phelps

Day #2 Medallists women's -57kg Gold: Irem Yaman Silver: Jade Jones Bronze: Marta Calvo Gomez & Raheleh Asemani men's -68kg Gold: Javier Polo Perez Silver: Bradly Sinden Bronze: Alexey Denisenko & Si Mohamed Ketbi men's -80kg Gold: Anton Kotkov Silver: Toni Kanaet Bronze: Simone Alessio & Denys Voronovskyi

yeah, Field Hockey is not exactly a popular sport in Italy...no media coverage, no infrastructures (all the outdoor playing areas are only for football or, only in some regions and in any case in small measure, rugby, where we're not good either, but for different reasons than Hockey), no kids playing the game... we can only rely on all those girls/boys with Italian heritage growing up in Countries where Field Hockey is at least a reasonably followed and practiced discipline...and Argentina, with their 25 or so million people with Italian origins (it doesn't matter if they date back a few or many years), is always the best place to find some hockey players good enough at least to participate in such kind of events... p.s. however, at least the girls today were not destroyed by GER as it happened last summer against CAN in the Hockey series... and tbh, today everything that could go against them, it went against them...including that silly mistake that led to the final series of penalty corners, the last one of them gifted Germany the second (hope killer) goal...

the good old "catenaccio" is always an option when a team from Italy plays... despite "camping" for 29 out of 30 mins in the Italian "23s", Germany couldn't take advantage of the many potentially dangerous situations and of the 6 penalty corners in their favour... and actually, the Italian girls also had the best chance of them all in this first half (coming off nowhere on a rare offensive trip) and GER were quite lucky not find themselves nehind after the first 30 mins of play... halftime: Germany, 0 vs Italy, 0

today's semifinals women's -57kg Jade Jones vs Marta Calvo Gomez Irem Yaman vs Raheleh Asemani men's -68kg Bradly Sinden vs Si Mohamed Ketbi Javier Polo Perez vs Alexey Denisenko men's -80kg Simone Alessio vs Anton Kotkov Toni Kanaet vs Denys Voronovskyi

final results from today's games: Puerto Rico, 0 @ South Korea, 5 Cuba, 2 @ Chinese Taipei, 2 (yes, it's not a mistake...the game was stopped on a score of 2-2 after 9 innings, as it always happens according to Taipei Baseball Rules)... and tonight it's finally time to get serious...the first WBSC official games are scheduled to start in a few hours... Opening day starters revealed for WBSC Premier 12 The Premier12 2019 will begin on Saturday with the first two games of Group A: the Netherlands will take on the USA; while Dominican Republic will play Mexico. After the press conference, attended by journalists from all over the world, the four teams officially announced their opening day starters. The four participating teams in Premier12 Group A arrived in Guadalajara with a clear goal: advance to the Super Round in Tokyo, Japan. Managers Luis Rojas (DOM), Juan Gabriel Castro (MEX), Hensley Meulens (NED) and Scott Brosius (USA) made it clear during the Premier12 Group A pre-tournament press conference held today in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Netherlands, USA to open the Premier12 Rob Cordemans and Cody Ponce were named the Opening Game starters for the Netherlands and USA respectively. Both right handers will be on the hill for the first game of the WBSC Premier12 2019, tomorrow 2 November, 12:00pm, at Estadio Charros de Jalisco, in Mexico. Asked about the goals of his team, Netherlands Manager Hensley Meulens was positive about their chances. “We want to show that Netherlands belongs to the top 12 teams in the world, and would be very important for us to advance to the Super Round," Meulens said. "We always perform very well in this kind of tournament.” Meulens will give the ball to Cordemans, a 45-year-old pitcher with more than two decades of experience with the National Team, to open the Premier12. The right hander represented his country at the Olympic Games Atlanta 1996, as a 21 year old, and he he was crowned champion at the Baseball World Cup 2011, posting a 3-0 record with a 2.29 ERA. Cordemans’ last appearance with the Dutch National Team was in the Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier, held in Parma and Bologna, where the Netherlands claimed second place. He pitched against Spain, and earned the win. Asked about their opponents in Group A, USA manager Scott Brosius said it will be very tough for the four squads. “We came here expecting a very competitive group and very competitive games," Brosius said. "But as the other three managers said, our goal is to advance to the next round in Tokyo.” To open the Premier12, Brosius will send Ponce to the mound. The 25 year-old right hander belongs to the Pittsburgh Pirates organisation, and finished this season at AAA level. He made five starts for the Peoria Javelinas in the 2019 Arizona Fall League, finishing with a 2-1 record, a 2.35 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 23 innings. Enny Romero to open for Dominican Republic, Eduardo Vera for Mexico Dominican Republic and Mexico also announced the starting pitchers for their game. Enny Romero will take the ball for the Dominican squad, while 25 year-old Eduardo Vera will take the mound for the host team. Luis Rojas, Dominican skipper, said: “We expect a very difficult tournament, against these three amazing teams. Our goal is to qualify and advance to the next round, we know it won’t be easy, but this is the main goal of our team”. "I think it’s the best team to represent our country and I’m sure the fans will follow us along the tournament,” Rojas added. “We have a very talented group, a great mix of young players with great potential, and some veterans with MLB experience.” One of the veterans is Romero. The left-handed starter ended his first full season with NPB team Chunichi Dragons, with a record of 8-10. The powerful lefty pitched in the MLB in five different seasons, playing with Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals. For the host team Juan Gabriel Castro will give the ball to Eduardo Vera, right hander of Mexicali in the Mexican Pacific League. “It is an honour to represent our country here in Guadalajara”, said the Mexican skipper. “These are three very good teams. We’re going one day at a time, our first game will be against a great team like Dominican Republic, but we’re going to play with our heart.” Vera has pitched 14.1 innings in the first weeks of the Mexican Winter season, allowing only 4 runs with 1.26 ERA. He fanned 14 so far. This year, he pitched in AAA in the Pittsburgh Pirates organisation.

