Author: Shaun P Kernahan

Weekend in Climbing: IFSC World Cup in Wujiang and NACS in Virginia

It was a busy weekend in the climbing world as the final IFSC World Cup and the final North American Cup Series events of 2023 both took place. Now, this doesn’t mean we have to wait until next year for some elite climbing, as there are many regional tournaments coming up with a bunch of Olympic spots up for grabs.

One athlete who has yet to secure an Olympic invite but is fully expected to qualify is the 16-year-old phenom from Japan, Sorato Anraku. Anraku dominated yet again as he reached hold 39, while second place, Shion Omata, reached jsut 30+. Anraku ended the season with 4300 points, running away with the season title with second place scoring just 2650 points. A third Japanese climber, Taisei Homma, finished third, giving Japan a podium lockout in China.

The season title was still up in the air coming into the weekend, with Janja Garnbret did not make the trip Jessica Pilz had a chance to secure the title if she were to finish on the podium. She placed fourth in the semi-finals, while Janja’s Slovenian teammate Mia Krampl surprisingly failed to get out of. Both Ai Mori and Natsuki Tanii managed to reach the top during the semi-finals, while Jain Kim matched Pilz with 34 holds.

The women’s final proved to be incredibly difficult, as the high score when Pilz stepped to the wall was just 22+ holds. She blew that number out of the water, reaching hold 31+. Kim wound up falling after hold 20+ giving Pilz the season title. Tanii made it to hold 26+ to secure third and Mori finished her season on top of the podium with 36+.

The speed races featured one shocking result, as world record holder Aleksandra Miroslaw fell in the quarterfinal and placed just fifth. Her national teammate Natalia Kalucka came up just short in the final as Lijuan Deng managed to win the final in front her home fans.

In the men’s speed final featured to Chinese climbers matched up against one another, with Peng Wu getting the win against Jingjie Huang.

Locally, the Elite National Sportrock Climbing Centers in Alexandra, Virginia hosted the final NACS event of the year. Micaela Patajo won the women’s speed competition, while Kaden Kang won the men’s competition. In lead, three men reached the top in the final, with Victor Baudrand reaching to top quickest and taking home victory. On the women’s side it was domination by Julia Duffy. While she only won the final by a single hold, she did finish first in qualification, the semi-finals, and the finals, sweeping the weekend.

F1 Preview: 2023 Japan Grand Prix

Red Bull not only had their first race of the year without a win, but their first without a podium for the team, and for Max Verstappen. Now they head to Japan where they look to get back to their winning ways, and are in good shape to do so. While Verstappen has historically struggle in Singapore, and that continued a week ago, last year he qualified pole and won the race while Sergio Perez finished second despite crossing the line third, as Charles Leclerc was served a five second penalty for leaving the track to gain an advantage.

Last year race day was rain soaked, saw multiple cars crash in lap one and a red flag come out that led to the race finishing under timing rather than lap count. This year the weather looks much more favorable and should be sunny skies for most, if not all, the on-track sessions.

Verstappen will not be able to secure the driver’s championship this year, but the constructor’s title could be officially decided this weekend. Red Bull comes in 308 points ahead of Mercedes, and they need to be 309 points ahead after the conclusion of the race to secure the title. This means they simply need to score one more point than Mercedes this weekend and the title is theirs. While Verstappen is an easy favorite to win the race, it wouldn’t at all be surprising to see both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton find the podium, I actually expect them to do just that, which would mean the title would need another week to be decided.

F1 Review: 2023 Singapore Grand Prix

The story around Marina Bay was Red Bull this weekend, as they genuinely struggled for the first time, coming away without a victory for the first time this season and Max Verstappen missing out on a podium for the first time this season.

When you look the end of a historic run, there was no shortage of drama throughout the weekend. The practice sessions were relatively quiet, but qualifying left everyone on the edge of their seats.

As time was winding down on the Q1, Lance Stroll lost control of his Aston Martin and hit the wall at high speed, demolishing his car. The good news is he was able to get out and walk himself to the medical car, although he did not participate in the race on Sunday. The one who’s qualifying was impacted the most was Oscar Piastri, who was putting in a quality lap but wound up missing Q2.

Two of the five drivers that were eliminated in Q2 were in a Red Bull, giving us our first Q3 of the season without either Sergio Perez or Verstappen. In the end it was Carlos Sainz who ended up on pole with George Russell alongside.

During the race we saw Yuki Tsunoda wound up with a DNF as he pulled off the track early with a puncture he felt would prevent him from getting back to the pit lane. Esteban Ocon and Valteri Botas also failed to see the checkered flag. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton both pit for a fresh set of medium tires during the Virtual Safety Car that came out when Ocon’s day ended, and it looked to be the perfect strategic move as they had significantly more pace than the rest of the field down the stretch.

Unfortunately, that pace got the better of George Russell in the end and he found himself in the barriers, taking him from a podium spot to a DNF. He and Hamilton found themselves pushing harder than they expected thanks to some ingenious driving by Sainz, who kept allowing Lando Norris to just get into DRS range, which allowed him to hold off both Mercedes, and prevent them from mounting a chase for the front. The strategy worked as Sainz finished on the top step of the podium, while Norris finished second, and Hamilton third.

Fernando Alonso was the last of all drivers to cross the finish line, meaning he falls out of third place in the Drivers Championship, as Hamilton now has a ten point lead there. Ferrari took home a first and fourth place in the race, slowly closing the gap on Mercedes, now only twenty four points back for second in the Constructors Championship.

2023 F1 Singapore GP Preview

The prevailing sense around the industry is this is the race! This is the race that stands in Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s way of finishing the rest of the season on top of the podium, making it a clean sweep for Red Bull. Verstappen struggled on the wet track a year ago while Sergio Perez took home the checkered flag helping create his street track dominant persona. Ferrari finished 2-3 after Leclerc held pole a season ago, but they aren’t the favorites to challenge Red Bull this weekend.

