Americans Go 0-6, Unable To Take a Set at Malaysia Super Series Premier

At the third 2016 BWF Super Series event of the year in Malaysia the Americans in the field went 0-6 and were unable to take a set. It was the first time this year that no American had advanced.

In the women’s singles draw Iris Wang lost 21-12, 21-16 to #4 seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand. The 21-16 second set was the closest an American would come to taking a set on the day. Zhang Beiwen also faced tough competition in #6 seed Wang Yihan of China and dropped the match in two sets 21-8, 21-14. Rong Schafer who advanced from qualifying on Monday dropped her match to Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan by a score of 21-7, 21-15.

In the men’s doubles event Phillip Chew and Sattawat Pongnairat lost to #8 seed Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark 21-14, 21-11. In the mixed doubles event Chew and Jamie Subandhi lost in straight sets to Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels of Germany 21-12, 21-10.

Finally in the women’s doubles event Eva Lee and Paula Lynn Obanana lost to the Dutch duo of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek by a score of 21-14, 21-12.

The next stop on the BWF Super Series tour is in Singapore starting next Tuesday. The Americans will hope to find more success there.

Lawson Craddock Finishes Among 52 Riders With Top Time, Now in 14th After Day Three of Tour of the Basque Country

Much like stage one a medium-mountain stage on day three resulted in over 50 riders finishing with the same time at the front of the pack in the Tour of the Basque Country. Stephen Cummings of Great Britain was the overall winner in 5:01:57, but finishing 24th with the same time actually allowed Lawson Craddock to jump one spot to 14th where he is still just 22 seconds off the overall lead held by Mikel Landa of Spain.

No other American was in the top 100 for the day however Larry Warbasse is still hanging in the top 100 overall, 23:40 back in 98th.

Stage four on Tuesday will be 103 miles and another medium-mountain stage.

Strong Day Leaves Lawson Craddock 15th After Day Two of Tour of the Basque Country

The tour of the Basque Country hit their first mountain stage today and Lawson Craddock had a strong performance. Craddock found himself 15th today just 22 seconds behind winner Mikel Landa of Spain. Yesterday 51 riders had finished with the same time but Landa is now alone atop the overall standings after winning today’s stage by a full second.

Peter Stetina had a good 46th place finish, 1:37 back, and was the only other American in the top 100 today. Stetina is now 84th for the event and 10:39 behind the leader. Larry Warbasse is still in the top 100 overall, 9:47 back in 79th.

Stage three on Tuesday will be 120 miles and a medium-mountain stage.

Eight Americans Set to Compete in Malaysia Super Series Premier

The 2016 BWF Super Series is about to make its third stop of the year this week in Malaysia. Eight Americans will be taking part in the main draw. In the women’s singles event Iris Wang will be facing #4 seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in round one while Zhang Beiwen takes on sixth-seeded Wang Yihan of China. Beiwen is 0-2 against Yihan but did take a set from her last year in Singapore. Finally Rong Schafer advanced from qualifying and will face Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan.

In the men’s doubles event Phillip Chew and Sattawat Pongnairat will take on #8 seed Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark.

In the women’s doubles event Eva Lee and Paula Lynn Obanana will take on the Dutch duo of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek. A non-seeded opponent for some Americans! Finally in the mixed doubles event Chew will team up with Jamie Subandhi to face Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels of Germany.

American Lawson Craddock Among 51 Riders With Top Time on Day One of Tour of the Basque Country

It was a 51 rider bunch that crossed the line on Monday at the end of the first stage of the Tour of the Basque Country. Luis Leon Sanchez of Spain was the winner but there was no separation in final time going back 51 spots. Lawson Craddock, riding for the Cannondale team, was the top American and the only one in that bunch finishing 30th.

Other Americans in the top 100 were Larry Warbasse (75th – 2:05 back), Joey Rosskopf (89th – 6:48 back), and Carter Jones (96th – 6:48 back). Tomorrow will feature stage two, a 108 mile mountain stage.

