phelps

up...

and Gold for Poland, beating the Russians at the last hit, 45-44... so, China stay on top of the OQR with 252 points, Poland are now second with 244 and Russia go down in 3rd place with 240 points... for the remaining places (and qualification spots), just read the posts above...

Bronze for the USA...now Russia can tie China at the top of the OQR, should they win the Gold Medal match vs Poland... United States earned 40 points in the OQR and they are now 4th with 220, good 30 points ahead of the 5th placed Italy...

quick update... the placement matches are over, so this is today's final ranking from 5th through 10th place: 5th, Estonia (scoring 32 pts) 6th, Italy (scoring 30 pts) 7th, Germany (scoring 28 pts) 8th, Ukraine (scoring 26 pts) 9th, France (scoring 25 pts) 10th, South Korea (scoring 24 pts) and this is the Olympic Qualification Ranking for the same positions after this weekend: 5th, Italy, 190 pts (currently qualified as top European team) 6th, South Korea, 174 pts (currently qualified as top Asian team) 7th, Ukraine, 153 pts (currently qualified thanks to the reallocation, as no African team is within the top 16 of the OQR) 8th, Estonia, 148 pts 9th, France, 135 pts 10th, Germany, 127 pts finally, today Canada ended up in 16th place (18 pts), meaning that they go down to 13th place in the OQR (tied with Hungary, 114 pts)...however, that's still good enough to be the best Panamerican team outside the top 4 of the ranking and therefore they're still in qualifying position...

so, Russia and Poland will fight for today's Gold Medal... meanwhile, in the placing matches, Italy will eventually limit the damage, as they are going to play for the 5th place against the locals from Estonia, which means that both teams now can only earn 2 points over the opponents at the end of the day... therefore, the situation in the Olympic Qualification looks like this: China have 216 points and will stay at the top of the ranking (they're going to sum up 40 or 36 points, depending on the outcome of the Bronze Medal match vs the USA), even if Russia will close the gap... Russia are currently second with 188 points...a win (64 points) would get them very close to the top and considerably widen the margin over Poland, a loss (52 points) in the final against the Poles instead would send them down to 3rd place... Poland currently have 180 points...a win today would move them up to second in front of the Russians, a loss would leave them in 3rd place, but would still increase their margin over the 4th ranked USA... USA are currently 4th with 180 points and will remain 4th at the end of today's competition in any case (they will score 40 or 36 points)... still, those 4 teams are surely going to strenghten their position, as they are all ahead of their main rivals... as, written before, Italy are 5th with 160 points and will remain in that position (they will add 32 or 30 points to their ranking)...they are surely increasing big time their margin over South Korea (starting today's event with 150 pts) and France (starting from 110 pts, but they are both outside the top 8, so no more than 24 points for them) and they will also gain from 2 to 6 points over their direct followers for the European spot, Ukraine (127 points before today's effort which would eventually give them 28 or 26 points), with Estonia also still in the hunt (starting the day at 116, scoring 32 or 30 today)...

well, Poland in the second half of that match just made them look like a 10th-tier amateur team...they just joked our girls... I did really feel heavy discomfort watching that match...

no, they are playing for 5th-8th place (which combined with the other direct rivals' results might prove a disaster in any case, especially if Estonia finish ahead of us)... but I watched the quarterfinal match against Poland and I got so angry because of how they lost (so badly) that I just wanted to express all of my disgust for that performance (and for the many underperforming results they are summin' up also in the individual events in the last 2 seasons)...

talking only of the omnium discipline, my favourite format was the Rio 2016 one...and not because of Viviani's Gold medal...I would say the same even if no Italians were good at that...

to me, it's like counting apples with pears...technically, it doesn't make any sense... I prefer the standalone disciplines, as I wrote...

I refuse to go on watching those bunch of *** of the Italian women's Epee team... they are the real shame of our fencing! I still have to realize how they could even get the results they got in the recent past, because those girls just can't fence...they are a disaster under any point of view, technical, tactical and mental...I'm so fu**in' disappointed with them (to say the least)...

