7 - 13 August
Chess fans still have two weeks of intense competition to look forward to as the FIDE Women's and Men's World Cups continue next week in Baku, Azerbaijan. The scheduled finish for the Women's World Cup is 22 August and four days later for the Men's World Cup. The IFSC Sport Climbing World Championship has one more week in Bern, Switzerland. The three Japanese cities of Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Kagoshima complete the World Aquatics Masters Championships on Friday. Glasgow and the roads across Scotland will still be entertaining us for all of next week with the UCI Cycling World Championships.
Thailand's Pattaya City opens the week on Monday with the 16th World Dragon Boat Racing Championships. After an incredible Vertical Blue in the Bahamas, the premier freediving competition in the world, the International Association for the Development of Apnea next presents the Freediving World Cup in the popular Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh. Estonia's Tartu hosts the World Underwater Federation Sport Diving World Senior and Junior Championships. Moving over to England where the Sussex County Croquet Club will be hosting the Women's Golf Croquet World Championship for just over a week. Color guards, a sport where teams of marching bands or drum and bugle corps perform choreographed dances and routines, takes centre stage next week in the State of Indiana. The city of Marion opens with the Drum Corps International (DCI) Open Class World Championship. That is followed up with the DCI World Championships in Indianapolis from Thursday.
The big event on Tuesday takes us to Rotterdam where the Dutch city expects 1,500 Paralympic athletes from 45 European nations to compete at the European Para Championships. Five more disciplines join the UCI Cycling World Championships. On Tuesday we have the Mountain Bike Cross-Country. Two are set for Wednesday. These are Trials and Para Road Cycling, while Friday begins with Indoor Cycling. The main event here is the technically difficult artistic cycling. The week closes with BMX Racing. The other big cycling event on Sunday features the next round of the UCI MTB Eliminator World Cup in Oudenaarde, Belgium. The special mountain bike competition takes place within towns and cities on specially designed urban courses.
Baseball heads to Thunder Bay in Ontario for the Women's World Cup Group A from Tuesday. This week also sees a number of exciting water sports. Cowes on the Isle of Wight hosts the 44Cup 2023 World Championship, while The Hague hosts the main event; the Allianz Sailing World Championships that starts on Thursday until 20 August. Remaining in The Hague and in one of the eight districts of the city, Scheveningen hosts Formula Kite World Championships. We close off the water sports with two UIM Powerboating events. The Grand Prix of Lithuania in Klaipėda is the next stage of the UIM F2 World Championship, while Båstad in Sweden hosts the next round of the Motosurf World Championship.
Model aircrafts are again the central theme for air sports enthusiasts. From Friday the city of Namwon in South Korea hosts the FAI Drone Racing World Cup. Moncontour in France is the location for Free Flight Model Aircraft from Saturday, while Sunday is the beginning of the World Championship for Electric Powered Thermal Duration Gliders.
Poland's Bartosz Zmarzlik leads the overall standings as the FIM Speedway World Championship reaches Round 7 on Saturday in Riga, Latvia. Only five rounds remain of the FIM Motocross World Championship before the Motocross of Nations on 8 October. On Sunday we have the MXGP of Sweden in Uddevalla.
World Obstacle, the governing body for obstacle racing, presents the Ninja World Cup SE Asia in Pavilion Bukit Jalil, Malaysia. In Orienteering, the Masters get the opportunity to compete at the World Championships in Košice, Slovakia. The main Dance Sport event takes place in Stuttgart over the weekend. The World Rock 'n' Roll Confederation presents the World Cup for various categories. Speedcubing, particularly popular in Asia, is a sport that involves completing the Rubik's Cube in the shortest possible time. From Saturday the World Cube Association hosts the World Championships in the city of Yeonsu-gu, South Korea.
On Saturday, Zinal in Switzerland will be the location for the next World Mountain Running Association Gold Label World Cup. Inline skaters will be heading to Olomouc in Czechia for the World Skate Slalom World Cup. The XTERRA World Championship will also be in Czechia. The town of Prachatice hosts the triathlon event that involves swimming, mountain bike riding, and trail running. We round off the big weekly events with the FIDE Youth U16 Chess Olympiad in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Until next time, have a great week in sport.