BAKU Formula One has taken over the city streets but for Cuban Olympic boxing champion Robeisy Ramirez, being in Baku is all about the road to Rio.
Azerbaijan"s first grand prix may have got all the attention but, away from the fenced-off track and the television cameras, hundreds of amateur boxers from around the world are also in town and fighting to qualify for the Olympics.
Ramirez, flyweight gold medallist at London 2012, is among 469 boxers from 105 nations hoping that the tournament will open the door to Brazil.
For most, it is the last chance.
"It"s a strong tournament. I"ve got to do what I"ve always done," the 22-year-old, now fighting at bantamweight, told Reuters as he wiped away the sweat after beating Finnish teenager Arslan Khataev 3-0 in his opening bout.
"It"s the way it is and I have to succeed."
Those placed in the top five in the flyweight, bantamweight, lightweight, light-welterweight, welterweight, middleweight and light-heavyweight categories in Baku will be sure of going to Brazil.
Light flyweight finalists and the heavyweight and super-heavy champions also qualify in the event that runs to June 25 with 39 places up for grabs.
Umar Sadiq, a Nigerian-born graduate accountant from Ilford in northeast London, was one of those hopeful of finally securing his ticket for Brazil.
The light-heavyweight"s journey has so far taken him to Lagos, where he won five fights to earn the right to represent Nigeria, and on to Yaounde in Cameroon for the African qualifiers.
He failed to get beyond the quarter-finals there so Baku"s Sarhadchi Olympic sports centre, out to the east past car repair workshops and high-rise apartment blocks, became his next destination.
In front of a small audience mainly consisting of other boxers and officials, he beat Kenya"s Elly Ochola in a preliminary bout.
"It was Lagos, Yaounde, back to London and back to the drawing board. And now I"m in Baku. I"m hoping to go back to Nigeria again and then on to Rio," he told Reuters.
He has funded the trip himself, although his City employers have given him time off from the finance department.
"I"ve got three more fights to win to qualify," said Sadiq.
"I guess it adds to the prestige of being in an Olympics because not only have you got to make your national team but also make the best of the world. I"m alright with it. I like travelling anyway."
U.S. light-heavyweight Jonathan Esquivel agreed.
"It"s only going to make me better along the way," he said of a qualifying system that has brought him from Anaheim in California to the edge of Europe.
"This is my second qualifier. I placed third in the American qualifiers but it was top two (who go to Rio), not top three so I came to this."
There is one final qualifying event for those who have fought professionally, or in AIBA"s semi-pro series, in Venezuela in July which Esquivel would also be eligible for. He is not planning to go, however.
"We"re going to make this one the last one," he said.
Cards! Cards! Monday! Father"s Day Card. Dry Embossing. Paper Piecing. Stampin" Up!
Updated: Jun 17, 2016 - 6:37 PM
When a Seattle father was talking to his daughter about the tragic nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, she asked him a heart-wrenching question.
She said, Do the fathers still get a Fathers Day card? And I said, Absolutely, Daniel Bacons told KIRO 7 News in downtown Seattle.
Heartwarming acts across the country have unfolded since 49 people were killed when a gunman open fire in the Pulse nightclub.Bacons and his 8-year-old daughter have joined in the nations response to the massacre by showing positive energy and support.
So I came into work this morning, and got 49 cards, and wrote all their names on ... (them), and had the city get involved in signing ... (them), Bacons said. Just to get their emotions out [and] share the love.
They made 49 Fathers Day cards and posted them to the sidewalk near Westlake Park so that passersby could leave their thoughts.
Mexico vs. Venezuela | 2016 Copa America Highlights
For this episode of Fan Stories, we are focusing on Mexico soccer and their dedicated fan base that helps make soccer the biggest sport in the world. Here we showcase one of their superfans, and the following excerpt shows his passion for the Mexico national team.
My name is Alvaro Vaquero and Im a fan of the national Mexican futbol team. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Like many Mexican national team fans I was born into this fandom and was raised watching world cup qualifiers, gold cup games, and world cup games. My dad and I make it to all national team games held in New Jersey since thats the closest they ever get to playing in New York.
