Wrestling

RaVaughn Perkins Misses Out On Olympic Spot By One Place in Ulaanbaatar

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The good news for RaVaughn Perkins is that if at the second Olympic qualifying tournament he finishes ahead of everyone he finished ahead of on Friday, he’ll be in the Olympics. The bad news is that he’s going to have to go out there and earn it on the mat with no margin for errors. Perkins was one of three US wrestlers trying to reach the Olympics on Friday but he was the only one who really came close. Perkins won his first two matches of the day by technical fall 8-0 over Benedikt Puffer of Austria and Mirambek Ainagulov of Kazakhstan but dropped his quarterfinal match to Tero Vaelimaeki of Finland 3-2.

In these tournaments the wrestlers eligible for the repechage for the third place are anyone who lost to one of the two finalists. Vaelimaeki reached the final so Perkins was not done yet. He won his two repechage matches easily, 8-0 over Portugal’s Hugo Da Silva and 7-0 over Belarus’ Pavel Liakh. This set up a match against Edgaras Venckaitis of Lithuania but unfortunately that match was a shutout for Venckaitis 5-0 forcing Perkins to try again from square one at the next Olympic qualifying event in early May in Istanbul.

The other two US wrestlers Jesse Thielke at 59kg and Joe Rau at 98kg lost their opening matches and did not get repechage chances. Thielke lost to Gaurav Sharma of India 6-5 while Rau lost to…. Sharma lost 12-0 in the second round, and the man who beat him lost 11-0 in the quarterfinals. That quarterfinal winner also lost badly, 11-2, in the semifinals to the eventual champion. Those scorelines do make it look like Thielke is far from qualifying as he heads to the final opportunity in Istanbul. Rau didn’t have to wrestle in round one but lost his first match to Carl Schoen of Sweden 4-1. Schoen did reach the semifinals before losing there and battling through the repechage himself to grab the third Olympic spot in the weight category. That should give Rau some confidence that with a better draw in Istanbul he stands a chance to qualify.

Four US women will compete in the freestyle on Friday where only two spots are available in each class. In the 48 kg division Halley Augello, who has never wrestled at a senior world championships, will take on Viyaleta Chyryk of Belarus. Chyryk was 25th at the world championships so it would seem Augello has a real chance to advance to start. Helen Maroulis will be one of the favorites to grab an Olympic spot in the 53kg division as she won the world championship at 55kg in September. She opens with Alma Jane Valencia Escoto of Mexico who was 12th in this weight class at the world championships and seventh the year before.

In the 58kg division Kelsey Campbell hasn’t appeared in the world championships since 2011 but was the gold medalist at the pan american championship in February. Campbell will take on Emese Barka of Hungary in her first match. Barka was eighth in the 60kg division at the world championships and was third at the worlds in 2013, certainly a tough test for Campbell to start things off. Finally Tamyra Mensah will compete at 69kg. Mensah has not competed at a world championship and this is a big stage for her. Her first round opponent of Kaur Navjot of India was fifth in the world championships in 2012 but has finished 13th or worse in the three years since. A winable match for Mesnah’s first might just ensue.

Previous Wrestling Coverage:
Olympic Qualifying Preview

ISSF World Cup, Shooting

Sarah Beard Finishes Seventh in 50m 3 Position Rifle at ISSF World Cup

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Virginia Thrasher couldn’t keep the magic going on the second day of the 50m 3 position rifle competition. She shot a very good score, 583, but missed out on the finals by a single point and finished tenth. Also missing out on the final was Sarah Scherer who finished 13th and shot a 582. Sarah Beard on the other hand did reach the final after shooting a 588. Notably in the qualifying round Croatia’s Snjezana Pejcic shot a world record 594, breaking the old record of 592. In the final Beard shot a 302.5 in the first two stages which left her seventh going into the standing round. That is where Beard would end up after getting eliminated early.

In the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol the two Americans shot identical scores and both are in contention to reach the finals. Emil Milev and Keith Sanderson both shot a 290 and are sitting in 10th and 11th place going into the second day of qualifying on Saturday. The finals are on Saturday as well.

Men’s skeet qualifying began Friday as well with the first two rounds of shooting. Vincent Hancock was the best of the three Americans as he hit on 49 of his 50 shots and is in a three-way tie for second. Hayden Stewart and Frank Thompson each hit 48 and are in a large group tied for fifth. All three can qualify for the Sunday finals with a strong Saturday.

In women’s skeet Amber English, Morgan Craft, and Kimberly Rhode are in all in qualifying position after the first two rounds of shooting, one more to go on Saturday morning before the finals later the in the day. All three hit 47 between their first two rounds and are second to fifth in the standings.

Saturday also will be the start of the 50m men’s 3 position rifle competition as the field is narrowed through an elimination round. Matthew Emmons, Dempster Christenson, and George Norton will be competing for the US. Only Emmons has competed in this event in the World Cup this year and he won the event in Bangkok.

