Games of the XVI Olympiad - RP Thread

by **Hannasea** » Fri Aug 05, 2022 3:07 pm

Selection of articles from Hannasean news media.

Mechanistic Results Regurgitation: Good g*d man, put down the box score and step away slowly

 Skylight Arena, Daehakro
      EURA 51 – 101 HANNASEA
(12–29, 19–21, 9–23, 11–28)
 Pts: Bennett 11   Pts: Powell 22
Rbds: Andersen 6   Rbds: Glover 7
     Asts: Vickers 5   Asts: Cunningham 7

Generic Athlete Profile Bandwagon: Kassandra Mercer

Article Where The Whole Joke Is One Line And That’s It: Dean and Owen refuse to go home despite winning gold

by **Banija** » Fri Aug 05, 2022 3:50 pm

Strong start for Banija's runners, and a pair of medals on horseback, highlight the last two days of Olympic competition for Banija

PRESCOTT, ELECTRUM- Obviously, the success has slowed down for Banija a bit at this Olympiad. But the highlights of Day 9, naturally, had to be the equestrian competition. The multiple-day Equestrian competition had Banija's riders outcompeting nearly everybody, showing the world that they truly had mastery over the horses. With a team gold, as well as a silver medal from Kashka Sidibe, obviously things went excellently. Kashka Sidibe was really dominant through the competition- first place at dressage, cross country, and the first jump. Out of nowhere, however, the pressure got to Sidibe. With the gold medal sitting there, just waiting to be claimed, everything went terribly wrong, and while he got a score of 0.00 in the first jumping round, he finished in the middle of the pack for the second round, getting a stunning 4.40- which blew an opportunity for a double gold.

That's why, when he received his silver medal and they played the Banijan national anthem, there wasn't a bright smile, or celebratory leap, or anything from Sidibe- just tears. The mind games that a silver medal will give you, right? But fortunately, Sidibe was still able to lead an overall excellent Banijan performance in this competition, as we won the team equestrian gold. While still wiping back tears, Sidibe said how proud he was of that effort. "To leave these Olympiad with two medals, including a team gold- I mean, it's simply special to me. What a competition, what an Olympics. Obviously, I had an opportunity for a gold medal and I missed it.. But gold medals, at the end of the day, are simply extremely hard to come by. That's the emotion of sport- one moment, and all can be lost. Fortunately not all was lost, as I still medaled, but what a day."

While Banijans were excited at their medals, the true highlight of the last two days was the beginning of the athletics competitions. These taking place in Electrum, Banija's runners have heaped a whole bunch of pressure on themselves- mostly from Banijan sports media, who think that they are on the verge of greatness. They might be, they might not be, who really knows? It'll be a couple of days before they really start handing out track & field medals in earnest, as these dog days of Olympic competition are reserved for early knockout stages for team sports, and then qualifiers for Athletics comps. And, of course, the end of the Aquatics comps.

"What matters at this stage, is not your overall speed- it's simply about qualifying for the next round." Patrick Zervos, the Olympic Committee Chair, told reporters. "We don't need to be winning or dominating semifinals and heats- we simply need to be pushing athletes, bringing each other, into the next rounds of each competition. And so far, we are doing just that." A highlight of the day was the Mixed 4x400m Relay. An event we've struggled in, historically, despite our prowress on the track. We didn't even make the last 8 in the competition, in either Istria or Electrum.

"Simply put- we wanted an opportunity to race for a medal." Said Chinweuba Jelan, the second runner of four on the squad. "We weren't going to let it pass us by." And the team finally put it together. Got through the heats and semifinals on back to back grueling days, with Jelan dominating his leg of the run both times to put them in the FInal. That was the highlight- over the past two days of Olympic competition, there is only one Athletics competition where Banija failed to advance at least one athlete. With strong support from one another, does that mean great success is imminent for Banija? Or is that just setting us up for failure?

Per the team sports, many of them are staying alive in group play, although the women's basketball team did suffer a 30 point loss. But what's the most interesting team to follow? You all know it- the gridiron team. Unbeaten, and their offense, right now, is as high-flying as it was in South Newlandia. Blowing out le Quebecois by nearly 30 in their own country, and then winning a 41-36 shootout? It may just be a demonstration sport, but Banijans truly care about this- and these players want to add Olympic success to their World Bowl trophy. "Look, we don't get satisfied." Said the head coach, Thomas Hall. "That's what I love about this team. Gotta stay hungry. There's always somebody chasing- as Ranoria found out at the World Bowl on home soil. We've got to be relentless. And I thoroughly believe that we've got what it takes to beat Eura in two nights, and then chase glory here in Quebec."

Rumors abound of legendary parties aboard the cruiseliner that the Olympic Committee got these players, but hey- work hard, play hard, eh?

by **A Kea** » Fri Aug 05, 2022 4:10 pm

KTV

A Kea wins our 5th medal and surpasses our medal tally of 4 from 4 years ago. Manos Hatzis, Petros Manakos, Jason Cox and Manolis Isidorou rowed for their lives, and despite bad weather that didn't allowe them to further improve their time, they managed to finish 3rd, securing yet another bronze for our island nation. Manos Hatzis speaking after the race ended said

It's such an amazing feeling, after being left out 4 years ago, Kean rowing is put in the world map with this success. Me and the guys trained for a long time to actually get to this point in the end. After not making it to Electrum in the previous olympiad we decided to try even harder and get as many entries as possible in this olympiad, and look it worked. We just won a bronze medal, and tomorrow's another big day for me, as men's single sculls final will take place, and I'll be hoping to make another podium finish there. I also have to wish good luck to our girls, Christine and Speranza in the double sculls final, I hope we can both win something.

In athletics we witnessed the qualification of Morgan Kassiopi to the semifinal of 100m, as well as both our male high jumpers, Stefanos Ipsilantis & Iakovos Georgiou qualifying to the event's final.
Kean men's basketball team is now off to the round of 16, having only lost against to Tjorl in the group stage, our guys made it through as second and will now have to face the Abovian team. Team events went well for us today as our men's volleyball team managed to qualify to the round of 16 as 2nd in the group, and will be facing Kelssek in tomorrow's game. Lastly, our men's water polo team easily won the group, going to the round of 16 unbeaten. We're hoping to maintain that record in match against Huron's team.
Another notable event was Vaso Karpouza being our very first taekwondo athlete. She competed in women's 49kg category and managed to make us all proud, after going as far as the bronze medal match where she lost with a small margin.

It's an honor for me to be the first taekwondo athlete from a country where combat sports aren't very developed. I'm glad to have made my countrymen proud with this performance. Knowing the level here, I didn't expect to make it as far. Winning the repechage and almost getting bronze was a big surprise for me. I'm already looking forward to being here again next time, hoping to get good enough for a medal. Good luck to my friend Kostas tomorrow, I hope he can make us proud too.

by **Ioudaia** » Fri Aug 05, 2022 5:23 pm

Men's Gymnastics – Floor Final
101st Regiment Armory
Habpo, Twin Cities, Quebec and Shingoryeo

"This is Yosi Glaukos with Champion Network, and I'm here in the Twin Cities, where Scylax Or Li just became the first Ioudaian gymnast to win gold in an individual event! And he did it with an incredible score of 16.067, finishing far ahead of his nearest competitors, who tied for silver with 15.6's. Scylax, that was an amazing routine! You changed it up slightly since we saw you last in the qualifiers. Can you tell us about that?

"Absol-ff... freaking-lutely! Originally, I had a twist Salto to an opening whip at the start of a tumbling line. It was good. But Yotam had this brilliant idea: invite Ati and Pasiphae to our training sessions, since they qualified for the all-around, and then... well, they had some spare time on their hands.

"Pasiphae saw what I'd missed: that the rhythm there would be better with a slightly longer routine, and she thought it could use--"

"Actually," Pasiphae interjected, "The rest was yours. I just said that." Yosi's cameraman pulled out a little to reveal that both of the named women, and the entire men's artistic gymnastics team, had been gathered around Scylax, just out of frame.

Scylax picked up again. "Rrright. I've been focussed on this so long I forgot who said what. But I needed something to pick up a few beats, and I realized that connecting that right to an Arabian would be great. Yotam already had the Arabian Double in his routine, so I added an Arabian Double half-out, which is a little more difficult – it gets a slightly higher score. And with that change, the routine flowed like water. It was easier to do, really, and looked better. That one change put me over the top."

Yosi brought the mic back to himself. "What do you think of the rings tomorrow?"

"I've been trying not to!" Scylax burst into laughter. "OK, it's like this: floor's been my first, second, and third priority, but I've been working on the rings too. The home team's Jeon Seung-Mook wasn't far behind me in the quals. Rings are his only individual event, so he's been working on them while I've been dividing my time with the floor, and the floor's gotten most of my practice time.

"So I'm expecting a big challenge tomorrow. I think I'm up to it. Mmmaybe I have another medal in me, but I don't know. I'm... just not sure now."

"And there you have it folks! Scylax is trying for two medals in two days. He made good his bold prediction of winning one medal, so stream or tune in tomorrow to see if he can repeat."

Runcast

This is Runcast, and I'm your host, Gabi Charis. This is Edition 18.56 of my video podcast for Day 9 of the XVI Olympiad. I called the hurdles completely right, for better and worse. Let's a take a look, starting with the men.

What was I afraid of? Oram getting really close to the hurdles. So, let's watch. His start is excellent, and he's holding his own, running just a little slower than Krytenia's Uri Persson in the next lane. Coming into hurdle 7, Oram is just starting to overtake Uri, and just before hurdle 8, they were running side by side. Then <i>boom!</i>, Oram catches his trailing leg on #8, stumbles, and falls behind. He did his best to get back into the race, but that was it for him. Archilochus Chaim advanced to the semis, finishing 11th.

In the women's 100 hurdles, Heliodora Arad was running just a little faster than the defending champion going into the race, and she kept that up, finishing just behind the one surprise I got. Tasfrira bat Hyrmina squeaked by her in a photo finish! Here it is in super slo-mo. Right there, Tasfrira leans just a tiny bit further than Heliodora, crossing the line first by less than a thousandth of a second. That was an incredible finish!

The women's 100m hurdles are going to be tough for them. Once again, the top four finishers are all in a bunch. But this time, their times are separated by less than .01! Wow! I wish Heliodora and Tasfrira luck; they're gonna need everything they've got against that kind of competition.

What about Thessalonika bat Omer? She was slower than Heliodora. Much slower. She got off the blocks a little slowly, and lost a little time on the leaders with each hurdle. I've watched the slo-mo back and forth a few times, and I wonder if she pulled a muscle in her right leg at the start, because that's the only thing I can think of that explains what I saw. If so, that's terrible luck, and I hope she has a speedy recovery.

The 400 didn't go as well for the women hurdlers. Reut Fariba bat Navot Vida and Halimeh Gal-Or Shariyathni finished first and second in their heats, but Halimeh finished better overall at 8th, with Reut at 19th. Aedon bat Tamar's injury flared up, knocking her out of contention. She ran a great race despite it. You can tell she has a bum ankle only on the last hurdle, where she comes down on her good leg, then tries to get set for the final sprint, and steps awkwardly. In the slo-mo, you can see this horrible grimace she makes has her bad foot comes down. Owwww!

In the steeplechases, it's "and then there was one" in each race. But it's not all bad: Both Davidi Eudoxus and Sigalit Iphis placed first overall. Davidi even improved on his time from the prelims by five seconds. So, he's set for the finals. That's another tight race: all of the finalists are within four seconds of each other, so Davidi is going to need an excellent strategy and perfect execution. I hope I don't run out of luck to wish people, but that's another one where every little bit counts.

Sigalit's heading into the semis, where the competition isn't so tough. But with two races to go, everything is on her, since neither Ornat nor Nili qualified. Ornat had an ugly race. She slipped on the water jump on the second lap and got up slowly. She wasn't badly hurt – she texted me that she just has a skinned leg – but that cost her seven seconds she didn't have. She tried to make up for it, but with her strategy ruined, it was hard, and she just didn't have a lot in the tank when she made her move. You can see that she got up to fourth for most of the last lap, but couldn't hold it in the final run, and was passed twice in the last 50m.

The only other race I want to mention is the mixed relay. The team hit almost exactly the same pace they did yesterday, just with the differences that the first pass was cleaner and the third leg was a little slower. But the rest of the teams were a little faster, so they failed to qualify.

I think tomorrow's going to be day of hard races for Ioudaia's remaining runners. The only new races will be the men's 400, where I don't think Ioudaia is well-placed, and the women's 1500, where I expect a couple of qualifications in the prelims. Looking further forward, Davidi's got two days off to review the steeplechase video and come up with a perfect plan for his final, and Sigalit has one day off to prepare for her semi. And until then,

Keep on runnin’!

by **Chromatika** » Fri Aug 05, 2022 5:37 pm

Men's Team Foil Gold Medal Match

Quebec and Shingoryeo 45-44 Chromatika

Quebec and Shingoryeo
Vincenzo Aspromonte - Lost in Round of 16 to Hasaga Jayasinghe (KWP)
Helmut Joekisch - Gold Medalist
Patrice Kim - Lost in Quarterfinals to Pietr Prezident (TSA)

Chromatika
Terrance Vicomb - Lost in Round of 32 to Hasaga Jayasinghe (KWP)
Kim Bo-Shik - Lost in Round of 16 to Patrice Kim (QUE)
Sandoval Llere - Sliver Medalist

Bout 1: Patrice Kim (QUE) 5-4 Sandoval Llere (CMT) QUE 5-4 CMT
Bout 2: Kim Bo-Shik (CMT) 5-5 Vincenzo Aspromonte (QUE) QUE 10-9 CMT
Bout 3: Helmut Joekisch (QUE) 5-3 Terrance Vicomb (CMT) QUE 15-12 CMT
Bout 4: Sandoval Llere (CMT) 8-5 Vincenzo Aspromonte (QUE) QUE 20-20 CMT
Bout 5: Patrice Kim (QUE) 5-4 Terrance Vicomb (CMT) QUE 25-24 CMT
Bout 6: Kim Bo-Shik (CMT) 3-5 Helmut Joekisch (QUE) QUE 30-27 CMT
Bout 7: Vincenzo Aspromonte (QUE) 5-6 Terrance Vicomb (CMT) QUE 35-33 CMT
Bout 8: Sandoval Llere (CMT) 6-5 Helmut Joekisch (QUE) QUE 40-39 CMT
Bout 9: Patrice Kim (QUE) 4-6 Kim Bo-Shik (CMT) QUE 44-45 CMT

Two teams with one medalist each - Joekisch having won the Gold over Llere in a hotly contested final by just two points. Quebec had been tested by Banija in the first round, while Chromatika blew by Kelssek; both teams had no issue against Kriegiersien and West Phoencia in the Quarters, before winning bouts over Valanora and New Gelderland by less than ten points. For the Chromatik squad, Sandoval Llere had been at his best, only losing one of his many mini-bouts; Terrance Vicomb was the one that was performing much better than he had in the individual competition, and with Kim Bo-Shik being the reliable middle man, the Chromatiks had a chance to avenge the Women's Sabre Team's defeat.