This week Ill be attending my first ever Copa America match to watch Mexico play Venezuela. Since this tournament is usually played in South America I had to jump at the opportunity to attend a game. This will also be the first time I attend a game with Pancho Villas Army, the official supporters group of the Mexican National Team in the states. Villas Army is a family friendly organization made up by fans that share a passion for Mexican national team futbol. They have battalions all across the states and a new one pops up all the time.
Ive been the captain of the New York City battalion for about 4 months and were definitely trying to grow within New York. Were a relatively new battalion but Ive already met some awesome people and Copa America has given us more and more buzz. Fans are starting to recognize us when we get together at bars/restaurants for our watch parties. If you want to keep up with the NYC battalion, you can follow us on social media on twitter @PVANYC, instagram @PVANYC, and facebook PVA New York City Battatlion. If youre in New York and theres a Mexico game on you can be sure well be somewhere in the city cheering. Anyone is welcome to join us all you have to do is be ready to lose your voice and have a great time.
Sadly, the search for 2-year-old Lane Graves who was attacked by an alligator at a Disney resort earlier this week, came to a tragic end on Thursday when they discovered his body.
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While more details have come out regarding the case, and the family has issued a statement regarding the loss of their son, many have wondered what kind of legal action Disney could be facing and apparently it could be a pretty hefty price!
Matt Morgan, an Orlando attorney who has experience in litigating negligence cases against theme parks in Florida, says that the Graves family could file a wrongful death claim against Disney.
Morgan dished to PEOPLE:
"The Walt Disney Corporation has a duty to warn their hotel guests of any dangers that they either know about or should know about."
The attorney went on to explain that the whole case will be determined by whether or not the resort knew about the dangerous animals living the the Seven Seas Lagoon saying:
"If Disney had knowledge that there were alligators in the lagoon and did not take steps to inform their guests of such dangers, then they could be liable."
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The really bad news for the company and resort is it sounds like they DEFINITELY knew seeing as how Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission Executive Director Nick Wiley said that the resort often removes alligators FROM the lagoon! Wiley explained:
"They have a full-time staff observing these waters and they have essentially an open permit system where any time they see an alligator or a complaint is called in, it can be taken out."
We don"t really see Disney getting out of this one!
Matt went on to reveal that this program could serve as evidence that the resort TOTALLY knew about the animals and that they didn"t properly warn the guests about the dangers of gators as they set up chairs and umbrellas on the beach of the lagoon. Tsk, tsk!
Even professor Alan Sykes from Stanford law school agreed that "no swimming signs" probably wouldn"t hold up as enough warning about alligators.
Related: Gunman Headed For The LA Gay Pride Parade Had A Rigged Rifle!
In regards to the signage, Walt Disney Resorts Vice President Jacquee Wahler said that the Grand Floridian resort was going to review their material, saying:
"All of our beaches are currently closed, and we are conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols. This includes the number, placement and wording of our signage and warnings."
While some might claim that Florida is widely known for its gator infestation, Morgan is quick to point out that the Graves family is from Nebraska and may not have been aware of this, adding:
"This family from Nebraska comes to Disney and assumes that Disney has done everything in their power to protect them while they"re on their property. Never in their wildest nightmares could they have imagined that there was an alligator looming nearby which was large enough to carry their son away."
Seeing as how the evidence looks pretty stacked against Disney, it"s not surprising to hear that Morgan believes the case will go to trial and that the company will offer the grieving family a pretty big settlement saying:
"I believe a jury could return a verdict of 8 figures and when coming to that conclusion, one only needs to ask oneself, "What if this were my child?""
Though no amount of money can bring their son back, we hope this tragedy raises enough awareness so an incident like this doesn"t happen again.
Do YOU think Disney should offer the Graves family a settlement?
[Image via Orange County Sheriff"s Office.]
Tags: alan skyes, alligator, controversy, disney, jacquee wahler, lane graves, legal matters, matt morgan, nick wiley, sad sad, stanford, violence, viral: animals, viral: news
With the first day of Bracket 1 play in the books, the four remaining teams in the 2016 College World Series will take the field Sunday for their opening contests.
The Florida Gators are the top-ranked team coming into the tournament, but they will have to play great baseball to take down a pesky Coastal Carolina Chanticleers team that is fresh off a series win over the LSU Tigers. The Texas Tech Red Raiders, another national seed, have a daunting matchup with a TCU Horned Frogs team that beat SEC tournament champion the Texas A&M Aggies in the super regionals.
