Saturday Sport: Gymnastics, Premier League, Pan American Games

The United States National Gymnastics Championships is currently ongoing at the Sprint Center in Kansas City Missouri.  These are part of the run up towards the World Gymnastics competition, held this October in Stuttgart, Germany, the US Olympic trials, to be held next June at St. Louis, Missouri, and to the 2020 Olympics, which will be held next July and August in Tokyo, Japan. 

This evening, the finals in the Men's Senior division will be contested.  This is a mixture of gymnasts competing in their college kit, and older athletes.  

The first six rounds took place on Thursday, the final rounds take place tonight. Currently leading the pack is Sam Mikulak.  This should be no surprise as he is well known to readers of this space.     Sam has been near the top of the elite in US men's gymnastics for several years.  In second place is Yul Moldaure, followed by Shane Wiskus and Akash Modi, who share third place.  Trevor Howard currently occupies fifth place, with Riley Loos close behind in sixth.  Today's featured competition should be exciting and hard fought.  If Thursday's competition was a foretaste, they will be spectacular. 

Lima will be filled with lots of jocks this afternoon, as the last weekend of the Pan American Games in Peru is filled with so many sports finals.  Currently the USA leads the medal count, with 240 medals, followed by Brazil,  Canada, Mexico, with Cuba rounding out the top five.  Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru complete the top ten in overall medal counts.  Most recently, Peru has taken the Gold Medal in Men's Karate.  Brazil has taken Dressage gold this week, with Mexico taking Silver. 

Today's competitions include action in at over 20 sports, some finals, some semifinals, such as in Men's Water Polo.  Archery, Soccer, Judo, Wrestling, Body Building, Table Tennis and Swimming are but a few of the Men's sports featured today. 

The English Premier League of Soccer kicked off last night, along with the French Ligue 1, as soccer ramps up across the old continent.  The Spanish La Liga begins next week.  

The inaugural English Goal in the new season was made in minute 8 of the competition between Liverpool, who made the goal, and Norwich.  Norwich last with one goal, to Liverpool's 4.  Today competition continues with games between West Ham and Manchester City, Crystal Palace and Everton, Burnley and Southampton, Watford and Brighton, Bournemouth and Sheff United, and Tottenham vs. Aston Villa. 

Ligue 1 began with an opening round last night, with Lyons beating Monaco,  but continues in earnest with many games on Tuesday. 

Sunday Sport: Pan American Games, Pacific Nations Rugby, USA Swimming

This is the second Sunday of three in the Pacific Nations Cup, an international rugby union competition held between three Pacific nations: Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. This 2019 edition of the tournament also includes the national teams of Canada, Japan and United States. 

First held in 2006, the tournament is intended to strengthen the Tier 2 rugby nations by providing competitive test matches in a tournament format, over three weekends.  Previously, Japan participated from 2006 to 2015, New Zealand from 2006 to 2009, Australia from 2007 to 2008, and Canada and the United States from 2013 to 2015.

Historically, Fiji is the top team, having garnered five overall championships in tournament history.  Manu Samoa is second with three championships.  Of invited teams, the Junior All Blacks, who have only been invited three times, have won all three times.  Fourth in the overall standings is Japan with two overall wins, and New Zealand Maori with one. 

This year the Japan is leading the overall table with 10 points, with the United States in second with 9 points, and third shared, with 5 points, Fiji and Samoa.  Japan had toppled World Champions Fiji, and won convincingly over Tonga.  The US Eagles beat Canada, and then snatched a victory over Samoa in injury time. 

Watch for more news this weekend, and next week's game between Japan and the US, which will decide it all.   

Day Five of the 2019 Phillips 66 USA Swimming Nationals is ongoing today in Palo Alto, California.  Today the men's 200 meter IM will be contested, along with the 50m free and 4x100 medleys. 

The 2019 Pan American Games (Spanish: Juegos Panamericanos de 2019), officially the XVIII Pan American Games and commonly known as the Lima 2019 Pan-Am Games, is a multi-sport event governed by the PanAm Sports Organization, being held in Lima, Peru from July 26 to August 11, 2019, with preliminary rounds in certain events having begun on July 24, 2019.

These Pan American Games are at venues in and around Lima, and are the largest sporting event ever hosted by the country.   Lima is the 7th city in South America to host the Pan American Games.   419 events in 39 sports are scheduled to be contested in Lima, which is the largest number of medal events ever held at a single edition of the Pan American Games. 

Bodybuilding and surfing will be contested at the Pan-Am Games for the first time in 2019, while basque pelota (jai alai) will be reinstated after being absent from the 2015 Games.

Today's action includes diving, water polo and fencing.  The games continue through August 11th.