Previous ISSF World Cup Coverage:
Day 5 Update
Day 6 Update
Day 7 Update

Olympic Trials, Rio 2016 Olympic Trials, Rowing

Ken Jurkowski and Genevra Stone Advance to Semifinals at Olympic Rowing Trials

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Friday was a busy day at the US Olympic Rowing Trials as fields were trimmed and some qualified for the Sunday finals in a variety of events. In the men’s single sculls the field of 14 was cut to eight for Saturday’s final. 2012 Olympian Ken Jurkowski won his heat with the third fastest overall time of the day and advanced into the semifinals. Three of the heats were won by over seven seconds while Justin Keen held off Hugh McAdam by just 1.81 seconds in the other heat.

Greg Ansolabehere had the fastest time, just like in the time trials. This time it was by 0.07 seconds ahead of Keen. Three of the four repechage heats were decided by at least four seconds while in the final heat Erik Frid beat Nathan Lado by just 1.72 seconds to advance to the semifinals. Saturday’s semifinals will pit Ansolabehere and Jurkowski together in a semifinal but both can advance to the final by finishing in the top two.

2012 Olympian Genevra Stone advanced to the women’s single sculls semifinals with the top overall time. Stesha Cole was second fastest, 1.05 seconds back. The 11 woman field was cut to eight for Saturday’s semifinals. The closest battle for a semifinal spot was between Mary Foster and Emily Schmieg in a repechage. Foster was ahead after 500, 1000, and 1500 but Schmieg closed stronger and topped her by 0.92 seconds to stay alive in the competition.

In the men’s double sculls two front runners emerged for the final. William Cowles/Stephen Whepley and Lenny Futterman/Jonathan Kirkegaard both dominated their heats winning by at least 13 seconds. While the other four teams will all have a chance to get into the final in the repechage tomorrow it sure looks like they face an uphill climb to compete with the front runners for the Olympic spot.

Ellen Tomek/Meghan O’Leary posted the top time in the women’s double sculls while in the women’s lightweight double sculls it was Kate Bertko/Devery Karz posting the top time. Finally in the men’s lightweight double sculls Austin Meyer/Nick Trojan had the top time of the day. In all of these events no one was eliminated today.

Saturday is the semifinals as 16 more boats will advance to Sunday’s final.

Previous Olympic Rowing Trials Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Day 3 Update

Cycling, Mountain Bike, UCI Mountain Bike World Cup

Aaron Gwin and Three Other Americans Qualify for Final in World Cup Downhill Event

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With the downhill event having qualifying on Friday five Americans were seeking to ensure themselves a spot in the finals. Aaron Gwin, winner from Lourdes, finished third in qualifying. Others to advance were Eliot Jackson in 22nd, Neko Mulally in 33rd, and Luca Shaw in 34th. Luca Cometti just missed out on qualifying as he finished 84th. He was about 1.6 seconds behind the final qualifier. Gwin will race for his second straight gold on Saturday.

 

Previous Mountain Bike World Cup Cairns Coverage:
Preview

ISSF World Cup, Shooting

Matthew Emmons Finishes Sixth in 50m Prone Rifle

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Matthew Emmons and Michael McPhail both had good rounds in the qualifying for the 50m prone rifle. Emmons was just slightly better. He scored a 625.9 to qualify in fifth and while McPhail was just 1.3 points back that was too much as McPhail finished in a tie for eighth and lost the tiebreaker to miss out on the final. McPhail should have been in the final but a 102.9 on the final series, opened the door and he was passed. In the final Emmons got off to a great start with the third best opening stage score. After two more rounds of shooting the scores were tight with second through sixth all within the range of 103.3 to 103.9. That meant the margin for error was tiny and when Emmons scored a 20.1 it wasn’t enough as he was eliminated by a tenth of a point to the shooter who would go to take the bronze.

Over in the women’s 50m rifle 3 position Virginia Thrasher continued to show that incredible form that may make her a medal contender in Rio out of nowhere. Thrasher had the second best score in the eliminator round and along with Sarah Scherer and Sarah Beard all easily advanced to the qualifying round. Is it possible the US could have three finalists in this event? You wouldn’t rule it out. The qualification and finals will be on Friday.

Also on Friday the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol will begin with two Americans, Emil Milev and Keith Sanderson, competing. Both are 2016 Olympians and Sanderson was 13th in Bangkok while Milev is appearing in his first world cup event of the year. Stage one of qualifying is on Friday with the rest of the competition on Saturday.

Men’s skeet begins Friday with the first day of qualifying as Vincent Hancock, Hayden Stewart, and Frank Thompson compete for the US. Hancock is already qualified for the Olympics in this event and placed fourth in the opening World Cup event in Nicosia.

