Lydia Keefe Sampson advanced to the semifinals of the C1 200m on Friday at the ICF Canoe Sprint World in Racice, Czech Republic but was unable to secure a spot in the single final. Sampson finished seventh of nine competitors in her heat with a time of 54.074 to grab the last automatic spot into the semifinals. Sampson needed a top three finish in the semifinals to advance to the only final being held on Saturday but finished sixth in 52.140.
Timothy Hornsby will begin competition in the K1 200m on Saturday with a heat and likely semifinal. Hornsby has a good chance to make one of the three finals being held in the event on Sunday.
Previous ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup Coverage: Racice Preview
The men’s and women’s sabre fencers wrap up their World Cup schedule with a Grand Prix stop in Moscow this weekend. Seven men and nine women will take part for the US with five advancing straight to the table of 64. On the men’s side advancing will be Eli Dershwitz, and Daryl Homer and on the women’s side Mariel Zagunis, Ibtihaj Muhammad, and Dagmara Wozniak. The men’s preliminary round is on Friday with the finals on Saturday while the women will start with the preliminary round on Saturday and the finals on Sunday.
Two American boxers advanced to Friday’s finals with victories in Thursday’s semifinals as the US hopes to have two gold medalists for the second straight world championships. Claressa Shields made it look easy once again in the 75kg division where she defeated Chinese Taipei’s Nien-Chin Chen 3-0 with all the judges once again scoring it a sweep. She’s joined in Friday’s finals by Shadasia Green who advanced to the +81kg final with a sweep of Turkey’s Sennur Demir.
For the other three Americans competing on Thursday things didn’t go so well and they will have to settle for bronze. Marlen Esparza lost to China’s Yuyan Wang in the 45-48kg division with all three judges seeing in 39-37. 2015 Golden Gloves champion Christina Cruz in the 54kg division lost 3-0 as well to Bulgaria’s Stoyka Petrova with one judge having it 40-36 and the other two at 39-37. Franchon Crewsin the 81kg division had a more interesting bout with China’s Xialoi Yang as two judges had it 38-36 and one 39-35, a fight she was certainly in.
Just like on Wednesday with the US women the US men failed to qualify anyone for the final at the UIPM World Championship. Lucas Schrimsher was the top finisher for the US, 24th in his qualifying group with a 1095 score. Schrimsher was behind after fencing, where he placed 27th, and despite a 12th place finish in swimming was unable to climb higher after a 22nd place finish in the combined. In the same qualifying group Justin Torrellas was 29th with a 1010 score. Torrellas was 30th in fencing, 32nd in swimming, but did finish 17th in the combined event. In another qualifying group Sam Ruddock was 30th with a 1030 score with a 32nd place finish in fencing, 18th in swimming, and 24th in the combined.
With no men or women competing in the finals on Friday and Saturday the only remaining US competition will be Schrimsher and Samantha Achterberg in the mixed relay on Sunday.
Yesterday Nathan Brown moved into the top 50 overall for the Giro d’Italia and today he was the top American, 68th overall, to make it six straight stages where he has finished in the top 100. The surge over the final half of the race has made him the only American to finish in the top 100 in six straight stages so far. Joey Rosskopf finished 87th and has been in the top 100 for five straight stages now. Brown finished 21:37 back in this medium-mountain stage while Rosskopf was around a couple minutes behind him.
Overall Joe Dombrowski continues to be the top American though he fell four spots to 39th and is 1:21:52 back. Brown slipped to 52nd overall, Chad Haga fell to 89th and Ian Boswell is now 100th.
The final weekend begins Friday with the first of two mountain stages, a 101 mile stage that will lead the rider into France.
The Diamond League comes to Eugene, Oregon this weekend for the Prefontaine Classic. The field is more heavily American than most Diamond League events so the US should have a good chance to win a lot of events. Things will actually get underway Friday with the first three events. Coming off a third place finish in Shanghai Tianna Bartoletta will go for an even stronger finish in the long jump while Whitney Ashley (sixth in Shanghai) looks to do the same in the discus throw. On the men’s side the shot put will feature both Kurt Roberts (winner in Shanghai) and Joe Kovacs (third in Shanghai).
USA Cycling will be hosting the professional time trial and road race national championships this weekend in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The field includes several of the participants on the men’s and women’s world tours. On the men’s side some of the top contenders are Brent Bookwalter, 35th in the Tour de Romandie, Taylor Phiney, 33rd in the Gent-Wevelgem race earlier this year, and Alexey Vermeulen, 65th in the Tour de Romandie.
The women’s side features most of the top riders from the recently completed Amgen Tour of California. Kristin Armstrong Savola was second, Evelyn Stevens was third, Leah Thomas was fifth, Chloe Dygert was sixth, and Lauren Stephens was tenth. Also competing is Carmen Small who was fifth in the Gent-Wevelgem race.
Friday will be the men’s and women’s time trials while the road races will be on Saturday.
The best of the best in the judo world are gathering for the Judo World Masters in Guadalajara, Mexico this weekend. Only four Americans have a spot in the competition and competing on Friday will be Marti Malloy. Malloy won the grand prix stop in Havana and was third in the Paris grand slam event.
Lydia Keefe Sampson and Timothy Hornsby will be competing for the US in the second of three ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup events as the action moves to Racice, Czech Republic this weekend. Sampson, who was eighth in Final B of the C1 200m last week will be taking part in the same event this weekend with a heat and semifinal on Friday. Hornsby will compete in the K1 200m which does not begin until Saturday.
Previous ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup Coverage: Duisburg Recap
The US now has Matthew Emmons to thank for both of their medals at the ISSF World Cup event in Munich. The 2016 Olympian won the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions for the second time this year with a dominating world record performance. Emmons qualified for the final by posting the top score in qualifying with an 1184, including a one-away-from-perfect prone score. Emmons again excelled in the prone shooting in the final as he took a 1.2 point lead to the standing rounds. With other shooters falling off the pace Emmons was in first by 3.3 when the cut to six occurred. Though no one ever got any closer Emmons continued his strong showing and finished strong with a final world record 464.1, breaking the old mark of 463.7 by Zicheng Hui. Emmons seems a good bet to medal in Rio as he has now finished in the top two in all three World Cup events so far this year and won the event twice. Jacob Buchanan finished 67th in qualifying with a 1154.
Finally in the women’s 10m air pistol Lydia Paterson was the top American and had her best finish of the year in 31st but her 380 was still five points off the top eight. Courtney Anthony finished 71st with a 373 and Enkelejda Shehaj Bekurti was 83rd with a 369.
The next ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup event will be in Baku, Azerbaijan from June 20th to the 29th. There is a Shotgun World Cup event starting next Wednesday in San Marino.