Women's Team Epee (Tallinn, EST) Final Results Gold: Poland Silver: Russia Bronze: United States Semifinals: Russia b. USA 45-29 Poland b. China 39-28 Bronze Medal Match: USA b. China 43-35 Gold Medal Match: Poland b. Russia 45-44  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/751?tab=results

of course I was joking by saying I want the IP back right now because Italy have the best specialist in the world... being a fraction more serious, however, I've always said that I'd like to see in the Olympic program the IP, the standalone Points Race and the standalone Elimination Race rather than the Omnium (which I never liked, even in the Rio format, despite gifting us of one of the most amazing fights in the sport between Viviani and Cavendish)... and of course I'm the biggest fan of BMX Freestyle being thrown off the Olympic schedule, inependently from any further consideration (because it's one of those non-sports I hate so much -and, unless other disciplines of the same kind that at least have a wide number of Countries involved, this one is very much about 3/4 Nations in total)...

OMG!!!!! I hope it's just him being the greatest specialist ever... because this clocking frankly looks unreal... p.s. by the way, now I want the Individual Pursuit in the Tokyo schedule...get rid of some farcical event like BMX Freestyle (to keep it within the UCI family) and give us this historical discipline back in the Olympic program!!!

yes, of course... there are always a lot of haters when you talk of the military system...and because of Holloway's worldwide visibility, he was insulted and threatened by the usual "social idiots"... nothing new...it's the wonderful world of social media...

we were asking ourselves why Grant Holloway did the military salute on the podium after winning the men's 110m hurdles at the recent Doha World Champs? well, now we know what kind of relationship he has with that environment: his dad served in the Military for 22 years... Grant Holloway himself wrote that on Twitter (talking of a video showing him at the medals ceremony in Doha)... from a news article: "Over a video of himself, standing at attention and saluting the flag during his victory ceremony for the 110 m hurdles at the Doha Worlds, he wrote (on Twitter): "One of my favorite moments of my life. A lot of people asked me about equal rights & all that BS going around. Do I think it’s unfair? Yes, But my Father served 22 years in the military & I’ll be damned if I ever disrespect what he did for me & this country. It’s bigger then you.”

mixed teams 2000m Relay Gold: Russia Silver: China Bronze: South Korea

men's 5000m Relay teams qualified to the A Final Russia South Korea Canada Netherland

women's 3000m Relay teams qualified to the A Final China South Korea Canada Netherlands

men's 1500m Gold: Semen Elistratov Silver: Kim Dong Wook Bronze: Alexander Shulginov

women's 1500m Gold: Kim Boutin Silver: Suzanne Schulting Bronze: Han Yutong

game #2 (play started after a 1h30min rain delay)... Mexico, 6 b. Dominican Republic, 1 boxscore https://premier12.wbsc.org/en/2019/schedule-and-results/box-score/3703 highlights full game replay p.s. this works also in Italy, so, I hope there are no problems also in the rest of the world...

boxscore https://premier12.wbsc.org/en/2019/schedule-and-results/box-score/3702 match highlights full game replay p.s. in Italy it's blocked, I hope in your Country (wherever it might be) it's not...

they will go with the serpentine system according to the final ranking of 2019 (which will be known in a few weeks, after the qualifying playoffs)...

Wow! just...wow! Canelo Alvarez Beats Sergey Kovalev Via 11th-Round Knockout to Win Title https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2860898-canelo-alvarez-beats-sergey-kovalev-via-11th-round-knockout-to-win-title https://www.dazn.com/en-US/news/boxing/canelo-vs-kovalev-results-updates-highlights-from-full-card/nhidn162w1561kr1k5jtwwb2f

men's 500m, race #1 Gold: Hwang Dae Heon Silver: Victor An Bronze: Shaoang Liu