Cycling, UCI Men's World Tour

Taylor Phinney Cracks Top 50 in Paris-Roubaix Race

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The one-day, 160-mile, Paris-Roubaix took place on Sunday featuring its remarkable 32.8 miles of cobblestone roads. Three Americans were in the field but two of them Tyler Farrar and Phillip Gaimon were among the 124 riders who did not finish the race. Taylor Phinney on the other hand was able to finish the race in 49th, 14:23 behind the winner Matthew Hamon of Australia. There was quite the finish in the velodrome where the race ends as the top four all finished with the same time and fifth place was just three seconds back.

The next race on the UCI Men’s World Tour is the 248.7km Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands on Sunday, April 17th.

BMX, Cycling, UCI BMX Supercross World Cup

Brooke Crain Grabs Bronze at BMX Supercross World Cup Event in Manchester

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As the BMX Supercross event in Manchester, England turned to the knockout rounds on Sunday three American women were in contention with Alise Post the favorite of the pack. Post made things every so slightly nervous by finishing sixth in the second of three runs but won the other two to advance from her pool in second place. Qualifying to move on a bit easier were Brooke Crain, who was second in all three runs in her pool, and Danielle George who finished second twice and third one to advance. George and Crain would be together in the first heat of the semifinals but only Crain moved on as she won the heat and George did not finish. Crain was joined in the final by Post who won her heat by about three quarters of a second.

The final was full of calamity as Post and four others ended up a full eight seconds behind the winner and thus left a final three to compete for the medals. Caroline Buchanan of Australia ended up first, her second straight win to open the season, while Crain finished third. Post would ultimately finish fourth.

After two events Crain sits on 300 points with Post at 280 as they are fifth and sixth in the total standings. George is in 12th. While Buchanan may be pulling out of reach with two wins to open the year second place is only 50 points ahead of Crain.

On the men’s side of things five Americans were in the motos and three of them would move on. In the second heat both Corben Sharrah and Jeffrey Upshaw were both competing and there quickly became a lot of space between them as Sharrah won the first two runs while Upshaw finished fourth and fifth. With the top four advancing there was a real chance for Upshaw in the final run but he finished sixth, just 0.4 behind Coretin Dubois of France and that margin was enough to advance Dubois instead of Upshaw. Sharrah meanwhile made it a clean sweep of all three runs

Heat four had two Americans as well, Nicholas Long and Thomas Zula. Long went third-second-second to advance without too much pressure while Zula went fourth-sixth to put real pressure on him going into the final run. A top-three finish might have been enough but Zula wound up fifth and was eliminated. Finally David Herman was easily into the quarterfinals with a first-second-second in his heat.

Herman saw his competition come to an end in the quarterfinals after a sixth place finish over three second behind fourth. Long and Sharrah on the other hand both won their heats, Long by about a half a second and Sharrah by a full second. The second semifinal heat was an All-American showdown as Long and Sharrah battled for the top spot . Sharrah was over a half second ahead but both advanced to the final.

A clean final saw all eight riders finish within two seconds but it was Liam Phillips of Germany in first and Long as the top American, in fourth. Sharrah was last, he got a decent start but was last in turn one and never could recover to get back up in the field.

Despite the last place finish Sharrah still leads the overall competition through two of five events. Long is second while Connor Fields who broke a bone in his wrist and was not able to compete is still in ninth.

The next event is in Papendal, Netherlands on May 7th and 8th while the final two events are after the Olympics.

Cycling, Mountain Bike, UCI Mountain Bike World Cup

Aaron Gwin Opens Season With Gold in Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill Event in Lourdes

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Aaron Gwin started the 2016 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup the same way he ended the last one: in first place. Gwin, the defending series champion, was tenth in qualifying but was able to post a strong 3:09.131 to nab first place in first event. Top qualifier Loic Bruni was racing even faster and was ahead of Gwin on time before crashing and ended up 14th.

It’s not embedable but here’s a video of Gwin’s ride.

Luca Shaw was the only other American in the top 25 at 21st while Neko Mulally (45th) and Luca Cometti (48th) did notch top 50s.

The next World Cup Downhill event is in Cairns, Australia on April 23rd and 24th. This was the first of seven events on the tour this year.

