NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.thirdgeek.com/ns/logos/nsoc/keto2/

자스연 (Jasīʼyūn) welcomes the thirty-six nations that have entered to 케토 (Keto), Unified Capitalizt States for the second Olympic Winter Games. With the schedule finally completed, the Games will soon begin.

If you have any questions, complaints, or a need to point out all of my mistakes, post in this thread (as I’m much more likely to read it than TGs).

Participating Nations (with links to signup posts)
Anastasiania (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11930747&postcount=30) (ANS)
The Archregimancy (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11932421&postcount=38) (ARC)
Ariddia (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11921139&postcount=9) (ARI)
Az-cz (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11923772&postcount=17) (A-C)
Ballclampistan (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11941808&postcount=53) (BCL)
Bears Armed (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11964223&postcount=70) (BRS)
Cafundéu (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11930244&postcount=29) (CAF)
Capitalizt SLANI [Commerce Heights] (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11965718&postcount=73) (COM)
Casari (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11963650&postcount=68) (CAS)
Dumania (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11950597&postcount=55) (DUM)
Edward City (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11930828&postcount=31) (USE)
Elves Security Forces (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11921270&postcount=12) (ESF)
Fordavia (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11924125&postcount=19) (FDV)
The free holy ones (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11921156&postcount=10) (FHO)
자스연 (Jasīʼyūn) [Commerce Heights JSY] (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11965004&postcount=71) (JSY)
Kelssek (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11960201&postcount=66) (KSK)
Liverpool England (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11967234&postcount=74) (LEN)
Maineiacs (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11922754&postcount=15) (MAI)
Malabra (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11958549&postcount=64) (MLB)
Michigan-Superior (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11957369&postcount=63) (MSP)
Mikitivity (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11931859&postcount=33) (MKT)
The Mushroom Kingship (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11919912&postcount=2) (TMK)
Noremark (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11938016&postcount=51) (NOR)
Okielahoma (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11919958&postcount=4) (OKI)
Oliverry (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11965604&postcount=72) (OLI)
Race Track (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11920748&postcount=8) (CRT)
Ropa-Topia (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11920518&postcount=7) (RTP)
Rorysville (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11924701&postcount=20) (RRV)
Ruthenberg (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11924058&postcount=18) (RTH)
San Adriano (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11921179&postcount=11) (SNA)
Schiavonia (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11928003&postcount=25) (SCV)
Spindomia (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11945371&postcount=54) (SPI)
Qazox (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11922627&postcount=14) (QZX)
Quakmybush (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11925358&postcount=21) (QMB)
Tynelia (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11923489&postcount=16) (TYN)
Wentland (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11937081&postcount=49) (WLD)

Links
Results Thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=507861)
Schedule (http://www.thirdgeek.com/ns/olympics/keto2/schedule/)

The Quakmybushian Winter Olympic delegation got off their planes from their 4 hour plane trip from Quakmybush to Commerce Heights. The team made it off the planes to a meeting area. Then, since Minister of Sport Hector Dixion was in jail from the World Cup scandal, Prime Minister Barry Keller was on hand to announce the Flag Bearer for the games. He stepped up to a podium. "Hello athletes, since our current Minister of Sport is in prison. I will be announcing the candidates for, and the actual Flag Bearer for the games. First the nominees, from the Men's Biathlon 10km Sprint, Alexandre Fréchette." A large applause broke from the crowd as Alexandre emerged. "Next, from Men's Snowboard Cross, Jerry Cummings." Another large round of applause followed. "Thirdly, from Women's Snowboard Cross, Marlene Smith." More applause. "And Last, but not least from many speed skating events Jason Sherman." A large uproar of applause came.

All four athletes made it too the podium. "Now I have the honour of announcing the flag bearer. The flag bearer for Quakmybush in the Winter Olympics will be" *generic pause for suspense*"Jason Sherman." A huge cheer came from the delegation.

"Thank you, thank you, I'm here until next Sunday. Well, since we have a night and day ahead of us before the Opening Ceremonies. I say we go get drunk!" A large cheer came over the crowd, and then they headed to the nearest pub.

PIKA CITY PIONEER

Qazox is sending a bit larger delegation to this Olympiad than the last one, and is expecting to perform just as well.

Among the returning athletes are Gold medalists in the Bobsleigh, The Howard brothers, Moe, Shemp and Curly and thier brakeman, Larry Fine. They are the early favorites to repeat as winners in the 4-man bob.

Qazox is also expected to be in contention for the gold in Speed Skating, Skiing and Women's Curling.

Hopefully there will be more than the 6 medals won, and way more than the single gold won last time out.

(ooc: You have TMK's delegation linked to mine....

Actually it looks like all of our rosters link to TMK at this point.

Actually it looks like all of our rosters link to TMK at this point.
I had changed the post count in the URIs to be correct, but not the actual post numbers. It’s fixed now.

With two days left untill the games the Dumanian president Steven Powel has announced the flag bearer for Dumania. In a grand seremony at the airport before the teams departure to the games the president announced that Loutjie Prinsloo From the Mens Halfpipe would be the flag bearer. In an interview afterwards Loutjie said that this is a great honour and that he is going to make the country proud. Loutjie is the first flag bearer for Dumania ever since this is our first International Event.

The team also arrived there the following day and there was a buzz of reporters to see the new competing country that has so high expectations.

Minister of Sports Mconti Belfore- We are extremely proud of our team and the whole country is going to be nailed to the tv to see all our athletes competing.

DIE VOLKSBLAD
SATURDAY ISSUE

(Our TLA is KSK. If that's not available KEL is fine also.)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/kirkenescourier.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/keto-2006.jpg

SUNDAY COURIER OLYMPIC PREVIEW

Medal hopefuls
Flag-bearing alpine skiier Jean-Luc Lacroix is looking for at least gold in either the slalom or the downhill, and medals are also expected from Sophia Meadley in the ski jump. But it will likely be from snowboarding that Kelssek will see its largest haul. Kelssek's snowboarders have a reputation to live up to and hopefully won't disappoint in Keto.

The kids
15-year old half-brothers Kevin MacDonald and Peter Rexall are taking a week off school and expecting to finish a strong last place in the individual luge, but it's the experience that will count for these youngsters. The KOC was initially hesitant but their coach Jorrit Glass convinced the bigwigs otherwise.

"They're the future of the sport. They've still got a long way to go and competing against the world's best will motivate them and give them an experience they'll remember. I'm not expecting a stellar performance, I'm just looking long term." he told the Courier.

"Besides, you never know." he said, grinning.

Andonbar dreaming
Nordic skiiers Hakan Petersson and Lara Gudjohnsen will be representing Kelssek for the first time in international competition. The two became citizens last year when the Andonbarian Commonwealth voted to become a province.

"It was quite nice having access to more facilities and the money was good too, we didn't get any grant money before," says Hakan, "I'm looking forward to the Olympics and to represent Kelssek."

Hakan and Lara both reckon they've got a shot at a medal, but they're just concentrating on doing their best.

"If you're having fun, that's the reward," says Lara, "medals are just a bonus. I get to do something I love for a living, that's my prize already."

Giving it a miss
National biathlon champion Rob Greenberg is sitting out the Olympics with a hamstring injury suffered in training and isn't very happy about missing the fun in Keto.

"The most fustrating bit is watching it on TV and wishing you could've been there. If the medal times are within my own timings I'm going to be kicking myself. Not too hard, of course, wouldn't want to aggravate it. But it would suck."

He then started cleaning his rifle absentmindedly, shaking his head, and this reporter made his excuses and left.

Hockey acrimony
The three players national under-21 coach Daniel Copps would most like to take to the Olympics are off-limits, much to his chagrin, though the fact that the U-21s are getting to play the world is itself for the same reason - KHL team managers who have had enough of Hockey Kelssek's calling up their best players for internationals.

With the national A team just returned from the Aglukark-Cherry Cup and EPHC 5, team managers gave HK a flat-out no, forcing them to send the U-21 team, and without arguably the KHL's three best rookies: Eugene Mathieson, Sydney Crawford, and Don Parland, whose teams have also refused to release them.

But this will give the youngsters who have been released to go the chance of a lifetime to prove themselves against top competition, and Copps thinks the can do well. "We've got a lot of talent here and there's really no reason we can't make a good showing. These kids will have a hunger to win and I'm going to tell them they've got to put the senior team to shame."

-- Phillip Wickley, Gordon O'Connor, with files from KP

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/2329/coalogosa2.jpg

Ariddians arrive in Keto

It was quite a procession which clambered out of the coaches and made their way excitedly into the Olympic Village. The eighty-five athletes of the flat, forested, semi-tropical islands knew they would be facing tough opposition for these Winter Games, but were able to recall their success in the previous Olympiad.

Linda Uosh, an Indigenous woman and the first ever Ariddian to have won an Olympic medal, was back to defend her status as Olympic Champion and Olympic record holder in the Women's 3000m speedskating. The entire delegation is focusing heavily on short track and speedskating events, which brought thelm six of their seven medals in the last Winter Games.

Biathlete François Riverdale, who won an astonishingly unexpected bronze in his field last time, is also in Keto, hoping to repeat his exploit.

"I have my doubts, but I'm trying to ignore them," he admitted, laughing. "It's good just to be here."

Once more, the Ariddians will have to adapt to a very strange, foreign society in Commerce Heights. The society, economy, culture and every day behaviour in the Unified Capitalizt States are baffling to Ariddians.

On the other hand, West Ariddians in the delegation should feel almost at home in the heavily capitalist nation.

The three Ariddian countries - the PDSRA, West Ariddia and the city-state of North-West Ariddia - are participating jointly, a decision which has been acclaimed as a historic move in strengthening inter-Ariddian relations. West Ariddia's contribution to the delegation is significant, in terms of athletes but also of equipment and the providing of training facilities. The delegation's entries in the fields of ski jumping and snowboarding are entirely composed of West Ariddians.

"We don't share the same beliefs and values, but we get on well," West Ariddian speedskater Ivy Chan said. "We're a team."

Az-cz Scroll
Bn-Blr


Excitement is relatively low in Az-cz about these upcoming events. Although Az-czzers love their sports, they simply can't relate to the winter games as a whole. Despite that there are a number of interesting story lines to be watched.

The opening ceremony

The choice of flag bearer for the opening ceremonies was an interesting one. Masatoshi Harada and Ed-Igl have been chosen to carry the banner. Masatoshi Harada is one of the few non-Gnomish competitors on the team and probably the only individual who might find his way to a medal these olympics. Ed-Igl is his teammate in the ski jump and an inspirational story. He had to overcome a double suicide of his parents on the night of his 12th birthday. His passion for flying through the air was the only thing keeping him going at times. He's definitely not the most talented competitor in these olympics, but he's certainly one of the most courageous.

Sticks and Stones

Az-cz's best chance for a medal comes in the curling. Olaf Svenderson has assembled quite a skilled team for this competition. They've spent a lot of time working on blocking stone positioning when they don't have the hammer and expect to make some noise in their competition

Cherry Cup redux?

The Cherry cup was just a disappointment all around. Not only did the Az-czid team underperform but the entire tournament was kind of joke. Commerce Heights is much more respected than Rorysville and will probably put on a better tournament. We certainly don't expect to find all of the practice facilities shut down. Will that help the Az-czzers progress. We'll find out.

Hurtling down hills

The rest of the Az-czzers competing will be shooting down the hills on various sorts of sleds. Gay-Org & Ha-Kl lead the way, both on the Luge and Skeleton hills. The team of Hr-Shl & Wa-Kr are the best bobsled duo. These competitors are nearly interchangable as only Ku-Il is competing in just one of these events.

No other events?

Many other events, including some of the big events like downhill skiing and the skating competitions are without Az-czzers in the field. The Pink & Green hope to field a stronger team next time around, but for now the team is quite small.

Final results?

While Az-cz has shown that they are a country to be reckoned with in Athletic competitions, as shown in the World Cup, Surfing and other events, the winter olympics are not expected to be their cup of team. Expect one medal for certain, in the curling. We think the gold is a good possibility there. If there are other medals to be found the hockey team or Harada will provide them, but we'll just say the curling for now.

One man team going for gold

The sole representative of the Sovereign Village of San Adriano (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/San_Adriano), a tiny village State (http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8046/testsa51yg5.jpg) surrounded by Uhuh-Topia, arrived today in Keto. Thomas Peruzzi (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Thomas_Peruzzi) settled into the Olympic Village and proceeded to hang his country's flag proudly from the window, waving at passers-by.

Peruzzi is no newcomer to international sport. A grocer by trade, and an amateur athlete, he took part in the First Winter Games and amazed himself, his country and the world by winning a silver medal - an achievement considered to have been one of the great moments in recent Sanadrianese history. Such was the nation's support and pride in their athlete that Peruzzi's face was soon printed on banknotes (later to be joined by that of swimmer Sabrina Vannucci (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sabrina_Vannucci)).

"It still feels strange to see my face on the money in my wallet," he told reporters with a grin. "I keep asking myself... Do I really look like that?"

Peruzzi no longer has any need to prove himself. Already a sports hero in Sanadrianese eyes, he is in Keto to do his best - "no more, no less".

"Obviously I hope to win gold, and I'll do everything I can for that. But that silver medal four years ago was more than I'd ever dreamed of."

San Adriano has the smallest delegation of all thirty-six competing countries.

OOC: Race Tracks 3 letter Code is CRT not RCT

Enrieq Fermi,the KOC president, was looking at a paper in small little Cafe in CH
"Hmmm." "look like a good shot for us Mushroomians" he thought openly"

he than flipped the pages through and came upon a press relese for all the nations.

As he read he cam upon Klesseks Press release

Giving it a miss
National biathlon champion Rob Greenberg is sitting out the Olympics with a hamstring injury suffered in training and isn't very happy about missing the fun in Keto.



"Poor guy" he thought to himself,Fermi Could relate as something similar happened to him while he was a Star Soccer player. The he came upon the Az-Cz article

Commerce Heights is much more respected than Rorysville and will probably put on a better tournament.

"Hmmmmph" he laughed "Those gnomes are acting like there part of an Online game"

He than looked at hs Watch and relixed he neeede to be on his way. As he was gving a speech to the athleats of his delegation.

It was a great seen when the dumanians first international ice hockey team ever revealed there jerseys to the public in Keto. The captain of the team said that these jerseys have inspired there team so much that they feel that they can win the gold for dumania. We wish our team good luck and here is the pictures of the jerseys.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...umaniaHome.png
And
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...umaniaAway.png

DIE VOLKSBLAD
SATURDAYS ISSUE

"And now, please welcome double gold winners from last time...WENTLAND!!!!"

The penultimate team entered the arena, alphabetical order putting the Gentoos last of all and only to be followed by the esteemed hosts. Peter Tarff strode ahead, blue and white flag held aloft, with the other gold medallists from the first Winter Olympics - the then-astonished girls of the short-track relay team who stole gold on the final corner, beaming, waving at the crowd. But there was no Roger Stoddard, still recovering from Grand Prix injuries.

The royal blue anoraks were a neat touch, but perhaps the legwear left a bit to be desired. His Majesty had decreed that the ladies should wear miniskirts, especially Chrissie Carlisle, and all had had to adopt fairly thick stockings.

Wentland had entered a massive team, but mainly in hope rather than expectation. The Olympics had caught the imagination and lotteries and sponsorships had been obtained to send many athletes to the Games. No-one seriously expected anything from the likes of the Abbot twins, Van Burgh, Andy Young or Debs Olton, but at least the SpiceBabes - who had taken their hems up as far as they would go - were enjoying their moment, posing for the crowd and losing their step.

The more serious athletes were already thinking about their performances. Lou Grade missed out on gold after breaking his arm in a luge run. This time he was going to rely on Juliette Wilson's poise to go for gold; he was not going to win the individual. But Arthur Rank was thinking that that gave him a great chance of a first world level title.

Wilson herself was going toe-to-toe with Desiree Slaughter, who had stolen the world title by four thousandths of a second at the Vinson Grand Prix. It could be two golds for either of them - or none...

But the real poster child of the team was Violette Austin, the teen terror of the skellibob. Her suicidal ice riding had caught the imagination of the public at large and she had lent her name to a best-selling computer game. Sales of fluorescent hairdye had gone through the roof in Wentland as Austin had become almost iconic for her follicular follies. But a total lack of guile had made her the most popular sports star in the country - and the whole country was behind her in her quest for gold.

As the Wentland team paraded around a massive cheer nearly took the roof off the stadium. "Wow!!!!" remarked Alexa Meier. "They must LOVE us!!!"

"Actually, sweetie," responded Donna Sheward, "the home team has just entered..."

Sorry but it seems that there was a problem with our printers and the pictures aren't there we are busy trying to fix the problem

sorry for the inconvinience

DIE VOLKSBLAD
TODAYS ISSUE

Here are the jerseys of our National Hockey Team

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k163/canuck3360/RRV%20Jersey%20Store/RRVDumaniaAway.png
AND
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k163/canuck3360/RRV%20Jersey%20Store/RRVDumaniaHome.png

The edwardian delegation has arrived from the Edward City International Airport at the flight EA4311 of EdwAir.Another plane,a cessna with reporters of the Edward City Channel 7 has taked off now from the airport and will arrive 10 hours.

Warren and Sophia got to their room at the olympic village and set down their bags.

"Wow, that was a trip. I'm exhausted. Thank God they're giving us two days to rest before the Opening Ceremonies." said Warren.

"Tell me about it," said Sophia. "kind of nice to be in a place that actually has snow for the Winter Olympics, though. A tropical paradise is great for a honeymoon, but not for skiing and skating."

"True. I just hope the more natural surroundings help our team. MSPN has been crowing about our chances for a large medal haul, but they did that last time, too -- at least until that one commentator went insane and started demanding the entire team withdraw."

"Oh, yeah. I remember him. Say, snugglebear, have you talked to Luther? How's he handling the stress?" asked Sophia.

"He seems to be ok so far, but then, no one has called for his arrest yet."
said Warren. "I just hope the team wins something besides bronzes this time. I mean, we are a cold-weather nation. Insane sports writers and politicians aside, a gold would be really great for the country." said Warren.

"I won a gold in the snow angel contest." said Sophia with a mischevious smirk.

At that point, Warren hit his wife with a pillow.

From MSPN:

The 2nd winter Olympics are set to get underway in two days, and our delgation has arrived at the Olympic Village in Keto. We spoke to MOC president Luther Goran about our nation's chances for medals. He had this to say...

"I feel confident of our team's chances. Our atheletes are dedicated and well-trained and I have every confidence in them."

"Now, four years ago, after a disappointing start, there were a number of voices in Maineiacs calling for everything from our immediate withdrawl, to your arrest. Do you expect anything of the sort again, should our team fail to live up to expectations?"

"No. Absolutely not. I take comfort in the fact that, of the three of us: that Senator, your predecessor, and myself, only one of us still has a job."

Experts have said that our best chances for gold are Sean Gould in the Men's snowboard Cross, Warren and Sophia Kellerher in Ice Dance, Keenan Waters in halfpipe, Courtney Rogers or Liz Cushman in Ladies' figure Skating, and our Men's and Women's hockey teams. We wish all our atheletes the best of luck.

In related news, MOC officials have announced that our flag bearer for the Opening Ceremonies will be "Skeet" Shorter, bronze medalist at the Commerce Heights olympics. Stay tuned to MSPN for extented coverage of the 2128 olympics.

Cafundéu's athletes and staff arrived quietly, trying to avoid media attention, although there weren't many people to be avoided. Some members gave interviews, but only said few words. They aren't the favourites, but Cafundéu can surely surprise in this games.

The director of the CONC(Confederação Olímpica Nival Cafundelense - in English, the Cafundéu's Snow Olympic Confederation), Gaetano Hubert, only said: "We're ready to do our best, to give all our efforts in this games and I hope that we can win some medals".

So let's wait.

{OOC: I'll edit this to include the Mikitivity arrival, but where can I ask questions? Is there another thread? Last winter olympics one of my athletes just disappeared from his event -- which is fine, I just imagined he got sick. I also wanted to ask where I can view the schedule of events. The link in the first post on this thread did not work for me. Thanks for doing this! I've been preparing my NSWiki entries!}

Mikitivity Olympic Athletes Travel In Style!
Keto, Commerce Heights

Today 57 athletes representing Mikitivity arrived in Keto, Commerce Heights via Eule Fluglinien's new luxury airship, the Olympic Carrier. The airship made its debut this summer, ferry International Democratic Union athletes to the Summer Olympics in Ashford.

Last March 37 men and women from across the nation travled to Aeropag, Commerce Heights to represent the Thuvian and Solace mountain communities. Though only 2 athletes, Evelyn Meier and Katrina Schwartz brought back Olympic medals, the Aeropag games increased the level of interest in international sports throughout Mikitivity.

After setting the track record in the game's last March, Meier was chosen to lead the procession of Mikitivity athletes in the opening ceremonies. Her gold medal ended up sending record numbers of people to the summer toboggan courses throughout the country. It is hoped that Meier and other Mikitivity athletes will return home again with Olympic medals.

-

OOC: I tried to open the link with the scedule of events, but my computer wouldn't do it.

"Also representing The Mushroom Kingship is Lada Skoda, competing in the Women's Short Track. Skoda is expected to pick up the gold in the 500 Meter event and at least medal at the 1.5 Kilometer event. And next up, the delegation you've all been waiting for..."

NOREMARK!

"And here they come in red and blue! The kingdom is represented in these Olympic Games by a delegation of 30 athletes competing in fourty-eight different events. A welcoming roar from the crowd as Sebastian Anders, the twenty-two year old from Telemark, emerges, makes his way into the stadium holding the red and blue flag of Noremark. The twenty-two year old was chosen as the flag-bearer last week by the Prime Minister before the delegation left for Keto. A native of Telemark, Anders will be participating in various Cross-Country Skiing events, including the Pursuit, the Classical, the Sprint, the Freestyle, the Team Sprint, and the Relay. And not to far behind, here comes the rest of the delegation!

In Alpine Skiing, Yonas Ryhers, Alekson Strosfyor, Niels Krasentor, Lars Mykhailsje, Amalia Effensje, Natalia Aranosk, Yena Emsen, and Slaya Santosje will all be participating in the Men's and Women's Downhill event. In the Men's, Ryhers and Strosfyor are both in the running for a medal while in the Women's, Effensje, the oldest Nordic athlete at thirty-two years old, is hoping to make it to the podium. Next are the competitors for the Biathlon! Frone Rotske, Julien Yorndalen, and Hakan Kasandres will compete in the 10 Kilometer Sprint, the 15 Kilometer Mass Start, and the 20 Kilometer Individual. Rotske, at only nineteen years old, is hoping to medal, and odds are he'll make it onto the podium for the Mass Start. Matias Fresen, Erik Yankost, Yuri Nisje, and Riemse Noren follow, all four who will compete together in the Four-Man Bobsled and in teams of two for the Two-Man.

Following the Bobsleigh team, the Men of the Cross-Country Skiing team follow. Enrik Wilkinson, Niels Slavko, and Kristian Kasteriek are all hopeful for medals in Keto even if they are largely in the shadow of the flag-bearer, Sebastian Anders. The nation will be focused on the success of the Cross-Country team, which is definately one of the highlights of the Nordic delegation. Next are the Figure Skaters, Natalia Yelenika, Teresa Anselma, and Erika Tamens, all natives of Kanal. The girls are definately excited to be in Keto, and due to their young age, we will definately be seeing them in the Olympics to come. In Freestyle Skiing, Tomas Kasiret and Arsen Tinek will be competing in the Men's Moguls. Not known for their skill on the slopes, both are succesful models from Hillenore. Hans Somerlund and Konnor Yankovic will be competing in both the Individual and Doubles Luge events. A note of interest, both play together in the rock band Alt-Akse, which has produced many smash hits over the years. In the Short Track, Alexandra Inkovik and Karlota Solne will be competing in the Women's 500 Meters and the 1 Kilometer. The most recent covergirl for Klov Magazine's Winter Edition, Inkovik, who is now dating Hans Somerlund of the Luge, is recently divorced to Julien Yorndalen of the Biathlon. And lastly, for the Skeleton, Eli Ingemar and Joel Sornsje. And that rounds up the delegation from Noremark! Next up, the delegation from Okielahoma!"

OOC: I'll edit this to include the Mikitivity arrival, but where can I ask questions? Is there another thread?
In this thread:
If you have any questions, complaints, or a need to point out all of my mistakes, post in this thread

I also wanted to ask where I can view the schedule of events. The link in the first post on this thread did not work for me.
It should work now.

IC:

Commerce Heights Chronicle—Go to CHC SportsLine for all your Olympics betting! Now offering 4–1 odds on 12 or more silver medals for the hosts!

Olympics: Capitalizt biathletes bring high expectations to 케토 (Keto) Olympics
케토, 소코 (KETO, SK)—The athletes representing 자스연 (Jasīʼyūn) at the II Olympic Winter Games arrived today, hoping to improve on the UCS’s five gold medals from the last Games in Aeropag. Though their achievements were overshadowed by the continual silver-medal finishes of Capitalizt speed skaters, the biathlon team earned nine medals in Aeropag, four of them gold. “We think we can do even better this time,” said 안신비 (ʼAn Sin-bi), the favorite to win gold in the men’s individual event. “I trained on this course. And I’m going to win Olympic gold on this course.”
Capitalizt SLANI has also sent its team to 케토 (Keto), consisting of the fifteen silver-medal–winning entries at Aeropag. When asked about this decision, a Capitalizt SLANI representative claimed that they did not wish to compete with 자스연 (Jasīʼyūn) in events held in the UCS. “We’re sure JSY will do a great job with the Olympics. They’ve got good venues, they’ve got great athletes, and we don’t see a need to send another full team.”
Sérjia Marugana, winner of two silver medals in short-track speed skating at Aeropag, had a different perspective. “I don’t think my age will be a problem,” she said. “I may not have been able to finish on top last time, but I’ll be trying even harder this time.”

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/ksk.gif in action today

Women’s Curling, Matchday 1 KBC2, NSN
Women's curling begins play and the lovely ladies are looking to begin their campaign with some solid wins. Skip Anelle Brun will hopefully have recovered fully from a throat infection she was nursing last week.

Speed Skating—Men’s 5000 m (final) NSN-HC
Phillip Worcoat's forte is in the 10km competition, so he's not looking for a medal here, but don't expect him to cruise either; the 10km isn't for another week.

Also today: Short Track—Men’s 1500 m—Quarterfinals (NSN)

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HOCKEY
Omissions won't hurt us - Giordano

Kyle Giordano, who will captain the U-21 side in Olympic competition in Keto, says missing some of the KHL's top rookies hasn't doomed the team at all.

"On the contrary we're very strong and I think we can make a serious impression, if not earn medals," he said.

Giordano, who was drafted 4th overall by Olympique Langlois in 2003, is playing in the KHL Division 2 on loan with Noreiga City, where he has racked up 37 penalty minutes already - 30 of them 5-minute fighting majors. But he laughs off suggestions that he's the team's goon.

"Four of those were really just retaliation penalties. Your teammates get challenged, you have to stand up for them. It's only the others which were really fights."

Does he expect to exhibit similar trulucence in Keto?

"I don't think so. My role on the national team's different. Noreiga's not so physical, the national team's got a lot more beef in it, so the load's going to be spread out more."

And the Courier also presents the full roster of the national under-21 team, which will be playing Keto:

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No. Name Pos. Current team KHL-1 rights (draft pos.)
39 Marc-Andre Penn G Red Star Clayquot Red Star (2003-1)
41 Eric Settler G Llandewi Brewi* Kirkenes (2006-79)
45 John Northingham G Wentonweakes* Outineau (2004-5)

2 Jason Ingles LD Winchester* Neorvins (2003-18)
6 Paul Barrie RD Kirkenes Dragons Burnaby (2003-30)
4 Mark Dupont RD Erables Saint-Remy Mazinaw (2004-26)
5 Langdon Jordan RD Arlingsdale Arlingsdale (2006-2)
3 Kyle Giordano C LD Noreiga* Langlois (2003-4)
31 Ryan Dementer RD Wenerdere Jacks* Pimbury (2005-37)

7 Alain Carriere LW Breton Emeralds Breton (2005-1)
10 Foster Matthews C Partisan Clayquot Partisan (2004-10)
21 Andre Jeislar RW/C Rimouski* Outineau (2005-18)
13 Lyle Nonis LW Winchester* Neorvins (2004-65)
44 Steve Fielding C Dieppe* Jokerit (2006-6)
35 Pierre Vailleux RW/LW 1949 Beaujoire Capitals (2005-31)
18 Nicholas Sheridan LW/C Redswyth Redswyth (2003-42)
19 Mark Farsyth A RW/C Penticton* Burnaby (2004-64)
20 Colin Canvey A RW Prince George* Kingston (2005-22)
8 Gordon Orness LW Hamilton* Kirkenes (2003-59)
33 Sean McKinsley RW/C Ulyanov* Dinamo (2006-6)
25 James Nguyen RW Internationale Internationale (2005-9)
46 Phillip Garvin C Neorvins Wolves Neorvins (2003-151)
55 Joel Patterson LW Guevara* Laneux (2006-4)

*Loaned to KHL Division 2 team


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Winter Olympics begin in Keto
20 NOVEMBER 2006 - KETO

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The opening ceremonies in Keto will be a prelude to three weeks of intense action as Kelssek will be looking for some serious medals at the 2nd Winter Olympiad.

Kelssek is among 36 countries participating at this Winter Olympics and the Kelssekian Olympic Committee has set a target of 6 medals - low, some more cynical pundits think, in case of disappointment and so any haul can be claimed as a success - because the potential is surely there for more than that.

Snowboarding is where at least one of these golds will be hoped for. With just three spots for the halfpipe, competition for the ticket to Keto was fierce and the three who are going are undoubtedly the best that the powder of our mountains has produced. However, an all-round strong performance will be needed and alpine skiing, the ski jump, and figure skating are expected to supply the metal.

Already excitement is high and you could feel it as the delegation walked out, waving and smiling, at the opening ceremony in their white jackets trimmed with blue, led by Jean-Luc Lacroix, who will be hoping to win one of those six medals in the alpine skiing competition.

It's going to be a wild ride.

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(OOC Question: Are those UTC times in the schedule?)

From MSPN:

The opening ceremony gala at the Keto Olympics was a spectacle that I'm sure no Maineiac, neither those at home watching on vidscreen, nor especially the 140 Maineiacs atheletes in the stadium will ever forget. The ceremony was visually stunning and featured elements of the culture of Jasi'yun that, although pehaps incomprehansibile to those in this country, nonetheless delighted the senses. The atheletes oath was taken by a member of the host nation's team, the torch was lit, and the celebrating began. This reporter had a chance to talk with some of our atheletes:

"It was quite an honor carrying the tie-dye flag for our team," said Skeet Shorter. "I'll never forget it. I'm so happy that my new wife was part of the team and was there to share it with me."

Shorter married Alpine skier Mary Donaldson last year.

"This was so exciting," said ski-jumper Darren Porter. "I missed the 1st Olympics, so being here was a big thrill for me."

Porter, the 6-time National Champion suffered a broken leg just before the Commerce Heights Olympics after teammate Kenji Tanaka collided with him at the 2124 National Championships.

"We are thrilled to be here," said ice dancer Warren Kellerher. "Sophia and I will be celebrating our 2nd anniverssary here."

The Kellerhers are 5-time National Champions.

"I was so close last time," said snowboarder Sean Gould. "I want that medal."

Gould, a 9-time National Champion in the Snowboard Cross, who at 34 is one of the older members of the team, came in 4th at the Commerce Heights Olympics.

Another plane,a cessna with reporters of the Edward City Channel 7 has taked off now from the airport and will arrive 10 hours.

-Oh no,oh no.More altitude,you need more altitude!!!....
Oh,no,ohh my god.

This were the words of an air controller of the Edward City Radar Control when the cessna was carriying a group of reporters falled at the bay of edward city,there are no survivors.

Speed Skating Kicks Off Games
Sundlund Among Favourites In Tight Field

Some Anastasianian speed skating fans may remember the first Winter Olympics in Aeropag. Anastasiania did win a gold medal, though it was in the event no Anastasianian really cares about (though the rest of the world does, and it was a rather amazing achievement by Ville Hänninen). What really grated most Anastasianians, though, was the performance of Jörgen Sundlund. Coming down from a failed height training performance, the Anastasianian allround champion finished the 10,000 metre race in a time of 13:41.41 - about half a minute behind the then-Anastasianian record, and a time which sent him into last place, six seconds behind Maineiacs skater Harold Carter.

Sundlund has been training steadily ever since - he did show some improvement on the 5000 metres in Aeropag, to be fair, and was only a second off the medals with a good race. In the four-year period between, he has led Polnö SK to three Anastasianian league titles, won three allround championships, and uncounted numbers of single distances. And Sundlund is quietly confident once more.

"I feel I've hit my peak much better this year. After the Olympics I skated a practice 10k in Aeropag - it went in 13:20. So I was just really unfortunate with the first week. With the 5000 metres being the first event, I haven't gambled so much with height training this year - I think I'll be happy enough to come away with a medal to be honest, but I'll try my hardest to win the gold."

Naturally, Sundlund will have plenty of competition, though the entry list is slightly shorter than in Aeropag. From Anastasiania, Ben Dulwich is the other competitor, after running Sundlund close in a league race in Heino three weeks ago, skating a personal best 6:18.49 despite a poor finish. From Ariddia, Jean-Michel Chang (who doubles as short-track skater and will have a horrible time riding back and forth on the buses) is the defending champion, with an Olympic Record time of 6:16.52. Chang will no doubt try to impress once again, and has a standing invitation to compete for Limborg SK in the Anastasianian leagues - Limborg, situated at 900 metre altitude, hope to see the NationStates record return to their hands after Chang beat it in the indoor Aeropag rink four years ago.

New on the block are Mike Leisten and Sigisbert Özdinç of Jasi'yun, who have set fearsome times in training, and professional footballer Drew Harris of Okielahoma has impressed with good stamina. John Simmons of Tynelia and Jason Sherman of Quakmybush is not to be underrated either, and the Ropa-Topian delegation were surely even less impressed with the last Olympic Games than the Anastasianians, with Bastiaan Smit's fourth place from the 500 metres their best result. Rumours are, however, that Smit and Bas Cuypers have improved considerably since their last outing.

From MSPN:

The 2nd Winter Olympics get underway today, with the first three events, and the first medal event. Up today: The quarterfinals in the Men's 1500m short track, day 1 of Women's curling, and Maineiacs' own Miguel Fuentes skating for gold in the Men's 5000m speedskating. Stayed tuned to MSPN for continuing coverage, highlights, recaps, and athlete interviews at the 2nd Winter Olympics here in Jasi'yun.

Schedule announced; athletes ready for "big day"

As we draw near the time for the Opening Ceremony, the schedule of events has been released, enabling viewers to know which athletes will compete when. We'll be seeing only the men on day one, but it'll be short track and speedskating... the major sports for the Ariddian delegation.

Jean-Michel Chang and Derek Riise, both of whom won medals four years ago, will be taking to the track for both events. In speedskating, they'll be joined by Richard Maraîcher, and also by the first West Ariddian competitor, Henry Sailor. We understand that these four athletes may be absent from the Opening Ceremony, as they want to be in top form for the first day of the competition.

Then on day two there'll be a lot of action. We'll be seeing some ice hockey, and we'll be seeing West Ariddians Carl Salé and Amandine al Rashed show off their talent in figure skating. In the luge, West Ariddian Sabrina Co will be representing the Ariddian Isles, and in snowboarding we'll also be seeing West Ariddians and their skill, Paul Terasson and Majed al Khouja. So an important day for our western neighbours.

And of course there'll be some more short track, and we'll be hoping to see all our athletes still in the running. Don't miss any of it!

For now, all the Ariddians are staying out of the public eye, training or resting. They'll be in the spotlight very soon, hoping to do even better than four years ago... but this time with the added symbolism of the reunification flag (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Ariddian_reunification_flag).

Day 0.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11974491&postcount=1)

(And don’t tell me I managed to slani that link. :p )

Kelssek: The times are UTC.

Good start for Ariddians

Most of the Ariddians had been present for the impressive Opening Ceremony, even if there were few compatriots in the stadium. The third delegation to enter, after the two athletic monks from the Archregimancy, they nonetheless received their share of applause and cheers. Indigenous Ariddian Aeropag gold medallist Linda Uosh proudly carried the black, red and green flag, her eyes shining with excitement.

Day One of the competition was bound to be interesting, as the Olympic record holders in both events – leaving aside the curling – were Ariddians, and both participating. Derek Riise, record holder in the men’s 1500m short track event, went, appropriately enough, in heat one, against two Malabrans, a Wentlander and an Oliverran.

Short track is a fast-paced event, in which the slightest error can knock even the best athlete out of the competition. . . as Wentland’s Bob Smith was reminded when he literally crashed out of the race. Riise on the other hand looked comfortable, taking the lead early on and keeping it, crossing the finish line almost a second ahead of his closest competitor – Malabra’s Dan Noranthberg. With a time of 2:23.601, however, Riise did not break his own Olympic record, and watched the remaining heats to find out whether it would hold through these early stages. Unsurprisingly, these being the quarter-finals, it did.

“I’ll try to beat myself in the final,” he later told reporters with a grin.

In heat four, Jean-Michel Chang performed solidly, doing enough to qualify in second place, behind Quakmybush’s Arnaud Laberge.

“I knew I could get through the qualifiers without taking any excessive risks,” he said. “Well, I believed I could. This is the Olympics, and the competition really is of the highest level. Laberge is very good.”

In the men’s 5000m speedskating, the Olympic record belonged to Ariddia’s same Jean-Michel Chang, who had set it at 6:16.52 in Aeropag. Chang himself was in the race in Keto, against seventeen others, and started well enough, staying roughly with the leaders. But his form of four years ago appeared to have faded slightly, just enough to keep him away from the very best. Chang finished a slightly disappointing seventh, while Anastasiania’s Jörgen Sundlund took the first gold of the Games.

“At least my record hell!” Chang said, sounding very pleased despite today’s performance. “Over six seconds! Of course, I don’t seem up to it any more. . . But I’ve get several more races to come, and I intend to do a lot, lot better. Congratulations to Sundland, and the other medallists!”

His compatriot Richard Maraîcher finished sixteenth. All competitors successfully completed the race.

Az-cz Scroll
Keto
Bn-Blr

Az-cz athletes sighted around

With no competition on the first day for any Az-czzers and only Men's hockey and curling competing soon, with a mostly female front loaded olympics the athletes got a chance to get out and watch some of the other competitors.

We caught up with Hr-Shl & Wa-Kr who came out to watch the speed skating. Hr-Shl commented that he was amazed by the size of the legs on the skaters and Wa-Kr was amused by how violent it was. "In luge the only mistakes that affect us are our own, but these guys can get creamed by each other. It's pretty brutal."

The men's curling team was seen checking out the women's event wondering if they could get any signs about the strength of their opponents. Skip Olaf Svenderson commented that he was "definitely on his toes about the Kelssek team." He also said that Bears Armed and Rorysville looked to be strong competition. With men's curling getting underway soon we'll soon find out.

The hockey players and ski jumpers could be seen signing autographs for fans. The few fans who were around in Pink & Green were well treated by their fans, but mostly they were signing and taking pictures with fans from other countries, as few Az-cz fans were willing to brave the weather. The pull of Z-Boy on the beach or Pizelkaxrovsky on the pitch is just too much to get them out here with the ice and snow.

RM: Hello and welcome to Olympics this afternoon.

WR: Hi, and I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: This morning marked the start of the second Winter Games.

WR: Let's look at the results.

