Games of the XVIII Olympiad - roleplaying thread

[Malta Comino Gozo]

Malta Comino Gozo at the XVIII Olympiad




Bonswa to everyone watching! It's been an exciting couple of days at the XVIII Olympiad, so here is an overview of Team MCG.

In the Men's Swimming 100m freestyle – Extra Heats, all eyes were on our gold medalist and flag bearer Andrew Borg. However, the 22-year-old wasn’t at his best due to fatigue from a recent illness that had limited his training in the lead-up to the competition. Despite this setback, Borg managed to qualify in 61st place with a time of 51.16, comfortably making it into the top 80 to advance. "I knew I wasn’t at 100%, but I’m just glad to have made it through," Borg admitted. "The important thing now is to focus on recovery and prepare for the next round."

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for his compatriot, 21-year-old Mark Gatt, who struggled in the event and finished 97th with a time of 1:01.64, over five seconds behind Travis Reid of Hopal. After the race, Gatt was visibly disappointed."It just wasn’t my day," he said. "I’ve been battling an arm issue for a while now, and I really felt it out there. I’ll take this as a learning experience and come back stronger." he told Agatha Vella in a post match interview.


On a brighter note, the Women's Swimming 800m freestyle – Extra Heats delivered much better news for Malta Comino Gozo. Louise Zammit, the 20-year-old superstar, lived up to her reputation, finishing second with an outstanding time of 8:18.39, just narrowly beaten by Alisa Uchiyama (CMT), who clocked 8:17.46. In a post-race interview, Zammit expressed her excitement: "I gave it everything out there, and I’m really happy with second place so far! Alisa was incredible, but I know I’m right there with her. The final’s going to be a great race!"

Meanwhile, 19-year-old Alexandra Cummings also impressed, qualifying in 30th place with a time of 8:25.18. "It's an honour to qualify alongside Louise, we trained together." Cummings said. "I’m just focused on swimming my best and seeing where that takes me."

[Sargossa]

‘Listen to that noise! The atmosphere inside the Schimpol International Aquatics Centre is electric. If this first night is anything to go by, we’re in for a stellar few days here. And the roar of the crowd, an indication that Liventia is well in the medal hunt here. As is Sargossa. Andrea Krsmanovic and Ivanna Yumasheva neck and neck at the final turn. Isabella Anderson right on their tails, with Lotte Davis in there too. And this is a seriously quick race. Del Pozo was like lightning in that opening leg. Marina Ferrant wasn’t too shabby either. Jimena Arboleda held her own as the hosts and the Mytanars came roaring back. And now Andrea Krsmanovic has turned for home.

‘Twenty five metres to go in this relay final. Sargossa and Mytanija battling it out at the front, shades of the Rushmori Games. And here comes Isabella Anderson! This capacity crowd roaring her on. Krsmanovic, Yumasheva and now Anderson. Davis is hanging on in there too. The Olympic record is under threat. Krsmanovic is right there but Anderson is coming through! Oh, what a race! Sort that one out. It looks like a bronze for Mytanija. Team Electrum in fourth. Look at that time though, with five teams inside Olympic record pace. Sargossa and Liventia have been given the exact same time. It looks like we might be needing a bigger podium, because it may well be a gold for both teams. The crowd loved that. What a way to finish day one. And what a day for the hosts, that medal is Liventia’s third of this session. And it’s a first medal in the pool for Sargossa, one of glorious gold.’




SSM | Sargossan State Media

International Edition - Olympics



Off And Swimming


Raquel Solana writes;

If you happen to wonder what differentiates an Olympic event from a qualifying event then the atmosphere within the Schimpol International Aquatics Centre in the evening session of day one is the answer you seek. Helped in no small part by an excellent performance from the swimmers representing that half of the hosting duo, it proved to be a stellar night of action, in which three Olympic records fell. And there were medals for all the usual suspects. In addition to the Liventian trio of gongs, there were medals for the likes of Electrum, Kelssek, Krytenia and Mytanija. And a glorious gold for Team Sargossa in the women’s 4 x 100m freestyle. The relay events have been a strength in recent Games, and the team of Ana Sofia del Pozo, Marina Ferrant, Jimena Arboleda and Andrea Krsmanovic ensured that tradition continued. Dead level with the hosts in the gold medal position, with a new Olympic record time to boot. Ivanna San Martín had a good day too, hitting a new personal best to qualify for the final of the 400m free. The final, in which Chromatika’s Alisa Uchiyama toppled another Games record, proved a level too much. But it was a tremendous personal achievement. There was some disappointment for Isaac Martí though. Having reached the semis of the 100m breaststroke as the fastest qualifier, he then wilted in the semis. Not so his teammate Emilio Elvira. Emilio will contest the final as the second fastest qualifier. Lía Puig was another fastest qualifier who ran into troubles in the semis, of the 100m butterfly. Puig and home favourite Leah Robinson finished dead level in the eighth fastest qualifier spot into the final, forcing them into a swim-off. Despite a raucous backing from the stands for her opponant, Puig swam the race of her life, and would have broken the Olympic record had Sara Cooney not already done so in the first semi. Puig will contest the final, as will María José Sarmiento, who advanced with a much more conventional win in the second semi-final.

This good news won’t do at all, we like a moan. So let’s talk about the absolute state of Sargossan tennis. The signs that the EsportTec Pro Tour may not be of the calibre we hoped it was have been there for, oh, a couple of decades or so. In our Olympic history, still the best gauge of the strength of a sport, the nation has won six medals in tennis. The last of those, a bronze for Ximena Manzanedo at the Twelfth Games in Kelssek and Vekaiyu, came twenty-four years ago. Since then we’ve gone from contending for medals to losing the vast bulk of the contingent in the pre-Games qualifiers. Of those that entered the prelims, and there were many, only José Moya on the men’s side, Monserrat Cazalla for the women and the mixed doubles pairing of David Arboleda and Sofía París made it out again to join the auto-qualifiers. Cazalla lasted one round of the main draw, a straight sets defeat to Sydney Meeuwsen. She was joined on the plane home by Alexandra Rodríguez, so often the face of the EsportTec Pro Tour. After exchanging a very tight set each, Rodríguez was blitzed by seventh side Hana Kaori in a one-sided decider. And París can now focus solely on the mixed event, as she and Maria José Velázquez were dumped out by the eighth seeded team from the tennis powerhouse of the Afanc Straits.

Contrast tennis with its less glamorous but increasingly far more popular cousin, badminton. In fact, the stats show that badminton is the nation’s fastest growing sport, with participation booming in the last decade. It’s probably far too early for this increased participation to lead to some kind of international success. But it was cheering to see that the majority of the team were ranked high enough to avoid the play-in rounds. Two of the men did enter that stage, and both won. Bruno Murillo dropped a nervy first set against Kelssek’s Luca Nagy, before finding his form to take the tie. While Luca González played the set of the whole day, one that featured in highlight reels across the sportiverse, as he won a gruelling second set 27-25 to level against Yaroslav Sobolev. The loss of that set was a psychological blow his opponent couldn’t recover from, and González too moved into the first round proper. Also into the first-round proper are Arturo Espina and Morena Céspedes in the table tennis. Just winning a set at this level is an achievement for Sargossa’s table tennis delegation, so advancement of any kind is cause for celebration.

As was the action over at the Flameworks Skate Park. The skateboarding is one of those quintessential Olympic events, one you give precisely zero thought to for four whole years and then are glued to when it's Olympic time. Alexa Palacio was the gal the fans back home were focusing on, through to the final thanks to a solid second run and the only trick of the whole contest that scored in the nineties. Into the final and Alexa rose her game magnificently. Two spectacular runs and an absolute monster of a trick (just the 95.31 scored, no biggee) was good enough for a silver medal, as she became the first Sargossan of these Games on a podium.

[Krytenia]

A stroke of inspiration

When people talk of races decided in close blanket finishes in the pool, the 50m and 100m freestyle come to mind rather than the middle-distance events. Yet, for the second Games in a row, the men's 400m free produced a tense climax and a medal for one Robert Mitcham of Bromham.

Mitcham was fortunate to be in the final at all. A pedestrian pace in his heat threatened to scupper his chances before lunchtime; however, despite finishing behind Drawkland's Gabe Bidella, his time was – barely – enough to see him into the business end of proceedings.

Once the race went off, Mitcham settled into his usual rhythm, starting steadily and injecting pace as the race went on. With none of his rivals from the Afanc Strait in the pool, Mitcham was in unchartered territory. Still, as the swimmers completed the seventh length of the pool, nobody had taken the race by the horns. Time, then, for Mitcham to make his move, emptying the tank in the final fifty from his almost secluded position in lane eight. Poor Zdravko Kostić didn't know what hit him as Mitcham and Bedella hit the jets either side of him, as both powered to the front of the field, with the rest of the pack in tow. Mitcham, though, had that little bit extra, touching the board barely a tenth of a second ahead of Bidella – in a time that would have won him the gold last time out as well. Omar Abdulrahman of Electrum, meanwhile, nosed himself ahead of the remaining swimmers to claim bronze.

For the Krytenian, it's vindication of his ability, and a first medal for the nation at these Games. Mitcham will be thirty-three by the time the XIX Olympics roll around – if he's still up for the challenge, there's no reason he can't try and defend his title there.



Gennar...oh, no

Some people go out with a bang, others with a whimper. Polly Gennaro, in her fifth and final Games, was only going to bring the curtain down on her career one way – kicking and screaming to the last. Okay, technically throwing and screaming, but you get the point.

Gennaro came into these Olympics hoping that this would finally be the day she'd get through to the final of the women's under 48kg category, and she started in typically ruthless fashion, putting Darmen's Eira Hibbert flat on her back within thirty seconds. Her round of sixteen opponent, Nela Vico of Zenic, put up a bit more of a fight before she too succumbed to Gennaro's experience and technique. Meanwhile, in between rounds, team-mate Kyle Danson was securing his spot in the last eight against Libesian judoka Waleed Maroun.

Sadly for both Krytenians, the quarter-finals would be the end of matters as far as the chase for gold would go. Gennaro and Kanmer's Rika Senkar were evenly matched...right up until a beautifully executed o goshi hip throw sent Avidia's finest to the mat. A wry smile from the Krytenian summed up her feelings – simply beaten by a piece of excellent technique. Danson, over in the men's under 60kg, would also come a cropper, unable to find an answer to eventual gold medallist Tyler Gatt's early waza-ari from a shoulder throw in the early stages of their bout. A win over Govert Azinau of Ko-oren later in the afternoon, though, would give Danson a shout at the bronze, at least.

Back to Gennaro, then, and a cagey affair against Valanora's Thea Sørensen. The Krytenian had the upper hand, but her opponent proved a difficult nut to crack. An ouchi gari with forty seconds to go would prove the difference; although not quite the ippon Gennaro was looking for, she kept her feet on the mat and her opponent at bay, the waza-ari score proving enough.

Gennaro, though, would bookend her Olympic career by finishing how she started in Orean; losing the repechage final. To be fair, Afanc judoka Brooklyn Bearstar was unfortunate to come up against the skilled Tansholpan Kemhebekova, and Gennaro's experience couldn't make up for Bearstar's athleticism. After being well beaten, Gennaro took the applause of those in the crowd who knew they'd just seen the last of her taking to the mat in anger. She stuck around to watch Danson's repechage final, consoling him after his defeat to Liventia's Allen Parry. Danson, too, has probably seen his last competitive action, somehow failing to win a medal in three attempts despite his unquestionable ability.

Still, chin up, there's another Danson to come – Kyle's younger brother Robert in the under 73kg on Day Three – and Connie Mimms is in action tomorrow, looking to upgrade her silver from last time out.

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

Watch all the action from Hamilton and Schimpol at home with up to sixteen dedicated live streams plus highlights on KBS Interactive, or on the go from your device at kbs.kt/smartview or on the SmartView app.

[Libesia]

Scenes from Electrum #4

“Libesia against Drawkland, again!? Ooh, spicy. How’s it going?”

“Not great, they’re attacking each other with swords.”

“Isn’t that what fencing is?”

“Yeah, but this is the badminton, so…”

---

Expected competitors on Day 2:

Gianni Toscano, men’s boxing (flyweight) round of 32
Francine Sonyi, women’s boxing (middleweight) round of 32
Mazen Gaber, Chisisi Salib and Mujahid Nissaboury, men's fencing individual épée
Shahirah Said, Akoua Kouame and Rana Abboud, women’s fencing individual foil
Libesian men’s rugby sevens team, match 3 v Polkopia
Aatifah Negassi, women’s 10 m air rifle shooting qualification
Abdoulaye Thiane, men’s table tennis singles round of 64

Aaron Fendler, men’s 100 m backstroke heats
Lana Teucher, women’s 100 m breaststroke heats
Fatima Hamidi, women’s K-1 canoe slalom semifinal
Jamal Awad, men’s single sculls rowing heats

Nabil El Magry wins first ever Olympic medal for Libesia!

Nabil El Magry has carved his name into Libesian history as the first competitor from the new republic to ever win an Olympic medal. El Magry lit up a first day of mixed fortunes from Libesia, which featured everything from the highs of Fatima Hadidi’s inspiring (and deeply unexpected) canoe slalom run and a top ten finish in the road race for Alice Mungroo to the lows finding new and interesting sports in which to lose to Drawkland, taking home the bronze medal in the men’s 58 kg taekwondo. The martial art is growing in popularity in Libesia and is sure to see a boom now thanks to El Nagry’s achievement. His route to a medal admittedly owed something to the taekwondo repêchage rules: having defeated home crowd favourite Danny Mercer with a late body kick, he lost his quarter-final to Barkhastan’s Khasanbek Karataev, who was unstoppable with a flurry of kicks throughout their contest, and had to wait to see if Karataev advanced. When he did (the Barkhastani went on to win gold) it set up a chance for El Magry, who defeated Akbar Sulaifi and Donncha Quinlan. The Loch Dearg jin challenged El Magry’s round 2 head kick but lost the review, which left El Magry able to concede a couple of gam-jeons and still take the round, and with it, the medal. Those who’ve been glued to our obsessive documentation of racial classification, worthy of a 19th century colonialist wielding calipers, will no doubt be delighted to learn that El Magry, despite his name, is not actually a Watoto, but rather a representative of the much smaller Hakili people from the extreme northwest of Libesia. But such distinctions are unlikely to matter in Libesia tonight as everyone celebrates finally taking home a medal.

