phelps

traitors! all of you, guys! what a shame! you are all going to be blacklisted right now! how can you not love the most beautiful and exciting sport in the world? and don't try to fake you don't know it's (Ice) Hockey!!!

yes, but for the boys it's only a matter of time...after the next event, they surely will get their place at the Olympics... meanwhile I fear that the girls are going to blow it up...

updated as of February, 9th 2020...

South American OQT "Final Four", day #3 Uruguay b. Colombia 3-1 Brazil b. Argentina 3-0 Final Standings 1st, Argentina, 6 pts (qualified to the Olympic Games) 2nd, Brazil, 5 pts (qualified to the Olympic Games) 3rd, Uruguay, 4 pts 4th, Colombia, 1 pt

I couldn't watch the game... was it fair or ARG just gave up?

men's team epee standings updated after the end of the Vancouver stage... Italy are also mathematically qualified to the Games, as they can't go lower than 5th and only KOR among the non-European teams could still make it into the top 4... HUN and RUS will have a nice direct match-up for the European spot, but they need KOR to remain outside the top 4, otherwise they'd be both out in any case (it's highly unlikely they're going to overtake UKR and or SUI -the Swiss are already out of reach for RUS)...

and Italy are in the final! we got the scalp of the French super-squad!!!

Stage #5 (Dresden, GER) women's 3000m Relay Gold: Netherlands Silver: China Bronze: Japan men's 5000m Relay Gold: South Korea Silver: Russia Bronze: Netherlands

Stage #5 (Dresden, GER) men's 500m Gold: Steven Dubois Silver: Shaolin Sandor Liu Bronze: Melle Van't Wout men's 1500m, race #2 Gold: Park Ji Won Silver: Semen Elistratov Bronze: John-Henry Krueger

Stage #5 (Dresden, GER) women's 500m Gold: Kim Boutin Silver: Qu Chunyun Bronze: Lara Van Ruijven women's 1500m, race #2 Gold: Suzanne Schulting Silver: Sofia Prosvirnova Bronze: Tifany Huot Marchand

so, once again Turkey proved the true European powerhouse in youth Karate... this year they won 15 medals (6 Gold, 3 Silver & 6 Bronze) and dominated the medal table ahead of France and Azerbaijan, both finishing the championship with 4 Gold medals each (FRA won more "side" medals)... then Italy ended up in 4th place in the medal table with 3 Gold medals, unfortunately (shamefully) all of them in Kata... following ITA, a small group of Nations with 2 Gold medals and some more with 1 Gold medal each... in total, we have 18 Nations winning at least 1 Gold medal and 36 winning at least 1 medal (no matter the colour)...

Day #3 Recap women's Individual Kumite, -50kg Gold: Jelena Pehar Silver: Catarina rodrigues Bronze: Aleyna Gencer & Fidan Teymurova women's Individual Kumite, -55kg Gold: Zsofia Baranyi Silver: Anna Chernysheva Bronze: Madina Sadigova & Albulena Gervalla women's Individual Kumite, -61kg Gold: Assia Oukhattou Silver: Alessandra Mangiacapra Bronze: Laura Fucik & Ivana Perovic women's Individual Kumite, -68kg Gold: Annika Saelid Silver: Victoria Isaeva Bronze: Vesa Ibrahimi & Lea Vukoja women's Individual Kumite, +68kg Gold: Lora Ziller Silver: Niamh Junner Bronze: Lucija Lesjak & Rabia Senturk men's Individual Kumite, -60kg Gold: Omer Faruk Ates Silver: Christos-Stefanos Xenos Bronze: Ilia Savin & Enzo Berthon men's Individual Kumite, -67kg Gold: Younesse Salmi Silver: Bojan Boskovic Bronze: Omer Abdurrahim Ozer & Roberto Ackovski men's Individual Kumite, -75kg Gold: Tiago Almeida Silver: Christoffer Nielsen Bronze: Asiman Mamedov & Zurab Giorgadze men's Individual Kumite, -84kg Gold: Konstantinos Mastrogiannis Silver: Raybak Abdesselem Bronze: Andrii Zaplitnyi & Renato Resetar men's Individual Kumite, +84kg Gold: Ihor Lahunov Silver: Predrag Smolovic Bronze: Christopher McCarthy Crean & Benjamin Shabani