RM: The men's curling team got off to an impressive start with an 8-3 bashing of Malabra. They currently sit on top of their group tied with Rorysville, but ahead on point differencial.

WR: Troy Santos missed out on qualifying for the semi-finals of the Men's 1500m shortrack by eight hundreths of a second.

RM: In that same event Arnaud Laberge set one of the top 5 times and will race in the semi-finals.

WR: In the first medal event of the tournament, the men's speedskating 5000, Jason Sherman finished 9th, while Tim Woods finished 11th.

RM: That was all of the events for the morning. We will see you later tonight for Olympic late night. I'm Ron Mclearn

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers. Thanks and have a good day.

KETO, Trs. X - Wentland's participation in the men's 5km relay is in doubt today after Bob Smith suffered an horrific fall in the opening heat of the 1.5km individual. Smith, one of the lowest ranked competitors and skating for relay practice, was being lapped for the second time by Noranthberg and Oranq battling for 2nd place when he moved off line to let them through, caught a rut and careered into the outside wall.

Smith was taken to hospital for x-rays on his knee and if his kneecap is shattered the relay team may have to withdraw.

The accident seemed to affect room-mate Johnny Wilson, who finished stone last in the long-track 5000m, won by Sundlund of Anastasiana.

On a positive note, Vii Austin's hair today is magenta.

Most of Wentland's attention tomorrow will be on the opening heat of the women's luge, where Juliette Wilson and Desiree Slaughter are hot favourites to fight it out for the gold. Lisa Milagro makes her Olympic debut and will be hoping to put up a good showing.

Disappointment for San Adriano

The tiny Sovereign Village (http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8046/testsa51yg5.jpg)’s sole representative to the Keto Games competed today in the men’s 1500m short track event. Thomas Peruzzi, so famous in his home country that his portrait features on banknotes, went in heat 3, against Maineacs’ Toji Kaneda, Oliverry’s Nathan Stewart and Tynelia’s Larry Jacobson. In this same event four years ago, Peruzzi had won the silver medal, an achievement no Sanadrianese will forget any time soon.

This time, however, it was not to be. Peruzzi started well enough, skating past Kaneda and Jacobson, and staying close to Stewart. Then, as he closed in on the leader, he cut across the Oliverran’s path a little too close, causing his opponent to stumble. He was immediately disqualified. Back home in San Adriano, spectators let out cries of dismay.

After the race, Peruzzi was very apologetic, and congratulated Stewart on winning the heat despite the mishap.

“I was hoping to do a lot better, of course, but I’ve still got two events to compete in. Those are opportunities I don’t intend to waste.”

Later that same day, there was a surprise announcement from the Sanadrianese Royal Palace. Princess Serena (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Serena_Eu) had decided to fly to Keto to encourage the one-man national delegation. The Palace explained that this would be an official State visit, cleared with the authorities in Commerce Heights, and that Her Royal Highness would travel to the capital, Altera, before proceeding to Keto in time for Mr. Peruzzi’s next race.

The Sanadrianese athlete has said that he is “deeply honoured”, and that he will do his utmost best not to disappoint his monarch.

From MSPN:

A mixed first day of competition for Maineiacs. Toji Kaneda qualified in his quaterfinal heat of the Men's 1500m shorttrack, but will not be joined by teammate Greg Roberts in the semifinals. Our Women's curling team lost their first match 5-6 to Ropa-Topia, and Miguel Fuentes finished 17th in the Men's 5000m speedskating. We spoke to curling skip Florence Zinni to get her reaction to today's loss...

"We're disappointed, of course, but the competition is far from over. We're going over where we did well and where we made our mistakes and hopefully, we'll win next time."

"How is morale on the team?"

"Just fine. We know that no one wins everytime, and we're determined not to let it get to us."

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KBC Online has full coverage of the Keto 2006 Olympics. Visit our Olympic site (http://kelssek.tripod.com/kbc/keto06) for the latest news and a full medal tally.

Anastasiania wins first gold

21 NOVEMBER 2006 - KETO

The first gold of the Keto 2006 Winter Olympics has gone to Anastasiania in the men's speed skating 5km event. Jorgen Sundlund recorded a time of 6:23.05, 0.21 of a second before he was followed across the finishing line by Nicholas Nickleson of Ballclampistan...

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Brun defeats hosts on first day
Michael Marsden in Keto, 21 Nov

Women's curling got off to a good start today as Kelssek's Annelle Brun won against Bā Sīŋ-so of hosts Jasīʼyūn 11-5.

The result never looked in doubt, much to the chagrin of the home crowd, as the Kelssekian rink played with intensity throughout the match and made their shots consistently.

"The ice is very good here," said third Carol Lavalle, "that always makes it easier because you know what to expect."

Team Kelssek are in a group with Anastasiania, which also won 7-5 over Spindomia today, as well as hosts Jasīʼyūn. The top two teams of each group will advance to the next stage.

Team Kelssek
Skip: Annelle Brun
First: Teresa Sonberria
Second: Brenda Losbome
Third: Carol Lavalle
Alternate: Linda Mickelson

An Uphill Battle in the Downhill Event

Miervatia Today
Keto, Commerce Heights

Tomorrow afternoon Victor DuVall returns to the slopes to take another shot at Olympic glory. Last March DuVall did not finish the race, after losing control and falling down. "The way I figure it, so long as I complete the race this time, I've done better," remarked DuVall when it was announced he'd be given another shot.

DuVall will be joined on the slopes by Thomas Bela, a bricklayer from Ossendorf. When asked about his feelings about tomorrows event, "I'm hoping Victor will be able to make up for last year," replied Bela. "It is sort of an embarrassment for a ski instructor such as DuVall fall. Me ... I'm a bricklayer. People will expect me to fall. But the truth is, the ground is too cold for maintaining the village streets, that I spend just as much time on the slopes as Victor."

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PIKA CITY PIONEER

A decent 1st day at the 2nd Winter games as Qazox began play.

The Women's Curling team began against Mikitivity and won 7-5, despite allowing points in the 9th inning, but the match was almost clinched anyway, but this lack of focus could hurt in the long run

Score Summary

TEAM 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10--Final
QZX 2-0-0-1-0-2-2-0-0-0 --7
MKT 0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-4-0 --5

In other action, in the men's 1500 Short Track Speed Skating quarterfinals, In heat 3, Ivan Terrib, finshed a close 3rd, but was eliminated, while in heat 4 a last lap charge by Jacque Strappe, moved him into the semifinals.

So a good start so far as the Curling team is 1-0 and we have a semi-finalist in ST speedskating. Hopefully tommorrow will be a better day.

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Alpine Skiing: Men’s Downhill (live 2pm, KBC2)
Flag-bearer Jean-Luc Lacriox is tipped for a strong finish and could be capable of winning Kelssek's first medal of the games.

Men's Ice Hockey, Day 1 (KBC-S, NSN-HC)
A hockey double-header on TV is in store as Kelssek's U-21s will be playing live on KBC Sports while NSN Hockey Channel carries a game which has not been decided on as of press time.

Snowboarding: Men's halfpipe qualification (live 2am, KBC2)
Colin Patterson, Mark Hendon, and Alexandre Marcion will take to the 'pipe and as qualification should be a formality, look for them to do some experimentation once they've recorded the scores they need.

Men's Curling (live 2:30am KBC-S)
The men get the stones gliding on their Olympic campaign today. The women won a solid victory yesterday and their male counterparts will be looking to do the same.

Biathlon (live 2am NSN)
Brandon Shelley isn't a medal favourite but will be hoping to put in a good showing for the 20km individual event.

Day 1 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11978119&postcount=2)

From MSPN--

Maineiacs resumed its usual spot in the world of International Sport -- the bottom. Keenan Waters failed to defend his bronze in the Men's halfpipe, our Men's Hockey Team lost 2-4 to Malabra, Marge Stanton was 18th in the first run of the Women's Luge, more than 6 1/2 seconds out of first, Toji Kaneda could only qualify for the "B" final in the Men's 1500m short track, with only an outside chance at a medal, the Pairs figure skating team of Delacroix/Poisson is 10th after the short program, also with little chance at a medal, and Toby Meyers was 22nd in the Men's Downhill. This reporter is sad to report that a malaise has already set in among the Maineiacs atheletes; many seem to be thinking "oh, no. Not again!" This reporter would remind you all that the Olympics have only just begun, and that many more events have yet to be run.

Keto Olympics - Day II Mid-Day Update
The Kanal National Newspaper - Online Edition

The II Winter Olympiad in Keto is now in full-swing, and Noremark has captured it's first medal, a gold in the Men's Downhill event! Alekson Strosfyor, the twenty-two year old Kallestel native, raced to the finish this morningin record time, defeating David Saar of The Mushroom Kingdom by .08 seconds to finish first. The bronze went to Frederick Alliri of Casari while Strosfyor's teammates finished twelfth (Ryhers), 23rd (Krasentor), and 25th (Mykhailsje) in the event. The National Anthem of Noremark played for the first time amidst an audience of thousands at the medal ceremony, in which many key Nordic figures attended. Strosfyor was heard shouting out the national motto (Ryk En Anhers!) as he left the plaza. The medal puts Noremark tied in first place in the medal standings with Anastasiania.

In brief, Day I began with pool play in Women's Curling. The Group D match between Dumania and Michigan-Superior, along with the Group C match between the hosts Jasīʼyūn and Kelssek were broadcasted live during primetime on TeleNore 2, which brought in millions of viewers. Also shown live earlier in the day, the Men's 5000 meter Speed Skating finals where Jörgen Sundlund of Anastasiania claimed the Gold, in front of Nicholas Nickleson of Ballclampistan and Sigisbert Özdinç of Jasīʼyūn. Although not broadcasted on Nordic television, the Men's 1500m Short Track Quarterfinals took place, where cinderella-man Thomas Peruzzi of San Adriano was disqualified and eliminated from the competition.

Asides from the Men's Downhill Alpine Skiing event this morning, the Figure Skating Pairs Short Program was broadcasted live before sunrise. Later in the day a few Hockey matches were also shown live, including the Group B match between Jasīʼyūn and Elves Security Forces and the Group C match between Ballclampistan and Ropa-Topia, where Ballclampistan thrashed it's opponent with a final score of 8-1. The Men's Halfpipe followed, where a total of three Kelssekian snowboarders qualified in the top three positions. The morning Olympic broadcasts ended with Women's Luge Singles, where Evelyn Meier of Mikitivity set an exciting track record to finish first. Not broadcasted, the Men's 1500 meter Semifinals took place, where Nordic favorite Jacque Strappe of Qazox failed to qualify.

Later today, the Men's 20 kilometer Individual Biathlon will be shown live on TeleNore Sports, where Frone Rostke, Julien Yorndalen, and Hakan Kasandres will all compete for Noremarks second medal. Also to be braodcasted, the Men's 1500 meter and the Women's 3000 meter Short Track finals, the Women's Freestyle Skiing Moguls finals, and a few matches from the Men's Curling tournament. Not shown will be the Women's Cross-Country Skiing 15 kilometer Pursuit, the Women's Luge Singles, and the Men's Snowboarding Halfpipe Qualification runs. For exact times, please check your local listings. From Keto, that concludes today's mid-day Olympic report!

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News, results, summaries, broadcast schedules, medal tallies... it's all at KBC Online's Olympic coverage (http://kelssek.tripod.com/kbc/keto06/index.html).

Lacroix just misses bronze in tight finish

In a nailbiting photo-finish where the top ten finished within one second, Kelssek's Pierre-Luc Lacroix and Martin Perry narrowly missed out on climbing the podium in the men's downhill event, taking 4th and 10th places respectively while Alekson Strosfyor of Noremark took the gold.

"I'm disappointed, of course, but it was a good run. There's a sense that I missed out, but I did a good run and I have no regrets." Lacroix, who was Kelssek's flag-bearer at the opening ceremony, told the KBC.

Martin Perry, however, did much better than expected and the Haligonian was very pleased to have finished so close to the winning time. The 1:47.87 he recorded was also a personal best.

"It's a good progress for me. I'll definitely be back for another go, maybe a medal next time."

The silver and bronze medals went to The Mushroom Kingship's David Saar and Casari's Frederick Alliri respectively.
___

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EVENING OLYMPIC SUPPLEMENT - The latest midway through day 2.

Halfpipe qualifiying easy as 1-2-3

Hopes of an all-Kelssek podium for at the snowboarding half-pipe were raised today as Mark Hendon, Colin Patterson and Alexandre Marcion qualified in the top three spots. However, the competition is tough as Marcion tied for third with Malabra's Xadna Qor.

The finals will be on Thursday and with qualification assured, the three say they'll be treating the second qualifier as a practice run.

"I'm going to throw down some tricks I've been working on and see what the judges think," said Marcion, a native of Outineau who honed his skills at the Sainte-Francois area where snowboarding was first introduced to Beaulac.

Mark Hendon, meanwhile, plans on spending tonight in a hot tub back at the athletes' village and getting ready for Thursday.

"The competition's a lot tougher than I expected, to be honest, there are some good fellas here and I'm making some friends, it's great."

Record set in the luge
It looks like only a matter of time before Malabra will get its first medal as Evelyn Meier set a new track record in the women's luge singles, with a time of 47.015 two-tenths of a second faster than the previous record of 47.202. Kelssek's Esther White was near the back of the pack in 35th spot with a time of 48.346.

Teterboro, White score second in short program
In figure skating, Kelssek's Derrick Teterboro and Jessica Whyte kept medal hopes alive with a strong second place in the short program segment of the pairs competition. Kelssek's other pair, Kyle Wilderman and Ashley Cole, are in the middle of the pack after a stumble cost them some points.

MENS ICE HOCKEY TEAM CAUSES GREAT HAVOC

KETO- It is day two of the second Winter Olympics and already there has been an upset. In a suprise twist the Male Dumanian Ice Hockey team drawed with the powerfull Arridian side. The whole crowd of 4000 Arridian supporters where stund as the Dumanian side came back after half time after being 3-0 down to draw with the score line being 3-3. We are very proud of our team and wish them good luck with ther second game and we hope that they can bring back the gold for us.

DIE VOLKSBLAD
TUESDAY ISSUE

Dumani, hockey has three periods not two halves.

The Fordavia Journal reports on a succesful opening day for it's olympic participants. Despite her very limited experience Teris Listine put in a brave performance in the first run of the womens luge. Although finishing in last place of the competitors who completed the course it was still a remarkable acheivement.

'I just wanted to get to the bottom without crashing' remarked Teris.

Just the fact that she is attending the games will be good for the future.

'I can't believe i'm here surrounded by all these wonderful athletes and i'll be able to learn so much from all of them'

Fordavia's more experienced Luge slider Gerissa Hikonolt kept up her improvment with a career best slide of 47.479 leaving her in 10th place after the first run.

'I can't believe i managed to finish in the top 10 after the first run', she commented.
'But i've got alot of hard work ahead to maintain this performance and give all those Fordavians back at home something to feel proud about.'

The Men's Ice hockey team also competed on the international stage for the first time today. A monumentous defensive effort almost saw them hold on to a 2-2 tie, but a goal scored five minutes from time gave Anastasiania a 3-2 victory.

After falling behind 2-0 in the first period it looked like it was going to be a comfortable win for Anastasiania, but the second period started brightly and a sharply taken goal from Zuket Huytde brought Fordavia back into the game, then mid-way through the second period a second goal, scored on the break-away again from Huytde levelled the scores.

The third period was largely a defensive effort as the superior experience and fitness of Anastasiania began to count.

Just as it looked like a surprise draw could be acheived, a slip from the otherwise impressive defender Muyer Soos allowed Anastasiania in for the winning goal.

The Fordavian Leader Tasug Keergh was said to be delighted by the performance and showed just how well his team have done in the short preparation period.

Az-cz Scroll
Keto
Bn-Blr

Hockey team furious with draw, take anger out on Quakmybush

When the groups were announced for the hockey draw the Az-czzers were not pleased. Not only had they been drawn into a six team group, but they had been drawn into a super hard six team group. On the question of experience there was no question that their group was unreasonably tough. All six of the teams in their group competed in the Cherry Cup, where as only ESF competed in the cherry cup from group B, NO ONE from the five team group C, and only Kelssek from five team group D. Based on that alone it was clear that group A was the hardest group. But the group also included both finalists from the cherry cup and Liverpool England, who also advanced to the knockout stages. It clearly seemed as if Commerce Heights rigged the competition to favor smaller less powerful sporting nations.

As such the pressure was really on. Losing an opening round match would be quite damaging to medal hopes, and the Az-cz team just managed to take out Quakmybush. The difference in the game was truly discipline. All three of the Az-czid goals came from the powerplay, and the one time the Pink & Green gave up a powerplay Quakmybush found a goal. The only goal scored from 5-5 play came near the end of the game leaving Quakmybush little time to find a third tying goal.

The Gnomes opened the scoring at the 8:34 mark when Sak-Ik found Hey-Dk. The Gnomes added a second at 15:55 in the period on a 5-3 with Sak-Ik taking it in himself.

Quakmybush struck back in the start of the second period to keep things close, after Teemu Nordquist earned himself 2 minutes in the box. Despite long stretches of end to end play and no penalties in the period after that neither team found a way to crack the net.

Another Quakmybush penalty set up the third Az-czid goal midway through the third period when Dru-Ri found the back of the net to get all three Az-cz first line forwards on the board.

The final goal came at with just 58 seconds left in the period. Just as Quakmybush looked set to pull their goalie they set the lamp ringing. They left him out of the net and in fact won the faceoff but they couldn't find a good shot in that time and the Gnomes escaped with the win.

The victory keeps the playoffs in sight, but the Pink & Green have a long road ahead of them.

In other news the Az-cz curlers get underway tomorrow. They hope to provide a strong ray of hope for Az-cz in these olympics.

Dumani, hockey has three periods not two halves.

ACTUALY THERE ARE FOUR PERIODS LIKE IN BASKETBAL BUT THAT ISN'T MY POINT WE CAUSED AN UPSET. AND THERE IS A HALF TIME.

OOC: Dumania, Ariddia has never been “powerful” in ice hockey. ;) Few semi-tropical nations are. I also doubt there are 4000 Ariddians in attendance. I don’t even know whether there are 4000 seats available, but in any case ice hockey has never drawn in major Ariddian crowds. And the number of Ariddian supporters in Keto altogether is somewhat limited due to the constraints of Ariddia’s moneyless economy – although I suppose there could be a great number of West Ariddians.

IC:
West Ariddians in the limelight

Today saw mainly West Ariddians representing the Ariddian Isles’ delegation, and supporters from the PDSRA enthusiastically cheered for their western neighbours and former enemies. The Ariddian Cold War seemed but a distant memory as communists cheered for capitalists, and Ariddian Islanders set aside their differences to unite for a common cause: sport.

Carl Salé and his beautiful partner Amandine al Rashed dazzled spectators in the figure skating event, but made a few mistakes and were awarded the comparatively low score of 46.25, putting them in eighteenth place. By contrast, Ropa-Topia’s John and Anne Buitendam impressed the judges, coming first with a high score of 68.37.

Ariddia’s only representative in the women’s luge competition was also a West Ariddian, Sabrina Co. Spectators watched eagerly as no fewer than thirty-nine athletes took turns to go shooting down the slope, guiding their luge skillfully to the finish line. Co took a respectable seventeenth place after the first run.

West Ariddians Paul Terasson and Majed al Khouja were the Isles’ representatives in snowboarding, a sport which few Ariddians had taken much interest in until now. Up against twenty-five opponents, the two young men displayed impressive skill. Al Khouja finished ninth, while his compatriot, with a score of 29.2, missed out on an automatic qualifying spot by just three tenths of a point. Both said they were slightly disappointed, but still confident and very glad to be taking part.

Kelssek dominated the snowboarding event in an amazing display, its three athletes – Hendon, Patterson and Marcion – taking the first three places after the first run, and proving their country’s impressive dominance in this sport. Spectators will now be waiting with great interest to see whether Kelssek’s boys can grab all three spots on the podium.

But there were also PDSRA citizens in action today, and spectators followed the men’s short track semi-finals with great hope and interest. Jean-Michel Chang went in the first semi, against Noranthberg of Malabra, Hornet of the Mushroom Kingdom, Stewart of Oliverry and Laberge of Quakmybush. Chang was one of the favourites, and indeed started off well, staying within the leading three for most of the race. But in this very physical race, jostled by equally skilled competitors, he eventually lost ground, and crossed the finish line in last place, the expression on his face suggesting how annoyed he was at himself.

His compatriot Derek Riise, the current Olympic record holder, went in the second race. Four years ago, Riise had set the Olympic record in the qualifying heats, and had made it into the final. . . before being disqualified during the final’s race. Skilled enough to go for gold, he had come to Keto with a point to prove, a record to defend and a medal to win.

His opponents were Kaneda of Maineiacs, Baloch of Commerce Heights JSY, Strappe of Qazox and Parker of Ropa-Topia. Riise looked focused and determined, and got going with a bang, skating hard. For about two minutes he alternated between first and third place, before leaving Kaneda behind and battling it out with Baloch. The two men swept across the finish line almost simultaneously, but it was clearly Baloch who had won the race. Riise was into the final, but he did not appeared particularly happy with himself.

“I wasn’t trying to win the semi at all costs,” he stated later. “The main thing was to get into the final, and I’ve done that. The next race is going to be very tough, but it’s a whole new race. We’ve all earned our place there. We all have it in us to get a medal.”

Lastly, today was the beginning of the men’s ice hockey. Ariddia is in Group C, with Ballclampistan, Dumania, Race Track and fellow Uhuhlanders Ropa-Topia. Ice hockey is far from being a major sport in Ariddia, but the team attracted attention for including players from all three Ariddian states. The “international” team fared well enough, holding Dumania to a three-all draw, despite losing control of the match somewhat after a very good start.

No medals in sight yet, but Derek Riise is in a short track final. . . and the speedskating, which gave the Ariddians four gold medals in Aeropag, has yet to begin.

No it's definitely 3 20 minute periods with two intermissions, but no halftimes. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockey#Periods_and_overtime

ACTUALY THERE ARE FOUR PERIODS LIKE IN BASKETBAL BUT THAT ISN'T MY POINT WE CAUSED AN UPSET. AND THERE IS A HALF TIME.

Do you even know what you're talking about? Avoid all-caps, please, it's rude.

Ahh, reminds me of the story of the crowd in Texas watching the Waco Wizards who started to leave after the second period... Perhaps their team's been leaving at the second intermission, accounting for why a draw against Ariddia is a "good result"?

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Ropa-Topian Sports Alliance Official JournalBlogSpace - Second Winter Olympics
About the RTSA (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Ropa-Topian_Sports_Alliance) :: Recent entries :: Previous Olympic Games


First results are in
The Second Winter Olympics -- again in the United Capitalizt States like the first games four years ago, but this time in the city of Keto -- have started. In no particular order, but not chaotically either, the first results:

Speed Skating
The first speed skating event on the schedule was the men's 5000m, with Ropa-Topian skaters Bas Cuypers and Bastiaan Smit. Smit's time of 6:28.91 was only enough for a tenth place, while Cuypers was visibly disappointed when his time of 6:25.05 turned out to be good for a fourth place only.

Curling
The women's team, who won silver in Aeropag, had a decent start with a 6-5 victory over Maineiacs. The match was disturbed briefly when a rather enthusiastic curling fan from Ropa-Topia ran onto the ice naked. The 45 year old Jason M. from Uhuh-Topia had to be taken to a hospital to be treated for minor frostbite in several of his extremities.

Short Track
The 1500m for men started with the quarter finals, and with Peter Parker and Isaac England both in the second heat. Parker finished second (2:23.863), qualifying for the semi-finals, while England finished fourth (2:24.959).
In the semi-final, Parker had a less than optimal start and this most likely cost him a place in Final A, but with a fourth place (2:24.522) he still qualified for Final B.

Alpine Skiing
Only a day into the Games, and it already went downhill. That is to say, the men's alpine skiers went downhill. Jeffrey Cussler did this in 1:48.63, which resulted in a fifteenth place. His colleague Klaas Jansma (the scoreboard seemed to think his given name was 'Klass') was a fraction slower (1:48.70), and finished eighteenth.

Luge
The first run for the women saw Marline de Gier finish sixth in 47.361 seconds, and Karin Flowers in 47.909 seconds (32nd place).

Figure Skating
The gold medal winners from the First Games in Aeropag again impressed the judges. John and Anne Buitendam received 68.37 points in the short program. The other pair, Jim de Korte and Veronica Brahms, had the problem that De Korte seemed to have forgotten this event was not the individual one, as for the first ten seconds he completely ignored Brahms. When he finally realized there was another person on the ice, there was not enough time left to improve their score. With 41.08 points the judges were still relatively generous.

Ice hockey
As expected, a rather bad performance by the men's team. Their first match, against Ballclampistan, resulted in a 8-1 victory for Ballclampistan. For a team that just entered for the fun of it, not a bad result.

Posted by RTSA

Brandon Shelley breathed deeply, cradling the case with his rifle and mentally preparing himself, imagining all the targets flipping obediently, as the van juddered along towards the venue. Two reporters were chatting in the back about the hygiene habits of their roommates.

"At least your guy wipes it up. I'm with this weirdo sound guy from the NSN. Doesn't clean up and doesn't seem to know what soap is."

The van came to a stop. Brandon looked out and recognised the luge venue. A young woman, Esther White, came out from behind.

"Good luck, Brandon," she said, smiling.

"You too." he said.

"Oh, save it for you. You're the one with the chance for a medal. See you tonight," said Esther, and stepped out of the van, slamming the door closed.

His breathing control was forgotten as he realised he had the hots for her and wanted to fulfil that prophecy - just so he'd have something to start a conversation back at the village.

Meier Sets Track Record

Miervatia Today
Keto, Commerce Heights

Earlier today Saint Katrina’s Evelyn Meier set the track record in the first run of the women’s single luge at the Keto games. Meier, who brought home Mikitivity’s only Olympic gold medal last March, has been training with teammates Casandra Rufin and Margot Berger for months. In a sport that is defined by a lot of luck, Meier attributes much of her luck to her well designed sleds.

“This is only the first run, and while I honestly am humbled by the attention our sport has received, there are three more runs,” replied Meier when asked about the games. “It is important to note that Juliette Wilson and Dana Kirkpatrick also had amazing runs, with all three of us beating the previous track record.” The previous track record on the Keto course was 47.202 seconds. “Casandra also had a great run. There is no mistaking it, we all are doing well these games and are all running the course faster than expected.”

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Day 1.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11979877&postcount=3)

It was meant to be the duel that would define the games. The Wilsation against Deathray.

But the nation of Wentland is in mourning after Desiree Slaughter suffered a disaster in the first run of the luge.

For a nation that deifies its sliders, a gold on the ice is the epitome of achievement. And with Slaughter the reigning world champion it looked as if she would be in a fierce battle with Juliette Wilson for gold.

Instead, half-way down her run, in a split time the same as Wilson's to the hundredth, a yell could be heard. Spectators looked on in astonishment as Slaughter came down the ice with a tumbling luge behind her.

It was only in the replay that it was evident what had happened - her left rail broke under the g force of the Humpback. Slaughter was tipped off her luge that rolled and she was extremely lucky not to be injured as it pursued her down the slope.

She stood on the ice in astonished dismay, before slowly dragging herself off the slope. Four years hard work all evaporated in an instant.

The only plus point for Wentland was that after two runs Wilson was in a clear lead from Casandra Rufin of Mikitivity. The third string on the team, Lisa Milagro, had had a blistering first run to be on the brink of breaking into the medals but a dreadful second saw her plummet down the list. She stared at her left runner as she came off the ice and the Wentland luges are now being examined by experts. With the men's and doubles to come the last thing that the team need is a set of defective luges.

It was not a great day for Wentland all round. So far the Gentoos have come last or joint last in four events and both Bob Davis and Emmie Scholfield were not far off in the skiing and speedskating.

Wentland's hopes for an early medal now lie with Juliette Wilson - and a fractious luge.

AUSTIN UPDATE: today Bostin Veiii Austin's hair is chartreuse.

RM:Hello and Welcome to Olympics this afternoon. I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Here are the results from last night.

WR: Amanda Holmes had her first qualifying run for Women's Luge, her time was 47.498.

RM: Also in the women's Luge Hazel Long had a time of 47.573.

WR: While Remi Tanguay had a accident and did not finish. The good news is, that she sustained only minor cuts and bruises.

RM: In Men's 1500m Short Track speeding action, Arnaud Laberge qualified for the final with a time of 2:23.794.

WR: In Men's Half Pipe action Tim Wagner had a 28.0 on is first round.

RM: While Chris Burgess had an 27.3 on his first run.

WR: Bryan Benson fell, and his 24.5 score showed it.

RM: None of the snowboarders qualified directly on this attempt.

WR: The Men's hockey team got off to a disappointing start with a 3-2 loss to Az-Cz.

RM: They just couldnt stay out of the penalty box.

WR: Now, the results from this morning

RM: Rodney Swanson finished 9th in the Men's 20 km Individual Biathlon, a little over two minutes behind the winner.

WR: While in that same event Patrice Leblanc finished 13, abit under three minutes behind.

RM: The first medal of the games was won by Jules Jaques, in the Women's Moguls. She had a score of 23.43.

WR: In the same Colleen Guzman finished .28 points behind 3rd. Had her run been faster it could have been two Quakmybushians on the podium.

RM: Still in the Moguls, Alexis Courtois finished 10th.

WR: In the Women's Individual Luge, Hazel Long sits 15th after two runs.

RM: While Amanda Holmes sits 25th after two.

WR: Another medal was won, this time on the rink. Arnaud Laberge finished 2nd in the Men's 1500m Short track event. He finished .075 second behind.

RM: Bryan Benson put up a blazing 25.8 run in snowboarding, this run qualified him.

WR: Chris Burgess had a run of 18.1.

RM: While Tim Wagner had a run of 15.7

WR: Helen Palmer finished 6th in the Women's 3000m speed skating event.

RM: While Wilma Santiago finished 9th.

WR: The Men's Curling team got creamed by Tynelia 9-5.

RM: Quakmybush currently sits 3rd in the medal standings with two medal, one gold and one silver.

WR: Well that's all the time we have. I'm Wendy Rogers

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn. See you later.

From the

Allenby Times
Your Central Source of Anastasianian News; in all three languages

Anastasiania Win First Gold Of Games
Chang Hampered By Short-Track Participation?

The 5,000 metres speed skating competition turned out to be as exciting as the previewers had imagined, though the quality of skating was not the highest. Jörgen Sundlund, the Anastasianian champion, took his first Olympic medal of his career, but was involved in a tense battle with Ballclampistan skater Nicholas Nickleson.

It was a close race throughout. After Philip Worcoat and Johnny Wilson had skated through the first pair in mediocre times, things rapidly got better, and in the third pair Ben Dulwich skated against Bas Cuypers. Dulwich was the faster out on the first laps, but had gone for a slightly too ambitious schedule. He said afterwards that "I thought the conditions were better. The coach and I had planned on going out at 6:20 pace - I managed that but had to dig too hard and it cost me at the end." Indeed, Cuypers sneaked past with a lap to go, and despite Dulwich drafting behind into the last inner, Cuypers kept his advantage and won by half a second.

In the fifth pair, another threat materialised. John Simmons of Tynelia had been drawn against the Jasi'yun skater Sigisbert Özdinç, and with both skaters recording solid training times and good passing times, it looked as though Cuypers' time would not stand. However, Simmons fell behind in the second half of the race, and the Jasi'yun skater Özdinç had to pace himself - and finished with a poor last lap of 31.3.

Sundlund skated in the seventh pair. "An advantage," he said later. "Ben was kind enough to tell me of the conditions out there. It wasn't too hot in the hall and I think the ice was a bit too hard for us long-distance skaters." Against him was the Ballclampistan skater Nicholas Nickleson, who opened ferociously. Sundlund took a more measured pace, and was two seconds down at the 3,000 metre mark, with Nickleson in a time just better than Dulwich. On the last lap, however, Sundlund had advantage of last inner, and led the race for exactly 108 metres - the most crucial ones.

Jean-Michel Chang skated in the ninth and final pair; first, Bill Smith of Tynelia and Mike Leisten of Jasi'yun threatened, but were ultimately unsuccessful. He set himself up on the Olympic Record passing times, and at 3,000 metres his time was a splendid 3:48. By that time, however, his lap times had blasted up to 31, and Chang looked visibly tired from the day's work; Leisten came closer, but ultimately could not beat Smith, and by 4,600 metres, when his passing time was shown to be identical to Sundlund's, the Anastasianian began realising his achievement. Chang fought through his last outer, fighting through pain to finish seventh, while Sundlund's time of 6:23.05 - only the 13th fastest in Anastasianian history - was enough to win the gold medal.

Sundlund's story is a remarkable one. The allrounder came to the Aeropag games brimming with confidence, having gone unbeaten in domestic races for three years on the two longest distances - and then met the wall brutally on the 10,000 metres, skating laps of over 35 by the end of the race. Everything from the race to his preparations to Anastasianian skating in general was roundly criticised, and no one remembered that he later came fifth on the 5000 metres, when the immediate effects of his highland stay had worn off. Nevertheless, he came back, won a dozen Anastasianian titles despite being roundly stretched by Ben Dulwich (who won the allround title last year and showed himself as a heir to the Games in four years).

The 32-year-old Sundlund was quite up front about his future career plans: "I'll train for as long as I care to train. Obviously my motivation has gone down a bit now that I've won an Olympic title, but really, I'm having great fun on the skates and I don't want to stop just yet."

---

Following day:

Tillwald Makes It Two
Glorious Week Of Anastasianian Sport Capped

Though Anastasiania are not on top of the medal table, they have still impressed their own population with sporting prowess over the past week. Today, Sara Tillwald's legendary free style skiing performance, Ulla Nilsson's rapid moguls run, and good football and ice hockey performances have buoyed the nation's happiness ratings to their highest level yet - at least among a statistically representative selection of sports journalists.

Today's skiing win was convincing, even in a small field. Kristina Ullegård, the youngster of the squad, was allowed to drag up the pace early in her specialty, the classical style. A group of five skiers were together at the ski and style change, but crucially Tillwald was the only one with a compatriot in the group - thus allowing her to stay behind and get moral support.

Indeed, Tillwald said that was a crucial help. When Ullegård finally admitted "I'm gone, get away" Tillwald did so in the first available climb, splitting the small group into pieces. With no one responsible for setting the pace at the back, Tillwald could defile to victory, winning by over 50 seconds, with over a minute down to Ullegård.

Speed skating was a bit of a disappointment today, however, after Sundlund's legendary performance yesterday. With Linda Uosh of Ariddia winning her second gold in four years, Marie Harrison and Frederica Rickardsson were way behind, ending in seventh and eighth after too optimistic openings.

In the biathlon, Tomas Swanstedt surprised many with his fourth place, coming as a result of perfect shooting - however, he wasn't quick enough to seriously challenge any of the medallists, An Sin-bi of Jasi-yun winning gold after extremely quick shooting while Benjamin Rogers, from the tropical nation of Ariddia, surprised many after a fantastic final lap which could not, however, repair the damage done by the one penalty minute received on shooting three.

Sharon Williams, who finished fourth at the last Olympic Games, has also impressed on the first day of the luge run. Her second-run time of 47.083, the third best of the Games thus far, has put her on course for a medal, though Mikitivity's Evelyn Meier who had a terrible error on the second run is chasing close behind. James Wood in the halfpipe fell in the first run, but qualified with the fifth-best point sum in the second, while Ulla Nilsson was the quickest down the moguls slope but failed somewhat on the second jump to finish just behind Mikitivity's Angela Neubauer. And in the team events, Zuket Huytde of Fordavia was a one-man attack against Anastasiania, but couldn't prevent a 3-2 win for the blue-and-yellows when Harry Bell pushed the puck over the line. Finally, woman skip Miia Rautiainen helped her team to an opening win over tournament favourites Spindomia when she cleared two Spindomian stones in the ninth end to take two points and an unassailable 7-4 lead.

Uosh smashes own record!
First gold for Ariddia

There was mixed news from Keto today, as hopes and expectations were both rewarded and dashed. Sabrino Co made her second luge run, and this time surprised spectators – and delighted Ariddian Islanders – by coming second. This places her in seventh place overall, and suggests that a medal may not be entirely in the realm of the impossible for this skilled West Ariddian.

In the second run of the snowboarding half-pipe, however, Majed al Khouja and Paul Terasson both fared poorly, despite their very good performances earlier. Mistakes added up and cost them dearly, keeping them well out of a qualifying place.

In biathlon, surprise Aeropag bronze medallist François Riverdale had put on his skis once more, the successful Ariddian underdog receiving tremendous support from fans. This time, however, he struggled through the twenty kilometre race, bravely keeping up with the pack but crossing the line, tired but smiling, only in twenty-third place. He received a hero’s welcome from Ariddian supporters.

Riverdale had, however, been preceded over the line by another biathlon surprise, his West Ariddian team mate Benjamin Rogers, whom few had expected anything of. Following a heroic effort to stay with the top five, Rogers somehow mustered a last spurt of energy and skiied across just three and a half seconds behind Maineacs’ Damon Ryan, taking a well deserved bronze medal. The gold went to Commerce Heights JSY’s An Sin-bi.

“I’m ecstatic!” Rogers said. “I’m amazed, really. I put all my effort, all my determination into it. I wasn’t actually thinking about the medals. I was just doing the best I possibly could. . . and somehow I came third. I’m hugely grateful to my family and all my friends, and everyone who’s supported me.”

Rogers and Riverdale warmly congratulated each other, displaying that much lauded team spirit despite coming from opposite sides of the “Ariddian Cold War”. Benjamin Rogers is West Ariddia’s first ever Olympic medallist. And in this instance, his citizenship does make a difference. While medal winners from the PDSRA never receive monetary rewards for their exploits, West Ariddian Rogers will receive a large financial congratulatory gift from his sponsors, and can expect lucrative offers from various big companies to star in advertisements. When asked about this, he declined to comment.

The big events however, for most Ariddian supporters, were the short track and speedskating races. Derek Riise was in the final of the men’s 1500m short track event, in an attempt to win his country’s first gold of these Games, and hopefully break his own Olympic record in the process. Seen as the favourite, he was faced with very difficult competition, and eventually skated across the finish line in fourth place. His face said it all. All his training had brought him only to the most tantalising of positions, the foot of the podium. . . 0.402 seconds away from Olympic glory.

Masking his disappointment somewhat, he had fairly little to comment on.
“As I said, at this level any one of us could have won it. We’d all earned our place in the final. In the end, the best athlete took gold, and that was Baloch. Full credit to him. I’m glad to have been in the final. . . and at least my record still holds! By over a full second.”

Still, there was the beginning of speedskating to look forward to, with the Women’s 3000m race. In Aeropag the Ariddians had snatched up five medals in speedskating, four of those gold. And three of those gold medals had been won by the two ladies taking part in this new race in Keto: double gold-medallist Jessica Silversmith, record holder in the one thousand metre event, and, perhaps more fearsome yet, reigning 3000m Champion and Olympic record holder Linda Uosh, back to defend both her title and her record.

Ariddians had rightly come to see their country as a speedskating superpower – modest as that achievement might seem to some – and Uosh’s status as a clear favourite only increased the pressure on her as she lined up with her thirteen competitors.

As Uosh pulled swiftly into the lead, it soon appeared the biggest threat was going to come from the two athletes from Commerce Heights JSY – Anne Hopkins and Nancy Willis – as well as her own compatriot Silversmith. The four women skated hard for a place on the podium, Silversmith and Willis eventually losing ground, until a triumphant Uosh came in first, over two seconds before Hopkins. The Indigenous Ariddian lady had successfully defended her title. . . and had smashed her own Olympic record by almost four seconds, setting a new one at 4:02.20. The look of pure joy on her face was unmistakable. She hugged Hopkins, Willis, Silversmith and several other of her opponents before picking up the Ariddian reunification flag and the PDSRA flag, and skating round the track one more time, waving them delightedly.