Bulls face shoot-out for quarter-finals place after humbling loss to Darmen

The Libesian sevens team will face what is essentially a knockout game against Polkopia for a chance of progressing to the quarter-finals, with the winner qualifying alongside Darmen¹, and the loser’s tournament over within little more than 24 hours of the tournament beginning. The tournament opened brightly for the Bulls with a win over Cannaland Islands and Jrok’k: on a field slippery with spit as the Libesians tried to pronounce their opponents’ name, they showed off some good handling skills to seize a 14–0 lead at the half through Thomas Chapuis and Pascal Djalo. Second half scores from Emmanuel Chinuah and Daniel Mbasogo wrapped things up despite a spirited comeback from their opponents, for a 24–12 win. But Darmen showed up in the second match, hitting hard and moving the ball smartly around the field. Peter Keanjaho scored twice and Babangida Kirabo grabbed a late consolation interception, sprinting 60 metres untouched, but it wasn’t enough to claw back into the game. “We knew things would be a step up,” said captain Tobias Habeler. “But if we win there’s a knockout round waiting for us anyway, so it really doesn’t change our gameplan much.”

---

¹ Presumably Darmen holds the tie-breaker over both either team should they lose.

[A Kea]

Olympic Nights

by KTV

A: Welcome viewers, I'm Athanasia Karvela and this is my colleague Iordanis Hatzinasios, and together we will inform you about the successes of the Kean athletes in these Olympics.
I: The Olympics have commenced in Electrum and Liventia and the first Kean athletes began their fight for Olympic glory today, with 2 medals and multiple successes already, our correspondents in the two host cities will be sharing backstage interviews with our representatives. So let's take a dive in today's results.
A: Starting with Hamilton, let's get the bad news off the way first. Our gymnasts had an exceptional appearence at the qualifying round, with 4 of them making it to the Olympics, which also meant our men's team got a ticket. Sadly our hopes for success were crashed today with none of them qualifying for an all around or apparatus final.The gymnasts were too heartbroken to even give statements to Kristie, an Olympic dream to qualify to the men's team final and attempt to gather medals in the individual event, like Georg Kvartsikhvili did last year, all came to an abrupt end.
I: Our women's volleyball team faced our archnemesis in that sport, Quebec and Shingoreyo, a team that we've faced multiple times in the past in both the men's and women's tournaments but never managed to beat. This was our best ever performance against them, our girls fought hard but sadly lost despite their extraordinary attempts, with a score of 3 sets for Quebec against 2 for us. Despite the loss this was a promising start given our competitive history and we're looking forward to hopefully win our next game.
A: But not all team sports went badly for us. Our men's football team had their opening game against Sangti & the Filindo Isles, despite our opponents taking an early lead with a penalty at the 5th minute, Panos Glitas scored an impressive equalizer at the 10th. The Kean victory was cemented by Timothy Sardis' goal at the 79th minute. Following their bronze medal last year, our guys' performance shows their determination for another medal.
A: We documented and celebrated the impressive success of the newly founded Kean rugby team, that qualified for the Olympics against all odds. Well, in the first Rugby Sevens broadcast in Kean television our viewers had the chance to see our team winning not just the first but also their second game. With this huge upset for Mytanija and Crpostran, our team has basically secured their qualification for the Quarter Finals, with the final game against Afanc Strait, the group's current last place, scheduled for tomorrow. Let's see Kristie's interview with coach Panagiotis Takakis.

K: Mr Takakis, you told me last time we talked about the sacrifices you had to make to travel abroad and scout for players to create this team, without any substantial support from the government. Do you feel vindicated after this amazing performance?
P: I'm genuinely speecheless. We had so much against us, we basically came here with no expectations. And now, instead of being totally humilated by the stronger, more experienced teams, we're beating them one by one. Even being here is a personal victory for me and my team, the boys are giving more than their 100% in every game, despite not being born and raised in A Kea, playing for their ancestral land gives them so much pride and power and the results prove it. Making it to the Olympic quarterfinals felt like a unachievable goal few months ago, but now it's a reality. No matter what happens from now on, I think the entire team is proud of this achievement and I hope our island feels the same.

I: Shooting, the most beloved sport amongst Keans after the Olympic success since our debut, started off in a bitter manner as for the first time since our Olympic debut we didn't manage to have a podium placement in men's 10m air pistol with none of our athletes reaching the final. Thankfully shooting still provided us our first medal of the Games as it usually does, with Demitres Yokas and Anna Pamvaki defending the bronze they achieved last year.

M: Anna, Demitres what can I say? Second consecutive bronze in a very competitive event. You made us all proud yet again. Can you tell us about your experience of this final?What was different compared to last year?
D: Well, aside from the format changing slightly our results were the same, 4th in the qualifying round and winning the bronze medal game. Though I feel we were way more confident in the bronze medal final compared to last year. With our experience we knew how to handle the tension better and won with a bigger margin compared to last time.
A: Slightly bigger but yes, I also felt like things went more smoothly this time around, we came here hoping to repeat our success and even though we had some hopes of a higher position, we're very satisfied with a second podium finish. Also winning the first Kean medal for the Games is a very important achievement for us. Now we'll both have to focus on our individual events and hope for the best.

A: In tennis, Maro Karakosta became the first Kean to win an Olympic game, and moved on to the round of 32. As for table tennis, Andreas Paraschos qualified from the play-in round while in mixed doubles Josh Staverton and Djiva Trudeau played the game of their lives, making a huge comeback from losing 3-1 sets to end up winning the game against Alezian Union's Sudiratmoko Ali and Michaela Liew Dadon and proceeding to the Round of 16.
I: Moving on to Liventia, our country saw relatively less success for our country. The swimming highlight was Johnny Kontostavlos reaching the semifinals in men's 100m backstroke without making it through to the final. Then it was time for one of our flagbearers to commence her Olympic journey, Vicky Karpouza lost the bronze medal game in taekwondo in the previous two Olympics. She came here aiming to finally achieve her first medal. After losing in the semis to eventual gold medal winner, Britonish Rosemonde Mills, she faced off repechage winner Rika Kodhein from Kanmer, and this time she finally managed to win her first Olympic medal. Tatiani Dimitriou interviewed Vicky right after her historic victory.

T: Huge congratulations Vicky, you were so close to this medal before and narrowly missed out twice, now you've finally managed to get it and it was long overdue. You were waving our flag yesterday and now you're raising it all the way to the podium, achieving our nation's first ever medal in taekwondo. How does this all fell?
V: I can't even describe this feeling, this is my 3rd year coming here for a medal, I've been through all that physical and mental preparation before, the journey to the Olympics is exhausting and the sorrow when I narrowly missed my goal last year was devastating. I feel vindicated, I worked so hard for all this and now it's finally come to me. We're definitely going to celebrate in the Olympic village, this is a huge achievemtn for me and Kean taekwondo overall.
T: You were one of our flagbearers yesterday, do you think this distinction helped you? Did it give you any additional motivation?
V: Definitely, when I was selected as a flagbearer, despite not having won any Olympic medals, I felt seen, I felt recognized. And I also felt like I just HAD to do it this year. I had to give something back to my country and I'm so thankful I did.
T: Lastly, just a clarification, we all know you as Vicky, while in official reports you're listed as Vaso Karpouza, why's that?
V: *Laughs* Well, funny story. When I was born my parents wanted to name me Vasiliki, after my grandma, and call me Vicky, a diminutive. The thing is whoever filled my birth certificate wrote a different diminutive of Vasiliki instead of the full name, that being Vaso. And well, due to the extreme bureaucracy neither I nor my parents bothered changing it, so now I'm stuck competing under a "wrong" name.

I: Vicky, Vaso, Vasiliki whatever the name, all that matters is that she made a huge step for her sport and made our nation proud. And with that, it's time to end our broadcast for tonight.
A: So to summarize, we're at 2 bronze medals so far, tune in tomorrow to support our athletes as more exciting sports are about to take place. Our highlights being football, gymnastics, shooting, rugby sevens, basketball as well as the first day of rowing, another event with a lot of Kean representation.
I: And after all the exciting sports, we'll be back with another Olympic Nights show. See you all tomorrow

[Barkhastan]

After General Error and his army of cyberhackers launched another attack on Olympic cyber infrastructure in the morning, Barkhastani netizens were initially sceptical when reports began filtering in: “Barkhastan tops medal table”. Clearly a bit of disinformation pushed out by Nordurian troll farms; or perhaps even a cynical ploy by Barkhastani military intelligence itself, hardly immune from disseminating ‘fake news’ in a bid to distract from the latest mine collapse or embarrassing assessment by initial human rights observers. But gradually more reliable reporting began to confirm those reports. Barkhastan, little Barkhastan, had won a mighty five medals, three of them gold. “We really wanted to win one medal, frankly, we never expected this,” admitted Olympic delegation deputy chief of mission Tamara Alibekeva. Barkhastan won a gold medal in team rifle shooting, and took a gold and silver apiece in the martial arts of judo and taekwondo, which are highly popular in the country owing to the legacy of Soviet era sports clubs with multi-purpose training dojos. Because the Barkhastani national anthem runs to over 17 minutes (using the abridged version as part of a compromise with the NSOC) nearly an hour of the first day of the Olympics was spent listening to its ululations being blasted out through the speakers as tearful Barkhastanis saluted the flag.

The Barkhastani flag

The flag of Barkhastan was raised five times on day 1 of the Olympics, having been introduced to the world during the previous day’s opening ceremony, borne by (among others) Ona Negmatova, a last-minute replacement for sprinter Leyla Yerbolateva, who failed to qualify. The flag consists of two parts. The main body of the flag is a tricolour representing the three largest ethnic groups of Barkhastan: the Barqi, Kukuls, and Sulyakh. The top bar is officially described as “dark red” (most consider it more of a brown) representing the Iron Mountains sacred to the Kukuls; the central bar is teal, representing the blue sky over the steppes of the Barqi; and the bottom bar is green, representing the grassy homelands of the Sulyakh. Then there is a black triangle on the left hoist, with a white border and a gold crescent and star. The triangle is a unity symbol: the black represents the rich soil of the Barkhastani nation; the crescent and star a symbol of Islam (practised by around 85% of Barkhastanis) and replaces the hammer and sickle that adorned the flag of the Barkhastani Soviet Socialist Republic; and the Arcturian and Zimmerian people who made their home in the new confederacy.

Often described as “one of the world’s ugliest flags” and “clearly something cobbled together in two seconds in a flag generator”, it is beloved by the Barkhastani people¹.

The Barkhastani anthem

The Barkhastani anthem is extremely long; when sung properly, it is polyphonic, with skilled Barkhastani throat singers capable of harmonising multiple melodies. The melodic properties of the anthem are generally unclear to non-Barkhastanis, and the anthem is often mistaken for a warning siren, a funeral dirge, or the bleating of particularly angry goats engaged in carnal debauchery. The anthem is also not highly regarded for its lyrical diversity, with numerous verses praising the various crops traditionally harvested in the country. A sample verse:

Glorious is the cotton harvest,
Let us sing to the glorious cotton harvest,
And the wheat harvest is also quite glorious,
Though not quite as glorious as the cotton harvest,
We sing to the also respectably glorious potato harvest,
To harvest carrots may not be so glorious but it is still quite glorious,
Now let’s talk melons, oohhhhh, the glorious watermelons…

---

¹ But not so beloved we might not change it if we get a better design, whereupon all of the above lore will be retconned.

[North Oharan Valley Union]

Timestamp: 14 September 2024 - 01h14
Tags: Games of the XVIII Olympiad, Mission Olympica

---

Danger! Danger! High Vault-age!
Trym Ringen misses out on vault final by details

With a calm salute, Trym Ringen prepared himself for the most important jump of his career. Just turned nineteen but according to his own words, the following five seconds had been fifteen years in the making. After a focussed run-up, Ringen brought a Tsukuhara, stretched, with one and a half twist. Not the most impossible trick in the book but with a perfect execution, a high score was possible. But on the landing, there was the slightest of side steps. Gymnastics is the thankless hunt for perfection and Trym Ringen had veered very close to that in the Jane Bryson Memorial Arena, but saw the end result slip through his hands.

When notes were being made for the qualification round of the artistic gymnastics, most Oharese observers kept their focus on 21-year old Raimonds Grinbergs, the proverbial torchbearer of our men’s selection. With good reason as he has been a solid name at the top of the quickly shifting gymnastics domestic scene: three all-round titles and a string of silverware on the rings, pommel horse and horizontal bars backed that up. In his shadow, Ringen only recently sprung up. A silver medal on the vault in ‘22 was a first positive sign but last year, he still was only sixth all-round. Over the last twelve months, the young Dinsdaller made great progress: overall silver combined with gold on the vault plus two more medals earned him a chance to perform in Hamilton.

During the preliminaries, his Olympic dream hung by a thread with just the vault and pommel horse left on the agenda and a position deep in the hundred. But a splendid execution of the tricky triple-twisting Yurchenko, good for a 16th spot on that apparatus, and a very clean run on the horse (combined with a bit of luck as most top teams qualified all gymnasts on their own merit) allowed him the big show by a slim margin. Just a learning moment, soaking up the atmosphere to come back stronger next year: yes, but Ringen was having none of that. While Grinbergs seemed to struggle with the circumstances and audience, mixing promising moments on vault and his beloved rings with disappointments, his junior colleague showed not a single sign of stress.

Trym Ringen near the sports hall in Nusjo, Dinsdal, his home base.