Patrice Kim was quietly having one of the best tournaments of his young career, and the Quebecois was able to edge past Llere to a 5-4 lead after the first bout, scoring the last two points in rapid succession before time ran out. Llere looked to be a bit hobbled by a bad left shoulder. Knowing they had two bouts in between, the physical trainer started to attend to him immediately as Kim Bo-Shik tied a narrow decision to Vincenzo Aspromonte, the only Quebecois to have lost in the Round of Sixteen in the individual event. Then, Helmut Joekisch, the Gold Medalist, showed his class by handling Terrance Vicomb, giving the Chromatik what was only his second bout defeat on the day. Quebec had an early three-point lead, and the excitement was palpable.

With the physical therapist having done their magic, Sandoval Llere was at the forefront of the Chromatik counterattack, and though Vincenzo Aspromonte was able to claw back near the end, his three-point victory tied the match. Though Vicomb returning to form against Kim, the Chromatik lost the bout narrowly before Kim Bo-Shik actually had a two-point lead on Joekisch. The Gold Medalist would turn it around, however, and the lead for Quebec grew back up to three heading into the last three bouts.

Terrance Vicomb has repeatedly said that he beat himself in the Round of Thirty-Two in the individual event; in his last bout of these Olympics, he clipped Vincenzo Aspromonte to close the gap to two points, his best bout of the tournament. This set up the match that everyone as looking for - the repeat of the Gold Medal Match. This time, Llere was simply faster. This time, he read Joekisch a little quicker than in the individual Gold Medal match. By the time that the last bout rolled around, Chromatika had narrowed the lead to one - and Sandoval Llere joined Terrance Vicomb in the sidelines as Kim Bo-Shik went up against the man that had knocked him out of the Individual match, Patrice Kim.

With 45 was the score to beat. Patrice would strike first, and it looked like he had gone three-up when replay showed that Bo-Shik had struck just a millisecond faster. Bo-Shik narrowed the gap to one, but after a long foray of back-and-forth, Patrice once again went ahead by two, putting the score at 44-42. Bo-Shik was able to use Patrice's momentum against him twice, and the Gold Medal went down to the last point.

Pouring all they had, the two fencers squared off one last time - and both of them made contact simultaneously. The referees, after a brief discussion, arrived at the conclusion that Patrice's hit was more of a slash on Bo-Shik's upper torso while Bo-Shik had made contact with Patrice's stomach. Instant replay would prove that the the judgement was true, and Chromatika had finally defeated Quebec and Shingoryeo in a team fencing Gold.

As the three celebrated, Llere and Kim having defeated fencers that had knocked them out of the Individual Tournament to complete the comeback, it was the exclamation point that was needed to declare to the world that Chromatik fencing had finally arrived.

by **New Gelderland** » Fri Aug 05, 2022 5:48 pm

Terranean Broadcasting Company

Amid geopolitical instability in Rushmore and Atlantian Oceania, Ceni and New Gelderland create Confederacy of the Afanc Strait

By Charlie Blythe
TBC in Cenial, Ceni

In front of Ceni's famous Serpentine capitol building, Cenian prime minister Audrey Goleidas and Gelderlish prime minister Savanna Brent jointly announced they will create a confederation to coordinate defense, foreign policy, and international relations.

"With all the events going on in Pavola and Terramidia, Ceni and New Gelderland needed new tools to improve coordination and amplify our presence in the region," said Brent. "Our two nations often see eye-to-eye on promulgating peaceful solutions and conducting an evidence-based foreign policy, and ever since we signed the Centralis Accords along with Electrum and the Isles of Avon, our nations have grown ever closer. This move will only solidify our already-strong relations."

"Nothing will change for the average citizen," said Goleidas. "Ceni and New Gelderland will still have their own parliaments, their own domestic policies, their own fiscal policies. But we will have one common foreign policy and one centralized leadership that will allow us to respond more quickly and more forcefully to regional crises as they develop."

Brent added that the two countries' central banks had started talks to unify the two countries' currencies, currently the Cenian bewlegi and the New Gelderlish guilder.

The new Confederacy of the Afanc Strait, named after the strait separating Ceni and New Gelderland (with other portions called "The Brine" in Nephara and the "East Electrum Sea" by the more jingoistic parts of Electrumite society), will be led by a five-person council. (The Afanc Strait ultimately derives its name from a Welsh water monster that resembles the common Rushmori sea otter found in the strait.)

Each country's respective Minister of Foreign Affairs (Toros Navarian and Madeline Carthen for Ceni and New Gelderland, respectively) will receive an ex officio seat on the council. Each country also has nominated one other representative, with Ceni appointing international history professor Kirsten Ellian-Veonar and New Gelderland appointing former agricultural ambassador-at-large Jacquelyn Avalon.

According to the terms of the confederacy's new governing charter, the fifth representative must be selected by both nations from a pool of candidates with significant ties to both nations. In a surprise pick, the fifth member of the Confederacy Council will be Liam Penderyn, the tennis player who formerly represented both Ceni and New Gelderland on the NationStates Tennis Tour.

"I'm not quite sure what I got myself into," said Penderyn, who agreed to a quick interview after Brent and Goleidas' announcement. "But I look forward to serving both Ceni and New Gelderland over the next few years as we navigate a complicated regional geopolitical solution, and hopefully providing a new voice on the Council from outside the diplomatic and political sectors."

"Will this be Super Boring Politics for me?" Penderyn wondered aloud. "I hope not, but you'll surely know if it is."

A secondary effect of the decision is that the New Gelderland and Cenian Olympic committees will merge to create the Afanc Strait Olympic Committee, to be headed by current NGOC president Alexander Lennox.

"I welcome the opportunity to further integrate Ceni and New Gelderland through sporting means," said Lennox in a written statement. "While Cenian athletes representing the Confederacy of the Afanc Strait will regrettably not be able to participate in this year's Olympics, which are already under way, I look forward to their participation in future Winter and Summer Olympics."

"Cenial would also make for an excellent Olympic host city, and I want to explore the possibility of Cenial co-hosting the Summer Olympics with another city," Lennox added.

The news comes as Graentfjall's decision to invade the sovereign state of Jabal Akhdar has provoked a perhaps unanticipated response from the Atlantian Oceania Regional Defense Organization, with several nations deploying troops to AO Isle to prevent the Graentfjaller invasion. Atlantian Oceania has also been shaken by news that Delaclava will literally uproot itself to move to Sonnel.

In a written statement, the new Confederacy Council hoped for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Atlantian Oceania.

"In the spirit of the new Confederacy of the Afanc Strait, we call for Graentfjall to call off its ill-advised invasion of Jabal Akhdar. If force is truly needed to contain the El-Masri Network, we support the actions of AORDO to do so," said the statement. "But the worst-case scenario for everyone involved would be a four-way war between the terrorists, the legitimate government of Jabal Akhdar, AORDO, and Graentfjall. We strongly hope this will not take place."

A unique reaction to recent geopolitical events, with uncertain prospects
Analysis by Gil Korova, TBC political correspondent in Cenial

Liam Penderyn is certainly known for his skills on the tennis court, but how he will fare in the court of public opinion is unknown as a member of the five-member council of the Afanc Strait Confederacy. Really, the whole Confederacy seems like a wild card in popular opinion at the moment: People in Ceni seem nonplussed about the whole agreement. Although the geopolitical strife surrounding them in Rushmore has certainly caught the public's attention, the overwhelming sentiment tends to be along the lines of "let well enough alone." Ceni and New Gelderland have advocated for human rights and for international nonintervention, and that has satisfied public opinion.

So far, though, the Rushmori powers that be have not taken up their calls. Hence the reason for the ASC in the first place. Indeed, the audience for the ASC is decidedly international, not domestic, so popular prognostications will have little effect on the new Confederacy's success (or failure) abroad. As of press time, none of Eura, Graentfjall, or Cassadaigua had substantively reacted to the ASC's formation. So only time will tell whether the new confederacy will successfully influence Rushmori nations' policy or improve the Afanc Strait's defensive posture vis-a-vis Eura, say.

But to tell the truth, this is definitely a welcome change in regional foreign policy as a whole. While other nations have reacted to regional crises by trying to increase their own influence at the expense of others, Ceni and New Gelderland have chosen to join together in foreign policy and defense matters with the ultimate goal of increasing common security and Rushmori peace. And Cenian athletes will finally participate in the Olympics without having to worry about changing allegiances.

The ball is in the ASC's court. Will it be able to achieve its goals and wield Cenian and New Gelderlish influence more effectively in the region and elsewhere? Maybe not. But it's a worthwhile concept and will produce at least some good for our small corner of Terranea.

by **Vilitan Union** » Fri Aug 05, 2022 6:34 pm

Football: Ranbomahi shuts out Rarungan in TechnEel Kitties Triumph
Vilitan Union to face off against Brookstation in Football Quarter Final Matchup

Round of 16

Vilitan Union: 2
Rarungan: 0

Fitzgerald Stadium, Burnton, Electrum :: After taking a gap day following their 0-2 Group C defeat to New Gelderland while the rest of the remaining teams were contesting the play-in round, the Vilitan Union TechnEel Kitties headed back out onto the pitch at the Fitzgerald Stadium for a first-ever meetup with a nation not well known for their Footsport prowess: Rarungan.

While the Vilitan Union had dipped into the reserves during their group stage finale against New Gelderland to ensure everyone had an opportunity to get onto the pitch at the games, it was back to business as usual in the Round of 16 with all three of the teams overage players in the lineup. While there was perhaps some surprise that Tropicorp FC's Hanauma Ranbomahi got the start over Eastal Lunar FC's Zelkki Milake Jr., the veteran netminder looked strong during the Vilitan Union's 3-0 victory over Macbon on Matchday 2 of Group Play. It was not immediately clear if Milake's exclusion was strictly tactical or influenced by injury as reserve goalkeeper Terasin Moravuao was on the bench for the Vilitan Union.

Any fears of the little known Rarungan side causing an upset were slowly eased from the start as the Vilitan Union appeared to establish their possession game early on. It would be just past the quarter-hour mark when the games first goal would be scored and with the early pace of play it would be the TechnEel Kitties that would get the goal. The chance was created by the veteran Lentali Purama who served as playmaker and found Jungle Strike FC youngster Lutara Makakio who converted past goalkeeper Agus Jaya Santika.

Though the Rarungan lineup was older on average than that put forward by the Vilitan Union it was the TechnEel Kitties who played the more experienced game, breaking down the ultra defensive style of Rarungan manager Putra Gunadarma and continuing to threaten for another goal.

The next goal would not come until just after half time however when the Vilitan Union had made a pair of changes including the introduction of world class attacker Clarana Refiami. The influence of the Eura based superstar was felt immediately on the pitch as Refiami was able to keenly spot the angled run of young winger Trenian Omalizo who fired past Santika for their first ever goal at the Olympic Games.

From there, the Vilitan Union shifted gears and focused on controlling play in the middle of the pitch, bringing on Lumlao Noauryua to help hold the ball and see the game through to the full time whistle. The desperation late in the match would see Rarungan with their best scoring opportunity of the game - a header from substitute Dian Agung Wisesa that was cleared off the line by Turorian World Cup winner Karek Edgeli to preserve the shutout for the Tropicorper netminder Ranbomahi. The Vilitan Union would coast through with a 2-0 victory to advance to the Quarter Finals.

 Vilitan Union [2] - [0] Rarungan
				
	GOALS:	Vilitan Union 	:: 17' Lutara Makakio:: 50' Trenian Omalizo             		
	STATS:	Vilitan Union 	:: Possession: 58%:: Shots: 5:: Corners: 11	Rarungan 	:: Possession: 42%:: Shots: 4:: Corners: 1
	Lineup:	[GK] Hanauma Ranbomahi, [D.] Kunala Jyvaiij, [D.] Karek Edgeli, [D.] H’munao Cagomia, [ML]  Mikele Alasita, [MC]  Lentali Purama, [MC] Fyin Miateal, [MC]  Jakku’u Naboyavi, [MR]  Trenian Omalizo, [FC] Takaara Milanzi, [FC] Lutara Makakio			
	Bench:	[FC] Diamoa Waviino, [FC] Clarana Refiami, [M] Lumlao Noauryua, [M] Letirpsi Vulitn, [U ] Tsinuzpa Rana’aiao, [D] Mikaela Äijälä, [GK] Terasin Moravuao

While relatively unheralded names in the world of footsport such as the Vilitan Union's Round of 16 opponents Rarungan, and others such as the Islands of Ventro made a splash by appearing in the Men's Round of 16, there was no question as to the pedigree of the eight nations remaining to contest the Quarter Final Matchups. Perhaps the most mouthwatering tie sees a clash between Valanora and Chromatika, two semi-finalists from the XV Olympic Summer Games facing off one round earlier with only one retaining hopes for a second consecutive medal match. The Vilitan Union will have a difficult tie against an ever-improving Brookstation squad who have demonstrated a solid youth programme and looked very impressive with a 6-2 victory over Beepee in the Round of 16. The TechnEel Kitties will have to relocate from Burnton to Port Grenville for the match at the Sailors Stadium where the winner will earn a spot in the Olympic Semi-Finals.

by **Eura** » Fri Aug 05, 2022 6:46 pm

ebc.eur/sport/olympics

PALMER AND BELL SPARE EURAN SAILING’S BLUSHES
Skiff gold accompanied by a gymnastics bronze

Starting Day 9 in the aquatics centre, Stephen Whitehouse and Stefan Martin gave it their all in the free routine of the artistic swimming men’s duet after a technical routine that seemed certain to have cost them any shot at a medal. On another day, their 94 score would have seen them competing for the podium. But a calamitous 81 in that technical routine the day before meant the gap was just about too big to recover to advance to the final, sending them out of the contest.

In fact, there would be a few disappointments to contend with on Day 9 in events where Eura might have held unlikely but realistic dreams of medals, albeit sometimes without a historic precedent such as that of Whitehouse and Martin at the 15th Olympiad. Hockey, for example, saw thin hopes in the men’s competition disappear after a 4-2 defeat to Sargossa in the final group stage game. Eura finished third in their group without a win.

Meanwhile, Eura’s fencers missed an opportunity as the men’s team foil trio of Christopher Lincoln, Elliot Francois and Jamie Cox were eliminated by the narrowest of margins to opponents from Krytenia in the opening preliminary round, 44-45. And in equestrian, specifically individual eventing, Ray Shaftsbury’s thin hopes of reaching the podium came to an end as he finished in 15th.

It’s been a disappointing Olympics for Euran gymnastics up until now, with no medals to show for Team Eura and several high-profile medal hopefuls eliminated at early stages. But Mark Faulkner is still to come in the men’s horizontal bars final with a chance of gold, and until then the team can sleep easy that they have got off the mark, thanks to an unlikely source in the form of Madeline Kane.

The women’s artistic gymnast was an outsider coming into the final of the women’s uneven bars but pulled off an excellent routine worth a score of 14.733. This was just shy of Kriegiersien’s Niau Batur with 14.800, and Sargossa’s Rebeca Abasto would push even higher to win gold with a 15.000 routine, but Kane did enough to jointly win bronze with Britonesia’s Lane Reese.

Unfortunately, there was huge disappointment to come elsewhere in the women’s 76kg weightlifting, where Lily Kaber (the bronze medallist at the 15th Olympiad) fell short of predictions of a potential gold, finishing 6th as Mytanar Mia Fabijanic won gold. Kaber was well off the pace in the end, lagging 34 points behind Fabijanic, who was the runaway winner with a dominant snatch lift, and was just as authoritative in their performance with the clean and jerk follow up.