Once again, Linda Uosh was the first Ariddian to step up onto the highest step of the podium in a Winter Olympiad. She held on to both flags and smiled throughout the national anthem, her gold medal round her neck, her face beaming with joy.

There will be more short track tomorrow, as well as several other exciting events. Tune in, and watch to find out how your country’s athletes are doing!

From MSPN--

Silver for Ryan; Bjornsdottir, Chapman in Top 10; Curling victory; Iverson, Kaneda fall short

22-year old Damon Ryan, the toast of the little town of Sleepy Hollow, has now become the toast of Maineiacs.

Ryan has done something that no other Maineiac has done: won an Olympic Silver medal. Ryan took silver in the Men's 20k individual biathlon, with a time of 57:17.3, just enough to come in 3.5 sec. ahead of 3rd place finisher Benjamin Rogers, of Arridia. Gold went to An Sin-bi of the host nation. An finished a full 19.5 sec ahead of Ryan, who took penalties for missing 3 targets. Ryan said of his race: "I can't believe it! I was so lucky out there! if I had missed even just one more target, I'd have gotten bronze. I think this bodes really well for our Biathlon team. The fact that I got kisses from half our female atheletes didn't hurt, either." he added with a grin.

It does indeed bode well for our untested Biathlon team, competing internationally for the first time. Ryan's teammates have a tough act to follow. Jasper Otley, of Montego Bay, Jamaica, Antilles Province, came in 22nd.

Another untested team got off to a strong start today, with Carla Chapman finishing 10th in the Women's Cross-Country 15k Pursuit.

Helga Bjornsdottir also finished Top 10, coming in an impressive 5th in the women's 3000m speedskating.

Our Men's curling team kicked off in grand style, beating Race Track 10-5. Our Men led 2-0 after the first end, and never looked back.

The day was not without it's disappointments. Keenan Waters again failed to qualify after the 2nd run of Men's Halfpipe, Marge Stanton sits in 18th after two runs in ladies' Luge. Toji Kaneda came in 2nd in the "B" final of the Men's 1500m shorttrack, and Wanda Iverson finished last in Women's Moguls. She told this reporter "I came down a little off on my first air, and just never regained my footing."

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Huge haul for hosts
Lacroix comes inches from a bronze, victories for Kelssek in curling

Host nation Jasi'yun had a big day yesterday, winning four medals - 2 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronzes - for a total of five from the first one-and-a-half days of competition.

The hosts picked up golds in biathlon and short track, while Kelssek finished the day without medals, but came agonisingly close as Jean-Luc Lacroix came 6-hundredths of a second from winning a bronze in the men's downhill.

Lacroix, however, does have another chance in the men's combined and will be looking to make amends in the downhill section today, and still has a good chance, as he proved yesterday, though the competition will be extremely tight. The top ten in the downhill yesterday, which included Kelssek's other competitor in that event Martin Parry, all finished within one second.

Both the men's and women's curling teams also picked up victories to begin their respective medal charges, and both are medal favorites. Kelssek's other highlight was Brandon Shelley, who finished a respectable 12th in the biathlon. But Kelssek's best chance for medals will still come from the snowboard half-pipe, where the men took the top 3 spots in their qualifiying round, and the women will be looking to do the same today.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/ksk-in-action.gif

Alpine Skiing—Men’s Combined—Downhill
Jean-Luc Lacroix and Calvin Wesser will begin the combined competition. Lacroix won't want to go home empty-handed after coming so close yesterday.

Figure Skating—Pairs Free Skating
Kyle Wilderman and Ashley Cole didn't do so well, but Derrick Teterboro and
Jessica Whyte have a good chance after placing second in yesterday's component.

Ice Hockey - Women’s Matchday 1
The women's team begins their campaign today.

Luge—Women’s Singles—Run 3
Esther White will be in action, and so far has been performing about average. She isn't a medal hopeful but is improving on her own times.

Short Track—Women’s 500 m—Qualification
Katrina Anson and Paulina Sheckley are targeting to at least make the final.

Ski Jumping—Women’s NH Individual—First Round
Erica Coulman and Sophia Meadley will try to advance to the next round. Not medal hopefuls but they should put in a respectable performance nonetheless.

Snowboarding—Women’s Halfpipe—Qualification
The guys put in a dominating performance yesterday, and Lyndis Lemaire, Jeanne Carpentier and Laurie Shekaniaw will be looking to emulate that.

Surprise Finish for Snow Surveyor

Miervatia Today
Keto, Commerce Heights

Today the unlikely happened when 30-year old Oberstehausen native Angela Neubauer secured the bronze in the Women's Moguls. Though her score in today's competition bared a striking resemblance to her total for last March's games in Aeropag, her speed on the slopes was enough to secure the third place spot, finishing after Jules Jacques of QMB and Fernanda Merengue of CAF.

Unlike many other athletes, Neubauer has no trainer and spends most of her winter (which in the Thuvians is essentially year round) on the job. However, today it was that on the job experience that helped her.

"My victory today was probably in part aided by the course conditions," Neubauer explained. "Many freestyle skiiers honestly have better technique than I. They are able to turn and hang in the air with far more grace. I'm just an engineer and ski for work. Part of my job is maintaining snow pillows and other snow gauges for the government, so I have to travel down some nasty slopes and in near white-out conditions. Today we had more snow coming down, enabling my experience with more adverse conditions to balance things out."

-

REALTED NSWiki articles:
Angela Neubauer (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Angela_Neubauer)

Evening came early in the winter, and the members of the delegation were in the entrance hall of their athletes' village building where dinner was being catered. Brandon Shelley was looking for Esther but she was the one who found him.

The same journos in the van were at a nearby table, now talking about their bosses.

"...a right slag. Good thing Tricia hates her, so she's not getting much higher. Flirting with the whole damn waterpolo team. Guess what she didn't know? It was a gay team!" Riotous laughter.

"So, did you win?" asked Esther.

"Nah... I was 12th." he replied. Would've done much better if I hadn't made such a mess with the targets, he fumed inwardly.

"Aww. Well, I was nearly last, and that's near my PB." She smiled. They both slid into one of the picnic tables which had been set up, next to the snowboarders. "Where you from, by the way?"

"Kirky*. You?"

"Born in Kirky, moved to Latrobe. Hey, Hendy." he said, as Mark Hendon nudged him, his face full of fish.

"You guys gotta win, you know," said Esther, "'pride of the nation' and all that."

"Oi, no worries, eh? Cheers." he said, brandishing a Kirkanee bottle. "To medal winning and your hometown, which does the best effing beer in the world!" He turned back to his dinner.

"So what'd you do when you aren't skiing around shooting stuff?" asked Esther.

"Me?" said Brandon, his ears turning red.

"Yes, you, silly."

*Kirkenes, metro pop 40 million, Kelssek's largest city

In there first matchup ever in Competetive curling the Dumanian side showed what they where made of by beating the Malabra Team 7 - 6. This made the team very proud and they where so exited when we interviewed them that they could bearly speak. We did manage to get a word in Captain Gegory Midly Who Said that this was only the beginning and that they are coming back with the gold even if the have to tear it out of the other teams hands.

DIE VOLKSBLAD
TUESDAY
21 NOVEMBER 2006

Today is a day for great joy as our womens Ice Hockey Team wil be in action in There first ever International event. The team is very exited and says that they are going to win todays match because they practised hard and did there utter best and desirve to win. We as the official Dumanian Media Presence in Keto woul like to wish this team goodluck and we hope they can bring back a medal for our country.

DIE VOLKSBLAD
TUESDAY ISSUE
22 NOVEMBER 2006

PIKA CITY PIONEER

Day 2 at the 2nd Winter Games was not as kind to the Oxen as Day 1 was. In Apline skiing, Paul Rubens crashed halfway through his run, and a slip on the last half caused Walter Asimov to finish in 26th with a time of 1:50.67 Rubens technically finished in 33rd.

In the 1st run of the Women's Luge, Ro Dax was the best oxen, with a time of 47.765, placing her in a tie for 24th. Jadzia Troi finished 29th with a time of 47.872 and Deanna Laren finished in 31st with a time of 47.890. There is still 3 runs left, but it seems already that the Lady Lugers could be done for.

In the Men's 1500 Short Track, Jacque Strappe finished in fifth place in his heat eliminating him from the medals; his time was 2:25.640.

In Men's Halfpipe, Dale Stewart qualified in 5th during the 1st runs, avoiding the 2nd qualifier, his total was 32.2. Tony Kenseth and Matthew Earnhardt finished well back in the pack, in 19th and 15th. But neither one could perform well enough in the 2nd run to qualify, so Qazox' hopes are pinned on Dale Stewart for a medal.


Qazox' men's Curling team drew the bye in their group and will have to wait a couple more days to see the start of their action.


During the 2nd Run of Women's Luge, Ro Dax had a great run, jumping up from 24th to 10th with a time of: 47.129. Jadzia Troi jumped up from 29th to 12th with a run time of: 47.117. Deanna Laren crashed out on the final turn, but her injuries are not severe, only a sprained shoulder and a couple of bruised ribs, but she will sit out the rest of the runs.

That's all for Day 2, a busy one, not not a reproductive one.

Women's Luge to Conclude Tomorrow

Miervatia Today
Keto, Commerce Heights

With the conclusion of the women's individual luge event tomorrow, people across Mikitivity are wondering if lightening will strike twice to bring a second gold medal home. Though gold medal favorite Evelyn Meier still holds the Keto track record with her first run, she dropped to 4th place after her fourth run. At the same time, teammate Casandra Rufin finished with her track best on her second run, bringing her to second place.

"There is a lot of variability from run to run," Rufin added after finishing her first run. "At this point we just need to stay focused on the goal."

Olympic newcomer Margot Berger is not expected to win, but has been very supportive of her teammates, "Frankly I'm just happy to be here and consider it fortunate that our event is so early in the schedule. I'm looking forward to hanging out at the Olympic village and meeting the athletes from other nations. That and watching some of the men's ice hockey matches. Sure, they might be buried underneath layers of pads, but what is there not to like about a man who can skate!"

Berger, 20-years of age, is a physical therapy student at Miervatia University. She like many other Mikitivitians were inspired by Meier last March and represent a renewed interest in sledding throughout the nation.

-
NSWiki Links:
Evelyn Meier (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Evelyn_Meier)
Miervatia University (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Miervatia_University)
Miervatia Today (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Miervatia_Today)

Day 2 scores are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11982818&postcount=4)

Fixtures for the hockey and curling matches will be added to the schedule soon (EDIT: done).

"So, Juliette...a new track record...that was some response to Meier's run!"

"I know, I heard the cheers at the bottom of the track as I was getting ready...I was planning to go conservative with the runner problems but I knew something had happened...the ice was slower today and her run was amazing...I just hung it out..."

"Certainly you nearly lost it at the Whalebone...what were you thinking then?"

"HEEEEELLLLPPP!!! I've never ridden that high before, but it seems to be the fastest line as I was catapulted over the last third."

"Nearly half-a-second lead with one run to go...how do you take the final run?"

"I'd like to go conservative this time...but anything can happen, look at Meier's second run, that's cost her big time...Lisa's promised to feed me the gen when she finishes her run..."

"And of course as leader you will be going last tomorrow...extra pressure?"

"Not really, I'm used to it...at least I will know what to do...I'm just hoping the equipment holds up..."

"YAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

"What was THAT???"

"Oh, just Vee practising her kamikaze start...she's dyed her hair jet black in mourning for Dessie's luge..."

"Juliette Wilson, many thanks..."

***

Elsewhere it was not such good news for Wentland, with another collection of lasts and near-lasts - Geri Tedstone's ski-jump was almost a flop off the hill and the first of the Slynell siblings, funded by their multibillionaire father, was not much better. Cynics had it that Tedstone had only been included in the team so that Helen Slynell would not come last, but she managed to scotch such notions by comprehensively beating, er, one other person. Poor Sophia Meadley nearly slipped as she got underway and will be hoping to overtake Slynell in the second jump.

Sixteen nations have won medals thus far...will Wentland join them later today?

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RV Winter Olympic Update

Curling
Women's Curling-Tynelia 5 – 7 Rorysville
The Lady Moose Curlers Were in tip top form much as the team that won the Tournament of Hearts
Group A W L GF:GA GD Pts
Quakmybush 1 0 8:3 +5 3
Rorysville 1 0 7:5 +2 3
Tynelia 0 1 5:7 -2 0
Malabra 0 1 3:8 -5 0

Men's Curling-Oliverry 5 – 7 Rorysville
The Moose Curlers both sides in tip top form as the men equalled the Women's output and took top spot in the group
Group A W L GF:GA GD Pts
Rorysville 1 0 7:5 +2 3
Jasīʼyūn 1 0 6:5 +1 3
Anastasiania 0 0 0:0 0 0
Ropa-Topia 0 1 5:6 -1 0
Oliverry 0 1 5:7 -2 0

Hockey-
Men's Hockey-Rorysville 2 – 3 The Mushroom Kingship
The Men Lose to a team that they woulda beaten n the AC Cup in fact the finalist for the AC Cup are expected to finish first in the group.
Group A W D L GF:GA GD Pts
Oliverry 1 0 0 6:2 +4 2
Az-cz 1 0 0 3:2 +1 2
The Mushroom Kingship 1 0 0 3:2 +1 2
Rorysville 0 0 1 2:3 -1 0
Quakmybush 0 0 1 2:3 -1 0
Liverpool England 0 0 1 2:6 -4 0

Women's Hockey-They had the day off so they finished better than the Men's team
Group B W D L GF:GA GD Pts
Anastasiania 0 1 0 3:3 0 1
Malabra 0 1 0 3:3 0 1
Spindomia 0 1 0 3:3 0 1
Quakmybush 0 1 0 3:3 0 1
Rorysville 0 0 0 0:0 0 0

Figure Skating
Pairs Short Program
Alexander Hannagan/Allison Orr (RRV) 63.00-3rd place
Gilles Versaille/Melanie Latrondresse (RRV) 45.20-19th place
Figure Skating—Pairs Free Skating
Alexander Hannagan/Allison Orr (RRV) 119.86-6th Place
Gilles Versaille/Melanie Latrondresse (RRV) 106.06-16th Place

Speed Skating
Short Track Women’s 500 m
Kimberley Wyatt (RRV) 45.308-DNQ

LUGE
Women’s Singles-Dana Kirkpatrick (RRV) 47.142 47.396 47.272 2:21.810-4th Place

Ski Events
Biathalon
Doug MacEntyre (RRV) 58:33.6-5th
Ian Sokolov (RRV) 59:35.7-11th

Freestyle Women's Moguls
Paula Turcotte (RRV) 12.2 5.12 5.04 22.36-6th
Renae Theodore (RRV) 10.2 5.10 5.65 20.95-11th
Ivanka Melarcha (RRV) 11.1 3.09 5.97 20.16-12th

Alpine Skiing—Men’s Combined—Downhill
Ian McEndry (RRV) 1:48.50-15th
Ivan Krovasitov (RRV) 1:48.98-22nd
Matt Surrey (RRV) 1:51.18-25th

As it stands Rorysville has yet to a medal but it's still early

Stay Tuned to the Sportsnet Family for all Winter Olympic Coverage

(OOC: Say, uh, did Lacroix switch citizenships on us?)
___
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Kirkenes needs an afternoon paper? Well, now you've got it. Courier P.M. Do what you will. Download it, print it, fold it, hold it, READ IT.

First medal comes from figure skaters

Derrick Teterboro and Jessica Whyte were "overjoyed" to pick up a silver in the figure skating pairs competition, giving Kelssek its first medal of the Winter Olympics.

"Brilliant. Absolutely overjoyed." said Whyte, when asked how she felt.

The pair produced a score of 130.15, and answered hopes raised by their second place in the earlier short program segment with a smooth, flawless performance in the free skate to win the points. They were behind Ropa-Topia's pair of John and Anne Buitendam, but ahead of Urthorran and Denna from Bears Armed.

Kelssek's other pair in the competition, Kyle Wilderman and Ashley Cole, put in a disappointing performance as they could not recover from a mediocre performance in the short program and finished a dismal 18th.

"We never really got into our rhythm," Wilderman said, adding that failing to recover from a spill early on was a factor. "It's important to get back into it after a fall. The fall doesn't hurt, points-wise, as much as not recovering from it mentally and letting it affect the rest of your peformance, that's what happened to us."

Wins, shocks and stumbles
Elsewhere, Kelssekians put in a mixed performance to start off Day 2. Jean-Luc Lacroix tied for third in the downhill portion of the alpine skiing combined competition, and the women's hockey team got off to a winning start with a 5-2 win over Michigan-Superior. Both Kelssekians unexpectedly qualified from the women's short track 500m, and Erica Coulman is top of the pack at the ski-jumping normal hill. All in all, it looks quite promising, if not for these games, then for the next.

But it was in women's snowboarding that hubris perhaps tripped out Jeanne Carpentier, as she failed to qualify in the first run. Lyndis Lemaire also barely made it with Kinda Mdna breathing down her neck just 0.03 points behind.

"It's a lesson," said the humbled Carpentier, who was among the medal favorites. Trying to salvage a barely average run, she attempted a frontside 900 at the end but didn't make it. "Nothing's secure until you're on the podium."

IN TOMORROW'S COURIER
- Judith Poll reports on what Miller's up to for his newly-won mayoral term.
- Ken Klee goes into a sewer for charity.

The latest overnight Olympic reports and columns from our reporters in Keto:
Hilda Jones - Medals: which nation will get the most?
Ryan Fortier - What athletes do for fun.
Sharon Kerr - Economics and sporting success.
Ron Kengora - My stinking Keto roommate.

From MSPN--

As Day 2 of the 2nd Winter Olympics opened, Maineiacs was still riding high on Damon Ryan's surprise silver medal in Men's Biathlon. However, today's results were not as good. Toby Meyers was 20th in the Downhill leg of the Men's Alpine Combined, Jean Delcroix and Renee Poisson finished 9th in Pairs Figure Skating, Crissy Stevens has so far fared no better than teammate Keenan Waters; failing to qualify in the 1st run of the Women's Halfpipe, Marge Stanton managed to make up a little time and stands in 15th after the 3rd run of Women's Luge, and neither Regina Franklin nor Betsy Parker qualified in the Women's 500m shorttrack. The high points so far today have been Harriet Molson, 8th after the 1st jump in Women's Ski Jumping NH (teammate Lydia Riley is 21st), and our Women's Hockey team, who scored a shutout 5-0 over Oliverry in the 1st day of their competition. We will have more coverage, including more athelete interviews as the day progresses.

(OOC: Say, uh, did Lacroix switch citizenships on us?)
Fixed. (It must be a good sign that the first mistake in the results was just an incorrect nation code…)

Bad news all round

It would be an understatement to say that today has not been a particularly good day for Ariddia’s (and West Ariddia’s) athletes. Carl Salé and Amandine al Rashed gave a beautiful performance in figure skating, but were truly outclassed by the world’s best, and finished in fourteenth place. The gold medal went, not surprisingly, to fellow Uhuhlanders John and Anne Buitendam of Ropa-Topia, who with a score of 141.08 unquestionably outshone all their opponents.

In ice hockey, the island women – with a team containing Ariddians, West Ariddians and North-West Ariddians – fell to Bears Armed in their first match, conceding by two goals to four. In luge, after a truly excellent second round, Sabrina Co slipped back down into twelth place.

In women’s snowboarding, Wut Lo’e and Shol Ishih saw action for the first time, showing off their skill in front of a large public. Their lack of international experience, however, may have been a handicap, as they finished fourteenth and thirteenth respectively – some distance behind the world’s best. Kelssek have been dominating the men’s event, and it was a lady from Kelssek, Laurie Shekania, who topped the scoreboard after the women’s first round. Two other Kelssek women also outperformed the West Ariddians, and that nation looks set to reap in the medals in snowboarding.

But the big event, as usual, was the short track, with the qualifying races of the women’s five hundred metres. And it was there that the biggest disappointment awaited Ariddian fans.

They had to wait until heat 6 to see an Ariddian take to the track, and cheered as Jessica Silversmith appeared. The qualifying heat was supposed to be a formality, but it soon appeared Silversmith was not pulling into the lead. As the close pack of skaters crossed the line less than a minute later, she was only in fourth place – eliminated.

Next up, in heat 7, was Linda Uosh, who had won a gold medal already the previous day. Supporters encouraged her enthusiastically but she, too, failed to keep up, finishing fourth. For her, the 500m event was over.

The Ariddians’ only hope now rested with Fatima Law and Aui I, two West Ariddian skaters who had been drawn to compete against each other in heat 8. With them was Sérjia Marugana of Commerce Heights, playing in front of her home crowd, and Aline Rapidez of Cafundéu. Law and I were both unknowns to many Ariddians, but the hopes of the Isles rested on their shoulders. They had about forty-five seconds to ensure that their country would not be absent from the next round.

And off they went, all four athletes skiing rapidly, overtaking one another as the seconds tumbled away. Rapidez was in first place for now, Law second, Marugana and I fighting for third, and to catch up with the leaders. . . Then I slipped, and bumped into Marugana, almost causing her to lose her balance. Marugana steadied herself and kept going, but Au I stumbled, catching herself on her hands before pushing herself back up, but by then it was too late. Up front, Law skated skilfully past Rapidez, and grinned as she came in first, qualifying for the next round. The computer indicated that Au I had been disqualified, but the Ariddian Isles were still in the competition.

Few would have expected Fatima Law to be the country’s sole representative in the second round. Her performance, nonetheless, was the only piece of good news of the day.

Day 2.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11984572&postcount=5)

(From the sports pages of 'The Bear Necessities'...)


Dateline: Keto

The Winter Olympics have now started, over at Keto in the nation of Commerce Heights, and our correspondents’ reports about the first days of that competition have finally reached us… Our team arrived there on time, thanks to our neighbours in Mikitivity and their ‘Eule Fluglinien’ airline, and say that the local conditions seem fine to them. This time around we are one of 36 nations involved, rather than of 39 nations as in the Summer games (with many of the same countries involved in both contests), and we aren’t the only “non-human” one as there are also a nation each of Gnomes and Elves participating. (OOC: Am I right in assuming that the people of ‘The Mushroom Kingdom’ are actually Humans rather than, as the name suggests, intelligent & mobile fungi?)
We haven’t entered anybody into any of the events that involve going down hills rapidly, one way or another, because the extra momentum that our people would have had due to their greater-than-human weights would have meant that they needed more room than humans would do for manoeuvring & stopping during those and as the courses were actually designed for humans they won’t be big enough for us: Also, of course, in those sports that use vehicles for going downhill our people use larger ones than the humans’ rules allow… We’ve also avoided most of the races that involve speed over short distances, because when compared to humans we’re much better at endurance than at acceleration.
All in all we have sent a total of 82 athletes, to compete in 22 events, for these games: That compares to just 49 athletes for just 19 events back in the Summer, and although most of that increase in the team’s strength is only due to the large teams needed for the sport of ‘Ice Hockey’ — 24 players in the males’ team, & 20 in the females’ one — our proclaimed target of winning at least twice as many medals as the three won in the Summer contests does look achievable.
“Ice Hockey?,” do I hear you ask? It’s a team game, in which the players use sticks to knock a flat object — called a ‘puck — over the ice, that the humans seem to play instead of our own ‘Ice Rugby’… so some of our best Rugby players have been given a crash course in it, and they seem to have got the hang of how to play very quickly: In fact, our males’ team — who’ve been labelled ‘the Ice Devils’ — actually look like one of our best hopes for winning medals!
And what are our team’s other strong entries, you enquire? Well, we expect good things of both ‘Curling’ teams of course, and also — although they’ll be facing stiff competition — of our entrants in all four of the ‘Figure Skating’ contests… and Siggurr Thuleann (Yes, old “Polarbear” himself…) will be taking part in the ‘Men’s 50km Freestyle’ race in the ‘Cross-Country Skiing’ too and is seriously forecast to place in that.


A Bear For All Seasons?

Could this finally be Siggurr’s chance to shine on the international stage? At the Summer Games in Casari he was too badly affected by the seasonal heat & humidity there to do as well as expected in either the Hammer Throw or the Shot Put… When chosen as his clan’s entry in the recent ‘Song for Bears Armed’ programme he walked out of that contest in protest when the judges ruled that although his adaptation of the traditional ‘Northfaring Saga’ was considerably shorter than the traditional version’s 23 hours it would still be far too long, at 4 hours & 20 minutes, for any human audience (except, perhaps, one from the holy men of ‘The Archregimancy’?) to tolerate. Now, entered in the ‘Men’s 50 km Freestyle’ race in the ‘Cross-country Skiing’ contests, comparing his record to those of his rivals suggests that he’s in with a very good chance of victory and he says that the local conditions are just what he’d want…
And of course he’s already been given one honour, when he as chosen by the Council of Clans to be our team’s Flag-Bearer at these Games: Some say that this decision was made to compensate him for his earlier disappointments, but I think that the fact over a third of the other athletes whom we’ve sent there are also from his Clan is reason enough in itself…


Our First Medal!

The first two days of these Games included not only the starts of the 'group' stages for the Ice Hockey and Curling tournaments, for both males and females in both sports, but also five complete events in which some of our athletes were contending for medals... but we only gained one medal out of those five events, which was the Bronze for the Figure Skating (Pairs) contest: The 'Short Program' stage of this event was held on the first day of the Games, with the 'Free Skating' stage on the following day: our Urthorran and Denna were in fourth place after the first of those sessions but managed to climb one more step up the ratings on the morrow to win a place on the podium, and missed gaining the Silver instead by only a hair, whilst Garron and Ismarra -- who'd actually been rated more highly than the other pair in our own Games -- rose from sixth place to fourth.
In the other contests on those days Barrin o Westwood only came 18th and his brother Larrgan 21st out of 24 contenders in the Biathlon (Men's 20km Individual), Irriti o Greenwood managed 4th place -- less than half a minute behind the Bronze's winner -- in the Cross-Country Skiing (Women’s 15 km Pursuit) although Zargie Westwoods and Sunnana o Greenwood only came in 13th & 14th out of 14 in that close-fought race, in the Biathlon (Women's 15km Individual) Sarrla Silverstreak and Sarrla o Westwood were 12th & 18th respectively out of 26, in the Cross-Country Skiing (Men’s 30km Pursuit) we had Halvarh Thuleann at 10th with Borrs o Redwood at 18th out of 20 finishers... but Urrgan Marrl-Thuleann failed to complete that race at all, having stopped to render aid when he saw that a human competitor named Mark Blackmon -- from the nation of Okielahoma -- had passed out for reasons that we've yet to hear explained. However three of our four entries in the team sports won their initial matches, in Women's Curling (8:6 over Liverpool England), in Men's Ice Hockey (4:1 over Edward City), and in Women's Ice Hockey (4:2 over Ariddia), with only the defeat of the Men's Curling team 6:8 by the team from Spindomia to break the pattern...

A little better…

If the past few hours have been to Anastasiania’s glory – five medals won, at least one in each of the past four medal events – they have not exactly been to Ariddia’s.

First came the biathlon, with the women’s fifteen kilometre individual event. Ariddia’s only PDSRA participant, Emily Sands, was there, in her own words, more “for the sake of the Olympic spirit” than in the hope of winning a medal. An Ariddian biathlete has always been a rather odd idea, but Sands put in a more than respectable performance, keeping up with her opponents well enough to finish in twenty-first place, to the applause of supporters.

But Ariddia’s team also had the West Ariddian biathlete Michèle Jatta. She, too, was putting in a mostly symbolic effort, but her performance – which enabled her to finish in twelth place – was extremely encouraging.

In luge, Sabrina Co improved her performance again, finishing seventh overall – a result she said she was “rather pleased with”.

Then came the good news. An Ariddian – in this case, a West Ariddian – finally succeeded in qualifying for the next stage of the snowboarding competition, as Wut Le’o scored 29.80, enough to see her through.

“I’m THRILLED!” the Indigenous West Ariddian said, beaming. “I was never quite sure I could do it.”

The big event, once more, was speedskating – Ariddia’s speciality. Surely there would be medals to win here? The team had three skaters to represent it in the women’s five hundred metre race: the inevitable Lina Uosh and Jessica Silversmith, but also a West Ariddian, Ivy Chan.

Here, too, Kelssek provided the winner of the first round, but the Ariddians performed well enough to give their supporters cause for cheer. Twenty-seven hundreths of a second behind Lisa Netherland, Linda Uosh came in third, in a potential bronze medal position. Right on her heels was her team mate and friend Jessica Silversmith, while newcomer Ivy Chan took a very encouraging sixth place.

“Who knows?” the West Ariddian said. “We may yet sweep up all three medals!”

Words of hope and comfort for fans, after an overall rather disappointing day.

MOC President Luther Goran lodged an official protest today on behalf of our Women's short track team, disqualified from the 3000m relay.

"The Tynelian skater tripped Regina Franklin in the final lap." said Goran "yet we get disqualified and they get to go on. This is grossly unfair. We request that the IOC look into this matter immediately."

Goran stated that he wished to be allowed to review instant replay tapes, whish he said would vindicate our team.

In other Olympic news, Chrissy Stevens qualified for the finals in Women's halfpipe, Marge Stanton again improved her time in the 4th and final run of Women's Luge to finish 10th, Ariana Smith came in 20th and Hillary Holden finished 23rd in the Women's 15k Individual Biathlon, Roger Freeman was a respectable 8th in the Men's 30k Cross Country Pursuit, Sheila Smith is currently 32nd after the 1st run of the Women's 500m speedskating, and Harriet Molson was 9th and Lydia Riley 20th in the Women's Ski Jumping NH.

TWO MEDALS FOR CAFUNDÉU

Two women became idols of Cafundéu. They won the first medals of Cafundéu in the Winter Olympics, and will receive a large prize from the government.

The first one was Fernanda Merengue, who won a silver medal in the freestyle skiing. When the media tried to interview her, all she said was something like "I won! I won! I have a medal!" and they couldn't hear any more of the second placed.

The second was a gold medal. Bruna Avarel used all her talent to get the first place in the Ski Jumping. Cafundéu's anthem was heard and the athlete was excited. She was very happy with the gold medal and said to the media: "I was very nervous before the jump, but I love this sport. When it was my turn, I only relaxed and tried to do my best".

C.O.A. replies to Maineiac protest

MOC President Luther Goran lodged an official protest today on behalf of our Women's short track team, disqualified from the 3000m relay.

"The Tynelian skater tripped Regina Franklin in the final lap." said Goran "yet we get disqualified and they get to go on. This is grossly unfair. We request that the IOC look into this matter immediately."

Goran stated that he wished to be allowed to review instant replay tapes, whish he said would vindicate our team.


Speaking entirely unofficially, a spokeswoman of the Comité Olympique Ariddien, Samantha Grey, said she saw no reason to invalidate the judges' decision.

"I've watched the replay myself in slow motion, and I think it's reasonably clear the fault was Franklin's. I'm sure she didn't do it on purpose, and I'm very sorry she and her team were disqualified, but I don't think the decision should be changed."

She added:
"In any case, the O.U.C. can only give a ruling if invited to do so by the organisers. And since anyone can watch the replay and come to the same conclusion, the case is pretty much closed before even being opened."

Same ol' same ol'...

Another day, another set of low finishes for the Wentland amateurs.

Geri Tedstone managed to avoid last place in the women's ski-jumping after home athlete Soŋ Saŋ-gyo's ski came off in mid-air costing her at least 30 meters; however Helen Slynell managed to break 100 meters for a personal best jump in coming four off the bottom.

Another athlete trying to beat a barrier was Beth Bayley, who hoped to get under 1 hour for the cross-country, but she was a couple of seconds shy in coming penultimate.

A scheduling problem saw Debbie Flint participate in the 500m speedskating having just completed a stint defending her surprise gold in the women's short-track relay. The tired Flint put in a commendable effort to stand just outside the top 20, although it seems unlikely she would have reached her ambitious target of top 10.

And how did the team do? Safely into the B final, albeit a controversial incident for the final place in that heat meant that the team would have been through anyway. Maineiacs were disqualified following a final corner shemozzle just behind Sallyanne Triplett who anchored to an easy third. However the time of four seventeen was third quickest so perhaps a medal is not out of the question.

...with one exception

And the Wilsation took her long-overdue gold.

The bronze medallist from Areopag entered the final luge run with a target of 47.847 to guarantee gold. It should have been an easy task with only a handful of sliders unable to reach that target - so long as she finished the gold was almost guaranteed.

However Juliette Wilson does not know the meaning of the word "conservative". She had declared that she would take it easy but instead blistered down in her third sub-47.1.

It was almost anti-climactic, however, as crowd attention was focussed on the battle for silver that had just concluded. Sharon Williams of Anastasiana had a couple of tenths to make up on Meier of Mikitivity, and after a competent - if unspectacular - seven two it looked as if the reigning champ would take the runner-up spot. But Meier put in an awful run which saw her almost lose control over the humpback and cut the time two-thousandths short of silver. Despite a review of video and tape the time stood and Williams had consolidated her country's position at the head of the medal table.

Wilson's gold puts Wentland in the top 10, but she has no time to relax as she is straight into the doubles with "Lord" Lou Grade. Desiree "Deathray" Slaughter has revenge on her mind as she seeks to recover from her disaster, but that marks about the only hope for medals for Wentland until next week.

Kingdom Olympic report

Alpine Skiing

David Saar of Mount Durban Won Silver in Men's Downhill after a brilliant run
of 1:47.15, Unfourtiantly Alexis Marier of Oliverry is in seriuos but stable condition
after a fall in that same event

Ice Hockey

on the ice the womens team Lost 4-2 to Le while the men got of to a better
start beating Rorysville 2 – 3

Short Track—Men’s 1500 m—Semifinals

Kevin Hornet will race in QB

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn and welcome to Olympic Lunch Hour.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers, let's look at last nights and this mornings results.

RM: The Women's hockey team tied Anastasiania 3-3.

WR: Hazel Long sits 24th in the women's individual luge.

RM: Also in women's individual luge Amanda Holmes sits 29th.

WR: Amber Park qualified for the next round in women's 500m short track speed skating event.

RM: Still in short track Zéphyrine Rocher did not advance.

WR: Irene Baker also did not qualify.

RM: As well as Alix-Joséphine Reynaud.

WR: Jesse Brewer sits 10th after her first ski jump.

RM: Megan Hoffman sits 12th after her first.

WR: While Tamara Arnold sits 17th.

RM: Bonnie Brady set down an awesome score in the half pipe, qualifying for the next round.

WR: While Eva Berry fell on her run.

RM: Phyllis Castro as fell on her run.

WR: Now for this mornings events.

RM: Holly Morton brought home a silver medal in the Women's 15km individual Biathlon.

WR: While in the same event Cameron Russell finished 22nd.

RM: Hazel Long finished 30th in the Women's individual luge.

WR: Also in the women's individual luge Amanda Holmes finished 32nd.

RM: The women's 3000m short track relay team finished 2nd in their group and advanced to the final.

WR: Megan Hoffman finished 8th in the Women's individual ski jump.

RM: Also in the ski jump Jessie Brewer finished 11th.

WR: While Tamara Arnold finished 21st.

RM: Eva Berry barley missed out on qualification in the Women's halfpipe.

WR: Phyllis Castro also barely missed qualification.

RM: In the Women's 500m speed skating event Marcia Day finished 27th.

WR: Samantha Henry finished 30th.

RM: Marie Gray finished 35th.

WR: Janet Hayes finished 37th.

RM: Wow, they really sucked.

WR: Indeed they did Ron.

RM: Quakmybush now sits 4th in the medal count.

WR: We have a total of 3 medals, 1 Gold, and 2 Silvers.

RM: Well, that's all the time we have. I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers, see you tomorrow on Olympic Lunch Hour.

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 3 at the 2nd Winter Games


3 days into the winter games and Qazox hasn't won a medal yet, but lots of stuff went down.

In the 3rd run of Women's Luge, Ro Dax moved up to 8th overall with a run of 47.283, and now is only about 4/10th of a second off the pace for Bronze. Jadzia Troi moved up a spot to 11th with a time of 47.401. She is about 6/10th of a second off the medal pace, almost to much to make up.

In the 4th run, Ro dax had a time of 47.495, but it wasn't good enough to win a medal, as she finished in 9th, an improvement over the finish 4 years ago. Her overall time was 3:09.672. Jadzia Troi as a slip in turn 5 and her time for the 4th run was a dissapointing 47.803, which left her in 16th place with a time of 3:10.193. While none of our Lugers won, they are improving and maybe at the next Olympics, they could contend.

In short track speed skating qualifaction, Ingrid Larsson and Linda Pepper both finished 4th in their heats and didn't qualify for the next round. Ingrid got off to a slow start, and couldn't make up the early deficit, while Linda was passed on the last lap by 3 racers as she had lead all laps up to that point.

In the Women's half-pip, Sasha Boxer finished her run with a score of 30.31, good enough for 4th place, but a bit behind the leaders. Jenny Wolf finished in 8th, just missing out on qualifing on the 1st run. Lydia fox had trouble landing her tricks and finished near the bottom of the pack.
In the 2nd qualifing run, Lydia did better, but didn;t qualify, while Jenny Wolf finished 6th, earning the last spot. So Qazox has 2 chances at a medal, but it would most likely come Sasha Boxer.

That's all for Day 3, day 4 promises to bring more thills to the world.

"Mr. Goran, do you plan to continue with the protest of the disqualification?"

"Yes, we have no reason to stop. So far we have not heard from the organizers of these olympics nor have we heard from IOC officials. All we have so far is an unofficial, unasked-for, and unwarrented comment from Arridia."

"Sir, about the Arridian response. Have you reviewed the tapes? Do they show what you allege?"

"The tapes are being reviewed right now. We will keep you all informed on the progress of the investigation."

"Mr. Goran, will you abide by the IOC decision, even if it does not go in your favor?"

"Yes, of course. We simply want to be absolutely certain that justice prevails."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/efp-keto06.gif

Two medals, two second places on day two

It was a pretty good day for Kelssek in Keto as figure skating and ski jumping brought in the first two medals - silvers - and more could well be on the way.

The silvers were of course a shiny accomplishment but what also made for an excited atmosphere in the Kelssekian block of the athletes' village was the performances in preliminary rounds and first runs.

Lisa Netherland put her name in the record books by breaking the 38.14 Olympic record set in Aeropag and two other competitors hot on her heels in the first race of the women's speed skating 500m with a time of 37.83 seconds. Jasi'yun's Anne Hopkins and Ariddian Linda Uosh, who yesterday broke the 3000m record, were hot on her heels. Kelssek's short track 3000m relay team also are headed for the A final, finishing first in their heat.

Jeanne Carpentier also made things right in women's half-pipe by qualifiying top of the second run, meaning all three Kelssekian women will be in the snowboarding final after all. The 22-year old's first run had failed to qualify, much to the crowd's surprise and her chagrin.

It was also exciting times at the women's luge as Wentland's Juliette Wilson opened her nation's account with a gold, beating out intense competition which saw three track records broken in sucessive rounds - it was Wilson's 47.008 which was left standing at the end.

And in the end it was Anastasiania who were the big winners on the day, picking up five medals to go top of the medal standings over hosts Jasi'yun, who didn't win anything on Day 2.

Day 3 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11987139&postcount=6)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/kbc-icon.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/olympicsketo06.jpg

A high-scoring thriller saw Kelssek's U-21s beat Anastasiania 7-4 in Group D of the men's hockey tournament, their first game at the Keto Olympics. Lyle Nonis, Colin Canvey, and Sean McKinsley all rippled the mesh, and the post denied Breton's Alain Carriere a hat-trick early in the third period.

