16 October 2009

With the exception of a couple of bright spots in kayaking, Ainkien's had it rough since the first few days of the games. Particularly disappointing was the lack of placing in either the Triathlon or Hockey events, both of which Ainkien are very strong at. Oh well. That's the way it goes. Ainkien's hockey coach got the sack though, after the hockey team didn't win a game. Happened after a meeting of the Ainkien Field Hockey federation. He'll be lucky to coach the field hockey team at Ashington Eastside High School after all of this!

Well, that's a less than graceful transition to my area of focus today: team sports. Now that the group stages are over, events like Hockey, Handball, Baseball, Basketball and Football (soccer) are taking shape.
In Handball, one of the world's most popular sports, Japan and Hiigara have advanced to the final. Lower Columbia and Japan advanced in Water Polo, and West End and Tongolia have edged out Vercelli and Royal Cytheria in the Indoor Volleyball semi-finals. The Cascadian Federation and Shalmon Commonwealth won the Hockey semi-finals.
In Baseball, Lisieux beat Perthshire and New Burgundy defeated Paranor Island in the semi-finals, while Lisieux also won its Basketball semi, defeating Jiesan, with New Bordeaux beating Paranor Island in the other semi-final. In Football, Lisieux took bronze with a 2-0 win over New Bordeaux, while Petrova and the Shalman Commonwealth will battle for gold.

So... anyone else see a pattern here? We definitely have some countries that seem to be team sport specialists, including New Bordeaux, the Shalman Commonwealth, Japan, hosts Paranor Island and, of course, Lisieux, a nation that also does well in the athletics sprints but is seen little elsewhere in the Simlympics.

Only a couple of days are left in the games, and the final medal standings will be decided in a short time. As of Day 13, New Gelderland lead the medals, followed by Hypertrophy (really amazing how they've stayed near or at the top from the beginning) then the Cascadian Federation and host nation Paranor Island.

-knarfmo

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Day 10 Results | Day 11 Results | Day 12 Results | Day 13 Results | Medal Tables

12 October 2009

We've officially passed the halfway point in the Simlympics, and Day 8 was a day of one-country dominance in several sports. Savoy is really doing well in Dressage, with all four riders qualifying for the final, but it will be interesting to see the final medals results as I've seen Equestrian finals turn out much different than qualifying. Yet, with so many Savoy and Fornax flags in the final, it's hard to not think that they will end up with the medals.

Perthshire then dominated the Skeet Shooting event with gold and silver, followed by a Tongolia bronze. This meant an all Alliance of Independent Nations sweep in this event.

The home team (Paranor Island) then took the top two spots in the 20km Walk, followed by the Follomer Syndicate, a new nation participating for the first time at the Leah games. I'll just point out that Ainkien took a respectable 8th in this event; my own country has not focused much on athletics until the October games.

A variety of countries won additional medals in rowing. Unfortunately, none of them were Ainkien, but I'm definitely seeing this sport become more competitive in the Simlympics, which makes it more exciting.

Isporos continues is success in sailing and swimming. If they had an event where you sailed a boat halfway, then jumped out and swam the rest of the way, I'm sure Isporos would be good at it!

New Gelderland is having a good run in a variety of sports in Days 8 and 9. It's no surprise that they top the medals table at the end of Day 9. This is a relatively new nation in the Simlympics, so congratulations and well done!

The top medals spots are still really close, so anything could happen before the end. I'm also looking forward to seeing the result of the team sports like Football, Basketball, and, the sport closer to my heart in these games, Hockey!

-knarfmo

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Day 8 Results | Day 9 Results | Medal Tables

10 October 2009

Hello from the land of the green and orange!

We've had seven days of competition, and Ainkien is miraculously 3rd on the medals table even though we had a dismal run in the rowing events. It used to be that we were pretty good with oars, but there is a lot of competition from all around the world. Hats off to Oonte Rotocco, New Gelderland, Escambia and Buesti & Ravoi for winning rowing golds on Day 7. In fact, looking at all of Day 7's finalists, there is no one nation dominating things: a couple of placings by Roanoke Island, Norvegia and New Gelderland, but definitely more competitive than in the past.