Kaber was competitive for silver and bronze with her snatch, but her clean and jerk fell short of several rivals, putting her out of contention for a medal. With her hopes ended Eura’s weightlifters are now almost certain to go without winning a medal at these Games, making them one of the chief underperformers in Team Eura’s ranks against expectations and funding allocation.

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Day 8 was a rough beginning for Euran athletics, and it was vital that the team got back on track on Day 9 after losing a number of medal contenders in the early rounds. The day started positively on the track with the men’s 400 m hurdles where Eura’s key competitors, Frank Totton and Mario Alberta, both won their respective first round races to advance to the semi-finals, though lower seeded Colin Roberts exited the competition. A tired looking Alberta then managed to just about squeeze through the semi-finals of the 3000 m steeplechase, finishing in the final progression spot of 6th in semi-final 1, with Roberts once again dropping out (Totton embarrassingly went out in the initial heats).

Track events had dominated the athletics schedule so far, but Day 9 would also see the beginning of the field events. This is an area that attracted much scrutiny from the EOC and various pundits and experts before the Games, with Eura’s field athletes having failed to win a single medal at the 15th Games. Understandably, this has been seen as a major failure, not to be repeated. And so, the world might well have been weighing on the shoulders of Aidan Sanders, who would open Eura’s field campaign in the men’s high jump.

In qualification he brushed aside any pressure and dazzled, clearing a minimum 2.30 metres five times to finish fourth, advancing comfortably to the final. He would be joined by Dai Banks down in joint 12th with several other athletes, though Edwin Brown was unable to make it a triplet of Eurans in the final, finishing near the foot of the qualifying leaderboard.

Following this event was the men’s discus throw where another Euran made an impressive start. None of the competitors cleared the 66 metre qualifying standard but Matty Coates made sure he was the 2nd best of the twelve best performers, recovering from an initial non-scoring throw to reach 65.5 metres twice in his remaining three throws.

Only Karl Adamsen of Nightom could best him, by two centimetres. Fellow Euran Neil Arthur came close to joining Coates in the final but fell just short of what would prove to be the key figure for getting into the final, 64.6 metres, managing only 64.32. Rich Clifford fell short too, throwing no more than 64.09.

Meanwhile, back on the track, a furore was growing between Olympic officials and the Euran team, who were quite reasonably disgruntled when they found out that all three Euran women’s 100 m sprinters – including possible event favourite Amber Keane – had been drawn into the same heat. After the ruckus passed and Team Eura were forced to accept this bizarre twist of fate, they regained their focus, and dealt with the situation as was required. Keane blasted her way to the front of the heat before relaxing toward the end to conserve her powers while still finishing first.

The field was extremely congested behind her; all eight sprinters would be separated by just 0.47 seconds from Keane to last placed Vilitan Dwore Haaolu. Luckily, Mia Morton and Kerry Pinewood would join Keane in advancing to the semi-finals in 2nd and 4th, just a few hundredths of a second behind the frontrunner. Even across all six heats the results were extremely tight, except for the overall winner Jarrah Belmonte of Electrum. She finished a tenth of a second ahead of almost everyone else, prompting talk of her being the bookies favourite, with the threat of Keane and others looming behind.

Next up was the women’s 800 m first round, following up on Day 8’s heats, and once again all three Euran runners advanced. Mary Shaw did not play usurper this time around but looked good running third in Heat 3, which was won by teammate Alena Wade with a gap of nearly half a second on the runner up, Emma Sandler from Huron League.

Crucially, Jules Howland stepped up her form to win Heat 1 by an even greater margin. Wade, Howland and Shaw were the 1st, 2nd and 4th quickest across all five first round heats combined, their control over the event at this stage only slightly disturbed by Sandler. In particular, Wade and Howland had set down a marker with performances that put them a noticeable step ahead of the pack.

The three Euran women contesting all three women’s hurdles events face a gruelling task to cover that particular portfolio, with junior hurdlers Molly Williams and Scarlett Kenny supporting Issy Ashton, winner of the 3000 m steeplechase gold in the 15th Games. Williams and Kenny were not convincing in the initial preliminary heats – Williams did not finish after going down with an undisclosed injury (thankfully not thought to be serious) while Kenny propped up Heat 8 in last place. All hope would have to be invested in Ashton and at this point of the event she delivered, winning Heat 9 with a run of 12.86 seconds.

Soon afterwards the same trio would need to be ready for the same round of the 400 m hurdles; Kenny benefitted from a race distance that permitted for more consistency than a one-off burst of speed, which saw her finish second in Heat 2, before Ashton convincingly triumphed in Heat 4 with a time of 54.89.

Williams would be back later in Heat 10 having overcome her injury and delighted her team by scraping a way through to the next round, despite finishing 4th in her heat. But this focus on pressing Ashton and her two understudies into all three events had predictable negative consequences, which Euran Athletics must surely have known was a risk.

A tired looking Ashton could only manage 5th in her heat for the women’s 3000 m steeplechase not so long after the previous two events had wrapped up, not good enough to advance to the semi-finals, bringing her title defence to a premature end. This must have been enormously frustrating for Ashton who would have had fancied the longest form hurdles event as her best chance of winning gold again, especially as she’s won this event before. Williams and Kenny also failed to advance.

In the first of four walking events, Dana Clark was the best performing Euran, finishing the women’s 50km walk in 4 hours, 13 minutes and 41 seconds. This placed her 20th in the standings of an event where she was fancied as an outside bet to challenge for the podium, but no more. Back in the field, Charlotte Lawrence and Rachel Hopper were forced to toil for a place in the final of the women’s triple jump, finishing 20th and 26th to advance to a medal event that will host 27 athletes. Gladys Cross similarly crept her way into the final of the women’s shot put in 24th, though teammate Olivia Edgar fell short by a whisker; she came within two centimetres of making the grade for the final.

The mixed 4 x 400 m relay team returned after a strong start on Day 8, in search of a place in the final where they could defend their Olympic title. Kieran Ashton, Jules Howland, Bradley King and Amber Keane were second best again in their race, but this time to the Britonesians rather than the Alezian Union, who finished third in the other semi-final. The Britonesians were the fastest in the semi-finals, setting up a fascinating final where any one of several teams could win. The Eurans will fancy their chances – they know what it takes to win this event and will not be deterred by finishing 4th fastest out of the 8 semi-finalists to advance to the final.

-----

Away from athletics and into the boxing ring, we are now rapidly approaching the stage where medals start being handed out, but Euran women’s featherweight entrant Natasha Cooper will have to watch from the sidelines, after being nearly knocked out by Krytenia’s Andrea Todd in a decisive quarterfinal defeat. Cooper was not expected to get on the podium but any defeat this late in the competition will sting as much as the punches she received. At least hot prospect rookie Lyla Wright had no such difficulty in her women’s light heavyweight quarterfinal, cruising past Margit Giese of Tjorl on a 5-0 decision.

Eden Johnson’s heroics in the freestyle BMX have been treated by many as a likely one off. That said, few expected Johnson to emerge in the way he did in the first place. Could another unlikely underdog be waiting in the wings? Enter Ben Hill, the BMX racing cyclist. The 23-year-old was one of three little known Eurans to enter the seeding run for the men’s event, and while his compatriots fell away Hill made a determined push for the quarterfinals, just about succeeding by finishing 31st in a run where only 32 could secure advancement.

On the football pitch Eura’s women’s team overcame a scare against Natanians and Nosts to advance to the quarterfinals. The heavily favoured Eurans were shut out for much of the game by a doggedly defending Natanians side, and it would take Euran national team legend Moira Woakes curling in a spectacular free kick from a tight angle – after an excruciating 89 minutes - to win the tie, give or take a few minutes afterwards of deeply cynical time wasting. A quarterfinal awaits against Tjorl at Farleigh Field in Farleigh-Warburton.

Meanwhile, in demonstration sports, there have been some surprising wins for Euran teams. In lacrosse, another sport that Eura are not much known for, Eura’s women upset the odds to progress from a competitive Group 3. They beat Electrum 15-11 in an all-or-nothing battle for second place in the group on the final matchday, while Huron League dominated the group with five wins from five. Eura will now face Juvencus in the quarterfinals. Eura’s women’s goalball team also look set to get out of their group stage after a 6-3 victory over Quebec and Shingoryeo. It’s a result that puts them clear at the top of Group A with one matchday remaining, where they will be on a bye.

Eura’s slightly disappointing turn in shooting events (three podium finishes is not considered enough by most) doesn’t mean their hopes of adding more medals to the tally are over. Preston Rodgers has given himself the chance of winning another by finishing 5th in qualifying for the men’s 25 m rapid fire pistol, enough to put himself into the final. Teammate Leroy Judge finished 27th and will not join him.

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However, the real opportunity for medals on Day 9 was to come on the water, where Eura were competing in three different rowing finals. Agonisingly though these back to back races were to prove immeasurably disappointing – and frustratingly consistent in how this disappointment played out. Somehow, in all three finals, the Euran boat finished fifth. The men’s quadruple sculls and lightweight double sculls and the women’s lightweight double sculls – all had a similarly painful outcome.

It seems terribly unjust that Euran rowing will finish the Olympics without a medal after a fine series of performances against all expectations. But the future may be brighter for this plucky corner of Team Eura; fresh rumours are circulating across the sporting press suggesting that the EOC wants to invest more in rowing, to make Eura an “elite rowing power” by the time of the next Games. Time will tell if this turns out to be true.

Eura’s sailors are the here and now hope on the water. But hopes are easy to crush. Bob Leigh and Jim Harding could not feel too hard done by as outsiders in the men’s skiff medal race, though they did all they could with an outstanding 1st place finish that secure them a final position of 7th. Charlotte Marsden and Amy Francis had no reason to doubt themselves though, going into the final of the women’s two-person dinghy in silver medal position.

And yet somehow the silver medallists of the 15th Games allowed their advantage to slip. A poor start to them medal race proved impossible to reverse and they finished 9th, disastrously slipping out of the medal places and finishing well away in 4th, one of the biggest let downs of the Games for Team Eura. In an awkward post-race interview, neither sailor looked entirely happy with what had happened. ‘We’ll make up for it next time, I’m sure. For now, we just want to get our heads down and work out where to go from here’ said Marsden, who looked just about ready to get back in their dinghy and sail as far away as possible.

With just one event left it appeared that Euran sailing had suffered a terrible time of it at the 16th Olympics with not a single medal to their name. Thankfully, this was not an event where the Euran crew had too much to do in the medal race and were in too strong a position to let it slip. Jasmine Palmer and Katherine Bell arrived on scene on Day 9 with an air of confidence. Not arrogance – just an assured sense that victory was well within sight.

And so, it proved, with their nearest competitors from Britonesia finishing 5th and therefore unable to recover the substantial gap between themselves and the Eurans, who entered the medal race well in front. Ko-orenite pair Ghislaine Pion and Lydia Duskdrow excelled in the medal race and overtook the Britonesians to seize silver. Unfortunately for them the Eurans simply had to not completely implode to prevent that silver turning gold. Palmer and Bell were patient and careful, finished 7th, and in doing so did what they set out to do in order to win the gold that will likely define their careers.

Eura’s medallists so far in full:
DAY 0:
No medals.
DAY 1:
Women’s 10 m Air Rifle [Shooting] – Sophia Rice – Silver
DAY 2:
No medals.
DAY 3:
Women’s 100 m backstroke [Swimming] – Amy Ellis – Silver
DAY 4:
Women’s 63 kg [Judo] - Eve Schoring-Peters – Gold
DAY 5:
Men’s 800 m freestyle [Swimming] – Steve Lawrence – Gold
Men’s team sabre [Fencing] - Isaac Bell/Aaron Bardsley/Reece Phillpott – Silver
Women’s 70 kg [Judo] – Suranne Lawrence – Silver
DAY 6:
Women’s 100 m freestyle [Swimming] – Taylor Varsen – Silver
Women’s team foil [Fencing] – Rita Jackson/Fran Stewart/Alison Hayward – Gold
DAY 7:
Men’s BMX freestyle [Cycling] – Eden Johnson – Silver
DAY 8:
Women’s golf [Golf] – Leona Stewson – Gold
Women’s 50 m rifle 3 positions [Shooting] – Sophia Rice – Gold
Mixed trap team [Shooting] – Tom Partridge/Hollie Newton – Bronze
DAY 9:
Women’s uneven bars [Gymnastics – artistic] – Madeline Kane – Bronze
Women’s skiff [Sailing] – Jasmine Palmer/Katherine Bell – Gold

Euran medal tally by sport:
Cycling – 1 medal (1 silver)
Fencing – 2 medals (1 gold, 1 silver)
Golf – 1 medal (1 gold)
Gymnastics – 1 medal (1 bronze)
Judo – 2 medals (1 gold, 1 silver)
Sailing – 1 medal (1 gold)
Shooting – 3 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
Swimming – 3 medals (1 gold, 2 silver)

by **Quebec and Shingoryeo** » Fri Aug 05, 2022 6:47 pm

Here is the Day 10 Cutoff.

The next cutoff will be in twenty-four hours' time.

by **West Phoenicia** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 2:44 am

Dionysus Vega (born August 25th,1996) is a West Phoenician Taekwondo athlete and practitioner.

Personal Information
Full Name: Dionysus Vega
Nationality: West Phoenician
Born: 25th August 1996 (Age 26) Lake Athena, Mythologica-Seleucid Dominion, West Phoenicia
Star Sign: Virgo
Height: 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)

Sport:

Sport: Taekwondo
Taekwondo Olympic Debut: Games of the XIV Olympiad

Early Life:

Dionysus was born in Lake Athena, Mythologica-Seleucid Dominion, West Phoenicia. His father was a former Taekwondo athlete and ran a Taekwondo training school, where Dionysus would train after school five days a week.

His mother served as a Priestess to Hathorphrodite, the West Phoenician Goddess of Love, lust and sexuality until marriage where she became a full time mother raising Dionysus and his nine siblings.

Dionysus attended Lake Athena High School where he excelled in sports, religious studies and mathematics. He said he is not a fan of the art subjects.

He declined to attend university, he served in the Navy as his national service which gave him greater freedoms to attend Taekwondo events as well as compete for the Navy in the West Phoenician Military Games.

After completing his national service, he works part time in a bakery, undergoing religious studies and spends the rest of his time training and competiting.

National Career:

Dionysus first competed at the West Phoenician Youth Games 2014 when he won his forst bronze at the age of 17. It was his second appearance at the event, having finished in 6th place the year before.

During the Youth Games he struck up a friendship with Jeremy Low who would go on to win a gold at the XIII Summer Olympics in Republica; The Free Republics and a silver medal at the XIV Summer Games, Orean in Liventia and Istria, Banija. Dionysus states after his coach, Jeremy Low is his biggest mentor.

On a national level he went on to compete in the West Phoenician Friendship Games winning a gold, silver and bronze over three of those appearances.

Dionysus has attended the West Phoenician Taekwondo Championships since 2016, where he has placed five times. His highest placing was at the West Phoenician 2021 Taekwondo Championships where he won gold, making him the number 1 in mens Taekwondo 58kgs category.

He was scheduled to complete in the West Phoenician 2015 Taekwondo Championships after his bronze victory at the West Phoenician Youth Games, but a hand injury had him pull out of the competition.

Olympics Sporting Career:

Dionysus Vega has been part of three Olympic delegations. While underperforming at his first two appearances, he performed a stellar performance to win the gold at the XVI Olympiad beating the very athlete who ended his run at his debut appearance.