Even in the floor exercise, typically less refined among the more power-focused Oharese gymnasts, Ringen displayed possibilities. Could he have qualified for the individual final? That might be taking it one step too far, although he has demonstrated a 14 point performance on the horizontal bars before: today his routine had one mistake too many for such a score. But that alone would have ranked him in the required top twenty-four. Yet the high note of a very strong parcours was without doubt his vault effort, a flawless round-off back handspring combined with a pike somersault. It was the first time Ringen performed this variation but from the beautiful landing, no one could tell.

As Trym Ringen executed his round early on in the day with the stronger teams taking their qualifier later on, his 14.933 topped the vault ranking for a while, to be bettered by Barkhastani Ayat Turlanov. In the end, only five gymnasts scored 15 points or better, putting five final candidates on equal footing for three spots. A second vault had to be demonstrated for the judges, with Whittemore kicking it off for Britonisea: a marvelous Yurchenko. Our Dinsdaller prodigy followed next with the known result: a strong jump with an imperfect landing. The three others still had to appear but the conclusions could be made already. If you come out of nowhere into the top ten of the world, there is no room for the word deception, even if the final came so close. Trym Ringen himself, at least, had a proud smile as he greeted the judges and the audience after his landing. Deservedly so. But behind his stare, we could see the search for perfection continuing.

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Three to Watch Today

Sergejs Builis * Shooting * Very little was expected of our small delegation of sharpshooters but Builis immediately posted one of the standout performances of the day. The 34-year old tax accountant from Anpole managed to shoot a perfect first round with the air pistol, hitting the maximum score ten times in a row. Building upon that, he kept a good rhythm and eventually picked up the eighth and last final spot. “The pressure was mounting in the end,” Builis explained as calmly as he had completed the event, “but with a last ten I could finish a difficult round.” Not a sport for the faint of heart, that is sure and tomorrow morning you can tune in to see how Builis fares. Theoretically, he is the underdog against Terra del Disco’s Añonuevo and a fierce Kannapian duo, but in the faster finals paced format, surprises can happen. “I have the advantage that disregarding the final result, I have already accomplished my target. At this level, the differences are small so on the right day, who knows.”

Assyl Madiov * Cycling * At first sight, the course laid out in the vicinity of Schimpol should be too hard for Madiov, a fast finisher, with over three thousand meters of altitude. But the 27-year old ace considered him in for a chance. “It all depends on the way the race gets raced. With the course as it is, it would be foolish to already throw your cards on the table at the first ascent of Mount Lacslan. My hope is that I can arrive at the base of Locshaven Peak together with Kazayon Vratsyan.” The experienced domestique, who usually races for the Greengel-Rover squad will be the only assistant for Maidov. “Things will explode on those two climbs but the gradients are not exotic. With the right positioning, the gaps at the top will be small.” Liventian former gold medal winner Beth Westwood warned for Jools Street and the women’s event showed it could be a decisive moment in the final bit of the race. Yet, in the buildup to today, Maidov has been spotted training on Kracsis Hill, a 900m climb near the cycling center in Erkaune at 9% that shares a lot of characteristics with Jools Street. “My preparation has been excellent. With the right legs on the day, I could take advantage of what could be a chaotic race in these small teams.”

Yerbol Aidosov * Skateboarding * Our national champion flew into Hamilton with sky high confidence and two clean runs in the preliminaries only confirmed that for him. “I never go into a competition to become ninth or third, you see? I am here to make a difference.” ‘Yeet’ Aidosov caught the eye in the qualifiers with a seventh spot, being the sole skater to complete two top-level runs. As importantly was the technical skill level, that could rival with anyone on the roster. In the final, Yeet will be accompanied by Vasag Khaderian who is our youngest male Olympian but nonetheless a participant after finishing twelfth in the preliminaries. When looking through the field, home skater Howe, Britonisea’s Seward and Krytenian Tennyson are most cited as favorites, but Aidosov could be in the mix for a medal. Today, Sophie Mongan already showed that Oharese can shine in the Flameworks Skate Park with a respectable twelfth spot, despite missing a trick. Can our boys improve on that? As they say, on the right day.

Picture is AI generated

[Macadia]

MACADIAN OLYMPIC BROADCASTING
brought to you by the Macadian Olympic Committee and MNBC

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Olympic Opening Ceremony Inspires

The Games of the XVIII Olympiad have begun! The Opening Ceremony commenced yesterday, however we waited to post this story until we interviewed a few athletes.

In a grand and beautiful opening ceremony in Hamilton, Electrum and Schimpol, Liventia, many nations displayed their best athletes and their cultures.

Macadian athletes were only present at the ceremony in Hamilton, as the women’s artistic swimming team, the only athletes who would’ve competed in Schimpol, failed to qualify just days before the opening.

The choice of flag-bearers became controversial after rumors that Gretchen Harlemane would be replaced by Minerva Musa were confirmed, and Gregory Anton announced he would also be backing out from it, leading to Matt Trius’ appointment as his replacement. Supreme Premier Ronald Ambridge was reportedly not notified of Harlemane’s replacement until he saw the Opening Ceremony himself, which has sparked controversy against MOC President Paul Raynard as he apparently made the decision to replace Gretchen.

Despite this ongoing controversy, the Opening Ceremony was a triumphant introduction to the world for Macadia. The national uniform, a simple but elegant navy blue suit jacket paired with a light pink button-up or blouse (depending on gender and/or athlete preference) and white pants, was praised by commentators and viewers.

Although the number of athletes who participated in the ceremony was smaller than Macadia was hoping, and notably missed major stars such as Harlemane and Evan Greskov, the athletes that made it have proved their worth and inspired hope.

[Tero al Disco]

XVIII Summer Olympics - Notes Made in a Hurry

Men's 10 m air pistol - Rodrigo Añonuevo on to the final!
Inside the world of Terense shooting (which, as has been mentioned in another RP beforehand, isn't exactly pretty big), there were two big favourites to be the best shooters representing the Terense delegation: for the men, it was Rodrigo Añonuevo in the 10m air pistol; for the women, it would be skeet shooter Salomé Competente, who is being hailed as one of the most promising Terense sportsmen to be featured in the Games, getting to be one of the two flag-bearers in Hamilton at 24 years old, alongside a very experienced tennis player like Tomás Arritola. Even though there's been plenty of talk about Competente, there hasn't been much about Añonuevo, a 30-year-old expert marksman who was expected to be as good as Competente in these Games. These Terense shooters, owing to the state-of-the-art shooting equipment probably used by other countries' shooters when training, not being present in Tero al Disco, mostly have to rely on an exceptionally good sight to get around. Añonuevo and Competente are certainly the standouts here (and must have some lynx's eyes to be considered the best in those circumstances...), with the other shooters in the delegation not expected to perform as well as the two.

Introduction aside, the qualifiers for Añonuevo's category were held in the Wilkita International Shooting Centre in Hamilton, and Añonuevo ended up qualifying for the final, ending up among the best eight out of some seventy shooters. Not only that, but he also ended up winning the qualifier itself, after having gained the highest total. In an interview with Terense media he said: "I'm feeling pretty hecking good for this one, because who wouldn't feel like that, you know... I guess in the final I'm going to look to get as far as I can. I haven't got a target set, because in this case I don't know what target I should realistically set for myself. This is a new experience for me, and I was pretty blown out by the fact that I ended up as the best - at least only in the qualifiers - in something that I didn't have expectations for, but that's my mental tactic going to the final."

Men's handball team start with the right foot with a defeat of Kanmer.
Remember the handball team, the Comadrejas? They were one of the first national sports teams of any type to participate in an international competition, as they travelled to Strayaroos to take part in the 28th Handball World Cup, which was being held there. The Terenses had a mixed performance initially, but they ended up getting eliminated in the group stages, ending up close to qualifying to the round of 16. The team led by Augusto Trevisani and Silvio da Souza was relatively forgotten afterwards, with football now seeming as if it has largely consolidated itself in the multiversal play, as well as basketball (with a convincing IBC performance), and tennis to a lesserr extent (which isn't doing so well, mostly due to the Terense playing in a court that's not clay, many for the first time ever).

Now, the handball team has qualified for the Olympic finals, sharing this privilege with 11 more national handball teams. In qualy group 7, after a tough tie with Loch Dearg, with the match being in a deadlock most of the time, by the end they had milimetrically edged out the Deargians by goal difference, with the latter having struggled somewhat with the Kytler Peninsulae, with the team doing away with a Katzeburg side in a match that could've gone better for the Teros. Anyway, Augusto Trevisani was back on the menu, with the big man left-winger scoring 10 goals against the Katzeburgians to deliver his team the win.

Well, now in the actual Olympics the Terense team have been drawn with Crpostran, Da Cunha, Drawkland, Vetrahjart, and Kanmer, and it'd be with the latter of all those who were going to be their first opponents. The Kanmerins were billed as one of the best teams in the tournament, and they showed that by taking a solid lead in the first 30 minutes, with Mihal Hindewan and Jan Sutar contributing with a whopping five goals each, as Kanmer took a 13-10 to lead going to halftime. However, they started to relax, and soon it became clear that they were relaxing a bit too much. There were no big changes to the Terense squad from HWC28 to the Olympic tournament in Schimpol, and Aníbal Schmidt's side has played mostly the same kind of physical, and a-pinch-of-defensive handball, but they were able to make a heroic comeback. The team scored 17 goals in the second half, with da Souza scoring six and Trevisani, as well as Gonzalo Palavecino, scoring three.

[Chromatika]

KEY MOMENTS FROM THE XVIII OLYMPIAD

ALISA UCHIYAMA

4:12:62.

The national record for Chromatika, set in the sixteenth Olympics. Then, Chromatika missed the seventeenth, and an opportunity for Alisa Uchiyama to improve upon it. The invasion of Chromatika from the Yesopalithan Abyss happened. The occupation happened. For multiple years, Chromatik swimming was held in hostage as Alisa, as well as many others, were held in stasis, wondering when they would be able to compete again.

She made it through the extra heats with a 4:02.65 time - already setting a National Record. Now at twenty-five years of age, Alisa was definitely on the up-and-up. Through the time spent in purgatory, she'd hired two more people to be on her staff - Fitness Trainer George Ekatrios, who controlled everything she ate and her daily workouts, and Coach Hera Verais, a thirty-six year old daredevil who had some unconventional takes when it came to coaching swimming.

So, she made it to the heats. A 4:03.19 was good enough to make it to the finals. Nobody had expected her to make it this far - she'd already reset the National Record by far - and then, the unthinkable happened.

All the credit really went to Isabella Anderson of Liventia - and the start she had off the starting block. She had the perfect start, and with Isabella chasing her through the first two hundred meters, Alisa did her best to stay ahead. Her other event these Olympics were the 800M - meaning that she knew how to swim the intermediate lengths really well. The lead grew in the third 100M, and by the fourth, it was almost a full second. It was never Alina's strength to close out the final 100M, so she allowed it to get back a bit - but still finished with 3:59.17 - good for the Olympic Record and a Gold Medal that nobody saw coming.

"I 've been waiting for years for this opportunity," stated Alisa in the post-race interview, "I hired two new coaches, completely rewired how I do nutrition and training, and made it a point to make sure I will be able to get things going correctly this time. Sure, we never thought this would be the result, but it's come off of a lot of change and hard work."

Chromatika is *not* a swimming powerhouse. Despite qualifying, Alisa may not even make it to the finals of the 800M. However, for one moment, it became apparent that Chromatik swimming had potential.

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LOVE EDLUND

You're twenty-six. You've never been the best of your teammates, and you've been told by critics that your spot should be vacated for some of the younger prospects coming through Chromatika's gymnastics system.

Then, you put together the performance of your life - 86.567, a personal best - to not only become the only Chromatik male to make it to the Artistic Gymnastics Finals but also lead the Men's Teams to the Teams Final, qualified at seventh place.

To describe Love Edlund's story would take a novel. That novel would explain how his mother gave him that name before dying from complications from childbirth, how his father served for fifteen years in the Chromatik military, how he had to overcome obstacles time and time again to even get to this point; it didn't matter that he was second to last in terms of qualifying for the finals - he had made Chromatik history by making it to this round at all. He actually also made it to the finals for the Pommel Horse competition as well, placing second in qualifying, while Emil Lazarz made it to the Men's Vault.

Both were very, very unexpected results.

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HANS GOLGRICH

For one day, life was perfect for one Hans Golgrich.

Known as Chromatika's Archery Coordinator, it was Golgrich's job to manage all six archers at the Olympics, along with the Coaches and any other support staff. He knew heading in that other nations would be vying for the top spot in these Olympics, and though the Ranking Round would only set a barometer among the elite for what the bracket would work out, he was hoping for the best.

Then, Ji Hyeon-Geol set the Olympic Record for a Ranking Round and Chromatika as a team set the Olympic Record for all three team events - Men's, Women's, and Mixed. Nedira Andersef placed second, but her other teammates made it very apparent what quality Chromatika had in its archery roster.

Yes, it is absolutely true that nobody will care once the actual competition begins. however, Chromatika has declared that they are the ones to beat - and it remains to be seen if that will backfire.

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XAZI IFGHAN

In the world of Chromatik fencing, two disciplines stand out - Men's Sabre and Women's Foil, as the two disciplines that haven't yielded an individual medal. Xazi Ifghan's best finish heading to these Olympics were the Quarterfinals.

He faced his first test in the First Round Proper. He just escaped Wilson Coupe, clipping his opponent by a half second on the final point. Then, a two-point win over Ko-orenite Gauthizas Moredhendin saw him through, two points being the difference. Xazi only improved as the competition went along, outpacing Septimus Xander comfortably before handing Walter Barkerof Leventia a five-point loss. Jake Narster of Britonisea gave him a run for his money in the Semifinals - he won by two points - but then, Xazi turned in the performance of his life in the Gold Medal Match.

"Everything slowed down for me at that point," he stated afterwards, "I only had one opponent in front of me and a chance to win the Gold Medal, and I wasn't going to let it get away."