Captain Kyle Giordano was the one who got things going with a huge slapshot from the point on the powerplay 4:50 into the first and things went back and forth from there. In that old cliche, the spectators paid for the entire seat... but only used the EDGE! Marc-Andre Penn's good glovework also helped to keep the Anastasianian (say that correctly really fast and get a free ice cream) offence at bay, securing the W.

In position but not there yet
Elsewhere, cautious optimism would best describe the situation of Kelssek's athletes midway through Day 3 of the Keto Winter Olympics as the men's snowboarders put up a solid first run in the final, with Roger Zetabak of Elves Security Forces coming between Alexandre Marcion and Colin Patterson. The snowboard half-pipe will be closely watched tonight (and tomorrow morning) as Kelssek's best chance for a gold is broadcast live on the TV screens.

But if you've got gold on the brain Ian Haskins could well deliver too; he's on top of the hill, pardon the pun, after the first round in the ski jumping men's normal hill individual. Aaron Win, unfortunately, didn't do so well and lurks in 13th place but it's hard to imagine that Haskins doesn't have a real chance here. Jean-Luc Lacroix is also 3rd in the alpine skiing combined.

So it's either on the cusp of glory, or extreme disappointment, and there was that for Lisa Netherland who finished fourth, faltering in the second race of the women's 500m to negate a record-breaking peformance in the first race. So either way, you might want to get some alcoholic beverages ready.

Az-cz Scroll
Keto
Bn-Blr

Olympics get underway in earnest for Gnomes

The Gnomes finally had an eventful day at the olympics, with competitors in three different events, men's hockey, luge doubles, and individual hill ski jump. All things considered it was a day that the nation can be quite pleased with.

In the hockey arena the men, and one woman, continued their form of good play as they got revenge in a massive way against The Mushroom Kingship, a nation they lost to in the Cherry cup destroying them 6-1. Dru-Ri went wild with 4 goals, including picking up a hat trick in a wild second period. The game was even after a period. The Mushroom Kingship opened the scoring just 33 seconds into the period, but the Gnomes battled back to put five goals on the board after that. In the third period they held back and found an extra goal after The Mushroom Kingship pulled their goalie to try to pull some back. The men's team now sits top of their group, with the Cherry Cup runners up Oliverry currently sitting in second. The Cherry Cup champions Rorysville sit fifth in the group and people are starting to get very suspicious that the team rigged the Cherry Cup. Considering all of the other shenanigans that happened out there, it's not beyond the pale. Thankfully we're here in Keto and things are going much better.

The luge opened up the doubles competition today and this was perhaps the one poor spot for Az-czzers on the day. Gay-Org & Ha-Kl sit tenth overall. Although they are in the middle of the pack, they are within two tenths of a second of a medal. It would take something amazing for them to move up 7 spots, but they aren't left for dead. Hr-Shl & Wa-Kr, however, are all but out of the competition. After a very rough start they never found their speed and ended up nearly a second behind the nearest competitor and more than 1.6 seconds off the pace of the leaders. They'll simply be hoping to improve their run the next time around so they can hold their heads high before they move on to their preferred event, bobsled.

The third event involving Az-czzers today was the Men's normal hill ski jump. Three Az-czzers were involved and their was actually decent fan support. Ed-Igl is almost the most popular member of the team, due to his courage as an example to those who have suffered through suicides of loved ones. And by his standards he did very well. He posted a score of 105.0, which places him 23rd out of 30. He was ecstatic to finish with seven competitors behind him and will continue to fight in a proper olympic spirit in his remainin jumps. The other two Az-czzers sit outside of medal positions as well, but are in realistic medal position. Ku-Lo is in seventh and Masatoshi Harada is currently in fifth. It will take some special jumps for them to move up, but they are still very much in the hunt for medal glory.

Catching up with the athletes the mood at the Olympic Village was quite high. They had performed well and had enjoyed watching and mingling with their other competitors. With the Baptism of Fire just beginning it's also fun for the Az-czzers to watch matches from their home country involving some of their competitors, like Noremark.

The President: I see it is going rely well in Keto

Miss Jackson: Sir, I dont know what Olympics you have been watching.

The President: Why do you that?

Miss Jackson: Sir, Im sorry to tell you but we haven't won any events so far.

The President: What this is some utter nonsence.

Miss Jackson: Yes I understand sir but what do you sujest we do.

The President: I have an idea. No that stupid.

Miss Jackson: No Please sir tell me.

The President: Ok what we are gonna do is send a few thousand supporters to the Olympics to motivate our team so that we can win a few events. Because i Still have faith in our team we can win. And what we are also gonna do is give some insentive. each person that wins a medal gets a cash prize. a Gold Medal: 10000 klopperts. a Silver Medal: 8000 Klopperts. a Bronze Medal: 5000 Klopperts.

Miss Jackson: O sir what a great idea I will start on that right away.

Onward speedskaters!

If Ariddians had had time to forget their speedskating champions over the past four years, they weree given a reminder today of their athletes’ skill in this one particular sport. In this morning’s only medal event, Linda Uosh, Ivy Chan and defending Champion Jessica Silversmith attempted to improve on yesterday’s good performance, and there were high hopes of at least one medal.

They had skilled opposition in the 500m race, notably Kelssek’s Lisa Netherland, the current Olympic record holder, and Commerce Heights JSY’s Anne Hopkins, who had already proved herself in other races.

All three Ariddian ladies performed well. West Ariddian Ivy Chan logged a time of 38.68, finishing in fifth place just behind Netherland. Uosh took bronze – her second medal of these Games –, narrowly beaten to the silver by Hopkins. But the star of the morning, having won both races for an unquestionable victory, was her compatriot Jessica Silversmith, who swept up the gold with a total time of 1:16.67.

“I’m really happy that there were two Ariddians on the podium,” she said later, after Ariddia’s national anthem Dream (Ariddia#National_Anthem) had been played for the second time in Keto. “I wish Ivy could have been there with us, of course. . . But Anne [Hopkins] deserved that silver medal, so congratulations to her.”

Also this morning, Ariddia’s male ice hockey team went up against that of fellow Uhuhlanders Ropa-Topia, and cheerfully smashed their neighbours 5-2.

Lastly, there was the curiosity event. For the first time, Ariddia had an athlete taking part in the ski jumping – namely West Ariddia’s Assan Kebeh. Spectators were keen to see how this improbable competitor would fare, and whether he would even complete the event successfully. He did, and scored 105.5, a respectable result which put him in twenty-second place after the first round. He bowed and waved at the public, and seemed to be enjoying himself if nothing else.

With Uosh’s bronze and Silversmith’s gold, Ariddia is now in third place on the overall medal chart. A result which has thrilled supporters in the Pacific Island nation.

Jack Mackendrik at one step for the bronze

Keto-Edward City D.C.:
Tomorrow we will know if Jack Mackendrik has the bronze in his hands.He is now at the third position but tomorrow he will dispute the final round of th Men’s NH Individual in the ski jumping category.All the edwardian spectators who are in Keto have really faith in our team and we spect an edwardian bronze medal.

From MSPN--

As day 3 of competition continues, Our Men's hockey team got their first victory, 4-2 over Fordavia; Toby Meyers is 17th after the first slalom run in the Men's Alpine Combined; the team of O'Bannon and Stanton are 6th after the first leg of the Doubles Luge, and remain within striking distance of a medal, while Shackleford and Hunt are 17th; Darrin Porter came in 8th in the 1st jump in Men's NH -- with a very good 2nd jump he could medal, while teammate "Kamikaze" Tanaka is currently 15th; and Sheila Smith finished 24th in the Women's 500m speedskating. All eyes in Maineiacs, however, continue to be on the protest over yesterday's disqualification in Women's shorttrack. MOC President Luther Goran has again requested to meet with IOC officials; so far his request has gone unanswered.

MOC President Luther Goran has again requested to meet with IOC officials; so far his request has gone unanswered.

OOC: That could be because there isn't an IOC. ;) There's the Olympic Upper Council, but as the representative of the C.O.A. explained, the OUC won't take a look at this unless invited to do so by the Capitalizt Olympic Committee (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Capitalizt_Olympic_Committee) (the Games' organisers).

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Ropa-Topian Sports Alliance Official JournalBlogSpace - Second Winter Olympics
About the RTSA (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Ropa-Topian_Sports_Alliance) :: Recent entries :: Previous Olympic Games


Gold for Buitendam & Buitendam!

Figure Skating
The gold medal for John and Anne came as a surprise four years ago, but not this time. After the couple's excellent score in the short program, nobody expected less from them in the free skating part of the event and this indeed came true. 141.08 points total secured the Buitendams' second Olympic gold, and Ropa-Topia's first in these games.
The other pair, De Korte and Brahms, had a better start this time around, but that didn't make their performance any better. Their total score of 81.54 points was still good for a 21st place.

Short Track
Peter Parker who had qualified for Final B in the 1500m for men finished third (seventh overall).
In the qualification round for the 500m for women, Anna D'Ancanto and Ororo Munroe both finished first in their respective heats and qualified for the quarterfinals. Ilse Haynes and Agatha Mayo both finished third (Mayo skated against Munroe in Heat 1) and as such both didn't qualify. The four women also worked together later in semifinals for the 3000m relay. With a fourth time in their heat, they qualified for Final B.

Luge
Where Karin Flowers saw herself rise in the rankings, from a 32nd place after a rather disappointing first run, to a 14th place when all four runs were completed, Marline de Gier seemed to stay at a stable 6th place, until she rose to 5th place after completing the third run. The fourth run however was her slowest, which caused her to move away from the medals and to a sixth place again.
In the event for doubles, Wouter Forest and Meindert Harmsen finished their first run with 45.645 seconds on the clock, and at a 15th place.

Curling
Another 6-5 in curling, but this time the men's team, and this time a loss. The opponent was also different of course, the winner was the Jasi'yun team from Commerce Heights.

Ice Hockey
In the slightly more violent team sport at the Winter Olympics, the women's team started with a nice 4-1 victory over Fordavia, and the Crazy Mixed Commies/Capitalist Team from Ariddia showed the men's team how ice hockey *should* be played by defeating them 5-2.

Ski Jumping
The first round on the normal hill put Toos Splinter close to a medal, but she dropped from a fourth place to tenth upon completing the final round.
In the men's event, Brookhekke jumped to a second place with 117.5 points, which gives him a good chance to win a medal. Herman Bread's jump resulted in 108.0 points and a 17th place, so a medal on the normal hill seems unlikely. Perhaps he will do better on the large hill.

Speed Skating
Women's events only. First there was the 3000m with Paula van Erven and Femke Walters. Van Erven finished with a time of 4:14.36 (10th place) and Walters was slightly slower with 4:16.83 (13th place).
On the 500 meter, Walters was the fastest, with 38.75 seconds in her first race, and 77.65 seconds total (9th). Zoë van Dam came near to Walter's time, but eventually finished at an 11th place. Paula van Erven (17th) and her sister Rita (27th) were not quite fast enough for a medal either.

Posted by RTSA

Archive
First results are in (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11979201&postcount=55) (Day 0.5 - 1.0)
Gold for Buitendam & Buitendam! (Day 1.5 - 3.0)

Four years ago the promising slider Desiree Slaughter watched the final runs from a middle position in the final. It had been a fantastic experience but left her with a burning desire to taste gold.

Her win in the world championships had been a shock to all but Deathray herself. Her all black sled seemed to ride on a cushion of water as she upset Juliette Wilson to her first title.

The Olympics were to be the climax of the duel between the two but Slaughter had the disaster of a broken rail in her very first run. Slaughter watched with tears of frustration as Wilson decimated the field.

But she had a second chance. The doubles. And although she was not meant to provide the strength in the push off she was possessed as the supposed second sting sled took a first run lead.

Her Amazonian cry of vindication was a memory from the day - but there was still plenty of competition left.

(From the sports pages of 'The Bear Necessities'...)


A Quiet Day

There was only one event in which any of our athletes contended today, that being the second game in the group stage for the Men's Ice Hockey... but our people did us proud in that, beating the Jasiyun team by 6:0 to take a clear lead within their group!
(Further details on page 32.)

The other four teams in the same group as ours for the Men's Curling contest played matches, but with an odd number of nations placed in that group one's team had to sit the day out and this time around it was our own teams' turn... which meant that they have had no chance yet to make up for their previous defeat and lift themselves off the bottom of the group.

And tomorrow? Only one event for our athletes, again, as the Women's Curling team take on the one from 'Michigan-Superior' who are the other team in their group that's won a game so far...
_________________________________________________________

(OOC: my original post (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11984645&postcount=79) in this thread, left as a placeholder yesterday, has now been completed.)

Day 3.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11988940&postcount=7)

OOC: That could be because there isn't an IOC. ;) There's the Olympic Upper Council, but as the representative of the C.O.A. explained, the OUC won't take a look at this unless invited to do so by the Capitalizt Olympic Committee (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Capitalizt_Olympic_Committee) (the Games' organisers).
It’d actually be 자스연 (Jasīʼyūn) doing that, since the Capitalizt Olympic Committee is SLANI’s NOC. And I’ll write an RP about this eventually, just haven’t gotten around to it.

ONE MORE MEDAL

O.Mendigo win another medal for Cafundéu. The 33-year old athlete won a silver medal in Alpine Skiing. He said: "I'm a very lucky man. I'm very poor and now with this medal I'll have something to eat or drink, maybe if I sell this medal to the government..."

But Cafundéu's men snowboarding and ski jumping aren't going very well, but the nation hopes for another medals.

As day 3 of the 2nd Winter Olympics here in Keto came to a close, it was a case of "so close, and yet so far" for Maineiacs' team. Toby Meyers improved his time on the 2nd slalom run in the Men's Alpine Combined, but was unable to make up for his dismal 1st slalom, and finished 13th. Berkely O'Bannon and Marge Stanton actually did worse in the second leg of the Doubles Luge, and ended up 8th, while Craig Shakelford and Steve Hunt shaved almost .5 sec. off their time to wind up 12th. Darrin Porter put in one of the better jumps of his career, but came up just short, 2 pts. behind a 3rd place tie between Jaap Brookhekke of Ropa-Topia and Masatoshi Harada of Az-Cz; Kenji Tanaka was 21st. "Skeet" Shorter was a very disappointing 33rd in the 1st leg of the Men's 500m speedskating; Shorter said after the race "My back went into spasm near the end. I'm lucky to have finished at all. I should be ok for tomorrow, though." On the plus side, our Men's Curling team won again, defeating Liverpool England 6-5; our Men's shorttrack relay team fared better than our women, winning their quaterfinal heat, and advancing to the semifinals. MOC President Luther Goran has said he is to meet with Keto Olympics Organizers tomorrow to discuss our Women's team's disqualification.

RM: Hello, my name is Ron Mclearn.

WR: and my name is Wendy Rogers

RM: Welcome to Olympic Lunch Hour.

WR: Let's look at last nights results.

RM: The men's hockey team dropped another game, this time a 4-2 to Liverpool England. The team currently sits last in the group.

WR: Wow, that is really disappointing they were expected to medal.

RM: Don't doubt them yet, there is still a lot of time left.

WR: The first run of the doubles luge was last night.

RM: Augustin Le Roy and Edgar Jacobs sit 12th, with a run of 45.488.

WR: Also in the luge is Carolyn Mullins and Alexis Lamoureux, who sit 14th. They had a run of 45.627

RM: Andrew Coleman had an impressive first jump in the Men's Individual ski jump contest. He sits 6th with a jump of 114.

WR: Bill Hawkins did not fair as well as Andrew did, he sits 14th with a jump of 110.5

RM: Even further back in the pack is Dale Patrick. He sits 19th with a first jump of 107.

WR: Bryan Benson had a horrible first run in the Men's Halfpipe final, he fell while trying to land a 1260 degree spin, the first of its variety ever attempted. His run was scored a 18.6. He sits 9th.

RM: Now, onto our Women Speed Skaters.

WR: DO we actually have to talk about them, they are brutal.

RM: Yes, yes we do.

WR: Alright then, Marcia Day finished 29th.

RM: Marie Gray finished 33rd.

WR: Samantha Henry finished 34th.

RM: Janet Hayes finished 35th.

WR: This was all in the 500m.

RM: Now for this morning's results.

WR: The Men's Curling team lost a heart breaker 7-6 to Michigan Superior. This loss puts the team last in their group, however they have a lot of time to catch up.

RM: In Doubles Luge Augustin Le Roy and Edgar Jacobs finished 14th.

WR: While Carolyn Mullins and Alexis Lamoureux finished 16th.

RM: In Short Track speed skating action. The men's 5000m Relay team qualified for the semi-finals. The team finished second in their group.

WR: In Men's Individual Ski Jumping Bill Hawkins came up three points short from the bronze medal. He finished 6th.

RM: Andrew Coleman had a bad run and wound up 17th.

WR: Also in the Ski Jump Dale Patrick finished 19th.

RM: Bryan Benson tried to better his run in the men's halfpipe final. However he again failed to land that 1260 and basically threw any chance out the window. He finished 10th,

WR: Now, our Men's Speed Skaters, there is something to talk about.

RM: After the first run of the Men's 500m Jason Sherman sits 4th.

WR: Maurice Delgado sits 8th.

RM: Carl Muñoz sits 20th

WR: Gary Weaver fell on his first run and sits 37th.

RM: Quakmybush now sits in a tie for 7th with Cafundéu with 3 medals.

WR: 1 Gold and 2 Silvers.

RM: Well, we are out of time.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: I'm Ron Mclearn. See you tomorrow on Olympics this Morning.

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Kelssek takes gold, silver at half-pipe

KETO - High expectations were most definitely achieved yesterday as Kelssek's Mark Hendon and Alexandre Marcion scored a 1-2 finish, while Colin Patterson had to settle for fourth place after Roger Zetabak of the Elves Security Forces grabbed the bronze.

Hendon had a superlative first run to earn a comfortable first place finish, stunning the crowd by following a huge McTwist with a 1080 to put the gold beyond doubt.

Colin Patterson was, of course, disappointed to miss a bronze, but Kelssek nearly did sweep the podium. Patterson's sketchy landing on a 720 indy grab probably cost him the fractions of points which would have put him ahead of Zetabak.

"Holy Mackinaw!" the three Kirkenians yelled in unison when reporters asked them for their reaction.
___

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Anthem controversy mars Haskins's gold medal ceremony

A member of Kelssek's delegation has been suspended pending an inquiry after The Maple Leaf Forever, instead of Kelssek's official national anthem Red and Blue Salute was played at Ian Haskins's medal ceremony. Haskins played and sang along but later expressed his surprise.

"I thought the organisers had made a mistake," he said later. Haskins won Kelssek's first gold medal in the ski jumping competition.

Chef de mission David Parker made the announcement at a press conference after finding out that a member of the delegation who was known to be an activist to make The Maple Leaf Forever the national anthem had deliberately given the incorrect music to the organisers.

"This is a very serious matter. The Olympics is not the place to make political statements of this nature. Furthermore, people would have formed the wrong impression that our hosts made a mistake when they did not and have in fact run a very good Olympic Games so far. It was an unprofessional act and we will take internal disciplinary action." he told reporters.

After realising what had happened the delegation was quick to supply the correct anthem to the sound booth at the half-pipe, where Mark Hendon was leading the competition. The correct anthem was played for the snowboarding medal ceremony.

The delegation member has reportedly been sent back to Kelssek. Minister of Culture and Tourism Jan Oosterloo said that it was an internal matter for the KOC to resolve and would not comment on the matter specifically.

"In the end, our anthem is up to Kelssekians to decide." he said.

Az-cz Scroll
Keto
Bn-Blr

Az-cz enters the medal charts

With two medal competitions up for competition to day Az-cz had an outside chance of medaling in both. In one they flamed out horribly, but in the other they saw one athlete rise to the occasion and move up to claim a medal.

On the ski jumping hill two athletes came into the day with possible medal winning hopes, Masatoshi Harad and Ku-Lo. With the skiiers jumping in reverse order Ed-Igl was the first Az-czzer to jump and only managed 95.5. When Ku-Lo came up he turned in a very disappointing 96.5 as it was clear the pressure got to him. Harada came up to ski two turns later and there was concern among the few Az-cz fans that he would flame out and the Az-cz contingent would disappoint themselves on day two. But he put those fears to rest with a score of 116.5. That put the pressure on the remaining four competitors. Unfortunately for Harada three of them came through.

Antti Hyvärinen the next skier up put up an impressive 119.0 to move past Harada. The next skier came up empty which meant that if Harada saw a low score from either skiier he would medal. Jaap Brookhekke put up a 113.5 to exactly tie him with Harada. Then Ian Haskins of Kelssek put up a 116.0 a good enough score for him to clinch the gold medal. Due to the lack of tie breakers both third place skiiers were awarded a bronze medal and the few Az-czid fans went wild. Now we knew that we wouldn't be going home empty handed, and still have our two big team sports left to go.

In the other medal competition going on, the Az-czzers had a rough day. Hr-Shl & Wa-Kr came into the day just wanting to beat some competitors and go into bobsled with some confidence. Instead they managed to turn in a time a second worse than their horrible opening day run. And Gay-Org/Ha-Kl turned in a very disappointing run to drop to 19th from tenth.

In the other Az-cz action of the morning the Men's curling team finally found their way out to the ice sheet, where they opened against friendly soccer rivals, Elves Security Forces. The Gnomes busted out to a big early lead and then were content trading hammers the rest of the match. The gnomes picked up three points in the first end. Elves security force answered back by picking up a point in the next, but Az-cz picked up two points and one point in the next two ends, to have a 6-1 advantage at that point. From there on out each team traded hammers. The Gnomes picked up single points in the 6th, 8th, and 10th ends, while Elves Security Force did find two points in the 7th and 9th ends, their inability to score without the hammer meant that they couldn't make a real run at a comeback.

With the win the team moves to the top of their group, with current group number two, The Mushroom Kingship, up next. Svenderson and company are looking to move closer to the knockout stages with a win their.

Keto Live, NSN

"... but the second run was not good. I'm not happy with that. I didn't do well and it cost me a medal, I think. But 6th is not bad, I still have more chances to win, and Calvin is only 21, so he's got a good future ahead of him... we will do better next time."

"Jean-Luc Lacroix, speaking to Matt Walliams in Keto. Now the men's short track 5000m relay team set an Olympic record yesterday, and they're hoping to carry that performance into the final. Kelssek has taken two records at these games now, Lisa Netherland's record however didn't translate into a medal as she ended up fourth. Kelssek is also now actually second in the medal standings with 2 golds and 3 silvers, behind Anastai... Anas... (slowly) Anastasiania. Got it right?"

(chuckling) "You're not on very good form today, Andrew."

"Anastasiania. Well, we'll be going live now to the speed skating where the men's 500m is about to get underway..."

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 4 at the 2nd Winter Games

First off, Late Results from day three ate the Olympics, In Doubles Luge, Run #1, Jean-Luc Crusher and Ro Dax finished their run in 3rd place with a time of 45.289 which was one of 7 runs that eventually broke the track record. Wesley Riker and Jadzia Troi finished their 1st run in 20th with a time of 45.883. The other event that was competed after we went to press was the 1st Medal Run in Men's Halfpipe. Dale Stewart failed to land either of his planned 720 indy grabs and finished with a score of 18.8, placing him in 8th. The is one more run, but to win a medal he needs to land his planned 900 varial and his 720 backflip.

Now for Day 4 results,

The Qazoxian Men's Curling team lost a heartbreaker to Kelssek 4-3, as Kelssek's skip on the last throw, knocked out two Qazoxian stones to earn the point that won the match.

Score Summary:
TEAM 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10--Final
QZX 0-0-0-1-0-1-1-0-0-0 --3
KSK 1-0-1-0-0-0-0-1-0-1 --4

In Doubles Luge, Qazox won its first medal at the games as Jean-Luc Crusher/Ro Dax had a 2nd run time of 45.177 which placed them into first with a time of 1:30.466. But a strong run from the team of Lou Grade/Juliette Wilson of Wentland went last and set a new track record of 45.069 to win the gold with a time of 1:30.409. The Bronze also went to the Wentland team of Arthur Rank/Desiree Slaughter who were in 1st after the 1st run. Their time was 1:30.486. The other Qazoxian team of Wesley Riker and Jadzia Troi finished in 18th overall with a 2nd run of 45.615, and an overall time of 1:31.498.

The 2nd run of Men's Half pipe saw Dale Stewart land his 900 varial, but he fell on his 720 backflip. His score of 30.0 was only good enough for 6th place, an improvement over 4 years ago, but still disappointing.

Day 4 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11990684&postcount=8)

Jack Mackendrik loose and we loose our last chance for a medal

Today,a lot of supporters of the edward city national olympic team have been seen at the airport taking planes to return home,all of them were "destroyed" because we have loosed our last chance for an olympic victory but don't worry,we have the summer olympics.

The medals table made good reading. Wentland 5th? That however was only going to be temporary as Wentland's best chances for gold had already one - and both had been nailed.

By Juliette Wilson, who becomes Wentland's most successful athlete, with two golds, a silver and a bronze in 2 games.

Deathray Slaughter and Arthur Rank went into the second luge run with a shot at gold, but Wilson and Grade's track record had unnerved them and after a slow start they never made up the time - and even lost the silver to a Qazox duo.

The happiest person in the arena was Lou Grade, who missed out on a double gold in Areopag following a cracked elbow in a singles run, but had finally clinched the one title that had eluded him in his career. He is entered for the men's singles, but admits he has lost his edge on that.

Elsewhere it was the usual bunch of lasts. Kev Zakarias managed to avoid killing himself (to the surprise of all) in the ski jumping and Bob Davis put in a surprisingly good slalom run in the combined but could not elevate himself above the last of the finishers. But the short-track men's relay team surprisingly made it through to the quarters, with a late change-over from Rappaport to Smith giving a burst of momentum to leave the Capitalizt SLANI team trailing.

***

There was an odd incident in the men's halfpipe final. Between the two runs a masked figure emerged from the top and piped his way down with some excellence. Halfpipe judge Ken Coaver later remarked off the record that the run would have put the individual concerned in 8th place and the hunt was on to find his identity before he wheeled away. The only clue is that the board was in royal blue with two white stripes, leading observers to think that it was brought over from Wentland.

From MSPN--


The only good news for Maineiacs on this abbreviated day of Olympic competition came from Our Women's Hockey team, who improved to 2-0 after defeating The Mushroom Kingship 4-2. LW Sandy Harrison, MVP of the MWHL two years running, scored 2 goals and 2 assists for the second game in a row; she now has 8 points in the tournament. The rest of our team struggled today. Skeet Shorter was a distant 29th in the Men's 500m speedskating; his wife, Mary Donaldson-Shorter did little better in the Women's Downhill, coming in 22nd while teammate Theresa Miller was 10th.

Hauser takes first Liverpool England medal: Gold
Jeff Hauser's probably the most feted man in Liverpool England right now, and that's thanks to his gold medal in the Men's Combined Alpine Skiing event. Hauser did not top either run of slalom, but his downhill victory by nearly a second over the silver medallist was enough to secure him Liverpool England's first medal of the Keto Winter Games, and a gold at that.

Hauser declined interviews after the medal ceremony, due to a family incident at home where his cat was run over by an errant truck driver and lies in a critical condition in Liverpool England's only professional animal hospital.

No new medals

The men’s five hundred metre short track relay event was awaited with some curiosity, as the Ariddian team was, here too, composed of athletes from all three States. Derek Riise and Jean-Michel Chang of the PDSRA were teaming up with Laurent Langlois of West Ariddia and one of North-West Ariddia’s few representatives, Eshet Oa.

There were few expectations. Chang admitted that the team had not practised much together, and that it held a mainly symbolic value. Nonetheless, for the ‘mixed’ team to obtain a good result would have been very good news, and they were clearly keen to do their best.

Chang went first, establishing a narrow lead over his competitors from Malabra and Quakmybush in heat 3, but after that the Isles’ athletes rapidly lost ground, and finished, not unexpectedly, in third and last place.

In ski jumping, Assan Kebeh was again hoping to complete the event successfully rather than earn a spot on the podium, but actually improved his performance slightly with a score of 110.0. He finished in joint seventeenth place, while Ropa-Topia’s Jaap Brookhekke took bronze. The gold was another testimony to Kelssek’s skill, going to Ian Haskins.

In ice hockey, the Ariddian women’s team defeated Commerce Heights JSY 4-2 in front of a home crowd, creating both surprise and a rising interest in the sport among Ariddians. In the quarter finals of the women’s 500m short track, Ariddia’s sole remaining representative, Fatima Law, just scraped through. She was going in heat 4, against Kelssek’s Katrina Anson and two Ropa-Topians, Ororo Munroe and Anna D’Acanto. Law began well, leaving Anson then D’Acanto behind, and fighting it out neck and neck with Munroe, the two women alternating in the lead. As the seconds tumbled away, however, D’Acanto made a clumsy comeback, jostling Law and causing her to stumble. D’Acanto was disqualified, and the West Ariddian was immediately left behind by her two remaining competitors. In such a short race, there was no time to catch up; she finished with a time of 46.506. The computer soon indicated, however, that she was being allowed to advance, easing her frustration somewhat.

Then came the speedskating, with the men’s 500m. Much was expected of Ariddia’s four representatives, and there were high hopes of at least one medal. Alas, there was disappointment after the first race, as Ariddia’s best placed athlete, Richard Maraîcher, came only sixth. Astonishingly, Jean-Michel Chang was all the way down in thirty-first, with a time of 36.00. Understandably enough, all four men had a point to prove as they lined up for the second race.

Henry Sailor and Derek Riise both improved their times fractionally, but not nearly enough to make a difference. Maraîcher actually lost ground, coming fifteenth overall. But the race was unquestionably Chang’s.

His face set with determination, Chang barrelled out ahead, and seemed all but unstoppable from start to finish. He knew an outstanding performance was needed to see him onto the podium, and an outstanding performance was what he delivered. With a time of 35.06, he was just three hundredths of a second away from the Olympic record, and finished the race over two tenths of a second before his closest competitor, Lester Anders of Kelssek. Both Chang and Anders were left off the podium, however, although Chang had managed the spectacular achievement of climbing up from thirty-first to an overall fifth in just one race. The gold medallist, Commerce Heights JSY’s Mike Leisten, finished the second race well over half a second behind Chang.

“Never mind,” Chang said later, looking relatively cheerful all the same. “Still lots to come!”

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Anders in fourth place, women beat Fordavia
Kelssek's Lester Anders performed well in the men's 500m speed skating, beating his personal best time to record a nice round number of 1:11.00 and taking fourth place - but he will be more thrilled than disappointed even though he did come close to a medal as unlike some other fourth placers, he wasn't a medal favorite going into the race.

"I always do better with the big occaisons," he said.

Meanwhile, Jenna Carlson's pair of goals helped Kelssek's women's hockey team to a second win with a 3-2 victory over Fordavia, although it could have gone either way. Carlson was named the first star of the game, although credit should also go to the Fordavian goalie for keeping her team in the game.

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome to Olympic Late Night.

WR: Let's look at the results from this afternoon, and earlier this evening.

RM: The Quakmybush Women's Hockey team defeated Malabra 3-1. This win put the team in the lead of their group.

WR: Amber park failed to advance in the Short Track Women's 500m.

RM: Jason "The Shermanator" Sherman brought home a bronze medal in the Men's 500m Speed Skating event.

WR: Impressive! Maurice Delgado finished 10th in the same event.

RM: Carl Muñoz finshed 27th.

WR: Gary Weaver finished 31st.

RM: Quakmybush now sits 6th in the medal standings.

WR: They have 1 Gold, 2 Silvers, and 1 Bronze.

RM: Well, that is all the time that we have.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Be sure to watch us tomorrow afternoon for Olympic Lunch. I'm Ron Mclearn, have a good night.

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 4 at the 2nd Winter Games Update

Once again to to time contrants, we were unable to add any othe information about Day 4, but since nothing involved Qazoxian athletes, we figured that we'd post the current medal standings:

G S B Total
1 Anastasiania 3 4 2 9
2 Jasīyūn 3 2 2 7
3 Kelssek 2 3 0 5
4 Ariddia 2 0 2 4
5 Noremark 2 0 1 3
Wentland 2 0 1 3
Quakmybush 1 2 1 4
8 Cafundéu 1 2 0 3
9 Ropa-Topia 1 1 1 3
10 Oliverry 1 0 1 2
11 Liverpool England 1 0 0 1
12 Mikitivity 0 1 2 3
13 Ballclampistan 0 1 0 1
Maineiacs 0 1 0 1
The Mushroom Kingship 0 1 0 1
Qazox 0 1 0 1
17 Spindomia 0 0 2 2
18 Az-cz 0 0 1 1
Bears Armed 0 0 1 1
Casari 0 0 1 1
Elves Security Forces 0 0 1 1
Rorysville 0 0 1 1

Day 5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11994018&postcount=9)

Az-cz Scroll
Keto
Bn-Blr

The sliders continue to struggle

The men's individual luge began competition and the Gnomes continued to struggle. Despite being aided by their small size which helps them travel faster turned in bad times. After one run the chances of any of the Az-czzers finishing in the medals was all but gone. Ha-Kl who many thought would be the leader of this team only beat two other competitors in the whole first run. Wa-Kr was actually not too displeased with his performance, and Gay-Org was solidly middle of the pack, but nothing too exciting happening there.

In other news Masatoshi Harada could be seen out at the Nordic Combined, cheering for a Maineiac. Although there are no formal relations between the two countries, and no relation between the two competitors, sometimes there is a lot in a name. Yoshiro Harada was competing for the Maineiacs side, and did quite well, leading the event after the opening day. Could Harada's from different nations find medal glory here in Keto. We'll soon find out.

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 5 at the 2nd Winter Games

The 5th day of the 2nd Winter Games continued today, and Qazox was front an center for Curling, as the Women became the 1st team to clinch a quarterfinal spot with a 9-5 victory over Ropa-Topia. Due to the victories over both Mikivity and Ropa-Topia, Qazox will advance no matter the outcome of their match against Maineiacs, as Mikivity and Ropa-Topia face each other on the same day.

Score Summary:

TEAM 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10--Final
RTP 0-0-0-1-0-2-0-0-2-0 --5
QZX 0-0-2-0-2-0-3-2-0-0 --9

In Men's Luge, a bad start for the Qazoxian lugers as all three failed to crack the top 20, with Jean-Luc Crusher being the highest at 21st with a time of 52.160. Wesley Riker is in 36th with a time of 52.532 and William Picard is in 41st with a time of 52.619. A disasterous start for the three men who were seemingly our best chance at sweeping the medal stand.

In Women's half-pipe, Sasha Boxer nailed most of her run, but under-rotated 720 McTwist left her in 5th place with a score of 27.8. Jenni Wolf is in 12th after falling twice during her run. Ms. Boxer is confident that she will land her 720 McTwist and has hinted at something else big. Hopefully she'll land both and steal a medal.

That's all for today and stayed tuned to QBS channel 9 for all the live Olympic action

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McCorrick wins moguls gold

Kelssek took a third gold and a sixth medal, already hitting the Kelssekian Olympic Committee's pessimistic target of six medals with the bulk of the Winter Games still to go and more medals expected, as Redswyth native Kieran McCorrick won at the men's moguls in freestyle skiing.

McCorrick, who was not expected to win a medal and was tipped as a dark horse at the best, was excited about winning.

"Some days everything just works, you know? I'm really thrilled to win a gold medal." he said, "I'm still not sure how I pulled it off but I was definitely in the zone today."

His stunning victory came at the expense of Jacques Marié of Quakmybush and Anastasiania's Peter Alpin, who took silver and bronze respectively.

Elsewhere...

Annelle Brun made it two for two at women's curling as Kelssek beat Anastasiania 7-5, and now look practically assured of qualification. Brandon Shelley was disappointed with his performance in the men's 10km sprint event of the biathlon; the national championship winner finished 20th Kelssek's other two competitiors Johnson Whitsby and Mark Thomas ahead of him. It's looking good so far at the women's half-pipe although Laurie Shekania will want to step it up for the second run, she trails the top three. Finally, Katrina Anson was disqualified in the semi-finals of the short track women's 500m for impeding Gaŋ Tā-la, who finished first. Although unhappy with the decision she said she would not contest it.

From MSPN --


There was hope on the horizon in this morning's competition, even as there was disappointment. Our Women's Curling team lost 7-6 to Mikitivity, and was eliminated from the medal round. Jasper Otley and Fred Johnson were 15th and 25th, respectively, in the Men's 10k Sprint Biathlon, William Jeter put in a decent performance, and finished 6th in Men's Moguls; Berkeley O'Bannon, however is currently 24th in Men's Luge after the 1st run, while Chrissy Stevens in 7th after one round in Women's Halfpipe, and is too far behind to contend for a medal. This morning's bright spots were our Men's Nordic Combined team with Yoshiro Harada in 1st, Kevin Gerber in 4th and Paavi Hannomenen 7th after the 1st round of the Individual Gundersen; and figure skater Tom Bellamy, in 2nd after the Men's short program. Both Bellamy and teammate Jeff Wilson, in 13th, qualified for the long program. We will continue to carry coverage, including interviews with both Harada and Bellamy, later today.

The head of the Olympic Committee had summoned the Wentland chef d'affaires to a meeting.

"Look, ma'am, if it's about that boarder I have no idea what it is..."

"No, actually, it's about your entrant in the Gundersen. I've invited them along as well. I'm surprised they're not here."

"I think David's lumbago is playing up, he's been doing sightseeing. What an extraordinary event, though. Who's idea was it to have such a thing? It took us ages to find someone with that surname..."

"Er, I think you misunderstand..."

David Gundersen finally came in. "Er, sorry, my wife's got a bit of a head on her, she can't make it. You wanted to see me, ma'am?"

"Yes. Do you know what the Gundersen event is?"

"Yes. Well, I think I do. Some sort of family reunion? Isn't it the royal family here or something? Jolly nice idea."

"NO, NO, NO! It involves ski-jumping and cross-country."

David Gundersen paled.

"You mean that thing where you go down the hill and fly off?"

"YES! We cannot allow you to participate. You have no experience in it!"

"Er, oh."

The Wentland official had looked on in shock. "You mean it's a real thing? Oh, I thought it was a joke or something...a demonstration..."

"No, it is deadly serious. So serious that there are only ten entrants, it is that difficult. We cannot allow you to take part."

David Gundersen had recovered his composure. "Now, look here. I'm a proud Went and it was wonderful to be selected for the Games. I am NOT giving up now! I INSIST on taking part!"

The Committee head thought. At last she said "well, you are a legitimate entrant...but I must insist that you take part at your own risk. Our insurance cannot cover it. Sign this waver."

The official advised David. "Look, just pull out or something...no-one will think any the worse of you..."

"No. I MUST do this. For Wentland."

***

The start of the Gundersen. The Nordic coach was with the official. "He's a brave sod."

"Or a stupid sod."

David Gundersen looked at the hill below him. Gulp. He had to propel himself down without sticks and somehow land it. How did they do it on the telly? Lean forward and let the skis out in front...

He sat on the bar. The time was ticking. Should he let go? This could be fatal...

He shut his eyes and pushed himself off.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod...

"WHEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"

The ground rushed up and Gundersen landed with both feet together. He whizzed off at a fair lick before losing balance.

"WHEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!! Let's go again!!! Let's go again!!!!"

The crowd, who had been expecting to see a royal blue splat on the snow, were ecstatic. Harada was annoyed, he did not get such cheers for his jump.

The distance was announced. "NINETY-EIGHT METRES!!!!" David Gundersen was (a) alive and (b) not last...wait till Annie hears of this..."