*Games of the XVI Olympiad:

Preliminary round: Dionysus Vega 9–4 Ciaran Erskine (The Licentian Isles)
Round of 16: Dionysus Vega 7–2 Clinton Pearce (Krytenia)
Quarterfinals: Dionysus Vega 4- 1 Kam Hyun Su (Togonistan)
Semifinals: Dionysus Vega 4-3 Tory Decker (Electrum)
Finals: Dionysus Vega +7–7 Kraven Raven (Kriegiersien)

*Games of the XV Olympiad:

Round of 32: Dionysus Vega 11–7 Daniel Richardson (Eura)
Round of 16: Dionysus Vega 4-6 Kam Hyun Su (Togonistan)

*Games of the XIV Olympiad:

Round of 32: Dionysus Vega 2-3 Kraven Raven (Kriegiersien)

Medal Record:

Gold- Games of the XVI Olympiad
Gold- West Phoenician 2021 Friendship Games
Gold- West Phoenician 2021 Taekwondo Championships

Silver- West Phoenician 2020 Taekwondo Championships
Silver- West Phoenician 2017 Friendship Games

Bronze: West Phoenician 2020 Friendship Games
Bronze: West Phoenician 2019 Taekwondo Championships
Bronze: West Phoenician 2018 Taekwondo Championships
Bronze: West Phoenician 2016 Taekwondo Championships
Bronze- West Phoenician Youth Games 2014

Personal Life:

Dionysus Vega holds membership in the United Pagan Faith. He was named after Dionysus,
a fruitfulness and vegetation deity, known as a god of wine and ecstasy which was absorbed into the West Phoenician Pantheon.

Dionysus has undertaken temple religious studies where once he retires from sport he will strive to become a priest in a Dionysus temple.

Grape flavour bubblegum is his favourite bubblegum.

Is a Pollotarian

by **Waisnor** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 2:53 am

Adding another bronze to the medal tally

Waisnor once again got some good news for Olympic fans - Day 10 bringed another medal for the Waisnorian delegation, and even though it once again was bronze, it nonetheless was a medal. As always with Waisnor, or any other country for that measure, they got some notable results in the qualifications:

Finishing off reports from rowing tournaments, the last remaining athletes from Waisnor were taking part in men's double sculls final - it you were following my RP closely, you possibly know their names by now - Valentin Subbotin and Maxim Lunko. After going through many rounds of qualifications on their way to the final, they prowed themselves to be one of the favorite for the medals and possibly even gold. But even in the semifinals they had to work pretty hard just to secure 3rd place and their advancement to the final. So if they really wanted to get the medals, they had to work even harder, giving out all the strength they could save for the final. And even though they clearly spent a lot of energy in the previous races, Subbotin and Lunko were ready to go the extra mile.
From the start, Valentin and Maxim moved themselves into the top 3, but their placement was shaky - they and Ian Jacobs & Craig Karimi from Krytenia were going neck and neck in the battle for 3rd place, and for the time being, Krytenian pair took the lead and built a pretty sizeable lead. Now Subbotin and Lunko found themselves in the situation when not even gold, but even medals were slipping away from them. And before it was too late, they had to pull off something that would get them in the 3rd place again. When around 60% of the race were finished, Waisnorian pair greatly increased their speed and were getting closer and closer to Ian and Craig over time. As the finish was getting closer, Subbotin and Lunko, despite the best attempts of Krytenian pair, managed to get to 3rd place again and from thereafter didn't look back, not slowing down for a second.
But the lost time before their spurt already denied them any chances and gold, except mathematical ones - Able Seaman Chan and Leading Seaman Dennis from pretty exotic pirate nation of HMS Onslaught clearly knew a thing or two about swimming in a boat, and their experience in that was putting them ahead of everybody, they already had incredible 3-second lead over the 2nd place, not to speak of 3rd place, on which Subbotin and Lunko desperately tried to stay. But thanks to their willpower and strength, they managed to expand their lead over Ian and Craig, and if the race would be longer, they even could compete for the silver medal, but once again, Jamang Bybuya and Wandi Jolae from Banija were ahead of them with the lead which couldn't be eaten away with the remaining time. In the end Subbotin and Lunko managed to hold on to the 3rd place and won bronze, 2nd one for Waisnor at this Games and 4th medal overall. After the race and medal ceremony, Valentin and Maxim said that they were extremely happy with their result and that they would try to make it even better in the next Olympics.

Now we start the part of Olympic coverage of Waisnorian results that could take pretty sizeable chunk of it - field results in athletics. Waisnorian successes in athletics are pretty much dividid in two different parts - athletes from Waisnor don't tend to be pretty good in track competitions, and when Waisnorian wins a medal there, that becomes a sensation. But in field disciplines medals from Waisnor are expected. This time won't be an exception - once again, they have some pretty good athletes in various field disciplines. First report about them comes from men's pole vault qualifications and two Waisnorians participating in it - Roman Volchkov and Mikhail Shutsky.
They started out their performance in the qualification pretty promisingly - after first height of 5.15 metres was taken easily, it was time for 5.30 metres, which were conquered by two Waisnorian from the very first attempt at the first try. For the 3rd jump, bar once again was raised for 15 centimetres - to 5.45 metres. And once again that height didn't prove to be a big obstacle for Volchkov and Shutsky, as they once again took that height with the first attempt. But still, that was still not enough to go to the final - they had to jump for at least 5.75 metres high. The half of jumps was already made, and pool of jumpers was shrinking with every jump. And so, Roman and Mikhail needed to make sure that they wouldn't be in the list of relegated jumpers.
At the height of 5.55 metres first problems began to occur for Waisnorian athletes - even though Volchkov once again flew over that height with ease at the first try, Shutsky wasn't so lucky and failed at first attempt. Thankfully, he had two more of them, and after second once 5.55 metres were finally conquered and both Waisnorians moved on to the next jump. Now the height was raised to 5.65 metres, and now it was time for Volchkov to fail at the new height, ruining his perfect streak of jumps. Interestingly, now Shutsky cleared that height perfectly, moving to the next jump without much worries. But Volchkov now needed to clear that height with the second attempt, and thankfully, he was able to do it. Now it was time for the last jump, for oh so desired 5.75 metres bar. If both Waisnorians jump over it, they guaranteed their places in the finals. And it seems that both Shutsky and Volchkov learned from their mistakes in previous jumps and that height was taken without a hitch by both of them. And so, both Waisnorians would try to get the medals in the final of pole vault.

OTHER RESULTS
In men's 400m Alexey Bolkhovsky placed last in his heat and 107th overall
Sergey Zenevich placed 62nd in men's 20km walk
In women's 1500m none of Waisnorians qualified for the next round - Magdalena Makowska, Lyubov Ivasheva and Elizaveta Khaletskaya finished 40th, 54th and 74th overall
Inna Efimovskaya placed 21st in first round of women's 400m hurdles
Tatiana Goretskaya failed to qualify to the final in women's discus throw, placing 45th
In men's park qualification in skateboard, Vladimir Trofimovich placed 67th and Sergey Izmailov placed 78th
In taekwondo women's 57kg, Larisa Poznyakova lost to La'ei Asau from Togonistan in repechages
Yakov Bestuzhev placed 48th in diving men's 3m springboard preliminaries
Rosa Kolotsei finished last in women's floor gymnastics competitions

Random Waisnor things: Rave of the Millenium

In the 90's and very early 2000's Waisnor was more or less optimistic about the future during the age of "Starting 90's". As the nation was coming to terms with their independence, they also got themselves a better view of life, which was seen as pretty nice with the newfound freedom, even though economic problems and criminal activities were still a big issue in Waisnor. They were also learning about the pop culture and especially new music, mostly the one coming from abroad or post-USSR countries, but Waisnor was slowly building a music industry of their own. A pretty small part of that industry was electronic one and rave. And when the world was celebrating the coming of the 2001, and with it not only 21st century, but also 3rd millenium, they were preparing something that would leave their names in the history of Waisnor.
2nd of January, 2001 was the day when "Rave of the Millenium" was scheduled - a big party when all of the biggest rave and electronis artists would come together and make some noice, figuratively and literaly. Names such as Evgeny Frolov, Lev Myasnikov, going under the name of DJ Steak and Marat Khripkov were in the preview of that party, such as more mainstream performers such as Parts, the most well-known dance group of Waisnor. Every participant and singer of this party knew that they would arrive some pretty limited crowd, mostly consisting of teenagers and young adults. But for such singers, it was the great chance to get themselves some publicity and gather some more fans, plus they could make some money from all this affair. When the day of the rave came, everybody knew that they definitely would have fun there.
During the party in a Grodno stadium, over 10.000 people arrived there to listen to music and dance to it, or basically, just to have fun. Performers definitely knew for which crowd they were performing, and so, they were constantly pumping up the crowd, which wasn't silent for a second. Music was blasting from the speakers, crowd was screaming in esctasy, singers were giving all their energy performing - all in all, it was one hell of a night, which didn't have any rivals in Waisnorian history, and it seemed, wouldn't have since. When the party ended, everybody left in good spirits (some left hammered with those spirits) and owners of the party were left with the pretty big amount of money, even though some of it was spent on fine over noise complaints.
1.5 years later, Waisnor was engulfed in "Riot 00's" and it seemed that such timed when people came together just to have fun, died forever, with Rave of the Millenium being seen as the last hurrah of the Starting 90's, a big dot at the end of the era. But when Riot 00's ended and Fun 10's started, people behing first Rave decided to host some kind of a sequel to it. And on January 5th, 2012, Return of the Rave took place, which signaled that fun times are fully returning to Waisnor and were staying there for a long time. Several artists which participated in first rave have returned to the second one, while some new performers got their chance to perform on the big stage. Now this rave was widely publicized and more than 15.000 people came to the Return of the Rave, becoming one of the biggest raves in Eastern Europe.

by **Pemecutan** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 8:40 am

Saniscara Wage Wuku Tambir, Pawukon 1783

Equal Competition, When?

Pemecutan Puri - The hype of Olympics once again give a surprising results in Pemecutan group sport. If in the last edition men's water polo and 3x3 basketball (both men's and women's) made headlines after their success. This edition, it's the women's football that being in the spotlight. Following the success of none mainstream sport in Olympics, the question over equal competition between men and women is raising again. The issue have been raised before with volleyball and basketball made the commitment to do so. But with the passing of time, nothing have ever happen.

Pemecutan Basketball Association (PBA) as the governing body of basketball stated that the establishment of women's league is currently on halt. Basketball is currently experiencing a decline in popularity which affected the clubs sponsorship. This resulted in a huge overhaul of Pemecutan basketball league. The 51 clubs was forced to merge in order to save their financial. The merger process success to create 15 new clubs and started the new league named PBA Pro League. The new league use a new format. In the first half of the season, the clubs will be playing a round robin matches where each club will meet all the clubs in the league twice. In the second half, top 8 of the league will compete in a knockout stage where the winner of this stage will be entitled as the winner of the league. While the commitment to established a similar league for women is stumble upon sponsorship reason.

In volleyball, Volleyball Association of Pemecutan (VAP) is the responsible body to established league in Pemecutan. Historically, there was a league for both men and women. But the men's league gradually lose popularity which resulted with the league being suspended. Although there is a plan to revive the men's league. But the uncertainty to when it will be revived makes it harder to predicted when it will restarted. VAP spokesperson said the possibility of men's league revival is probably happened in another two years. That's a maximum timeframe. On the other hand, VAP is also being questioned over beach volleyball domestic competition. As the country is a regular participant of IVF events and beach volleyball is part of the event held under IVF, the domestic competition is a must for Pemecutanian athletes to be able to compete internationally aside from their Olympics participation. But no confirmed information regarding this issue have been address by the association.

And recently, with the surprise result of women's football team, a question for their own league arise. Football league for women have been included in the agenda of the late PFA President, Pande Suryajaya. But after his sudden death and change of leadership, the issue have never been touched again. Recently, the association focused on changing the league structure once again. This resulted in the establishment of Katiga League, a new third tier league. Another issue that they focused on is youth development. From promoting youth players into international transfer market. And also the establishment of youth league.

Still, despite all the obstacles, an equal competition between men and women is needed domestically. This to ensure a better regeneration and to find new talents for national team. And for us as citizen, we have to keep reminding these sport association so the issue can be resolved soon.

Other News

ARTISTIC SWIMMING, Bayu Diwangkara/Eka Putra Anggara failed to impressed.
ATHLETICS, Dewa Ayu Wiranti success to reached final in Women's 100m. Can she replicate her XIV edition's medal?
BASKETBALL, Both 5x5 team failed while the men's 3x3 advance to knockout stage.
BADMINTON, Vina Prajoso/Lidya Wedari become the first Pemecutanian badminton players to reached semifinal. They defeat their teammates, Olivia Sungkono/Chandrawati.
BOXING, Targaroha prepared for his semifinal match.
CANOEING, Starting the sprint events, the athletes are prepared to defend their medal bout.
DIVING, Komang Yudha Trisnanda failed to defend his medal after he failed to qualify to the semifinal round.
FOOTBALL, Although losing their match, the women's football team was given a round of applause by their supporters.
GYMNASTICS, Failed in rings final, Made Dwi Andika still have horizontal bars event while Jonathan Yowana will compete in parallel bars final.
ROWING, No medal added after both coxed eight team finished last in their final run.
TENNIS, All eyes to men's single and women's single as they will play their round 16 match.
VOLLEYBALL-BEACH, Can Diah Ayu Wedani/Putu Purnami advancing further?
WEIGHTLIFTING, Ayustini Santika almost add another medal for Pemecutan. Only 2kg short from bronze medal.

Honorable Mention Day 10
Bayu Diwangkara/Eka Putra Anggara
Finalist - Men's Duet (Aquatics Artistic swimming)
Made Dwi Andika
Finalist - Men's Rings (Gymnastics artistic)
Heriyanto Krismawan/Irfan Rayadi/Komang Agus Artajaya/Made Panca Tirta/Petrus Abela/Putu Krismadewa/Septiandi Putra/Surya Ananta Putra/Putu Indra Birawa (Cox)
Finalist - Men's Coxed Eight (Rowing)
Diah Cantika Sari/Gina Anjani/Kadek Dwi Kemala Sari/Kadek Indirawati/Putri Ayuningtyas/Ratna Ayu Purwani/Silviani Putri/Luh Ayu Diah Padmi (Cox)
Finalist - Women's Coxed Eight (Rowing)
Ayustini Santika
4th Place - Women's +87kg (Weightlifting)

by **Darmen** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 9:47 am

Lee's Extra Time Goal Fells Cocoabo Forest

Just like her grandfather, Marianne Lee humbly celebrates her goal with a simple clap.

FAIRLEIGH-WARBURTON, ELECTRUM - Marianne Lee, granddaughter of All Greens legend and former President of the Republic Tor Tong Lee, scored the game winning goal in extra time of Darmen's round of sixteen fixture with Cocoabo Forest to secure the team a spot in the quarterfinals.

The Darmeni women started their match against Cocoabo Forest slowly, in stark contrast to the fast opening of their play-in round match versus Liventia in which they scored two goals in the first ten minutes. Cocoabo Forest dominated possession in the first half, with the Darmeni team failing to challenge the opposing goalkeeper and weathering a number of probing attacks from the Cocoabo. Defender and captain of the Darmeni team, Oneida Ellington, stood out in particular as she stopped several runs into the eighteen yard box with strong tackles.

