Repeat Titles at World Sprint Speed Skating
At this year's World Sprint Speed Skating Championships in Seoul, both the men's and women's champions were repeats from last year, after two impressive performances from the winners. On the men's side, Russia's Pavel Kulizhnikov won both day two races after already leading from day one, to take the title ahead of Dutchmen Kjeld Nuis and Kai Verbij. For the women, the U.S.' Brittany Bowe had to come back from a day one second-place to overtake compatriot Heather Richardson-Bergsma, who slid to second. The Netherlands' Jorien Ter Mors finished third.

World Marathon Series End
The 2015-16 World Marathon Majors series came to a conclusion with the Tokyo Marathon this weekend, as winners emerged not just in Tokyo but for the WMM season as well. For the men, Ethiopia's Felisa Lilesa won after pulling ahead of Dickson Chumba in the final mile. Chumba's eventual third-place finish behind fellow Kenyan Bernard Kipyego meant he failed to secure the overall WMM title, which went to Eliud Kipchoge. For the women, Kenya had better fortunes with Helah Kiprop setting a course record to take the win ahead of Ethiopia'a Amane Gobena, with Kenya also securing third with Edna Kiplagat. Kiprop's win meant a three-way tie at the top of the women's standings with Kenyan Mary Keitany and Ethiopia's Mare Dibaba. (After a tie-breaking decision, Keitany was declared WMMM winner.)

Germany and Russia Top European Biathlon Champs
While Germany topped the medal table at the Open European Biathlon Championships in Tyumen, the home team Russians took home the most gold, with four of the eight available titles. Germany was powered by Florian Graf's two medals on the men's side (bronze in 12.5km pursuit and gold in 15km mass start) and by the medal sweep in the women's 7.5km sprint, led by Nadine Horchler. Meanwhile, Russia won both mixed relay events as well as having Evgeny Garanichev doing one better than Graf with three medals himself, a silver and two gold (12.5km pursuit, 10km sprint & mixed relay respectively.)

Diving World Cup Held in Rio
Drama in Rio as the FINA Diving World Cup was held as a Rio test event, and as an Olympic qualifier for a number of athletes across all events. As expected, China dominated the competition, winning 10 medals overall, including six of the eight available golds, and all the women's titles. Non-Chinese gold went to Mexico's Rommel Pacheco in the men's 3m springboard, and to Germany's Patrick Hausding and Stephan Feck in the men's synchronized springboard event. Hausding also won silver in the synchronized platform event, with Sascha Klein, while Pacheco won bronze in the synchronized springboard with partner Jahir Ocampo. Notable Olympic qualifiers included English-born Yona Knight Wisdom, who finished second in men's springboard and will become Jamaica's first-ever Olympic diving representative.

European Shooting Champs Conclude
The European Shooting Championships were held this week in Gyor, Hungary, with Eastern Europe dominating the competition. Russia goes home with four separate individual gold-medalists, including Sergey Kamenskiy in the air rifle event on the final day to lead a trio of three individual titleists on the men's side. Meanwhile, Ukraine won two individual golds in women's events, with an additional three medals across the four individual events. In addition, twelve spots across air pistol and air rifle events were on the line for Rio 2016. Those spots went to athletes from Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Switzerland, Georgia, Norway, Germany, and Spain.

IBSF Worlds Close with Germany Atop
The Bobsled and Skeleton Worlds in Innsbruck came to a close this weekend, with Germany on top of the standings again, securing six overall medals  - including four gold - across the six events. Those four golds included both the men's and women's two-person bobsled, but did not include the four-man as expected. That victory went to a surprise Latvian team led by driver Oskars Melbardis, after a ninth-place finish in the first run to come from behind and nip Germany's Francesco Friedrich for the gold. The competition also featured an exhibition four-woman bobsled race, which was won by Canadian Kallie Humphries and team, over Canada II and Romania in third.

Cameroon Scores 1st Olympic Volleyball Spot
At the conclusion of the 2016 Women's African Olympic Qualifier Tournament for volleyball, team Cameroon won a hard-fought, five-set victory over Egypt to claim the continental representative spot in the Olympics. Although ranked in FIVB higher than the Egyptians, and playing on home turf in Yaounde, the Lionesses were a surprise. In the four previous Olympics, only Kenya (2000, 2004) and Algeria (2008, 2012) have represented Africa. Good for the game is diversity and competition, though - congrats! Egypt and Kenya (in third-place over Algeria) will enter a final Olympic Qualification tournament, along with Colombia and Puerto Rico, for an additional single berth.

India Dominates the Finally-Held South Asia Games
After a few years (!) of delay after original host Kathmandu backed out for 2012 in favor of Delhi 2013, which then postponed to 2015 and then 2016 - and changed in favor of Guwahati and Shillong as hosts, the South Asia Games finally took place. Hosts India, as probably expected, dominated the medal table over the other seven participating nations, with 308 total to second-place Sri Lanka's 186. That tally represents almost half of the total podium placements, and India secured 10 Games records in athletics, 19 in swimming and all seven golds in men's boxing. Kathmandu will finally get its shot at hosting again, with the next iteration currently scheduled for 2018 there in Nepal.

