phelps

DEL Playoffs Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Game #5, Friday, April 26th, 7.30 p.m. CET, Pinguins Bremerhaven vs Eisbären Berlin 0-2 (0-0, 0-0, 0-2) Eisbären Berlin win Series 4-1 and are 2023/2024 DEL Champions!

IOC, FIFA & co. are sooooo predictable

black & white, good & less good notes for so far... what's good: - Odette Giuffrida winning silver and going close to beat Krasniqi once again, just another demonstration of efficiency by our "veteran", doing what she has to do and not giving up in front of the super-top class opponents - Savita Russo, 1st global medal among the seniors for our 18-year young rising star (reigning jr. European Champion in the -63kg class), especially important because this is a weight class where we didn't have any significant result since Maria Centracchio's surprising bronze in Tokyo (and unfortunately she had to retire after that success because of sickness) - Elios Manzi winning a very important bronze medal, which should seal the deal for in terms of Olympic qualification in this weight class (still, the fight between Manzi and Piras to earn the final spot for the Games is on and very, very tight) - Antonio Esposito having another good performance in the men's -81kg class, showing he can be there with the top players in that weight category, even if he always finds the way to ruin his tournament when the going gets tough what's not good: - the girls in the -70kg class not performing as expected and, above all, why not giving Kim Polling the chance to make her debut for the Italian team? it would have been important for her under a psychological point of view and also to earn a few points in the OQR and seal the deal of her qualification to Paris, which is not mathematical yet - the guys in the -60kg...after a promising start of the Olympic campaign back in 2022, Pantano had a disappointing outing after another and Carlino, back from a controversial doping ban, has never shown to be really competitive at the top level...result: we won't qualify anybody in this class - in general, why so many of our best fighters aren't even here? this was a perfect tournament to improve their ranking towards the Olympics and collect some medals...

action so far... women's -48kg Gold: (RUS) Kristina Dudina Silver: Blandine Pont Bronze: Catarina Costa & Tamar Malca women's -52kg Gold: Distria Krasniqi Silver: Odette Giuffrida Bronze: Ariane Toro Soler & Reka Pupp women's -57kg Gold: Daria Bilodid Silver: Kaja Kajzer Bronze: Timna Nelson Levy & Eteri Liparteliani women's -63kg Gold: Renata Zachova Silver: Joanne Van Lieshout Bronze: Savita Russo & Andreja Leski women's -70kg Gold: Barbara Matic Silver: Elisavet Teltsidou Bronze: Lara Cvjetko & Ai Tsunoda Roustant men's -60kg Gold: Francisco Garrigos Silver: Balabay Aghayev Bronze: Salih Yildiz & Cedric Revol men's -66kg Gold: Vazha Margvelashvili Silver: Muhammed Demirel Bronze: Bence Pongracz & Elios Manzi men's -73kg Gold: Hidayat Heydarov Silver: (RUS) Danil Lavrentev Bronze: Lasha Shavdatuashvili & Joan-Benjamin Gaba men's -81kg Gold: Tato Grigalashvili Silver: Frank De Wit Bronze: Vedat Albayrak & Shamil Borchashvili

Liiga Playoffs Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Game #4, Friday, April 26th, 5.30 p.m. CET, Pelicans vs Tappara 3-4 OT (2-0, 0-0, 1-3, 0-1) Tappara lead Series 3-1 and it's just 1 win away from back-to-back-to-back Titles Game #5 is scheduled for Sunday, April 28th, 4 p.m. CET, Tappara vs Pelicans

Extraliga Playoffs Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Game #6, Friday, April 26th, 5 p.m. CET, HC Ocelàři Třinec vs HC Dynamo Pardubice 4-1 (2-0, 1-0, 1-1) Series is tied 3-3 and will be decided on the last game on Sunday Game #6 is scheduled for Sunday, April 28th, 7 p.m. CET, HC Dynamo Pardubice vs HC Ocelàři Třinec

men's Skeet provisional ranking after 50/125 targets Nicolas Lejeune, 50 Charalambos Chalkiadakis, 50 (GRE already have 2 OQPs) Jorgen Engen, 50 Timi Vallioniemi, 50 Mohamed Ahmad, 50 Tilo Schreier, 50 Sven Korte, 50 followed by 13 shooters with 49/50 (3 of them NOT eligible for the qualification to the OGs)

women's Skeet provisional ranking after 50/125 targets Dania Jo Vizzi, 49 ( already have 2 OQPs) Diana Bacosi, 49 ( already have 2 OQPs) Victoria Larsson, 49 Anastasia Eleftheriou, 49 Barbora Sumova, 48 Maheshwari Chauan, 48 Emily Jane Hibbs, 48 Anna Maria Markantonaki, 48 Daria Turulo, 48 Assem Orynbay, 48 Wei Meng, 48 ( already have 2 OQPs) Arina Kuznetsova, 48 Nurlana Jafarova, 48 Francisca Crovetto Chadid, 48 (already qualified to the OGs)