At the velodrome, Ainkien took a surprise bronze and a surprise 5th place finish in the Keirin. It's not a popular discipline in Ainkien, but such is the nature of sport: you could point all of your effort in one event and not place, but an unheralded athlete could come from nowhere and win gold. That's what makes it interesting. Congratulations to Buesti & Ravoi and Myon for winning the gold and silver in this event.

A couple of random thoughts:
Isporos is, overall, a significant Simlympic swimming power, but I'm seeing them branch out from the swimming events a bit. They are doing well in the sailing events, and I'm expecting them to actually win some non-swimming medals in the games.
As far as I know, Tenshi remains the only African nation in the Simlympics, and I think they are do fairly well in the games. Though at this point they are toward the middle of the medals table, I've seen the Tenshi flag showing up quite a bit in finals. We make a big deal out of medals in the Simlympics (and Olympics), but I think it is an accomplishment to just make the finals in these events. This is supposed to represent a world championship and 8th place out of, well, 6 billion, isn't bad. But I'll save my full lecture on this for another time.

-knarfmo

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Day 5 Results | Day 6 Results | Day 7 Results | Medal Tables

knarfmo is the ISC delegate from Ainkien, and an unabashed supporter of all things under the Green-and-Gold Jack. He will be following the Ainkienian team around Leah, providing us with insight and observations from the XI Simlympiad, and from our Paranorian hosts.

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7 October 2009

I'm going to blog from time to time about the Simlympic Games in beautiful Leah, Paranor Island. We're now in the fourth day of competition and my country, Ainkien, is off to a great start. This is mostly because many of my favourite events are during the first half of the games and the AOC have invested a lot in our athletes in the earlier events. These are mainly in what I'll call the "knightly events", or those sports that seem to be based on skills necessary to run a medieval army, including shooting a bow and arrow, fighting with swords and riding horses.

Looking at the "knightly events," I'm not surprised to see that the Simlympic countries that represent old European powers are doing well, like Petrova, New Burgundy and the Shalman Commonwealth. But there are also some "New World" powers that are doing well like Lower Columbia and Dutch Columbia.

The sport of Archery brings notice that the skills of the "knightly sports" were also important in Asia, and Jiesan ended up with an Archery gold-silver double, with two Shalman Commonwealth archers left to shoot for the bronze. The Pacific rim countries of Perthshire, Victoria and the Cascasdian Federation did well in the Sabre Fencing, winning gold, silver and bronze respectively, while Ainkien edged out Petrova for the Épée Fencing gold and Dutch Columbia won the bronze.

In the Equestrian Three-Day Event, Ainkien was a surprise gold (at least I was surprised!), with Lower Columbia taking the silver and Tongolia the bronze. Interestingly, all three of these countries had multiple top-12 finalists.

There are still more "knightly events" to come, with the Equestrian Show Jumping and Dressage events and the Foil Fencing event. I keep expecting our friends from Æsgeard to show up with a medal in one of these events, as one would expect atheletes from an Arthurian nations to have some skill with swords, horses, and bows and arrows.

I'm neglecting a wealth of other news coming out of the other sports at the games. Hypertrophy, a country that I've not even mentioned yet, leads the medals table with 3 gold – in the Cycling Road Race, 400m Freestyle Swimming, and Middleweight Judo – and 2 bronze medals - a strong start indeed! West End and Coulla have also matched Ainkien with two gold medals so far.

I'll have some more ramblings in a few days... :)

-knarfmo

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Day 1 Results | Day 2 Results | Day 3 Results | Day 4 Results | Medal Tables

Now that the Simlympic Torch has reached its final destination, the attention of the entire SimNation also turns towards Leah, Paranor Island, as we wait for what is expected to be a spectacular Opening to the XI Simlympiad.

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As the Simlympic Torch Relay nears its end we once again journey to the stars and the Atlantean Empire, where we visit the capital, Atlantis City.

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The Republic of Toright, and city of Guangzhou, welcome the torch back to east Asia  for the 13th leg of the Relay. Leah is now just two days away!

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Today we join the Torch as it travels to Greenwich City for the next leg of the Relay.

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Something a little different for today's leg of the Simlympic Torch Relay, with the Simlympic Flame being carried by boat through the canals of Haarlemstraat, Victoria.

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