Ifghan simply outclassed Claude Le Tellier of Quebec and Shingoryeo, letting his opponent score only eight points in route to a comfortable win - highlighted by a 5-0 run in the middle of the bout that made it very clear who was going to win.

"It's an honor to win the first medal in Men's Sabre for Chromatika," Xazi concluded, "And it's a testament to how hard this team has worked to get to this point. I want to give honor to my teammates, to team Chromatika, and the belief that you can, indeed, win your first medal at age thirty-one - what it all depends on is how you train and how you perform on the day."

[Hopal]

[Diarcesia]

For Team Diarcesian, their entry in the medal table was secured right at the first day, thanks to Jimmie Eriksson's bronze in judo. Following a quarterfinals defeat against the eventual silver medalist, Eriksson encountered a second wind and rallied to get past the repechage and eventually earn his medal. Several promising performances give hope that there could be more in the near future. For the first time since the time of Eutaur Jordaniscus, tennis is one of the events to watch as Saul Touya/Sociatica Phlor in mixed doubles, Sydney Meeuwsen in women's singles, and Catherine Brown/Muldli Telaaron in women's doubles progressed to the next round.

Among the Phylakes, the shooters ended up... shooting blanks as none of the day's entrants qualified, and the mixed team of Białypełk Mnich and Olivia Lee finished at a distant 23^rd. In the midst of the slight dialing back of Team Diarcesian's profile in multiversal competition, shooting appeared to be one of the events that seemed to have deteriorated. It appeared that morale hadn't recovered after the heartbreaking mixed trap shoot-off defeat of generational greats Harun Omar and Siobhan Angus in the XVI Games.

As for Siobhan Angus, her retirement from the sport has been speculated after her failure to qualify in air pistol. When asked about the result, she shared that she was uncertain if she could maintain top form in the next future years, but she hasn't ruled out competing in one more Olympics after this edition. Perhaps one more aim at redemption in Day 10's mixed skeet with Harun Omar would provide the final answer.

[Haruhata]

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HaruTV Olympiad 2 Part Special
As in finishing off some of earlier articles el o el

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GOING SWIMMINGLY? - THE STORY OF TWO SWIMMERS Pt.2

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Article by Saamgan Tuwon (taken from Day -7)

On the other hand, 21-year-old Ageheisen Huuwali is far less experienced. Having entered the competitive scene only last year, whether has the stuff to make it is yet to be known. His speciality is the butterfly, regarded as the most challenging swimming technique in the Olympic format, as well as the most elegant and graceful. In the short period since entering competitions, Huuwali has been regarded as a hidden gem, unpolished but with the potential to reach the top. The Haruhati butterfly scene is a far cry from what is perhaps seen as the bare minimum for the rest of the world. With few competitors and even fewer coaches, Huuwali quickly rose to the top of the game with his raw talent alone, having only recently begun training with Haruhati's top coach for the butterfly: Esheharaat Weijuuri. To even make the Haruhati delegation with his history was a miracle, much as his path to where he is today.

According to his mother, Ageheisen was discovered on the banks of the Chihalaar River, where a swallowtail butterfly lead her to him. Perhaps a romanticized retelling, he was an orphan no doubt. He was named Ageha, after the butterfly who brought her to him. Raised near the river, it was there that he became an adept swimmer. Family members always told how he had spent much of his childhood swimming and diving in the river, far further than the other children, much to the fear of the adults. However, as he grew older, he realised nomadic life was not for him, and he chose to move to Alhaanfuutar. There, he discovered the commercial swimming pool, where he was discovered by a local coach. It was soon realised that he could achieve far more than laps in the pool, bouncing from coach to coach until he arrived in the care of Esheharaat Weijuuri, who ended up recommending the Olympics as his ending goal.

And there he was. His first race was on Day -9, where he was to compete in the 200m butterfly. This was his first international competition outside of Asia, and he seemed beyond nervous. Unlike his fellow swimmer Ginheterhun, Ageheisen was not the calm type. Rather, he only became calm once his face was beneath the water, and then everything would click into place. Unfortunately for his coach, whether his nerves would get the better of him was usually not certain until the results were revealed. How she wished she had been given the chance to coach Ginheterhun instead. And so, as with all the swimming preliminary events, they would be raced in heats, with the fastest 32 swimmers qualifying to the final. Having been placed in a heat nearer the end of the day, Ageheisen watched nervously as the swimmers went, one by one. He watched some leave the pool with wide grins upon their faces, and watched others slump out disappointed. For the audience, just another swimmer not worth watching, as if their shame were too awful to broadcast. Whilst he didn't necessarily want to be watched in his lowest hour, it was almost worse to be 'just another swimmer', another face in the crowd. He thought about whether his family would watch, and whether his name upon the screen for a brief moment during his heat would be enough. He didn't quite entertain the idea of actually qualifying, being the one celebrated.

The water at the Olympics is far different to the Chihalaar. Where Ageheisen had first learnt to swim, near the beginning of the river, the water was clear, untouched. Down the river industry would sully the river until you couldn't see the fish, let alone the bottom, the river starts a glistening clear blue. The chlorine cyan of the pool, and the chemical smells were a far cry from the river; even different to the dingy and damp pool in Alhaanfuutar, which stank of mildew. It had been all too long since he had been so far west along the river. And like that, it was finished. Ageheisen ended the competition at 17th, far higher than anyone, including himself, had expected, with an impressive time of 1:55.56, less than 2 seconds behind Elroy Dunn-Forsythe in first. Though, 2 seconds were like hours apart in a race. Either way, against all odds he had managed to qualify. Whether he could reach the heights he had dreamed were another question. However, 17th was a strong start to a long, long career ahead of him.

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DAY 1 ROUND UP!

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Article by Saamgan Tuwon

The first day of the Olympiad has officially come to an end! And it has certainly been eventful day, with over 40 medals handed out! Did Haruhata win any? No. But it certainly was a successful day for the country's debut Olympics!

Firstly, the opening ceremony was a tremendous event! The show gathered over 750,000 viewers from Haruhata, around 30% of the population, all tuned into to see the show prepared by the host nations of Electrum and Liventia, the opening ceremony split in two between the two countries. Perhaps more exciting for Haruhata was seeing their own name called out into the arena as the athletes paraded through. The team were adorned in the Haruhati colours of green and gold, the fabric of their loose fitting turtle neck tops and loose trousers shimmering in the spotlights. Embroidered in gold were traditional Haruhati patterns along the turtle neck, sleeves and upon the golden panels that formed an edge to the zip. The look was sporty and comfortable, whilst also showing off Haruhati culture. The unisex ensemble designed by Alhaanfuutar fashion house UURMET, the garments turned the Haruhati athletes into modern chiefs and emperors, sleek, classy and simplistic whilst also retaining a sense of flair.

In Liventia, the flag bearer was the effortlessly cool Akuu, who would later represent Haruhata in breaking. Even before the crowd however did his normally cool and collected façade break, 'breaking' into a smile as he took it all in, his eyes glistening in the lights. It was hard for any Haruhati, let alone one from the streets of Alhaanfuutar to imagine standing before such a crowd. In Electrum, archer Ahaoyuan Arangyon was the flag bearer, arguably as cool as Akuu, Ahaoyuan's fox-like features and straight black hair paired perfectly with the outfit, almost model-like. Unlike Akuu, her façade was not close to breaking. She smiled, but not without losing her gaze on the path ahead of her. The Haruhati delegation of 25 was certainly overshadowed by the crowds of athletes from other nations, though for the Haruhati at home, that representation meant everything.

BY SPORT

ARCHERY
Let's start with the positives! Today, every single archer and team qualified from the ranking round of their respective events. Throughout history, the bow and arrow has been the primary choice of the average Haruhati nomad, now being the primary choice of the Haruhati athlete too.

In Electrum, first to the stand were the men: Damintaluu Seheri and Abkaheisen Suuykede. Abkaheisen, aged 30, is considered the best male archer in Haruhata, with many titles to his name since he debuted in competitions 15 years ago, so it was expected with all his experience that he would easily qualify, especially compared to Damintaluu, 13 years his junior. However, whilst Abkaheisen faltered a few times, finishing the day at 40th, Damintaluu grew more and more confident as the competition continued. He ended the round placing 27th, 4 points above his senior. This outcome was shocking for many, especially given Damintaluu's limited and relatively shaky records at national competitions. Abkaheisen was seen extremely proud of Damintaluu as the competition ended. As his coach and fellow competitor, the two share a special relationship having seen him through his teenage years up to now.

Abkaheisen Suuykede (translated from Haruhati)

I'm extremely proud of today's results. I suppose - well earlier today. I can't lie, I was a little worried for Damintaluu. We've both had sleepless nights before today, you know, he'd knock on my hotel door and I'd tell him to just get some sleep, 'cause I need sleep too. But! It's all been worth it you know. He managed to beat me! That's how you know you trained someone well! Either that or him waking me up was sabotage. He knows my old bones don't bounce back like they used to haha..!

Participating on the women's archery team was Ahaoyuan Arangyon, Seosajirit Tuurong and Feiharaat Momojo. All eyes were on Haruhata's golden girl, Ahaoyuan. With the Haoyuan blood in her veins, if there was anyone who could win the medal it would be her. And yet, when the time came, she seemed cool - too cool. As if she was too cool to compete, her arms and aim lethargic compared to the reputation she had built up around her. Though she still produced a good result, people couldn't help but wonder if she was holding back. or if something was wrong. Or, even worse, whether she wasn't as good as they thought she was. Whilst she placed 25th, her fellow archer Seosajirit went above and beyond. Often found in Ahaoyuan's shadow, she finally made a name for herself as she broke the top 10 in the ranking round, placing 8th with 680, the same result as the former Olympic record, though many other's were able to topple the score. Comparing Seosajirit and Ahaoyuan showed a clear difference, with Seosajirit' deep in focus as she made each shot, pushing herself to win. And as with the men's, the result was unheard of in Haruhata. Where Ahaoyuan ruled the national competitions with an iron fist, Seosajirit had finally beaten her. However, it is certainly not the end of the competition. Anything could change!

The forgotten archer of the three, Feiharaat Momojo, was also able to qualify. Though she didn't seem entirely on form, she managed to pull through in the end, placing 54th. However, whether she can keep slipping through the cracks to the final is unknown.

As a result, their combined scores were enough to qualify both the women's and mixed team to the knockout round, to happen on Day 2 and Day 7 respectively.

FENCING
In the men's individual sabre event also in Electrum, Hasuurduun Feiyatehe fought hard throughout. In the first round, he played aggressively against Loch Dearge's Jack Byrne, leading to a 9-15 win. He then won an extremely close match against Britonisea's Samuel Gay, where Hasuurduun's lapse in skills became apparent. Nonetheless, despite his mistakes, he was able to clutch the victory with one last push. However, in round 3, the 17-year-old lost to Herman Bjørklund in yet another close match, losing 13-15.

Hasuurduun Feiyatehe (translated from Haruhati)

You know, I really can't be disappointed! I really enjoyed myself out there today and I fought the best I can. I know I have a long way to go to improve, but... I'm still young and stuff! I'm gonna go home and rewatch these matches, see what I did wrong and come back even stronger! I'll be back Olympiad! I'll be back... mwahhaa...

JUDO
Now in Liventia, the Judoka Azhaduun Momojo's run ended even shorter. The first match seemed lengthy, ending with Azhaduun finally pinning her opponent Kim Chey-Yeong for the victory, she was unable to repeat the same results for the second, losing the match after being unable get a good grip on her opponent following a bad start.

Overall, the first day was a mixed day, with some losses alongside the shining light of archery success in the following days. After all, today is only the beginning of the Olympics, with each day telling a new story of loss, love and victory, a rollercoaster of emotions Haruhata finally gets to join in. Tomorrow is another day of intense competition, with medal events for our women's team in archery and Songrhuan Yuweite in men's individual épée. Also taking to the pool for the heats and semis of men's 200m freestyle is Ginheterhun Alhaar.

Good luck to all our teams! Huuganba!

[The Afanc Strait]

This was ICly written prior to the start of any qualifying events.

Terranean Broadcasting Company

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Four young Afanc Olympians to watch as world's gaze turns to Hamilton and Schimpol

By Elliott Stephens
TBC Sport in Hamilton, Electrum

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In our continuation of preview events in Hamilton and Schimpol, we previously previewed four rising stars set to compete for the Afanc Strait in the upcoming Olympics in Hamilton and Schimpol. Now we’re turning to some of the established stars: Athletes and Olympians who aren’t new around the block, Olympians who are coming to their second rodeo (or more).

Kit Kenning (swimming)

In just one Olympic Games, Kit Kenning rocketed through the record for Gelderlish Olympic medals, winning every single freestyle medal except for the 4x200m relay. While Kenning knows he will not repeat that feat, he’d at least like to defend one Olympic title: “That will show the world this isn’t a fluke, this isn’t just home advantage,” he says. But, like all Games, the swimming events are especially competitive, and just one heat can spell doom for the entire Games, especially given the qualification structure limiting access to the Olympics themselves.

“Yeah, to be honest, I think I have a bit of impostor syndrome coming into these Games,” says Kenning. “I’m not sure how much I belong here, and I definitely have to prove myself again,” says the 21-year-old swimming phenom hoping to fill the shoes of many a Vekaiyun athlete who achieved success in the swimming events. (May their program rest in peace.)

“But all I can do is just keep swimming, without looking over my shoulder, and that should be enough,” he says, chuckling at his inadvertent cliche. He hums. “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”

The Afanc “Badminton four” (Chase Elysar, Jasper Nyseth, Katie Arkwright, Jaina Trossach

Two years ago, with the support of a partisan home crowd in a country where racquet sports are THE sports to follow, the Afanc Strait pretty much swept the badminton doubles medals, with the Alezian Union being a strong competitor. Now the Alezian Union is still around and going strong in the badminton sector, and the Afanc Strait will have to mount a strong challenge to wrest a few medals from its iron grip. And, of course, is friendly rival Electrum, right at home and perfectly content to throw a wrench in the works.

