Kenya Dominates World Half Marathon Champs
​At the conclusion of the World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff this weekend, Kenya's runner stood tall, winning both the men's and women's individual and team titles and securing seven podium places overall. First up, Peres Jipchirchir won the women's race in a final kick over world-leader Cynthia Limo. To make it a clean podium sweep for Kenya, Mary Wacera Ngugi came in third. Kenyan and Ethiopian swept the top eight placements to power to first and second in the team race, with Japan third for the ninth straight time. On the men's side, Geoffrey Kamworor won the title for the second straight year (and third time overall), despite a fall right at the line for an ominous start to the race. Kenyan countryman Bidan Karoki kept pace through 20km before falling back for second, and ahead of Mo Farah's third place podium finish in his event debut. As in the women's, Ethiopia finished second in the team race, with Eritrea coming up with bronze. Other notable finsihers over the weekend were Peru's Gladys Tejeda's South American record in ninth place for the women, and Ethiopia's Abayneh Ayele and Tamirat Tola both setting personal records in their fourth and fifth place finishes, respectively, in the men's race.

Rio Water Polo Field for Women Complete
The four final teams in women's water polo qualified for the Summer Games in Rio at the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Gouda this week. A twelve-team event turned into a must-win quarterfinal stage, with each of the four winners there guaranteed an Olympic berth. Pre-tournament favorites Spain and the USA eased through over France and host Netherlands, while Russia and Italy also secured a ticket in their close wins. Those latter results were at the expense of Greece, losing in penalties to Russia, and the Canada, losing by only one point to Italy. The three European qualifiers (Italy, Spain, Russia) also had qualified through the same event for 2012, while the Dutch and Greek losses means that two previous Olympic medalists (Netherlands gold in 2008 and Greece silver in 2004) will not be at Rio. Bad for them, but great for sport diversity!

Switzerland Wins Third Straight Curling Gold
Switzerland continues to be the class of women's international curling, with their third straight World Championship title this week in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. The gold also represents their fourth gold in five years. 2016's title comes at the expense of Japan, losing 6-9, but making their first world podium on either the men's or women's side of competition. Russia defeated host Canada for the bronze medal and third-place.

England Sweeps Six Nations
England perfect 5-0 record over the last six weeks brought them the Six Nations title for the 27th time in history, and their first since 2011. In addition, this was the first time the championship - as well as last place (Italy) - was decided before the final day. England's 'Grand Slam' of a  sweep was also their first since 2003, and their 13th overall. Wales finished in second, with defending champions Ireland in third, followed by Scotland and France ahead of Italy. England's Owen Farrell was the top pints scorer with 69, with Wales' George North was the top try scorer with four.

Rio Women's Handball Field Filled
Across three separate qualification tournaments, the field for the women's handball tournament in Rio was completed. In Astrakhan, the home team Russia and Sweden took the top two spots over Poland and Mexico to take the two tickets in that location, while Romania and Montenegro (the reigning Olympic silver-medalists) also secured tickets with one day to spare in the Aarhus tournament. That meant that Aarhus hosts - and three-time Olympic champions - Denmark, as well as Uruguay, failed to make Rio. In the final tournament in Metz, the Netherlands, reigning world silver-medalists, took the top spot. The second spot came down to the last match of qualification between host France and Japan, with the French victorious to leave Japan behind along with last-place Tunisia.

Wild Men's Program in World Junior Figure Skating
The annual World Junior Figure Skating Championships ended in Debrecen, Hungary and produced a particular surprise podium in the men's competition. Despite finishing ninth, eighth, and sixth, respectively, in the short program, Israel's Daniel Samohin, Nicolas Nadeau, and the USA's Tomoki Hiwatashi landed with gold, silver and bronze after falls and errors by the top contenders from the short. Samohin's gold represented Israel's first global title in the sport. More calm and consistency was shown throughout the remainder of the competition, as short program leaders largely stayed competitive into the long and onto the podium. Japan placed two skaters on the ladies' podium, with Marin Honda (gold) and Wakaba Higuchi (Bronze) bookending Russia's Maria Sotskova (silver). In pairs, Anna Duskova and Martin Bidar of the Czech Republic took first over two Russian pairs, Anastasia Mishina / Vladislav Mirzoev and Ekaterina Borisova / Dmitry Spot in second and third, respectively. Meanwhile, the USA took the top two spots in ice dance, with Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter and Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons, over Russians Alla Loboda and Pavel Drozd.

​Team USA Dominates Indoor Athletics Worlds
At the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Portland, the host USA team thoroughly dominated the events, winning a total of 23 medals to pace the overall standings and ahead of second-place Ethiopia with only five (!). Among the highlights for Team USA were Ashton Eaton's defense of his heptathlon title, newcomer 18-year old Vashti Cunningham's win in the women's high jump, and Jenn Suhr's championship record of 4.90m in teh women's pole vault. Standout international performances were provided by Pavel Maslak of the Czech Republic winning the men's 400m for the second time in a row, Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy taking the men's high jump for his first global title, and by another newcomer - Yulimar Rojas overcoming a class field to take the women's triple jump title for Venezuela's first-ever athletics world championship.

