race, and the others were just better than me. Also big congratulations to Bill for winning this race, you rode an excellent race and you definitely deserve this."

AH: "You know it's a bit of a hard pill to shallow, especially after you work so hard to get here, but this was a crowded field of the best of the best so it was always going to be a hard race to win. Knowing that makes you feel a little, and you know not every one can win."

GM: "We tried our best and there's no shame in that, I don't think. We were bested out there, and we might have been able to better, there's no point in looking back now you want to improve. And that's what we'll do, we'll train, we'll do this again and we will be better."

BH: "Alright, and for you Josh, you dropped out of this race halfway through, can you explain that?"

JJ: "Yeah, I was just really exhausted, I gave this race my all, but my body gave up on me about halfway in. I tried to keep going, but after a while I knew that I couldn't going."

BH: "And how are you all feeling about Glen, Glen Young. He fell over about two hours into this race and was taken to a hospital on an ambulance. Have you heard anything back on him and are you concerned about him?"

GM: "I'll answer this for all of us, we haven't heard much about Glen's condition, we haven't even seen the video footage of the incident yet. We've only heard he fell and left this race for the hospital, obviously we don't want anyone to be in that situation, we've all faced injury before, and we're all quite concerned about his condition. Though we haven't seen the footage of the incident yet."

BH: "Alright thank you for joining us today, and Hopal gives Glen it's best."

MF: "Thank you Brian, after the break we bring you live to the Sailing Races where Layla Lee and Gerry Gonzalez look to rebound after a subpar performance on Day 0. But first let's look at what's in store for us on Day 2."

Team Hopal Events - Day 2

Swimming - Men's 200 Metre Freestyle Heats
Nate Scaleses

Swimming - Women's 400 Metre Freestyle Final
Helena Konstand

Swimming - Women's 100 Metre Backstroke Heats
Georgia Juan

Swimming - Women's 100 Metre Breaststroke Heats
Jessie Duclaire

Water Polo - Women's Matchday
Hopal vs. Oberour Ar Moro

Softball - Women's Matchday
Hopal vs. Qasden

Cycling - Women's Road Race Final
Lina Obraua
Freda Young
Frederica Grey
Helen Hernandez
Terri Montagu

Rowing - Men's Single Sculls
Mack Roy

Rowing - Men's Double Sculls
Mack Roy/Gary Hents

Rowing - Women's Double Sculls
Hillary Johnson/Kayla Gujari

Sailing - Women's One Person Dinghy
Layla Lee

Sailing - Women's Two Person Dinghy
Layla Lee/Henrietta Fuchs

Surfing - Men's Shortboard
Larry Lamb

Table Tennis - Men's Singles
Harry Mar

Table Tennis - Women's Singles
Terri Moran

Tennis - Women's Singles
Kyrsten Fletcher
Madeleine Jeffries

by **Krytenia** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 6:06 pm

Crisis? What crisis?

Shout it from the rooftops, send a message to the four corners of the nation; our long national nightmare is over. The travails of the nation's judo team in Orean were a source of much anguish for Krytenian sports fans four years ago as none of our competitors made it even so far as the repechage. This year, however, it took just one day for those demons to be utterly slain.

Polly Gennaro was one of those who came up against the mental brick wall at the last Games, and was determined to make sure that would not happen again. Her defeat of Permecutan's Ayu Dwi Parwati in her opening bout was ruthless, putting her opponent flat on her back in just eighteen seconds to cruise through to the last sixteen. Kirsten Cairns provided much sterner opposition before a fine uchi-mata-sukashi (a spectacular-looking counter-throw) turned a chance for the Kelssek combatant into a win for the Krytenian.

Gennaro couldn't repeat the feat in the quarter-final, failing to nail the ippon that would mean instant victory; she did, however, manage to score with a hane goshi (a hip throw, to the layman) to secure a place in the last four. There, she met her match in the form of Zehida Plavec, whose superior reflexes told as she scored early then denied the Krytenian the chance to go for the spectacular.

Not to worry though; there was still a medal on offer. Noémi Álvarez had lost to the eventual gold medallist, Lieah Kann of the Sarian, in the quarter-finals, and was hoping to gain a bronze with the second bite of the cherry. Unfortunately for the young woman from Nuevas Hespérides, Gennaro had four years of anger to take out on whoever was standing in her way. When the referee signalled the ippon score that won the bout and the bronze, Gennaro dropped to her knees and raised her fists, a gesture borne more out of relief than anything else.

The genie is out of the bottle now; it only remains to see how many wishes will be fulfilled on the mat.

The (eight) lengths we'll go to

Krytenia's swimming team are off the mark in the pool, courtesy of all-rounder Paul Devereux. The Emberton swimmer competed in two sets of heats in the morning, and though the 400m individual medley served only to disappoint, with Devereux finishing sixteenth fastest, he did qualify fifth overall in the freestyle event over the same distance.

With the afternoon to recover, and swimming out of lane two, Devereux was largely left to swim his own race, keeping in touch with the rest of the field whilst conserving energy for the final push. Turning at the 300m mark a few metres behind in last place, the Krytenian began raising the pace and catching up to the competition, passing Bollonich's Chase Baines in the final stretch to claim third place in a personal best time of 3:42.01s.

With a couple of days to recover before he participates in his next event, the 200m fly, Devereux has some time to recover and reflect on his achievement before, hopefully, adding some more chunks of precious metal to his collection.

The string quartet performs!

The archery range, traditionally, has not been the most fruitful of places for the purposes of winning medals. There were a few signs four years ago that might be about to change - largely thanks to a first-ever gold in the sport - and the evolution of Krytenian archery continues as seen in today's ranking rounds. All six of Krytenia's archers qualified comfortably for the knockouts - with the possible exception of Nicholas Mondrian, who tied for 52nd - and the combined scores saw the men's and women's teams also make it into the last sixteen, ranking fifth and sixth respectively.

Best of all, Aston Jeavons and Kat Kristensen will get the chance to defend their mixed pair title, despite the change in qualifying rules. The pair were not guaranteed to be Krytenia's entries in the event, which now takes the best-scoring man and woman from the ranking round; both, though, top scored amongst their countrypeople, and will come into the event as eleventh seeds.

Inspired to try archery? Information on how to get involved is available at kbs.kt/sportforall

Watch all the action from Electrum at home with sixteen dedicated streams on KBS Interactive, or on the go from your device at kbs.kt/smartview or on the SmartView app.

by **Kohnhead** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 6:36 pm

Kohnhead Olympic Recap-Day One

The games are officially underway in Electrum and two Kohnheadian teams have played for the first time with our heavily touted men's baseball team having its first game and the women's volleyball team also playing their first game.

Men's Baseball

Krytenia                     0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  2
Kohnhead                     0 0 1 0 0 4 0 0 X  5

On the diamond the National Team ace Ralphie Bloggs pitched an eight inning two run gem against Krytenia striking out 10 batters and with the exception of a two run homerun in the top of the second looking as sharp as ever. The offense also had a good game starting in the third inning when National Team starter Jessie Cherry hit a solo shot to left field to bring the score to 2-1. Our offense then picked up again in the bottom of the sixth with Clayton and Cherry walking before Atkinson doubled in the gap to send both home to give Kohnhead the 3-2 lead.

Burch struck out and Mcintrye flew out but he hit it far enough that Atkinson had time to tag up and go to third bringing up Stuart Dorsey with two outs and a runner on third. With a 3-0 count, Dorsey was given the green light and blasted the fastball down the middle out of the park to give Kohnhead the 5-2 lead that neither Bloggs nor closer Chester Tate would relinquish. It's a good start for a team that has medal ambitions but will have to come out of a four nation group.

Group M
Kohnhead (KHD) 5–2 Krytenia (KRY)
Lisander (LIS) 5–1 West Phoenicia (KWP)

  Group M                       Pld   W  L   RF  RA  RD  Pts 
1 Lisander                        1   1  0    5   1  +4    2
2 Kohnhead                        1   1  0    5   2  +3    2
3 Krytenia                        1   0  1    2   5  −3    1
4 West Phoenicia                  1   0  1    1   5  −4    1

Women's Volleyball

The Grearish Union (GRU)          20  25  25  14  15
Kohnhead (KHD)                    25  19  19  25  12

The Kohnhead women's volleyball team would open their olympics with a game against The Grearish Union and would suffer a disappointing defeat that went the full distance in a five set shootout between the two. Kohnhead took the first 25-20 led by Sidney Wilson who played the best offensively and Hannah Kay who recorded numerous blocks. For The Grearish Union, it was Felicity Edwards who had the best first set. We would lose the next two with Patricia Butler and Anna Mesiti really taking over the game for the opposition and just like that we'd be down two sets to one.

However Kohnhead came charging back going up 23-7 in the fourth set before being outscored 7-2 at the end. Even though we had won the set 25-14, we had given them all the momentum at the end which helped propel them to a 15-12 final set victory with Patricia Butler recording the final kill. We will have chances to come back but Kohnhead has emerged as a volleyball powerhouse with two straight trips to the semifinals at the WVEs and so not doing will in both the men's and the women's tournaments would be a bit disappointing.

Group I                        Pld   W  L   PF  PA  PD  Pts 
1 Vilitan Union                    1   1  0    3   0  +3    3
2 The Grearish Union               1   1  0    3   2  +1    2
3 Kohnhead                         1   0  1    2   3  −1    1
4 Scotatrova                       1   0  1    0   3  −3    0

by **Todlichebujoku** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 7:59 pm

HILL NO.336, SOMEWHERE IN THE VAST AND UNENDING OBLIVION BETWEEN FARLEIGH AND WARBURTON

Caito was fucking dying. The Tödlichebujoki man wheezed and panted as he gripped the handlebars tighter than he ever dared with his husband in bed, gasping in a decidedly un-erotic manner while weaving up the hill like a caricature of a "local Tödlichebujoki man" after a night out with a "few" bottles of vodka. His poor bicycle was at the point where it was creaking under his farcical exertion with every wobbly push of the pedal. A local turtle trundled by him, oblivious to his struggle against gravity. The trees whispered and cackled at his plight, mocking him as they grew faster than he could ascend. The breezes too were hateful beasts, every push against him turning into another nail into his carbon-fiber coffin of torment. The sun- fuck the sun. He wasn't even going to look. His attention was on the ground, familiarizing himself with every crack in the road pavement in preparation for his certain union with the unyielding earth on which he struggled. Mmm... this section reminded him of the walkway outside his university, the texture was just so smooth and inviting..... oh these cracks reminded him of the time last winter he had forgotten to moisturize and his skin started cracking. Very unpleasant. But nowhere near as unpleasant as the waY THE SLOPE JUST GOT STEEPER-

Caito veered into the road barrier with a decidedly anticlimactic crunch. The battered man laid there for a few moments, contemplating his lot in life, wondering if this was really what the gods had in store for him in this trial of a life. Maybe he should just quit, cut his losses, and walk off. But no. He was a man of pride. He had gotten himself this far, and damn the consequences, he would go as far as he humanly could. With an indecipherable grunt? Mumble? Grumble. With an indecipherable grumble, he mounted the poor beast once again and clawed his way uphill. As the road took a turn, the sun made itself extraordinarily well known to his weary eyes, despite his best efforts to the contrary. He felt so tired. His stomach was making backflips in his abdomen. When was the last time he had water? His cloudy mind could give no answer. With every push forward, he could feel himself ascending into the heavens, maybe today was the day he would meet his ancestors and meet his true end. Finding the strength to gaze upon them, and say, "I died while cycling. Voluntarily. For sport." No. He would rather fall to the depths of the underworld and come face to face with his serial rapist grand-uncle. Probably with his grand-uncle on top. Caito didn't know terribly much about the man, but from what he'd heard, he wouldn't put it past his fortunately deceased relative to engage in unrestrained incest. And who knows what other truly lovely family members from the distant past could be lurking amongst the demons below? But frankly, he'd die of embarrassment up above, so it was all the same really. He relaxed his sphincter in preparation for his certain fate, relieved that he had made sure to relieve himself before the race, as he had known that he was in for an ordeal. But hah! Ahead of him, the road evened out, and sloped back down. Relief flooded the embattled Tödlichebujoki's eyes as he could finally coast, relax his near-death muscles and breathe easy. A break, at last!

It lasted 0.2 seconds.

Faced once again toward the uncaring sky as he careened up the hillside at the pace of an amputated snail, Caito felt all hope draining away. His throat felt like it was closing in, and every breath came and went with a chorus of whistles. Had he even gone up 3 feet up this slope??? It didn't matter. His vision seemed to fade away, and as he looked up to the heavens for mercy, he saw within the sun a chorus of angelic spirits beckoning to him, washed in a myriad shades of golden sunrise. He could hear them singing, the pantheon of gods themselves looming in the background, sagely nodding to him, inviting him to leave his wretched state and join the immortal festivities beyond the mortal coil. It was so tempting, to break free, to join them, to abandon his petty pursuits and life of agony, and release himself into divinity... But no. Ew. He was not going to meet his ancestors like this. He was going to make the express decision to do everything in his power not meet them in this manner. No, it would have to be hell on earth or hell with his very touchy-feely grand-uncle. He made his choice. He gazed downward, the maw of the earth opening up to swallow him whole, a waft of cool subterranean air belying the incredible heat below. His posture went slack- well. More slack than it was already. And he felt himself collapse into the earth.. just as a piercing tone and a roaring hubbub broke into his fading consciousness, snapping him back into mortal reality with incredible whiplash. What? Where was he? What are these people saying? Oh. Huh. The race was over.

Well, this certainly wasn't the motor racing event he thought he'd signed up for.

-

MALLOW PARK, AGRI

Meeyanvritti Itoo, meanwhile, was having a lovely time. After shooting his shots, he had a refreshing drink and smiled to the cameras. Cheers!

-

by **Pemecutan** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 8:06 pm

Thursday, 12 August 2021 (Wraspati Kliwon Wuku Kelawu, Pawukon 1781)

Pemecutan in Sports
A History: Part I
By. Kadek Dwi Mahardika

As our country, Pemecutan, is in contention for the XV Summer Olympics, it is the right time for us to looking back through time. Knowing how the sports developed in our beloved country until it is become quite popular today. In an every day life, sports or a simple form of exercise can't be separated. There are always in some way we do some kind of exercise during our daily routine which can be associated into a sports. Lifting heavy shopping bag, running to reached the elevator in time, walking on the stairs, jump to avoid a small puddle. These simple things can be a little exercise for some of us. Even slow walking in the far distance is an exercise. These things can indirectly make our body fit. Isn't that what's the simple purpose of doing sports is?

Baris Tunggal Dance, Pemecutan War Dance

Sports can be done in many kinds of way. Whether it is just as a hobby, to fill your spare time or even take it seriously and become a professional athletes. The choices is yours. Today we know many kind of sports discipline. From an individual sports like archery, judo and badminton or team sports like football, water polo and sepak takraw. But how is these sports developed in the first place? How can our people here in Pemecutan know these kind of sports? Or are there any traditional sports that preceded these sports?

In the traditional Pemecutanian culture, there is no real concept for physical exercise just like in the modern sports. All of these exercises and physical activities are always linked to tribal practices especially for ritual purpose and art. The war dances and ritual combat among the natives of Pemecutanian are the example of ritualized exercises in the country which is still in practice until today. Some of the natives ritual that resembling modern sports are Gebug Ende tradition in Pacung Highland, northern part of Giri Island, the main island in Pemecutan, that resemble fencing. Also Perang Tipat-Bantal (Tipat-Bantal War) in Kapal, Kanginan State which resembling shot put in athletics.

Tipat and Bantal use in Tipat-Bantal War

Archery and horse riding were introduced around 5th century during the reign of Sripala Kingdom. During this period, Pencak Silat was also being introduced which was brought from the Mainland Melayu into the country. Locally, it is called Mencak or Pencak and has become the most popular martial art in the country. The concept of modern sports was introduced during colonial Pemecutan Protectorate States period. During this time, football, badminton and tennis were introduce and become a popular sports in Pemecutan. After the dissolved of Pemecutan Protectorate States, sports association begin to emerge especially in Giri Federation and Kanginan. After the merge of both countries (Giri Federation and Kanginan) into Pemecutan, a higher level of sports organization was established. It was named National Sports Committee (Bahasa: Komite Olahraga Nasional). This committee main purpose is to gather all sports associations in the country, to develop professionalism in the sports and help the associations to established a decent domestic competition. In 2010, following the hype of Olympics event in the country, this committee was changing its name into United Pemecutan Olympic Committee (Bahasa: Komite Olimpiade Uni Pemecutan). Its first purpose is to prepare the country to be able to send their athletes into Olympics event. This goal was materialized after their first participation in XIV Summer Olympics. Ever since their participation in the XIV Summer Olympics, our country continue to send delegations into the next events. Including their trial in Winter Olympics with a small delegates of 16 athletes.

In the next part of these of article, we will going through travel to the past. Seeing how the traditional rituals resembling the concept of modern sports in more in depth explanation.