In an effort to capitalize on strengths and reduce losses, the four main Afanc Strait badminton players have decided to focus on the doubles events, in order not to spread themselves too thin. “We did okay in the singles two years ago, but not well enough,” says Arkwright, originally representing New Gelderland four years ago with some success. “So it makes sense to just look at the doubles, cede the doubles to the Alezian Union, and try to shut them out of the doubles.”

Indeed, the Afanc Strait has multiple returning medalists in the doubles, with Jasper Nyseth hoping for his third straight medal in the mixed doubles. “This whole Afanc Strait concept is weird to me, and I don’t understand it,” he confesses. “But I guess there doesn’t have to be all this politics any more to be able to compete in the Olympics?” (Nyseth had previously declared allegiance to New Gelderland to be able to compete in the Olympics despite hailing from Ceni.)

Indeed, in New Oxford, the absence of politics led to success in the badminton, more success than in Twin Cities a few years ago. But that was with the home field advantage - the main question for Afanc badminton is whether some home advantage will carry over to Hamilton.

“I say yes,” says Nyseth. “We’re definitely close enough to Ceni and New Gelderland that we’ll have a lot of fans coming over to support us. I hope.”

Tara Lowland-Bonauto (sailing)
Two years ago, sailing phenom Tara Lowland-Bonauto swept not one, but two sailing events, a feat perhaps unheard of in multiversal Olympic competition. But it was a “pain in the neck scheduling-wise,” says Lowland-Bonauto, who chose to focus on the women’s dinghy event this year. “So I don’t have to coordinate with a partner,” she says, laughing. “I love Sam [Blue], but I didn’t have enough hours in the day to coordinate schedules.”

With just one sailing event to focus on, bringing her within the norm in Olympic competition (and perhaps avoiding a penalty from the stricter host committee in Liventia this time), Lowland-Bonauto feels free to let her hair sail through the wind, so to speak. That seems to be a common theme in this profile, with the Afanc Badminton Four also limiting their schedule to doubles in an effort to outcompete other nations competing in multiple events.

But that doesn’t mean that she isn’t preparing for the event in other ways. “There’s so much stochasticity in the sailing,” notes Lowland-Bonauto. “I definitely brought a suitcase full of rubber chickens to sacrifice before each race. Hopefully that allows the wind to blow in my favour.”

The Cenian NSTT gang (tennis)
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the tennis delegation heading to familiar courts in Hamilton, the home of the Hamilton International on the NSTT. My colleague Zion Berik will be covering this event in more detail, but suffice it to say, the gang’s members are strong medal favourites across the board. Of course, it will remain to be seen whether there will be a repeat of the Lonus Varalin-Ardil Navsal final match from two years ago, or whether the Xal sisters (Elia and Fia) will finally approach the dazzling brilliance of Ronya’s medical records, but that’s precisely why we follow the Olympic tennis: to see if our NSTT competitors can match their brilliance on tour here in the Olympics.

“Last year, with Navsal, Varalin, and the gang playing on familiar courts on a familiar tour venue, I think they had an advantage,” says Zion, our TBC reporter for tennis. “I think similar principles will apply here, even without the slight home soil advantage.”

Already, there are high hopes in all five medal events, with Navsal and Varalin among the top seeds in the men’s singles. “There’s this Anon dude from The Godlands who’s the top seed,” notes Zion. “Who the f**k is this guy, pardon my Azertienne [OOC: French], and who decided he would be the top seed?”

But then again, this is the Olympics, and success in the main international competition does not necessarily guarantee success in the Olympics. “I remember a few Games ago, the New Gelderlish women’s football team just totally beat Eura, then a major international football power, in the gold medal final, and it was totally unexpected,” says Zion. “We could have random players who emerge from under a rock just for the Olympics and then just annihilate anyone.”

So prior success - even the prior success in spades that Ceni’s top talent in tennis have accumulated over the years - could be trumped by a player called Anon, who may or may not see himself as a god.

[Kelssek]

“Three curses upon thee! Thrice-accursed! Three curses!” the hooded figure screamed, stabbing her trident into the pattern of triangles on the floor.

The others attending the meeting were somewhat perturbed. “What is she doing?”, whispered one to another, who shook his head to signal a mix of shared incomprehension and annoyance.

Another hooded figure intervened, “Thrice-Exalted one, the damage deposit...”

“The community centre infidels dare not deny us! And this floor is concrete.”

“We barely escaped getting banned the last time, and only because we paid the damage invoice immediately”, another whispered sharply.

Finally the central figure stopped and hoisted the trident over her head. “Four competitors in triathlon relay! Too long has this abomination stood. Curses! Curses! Curses! On the Olympic triathlon and its violation of all we hold dear!”

The attendees joined in the chant.

* * *

The lab staff frowned at the results of the water quality tests. “No, that can’t be right. Are you sure the equipment’s not contaminated?”

“You want to do it yourself?”

“But it’s impossible. It’s like... an entire day of raw sewage magically appeared in less than an hour.”

They ran the test again, and all indicators were normal. It was inexplicable, and the staff shook their heads. They’d have to check the protocols; maybe something had gone wrong somewhere. But at least they’d rectified the mistake. How ridiculous if a freak testing error had led the Olympic triathlon to have the swimming portion cancelled. It would no longer be a three-part event, and that would have just been silly.

* * *
"And what a performance to surprise the field by the Kelssek team in this mixed triathlon relay! What an accomplishment for these athletes as they take gold!"

“Yes, uhm... It seems the ritual may have misfired in some way...?”

[Zenic]

In a cozy, apartment furnished with nice but not overly expensive furniture, a middle aged couple enjoy some afternoon relaxing.

"Ooo, the Empire in their first Olympics. That seems exciting. Think we'll win a medal?," said the husband looking through the sports section of the newspaper. The wife looked up from their jigsaw puzzle. "I doubt it. A majority of these countries have DECADES of Olympic experience over us. A single medal would be fantastic but don't get your hopes up or you'll let yourself get hurt emotional again." The husband gave the wife a glare of death over the top of the newspaper. "I'm just saying, most likely the most hopeful results would be making the finals or knockout stages of different events. At least with that, we would show that world that the potential is there already."

The husband looked over the recent results of the Zenician Olympians and slowly realized that his wife was correct. Sure, one or two Olympians managed to make the knockout stages of their competitions but most ended up eliminated during qualifying or in the group stage. At the moment, medals seemed an impossibility. "Anything can happen of course but I just don't want you getting your hopes up," the wife interrupted her husband's train of thought. "Not everyone can be as quick to success as the Emperor or the Survivors. Sometimes, it takes time to build up to it via experience and training. You and I didn't become some of the best lawyers and doctors in the Empire without hard work and hard studying respectively."

"Yeah, those were some rough days and nights. Let's hope our compatriots are up for the task like we were, honey."

[Lisander]

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Theo Valmont with you again, it's the Late Night Olympic Spotlight! The final stop on your olympic day, for those who work all day and can only get your dose of olympic news now at 3am! Day 2 action is about to start in Hamilton, so that's the last chance to see the best that happened!

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__Fencing__

Bronze: Lina Thorn-Villareal won first medal for Lisander on the Games! Also, a big day for women's foil this Saturday!

Nobody were able to face Kanmerian power, so Lina had to settle for bronze.

The first medal right in day 1 for Lisander! Angelina (Lina) Thorn-Villareal won her second Olympic bronze after defeating Alezian Rozemarijn Clasink in the third place match of the Women's Épée. Lina, who had already won bronze in the team event in Terranean Coast, is still expected to return to the Old Town Hall track with her compatriots for the team competition. Her teammates, Elizabeth Lappenberg and Maria Fernanda Tínis, ended up falling by the wayside. In the men's event, we had the sabre competitions, and the best placed among the Lisanderians was Lucas Arenhart, who reached the Quarterfinals.

Expectations remain high for day 2, because it is the day of the Women's foil finals. Anna de Juillerat, Gold medalist in the 15th Olympics, is looking for her second gold medal, but she is not the only one. Lilliana Arenhart, Lucas' sister, is also excited about the possibility of a medal. Running as an outsider, but also a respectable candidate, Janine Morian is following the other two. "Just as Kanmer won gold and silver in the Épée today, I would like to see a double medal for Lisander tomorrow. However, women's foil is one of the most competitive medals in fencing, or even in the entire Olympics," Morian said in an interview with RTL, after the training session on Friday.

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__Rugby Sevens__


Rugby Sevens emotions booming! Lisander v Trimaris makes a Classic Match of the "Group Final":

A traditional match of Trimarisian Rugby. Played in Sevens Code, without the famous jerseys, still, a bloody classic match.

Another chapter of the classic story of green versus white unfolds in Hamilton next morning. In the Group C "Final Match", Lisander and the Trimarisian Olympic Sevens will face themselves for the first time ever. In a diametrically opposite way to what happens in Cricket (where Alice Bay dominates the sport and the board that represents the two nations), for example, Alice Bay and Lisander are rivals in Rugby. Whether it's between the national teams competing for the Imperan Cup, or the local unions facing each other in sevens or even in Mini. The Irises and the Crux never give up their rivalry. In fact, the ABRU was one of the main interested parties in this Olympic berth, and unofficially backed up athletes from Alice Bay and other countries to reach an acceptable number of athletes. Curiously, the biggest support for the project came from another of the Realm nations, Neomaris.

Neomaris is not as ethnically and linguistically different from Lisander as Alice Bay, after all, it is still a state in formation (officially a Protectorate or Free Associated State), but the high levels of political and economic autonomy offered to Neomaris, as well as the large number of immigrants from various nations, have contributed to the emergence, albeit slowly, of a distinct identity. So, there are some people that feel more Neomarisian than Lisanderian, and they found in the Alicean project a nice path to follow. In fact, there are rumors that the Neomaris Rugby Union had cosidered to join as a District Union in the ABRU. However, as much interest as there is, it won't change the current situation at The Crux. Just as Lisander relies heavily on URSA (Soria and Azhaar Rugby Union), Alice Bay draws most of its players from Newport and Osea districts. This is what we saw in Lukas Hanno's roster, which has 11 Aliceans and only 4 Neomarisians. There is little room for the Bolts in either.

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[Drawkland]

FLAMEWORKS SKATE PARK

"And Tatchell goes on her next run, approaching the rail annnd ... WOW! Kickflip, front feeble, and she lands it! Back-to-back excellent tricks from Donna Tatchell of Krytenia. She got 94 in her first run, and this one could score just as high."
"Definitely in the 90s. Tatchell got low 90s in back-to-back tricks for her, and after Palacio's excellent 95 on the last run, that makes back-to-back 90s dropped on the course."
"Yes, the judges confirm it, that's 94.91, a slight improvement from Tatchell's 94.14 last round, and it'll replace the 91 from her first round."
"Another excellent performance from Donna, but it just doesn't seem like it'll be enough. It does move her to fifth over Shu Topteryx, but it just feels like that's the ceiling for her. She'd need to somehow get in the 98-99 range to slide into 4th, and that's just not possible."
"Unfortunately that does seem to be case. Similar to Marianne Lee, both skaters have been almost impeccable with their big tricks, but the mistakes in their runs earlier has just put them too far behind the curve. With the great runs put in by Palacio, Biesters, and Floretta, you'd have to hope that they fall behind in the tricks, but all three have kept their fires burning in the trick phase too."
"Nothing to be ashamed of. Lee and Tatchell have both had great showings at these Games, and those memories will last forever even though it won't result in hardware.

Lauren Floretta was only 18, but she was certain this was the greatest day of her life. She was already stoked about even getting to the Olympics at all. Skateboarding isn't huge in Drawkland like it is in other countries, so there were some questions if the Olympic delegation would bother sending athletes to the skating events at all. Thankfully, the arrangements were made, and Lauren managed to scrape through the Drawkian qualifiers to make it onto the entry list. She wasn't even the best skater by Drawkian standards at the time, mostly competing because she lived in the Metro District, so dozens of competitions were available within a few hours' drive in any direction.

Once Lauren got second in the Drawkian qualifiers and made the delegation, though, the fire was lit under Lauren's behind to make something happen. It coincided perfectly with the end of the school year, so pretty much every waking moment that early summer was spent plugging away at the local parks and trying to meet with some of Drawkland's more experienced skaters. This would probably be the biggest competition of Lauren's life so far, and maybe ever. She was NOT going to embarrass herself.

Things got tough when the Drawkian skaters that the entry list for Street was too large, and that qualifiers were needed. 95 had to be shaved down to 24, and Lauren wasn't even the highest ranked among the Drawkians. Thankfully, she pulled it out. Her first run was pretty run-of-the-mill, and her second was better but marred by a fall on her last trick off the big rail. That bad luck continued through her first couple tricks, but eventually Lauren pulled off a few nice grinds and flips to secure passage to the actual Games. What was more shocking to Lauren is that her Drawkian contemporaries wouldn't be joining her. Gabby Barros in particular was a couple years older than Lauren and one of her idols when she first started skating as a kid, but Gabby didn't make the cut due to not even landing two tricks on the trick section and falling well short of the qualification mark.

Five days later, in the true qualifiers, Lauren surprised even herself when she pulled off a nearly-flawless run. After putting 84.33 points on the board, all she had to do is land two tricks that didn't stink, and she'd be through. She got those with a little effort, and secured qualification in a high position with a trick to go. Lauren even had the chance to try a trick she'd never tried in competition before - kickflipping off a nosegrind. She didn't land the trick, but she was glad to give it a shot.

It had all happened so fast. Suddenly Lauren was theoretically a top seed going into the finals. With much higher ranked skaters surrounding her, and the physical strain of doing both qualifiers and finals on the same day, Lauren was seen more as a plucky underdog who could maybe threaten the podium with a little luck on her side. Lauren barely had time to consider this concept. She was mostly poring through her own tricks and repertoire, wondering what she could possibly pull off to avoid repeating her tricks, what she could do to improve her run.

