Federations Roundup - Curling Champs; Cycling Worlds; Taekwondo Juniors

Final Four Takes Shape at Curling Champs

Defending champion Canada has the top playoff seed at the men’s curling world championships in Basel, Switzerland.

Norway and reigning silver medalist Scotland are the other countries already through to this weekend's final four with Sweden and New Zealand to play a tiebreaker Friday for the last spot.

According to the quirky Page playoff system, Canada and Scotland meet Saturday morning with the winner going straight to the gold medal game. The loser, however, then faces the winner of that afternoon’s 3 versus 4 matchup with the other spot in Sunday’s final at stake.

Olympic qualifying points for the 2014 Winter Games will be up for grabs throughout this weekend. The bulk of the draw in Sochi will be based on cumulative points earned for finishes at the world champs this year and next.

Also in Basel this week, 2002 Olympic championBent Ånund Ramsfjell of Norway was elected vice president of theWorld Curling Federation at the annual general assembly of the WCF, and Mongolia was approved for provisional membership.

All Gold for Team GB at Track Cycling Champs

Great Britain is riding high at track cycling’s world championships after winning the men’s and women’s team pursuit, both in world record fashion.

After three days of competition in Melbourne, host Australia sits atop the medals table with seven total, but all four of Team GB’s are gold.

Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton added a sixth women’s sprint title Friday, and Ben Swift became Great Britain’s first men’s scratch world champion earlier in the week.

Finals in women’s keirin, men’s individual pursuit, men’s sprint and men’s points race 40km are scheduled for Saturday with women’s individual pursuit, women’s 500m t.t., men’s keirin and men’s madison 50km to follow Sunday.

The omnium – a six-event medley that replaces the individual pursuit, points race, and madison on the Olympic program for 2012 – is spread across Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Korea Starts Strong at Taekwondo Juniors

Medal matches are underway at the World Junior Taekwondo Championships in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Alexandra Potapova of Russia (women’s +68kg), Yong-sik Kim of South Korea (men’s +78kg), Ping-shun Wang of Chinese Taipei (men’s -59kg) and Min-Ah HA of South Korea (women’s -52kg) all won gold on opening day.

Min-Ji Im of South Korea (women's -46kg), Jong-Hun Won of South Korea (men's -73kg), Dae-Young Kim (men's -51kg) and Schneider Yanna of Germany (women's -63kg) followed suit Thursday.

Competitioncontinues Friday in men’s -55kg, women’s -49kg, men’s -78kg and women’s -68kg with men’s -45kg, women’s -42kg, men’s -63kg and women’s -55kg Saturday to follow Saturday and men’s -48kg, women’s -44kg, men’s -68kg and women’s -59kg on Sunday.

A total of 749 athletes, including 419 females, and 426 officials from 93 countries are in Sharm El Sheikh for the biennial champs.

Surf’s Up for Rio?

Brazil’s surfing federation wants the sport included at Rio 2016 as a demonstration event.

According to the Indo-Asian News Service, an online petition and social media campaign are in the works to help lobby the IOC.

"We have significant international support and, with political willpower, things can happen," campaign leader Romeu Andreatta was quoted by Xinhua.

Surfing has pushed for Olympic inclusion since Sydney 2000 but failed to make the IOC shortlist of eight sports now under consideration for 2020, meaning 2024 is the earliest surfers could win medals at the Games.

Pentathlon App

Modern pentathlon is the latest sport to launch a smartphone application ahead of the Olympics.

Available now on iPhone and Android devices, the free app features the latest news, live updated results, image galleries, competition videos, world rankings and athlete biographies as well as a dedicated "London 2012" section.

Search "pentathlon" in the App store or Google Play to download.

Written by Matthew Grayson.

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