Other News

Archery got one less placement than previous Olympics in the knockout stage after the Mixed team failed to reached the line.
Panca Darmawan is on fire in Sailing after leading the One-Person Dinghy event in the second day.
Made Dwi Andika surprised for 2 finals spot in Gymnastics.
Made Yuliantara put his luck on the final stage of 100 m Breaststroke number.
Rowing show promise after 4 quarterfinals advance.
Canoeing open up success after placing in 2 final events.
Women surfers are preparing for the next stage after both qualified to Round 48.

by **HMS Onslaught** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:06 pm

by **Chromatika** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 11:27 pm

By: Min Do-Hyun, Olympic Correspondent

Men's Individual Sabre: Quebecois Curse Strikes Again

By the Round of 32, there were only two Chromatik fencers left in the men's tournament - Xazi Igfhan and Potter Kiero. Potter lost a narrow contest to Mai Loijoi of Vilitan Union, and then there was just one - Xazi Ifghan of Hanai. After hitting the Quarterfinals last time around, Xazi was determined to at least match that mark.

Beating Calvin Ballis 15-10 in the Round of Sixteen, he ran into a dreaded Quebecois fencer in the Quarterfinals - the man that would end up being the Gold Medalist, Goh Nam-Seong. Goh utterly dominated the match by a score of 15-8.

"I don't have any regrets," said Xazi, who swore he'd be back, "Goh was simply the better athlete and he showed that by winning the tournament."

Women's Individual Épée: Dame Estelle!

Estelle Roberts is a former major in the Chromatik Army, trained in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat. She's dropped into dangerous situations while being a paratrooper for two years. After that, she turned her skills to fencing, and found a role model in Cara-Ann Stewart, the Bronze Medalist from the previous Olympics. Stewart, who lost an eye, said she'd retire after these Olympics. So the trio of Estelle, Ami, and Cara-Ann headed off to Agri.

Round of 128
Cara-Ann Stewart (CMT) 15–8 Dorothy Carter (BOL)
Estelle Roberts (CMT) 15–7 Jennifer Martinez (BOL)
Ami Wallace (CMT) 15–5 Asdis Selbysdottir (KLD)
Round of 64
Cara-Ann Stewart (CMT) 13–15 Lilliana Dasetas (AUG)
Estelle Roberts (CMT) 15–11 Verdandi Vikingsdottir (KLD)
Ami Wallace (CMT) 15–6 Lady Tottie James (KWP)
Round of 32
Estelle Roberts (CMT) 15–11 Eza Nielsen (AUG)
Ami Wallace (CMT) 10–15 Sarah Porthos (KGS)
Round of 16
Charli Atkins (HAN) 5–15 Estelle Roberts (CMT)
Quarterfinals
Estelle Roberts (CMT) 15–14 Louise Gregorsdóttir (GRÆ)
Semifinals
Estelle Roberts (CMT) 15–7 Carissa Aguilar (SCR)
Final
Samantha Matteosdóttir (GRÆ) 13–15 Estelle Roberts (CMT)

Cara-Ann actually won a round. She not only one, she absolutely controlled the match against Dorothy Carter. Then, she bowed out respectfully against Lilliana Dasetas.

Ami? Made it to the Round of 32, where she fell behind a bit too early against Sarah Porthos and couldn't get back into the match. Leaving... Estelle Roberts.

Nicknamed "Dame" by her peers, she blitzed through Jennifer MArtinez and Verdandi Vikingsdottir, outclassed Eza Nielsen, and took care of business against Charli Atkins. It was starting the Quarterfinals that things got really interesting.

Græntfjall is another fencing powerhouse. The match against Louise Gregorsdóttir went down to the wire, Estelle using her speed and counterattacks to her fullest. She scored the final three points of the match to dramatically advance to the Semifinals, all the while pointing to the Chromatik bench, where Cara-Ann and Ami were also going crazy with Kim Bo-Rim, Women's Épée Coach.

In the semifinals, she faced Carissa Aguilar, who was known as a hyperaggressive contestant that almost went too far. Estelle was able to use all that headstrong aggression against Carissa, rushing off to a 7-1 lead that she would not relinquish. Afterwards, she stated that "It was easy to turn that aggression against her. It was all about momentum, and when I got that going, the match was over."

Estelle Roberts would run into another Græntfjaller in the Gold Medal match - Samantha Matteosdóttir. The two fenced a brilliant final, neither side getting more than three points ahead of the other, while the Chromatik sideline was going nuts once again. After equalizing at 12-12, Estelle would use her counterattacks to get the next two points, concede one back, and then, with one swift movement, score the point to give Chromatika its first gold in Women's Épée.

Estrelle shed tears at the interview afterwards, giving thanks to her parents, her coach, and Cara-Ann, who did go through with her promise, retiring from the sport and stating she'll open a fencing academy instead. It was a historical moment - and "Dame" became a noted figure in Chromatik history.

by **The Authoritarian Republic of Lochario** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 2:56 am

LOCHARIAN OLYMPIC SPORT REVIEW

Brought to you by Jammi Korroger

Hello and welcome to the Locharian olympic sport review, where we're going to analize each and every aspect of the sports the Locharians are going to participate in. Today we'll be analizing the sports of canoeing and shooting, as the representatives of these sports were the only ones that represented Lochario in Day 1.

Day 1

Canoeing and shooting

The canoeing started off great, as we weren't expecting any high places from this sport. Farad Verrat finished 34 th in the heats and broke his olympic record of the 46th place at the games of the XIII Olympiad in Republica. The shooter Heinrich Schumer, however, did not perform great at all. He finished dead last! I repeat, DEAD FLECKING LAST! How is he even allowed to participate in this bloody sport!? What was the LOC thinking when putting him on the plane to Electrum?! Just what... You know what, flick it, flick everything, honestly!? I just wanna say that the LOC are a bunch of puss.... [The broadcast cuts short]

This was Jami Korroger and goodbye!

This broadcast was funded by the LOC

by **Pratapgadh** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 4:21 am

Day 0 And Day 1 Results, Areas With Potential For Pratapgadh
Written By Rohan Hughes
Olympics
With Day 0 and Day 1 gone, it's still too early to judge any nation's performance yet. However, it will become clear where we stand among nations in the next few days. There are a few areas with potential for Pratapgadh such as archery, rugby sevens, freestyle wrestling, boxing, and hockey. Time to look at how our athletes have done on the grandest stage in the first two days.

Badminton
Day 0 didn't see much success for Pratapgadh in badminton. Both Meghraj Joshi and Ashok Baggonkar lost their first matches against Kristian Cooper and Hari Marianto respectively. Meghraj Joshi tried to put up a fight, losing the first game 19-21 which was pretty close and losing the second one by 17-21. Ashok's match went on for longer as he lost the first game by 15-21 but made comeback in the second game, winning by 21-15. However, the third round ended up in Marianto's favour with him winning 21-17. The women's singles competition saw some success, though, as Ananya Johal won her first match against Gala Dickman. She ended up losing the first game 16-21 but came back strong with a 21-16 win in the second game. The third game was a crucial win as both women ended on 21 points, with Ananya taking the win 23-21. Jeevika Puranmalka on the other hand, had a bad day at the office, losing to Hajharmintu nos Esmlotaer. In the first game she ended up losing by 17-21, the second one was atrocious as she lost by 14-21. This was just the first game though, so she still has time to get to winning ways.

On Day 1, we had the men's, women's and mixed doubles. In the men's doubles, we had Dharambir Sargana and Anoopjot Khalsa facing off Frank Frankson and Frank Windturbine. The Pratapgadhi side did quite well actually, losing the first game 21-23 and winning the next game 21-16. A pretty tough pair. However, the third game took away everything as Sargana and Khalsa lost by 17-21. However, they performed well here and will prove themselves again in their next game. The women's double however was a dud. Ananya Johal and Sangeeta Punial failed to put up a fight against Ursula von Dirt and Ariel Gold of Qasden. They lost the first game 13-21, which was humiliating, and then lost the next game by 18-21. I expected Johal and Punial to at least put up a fight as Johal was already coming off a single's victory. I guess they still have a chance next game, but they must get their game right or it's going to be a nightmare.

Rugby Sevens
Day 0 saw the Pratapgadh men's team winning their first game against Augusticinia by 10 points. Pratapgadh scored 24 points, while Augusticinia were left behind at 14 points. Aryaman Vesuwala scored the first try of the match in the second minute, with Gurpal Hanjan scoring the post-try conversion to bring those five points to seven points. Not long after, Vesuwala scored another try which was again converted by Gurpal Hanjan. Before the first half ended, Augusticinia were able to add seven points to their name with a try and post-try conversion. The first ended with Pratapgadh on top, 14-7. In the second half, the game immediately became more intense when Augusticinia scored their second try and converted it to seven points. Both teams tied with either side having a chance at taking three points home. However, a try from Pratap Deshmukh (converted by Hanjan) and a drop-goal from Sampat Asthana gave us the victory. At full time, the score was 24-14 with Pratapgadh taking those three points and ended up second on the table behind the Free Swiss States. The Sevens team has a bye next, so they rejuvenate themselves and prepare for The Grearish Union.

It's not the same story for the women's though, sadly. The Pratapgadh women's team lost to Mytanija by 19-31. The team definitely has the potential but were no match for the women of Mytanija. Three tries were scored by Vibhuti Saklani, with two of them being converted by Poornima Takle. The first two tries were scored in the first, both of them being converted, bringing the score to 14-21. However, the women of Pratapgadh were outclassed in the second half, with Mytanija scoring another ten points and Pratapgadh only adding five points. The game ended at 19-31 and the Pratapgadh women's team were left empty-handed. They too have a bye next round, so I guess it's time for them to study and analyse what went wrong.

Aquatics
Not to anyone's surprise, Pratapgadh didn't do well in aquatics. I mean, it isn't our strongest suit, but our athletes put in their best work so we should appreciate them. Day 1 was the start for swimming sports, with Sudhanshu Kekde and Pravin Karmarkar in the qualifying round for the 400 m freestyle race. Both failed to qualify with Kekde ending up on 51 and the Karmarkar on 92 out of the 114 swimmers who participated. Things were worse in the qualifying round for the 100 m breaststroke, with Hami Harisinghania and Zerad Lone ending up on 96 and 100 respectively out of the 108 swimmers who participated. On the women's side, Things were better on the women's side with Namana Prajapati finishing 44th out of 109 in the qualifying round for the 100 m butterfly and the women's freestyle relay team finishing 16th out of 48 teams. The relay team was only 12 milliseconds behind the eighth-placed team, the last team to qualify. However, other teams also did better than Pratapgadh here. Again, it isn't our strongest suit, but let's support our swimmers all the way.

Archery
At least one man and one woman from our archery unit were able to qualify in their respective singles' competitions. Those two guys are Parimal Bajpai (Men's) and Vaishnavi More (Women's), the best archers of Pratapgadh of their respective genders. Bajpai finished 57th out of 187 with 662 points while More finished 28th out of 173 with 657 points. Santosh Bajaj and Hamees Jalali were quite behind compared to Bajpai, with Bajaj finishing 158th and Jalali finishing 178th. The same case is with the women with Yukta Vajpai finishing 159th and Lakshmi Tendulkar finishing 164th. Both the men's and women's teams lagged behind with the men finishing 46th out of 54 and the women finishing 44th out of 51. However, the mixed team surprised a lot of us, finishing 28th out of 64 with 1319 points. We still have one man and one woman in singles' competitions, so our medal hopes in this area are still alive.

Boxing
Now to the good stuff, real hard-hitting combat of boxing! A huge success for Pratapgadh here, two out of three boxes won their match on Day 1. For the men's lightweight division, we had Mukund Dixit winning 3-0 over Sobstory McGee of Qasden. A real dominant display by Dixit Mukund who has been training for months since he first found out about the Summer Olympiad. Clearly stated in his interview, he's here for a medal. We saw another dominant boxer today in Priyanka Tibrewal, who won her preliminary round match against Jenny Ayers in the women's lightweight division, 3-0. Women's flyweight boxer Garima Kerkar lost her preliminary round match against Aubrey Crowe by 1-2. Commiserations Garima Kerkar.

Shooting
For Day 1, we had the men's 10 m air pistol and the women's 10 m air rifle competitions. Neither the men or the women were to able to qualify for the medal event and I would say the result was a bit disappointing. For the men's, Niaz Ghazali and Kamal Chaudhary finished 59th and 70th respectively out of 91 people who participated. For the women's, Bhavina Mehta finished 58th and Wahida Farooqi finished dead last at 83rd position. We expected a slightly better result from these four. Things don't always go your way and that's alright. National Shooting Association of Pratapgadh, or NSAP, is looking to invest in better facilities, coaches and training to improve their athletes' performance. Hopefully, it pays off.

Volleyball
Some success here too for the women of Pratapgadh as the Pratapgadh women's national volleyball team defeated West Phoenicia to grab their first three points in the 15th Summer Olympiad. The Pratapgadhi women lost the first set 20-25 to West Phoenicia but came back with a 28-26 win in the second set. From then on, Pratapgadh displayed no mercy, winning the third set 25-17 and the fourth set 25-16, giving the Pratapgadhis a big win here. Women here in Pratapgadh are generally considered better in volleyball compared to men and it is true when you compare the men's and women's national teams. The women's team is always rated higher than the men's by the experts, so let's hope they go far in this competition.

Weightlifting
We had two weightlifting events on Day 1, the women's 49 kg and 55 kg. We had 42 entries for the 49 kg division, in which Archana Mane ended up 29th and in the 55 kg one, Pratima Devalekar brought a DNF which disappointed a lot of fans back home. We still have a lot of weightlifters here that have the potential to bring back a medal such as Raveena Hooda for the women's over 87 kg, Esharbir Sidhu for the men's over 109 kg and Viraj Bagawe for the men's 109 kg. Excited for what's about to come next!

Who are our top medal contenders you might ask? Here's a list:-
Viraj Bagawe - Weightlifting
Rudhra Maheshwari - Freestyle Wrestling
Parimal Bajpai - Archery
Vaishnavi More - Archery
Preeti Nigam - Long Jump (Athletics)
Jaya Purohit - Heptathlon (Athletics)
Gaurav Maurya - Boxing
Jeevan Lawar - Shot Put (Athletics)
Bhairav Bhutoria - Freestyle Wrestling

Currently, Tumbra is at the top of the table with two gold medals. However, it's just the first two days, so things are about to really get crazy. Pratapgadh will be eager to get their very first medal in the Summer Olympics, so let's see who can step up to achieve that for Pratapgadh. That's all we have for today, but remember to keep following FIRESPORTS.com for future updates and reviews on the Olympiad. Pratapgadh will be trying to put its foot in the ground and hopefully make its presence felt. For now, goodbye and goodnight!
www.firesports.com/home

by **Quebec and Shingoryeo** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 4:53 am

Jin Chang-Wook's Adventure of A Lifetime

Part 3

12 years ago

The pale-haired organist played inside the main hall of Sandringham Abbey, bringing with it the chants of all those attending the funeral, still in mourning. The mourners dragged on with their voices, singing the Korean-language lyrics of funeral hymns as intended, but mostly mouthing them for they struggled to exactly pronounce the words.

It was the kind of funeral that certainly wasn't an occasion to celebrate one's life, especially given the circumstances. It was an unexpected funeral of a man whose career has yet to really take off, the one that painted out in white funeral suit called Sangbok and all forms of grey films, as the war hero and gold-medal winning olympian was laid to rest. The grim faces were barely opening their mouths unless it was their turn to sing the funeral hymns, and they stood unmoving even as the Pipe Organ continued to ring across the Abbey's main halls.

Given the deceased's heroics, it made sense that everybody was here to mark his last moments on this earth. Draping the rows were the members of the Royal Quebecois Marine Corps (RQMC) and its Peacekeeping Division, while most known names of Quebecois and Krytenian national fencing teams had made their presence with their civilian dots (1). Situated in the front row were his family members and friends, as well as his in-laws who came from the southeastern AO nation of Quebecois Acadiana. Then on one aisle stood His Majesty the Jacques IX, his wife, the Queen Elizaveta and their children, who were present as Jacques IX himself, while on ill health his last half-decade of his life, was still the Connétable de Quebec (2).

Even though his children Chang-Sook and Chang-Wook's memories were painted grey, black and white, it was actually a colourful occasion. While a man of public life, Lieutenant Jin had wished for a quiet, community festival were he to pass into the eternity. But it was the Royal Quebecois Fencing Federation (RQFF), the RQMC and none other than Jacques IX who overruled that idea, for the man lived a life of faith, love and of course commitment (3).

So his funeral, after the arrival of the coffin via the Royal Quebecois Air Force carrier from Emberton, was held at the most honourable place possible in the Quebecois soil. To remember the passing of the recipient of the Arlenian Cross, the epitome of courage and sacrifice that also befit the sport he was known for in fencing, the Sandringham Abbey was befit with the finest of funeral hymns and other music, even as those mourning were unable to keep up with the pomp and circumstance he had wished. The smell of artificial flowers covered the abbey, both his Quebecois national teammates from the Aeropag team and the players he coached for Krytenian national team in Republica said their eulogies about the honour of a true veteran, and then the military pipers also played a couple of tunes as well.