 

ITU World Triathlon Series, Triathlon

Gwen Jorgensen Beaten for First Time Since April 2014, Finishes Second in Gold Coast Triathlon

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Gwen Jorgensen had been on an absolute tear having won every IRU World Triathlon Series event she had entered since coming in third in Cape Town in April 2014. That run finally came to an end as Jorgensen placed second, 41 seconds behind Helen Jenkins of Great Britain. Jorgensen was a second quicker on the swim and 51 seconds quicker on the run but gave up too much time, over a minute and a half, on the bike. Katie Zaferes in sixth, 2:11 back, and Kristin Kasper in tenth, 3:06 back, gave the US three of the top ten. Renee Tomlin, who was fifth at the last race in Abu Dhabi finished 18th here 4:02 behind the winner. Sarah True, runner-up here last year, was 25th, 5:20 behind.

For the US men Joe Maloy improved heavily on his 49th place finish in Abu Dhabi as he was sixth here and just 1:25 behind the winner. Gregory Billington gave the US two top-ten finishers with his tenth place finish 1:48 back of winner Mario Mola of Spain. Kevin McDowell was 19th, still just two and a half minutes behind the winner. Last year’s top American, Jarrod Shoemaker, did not finish.

The next IRU World Triathlon Series event will be April 24th in Cape Town, South Africa.

HSBC Sevens World Series, Rugby, Rugby Sevens

Up and Down, But Mostly Down, Day Sees US Finish Sixth at Hong Kong Sevens

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A sweep of pool play did not result in the matchup the USA would have hoped for in Hong Kong. England had upset South Africa in pool play to win their group so instead of the USA face England they had to play one of the clear three best teams on the tour, South Africa. This matchup was always going to be a tough one and while the US were in it for a bit they never had anything close to enough for South Africa and were shutout in this one by a score of 28-0 with 14 coming in each half.

That set up a much easier plate semifinal with Wales and the US did respond with a strong 27-0 shutout of their own. The US had a 10-0 lead at the break before pulling away in the second half as Perry Baker ended up with three tries. Having wished they could have played England in the cup quarterfinals the two sides did actually meet in the plate final. And perhaps this match showed that the US was heading this way one way or another on the day because this was another shutout and not the one the Americans were hoping for. A 14-0 lead at the break turned into a 19-0 England win.

Of note, Nate Ebner did not appear for the US this weekend. This was back-to-back tournaments without Carlin Isles and while Baker has been brilliant for the US you do wonder how much having a fresh pair of rocket legs to alternate with would help the US over these long weekends. It is not yet known if Isles will be back for Singapore next weekend but since Ebner didn’t play at all you get the feeling Head Coach Mike Friday doesn’t feel he is ready to throw into the fray and Isles will be back in the squad if he is ready to go.

The US has been drawn with New Zealand, France, and Canada for the tournament which begins Friday. The US will face easier competition to advance from their pool than this weekend, but as we learned Saturday the real question is who fate has lined up for you in the quarterfinals. The pool matched up with the US includes Scotland, Kenya, Russia, and…. South Africa. So most likely the US will need to beat New Zealand or South Africa to find themselves in the cup semifinals next weekend and not the plate semifinals.

Canoeing, Olympic Trials, Rio 2016 Olympic Trials

Two Qualify for Olympics at US Slalom Canoe Olympic Trials

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Due to strong performances at the world championships there were two Americans who had a chance to qualify this weekend at the first round of the US Slalom Canoe Olympic Trials. Both of them took advantage of that opportunity to lock things up while the other two spots now have front runners heading into the second event in Oklahoma City in May.

In the men’s C1 event Casey Eichfeld needed to only finish in the top two to claim a spot in Rio. He finished second on Friday to Zachary Lokken but topped him on Saturday and for the overall finish to earn his berth. Over in the men’s K1 event Michal Smolen needed only a top three finish to earn a berth in the Olympics. Smolen easily won this weekend over Richard Powell and the 22-year-old who won bronze at the 2015 World Championships will be competing in Rio.

Over in the women’s K1 competition where no points had been accumulated before this event. Ashley Nee and Dana Mann continued their tight competition for the K1 spot with Nee edging Mann to have the advantage going to the second round of trials.

Finally in the men’s C2 competition, where the US does not yet know if they will have a spot, Eichfeld and Devin McEwan topped Smolen and Zachary Lokken to take the lead heading to round two. For a good read on why the US does not yet have a spot check out this article from CanoeKayak.com

There was also a women’s C1 event, not in the Olympics this year though it will be in 2010. That event was won by Sage Donnelly this weekend.

The second round of trials are in Oklahoma City on May 7th and 8th.

