Sochi 2014 - Winter Olympics

Bit of a shock result too.

 

Must be a bit painful....

 

Cheers wfc4ever. Holland are running riot in the speed skating while their traditional rivals Norway are not doing too well. Great to see Trankov and Volosohar in the lead in the pairs. If they can pull out anything similar to recent efforts like this:

[video=youtube;dXTSA0QThko]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXTSA0QThko[/video]

they should maintain Russia's magnificent record in this event. Womens ice hockey has been fun to watch. The highlights of the young Russian side were impressive especially Vafina's goal although Japan were disallowed a clear goal. The mens tournament starts tonight at last. Should be on the red button.

 

Lizzle Yarnold already ahead in the Skeleton.

James Woods going 3rd last in the Slope style final - so potentially a very good chance for him but he has got a dodgy hip.

 

Well we had a silver...then it got taken away in the Speed staking.

TBH Elise Christie took the decision in good grace.

 

Yarnold should get the gold. Given the resources she has as opposed to the Germans she has done remarkably well.

Watched the pairs replay last night. Great one two for Russia and I preferred Klimov and Stolbova's routine. Fairly predictable wins in the hockey looking at the scores although Slovenia put up a fight against Russia winning a period. Fingers crossed there are highlights on the red button.

Shame GB isn't there. If Slovenia who were with us in the second tier a decade or so ago like Denmark can get there we could do as well if IHUK had any vision and brains.

 

Elise Christie can count herself very unfortunate. The Italian ought to have been disqualified. Robbed of a silver.

 

Ladies curlers looking good now.

Only way Yarnold won't win is if she crashes on the 4th run...

Just got a track record.

 

Even after a few bumps she won by almost a second.

:sign15:

 

Slovenia have beaten Slovakia 3-1 to pull off an upset in the ice hockey. Great team work and they do have several decent players aside from Kopitar who have played on the national side for several years together.

Slovakia minus Visnovsky and Gaborik looked really flat but all credit to the Slovenians despite the small size of their player pool. IHUK take note. The commentary from Seth Bennett and Brent Pope has been abysmal. I could do a better job certainly than Bennett as the commentator. Apparently Michael Handzus and Martin Hanzal are one and the same person not to mention mixing up Latvia's sole NHL'er Girgensons with Ozolins etc etc.

 

Aimee Fuller

That is all I have to add to this thread.

 

Yes some dreadful officiating. Russia dominated the first two periods until Radulov's needless penalty. Typically dull American hockey of the dump and chase variety aside from a few flashes from Patrick Kane and Kessel.

Quick knocked the post off himself and Tyutin's shot was in the middle of the net but chalked off. Meanwhile in overtime one of the American forwards is rabbit punching one of the Russian defencemen and nothing gets called. Amazing. The officials have been terrible in all the matches. Nearly as bad as Seth Bennett.

 

That was what I was thinking. She cannot be bothered to represent Great Britain. Charming. Her brother does which makes it all the more strange why she has elected to compete for France.

 

Canada have just topped their group. Drew Doughty with his second and the winner against a very well marshalled Finnish team. Rask will be rather disappointed to have let his shot slip in five hole. Some questionable decisions again from the officials which is marring this tournament once again.

Russia lead the mens bob with a largish margin and the speed skating facility should be renamed the Dutch Dome. Another clean sweep of the medals for them in the womens 1500m and more to come no doubt.

Enjoyed the men's cross country relay with Sweden defending their title and Russia coming from behind to claim a silver with France the bronze.

 

I saw a little piece on the skeleton and we do have some heritage in the sport back in the twenties when an Englishman was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Winter Olympics.

As for the Dutch they used to skate on canals in the cold weather and it was a huge attraction with thousands turning out to watch skaters travel from city to city for events like the Elfstdentocht. Obviously with a warming climate it's not often possible to do this but the love of skating in races is central to the Dutch consciousness.

[video=youtube;ENSqWlF9OnI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENSqWlF9OnI[/video]

Something like this never developed in the Fens for example partly because of the warmer climate despite the similarities to a degree of drainage canals and flat land due to our climate.

Marrit Leenstra is rather nice as well. They also have a reasonable hockey side which is slowly improving as well and a couple of decent teams like the Tilburg Trappers.