The second half was much the same story, as Cocoabo Forest kept possession for long periods of time and the few Darmeni attacks that took place always ended fruitlessly. As the half progressed, the Darmeni team withdrew further and further into a defensive shell, determined to see the match into extra time where their youthful stamina and energy might serve as an advantage over their opponents.

Indeed, it did just that. The Darmeni team that took the pitch in extra time could certainly not be described as the same team that took the field at the start of the match. The young Darmeni flipped the scripts and soon it was Cocoabo Forest who found themselves in constant defense as Darmen launched forwards again and again. While the first fifteen minutes failed to yield any goals, the Cocoabo Forest goalkeeper had tallied up four saves compared to her zero from the ninety minutes of regulation and the momentum in the match had clearly switched sides with Darmen in the ascendency.

After an extra time half time break that was definitely shorter than a minute (hah!), it was Lee's time to shine, as a flurry of shots from her racked up the pressure on the Cocoabo Forest defense, with cracks starting to show which the Darmenis could exploit. It would be Lee herself who would exploit the gaps in the opposing defense, finally scoring the long desired goal for Darmen after being given a clear shot on goal by a Cocoabo Forest defender who's momentum took her past Lee.

After the match, Lee credited the victory to her teammates, despite having scored the winning goal largely unassisted. "The first half wasn't pretty, from an attacking standpoint," commented Lee, "but we stood strong defensively, I can't give the rest of the players enough credit for making things easy on Emilia (Laurenz). And once we got into extra time, we really stepped things up, put the pressure back on our opponents."

Fellow Rushmori nation Brookstation will be the next hurdle in Darmen's path, with the team hungry to win gold. The women's team won bronze four years ago and will be hoping to improve on that this year to further raise the bar for women's footballers in Darmen.

Other Headlines

Darmeni FA photo editor sacked for incompetence
Track cycling approaches, will it give Darmen a taste of Gold finally?
New study shows Darmenis incapable of giving a damn about Rhythmic Gymnastics

by **Mytanija** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 10:12 am

THREE PIECES OF SILVER (AND A BRONZE TOO)
MEDAL RUN CONTINUES APACE AS BALOBANIC BRINGS SILVER HOME ONCE AGAIN

by Alen Kujovic

A trio of silvers made it another very good day for Mytanija, with an extra bronze added to the overall tally in the form of an unexpected triathlon relay medal. There was more success in rowing, though those involved on the coaching side of the sport must be wondering what they have to do to get a Mytanar athlete to actually secure a gold medal – it’s now five silvers over the past two Olympics in rowing, none quite getting over the line to secure a gold. It’s a similar theme for Mytanija’s other silver medallist of the day, Viljo Balobanic. He won his second Olympic silver medal in the men’s 68kg taekwondo, matching his feat from four years ago in Bunjil, admirable consistency in itself but his frustration and disappointment were clear to see.

Balobanic was in electric form to start the tournament, beating Britonisea’s Drake Boon 11-2 in the Round of 32 with a good display of kicks – both to the head and to the body – to safely progress through to the next round. It was exactly the sort of start Balobanic had wanted coming into the competition, recognising the slow starts that both Simon Zhinzhifov and Uma Rotar had made the previous day and not wanting to fall into a similar trap here. His Round of 16 encounter was much more competitive, Ko-oren’s Kedhakuth Gathoreganen giving him a real challenge with some excellent defensive work to disrupt Balobanic’s high-intensity attacks. Balobanic did eventually manage to see off his rival, albeit by the much narrower 4-2 score line, which kept things tense until the very end.

He had a little time to revisit his approach between rounds, discussing tactics with his coaching team and this seemed to allow Balobanic to reset. He flew out of the blocks in the quarter final against Pasqualino Casal, scoring early with a head kick to really set the trend of how this bout was going to go, Balobanic was always in control and eventually qualified with a 10-3 victory. Similar could be said about the semi-final against Kriegiersien’s Ginger Brattman. Athletes in combat sports from Kriegiersien always seem to be competitive and Balobanic perhaps would have expected a stronger challenge here, but he managed to win 11-4, by the same margin as in the quarter final with a no-nonsense showing that was capped off by a stunning head kick. All of that set-up a final against New Gelderland’s Isaac Harris.

Harris had experienced a similar tournament to Balobanic, although it was in a slightly different order. He had seen off Roman Renard in the Round of 32 with a 15-6 win; shutout Frant’esku Bruto 11-0 in the Round of 16; and then had two much tighter battles against Fujimori Masashige and Mihai César, winning 4-1 and 5-2 respectively. It would be a difficult final, but Balobanic could fairly point to the way in which he had negotiated his match-ups in the late rounds and suggest that he was coming into form at exactly the right time. Unfortunately Harris had other ideas and a tight final was eventually won in a golden point round, Harris getting the first kick in to Balobanic’s trunk protector and sealing the gold medal in sudden death.

Another silver for Balobanic and he was visibly frustrated with the result – which, whilst impressive in its own right is not exactly what he came to this Olympics for after his silver four years ago – bemoaning a gam-jeom (penalty) point which allowed Harris to tie the scores prior to the golden point round. Given a little time he was a little more introspective, “I should have been more careful as we got closer to the end of the bout, especially with the scores so tight – you just cannot give away gam-jeom points against opponents like Isaac and it’s something I’ll have to learn from.”

Whether Balobanic will be back for one more go is unclear, it’s expected that he will retire in the same way that it appears likely Simon Zhinzifov is leaning towards that outcome. Zhinzifov does however have a gold medal already, whilst two silvers could potentially push Balobanic towards one more role of the dice. He’ll be 34 by the time the next Olympics come around and he may well be pushing his luck at that stage, though he did say he would not be making any rash decisions in the wake of another successful if unfulfilling run at these Games.

ROWING SILVERS SHOW THE SPORT IS CONTINUING TO DEVELOP

Another pair of silvers in rowing demonstrate that the sport is continuing its development in Mytanija, as already mentioned, the continuous run of silvers does have some coaches wondering just what they have to do to get a Mytanar athlete or team to win gold in the sport at the moment. Orina Shulga led the way with her silver in the women’s single sculls, finishing three seconds behind the gold medallist Christophine Christ from Britonisea. West Phoenicia’s Olympia North – an apt given name for an Olympian – secured bronze, around eight seconds behind second-placed Shulga.

It was a good performance from the Magev rower, delivering on her obvious potential amongst an elite field and getting her reward for a fine regatta here in Electrum. Her consistency has been remarkable and she praised the Mytanski Institut za Sport for their involvement in the run-up to the Olympics: “The training regime they put together for me was superb and it’s meant that I’ve felt the sharpest that I have ever felt in my career, it’s been unbelievable for me and I can’t thank them enough. The OKM showed great foresight to tap into the enormous amount of knowledge we have at the Institut and I think it’s paid-off, their attention to detail has been amazing, even down to getting my equipment over to Electrum… Hopefully we’ll continue to rely upon them to support our athletes going forwards.”

A silver in rowing’s blue riband event was also impressive, seeing off competition from the teams of Krytenia, the Licentian Isles, Rarungan and Pemecutan in the women’s coxed eight race. The team from the Vilitan Union had a little too much, although the winning margin was so tight that it appeared that any of Mytanija, Krytenia and the Vilitans could win the race heading into the final few strokes. It was the Vilitans who managed to make that edge in a fantastic race, but a silver is an excellent achievement and should really help the sport of rowing to grow in Mytanija as we continue the search for an elusive gold medal.

TRIATHLON MIXED RELAY BRONZE

The quartet of Elvedin Divjak, Zdenko Magic, Natalija Koteva and Janja Crnojevic were not expected to contend for a medal at the Olympics, but they ended up being involved in one of the most thrilling events of the Games thus far. The foursome were locked into a battle with the teams from the Licentian Isles and Krytenia until the very end of the race, with the Licentian team eventually sealing gold and Krytenia finishing in second for silver. The gap between the top three teams was less than 1.5 seconds, demonstrating the hotly contested nature of the event and emphasising just how well the Mytanar team did to be in contention for that long. The next nearest challenger to the podium was the team from Diarcesia, nearly 9 seconds further back.

A strong showing in an event which isn’t traditionally one which Mytanars enjoy, even if two of the three disciplines (cycling and swimming), are among the sports which athletes from our country tend to excel in. You would imagine that putting them together would be fairly intuitive, but this is the first real success in the sport and will be something which helps to support it going forwards. The OKM uses the money it gets from the government to support grassroots sport and it uses a funding formula to do this. The funding formula is largely based on two things: demand for the sport and success at the highest level. A bronze here should help to drive funding on both of those two criteria and it’s something which athletes are painfully aware of given it’s how they are supported in the run-up to big competitions such as the Olympics.

by **Sargossa** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 10:18 am

SSM | Sargossan State Media

International Edition - Olympics

Walk Like A Sargossan

Blanco Borrayo reports from Prescott;

Over the years nations gain a reputation for excellence in specific events or disciplines. Being drawn against Mytanar boxers or Quebecois fencers is generally synonymous with an imminent exit from those competitions. Then there’s Krytenia and cycling, Banija and sprinting, Eura and proxy warfare, The Sarian and equestrianism. For Sargossa the big strength is walking, apparently. It may not have the raw adrenaline of an 100m sprint but the fans at the Northcote Oval and the wider environs of Prescott’s streets got to enjoy some solid race walking on Day 10 of these Games. A contest that drew to an amazing crescendo as Zacarías Amparan came perambulating down the home straight. There had been quite a tussle between Amparan and the Vilitan Akuda Cotton in the final stages. The rest of the competitors had dropped back one by one, but these two had remained in the tussle to the end. Until the stadium itself was in sight and Amparan found one last gear to speed away from his rival and cross the line for a glorious gold, shaving three seconds off the Olympic record in the process. It was the second successive Games that Sargossa had claimed victory in the event, after Julian Arboleda’a win four years ago in Bunjil, and third in a row in which the nation has taken a Walking medal. That’s eight in total now for Sargossa in its elite walking history.

Amparan’s high(ish) octane efforts also marked an opening medal for Sargossa’s Athletics delegation. The much-vaunted Sargossan athletics systems has accounted for more than a hundred medals in the nation’s Olympic history and played a huge part in Sargossa topping the medal table at the first, and only, Rushmori Games. On only one occasion since the Seventh Games in Emberton has the nation failed to win a double figure haul in the Athletics disciplines. So the white hot glare of expectation, that is largely focused on the Aquatics Team in week one is now moving its Sauron like cone of vision away from the pool, in the direction of the track and field events.

Those track and field events are well underway in Prescott, where the Men’s and Women’s 100m, both traditional Games showpieces, are now into their latter stages. After a fallow decade or so the Sargossan Athletics Authority refocused their strategies, shifting emphasis away from the shorter sprints and more towards the 400m and 800m. But Raúl Fonseca on the men’s side of the competition and Talía Espinar for the women are showing that there’s still life in Sargossa’s sprint programme yet. Admittedly a place in the final may be beyond Fonseca, who reached the semis having finished fourth in a relatively quick heat, but the 100m is always a hard one to predict. It has already riled against the natural order of things, with none of the ever-dangerous Euran contingent even making it through the preliminaries. Espinar, who took gold at the Global Athletics Tour Final in Orean, though could be considered a genuine medal chance, having reached the final of the women’s event. Espinar finished second in her semi, behind home favourite Jarrah Belmonte, and goes into the final as the fifth fastest qualifier. Belmonte, roared on by a capacity crowd, will likely be the bookies favourite and the Eurans are pinning big hopes on Amber Keane, the 200m silver medallist from Bunjil. But Espinar, with a global title to her name, shouldn’t be overawed by the occasion.

But over in the 400m, the new focus for the track team, the men’s event didn’t have quite the same impact. Fabricio Rafael is safely through to the first-round proper, but his third-place finish in heat 4 of the preliminaries was hardly the marker the SAA were hoping for. Ángel Mina just about squeezed in to join him, as the sixth of six ‘lucky losers’. Much more encouraging was the 800m, in which Alex Pousa and Fernán Vidrio advanced to the semis as second and third fastest qualifiers respectively. On the women’s side María Fernanda Dávalos has gone one stage further, finishing second in her semi to claim a place in the final. The final looks set to be an amazing contest, with Dávalos up against home favourite Holly Sparks, Banija’s Fatimata Marega and no less than three Eurans. In the longer distances Estefanía Lince will also be contesting a final, in the 5,000m. But there is harder work in the 100m Hurdles, with only Antonia Andino emerging from the first round. Teammate Celestina Borra will feel particularly hard done by, having ran faster than Andino and holding the faster loser spot until the final heat. The 400m Hurdles, in which Ana París won a brilliant gold four years ago, could well see the nation retain its title. Alita De los Reyes took the first round by the scruff of the neck, qualifying for the semi as the fastest competitor by a distance. Felipina Nieto also advanced.

Out in the field there was a very popular result as Kayne Wilkins of Electrum took gold in the Men’s Discus. His huge opening attempt fell just shy of sixty nine metres and couldn’t be bettered by anyone else in the final. Matty Coates ensured Eura’s athletics delegation got off the mark with his silver and Krytenian Steven Huxtable knocked teammate David Sablon off the podium with his final effort. Miguel Casados made it through the full six rounds of the final but couldn’t trouble the leaders. At the other end of the stadium Jerónimo De la Torre, Felix Ruiz and Pepe Arellanes were all untidy but ultimately all made it through into what is a huge pool of talent for the Pole Vault final. And down one flank of the arena both Lorenzo Rubio and Vidal Peres advanced to the Long Jump final without really catching the eye. The same couldn’t be said for Nieves Cabanilla, who goes into the Women’s Discus final as qualification leader, ahead of a talented duo from Brookstation.

Across the city, Edison Square saw the Men’s Park Skateboarding event. It was the first time Sargossa had entered the Skateboarding and there was no clear understanding on how the nation’s entrants would fare against the rest of the sportiverse. Not too shabbily as it turned out. Among a ninety four man field, Benito Venegas in 24th and Zacarías Amengual in 31st performed more than respectfully. Ismael Covarrubias went one better, reaching the final as the twelve and final qualifier. That in itself would have been achievement enough except that Covarrubias had a further trick up his baggy sleeve. His first round performance was as clean as a whistle, is a phrase probably not used in the skateboarding fraternity. But Covarrubias topped the standings after his opening round and would not be shifting for the duration of the competition. His gold medal was the second time in these Games that the nation has secured a medal in a discipline for the very first time. Rosaria Galán’s Triathlon triumph being the other.

But there was to be no glorious double for Galán, her earlier efforts clearly taking their toll as Team Sargossa finished a long way down the standings in the Triathlon Team Relay at Habpo Commons. But across the Habpo Cluster, at Menagwes Garden, a stellar Games for Sargossa’s gymnasts continued. Rebeca Abasto, already an Olympic champion after taking gold in the Uneven Bars event, added another medal to her own and the nation’s tally with a silver in the Women’s Floor. Sargossa had won four medals in Gymnastics events in its history prior to these Games. The team here have added another three in Twin Cities alone. Across the waters in Daehakro’s Yongma College Aquatics Centre special praise must be reserved for Gonzalo Perez and Rodrigo Campa. Sargossan Diving has been in the doldrums for quite some time, but both men made it through to the semi-finals of the 3m Springboard. And Perez in particular, qualifying in third place, is well placed to potentially become the first Sargossan into a Diving final in a couple of decades.