David Higgins Surges on Final Day to Claim Olympic Spot in 50m Prone Rifle

The question we were left with yesterday was how much drama would the final day of competition bring in the first three events at the USA Shooting Olympic Trials in Ft. Benning, Georgia. The answer came quickly as before the qualification round was over one of the favorites had been knocked out. In the men’s 50m prone rifle event Matt Emmons looked to be in great shape heading into the final day of competition. The 34-year old who won gold in the event 12 years ago held a lead of 11.3 points over David Higgins. Higgins needed the round of his life and probably some help from Emmons. He got just that as he shot a 629.5 in qualification, the second best round of the weekend behind Emmons’ 629.7 on the first day. He also needed some help and that came in the form of a rough day for Emmons where he scored just 616.8, 11th out of the 14 shooters. Emmons round was bad enough that Higgins passed him for the lead outright at that point by 1.4 points. Emmons was not in the final due to finishing outside the top eight and was eliminated from contention. Higgins went on to win the final for good measure and finish with a cumulative score of 1896.9, a winning margin of 9.4 points over Emmons. Higgins is a 21-year old senior at the Air Force Academy where he competed for the rifle team. This is by far the biggest moment of his young career and it will be exciting to see if he can keep rising as he heads to Rio in August. Henry Gray wound up in third 2.4 points behind Emmons.

Things were slightly less dramatic in the men’s 50m free pistol competition. Jay Shi led by nine points entering the final day and then shot his best qualification round of the event, a competition high 565, to easily lock up the spot before the final. He wound up with a cumulative score of 1698 besting second place Will Brown by a whopping 26 points. Nick Mowrer wound up four points back of Brown in third. Shi is a 37-year old web developer who was born in Beijing and came to America at age 11 after an eye injury. Peaking at the right time Shi will be a great story going to Rio.

Finally in the women’s three-position rifle Ginny Thrasher held a seven-point lead entering the final day. She shot a 586 in the qualifying round, highest score of the day, and expanded her lead and clinched the Olympic spot before the final as well. Sarah Scherer posted a solid 583 in the qualification round and finished in second, nine points behind Thrasher’s total of 1781. Sarah Beard, the leader after day one, wound up third ten points behind Scherer. Thrasher, the reigning NCAA champion and just a freshman at West Virginia, is a rising star who has a promising future ahead of her.

Competition is not wrapped up at Ft. Benning and two more Olympic spots need to be determined. Competition will begin Wednesday and continue until Friday for the women’s sport pistol spot and the men’s rapid fire pistol spot. There will not be as many people in the running for these spots as the women’s sport pistol event features just six competitors while the men’s rapid fire pistol event has just four.

Ajax Tadehara Knocked Out in Round of 16 in Samsun Judo Grand Prix

Ajax Tadehara managed to advance one round in Samsun on Sunday winning his -100kg match against Aydn Caliskan or Turkey with an ippon before being defeated in the round of 16 by Maxim Rakov of Kazakhstan scoring a waza-ari and a yuko.

In the women’s +78kg division Nina Cutro-Kelly was defeated by Puerto Rican Melissa Mojica on a waza-ari. None of the four US women competing this weekend were able to win a match while US men were 2-4.

The Judo Grand Slam stop in Baku, Azerbaijan arrives on May 6th while in between the US Senior Nationals will be held in Irving, Texas on April 9th and 10th and the Pan American Judo Championships are in Havana April 27th through the 30th.

Megan Guarnier Fourth at Tour Of Flanders

Megan Guarnier’s strong start to the 2016 UCI Women’s World Tour continued on Sunday with a fourth place in the Tour of Flanders finish two seconds behind winner, teammate, and tour leader Lizzie Armitstead. Guarnier’s team, Boels-Dolmans, went 1, 3, 4, 6 and has nearly doubled up their competition so far this year.

Fellow American Cory Rivera finished in 16th 2:03 back while Brianna Walle was 23rd at the same time. Other Americans in the top 100 included Katie Hall (62nd), Evelyn Stevens (63rd), Kaitlin Antonneau (65th), Alison Tetrick (66th), all 3:26 back, Jessica Cerra (4:41 back in 77th), and Leah Thomas (84th) and Alexis Ryan (87th) both 7:03 back.

The women’s tour’s next event is La Flèche Wallonne Féminine in Belgium on April 20th. Guarnier has quite a bit of space around her in the tour standing at fourth as she is 45 points behind third place and 40 points ahead of fifth. Ryan, who placed 87th, is fourth amongst riders who were born in 1994 or later.