senior classes Medallists Recap... women's Individual Kata Gold: Manal Kamilia Hadj Said Silver: Sarah Sayed Bronze: Sanae Agalmam & Maxine Willemse men's Individual Kata Gold: Adnane Elhakimi Silver: Ahmed Shawky Bronze: Michael Du Plessis & Mouad Ouites women's Individual Kumite, -50kg Gold: Aicha Sayah Silver: Radwa Sayed Bronze: Maguette Mbaye & Imane Taleb women's Individual Kumite, -55kg Gold: Widad Draou Silver: Khawla Ouhammad Bronze: Oceanne Ganiero & Yassmin Attia women's Individual Kumite, -61kg Gold: Giana Lofty Silver: Btissam Sadini Bronze: Magatte Seck & Chaima Midi women's Individual Kumite, -68kg Gold: Feryal Abdelaziz Silver: Lamya Matoub Bronze: Rita Ogene & Maman Amina Dione women's Individual Kumite, +68kg Gold: Loubna Mekdas Silver: Fatima Zahra Errabi Bronze: Chehinez Jemi & Shymaa Abouel Yazed men's Individual Kumite, -60kg Gold: Nader Azzouzi Silver: Oussama Edari Bronze: Malek salama & Junecio Capenda Uliengue Eudes men's Individual Kumite, -67kg Gold: Abdessalam Ameknassi Silver: Alì Elsawy Bronze: Nardy Bikoka Mbako & Francis Bernard Rustum men's Individual Kumite, -75kg Gold: Mamduh Abdelaziz Abdalla Silver: Yassine Sekouri Bronze: Yanis Lardjane & Walid Guezmil men's Individual Kumite, -84kg Gold: Thameur Slimani Silver: Mohamed Ramadan Bronze: Nabil Ech-Chaabi & Anis Samy Brahimi men's Individual Kumite, +84kg Gold: Hocine Daikhi Silver: Tarek Mahmoud Taha Bronze: Achraf Ouchene & Talla Konate

yes, she got a broken arm...she's already had an operation to fix it earlier today in Garmisch...

men's Team Epee, new standings (today's results included)... 1st, France 355 (36-40) mathematically qualified through OQR 2nd, Italy 276 (36) mathematically qualified 3rd, Switzerland 267 (28) virtual OQR spot 4th, Ukraine 253 (23) virtual OQR spot 5th, South Korea 244 (8) virtual Asian spot 6th, Hungary 229 (24) virtual European spot 7th, Russia 226 (21) 8th, Japan 223 (25) 8th, China 220 (8) 10th, United States 188 (22) mathematically qualified, Panamerican spot 11th, Kazakhstan 166 (8) 12th, Denmark 153 (8) 13th, Israel 153 (8) 14th, Egypt 132 (18) virtual African spot (just need to stay in the top 16) 15th, Spain 129 (8) 16th, Estonia 127 (0) 17th, Germany 125 (8) 18th, Poland 116 (8) Note: in parenthesis the currently discarded score...

Men's Team Epee (Vancouver, CAN) Final Results Gold: South Korea Silver: Italy Bronze: Japan Semifinals: Italy b. France 45-39 South Korea b. Japan 36-35 Bronze Medal Match: Japan b. France 45-34 Gold Medal Match: South Korea b. Italy 39-24  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/454

and we're also going to gain a lot of points over our direct rivals (UKR / HUN / RUS and CHN)... with a bit of luck in the finals, we're likely to earn our ticket on the flight to Tokyo with a tournament still to be played...or maybe not...the ranking is still to close to express mathematical verdicts tonight (except for FRA, who are already actually mathematically qualified with the results recorded so far tonight)...

yesssss!!! we are in the top 4 once again!!!

the Ukranians are going for their usual messy and intimidatory tactics... I hope our guys won't let them take advantage of dirty play...

Italian Foil GP (M + W), Semifinals and Finals (Live @ 6 p.m. CET)

US guys storming over the Italian GP... Italian guys flopping badly in their home GP...

Men's Foil Grand Prix (Turin, ITA) Final Results Gold: Gerek Meinhardt Silver: Alexander Massialas Bronze: Wallerand Roger & Race Imboden Semifinals: Massialas b. Roger 15-2 Meinhardt b. Imboden 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Meinhardt b. Massialas 15-8  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/134

final update...

Women's Foil Grand Prix (Turin, ITA) Final Results Gold: Ysaora Thibus Silver: Lee Kiefer Bronze: Inna Deriglazova & Alice Volpi Semifinals: Thibus b. Deriglazova 15-10 Kiefer b. Volpi 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Thibus b. Kiefer 15-14  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/458

no good news for Italy also in the men's Foil GP... except for Foconi, all the Italian top specialists are already out after round of #32... meanwhile among the women, only Batini is out among our top girls (we have 5 in the top 16, but now we have 2 direct match-ups between Italians in the next round)... update: and once again, the disappointing "dynamic duo" Errigo & Di Francisca missed the podium after losing in the quarterfinals against Thibus and Kiefer respectively... so, now we have only Volpi in the "final four"...