Lieutenant Jin Seung-Taek's life, being a wanderer who lived across Multiverse for many years, was an unpredictable one, and so was his death that everybody mourned. Most of the people present came in hurry after hearing about his death from a car crash in Emberton, from the QBC or their local newspaper, and none of them would have thought that he'd be gone so soon. Thirty-seven was simply too young for any man, especially the one whose health has stayed relatively on course after his deployment at Caraqueno Civil War in Nuevo Caracas, far-eastern Rushmore, and the mourners each had a memory of him to think of.

His two children, Chang-Wook and Chang-Sook, were in visible mourning, both children silently crying through the process. Wet was their hair and heavy were their feet, to the point where it was going to take a lot of effort and endless steps of dragging feet if they had to say goodbye to him at this point (fortunately not, for there was still half an hour left in the service). The children grabbed each other's hands, trying to not to say much, while their mother, Madeleine Streisend, kept crying in despair, partly out of grief, and partly out of regret over the things she's said to him when they were younger. The children, in trying to distract themselves, pictured themselves being at their father's workplace in Escrime Emberton, where they would sometimes come after school, but their mind was simply too blanked out to let it happen.

This may have been because they knew they were going to go back to Acadiana, where their mother was originally from, or somewhere else where the environmentalist had her own work commitments. Of course, they also knew that their grandparents, who have generally maintained higher standards on Madeleine than others, wanted to raise Chang-Wook and Chang-Sook in Quebec City. Whether scenario A or B, a fencing career would not have been so likely either way. Their mother would be able to afford the high expenses that come with the sport for both children, in a sport where often both siblings or entire families would play, and the grandparents, even with CSKA Quebec being down the road, would prefer they play in a more appealing sport.

Present Time

'Well, that's a really unpleasant article to read, isn't it?' said Jin Chang-Wook, chatting to his girlfriend about how upset he was over a piece written by Scornese media over so-called Aguilar sisters, as she tried to find a couple of fencing clips off VousTube on her phone. 'Like, don't they know that fencing's the Olympics' most gentlemanly sport?'

'Well, duh.' she shrugged, almost as if she's suggesting that it's expected of a fencer, regardless of a weapon, to stay professional and sportsmanlike. 'You don't intend to injure the opponent, that should never be the intention, and you would not want to. These guys at the top of the circuit generally all know each other, and would train together at some points. Like would Yang Soo-Gyeong and Mira Gushtanova (4), on an olympics match, argue over a mere call that can easily be checked by a video challenge?'

'Well, no, because Gushtanova's not here.' chuckled Chang-Wook, scratching his left arm a couple of times over an itch. 'Gushtanova is wrapped in cotton wool, and the Mytanars wouldn't wanna risk a potential injury on her.' Vicki was not impressed with his roundabout response, so he went back to answering the first question. 'But no. I mean, we aren't allowed to taunt opposing fans by giving them a gesture telling them to shut up. I know a buddy from U23 national team who got suspended from QIS for that- not fun.'

'Exactly. So there are basically three things that would get you carded once you are on international fencing circuit (5).' Vicki then explained on length. 'So group one- Making body contact with another fencer in foil or sabre, delying the bout, or casually removing equipment. First offence gets you a yellow, second a red and your opponent will be happy because you just gifted them a point.'

'Right,' Chang-Wook nodded, trying to recall a bit of clips he had watched from when his father or his teammates were younger. 'What would be the other ones?'

'So group two. Any violent actions or reporting to the piste with improper equipment and not really checking on them.' Vicki continued. 'You know, improper equipment issues don't really happen once you are at this level, but sometimes you'd see clubs or even university teams with barely any budget, so they'd maybe have one or two blade per person and hope that they won't rust. I remember fencing on risky ones back home, sure you remember seeing them too.'

'Yeah, it's quite a departure for sure.' Chang-Wook responded, as he recollected travelling to Dannin the previous summer. To him, who still remembered how gigantic Escrime Emberton or some of the bigger city ones were back in Quebec City, it was quite a departure. Smaller salles, slightly older pistes and not to mention older scoring lights that he had remembered seeing it on photos of older tournaments when his late father was in high school. (6) It was even more impressive after seeing there, that's for sure. he thought. 'So basically you aren't allowed to injure and deliberately so, right?'

'No, no, and no. Come on.' She gently punched him on the chest to indicate that it's a big no-no, in any fashion, to deliberately hurt their opponent to win the game. 'And that's where the Aguilars have it wrong. There's no brutality penalty in fencing to start with, unless they mistranslated whatever the language they were speaking in...at least in not that manner. Like, why would you even say you are always targeting the opponents 'sensitive spots, thumb, wrist, elbow, solar plexus'?'

'Hard to say.' he shrugged. 'I know dad used to get carded a lot. Coach Lundrigan (7) apparently wasn't happy about that, because of risking injuries and whatnot.' He gave out a sigh, trying not to say too much about his late father. The appearance of his spirit, only topped by how calm both him and Chang-Wook received each other's presence, was more than enough to keep a small space for him inside the twenty-year old's mind.

He wasn't sure if he's able to explain about the spirit's presence though, and fortunately she didn't ask him about that oddity. 'That definitely sounds like coach Lundrigan, yeah.' nodded Vicki. 'Also, wrist hits aren't too bad on Epee on Sabre. Both are pretty common anyway, though for Epee it's because you are taking things slowly whereas with sabre it's because of the blade basically being able to hit anywhere.'

'Seriously though, it's quite disappointing to read that.' Chang-Wook sighed, his face still frowning. By this point, neither of them felt hungry and this wasn't a good sign, especially since both of them had to go back to practice later in the afternoon. 'Speaking of which, should we watch men's sabre semifinals at five? It looks like Goh Nam-Seong will be fencing Michael Christiansson.'

'That should be a close matchup, but nah.' She shook her head. 'Let's keep our mind off fencing for once. Maybe Judo wouldn't be a bad idea.' And in all honesty, this wasn't a bad idea. All lunch long all they were talking about was fencing this, fencing that. Heck, any stranger who didn't know Chang-Wook would have assumed that he was a sabreur or foilist, or even a Judoka or Wrestler, though the only connection he carried to the sport happened to be because of his deceased father. Not to mention that they had ended up reading about something that really made them uncomfortable, and quite concerned, especially with Aguilar siblings also expected to fence in foil and sabre events (8). That didn't help with her irritation.

Perhaps the best idea for them would be to actually not thinking too much about fencing for rest of the day unless they had to. So that's what happened- they agreed to watch the Judo medal matches after their respective team practices.

Notes
(1) Some members, who were fencing under the CSKA Quebec and therefore the Royal Quebecois Forces, still technically belong to the Quebecois military.
(2) Connétable de Quebec is influenced by Connétable de France (Grand Constable of France) IRL in name. Traditionally, it is only used when the Quebecois state is engaging on a major war. At the time of Lieutenant Jin's service, however, Jacques IX wasn't the Connétable, for the peacekeeping missions do not constitute as an occasion.
(3) It is famously said that the late Jacques IX, whose rise to the throne at age 21 had happened due to his well-prepared father Henri VIII's passing after 9 months of his reign, was known by his nickname 'The Conquerer' for his part as Connétable de Quebec et Shingoryeo in the Felixian Liberation Campaign (WC69) and the vanquishment of Holy Republican Empire (WC72), while in his early-mid twenties. He was also remembered for being the long patron of Royal Quebecois Fencing Federation.
(4) Yang Soo-Gyeong is a 20 year old Quebecois outside hitter on the Olympics and Senior national Teams, who is viewed by many to have the potential to be as good as Brittany Veronneau, the greatest Quebecois women's volleyball player who captained the gold medal-winning team at 2020 Nassau Bay-Centralis Olympic Games 30 IC years ago. She was recently signed to Atletik Thessia of Mytanija, after a great season with Avangard VC of Gatchingerrak Union. Mira Gushtanova is Mytanar outside hitter who is considered by many to be the best outside hitter in all of women's volleyball. Unlike Yang, however, Gushtanova does not play for Mytanar olympic team to both protect the player and her being slightly older than the olympic team. Better safe than sorry.
(5) Well, technically four, but third category's not really applicable on high-level competitions, especially not on World Championships or the Olympics.
(6) This is actually where I slightly deviate from real-life norms. All of this description was common back when I used to fence as an undergraduate student in an Ontario school (a very large program for college circuit there) back in mid-late 2010s, though that may be more on how limited fencing infrastructure and finances were in Canada in general than anything else. For Quebec and Shingoryeo, there are lot more fencers and I also assume there is lot more money on fencing infrastructure and competitions there, so I decided to describe things differently here.
(7) Brock Lundrigan, whose piece I had linked right above, was a legendary Quebecois collegiate fencing coach for Queen's College. One-time collegiate champion on Men's Individual Epee at Queen's College, he eventually coached as associate head coach for his alma mater and Mount Ester University, before returning to coach Queen's College at 2007. During his time with Queen's College on a 32 year gig as head coach, he has coached 7 olympians and also served as the national team coach for the silver-medal winning Men's Epee team in 2044 Istria-Orean Games. For those who have also read TWGS at one point, you could just remember him lot easier as the second uncle of Asher Lundrigan, our dear protagonist there..
(8) In real life, it is extremely rare for elite-level fencers (those on national teams and beyond, and on NCAA) to focus on two or more weapons, as a fencer would be specialising on one due to how different the three of them are from each other. Doesn't mean there are exceptions - Arianna Errigo fences both foil and sabre for Italian national team - but those are exceptions and not norms. so, it is quite amusing to see some fencers being roleplayed in general as elite/world class on all three or even two.

by **Kriegiersien** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 7:37 am

The Schoenwetter Herald

Sport – Olympics

JUDO — Men's 60 kg

Dogman won, after silver last time, Gold in Judo. But the rumours that he is also the Superhero Dogman didn’t break up. He reacted annoyed:
“I won a gold medal in Judo, could we please concentrate on my Olympic achievements? The great, gripping final against Michael Nelson? I am not a dog. Besides, if I were this Superhero I wouldn’t take the same name as my alias. I am just a fan of him. How often do I have to explain that?”

SHOOTING — Women's 10 m air rifle

After setting an Olympic record in the qualification round at the last Olympics, Ery Inie failed in the final of the XIV Olympics. But this time she won at least silver in the medal round, after again winning the qualification.
“That was really stressful. I had so much pressure, but also anger in me. Now I can finally rest. I won my medal. It can’t get better then that. I retire.”

CYCLING — ROAD — Men's road race

In the men’s road race five times Tour Kriegiersien winner Vance Armstorm ended as best Kriegiersien on place 81, 2:33 behind the winner Bill Bonnington from Tumbra, 25 places behind Napoléon Masters from Darmen, the first foreigner to win the Tour Kriegiersien.
Lalo Lisien from Lisander, who had ended the Tour Kriegiersien on place 15 didn’t reach the finishing line.
“It pretty much shows that the Tour de Kriegiersien is way back as standpoint for the international level”, said a frustrated Armstorm.
“When the leading group started the attack and broke away I couldn’t follow at all. I miss the old days when I had my… vitamins.”

FENCING — Women's individual épée

In Women's individual épée Sarah Porthos lost her match in the round of 16 after being injured in her fight against Carissa Aguilar from Scornerse.
“I have never seen such an unfair fighter at the Olympics. And the refs didn’t see anything. I clapped for her opponents in the semi-final and bronze match. If I am fit again and we meet once more, I will shred her!”, hissed Sarah, cooling her hand.

Further short news:
- search for Kriegiersien Football Masters Team, that vanished after plane crash over the sea, not entirely stopped. Kriegiersien president: Meh. I really don’t care.
- Kriegiersien failed to win bronze medal in Hindsight in Ko-oren Mental Gymnastic Games. „We came too early again“, said a frustrated motivational coach Dr. Alzheimer
- Operation Freeze, with the goal to build a Giant ice sheet between ten-thousand Kriegersien isles, to create and develop better ice skating and ice hockey athletes and teams, stopped for now because of ‘problems’
- ‘Kriegiersien NOC not corrupt’, says Journalist before moving to a villa on a tropical island

The dogman comic:

by **Chartistan** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:23 am

The Juniper Project
Part 1 - Exposure

The delegation representing Chartistan awaited patiently for the world to finally see what in the world this nation was up to. Chartistan was always known for its football more than anywhere else - Stars like Air Latte and Little Exnash just to name a few had made their names at the World Cup qualifiers, while club side Don't Touch Me of the Chartistani Hot League had an unforgettable run in the IFCF Champions League. Other sports seemed to be on the backburner, at least, until this moment. Nobody, not even the Chartistani media, knew what the athletes looked like. Their names were seemingly placed online but no photos accompanied them. Nobody saw what a Chartistani athlete looked like until Julianne Lachapelle won her first group game in badminton. Sailor Carlene Lawrence weirdly looked the same too. This weird delegation was one made up entirely of females, no males, unlike the Chartistanis who represented the Sonnel delegation at the previous Winter Olympics, would represent the country. When the Caryton delegation was called up, their moment in the sun would come. The Spiritual Republic welcomed itself to the world before one woman grabbed her flag and headed out...

As the name of their nation was blared out on the PA system in the Olympic Stadium, the whole world finally got to see the Chartistani Olympic Delegation. They, and not just Lachapelle and Lawrence, all were... The same. Same height, same weight, same eye colors and hairstyles and personalities. They all were copy and pasted with some minor modifications. Some excelled in athletics, others in surfing and table tennis. There was no women's national team of any kind, the athletes, with some exceptions, were all alone and fighting for themselves, representing their country. This is how the world was exposed to the then top-secret Juniper Project, an initiative to give Chartistan an Olympic team thanks to cloning and genetic modification.

The athletes all had the same bodyshape and size and looks and personalities and even intelligence - Apart from a few needed modifications to compete in some sports like judo and boxing. They all were blond, black eyed, 5' 5" women, each with different names and competitions in different sports. It was a relatively small delegation - only 46 entries and 48 athletes - chosen by the team to be a small but manageable starting size before ramping things up in future Games. The fact that there was no entries in team sports was chosen just for this purpose - That would mean a lot more cloning and modifications, and that would waste money which could, if Chartistan didn't win any medals, put the project in jeopardy for future Games. The fate of the Juniper Project wasn't to be known until after the games ended, however, and as the flame lit up and the fireworks went off, the 48 athletes in awe, their journey began.

Things didn't start well - On the pool, Roxanna Agani's performance on the 100 meter Butterfly was 100th out of 109 athletes, her 59.84 timing being the 2nd to last sub-minute time in the heats of the event, and more than 2 seconds off the pace of the final entrant to the Semi-Finals. In badminton doubles, Alicia Wallis and Osanna Carson lost both of their sets to Antonella Muñoz and Lolo de la Cruz of Sargossa, even though they fought hard in the first set. In fencing, however, épée specialist Cruzita Westenberg made her way to the last 32 before falling to Bryanna Phillips of Eura, marking Chartistan's first decent run this Games.

Things didn't go well on the mats though, as in judo, Else McCoy tumbled out in the Round of 32 to Valanora's Madeleine Kyllingstad. Lawrence was fumbling in surfing too, her 3rd and 4th runs on the one-person dinghy making her in the bottom of the pack. Chartistan's highlight of the first day came on shortboard surfing, as Keavy Weaver topped her heat and scored the 5th best score of the first round, making her, seemingly, a contender for a medal. All eyes, however, turn to Priti Geller as her 17.10 score makes her a favorite to top the podium for ABEN Union members Estogium.

Mixed feelings came in table-tennis, as Leesa Casales won her preliminary round match against another Euran, this time Kate Olivier, in 6 after a shaky first set, while Gertie Cockburn crashed out, losing all of her sets to Mytanija's Senada Pavlovic. To round off the day, Emory Gardner got on the weights and finished 26th out of 42 competitors in weightlifting, middle of the pack in the event.

While the Juniper Project didn't get off to the best of starts, it would seemingly be up for here, as Weaver fights for Chartistan's first taste of the podium. Others wait in the wings, however. Cristina Nelson and Lilah Kelly take their turn on backstroke and breaststroke respectively. Cassandra Sauveterre and Manon Sokolov hit the road race with an outside and unlikely chance of getting a medal, while Susanna Crouch aims for a foil medal in fencing. Jillian Schulz will get her first taste of Olympic single-scull rowing as a medal contender and Jessica Roy skates for a shot at the podium at street. Finally, Casales hopes to make a run in table tennis while all eyes are on the lawn version - Avalon Hartley is a favorite to take gold, but Cece Gardiner steps in first - as Concha Adams and Becca Alonso take their shot at beach volleyball.

1 day down, 18 to go.

by **Polkopia** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:51 am

OLYMPICS Men's Swimming Fails To Impress, Men's Gymnastics and Women's Swimming Still Hungry for Medals

While men's swimming did not go as planned and failed to result in a medal after Day 1, optimism remains high after stellar performances from the men's gymnastic team, women's badminton, and others, as Polkopian athletes gear up for the second day of the Olympics.