David Gundersen suddenly sobered. "Oh my God, it'll kill her..."

(From the sports pages of 'The Bear Necessities'...)


Not Quite So Quiet

And on the fourth day there was ALSO only ONE scheduled event in which any of our people particpated: This time it was Women's Ice Hockey team who played and won THEIR second match, beating the team from 'Edward City' by 4 goals to 3 in in a hard-fought contest that saw the lead change hands several times, to take the top position in their group.


Getting Louder

The Games' fifth day, however, saw some of our people competing in TWO events.
The Women's Curling team ALSO played & won their second match, to take the lead their group, in this case beating the team from the nation of 'Michigan-Superior' 7:5...
And over in the Figure Skating the 'Short Program' stage of the Men's contest went VERY well for our entrants, with Thunarr Thulean finishing in first place while his team-mates Garron o Westwood and Urthorran (the latter of whom is, of course, already a medal-winner from the 'Pairs' contest ) -- who were rated at 4th & 5th respectively -- also qualifying for the next stage. Could a clean sweep of the medals for this event be within our grasp?

Ariddians active in Keto

Biathlon and luge are hardly major sports in the Ariddian Isles, but they attracted the interest of Ariddian supporters cheering for their own underdogs. In the men’s luge, Yosief Debesa was back for another go after Aeropag, and at the close of the first run stood in forty-first place, with a time of 52.618.

“I’ve made a lot of progress, haven’t I?” he asked, laughing. “By the time I’m ninety, perhaps I’ll be standing within sight of the foot of the podium.”

In biathlon, Aeropag surprise bronze medallist François Riverdale was accompanied by West Ariddians Benjamin Rogers and Jorge Tavares for the ten kilometre sprint. Riverdale had stated that his aim was to “finish the race, of course, and be within the top two thirds in the ranking”. Mission accomplished: with a time of 28:39.7 he was sixteenth out of thirty-three, just one minute and sixteen seconds behind gold medallist Alexandre Fréchette of Quakmybush. Rogers was close behind him, eighteenth with 28:47.5. Both men had completed the race, keeping up with the pack.

But there was a surprise here too, delivered by Jorge Tavares for his first ever appearance in an Olympic event. The West Ariddian performed amazingly well, overtaking almost all his opponents to cross the line in second place with a yell of joy – his time 27:39.3, fifteen seconds behind Fréchette. Tavares’ medal was a huge surprise back home, in all three Ariddian States.

“He’s a great athlete,” C.O.A. ( http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Ariddian_Olympic_Committee) President Eo Sheh enthused. “He put in a huge effort and his remarkable skill, and fully deserved that medal. He has done the Ariddian Isles proud.”

As a West Ariddian rather than a PDSRA citizen, Tavares will undoubtedly receive a very large cash reward from his sponsors, along with lucrative offers to appear in advertisements in his homeland.

In the men’s figure skating, there was good news as Carl Salé, Yves Barreau and Yan Htet all qualified for the next round. All three will have to improve their performance quite significantly to obtain a medal, but at least they will be there to continue the competition.

In snowboarding, there was some excitement as the West Ariddian Wut Le’o finished third after the first run in the finals of the women’s half-pipe. She will now have to match her first round achievement to win a bronze medal. The three other athletes in the top four are all from Kelssek.

“I’m battling it out against a snowboarding superpower!” Le’o joked. “Those Kelssek girls are really, really good. But I’m not going to let all three of them onto the podium!”

Finally, in short track, Fatima Law went in the semi-finals of the women’s 500m, and won her semi, qualifying comfortably for the final. She is now very close to an Olympic medal, assuming she does not finish last in the final. . . and assuming she completes the race, which is never a given in short track.


Archregimancy begins

“Is outrage!” MOCTA spokesman Fr. Vasily the Heavily-Accented exclaimed indignantly after the qualifying stage of the men’s figure skating. “Judges biased against pious and humble Monastic figure skating! They do not recognise great skill of monk on skates.”

These comments came after the Archregimancy’s Fr. Andrew the Seeker after Truth qualified in nineteenth place, the judges having awarded him a score of 61.52 – enough to see him through to the next round. The Archregimancy has the second smallest delegation in these Games (two athletes, one more than San Adriano’s one), and Father Andrew received great support from spectators as he swirled round the ice rink gracefully in his full, billowing monastic robes, to the religious music of Orthodox liturgy.

Father Vasily – much loved by the public for his constant outrage and funny accent – also complained about the lady athletes’ lack of dress in the pairs’ skating a few days ago.

“Is temptation of the flesh to distract our athletes,” he proclaimed. “Is additional, unfair challenge for our athletes to overcome.” Dismissing the Maineiac Olympic Committee’s earlier complaints as “silly waste of time”, he appealed to the Games’ organisers to attend to a far more important concern: banning “unholy events which incite to lascivous debaucherie of spectators”.

Asked what she thought of these comments and of Father Vasily, Ariddian figure skater Bénédicte Steinbauer said only:

“We all love him. I’d like to give him a great big hug!”


(OOC: Use of Father Vasily with Arch’s authorisation. My apologies in advance for any aspects not consistent with Eastern Orthodoxy.)

A media blackout due to the complaints of the ink industry that they were being under-valued has meant Fordavians have been kept in the dark regarding news of their participants in Keto.

But after the Ink companies managed to settle their dispute with the paper, publication has resumed.

Today's Fordavian journal reports from Keto:

In the men's Ice hockey. The opening brave performance in just a 3-2 defeat against Anastasiania gave hope for later games, but any hope of a victory in their 2nd game was extinguished by a less than adept performance in losing
1–4 to Maineiacs, leaving Fordavia bottom of the group and the only team without a win. In fact the scoreline was no reflection on a dominant Maineiacs who probably should have added at least another 3 or 4 goals.

News from the 3rd Game will appear in a special 2nd Edition of the journal released this evening.

The womens Ice Hockey team were expected to struggle and unfortunately that indeed proved the case

Match day 1 ended with a 1-4 defeat against Ropa-Topia, but they improved the performance for Matchday 2, but still fell to a narrow 2-3 loss against Kelssek

In the Men's individual Luge run 1

Karsiis Delurty had a disappointing run, finishing in 20th place
More expected results came the other two sliders, with Pirug Vava coming last and Sinite Wuyton down in 44th

Run 2 will also be covered this evening.

The womens individual luge also wielded the expected lowly results.

Teris Listine came in last place, but as reported earlier was ecstatic to get through all 4 rounds without crashing.
Gerissa Hikonolt did helself proud by finishing 3rd from last, ahead of Amanda Holmes (QMB) after a good lat slide.

In the luge doubles Teris and Gerissa did fantastically well finishing 15th out of 22, while the team of Vava and Delurty were carried by the impressive Delurty to a 9th place finish.

The other event Fordavians were invloved in was the speed skating.

In the Women's competition Falops Mazroh came in last place, while Tertug Diseip was proud of her finishing time of under 1.19 coming in 5th from last, tied with Valerie Vincent (BCL).

And in the Men's event Cochis Riffosl after a horrendous first run was just relieved to finish next to last, while Junipet Gretchelz was 3rd from last and Gavaf Hullunt 5th from last, and extremely pleased to finish ahead of his two team-mates.

Despite the low level of success experienced so far and with Fordavians holding little hope of any medals, it has still been a great experience and given the Fordavian team a good insight for the hopefull participation at future winter olympics and other sporting events.

Day 5.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11995441&postcount=10)

The Fordavia Journal 2nd edition of the day to catch up with all the Winter Olympic news (after the printing problems) has been released.

The Fordavia journal is delighted to tell you about some positive news for our Olympian Fordavians.

The Men's Ice Hockey team after 1st and 2nd matchday defeats of 2-3 and
1-4 respectively have bucked their losing trend by avoiding loss for the first time in just their third international Ice Hockey game ever with a 3-3 tie against Kelssek

Again star man Zuket Huytde was the inspiration scoring two goals, taking his tally to 4 for the tournament.

It was Kelssek who started brightly and were 1-0 up within 5 minutes. A slick and fast passing move finished of in style.

15 minutes into the first period and Fordavia levelled with Huytde's first. It came on the powerplay after Kelssek were penalised for hooking.

But just two minutes later and Kelssek were back in front. Neat work behind the goal led to the puck being swept back and then into the net by the on-rushing centre.

Kelssek started the second period brightly, but it was Fordavia who scored first. A long-range slapshot from Fartey Deezia sneaking in between the goal-tender and the post to level the scores at 2-2.

12 minutes into the second period and Fordavia took the lead. A stunning run from Huytde taking him from the boards past 3 men and in front of the goal before finishing with a deft flick of his stick.

Fordavia dominated the rest of the period and possibly should have added to the score, but the next goal came 7 minutes into the third period from Kelssek. This time on their own powerplay. The made good use of the extra-man to create a one-on-one which was cooly finished.

The last 13 minutes was end-to-end play, and a last minute shot from Kelssek came back of the post, but neither side quite came up with the ability to break the other down.

More good news came in the 2nd run of the Men's Luge.

Pirug Vava put in a much improved run, but it was not enough to move him of last position.

And Sinite Wuyton was just 1 of 6 to slide down in under 52 seconds in the
2nd run.

Fordavia's most experienced winter sportsman Karsiis Delurty put in a much better slide 2nd time round. getting down in a time of 51.536 seconds which would have been enough to break the track record but Arthur Rank (WLD) broke his own record which he set on the previous run by getting down in 51.484 seconds.

The result moves Karsiis up into 2nd place.

From MSPN --

Maineiacs stands poised to potentially take several more medals in the 2nd Winter Olympics. Our Women's Speedskating relay team did well enough to qualify directly for the Quaterfinals in the Team Pursuit, Yoshiro Harada remains in 1st in the Men's Nordic Combined, while Kevin Gerber is 3rd. Chrissy Stevens finished 9th in women's halfpipe. Now as promised, we have an interview with Men's figure skater Tom Bellamy:

MSPN: "Congratulations on a fine performance in the short program."

TB: "Thank you. I am very relieved to have done well. As you know, I have had some trouble lately with my triple-triple combo. I my case, it's a lutz-salchow combo, and I'm really glad to have hit it so well yesterday."

MSPN: "Now, the Ladies' competition begins soon, and you are currently dating Ladies' National Champion Courtney Rogers. What do you think of her chances?"

TB: "Wow, you really know how to put a guy on the spot, don't you? I think Court has a great chance. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see both she and Liz medal."

MSPN: "Well, we wish you all the best of luck. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us."

TB: "Thank you."

Luge coach Otto Herberger was fretting in the debrief. "Where is Rank? He is meant to be resting for ze final runs."

Sgt Ian Ling, in eighth place but a scant three tenths away from a medal, responded. "I believe he is still practising on the training run."

"Zis is medness. I haff told him zat he vill be overtrained and he vill say auf wiedersehen to ze gold. Vill someone tell him zat he must come beck?"

Lou Grade volunteered. "Maybe if I have a quiet word..."

***

Rank was still practising his starts. Lou Grade tried to bring him back to the Olympic village.

"Look, Arthur...you may as well give it a rest...you'll do yourself an injury."

"It's alright for you, Lord...you've GOT your gold."

"You're miles ahead! All you've got to do is keep the bloody thing on the ice and it's yours for the taking. Look at your run today!"

Certainly Arthur Rank had attacked the ice with fury. His push-off was with massive force and a clear tenth better than anyone else's. Too fast? No, he took the Humpback with ease and swept past Spoon just kissing the top of the wall. A track record and half-a-second in front were his rewards. Only Delurtey had come close in the second run.

And that was what was preying on Rank's mind.

"Delurtey screwed up his first run. He lost half-a-second cos of a mistake. If I make the same mistake I'm dead on the ice. I can't let that happen! I've lost one gold already, how would you feel?"

"My dear chap, I KNOW the feeling! I had two golds in my pocket at Areopag if I had not bashed the ol' wall. I've had to wait four years for this...don't make the same mistake...you need a rest!"

"No way, Lord. No way am I missing out by not being ready enough for the last runs. The more I practise the less I am going to blow it tomorrow."

Lou Grade sighed, and returned to the village...

***

For the first time ever a Wentland speedskating won an event on the long track. OK, it was the preliminary round against a poor Capitalizt SLANI team that was the second slowest at the Games, but a win is a win is a win.

However David Gundersen was stone last in his event...he was going to give away a 3 minute gap to the impressive Harada of the Maineiacs, and the bookmakers were offering generous odds against him finishing at all.

Disappointment and celebration

In the final of the women’s 500m short track, Fatima Law, Ariddia’s sole remaining representative, narrowly missed out on a medal by finishing fourth. Law, who had won her semi-final and was therefore hoping for at least a silver medal, saw her hopes dashed as she came last in the final race, nine full tenths of a second behind Commerce Heights JSY’s excellent Gaŋ Tā-la, who took gold.

In luge, Yosief Debesa improved his performance slightly, and was ranked fortieth – a position he declared himself “fairly happy” with.

In speedskating, the Ariddian delegation’s strong suit, Silversmith, Uosh and Chan took part together in the women’s team pursuit. With two Keto gold medallists in its midst, the team was expected to do well, and qualified for the final in second place. . . behind their neighbours from Ropa-Topia. The two Uhuhland teams will meet again in the final as they go for gold.

In snowboarding, finally, Wut Le’o was trying to hold on to her potential third place and grab a medal. Her second run was far less impressive than her first – dropping seven points from 33.3 to 26.2 – but it was still enough for her to secure her place in third. She smiled happily and waved at the crowd as she received her bronze medal – her delegation’s sixth medal of these Games, and the third by a West Ariddian.

"Welcome, everyone!"

There was one clap. Then a small silence - just about big enough to be embarrassing - and then another clap. And another silence.

"Um. Right. Well. Every four of you. To this official Jörgen Sundlund fan club meeting. Hi Tuomo."

"Hi Jani," Tuomo Tamminen smiled back. Jani Pelkonen had been very keen on making a skating fan club. Since football clubs had reasonably big fan clubs, Jani reasoned, then surely skating, with plenty of meets and plenty of fans watching, could get a decent cult around the hero Sundlund. So far, his friends had caught onto the idea mainly to cheer up Jani.

"So. People."

"Hi Jani," echoed Sven Göransson, the only Swede in the group, and Kari Antila.

"Issue number one." Jani was keen on plans and meetings. He worked as a senior consultant at the Anastasianian Department of Agriculture. Apparently he attended six meetings a week and did little else. "We're going to make a fan club. So...what should we do?"

There was silence. Eventually Sven ventured: "Um...go watch the skating?"

More silence. Then Jani admitted: "I hadn't thought of that. Well...sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? Should we bring flags?"

"Yeaah," said Tuomo. "Flags. And we can make a sign to hold up and show Jörgen we support him."

"Great idea! Keep it coming!" Jani was smiling a bit now.

"And some of us will need to note down times. Just to remember we were there."

"An archive, yes. Very good. OK. Should we sort out some tickets, then?"

"I think the Games have very low attendance. Surely it'll be possible to get some tickets," Tuomo said.

Kari had been silent all through the meeting. Now he said: "Aren't Ariddians quite good at speed skating? I've thought of a good idea...maybe we could have a national match between Anastasiania and Ariddia?"

Jani was doubtful. "Do you really think we could organise that?"

"No, but we could put the idea to the Ariddians. If they see there's interest in Anastasiania, among the people, maybe they'll catch on with it?"

Tuomo agreed. "Yeah, we could send it to the federation."

---

As such, the following email dumped into the Ariddian Skating Federation's mailbox a few hours later.

To: Ariddian Skating Federation
From: Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club <jsundlundfans@anastel.ans>
Subject: National Match

As you may know, the people of Anastasiania are very keen on speed skating. With Ariddian skaters doing so well at the Winter Olympics yet again (leading us 2-1 in gold medals, to the great disappointment of the populace) we were wondering if it were possible to establish who had the greatest depth of skaters - by holding an annual national match. This would also give both countries crucial practice before future Olympic games.

Regards,

the Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club
represented by Jani Pelkonen

Ael Ta was sitting at her desk sipping a cup of coffee quietly when John walked in, knocking then entering without waiting, as he usually did. The "main office" of the Ariddian Skating Federation was small and cluttered, on the fourth floor of a nondescript building on the outskirts of Rêvane (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/R%C3%AAvane). It was mostly she and John Skies who saw to the paperwork and organising, and, although she was technically his superior, they were very lax on formality.

"I've talked to 'Central'," he announced, meaning the Comité Olympique Ariddien. "And they've talked to the Sub-Secretariat. They've got nothing on this fan club either, but they're keen to give it a go. If the... uh... Southland...?"

"Sundland. Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club," she supplied.

"Right. If the Club has backing from something official in Anastasiania. After all, how will Anastasianian athletes get involved otherwise?"

Ael nodded.
"I thought as much. It's a really neat idea, though. All right, I'll send them a reply..."

= = = =

To: Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club <jsundlundfans@anastel.ans>
From: Ariddian Skating Federation <ael.ta@skatingfederation.gouv.ari>
Subject: Re: National Match

Dear Jani & all,

Thank you for your very interesting suggestion.

We have been watching the progress of Anastasianian speedskaters with great interest, and the idea of a match between skaters from our two countries would be welcomed in Ariddia.

Are you related at all to Anastasiania's national skating federation, or have you consulted them on this matter? We would need to coordinate setting up this competition with them, alongside your dedicated Club.

PS: Of course, in the meantime, we intend to continue beating you in Keto!

Sincerely,
Ael Ta,
President,
Ariddian Skating Federation

Colin Patterson slid his hand around Laurie Shekania's shoulders as they watched the other two getting their medals and the correct national anthem being played.

"I know how you feel."

"Really? How can you feel me through my jacket?" she said.

He looked at her for a moment. Then they kissed.

"Honestly, I thought you'd never get around to asking me out."

* * *

They were almost breathless as they came out of the lift onto Colin's floor, shedding their clothing in the hallway. Reaching his door he fumbled with the keycard and finally got it open. They burst into the room, eliciting twin yells within of shock and surprise. The twin beds had been pushed together and Brandon Shelley and Esther White had apparently pre-empted them.

The four stared at each other before Brandon said icily, "Twenty bucks an hour to watch, fellas."

Colin and Laurie quickly went back out the way they came.

"My room, then." she said.

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome to Olympic Lunch Hour.

WR: Let's look at last nights results.

RM: Quakmybush struck Gold, in the form of Alexandre Fréchette he brought home the medal in the Men's 10km Biathlon Sprint.

WR: The Women's Curling team lost to Tynelia 7-5. This loss bring their record to one win and one loss. They currently sit second in their group.

RM: Another medal for Quakmybush, this time from Jacques Marié in the Men's Moguls finals.

WR: Also in the Moguls, Chris McGee finished 5th.

RM: Pierre Sirois finished 8th.

WR: After the first run of the Men's Singles Luge, Roland Powell sits 3rd.

RM: Also in Luge Luc Carignan sits 15th.

WR: While Alvin Graves sits 49th.

RM: Bonnie Brady scored a 14.2 on her first finals run in Women's Halfpipe competition.

WR: Now for this mornings results.

RM: Quakmybush defeated Oliverry 5-2 in Men's Hockey action. The team now sits 4th in their group.

WR: After the second run of the Men's Individual Luge Roland Powell sits 4th.

RM: Also in the Luge, Luc Carignan sits 14th.

WR: While Alvin Graves sits 43rd.

RM: Bonnie Brady laid down a 17.8 in Women's Halfpipe competition. However she finished 12th in the event.

WR: The Women's Team Pursuit Speed Skating team qualified for the quarter finals.

RM: Quakmybush now sits 4th in the medal standings.

WR: They have 2 Golds, 3 Silvers, and 1 Bronze.

RM: Well, that is all the time we have.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn. Be sure to watch Olympic Lunch Hour tomorrow.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/indy-olympicheader.gif

Boarder girls make it 1-2-4

The gals might have hoped to one-up the guys but they ended up with an identical result. Lyndis Lemaire and Jeanne Carpentier took gold and silver, and shared the podium with Ariddia's Wut Lo'e while Laurie Shekania couldn't muster the run needed to grab a bronze.

At 16, Lemaire is Kelssek's youngest gold medallist and possibly the youngest so far in these games. She wowed the crowd with a perfect 900 frontside air to win.

"It's really cool to be here with all these great snowboarders, and winning it really was amazing, can't wait to share all these experiences with my friends back in Burnaby... I'm going to hate it being over," she said of her Olympic experience.

Gaŋ Tā-la sets record, takes gold

There was no impeding Gaŋ Tā-la this time as she raced to the gold and the Olympic record at the 500m women's short track, leading Kelssek's Katrina Anson, disqualified in the semi-finals for impeding her, to remark that it wouldn't make any difference anyway.

"I have a lot of respect for Gaŋ's sheer ability," she said, "clearly you could make her jump hurdles and she'd still win."

Junior Blueleafs suffer setback

Kelssek could've used the offensive potency of Sydney Crawford as they were held to a disappointing 3-3 draw by Fordavia, who gained their first point from the result.

Coach Daniel Copps had harsh words for the players.

"The guys can't underestimate teams or we'll end up being embarrassed, and that's what nearly happened tonight. We expected a better showing from these guys. We definitely are capable of beating Fordavia, the boys have proven themselves against tougher opposition, but it doesn't matter what you can do, what you actually do on the ice is what counts."

Day 6 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11997241&postcount=11)

From MSPN:

Yet another day of bitter disappointment for our team. Tom Bellamy two-footed a triple loop, and fell to 4th in Men's figure skating; Jeff Wilson was 15th. Our Men's Curling team lost 8-4 to Malabra, and stands on the brink of elimination, Carla Chapman and Olivia Stevens were 5th in Women's Cross Country Team Sprint, Jasper Otley and Fred Johnson were 16th and 18th in Men's Biathlon 12.5k Pursuit, Berkely O'Bannon is currently 18th in Men's Luge after 3 runs and has almost no way to make up enough time, and Mary Donaldson-Shorter fell on the 3rd gate of the first slalom run in Women's Alpine Combined. The only even remotely bright spots were Denis Lectoure and Toji Kaneda, who both qualified in Men's 1000m shorttrack, and Helen Farmer, currently 4th in Women's Nordic Combined, but far enough behind to have only a remote shot at a bronze. Teammates Camille Dubois and Caitlin Harris are 6th and 8th, respectively.

Two Bronze for edward city

Today,Mary Stanton and Rachel Walterson won a bronze medal at women's country skiing final round and Waylon Swaitzer won another in the Men's 12.5 Pursuit.Today is a great day for edward city.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/kbc-icon.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/olympicsketo06.jpg

Nylis wins three straight
26 NOVEMBER 2006 - KETO

Kevin Nylis took a third straight win against Tynelia 11-5 in the group stage of the men's curling tournament, ensuring Team Kelssek topped the group and looks almost certain to advance.

Johnson Whitsby also impressed as day six of the Winter Olympics got underway with a 7th place in the biathlon, recording a time of 36:55.8 in the men's 12.5km pursuit. Poor shooting continued to plague Brandon Shelley, who placed 23rd, while Mark Thomas looked remarkably off form, placing fourth from bottom in 30th position.

Alan Depper, Nathaniel Waters and Jean Larue all made it through the qualification round in the men's 1000m short track. Larue was helped by Marai Danathen of Malabria being the only finisher in his heat after the three others in heat 5 were disqualified.

Az-cz Scroll
Keto
Bn-Blr

Lugers find decent form, Az-cz team sports continue to roll

On the third run of the singles luge there were some decent times turn ed in as Gay-Org stayed firmly in the middle of the pack and Ha-Kl and Hr-Shl moved away from the bottom. Although it was clear that there would be no medal in the offing here, with none expected the Az-czzers are pleased to be making at least a decent showing.

On the ice the Gnomes took on the recently crowned Cherry Cup champions of Rorysville. And they increased speculation that Rorysville had rigged the tournament in their favor. The Gnomes jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on two Sk-Ik goals at the start of the first period. Rorysville did find an goal late in the 3rd period, but it wasn't enough as they fell to 0-1-2 and dead last in the group with just two games remaining. They're already guaranteed not to the top group and would need some things to fall their way beyond winning the last two. Basically they're in real trouble and aren't playing remotely like a world champion. As for the Gnomes they've flipped the Cherry Cup story and flown to the top of the group. A win in either of their matches sees them through to the knockout rounds, most likely in first place. Their first chance to clinch qualification will be against the Cherry Cup Runners up, and a team that the Gnomes would love to give some revenge for the world cup, Oliverry.

Out on the ice sheet Svenderson's charges had another nice day. They faced The Mushroom Kingship, and once again the Gnomes came out on top. The Mushroom Kingship started with the hammer and moved 1 point ahead. However the Gnomes quickly answered back with three points in the next end, then took a point without a hammer to move ahead 4-1. The Mushroom Kingship fought back with 2 points in the fourth to pull back to within one. The Gnomes then took control winning three straight ends, starting with 3, then following up with ends of 2 and 1 on The Mushroom Kingship's hammer. They finally broke the streak with two points on end 8, but by that time the score was 10-5 and the Gnomes were basically uncatchable. They stole the 9th end keeping TMK from placing any stones in the target and doing the same themselves. Without the hammer The Mushroom Kingship was in trouble and both teams agreed to call the last end.
Like their friends on the hockey team the curlers are one win from the knockout rounds. Up next for them is Spindomia, who's skill level is unknown. They looked good in upsetting Bears Armed, but were beat fairly easily by The Mushroom Kingship.

After the Luge finishes up most of the Az-czzers will get to enjoy some rest and watch some competitors from foreign nations compete without any care about the results.

"And that's a laboured start from Rank...he was pretty slow away...

"...and not a good split time, it's easily his slowest yet...he needs to pick it up in the bottom half...

"...and cross the line NOW...well, he did pick it up a bit, but he's lost nearly two-tenths to Delurtey who also did not have the best of runs...and with one to go Rank is still in a strong lead, but that did not bode well. Especially given team-mate Ling's super run, the best today, and Ling moves into bronze..."

***

After the race the genial soldier approached Arthur Rank. "See? Told you you needed a break...just chill...the gold will come...or I'll beat you to it..."

"I can't let go, Sarge...I CAN'T...I've never won a major before and this is the best chance I will probably ever get..."

"You're over-trained. You've got to think of your rhythm. Your pushes were not in sync, you lost all your momentum. Just relax."

"I'll try...I'll try...but it's eating me up inside..."

"Fact is, with a lead that is still the thick end of half-a-second, all you need to do is get round the bloody thing...so long as you don't break your luge..."

"Yeah, yeah...I know...but...I mean, look what happened to Deathray. And to Lenniev, let down by their luges. And Debesa fell off his...at least he caught it up..."

"That's not gonna happen to you, Art. Think positive! Generate the aura!"

***

Aura was what the women's cross-country pursuit duo had in spades as they nearly pulled off a shock medal, but were a handful of seconds adrift. The last Olympics provided Wentland's only podium ever in the skiing world, for Chrissie Carlisle, but this time she could not show similar form in the slalom; a fiendishly difficult course caught out a few competitors, Carlisle amongst them - she got off line 75% down and failed to recover, missing a gate and skiing out.

And novice Annabel Gundersen, her experience restricted to a few dry slope lessons at the Bellstead Snodome, flopped off the hill with her eyes shut to a 71m jump in the Gundersen. A clear last but her survival is a miracle.

The Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club had assembled on the Ukkomo pier, preparing themselves for the long boat trip to Jasi'yun. On the pier, there were large TV screens showing replays of Sofia Ketomäki's stunning leap in the Nordic combined event, where Anastasiania currently had the top three, though the announcer said they'd be switching to the "cross country skiing team sprint" very shortly.

"Erk. Team sprint," Jani declared to anyone who was willing to listen, and though he got a general murmur of assent, the populace knew that Sara Tillwald and Donna Longhurst were excellent skiers who probably had a fair chance of winning the whole thing. The club had doubled its membership as they stood on the pier; Jani had started chatting to a bloke sporting a "devil hat", who later introduced himself as Jyri Tommonen, long-time speed skating statistician and a massive fan of Ville Hänninen (though he had to admit Hänninen stood 74th in the Adelskalender of allround skaters, which he kept in his backpack at all times.) Tommonen had also planned to go to Jasi'yun, along with a few friends, and they were now happily holding the Sundlund banner which Kari had assembled the night before.

Kari was now sitting with his computer, exploiting the wireless network that had been introduced to the city just recently. "Anyway, what are you up to, Kari?"

"Checking email," Kari replied.

"What a surprise. Any news?"

"Yes, from the Ariddian Skating Federation. They're saying they look forward to beating us in Keto..."

"Meh. We'll show them."

"And that they would like to hold a competition, but they need some kind of official backing."

"Hehe...you serious?"

"'Course."

"So, we can get a national match? Did you hear that, Jyri?"

Jyri Tommonen stared at Kari's computer screen. "You got email from the Ariddian Skating Federation?"

"Yeah. Sent one yeseterday and got one back today. They're pretty good at public relations. Probably cos they don't care about them."

"Right! So we could get a national match?"

"They say that we get some kind of official backing."

Jyri beamed. "I know lots of people in the Federation," he said. "They usually come to me to check their statistics. Send an email to Ben Radham, he runs domestic competitions and the club leagues."

"Ben Radham?"

"Yeah. Bee-rad-ham at Anskating dot ans."

"Thanks," Kari muttered, and started to compose mails.

---

To: Ben Radham <bradham@anskating.ans>
From: Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club <jsundlundfans@anastel.ans>
Subject: National Match With Ariddia

Dear Mr Radham,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club, established about three days ago, and we have thought of a fascinating idea to increase the profile of speed skating in this country as well as Ariddia. We wish to introduce a national match between our two countries, who have clearly shown themselves to be the best and keenest on world speed skating. Attached is an email we have received from the Ariddian Skating Federation, who are interested in the idea, but need official backing from our Federation. So we were wondering if you would be interested in the idea, and take over communication and organisation of this national match?"

Regards,

Kari Antila
Communications Officer, Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club

---

Jyri skimmed through the draft. "Excellent. Particularly like the "Communications Officer" bit. Ben is impressed by lofty titles, and it may make the club sound larger. We're ten now, by the way, I met an excited young couple with a flag and they appeared to be big skating fans."

Jani was doubtful, though. "Who died and made you Communications Officer?"

"You're still alive. You're President," Kari replied.

"Oh. Right. That's okay, then." Jani beamed.

---

To: Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club <jsundlundfans@anastel.ans>
From: Ben Radham <bradham@anskating.ans>
Subject: Re: National Match With Ariddia

Dear Mr Antila,

thank you for your idea, which I have discussed with several other people in the Federation. They all agree that international competitions are vital to furthering the development of our sport, and we agree that since the sport is so small, we should approach individual countries for matches.

Thus, we will proceed with the matter further, but we will keep you informed about our communication and urge you to come up with any ideas that may please fans of the sport.

Regards,

Ben Radham
Domestic Competitions Officer, Speed Skating Division, Anastasianian Skating Federation

---

To: Ariddian Skating Federation <ael.ta@skatingfederation.gouv.ari>
From: Anastasianian Skating Federation <bradham@anskating.ans>
CC: Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club <jsundlundfans@anastel.ans>
Subject: Re: National Match

Dear Mr Ta,

we would like to give our official backing to the idea of a national match between our two countries. We would certainly send our top athletes to such an event, and we hope that it could grow to a serious national rivalry. We are still involving the Sundlund Fan Club, since they came up with the idea, and will probably be interested in knowing what kind of format the national match would come up with.

PS. And we are also considering beating you in Keto.

Regards,

Ben Radham
Domestic Competitions Officer, Speed Skating Division, Anastasianian Skating Federation

To: National Olympic Committee of Jasi'yun
From: Jane Tattersall <jktattersall@anskating.ans>
Subject: 1000 m Qualification

We wish to inquire about a decision made in the men's 1000 metre qualification. After three people were disqualified from the fifth heat of the 1000 metres, the organisators immediately advanced the skater from the third heat, Kelssekian Jean Larue. However, Sven Bråkvik of Anastasiania had the best time of the third-placed skaters. Surely logic would dictate that the third-placed with the best time, best on the ranking list, would qualify?

Regards,

Jane Tattersall
Short Track Division, Anastasianian Skating Federation

The whole of Fordavia is waiting for the results of tonight's final run in the Men's Luge. Although with the relaxed drug laws it's likely that half of the population will be in no state to understand them.

Karsiis Delurty remains in 2nd place, despite an unconvincing slide of 52.030s. With leader and track record holder Arthur Rank (WLD) only managing
52.188s Karsiis would have been looking to make up some ground.

Barring a miracle the gold medal looks unreachable, but another good slide could see Karsiis hold on to 2nd position and give Fordavia its first ever olympic medal.

Back home in preparation for a possible celebration of winning a medal, the harvesting of Gulu (Fordavia's legal, naturally growing hallucogenic) is taking place on a scale never seen before.

But lets not forget about Fordavia's other two male sliders. Pirug Vava is in next to lastplace and just looking forward to completing his run and returning home.

'I've had a great time over here', he commented. 'Everyone in Keto has been fantastic and the organization is faultless'.

'But as good as my time here has been, the enforced ban on Gulu during the olympics is taking its toll on my body. I've found myself having to cope with reality for many more hours a day than i'm used to'.

Fordavia's other slider Sinite Wuyton had a bit of a nightmare. Getting down in 53.185s.

'I've been struggling with an ear infection and it has made my balance and control all wrong' he informed us.

'But it's beginning to get better now, so i hope to improve on my performances in the final run.'

Debesa falls

The third run in the men’s luge was followed by supporters of Ariddian underdog Yosief Debesa, but little did they expect the events which unfolded as their favourite athlete began his third run. Hurtling down the slope, Debesa did well for about two thirds of the way, then appeared suddenly to lose control of his luge, as it upturned spectacularly, sending him flying. There were gasps of shock and dismay in the audience.

Debesa remained lying stunned, some distance from his luge, for over twenty seconds, as medics rushed to help him. He eventually sat up, and quickly told them he was all right, before limping back to his luge. Having not technically left the track, he was still entitled to complete the race. He settled back in, wincing uncomfortably as he did so, and got going again, welcomed by loud cheers and applause as he crossed the finish line and finally allowed the medics to examine him.

“Well, that was unexpected,” was his laconic comment to journalists. “I suppose I won’t get that gold medal after all,” he added jokingly, in reference to the fact that he had never had any hopes of wining it in the first place. “Shucks be to that.”

With a time of 1:34.921, Debesa was over forty-two seconds behind his slowest opponent, all but guarenteeing that he will finish last overall.

In the same race, Rorysville’s Igor Lenniev also lost control of his luge, and failed to complete the race, eliminating himself from the competition.

In biathlon, Tavares, Riverdale and Rogers did quite well in the men’s twelve and a half kilometre pursuit, but did not create any surprises this time. In figure skating, Carl Salé finished in seventh place, in front of his compatriots Yves Barreau (twelth) and Yan Htet (twenty-third). In the same event, the Archregimancy’s Fr. Andrew the Seeker after Truth finished sixteenth, with a score of 124.80. MOCTA spokesman Fr. Vasily the Heavily-Accented ( http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Fr._Vasily_the_Heavily-Accented) expressed “outrage” at the result.

“Other competitors not burdened with necessary monastic robes!” he pointed out, alluding to the heavy robes Fr. Andrew wore on the ice rink.

“What Fr. Vasily means,” explained a senior archimandrite, speaking on condition of anonymity, “is that we have put ourselves at a disadvantage by allowing Fr. Andrew to wear his full monastic robes in an event which – let’s admit it – calls for grace and agility.” There was also reportedly some concern within MOCTA due to the fact Fr. Andrew’s robes had billowed up on a couple of occasions during his pirouettes, revealing part of his bare legs below.

“Is not at all appropriate,” Fr. Vasily was heard muttering.

Finally, in the qualifiers of the men’s one kilometre short track event, Ariddia was represented by Jean-Michel Chang, Derek Riise and Richard Maraîcher. In heat 2, Chang qualified with ease, finishing second behind Tynelia’s Conner Bradford, ahead of three other competitors. In heat 7, Richard Maraîcher won his race with a comfortable lead. But in heat 6, all did not go as planned for Derek Riise.

He was competing against Marai Danathen and Dan Noranthberg of Malabra, and Thomas Peruzzi of San Adriano. As the race began, Riise and Noranthberg moved into the lead, Peruzzi keeping up well, and Danathen trailing somewhat. Then, the three leaders were abruptly reminded of the dangers of short track. Noranthberg and Riise somehow cut each other off, colliding and losing their balance, crashing down in a jumble of limbs. Too close behind, Peruzzi barrelled right into them, hitting them with his skates and tumbling right over them. Coming up behind, Danathen had been trailing enough to avoid the chaos, and skated round the fallen athletes, crossing the finish line alone. Noranthberg, Riise and Peruzzi were all disqualified, despite the Sanadrianese athlete’s protests that there was nothing he could have done to avoid hitting his opponents.


= = = = =

In Rêvane, John Skies was checking the Skating Federation’s e-mails, and looked up, grinning.

“Hey, boss! In Anastasiania they think you’re a guy.”

Ael Ta stood and walked over to him.
“I get that a lot.” Indigenous Ariddian ( http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Wymgani) names were sometimes difficult for foreigners to handle. She looked over Skies’ shoulder. “All right, what do they say?”

He showed her the e-mail. She nodded, and sat down to type out a reply.

To: Anastasianian Skating Federation <bradham@anskating.ans>
From: Ariddian Skating Federation <ael.ta@skatingfederation.gouv.ari>
CC: Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club <jsundlundfans@anastel.ans>
Subject: Re: National Match

Dear Mr Radham,

We are delighted by your support, which will undoubtedly promote interest in speedskating in both our countries, offer opportunities to our athletes to better themselves, and encourage stronger relations in general between Anastasiania and Ariddia.

Perhaps an encounter could be organised soon after the end of the Keto Games. It could take the form of Olympic-formatted speedskating events. Are you offering to host this competition?

Regards,

Ael Ta,
President,
Ariddian Skating Federation

Monarch shares in national dismay

Princess Serena Eu (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Serena_Eu), ruling monarch of the Sovereign Village of San Adriano, arrived yesterday evening in Keto with her husband Prince Willem and their children Prince Mauro and Pricess Petra. Princess Serena is in Commerce Heights on a State visit, and has been received by Commerce Heights CEO Won Gaŋ-ji. It is not known what CEO Won and Princess Serena discussed during their meeting.

It is, however, obvious that the main reason for the Princess’s visit was to attend the Olympic Games, and watch and encourage the only Sanadrianese athlete, Thomas Peruzzi. The Princess and her family were shown to the VIP spectators’ box, where Crown Prince Mauro and his sister Petra waved little Sanadrianese flags to show their support for Peruzzi.

Peruzzi was competing today in his second event, the qualifiers of the men’s 1000m short track competition. Having been disqualified during the qualifiers of the 1500m, he was keen to prove himself, as he lined up in heat 5 against Marai Danathen and Dan Noranthberg of Malabra, and Derek Riise of Ariddia.

It was a very short race, and things went wrong very quickly. Noranthberg and Riise collided, crashing down, and Peruzzi, right behind them, tumbled right over them, and was disqualified. After the race, he looked extremely frustrated.

“I’m only here to take part in three events, and I’ve been disqualified from two already. I don’t think I should have been disqualified today. I couldn’t possibly have avoided hitting those two athletes; I’d like to see the judges give it a try and see how well they do!”

He admitted he was especially disappointed to have fared so badly in front of his monarch, who had come specially all the way from San Adriano to watch him compete.

“I feel I’ve let Her Highness down. I’ve let my entire country down, and for that I’m very sorry.”