Here is a look at the schedule and picks for Bracket 2"s opening day, as well as Saturday"s results.
2016 College World Series Results and Schedule Oklahoma State vs. UC Santa Barbara 1-0 Oklahoma State Arizona vs. Miami 5-1 Arizona TCU vs. Texas Tech 3 p.m. Coastal Carolina vs. Florida 8 p.m.
NCAA.com
A full bracket, with the regional and super regional paths of each team, is available at NCAA.com.
TCU vs. Texas Tech
Texas Tech enters as the No. 5 national seed in the tournament, going 46-18 on the season.
However, its opponent and Big 12 counterpart has been the dominant program in the state of Texas. TCU has made a habit recently of playing in the College World Series, as D1Baseball.com"s Kendall Rogers noted:
Making this year"s trip more impressive is that the Horned Frogs beat the Aggies in College Station.
When TCU and Texas Tech met in the regular season, the Red Raiders won the series 2-1. TCU outscored Texas Tech 17-16, but 13 of TCU"s runs came in its win, as Texas Tech was able to win comfortablyin the remaining two contests.
TCU is playing excellently as of late. The Horned Frogs are also 14th nationally in team ERA, while Texas Tech is outside the top 50.
TCU has hit slightly better than the Red Raiders this year as well, ranking 27th in scoring to Texas Tech"s 30th.
Texas Tech may have won earlier this season, but TCU looks like a contender in this field. It already took down one of the game"s top teams in the last round, and the Horned Frogs will ride that momentum to a close win Sunday.
Coastal Carolina vs. Florida
Perhaps the most surprising outcome on the road to the College World Series was Coastal Carolina sweeping six-time national champion LSU in the super regional.
The Chanticleers scored 15 runs in two games to shock the Bayou Bengals, but that will be a much tougher task against Florida.
The Gators led the SEC in team ERA and had three pitchers (A.J. Puk, Dane Dunning and Logan Shore) drafted on Day 1 of the 2016 MLB draft. The team also shut out a strong Florida State Seminoles team twice in the super regionals to reach this stage.
Coastal Carolina averaged 7.5 runs per game, so it has had a formidable offense all season. Getting on base will be key for the Chanticleers, as GatorSports.com"s Kevin Brockway noted:
Florida is the wrong matchup for Coastal Carolina in this case, as the Gators are second in the country with a ratio of 3.96 strikeouts to one walk.
Pete Alonso and Buddy Reed, also Day 1 draft picks, can provide Florida enough run support to hold off Coastal Carolina, which will struggle against a dominant pitching staff.
Statistics are courtesy of NCAA.org unless otherwise noted.
Geo"s NBA Finals Game 7 Hype Video - Cleveland Cavaliers
The 2015-2016 NBA season will come to a thrilling conclusion on Sunday with Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors.
Thanks to the heroics of LeBron James, the Cavs have stormed back from a 3-1 deficit to force a series deciding game. Unable to contain James, Golden State has looked frustrated in their two most recent losses but have a ton of confidence heading into Sunday"s game at Oracle Arena, where they have lost just four games all season. The Warriors have also never lost three games in a row under coach Steve Kerr and no team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit to win in the Finals. The Cavs will be ready though to shock the world and have a lot of momentum plus similar confidence heading into Game 7.
Vegas has Golden State as an 4,5-point home favorite, per vegasinsiders.com. Here"s SportsLine"s forecast and pick for Game 7. The winner will be taking home the 2015-2016 NBA championship.
HOW TO WATCH
Who: No. 1 Warriors vs. No. 1 Cavaliers
What: Game 7 of the NBA finals
When: 8 p.m. ET
Where: Oracle Arena
TV channel: ABC, WATCHESPN
LeBron James and Stephen Curry have one game to go. USATSI
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While the rest of the world is focused on the NBA Finals, general managers across the league are also preparing for the 2016 NBA Draft, which takes place on June 23 in Brooklyn. Debates over Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram are likely emerging in the Philadelphia 76ers war room, while the Boston Celtics front office is contemplating its best options with the No. 3 overall pick.
In preparation for the draft, ESPNs Analytics Team has dusted off its NBA Draft Projection model, which debuted last year on FiveThirtyEight.com. This model is designed to project the NBA success of college prospects early in their careers, or, more precisely, it is projecting a players statistical plus/minus (SPM) in years two through five in the league.
