The Knarfmo Report: Competition Days 10-13

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