Princess Serena made no public comment after the incident, but did hold a private conversation with Peruzzi, and is understood to have given him words of encouragement and expressed her full support and confidence in him.

Day 6.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11998952&postcount=12)

Gold Medal Glory
Gold medal is the first for a Malabrian in any Winter Games

Keto, Jasīʼyūn--"Success" hasn't been the word to describe Malabra's pursuits in the II Winter Olympiad. Through trials and trivails, Malabra has came close, but not enough for any medal.

That is, until today.

Malabra was hoping to improve in these games since their last visit. One of the hopes was that the Malabrians would do well in figure skating. After Malabra's entry for pairs' skating faltered, the responsibility came next to the individual events. Today the mens' free skate competition took place and Idanda Iwoq won with an astounding score of 157.85, 8.2 points higher than the nearest competitor. This was an even more astounishing accomplishment in that it was the first gold medal for any Malabrian in any Winter Games.

Malabrian figure skaters will continue with other upcomming events that are scheduled for the remainder of these games.

From the Malabrian Times: http://www.malabriantimes.blogspot.com

Kari Antila shook his head. These people really didn't know who they were dealing with...

---

To: Ben Radham <bradham.anskating.ans>
From: Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club <jsundlundfans@anastel.ans>
Subject: Re: National Match

Dear Mr Radham,

please note that Ael is a female name in Ariddia. We hope you have not caused grave insult by this observation.

Regards,

Kari Antila

---

To: Ariddian Skating Federation <ael.ta@skatingfederation.gouv.ari>
From: Anastasianian Skating Federation <bradham@anskating.ans>
CC: Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club <jsundlundfans@anastel.ans>
Subject: Re: National Match

Dear Ms Ta,

after visiting your federation's homepage, it appears I have been in error about the form of address. My deepest apologies if I caused any offence.

Anyway, on the important matters: we would be quite willing to host the first instance of such a national match, though we hope that the experiment may be repeated in due time before the next Olympics, as it would be good practise for our athletes. We have an indoor ice hall in Heino which currently owns 14 of 18 Anastasianian records, and we may host events of both long track and short track speed skating, if you wish for the national match to involve the latter format as well.

We would, however, like an allround (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samalog) competition to be included in the national match. Anastasianian speed skating revolves around the allround competitions, and I think the watching fans would be very disappointed if some form of allround was not included. As you have many skaters who take part in both the 500 and the 5000 metres, and seem to be experienced in all the distances, we trust this will not be a problem.

Details of the competition may be exchanged in more private ways of communication (OOC: TG), though we would think a competition in the five Olympic distances, over three days, would seem like a suitable format. One of the shorter distances may not count for the allround competition, though, as too much emphasis would be placed on short distance results.

We would also like to offer commiserations on the result of your pursuit team. This event will not be included in the national match.

Regards,

Ben Radham

More Malabrians Disqualified
DQ's keep pilling up; citizens want answers

Keto, Jasīʼyūn--Malabrians are in shock right now as more and more Malabrians get disqualified. In fact, more Malabrian athletes have been disqualified than the past two olympics, both winter and summer, combined.

No offical word has been given on the causes, but rumors appear to indicate anywhere from drugs, false starts, to no shows. There does not seem to be a consensus and Malabrian Olympic Commitee members refuse to answer any questions.

From the Malabrian Times: http://www.malabriantimes.blogspot.com

"Well, what must be going through Arthur Rank's mind now? He must have heard the cheers...a new track record for Karsiis Delurtey...and the pressure is well and truly on...Rank needs a seven eight eight for gold...which should be gettable, but his last run was poor...and only half-a-dozen lugers have gone that fast...

"The start...and it's poor...not much thrust off and Rank has not settled down into an aerodynamic position...

"The line into the first bend is all wrong...and at the first timing point Rank has lost three-tenths...he's throwing away the gold...

"Back onto it...at half-distance he's a tenth up...but he's going to have to fight for the gold...

"Ohhh, he's overcooked it at the Dragon's Head...this is not going to be good...he's SLOWER...he needs to make up a tenth...

"...he's nearly lipped the run and the crowd oohs...Arthur Rank has thrown away the gold...across the line and it's silver for Rank, bronze for Ling...a Wentland 2-3...but yet again the luge individual slips out of Went hands...a total disaster for Arthur Rank as he looks up at the board...ohh, he's utterly fuming...the Fordavians have gone ballistic, they've got their first medal and it's gold...but Rank is utterly, utterly stunned..."

***

"It's good to see two Wentland flags up there, but Arthur Rank is not happy...he's on the second step and he's barely looked at his medal...Ian Ling is delighted with bronze, that's better than he dared hope for...but Rank is entirely uninterested..."

***

"Arthur..."

"**** off. I'm going home."

"That's no way to behave...it's the Olympics..."

"I don't ****ing care. You've ****ed me over too many ****ing times. If you'd left me alone to do my own thing I'd have the ****ing gold. ****ing ****."

"Leave him, Ian...he needs to cool down..."

"Hope you're right, Lou...he's lost two golds at these Games, it could destroy his psyche..."

***

Elsewhere it was an horrific day for Wentland, albeit as expected. The murderous women's slalom course did for another 5 competitors, leaving just 14 skiers after two rounds and leaving Chrissie Carlisle even more frustrated for her lapse in concentration. And the short-track men's relay team failed to make the final and a 75% medal chance by getting too wrapped up in a battle with the Maineiacs to think about finishing second in their semi - a double blow as the first was a particularly poor race.

The only slight bright sparks were the men's pursuit team in the speed-skating, who fought back from an horrific opening round (where only a Leval tumble stopped the Wentland team from finishing a wayward last) to set a national record time of 3'48" - the sixth fastest time so far - in knocking Kelssek out and qualifying for the quarter finals. And Annabel Gundersen attacked the hill in the Gundersen and actually beat someone, the hapless Alma Johnston having to explain how a fiftysomething novice out-jumped her in the second round. Of course Annabel has little chance of a medal, finishing would be an achievement, but she was delighted with that.

Viiiiii Austin's hair is now bright flame red, just in time for her event, the skeleton bob, tomorrow. She provides Wentland's best medal hope until the bobsleigh later in the week.

From MSPN--

Berkeley O'Bannon finifhed 15th in Men's Luge, our Men's Speedskating team qualified in the Team Pursuit, but our Men's shorttack team did not qualify in the 5000m relay, Caitlin Harris remains in 4th in Women's Nordic Combined. The big news is that the members of our Women's shorttrack team have taken to wearing shirts that feature a picture of MOCTA spokesman Fr. Vasily the Heavily-Accented and his trademark phrase "Is Outrage!" to protest their disqulification and the fact that the protest remains unaddressed.

Peter Narashiku looked up from the newspaper to see one of the teams wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words, "Is Outrage!" under the outraged likeness of Vasily.

"Dude, those T-shirts are brilliant!" he said to the guy who happened to be next to him.

"Huh? Oh, uh yeah."

"We can trade with Ariddia, right?"

"Uh... yeah I think..."

"Awesome, I can get those when we go home."

"Mmmh..."

With nothing else exciting happening to Kelssekians Peter was thrilled to see his 7th place in the luge being given the headline treatment for its surprise factor right alongside the women's hockey team being unbeaten after three games. The Independent were shipping their morning editions out to Keto so the athletes could all see themselves in the media and get an ego boost, and someone had brought along a KBC satellite receiver and hooked it up in the TV room for maximal self-aggrandisement for the winners and sheepish embarrasment for those who hadn't done as well as expected.

He turned back to "Malabrians protest disqualifications".

The Fordavia Journal is both astounded and delighted to report that Karsiis Delurty has won the first ever medal for Fordavia at the winter olympics, not only that but he brought home the Gold.

With none of the competitors below him putting in any stunning performances it only required a safe slide for Karsiis to hold onto his Silver medal position, but compromise was not on the agenda.

He put every bit of skill and experience to good use and managed to slide down the track in a new track record of 51.454s.

'i knew i had a run like that in me' he stated as we caught up with him at the bottom. 'I just wasn't sure if i'd be able to get it out.'

But, there was still the final slide of the event to come and despite the track record, it only needed another good slide from Arthur Rank (WLD) to keep him in Gold Medal position.

But a bad first bend left him struggling early on and the pressure began to tell as he made another mistake at the Dragon's Head.

Rank eventually finished in a time of 52.219s giving Delurty the gold medal by nearly 4/10th's of a second.

The small band of Fordavians were dumb-struck, but as they let the result sink in they began to party in style.

At the Medal ceremony, the black and Red of Fordavia's flag flew proudly as Karsiis and all the supporters sang along joyously to Fordavia's national anthem: Fordavia Alam (The land of Fordavia)

As reported at the start of the games Karsiis had only been granted citizenship a months before the games, but this result will surely silence those few who were against his participation.

Pirug Vava put in a slide of just over 53s leaving him next to last, finishing above Yosief Debesa (ARI) who had a big crash on his 3rd run.

Sinite Wuyton finished in 35th place with a final slide of 52.630s.

Fordavia just has the completion of the Men's and Women's Ice hockey to look forward to and neither team is in with a shout of group qualification.

But today was all about Karsiis Delurty and it will be looked on as a day of national pride.

There is already talk of leader Tasug Keergh wanting to make Delurty into Fordavia's first Ambassador for Foreign Relations due to the fame that this medal will bring.

But it remains to be seen wether Delurty; the shy and down-to-earth family man would accept such a position.

"So where exactly are we?" Lauren Puhdahl asked the other two.

"I can't really tell to be honest, the first day was such a long trip that I slept through the last part and we ended up in the city. That's why I'll recommend getting in at least four days or so beforehand." Mike Hendrick answered her as best he could.

"Have you read this yet?" Nikolay Sushkevich walked into the hotel room he'd been sharing with Mike and handed him a printoff from a Malabran website he'd visited, detailing the protest.

"We should be familiar with how to do this before we come to one of these." Hendrick pointed another lesson learned out.


The Coocoostani delegation was tiny, only three people, none of them athletes. But it wasn't about winning medals, it was about winning them at the olympics to come. They'd asked to come with the delegation from Kelssek, a neighbour and good ally from the East Pacific. They'd liased in sport before, playing in the famous East Pacific Hockey Championship, winning the first time and coming in second the time after. Nikolay had badgered some poor reporter on the flight over about how Coocoostan now had a winning record against Kelssek (2-1). They could thank the Coocoostan Baseball Congress for the opportunity to come. Coocoostan's semi-professional baseball teams had hosted Kelssekian players, who were amateurs and had in the process established good relations with the Kelssek Olympic Committee. When they'd asked to come with the Kelssekians to Keto, they'd been welcomed in large part, with the Kelssekians allowing them to access the olympic village and get a sense of the logistics required.

"Any luck yet Lauren?"

"No Kolya, I still can't find it."

She looked back at the map. "Oh wait, there we are."

"I figured something else out, that we're going to need to ship comfort items to wherever they end up being held from home. Some food items, newspapers and magazines. Three weeks is a long time." Lauren piped up.

"How's Marco? And JP?" Nikolay asked Lauren about how the other two members of her sporting family were doing.

"Well, they're both busy with the tournament this weekend. Marco's at the League's headquarters overseeing all the games and JP's Blades needed to win today or else they'd be knocked out."

"They were, 4-2." Mike had seen the scores from the Coocoostan Hockey League's National Cup tournament, an in-season competition between the 10 teams that made up the highest league and the 6 in the league below that.

"Well, did you see we're in business? The southern Ski Jumping Regionals started last night too. The K-90 was yesterday and the K-120 is today." Nikolay piped up again.

"Still, we need to get out and about again. What's on today?" Lauren asked.

"It looks like Skeleton in the morning and some more Hockey after that." Mike had already picked.

"Isn't the Nordic Combined on today? The men's at that?"

"Well yeah..but..you're right. Is a business trip after all, so we should stick to the events we're going to compete in."

The Olympic Council of Coocoostan and the Coocoostan Winter Sports Federation had come up with a scheme where certain events were open to certain genders, to maximize potential. For example, in Alpine Skiing, the Downhill and Super-G we're men's events while the Slalom and Giant Slalom we're Ladies. Ski Jumping, Cross-Country, Luge and Nordic Combined were exclusively male, while Speed Skating(long track only) and Biathalon were female only. Bobsled had Men in fours and Women in pairs. It was harsh, all involved knew, but they wanted to win as soon as possible and focusing effort like this seemed the best way. Other events, like Snowboarding, freestyle skiing and figure skating were not olympic events. The only totally unregulated event was hockey, where the Coocoostan Hockey Federation developed the games of both genders. The Men's team was much better relative to the world, but the Women would likely do well.

Mike was with the Bobsled/Luge division. Nikolay, or Kolya, as he liked to be called, was with Nordic Skiing and Lauren was with Speed Skating. They were all very skilled organizers and all were going to head the Coocoostani delegation to the third winter olympiad. The only thing th OCC or CWSF knew about the third olympics is that they wouldn't be in Coocoostan, because they weren't going to bid for them. Still, as the three pulled on the winter jackets they were trying out an stepped outside to find a ride to the Nordic area, they reflected on what they'd already learned and what else lied ahead.

OOC: Snowboarding et al so ARE Olympic events, C, and if you say otherwise Mark Hendon's gonna get drunk and sleep with your fella's wives. I guess you mean that you don't plan to compete in them.

OOC: Woah, now I'm scared.

That's what I meant alright.

Although hockey is 5 vimmerts long and there are donkeys, team upon team of donkeys!

OOC: I happen to agree with Cocoostan. None of the mentioned events should be in the olympics. They're just goofy frilly things.

OOC: No, I meant I'm not competing in them, or at least the local authorities don't want to. I'm going to have some athletes take them to court, it should be a gas.

But yeah, Figure Skating....it's only recently become a sport...good for it!

Day 7 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12001428&postcount=13)

David Gundersen was exhausted. He had been skiing for what seemed like hours but he asked one of the last remaining spectators and was told it was only half-an-hour. Augh! How much longer? He had lost sight of Fisher ages ago and was just competing for pride.

Then he saw another figure. Hello, he thought, I'm catching someone...it took time but he actually OVERTOOK someone...only as he went past did he realize it was one of the Jasīʼyūn skiers who had lost a pole...poor sod, David thought, shall I give him one of my poles? I'm almost done...no, no, no, I'm here to compete to Wentland...I have had my flights paid to finish, not to give up...

With a burst of second wind Gundersen overtook the hapless Jasīʼyūner to a huge cheer from an onlooker and did not look back. As he entered the final straight and scooted down to a finish he received a standing ovation for his effort - and collapsed across the line, in 9th place; statistically one of the best Wentland performances.

He was only sorry to have missed the first round of the skeleton bob. Like most of Wentland he wanted to see how Bostin Vee Austin had done.

***

Well, she had done good. Now with flaming gold hair, she was starting lucky thirteenth and as per attacked the course with a flying leap right from the start. Her opening was fully a tenth quicker than anyone else and it was sufficient to give her an advantage; although her technique was still lacking polish sheer brute speed was carrying her through and she broke the minute barrier to set a new lap record. A happy Austin then took a flying leap into a huge snowpile in celebration. "YAAARGGGHHH!! We are top of the league say we are top of the league! Snow is on me!!!" and she chucked a few snowballs at passing media.

Her lead was a tick shy of two-tenths, an ocean in skeleton bobbing but still one mistake away from disaster. And who was second? The shy, unassuming, polar opposite - Dee Guest, who took a novel line over the Dogleg and gained a few hundredths that could prove crucial. Méndez is very close behind her in third and Staite in fourth is a fifth of a second back. It is looking likely that the top three will be the top three - but if someone can take the ideal line through the Switchback, which no-one has managed yet, they could propel themselves from the middle to the head.

Meanwhile, the women's team pursuit speedskaters set the slowest quarterfinal time and will be in the D final. They have no idea what that means.

From MSPN --

GOLD FOR MAINEIACS!!!!!

Well, folks, we finally did it! Maineiacs has earned its first Olympic gold medal! Yoshiro Harada, who hails from the Japantown district of Maineiacs City took home the gold in Men's Nordic Combined Individual Gundersen; teammate Kevin Gerber of Waterville, Aroostook Province won the silver, while Paavi Hannomanen finished 8th. The was an incredible victory for Maineacs' Nordic ski team, which is competeing internationally for the first time. Harada was unavailable for comment, a spokesman for the team said Harada was "fatigued". We will try to get an interview with both our medalists as soon as possible. In other Olympic News, Stacy Kelly is 11th in a tight field after the first heat of Women's Skeleton, Sean Gould qualified for the quarterfinals in Men's Snowboard Cross, and our women Speedskaters have advanced to the semifinals of the Team Pursuit.

They were training for the slalom and Mark was complaining about how none of the Az-cz girls would go out with him because they didn't think snowboarding was a proper sport. And the equipment for the giant slalom was very different from what Mark and Colin were used to; even the board was slightly different.

"We look like video game characters, man," said Colin, miming holding an assualt rifle, "from that thingy with the ninjas and the guns. Guns and Ninjas 3. You ever play that?"

"Yeah, couldn't get past the bit with the hippo pit though." said Mark.

"Um, fellas?" the instructor prompted, "Right, look, you guys know how to do this already, but if you want some speed, you need to get the technique more refined."

They both tried it out, mangling the markers left and right at first, but once the they'd got the rhythm down it became much easier. When they weren't on the halfpipe they were throwing themselves down diamond runs anyway.

I can't believe what I'm seeing in a upset in this Olympics the Dumanian team after two matches haven't lost a single match. This was a great moment so far for the captian.

Danny Myburgh: Our team is making me very proud and we are looking forward to our next matchup

Reporter: Aren't you nerves at all.

Danny: No not at all because we are a team that work to gether and we build each others spirits up.

Men’s team out in speedskating

The men’s speedskating team – comprising the Ariddian Jean-Michel Chang, the West Ariddian Uwshu We and the North-West Ariddian François Leval – was always going to be an experimental one. The three men had had little time to train together, and were not expected to pull off any miracles against extremely skilled opponents, but the symbolism of the team was seen as most important.

Ten other teams were also competing, and Chang was the first to set the pace for the Ariddians. They were, at first, able to keep up well enough – in around fifth or sixth place – until Leval stumbled and fell against the side. Fortunately for them, the other athletes were able to avoid him, and Leval got to his feet quickly enough, but by then the race was all but lost. The trio finished last, five and a half seconds behind tenth-placed Wentland. And after a disastrous performance against Capitalizt SLANI in the “repêchage”, they were well and truly out.

The women – Silversmith, Uosh and Chan, excellent on an individual basis – did not perform well either when grouped as a team, losing to a trio from Quakmybush and going through only to “final D”.

It may have been a dark day for Ariddian speedskating, but in ice hockey the “three States” Ariddian ladies’ team defeated Edward City 3-2, and currently hold an unexpected second place in Group D. Ropa-Topia, in Group C, also did well, defeating Michigan Superior 5-3.

In luge, Yosief Debesa, still stiff and sore after his fall and against the advice of the delegation’s medics, insisted on taking part in the final run. Predictably, he lost further ground, with a much slower performance than in his first two round, and came last (of those who finished) with a time of 54.148. Ariddian supporters cheered him enthusiastically, applauding his determination. Facing unsurmountable odds, Ariddia’s best luge athlete has become something of a popular hero in his home country.

The fourth run was, however, far more unlucky for Ryan Borea (Casari), Kenith Sanderson (Dumania) and Konnor Yankovic (Noremark). All three of them lost control of their luge and failed to complete the race.

“I feel really sorry for them,” Debesa said. “They put all this preparation and effort in, and then this happens in the very last race. . . But hey, at least this way I’m not last!”

Finally, in the women’s skeleton, Dong Yue Yan (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Dong_Yue_Yan) was Ariddia’s representative. This tiny Ariddian woman – 1m47, 39kg – is notable as the first Ariddian athlete to have competed in both Summer and Winter Games: she is, by training, primarily a judoka.

Dong was up against tough competition, and, like many Ariddian athletes outside the fields of short track and speedskating, had come with few hopes of winning a medal. And when Wentland’s Bostin Vi Austin broke the Olympic record (1:00.71) by smashing the one minute barrier (0:59.90), the quality of the competition became very clear.

Dong herself, looking serious and focused, finished twenty-second after the first heat, with a time of 1:01.28. She said she was pleased to have kept up with her opponents, “more or less”, and hoped to do better in the next run.


= = = = = =

To: Anastasianian Skating Federation <bradham@anskating.ans>
From: Ariddian Skating Federation <ael.ta@skatingfederation.gouv.ari>
CC: Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club <jsundlundfans@anastel.ans>
Subject: Re: National Match

Dear Mr. Radham,

The specifications you’ve suggested would be fine. In particular, of course, we would be pleased to have Ariddian athletes take part in an allround competition. We would also be happy to participate in short track events, if you wish to include them.

And please do not feel obliged to leave out team events. Our athletes are inexperienced in this format, but could very well train for them if you would like to include them too.

We will, in any case, look forward to taking part.

Regards,
Ael Ta

Day 7.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12003407&postcount=14)

http://www.geocities.com/iamsch/BCLStar.jpg
Ballclampistan Starts Olympics

by Ed Roman

The Second Winter Olympics have been under way for a week now, and the government has finally made a statement about it. Everyone knows how the games have been turning out. The events are shown on BSN and the results have been covered by the Ballclampistan Star. What the people wanted to know, though, was whether the government would be disgusted with the poor outcomes, or whether they would understand that Ballclampistan is a mediocre sports country.

"We are very proud of our Olympic representatives," said prime minister George White in a press conference this morning. "We believe that, even though Ballclampistan has won few medals, our athletes were doing the best they could. The Olympics are a tough place to be and a couple of seconds could be the difference between first and last place in many events. None of our athletes have been an embarrasment and are still some of the best in the world."

As most people in our country proably know, Ballclampistan has only two medals after 7 1/2 days into these Olympics. Many people figured that Ballclampistan didn't have a shot at being hugely succesful, though. Most of our athletes are average in this world-wide circuit, and this is the first time Ballclampistan has had any team compete in anything larger than the regional level.

There have been some great succeses, though. The first medals to be awared were for the men's 5000m speed skating. One of many average athletes from Ballclampistan, Nicholas Nickelson, came out with the silver medal and a time of 6:24. Then, the latest medal round gave Ballclampistan a gold medal with Sandy Cheeks in the super-g. Plus, as expected, the men's hockey team are tied for first place and the woman's hockey team have won half of their games, being upset yesterday by Bears Armed.

Allenby Times
Olympic Games Special Coverage

Herbom Wins Anastasianian Championship
Ketomäki Breaks Down - But Still Wins Bronze

Anastasiania continue their utter dominance of women's nordic combined, largely due, as usual, to the lack of competition. The cross-country skiers of Noremark have not bothered to turn up, which left the scene to Anastasiania and Maineiacs - who sent three moderately half-decent athletes to finish fourth, fifth and seventh out of nine competitors. Maineiacs, as you may remember, now dominate the men's nordic combined, taking gold and silver two minutes ahead of the rest. Making up the field was the token host representative and the two joke entrants from Wentland and our subtropical neighbours Schiavonia.

Pia Herbom was dominant throughout. Her second-round leap of 94 metres yielded 123.5 points, giving her over one and a half minutes on any non-Anastasianian competitors, though Sofia Ketomäki showed promise. Niita Mennonen had bad luck with weather conditions in her second leap, only managing 87 metres, which meant she trailed by almost a minute on Herbom.

Despite that, Mennonen showed she may be a serious challenger for future Anastasianian titles. As Herbom went out skiing in very fine tempo, Ketomäki tried to follow but ultimately smashed into the famed "wall" that endurance athletes are so familiar with. Struggling to the goal, she was passed by Mennonen and had to settle with the bronze medal, while Pia Herbom won Anastasiania's fifth gold medal of these games.

The other four have, of course, been duly celebrated. The impressive team sprint of Tillwald and Longhurst, a remarkable recovery from last season's performance, has been added to Hyvärinen's and Hänninen's performance of "things to be proud of" while on the bemusing scale, Peter Alpin won bronze in the men's moguls. With patented Anastasianian ski wax, he was one of the fastest, and despite botching the second jump he still managed the bronze.

Two sports need to show more form before Anastasianians are completely pleased, however. Marie Harrison lost support of her team-mates in the team pursuit quarter-finals, and finished in a time that only gives a C-final against Jasi'yun, and the biathletes - with the exception of the stellar Rosalind Bean - have put up poor performances in general. Markku Pyykkönen led the team in the pursuit, where he finished 15th, two places worse than in the sprint the previous day.

Nevertheless, Anastasiania can not be displeased. In total, their athletes have won 16 medals in seven days, with only Jasi'yun posing a serious challenge in the total tally; Kelssek's athletes, however, have shown good taste for gold, and Wentland's serious athletes also impress in the luge.

From the team events, we can report that the men have impressed in close wins over Malabra and Fordavia, but the 4-7 loss to Kelssek suggests that there are some teams in the world with a completely different training regime. Curling performances are also notable, with Miia Rautiainen having a shout at the quarter-finals if she beats the woefully underperforming Jasi'yun team, and the men's team led by Mäkelä is virtually through after sweeping Jasi'yun by 10-5.

Skating Federation Announces National Match
Ariddian Team Travels To Heino A Week After Games

In what is perhaps the greatest development for international winter sports apart from the Olympic Games, the Skating Federations of Anastasiania and Ariddia have agreed to organise a national match between the two countries. The Anastasianian Skating Federation said that the event "would increase the profile of all skating in Anastasiania".

Ben Radham, the Anastasianian Federation officer who made the announcement, also shocked the assembled press by announcing that short track skating would be a part of the national match. "Short track skating is very important on the international stage," Radham explained. "Besides, Ariddia have top class short track skaters, and it would be doing them an injustice if we did not include both forms of skating."

A representative for the newly formed Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club, who arrived yesterday to take their places in the north curve of the Keto Olympic Oval, said that "short track is fine with us. We're getting an allround competition, possibly the first international allround competition ever to be held, and we think that our short trackers ought to get a fair share of the limelight too. Yes, they're a bit misguided and everything, but they're competing in an Olympic sport after all."

The Anastasianian Federation said they would announce details of the competition on a designated website a couple of days before the Games in Keto concluded, but for now, they would like Anastasianians to direct their attention to the Games at hand - particularly the men's team pursuit, which has been rescheduled for tomorrow.

When asked about the short tracker Bråkvik's chances of going through to the quarter-finals, the Federation representative replied that "we are in continuous communication with the Organising Committee and expect a reply on the issue soon."

Viewing figures were through the roof in Wentland. After Annabel Gundersen magically avoided last place by overtaking a melting Alma Johnson whilst both were months behind Dubois in 7th place (but Annabel boasting to her husband afterwards that she had finished higher than him) there was only one event for the Went to watch.

The second leg of the women's skeleton bob.

It was an agonizing wait as the runners went through in reverse order. Liz Jenks finished, which was not the greatest performance of her long career. Sara Ionds put in an utterly storming run which elevated her half a dozen places but otherwise the ice looked pretty slow.

And then came Staite and Méndez. Slowish runs for each which presented the top two medals for Wentland on a plate. If they kept it together.

The shy Dee Guest launched herself off. It was a tentative start and she kept a low line, making it conservative. She merely had to break 61 to guarantee herself a medal and 60.87 to nab silver. But it looked as if she was waiting for the Austin self-destructive streak to come to the fore. There was no attack on gold.

Indeed, Guest almost played it too conservatively and crossed the beam with an identical second run time to Méndez. She was guaranteed a medal - and it was going to be at least silver.

Up at the top the small figure of Bostin Vee Austin, amused to see her name given as such on the caption, with royal blue lycra suit and the number 13 thereupon, poking her tongue out at the camera. 61.03 would give her gold; only four sliders had gone slower than that in the second run. Even Susan Poles in last had done better than that. Easy.

So Wentland relaxed, with a gold in the pocket and probably gold and silver. An easy run for Vee Austin.

Oh no.

"GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

It was an astonishing start. Austin soared through the air and barely touched the ice within the timing beam. ONE FIFTH quicker than anyone else and through the speedtrap halfway she had six miles per hour on anyone. Her tiny body and the polkadotted sled weemed to ghost around the turns and every time a split was flashed up on the scoreboard another excited and disbelieving cheer was heard from the stands. The host nation had taken to the firecracker and were just as desperate as the Wentlanders to see her take the gold.

They were not disappointed.

13 Bostin Vee Austin (WLD) 59.75 1:59.65 (-1.28) [1]

Gold was hers by a devastating margin. She flipped off her goggles whilst still sliding down the run-off and gazed at the scoreboard, a grin wider than the Warplands Chasm. Up she stood, in star pose, yelling "YEEAAAHHH!!!! YEAHHHH!!!!!!!!"

***

By the time of the podium ceremony Austin had already changed. Obviously she was not in her lycra but had put on her tracksuit. No, her hair was no longer a flaming gold - "I've got enough gold around my neck, who-hooo!!!" she explained later - but a royal blue with white streaks, whilst a tearful Dee Guest stood alongside hiding behind her bouquet.

Wentland TV's Trevor West was watching from the control room. Well, he thought, Sports Personality of the Year is an absolute lock.

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers. Welcome to Olympic Lunch Hour.

RM: Due to some programming conflicts we haven't been on recently.

WR: So let's get you up to date.

RM: Gold was struck! Alexandre Fréchette received another gold. This time in the Men's 12.5km Pursuit in Biathlon.

WR: After the 3rd run in the Men's Individual Luge Roland Powell sits 6th.

RM: Also in the Luge Luc Carignan sits 16th.

WR: While Alvin Graves sits 36th.

RM: Arnold Barber failed to qualify for the Men's Short Track 1000m.

WR: Also in the 1000m Melvin Boone did advance.

RM: While Dominique Regnier did not.

WR: After the final run of the Men's Individual Luge, Roland Powell finished 10th.

RM: Also in the Luge Luc Carignan finshed 19th.

WR: While Alvin Graves finished 29th.

RM: The Men's Short Track 5000m Relay Team advanced to the finals.

WR: While the Men's Pursuit team qualified for the quarterfinals.

RM: After the first run of Women's Skeleton Christina Méndez sits 3rd.

WR: Also in Skeleton Leslie Reed sits 8th.

RM: While Pearl Schultz sits 13th.

WR: In the Men's Snowboard Cross Jerry Cummings qualified.

RM: Carl Potter also qualified.

WR: The Women's Speed Skating Pursuit Team qualified for the semifinals.

RM: Lori Robbins finished 14th in the Women's Super-G.

WR: While Melinda Harmon was disqualified because she missed a gate.

RM: A scare for Annie Doyle as she took a large spill. However she is okay.

WR: Another scare as Virginia O'Brien took a wicked fall. She broke her arm and will be better within the month.

RM: The Men's Hockey team beat The Mushroom Kingship 4-3. This win bring their record to 2 wins and 2 losses. They currently sit 4th in their group.

WR: Another Medal! Christina Méndez finished 3rd in the Women's Skeleton.

RM: Also in the Skeleton, Leslie Reed finished 10th.

WR: While Pearl Schultz finished 13th.

RM: In the Men's Snowboard Cross quarterfinals Carl Potter qualified.

WR: Also in the Snowboard Cross, Jerry Cummings also qualified.

RM: In the Women's Team Pursuit Semifinals the team qualified for the finals.

WR: Quakmybush currently sits 4th in the medal standings.

RM: They have 3 Golds, 3 Silvers, and 2 Bronzes.

WR: Well, that's all the time we have. I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn. Be sure to join us tomorrow.

From MSPN --

This evening's events were not as kind to Maineiacs as this morning's were, but we still managed to put in a respectable performance. Miranda Lopez and Theresa Miller were 8th and 12th in Women's Super-G, Our Men's Hockey team lost 3-2 to Kelssek, and now must win their final match to advance, our Women speedskaters will compete for the bronze in the Team Pursuit, Sean Gould advances to the semifinals in Snowboard Cross, Stacy Kelly finished 9th in Women's Skeleton, and in women's Nordic Combined Helen Farmer, Caitlin Harris, and Camille Dubois were 4th, 5th and 7th. The big news in that event was the team from Anastasiania, which did our Men one better by taking the events in a clean sweep. Now, as promised, we have an interview with our gold and silver medalists in Men's Nordic Combined Yoshiro Harada and Kevin Gerber:

MSPN: "Well, congratulations to you both on a fine performance."
YH: "Thank you."
KG: "Thank you."
MSPN: "Did either of you have any thoughts of winning medals going into the final phase of the event?"
YH: "No. I was and am just glad to represent my country and bring it honor with this medal."
KG: "I knew Yoshi and I both had a chance, and that with a good enough race, Paavi could medal as well, but when you're in the event, you have to put all thoughts about what might be aside and concentrate on the moment."
MSPN: "So, next is the sprint event. Any thoughts or predictions?
YH: "I simply hope to perform well, and then to do my part in the team event."
KG: "Well, I'm sitting this one out, but Yoshi and Paavi will be there, and Yen Li is ready. I think we'll do fine. And then I like our chances in the team event."
MSPN: "Wel,, thank you both, and congratulations again."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/leetoile-winterolympics.gif

Kelssek to advance

The Blueleafs sealed qualification from Group D in men's hockey yesterday in a 3-2 win over Maineiacs, powered primarily by Alain Carriere's 3-point game as he had a hand in all of Kelssek's goals with one goal and two assists.

Carriere opened accounts after a scoreless first period with a powerplay goal, wristing it top shelf after seizing the puck from a goalmouth scramble. Maineiacs fought back hard and levelled the score, but two more goals early in the third were enough and Kelssek were able to hang on and prevent a comeback as Maineiacs made it 3-2 with 8 minutes left.

Coach Daniel Copps was particularly happy with the way the team were able to defend the lead late in the third.

"It's especially tough when you've just given up a two-goal lead, and I'm impressed with the grit the players displayed today."

Anastasiania sweeps Gundersen

Anastasiania just keep raking in the medals as they swept the podium at the women's 15km individual Gundersen to make it a total of 16 medals, 5 of them golds and a seemingly unassailable leading position if their performance so far is sustained. They picked up two more bronzes yesterday as well in women's Super-G and the men's individual Gundersen.

Kelssek are still in second place with 4 golds and 4 silvers. The Kelssekian Olympic Committee decided to revise its goal to 12 medals - double the initial dose - after the original target was met with derision from the very beginning. There is indeed a realistic chance for at least four more from hockey and curling; but not much else, but no pundit seems willing to bet on what position Kelssek will end up in at the end since it depends quite a bit on how other countries do.

Az-cz Scroll
Keto
Bn-Blr

Men's hockey team collapses, puts pressure on themselves

With luge having finished and the other sliding events not having started, and with the curlers having the day off, all eyes were squarely on the Ice Hockey Rink, where the Gnomes had a chance to clinch qualfication, playing against their Atlantian Oceania rivals Oliverry. Unfortunately similar to what happened in the World Cup, the Gnomes were woodshedded.

Oliverry had been sputtering up to this game despite being probably the best hockey nation in the world. However they really wanted to prove that they are still a strong team and turned it on in a major way and dealt a significant blow to the Gnomes chances.

Oliverry hit four goals in the first period leading to a goalie switch at the intermission. The Oliverry attack continued to come moving ahead by another goal to be up 5-0 at the end of the second period. Finally Sk-Ik put the Gnomes on the board with a goal at the start of the third, but it took less than a minute for Oliverry to answer with a goal that ended the scoring and consigned the Gnomes to a 6-1 loss.

The loss hurt the Gnomes, but losing 6-1 really hurt. Even a two goal loss and the Gnomes would only need a draw from their next match to advance. But the thrashing that Oliverry laid on them means that they lost the goal differential advantage and now are in a difficult situation. If they beat Liverpool England then they finish first place in their group. If they draw and Oliverry draws or loses then they are through as the second place team. If they lose they still have a very slight chance of qualification. If they lost but The Mushroom Kinghsip upset Oliverry and Rorysville prevented Quakmybush from winning they could still sneak through, but that would be tough.

However coach Kronen is confident. "We're going to beat Liverpool England," he said after the match. "Our boys just had one down night, but we're going to get things back together." The pressure is now on, and we'll see if the Gnomes can rise to the challenge.

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 6 and 7 at the 2nd Winter Games

Sorry about the delay folks, but to to faulty equipment. (dammned cockroaches) our servers were down yesterday and we were unable to print Day 6 results. So here they are:

DAY 6

In Men's luge, our lugers are looking like losers as they fell further behind.
Jean-Luc Crusher is in 25th with a 2nd run of 52.481 and his total time now is 1:44.641. Wesley Riker is in 27th with a 2nd run time of 52.121 and totla time of 1:44.653. William Picard is in 39th with times of 52.399/ 1:45.018.
The third runs also were not as bad as Crusher stayed 25th with a run of 51.945. Riker dropped to 28th with a run of 52.478. But the big mover was William Picard who had the 4th fastest run with a time of 51.945.


In Women's Half pipe, Sasha Boxer landed both of her big tricks, but it wasn't impressve enough as she finished in 6th place. Jennie Wolf did well enough in her last run to finish 11th.

In Men's Curling, the men got trounced by Michigan-Superior 8-4, despite leading 4-0 after 4 innings. The loss leaves the men with little chance to advance to the next round.

SCORE SUMMARY:

TEAM 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10--Final
QZX 2-0-1-1-0-0-0-0-0-0 --4
MSP 0-0-0-0-2-2-2-1-0-1 --8

DAY 7

On day 7, more dissapoint ment as neither of Qazox' short-track mencould advance out of the Qualifing rounds. Ivan Terrib won Heat 6, but was disqualified for skating under the cones, costing him a spot in the next round. Jacques Strappe finished 4th in Heat 1, just edged out by Denis Lectoure of Maineiacs for the spot.

The 4th and final run of Men's Luge saw our guys finish well back in the pack, truly a dissapointment following Sliver in the Doubles. William Picard had a time of 52.288//3:29.251, which palced him 23rd. Wesley Riker finished up with a time of 52.191//3:29.322 good for 26th, and Jean-Luc Crusher had a great final run time of 51.763, 2nd best of the day, but it could only move him up to 17th overall with a time of 3:28.805. The lugers are done, but they are better at skeleton than luge, so they could recover there.

The Boarder-cross event started today with the Men's qualifing. Qwijibo, the defending 4-time Qazoxian champ finshed his run in 9th with a time of 1:23.06. Buster Butte, his main rival qualified in 15th, with a time of 1:26.10. In the 1st of the Quarterfinal runs, Qwijibo won Heat 1 with a time of 1:20.66, easily advancing to the Semifinals. Buster Butte in his heat, Heat 2, was edged out at the line by Jeffrey Dodds of Liverpool England, and he'll race in the C Finals which determine 9th thru 12th.

So there you're all caught up over a busy 2 days at the Olympics. Go to QBSsports.com for all up-to the minute Olympic coverage.

Day 8 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12006644&postcount=15)

From MSPN --

A mixed bag of news this morning. Ariana Smith finished 4th in the Women's Biathlon 7.5k sprint, missing the bronze by .07 sec.; while Cynthia Peterson and Hillary Holden were much further back; 24th and 26th. Jamie Larson is 5th in Men's Skeleton after one run, but has the daunting task of making up .26 sec. to get a medal. Peggy Martin-Kubler qualified for the next round in Women's Snowboard Cross, but our Men's Speedskating team was eliminated in the Quaterfinals of the Team Pursuit.

OOC: This has been bugging me when reading RPs (especially Qazox's)... in curling they're ends not "innings"...

And they're also insane. Curling matches basically never go one team scores everytime than the other team scores everytime.

(And I know you usually refer to them by the name of the skip, but I'm just a bit too lazy to look up everyone's skips, if they bothered to name them that is...)

___

"It's like an itch, you know, this annoying little itch..."

