phelps

let's say that Light Contact Kickboxing is the least interesting of all the combat sports (it doesn't even have the characteristics that make Olympic Karate somehow exciting despite the lack of true hard hits)...

one more good result in last night's women's -76kg class (which is part of the Olympic -81kg class OQR). Katherine Elizabeth Vibert won the competition lifting a Total of 247 kg, which puts her in 9th place of said OQR, tied in weight lifted with her compatriot Martha Ann Rogers. Bella Nancy Paredes Arreaga finished second in the same event, lifting a Total of 245 kg, which puts her in 11th place in the OQR, but she's anyway the 2nd woman of her Country, good 17 kg behind Tamara Yajaira Salazar Arce, therefore her hopes to make the Olympic team are still very, very low.

meanwhile, in the men's -89kg class, veteran () Petr Asayonak won the competition and lifted a Total of 368 kg, which puts him straight in qualifying position in the OQR (9th place). star Antonino Pizzolato once again was registered as a DNS because of his back injury that already made him miss all the events held after last year's European Champs (when he won with at that time WR in both C&J and Total). because of this period without competing, he doesn't have any valid score yet in the OQR...and he only has a couple of events left in the calendar.

after a few days of DNSs and not so exciting scores, finally Yesterday there was some movement in the women's -71kg class at the Havana Grand Prix. Angie Paola Palacios Dajomes dominated the competition and lifted also a new Snatch World Record, 121 kg. she also recorded 261kg in the Total (huge PB), climbing from 3rd to 2nd in the OQR. moreover, () Siuzanna Valodzka was the runner up in the same event, lifting 242 kg in Total, which puts her straight in qualifying position (6th place) in the OQR. Olivia Lynn Reese also lifted a Total weight that would put her in qualifying position (241 kg), but she's still the 2nd women of her Country behind Katherine Elizabeth Nye (who has 248 kg as her best score) and therefore she won't get any ticket for France unless she can overtake her teammate.

Karate 1 Premier League ( Fukuoka) Medallists Women's Individual Kata Gold: Hikaru Ono Silver: Grace Lau Mo Sheung Bronze: Mirisa Ohuchi & Kiyou Shimizu Men's Individual Kata Gold: Kazumasa Moto Silver: Ryonosuke Kikuchi Bronze: Kkeru Nishiyama & Damian Hugo Quintero Capdevila Women's Individual Kumite, -50kg Gold: Reem Ahmed Salama Silver: Nadia Gomez Morales Bronze: Yorgelis Salazar & Moldir Zhangbyrbay Women's Individual Kumite, -55kg Gold: Anzhelika Terliuga Silver: Shiori Nakamura Bronze: Maya Schaerer & Gulmira Ussenova Women's Individual Kumite, -61kg Gold: Sarara Shimada Silver: Reem Khamis Bronze: Yuki Kujuro & Anita Serogina Women's Individual Kumite, -68kg Gold: Elena Quirici Silver: Tsubasa Kama Bronze: Laura Alikul & Iryna Zaretska Women's Individual Kumite, +68kg Gold: Yuzuki Sawae Silver: Ayaka Saito Bronze: Sofya Berultseva & Maria Torres Garcia Men's Individual Kumite, -60kg Gold: Hiromu Hashimoto Silver: Darkhan Timraliyev Bronze: Florian Haas & Sankar Hari Sankar Sureeya Men's Individual Kumite, -67kg Gold: Abdel Rahman Almasatfa Silver: Afeef Ghaith Bronze: Dionysios Xenos & Didar Amirali Men's Individual Kumite, -75kg Gold: Lorenzo Pietromarchi Silver: Omer Faruk Yurur Bronze: Daniele De Vivo & Quentin Mahauden Men's Individual Kumite, -84kg Gold: Mohammad Aljafari Silver: Ivan Kvesic Bronze: Junya Eto & Valerii Chobotar Men's Individual Kumite, +84kg Gold: Ryzvan Talibov Silver: Babacar Seck Sakho Bronze: Ahmed Elmasry & Abylay Toltay

by the way, back in topic... Italy will send the unbelievable amount of 329 athletes to Poland this is the full list (article in Italian, sorry): https://www.oasport.it/2023/06/giochi-europei-2023-tutti-i-convocati-dellitalia-spedizione-da-329-atleti/?refresh_ce

no, only the cycling races will be on D+/Eurosport (thanks to the agreement with GCN, which overcomes any other agreement for that sport). nothing at all also on our public broadcaster, rai, in the first 2 days (need to wait for the following days' schedule). on the other hand, Tomorrow we're going to have Berlusconi's funeral live on 16 (no joke, really, 16) different TV channels Italy, what a wonderful Country! Italy in 2023...better than ever!

yes, this is the correct result

Rome Grand Prix Day #2 Medallists women's -67kg Gold: Song Jie Silver: Sarah Chaari Bronze: Magda Wiet Henin & Aya Shehata women's +67kg Gold: Xu Lei Silver: Althea Laurin Bronze: Zhou Zeqi & Rebecca McGowan men's -58kg Gold: Adrian Vicente Yunta Silver: Mahdi Hajimousaei Bronze: Abolfazl Zandi & Jang Jun

we have to wait until next week, when the OTT weekly streams are out for the concerning 1st week. I hope so, otherwise in Italy nobody would broadcast a single second of the event.