With three medals won on Day 10, two of them of glorious gold, the nation’s tally now stands at seventeen medals won overall. Although no specific target has been set by the Olympic Authority, an unofficial goal of a top ten finish in the medal standings has become common knowledge among those around the delegation. The nation currently sits outside that target but the two golds and a silver secured on Day 10 has seen Sargossa move up to thirteenth place.

by **Brookstation** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:28 pm

One for the nation
Part-10

by Jeremiah Rhodes

ARE WE ACTUALLY DOING WELL IN ATHLETICS ?
AN EXCELLENT DISPLAY OF TEAMWORK SEES BROOKSTATION GAIN THEIR FIFTH SILVER

Athletics as a sport has never been looked upon as a successful sport by Brookstation but repeated efforts by the Sports Federation to ensure the success of the sport however brought some hopes among the Brook crowd. Ironically enough, Brookstation is having their best time in athletics in the 16th Olympiad with most, if not all Brook track and field athletes pulling off their best performances. After already winning Brookstation's first gold in athletics, the Brook athletes had a busy day ahead of them to cope up with the expectations of the crowd. The mixed relay team didn't fail to disappoint the crowd as the team led by Andrew Anstey went on to win Brookstation's 14th medal, doubling Brookstation's total medal count last year after grabbing silver. It takes a falwless display of teamwork to win any team event, especially when it comes to track and field and Andrew Anstey, Auguste Jacques, Caroline Haynes and Rebecca Mitchell were ready to prove it to the crowd. The team's performance in the qualifiers had surely not been the best with the current champions Britonisea, bronze medallist Eura and the Alezian Union posing a much greater threat to Brookstation's chances. Anstey and co however knew their part and there was no way to blow it up then. Anstey's start himself was not impressive enough given that the athlete is one of Brookstation's most celebrated athlete and has a lot more potential. Rising youngster Auguste Jacques however covered up a great amount for Anstey and soon Jacques was head to head with Britonisea's Helena Vatenfall. To conclude, both Caroline Haynes and Rebecca Mitchell did their job pretty accurately but were not able to match the speed of the Vatenfall quadruplets.

Rebecca Mitchell's success however was not limited to the silver medal as Mitchell would go ahead to display a brilliant show of speed to make room for herself in the Women's 800m finals. Mitchell as an athlete has heavily improvised her performance compared to last year. A silver medal will definitely be a boost for her performances in the near future but the feeling that surrounds one on winning an event single-handedly is completely different. The 800m is perhaps one of the most competitive as well as difficult races. It not only puts one's speed but also one's agility to test and Rebecca will hopefully maintain her form to provide us a more entertaining result in the finals.

Leaving aside the short distance events, the Brook women also managed to excel in the long distance races with two female athletes making it to the finals of the women's 5000m. The 5000m is ideally not an event where Brookstation is supposed to succeed in any way whatsoever but both Maria Trindade and Jo Adams seems to have surpassed all expectations to prove their mettle. Jo Adam's performance hadn't been the best again but she was well within the frame to qualify for the finals finishing at 10th place after mastering a finishing time of 15 minutes and 9 seconds. There is still a lot of room for improvement on Adams' side but Maria on the other hand has delivered yet another career best performance, finishing the course within 15 minutes and 2 seconds. Trindade was not within touching distance of the top three runners but she still provided quite a competition to the other athletes competing to make it to the final. Hopefully, Trindade can improve herself a little bit to grab a medal for Brookstation.

Exit the track, enter the field. The Brook women had their best time in discus throw with both Niki Green and Sarah Juric making it to the final in style. Green and Juric finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in their event and a similar result in the finals of the event would be highly cherished by everyone. Expectations aside, Green got her career best throw in her second attempt when she sent the discus flying a distance of 62.60 metres. Sarah Juric wasn't much behind though and similar to her partner, Juric managed to make it to 62.37 metres in her very first attempt. But one must not forget the fact that throwing events are one of the most unpredictable events as one throw can change it all but one can just hope that Green and Juric maintain their form and present themselves in a better form in the finals.

by **Kriegiersien** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:42 pm

Mila Superstar and Daven Porsche making it into the semi final of the Olympics.

A big surprise for the Badminton team, as Daven Porsche and Mila Superstar made it into the semis.

Daven, successor of Tim Timey, the unbeaten Olympic Gold medal winner, as Kriegiersien singles champion and Mila Superstar are from the same team, “We don’t care”, a just new formed team, who became Kriegiersien team champion for the first time, but didn’t start to play together as mixed just months before the Olympics.

While Daven is a former Tennis player who came to Badminton only 5 years ago, Mila was always seen as coming hope, but never had a breakthrough, thanks to injuries and mental problems and didn’t even make it into the Top 8 of the Singles competition in Kriegiersien.

That the two now made it into the semi final of the Olympics is a massive surprise and could end now with a medal and with that like a fairy story.

by **Titaniumland** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:44 pm

The Journal
Daily Vlogs - Day 10

Daily Vlogs
The videos are uploaded in the Watch Now feature of Peak+ streaming service.

[*] GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!! by Odin Keeling (Rowing)
The video shows Odin Keeling flaunting off his gold medal with his twin brother, Otis. "Here it is, guys! I would like to present my twin brother, Odin with his gold medal. Is there anything that you would like to say?" asks Otis. "Thank you, Otis. I wanna say thank you so much to everyone who has supported me during the Olympics. And this is for you, Otis, our family and closest ones. This is for our first coach back in high school, Coach Steven White who passed away just last month, this is for you, Sir. Who else. For fellow rowing team back in Titans, we really are honored to represent the team. And for anyone at home who has a dream to win a gold medal, just pursue it. See how I did mine leads me. And I'm very blessed to share this experience with my brother. I wouldn't do it with anyone else and I couldn't have done it without you, Otis. Once again, thank you so much. Odin and Otis signing out!"

[*] bronze!!! by Damien Knoxville (Artistic Swimming)
The video shows Damien Knoxville and Julian Gagarin flaunting off their bronze medals after placing third during the artistic swimming, men's duet finals. "Hello guys! We just wanna share our experience regarding to this," says Damien while holding his medal. "Hello! This feels like a dream coming true. Thank you so much for supporting us!", continues Julian. "We video-called my mum before recording this video. And she was tearing up and said that she was so proud of me. It means a lot to me since she didn't really support me at the very start of my career but look how far we've become, I'm really proud of us," says Damien tearing up while holding his husband's hands. Julian then holds Damien. "Thank you, thank you, and shout out to every duet competing. You are all beautiful and it's been a very pleasure to compete with you all!", says Julian. "We also want to give our love and light to every Titan athlete who are still competing, love you all! Can't wait to see you all soon," he continues. "I think that's it from us, yeah? Thank you so much once again for all of the support,"

[*] CONGRATS DAMIEN AND JULIAN!!!!! by Henry Fields (Diving)
The video shows Henry walking outside Yongma College Aquatics Centre earlier that day. "Look who I'm with today!", says Henry while pointing the camera to Damien Knoxville and Julian Gagarin who just snatches the bronze medals, walking behind him. "Good Lord, you two killed it! Crazy!" "Thank you, Henry! That means a lot. We noticed you in the crowd when we were on the podium, cheering the loudest. Thank you, buddy!", says Julian. "But hey, you also placed first during the preliminaries! Congrats on that!", continues Damien. "Ah, thank you guys. But really, how did it feel standing on the Olympics podium?", asks Henry. "Crazy. Chills all over my body. I still can't believe it's real," says Damien. "Dreams really do come true, Henry. That's all in my mind right now. I'm still speechless," says Julian. "Amazing!" "Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for Henry's semifinals! And we will be in the crowd definitely!", says Damien. "Ah, thank you guys! That's it from us today, goodbye!", says Henry while the trio waving their hands to the camera.

[*] releasing off the tense by Alma Coleman (Athletics)
The video shows Alma Coleman, Addie Parrish and Ziva Foley in a room. "Hey guys! Tomorrow's the finals for women's shot put. We're really nervous," says Addie. "Yeah, the nerve really got the best of us for now. But we're really trying to shake it off. We've booked an appointment with our therapist and it's at 5 pm. It's still 4:18, we still got time definitely to talk with you all in the video," continues Alma. "But true though, sessions with shrink really help me with anxiety. I visit them very often back then during the practice. I'm no longer competing, but I'm here to support my women and see if there's anything I can do to help," says Ziva. "That's super sweet, Ziv. Thank you so much," says Alma while holding the other two athletes. "We stick together, yeah? No matter what,"

[*] Skate Kitchen Day Out! with a SURPRISE! by Amala Welsh (Skateboarding)
The video shows Amala Welsh, Amelia-Grace Adamson and Chase Contretas skating their way from the Edison Square to the local skate park in Prescott. "Hey everyone! The guys were just finished competing. Gideon was so close to the top three, but still did very impressive! We asked them to join us to the park but unfortunately they were too tired. Can't complain though! They're just living their dreams competing at the Olympics," says Amala. "Turn left here, guys!", says Chase while navigating their way with the app on her phone. "And here we are". To their shock, they find Gideon, Olly and Theo at the park already skating with about seven local skaters. "Eh, didn't you guys say you were tired?", asks Amala. "Surprise!", says Gideon, Olly and Theo in unison. "Diaa here showed us the shortcut so we managed to arrive here first," says Olly. "Say hi to the camera, Diaa," then Diaa waves to the camera. "Let's go!", says Amelia-Grace while skating. The other athletes join her while Amala shooting around the park.

Medal tally
2 1 1

GOLD
Murphy Singh - Swimming - Men's 100 m backstroke [Day 3]
Odin Keeling - Rowing - Men's single sculls [Day 10]

SILVER
Kasey Reeves - Skateboarding - Women's Street [Day 2]

BRONZE
Damien Knoxville/Julian Gagarin - Artistic Swimming - Men's duet [Day 10]

by **StrayaRoos** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 2:27 pm

Day 11
Boccia We've made it through very quickly into the Quarterfinals with a 4-0 record and will hopefully take the win in the Boccia tally
Athletics Jeff Kal made it through narrowly yesterday and is now going to try and Make a dent in the Finals and with the First Round of the 800m too he's going to have another long day
Goalball 1 more win and we've done it and made it to the Women's Quarterfinals
Aquatics we have the Women's Duet Technical Routine today in Twin Cities
Basketball the 3x3 Wallabies have made it into the final 16 while yesterday the 3x3 Koalas lost to The Sarian in the Women's

04:15-rtvS Morning News
07:15-rtvS Olympics (early Morning)
Live Coverage of:Modern Pentathlon
09:30-News Update
09:45-rtvS Olympics (Morning)
Live Coverage of:Athletics,Boccia,Goalball and Basketball 
12:00-Lunchtime Review
13:15-rtvS Olympics (Afternoon)
Live Coverage of:Athletics,Aquatics,Basketball,Boccia,Gymnastics,Cycling,Tennis and Football
16:50-rtvS News
17:10-rtvS Olympics (Evening)
Live Coverage of:Football,3x3 Basketball,Gymnastics and Tennis
19:00-Day in Review
22:00-Generic Late Night Talk Show
Catch all the action at the games on rtvS+

by **Krytenia** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 3:52 pm

A man for all seasons

It's been six years in the making, but finally one man's dream has been realised. Linford's James Makone, double biathlon champion at the XV Winter Olympics in Clayquot, has joined the elite group of people with medals in both Summer and Winter Games as he won the men's three-position rifle competition.

Having qualified in a decent but unspectacular sixth place, Makone unloaded - literally - in the first round of the final, taking the lead by just north of a point. With individual shots whittling the field down, the Krytenian's steady hand and breath control, honed through his experience of shooting mid-ski, kept him in good stead, and when he hit a 10.8 with his penultimate shot, the gold was as good as his. He ended up outscoring silver medalist Liam Murphy with his final shot as well, the West Phoenician unable to keep up with Makone's deadly accuracy.

So, having relinquished both his biathlon titles two years ago, will we see him try and regain them at the next Winters? It appears not. In a post-final interview, Makone admitted that his leg strength isn't what it was, and he'll be concentrating on warm-weather rifle shooting in the future.

Besides, he still needs another summer gold to level things up.

A Gem encased in gold

If there's one story from this Games that rings true for Team Krytenia, it's their knack for winning medals in sports that aren't usually associated with the nation. A medal in diving. Another in épée fencing. Three in shooting, of all things. We can now add weightlifting to that list; after two medals in eleven Olympics, Krytenia have now won two more in less than eleven days, courtesy of the nation's first ever female gold medalist in the sport: Gemma Tadden.

What was even more breathtaking was the manner of Tadden's victory. Having lifted 138kg in the snatch, Tadden sat in bronze medal position going into the clean and jerk. The Krytenian decided 175kg was enough for a banker in the clean and jerk - and lifted it with what looked like a good deal left in the tank. With snatch leader Camille D'Entrecasteaux having already failed at 170kg, Tadden's lift put added pressure on the Electrumite. The bar was increased to 176kg; Macbon's Alicia Bono decided to take that weight with her second lift to push her into silver medal position. D'Entrecasteaux attempted the same, but was again met with an inability to lock the bar over her head. 178kg did for Pemecutan's Ayustini Santika, with Tadden all the while watching and waiting. Bono went for 180kg with her final lift, and almost got there; for D'Entrecasteaux, the bar got as far as the chest, but no farther, and she was left with an Olympic record and a DNF.

This led to Tadden being in the unusual position of being assured of gold with two lifts in hand. Lift two, it was decided, would be 184kg - enough to set a new Olympic clean and jerk record, and equal the total weight record. Despite a little wobble, Tadden got the three white lights, and added a kilo for her final attempt. Sadly, she couldn't set her legs in the jerk, registering a no-lift, but it was still a dominant performance for the Dereapolis lifter. Tadden will be thirty-four by the time the next Games roll around; you get the feeling that there's a few in the field hoping that'll be too old to return. Don't count on it though.

Well, that happened...

There are sports that are very well funded and successful in Krytenia, such as cycling. There are sports that are very well funded and less successful in Krytenia, such as rowing. (Seriously, all that expenditure for three bronzes. Heads will roll.) And then, right at the other end of the scale, are the sports that don't get the big central funding novelty cheques. Triathlon is one of those sports; it's not quite true that the budged is seventeen cuprals and a boiled sweet the head of the Krytenia Triathlon Federation found behind his sofa, it might as well be. In any case, it's seventeen cuprals and a boiled sweet far better spent than the obscene amount of argentals wasted on people dicking around going backwards on boats.

The mixed relay event is one that involves shorter distances per athlete than the full triathlon, and that works somewhat in Team Krytenia's favour. If our triathletes are missing anything to compete on the world level, it's deep-level endurance, so sprint distances were right up their street. Deborah Heder got the foursome off to a good start, and at the end of her leg, Krytenia were well in touch in fourth. Alex Duff's bike leg was an attempt to string out the field, and there was a group of three that emerged, but the run leg saw the gaps close. Gloria Jackson kept pace well, despite falling behind her rivals from the Licentian Isles and Mytanija on the swim, making it up on - what else? - the bike. When she handed over to Tim Sweeney, the medals looked like they were going to those three nations; the only thing left to decide was the order.