"What?"

"Well, look at the medal tally." Chef de mission David Parker gestured towards the computer screen. "We've done pretty well so far and there's still some events we have a good chance of winning in. But really, our Olympics won't be complete without it."

"What on earth are you on about?"

"Anastasiania. 6 golds, 5 silvers, 7 bronzes. Jasī'yūn, 4 golds, 4 silvers, 4 bronzes. Kelssek, 4 golds, 4 silvers, zero bronzes. Zero, man, zero. We need to win a bronze, man, or it just won't be right."

His deputy cast him a sidelong glance. "Are you smoking pot, David?"

OOC: Maybe your supposed to refer to them by the name of the skip, but American coverage never does. Not even at the olympics. Having seen curling live I can vouch for that being the case. Also Kelssek, you wanna trade a gold for my bronze? :)

Az-cz Scroll
Keto
Bn-Blr

Men's curling advances to knock out round, skeleton competition begins

The men's curling team took on Spindomia today and once again they didn't need the full ten ends to send their opponents away. The gnomes knew it was going to be there day when Spindomia started with the hammer and the Pink & Green still picked up two points in the first end. They then proceeded to add another 3 points on the next two ends to move up 5-0 without ever having the hammer. Finally in the 4th end Spindomia picked up a point. The Gnomes stole the fifth end and added two points in the sixth end to make it 7-1. Spindomia answered with a point in the 7th to make it 7-2. The Gnomes and Spindomia traded the next two rounds. Up 8-3 at the end of 9 Spindomia agreed to call it a match and the Gnomes were through. They now face Bears Armed in an interesting match. Barring a big loss for Bears Armed and a big win for whoever wins the other match these are the two teams who will advance to the next round. Both teams would like to go into the knockouts with momentum.

The skeleton competition also got under way today. While the Gnomes are hardly medal threats Rn-Ingz did turn in a personal best time. He commented after the match "I'm just not in the class of these athletes. Maybe next time around I'll be able to compete, but neither me nor the other Az-czzers are there yet." We'll choose to blame his less than perfect grammar on his excitement and congratulate him on a fine run. Despite their struggles the Az-czzers sliders are doing the nation proud. Not every athlete can be the best at what they do, but the will to try and do your best even when it isn't good enough is the heart of an olympian and the character of a champion. So we salute them.

(From the sports pages of 'The Bear Necessities'...)


Elves, Shmelves!

(Day 5½) Another easy victory for our Males' Ice Hockey Team, as they powered to win over the team from the Elves Security Force by 9 goals to 2, helped by the fact that several of those opponents turned out to be allergic to Bears' fur: Who would have expected that? The 'Ice Devils' are holding firmly onto the lead in their group...


Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad
(But Could Have Been Better…)

(day 6) Mixed news from the second & final, or 'Free Skating', stage of the Men's Figure Skating contest: Our team won two medals. but that didn't include the Gold for which Thunarr Thulean had hoped after his lead in the previous stage... and in fact he slipped two places down the rankings, to end up with the Bronze, whilst team-mate Garron o Westwood rose up two places from fourth to take the Silver and Urthorran slipped one from fifth to seventh: the Gold went to Idadna Iwoq, from our near-neighbours Malabra, who'd been in third place before this stage...

It had all been a bit of a jolly wheeze in the cold winter a few years back. The main drive at Crofton Hall in Howeshire had iced up for an entire mile and the Range Rover could not struggle up - nor could the Land Rover struggle down.

"I say, chaps," suggested His Grace, "how about we go on one of those sledge thingies? Looks like a wizard jape."

And so Wentland's skeleton bob team was born. Following a few prangs the Duke of Howe decided he would put things on a more serious footing, after all one had to amuse oneself through hobbies other than wenching and drabbing, and cousin Eddie was a similar daredevil. Who would have thought that Barnard was concealing a skill under all his butling?

The success of the team had been a little unexpected. His Grace had been near the top of the ranking, whereas Barnard was a bit further down with a more conservative approach and Hindmarsh further back still with his habit of barrelling off at the fastest corners. "What ho! That was the best one yet, what?"

So onto the second Olympics and His Grace was somewhat expected to earn a medal. Top hole. He proceeded to bang in quite a decent run, what? Should keep the proles happy.

But the favourite was Pearson of Quakmybush. "Should really shoot things that go quack, eh, Eddie? Mallard season, don't you know." And he had the draw straight after the Duke.

He was very, very close all the way down...and when the clocks stopped there was a gasp rather than a cheer. Exactly the same time as His Grace.

"Bang on," said the Duke as he congratulated his opponent. "Magnificent jaunt, young feller-me-lad. How about the old greasepot, eh? Bit of a liver drencher? The trouble's out goffing, so shall we repair ourselves to a saucy molly or twixe each for a bit of celebratory recreation, what what what?"

Greg Pearson's response was succinct. "What?"

Day 8.5 results are up (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12009052&postcount=16) (finally).

It was getting murderously close in the skeleton bob. The track had slowed and rutted and many of the runners were losing significant time. This should have given an advantage to the leading sliders, but it was not proving to be as the extra ruts were interfering with the different lines. Only Dolf Rogers seemed to be able to cope, bucking a bronco ride to the finish in a near record time and propelling himself from the peloton to a chance of a medal.

After Barnard dutifully reported back to His Grace, having tested alternative lines and blown his slim chance of the podium, Jamie Larson proved to be the first real threat to the leading threesome. Five hundredths slower than Rogers, but the Maineiac slider had been only four tenths off the lead and Rogers' dreams of gold were dashed. Wood of Schiavonia went down and looked good to punt Rogers out of silver but a late bump hit cost him a couple of tenths and he ended up frustratingly down on Rogers.

He was therefore reliant on disasters for his team-mate Green, Greg Pearson and the Duke. And his dreams nearly came true. Green did indeed blow it with an horrendous run that saw him nearly crash twice and lose all momentum trying to hold on to his skeleton. Pearson's run was not much better and he too finished well down the pecking order.

Which left the Duke of Howe. He needed 58.58 for gold. On his first run form that would not be difficult. Even though it was a top six run. On the second run however that was looking very difficult indeed.

"Oh, I don't know about that, old chap," remarked His Grace to a most intrusive crew from some ignoble broadcaster. "Just bounce down on the jolly old tray, what what what? Ah, Barnard...ensure the rails are limpid, if you please..."

The Duke extinguished his Corona and carefully placed his Maker's Mark on Barnard's silver tray as a fretting official urged him to hurry as the time was ticking down. "But of course. Thank you for your concern."

His Grace glanced at the course and pushed his tray off the run, easing himself onto it with dignity. And he kept to an unusually low line, not seeking momentum but placement, as he carefully steered within the rutted areas and proceeded at a fair rate. And fifty eight point two eight seconds later the Duke of Howe had clinched Wentland's fourth gold of the Games. "Not bad, eh, chaps? Something to hang by the old man's Order of Meritorious Merit..."

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: And I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome To Olympic Lunch Hour

WR: Let's Look at those results.

RM: The Men's Curling Team defeated Qazox 10-8. This win puts them 3rd in their group. However they can not advance to the next round.

WR: After the first heat of the Men's Skeleton, Greg Pearson is tied for first. He also set a new track record.

RM: Also in Skeleton, Phillip Jackson sits 12th.

WR: While Leonard Mack sits 24th.

RM: Teresa Garner qualified for the next round in Women's Snowboard Cross.

WR: Also in Women's Snowboard Cross, Marlene Smith advanced.

RM: The Men's Team Pursuit team advanced to the Semifinals.

WR: The Women's Hockey team defeated Rorysville 4-1. This win puts them first in their group. If they win their next game they will qualify.

RM: In 1500m Short Track Speed Skating, Marie Latour advanced to the semifinals.

WR: Also in Short Track, Christine Bowman did not advance.

RM: In Men's Skeleton Greg Pearson's first run couldn't keep him near the top. He finished 9th.

WR: Also in the Men's Skeleton, Leonard Mack finished 20th.

RM: While Phillip Jackson finished 22nd.

WR: In Women's Snowboard Cross, Marlene Smith advanced to the semifinals.

RM: Still in Snowboard Cross, Teresa Garner also qualified.

WR: The Men's Team Pursuit team beat Anastasiania to the line by .02 seconds to advance to the final.

RM: Quakmybush currently sits 5th in the Medal Standings.

WR: They have 3 Golds, 3 Silvers, and 2 Bronzes.

RM: Well, we are out of time.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: And I'm Ron Mclearn, be sure to join us tomorrow on Olympic Lunch Hour.

From MSPN --

Jamie Larson came into the 2nd run of Men's Skeleton needing to make up .26 sec. to capture the bronze. Larson didn't make up enough time to win the bronze -- he had the best run of the second leg and got the silver. Elsewhere, Roger Freeman and Paul Xavier finished 9th (and last) in Men's Cross-Country Team Sprint, neither Regina Franklin nor Linda Andrews qualified for the semifinals in Women's 1500m Shorttrack, and Peggy Marin-Kubler will race in the "D" final in Women's Snowboard Cross and is not in contention for a medal.

OOC: This has been bugging me when reading RPs (especially Qazox's)... in curling they're ends not "innings"... Ooc: I honestly forgot that they were called Ends not innings... sorry all for ruining the whole OLYMPICS for you!!! :rolleyes:

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 8 at the 2nd Winter Games

Well the Eighth day was a complete waste, as the Qazoxian Men's Curling team lost in the last END 8-10 to Quakmybush, officially knocking them out of medal contention.

Score Summary:

TEAM 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10--Final
QMB 2-0-2-0-2-0-2-0-0-2 --10
QZX 0-1-0-1-0-2-0-2-2-0 --8

In Men's Skeleton the first run was today, and our guys, the same ones that stunk up the joint in Luge, did so again. Crusher finished in 21st with a time of 59.29, Riker finished in 32nd, with a time of 59.73 and Picard finished in 35th wtih a time of 1:00.15. Clearly these guys just aren't the right people to do this event. But in the 2nd run, Jean-Luc Crusher made a last gasp bid for a medal and finsihed with a time of 58.41, which was good enough to jump up to 10th place overall at 1:57.70. If he had run the same time during the 1st run, he would have won a bronze. Riker's 2nd run was 58.54, moving him up to 19th at 1:58.27. Picard finished with a time of 58.29, almost 2 seconds better than his 1st run, but not enough to crack the top 20, as he finsihed 21st with a time of 1:58.44.

In Women’s Snowboard Cross Qualification runs, Tyra Lopez finished in a time of 1:27.56, earning her the 3rd seed, while Ermine Johnson, due to a fall finished with a time of 1:45.69, failing to qualify for the next round. In the Quarterfinal runs, Tyra Lopez finished 2nd in Heat 3, with a time of 1:29.25. She will advance to the semifinals later this week.

In Women's 1500 Shorttrack Quarters, Ingrid Larsson won Heat 1 with a quick 2:31.764, the fastest time of the quarterfinals. In Heat 4 there was controversy as Linda Pepper finished 4th with a time of 2:37.626, but on the videotape, Jessica Silversmith of Ariddia, was clearly seen pulling Ms. Pepper back just before the last lap began, a clear Disqualification, but the officals on the ice claimed to not have seen the infraction. The Qazoxian Olympic Council has protested the results, but it seems unlikely that the result will be overturned.

Day 9 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12011361&postcount=17)

From MSPN --

Maineiacs' women have finally joined their male teammates on the medal podium. Our Women's Speedskating team of Sheila Smith, Helga Bjornsdottir, and Tamara Phelps beat the team from Malabra to take the bronze in the Women's Team Pursuit. We will have an interview with all of the ladies this evening. Our Women's Curling team did not fare so well, continuing to lose after they were already eliminated. They lost 6-4 to Qazox. In other news, Sean Gould will go for a medal in Men's Snowboard Cross, Darrin Porter is 4th after one jump in Men's LH, while Kamikaze Tanaka is 27th; Ariana Smith was 6th in Women's Biathlon 10k Pursuit and Cynthia Peterson and Hillary Holden were 23rd and 26th, respectively. Our current medal count is 5: 1 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze.

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 9 at the 2nd Winter Games Update

A quick update as these just came in under the press deadline.

A forgotten Result from Day 8 (ooc1: I know it was a couple of days ago.. but i missed it..so sue me ok??), as Rene Potluck tied for 1st in Women's Super G with a time of 1:22.30. Sharing the gold with her is Sandy Cheeks of Ballclampistan. Rene's sister, Denise Potluck finished in 16th with a time of 1:23.85. So Rene Potluck becomes Qazox' 1st Gold Medalist at these games.

In Women's Curling, Qazox finished their unbeatenrun through their group with a 6-4 win over Maineiacs. They will take on Quakmybush in the Quarterfinals.

Score Summary:

TEAM 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10--Final
MAI 1-0-0-0-1-0-1-0-0-1 --4
QZX 0-0-2-1-0-1-0-1-1-0 --6

In Men's Snowboard Cross , Qwijibo won Heat 2 of the semifinals and will advance to the Medal run. His time was 1:18.22, easily outpacing the other 3 riders. The duo from Quakmybush, Carl Potter and Jerry Cummings, look to be Qwijibo's toughest competitiors for the gold, as will be Sean Gould of Maineiacs.

In the Semifinals of Women's 1500m Short-track, Ingrid Larsson avenged her teammate by edging out Jessica Silversmith of Ariddia, who's controversial pull on Linda Pepper, had allowed her to advance. Ingrid advanced to the Finals, where she'll face Cindy Rothridge of Tynelia, Ju Ju of Commerce Heights and Marie Latour of Quakmybush.

There will be more action later today on QSPN as they take over the 2nd half of Coverage from QBS due to QBS' coverage of the TOUR de QAZOX (ooc2: cheap plug)

(ooc3: Yes i went 2 days w/o noticing I had won a gold medal :( )

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/efp-keto06.gif

Afternoon extra supplement: Olympic news

Brun progresses to quarters
Kelssek's Annelle Brun is past the group stage in women's curling despite losing 6-5 against Spindomia in a match that went right to the final end (the ending end, if you will). She will be up against Bears Armed in the quarterfinals.

Anastasiania wins 20th medal
They just keep winning and Karen Algeo's bronze in the women's biathlon 10km pursuit made it the twentieth medal of a highly successful Olympic campaign for Anastasiania. Hosts Jasi'yun aren't too far off, though, and their ʼWaŋ ʼIn-won won the gold in that event. Kelssek is still third in the standings even without a medal for a third straight day, but far adrift with 4 golds and 4 silvers.

Haskins 7th after first jump
And it could well be a fourth straight day as Ian Haskins is a disappointing seventh after the first jump in the men's large hill event at the ski jump and seemingly out of the medal contention with a jump of only 88m.

Sackley out of the 1500m
Amber Sackley's Olympic hopes too ended in the semifinals as she was eliminated after finishing last in her heat. Sackley was herself upset and protested that Qazox's Ingrid Larsson had impeded her, but to no avail. The Kelssekian Olympic Committee declined to comment.

Slipping down the rank chart

Despite some good performances, the Ariddian delegation have failed to win any new medals since Wut Lo’e’s bronze in snowboarding. In biathlon, Emily Sands and Michèle Jatta put in a respectable performance in the 7.5 km sprint, but were nowhere close to the podium. Likewise in the ten kilometre event, although both women completed the race, without losing significant ground to the leaders.

In skeleton, where there had been no high hopes either, Julian Cheminot finished last after the first heat. He then finished last but one overall, while compatriot Oliver Knight came thirteenth. Meanwhile, Ropa-Topian Dolf Rogers took the bronze, as Ropa-Topia continued to gain on the Ariddian delegation. In the women’s event, tiny Dong Yue Yan improved her time by one tenth of a second, but lost ground to her opponents nonetheless, and finished last but one. Wentland’s Bostin Vi Austin smashed her own Olympic record by an amazing fifteen hundredths of a second, taking the gold with apparent ease.

In ice hockey, the ladies are not qualified yet, after losing 2-5 to Ballclampistan. The men, however, smashed Race Track 7-2, and have qualified along with. . . Ballclampistan. The unexpected success of the men’s ice hockey team has been hailed as a major achievement.

The Ariddians hoped to do better in short track and speedskating but, there too, faced disappointment. In short track, astonishingly, Linda Uosh failed to advance from the quarter-finals of the 1500m competition. Her compatriot Jessica Silversmith fared much better. Going in heat four, she crossed the finish line at almost exactly the same instant as Spindomia’s Genine Burn, just over a hundredth of a second behind her opponent. The two ladies were safely ahead of their three competitors; Maineacs’ Linda Andrews, in third, was over a second and a half behind them.

However, come the semi-finals, Silversmith was only able to advance to final B, losing almost all hopes of a medal in this event. As for speedskating, the Silversmith / Uosh / Chan trio lost to Wentland’s ladies in final D.

“If we do take the time to train, together, I think we can do a lot better in team events,” Silversmith said. “I think we’ve proved to ourselves that we have the potential. We just have to be ready before the competition in Anastasiania.”

Fordavia's Olympic campaign began to draw to it's conclusion with 2 more Ice Hockey fixtures.

Firstly the men's team. After their surprise 3-3 draw against Kelssek they went one step further and completed the first ever International Ice Hockey victory for Fordavia in the final group match.

A 3–2 win over Malabra was the unexpected outcome of the effort and team spirit that Fordavia have shown throughout each fixture.

The Fordavian Journal staff were unable to make it to the match and have yet been able to see a replay but accounts from supporters show that Fordavia fell behind to Malabra, but after a shaky start got their act together and in a three minute spell in the first period scored twice to leave the score at 2-1.

Then right at the end of the first period Fordavia netted again to pull them 2 goals clear.

No goals were scored in the second period as both teams struggled to create clear chances.

Mid-way through the third period Malabra pulled a goal back.

The expected Malabra onslaught never really arrived and Fordavia held on reasonably comfortably, in fact looking more likely to score themselves than their opponents.

A 3-2 victory for Kelssek over Maineiacs in the other group game, means that they have secured their qualification to the next stage and Fordavia are now officially eliminated.

The womens Ice Hockey team have so far not had same sort of success as their male counterparts, but the performances have been just as commited

A narrow 2–3 defeat against Dumania. left them without a point after 3 group games.

Kelssek top the group and have already qualified after winning all four games.

Ropia-Topia and Dumania both on 4 points will play each other to decide who finishes 2nd place and advances to the next stage. With a better goal difference Ropa-Topia would be ahead in the event of a draw.

At the bottom of the table Fordavia and Michigin-Superior are both still pointless and will play to decide who finishes last in the group. In the event of a draw Fordavia wold finish above due to being 3 goal difference better off.

This game will also mark the end of Fordavia's Winter Olympic participation so a good result would round off what is being touted as a hugely successful entry into the world of winter sports.

The Fordavia Journal will remain in Keto to give news on selected events such as the Ice Hockey, which has really caught on in the public back home and Leader Tasug Keergh has announced there may be a possibillity of Fordavia constructing an Ice Dome meaning that the team could train in their own country rather than having to take irregular training trips to nations more suited to winter sport climate.

Day 9.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12013015&postcount=18)

And Qazox won a gold medal :p

Two more medals for Maineiacs today. Darrin Porter took the silver in the Men's Ski Jumping LH, and Sean Gould got the Bronze in Men's Snowboard Cross. Our Men's Hockey Team defeated Anastasiania 3-2 and advances to the medal round where they will face Ballclampistan in the quarterfinals. Our Men's Speedskating team won their final heat and finished 5th overall. Olivia Stevens was 16th in Women's Cross Country 10k Classical.

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: And I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome to Olympic Lunch Hour.

WR: Let's look at those results.

RM: The Women's Curling Team lost to Rorysville eight to six. This loss puts them in second for their group. They will advance and play Qazox in the quarterfinals.

WR: Marie Latour advanced to the finals in the Women's 1500m Short Track Speed Skating event.

RM: In Men's Individual Ski Jumping, Terry Davidson currently sits 3rd.

WR: Also in Ski Jumping, Karl Clarke sits 9th.

RM: While Tommy Moody sits 17th.

WR: In Men's Snowboard Cross, Carl Potter advanced to the final.

RM: Also in Men's Snowboard Cross Jerry Cummings advanced.

WR: In the Women's Team Pursuit finals, the team of Santiago, Palmer, and Little finished in 2nd. Bringing home another medal for Quakmybush.

RM: The Men's Hockey team defeated Rorysville 3-2. This win puts the team 4th in their group. They will not advance. A huge disappointment.

WR: Marie Latour came up just short in the Women's 1500m Short Track finals. She finished 4th.

RM: In the Men's Individual Ski Jumping Terry Davidson finished 5th.

WR: Also in the Ski Jumping, Karl Clarke finished 7th.

RM: While Tommy Moody finished 11th.

WR: In the Men's Snowboard Cross, Carl Potter beat the field by nearly 3 seconds to take home the Gold.

RM: Also in the Snowboard Cross, Jerry Cummings finished in the Silver Medal position.

WR: The Men's Team Pursuit Speed Skating team struck Gold. They beat the hosts to the line to win.

RM: Quakmybush now sits 3rd in the medal standings.

WR: They have, 5 Golds, 5 Silvers, and 2 Bronzes.

RM: Well, that's all the time we have.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn, be sure to tune into Olympic Lunch Hour tomorrow.

It was a quiet day for Wentland, with many of the no-hopers and proud-to-be-theres taking part and generally finishing towards the back getting their Olympic joy. However Graham Slynell finished higher than expected in the ski-jumping.

Not much activity amongst the Wentland media, either, as most of them were paralytic after the Duke of Howe invited them to a post-ceremony party and distributed some excellent whisky blends from his Carriemuir estate. Plus Bostin Vieiii Austin enlivened things with the odd streak, topped by her omnicoloured hair job.

From MSPN --


Yesterday, our women's speedskating team made history by becoming the first female atheletes from Maineiacs to win an Olympics medal, taking the bronze in the Team Pursuit. We spoke to the ladies earlier:

MSPN: "Congratulations to all of you on your medal."
SS: "Thank you"
HB: "Thank you"
TP: "Thank you"
MSPN: "Tell us, what were your impressions of how the race went?"
HB: "Well, I think perhaps I could have gotten out of the blocks a bit faster, but overall, I am pleased with our time."
TP: "I think I was fortunate. The other skater seemed to tire awfully quickly, and I was able to use that to my advantage. That set up Sheila well for her leg of the race."
SS:"I'd have to agree. The Malabran skater was a tough competitor, and if not for the large lead that Helga and Tamara gave me, I might very well not have won. A closer gap would probably have evaporated."
MSPN: "Well, congratulations to all of you on a fine race. I'm sure all of Maineiacs is proud of you."

We spoke briefly with Men's Snowboard Cross Bronze medalist Sean Gould. He had this to say of his race...

"Quite frankly, I'm disappointed in my run. That was hardly my best race. I wouldn't have won any other heat. I didn't so much win, as my competitor lost. Nonetheless, I have the medal that eluded me four years ago, and I'd like to take this time to announce my retirement."

And we had this word from Darrin Porter, silver medalist in Men's Ski Jumping LH.:

"I am still on cloud nine over this. Four years ago they were speculating about whether I'd be able to compete again. This was an incredible vindication."

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 9 at the 2nd Winter Games

(ooc: Thank for letting me now i'd won another gold...lol I would of notice it on friday probably.)

Another Gold today for Qazox, as Ingrid Larsson won Women’s 1500 m Shorttrack Finals with a time of 2:30.939, earning the 1st skating medal for Qazox ever. Despite the controversy in the quarterfinals, Ingrid skated her way to the top with grit and determination that truly showed in the final 2 laps, as she came back from 4th place to win the Gold by 3 lengths.

As for other action, Qwijibo finished 4th in the finals of Men’s Snowboard Cross, just edged out by Sean Gould of Maineiacs. Qwijibo had the hole shot, but took turn 7 a bit wide, at that one mistake allowed the other riders to slip past him, and cost Qwijibo a medal. In Final Heat C, Buster Butte finished 4th, after almost falling on turn 1. He finished 12th overall.

So all in all a very good couple of Days for Qazox as they now have won more gold medals at these games than they did 4 years ago. With more events yet to come, one can only speculate as to how many Qazox will win when it's all said and done.

Day 10 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12015511&postcount=19)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/kelssek/efp-keto06.gif
Afternoon Olympic extra edition

McGarvey injured
Kelssek's Sean McGarvey did not finish in the first run of the men's giant slalom after taking a late tumble. He was taken to hospital and while no details have been released yet, officials say he sustained a lower-body injury which is not serious.

Fourth place fustration for Haskins
Ian Haskins couldn't replicate his gold-medal performance in the normal hill as he placed fourth in the large hill (120m) ski jumping event, as a poor first jump of 88m put him 1.6m short of third-placed Jens Falk of... well, surely you can guess, Anastasiania, which finished Day 9 with 24 medals in total.

Although Haskins jumped a strong 101.1m the second time around, it was not enough to overcome the deficit. Antti Hyvärinen took the gold thanks to a superlative second jump of 112.6m; we really don't need to tell you which country he's from.

Nylis advances to curling quarterfinals
There was brighter news for Kelssek in men's curling as the men joined the women in the quarterfinals after Kevin Nylis emerged from the group stage as the only skip with a hundred-percent record after defeating Quakmybush 7-5. He will be up against Rorysville in the quarterfinals.

From MSPN --

No medals were decided this morning here in Keto, but several atheletes from Maineiacs did compete. Our Men's curling team lost 9-5 to Dumainia and have been eliminated from the medal round. After the 1st run in Men's Giant Slalom, Toby Meyers is 11th and Jim Grant is 14th; neither is expected to medal. After one run in the 2-woman Bobsled, Karine Damphousse and Ingrid Todd are 12th, with an outside shot at a medal, Emily Hart and Olive Dean are 22nd. Lydia Riley is 17th and Kim Stewart is 23rd after the 1st jump in Women's Ski Jumping LH. All eyes in Maineiacs, however, were on the opening of the Ice Dance competition, with the Compulsory Dance. Maineiacs' "skating sweethearts", Warren and Sophia Kellerher finished 2nd, wowing judges and and the audience with their Tango, and are in an excellent position heading into the Free Dance. Evan Podgar and Shawna Vickers are currently 11th.

OOC: I took the liberty of choosing my own style for compulsories, since none was mentioned.

Az-cz Scroll
Keto
Bn-Blr

Both teams advance to the quarterfinals as group winners

The hockey team needed a win to advance to the knockout round for certain. And as it turned out with Oliverry also winning anything less would have been elimination. Thankfully they delivered. They came out like a team possessed. They scored 3 times in the opening two minutes. Sk-Ik and Dru-Ri scored from the first line and Mar-Lo added a goal from the second line. The game evened out for the rest of the period and the start of the second period. Liverpool England scored with 7:45 left in the period to cut the lead to 2, but Hey-Dk answered 3 minutes later to push the lead back up to three goals. On a 3rd period power play Liverpool England closed the gap back down to two but never got closer. The win pushed them to the top of the group. Their next match is against Edward City.

As for the Curlers they faced the powerful squad from Bears Armed. And this matchup was everything it was billed as. Both teams traded possession, but both were able to keep the other side from doing anything more than a single point. Bears Armed won the coin flip to start with the hammer and that was the only difference in the match. Each side scored exactly one point in each end, but Bears Armed had the hammer in the tiebreaking eleventh end and came away with the one point they needed to pull out the victory. However considering the Gnomes earlier performances that close loss kept them top of their group. The curlers next face Dumania.

On the ski jump hill Harada failed to duplicate his normal hill medal on the long hill. This is not a suprise as he is a better long hill jumper. Harada ended up with a very solid eighth place finish and Tub-Bux and Ku-Lo finished firmly in the middle of the pack. However there is still slight cause for optimism that the jumpers could make a move and scrape out a medal in the team event.

(From the front page of 'The Bear Necessities'...)

We apologise to our readers for the fact that no issues of this paper were published during the last three days, but the Red-bellied Sharrtunn were making their seasonal migration along the Widewindle then and so all of our staff were out stocking-up on them ready for the winter.

* * * * * *

(From the sports pages of 'The Bear Necessities'...)


Wintery Summary

No more medals yet for our Olympians, but that’s mostly because all but one of the contests in which they participated during the last few days were more qualifying matches for the team sports.
We’ve only had people in a single contest for medals, which was a Cross-Country Skiing one — the Women’s 10km Classical’ race — and although they tried hard none of them placed in the top three: Urratharra o Westwoods managed a time of 31:45.6, but although that was a personal best it still left her over 2½ minutes behind the winner and in 14th place out of the 18 contenders, whilst Marryon o Greenwoods and Silwa o Whitewater who came in 44 seconds & 134 seconds behind her respectively were in the 17th & 18th places overall… The winner of the ‘Gold’ was Sara Tillwald, from the nation of ‘Anastasiania’. Urratharra, speaking afterwards with our own Jarra Berrluona in an exclusive interview for ‘The Bear Essentials’, said that she will be practising even more intensively before the next games and is sure that she should be able to break the 30-minute barrier now that she’s got that target to aim at. (Interview on page 29, more details on page 30.)

There have been two more days of qualifying matches in Ice Hockey, although our Women’s team only played a single game because their group contains five nations’ teams and so each has to sit one day out, and one more day of qualifiers in Curling.
At the end of the Games’ ninth day our Men’s Ice Hockey team was on top of its group, with an unrivalled five wins out of five games and a goal difference of +22, following wins over both ‘Spindomia’ (by 3 goals to 2) and ‘Michigan-Superior’ (by 6 goals to 1): They have definitely qualified for the quarter-finals, in which they will play the team from ‘Oliverry’, while the other team going forwards from this group is that from ‘Edward City’ (after 3 wins, 1 draw, and of course a loss to the ‘Ice Devils’…) and is to face the Gnomes of ‘Ac-cz’. Team captain Harroh Thuleann expressed guarded confidence about the Devils’ chances _
“We went into this contest without much real hope of victory,” he said, “because of course although all of our players have proven themselves on the Ice Rugby pool we have only been playing this game too for a couple of months whereas all of the other teams involved are significantly more experienced. The boys have performed beyond my wildest expectations though, even if some of them have forgotten which sport they were playing a few times and been sent off for rough behaviour, so unless we just got lucky and were set against all of the weakest rivals in this stage it seems likely now that we should get through to the ‘medal’ stage after all and might even confound all of our rivals by winning the ‘Gold’: Maybe it’s that us Bears have a natural talent for this game?”
The ‘She Devils’, in the meantime, defeated the team from ‘Ballclampistan’ by 4 goals to 2 and are currently leading their group too with progress into the next stage almost guaranteed by now.
(More details on pages 33-35.)

Meanwhile, over in the Curling, our Men’s team is solidly back on form after their initial defeat by the Spindomians and now has two victories — the latest, by a score of 7 to 5, being over ‘The Mushroom Kingship’ — to counterbalance that loss and place them second in the group although with two more games still to go their qualification isn’t in the bag yet… and our Women’s teamhas won their group, by winning all three of their matches: They now progress to the quarter-finals, in which they play the team from ‘Kelssek’, whilst group runners-up ‘Dumania’ face the female ’Spindomian’ players…
(More details on page 36.)

So, where does this leave us in the Medals Table? We’re still in a relatively low place so far, at joint-20th with our good friends from ‘Mikitivity’, but then there are still ten of the thirty-six nations involved whose athletes have yet to acquire any medals at all… and of course most of the finals for which we’ve had the highest hopes are still to come…

Debs Olton was used to the jibes. She had always been particularly well-developed at school and after initially trying to hide away had used it to her advantage. Those top marks in French demonstrated her mastery of foreign tongues.

Leaving school, she had been picked up by The Daily Graphic to model swimsuits - well, part of them, anyway. Although the shooting was not particularly graphic.

It had turned her into a C list celebrity, the romantic links with the drummer from The Photon Senses not being completely made up and certainly not being unwelcome. The odd celeb quiz show had shown she was not a total moron and was prized as a chat show fill-in.

Reality TV was an interesting departure for her as her career was winding down at the ripe old age of 23. She had eaten locusts on Celebrity Gospel Trek and rhumba-ed her way to respectability on Ballroom Blitz. But the Sportstarz programme was, she said, one too far. She would never be a sports star and that was that.

Only she was persuaded to have a go at the last minute to provide comic relief. And it was indeed comic. The jokes about her being able to win the sprint because she was half-way there before she even started. Comments about the unaerodynamic nature of her body to prevent her in the long jump. Concerns about giving a shorter opponent black eyes in the fencing.

And as for the ski-jump...well, she nearly pulled out at the last minute but went down, eyes closed.

And won the event by miles.

Unnerved, coach Hickling asked her to have another go. And she recorded 52 metres. For a novice this was incredible. And Olton was enjoying it.

There were only a matter of weeks to go before the Olympics opened and the WOC decided they would nominate her. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. John Slynell, patriarch of the Slynell clan, was fuming as Olton would overshadow favourite daughter Phoebe ("not surprising," said one wag, "she casts one heck of a shadow") but she was in.

And the jibes were there at the top of the hill. Debs Olton could imagine them. "Well, love, if you crash you've got decent airbags...I thought buoyancy aids were banned?...she'll fly like a tit..."

Yeah, yeah. Come up with something original.

The doubters were silenced by her personal best. Nearly 63. Not great by world standards, but for someone in her first competitive jump? Pretty decent, she thought. A smidge behind Phoebe.

***

The clock stopped as WLD1 crossed the line and instead of cheers there were utterly astonished gasps. It was bad enough in the men's skelly, but this time THREE teams shared the lead after the first round. They would have to draw lots to see who got to go last in the next round.

Ellie Lombard was upset...she was convinced that her mistake had cost the team the lead. "Never mind, love," said Divina Welsh, "we'll nail 'em next time."

"I hope so," said Lombard, "but that was not good...I dunno if I can do this any more..."

박은상 (Bag ʼĪn-saŋ) heard a strange sound. He looked out the window of his office. Normally, he would see a a view of downtown 소코지토 도시 (Sokojito Dosi). But today, there was nothing but white.

He turned on his television. “—is expected to continue into the western portion of the Reichsföderation, with expected snowfalls of 15 cm in Miso Dosi, 20 cm in Sokojito Dosi, and up to 30 cm in Ostsokojito. Wind speeds have reached up to ninety kilometers per hour in some parts of the States, and—”

He booted his computer.

From: Keto Olympics Organizers List (organizers@olympics.xn--jasyn-o3a36b20g.ucs)
To: 박은상 (xn--bag-n-sa-djb83aw3l@olympics.xn--jasyn-o3a36b20g.ucs)
Subject: Events postponed

All events scheduled until 06:00 tomorrow are postponed due to weather. Some events have been rescheduled for 00:00 on Saturday to compensate.

He then thought, “Well, at least I have time to look at all those slani protests…”

(OOC: Day 10.5 will be delayed until the next scorination time due to RL. An extra scorination will take place at 00:00 on 2006–12–02 (Saturday).)

"Wow, it's really coming down out there. I hope they don't have to delay things for too long." said Sophia.

"You tell me, Mrs. Future Meteorologist. I'd say this is more wind than snow." said Warren.

"Yeah, that's what the vidcasts here are saying," said Sophia. "probably not much more than a one-day 'in-and-out' affair. Not like our Blizzard of '06; that was a monster."

"I wouldn't know," said Warren. "I was only 5. You, on the other hand were a ripe old 6."

Sophia stuck her tongue out at him.



"Great. First, we lose, now we can't get out." said Lester.
"Think of it as one more day before we have to return in defeat." said Sam.
"You know, I love how we can always count on the cheeriest man in Curling to brighten our day with these little rays of sunshine."
"What? It's true, isn't it?" asked Sam.
"Hey, guys," said Peter, "let's not go for each others' throats. They still haven't forgiven the 2124 Ladies for that nonsense."

The other men snorted, but went to their seats.

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome to Olympic Lunch Hour.

WR: Due to some bad weather we only have results from last night.

RM: Well, let's get to it.

WR: After the first run of the Men's Giant Slalom, William Rice sits 7th.

RM: Also in the Giant Slalom, Stephen Marshall sits 10th.

WR: While Calvin Franklin sits 12th.

RM: and Greg Martin sits 15th. With all four skiers being within striking distance of the leaders.

WR: In the Two Women's Bobsled, Quakmybush 1 sits in 31st.

RM: While Quakmybush 2 sits 32nd.

WR: The Men's Curling Team lost to Kelssek 7-5. This loss puts the team 4th in the group. They will not advance.

RM: In Women's Individual Ski Jumping, after the first round, Leslie Cox sits 2nd.

WR: Also in the Ski Jumping, Tiffany Holland sits 5th.

RM: While Wendy Morton sits 13th.

WR: In The Women's Snowboard Cross Semifinals, Teresa Garner advanced to the finals, almost two seconds ahead of everybody.

RM: Everybody except her teammate Marlene Smith, who will also advance to the final.

WR: Quakmybush currently sits 3rd in the medal standings. They have 5 Golds, 5 Silvers, and 2 Bronzes.

RM: Well, that is all the time we have.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn, be sure to watch Olympic Lunch Hour tomorrow.

(ooc: My 2nd person inthe Women's Bob is Liza Elisa not Skill.. lol)

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 10 at the 2nd Winter Games

Due to a massive Blizzard griping most of the Reichsföderation, where the games are behing held in Commerce Heights, Most of the afternoon and evening events have been postponed until tommorrow or later.

But here are some results from earlier in the day.

In Men’s Giant Slalom Run 1, Paul Rubens with a time of 1:16.35, sits in 2nd place, and will be the next to last to leave the gates tommorrow, as he looks to win a medal. In 21st place is Walter Asimov whose time was a slow 1:19.91. He's a bit too far back to win a medal, but could still crack the top ten with a good run.

In the 1st run of Women's Bobsleigh, Lisa Eliza and Liza Elisa finished in a disappointing tie for 20th, behind a 3-way tie for the lead. Their time was 58.18.

In a last end shocker, Qazox' Men's Curling team won their 1st ever Olympic game 8-7 against Tynelia. Lead Raymond Hurdle knocked out 2 stones from the center and stole 2 points on the last throw, giving the Oxen only their 2nd international victory.

Score Summary:

TEAM 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10--Final
TYN 0-0-2-0-2-0-2-1-0-0 --7
QZX 1-1-0-2-0-2-0-0-0-2 --8

And finally in the Semifinals of Women’s Snowboard Cross, Tyra Lopez got off to a slow start and couldn't make it up, despite a fall by Heat winner Teresa Garner just before the finish. Tyra will run in the B final which determines 5th thru 8th places.

So due to the blizzard, scores and results my be slow in coming tommorrow, but expect full coverage on Saturday.

The first event of the day was meant to be the second leg of the women's two-bob, and the second Quakmybush bob was atop the run ready to go, but Ellie Lombard was leading the competitors in refusing to participate.

"It's snowing...how can we run in this? It's getting worse which will give an advantage to the early runners...more to the point, the slides will float on the snow and be impossible to control. It's dangerous."

An official was trying to persuade the inexperienced Bowers and Townsend to get going, even going so far as starting the clock, which put the first-time competitors into a quandary; could they go against the wishes of the officials? Lombard sensed their difficulties and stepped onto the track. "It's OK, Judy...we're not going and that's that."

Misha Sellenak and Juana Sánchez stepped forward in sympathy. The officials were suddenly confronted with the three leading bob crews heading a protest. Followed by Tanya Altzer, the favourite driver from Edward City, plus Moritz from Mikitivity and Braude from Spindomia. Then all the others.

Suddenly the wind seemed to whip up and the snow redoubled. "OK, ladies...you win...we shall call off the event for the time being..."

As the teams headed inside the news came through that the ski-jumping had also had to be red-flagged before a jump had been made and within minutes the officials confirmed that the day's events had been postponed by 24 hours.