.....By Vera Pirožkova
.....12th August, 2021, 12:22 | Updated 9th August, 2021, 13:56

.....

.....With the continuation of the 15th Summer Olympic Games in Electrum, we have another day filled with heartbreak, excitement, and all the drama you could ever possibly want in a tournament of this caliber. For the Polkopians, we saw disappointing finishes for Polkopian swimmers Aleksandr Kadyrov and Vassili Barinov in the Men's 400m freestyle, and went home without even qualifying to the final. Of course, they were regarded as some of the finest male Polkopian swimmers in the competition, so to have not one of them make the final must have been extremely humbling, not only for the athletes themselves, but for the entire Polkopian Olympic Committee, who had been expecting at least one medal in this event from either of these athletes. Be that as it may, it was Fergus Farrell from Sylestone who brought home the gold and the first medal for his country in the event. Cruz Kruger from Darmen and Paul Devereux from Krytenia brought home the silver and bronze medal, respectively.

.....The other men's swimming events thus far yielded similar results for the Polkopians, as the men's 100 m breaststroke saw neither Polkopian athlete advance to the semi-finals. Many didn't expect Polkopia to medal in this event, however the time recorded by athletes Sergei Požarsky and Vladimir Polin must have been a tough pill to swallow for the athletes themselves, coming three entire seconds behind the last qualifier. The last event of the day for men's swimming was the 400m individual medley, which saw Polkopia crash out of qualifying yet again, with athletes Aleksandr Yugantsev and Ante Golovkin recording average times for their heat. Unfortunately it was not good enough to advance to the final, and Polkopia finished the day without a medal to show for men's swimming.

.....Of the many events that occurred during the first day of the Olympics, Polkopia excelled at quite a number of them. See below for a quick recap on some of these events:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

.....Men's Doubles Badminton:

.....It was a great day for men's doubles badminton today, after both of Polkopia's pairs went on to win their matches.
.....The first of these pairs consists of athletes Martin Kyrov and Maksim Vukušić, who were drawn in group 12 alongside
.....Bollonischian duo Carl Jones and Mathews Miller. In their first match, the Polkopian side bested the Bollonischians
.....in two rounds. In the first round, it became quite clear that Jones and Miller were unprepared for Vukušić's hard
.....smashes, which saw the Polkopians soar ahead early in the round and clinch the win. In the second round, the
.....playing field seemed much more even after the two pairs got a feel for each others' game, and the second round
.....consisted of several long and sustained rallies which eventually saw the Polkopians win out.

.....In Group 17, the Polkopian duo David Starodubov and Ustin Rokossovsky bested Ehjy Yeslatrovi Yiisu Besateru from
.....Vekaiyu in a match which, like the one in Group 12, also only lasted two rounds. Both sides showed high-intensity
.....performances in the first round, but it was the Polkopian duo's supurb defense against the Vekaiyun short serve which allowed them to hold their own against them and ultimately contribute to their hard-earned victory in the first round. In the second round, we saw the Polkopians take advantage of the Vekaiyun duo's sloppy third shot, cutting some of the intense rallies short with hard spikes in their court. The Polkopian duos in this competition continued the hot streak of Polkopian badminton success in this tournament and have attracted wide-spread domestic attention to the sport as a resut.

.....Women's 100m Butterfly:

.....The swimming events were not all doom and gloom for the Polkopian Olympic Committee, as proved by Lana Ažikelyamova
.....during the 100m butterfly race in which she qualified to the semi-finals, before coming out on top of her semi-final with
.....an impressive time of 57.08 seconds, only 0.21 seconds ahead of second-placed Samira Rajallah from Qasifya. Going into
.....the finals, Ažikelyamova recorded the second-best time, falling only 0.02 seconds behind Scornerse swimmer, Reina
.....Cervantes. She is currently in a very good position to bring Polkopia its first medal but, as we've seen already, the final
.....results can come down to one-hundredth of a second, so Ažikelyamova will have to be on her A-game if she expects to
.....medal in this event.

.....Men's Gymnastics :

.....The Polkopian men's gymnastic team had a overall positive run in the first day of their events, with Vinko Myshelov
.....being the only gymnast to qualify in the all-around event. Although he was the sole qualifier in all-around, many
.....saw this as a victory after Myshelov's impressive routine, particularly in the horizontal bars, earned overwhelmingly
.....positive critiques from Polkopians back home. In particular, Myshelov's difficult Maloney routine was near-perfect,
.....as he exemplified immense strength during his prolonged extension, making it seem as if he seamlessly glided through
.....the air on his transition. This routine undoubtedly contributed to most of his high rankings with the judges, as well as
.....safely qualifying to the horizontal bars final, alongside fellow Polkopian gymnast Dario Alexeyeev. Both of these
.....gymnasts will compete to win Polkopia its first ever medal in a gymnastics event.

.....Matvei Pul'khin was Polkopia's lone qualifier in vault. Many will know him for his prance-like run leading up to the springboard, along with his signature Shewfelt routine. As expected, he performed this routine, which consisted of a back-handspring onto the vaulting platform, followed by two-and-a-half twists into a layout back salto off the table and into a landing. Unfortunately for Pul'khin, while he performed the maneuver well, it was his landing which ultimately cost him points. Be that as it may, this is a rather easy fix, and we've seen Pul'khin perform this routine hundreds of times without error,so expectations are high that he will perform well in the finals.

.....The Polkopian Olympic Committee is currently preparing for the next round of events, which will see numerous heats in swimming, gymnastics, badminton, and boxing, all of which will surely draw the highest viewership from Polkopians back home. We are as excited as ever to comment on these matches, so stay tuned to receive updates on Polkopia's run in these events!

.....Vera Pirožkova

by **The Sarian** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:20 am

The Parsnip presents

Being Super Negative and Over-analysing Sports That We Barely Know the Rules For and Certainly Would Be Bad At If We Tried: The Web Blog
Aka, Watching The Olympics With Your Dad: The Web Blog

With Albeurt Pauwl (AP) and Jessa Jowst (JJ)

Day One: Dressage

AP: Why isn't there music?
JJ: Music makes it better.
AP: Much better.
JJ: This is just horses moving, they aren't even dancing.
AP: This one from Darmen isn't even moving.
JJ: Shit pirouette.
AP: That's why you don't go into the pirouette from the piaffe, that's basic stuff.
JJ: Yes, don't do a piaffe like that.
AP: 66? I would have given that zero.
JJ: Very uneven. So much wagging.
AP: That's what the commentator said for the last one.
JJ: Like you knew what the piaffe was.

...

JJ: Ooooh here comes Braacus DeSaari, the hottest young thing in the Saari Equestrian squad.
AP: How could you not pick him for the squad? Been blowing up the domestic arena for years. Enormous talent.
JJ: Oooh, not sure about that reach. Very poor.
AP: I can't look. Look at that trailing left leg. I want to vomit.
JJ: A common mule can canter better than this.
AP: Very poor horsemanship.
JJ: NO!
AP: WHAT AM I WATCHING!
JJ: Possibly the worst fucking rein-back I have ever seen. And this is the seventh athlete to compete today.
AP: I'm in shock.
JJ: The Sarian have won a dressage medal in every Olympics we have competed in. Not like this.
AP: People are turning in their grave at this.
JJ: And I bet they wouldn't hesitate before their turn either.
JJ: Sorry, piaffe.
AP: Pirouette.
JJ: Oh.
AP: How anyone thought Braacus was ready for the Olympics I do not know.
JJ: Frankly, there should - and will - be recriminations for this.
AP: Blew it for us in the team competition.
JJ: Electrum has to be favourites now. They're a big Equestrian nation.
AP: Very big.
JJ: Yes, massive.
AP: Not as prestigious as The Sarian.
JJ: No.
AP: But very well credentialed.
JJ: Can the commentators please say something else for us to repeat soon.

...

AP: Jessie Bach (sic) of Electrum up now.
JJ: Electrum are a big Equestrian nation.
AP: And the home advantage has to help too.
JJ: Electrum pitches are traditionally greener and favour a bit of seam.
AP: I think that's cricket.
JJ: Electrum don't play cricket, they're a big Equestrian nation.
AP: Lovely sidepass.
JJ: This horse is really on the aids.
AP: I have goosebumps.
JJ: Beautiful.
AP: Just imagine this with a classical composition playing.
JJ: That's tomorrow.
AP: Wow.
JJ: This horse is so in-synch.
AP: Yes, very fluid.
JJ: Showoff.
AP: WOW!!! AMAZING.
JJ: This is at least a ninety.
AP: The commentators haven't said anything negatives. That's a 95 at least.
JJ: Well done Jessie Beack (sic)!

...

AP: Oh that clashes.
JJ: Very ugly.
AP: White blazer on a white horse?
JJ: I hope you don't get deductions for clashing colours.
AP: Three Olympic medals, including an individual silver last Olympics and this is what he chooses to wear.
JJ: I don't think Janus Christiaan personally picked this out.
AP: PICK THAT OUT!
JJ: That's football. But lovely trot.
AP: The moment of suspension was simply sublime.
JJ: And the legs were in a perfect diagonal.
AP: Really on the aids.
JJ: Fantastic horsemanship.
AP: Achieving a fabulous extension on the canter.
JJ: Sublime canter.
AP: NO DON'T TOUCH THE EDGE!
JJ: Oh that was some fantastic discipline to stay inside the line.
AP: Head is dropping a bit. But this should be at least a ninety.
JJ: Seventy eight.

...

AP: How did we do so badly.
JJ: I blame the white blazer.
AP: Our best rider is ninth in the individual.
JJ: And we're sixth in the team competition.
AP: Electrum are first.
JJ: They're a big equestrian nation.
AP: So are we. And we're doing terribly.
JJ: Some serious problems with selection.
AP: Very serious problems.
JJ: We'll have to tune in tomorrow to see how it goes.
AP: The TV says the day after.
JJ: How can we have that much anticipation.
AP: I think I'll cope.

by **Mytanija** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:38 am

A flashy titles sequence starts up along with screeching guitars and percussive drum beats. Images of past Mytanar sporting glories cross the screen: Yolanda Savic setting an Olympic record in the pole vault in Lasft and then incredibly doubling up to get a bronze in the high jump; Wes van der Stijnen – possibly the greatest road cyclist ever – winning back-to-back Island Tours; Zuzana Spevakova, the country’s best ever swimmer, climbing to the top step of the podium twice for the 200m freestyle and 400m individual medley before also getting a bronze in the 4x100m medley relay in Lasft before going on to win 3 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze at the Rushmori Games. The images then move inside, boxers Arni Tukaldev and Katrina Ujeva winning their golds in the ring, before one of their punches causes the images to shatter and the words ‘Standing On The Shoulders of Giants’ complete the sequence.

Narrator: Mytanija has produced some fantastic sportspeople over the years, a number of record-breakers and serial winners in different disciplines. Now we chronicle the experiences of the athletes which are looking to follow in the footsteps of those that have come before them and reached the pinnacle of their sports. This series will provide full coverage and insight in the run-up to, during and after the Terranean Coast/Bunjil Olympic Games. We will see what boxers, cyclists, pole vaulters, swimmers and several other Olympians go through in order to prepare for competitions; all the trials and tribulations of the Games; and see how they react to both successes and failures. Standing On The Shoulders of Giants is a series which is designed to give viewers an insider’s view to the efforts and emotions Mytanar athletes will experience and cover all the highs and lows of the Olympic Games hosted on the other side of our region in the land of our Rushmori neighbours, Electrum.

Dealing with Disappointment

Narrator: Disappointment is a natural part of sport. Athletes cannot win all the time, even if they are the greatest in their craft, at some point their powers will wane or they will be beaten by a wily opponent. The best deal with disappointment well and utilise it as motivation for the future. They turn their defeat, their disappointment, into fuel for their successes. That makes learning to deal with disappointment an important part of the lives of sportspeople. Will they allow their disappointment to crush them? Will they allow it to stop them from achieving whatever it might be they want to achieve? Or will they use it productively? Will it become that motivation they need to go on and prove the doubters wrong?

In this episode we will look at three different sports, two which have a rich history of Mytanar success and a third which is a little less storied. Mytanar cycling has produced Wes van der Stijnen, arguably the greatest stage racer of all time, but he never managed to achieve Olympic glory in his impressive career. Mytanar swimming has produced the so called ‘Fab Four’ which dominated the pool at the Rushmori Games and was headlined by the two-time Olympic gold medallist Zuzana Spevakova. Those in the pool this time would be following in illustrious footsteps if they could step onto the podium. Then we move onto judo, a sport which does not have too much history on Mytanar soil and is probably better known for being a sport which the Krytenians excel at than anything else. Zehida Plavec, only 19 years old, competes in the women’s 48kg category and is trying to put judo on the map in Mytanija and we chart her story at the Olympic Games.

***

Mytanar cyclists have a tough task to follow, failure to live up to the standard set by the likes of Wes van der Stijnen and Preben Kvaal means they will be heavily criticised by the media and the public. It can make international competition a thankless task for the riders involved. Cycling draws a lot of impassioned views and people hark back to a bygone era and the grit and panache displayed by champion cyclists of the past whenever they can. Many current cyclists feel it is almost a stick to beat them with, the domestic racing scene is as competitive as ever with lots of stage races ranging from the famous three-day event Three Steps of Ebena to the ten-day Tur Mytanija. The one-day races always draw crowds too and the big three of Cieszin-Prizren; Thessia-Thessia; and Zavolja-Sigurno are some of the most talked about sporting events of the year. Mytanar cyclists do not get the opportunity to test themselves abroad quite as often as they once did, although the GS SuperSports+ Road Cycling World Series has provided them with a chance to impress of late.

The Mytanar team for the Olympics is made-up of Jasar Izetbegovic and Miroslav Grbesa (both of Guinec-Kultura); Drazenko Buhic (Air Rauchnya Cycling); and Marin Svetlicic and Luka Petrusic (both Agrokomerc-Kafa). The quintet seem to have built decent relationships in their preparation for the Olympics, although being cordial hasn’t always been their experience of one another with Grbesa and Svetlicic in particular having had disagreements due to events at a previous race. Svetlicic won the Tur Magevskaya thanks to his daring descending, descending which caused a Grbesa error and subsequent crash. They’re led by Velichko Lausevic, the acting directeur sportif for the men’s road team. He’s a controversial character in Mytanar cycling, renowned for his extreme training methods and for pushing his riders to their limits. He believes making training as difficult as possible is the best way to make actual racing simple. Some riders aren’t too fond of that approach.

The hilly Olympics road race route was one which the team looked at and relished. They were mostly decent climbers or even general classification contenders. It was a team built for the war of attrition that the race was likely to be. Their international results hadn’t really matched-up with this view and the media let them know about it at every opportunity. Luka Petrusic had stolen a march on everybody in the flat Háttmark–Laafjörður classic, attacking late on and taking advantage of a fortunate tailwind in the final kilometres to stay away. The crosswinds earlier on had broken the field apart and Petrusic, Grbesa and Buhic – all on different teams – had found themselves in the lead group. The Mytanars found themselves having to work together, a sign of what was to come with the Olympics team selection and it was Petrusic that profited with his late attack and Grbesa held on with the others to finish inside the top ten. It was a fantastic win for Luka Petrusic, but as Gazeta Sporta pointed out in their Olympics preview, it wasn’t a parcours which told us anything about his ability to win at the Olympics road race.

Miroslav Grbesa – riding for Guinec-Kultura – took a leaf out of his compatriot’s book at the Kriterium von Schutzenphalia, his late attack in the closing kilometre enough to see off the competition and shock the field on another flat course meant more for strongmen than skinny climbers. Grbesa is a good time trialist, as you’d expect from most GC contenders and he used his ‘engine’ to good effect to ride off the front and leave the peloton behind. It looked as if the race had been heading for a sprint but it was an audacious tactic and Grbesa got what he deserved as he used a bit of road furniture and a narrowing of the course to his advantage. Craft racing for sure, but not on a course which told us much about his ability to win at the Olympics road race, something Gazeta Sporta were quick to point out.

Grbesa’s big rival Marin Svetlicic tasted success at the Coral Coast Classic. This course did tell us a bit more about Svetlicic’s ability to do well at the Olympics, with some steep ramps on the Green Mountain. Svetlicic attacked again and again, relentless in his appetite to see off his rivals and eventually this snapped the elastic and he was away. The 24 year old did tire on the flat run in towards the end and the gap was narrowed to his rivals, including Grbesa who ended up in third, but he held them off and got another famous victory on foreign soil for Agrokomerc-Kafa to go alongside Luka Petrusic’s at Háttmark–Laafjörður. Gazeta Sporta was a bit more buoyant on this success, suggesting that it was a ‘good omen’ for the Olympics.