The first day of qualifying will also take place for women’s skeet with Amber English, Morgan Craft, and Kimberly Rhode competing for the US. Craft will be in the Olympics and won the opening event in Nicosia while Rhode was sixth in that competition.

Previous ISSF World Cup Coverage:
Day 5 Update
Day 6 Update

Olympic Trials, Rio 2016 Olympic Trials, Rowing

Men’s Single Sculls Field Trimmed to 14 at Olympic Rowing Trials

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The men’s single sculls field was cut from 21 to 14 on Thursday during a time trial the most noteworthy competitor was probably 2012 Olympian Ken Jurkowski. Jurkowski advanced easily with the fourth fastest time while Greg Ansolabehere won the time trial. The battle for the final spot was pretty intense with Lucas Wilhelm advancing over Matthew Brown by 0.27 seconds.

Friday’s going to eliminate competitors in a variety of events. The men’s single sculls will feature heats and repechages with eight advancing to Saturday’s semifinals. The same will happen in the women’s single sculls though the starting field is 11 instead of 14. The men’s and women’s double sculls and lightweight double sculls will qualify two of the six boats directly to the final while the others go to a repechage Saturday. Competing in the women’s single sculls will be 2012 Olympian Genevra Stone while

Previous Olympic Rowing Trials Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update

Archery, Olympic Trials, Rio 2016 Olympic Trials

Second Event Complete in US Olympic Archery Trials

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Two events are completed the the fields are narrowed to eight as USA Archery is closer and closer to naming their team for the 2016 Olympics. One month from now in Newberry, Florida those eight archers on each side will gather one last time to complete the Olympic trials.

For the men it’s been all about Brady Ellison this week and after taking the top score of the day and knowing he only needs a top three spot to go to the Olympics he has a large margin of 30 points over fourth place Collin Klimitchek. Klimitchek showed that if you get hot you can make some real moves in the standings. He was ninth going into the final seven matches before the cut to eight but managed to get into eighth and after having a great Thursday he jumped all the way to fourth. He’s still 6.5 points behind third but that is certainly a deficit that can be overcome. Zachary Garrett is in second with 74.5 points and  Jake Kaminski is third with 62.5 points.

On the women’s side Mackenzie Brown had her lead cut a bit because Hye Youn Park put up the top score of the day and leaped from fourth to second and trails Brown by 7.5 points. Lanola Pritchard holds the third spot with five points between her and Park and Ariel Gibilaro is now fourth points behind her in fourth. Khatuna Lorig was better today and moved up to fifth, still trailing third by 9.75 points.

So far there has been a maximum of 100 points available. At the third nomination shoot alone there are 91 points available. The athletes currently low in the standings might need some help but you can certainly put yourself back into the running with a strong competition. The third nomination shoot begins May 27th.

Previous Olympic Archery Trials Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Day 3 Update

Diving, FINA Diving World Series

Four Americans to Compete in Final Diving World Series Event in Kazan, Russia

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Friday is the first day of the fourth and final stop of the Diving World Series and the synchronized events will be held. Competing for the US will be David Boudia and Steele Johnson as they have at all three previous events. The duo has only been in the top three on one occasion, a third place finish in Dubai.

Later in the weekend Amy Cozad will be competing in the women’s 10m platform competition on Saturday while Boudia will take part in the men’s event on Sunday.

Previous Diving World Series Coverage:
Windsor Recap

Wrestling

Nine Wrestlers Will Attempt to Earn Olympic Bid in Ulaanbaatar

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Half of the winners of the US Olympic Wrestling Trials had guaranteed spots in Rio. The other half still need to earn a berth in the Olympics and the first of two opportunities is this weekend in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The greco-roman wrestlers will be up first with their qualification opportunity on Friday. Only the top three finishers in the field will get Olympic berths.

Competing for the US will be three wrestlers: Jesse Thielke at 59kg, RaVaughn Perkins at 66 kg, and Joe Rau at 98kg. Both Thielke and Rau have been part of the US team at world championships in the past. Thielke finished eighth at 60kg in 2013 while Rau finished 23rd at 80kg in 2014.

Previous Wrestling Coverage:
US Olympic Trials Recap

Cycling, Mountain Bike, UCI Mountain Bike World Cup

Aaron Gwin Headlines Field for Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill Event in Cairns

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The Mountain Bike World Cup is in action again this weekend in Cairns, Australia. In the first event of the year in the downhill competition defending series champion Aaron Gwin was the winner. Gwin will be trying to go back-to-back to start 2016 and is joined by four other Americans in the field including Luca Shaw who was 21st in Lourdes.

The downhill begins on Friday with the qualifying round and ends on Saturday with the finals and on Sunday a cross-country competition will be held.

Previous Mountain Bike World Cup Coverage:
Lourdes Recap

Covering America's Athletes