HSBC Women's Sevens Series, Rugby, Rugby Sevens

USA Women Run Into Australia Buzzsaw in Quarterfinals, Finish Fifth at Atlanta Sevens

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The USA Women’s Sevens team caught a bad break this weekend in Atlanta. Had they finished second in the group their opponent in the quarterfinals would have been France, a good side with a fourth and fifth place finish in the first two stages of the year. Instead by winning the group they ended up drawing the two-time champions Australia who had suffered a shock loss to England on Friday. So the win over New Zealand actually gave the US a tougher matchup in the quarterfinals.

The result was a 22-5 loss to Australia while New Zealand was able to beat France 24-7. The US try came right at the end after trailing 12-0 at the half. They would rebound however with a 38-0 smackdown of Fiji in the plate semifinals behind tries from five players including two from Leyla Kelter and then a 19-7 victory over Russia to claim the plate. The US trailed Russia 7-5 shortly before the half before taking the lead on a Richelle Stephens try that would prove to be the plate winner.

 

It was a positive weekend for the US who will feel unlucky that they had such a tough quarterfinal matchup and feel good that they beat the New Zealand side that pushed Australia in the final and came in second. The HSBC Women’s Sevens Series will be back in action next week in Langford, British Columbia for their fourth of five events. The US has been once again drawn into a pool with New Zealand and Spain while Fiji is the other team. All three were beaten by the US this weekend. The good news is that winning the pool next weekend would result in a matchup with a third place finisher and there’s no way Australia ends up there…. right?

Gymnastics

Dominant USA Women Gymnastics Win Gold at Pacific Rim Championships

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The US women’s team of Brenna Dowell, Ragan Smith, Laurie Hernandez, Aly Raisman, Ashton Locklear, and Simone Biles had no problems in the Pacific Rim Championships on Saturday night as they dominated the field winning gold with a team score of 243.2, well ahead of Canada’s 219.1. Also easily winning gold was Biles in the all-around as her score of 62.450 far exceeded the 59.900 of teammate Raisman. Closely behind Raisman was Hernandez at 59.800 while Dowell at 58.850 and Smith at 58.550. Those were the top five scores though only the top two from a country can win a medal so the bronze went elsewhere.

This event also served to set the lineup for Sunday’s individual event finals. The US will have Dowell and Locklear competing on the uneven bars. The balance beam will feature Raisman and Smith while Raisman and Dowell will take part in the floor events.

In the individual trampoline finals the US was unable to repeat their women’s team gold as Shaylee Dunavin finished second, 1.075 points behind winner Samantha Smith of Canada who scored a 54.240. Charlotte Drury came in eighth with just 46.860 points. On the men’s side Jeffrey Gluckstein also scored a silver as his 58.295 was over 1.5 points behind winner Dmitrii Ushakov of Russia. Steven Gluckstein was 6th with a 56.795.

In rhythmic gymnastics the US team of Heather Chan, Brigita Budginas, Nicole Kaloyanov, Aliya Protto, and Camilla Feeley continue their dominance from day one as they expanded their 18.736 point lead over Canada to a final margin of 35.754. The US had the top score in all four events. Not surprisingly the individual all-around was dominated by the US as Protto held her day one lead to win gold with a 67.766. Feeley stayed in second and finished with 65.532 while Budginas at 63.299 and Kaloyanov at 62.482 rounded out the top four. Chan couldn’t keep up her top five pace from Friday so she finished tenth with a 55.466.

The rhythmic individual event finals have their participants decided and it will be Feeley and Protto participating in the hoop, the ball, and the ribbon. Protto, and Budginas are taking part with the clubs.

Sunday’s rhythmic individual finals are at 4 PM ET while the artistic finals are at 9 PM ET. Live streaming of the event is available at the Pacific Rim Championships site.

Olympic Trials, Rio 2016 Olympic Trials, Wrestling

Four 2012 Olympians Win on First Day at US Olympic Wrestling Trials

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On the first day of competition in Iowa City three Olympic spots were awarded while another six wrestlers earned the chance to try and qualifying for the Olympics in future international qualifying tournaments this spring.

In the men’s freestyle 125 kg we knew one of the top competitors would be 2012 Olympian Tervel Dlagnev. Dlagnev was fifth in London and Dlagnev had a pretty easy time reaching the final with 10-0 and 5-1 wins. Meeting him in the final from the other side of the bracket was Zachary Rey, a 2015 world championship participant. The best-of-three series didn’t need to go the distance as Dlagnevy won 5-1, 5-3. Dlagnev will now turn his attention to Rio where he’ll hope to improve on his 2012 Olympics and win a medal.