Those results raised expectations among fans and with the Olympics on the horizon it has piled pressure onto the five-man squad who will carry the nation’s hopes in the men’s road race, with road cycling being the only sport alongside pole vault which can cause the whole nation to stop and watch events unfold. Mytanar riders rode cleverly with their trade teams during the World Series and with three wins in the eight events belief has skyrocketed. There might well be a winning squad from the current crop after all… As long as they can put their inter-team rivalries aside and ride for Mytanija in the Olympics road race. That might prove the most difficult part given the notorious rivalry between Mytanija’s ‘big three’ cycling teams: Guinec-Kultura, Air Rauchnya Cycling and Agrokomerc-Kafa. They have the best riders and usually duke it out for the wins on the domestic circuit whilst simultaneously fighting a constant battle against one another off the roads as they look to gain advantages through cycling technology, sponsorships or getting opponents thrown off races for minor infringements. That can create tension.

A field of over 240 riders would make the road race very difficult to control at the best of times and alliances would have to be made and broken on the day to try and win the race. It would be a cut-throat business and the Mytanars’ reputation will precede them. That will make working together even more important and if the Mytanar team cannot do it then their chances will go out the window pretty early on. Velichko Lausevic has quite the job on his hands not only to ensure the team are suitably prepared for the physical aspects of the race, but also for them to work as a team and not work against one another as they are so used to doing normally. Here is an insight into how their race panned out:

The camera shows an enormous peloton roll out at the start of the Olympics road race, skipping between different shots of the group as they set out on their 6 hour journey to what every rider will hope is Olympic glory. The first 10-15 kilometres are carried out at a relaxed pace as the riders roll out and find their legs, waiting for the flag to drop and the official racing to begin. Once that occurs Luka Petrusic is off like a shot, dropping into his biggest gear and clambering out of the saddle and all over his bike to try and get off the front of the peloton and into a break. Several riders follow his green jersey, white, orange and charcoal stripes resplendent down its sides. Allowing a rider as strong as Petrusic up the road could prove costly, but with the weight of attacks and number of riders trying to go off the front the peloton have to relent eventually and allow them to go. Petrusic has his gap and Mytanija are happy.

“Brilliant! He’s gone!” Velichko Lausevic says, sitting back in the team car. A dashboard camera keeps track of everything that is said from his perspective, alongside the two mechanics who would be there and ready in the event of a bike or wheel change. The next six hours would be gruelling for all involved and they wouldn’t even be cycling! They had wanted to get Petrusic up the road from the gun. He was a climber, but he was a very strong all-round rider and he could cause major problems for a peloton which gave him (and a strong group) too much time up the road. Lausevic couldn’t quite tell who else had made it into the break, but in a race with so many competitors the chances of there being some other strong riders alongside Petrusic were pretty high. Jasar Izetbegovic, Miroslav Grbesa, Marin Svetlicic and Drazenko Buhic were sat back in the bunch, a colony of green among a swirling mass of different coloured jerseys. They had gotten the start they wanted and they would now have to wait to see what happened over the next few hours

[…]

“Fuck!” Velichko Lausevic bangs the steering wheel of the team’s Vatasva Skala. “Miroslav’s gone down! Get him a new bike!” One of the mechanics springs into life, running out towards the stricken Miroslav Grbesa. The bunch had been rolling along serenely. They had seemed happy with the configuration of the break up ahead and the Mytanar riders did not have to work at all with Luka Petrusic up there in that. Lausevic and the mechanics hadn’t been able to see what had happened to Grbesa, but it was evident he had gone down pretty hard. He was holding his arm awkwardly and grimacing, Velichko could see pretty clearly from the car.

Eventually Miroslav gingerly stands up. His legs and lower arms are cut and scuffed. There is a particularly sore looking bit of road rash visible through a gaping hole in his jersey. The peloton hadn’t been going that fast, but all it takes in that situation is a touch of wheels and somebody can end up with a bad injury. The mechanic says something to Miroslav and he shakes his head, pain etched across his face. Velichko holds his head in his hands as the mechanic and rider walk back to the car, the former supporting the latter as he walks a little unsteadily.

“Race done?” Velichko asks in a cold tone, peering through his fingers at the mechanic. The mechanic nods his head solemnly. Just like that Mytanija are down to four riders from five. One of their potential contenders out of the race.

“I think my collarbone is broken,” Miroslav says, uncomfortably hopping into the team car. “I touched wheels with Drazenko and the next thing I knew I was on the deck.”

“Don’t worry about it son,” Velichko replies, hitting the accelerator as soon as Miroslav and the mechanic are in the car. “Happens to the best of us.”

[…]

Things had started to get interesting, with lesser riders dropping off the peloton as the course got more difficult and the breakaway group thinning down at a similar rate. Petrusic was positioned well to help Izetbegovic and Svetlicic if the main group caught up to the break, whilst Drazenko Buhic’s day was done. He was swept up by the broom wagon after a long day of carrying bottles up and down from the team car. He had done his bit for the team, even if an inadvertent touch of wheels had done for Miroslav Grbesa’s day entirely. As apologetic as Buhic was each time he came back to the car for another raft of bottles, it wasn’t really his fault. It was the sort of incident which could happen at any time in a bike race.

Izetbegovic and Svetlicic rode for different trade teams but actually got on pretty well. They were the same age and had come up the youth ranks together. They would work together and Velichko Lausevic was quietly thankful that it was those two who had ended up within striking distance. The break looked doomed, although you could never quite tell if an attack from it would breathe new life into it. There were Tumbrans, Græntfjallers, Quebecois, Mertagnians and Lisanderian riders all present. They could be in for a big finish. Petrusic would be able to help for a bit, but would surely be fatigued from his efforts both in the break and to get into it in the first place. His presence would also cause other teams to look at the Mytanars to ride on the front.

[…]

“Right, here we go.” Velichko says. The race was coming back together. A few teams had worked hard on the front and had eaten into the gap the breakaway had up ahead. Luka Petrusic hadn’t been working for a while, he’d ride through and soft pedal as the break rotated who was on the front before dropping off a few seconds later. He knew his role was to wait up for the peloton if the breakaway appeared to be futile. It wasn’t the best approach for building alliances and Luka received the odd complaint from some of the other competitors, they wanted him to work and try to stay away, but he had his team orders. Thankfully languages had never been his strong suit at school, he didn’t have a clue what they were saying to him.

“I wonder how long Luka can contribute,” Miroslav says from the back seat. “I’d be done if I’d spent as long as he has up the road.”

“That’s why you’re a protected rider, Miroslav.” Velichko grins. “They’ll never have you doing the donkey work will they?” It wasn’t often Lausevic shared a joke, but Miroslav appreciated it. He had had a hard fall and had chosen to remain in the team car to see how things panned out. He could have hopped out to get medical treatment but one of the mechanics had patched him up and given him a towel to wipe away the sweat and a set of team kit to uncomfortably change into whilst sat in the car. Miroslav was still holding his arm awkwardly of course, but he had broken his collarbone a few times, it came with the territory as a cyclist.

“Look!” One of the mechanics shout. Jasar Izetbegovic and Marin Svetlicic are finding their way up to Luka Petrusic’s wheel and the trio are in conversation. Other teams look at the three Mytanars. Having numbers is usually an advantage, but not in a race with such small teams. The burden falls to those with the most riders to make the efforts and Petrusic already looked to be pedalling squares.

“Well at least they have found one another.” Velichko says. “That’s something at least. I think Luka is cooked though.”

“Yeah,” Miroslav grimaces, possibly because of the race situation. More likely to be because of his broken collarbone.

[…]

Petrusic had managed a creditable couple of kilometres on the front, raising the pace of the peloton before wheeling off to the side of the road and almost going backwards. He would eventually finish almost three minutes down on the winner. That left it to Izetbegovic and Svetlicic to decide what to do, they were in the lead group with some strong riders and were one of a few teams with multiple riders left near the front. The Quebecois had three, the Græntfjallers had a pair too, other teams would probably expect those teams to do the most work to stay away and prevent others from coming back into contention. Pairs of riders could only do so much, it wasn’t a number which could dominate a race.

Suddenly waves of attacks began to shoot off the front as the group began to approach the finish, a Tumbran went off in search of the win, closely followed by a string of others in different jerseys. From the team car it was unclear if either Jasar Izetbegovic or Marin Svetlicic had managed to go with them. A lack of team radios meant that there wasn’t any communication to find out for sure. They were in the dark. Marin Svetlicic didn’t have the legs to follow those up ahead, whilst Jasar Izetbegovic did – at least initially. The kilometres in the legs had the effect of deadening them and eventually Izetbegovic could not follow either, the leaders had their gap and even when he looked around for help it was not forthcoming. Few would want to help drag Izetbegovic back up to the front and he did not particularly want to help them either, he was stuck shaking his head and muttering obscenities in the vague direction of the others. He rolled in in 18th, Mytanija’s best finisher and 21 seconds down on the Tumbran gold medallist Bill Bonnington.

The time-gap was understandable and considering the course by no means unusual, even if they had imagined they would be able to achieve a top ten at the very least. There would be no inquest among those involved – riders, coaches, mechanics etc – that was just how road racing went sometimes. The inquest would come in the media. Mytanar cycling would be declared on its deathbed, incapable of placing a rider in the top ten and sullying the legacies of greats of the past.

“Look, that’s just how races go sometimes.” Jasar Izetbegovic explains forlornly afterwards. “I didn’t have the legs to go with them. It was a tough course and I think everybody was on the limit, those lads just had that little extra in the tank to get it over the line. We did a solid race and were unlucky with Miroslav having to drop out so early, but these things happen. We’re disappointed for sure, but we’ve all raced for a long time and we know you can’t win them all, particularly if nobody else wants to help to chase. We’ll try again next time.”

***

Miljusa Kavaric has always believed that she could one day follow in the footsteps of Mytanar swimming’s ‘Fab Four’. If the Mytanar system had produced those women then surely it could push her onto international success too. Kavaric is highly skilled in breaststroke and butterfly, but she also competes in the individual medley and that is where her Olympics begin. A strong performance in her heat gets her through to the finals in relative safety, she finishes in 5th and her friend Mia Oreskovic isn’t too far off qualification for the final either in 11th. Kavaric’s time of 4:35.05 is strong, although around half a second off the time of the fastest qualifier Sofia Antonis. Oreskovic ends up a mere five-hundredths of a second out a qualifying spot.

“I’m so frustrated with that,” Mia explains. “That’s my personal best, so I obviously can’t do much better, but to end up just outside the qualifying times with a PB hurts. I’m disappointed, but obviously so excited for Miljusa at the same time. Hopefully she can go on and win it for us in the final.”

A lovely sentiment and one which is illustrative of the great friendships between Mytanar swimmers, something which follows a lineage all the way back to the ‘Fab Four’ in the pool during the Rushmori Games. The Mytanar swimming programme had a little bit more of a human face at coaching level now, even if the friendships between athletes had never changed. The departure of legendary coach Jovana Krsmanovic had been a huge loss to the programme at a technical level, although some were quietly quite pleased that she had left. Too many had been on the receiving end of her thunderous glare and it was never an enjoyable experience. Without her the approach might end up a little less results-driven. Nobody was quite sure if that was a good thing or not. Everybody wanted to win after all.

This new generation of swimmers hadn’t been coached by her, Miljusa Kavaric included, and they would find out if her expertise made a difference over the course of the Games. Krsmanovic’s departure was the sort of thing which would make the author of a spy-thriller blush, a defection to Sargossa sounded like something that happened during the Mytanar Conflict and it meant that many of those left behind wanted to get one over on Krsmanovic during the Olympics. At the end they wanted to show they didn’t miss her. As things got started in the pool younger athletes would sneak glances at the legendary coach, always deep in thought among the Sargossan contingent. Older heads would ignore her presence entirely, whilst others would fix a stare on her until she looked back. She always looked back with the same cold, detached look across her face. She didn’t care what they thought, but they wanted to lock eyes with her anyway. For posterity almost.

In the end the opening day would be a disappointment for Mytanija and for Krsmanovic and the Sargossans. Miljusa Kavaric improved on her performance in the 400m individual medley heat, going over four seconds faster and ending up a place higher. A 4th placed finish was the one result nobody wanted at an Olympic Games and the frustration was clear to see across Miljusa’s face as she offered congratulations to the medallists whilst still in the water. A good sport until the end, even if the eight-hundredths of a second which prevented her from sneaking onto the podium would perhaps haunt her for a while.

“Yeah, it’s a difficult one to take at this point.” Miljusa says sheepishly. “Hard to process right now but I’ve got so many more events to focus on and really try to make up for this. Hopefully I can do that and get a medal, it’ll make me feel a lot better.”

It might have been a difficult one to take for Kavaric, her coaches and the Mytanar swimming programme more widely. At least Krsmanovic didn’t mastermind a success for the Sargossans though. Her 4x100m freestyle relay squad qualified for the finals with the second-fastest time and looked in excellent form. A disqualification did for their plans, a botched change meaning her opening day ended as disappointingly as Kavaric’s did. The two sides will resume battle on day two.

***

Where cycling and swimming might hold a huge place in Mytanar sporting history, judo might not even hold a footnote. A 19 year old from Severyan is trying to change all that. Zehida Plavec competes in the women’s 48kg category and is something of a prodigy, winning senior national titles at the age of 17 and not losing ever since on the domestic circuit. Judo isn’t a sport which is widely popular in Mytanija, when it comes to the fight game there is really only one answer and that is boxing. Plavec enjoyed boxing as a child too, but when she discovered judo she really fell in love.

“I just loved the physicality of it,” The 19 year old says excitably. “I have never been the biggest, always been quite skinny, but they were teaching me techniques which I could use against much bigger kids and once I perfected them I was able to hold my own even despite the size difference. I just loved that, it was quite empowering in a way.”

Plavec found she was able to compete against boys and girls and once her coaches recognised her ability she was given more focused training. She learned new hip-throws and how to grapple more manipulatively. Her parents, a Rauchik father and a Thessian mother, ferried her to national tournaments all over the country and Plavec quickly rose up the junior ranks. A shock loss at under-14 level nearly knocked her of course, but she continued with the sport after a break and has never looked back since.

“That really was a blow. My confidence was so low afterwards, I really wasn’t used to losing at all and it was the first time I had to learn from that. Once I got over it I used it to move forward, thought about all the things I could do to improve and it actually made me more determined. I doubt I’d have still been doing it today without that loss, I could have become too laidback and relied on my ability rather than constant improvement. It made me learn that losing isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Had I just kept rolling through people I think a loss at like 16 or 17 might have seen me call it a day.” Zehida explains, she is prepared to speak at length about her craft, her face beaming as she gets to talk about some of her contests.

Her deceptive strength is one of her major assets, able to utilise her wiry frame to good effect and pin opponents speedily before then applying the pressure to achieve an ippon. At the Olympics her first three contests are all decided in this way. In the Round of 32 she comes up against Lana Fire, making short work of her opponent and using her shoulders to obstruct Fire from extricating herself from the pin. Plavec has fantastic stamina but she prefers to get contests ended as soon as she can, the control she demonstrates whilst pinning Lana Fire makes the twenty seconds feel as if they fly by. Similar results come against Chromatika’s Camille DuPont and Banijan Nomabhongo Dikana. A submission finish against the latter providing one for Plavec’s highlight reel.

A more competitive battle comes in the semi-final against Krytenia’s Polly Gennaro. Plavec knows she will compete for a medal no matter what the result, but the 19 year old’s hunger for success means she is determined to make it a gold medal contest. Plavec scores early, using her speed and reflexes to counter-throw and secure waza-ari. Gennaro pressures and harries Plavec for the remainder of the contest, but the Krytenian cannot best her youthful counterpart and Plavec roars her approval when the contest ends. Her coaches embrace her and people across Mytanija yell at their television screens in support. She will be in the gold medal contest after all.

The Sarian’s Lieah Kann held the exact same record as Plavec coming into the final, three wins by ippon and one by waza-ari on her route to the gold medal contest. The pair had been the competition’s top judokas and deserved their chance to fight for the greatest prize. Unfortunately for Plavec she would be coming home with a silver medal, Kann just too crafty and gaining the upper-hand towards the latter end of a gruelling contest to secure a win by ippon. Plavec rolls over onto her front before kneeling up, hands on her thighs. The emotions pour out of her as she is met by her coaches.