Beatriz Piron breaks into qualifying position in the OQR in the women's -49kg class after the Havana Grand Prix. she lifted (in group B) 191kg (snatch: 86kg; C&J: 105kg), putting her in 8th place in the OQR. p.s. all the events of the Havana Grand Prix are available live and on-demand through the Olympic Channel (with local language commentary, at least the day #2 video).

don't you have discovery+/eurosport player? with that, you'd get them all (whatever you may like and not what your tv stations decide for you)...

Rome Grand Prix Day #1 Medallists women's -57kg Gold: Jade Jones Silver: Nahid Kiyani Bronze: Kim Yu-Jin & Faith Dillon men's -68kg Gold: Ulugbek Rashitov Silver: Levente Mark Jozsa Bronze: Marko Golubic & Konstantinos Chamalidis men's +80kg Gold: Caden Cunningham Silver: Nikita Rafalovich Bronze: Song Zhaoxiang & Ivan Sapina

yes, because the lights always keep the "average pace" to beat the WR (or the projected time), but when you go flat out in the last lap (200/300m) you go faster than that average speed. but still, those lights are the key to keep the right pace in the second part of the race, where no human pacemaker can help the leader(s) anymore (unless you have a true direct fight like Gidey vs Kipyegon until the last meters of a race). but I agree with the people saying that's too much, it's just technological doping and they should drop all these kind of help (like they did with the rubber suits in swimming). any comparison between nowadays clockings/jumps and those of just 3/4 years ago makes no sense anymore because of this new kind of help the athletes have right now.

we're stuck to old training methods, for our athletes competitive climbing is only a pastime between a free climb on natural routes and another... when there was no competition, it was enough to shine once every while, nowadays that's not enough anymore, but they don't understand it, or maybe they're just not interested... sad, but true.

that's not even a sport event... you only need luck there...all the other skills are just irrelevant...

fun fact...so far, every Continent has qualified the same Country in both the men and women's side

well, they're still a very good team despite DeGrom's loss. and Jon Gray is having the stint of his life so far (even if last night he recorded the second most "undeserved" loss in the history of the game with 9 IP, 4 H and 1 ER, no BB and 12 K)... p.s. luckily, I got Gray in my fantasy team just to replace DeGrom (but now I also have Max Fried in IL60 and Cole is scaring me in the last outings). my only consolation, I've been able to steal Elly (De La Cruz)!!! and I can tell you, we'll talk a lot of Elly in the next future

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1137268/weightlifting-north-korea-catastrophe they're just another big bunch of cheaters, let's be honest. and they play the most unfair of them all. weightlifting doesn't deserve Nations like that.

and I hope they won't show up at all...

comeback is going to turn somebody's plans around big time... and I fear are one of those Nations going to pay a prize for that (especially Massidda and Zanni). among the women, moreover, they are already posting some worrying numbers, if the final results would be close to the entries.

it was time to do it! actually, they should have sacked the old AIBA since London 2012, at least...

Tati 14.10 (7.77 + 6.33) she has more than 1 foot in the Final. less than 8 mins to go.

Defay with a solid 13.17 (7.17 + 6.00) so far in the women's Main Round #7 it will be hard to overtake her ( Tati however has a good 7.77 as 1st score, just needs another decent one).

so...quick recap... Men Kanoa Igarashi and Lucca Mesinas are already in the Final (guaranteed top 4) Alan Cleland, Miguel Tudela, Kauli Vaast and Gonzalo Gutierrez are in the last Repechage Heat (top 2 advance to the Final, 3rd is ranked 5th, 4th is ranked 6th...Vaast and Gutierrez still fighting for the European Quota, all the surfers except for Igarashi are still fighting for the reallocated quota, as Africa missed out on theirs). Women Sally Fitzgibbons, Tatiana Weston-Webb, Johanne Defay and Vahinè Fierro are in the Main Round #7 (top 2 advance to the Final, 3rd & 4th to the Repechage Round #12, all are guaranteed top 6) Erin Brooks and Sophie McCulloch are in the Repechage Round #12 (guaranteed top 6, waiting for the 3rd & 4th ranked in the Main Round #7, top 2 of the heat advance to the Final)