"Well done, Judy," said Ellie Lombard, "stick with the crews and you'll be alright. It would have been mental to go down in these conditions..."

Day 10.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12021798&postcount=20)

There will be another extra scorination on 2006–12–05 (Tuesday) 00:00, in addition to the one on Saturday.

WR: Hello, I'm Wendy Rogers

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: Welcome to Olympic Lunch Hour

RM: More bad weather cost some events to be postponed.

WR: Well, let's look at the events that did happen.

RM: In Men's Giant Slalom, William Rice finished 5th.

WR: Also in the Giant Slalom, Calvin Franklin finished 10th.

RM: While Greg Martin finished 11th.

WR: and Stephen Marshall finished 13th.

RM: In the Two Women's Bobsled, Quakmybush 1 sits 30th.

WR: While Quakmybush 2 sits 31st.

RM: The Women's Hockey Team defeated Spindomia 2-1. This win propels them to first in their group. They will take on Race Track in the quarterfinals.

WR: In the Short Track Men's 1000m Melvin Boone advanced to the semifinals.

RM: In Women's Individual Ski Jumping, Tiffany Holland brought home the gold.

WR: Also in Ski Jumping, Leslie Cox finished 6th.

RM: While Wendy Morton finished 12th.

WR: In the Women's Snowboard Cross final Marlene Smith brought home the Silver.

RM: Also in the Snowboard Cross, Teresa Garner finished in the Bronze Medal position.

WR: Quakmybush now sits 2nd in the Medal Standings.

RM: They have 6 Golds, 6 Silvers, and 3 Bronzes.

WR: This is a very impressive showing.

RM: Indeed, well that is all the time we have.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn. Be sure to tune in tomorrow.

Shock of the day came when Bob Davis, aka the Wentland downhill squad, managed to avoid coming last. Davis was determined at least to finish after tumbling in the first run just before the finish and bouncing across the line, but it would not have happened had Sam Bridges not lost a ski three-quarters of the way down. Bridges somehow finished monopedally but behind Davis.

Debs Olton could not match her first round jump and was back to normal form in the ski-jump, so Phoebe Slynell's honour was satisfied as the leading Wentland jumper. However the event nearly hosted terrible disaster. Rebecca Wolson's second round "jump" of 33 metres was beaten by Darci Tomate who could not even make that; however Tomate's first round jump was enough to see her avoid the wooden spoon, as the audience hooted hysterically. But Barbara Frenesi of Cafundéu elicited gasps of horror as she lost her balance on the jump just before the exit and she inelegantly dropped off the end, tumbling down the hill as the spectators watched in sheer terror.

Fortunately Frenesi was not seriously injured, bruises and cuts, and she walked away with the medical team to the biggest round of applause of the Games.

Insult was added to injury as her jump was measured - 11.5 metres.

All this activity (and the first gold for Elves Security Forces) overshadowed the second women's bob run, which with the extra snow was as expected slower than in the first run. Welsh and Lombard were the first of the joint leaders to go and set a respectable time of 57.96, which eased them ahead of USE-2 by an eyelash and a couple of tenths ahead of RRV-1, who seemed to be a bit disturbed by the delay. However that did not put WLD-1 and the royal blue bob in the lead, as Schussler and Moritz nearly matched their first heat time and came from the pack to the lead. One of the fastest pairs in the second run were Estanza and Onett, who moved into second and looking for Casari's best Games result. The final runs will be of great interest.

Day 11 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12023368&postcount=21)

RM: Welcome to Olympic Lunch Hour.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: Let's get to those results.

RM: The Women's 4x6 Biathlon Team won a Silver Medal.

WR: After the 3rd run of the 2 Women Bobsled, Quakmybush 2 sits 30th.

RM: While Quakmybush 1 sits 31st.

WR: The Women's Curling team defeated Qazox 6-5. They will now advance to the semifinals where they will take on Spindomia.

RM: In Men's Short Track 1000m action Melvin qualified for the final.

WR: In the Men's 10000m Speed Skating event Johnny Larson finished 8th.

RM: While in a bit of a controversy Jason Sherman was disqualified. Here is the replay. *video comes up* Here you see Sherman and Sundlund going into the final corner. Sherman almost falls, but corrects himself. While correcting himself his hand barely touched Vic Stanley of Wentland. Stanley fell, and the judges decided to disqualify Sherman.

WR: Tough luck.

RM: Quakmybush currently sits 2nd in the medal standings.

WR: They have 6 Golds, 7 Silvers, and 3 Bronzes.

RM: Well, that is all the time we have.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn. Be sure to watch tomorrow.

OOC: Last RP for me. I'm going to far away from computers for couple of weeks. KBC obviously won't be updated anymore either.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/numbersaregood/indy-olympicheader.gif

Fourth-place curse strikes again

Kelssek missed on two more medals as Sophia Meadley and Phillip Worcoat both finished fourth by a fraction in their events, adding to the might-have-beens of Jean-Luc Lacroix and Ian Haskins.

Despite a good start it's all becoming quite dismal for Kelssek's athletes and it seems eight is all we're going to get, especially after Annelle Brun was dumped out of the women's curling quarterfinals against Bears Armed.

It was especially disappointing for Meadley, who was 0.1m short of Ham Gyu-sa in the women's large hill individual.

"I thought I'd got it when I saw Ham had messed up on her second jump, but I suppose not enough. It's disappointing, but she did jump better than me in the end."

Kelssek will also be up against Ballclampistan for the quarterfinals in women's hockey. And Alan Depper did make it into the A final of the men's 1000m, though his qualifying time doesn't give much hope for a medal. But of course, he was just saving it for the final...

Just keep on hopin'.

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 11 at the 2nd Winter Games

The Blizzard Cleared out and the Olympics resumed today and a good day for Qazox.

In the 2nd run of Men's Giant Slalom, Paul Rubens had a run of 1:16.98, and a total time of 2:33.33 which was good enough for Silver, the 1st Skiing medal for Qazox ever. Walter Asimov finished in a time of 1:21.66, total time of 2:41.57, which placed him in 20th overall.

At Women's Bobsliegh, the 2nd run for Eliza/Elisa went better and they moved up to 15th, with a total time of 1:56.03, from 20th with a run time of 57.85. A couple of more good runs, and they could backdoor their way into a medal.

Both of our Men's Shorttrack skaters withdrew from the event citing leg injuries (ooc: I did sign them up for the 500, 1500 and 1000...).

In the B final fo Women's Snowboard cross, Tyra Lopez easily finished 1st, giving her the 5th place spot, good but not great. Her time was 1:25.71, which would have won her the gold medal if she was in the final.

In the 3rd run of Women's Bobsliegh, Eliza/Elisa slipped back into 16th with a time of 58.01 2:54.04 is their total time, and it look doubtful they will medal.

And in Women's Curling Qazox for the 2nd straight Olympics, got upset in the Quarterfinals, losinmg 6-5 to Quakmybush. The Lady Curlers leave again wondering just what went wrong, and why they can't win in the knock-out round.

Score Summary:

TEAM 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10--Final
QMB 0-0-2-0-0-0-2-0-2-0 --6
QZX 1-2-0-2-0-0-0-0-0-0 --5

(ooc: Sry I forgot that in the 1000m, neither one qualified for the quarters.. my bad)

Day 11.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12024597&postcount=22)

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 12 at the 2nd Winter Games UPDATE

These results just got in so here they are:

In the 4th run of Women's Bobsleigh, Eliza/Elisa had a run time of 57.99, but finsihed in 16th place with a total time of: 3:52.03.

In Qualification for Snowboarding—Women’s Parallel Giant Slalom, Qazox dominated as all three riders qualifed. Lead by Jennifer Banks' total run times of 41.16 41.46 1:22.62 placed her 4th. Maria Lopez-Sanchez qualifed 5th with times of: 42.55 40.14 1:22.69. And Erin O’Brien Qualified 8th with her times of 40.12 42.97 1:23.09. If things work out right, all three could find themselves in contention for medals, hopefully a Gold-Silver-Bronze finish as well.

That's all for now,for more results as they happen, go to www.QSPN.com keyword:Olympics.

TERRY WIGGON: So, Ellie, you went into the third run nicely poised...what happened then?

ELLIE LOMBARD: I didn't think it was a bad one...we got an OK start, but we just...er...didn't hang it out enough...

DIVINA WELSH: Yeah...we were a bit too conservative...the time was alright, but the Casari duo were magnificent...

EL: I think that actually did us a favour, in retrospect...Moritz was spooked...

TW: The Mikitivity brake?

EL: Yeah...they were thinking of gold but suddenly that time came up...they had a mare of a run...

DW: Hit the side at the start and they never really recovered...

TW: But after all the times were in, you were out of the medals...

EL: Yeah...

TW: Did that not bother you?

DW: Strangely enough, no...we'd got silver last time and weren't bothered about not getting silver or bronze...

EL: Our eyes were on gold...

DW: Yeah, and we were three tenths away...that's a lifetime...

TW: Did you think you had blown it?

DW: Honsetly, yeah...we were really looking for mistakes...

EL: Yeah...making up that distance is normally impossible...

DW: But then we saw the Elves bob's run...

TW: That was the new track record?

EL: Yeah...

DW: They'd taken a new line through Hammerhead...we'd thought about it before in practice but could not nail it...

EL: It's very difficult to make the slingshot into Whalebone perfectly if you do that, but they did it...

DW: We thought it might be worth a try - nothing ventured, nothing gained...

EL: So we agreed to take it easy early on - so we could get the Hammerhead line dead on...

TW: And how did you manage that?

EL: Slow start, that took all attention away...

DW: We were ultra-careful...we knew if we nailed it it would be worth half-a-second, but we had to sacrifice a couple of tenths to be on line for entry...

EL: And it worked...

TW: Did you know at the time it was just right:

Together: Yeah...

DW: All I could hear was Ellie yelling "YEEAAAHHHH!!!! YEEAHHHHHH!!!!" in my ear all the way down...

[laughter]

EL: It was like that phone advert...

DW: We were euphoric at the finish...

EL: When the time came up I thought gold would be ours...we'd beaten the track record, barring the ESF time...

TW: How did it feel waiting for the last three teams?

DW: Nerve-racking...

EL: I wasn't concerned...I thought the time would be enough...

DW: The poor Mik team was double spooked...

EL: Yeah...they'd lost the lead yesterday to a record run and now we'd done them again...

TW: Then Spindomia came down...

EL: Yeah...they had to beat the track record from yesterday and I thought that would be beyond them...

DW: The run was a bit rutted and had been generally slower...

EL: When they crossed for the mid-time I knew they were off us...

TW: And then finally the Casari team...

DW: Yeah...we knew they were desperate for gold, cos they've not done so well...

EL: They could do it with a consistent run...but they bottled it in the last Champs and I thought they'd do so again...

DW: I wasn't so sure...I thought they'd learn...

TW: When did you know you had won gold?

EL: At the start...they did not get a good push...

DW: At the first split, they were three-tenths down and there's no way to make that back up...unless they nailed the Hammerhead, and they were off line for that...but I wasn't certain till they crossed the line...

TW: And how does it feel?

EL: Relieved, more than anything...we were close last time so that's that monkey off the back...

DW: Overjoyed! Not stopped wearing it yet...

(From the sports pages of 'The Bear Necessities'...)


Snow Stops Play

Yes, another day has passed without our giving you any more news from the Winter Olympics: No, it wasn't OUR fault.
The area around Keto, where the games are being held, was hit by a blizzard that not only caused a 24-hours delay in the Games but prevented air travel to & from that location, so that our journalists' reports about the previous day's events simply didn't reach us in time for publication in yesterday's issue...

Before The Storm

Our team in the Men's Curling won its next match too, beating the Gnomes of Az-cz 6:5 in a very close match and thus placing second in its group (behind those same Gnomes, who had a 3:1 record too but a better "goal-difference"...) and gaining a place in the quarter-finals.

The 'Compulsory Dance' section of the Ice Dance contest didn't go quite as well for our skaters as had been hoped, with the teams of John & Anne Buitendam (from Ropa-Topia) -- who've already won the 'Gold' in the Ice Skating (Pairs) event -- and Warren & Sophie Kelleher (from Maineiacs) scoring a few points more than our own Thunarr Thuleann & Silver, who in turn came in just ahead of their old rivals Garron & Harrlo.
"It was the dance specified being the 'tango' that did it," Silver said to this paper's reporter Jarra Berrluona afterwards: "We just weren't as flexible as the best of the human contestants, and flexibility matters even more in that dance than in just about any other one... Still, being in third place at this point isn't bad and although the competition is quite tough I think that we should do even better in the next stage..."

Clearer Skies

There was mixed news from the firts day of the re-started events _
None of our entrants in the Cross-Country Skiing (Men's 15km Classical) race won any medals: Barro o Westwood came in 10th of the 25 contestants, a full 75 seconds behind the winner of the 'Bronze' (Sebastian Anders, from Noremark) who in turn was 39 seconds behind the winner of the 'Gold' (Jan Bergstrom, from Anastasiana), slightly ahead of Okielahoma's Mark Blackmon who'd apparently recovered from his earlier indisposition (whatever that was) by then, with Urrgan Urrgansson in 20th place and Karramarsar Tharrl at 23rd...
But our Women's Ice Hockey team won their final match at the 'group' stage, beating the team from 자스연 (Jasīʼyūn) 5:2 to head their group on a maximum possible 8 points, and went forwards to the quarter-finals along with the team from Ballclampistan who had 6 points [for three wins, against all of the other teams except ours] but a better goal-difference.

Welcome back to Olympic coverage here on MSPN, and we apologize for the technical difficulty that has kept us off the air. Well, the snow has ended here in Keto, and the games have resumed, so let's recap the last 36 hours.


Our Alpine Ski Tam continues to struggle: Toby Meyers placed 12th in the Men's Giant Slalom. Paul Xavier was a respectable 5th in the Men's Cross Country 15k Classical; Our women's Hockey team lost 3-2 to Liverpool England, and are out of the medal round; Lydia Riley was 15th and Kim Stewart 18th in Women's Ski Jumping LH; Peggy Martin-Kubler fell and did not complete the women's Snowboard Cross; an MRI showed it to be a severe sprain of the left ankle. Our Women's Biathlon team finished 5th out of 6 teams in the 4x6k relay, but our women's Cross Country team took home the gold in the 4x5k relay; in the Men's Nordic Combined LH Sprint, Yoshiro Harada, winner of the Gundersen, is currently 3rd, with Paavi Hannonmemen 8th and Yen Li 9th. Harold Carter was 7th in Men's 10,000m Speedskating; Karine Damphousse and Ingrid Todd were 9th in the 2-Woman Bobsleigh, while Emily Hart and Olive Dean were 26th; our Men's Cross Country team was unable to duplicate the success of our women's team, finishing 6th; Warren and Sophia Kellerher skated brilliantly in the Original Dance, and sit in 1st place coming into the Free Dance; short of disaster, they should medal; Evan Podgar and Shawna Vickers are 5th. In Men's Hockey, our team beat Ballclampistan 7-6 in overtime; they will now play Bears Armed in the semifinals to determine whether they will play for the gold or the bronze; Juanita "J-rez" Perez did not quailfiy in the Women's Snowboarding Parallel Giant Slalom; Tomoko Toshiro is currently 2nd in Women's Nordic Combined LH Sprint, 16sec. behind leader Heather McParland of Kelssek teammates Helen Farmer and Camille Dubois are 7th and 8th; and Denis Lectoure of Laval, Quebec has won the gold in Men's 1000m Shorttrack; Toji Kaneda was 2nd in the "B" final -- 6th overall. Maineiacs' medal count now stands at 9 -- 3 gold, 4 silver, and 2 bronze.

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome to Olympics This Morning.

WR: Let;s get to those results.

RM: After the final run of the Two Women's Bobsled, Quakmybush 1 finshed 30th.

WR: Also in the Bobsled, Quakmybush 2 finished 31st.

RM: Melvin Boone came up a bit short as he finsished 4th in the Men's Short Track 1000m.

WR: In qualifying for the Women's Parallel Giant Slalom, Gertrude Caldwell qualified in 6th place.

RM: Also in the Slalom, Vanessa Payne qualified in 10th.

WR: While Sheila McBride qualified in 12th.

RM: Quakmybush now sits 2nd in the medal standings.

WR: They have 6 Golds, 7 Silvers, and 3 Bronzes.

RM: Well, we are out of time.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn. Be sure to watch Olympic Lunch Hour!

Day 12 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12026425&postcount=23)

From MSPN --

Only a handfull of events this round. We were unable to repeat our success from the Gundersen version of Men's Nordic Combined as our team went into the "sprint" event. Yoshiro Harada came in 4th, Paavi Hannonmenen was 6th and Yen Li was 7th. No medals, but still strong performances. Neither Jennifer Thomas nor Regina Franklin qualified in Women's 1000m Shorttrack; Tamara Phelps was 7th and last in Women's 5000m Speedskating.

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome to Olympic Late Night.

WR: Let's get to those results.

RM: Stella waters advanced to the next round in the Women's Short Track 1000.

WR: Also in the Women's 1000m, Léa Voisin advanced.

RM: While Anne Tessier did the same.

WR: In the Women's Parallel Giant Slalom, Gertrude Caldwell advanced to the quarterfinals.

RM: Also in the Slalom, Vanessa Payne also advanced.

WR: While Sheila McBride failed to move on.

RM: In the Women's Speed Skating 5000m race Alexis Laforest finished 5th.

WR: Quakmybush currently sits 2nd in the medal standings.

RM: They have 6 Golds, 7 Silvers, and 3 Bronzes.

WR: Well, we are out of time. I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn.

ooc: CH you have my medal total at 17, its only 16

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 12 at the 2nd Winter Games

After a decent start to Day 12, things went well the rest of the day.

In Short Track—Women’s 1000 m—Qualification Heat 2, Linda Pepper literally edged out Amber Sackley of Kelssek by 7/1000ths of a second (1:35.524 to
1:35.531) to advance to the Quarterfinals. Her teammate Ingrid Larsson in Heat 3 wasn't as lucky as a slip on the 2nd to last lap left her in last place with a time of 1:36.863.

In the first round of the Women’s Parallel Giant Slalom, Qazox had only 1 rider advance to the quarterfinals, that being Jennifer Banks (39.99/40.33//1:20.32). Maria Lopez-Sanchez (40.96/41.26//1:22.22) was upset by Samantha Mack and Erin O'Brien(42.71/42.97//1:25.68) lost to Gertrude Caldwell. So the hope of at least 2 or 3 medal went completely by the wayside in the 1st round, and Ms Banks is our only hope now of a medal.

That's all for now,for more results as they happen, go to www.QSPN.com keyword:Olympics. (ooc: plese note NOT a real Website.. ty)

OOC: I tried to PM some people to get my question answered, but that proved difficult. So, if someone could tell me when the next Olympiad is scheduled for(approximate is ok) and what kind it will be(summer/winter) that would be much appreciated, so I can figure out just what sort of teams I have to put together.

Day 12.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12028590&postcount=24)

OOC: I tried to PM some people to get my question answered, but that proved difficult. So, if someone could tell me when the next Olympiad is scheduled for(approximate is ok) and what kind it will be(summer/winter) that would be much appreciated, so I can figure out just what sort of teams I have to put together.
The next Olympics will be the summer games. They’ll be whenver the host feels like—probably at least a month from now, since no one has volunteered to host yet.

From MSPN --

More medals, and more gold for Maineiacs!

In the latest phase of Olympic competition, atheletes from Maineiacs picked up two more medals. Warren and Sophia Kellerher, 5-time National Champions who were shut out of the podium 4 years ago, won the gold medal in Ice Dancing. The couple skated their routine to the old Dire Straits song, "Romeo and Juliet", with which they won the National Championship two years ago. There was speculation that they would select instead this year's winning routine, set to Aerosmith's "Pink", but a source from inside the MSU said that it was dismissed as too controvertial for International competition; the Kellerhers will likely test the number at the exhibition. The Kellerhers glided gracefully and seemingly effortlessly on their way to the gold. Our other Ice Dance team, Evan Podgar and Shawna Vickers, finished 5th in a very competitive field. Our 2nd medal of the day was in Women's Nordic Combined Sprint, where Tomoko Toshiro won the Bronze. Her teammates Camille Dubois and Helen Farmer were 7th and 8th. With 3 medals, the Maineiacs Nordic Ski team has emerged as an unexpected powerhouse, and have ddefinitely become one of the teams to beat in the upcoming team Nordic Combined. In other olympic News, Calvin Erlich qualified in Men's 500m Shorttrack, but Toji Kaneda did not. Our medal count is now 11: 4 gold, 4 silver, and 3 bronze. We will have more Olympic coverage, including interviews with our medalists, as the day continues.

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: And I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome to Olympic Lunch Hour.

WR: Let's get to those results.

RM: The Women's Hockey Team crushed Race Track six to one. They will advance to the semifinals and take on Ballclampistan.

WR: In the Men's 500m Short Track qualification Christophe Roussel did not advance.

RM: Also in the 500m, Jesús Romero did not advance.

WR: While Daniel Ramsey did advance.

RM: and Patrice Neufville also made it to the next round.

WR: In the quarterfinals for the Women's Parallel Giant Slalom Vanessa Payne moved on to the semifinals.

RM: Also in the Slalom, Gertrude Caldwell did not advance.

WR: Quakmyubush sits 2nd in the Medal Standings.

RM: They have 6 Golds, 7 Silvers, and 3 Bronzes.

WR: Well, we are out of time. I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn. Be sure to watch Olympic Late Night.

Day 13 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12031155&postcount=25)

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome to Olympic Late Night.

WR: Let's get to those results.

RM: In the Men's Super-G Ruben Adams finshed 6th.

WR: Also in the Super-G, Roy Mcbride finished 14th.

RM: While Bryan Copeland finished 17th.

WR: And Troy Ortega took a fall and finished last. He sustained minor cuts and bruises.

RM: In the Men's 4 x 7.5 Men's Biathlon Relay, the team of Cloutier, Higgins, Hébert, and Jacobs won the Gold Medal.

WR: After the first run of the Two Man Bobsled, Quakmybush 2 sits 1st.

RM: While Quakmybush 1 sits in 3rd.

WR: The Women's Curling Team lost to Spindomia 7-6. They will now face Ropa-Topia in the Bronze Medal Game.

RM: In the Women's 3000m Short Track Relay, Quakmybush won the Silver Medal.

WR: Gertrude Caldwell will race for 5th place after winning her Consolation race.

RM: Quakmybush sits 2nd in the Medal Standings.

WR: They have 7 Golds, 8 Silvers, and 3 Bronzes.

RM: Well, that is all the time we have.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: and I'm Ron Mclearn, be sure to watch Olympic Lunch Hour.

From MSPN --

Two more medals for Maineiacs today: Toby Meyers ended our Alpine Ski team's streak of bad luck by taking the bronze in the Men's Super-G. Jim Grant was 7th, but the big story from the slopes today was the tragedy that befell Harry Harper. On the last gate, setting a pace that would have beaten out Meyers, Harper fell. He was airlifted out, and unfortunatley, the diagnosis is not good. Harper sustained a complex fracture, and doctors say his leg will have to be amputated. In other Olympic news, our Men's Biathlon team has made an impressive statement, taking the silver in the 4x7.5k relay. Laughton and Riley, in Maineiacs 1 are currently 6th in the two-man bobsled, while Armstrong and Herbert in Maineiacs 2 are a dismal 34th. Our Men's Nordic Ski team stands in a distant 3rd after one round of the Team Nordic Combined Sprint event, but are guaranteed to finish with at least the bronze, as there are only 3 teams competing. Maineiacs now has 13 medals: 4 gold, 5 silver, and 4 bronze. We had a chance to talk with last night's gold medalists in Ice Dancing, Warren and Sophia Kellerher. They had this to say:

MSPN: Congratulations on a spectacular performance.
WK: Thank you.
SK: Thank you.
MSPN: After skating so well in the Original Dance, did you enter the Free Dance with confidence that you would secure the gold?
WK: No, definitely not. Since we knew the Free Dance counts for so much of the final score, we knew that was where we'd either win or lose.
SK: It's been quite flattering to hear all the press about how we "blew away" the competition, but really, we didn't. We won by only .6 points. One slight mistake, and the skaters from Ropa-Topia would easily have overtaken us.
MSPN: Whose decision was it to go with "Romeo and Juliet" rather than "Pink" for the Free Dance?
WK: That was a joint decision. Sophie and I, along with our coach, Judy came to that decision. Neither MOC nor MSF approached us about the matter -- although, as I understand, they were somewhat relieved. *chuckles*
SK: We do plan to do "Pink" during the exhibition, though.
MSPN: So, what's next for you?
WK: The Grand Prix of Maineiacs Championships.
SK: We have what we hope will be a memorable routine to unveil, set to the song "True Colors". *giggle*
WK: After that, we will be retiring. We both need to finish school, we've put it off for too long. Also, we'd like to start a family.

This was the day.

The Jörgen Sundlund Fan Club had assembled, ready for an afternoon of top-class skaters; six pairs of the 10,000 metres, the longest and most gruelling distance of them all. 25 laps, hopefully all in the 31 region, as the skaters were challenging the Olympic Record of 13:10.55. The club was ready - Kari Antila had his pen and paper ready, to inform all around him about the current standings. Jani Pelkonen was shouting around, agreeing on the chants, while new acquisition Ylva Wengberg was running down to confirm the start list. They had been watching Sara Tillwald win her third gold of the Olympics, becoming the female athlete of the Games, they had watched Hyvärinen win ski jumping, they had watched Sundlund lead bravely into bronze; but now it was serious. Sundlund was going to avoid last place, he was going to confirm his place as one of the best allround skaters in the world, and lead the way before the national match next week.

The first two pairs were largely uneventful, and only Antila watched keenly as the skaters' lap times gradually wound up towards 33. The others were aimlessly chatting, waving flags, discussing the possibility of the Cuypers-Sundlund pair, and considering how good an armed bear on skates really could be. Borrin proved them wrong - after an extremely slow, lumbering opening, he skated quicker and quicker, and finished in a respectable 13.27. In the third pair, Drew Harris managed to get himself disqualified by skating successive inner lanes, tricking pairmate Jason Sherman into doing successive outers - both were disqualified, amid jeers from the Sundlund Club: "stick to football, or is it soccer you call it?" "get off our ice" "cheating *******" "how hard is it to skate 400 metres every lap".

In the fourth pair, things got interesting. Mike Leisten, who performed credibly in the 5000 metres, opened in a ferocious pace against Tynelia's John Simmons. Antila kept revising his schedules, eventually deciding "oh damn it, he'll never make this speed", after passing 5000 metres in 6.20. He didn't, either. His lap times went from 30 to just above 33, with Antila smiling more and more as he realised he was right. Leisten's last 5000 went at a very stolid 6.56, slower than Simmons (who at one point was nearly lapped, then skated gradually away from Leisten again).

"Sundlund will win now," Jari said. "He's seen what kind of time this track takes."

It was hard to argue. Nobody did. They went entirely quiet as Sundlund made his way to the start. No one wanted to ruin the big moment with a false start - however, he got off well, and used the first far stretch to get into the lead ahead of Cuypers. As they passed the second curve, Sundlund raced ahead in the inner lane, amid huge cheers from the Sundlund Club.

After that, the Club began applauding. The monotonous sound mixed perfectly with the rhythm of Sundlund's skates on the ice, practised through the training sessions, while equally hypnotizing chants of "A-na-sta-si-a-ni-a" were intended to push him onwards. The applause rose each time he made his way into the northern curve, but no one actually cheered as such - they just watched, steering at the distance between him and Cuypers, which seemed to oscillate between one and two seconds.

By the halfway stage, Sundlund was some sixteen seconds down on Leisten. The home crowd seemed assured of victory; surely Leisten's way was the way everyone did it? But the northern curve Anastasianians were quietly confident, and as Sundlund kept his lap times steadily just below 31, even the hosts started to look at it ominously. He ate second by second, while Cuypers followed close behind. Antila stared at his schedules. Sundlund was just level with one that would bring him in goal with a time of 13.16 - 0.11 seconds ahead of Leisten - but he needed to skate 31 for every single lap. And Cuypers was coming closer.

Pelkonen decided it was time to go full out. "OK, lads! Let's do the Sundlund Is Our King!"

Suddenly the 100 Anastasianians were the loudest of the entire stadium. They bellowed out the song, the only one they had really written before the race began, no longer caring about rhythm or really anything except support. Kari leaned across, trying to glimpse the scoreboard, where Sundlund's lap time had been revealed to be 30.2 - well ahead of schedule. Kari breathed out, wrote down the time, and joined in the singalong.

Sundlund seemed to be skating on the air itself for the last four laps. He eventually took a two-second lead, beating pairmate Cuypers by three seconds, and despite the last skaters being ahead for most of the race, they could not make up with the Fan Club-inspired win.

"I'd never imagined individual sports could be anything like this," Sundlund was quoted as saying in the newspaper the next morning. Pelkonen smiled to himself. Now home to the country-match, he thought, brightly.

PIKA CITY PIONEER
Day 13 at the 2nd Winter Games

A new record was set by a Qazoxian athlete in the Short Track—Men’s 500 m Qualifaction runs. Jacques Strappe in Heat 3 set a new Olympic record with a time of 42.018, beating Jean-Michel Chang of Ariddia's 4-yr old record. Jacques just missed the World Record, also held by Chang, which is 42.010. But teammate Ivan Terrib finished 5th in the closest heat, Heat 4, which saw a separation of only .560 second between 1st and 5th, or a distance of 11 feet. 42.961 was Terrib's time.

In the Quarterfinals of Women’s Parallel Giant Slalom, Qazox' chances ended as Jennifer Banks of Commerce Heights JSY came back from a 1.61 second deficit after the 1st run to edge out Banks. So after a great qualification, Qazox will leave the Women’s Parallel Giant Slalom medal-less a very disapponting result. Banks' times were: 39.12/42.13//1:21.25

In Men’s Super-G both Paul Rubens and Walter Asimov had troubles on the upper part of the course, and they couldn't make up the lost time on the bottom. Ruben's time was 1:31.84, good for 21st, while Asimov's time was 1:32.98, placing him in 24th.

The 1st run of Men's 2-man Bobsleigh started, and the team of Kirk and McCoy started slow and finsihed last with a time of 57.45. They did start slow 4 years ago, and still won silver, but this time age has caught up with the 40-yr olds and they don't look like they could pull off a repeat perfromance.


In the Consolation Round of Women's Parallel Giant Slalom, Jennifer Banks recovered enough from her stunning Quarterfinal loss to advance to the 5th place race With times of: 43.98/41.94//1:25.92.

That's all for now, for more results as they happen, go to www.QSPN.com keyword:Olympics. (ooc: plese note NOT a real Website.. ty)

Day 13.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12033753&postcount=26)

From MSPN -- Only a few events to report on, but ones with large potential ramifications. Our Men's Nordic Ski team had a spectacular second jump round in the Nordic Combined Team Sprint and now stands in 1st place, with a narrow six second advantage for the cross-country portion of the event. The team of Laughton and Riley, in Maineiacs 1, is 5th after the 2nd run of the 2-man bobsled, Roger Freeman failed to qualify in the Men's Cross Country Individual Sprint, and Allison Compton was 6th in Women's Aerials. Of course, all the buzz this morning is over our Men's Hockey team, who defeated Bears Armed 4-2 and now will face Kelssek for the gold, Bears Armed plays Edward City for the bronze.

Super-G one-two "brilliant" - Michael Harley

The Liverpool England one-two finish in the men's alpine skiing Super-G achieved on Day 13 of the Winter Games in Keto has been labelled as "brilliant" by Prime Minister Michael Harley. Harley was on hand to watch Dave Ramey and Jeff Hauser claim gold and silver - the nation's 3rd and 4th medals at this Games respectively. Hauser, who already has a gold medal from the Combined event, was clearly pleased with the result at the press conference after the event.

"It's great, it really is. As you may know my cat at home has made good progress following being run over by an idiot (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11990985&postcount=113), and for me to get another medal is an achievement for me. When I came here all I wanted was two bronzes - I've now surpassed my own expectations, and hopefully the nation will also get behind our athletes here in Keto," Hauser observed, adding that "there has not been much media coverage of the Games at home - surely this will change now with this result. Fabulous, absolutely chuffed."

Shaun Rigney, the other Liverpool England competitor in the Super-G, finished 5th - just shy of seven-tenths behind Ramey. According to the official website of the Liverpool England delegation, the current aim is for a total haul of 7 medals - three golds, two silvers and two bronzes. As it stands, the nation has 2-1-1.

Last hope

It was just one event among many for most of the Games’ participants and spectators. But for the entire nation of San Adriano, it was their very last hope to achieve anything at all in Keto. The Men’s 500m Short Track qualifiers.

San Adriano is represented by a single athlete, Thomas Peruzzi, who had signed up for only three events, all of them short track. He had been disqualified from both the one kilometre event and the fifteen hundred one. Never had such importance and expectations rested on a single race.

There were few Sanadrianese flags among the spectators, and most of those were waved by people who had chosen to cheer on the foreign underdog. But the village-nation’s monarch, Princess Serena (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Serena_Eu), was in attendance, along with her husband Prince Willem and their children, Crown Prince Mauro and Princess Petra. The Sanadrianese royal family were guests of honour, their very presence drawing attention to Peruzzi as he lined up to compete in what might very well have been his final race.

His opponents, in heat 5, were Calvin Erlich of Maineiacs, Ray Gerald of Spindomia and Derek Riise of Ariddia. All four knew it would be a short race, with no time to make up for any mistakes. Within less than forty-five seconds, San Adriano could be out of the Winter Games altogether.

Peruzzi set off at a good pace, edging ahead of Gerald and level-pegging with Riise. For a moment, he seemed about to catch up with Erlich, then lost ground, slipping into third place behind Riise. Sanadrianese supporters held their breath. In the royal box, little Princess Petra still waved her flag loyally, while her brother watched on with a serious expression.

Finally, Peruzzi skated ahead of Riise, and crossed the finish line in second place, securing a place in the next round. He lifted his hands into the air, fists clenched, a grin on his face. The nation’s honour was saved.

Peruzzi bowed to the royal family, then to the other supporters, still smiling as if he had just won a medal.

He was staying on to skate another day.

Day 14 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12035577&postcount=27)

From MSPN --

Barring disqualification, Maineiacs stands to definitely walk away with at least two more medals. As there are only three teams competing in the Men's Nordic Combined Team Sprint, we will come away with at least the bronze, and our Men's Hockey team can do no worse than the silver. The Women's Figure Skating competition has yet to begin, but both Liz Cushman and Courtney Rogers are expected to challenge for medals. Also, on the slopes today, Mary Donaldson-Shorter is 2nd after 1 run of the Women's Slalom, only .09 sec. behind leader Tina Weiss of Mikitivity; Theresa Miller is 18th. Our Women's Nordic ski team is 2nd after the first round of the Team Nordic Combined LH, while we have a team in 8th in the Two-man bobsled, and another in 31st. Miguel Fuentes was 16th in Men's 1500m Speedskating.

Gold from the darkness

For days, things had been looking down for the Ariddians. There were no surprises in the “minor” events – that is, everything except speedskating and short track – and, where it really matters, Ariddia’s skaters fell repeatedly short of the mark.

The Ariddian delegation struck an absolute low yesterday when Laurent Langlois and Richard Maraîcher were both disqualified from the men’s 500m in short track, and Derek Riise and Jean-Michel Chang also failed to advance. It was an unthinkable turn of events, and hopefully matters could only get better.

They did. At long last.

While Ariddia’s two male teams were doing surprisingly well in the bobsleigh, Chang and Maraîcher took part in the 1500m speedskating event. Maraîcher’s time of 1:48.95, putting him in twelth plac, was not quite up to expectations, but Chang looked excellent from start to finish. Refusing to lose confidence, Chang left his competitors behind, smashing the standing Olympic record by almost two seconds, setting a new one at 1:45.54. He finished over a second ahead of his most dangerous competitor, Anasastasia’s Jörgen Sundlund – now a familiar name in Ariddia.

The two men shook hands warmly after the race, then again on the podium, just before the Ariddian national anthem (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Ariddia#National_Anthem) was played.

“It’ll be exactly the same in Anastasiania!” one excited fan said. “Chang first, Sundlund second!”

Chang’s gold is Ariddia’s third in Keto, and has lifted the country back up from eleventh to seventh on the medal chart.

RM: Hello I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: and I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome to Olympic Lunch Hour.

WR: Let's get to those results.

RM: After the 2nd round of the Two-Man Bobsled, Quakmybush 2 sits 1st.

WR: Also in Bobsled, Quakmybush 1 sits 2nd.

RM: In the Women's Snowboard Parallel Slalom Vanessa Payne won her race, and she has advanced to the Big Final.

WR: After the 3rd run of the Two-Man Bobsled, Quakmybush 2 sits in first place.

RM: Also in Bobsled, Quakmybush 1 sits in 4th.

WR: Gertrude Caldwell lost her classification race in the Women's Snowboarding Parallel Giant Slalom. She finished 6th.

RM: In Men's Speedskating, the 1500m race was held. Jason Sherman came up 5 tenthes of a second short. He finished 6th.

WR: Also in the 1500m, Clyde Bird finished 10th.

RM: Quakmybush sits 2nd in the Medal Standings.

WR: They have 7 Golds, 8 Silvers, and 3 Bronzes.

RM: Well, that is all the time we have.

WR: I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: And I'm Ron Mclearn, be sure to tune in tomorrow.

***breaking news***

Stories are coming out from the Wentland compound that Peter Tarff and Scott Stoddard, currently 3rd in the bobsleigh with one run to go, are refusing to talk to each other and may not participate in the final run. Tarff allegedly blamed Stoddard for not being up to his brother's standard and Stoddard allegedly is criticizing Tarff for not helping a rookie enough. The WOC is talking to both men and trying to get them to go through the final run as they still have a shot at a medal.

***end***

Day 14.5 results are up. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12037829&postcount=28)

RM: Hello, I'm Ron Mclearn.

WR: And I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: Welcome to Olympic Late Night.

WR: Let's get to those results.

RM: In the Two-Man Bobsled, Quakmybush 2, with Patton and McGee finished in the Silver Medal position.

WR: Also in the Bobsled, Quakmybush 1, with Lloyd and González finished in the Bronze Medal position.

RM: In Men's Aerials Skiing, Pierre Toulouse won the Gold Medal.

WR: Also in the Aerials, Zachary Ford finished 7th.

RM: While Jessie Bass finished 8th.

WR: The Women's Hockey team beat Ballclampistan 3-2. This win puts the team in the Gold Medal game. They will face Bears Armed, who defeated Spindomia 7-3.

RM: Vanessa Payne won the Gold Medal in the Women's Snowboarding Parallel Giant Slalom Finals.

WR: Quakmybush still sits 2nd in the medal standings.

RM: They have 9 Golds, 9 Silvers, and 4 Bronzes.

WR: Well, that is all the time we have. I'm Wendy Rogers.

RM: I'm Ron Mclearn. Be sure to tune in tomorrow.

From MSPN --

Theresa Miller had a strong 2nd tun in the Women's slalom, and came in 10th, but Mary Donaldson-Shorter missed a gate, and was disqualified. Our 2-man Bobsleigh teams came in 7th and 29th, Peter Gammon was a surprise bronze medalist in Men's Aerials, both Liz Cuchman and Courtney Rogers qualified for the long program in Women's Figure Skating, but both are too far behind to contend for medals and our Women's Nordic Combined team sits comfortably in 2nd after the ski jump portion of the Team LH-sprint event.


OOC you got my medal total wrong. Gammon's bronze gives me 14 medals