In the men’s greco-roman 85 kg division 2012 Olympian Ben Provisor also advanced to the final while taking out two wrestlers who represented the US in the world championships. First up was Patrick Martinez, who he dispatched 4-1, and then Jordan Holm, who he shut out 3-0. Meeting Provisor in the final was Jacob Clark, a veteran wrestler who was an alternate for the Olympics all the way back in 2004. The final was all Provisor as he won the first match 3-0 and then got a fall in the second to win the Olympic spot for the second straight time.

The final Olympic was in the women’s freestyle 63 kg. Once again a 2012 Olympian, Elena Pirozhkova, was at the center of attention and advanced to the final via 10-0, 11-1, and 5-1 wins. On the other side of the bracket was 2015 corld championship participant Erin Clodgo, who advanced to the final via 10-0, 6-0, and 6-2 wins. This one ended in two matches just like the previous two with Pirozhkova winning 3-1 and getting a fall in the second to earn her second straight trip to the Olympics. 2015 World Championship bronze medalist at 60 kg, Leigh Jaynes-Provisor, also competed in this division but was beaten 13-10 in the first round by Hannah Jewell, a freshman college wrestler at King University

The other six divisions were competing to get the spot in Olympic qualifying and still hope to compete for Rio, though nothing is guaranteed. In the men’s freestyle 65 kg there were three competitors from the latest world championships and not one of them made the final. James Green was knocked out in his first match as he lost 9-2 to Zein Retherford, the 149 pound NCAA Champion this year for Penn State. Brent Metcalf had a first round bye but then was dispatched in the second round by Frank Molinaro, a former 149 pound champion for Penn State who went undefeated as a senior in 2012, 3-3 the score but Molinaro advancing on a tiebreaker. Molinaro went on to win another match on a tiebreaker after a 5-5 score to reach the final.

On the other side of the bracket Reece Humphrey advanced twice, 6-3 and 14-11, but got destroyed in the semifinals by Aaron Pico 12-1. That set up a final between Molinaro and Pico, a 19-year old who could be a future MMA star. Molinaro lost the first match 4-2 but won the next 4-3 to force the third match. In the decisive match Molinaro once again found himself with a deadlocked score, this time 4-4, as time ran out and for the third time in the day used a tiebreaker to claim a shocking victory in the division. He’ll need to qualify for the Olympics still, and you wonder how that will go considering he was not a favorite coming into the trials, but what a day it was for the underdog. Pico will have to decide what his future holds as the 2020 Olympics are a long ways off and he can being a MMA career with Bellator in the meantime.

In the greco-roman 59 kg contest 2012 Olympian Spenser Mango advanced 8-0 to start things off before being defeated by the same score in the semifinals by Jesse Thielke, a former a world championship competitor and member of the Wisconsin Badgers’ wrestling team, was runner-up to Mango at the US team trials last year. In the final Thielke would meet Ildar Hafizkov, who has a great story having competed at the Olympics for Uzbekistan in 2008 before becoming a US citizen and joining the US Army. The finals however were all Thielke as he won 10-0 and 9-3 to move into international Olympic qualifying.

In the greco-roman 66 kg class 2012 Olympian Ellis Coleman won his first match of the day 4-0 but ran into RaVaughn Perkins in the semifinals. Perkins would have represented the US after winning the trials in 2014 but was suspended for accidentally taking a banned substance and has been working to get back to that point since. On the other side of the bracket former world championship participant Bryce Saddoris lost in the quarterfinals on a tiebreaker after a 4-4 tie with Michael Hooker a US Army wrestler who was one of the last qualifiers for the trials. Hooker went on to lose in the semifinals 4-0 to Patrick Smith, a former 71 kg competitor who has consistently been near the top in US trials but with more runner-ups than he’d like. The final between Perkins and Smith started off with a 2-0 win for Smith. Smith then had a real chance to win the potential Olympic spot in match two but Perkins won the tiebreaker after a 2-2 score and would go on to grab the spot by winning match three 9-2.

The final greco-roman class of the day was 98 kg. World championship participant Caylor Williams was dominant in reaching the final with 8-0 and 10-0 wins. His opponent in the final was Josef Rau, a D3 national champion who has been peaking over the last year. Williams got a fall in the first match of the final but Rau was able to turn thing around and won the next two 5-2 and 6-5 to grab the qualifying spot.