“I just couldn’t stop crying!” Plavec laughs afterwards. “I was so frustrated to get to the final and to fall just short but then this was combined with being so proud for achieving this at the same time. A first ever Mytanar medal in judo and it’s me that has done it! I’m disappointed it was silver rather than gold but I’m able to come back next time around and give it another go, I’ll only be 23 and hopefully I can use this to spur me on to go one step up the podium. It wouldn’t be bad to have a silver and a gold, after all.”

by **Britonisea** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:51 am

OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT (SECTIONS OF EPISODE)

Live At The Games
Games of the XV Olympiad
Day One

At The Games: Live will be on BVC One for most of the day, where television viewers will be able to watch sports that Britonisea is expected to do well in. During the show, there will be an on-screen indicator of the Britonish medal table and what position we are in. There will also be a notification if we have won a medal and it wasn't shown on BVC One - with it being announced by one of our hosts when we go live into the studio. People will know Jake Bachelor as a Saturday night television presenter. Jake will have an international audience too after his recent hosting of the 60th World Hit Festival in Aronyk, which had 13 million households in Britonisea alone watching the event. Jake will be leading the coverage of the Games, appearing during the evening session of the Games as well as commentating at both the Opening and Closing ceremony of the Games. Jake will also appear during some of the Afternoon sessions too on BVC Two. Rakesh Hayre has had some recent experience as well as he was the online host for the aforementioned 60th World Hit Festival in Aronyk. Rakesh comes from an acting background but is being snapped up by broadcasters to present due to his charming personality and knowledge of sports. Nina Kitowski is one of the leading evening time presenters on BITC. Nina's expertise is presenting in a place with a lot of pressure which she will have to do during the Morning session as we not only catch up with events just gone but also medal events that will be happening live and trust us - there will be loads to catch! Laila Willis and Emmanuel Ruiz Mendoza will be presenting the Afternoon session on BVC Two, with one of them providing assistance during Nina's Morning during the busiest of days. Laila and Emmanuel are relatively new sports journalists who will both have their first experience with presenting to a live audience. As previously mentioned, Jake Bachelor will pop in sometimes during the Afternoon sessions to help them on their way. We expect that the 10-hour coverage will be watched by up to 80% of television viewers in the country across the Games. The hosts will be joined by pundits from each of the sports to join the commentators.

The studios of At The Games: Today will be in Agri which will be home to 92 medal events at the Olympic Games. Agri will be hosting the Athletics, but also Archery and Rugby Sevens - could we see Britonish medals there? At the end of the Games, Agri will host the Closing Ceremony at the Agri Cricket Grounds.

08:00 Live At The Games

Nina Kitowski: Good morning everybody and welcome to Live At The Games! I am Nina Kitowski and I'll be taking you through the first four hours of Day One of the Olympic Games. A lot has already started! We've already had the results of the archery ranking round through with our very own, Aron Semon ranking fourth overall which puts him in a great position with the next day of the Men's Individual ranking being on Day 5 and the medals a week away. In a field of 187, I must say that finishing fourth to get through is pretty good so well done to Aron. Other Britonish archers - Matthew Curren and Jorge Stahr didn't manage to qualify in the individual with them finishing in places 77th and 143rd however all is not lost for them as the men managed to score enough to qualify to the Men's team, only just ahead of the Alezian Union. We managed to catch up with the Britonish male archers after to see their reaction to it all.

We then went to a previously recorded clip with the Archers being interviewed by Kristle Bellanger who is also on the commentary team. At these Games, for most of the sports the commentators have to double up as correspondents which probably explains Kristle's manner when interviewing the Britonish team, with people saying she seemed quite out of breath.

Kristle Bellanger: I just want to start with you Aron. A field of 187 male archers and you finished fourth out of all of them. How are you feeling about your performance?

Aron Semon: I am actually pretty proud of myself actually, yeah! I would say shooting 37 10s is a pretty cool record for myself. I was very disappointed at the last Olympics when I was in Liventia when I scored 655 and missed out from qualifying to the main event because of the amounts of 10s that I had. This is a huge improvement so I can't complain. I've now got to chill ahead of the men's individual final and I can say the pain from last year has helped me work just that bit harder this time around.

Kristle Bellanger: Now you two boys, Matt and Jorge, you both didn't qualify - how are you both feeling?

Jorge Stahr: Considering I qualified last year in 47th spot with 661, I am a bit shocked that I wasn't able to do it again this year. I guess it just wasn't really my day, but I know that I am capable of doing much better and so I hope to bring it to the team.

Matthew Curren: Well I have qualified in neither of the past two Games but I have made a huge increase in my rankings this time around so actually, I am pretty happy.

Kristle Bellanger: And of course as Jorge mentioned - you guys will be participating in the Team Event! We haven't placed in the top 16 of the Men's Archery Team...I don't think ever! That is definitely something to be proud of, no?

Matthew Curren: Yes, definitely! I am glad I still have a reason to stay in Electrum. I am looking forward to getting into that - definitely.

Jorge Stahr: Leaving Electrum with a medal would be cute, right?

Kristle Bellanger: It certainly would be! Aron, you of course have three chances of getting gold here at these Games with you also being entered in the Mixed Team Event! The Olympic Record last year was 1348 - which is obviously what you guys got this year. You didn't manage to get the record since four other teams placed ahead of you and Cherry Mates but that's a good sign, no?

Aron Semon: Exactly, I am well pleased about that - I am going to try and see if I can get on the rostrum but even if I don't, you can see that I am improving as an Archer and I'm very pleased with that.

Kristle Bellanger: Thank you for the chat boys.

We then cut back to the studio where we could see Nina standing up to a large screen. On the screen was a live feed from the skateboarding which had been going on for quite some time already.

Nina Kitowski: Currently going on is one of the first medal events of the Olympic Games - Men's Skateboarding, street final. It was an Estogian team sent to the Olympic Games with all eyes on Jimbo Peters from Estogium who, after the first run, was ranked first. This could be Estogium's fourth ever gold medal but there are some other fantastic skateboarders who have made it very difficult for Jimbo. We were going through the final few skates so let's join the action. Your commentators are Riche Langlois and Archie Ray.

Viewers were then treated to an establishing shot of the picturesque Somer Urban Park with the different events happening around the area before we cut to a picture of the Estogian getting ready to go on his second run. He had an immense amount of pressure after scoring 9.2 in the first run - and with only him and Nargh G’ahnrech (AKY) left to go, if he could do what he did in the first run again, the gold medal would be within his reach...

LIVE FROM THE COMMENTARY BOOTH with Richie Langlois & Archie Ray
Richie Langlois: Jimbo Peters. The Estogian. After run one, he was in the lead and he messed up on the second run - he fell quite a few times. We're now on the final trick. Having a look at the points so far - he currently has 31.9 with his top two scores being that 9.2 he scored in his first round, 8.2 an 8 and 6.5.

Archie Ray: Nargh G’ahnrech has currently 35 points and is in the lead after he had his skate. Nil Carrasco is expected to win this whole thing after qualifying in the first position. He will skate last to defend his placement at the final. I would say the Estogian would need... Nargh G’ahnrech scored a huge 35 so our man will need...9.6 in order to win the competition and at least a 9 to get a medal...whew.

Richie Langlois: Could the man from Darlington get 9 or more in this run to potentially...potentially give Estogium a medal? This is his best trick in the preliminaries, he scored a 9.2 there. Come on Jimbo...

Archie Ray: Here he goes, what has Jimbo got in store for us? Aaaaandd...he's going to go for the rails, he's looking to get a huge score here, oh and he's going for a backside bluntside...

Richie Langlois: And he did it, did you see that! How beautiful was that?!

Archie Ray: Oh my lord, look at him smiling so much - this young man, he's always got a serious expression on his face and finally, a smile has appeared. He's not pressured anymore, he had only one chance to get the gold and he was perfect in that run...

Richie Langlois: ...Damn, that was so good! Let's see what he gets. Remember everyone, Jimbo needs at least a 9 to be in contention of a medal and 9.6 for the gold...look at him hiding behind his shirt. Intense moments...come on Jimbo...

Richie Langlois: He could d- LOOK! It's a 9.4! Jimbo is in second place. Yes, he could still come fourth - but I really think that will be enough for a medal, Archie...what do you think?

Archie Ray: What an amazing day for Estogian skateboarding. He's on the verge of tears! Bless his heart!

Richie Langlois: We must wait, though, we can't celebrate the silver yet. We've got two riders left to go...

Archie Ray: This is all very exciting isn't it?

After a while, the skateboarders Sreten Drljevic (MYT) and Nil Carrasco (NHE) went and did their fifth and final trick. We rejoin the commentary right after Nil...

LIVE FROM THE COMMENTARY BOOTH with Richie Langlois & Archie Ray
Richie Langlois: We know Streten Drljevic was disappointed with that final trick but Nil...Nil did do a good job here. With a current score of 33.9, he will need a 8.4 at least to knock Jacob McKenna from Kelssek off third place. I think, you know, he's done it-

Archie Ray: He will need a 9 to win the whole thing. He could've done that too. Let's listen in, Richie.

Richie Langlois: Poor Jimbo; will he get the silver or bronze?

Archie Ray: ...it's an 8.4!! Nil Carrasco managed to just about cling on there for the bronze after a fantastic qualifying, it's GOLD for Nargh G’ahnrech of the Teremaran Unified Team and ABEN's first medal of these Olympic Games... JIMBO PETERS - Silver medalist in the Men's Skateboarding Street Final!

Richie Langlois: Skateboarding? Who d'thunk!

Jimbo Peters
SILVER
Skateboarding - Men's Street

As we saw the final scenes from the Somer Urban Park, we could hear a voiceover of Nina speaking for a couple of seconds. We then went back to the studio with the above picture showing on multiple screens around the studio. Nina was standing next to one of the huge boards that had Jimbo displayed on it.

Nina Kitowski: Amazing scenes from the Somer Urban Park there. Look at him displayed on our interactive boards - Jimbo Peters is the first ABEN medalist of these Games. Congratulations to Jimbo and congratulations to Estogium! Let's hope for many, many more medals today. We could get a medal in the Men's Individual Sabre in fencing. Britonisea has gotten a gold medal in fencing before, but not in the sabre. We've still got two Britonish hopefuls in contention there, Sam Smith has just defeated Didac Muzzi of Lisander by a single point, meaning he will play Goh Nam-Seong from Quebec & Shingoryeo - who is expected to take it all. A big match ahead. Jake Narster beat Samir Husaynov from the Alezian Union 15-6 and he will play Mai Loijoi of the Vilitian Union. Will the ABEN Union topple another Union, you can find out over on BVC Three with commentary by Tiara Ami, Bella Thorpe. Stay here for some canoeing. Britonisea has won five medals in the canoeing and we're hoping that we can get a couple more at these Games. Today in the studio, I am joined by the delightful joined by Matthew Osbourne - who received silver in the K-1 Olympic Champion from the XII Games! Hello Matthew and welcome to the studio.

Matthew Osbourne: Hello, Nina it is a great, great opportunity to be here.

Nina Kitowski: Now, K-1 was the event that you received a silver medal in all those years ago, but Matt, you participated in the C-1 too - and at those XII Games, you came 1st in the Semi-Final for both the C-1 and the K-1 so you know what you're talking about. I won't go into too much detail as I'm sure viewers can tune into the Legends Never Die for that-

Matthew Osbourne: Day Five!

Nina Kitowski: Yep, on Day Five! But for now, could you tell the audience what the difference between the C-1 and the K-1 is and which do you personally prefer?

Matthew Osbourne: Well, I couldn't possibly say which one I prefer - I love them both equally. The difference, however, between C-1 and K-1 is the type of oar that's used. The K-1, which I received the medal in, is like a kayak oar with two paddles which you go back and forth with when you go through the water and C-1 is more like singularly bladed, like a canoe paddle hence the name C-1 and K-1...with 1 being one person haha.

Nina Kitowski: Interesting, so it's come to my attention that we have Roberto McNealy in the C-1 who has come second in the preliminary rounds. Things are looking good for him, right?

Matthew Osbourne: Yes, absolutely they are. We've had some great canoeists in the past and Roberto certainly is going to be another one. I am not going to put any pressure on him but I do know that Roberto will join that list no matter where he places.

Nina Kitowski: But comparing him to the rest of the field here at the Olympics, do you think he's in with a medal chance?

Matthew Osbourne: Most definitely, I think he can do it.

Nina Kitowski: Let's head down back to the Somer Urban Park for the Canoeing Slalom C-1 prelims with your commentators Damian Cazeaux and Wallace Lehrer...

At this point, we then went to the Somer Urban Park once again to watch canoeing. As Britonisea has managed to receive five medals in the sport of canoeing, BVC decided to make it one of their main events on BVC One. The preliminaries were shown, cutting to other sports such as fencing which saw the Britons advance further and further. Only Jake Narster made it to the finals in the end, but there was more than enough coverage of every Britonish match there. Other events that was shown on BVC One included swimming which failed to provide anything fruitful for the Team ABEN, with the best Abenite result being Noel Shoultz's 12th place in the Men's 400m Freestyle which was the event he was most confident in. Noel Shoultz will be in action for Day 2 for the swimming as he goes in a few events, including the Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay alongside teammate Pasquale Treadaway. It wasn't initially shown on BVC One but on BVC Four - the Men's Gymnastics qualifications had a Briton (Ivor Watkins) place 1st in qualification. He can place on the podium for up to three events, all of which will be shown on BVC.

16:15 Britonish Time

Jake Narster
SILVER
Fencing - Men's Individual Sabre

Later on that day, the last live event of the night that was shown on Britonish Television was the fencing. Jake Narster was playing Goh Nam-Seong (QUE) who had already defeated fellow Britonish competitor Sam Smith earlier on. As this was the finals, Britonisea and Jake were guaranteed a medal but whether it would be silver or gold would depend on how this duel went. In the end, however, it seemed as though Goh Nam-Seong got the better of Jake. Jake couldn't complain, however - it was his first-ever Olympic medal and the first Britonish medal. It took the ABEN total up to 2 medals. The last time Britonisea received medals on the first day was at the X and XI Games, receiving a silver medal on each occasion. For the past 3 hours and 55 minutes, it was Jake Bachelor and Emmanuel Ruiz Mendoza in the studio. They both looked exhausted and were ready to close the show...

Jake Bachelor: Well, two silver medals mark the start of the ABEN campaign at these Olympic Games - such a fantastic opening day, isn't it?

Emmanuel Ruiz Mendoza: It's been absolutely amazing, it's been a pleasure to be here with you, Jake! I cannot wait for Day 2!

Jake Bachelor: Absolutely! Tomorrow will be even busier as 17 medal events take place - and we're going be here to catch 'em all LIVE.

Emmanuel Ruiz Mendoza: Joi Bessert is looking to do well in the Women's Road Race - Pasquale Treadaway will be hoping to make an impact in the pool...

Jake Bachelor: Roberto McNealy will be hoping for Olympic Glory in the Men's C-1 Semi-Final and Final and our men's archery team are aiming their bows at the gold.

Emmanuel Ruiz Mendoza: That's it from us at Live At The Games; stayed tuned for Mission:Aurum over on BVC Two where will be having chats with Pasquale, Joi, Roberto and Sydeney Chavex who will be hoping to do well in the women's gymnastics tomorrow.

Jake Bachelor: Tune into Legends Never Die straight after with Matej Kovačević as we revisit Rodrick Edelson medal at the XIV Olympiad in the Men's Individual Épée.

Emmanuel Ruiz Mendoza: And finally join Nicky Samuels and Alex Hampstead for Today At The Games for a roundup of all of today's major news.

Jake Bachelor: Goodbye for now!

As the music of Live At The Games played we could see the cameras pan out before going straight to the hourly news broadcast on BVC One.

by **Hopal** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:53 am

"Come on Justin you can't do this." Garret Munson practically yelled at his friend Justin Yuriyama. Justin's coach, parents, and Garret were are gathered around him as he was set to announce his retirement. They all came at his coach's request after Justin told him that he was planning on retiring.

"Well I'm doing this whether you like it or not." Justin replied angrily.

"Come on you know you're not bad, you had a bad day, we all had a bad day. That was the best of the best out there, and you know you can do better. You've beat me before, and you can beat them. But you can't beat if you don't try, and if you retire you can't try. You can't do this Justin, you just can't." Garret argued back.

"Well I am now, and there's nothing you can do about it. And they are better than me, admit it. You can't beat them either." "they're better than me, and there's no point in trying." Justin replied defeatedly.

"Well-"

"What happened to your dream Justin. Didn't you always want to beat all those kids that bullied, didn't you do that Justin." His mom tried to argue.

"That was the dream, but I never actually beat them, I just bowed out like I'll do here."

"You know you can beat them, you just need to put your mind to it." His coach tried to argue.

"There's no point, I just-I just can't beat them. And it'd be better if I just start anew." He said before going to announce his retirement to the world, leaving the four of them in disbelief.

The Hopal Herald Sports

Disappointment and Victory, a look at Hopalian Sailing and Football on Day 1. Glen Young and Justin Yuriyama Announce Retirments.