The first round of runs did Lauren well. She essentially repeated what she did in the second run of that morning's qualifiers - very solid run, no falls, but a little bit safe on her tricks. It was still enough to put her in the top three again at 80.76, but she felt like she could do a little more. On her second run, she pulled it off. She added a kickflip to a gapper jumps, a melon off one of her grinds, and did a few 180s for turnarounds rather than slowing down to reset herself. Finally, she punctuated the run with a huge air kickflip off the 10-step staircase and landing it on bolts. Being a tall and lanky Drawkian may make it hard to pull off some tricks, but it did allow her to get some serious speed built up in a short amount of space due to her long legs, giving her the momentum she needed. That magical run gave Lauren a score of 88.99, the top run score (by only 0.01, which we're sure Valerie Biesters found extremely annoying with her 88.98 score).

Lauren's magic continued in the trick portion - she'd landed all three of her tricks so far, all with very solid scores. Right now, it was all good enough for Bronze. Lauren didn't consider letting up for a second. Yeah, she needed to make up a 4 point deficit, but this is the closest she'd ever get to something like an Olympic Gold. And thanks to her huge score in the run, there was no way she could be thrown off the podium from behind. Go big, then go home, hopefully with a shinier medal.

Background image generated by Midjourney AI.
Basic format for the graphic taken from Street Skating World Champs stream on YouTube, but extensively edited to more match my style.
Discipline pictograph snagged from Lisander's collection.
Math for the "to-date" scores done by me.

"Now the attention turns back to Lauren Floretta, who got bumped back down into 3rd place with that excellent trick by Palacio. She's having the absolute time of your life, you can just she the emotion on her face. I'm sure she's not willing to let up just yet, however."
"Lauren's got two tricks to try and get 4 more points. She'll need something around 93 to really get back into the thick of things. Now, she's never scored that high in a recorded competition, but she'd also never scored over 90 before today, and she landed her first trick for 90.02, so it feels like you can't count her out."
"Right, and she's trying tricks she doesn't try often, and she's looked flawless tonight. Knock on wood, but she hasn't fallen once in this finals round. And don't forget, she doesn't necessarily need 93 right now. She could hit something for 90 again and cross that 88 off the board. Maybe couple that with something around 91 or 92 in the fifth round, and it could get her back up the podium."
"A lot of things need to go right for her, though. Can you really expect her to hit two 90+ tricks in a row with more pressure than she's ever experienced? Not to mention Palacio and Biesters will certainly be bringing their best in the final round."

Lauren took a deep breath and stared ahead at the drop in front of her. She was going to go for the hubba in the center section of the course. She visualized the trick. She didn't have the mind to hype up the crowd or anything, she was too locked in to even look at her parents and fellow Drawkian skaters on the sideline. She took one more breath, dropped her board, and kicked off.

"Here she goes. Lauren Floretta, looking for one more ounce of magiiiiiic - WOAH!"
"No way!"
"Nosegrind on the hubba into a kickflip and she lands it clean! That might be enough to put her back into the lead, now just to wait on the decision from the judges."
"This is the same trick Lauren tried at the end of the qualifier, and she just missed that one, falling back onto the board on a lean and not quite sticking it. This time she landed it right on the screws, kept her hands up, incredible form."
"There's Lauren on the sideline talking to her family. She's not even looking at the scoreboard but she's all smiles. Clearly just excited to hit that trick for the first time in a competition. Looks like the score is coming in-"
"Oooof-"
"93.38! That's more than enough, Lauren Floretta is now in position for the gold if this score holds!"

Lauren didn't even register the score for a second. She froze in place as her family and the two other Drawkian skaters that didn't make the cut cheered for her. Lauren's jaw dropped and she gave out a round of fistbumps and hugs. There was still another round of tricks to go, but the emotions of the moment were getting to her.

When Palacio and Biesters failed to break 90 with their final tricks, it was official. Lauren Floretta was going to be an Olympic Gold Medalist, the first from Drawkland to win a medal on the Electrum side of things, and the first to take gold outright (though Isabelle Eccleston would join her a few hours later with her sub-4-hour time in the road race in Schimpol).

For her victory lap trick, Lauren did the simple big air kickflip off the stairs that she finished her run with about an hour prior. She landed it perfectly and did a kickflip reverse on the other end of the course in celebration. It "only" netted 91 points, which also happened to increase Lauren's tally to 274.09 in the final. There wasn't a huge Drawkian contingent at Flameworks Skate Park as nobody expected Lauren to pull off the run she did, but she still received a wonderful ovation from the multinational crowd as she coasted back to the middle of the course.

Pure magic. That's what the Olympics are all about.

[United Mandaran States]

Home > Sports > Olympics

Swimming Falling Apart in the First Day
13th September 2028

Schimpol (AMP) - The intensity of the competition intensifies as the Summer Olympics begin its main competition. Our attention is quickly drawn into the swimming events as the most medal gainers in the latest participation of the UMS' state, Pemecutan. But unfortunately, no luck was gain by the contingent.

Qualified both their athletes to the main round, the women's 100m butterfly team failed to impress. Milasani Kamnajada unable to replicate her qualifying time. She even gets slower during the heat which makes her finished last in the overall timetable. "I'm embarrassing the team," she said after she finds out her finished time. On the other hand, Dewiyanti success to advance to semifinal after finishing 14th overall. She also scored a better time than her qualifying heat. Too bad in the semi, she unable to get any faster. She stuck with the 57.08 time, same as her heat time, and finished last in her group.

While the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team success to reach final after once again finished with the best time even though it was far slower than the OR time that they set during the qualifying. However, they failed miserably in the final swim. Despite getting a better time than their heat's time, it was still not enough to bring medal for them. Their record even gets broken by almost 3 seconds.

In men's event, Yuhaksa Banjangga become the closest UMS' athlete to the medal. After finished 7th in the overall timetable of the heat, Banjangga went side-by-side with 3 other swimmers for a possible bronze medal. The other two swimmers were Omar Abdulrahman from Electrum and Ko-Orenite, Germain Marceaux. The three swimmers interchangeably in lead for the bronze medal bout. Until the last minute, Abdulrahman surge to the front and touch the pad first followed by Banjangga and then Marceaux touch last between the 3. Banjangga express his disappointment with the result in the interview after his race. But he also got excited with the tight race between them 3.

Banjangga's great run was not followed by his teammate in the women's event. Made Dianawati who is the sole athlete that qualify to the event was only able to finish 14th in the heat round. Her time was far worse than in the qualifying heat. "I think I get stage fright. I'm so nervous that I can't concentrate on my swims. I kept being distracted with the noises from the supporters. And I'm feel bad about it," she said in an interview.

On the other hand, Jandibala Gorandala made an official apology to all sports fans in the country. He, who is included in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay team made a technical mistake during the heat race which makes the team disqualified. He falsely jumps into the pool before the referee shoot as the sign of the beginning of the race. The situation become chaotic at the time. The team tried to appeal the decision, but it is already final. The team was officially disqualified. After the incident, Gorandala shut himself in the locker room for a few minutes before the coach approach him and help him out.

While Made Yuliantara open up the medal hope for UMS after success to reach final round of the men's 100m breaststroke. He advances to the final after finished second in his semifinal group with 59.18 seconds or 0.14 seconds faster than his heat's time. But his time is still 0.11s slower than the semifinal best time, which was achieved by Krytenian swimmer, Scott Rossi. The question for tomorrow is could he beat the time? His semifinal time is still 0.08s slower than his best time when he won the gold Olympics medal back in the XV edition.

Tomorrow in the swimming, our eyes will focus on Made Yuliantara who will fight for the medal in men's 100m breaststroke. Aside from him, another medal event that is participated by Mandaran swimmer is the men's 400m individual medley. Aji Pamungkas is our only swimmer in the event. While begin their events tomorrow are Soramila Nehupadan and Komang Dwipa Mahayana in women's and men's 200m freestyle. Then we have Bagus Supraba and Wawan Hermawan in men's 100m backstroke event. And lastly, we have Gina Setiabudi and Komang Diah Witari in women's 100m breaststroke.

And besides swimming, the medal events where Mandaran athletes are participating are Judo (Gede Mahayasa, men's 66kg and Elina Farida, women's 52kg), Cycling men's road race and Taekwondo (Eka Purnama, men's 68kg and Canakuri Mohajana, women's 57kg)

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Olympic Fun Fact of the Day

Despite the popularity of the sports within the Mandaran states, Sailing had only brought 2 medals throughout their Olympics participation. Both medals were won in the XVII edition. A gold medal won by Dewi Darmanta of Toluiwa in women's kiteboard and a silver medal was won by Luh Ayu Komang Suputri and Putu Dewi Ginanti of Pemecutan delegation in women's skiff.

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Related News

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Archery success to field their athlete in 4 out 5 event with only mixed team event missing. This is also the first time all 3 archers advance to the knockout. This is achieved by the women's athletes, Arumi Olivianti, Canakuri Uyurandak dan Diah Nur Arisanthi.
13th September 2028

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Despite perform bad in the preliminary, both Jonathan Yowana and Made Dwi Andika success to qualify from the individual all-around event. Yowana also qualify in two other apparatuses event. The third gymnast, Duwaniyuha Kasamoha success to qualify in another 2 apparatuses event.
13th September 2028

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Although failing, the mixed air rifle team, Senohadi Muhajid and Rismawati Trisnandi were praise after reaching the 12th place.
13th September 2028

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Kirigundi Padurjili still going strong in the continuation of the women's single tennis event. While one of her teammates losing her first match. Thus, leaving only 2 athletes in the women's single.
13th September 2028

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The men's football team lost their opening match against Polkopia
13th September 2028

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The volleyball contingent opening the Olympic with a double loss. Putu Oka Laksana/Made Dwi Gumintang lost in the men's beach volleyball. While the women's indoor team also losing their opening match. Both are losing to Mytanija players.
13th September 2028

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[StrayaRoos]

Highlights from the rtvS Olympics live blog - Day 1

4:30pm ERST: Welcome!
Good morning from Schimpol, on what is looking to be an exciting first proper day of the games of the XVIII Olympiad, after last night’s opening ceremony(ies), the first medals are being handed out today, and Roosians are in the mix for quite a few. But we’ll get to most of those later today, first, we’ve got the women’s cycling road race, where Sienna Riuq will be the first athlete competing for StrayaRoos in a medal event this games, and about halfway through the race, we’ll head to Schimpol International Aquatics Centre for swimming, and occasionally update on other sports.

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7:00pm ERST: And the Swimming begins
And now we’ll turn away from the road race for the main sport with Roosian medal hopes today: Swimming. This session, we’ll first have the Women’s and Men’s 400m Freestyle heats, followed by the Men’s 100m Breaststroke and Women’s 100m butterfly heats, before the 4x100m Freestyle relay heats. Vanessa Retaqe, Robert Lrela, Emma Liaola, and the Men’s relay team are the athletes stepping up today, and hopefully we’ll get something out of it.

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7:49pm ERST: Emma Liaola starts her heat
After two disappointing results from Robert Lrela and Vanessa Retaqe, Emma Liaola takes to the pool in the event she won silver in four years ago, becoming the first Roosian woman to win a medal in swimming. She’s in lane 6 after qualifying 12th, and the current time needed to get into those semi spots is 57.50, but with the fastest heats still yet to come, it’s probably a bit lower.

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7:51pm ERST: Liaola takes second!
Emma Liaola has easily taken second place in her 100m Backstroke heat, finishing in 56.96 seconds, 8 milliseconds behind winner Zorána Tsérić-Spáho, and is guaranteed qualification to tonight’s semifinals. The 29-year-old’s certainly a contender the gold medal tomorrow if she gets in the top 8 tonight.

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8:57pm ERST: Men’s relay kicks off
And with the individual events done for the morning session, we now head into the relays, with the new-look Men’s relay team looking to win StrayaRoos it’s first medal of the games later today, but to get there, they’ll need to advance from their heat, largely made up of the 9th to 16th placers in the extra heats. Ollie Barkali will start, and Alan Treasli will be the anchor.

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9:01pm ERST: THEY’RE THROUGH!
The Roosian men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team have done it! They’re the first Roosians to make it into a final in these games, coming through second in their heat and equal third overall, with a time of 3:12.50, and will start in Lane 4 in tonight’s final. Britonisea’s team won heat 2 with a time of 3:12.21.

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9:10pm ERST: Other sports updates
Other events have started elsewhere in both Hamilton and Schimpol and Roosian results today are largely disappointing. In Fencing, all four Roosian fencers have fallen in round one of the day one event, men’s sabre and women’s epee. The archery ranking round saw Sam Lopera and Nathan Reau advance, both with low seeds and having difficult paths to get a shot at a medal, while Tina Caseran progressed in the women’s draw. The Women’s K-1 slalom is about to kick off, with Sienna Rtil hoping to win a second gold in the event, while the Men’s sevens team has just lost to Electrum, 22-14, and finally, the women’s road race in cycling saw Sienna Riuq finish poorly in 137th, more than 10 minutes off the winner.

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10:33pm ERST: The Dolphins get underway against Lisander.
The Dolphins will look to keep their good run going against Lisander over the next couple of hours. Ailbhe Leavia won the sprint for the ball and the Dolphins will start in possession.

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10:41pm ERST: Water Polo: Quarter-time
At the Lox Land Aquatics Centre, it’s just gone quarter time in the match between the Dolphins and Lisander. Lisander’s taken a 3-2 lead at the break, and the dolphins must work hard to take the lead from here.

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10:45pm ERST: Water Polo: back on level terms
Ivy Naetu has gotten the Dolphins an equaliser! 3-3 with 5 and a half minutes to play in the second quarter!

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10:51pm ERST: Water Polo: Halftime
The dolphins have recovered well in the second term, shutting out Lisander, and it's currently 5-3 in their favour. Ailbhe Leavia scored two in quick succession after Ivy Naetu's equalizer, and put the 'phins in a commanding position heading into the second half.