Chinese Nationals, Day #8 men's 100m Fly 1.Wang Changhao, 51.20 2.Sun Jiajun, 51.54 women's 200m IM 1.Yu Yiting, 2.09.73 2.Zheng Huiyu, 2.11.87 women's 800m Freestyle 1.Li Bingjie, 8.25.43 2.Gao Weizhong, 8.27.97 women's 50m Freestyle semis Wu Qingfeng, 24.27 Zhang Yufei, 24.31 Cheng Yujie, 24.56 Yang Junxuan, 24.75 Mixed Medley Relay remarkable times Xu Jiayu, 52.69 (1st leg, men's back) Qin Haiyang, 59.25 (2nd leg, 3rd fastest among the men in the breaststroke leg) Pan Zhanle, 46.72 (4th leg, men's free) Zhang Yufei, 56.55 (3rd leg, women's fly)

lucky...and undeserved last spot great for our sailing federation, that will see their funding raise after this "success" (but i'd rather wait for the actual Olympic races, where less than 3 medals -1 gold- and at least 6 top 10 finish should be considered a flop)

SHL Playoffs Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Game #3: Thursday, April 25th, 7.30 p.m. CET, Rögle vs Skellefteå 2-3 (1-1, 0-0, 1-2) Skellefteå lead Series 2-1 Game #4 is scheduled for Saturday, April 27th, 3.15 p.m. CET, Rögle vs Skellefteå

NLA Playoffs Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Game #5, Thursday, April 25th, 8 p.m. CET, ZSC Lions Zürich vs Lausanne HC 3-0 (0-0, 2-0, 1-0) ZSC Lions Zürich lead Series 3-2 Game #6 is scheduled for Tomorrow, Saturday, April 27th, 8 p.m. CET, Lausanne HC vs ZSC Lions Zürich

saved themselves with 7 minutes to go on the clock against now the teams are going to extra time

Chinese Nationals, Day #7 men's 50m Freestyle 1.Pan Zhanle, 22.06 2.Yu Hexin, 22.38 women's 200m Backstroke 1.Peng Xuwei, 2.07.57 2.Liu Yaxin, 2.08.41 men's 200m IM 1.Wang Shun, 1.55.35 2.Zhang Zhanshuo, 1.58.97 men's 100m Fly semis Sun Jiajun, 51.52 Chen Jun'er, 51.72 Wang Changhao, 51.78 Xu Fang, 51.83 women's 200m IM semis Yu Yiting, 2.09.58 Zheng Huiyu, 2.11.63

you know...

I understand your feelings, pal!

Stefania was so disappointing Today

() KHL Playoffs Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Game #4, Wednesday, April 24th, 6 p.m. CET, Lokomotiv vs Metallurg 1-2 (1-0, 0-1, 0-1) Metallurg win Series 4-0 and they're 2023/2024 Gagarin Cup Champions!

Liiga Playoffs Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Game #3, Wednesday, April 24th, 5.30 p.m. CET, Tappara vs Pelicans 1-2 2OT (0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1) Tappara lead Series 2-1 Game #4 is scheduled for Friday, April 26th, 5.30 p.m. CET, Pelicans vs Tappara

Extraliga Playoffs Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Game #5, Wednesday, April 24th, 6 p.m. CET, HC Dynamo Pardubice vs HC Ocelàři Třinec 3-0 (0-0, 3-0, 0-0) Dynamo Pardubice lead Series 3-2 Game #6 is scheduled for Friday, April 26th, 5 p.m. CET, HC Ocelàři Třinec vs HC Dynamo Pardubice

yes, this year there's 1 place less in the endurance team it should be the 4 of the team pursuit (Ganna, Milan, Consonni and I guess Lamon, if we want to have a decent start) + Viviani (doing only Omnium and Madison)

I don't think so...if we choose an eligible rider in another discipline, provided she also starts the keirin race, it should be OK and if it's not, we should go to CAS and ask why a place regularly won by a Nation can't be switched with another at least within the same gender and sport?

I'm happy with a (gold) medal record...who cares about the total number of teams and athletes?

Chinese Nationals, Day #6 women's 200m Fly 1.Zhang Yufei, 2.06.40 2.Chen Luying, 2.06.81 men's 200m Backstroke 1.Xu Jiayu, 1.57.70 2.Wang Yutian, 1.58.29 women's 200m Breaststroke 1.Ye Shiwen, 2.22.55 2.Tang Qianting, 2.25.27 men's 50m Freestyle semis Pan Zhanle, 21.99 Yu Hexin, 22.18 women's 200m Backstroke semis Peng Xuwei, 2.09.25 o.s. I just can't see the men's 200m IM semis results, meanwhile there were no remarkable clockings in the women's 4*200m Free Relay (the best was Li Bingjie, who swam 1.57.03 in the 1st leg for his team)

yeah, 1996 and 2004 (in 2000 we didn't qualify the match racing crew, Soling class)