Free morning for Czech teams.
The Czech teams did not play this morning. The men didn't play Italy until 2 p.m. and the women won't play until 7 p.m. against the Turks. The team around Lukáš Klíma can boldly think about the extra-leg matches, despite having just lost to Italy 2 : 7. Mathematics and statistics come into play and it offers many more options and among them the joyful ones. In the ongoing televised match of the Netherlands against Japan, the fighters from the East are leading, and they can still hit the positions in the top half of the table. It may even be that the third place (two lives) and fourth place (one life) will be decided in the last round in the Denmark vs. Czech Republic match, but there are more possible scenarios, with a few games still to be played, so we'll see. The women are already out of the relegation positions, but the situation in their category is also muddled. After tonight's round robin, in which Anna Kubeskova's team beat the Turkish women after a convincing eight end performance, it is at least clear that Germany's professional women will not make the playoffs and it will be interesting to see who will join the Asian teams and the Scots to play for the Olympics.
rnWe invested the little free time we had in the morning in a little walk around the OQE venue. Leeuwarden is a relatively large city in the north of Holland (population about 125,000), criss-crossed by a network of canals (grachten) in which majestic sailing ships and boats of all kinds are moored. The city boasts several famous natives, such as architect de Vries, agent and dancer Mata Hari and artist and graphic designer Escher. The streets are full of shops and small restaurants. Despite the good weather, however, most of them are empty and the city is pretty quiet. Throughout Holland, restrictions limit public life. Walking into the hall early in the morning, we encounter a long queue of locals waiting in the supermarket car park for a vaccination dose at an improvised vaccination stand.
rnphoto: St Boniface Church, Leeuwarden