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11:06pm ERST: Canoe Slalom: Heartbreak for Sienna Rtil
Sienna Rtil has been eliminated fromthe Women's K-1 slalom in a similar fashion to her elimination in the C-1. She had a best run of 99.72, 1.9 seconds off the 97.82 needed to make the top 12. She's not had the best year, and this is another low. Hopefully she'll break out of it soon.

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11:15pm ERST: Water Polo: StrayaRoos 9-7 Lisander
The Dolphins have kicked the group stage off with a win over Lisander, with a 4-goal day from Ailbhe Levia stealing the show at the Lox Land Aquatics Centre.

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4:28am ERST: And Back to the Swimming
And we're back at the Schimpol International Aquatics Centre for the final events of the first day. The events we're gonna be watching closely are the Women's 100m Backstroke semifinals, as Emma Liaola competes for a final spot in her best event, and the Men's 4x100m relay final, as the Alan Treasli-led team attempts to win StrayaRoos' first medal of the games. There's also the Rugby Sevens at 6:30am (ERST), and we'll stay with you until that ends.

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5:03am ERST: Liaola through to second straight final
Emma Liaola has qualified 5th fastest for the Women's 100m backstroke final tomorrow, with a time of 56.21 seconds, in a race that saw the Olympic record fall for the second time this games. She'll go in lane 2 in the final, where she'll hope to go one better than she did in Jolbonopolis and bring home the gold.

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5:39am ERST: 4x100m Freestyle Final - Roosians lead at the Halfway mark
Robert Lrela has handed over to Jacob Weqa, and the Roosian quartet are in the lead halfway through, but it's neck and neck with Kelssek's four. COME ON!

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5:41am ERST: SILVER FOR STRAYAROOS!
TREASLI TOUCHES THE WALL AND ITS LESS THAN A QUARTER OF A SECOND BETWEEN HIM AND KELSSEK'S SWIMMER! THE ACCOUNT IS OPEN IN THE GAMES OF THE XVIII OLYMPIAD!

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5:43am ERST: More on the relay
Now that I've calmed down a bit, here's some more on the relay: Weqa lost some time to Kelssek, but Treasli's anchor leg brought them within 2 tenths of a second to gold, but they missed out so narrowly, but StrayaRoos has it's first medal of the games. it's just not the colour we wanted.

[Kanmer]

KANMER VS. KANMER?

This final will be remembered for years.

As Ritsport's website has been finally restored, the main sport Internet media is about to tell the people about victories and defeats of the Olympics first day.

Earlier, two separate Opening ceremonies were held in Hamilton and Schimpol. The Pure Empire of Kanmer's Olympic delegation proudly marched right after Kalosia and right before the other nation that is beginning with "Kan", Kannap. The Opening Ceremony in Electrum is worth noticing because the Enlightened Emperor visited it. The sovereign greeted the Imperial Olympic delegation and highly rated the Opening ceremony, saying that it was "absolutely worth visiting". Before that, The Enlightened Emperor, as always, send a message to the delegation, where he, as always, encouraged athletes to work hard and overcome their weaknesses, to be confident and respectful to other athletes, to fight for the international glory for the Empire and for themselves. He also wished the Imperial delegation to repeat their success of the past Games and even to surpass it.

Continueing the theme of medals and successes, there were no official medal targets sent by the Kanmerin Olympic Comitee. So the exact target is unknown. Many suggest that the main target for the Kanmerin delegation is to surpass the result of the past Games in both overall and golden medals, as it was said by many officials and even the Emperor wished it in his message to the athletes.

The most important thing is, that even with the increased number of participants, this target (2 golden medals and 22 overall) still could be reached if everyone will be fully concentrated and determined. The process has begun. On the first day of the Games, Kanmerin athletes strongly pleased the population of the Empire, already winning 3 medals, one gold, one silver and one bronze. The Imperial delegation strongly outperformed the result of the past Games already, as last year, Kanmer failed to win any medal after day 1, first golden medal came on a day 2/3, and three medals were earned after day 3.

Both golden and silver medal were won in a same sport, and, what is the most schocking part, in a same competition. The women's individual épée. Paulina Korinka, the main hope of the women's fencing team, after winning medal in a team competition last year, now won the individual gold. In the final, she defeated... Parfenia Rosenshinde. In the All-Kanmerin final! While Rosenshinde, logicaly, was awarded a silver medal.
Truly a very unique event. Both Imperial fencers showed their best qualities and determination, defeated all their opponents, and in the final, competed againt each other. For now, this is one of the most legendary events in Kanmerin Olympic history. Meanwhile, the third fencer, Amalina Surkodara, is also worth noticing, as she reached the Round of 16, when she lost only to the Lina Thorn-Villareal from Lisander, the future bronze winner.

PAULINA KORINKA'S ROAD TO THE GOLD
2R: vs. Deborah Rice (KRY) 15-11
3R: vs. Novia Sanchez (SRG) 8-7
4R: vs. Onyeka Obi (BNJ) 8-6
QF: vs. Cara-Anne Stewart (CMT) 15-9
SF: vs. Rozemarijn Clasink (ALE) 15-8
F: vs. Parfenia Rosenshinde (KAN) 15-9

The Imperial anthem, Ascension of the Enlightened Sage to the Trone, was played for the third time in the Olympic history, and now not for the one, but for the two athletes.

About a hour and a half after the final, a demonstration was seen on the streets of the Imperial Capital, Awenir. About 150 people, despite the cold and rain, marched and celebrated the success with the Kanmerin flags, and some of the people even held the portraits of Korinka and Rosenshinde. As the police saw it, they instinctively wanted to disperse the unauthorized, illegal rally and arrest it's participants, but after the demonstators explained that it was the rally in the support of the Olympic medalists (and the Emperor too), the members of the police congratulated people with the all-Imperial success and allowed them to move further. After a hour, the demonstration peacefully ended.

The success awaited Imperial athletes in archery, as only Jan Honarkad failed to qualify for the knockout round. Both teams also advanced to it. In boxing, Serhey Gairath and Stanislawa Chinhandar successfully passed the play-in round. And in men's 10m pistol shooting, both Petr Kirinsen and Makar Senrensen finished in the top 8 and made it to the final.

Yes, Maksim, of course there would be some failures. In comparision tho the men's pistol shooters, women athletes' failed to qualify for the finals. Even the Harugwahandir, Ulyana Reisen, who finished 20th. That is, probably, the most heathbreaking faliure of the day. Reisen repeated the fate of the last games' Harugwahandir, Korin. Is it a some type of a curse? The similar situation happened with the man' gymnastics team. Only Kirlinden and Genkelin qualified for the final, while the main hope, Wasil Wirpalin, absolutely falied and became the worst Kanmerin athlete, finishing at the absolutely sad 90th place.

Artistic gymnastics. Men's competition.
All-around ranking:

4. Ihar Genkelin - 87.733
Vault - 7th
Pommel Horse - 10th

15. Hardzey Kirlinden - 87.167
Rings - 4th

54. Mark Mada - 85.800

67. Dzenis Meiden - 85.500
Rings - 9th

90. Wasil Wirpalin - 83.567

TEAM: 8. Kanmer - 262.166

But again, let's return to the positive events. At the end of the day, another medal was won in Liventia. Older brother of the unlucky judoka Mikita Korinder, a taekwondo athlete Kensorin Korinder, who had won the bronze at the last games, now won it again and become the first ever Kanmerin two-times individual medalist.

KENSORIN KORINDER'S ROAD TO THE BRONZE
R32: vs. Elafris Sanpetra (SKD) 2-0
R16: vs. Franťesku Bruto (KLS) 2-0
QF: vs. Kraven Raven (KGS) 2-0
SF vs. Khasanbek Karataev (BKH) 0-2

BM: vs. Kabonero Mwesezi (BNJ) 2-0

Seein the list of medalists, a pattern could be noticed, Korinka, Korinder... the author does not have enough fantasy to name the athletes. So, who will be the next medalist, according to it? Baris Korin the fencer, it's your turn, probably. Now, as you're not the Harugwahandir, you probably will have more chances to win the medal...

LIST OF THE MEDAL WINNERS:

DAY 1
Paulina Korinka FENCING – Women's individual épée
Parfenia Rosenshinde FENCING – Women's individual épée
Kensorin Korinder TAEKWONDO – Men's 58 kg

1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze

GOLDEN MEDALS: 6th place
OVERALL: 5th place

[Mytanija]

RELAY MEDALS IN TRIATHLON AND THE POOL
TRIATHLON AND 4X100M FREESTYLE RELAYS BECOMING LUCRATIVE MEDAL EVENTS FOR MYTANIJA

by Alen Kujovic

A successful first ‘proper’ day of the Olympics for Mytanar athletes. One silver medal and one bronze ensures that it is a successful start, with the success coming in events where Mytanija’s presence in the global arena is growing fast. Triathlon is an event which the OKM have targeted at Hamilton / Schimpol, after a very successful showing at Afanc Strait / Jolbonopolis with Antonio Arambasic, Josip Poljak and the mixed relay team all medalling. Back then, Arambasic and Poljak sealed gold and silver in the men’s individual event, before being an integral part of the mixed relay team also sealing a silver medal. Here in Liventia the feat was reproduced, with another silver medal in a sport which is growing in popularity all the time.

Arambasic and Poljak will target the individual event once again, but here with Evdokiya Yozhikova and Anela Petković – new teammates for this Olympics – they were second only to the Kelssekian team; requiring a fast sprint finish to remain ahead of the West Phoenician quartet. Yozhikova, aged 21, has been designated as an athlete with serious potential by the OKM and it is expected that if she is not an individual medal contender at this Olympics then she will be high on the list of priorities for the overarching sports governing body to provide support to in four years. Here she was vital in ensuring that Mytanija were in contention, with an impressive swim bringing her back into the lead group after an uncharacteristically poor run by Josip Poljak (he’ll hope that is not a sign against his chances in the men’s race).

From there the Kelssekian team managed to break away, but Mytanija remained in the fight and eventually saw off West Phoenicia in the final straight of the run, after the Kytlerian and Diarcesian dropped off the pace. It was an impressive showing of grit in the final section of the race, and Arambasic – nominally team captain, given his experience as defending gold medallist from Afanc Strait / Jolbonopolis – was effusive in his praise for everybody:

“It was a really tough race out there. The Kelssekian team are so strong, so we were always fighting to remain with them, but they demonstrated why they deserve the gold medal by managing to get that gap on us all. Can’t give all of our team enough praise for their efforts, Josip was struggling a bit today with cramps but he fought through it and made sure we weren’t too far behind. Evdokiya did so brilliantly to then get us back with the lead group, her swim was unbelievable! Anela was fantastic on debut, we’ve got a bright future in women’s triathlon with her and Evdokiya around. I think we can be really pleased with the overall level of the team and hopefully it’s a good sign for the individual events. Another silver medal at the Olympics is brilliant for myself and Josip, and a first for the two girls, really pleased with the result.”

There was also a bronze medal in the pool for the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team. The quartet of Vangelija Alexandrova, Violeta Bosevska, Ognena Blazic and Ivanna Yumasheva swam for a national record time, 3:29.29, a time which was way ahead of the Olympic record time but was also in a final with five teams who also managed to swim inside that Olympic record time. It was an incredibly fast race. The home team the Liventians and our great rivals from Sargossa are now joint-holders of the Olympic record, sharing the gold medals as they could not be separated on the touch. The impossibility of measuring a pool more precisely than what we can right now doing for any hopes of separating the two teams into gold and silver positions.

There was a sense of disappointment amongst the team, feeling that they came into the Games with a real strong chance of sealing a gold medal in this event, but that disappointment may have been a symptom of what was wider disappointment amongst Mytanar swimmers on a day of qualifying failures for Jelica Arh (semifinal exit in the 100m butterfly); Alexandrova and Yumasheva (heats exit in the women’s 400m freestyle); Zdravko Kostić (last in the final of the men’s 400m freestyle); and Vedran Valčić (heats exit in the men’s 100m breaststroke). Alexandrova opined on the day:

“There was a bit of an odd feeling around the team when we got back to the athlete’s village. Swimming is the most competitive that it has ever been and we know there are some seriously strong nations in the sport, Liventia, Sargossa, Kelssek, Electrum. It’s tough to compete. But I think there was a feeling that the 4x100m free relay was a target event for us on the women’s side and I know personally that I was looking to have a good go at the 400m too. Jelica Arh not getting out of her semifinal in the 100m butterfly kind of set the tone for everybody and it made the evening a bit eerie almost. Some disappointments for sure, but I think we will look back on another bronze medal at the Olympics with pride when we allow it all to sink in a little bit more. We’ve got to be pleased, it’s another medal for myself, Violeta and Ognena and a first ever medal for Ivanna. It’s a huge achievement, even if we wanted more for ourselves.”

Mytanars losing to Sargossans will never be taken well, but you do wonder how much of the disappointment is directly down to the fact that it was the Sargossans who sealed a gold medal (alongside the Liventians, with whom there is a slightly less heated Rushmori rivalry). Perhaps most frustrating is that the woman swimming the Sargossan anchor leg, Andrea Krsmanovic – the niece of Mytanar swimming coach turned Sargossan swimming guru Jovana Krsmanovic – could very easily have been pulling on a Mytanar swimsuit if she had not moved to Sargossa under her aunt’s leadership. A penny for the thoughts of the suits at the OKM who allowed that to happen, though they may point to Jovana Krsmanovic’s specific political beliefs around the Kalinina regime as an insurmountable barrier to her having a more senior role within the Mytanar setup. Whether a bronze medal is worth trying to overcome that is a question of personal beliefs, naturally.

[Quebec and Shingoryeo]

OOC: It is ICly RP'd on my canon that the IBC-40 happens on September 2068, while the Olympics happen on July-October 2068, meaning that it's difficult, if not practically impossible, to send players to both competitions. Worth pointing out for the narrative consistency's sake.