Iran and Kazakhstan Dominate Asian Wrestling
At the Asian Wrestling Championships, Iran finished strong with nine golds (including five of eight in men's freestyle) and 14 overall. Although, that wasn't enough to topple Kazakhstan from the top spot on the medal table, as team Kazakhstan enjoyed five medals in women's freestyle events to outpace the Iranians overall with 17. Perhaps if Iran ever developed a women's program, let alone encouraged their equal citizens to fully access and participate in sport, they might get there. Similarly, China's and Mongolia's twelve medals each were largely powered by their female wrestlers. Just sayin'...

Four Continents Figure Skating Ends on with Drama

The annual Four Continents Figure Skating Championships ended in Taipei with style this weekend, after two-time winner and Olympic silver-medalist Patrick Chan of Canada produced a personal-best score of 203.99 in the free skate to come back from fifth place after the short to the title. With that, he overcame China's Jin Boyang, who landed four quadruple jumps in one competition's free skate. Jin also is the first person to land three different types of quads in one program. Surely, he is a rising star - and a member of a rising national team program, too, with compatriot Yan Han finishing in third place and with the bronze medal. On the women's side, Japan finished one and three, with Satoko Miyahra and Rika Hongo, respectively, bookending USA's Mirai Nagasu. China secured a one-three in pairs led by Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, while the United States finished one-two in ice dancing, led by the brother-and-sister team of Maia and Alex Shibutani. In the end, the United States and China tied for four medals each, while Japan and Canada each had two medals to complete the competition.

Winter Youth Olympics End
The fourth Youth Olympics and the second winter version concluded in Lillehammer this weekend, with Russia and Germany atop the medal table. Across 70 medals events, Russia finished with 26 medals to Germany's 22, with host Norway in third with 19. Approximately 1100 athletes, aged 14-18, competed in traditional Winter Games sports, with several new additions, including mixed-gender relays and team events in biathlon, nordic skiing and an intriguing ski-snowboard cross event. In addition, mixed nationality teams were allowed - and encouraged - to enter certain competoitions, including curling's mixed doubles, figure skating team, and luge mixed team relay. This certainly enabled a broader range of nations' atheletes to enjoy a podium finish, including Mongolia's Sumiya Buyantogtokh in mixed team sprint speed skating (gold), and Australia's Julia Moore in short track mixed team relay (silver).

Teams USA and Canada Secure Olympic Women's Football Spots
As probably expected, the United States and Canada both secured the two regional representation spots in Rio's women's football tournament with final match placements at the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship, ending this week in Houston. The U.S. was never seriously threatened, except in a group stage match against Mexico, which ended in a 1-0 victory thanks to a bounce-back of a failed penalty kick by Carli Lloyd. Otherwise, the Americans easily entered the semifinal match against Trinidad & Tobago with 16 total goals for and 0 against. In the final - in which Canada qualified by defeating Costa Rica 3-1, the U.S. won 2-0.

The Netherlands Dominates Speed Skating (Again)
At the World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships in Kolomna, Russia, the Netherlands took home the top spot on the medal tally, with six golds and 16 overall to outpace second-place Russia's six overall. While the Dutch team featured double-gold medalists on both the men's side (with Sven Kramer in the 5000m and 10000m races) and the women's (Jorien Ter Mors, 1000m and 1500m), it was the USA's Brittany Bowe who brought home the most individual hardware, with a silver and two bronze across the 500m through 1500, events to lead the Americans to their third-place, five-medal performance. Russia's Pavel Kulizhnikov and the Czech Republic's Martina Sablokova were the other double-gold medalists, winning in the men's 500m and 1000m, and women's 3000m and 5000m, respectively.

The DR Congo Wins a Second African Nations Championship
The Democratic Republic of Congo won their second African Nations Championship in Rwanda this weekend, after two weeks of competition and an impressive final victory over Mali. With only four editions of the Championship having been held, the DR Congo - now with half of the titles - seems to be a power in the tournament, which is only open to players active within African domestic leagues. Can this translate to wider power in the future and World Cup qualifying when other teams field foreign-playing stars? Meanwhile, in the third-place game, more traditional continental power Ivory Coast defeated Guinea 2-1.

Brazil Tops Latin American Table Tennis
Led by 19-year old Hugo Calderano (gold in men's singles and team) and 22-year old Lin Gui (gold in women's singles and team), Brazil finished the Latin American Table Tennis Championships with a total of five first-places, including those singles and team placements, and mixed doubles. More impressively, Brazil swept the women's singles podium, with Caroline Kumahara and Bruna Takahashi in second and third behind Lin. This sets the team up nicely for the official Pan American Olympic Qualification Tournament in April, although Calderano and the men's & women's teams have already secured berths.