Friday, February 19, 2010

Picking the Podiums

I can't say I'm doing terribly well so far in picking the podiums of Olympic races. I had two out of three in the women's freestyle (including being dead right on gold and bronze) and three out of three in the women's sprint (though only silver in the right spot), but I picked only one eventual medalist in the men's freestyle race (and then put him in the wrong spot) and none of the medalists in the men's sprint. Moreover, my pick for bronze in the men's sprint didn't even qualify for the heats!


Undaunted, here are my picks for Friday's women's pursuit and, below, the before-and-afters for the skate and sprint races.

women's 7.5k + 7.5k pursuit
1. Kowalczyk
2. Kalla
3. Steira


women's 10km freestyle
picks
1. Kalla
2. Kowalczyk
3. Bjørgen

actual
1. Kalla
2. Smigun-Vaehi
3. Bjørgen

5. Kowalcyzk

men's 15km freestyle
picks
1. Bauer
2. Northug
3. Hellner

actual
1. Cologna
2. Piller Cottrer
3. Bauer

4. Hellner
41. Northug

women's classic sprint
picks
1.Majdic
2.Kowalczyk
3. Bjørgen

actual
1. Bjørgen
2. Kowalczyk
3. Majdic

men's classic sprint
picks
1. Jönsson
2. Hattestad
3. Newell

actual
1. Kriukov
2. Panzhinskiy
3. Northug

4. Hattestad
7. Jönsson
45. Newell

7 comments:

Kuan said...

Brooks for top US finish and Gaiazova for top Canadian.

Colin R said...

Gimme
1)Kalla,
2)Kowalczyk,
3)Bjoergen

For the men's pursuit, I like
1) Northug
2) Cologna
3) Angerer

Kuan said...

1) Bauer
2) Northug
3) Cologna

Top Canadian: Babi
Top US: Southam

Christopher Tassava said...

For the Nordic Xplained pick-the-podium contest, in which we had to make all of our selections before the first race, I made this set of picks for the men's race:
1. Northug
2. Vylegzhanin
3. Gaillard

I'm not sure that's bad, but in light of the 15k, I think I'm going to revise it anyhow:
1. Northug
2. Cologna
3. Vylegzhanin (unless he gets banned overnight)
Freeman: 9
Babikov: 15

Kuan said...

Huh?!? Nobody saw THAT coming!

Christopher Tassava said...

Let the record show that only Colin picked any part of the men's podium - Angerer, who did one spot better than Colin expected.

I LOVE to be surprised like that!

Colin R said...

Holy crap that was the best pursuit I have ever seen.

I wonder how long it will be until Petter complains about Hellner breaking his pole, and Legkov complains about doing "all the work" and getting 4th?

Johan Olsson is the man!