Japan Crashes Out of Olympic Women's Soccer
After the AFC Olympic Qualifying for women, Japan provided the shock of the qualification when they finished third. That means that the 2010 World Cup champion and 2012 Olympic silver-medalist team - not to mention the world's fourth-ranked team - will be at Rio. After losses 3-1 to Australia and 2-1 to China, Japan had a remote chance to advance, but after both those teams won their own final matches to finish 1st and 2nd, respectively, third was the best position. Congrats to Australia and China in a new era for Asian football!
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Meanwhile, Sweden Fills Out the Field
With World Cup third-place finisher England not eligible for the Olympics, UEFA held a special tournament to fill their third spot for Rio. Sweden finished on top of the four-team field, besting the Netherlands, Switzerland and Norway to claim the ticket to the Games. With that, Sweden joins France and Germany as European representatives, as well as matching Brazil, South Africa and Germany (and possibly the United States) as the nations to enter both the men's and women's fields.

France Leads Charge at Biathlon Worlds
Martin Fourcade and Marie Dorin Habert powered France to the top of the medals at the World Biathlon Championships this week in Oslo, with stirring performances, each winning four individual medals. Fourcade's count included three gold which came in the first three individual events, setting a tone of dominance for the other racers to counter in the second half. Habert's haul of two gold, two silver and one bronze also included a relay silver for five overall. She wasn't the only women's star: Germany's Laura Dahlmeier also reached the podium in all five events, going 1-1-3 in her effort to counter Habert. Meanhwile, Norway's Ole Einar Bjorndalen went 1-2-1 for four overall to lead host Norway to second place in the medal standings with nine, behind France's 11.

Ukraine Tops European Wrestling
A bit of surprise this week at the European Wrestling Championships in Riga, as Ukraine took the top spot on the medal table, with 14 overall. That total was driven largely by the seven medals in women's freestyle (and taking the team title there), which represented seven of eight weight classes, and by Zhan Beleniuk's gold in the men's 85kg greco-roman to secure the team's lone individual title. And in another surprise, in the top spot in men's freestyle team rankings was Georgia, with 59 points to Russia's 54 for second place. Georgia placed on six of eight podiums in the discipline, with golds in 61kg and 125kg. Russia did win the team title in greco-roman, as well as second place overall with 12 medals.

Track Cycling Worlds End
Australia's Rebecca Wiasak led off the World Track Cycling Championships this week, with a win in the women's individual pursuit. Though that particular event is not on the Olympic calendar, the Championships served as Olympic qualifiers for 10 other events, including team pursuit. The United States won a surprise title in that women's event, while Australia did capture the men's. Overall, Great Britain continued its run of cycling success, topping the medal table with nine medals (five gold), ahead of Germany with eight overall. 22 nations won at least one, including Hong Kong, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico alongside other traditional powers such as France and Poland.

China Dominates Table Tennis Again
As expected, China won both the men's and women's team titles at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Kuala Lumpur, with their 20th wins on both sides. For the women's competition, it was an all-Asian podium for the third straight year, with Japan second and Taiwan and North Korea sharing third. England broke the Asian monopoly on the men's side, winning bronze alongside South Korea and behind the Chinese and Japan in second.

Argentina Wins Americas Rugby Cup
In Americas' answer to the Europeans' Six Nations tournament, the Americas Rugby Championship title went to Argentina this year after a dominating 4-0-1 record. Finishing second was the United States, followed by Canada, Uruguay, Brazil, and Chile. This was the first year of the tournament after a rebranding to expand to six national teams from previous club versions of a tournament.

Repeat Winners in Allround Speed Skating
Both Dutchman Sven Kramer and Czech Martina Sablikova successfully retained their titles at the World Allround Speed Skating Championships in Berlin this weekend. For Kramer, this was his eighth (!) title since 2007, and cements him as the all-time winningest man in the event, ahead of Finland's Clas Thunberg's seven between 1923 and 1931. Sablikova's title was her fourth since 2009, and she continues to chase Dutchwoman Ireen Wust, who finished second this year, but remains the most decorated active female skater with her own nine title. East Germany's Gund Niemann holds the overall record with ten women's titles between 1991 and 1999.

Ukraine Wins Historic Rio Spot
The Rio Test Event for synchronized swimming this week - as diving's last week - also served as an Olympic qualifier for the sport. And, some new faces emerged for the Rio field. First, France won the race for an Olympic ticket in the duet after finishing third behind already-qualified Spain and Italy. 12 other nations eventually secured their own tickets, including Greece, Austria, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. Then, Ukraine and Japan topped the team event competition to take the first two of the final three available Rio spots, marking the first-ever entry for Ukraine in the team event. When Italy completed the podium to secure their own spot, it meant that neither traditional synchro power Canada nor two-time event medalist Spain would make Rio.