In the women’s freestyle 58 kg competition 2012 Olympian Kelsey Campbell advanced to the final after 10-0, 6-0 and 4-2 wins. On the other side of the bracket was 2015 world championships competitor Alli Ragan. Ragan ran through her competition 10-0, 10-0, 6-4 to set up a big time matchup in the final. The final was very competitive but only lasted two matches as Campbell narrowly edged Ragan in both matches 2-1. Campbell will now try to make her second straight Olympics by grabbing a spot through the qualification tournaments.

Finally in the women’s freestyle 69 kg a very wide open field ended up with a final between Tamyra Mensah and Brittney Roberts. Mensah nearly won the US trials last year, coming in second, while Roberts is a former 75 kg competitor. Mensah rose to the occasion in the final by winning in big fashion 8-1, 8-1.

Sunday features six more weight classes where an Olympic spot is at stake and three more where the winner will have two chances to qualify for Rio.

An Olympic spot is at stake in the men’s freestyle 57 kg there are two 2012 Olympians competing. Sam Hazewinkel competed in the 55 kg division while Coleman Scott won bronze in the 60 kg division. Hazewkinkel is the #6 seed here with Scott the #4 seed. #1 seed Tony Ramos was the US competitor in this weight class at the world championships.

The men’s freestyle 74 kg division is dominated by one big name. Jordan Burroughs won gold in London. Burroughs won gold at the 2015 World Championships. And the 2013 World Championships. And the 2011 World Championships. His only loss at the Olympic/world championship level was in the 2014 World Championships semifinals. Heavy favorite doesn’t begin to describe him and he gets the advantage of waiting until the best-of-three final to compete.

The men’s freestyle 97 kg division also features a London gold medalist, but in a unique turn of events he isn’t even the #1 seed. Jake Varner won gold in London in the 96 kg division but at the most recent US trials he lost to 19-year old Kyle Snyder who went on to win gold at the 2015 World Championships. Therefore Snyder is the #1 seed and is given a bye to the best-of-three final where you’d expect an epic encounter with Varner.

In the women’s freestyle 75 kg division the one to beat is 2015 World Championship gold medalist Adeline Gray. Like Burroughs and Snyder she will wait until the best-of-three final to compete. It will be interesting to see who emerges to face her and if they can mount any kind of a challenge in the final and give one of the world greats some competition.

The men’s greco-roman 75 kg class has another competitor going straight to the final. Bronze medalist from the 2015 World Championships, Andy Bisek, will await whoever can emerge to fill the other half of the final. One competitor is 2012 Olympian in the 66 kg division Justin Lester, but he is moving up again from the 71 kg division he represented the US in at the world championships and is the #4 seed here.

The 130 kg greco-roman weight class will feature two open spots in the final. Favorited to take one of them will be #1 seed Robby Smith who finished fifth at the 2015 World Championships.

In the weight classes yet to qualify for Rio the men’s freestyle 86 kg division is headlined by Jake Herbert who represented the US in the last Olympics and is the #1 seed. The women’s freestyle 48 kg competition features 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Clarissa Chun and 2015 world championship competitor Alyssa Lampe. Lampe is the #1 seed with Chun the #3 seed. The women’s freestyle 53 kg competition has #1 seed Helen Maroulis, the 55 kg champion at the 2015 World Championships, and Whitney Conder, who was the 53 kg representative at those world championships.

Preliminaries begin at 10 AM ET Sunday morning in Iowa City with finals (a best two-of-three series) starting at 7 PM ET. Live streaming is available from NBC.

Cycling, UCI Men's World Tour

Lawson Craddock Finishes Ninth in Tour of the Basque Country

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A fantastic week for Lawson Craddock ended with the American sitting ninth in the overall standings at the Tour of the Basque Country. Craddock was not among the very top finishers in the ten-mile time trial on Saturday but despite finishing 1:58 back in 25th his strong first five days meant he stayed in the top 10. It was an exciting finish for the overall title as well as Alberto Contador of Spain finished 18 seconds ahead of Sergio Luis Henao of Colombia passing him to win the title by 12 seconds.

The 160-man starting field was narrowed to just 97 by the end. Four other Americans finished the event, Peter Stetina in 78th, Joey Rosskpof in 81st, Alex Howes in 91st, and Caleb Fairly in 97th.

Craddock will not be in the field tomorrow as the one-day Paris-Roubaix takes place. This race over 160 miles features 32.8 miles of cobblestone roads. I’m sure that’s as awful to ride on as it sounds like it would be. Americans in the 248-man field are Taylor Phinney, Tyler Farrar, and Phillip Gaimon.

Covering America's Athletes