That, in the end, wouldn't be decided until the closing metres. With a near ten second lead over their rivals, Sweeney, Mytanija's Zdenko Magic, and Licentian triathlete Ruben Maas were locked in a sprint to the line, with any one of them capable of winning the gold. In the end it was Maas who broke the tape, seven tenths of a second ahead of the Krytenian, with Magic a couple of metres back to secure bronze for his team. Silver may have been a disappointment in the heat of the finish, but only for a few seconds as the realisation hit that the quartet had secured only Krytenia's second triathlon medal, and their first in almost half a century.

Stick that one in your boat and smoke it.

Inspired to try triathlon? 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 **Ko-oren** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 3:56 pm

What took Ko-oren so long - why weren't we involved in the Olympics for so long? And are we here to stay, or is this a temporary thing?

That's a lot of questions, and best tackled one by one, especially because the answers get longer the better the answer gets. The short answer is "We play mostly team sports which aren't on the Olympic agenda, and the individual sports we do don't translate one-on-one to Olympic disciplines" with the follow-up being "We're here to stay because with more global exposure, clubs and groups have been established for most Olympic disciplines". We could dive into that further: which Olympic sports are more successful in getting a foothold in Ko-oren (and why) - and a lot of that has to do with 'the individual sports we do don't translate one-on-one to Olympic disciplines". It's all tied together. Hang on, it's going to be comprehensive, there will be a history lesson, and there will be a test on Monday.

So, first of all, quite a few of our national resources are dedicated to team sports, and it has been that way for decades if not longer. Creating communities is easier that way, and you keep a lot more people occupied with - often - fewer land and fewer materials. That said, plain races to see who is the fastest runner have obviously happened for centuries, but these were usually across impromptu distances ('race you to the end of town and back').

Individual sports were mostly water based, as an island nation. Sailing was a necessity for most, and then turned into a competition for some. Canoeing/kayaking along rivers, streams, and through the wetlands of the Amandine and in Grainshire are age-old as well.

And then there's the main exception, and what answers the questions in the title.

Going back to medieval Ko-oren - or our local variant coinciding with that timeframe, at least - the country consisted of several cooperating city states, now unified after strife, rivalries, and competition. Transport between cities (which almost all were on the Bay of Ko-oren) was done via ship, and roads between the city states tended to go from paved to dirt quickly, and from dirt to nothing at all when you reached the end of each state's hinterland. It was still necessary, though, to traverse the landscape, and this was mostly done by a semi-official group: the Rangers. They did a lot of tasks, from border patrol (though they were rarely in the service of a single city state: they were either national/federal, or unaffiliated), to escorting tax collectors and merchants, to covert missions such as delivering messages between local rulers.

To that end, they developed a set of skills to help them quickly identify the landscape ahead of them, from mapping to placing landmarks that would go unnoticed to most, but tell the Rangers a lot. At some point, the markings also made it to their maps, and they told them were to find clean water, food, hiding spots, or shelter for the night. They often traversed huge distances, often through poorly charted and prepared territory, so these maps and markings were invaluable, and knowing the semiotics involved was the difference between life and death. The maps were set up so that a Ranger who wasn't used to the landscape or climate could still find his way, and the Rangers developed a language that was universal across the country.

That language was never completely lost, though it lost its relevance after a while. A larger population, with population centres further inland, led to roads between cities. Political changes gave us a single Ko-oren with an incentive to develop the entire country. Roads turned into railroads. Towns turned into cities. Some time later, maps turned into GPS.

In between all that, the Rangers retained their use as a government department, but now live on as national park rangers, or as a branch of the armed forces with tasks similar to what marines do in many countries, but mostly without the shooting - Ko-oren is a pacifist country, after all. Basically, the Rangers are still a proud institution that deal with the great outdoors.

The maps and the symbols on it then turned into a pastime: a way to quickly make sense of a new area, a pastime perfect for a population with more free time, with the options to visit different parts of the country in a country that relies on (domestic) tourism, and uses the broad range of climates we have. The premise is simple: you get a map, with some markings on it, and you visit these markings (in order, or not) and then you go to a finish point. The fastest wins, if it's a competition. If you're just doing it for fun, the incredible views and discoveries are the reward. In other countries, this sport developed simultaneously under the name Orienteering, and we've been using that term as well for ease of translation.

Since then, it has boomed into a huge individual sport, and you can see where it bites the Olympic disciplines: there's some running and walking involved, but over a course that you have to discover yourself, taking some of the pace out of it. There's some jumping involved, but not as structured and regular as, say, the hurdles. And instead of developing set distances, like the 400m, or 10km, or the marathon, the distance is up to the athlete. It's a pastime that combines the physical and the mental: your stamina is tested and at the same time your brain has to decide how to go from point to point, with or without a compass, trying to make sense of the symbols on the map and how they translate into the views before you.

And boy, do we have a few different disciplines now.

The big main categories are based on duration:
- Sprint (5-15 min)
- Short (20-30 min)
- Middle (45-60 min) -> this duration and the next are also great for sightseeing. In fact, a lot of cities, towns, and national parks have 'simple' trails for families that take them past all the interesting views. There's stamps and stickers to collect - but more on viewing domestic tourism as a collection some other time.
- Long (60-120 min)
- Ultralong (120-240 min)
- Multiday (1 day-multiple weeks) -> think of thruhiking or an ultramarathon, for instance.

Competitions are also marked by the environment (as a casual visitor, you probably already know what environment you're visiting. If you're competing, they keep this a secret for as long as possible!):
- Urban -> through cities or towns, where it's sometimes hard to get a decent view because of all the buildings in your way.
- Nature -> the 'original' Ranger-version of the sport.
- On Water
- Indoor -> think of a jungle gym, but extreme, multi-story, and with various other obstacles.

Originally, it's all on foot, but we've got technology now. There are categories for modes of transport:
- Walking
- Running
- Cycling
- Driving (by car)
- Cross country skiing -> done up north.
- Canoe/(sail)boat
- Swimming/scuba diving -> there can be control points (the 'markings you have to visit') under water!

Then there are distinctions in the mental aspect, how you go from point to point:
- Path -> you visit several points in a specific order, which makes the wayfinding a little easier: you don't have to think of your entire course in advance, it's mostly already decided.
- Control points -> you visit several points in no specific order. This is a little trickier: the decisions you make early on may make your later markings very hard to find, out of the way, or impractical if you have to go up and down the same slope, for instance.
- High score -> you visit several points in no specific order, but you have a time limit, and whoever touched the most markings on their route, wins. It's a more modern take on the original.

These three versions can be done with or without tools:
- All races are done with a map -> except for some 'hardcore' conceptual challenges where you're given a map to memorise at the beginning, but that's more of a thing in the Rangers/armed forces as an exercise.
- A compass

Going back to the question: Orienteering is seen as a pastime, something you do on holiday, etcetera. The Olympic disciplines have found their way into schools and universities, into proper athletic and gymnastic clubs, and are even getting funded by the government. So we imagine we're in it for the long run, olympically.

by **Britonisea** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 4:21 pm

OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT (MIXED 4x400m RELAY)

Live At The Games
Games of the XV Olympiad
Day Ten

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. He will be joined by Alex Hampstead who is known for presenting Today At The Games with Nicky Bachelor last year. They will be joined by an entirely new team - Adriano Acosta, Lisa Kaur and aquatics commentator, Charley Roman. 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 Doportedas.

Athletics in Britonisea is dominated by the Vatenfall siblings. The only gold medallist from the family of five brothers and sisters, Dave Vatenfall is the most experienced athlete and he will be participating in two events in total as he starts to wind down from international athletics. Kiain and Helena Vatenfall have both been entered into five events, Xian just the one while Laila Vatenfall goes for six. The scheduling for the Vatenfalls isn't ideal, but with Dave being the only brother who has won a medal, the others wanted to seize the opportunity at these Olympic Games to join him. Though, all because the Vatenfalls have done well, it doesn't mean that the ABEN Union doesn't have other athletes that are expected to do well/or have done well. Mohammed Corchado of Britonisea is the only ABENite to make it to the 100m Semi-Finals and there's hope he will make it to the finals. Reigning 800m champion, Dwain Peplinski of Estogium managed to qualify to the first round of the 400m with a time of 45.33 - which is actually one of the slowest times. He qualifies alongside Rion Ahmed of Nightom and Rashad Demps of Estogium who won his heat. Rion Ahmed couldn't take the stress of being in both the Men's 400m and 800m and bowed out of the latter while Dwain Peplinski remained cool, calm and collected despite not automatically qualifying to the semis - one can tell that he was tired from the earlier race. Gold medalist of the Men's 800m at the Games of the XI Olympiad, Jayden Ultimate, also didn't make it, signalling the end of the hold he had on this distance. Marya Halm of Britonisea made it through to the 100m final with a sub-11 second run of 10.99 - the second fastest run of the session which puts her in good stead ahead of that final. Marya also made it through to the Women's 400m hurdles semi-finals also meaning she's still in contention for becoming a double-medalist. Eva Gustafssen of Nightom won't be retaining her title in the Women's 800m after failing to qualify out of the Semi-Finals coming 7th in a field of 8, and running one of the slowest races of them all, alongside Georgina Tomlinson of Britonisea who also doesn't make it. Fellow Nightomese, Olga Kerstinsen runs the fastest women's 1500m, which means we will see her in the semi-finals soon. THe most exciting event of the night, however, was the Mixed 4 × 400 m relay - with the Olympic record holders, Ashton/Howland/King/Keane from Eura being hot favourites to once again take the title.

Lisa Kaur: It was great revisiting that rowing gold from earlier - Christophine really set the record straight there, such a deserved gold medal in the women's singles sculls.

Adriano Costa: Absolutely and two gold medals for Britonisea in rowing! Britonisea is on a roll, it's a first...well a second for us, isn't it! But now it's time to head to the Northcote Oval in Electrum for the final event of the night - it's the mixed relays...and your commentators for the race are Dai Green and Anne Briton!

As we went from Lisa and Adriano in the studio, we then crossed over to the packed Northcote Oval for the Mixed relay where we could see each of the relay teams coming out one by one. Commentating for tonight is Dai Green and Anne Briton, both former track athletes and while neither of them managed to win a medal at the Games they participated in, the standard of Britonish Olympians has since increased dramatically. We enter the commentary from when all the teams are introduced. Since the Britonish quartet ran the fastest in the round before, they were assigned a middle lane.

Anne Briton: I wouldn't say that Britonisea is known to be an athletics nation, I mean we've managed to win a gold medal at, probably every recent Olympic Games but that's about it, we haven't really picked up a huge load of medals, no.

Dai Green: I mean, apart from like three sports, I don't think anyone can point a finger at what sports Britonisea is known for really, I think we just get medals wherever we get them, to be honest!

Anne Briton: And hopefully tonight we will be able to pick up one! There's our Britonish four. We have our female athletes who will begin the race, it'll be Laila first and then Helena...so on so forth. What do you think about this formation, was it the right decision to have both female athletes start the race - do you feel as though the Britons might feel as though they're being left out earlier on in the race?

Dai Green: Well if we look at the semi-finals and the teams that qualified, the Krytenian team who had the second fastest time decided to start off with Harry and Kevin, Brookstation also had the same - whereas for us it was completely different. At the end of the day, there's two men and two women and regardless of what order they go in, they're both capable of similar times. Luckily, for us the team...well they know each other very well, they're siblings...and even though the women might feel like they're racing a bit slower than the other nations who start with men - they know that that's the nature of this event and they just need to keep on going. They know what split they're expected to do.

Anne Briton: Absolutely, well, we're about to get into the race - everyone has gone silent. Can Britonisea win a gold medal here or will the current champions and Olympic record holders from Eura improve on their semi-final score to win another gold medal? Let's see..

As soon as Anne finished speaking, we could see all of the athletes getting down to race - some of the field women and some men. As the claxon sounded, all of the athletes started to run and it became apparent immediately who started with women and who started with men - though the commentators did their best to make sure Britons at home were kept at ease.

Dai Green: Obviously the teams from Eura, Krytenia and Brookstation have gotten off to a great start, but if we look at the female athletes, Laila Vatenfall is off to a great start and I would argue she's half way between the men and the women there. We know she's quick and she will do everything possible to stay with the men.

Anne Briton: I couldn't imagine participating in this event, racing against these huge, tall athletes must be frightening but Laila is doing a great job keeping her cool. She knows what she needs to do. She's definitely going to try and run sub 50 seconds. I think she can do that and that will make her only a couple, three or four - give or take - seconds behind the men...

Dai Green: An excellent lap by Laila and she is running miles ahead of the rest of the women to pass it on to her sister now, it's Helena Vatenfall now going out strongly!

Anne Briton: The Licentian Isles and Kelssek have overtaken us and that's absolutely fine - they have got men on the second leg, let's focus on our race against the Alezians - we might be 7th, 8th - our boys will quicken the pace.

Dai Green: And to be honest with you Anne, our women aren't even that far behind the men - what...maybe six seconds? Oh, we're in for a great finish, I just know we are.

Anne Briton: We're heading over to Kiain next - our superstar competing in five events. He's been great in athletics so far but I know that he's dying, he's dying for a gold medal - his older brother has one and he wants to become the most important male Vatenfall in his brother's absence, he's ready to show it all here.

Dai Green: Laila has run an impressive sub 50 and her sister, while slightly slower, she is looking to also put in a great result. The next change over has already happened for certain nations. Haynes of Brookstation is GONE, Bradley of Eura is GONE - we won't be catching up to them any time soon, they're on for Olympic Gold!

Anne Briton: Come on Dai, come on! Don't get AHEAD of YOURSELF!

Dai Green: NASH of KRYTENIA is GONE! Oh my word, I can't CONTAIN myself!

At this current point of the race, the two female athletes of Britonisea had run and were about to pass the baton onto the men. Laila Vatenfall had run an impressive 49.19 while her sister ran 50.40. While this meant that they were around six or seven seconds behind the teams that piled men on at the front, and around three seconds behind the teams that had one female and one male so far, the Britonish men could now go to town to try and catch up to the rest of the team. The Alezians, annoyingly enough, were closely following Britonisea and with the baton exchange happening around the same time, Hasanafi Salem managed to get a better baton exchange than Vatenfall, but our men know how to race and Kiain's chasing down of the rest of the field had begun.

Dai Green: A poor exchange by the Britonish team might have cost them half a second there but LOOK AT KIAIN GO!

Anne Briton: Kiain, such an amazing athlete. This is his only event today so he's well rested for it. He had the fourth fastest steeplechase score last night but he's just helping out his siblings win that gold medal. Already you can see that Kiain is closing in on Ellie Lang from The Licentian Isles.

Dai Green: The Licentian Isles have Lyle Ward finishing off for them - it should be kneck-on-kneck with them, the Alezians, the Banijans - four teams choosing men to finish, the other four with women. It'll be a crazy dash to the finish.

Anne Briton: Kiain is such a BEAUTIFUL athlete!

Dai Green: Just look at him go! Such beautiful extension in those long, strong legs! It's okay Britonisea, it's fine, keep your heart in your chest, we might be near the bottom but LOOK AT THAT GAP!

Anne Briton: It's going, metre by metre, SECOND by SECOND. Kiain KICKS into another GEAR as he can see his BROTHER Xian waiting at the other end for him.

Dai Green: It's looking so good for Britonisea but the field is so fast - no one is taking any second chances. This is a real Olympic final. There's not that much track for the Briton left, he's going to get a good time, Kiain - perhaps a personal best, I've never seen his run this fast before!

