phelps

Spring Nationals, Day #2 sleepy and somehow disappointing day in Riccione...until the last individual race of the day, when the unthinkable happened: the next big thing in Italian swimming revealed herself well earlier than expected Alessandra Mao, in fact, despite being only 14 (not even sure she already turned 14, actually), won the National title over the women's 200m freestyle in 1.58.86 given that she basically doesn't have a decent start nor turns and she's not doing any power training in the gym yet, I hope (and think) she has room to become a world star in the next few years Today's other champions: women's 50m back: Sara Curtis, 27.90 men's 50m fly: Lorenzo Gargani, 23.32 women's 100m fly: Costanza Cocconcelli, 58.04 men's 100m breastroke: Nicolò Martinenghi, 59.16 (world champ qualifying time...good to see the Olympic champion back on track, despite not in his best shape both mental and physical); in the same race, Ludovico Blu Art Viberti slept big time in the morning heats and was forced to swim in the B Final, which he won in 59.04 (but since he didn't do it in the A final, the time is not accepted as a world qualifier for now) women's 200m breaststroke: Francesca Fangio, 2.23.67 (only 7/100 of a second outside the world champs qualifying time) men's 100m back: Christian Bacico, 53.61

ve l'ho detto...non saltate sul carro quando ormai è tardi per il resto, giornata tutt'altro che scintillante in quel di Riccione

look like the MLB torpedo bats

men's Cadet Individual Epee Gold: Nathaniel Wimmer Silver: Elisei Pisarev Bronze: Nicolò Sonnessa & Simon Shan Junzhe Semifinals Wimmer b. Sonnessa 15-9 Pisarev b. Shan 15-8 Gold Medal Match Wimmer b. Pisarev 15-10 Full Results & Rankings https://www.fencingtimelive.com/events/results/182B371E837049C194980CC84AC03031

women's Cadet Individual Epee Gold: Lotti Horvath Silver: Alina Dmytruk Bronze: Wu Haidi & Alexandra Kravets Semifinals Horvath b. Kravets 15-9 Dmytruk b. Wu 15-4 Gold Medal Match Horvath b. Dmytruk 15-11 Full Results & Rankings https://www.fencingtimelive.com/events/results/75EE5D0A5B8A46DCA04F790AF3833CB9

Extraliga Playoffs The Finals (Best-of-7 Series) HC Dynamo Pardubice (3) vs HC Kometa Brno (4) Game #1 is scheduled for Thursday, April 17th in Pardubice (time TBD)

Extraliga Playoffs Semifinals Results (Best-of-7 Series) HC Kometa Brno (4) b. HC Sparta Prague (1) 4-3 (3-2; 0-3; 3-0; 0-1; 4-3 OT; 0-3; 3-1) HC Dynamo Pardubice (3) b. Mountfield HK (2) 4-1 (4-2; 2-3 OT; 4-0; 2-0; 5-1)

Spring Nationals, Day #1 men's 50m back: in Ceccon's absence, 2 youngsters dominated the field...Christian Bacico (2005) won the title and improved himself up to 24.83 Daniele Del Signore (2007) ended up in second place with 25.21 women's 800m free: always only Simona Quadarella...8.24.25 for her, just enough to win the title and earn herself the official ticket to the world champs next Summer men's 200m fly: Alberto Razzetti easily won the race in 1.55.06 (only 7/100 outside the qualifying time), but he said he's not feeling well at all and he's worried about the next days and races women's 100m breaststroke: the race of the championships in day #1. despite Benedetta Pilato gave up the final after a poor heat performance, we already have both world champs qualifiers: Anita Bottazzo won the title with a huge PB in 1.05.82, followed by Lisa Angiolini in 1.06.01. Arianna Castiglioni ended up in 3rd place and therefore she's gonna miss the world champs (at least in this race) despite a good 1.06.22 men's 400m free: Marco De Tullio easily won the race in 3.46.90. Summertime sadness (cit.) for a race that was always so successful for our Country and now it's one of the poorest women's 400m IM: Anna Pirovano won in 4.40.77, which is her PB, but also a depressing time considered that she was just a few tenths of a second outside the old NR at the 300m mark and finished almost 7 seconds shy of said record (still held by Alessia Filippi since Beijing 2008) men's 50m free: Leonardo Deplano destroyed the field, took the title home and earned the official ticket to Singapore with 21.62. all the remaining swimmers were above the 22" mark. finally, in the women's club 4*100m relay, Sara Curtis swum her new PB over the distance in the first leg, she improved by half a second up to 53.72 (and she could have gone faster, if didn't "die" in the last 5/10 meters) if she can repeat herself in the final of the individual race, this would be a qualifying time for the world champs

UWW...what else?

