phelps

well, mr. President says thay have 7 different options, but imho it should be down to 2 (maybe 3): Full Contact and Point Fighting are the only disciplines that would deserve a bit of attention and could be really entertaining for the combat sports fans. K1 would be the 3rd (actually, the main, as it's their most famous discipline), but this would make it just "another Boxing", with the Olympics not featuring the best Pro's (for many reasons, from money to the technical aspects of a 15-day tournament). and as someone already wrote here, it's losing its appeal quickly and deeply, thanks to the raise of MMA (which shouldn't be included in the Olympic schedule for many reasons) the rest is...well, better to leave it where it is I have to disagree on a couple of points. fans? many, especially in certain parts of the World (from USA to Brazil, from South-East Asia -the core of any combat sport- to Eastern Europe, from a few Western European Countries (Italy, and Germany -at least their foreign communities- above all) something exciting? yes, for the combat sports fans those disciplines are exciting (and point fighting could be also for newcomers, more than the other disciplines under WAKO management...not only, there might be less "manipulation" than in the other events) adding extra quota places? apart from the fact that the number of athletes at the Games should be increased already with the sports now in charge, if Kickboxing would eventually replace the incorrigible farce named Boxing, some quotas could even be saved (5 men, 5 women weight classes, 16 fighters per event = 160 total athletes, way less than the current boxers) not saying that I want Kickboxing in the Olympic program (actually, I'd like more the return of Karate, Kumite only of course...and many more martial arts could be interesting, even if they're not so well spread at the top of the sport part like Kickboxing), just to point out that it's pretty much possible to replace the incorrigible cheaters with another combat sport...and without making it difficult to the organizers.

4 gold and 2 silver medals so far for in Kickboxing (and we still have 2 finalists left) gold also in the women's team Trap

no, if and both win today, the playoff match is vs if only one of them win, there won't be any playoff match (the 3 eligible semifinalists qualify) if both are eliminated, there will be a 3rd place match between the 2 semifinals losers to determine the last team qualified to the Games the only chance for Portugal to keep their chances alive is winning Today's match

Italy have mathematically won the Medal Table

it's history! for the first time in the semifinals of the euro-u21 congrats to them! bitter end for ...losing on penalties is always painful...losing on penalties at home in front of a great crowd is heartbreaking now, if at least one between and/or win their respective quarterfinal match, are also qualified to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 instead, must hope that both and advance to the semifinals to play the Olympic Quota playoff match

unfortunately, then we lost in the semifinal match vs but only by the slimmest of margin, with Gennaro Pirelli (a -100kg player) first beating Guram Tushishvili (former world champion at +100kg) in their regular match, but then losing the playoff re-match and getting a bad ankle injury, the Georgian took advantage of by throwing a brutal de ashi barai just on the injured point. hope that Gennaro hasn't to miss too much time (training and competing), missing next month's Masters might prove lethal for his chances to qualify to the Olympics (and not having him at the Games would mean to likely miss out on the team event for ) all that, for a senseless tournament like this by the way, finally won an unexpected Bronze medal after defeating by a score of 4 bouts to none in the BMM. so, also Judo has given its contribution to our hypertrophic medal table p.s. in the meantime, it's 8 out of 10 for our Kickboxing team. have proven once again to be the dominant force in this sport, reaching 8 gold medal matches (Tomorrow). have 4 and a bunch of Nations have 3. (if I remember correctly, I might have miscounted some Country).

back to the old glory days of modern pentathlon! amazing (and totally unexpected) double in the women and men's individual competitions thanks to Alice Sotero and Giorgio Malan

I root for

has beaten in Judo (Team event) p.s. both teams not using their top players (except for a couple of them), but still

Alice Sotero with a big lead over the rest of the field after 3 events. hope she's not gonna waste it in the final laser run

it won't happen, I fear I don't think and would miss out on the qualification this time

Tonight also the Group B will be decided matchups are: vs (already out) and vs and/or would qualify to the semis with a draw, need a win if lose against , would qualify anyway, even with a bad loss

Day #3 Group A vs 1-0 vs 1-1 Standings 1. 9 Pts (Q to the Semifinals) 2. 4 Pts (+1 GD) (Q to the Semifinals) 3. 4 Pts (-3 GD) (Out) 4. 0 Pts (Out)

I have no idea, I haven't had the chance to watch a single second of the competition, thanks to the wonderful coverage and organization of these EGs p.s. as it often happens in all combat sports, there's a high chances that also here a few (many) judges are biased/inept but for sure there's a lot less corruption because there's no olympic interest, no media coverage and basically no money up for grabs compared to boxing

most of them being non-olympic events of olympic sports or just non-olympic sports (sometimes they're olympic events, but only if we can benefit from many absent stars -see diving/shooting/fencing/gymnastics with no Russians, for instance). next year, our Olympic total won't be as good as i Tokyo, I fear

and we already have secured 10 more medals in Kickboxing, hopefully many of them would eventually be Gold

win easily the Gold medal in women's sabre. lucky to get today's silver. this is women's sabre OQR after 1 World Cup stage and the Continental champs: 1 116 2 94 3 89 3 89 5 88 6 78 7 72 7 72 9 68 10 64 11 60 12 59 13 58 14 56 15 52 16 49 17 45 18 44 19 41 I assume that will easily qualify at the end of the OQP. and seem to be the favourites in the fight for the 4th spot in the top 4 overall and if both are capable to do it, the fight between and will suddenly become brutally important for the European repechage spot (even if I think that would eventually comeback close to and rather then being stuck in the fight with ).

no idea, but I saw the refs going to adjust the time on the scoreboard many times also during both SFs and the BMM between and but given the level of the organization of these games, nothing surprises me anymore

men's Epee OQR after 1 World cup stage and the Continental Champs (with the GMM of the EGs still to be contested) 1 116 2/5 96/84 2/3 94 3/4 88 4/7 87/75 5/6 84 6/7 80 8 72 9 65 10 64 10 64 12 62 13 60 13 60 15 59 16 52 17 50 18 48 19 44 20 45 21 40 22 34 23 33 ... XX 8 are still well in command, but behind them it's quite a mess, with 6 more teams in the space of 16 points or less (position depends on the EGs GMM) and the big guns and still in 9th and 10th place respectively with 20+ points disadvantage from the top 4 of the OQR. to be noticed, also the down the rankings with only 8 points overall after the black card they got at the Panamerican Champs and the poor outing in Istanbul.

finally, beat and won the Bronze medal in the men's Epee, which means that we won a medal in each and every team event (2x Gold, 3x Bronze and 1 more gold or a silver later in the women's sabre). this is definitely a great result just before the Home World Champs, but there's also a dark side: the OQR of at least a couple of weapons, where we are provisionally out of the Games

disaster completed win easily and advance through the GMM. and if keep at bay and make the final, it goes from worse to worst.

it was shown live I don't know if there are issues with replays right now

and it looks that we're not making the final... are just better than us

well, I think in Istanbul we missed Santarelli a lot. he's the main horse in our team. meanwhile Vismara and Di Veroli are still young and sometimes they can pull out a miracle, but they can also have a very bad day (which was the case in the first WC stage of the OQT). and also their style of always playing at a slow pace (therefore making close every match, also those with opponents that on paper should not be a problem) is not helping. however, if there's a team at risk of missing the qualification, that's the men's epee. even a 3rd place today won't be a good result, tbh.