That time frame was chosen because it reflects the number of years a first-round pick is under team control, and does not penalize players for poor rookie season, which are often outliers for a variety of reasons (drafted to a bad team, needs time to develop, etc.).
The models main inputs are college statistics (adjusted for pace and level of competition faced), Chad Fords Top 100 Prospect Rankings and player information such as age, height, weight and position. It uses information from the 2001 to 2011 draft classes to predict SPM for players in later classes, with steps taken to adjust for the players that barely saw the court or never played in the NBA.
Like many models, a prospects scouts rank is by far the most important variable when predicting NBA success, but by adding other variables the model reduces the uncertainty in projecting SPM by about 10 percent compared to using Chad Fords Scouts rankings alone. Aside from scouts rankings, demographic factors such as age, height and BMI had some of the biggest impacts.
Not surprisingly, younger prospects generally achieved higher SPM in their first five seasons, but that is largely a function of the draft; players usually enter the draft when they believe they will be drafted, so the top players will generally enter at a young age.
Among the 14 opponent-adjusted college statistics included in the model, offensive rebounding percentage has the biggest impact on the projections for big guys and steal percent is important for guards. Its likely these stats are capturing a level of athleticism transferrable to the NBA and may be able to isolate a players skill in that area of the game. Three-point rate (percentage of shots taken behind the arc) also proved valuable, which could be a sign of the changing nature of todays game.
Bringing all of these variables together into a random forest survival model produces two main outputs. The first is a players draft grade, which inputs a players average SPM projection on a 0-to-100 scale. The players with the highest draft grades are most likely to be successful in the NBA but may not necessarily have the highest ceiling.
To understand the risk and reward of each prospect, a players SPM projection is also broken out into a players chance to play at the level of an All-Star, starter, bench player or bust early in his career. Based on this methodology, depending on the number of college prospects in the top 100 each year, there are expected to be about 2.5 All-Stars, seven starters, 30 bench players and 40 busts per college entry class.
Its important to note that this is measuring the percentage chance each player reaches these levels in his first five seasons. For example, Kyle Lowry made the All-Star team in each of the last two seasons, but he did not reach that level until his ninth season.
Jakob Poeltl is a great example of the value of both outputs. With the third-highest draft grade and lowest bust potential of any college prospect in this draft, Poeltl provides a safe option for a team looking for a big man. If that team has a top pick, however, they are likely looking for a superstar, and he does not provide the same upside as a number of other big men such as Simmons and Marquese Chriss. Teams are constantly weighing the risk and reward of each prospect, and these contrasting outputs should supplement the conversations already ongoing in NBA front offices.
The next and most natural question is how the model has done in predicting past classes. No model will be ever be 100 percent correct, but this one has proven to be effective and well calibrated. Since draft classes from 2001 to 2011 were used to train the model, we can look at the 2012 to 2015 classes to see how it played out.
Anthony Davis39%Nerlens Noel34%Marcus Smart32%Dion Waiters30%Thomas Robinson29%Otto Porter29%Karl Anthony-Towns27%Victor Oladipo24%Joel Embiid24%Andrew Wiggins20%*Pct chance to play at All-Star Level entering draft
Among the top 10 most-likely players to play at an All-Star level in the last four draft classes, there were certainly hits and misses. Some of the misses were a product of injuries and others were a result of the overall uncertainty surrounding the draft. Nonetheless, among this group, about three players would be expected to play at an All-Star level in their first five seasons, and given the experience of each player, that projection may not be too far off.
Looking only at the 2015 draft class, five of the top eight projected college players made the First- or Second-Team All-Rookie teams (seven of 10 spots were college players), with the top projected prospect, Karl-Anthony Towns, winning NBA Rookie of the Year.
Now, no algorithm or general manager will ever be able to perfectly forecast the NBA Draft. Every year there will be examples of players that slipped through the cracks and other seemingly safe picks not working out. One thing that the model does not explicitly measure (though it is accounted for in the scouts" rankings) is a players drive, leadership and intangibles.
Injuries are also another factor that cannot be forecast beyond accounting for a players BMI. Based on what can be measured, however, the model is a valuable and accurate tool to help sort out the players at the top of the draft and identify sleepers in the 2016 draft class.