Instead, McClaren and Mercedes are the cars to watch out for, and Lewis Hamilton may be the single biggest threat to Red Bull’s chances at a clean sweep. The weather is always unpredictable in Singapore, and nobody is better at adapting in real time than Hamilton. Add to that there is a change on the course this year, with the weaving stretch under the grandstands gone and replaced with a long straight that could see some overtaking take place.

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While I am not sure what to root for as a fan or as someone covering the sport, a clean sweep is unprecedented, but the Red Bull dominance does have some casual fans losing interest this season. Ultimately I believe the new straight will actually help Red Bull during the race and allow Verstappen to continue his streak and catapult Red Bull to the sweep. It will be close though, as I anticipate Hamilton and Perez filling out the podium.

2023 IFSC Climbing World Cup: Koper, Slovenia

Yes, it is a bit late to be joining into the 2023 Climbing World Cup season, especially given this was the second to last event of the season and many of the top climbers won’t be participating in China. That said, it is a sport that I have recently begun participating in and very much following, so let’s get some extra publicity to the sport of climbing.

The women’s lead title was crowned in the nightcap, which was fitting as Slovenia had three native climbers in the eight-woman final. It was heartbreak for Mia Krampl as her foot slipped after hold 11 going a dyno into the next section and leaving a clear black rubber streak on the foothold serving as a warning to all the climbers who came after her.

Another Slovenian climber, Vita Lukan, managed to bring home the bronze medal in a riveting climb. She lost her chalk bag in an incredibly technical section that saw all but one climber, Mori Ai (more on her in a moment), end up with their backs facing the wall and spinning around their rope to solve the most notable crux in the route. As she spun, the clip for her chalk bag came undone and snag on one of her harness loops. She reached back to get a handful of chalk but instead set the bag free to fall to the ground. Somehow unphased, Lukan continued climbing to the 40+ hold mark, which was just enough to earn a spot on the podium.

Ai put together an impressive climb, especially given the setup did favor the taller climbers, and she was the shortest in the final. As mentioned before, she was the only one not to go for the reverse hold and spin in the middle of the wall, instead putting in an impressive heel hold to get through the crux and ending up nearly reaching the top, before falling at 44+.

The final climber of the day was climbing superstar Janja Garnbret, and she put on a show for her home crowd. The fans were incredibly loud for her entire climb, regularly chanting “Janja” and “Slovenia” as she made the problem that stumped every climber before her look almost simple. She breezed her way to the top to claim gold.

On the men’s side, there was again only one climber to top the route, and he was also the last competitor to go. Anraku Sorato of Japan showed why he is a future star in the sport as he absolutely dominated the wall and made it look even easier than Janja did the women’s route. American Jesse Grupper found himself burning too much time at one of the most unique features you will see on a lead route. The right-handed swinging move that leads to a slight down jump before a full dyno with an underhand hold would be intimidating on a bouldering wall, it in the middle of a lead route is borderline crazy. Despite the uniqueness of the feature, every single climber did successfully solve it.

Grupper though did spend a lot of time in that section which led to him seeming to rush at the end as he found himself with a handful of maneuvers to complete with only 20 seconds left and fell on hold 42+. It really was a two man show as the bronze medal went to Olympic champion Alberto Gines Lopez, who only made it to hold 23.

2023 NFL Predictions

2023 NFL Predictions

Another NFL season kicks off tonight, and we can’t go into another season without doing a prediction article. Stay tuned throughout the year as we will have DFS plays every week and will certainly have more articles about this NFL season.

AFC East: Buffalo Bills
AFC North: Cincinnati Bengals
AFC South: Tennessee Titans
AFC West: Kansas City Chiefs
AFC Wild Card: Baltimore Ravens
AFC Wild Card: Los Angeles Chargers
AFC Wild Card: Miami Dolphins

NFC East: Philadelphia Eagles
NFC North: Detroit Lions
NFC South: Atlanta Falcons
NFC West: San Francisco 49ers
NFC Wild Card: Seattle Seahawks
NFC Wild Card: Dallas Cowboys
NFC Wild Card: New Orleans Saints

MVP: Joe Burrow
OPOY: Ja’Marr Chase
DPOY: Micah Parsons
OROY: Bijan Robinson
DROY: Christian Gonzalez

Super Bowl Matchup: Buffalo Bills vs. San Francisco 49ers

Super Bowl Champions: Buffalo Bills

Best MLB Debuts: May 2023

Some big names made their MLB debuts with 2022 MLB draft pick Ben Joyce joining the Los Angeles Angels bullpen, along with Sam Bachman. Meanwhile up the freeway Bobby Miller earned a win in his Los Angeles Dodgers debut and currently has a 2-0 record with a 1.64 ERA, but that is not good enough for the best debut or the best month. Even further up the California freeway system, Patrick Bailey is hitting over .300 with a couple home runs and a dozen RBI, but he didn’t have the best debut month for the San Francisco Giants in May. For both the pitcher and batter, the player with the best debut was also the player with the best first month. 

Best Hitting Debut & Month:

Casey Schmitt, 3B, San Francisco Giants – Schmitt went 2-4 with a solo home run in his debut, making him the only player to homer in his debut this month. He has gone on to hit another home run, is hitting .325, driven in 16 and crossed the plate a dozen times. Schmitt has been arguably the best player on the Giants over the past month. 

Best Pitching Debut & Month:

Bryce Miller, RHP, Seattle Mariners – Miler didn’t get the win on his debut, but he went six innings while allowing just a single run with two hits. He wound up striking out 31 batters in his 36 innings on the month, with an ERA of an even 3.00 and a 3-2 record.