Tricolour Taegeuk: Days of Future Past

Future - Part 1: Juliette Oleksiak-Collinson [Athletics]
Future - Part 2: Abdullah Ibn Salam [Association Football]
Future - Part 3: Taras Sen [Rhythmic Gymnastics]
Future - Part 4: Princess Adelaide [Sailing]
Future - Part 5: Olivia Neubauerova [Basketball]

Past - Part 1: Hannah James-Yim [Swimming]
Past - Part 2: Jin Chang-Wook [Volleyball]

Basketball:

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In this day and age, nobody doubts that basketball is one of the most popular, if not the most popular sport in Quebec and Shingoryeo. Many reasons exist for that, though most would simply say that success breeds success. They aren't wrong, especially in a sport like basketball where long streaks exist, head-to-head record relatively firm, and dynasties common with Banija and Saint-Kanye still fresh in the eyes of spectators. The Reapers, for what it's worth, have earned that right with decades of international success that are displayed through an active, 30-year IBC playoff streak dating back to the IBC-25, two back-to-back Olympic gold medals in women's basketball, and an ongoing IBC threepeat with potential to add the fourth star at the IBC-40 to be held in Banija this September. Quebec and Shingoryeo is a basketball powerhouse and fan support naturally follows with a parent finding it easier to persuade their child[ren] into the sport.

But their state of growth, while appearing conventional in a country of 94 million people with 2.7 fertility rate, is not a trend that's felt across all team sports even though the northwestern Arrosia nation has been a contender in most of them. Both ice and field hockey, sports the Quebecois have won either the World Cup of Hockey or the Olympic gold medal in past, have seen modest drops in recent years, after all, while others such as water polo have had issues developing programs due to their entry barriers that simply limit their growth. The struggles faced by ice hockey, if anything, should suggest that the sports' international success wouldn't exactly speak for their growth and that it wouldn't be so genuine to ignore the hard work put forth by Basketball Quebec, since their relative competence in fostering youth and grassroots development programs have certainly stood out in comparison to their equivalents in the RQFA, RQVF and most notoriously Hockey Quebec. Their nationwide efforts, while considered to be costly then and now with its cost value is being actively discussed, have so far paid off with continued growth in participation level across all age groups, as well as growing number of its alumni making it to the collegiate and professional ranks over the years.

It is, indeed ironic, in this regard that basketball is nowadays considered to be on the cutting edge of development among all Quebecois sports nowadays considering its endemic, old-school reputation only few decades ago. Those currently in their fifties or older would remember how they would play at the basketball courts found in local squares, parks and schoolyards which while plentiful in numbers, were poorly maintained with leaky roofs and potholed courts. The matches would often have refereeing issues, something that had plagued much of the local and regional school matches, while players all the way up to the professional level would neglect proper conditioning, with the players relying mostly upon their natural physique and athleticism to make up for strategic deficiencies. Talent and interest, in every level, was present, but the sport simply failed to take up the opportunity until the 2010s.

In most cases with such systematic issues, the sport's popularity and competitiveness would sink to the bottom of the sea. This is what makes the Quebecois basketball even more fortunate in this regard, as the long history of professional circuit has given it a sense of security it's been able to eventually expand, take risks and develop. The male-only QBL was first founded over 130 years ago in 1937, just two years before the Quebecois participation in the Southern Rushmori War. While the war would cause a five-year disruption to the burgeoning league with truncated schedules affecting the league stability, the league's popularity and finances would recover in the postwar decades with steady expansion from eight teams to twelve [before its eventual size of 16]. The women's league, conveniently named the QWBL, would follow suit in 1976, a product of the decade-long complaints raised by the women's national team over disadvantages they faced in their famous rivalry against Soviet Novopetrograd, where such circuits have existed all the way in late-1950s.

Both leagues, which feature sixteen clubs on a single-tier structure with affiliate clubs for minor leagues, have a mix of known multi-sports clubs' basketball divisions, such as Montreal Koreana, CSKA Quebec and Nunavut North Stars, and single-league franchises such as Montevicio Lakers and Twin Cities Celtics, both of whom have originally started off as Northandryun Rovers and Mipojoseon BC's men's basketball sides. Both leagues, as expected from those with long history, have their dominant franchises and dynasties to hoot, though one does not necessarily mean the other follows up, with how competitive the league has gotten with the introduction of a nationwide draft [until 2023 both QBL and QWBL draft had territorial selection for first round] in the past two to three decades. The arenas, though varying in size with smaller cities like Pahkatequayang, Agawa and Banbh with sub-10k venues, record routine sellouts, and in some cases have become mega-operations with the Kingston Raptors becoming part of Mahan Sports and Entertainment Group that includes other single-sports clubs such as QHL's Kingston Knights and Q-League's Kingston FC, suggesting the teams' potential both financially and as commodities.

In any case, back with the Reapers. At the 2068 Hamilton-Schimpol olympics, Quebec and Shingoryeo will once again be represented by their under-23 national teams for both men and women's teams. Both men and women's Team Quebec, as one would expect, aren't as tight-knit and gelled like their senior team counterparts are with the players consisting of recent years' high draft picks, collegiate stars and overager quotas who have significant professional and international experience, but have likely fallen out of IBC team consideration. This also means that most expect two different teams with two different outcomes with relative confidence. The men, who tend to play a more isolation-driven, individualistic game, are considered outside shot to qualify to the twelve-team competition, especially this year where the guards depth looks dubious and unlikely to capitalise its strengths up front.

The women are better off, with a very young and inexperienced, but all-arounded squad being considered among likelier names to medal. The team's strengths lie on their energy level, which Team Quebec coach Olivia Neubauerova tend to emphasise a lot on her interviews, as well as their ability to conduct full-court press and zone offence. At the centre of their performance, one would note, comes down to their small forward Julianne Ottavino. The explosive small forward, who played a major role in Coloratura State University's NSCAA Final Four run two years ago, lacks the height of Hazel Hanson-Conavacio or the power of Jin Chang-Sook, both of whom have won an olympic gold as overagers, but makes up for it with outstanding court vision, great man-to-man defence and durability. And while Ottavino may not the most liked player on the team - very opposite would be the case with her hot-headed temper and a well-known war against media - the Songwha City Rockets' forward has also proven it through tough, lead-by-example brand of leadership that may pay strong dividends should this Team Quebec progresses further. That said, it will be interesting to see on how Neubauerova will fit four highly capable forwards - Joy Kim-McGee, Nokukhanya Dumalisile, Moatlhodi Thomase and Ottavino - into the rotation, with on-court chemistry considered to be a major issue.

Olivia Neubauerova was frustrated, as she was waiting for the right time to call a timeout near the end of third quarter.

It was clear to her that Team Quebec's final game in the qualification group stage was anything but ideal, with the Reapers barely ahead of Sjovenia in a disappointing matchup. Sjovenia, for what it's worth, was having a good day outside of the arc with almost 50 percent of their 3-point shots made, but the Reapers, who had a superior team on paper, didn't look anywhere near today or the previous match against Mytanija, where the Reapers barely survived a comeback attempt by the Rushmori underdogs after leading as much as 17 points on third quarter. She knew that this had to be stopped, before the Reapers give away the game.

62-66, way too close, Olivia thought to herself, as she watched the Sjovenian point guard take an outside shot. Fortunately it missed, after bouncing twice on the rim, and the rebound was quickly grabbed by Pyeon Hye-Ryeon, who after a horrible first quarter where she looked slow on her feet, managed to put together a couple of blocks and three field goals. 'That's it!' shouted coach Olivia, as she saw Pyeon grasp the ball, recover quickly and then launch a long pass to Kang Ye-Jeong on point. 'Speedbird! Speedbird!' She followed it up, as the Reapers transitioned into a counterattack.

On a quick counterattack, Kang had multiple options, whether it be the veteran captain in Julianne Ottavino or eighteen-year old Monique Cysique de Vries. It helped that both of them were decent outside shooters, and with the way they have been getting charge calls, there's no urgency to dribble too hard and risk losing their possession that way. With the Sjovenian centre stranded on the paint, and one of their guards hesitant to decide, Kang dribbled a couple of times to the left, before passing to Monique, who was ready to shoot at any moment. The Sjovenian guard, who was busy keeping an eye on her, moved to the right but the ball proved to be quicker than her as Monique fired a clean, quick three-point shot, before being pushed by the Sjovenian guard in hurry.

Fortunately the shot went in, giving the Reapers a seven point lead that might be just enough to secure qualification into the Olympics proper. Something, however, ticked Olivia off right at that moment as a round of boos immediately followed, making her want to shout out her frustration. 'HEY! She pushed!' shouted Olivia to the court in an open gesture, as she put both her arms on the waist to show disgruntlement. 'What was that? Are you blind? Where in the market '

The call-out, which exploded after bubbling of frustrations she's had over the past couple of days, was a dangerous one as the referee, Mia Hobson of Magnus Phoenicia, looked back at her. For brief moment she considered to respond, even going as far as ejecting her for poor conduct against the referee, and all of it would have been understood especially with the recent years' worries over refereeing safety across international basketball communities. She, however, decided to stay away and just called the whistle for a foul and a free throw. Kang Ye-Jeong, after giving Olivia a light smirk, went to the free throw line and scored a free throw, giving them the 70-62 lead. It would stay on those lines, as they would retain to the 85-76 finish, though everybody knew that it could have easily gone wrong had she exploded further or the referee didn't respond so nonchalantly to what was her open-aired measure.

'Once again, my apologies to Ms. Hobson, who's by all means a top-class referee with strong pedigrees, for not behaving in the most professional manner,' said Neubauerova in the post-match press conference, the 38-year old head coach still with fieriness in her. 'I was frustrated, yes, and believed that call-out of some sort was needed, not just for my players' sake but also that of mine - to wake the fuck up.

'Now that we have made the final twelve of the Olympics, even with poor performances, I hope we'll be able to translate our performance to meaningful results, one that the country and the sport truly deserves. Let's get it.'

[Britonisea]

Sports News
Brityunik Vefecosoin Cairkovoin
http://www.bvc.com/news

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Day 1

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Britonisea wins two medals on Day 1 of the Olympic Games

For the second Games in a row, Britonisea has won a gold medal on Day One. Alongside a taekwondo gold, a brilliant bronze takes the total medal count to two on Day 1...

It has been an incredibly successful day for Britonisea who walk away with a gold medal on day one of the Olympic Games for the second Olympics in a row. Britonisea's medal target is eleven gold medals meaning that with fifteen days to go, Team Britonisea will only need to get a further ten to reach that goal. The medals include a taekwondo gold - no, not from Luke Richardson - and a fencing bronze from a Britonish Olympic legend. Below is a transcript from their short interviews with BVC moments after winning their medals.

GOLD - Rosemonde Mills (BRI) - Taekwondo – Women's 49kg

Rosemonde Mills came out of nowhere to win the 49kg category in the women's taekwondo. Luke Richardson was formally the only medallist in this sport for Team Britonisea but that came to an end today as Mills put in a show-stopping performance in Liventia. Off the back of the recent success in taekwondo, one can tell that funding has increased for the sport and a lot more time and effort has gone into sending a proper taekwondo delegation to the Games. While it is only day one of the Games and one must not get too complacent about medal chances, this is already a good sign that the work that has been put in has had great rewards. Moments after winning her gold medal, Rosemonde spoke to Sally Pinnock about her thoughts and feelings...

Sally Pinnock: Rosemonde Mills - Olympic Gold medallist in the women's 49kg in taekwondo - how are you feeling!

Rosemonde Mills: I am feeling absolutely knackered if I'm being honest with you! I really, really, put in a lot of effort today and just went for it. I was unsure how far I would go, but I knew that I had enough fight in me to keep going until the very end. To walk away with this gold medal and to hear the anthem being played is just...really brought a tear to my eyes.

Sally Pinnock: You are also the first gold medallist of these Games - beating a very strong opponent from Barkhastan...

Rosemonde Mills: It's a great feeling being the first gold medallist and I hope that this can inspire other athletes to just go for it - everyone has a chance to win that gold medal. Barkhastan have been fantastic in these sorts of events, that's why they're at the top of the medal table. Their fighters and shooters, yes I've been watching, have been doing well - so to beat one of their own in a final is a great show of strength and the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes...

BRONZE - Jake Narster (BRI) - Fencing - Men's individual sabre

Jake Narster can confidently call himself one of the best fencers on the circuit as he wins his fourth Olympic medal in four consecutive Games. To compliment his silver medals at the XV and XVII Games, he has won bronze here in Electrum. Chromatika's Xazi Ifghan stopped Narster making it to a third Olympics final where he could have played against Claude Le Tellier from fencing giant, Quebec and Shingoryeo. Narster, however, is one of the most decorated Britonish Olympics and still has three events, including a team sabre event (where he won a bronze in at the XVI Games) where he could still win a medal. Moments after winning the bronze medal, he spoke to BVC's very own Tiara Ami about his thoughts after winning bronze!

Tiara Ami: A medal at every single Games since the XV in Electrum - how does it feel being back in Electrum and winning another medal to add to your impressive collection?

Jake Narster: I feel so blessed honestly. I wasn't sure whether I was going to make it to another Olympic Games - I've been doing this for quite a while now and I've thought about not coming back but decided that, especially since the fencing events were going to be in Electrum...why not give it another go. I'm so happy I decided that because look where I am now!

Tiara Ami: Yes, indeed. These are your fifth Games in total. But you've had a very successful return! Speak to me about the match against Xazi Ifghan from Chromatika...

Jake Narster: It was a very tense match - the guy only won it by two hits...it's a shame because that would've been my third final and up against the guy from Quebec, it could have been a great final and who knows...maybe I would be standing here with gold but I can't look at things that way. I played well in the third place playoff and won the bronze - that guy from Chromatika won overall, and he is a great fencer honestly. I am just so happy with this medal 'ere!

[Crpostran]

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[*]OOC NOTE: (realised that I hadn't done this earlier) A BIG SHOUTOUT TO LISANDER FOR HIS PICTOGRAMS. Real images used to represent athletes, credits to photographers & athletes. Enjoy!