Anne Briton: IT'S THE FINAL EXCHANGE and the Britonish boys have done it right. Look at the time. Kiain did a good job - I'm seeing his split flash up on my screen now, it's 45.47 - that's not too far off actual Men's 400m timings but there's no DOUBT that Xian will be running faster.

Dai Green: (screaming down the mic) Xian isn't participating in any other events! This is his only event! This is his only chance to get a gold medal and he's storming down the track. The women at the front, they're keeping up the pace, but they know the men are coming! They can hear the thundering charge, the stampede of men behind them as there's only 300 metres to go.

Anne Briton: (laughing, but also screaming) But women, we're brave, we're STRONG! We won't be intimidated! They'll keep on going, right until the finish.

Dai Green: (still screaming) BRITONISEA, I'm CLUTCHING my chest! Look at Xian go, he's making a breakaway from the Yuzhar of Alezia, Ward of The Licentian Isles - we know Sarr of Banija can run quick, we saw him do a 45.05 just the other day in the Men's 400m...

Anne Briton: (again screaming) But our Britonish boulder, Xian Vatenfall, he's pushing, he's pushing, the Banijan is trying his hardest to keep up - it isn't over for them.

Dai Green: (continued screaming) 200 metres to go and the women are within viewing distance. 50 metres behind, 45 metres behind - the crowds, they're cheering, they can see the orange, red white and blue storming down the track!

Anne Briton: (nervous screaming) 30 metres between them, 25 metres, 20 metres! It's going to be a photo FINISH.

Dai Green: (yep, still screaming) Who's going to take it? Will the Britonish catch the Mitchell of Brookstation. Who will win the gold, it's so close. BROOKSTATION. BRITONISEA. EURA. THE THREE IN CONTENTION.

Anne Briton: (excited screaming) KIAIN!!! HE'S TAKEN THE LEAD AT THE LAST SECOND, HE DIPS FOR THE LINE!

Dai Green: (distorted screaming) GOLD!!!! It's gold for Britonisea, A NEW OLYMPIC RECORD!!

Anne Briton: It's Brookstation in 2nd and the now FORMER Olympic Champions of Eura in third place, taking that bronze with all the other teams following closely behind. Oh my word! What a spectacular finish!

Dai Green: The VATENFALLS have DONE IT! And their older brother DAVE, look at him run out to his siblings, they're in tears!

Anne Briton: I'm feeling quite emotional myself! Oh my gosh, let's watch a replay of those last 100 metres!

At the end of that exciting race, we watched a replay of Xian's run with his split being 44.96 with the commentators suggesting that next year, he should try out for the individual Men's 400m. At the end of that, we went back to the studio, where we saw behind-the-scenes footage of the hosts in the studio reacting to a Britonish gold. Britonish gold number five, we're back on target.

by **Eura** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 5:26 pm

The Turnip: Our friends in the north are stunned, joyous and furious about The Gold That Shall Not Be Named
by Dai Chance, our Bastion correspondent

Euran constitutionalists are calling for the deportation of a 21-year-old woman accused of being good at golf. Have our neighbours gone mad? This correspondent remains decisively on the fence.

The woman, Leona Stewson of Shepston (an outskirt suburb of Spartangrad), has left the nation in a state of shock by winning gold in the women’s golf event at the 16th Olympic Games. She held on against a late charge from one of our own – teenager Laylah Manning – adding to a long list of devastating Euran blows to Electrum’s sporting pride, most memorably including Eura’s triumph over us at World Cup 78.

Most Eurans are of course overjoyed at their latest Olympic victory. ‘I was so happy I let out a little bit of wee!’ said Elonie Parkhurst, a whippet comber from Biddington. She was very keen on showing me the wet patch to prove it. In fact, she just won’t go away, which is why I’m writing this from the men’s room where she can’t get to me.

As a quarter-Euran myself (on my dog’s side) I can indulge in some of this joy, and spoke to many ordinary Eurans today who shared a drier version of Elonie’s euphoria. But it turns out the feeling is not universal. When I was at the bar earlier I met pensioner Roy Smutterling. He was unhappy about how many of Eura’s medals are being won by women rather than men.

‘I just don’t get it’ Roy complains, ‘they’ve got the vote and we can’t trade them for a dairy cow anymore. Now they want to run the country and win Olympic medals! Where will this extreme feminism end?’ As Roy sat there crying onto his ex-wife’s divorce papers, I started to realise this wasn’t the first complaint I had heard. But everything before was defined by a very different problem.

That problem is golf itself. There is no other sport more commonly dismissed and denigrated in the humongous United Federation and the hatred has held for eons. The earliest known reference to the sport in Eura resides in a two thousand year old hair wax recipe that is often called a foundational pillar of written Terranean English: ‘Thine men who playeth it do so guiltily, for they knoweth that their shrivelled nether bits are unlovedeth’.

Other historic Euran sources describe golf as a satanic pursuit, associated with the occult and even human sacrifice. Some point out that many golfers would drive a particular type of horse and cart, known for its gaudy nature and the perceived arrogance of its owners, known only to historians by the mysterious name of “Audi”. Several periods of Euran history have even seen the game’s pursuers shunned publicly, denounced by senior political figures, and even banned from performing their passion.

For example, golf was criminalised during the period of Marxist-Leninist rule before the country was restored to its current liberal democratic state. The Euran People’s Party decreed this policy in absolutist terms, saying that golf was the ‘pursuit of the rich’, and regularly sentenced those who played it to as much as twenty years in an internment camp. Prisoners were sometimes instructed to partake in forced labour for construction projects, but were quickly reassigned when they started planting the grass for fairways down the middle of co-operative farms.

Even now, in the modern era, golf carries a particular stigma in this country. ‘I think its disgusting people would want to indulge in this un-Euran nonsense. Bring back hanging for these deviants!’ fumed Leroy, a sock engineer from Falourr, as he spoke to me in the run up to Stewson’s final performance. Still, not everyone is so regressive about golf’s role in society. I ventured down to the links at Shepston itself just yesterday and was amazed at how busy they have become since Stewson’s breakthrough. As long as Eurans are watching Stewson break the mould rather than reaching for their pitchforks, there could yet be hope for Euran golf.

by **Hannasea** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 5:36 pm

In the run-up to the Olympics, several Hannasean Olympians made guest appearances on television programs as part of a tie-in to advertise coverage of the Games. Here’s a look at some of those appearances.

Raelyn Sellers (doubles tennis) in Kingdom Realm

Kingdom Realm

Summer Cole (heptathlon) in The Frost

The Frost

Meadow Davenport (swimming) in Law and Order: Butterfly City

Lyra Dean (sailing) in Ready Steady Baking!!

Lily York (artistic gymnastics) in Feldstein

Prelude in B

by **Ioudaia** » Sat Aug 06, 2022 5:46 pm

Men's Gymnastics – Rings Final
101st Regiment Armory
Habpo, Twin Cities, Quebec and Shingoryeo

"Scylax seems to be finishing up... he's going for an inverted Iron-- No! Inverted Maltese cross! What strength! Now for his dismount... double Salto with a full twist... and he nails it! Oh, my, what a great routine! Now we're waiting for the judges to finish their scoring.

"15.533! Scylax has beaten Jeon Seung-Mook by just a hair! He's won two gold medals in two days! This is just incredible! He's Ioudaia's best gymnast since the team started competing... he has three gold medals, an astounding performance."

After the medal ceremony

"For those just joining Champion's live stream, Scylax Or Li has won his second gold medal in two days, first in the floor exercise, and now in the rings. I'm trying to get to him, but there's a huge crowd of Ioudaian athletes around him: gymnasts, coaches, people from other teams who squeezed in to watch.

"OK, Scylax has finally pulled himself free, and he's coming over here for an interview. Scylax--!" Yosi Glaukos found himself in the middle of huge bear hug from his former teammate.

"Wow... I'm so happy for you, Scylax, that was an incredible... Let me wipe these tears away. Excuse me, folks.

"Scylax, that was a great performance! How do you feel?"

Scylax grinned like a madman. "Well, I can't lift my arms again. Rings after floor? That's it for me! But... hoo! I don't know what to say. This too much. I'm proud... extremely proud, and I'm grateful for my coaches and teammates. I couldn't have done this without them!

"Scylax, did you know you're Ioudaia's greatest summer olympian? You just overtook Megakales ben Raam, who held the title for only a day, with two golds and a bronze."

"I... had no idea! Wow... I'm honored. I..."

Yosi touched his fingers to his earpiece. "Actually, you, Scylax, are Ioudaia's greatest athlete ever. There are winter olympians with more medals, but nobody, just nobody has three gold medals."

Scylax stood there, mouth hanging open. Eventually, his grin returned. "They better get cracking then!

"Hey, Yotam! C'mere!"

"Scylax has just waved over Yotam ben Gnipho, Ioudaia's last gymnast still in competition, who is competing in the parallel and horizontal bars tomorrow."

Scylax turned to his teammate. "Think you can match me?" His smile lit up the arena.

Yotam looked at Scylax and then at Yosi. "Don't do this to me...

"OK, OK. I don't know if anybody can pull off double gold medals in one day, but I'm going to try for at least one medal tomorrow. It's going to be tough. Even with morning and late afternoon competition slots, that's asking a lot of my body. I think I can manage, but unlike the big mouth here, I'm not one for making predictions in the finals. Everybody else wants those medals as much as I do, and they're not in two events tomorrow." He paused for a second. "But if I can shut him up, good!" Yotam's mouth curled into a wry smile.

Yosi faced into the camera. "That's an amazing finish here today. Scylax Or Li, Ioudaia's greatest olympic athlete has laid down the gauntlet, and Yotam ben Gnipho has picked it up. Good luck, Yotam! The whole country is with you!"

Runcast

This is Runcast, and I'm your host, Gabi Charis. This is Edition 18.57 of my video podcast for Day 10 of the XVI Olympiad. Ioudaia's runners were in only seven races today, so we can take a good look at all of them.

The men's 400 started today, and I've been pleasantly surprised again. The guys did much better than I expected. Prokopios Tsabar ran in heat 4, which was the fastest heat of the day. He placed fourth, but that was a fast fourth, because the winner, Alezian Union's Samiruddin Masih set a lightning fast pace, finishing first overall at 44.78.

Prokopios got off the blocks just ahead of Samiruddin, and started to drop back around 200m. He was still running flat out at that point, and didn't noticeably slow until about 75m from the finish. It was a good race. Not the greatest, but for the prelims, that's OK. He'll need a bit more gas in the tank or tiny bit more pacing to make the finals. Prokopios finished 22nd overall.

Or-Chai ben Adeimanthos was third in his heat, but it was slightly slower, so he was 44th on the day. He had a bit of a slow start, but held his pace pretty steadily throughout, so I think he's actually in better shape to advance further in these games. Our third sprinter, Sela Amphimachos, got off to a textbook start and ran a textbook first 100m. He was first at that point. But he hit a wall about 150m, and it was like he downshifted suddenly and finished in a lower gear. Fourth in his heat, but nowhere close to qualifying.

In the 800m, Misgav is really demonstrating how badly I misread his earlier races. He's Mr. Discipline. He ran the same race he did in the prelim: negative split at 57-even, .05 faster than before, and 1:45.74 overall, just .01 slower than before. That's superhuman discipline: he hits his times like a machine.

I had his times on my phone when I watching, and I was amazed. So I caught up with him after the race. Sorry for the jumpy phone video; it was hard keeping us both in the picture. I asked him about his pace, and he said, "I learned in high school that the only way I could run the 800 was if I ran it like nobody else was on the track. I would run my race, my way, or I just couldn't compete. I have to do it like that. And at this level, you just can't change up what you're doing. So, yeah, it all looks the same, and that's how I want it."

And like you see, he gave me another sweaty hug. That's a small price to pay for interviewing a pro. Thanks again, Misgav! Good luck in the semis, I hope to see you on the podium!

The women's 800 semis didn't go as well for Meira. She ran .7 seconds faster than in the first round, but the pace was a lot faster, so she was fifth in her heat, tenth overall, and .35 seconds slower than the slowest finalist. She ran an excellent race, but it just wasn't enough for the semis.

The competition in the 1500 really surprised me. I reviewed what video of them I could find, and I like I said, I expected two of Ioudaia's runners would qualify. Nope. These women really know how to run. Ioudaia's runners, Isadora Rumya, Tafat bat Alcippe, and Alon Iphimedeia, ran about as well as I was looking forward to, but pace in the prelims was faster. So only Isadora ended up making the cut.

Her race was solid: good splits, and then just as she started the last lap, she made her big move, coming up from fourth to take second with 50m to go. She finished two steps behind Pemecutan's Putu Diah Padmayanti.

Tafat... oh, poor Tafat! She had a bit of a fade starting her third lap, putting her three seconds behind her pace in the nationals. But she did her absolute, flat-out best to make good on that, practically sprinting the last 100m! It was a great performance, but it just wasn't enough, even if her overall time wasn't bad. She finished in sixth. Alon also finished sixth, but she was almost a second faster than than Tafat. It's just that her opponents were faster still. When the dust settled, she she was 25th, Tafat placed 34th, and Isadora was fourth overall. I think Isadora can hang on, but she's facing a tough series of races.

In the 5k, it's down to Creusa Adamit, as usual. She finished eighth overall, right in the middle of the pack. She was two seconds slower this time, but that's pretty evenly divided between laps, so I'm not sure what caused it. She ran her race well, and started her final push a little earlier, but couldn't catch any of the top three runners, and finished ten seconds behind the leader. She's going to have to really pick up the pace in order to reach the podium. With a day off to think about it, she's got a decent chance of doing it. She's pretty good at adjusting her strategies to meet the competition.

Today's hurdles were a complete mess for Ioudaia's hurdlers. Four women entered, only one is still going, Reut, and she didn't have a good day. Both of the 100 hurdlers are out. Tasfrira took a funny step between hurdles two and three, and that was it for her, finishing fourth in her heat, almost .3 off her previous pace. I don't think she's hurt, though, just... disappointed.

Heliodora just lost her mojo. That's all I can say about it. Her start was a little slow, and she lost time after hurdles five, seven, and eight. Her final sprint was weak too. Maybe the pressure got to her, maybe she picked up some injury after her last race. But, ugh, she's out.

The 400 hurdles weren't much better; both Halimeh and Reut were slower than previous races. Halimeh clipped hurdle four, but really pushed hard to gain back the time. She had really good leaps on hurdles six and seven. Those were beautiful, but they were the bright spot in an average race.

Reut placed 20th overall, only slightly worse than her finish in the prelims. Her start and hurdles were good, and she was leading Eura's Scarlett Kenny by .09 heading into the final sprint, but she ran out of gas, and finished .25 behind Scarlett. That's not going to work in the semis.

I'm not optimistic looking forward, other than Misgav. We've got the guys' 10k tomorrow, but they're the weakest of the men's long run squads. Dvash ben Isandros looks pretty good, though, so I'm expecting he'll qualify. About the best I can say is that Ioudaia's remaining runners from today have a day off tomorrow. Hopefully, that'll help. On a brighter note, we've got Sigalit's semi in the steeplechase to look forward to tomorrow, and she's got a good chance there. Until then,

Keep on runnin'!

Games of the XVI Olympiad - RP Thread

XVI Olympic Games - Round of 16

The Journal, Day 10

BVC | Live At The Games (S2, E10)

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