On the men’s side of things there were only two Americans in the field. Taylor Phinney was in a pack 7:19 back of winner Peter Sagan and finished 61st while Tyler Farrar was 12:48 back in 117th.

On the team side American team Trek-Segafredo had the second place finisher in Fabian Cancellara while Dylan Van Baarle was in sixth for the Cannondale team. The highest finisher for the BMC team was Daniel Oss in 16th. BMC remains the highest ranked American team this year in third.

The men’s tour begins the six day Tour of the Basque Country tomorrow.  It’s a mountainous event with 89 miles on deck for tomorrow. Americans in the field are Joey Rosskopf of BMC, Lawson Craddock and Alex Howes of Cannondale, Kiel Reijnen and Peter Stetina of Trek-Segafredo, Caleb Fairly and Carter Jones of Giant-Alpecin, and Larry Warbasse of IAM Cycling.

Virginia Thrasher Shoots Her Way to the Front at US Shooting Olympic Trials

Day two of competition at the US Shooting Olympic Trails saw Virginia Thrasher post a qualification score of 589, five points better than anyone else in the field, and add to it a win in the final to shoot to first place in the women’s three position rifle competition with a cumulative score of 1189. Sarah Beard, who led after day one, shot only a 578 in qualification and missed out on the final round and a chance at bonus points. She finds herself 17 off the pace going into the final day and even with a great final day probably needs Thrasher to struggle to get back in front. Sarah Scherer remained in second though she is now a full seven points back of Thrasher. Thrasher, who shoots for West Virginia University, where she is a freshman and won the national title last month,will be facing the pressure tomorrow.

In the men’s prone rifle event Matt Emmons widened his lead from 4.6 points to 11.3 as Dempster Christenson, much like Beard, failed to qualify for the final and scored just 617 for the day. Emmons’ 625 in qualification was fourth best in the field and by winning the final he actually had the top score of the day with 633 points. David Higgins moved up from third to second but with such a talented veteran shooter in front of him he’ll be hard pressed to overtake him on the final day.

Finally in the men’s free pistol competition Jay Shi was five points better than anyone else in the field in qualification and despite coming in fifth in the final still leads by nine points with 1127 going into the final day. Will Brown struggled to just 545 in qualification so despite winning the final he dropped from one point back to 13 points back in third place. Jason Turner went from third to second by posting the second best qualification score and then finishing third in the final.

With the closest competition being the seven point gap in the women’s three pistol rifle it will be interesting to see if anyone can make a run at the leaders to steal an Olympic spot on the final day. Qualification shooting begins at 9 AM ET with the finals at 1 PM ET. There is no live scoring so the best place to get quick results may be the USA Shooting Facebook page or their twitter account, @USAShooting.

Jay Shi, Matt Emmons, Sarah Beard Lead in Race for Olympic Spots After 1st Day of Shooting Trials

The first of three days of competition in the Olympic Trials for the women’s three-position rifle, the men’s prone rifle, and the men’s free pistol is complete and the leaders have been established.

Scoring is extremely tight in the women’s three-position rifle competition with Sarah Beard leading with 594 points, to 592 for Sarah Scherer and Virginia Thrasher. Beard is the reigning US National Champion while Scherer represented the US in the air rifle competition at the London Olympics. Amanda Furrer, who represented the US in this event in London is in 5th with 581 points. Amy Sowash, who earned the Olympic quota in the event for the US, had a disappointing 573 on day.

In the men’s prone rifle event Matt Emmons, the 2004 gold medalist and 2008 silver medalist, got off to a great start scoring 637.7 on day one. Dempster Christenson sits in second having scored 633.1 and David Higgins is in 3rd with 628. Eric Uptagrafft’s bid for back-to-back Olympic appearances in the event is in trouble as he finds himself in 6th with 624.1.

Finally in the men’s free pistol competition the leader by a single point is Jay Shi with 562 points. Will Brown sits just a point behind at 561 while Jason Turner finds himself in 3rd at 556. 2012 Olympian in this event Nick Mowrer is in 4th with 555. James Henderson, who earned the quota spot for the US, is in 5th with 550.

Competition will continue on Sunday before wrapping up with the nominations secured on Monday.