It was an eventful day on Electrum's Terranean Coast, or as it is it called by the natives; Bunjil. Here we will take a look at two events, one where Hopal saw disappointment and the other where Hopal saw some victory. But let's first take a look at the event where Hopal saw disappointment. The Hopalian Men's Football was long expected to defeat Quebec and Shingoryeo, a Quebec and Shingoryeo team that was quite bad. Hopalian football fans had expected one victory out of the expected slaughter of the Hopalian team that was expected at the Olympics. But Hopalians would be further disappointed when the Hopalian team lost their game against Quebec and Shingoryeo. The game started out evenly, with both sides having around even possession and neither side being able to get to the net much. The game would remain close and even throughout regular time as both goalkeepers put up quite incredible performances with neither side letting a goal. Thus as a result of neither side having scored a goal the match went to extra time, and would it would be a long extra time for Hopalian fans. Quebec and Shingoryeo led in possession and hounded Adrian Turcotte in net who was a superstar for the Hopalian team, with the Hopalian defence being almost nowhere to be seen. Eventually though, after over seventeen minutes of trying the Quebec and Shingoryeo team finally bested Adrian Turcotte, getting a single goal on the board. As was inevitable if the Hopalian defence continued as they were. Quebec and Shingoryeo would mostly hold possession for the rest of the match, though there was an opportunity late for Tommy Sanchez that he couldn't capitalize on. Team Hopal would lose that game 1-0 in extra time. After the match Hopalian left-back Henry Gowen said to the media "We weren't good enough, and I apologize for that. We needed to be better on defence and we let the team down, we will need to reflect on this loss as a team and seek ways to become better and move forward. I can't praise Adrian [Turcotte] enough, he was amazing in net. And we let him down, we need to become better for next time, and we will train to do that."

On the contrary an event where Hopal saw some victory was in Sailing, where all Hopalian eyes were on Layla Lee to rebound from what had been for her a bad day yesterday. She had gotten 18th and 28th in first and second races yesterday in the Women's One-Person Dinghy, and she didn't start off Day 1 with a good race. Getting 41st after struggling to get her sails in order in the high winds, she struggled in that race and it got to her, an unnamed source tells us. She was visibly angry after the race and took out her rage on those around her and it was hard to calm her down, the unnamed source tells us. But whatever happened in between her third and fourth races, it certainly helped her as she would cruise to 3rd place, and made it look easy, completely doing away with any remanence of what had happened in her previous race in her appearance, as she looked very happy after the race, but the unnamed source tells us that she was disappointed in herself that wasn't able to get first place. But she would have even better results in her stronger event, the Women's Windsurfer. She had gotten 12th, 13th, and 10th in first three races on Day 0, a result her coach was satisfied, but that she wasn't. She go out there today at the Black Stone Marina and she would get 3rd place in her first race of the day, improving upon her previous races. She would then get 6th place in her second race of the day, before ending her day with a first place finish, putting her at first place in the overall rankings in a talented field. She was as having looked up at the sky and "I hope I've made you proud father" following the end of the race. As her mother Alexia tells us, her father Greg died when she was 14, and she hard a time coping with his death. Greg, Alexia tells us taught Layla everything she knew about sailing and the two had a close relationship, and Layla was devastated when Greg died in a car crash, even dropping sailing for a time, as she faced her fathers death. He would be proud of her Alexia said, just as she (and the entirety of Hopal) is.

The Men's Road Race was always going to be the big event of the day for Hopalians, it was the first chance for Hopal to win a medal, however difficult that might have seemed. But nobody could predicted what would have happened out there today, with Hopalian Glen Young suffered a scary fall about two hours into the race, and with Josh Jones dropping out about halfway in. Hopalians didn't even crack the top 20, with the top ranking Hopalian, Garret Munson finishing in 23rd, Aaron Huvertes would get 43rd, and Justin Yuriyama, widely regarding as one of Hopal's best cyclists tied for 74th. With the result of the race being as it was the post-race press conference was never going to be a upbeat one, but nobody could have predicted how devastating it truly would be. The first portion involved a teary Glen Young in a wheelchair giving a quick update on his condition, he had been taken to an Electrumite hospital nearby where he was stabilized. In was revealed that he had broke his leg, both of his arms, tore his achilles tendon, and had suffered a concussion. With tears in his eyes he told the world that the doctors had recommended retirement, and that he was going to retire from the sport he loved. The 23 year old said he might try to make a comeback in a year or twos time, but that he didn't think he that he would ever be able to return to this level. Glen Young was very brief with his remarks though and he would soon be on a plane for Hopal to get further treatment. The second portion of the press conference involved Justin Yuriyama who would shock the nation by announcing that he would be retiring. The 26 year old said "I just think that I'm not good enough and that I cannot continue to pursue cycling as a career. It is not the sport that I am in love with anymore, and it is time for me to move on with my life." The news was shocking, we knew that he had problems dealing with pressure, but we never thought that he thought of himself in this way, and this race may have had a negative impact on his mental health. Following the new conference fellow Hopalian cyclist Garret Munson said "It's his decisions, I wouldn't have made that decision if I were him, but he's made it. The rest of us just have to get on with it." The Head of the Delegation for Team Hopal Mike Ashcroft commented "It saddens me to know that he's decided to retire, but it's his decision and we have to respect it."

by **Kaldtfjell** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 12:41 pm

There was a loud voice in amongst the crowd at the Grenville Guildhall in Port Grenville, in the section of the crowd reserved for diplomats. The man with said voice was wearing a tracksuit in the pattern of the flag of Kaldtfjell, gold rimmed sunglasses, and a perfectly maintained moustache.

Judo, of course, is a sport that relies often on respect between the athletes. That wasn’t something that applied, it seemed, to the Kaldtfjeller man amongst the foreign dignitaries. He hollered loudly as his compatriot, Vragi Dagfinnsson, made his way to the mat for his first bout of the men’s 60 kg judo competition, against Albin Ninosson of Græntfjall. Vragi was much fancied amongst Kaldtfjellers as one of the better judoka in a nation filled with talents on the mat. As such, the man intended to spend much of his time in the early days of these Games at the Guildhall, shouting about the Kaldtfjellers as they (hopefully) fought their way to medals.

As the four minutes began, Dagfinnsson and Ninosson bowed to each other, before making their way to the centre of the mat, and beginning the tentative early stages of the match. On a few occasions Ninosson latched onto Dagfinnsson’s uwagi, attempting to flip the Kaldtfjeller, but Vragi held his ground. With the Græntfjaller still seeming somewhat in control, Dagfinnsson made his first positive move of the bout, latching onto his opponent and using his hip as a pivot, flipping over Ninosson and landing him on his side.

With the Græntfjaller landing on the mat, there was a gasp from some in the crowd, and the Kaldtfjeller with the garish tracksuit, eyewear, and facial hair climbed to his feet, screaming “IPPON” at the top of his voice in a thick Nordic accent. Of course, he was wrong. No matter the power, control, or pace of Dagfinnsson’s uki goshi, his opponent had landed on his side: therefore it would be a waza-ari at most for him. The referee, Cassie Bennett, raised her arm parallel to the mat. A waza-ari it was.

“REFEREE, CHEAT!” The Kaldtfjeller yelled into the air at the Guildhall, drawing a gasp from a well-dressed Electrumite woman in the adjacent row, and dirty looks from a number of other onlookers. He launched into a string of Norse curse words as the bout continued, and he was almost too distracted to pay attention to the bout, as Ninosson pulled his way back into the bout. Even if he had been caught off guard, the Græntfjaller seemed now to be ready to take control of the bout. He quickly re-engaged with Dagfinnsson, and imposed himself, forcing Dagfinnsson to separate himself and step away, in an attempt to regain his composure. It wouldn’t be enough though: as they next re-engaged, Ninosson put himself in the perfect position, and flipped Vragi straight onto his back. Bennett raised her arm straight into the air. It was an ippon, and Vragi Dagfinnsson had fallen at the first hurdle.

Both judoka went through the post-match formalities, bowing and shaking hands, but as Dagfinnsson left the mat, eyes directed at the floor, much of the focus in the crowd was on the Kaldtfjeller in the crowd. If they thought he was angry before, he was now completely apoplectic.

“I am the Hovding,” he said, shouting louder than ever and trying to make his way to the mat, before being promptly stopped by Electrumite security guards well before he ever got anywhere near the floor of the arena. “You must not cheat Vragi!”

He was thrown out on his backside. He was making a habit of being thrown out of Olympic venues, and Electrumite officials might be pinning images of Arnfinn Steinarsson to the walls of turnstiles before very long.

by **Sargossa** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 12:59 pm

SSM | Sargossan State Media

International Edition - Olympics

Plain Sailing

Blanco Borrayo reports;

‘We’ve lost sight of our heritage’. So says Juan Esteban Ros. The business tycoon, who made his millions in the tourism sector, was speaking at the announcement of his purchase of the Kobé Coastal Club in Dunas and the Aboro Sailing Club across the blue waters of the gulf, in Motril. Two locations in which he hopes to make Sailing both accessible and affordable for Sargossans who want to give the sport a go. ‘We’re a nation built on a nautical past. But in four decades of competing at the Olympics we’ve managed just one medal in sailing. One single medal. It’s almost criminal. Hopefully if we get more people out on the water, if we get more people enjoying the sport, we can honour that heritage a little bit better.’

As has been proven many times before, the sure-fire method of increasing participation in a sport is by given the public some success or a hero or two to enjoy. As Ros reminds us it’s been a long while since sailing has offered that. But over off the Terranean Coast there’s an actual chance that may change.

Saturnina Marto is the name making a rare appearance in the sporting media. After four races of the Women’s One-Person Dinghy event Marto holds a shock lead, including a win in race three. Only an unfortunate rush of blood in race two prevented her lead being even greater. And the dinghy hopes don’t even end there, as Octavia Pousa emerged from the middle of the pack to take second place in race two of the Heavyweight Dinghy to sit pretty in second place overall. Sargossans too are grabbing attention in the Windsurfing event, the discipline in which that lone bronze medal arrived way back in Aeropag. After six races of the Men’s event three top ten finishes, including a win in race five, sees Adriano Mano in fourth at the halfway point. At the same stage of the Women’s event Materia De Toro is third after a very strong start but has drifted in her most recent races.

All of which should make Juan Esteban Ros very happy, particularly as the magnate has also indicated his intention to run for the presidency of the National Association of Canoeing, Rowing and Sailing. Which does mean he shall be extending his interest to the other two disciplines too. Canoeing is actually in pretty decent health, but Rowing is a different kettle of fish entirely. Considered a curious pastime of peculiar river folk. Olympic success in Rowing has historically consisted largely of avoiding finishing last. It’s become a tradition. A tradition the Men’s Coxless Fours flatly ignored. The team finished second in their heat, albeit a long way behind the Krytenians, and have advanced to the quarter final. They have also been identified as dangerous radicals and placed on an Interior Ministry watchlist.

by **Kelssek** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 2:36 pm

Chang wins individual medley gold, Kelssek wins relay silver after Sargossa disqualification
15TH SUMMER OLYMPICS | SWIMMING

Kelssek scooped two medals from the opening day of the Olympic swim meet with a gold and silver, as Brandon Chang’s win was followed by a second-place finish in the women’s relay.

Brandon Chang came from the outside lanes to win gold in the men’s 400m individual medley, with a time of 4:04.98. Chang earned his first individual gold medal, adding it to the gold he won as part of the men’s relay team at the 14th Summer Olympics.

While falling behind early in the butterfly, Chang recorded the fastest time in the breaststroke leg to move into third and finished with a strong freestyle portion to overtake Tikariot’s Michael Voss and Quebec & Shingoryeo’s Hong Woo-Rahm over the final 100 metres.

Kelssek had two swimmers in that final and Chad Alexander finished fifth from lane five, despite qualifying in second place. Alexander seemed to struggle in the final and recorded a slower time than in the heats.

In a tight finish to the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, the pressure of the situation became a factor. Kelssek went in as the fastest qualifiers expecting a battle with second-fastest Sargossa and it was a pitched battle with Bollonich, Vekaiyu, and Lanesolde all at the head of the pack. Stéphanie Gravel’s storming anchor leg kept Kelssek in the front of the pack, but only after touching third was it revealed that Sargossa were disqualified on a botched changeover, allowing Kelssek and Lanesolde to claim the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Lisa Hitchens, who earned her second silver medal in that relay, hopes that this will be something that gets the swimmers going.

“We’ve seen in some earlier Olympics where we haven’t done so well and the pressure gets worse for everyone, like, we have to win a medal. So if we got two medals on the first day, I think it’s a bit easier for us not to have that kind of expectation weighing on you that you need to win one for the sake of the whole country.”

More from day 1

Rounding off the first day at the pool, Elsie Manning missed out on the women’s 400m individual medley final after losing a swim-off for eighth place. But there’s more to look forward to as Anne O’Shea also qualified for the final of the women’s 100m butterfly.
Jacob McKenna put on a monster of a second run and found the secret tape but missed the podium in men’s street skateboarding. Going first as the last-ranked qualifier, he had to sit and watch as three others were eventually able to beat his scores. He was unavailable for an interview because he spent the rest of the day leading a ukelele sing-along.
The artificial river proved to be a cruel mistress as Kelssek was shut out of the finals of the K-1 women’s and C-1 men’s canoe slalom. “I feel like I wasn’t sharp enough on the course and I touched one of the gates so trying to overcome the penalty I was maybe too aggressive in the second half.” said Lourence Dubé-Dionne.

by **Ostankin** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 3:40 pm

4th Ostankin Channel. Olympics studio. 11.8.1993. 12:33.

Good afternoon, dear viewers of our channel! Vladimir Bubnov and Agafokl Cherenkov are returning on your screen to cheer for our glorious athletes who finally started their fight for the medals!

VB: I can say that our swimmers already finished their battles. *chuckles* All our athletes who performanced today are failed to qualify for the finals/semifinals.
AC: But our archers are still in fight! Ignat Reimin managed to finish 10th among the 187 participants, and Naomi Chashkina finished 31th. Other our athletes probably arrived here just to admire the beauty of Electrum.

Archery. Ranking round.
M 10 Ignat Reimin (OST)               676   39   15
F 31 Naomi Chashkina (OST)               656   23    8
M 98 Roman Kalinichenko (OST)         652   19    5
M 127 Valerian Shutkin (OST)           647   16    2
F 128 Ekaterina Kiesling (OST)            629   12    2
F 129 Snezhana Kaban (OST)                628   10    3

VB: Now we have something more important than archery. Our star Polina Pekoeva is rushing to the medals! She already defeated three opponents and advanced to the round of 16. Now she will fight against Elizabeth Lappenberg of Lisander. Let's watch it live.

some minutes later
AC: The score is 14-14. This is definitely the hardest fight for Polina. Only one point separates her from the victory or defeat. Let's wish her good luck. Hold the breath.
Polina attacks. She tries to touch her opponent. Oh damn... She tries again. And... And... OH DAMN! CRAP!
Oh... I'm... sorry for swearing.... But... Polina is... eliminated.... What a disappointment... How sad. Our fencing star will have to wait another year to fight for Olympic medals.
*shaking and sweating* We lost so many nerves today already... Oh... It's time to switch to another competition.

Fencing. Women's individual épée. Polina Pekoeva's performance.
R128 def. Sabrina Roal (VKL) 15-2
R64 def. Lilia Kornilova (WSN) 15-4
R32 def. Imogen Brooks (KRY) 14-5
R16 def. by Elizabeth Lappenberg (LIS) 14-15

VB: Hey, Agafokl. We have more results of fencing competitions. Tikhon Andreev unexpectedly repeated the result of Polina Pekoeva. He also defeated three opponents and was eliminated at the round of 16.
AC: No... No more fencing today. Let's switch to the boxing instead... Two our boxers passed preliminary round and two failed to pass.
VB: A surprising performance was showed by Antoniy Osmolovskiy. He is not even fit, but freaking fat! He looks like Big Chungus! And he still managed to defeat Sonya Kline from Grearish Union and advance to the main competition!
AC: How impolite, Vladimir! Osmolovskiy did nothing bad to you! And you are insulting him for nothing. Why are you so rude?
Maybe The Great Sower watches us now! And he will be definitely shocked by your behaviour! Maybe, today will be your last working day!
VB: ............................. Alright. Let's see another competition. I'd like to suprise you with equestrian Individual dressage results.

Lin Stables. Agri. 14:35.

Vasiliy Konin managed to achive 5th place in the individual competition! What an outstanding performance! No one expected that from him. We had all our hopes on Mikhail Rigander. And, you know, we really could have two horsemans in the Grand Prix Finals. But... Only 24 competitors advance further. Mikhail finished 25th.

VKD: Good afternoon, Ostankinians! Vladimir Kvadratov is back! And now I will interview our finalist Vasiliy Konin.

VKD: Greetings, Vasiliy! Congratulations with the fifth place! Are you happy ?
VKN: Yes, I'm happy.
VKD: Did you have some kind of tactic here and did you stick to it?
VKN: I had some kind of tactic and I stuck to it.
VKD: Well... Are you expecting to perform well on the Grand Prix?
VKN: I'm expecting to perform well on the Grand Prix.
VKD: The last question for you... How do you rate your performance on a scale of 1 to 10?
VKN: I'm rating my performance on a scale of 1 to 10.
VKD: Alright... Bye, Vasiliy... Congratulations.
Vladimir Kvadratov leaves

VKN: Ha-ha! I got rid of him! Now I can finally go to sleep.

4th Channel Olympic Studio. 15:15.