Metalligaen Playoffs The Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Herning Blue Fox (1) vs Odense Bulldogs (2)

Metalligaen Playoffs Semifinals Results (Best-of-7 Series) Herning Blue Fox (1) b. Aalborg Pirates (4) 4-2 (4-0; 6-2; 3-4; 4-2; 3-4 OT; 4-3) Odense Bulldogs (2) b. Rungsted Seier Capital (3) 4-1 (3-7; 4-1; 3-1; 6-5 OT; 4-1)

USA (NCAA Div.I) Frozen Four (St.Louis, Missouri) The Final Western Michigan b. Boston U. 6-2 (2-1, 1-1, 3-0) Game Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22q5YYSi4bE

NLA Playoffs The Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Lausanne HC (1) vs ZSC Lions Zürich (2) Game #1 is scheduled for Tuesday, April 15th in Lausanne @ 8 p.m. CET

NLA Playoffs Semifinals Results (Best-of-7 Series) Lausanne HC (1) b. HC Fribourg-Gottèron (6) 4-3 (2-3; 1-0; 2-3 2OT; 3-4 2OT; 2-1; 4-1; 5-1) ZSC Lions Zürich (2) b. HC Davos (5) 4-2 (6-1; 3-4; 5-1; 1-3; 3-0; 6-4)

men's Junior Individual Epee Gold: Mahmoud Elsayed Silver: Matteo Galassi Bronze: Nikita Gorin & Maksym Perchuk Semifinals Elsayed b. Perchuk 15-9 Galassi b. Gorin 15-12 Gold Medal Match Elsayed b. Galassi 15-12 Full Results & Rankings https://fie.org/competitions/2025/224?tab=results

women's Junior Individual Epee Gold: Julia Yin Silver: Blanka Virag Nagy Bronze: Rin Kishimoto & Oliwia Tercjak Semifinals Yin b. Kishimoto 15-5 Nagy b. Tercjak 15-8 Gold Medal Match Yin b. Nagy 15-12 Full Results & Rankings https://fie.org/competitions/2025/223?tab=results

ti direi, 50 dorso maschili sfida giovane tra Bacico e Del Signore, ma lontani dal tempo di qualificazione Mora non sarà mai competitivo in vasca lunga i 50 stile sono uno one-man show di Deplano...può solo arrotolarsi la mente e perdere per paturnie sue, ma in acqua è nettamente superiore vorrei tanto vedere Candela migliorarsi ancora (magari esagerando e arrivando al muro dei 22"), ma dubito accadrà le altre gare: da seguire i 200 farfalla maschili con 4/5 atleti in grado di darsi battaglia fino alla fine (e con caratteristiche molto diverse tra loro, che quindi dovrebbero movimentare molto la gara fin dai primi metri) nei 100 rana donne non mi aspetto grandi tempi, ma potrebbe venir fuori una bella battaglia tra almeno 4 ragazze nelle gare lunghe, la depressione mi ha già colto dopo le batterie...e non è che mi aspettassi granchè, ma così è veramente triste tempi limite, l'unico che può realisticamente centrarlo oggi è Deplano, forse Razzetti se stamattina ha scherzato...qualunque altro target preso stasera sarebbe una sorpresona enorme

that might be a problem...but of course I don't know if during the Olympics they will organize a special schedule with night travels it might well happen...and in that case a (very) early morning shuttle bus from Milano to Cortina is surely available* (there are always in Winter weekends, for those who want to spend a couple of days on the snow) *provided it's booked well in advance

USA (NCAA Div.I) Frozen Four (St.Louis, Missouri) The Final Boston U. vs Western Michigan (Saturday, April 12th @ 6.30 p.m. local time, 1.30 a.m. on Sunday night CET)

USA (NCAA Div.I) Frozen Four (St.Louis, Missouri) Semifinals Western Michigan b. Denver 3-2 2OT (0-0, 2-0, 0-2, 0-0, 1-0) Boston U. b. Penn State 3-1 (0-0, 2-0, 1-1)

Elite League Playoffs The Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Game #4: Stavanger Oilers - Storhamar Ishockey 5-7 (0-4, 4-1, 1-2) Storhamar win series 4-0 and surprisingly they're the new Norwegian Champions!

() ICE Hockey League Playoffs The Finals (Best-of-7 Series) Game #4: Red Bull Salzburg b. KAC Klagenfurt 4-0 (1-0, 2-0, 1-0) Red Bull Salzburg win series 4-0 and are once again ICE Hockey League Champions!

actually, there's no practical way to go from Livigno to Cortina at all the quickest trip is a 4.5 hour drive through the mountains (with a short excursion in Switzerland), which might also be impossible during the Winter months because of the roads blocked by the snow (even if in the last few years this problem has been more thoretical than real) this is one of the most controversial issues of this kind of well spread Olympics: unless you can rent an helicopter (which is what the IOC officials would get come the Games), the Valtellina cluster is just a world apart from the rest of the mountain venues (and even from Milan, tbh...it's still a 3.5 hour train + 1 hour bus trip to go to Livigno from here, despite on paper it's only 155kms/less than 100 miles far away)

fly to Milan (Linate), Orio al Serio or Venice and from all of those airports you can find Bus companies that have direct trips to Cortina (of course you have to book them well in advance if you want to find some places during the Olympic weeks) there's also a chance to go there by train (the station is in a village near Cortina, Pieve di Calalzo, if I remember correctly the name of that place), but it might prove to be a nightmare, I'd definitely choose the Bus trip from the previously mentioned locations

men's Junior Team Foil Gold: Italy Silver: AIN Bronze: China Semifinals Italy b. France 45-44 AIN b. China 45-41 Bronze Medal Match China b. France 45-43 Gold Medal Match Italy b. AIN 45-36 Full Results & Rankings https://fie.org/competitions/2025/232?tab=results