Dolly Olympic qualifier today, Ruiz for U.S. Sunday--Finnish real-time results

[maligned]

Here's a link to the Finnish page that is updating pdf brackets almost in real-time for the Olympic qualifier.  MUCH better than the FILA website.  There will also be tape-delayed videos of the matches posted on this site throughout the weekend.

Alex Dolly up right now for Ireland at 84kg.

http://www.painiliitto.net/2012/toukokuu/4-6ytk/ukls.shtml

[maligned]

Gotta love FILA.  I was reading through the tournament info page to see if they're wrestling for a true second place since it's a qualifier (they wrestled for true 3rd last week, which they don't normally do).    Anyway, I stumbled upon a key point that says, "All participating teams must bring their national flag [100 x 150 cm] and a tape or CD of his national or Olympic anthem."  I guess I remember from like 1998 what a cd is, but what's a tape and why is Justin Ruiz responsible to bring one of these?  FILA is so 21st century in all its procedures.  Awesome.

[maligned]

Dolly loses 4-0, 1-0 to a Moldovan.  Too bad.  Repechage doesn't matter today because only the Top 2 go to the Olympics.  I would have loved to have seen that wicked front head on the Olympic stage.  (Y2's facebook comment about him possibly being brought back into Olympic contention is from last weekend, not today.)

[MattM]

Repechage doesn't matter today because only the Top 2 go to the Olympics.

So they will not be wrestling off for a "true second"place if needed? (Repechange winner can challenge for 2nd if he never faced that competitor earlier)  I haven't found any information on the details of this.  I find this insane considering what's at stake and the luck of the draw involved in this competition.

[grecoref]

So they will not be wrestling off for a "true second"place if needed? (Repechange winner can challenge for 2nd if he never faced that competitor earlier)  I haven't found any information on the details of this.  I find this insane considering what's at stake and the luck of the draw involved in this competition.

Fila's thought process on this is that they have had several opportunites to qualify....World Championships, Continental Championships, Qualifiying Tournaments.  True 2nd to them is the guy who finished 2nd in the weight on that particular day.

True 2nd is only an American thought, not an international thought. It was created by organizations as an added feature to their "national/world/universe" youth tournament.

I feel bad for Alex and would have loved for him to make it to London. He's trained hard and wrestled well.

[maligned]

I don't have nearly as much problem with no true second as I do with the ridiculous bracketing.  Pushing all the byes to one side of a blind draw is a phenomenally inept way of approaching fair competition.  I can understand blind draws, but at least take the mathematical element out of it and put 12 on each side of a 24-man draw instead of 8 on one side and 16 on another. 

[grecoref]

I don't have nearly as much problem with no true second as I do with the ridiculous bracketing.  Pushing all the byes to one side of a blind draw is a phenomenally inept way of approaching fair competition.  I can understand blind draws, but at least take the mathematical element out of it and put 12 on each side of a 24-man draw instead of 8 on one side and 16 on another. 

The words fair and Fila should never be used in the same sentence.

[maligned]

The good news about Ruiz's draw: he got a bye and is on the side of the bracket with only 1/3 of the wrestlers.  The bad news: he faces the 2009 world champion from Hungary in the second round.  For one reason or another, this guy has lost heartbreaking matches the last couple events and finds himself still not qualified.  The Korean that Ruiz went 3 rounds with last week gave the Hungarian a decent match at the same tourney.  We'll see.

[maligned]

Ruiz goes down, 3-1, 1-0.  Our official count for the Olympics, barring us illogically getting a wildcard at Ruiz's weight:

17 of 18 total weights, 7 of 7 men's freestyle, 6 of 7 greco, 4 of 4 women's freestyle.