AC: Hey, Vladimir! Do you remember that you said that our delegation will take more than 20 medals and more than 5 of them would be golden? You're so naive! It's such an unrealistic prediction comparing to results that we saw today.
VB: At least, I really believe in our athletes. I'm a patriot of Ostankin!
AC: Hey, if you are so confident, let's have a little wager. If our athletes will take less than 20 medals, you will be publicly humiliated.
VB: But if they manage to take more than 20, I will report our Glorious Sower about you, your lack of patriotism and your betrayal of the Fatherland.
AC: I'm accepting this wager! Alright, let's return to the sports! We succeed in men's gymnastics as two our athletes managed to qualify for the finals. Moreover, Boris Bada qualified to the rings final, as he showed the BEST result in this discipline among 211 athletes!

Artistic Gymnastic. Men's individual all-around. Qualification.
13 Boris Bada (OST)  93.225 — 1ST PLACE IN RINGS EXERCISE
18 Valerian Nikkar (OST)  93.075
130 Evgeniy Mor (OST)  88.450
151 Leontiy Yakubovich (OST)  86.525

VB: Agafokl, two days earlier you said that it will be a success if our rugby teams will manage to secure a penultimate place in the group in this sport. But today our women amateurs played with Diarcesia and even managed to get a draw!
AC: I'm surprised. Probably, we are not so hopeless at rugby.

Women's Rugby Sevens. Group D. Matchday 1.
Diarcesia 21-21 OSTANKIN

VB: Oh, and another fresh news from the Olympic battlefield! In shooting, Avenir Rybnikov and Tatyana Kirmina managed to secure place in the top 10. Agafokl, what place, do you think, did they take? Remember, that top 8 are advancing to the finals.
AC: I don't know. Tell me and our viewers, please.
VB: Ninth! They both finished ninth and failed to advance to the finals!
AC: AAAAAARGH!!!!! Why we are so unlucky? Just why? We constantly stop only one step away from the finals! I can't lose my nerves anymore... Probably, on the next day I will have a mental breakdown from our results...

Shooting. Men's 10 m air pistol. Qualifying.
9 Avenir Rybnikov (OST)  585
52 Polikarp Gleb (OST)  580

Shooting. Women's 10 m air rifle. Qualifying.
9 Tatyana Kirmina (OST)  627.8

VB:Agafokl! Here some good news for us. We definitely have the chance to earn our first ever Olympic medal!
AC: Huh? A... medal? Where... WHERE???
VB: Women's weightlifting, 55 kg. Anna Stauche became second in snatch. Dear viewers. Let's watch clean and jerk part.

Several minutes later, Anna Stauche managed to show second result in clean&jerk too and became silver medalist, bringing the first ever Olympic award to the glorious nation of Ostankin.

AC: YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!! AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE' VE DONE IT! FINALLY! OUR FIRST EVER MEDAL! IN THE END OF THE OUR FIRST EVER OLYMPIC DAY!!! INCREDIBLE!!! WE'VE FINALLY BEEN AWARDED FOR LOSING ALL THE NERVES! Anna, thank you so much! All Ostankinian nation, including our Great Almighty Sower Sator, is proud of you! Congratulations!
VB: And it's not all good news for today. Because Anna managed to lift 124 kg in clean and broke an Olympic record of 123 kg! But... only for a few minutes. Iúlia dos Santos from Natanians and Nosts soon set an Olympic record of 129 kg and won a gold medal, despite performing worse in the snatch part.
So, Agafokl, I see, that tomorrow you wouldn't have a mental breakdown?
AC: Of course, no! I'm full of adrenaline now! I want more Olympic events!
VB: *laughs* Well, This Olympic day is over, but many Olympic competitions are preapred for us, dear viewers, on the next days of the summer of 1993. Goodbye again, and don't turn off your TV!

LIST OF OSTANKIN MEDALISTS:
DAY 1:
SILVER - Anna Stauche - Women's 55kg weightlifting

SUMMARY: 1 silver, 18th place

by **Srednjaci** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 3:46 pm

THE EXCITEMENT AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES WAS HEATING UP
BY
Ivan Jurlina, Jasminka Frkić and Ivan Božić

Dear spectators, welcome to WAS-Olympic! A show dedicated of course to the Olympics in Electrum.
You know me, my name is Ivan Jurlina and with you are Jasminka Frketić and Ivan Božić. The first official day is behind us. There is a lot of excitement on the battlefields and the first sets of medals were handed out. Unfortunately, our athletes are not among the conquerors. I don't know if we should start with individual disciplines or team sports, what do you think, colleagues?

JASMINKA: Maybe team sports first because there are fewer of them.

BOŽIĆ : Yes, and some team sports are related to individual ones. Maybe team sports first though.

JURLINA: ok, then let's go through team sports first. However, before the review begins, the video goes. Theme song of our athletes for the ve olympics.
Ladies and gentlemen, COLONIAAA !!

THEME SONG FOR THE OLYMPICS : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=100LtGMmd7U

JASMINKA: I can't stop listening to this song. But back to the results. Dear spectators, at the Olympic Games, our teams had a little more luck and knowledge than individually. So let's go.

BASKETBALL — Men's 3x3 — matchday 1

Srednjaci (SRE) 7–2 Darkmania (DMN)

Our basketball players managed to beat Darkmania 7-2. It was a tough match on both sides. Lots of mistakes but also great moves and nicely crafted actions.
Our guys kept Darkmania players away from the racket under the basket. Darkmania players were not skilled shooters from outside lines and there ours created one defensive wall.
In the second match, Ostovo was better than Quebec and Shingoryeo with 8-7.
Group P                       Pld   W  L   RF  RA  RD  Pts 
1 Srednjaci                       1   1  0    7   2  +5    2
2 Ostovo                          1   1  0    8   7  +1    2
3 Quebec and Shingoryeo           1   0  1    7   8  −1    1
4 Darkmania                       1   0  1    2   7  −5    1

ARCHERY

We experienced a real catastrophe of biblical proportions in archery. Our archers were extremely bad in all team performances. We will see later how they fared in the individual competitions. In the women's competition, we achieved the best placement, 22. place.
In the men's competition, a disastrous 35th place.
While the boys and girls were really bad in the mixed team competition, they finished in 44th place.
after a brilliantly determined competition The Black Arrow where we won two medals, here, at the Olympics we are bad for now.

AQUATICS — WATER POLO — Men's — matchday 1

The water polo players played an excellent game at the Olympic pool. In the first round of the group game, our water polo players beat Kalosia's players by 10: 7.
Our goalkeeper Borna Levinić stood out especially with seven saves and the best player of the match was Velimir Trenović.

" Odlična utakmica je iza nas. Probili smo led sa ovom pobjedom. ovo je naravno povijesna pobjeda za našu zemlju u vaterpolu. Ne moram niti naglašavati koliko sam sretan zbog toga. "
"A great game is behind us. We broke the ice with this victory. This is of course a historic victory for our country in water polo. I don't even have to stress how happy I am for that." Said the young goalkeeper.

" Bilo je nervoze malo u početku, što je i logično. Ali kasnije smo se uštimali svi. Nismo previše griješili i nastojali smo ih držati što dalje od našeg gola. Čestitam svim svojim suigračima na odličnom meču. Hvala. " rekao je Velimir Trenović
"There was a little nervousness in the beginning, which is logical. But later we all tuned in. We didn't make too many mistakes and we tried to keep them as far away from our goal as possible. Congratulations to all my teammates on a great match. Thank you." Said Velimir Trenović

Srednjaci (SRE) 10–7 Kalosia (KLS)
Græntfjall (GRÆ) 10–8 Electrum (ETM)
Group P                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Srednjaci                        1   1  0  0   10   7  +3    2
2 Græntfjall                       1   1  0  0   10   8  +2    2
3 Electrum                         1   0  0  1    8  10  −2    0
4 Kalosia                          1   0  0  1    7  10  −3    0

AQUATICS — SWIMMING — Women's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay

In swimming, our women's 4 x 100 freestyle relay achieved 13th time at these Olympics. The relay team of Adalija Julić, Vanta Ana Margetić, Sanja Dolenc and Ivana Rakić swam a time of 3: 37.67, which is weaker than their best time swimming in Saint Shokai two months ago. Then the girls swam 3:36:32.
And Sanja Dolenc will tell us what happened.

" Prve dvije izmjene su bile odlične i plivale smo jako dobro. Na žalost ja sam kasno skočila u bazen i onda sam se još preforsirala. Držale smo odlično prvo mjesto u skupini ali smo onda polako padale. Nakon mene je u bazen skočila i Ivana Rakić ali je i ona izgubila ritam i zamah. Žao mi je što nismo uspjele ući u finale. "
"The first two changes were great and we swam very well. Unfortunately, I jumped into the pool late and then I pushed myself even harder. We held a great first place in the group but then we slowly fell. After me, Ivana Rakić also jumped into the pool. but she also lost her rhythm and momentum. I'm sorry we didn't make it to the finals. "

JASMINKA : This sounds to me like “I’m not the only one screwed up and Ivana is too”. But what is there is no medal. Who screwed her up, quite incidental.

GYMNASTICS — ARTISTIC — Men's team all-around

Here is a sport that is becoming more and more popular in our country. The young men's national team consisting of Bernard Vulić, Jan Popović, Leo Hulić and Nikola Župančić did not make it to the finals as a team. For their joint performances, they received a score of 268,650, which is enough for 37th place. It is also the highest grade in the history of our gymnastics.
37.Srednjaci (SRE)			43.675	43.800	45.575	45.700	45.050	44.850	268.650

VOLLEYBALL — INDOOR — Women's — matchday 1

Our women's volleyball team did a great job. Namely, our best volleyball players beat Græntfjall 3-1 in sets. After the uncertain first set that the Græntfjall players won, our volleyball players played better in the continuation of the match. The block worked finaly and Græntfjall's attacks became less dangerous and the opposing players also became more insecure. In the third set, our players played much more better . Smashes were more destructive and precise. Græntfjall could not do anything important to change score in the third set. After our players took the lead 9-0 and 11-1, by the end that advantage was + 11, 25-14. In the fourth set, the Græntfjall players threw cards at all or nothing. They know they have no more opportunity to repair. They had a lead of 16:14 but our players put in more speed and won that set and thus the match.
Srednjaci hold the top spot with Ostakin in the group.

Srednjaci (SRE) 24 25 25 25
Græntfjall (GRÆ) 26 19 14 22
Group O                        Pld   W  L   PF  PA  PD  Pts 
1 Ostankin                         1   1  0    3   1  +2    3
  Srednjaci                        1   1  0    3   1  +2    3
3 Darmen                           1   0  1    1   3  −2    0
  Græntfjall                       1   0  1    1   3  −2    0

RUGBY SEVENS — Women's — matchday 1

Srednjaci (SRE) 28–28 Greater Vakolicci Haven (VKL)

We follow this sport with great interest. After our men's team surprised Chromatika, today the women's team in rugby7 went out on the field. Opponents were the Greater Vakolicci Haven national team. This national team is a complete unknown to us. But our girls managed to stay undefeated and played a draw. Our men's league in Rugby7 has 8 clubs. The woman is only 5. It is amazing how beautiful this sport is to watch and very attractive but in our country it is poorly followed. Your television WAS, has bought the rights to broadcast the league for men and women, and will be able to threaten you for the third season on our program.
Group E                       Pld   W  D  L   PF  PA  PD  Pts 
1 Lisander                        1   1  0  0   33   7 +26    3
2 Banija                          1   1  0  0   24  12 +12    3
3 Greater Vakolicci Haven         1   0  1  0   28  28   0    1
  Srednjaci                       1   0  1  0   28  28   0    1
5 Kriegiersien                    1   0  0  1   12  24 −12    0
6 Chromatika                      1   0  0  1    7  33 −26    0
JASMINKA : Let's add to this news that in rowing, our foursome, the women's foursome in the Women’s quadruple sculls discipline, finished fourth in their group with a time of 6: 18.06, which is their best time. The foursome was lined up with Inga Wegner, Julija Jušić, Tamara Žic and Tanja Košatić.

by **Krytenia** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 4:18 pm

Medal Hopes
Benjamin Gruber won silver in the C1 slalom four years ago, but might find it harder going this time. The Krytenian canoeist just barely scraped into the semi-finals, and will now be looking to prove himself as the competition reaches the business end. Renzo Gujamvaptar, who won the heats, will be the favourite for the gold and likely at the top of Gruber's list of "people I need to beat to get something".

Ricardo Barriqua, meanwhile, will be looking to lift the Krytenian medal tally, along with the country's spirits...oh, and a particularly heavy barbell at the Fairleigh Convention Centre. The Avidian weightlifter was a bag of sugar short of a medal in Istria, and will be looking to put that right in the under 67kg category.

On The Road Again...
The larger fields here mean that getting a medal in the road race is a truly superhuman feat. Hoping to wear cowl and cape, then, is Caroline Parry. The Wroxham cyclist will be hoping the field will largely stay together, so that time-triallist Anouska Swann and the rest of her team can give her a lead-out in the closing metres. Let's be honest, though; when does an Olympic road race ever end in a bunch sprint?

Something Different
The rowing heats continue on Kale Island, but there is a true something different for this Olympics. The single and double scullers will be racing not against each other, but against the clock. The sheer number of entrants means that the organising committee has taken the bold step of going the same way of the swimming heats: it's not the position that matters, it's the time. There are questions of course; what factor the weather may play in setting a fast time, and whether the scullers will get used to pacing themselves according to a schedule as opposed to the situation developing around them. The playing field, though, is the same for everyone, so if they've done their homework, they should be fine. Probably.

If you fancy something completely different, though, the action is at Somer Urban Park. Yesterday saw Richie Brown narrowly miss out on the final of the men's street skateboarding competition; today, it's Xandi Layton's turn. Having honed her skills on the streets (and street furniture) of Bromham, Layton is hoping to wow the judges and make her way into the medal round. Even if she doesn't, the sight of these youthful competitors somehow managing not to kill themselves is a spectacle to behold. Don't worry, though, "grinding a backside 50/50" is an actual thing, and not just something you might be offered in a Quebec City back alley.

Watch all the action from Electrum at home with sixteen dedicated streams on KBS Interactive, or on the go from your device at kbs.kt/smartview or on the SmartView app.

by **Banija** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 4:23 pm

OOC Note: Omugabe translates in English to Prince. Omugabe is their title, not their name.

The men's 3x3 basketball players for Banija, nicknamed 'the Peerless Princes', show up for Matchday 1 at Somer Urban Park

"See, I told you we don't have a game today." Omugabe Ssekamanya looked at his brothers and his cousin. Ssekamanya was the heir to the heir- the one who would be a future monarch, and whose future sons would eventually take precedence over his teammates here today.

"Ah, shut up Ssekamanya." Omugabe Ssemanda replied. "I for sure thought that we did- I forgot that we indeed had a bye today. Hell, who cares. At least we get to check out the courts. See how the refs deal with the men's games, scout a couple of our opponents, all the differences of playing 3x3 ball here in Bunjil, and not back home."

"Ah, honestly this won't be bad." Ssekamanya said. "Think they'll let us shootaround in between games? We always did back home." Their head coach, Nwoye Onyekachi, told them 'absolutely not'. It was a nice privilege that the four young men, all of whom were born into privilege and wealth, one of whom would eventually reign as King, all enjoyed at home in the 3x3 tournaments. They always shot around between games, even when other teams were warming up. Hard to say no to your future King, eh?

"Damnit. It'll be fine though." Omugabe Lallo said, who was Ssekamanya's and Ssemanda's cousin. "We still got practice courts at the Somer Olympic Village, and plus- plenty of opportunity to watch our own athletes in play. I don't think we play again until Day 3, right? So we'll be in good shape."

"The Village will be a freaking party. Hell- it already has been. Have you seen heard about the parties on the Quebecois yachts?" Ssekamanya said. "Now, we gotta get into one of those parties. It's unfortunate that the press is here in full swing- I can't imagine what dad(note: his father was the Crown Prince) would say if any stories leaked out. The bad parts about being Omugabe, eh? And that also means none of the ladies here, except the Banijan ones, are wife material."

"Ey- it's just you who's gonna be Kabaka mate." The third son, Kato, said. "Me? I'm the third son. I'm a minor. I can do whatever the hell I want here- I'm surely gonna be living the good life." The four young men, plus their coach, continued to banter, and then really focused in on the games. They were straight up note taking on their own group opponents in Group F. Tablets out and all- they didn't have scouts for 3x3.

After the Group F games ended, they began to leave. "Well, we've seen quite a bit here." Ssekamanya said. "Good notes too on our groupmates. Now, I've gotta call Dad- and then, we can hit the town. Then we can watch some skateboarding here. Wouldn't that be fun?" The four royal athletes agreed, and after calling the Isebantu(Crown Prince), they walked over to a different part of the park to watch some of the skateboarding competition.

Fun times at these games, eh? But they were just getting started. The Princes were trying to remain focused on being ready for game 2. But royal bachelors hanging out at an Olympic village? Surely none of them would have a wandering eye and detach from their mission to at least make the knockout stages for men's 3x3 basketball, right?

Games of the XV Olympiad — roleplaying thread

1st RP - Games of the XV Olympiad

BVC | Live At The Games (S1, E1)

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