Women's Individual Epee (Tallinn, EST) Final Results Gold: Ana Maria Popescu Silver: Violetta Kolobova Bronze: Sun Yiwen & Zhu Mingye Semifinals: Popescu b. Sun 15-14 Kolobova b. Zhu 15-8 Gold Medal Match: Popescu b. Kolobova 15-13  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/80

here we go...first women's epee event of the year...and first Italian shameful disaster... especially the 4 members of the team who are racing for the Olympic qualification...2 out in the preliminary stages, 2 out in the round of 64 of the main draw... p.s. and also my beloved reigning world champion Nathalie Moellhausen didn't do any better...she lost to an unknown Ukranian (Yuliya Svystil) also in the round of 64... her Italian heritage probably did the damage...

it was Belarus that didn't want to include TKD in the EGs schedule (as they didn't have a lot of Olympic sports nor team sports -only 3x3 basketball and beach soccer were in the Minsk schedule...basically they kept in the program only the sports where they have some kind of tradition and some medal chances)... I don't think it was a ETU fault at all (at least this time)...

I'm just watching right now...and they are actually streaming live for (almost) the entire world game 2 between KOR and PUR, but, since they are using the original Korean broadcast by SBS (audio, graphics, even commercials...are all there), most likely it will end up like yesterday and SBS will finally remove the on-demand video once again... by the way, it looks like it's going to be another one-sided match...KOR are leading 4-0 in the top of the 8 (and they just hit a triple to open this inning)...PUR haven't been capable of scoring a single run in 16 innings (and counting)... somewhere else (in Taichung, TPE), instead, we have already in the bag another warm-up match between Australia and Venezuela...and the Aussies won that game by a score of 1-0, with the decisive run recorded in the 6th inning, thanks to a wild pitch of the Venezuelan pitcher with the bases loaded (and 2 outs)... here's the full game replay still in Taichung (TPE), right now the local Team Chinese Taipei is facing Cuba (1-1 after 3 & 1/2 innings the score)... here's the live streaming (which most likely will stay also on-demand)...

I don't know if they did it live (I was not at home this morning - Italian time), but for sure now there's no sign of that broadcast on youtube right now (they removed the video because of those copyright issues with Korean SBS and all the links on the WBSC site are dead and send you to the WBSC homepage)... if I have some time, tomorow I'm gonna check if game 2 between PUR and KOR is actually streamed live and what happens with the on-demand video... meanwhile the JPN vs CAN matches are still available (and in fact I posted highlights and full game replay links)...

other warm-up games: Venezuela, 0 @ Mexico, 1 https://twitter.com/MexicoBeis/status/1188191698234544129/video/1 Puerto Rico, 0 @ South Korea, 4 unfortunately the Korean broadcaster SBS have stopped the Youtube streaming (copyright issues, they say)...and they keep the pictures of the game exclusively in their VOD section (which is a paid part of their website)...

second warm-up match between Canada and Japan in Okinawa earlier today... and this time the Host Nation took their revenge after yesterday's disappointing loss... 3 runs scored in the 4th, 5th and 8th inning proved to be enough for Japan, as Canada's offense today was shut down by the Japanese pitching staff...3-0 in favour of the Country of the Rising Sun is the final score... highlights full game replay

once every while, also Italy make the home field advantage count... by the way, here's a quick recap of today's medallists... women's -49kg Gold: Rukiye Yildirim Silver: Ela Aydin Bronze: Kyriaki Kouttouki & Elizaveta Ryadninskaya women's -53kg Gold: Tatiana Kudashova Silver: Zeliha Agris Bronze: Tijana Bogdanovic & Yasmina Aziez men's -58kg Gold: Vito Dell'Aquila Silver: Jack Woolley Bronze: Jesus Tortosa Cabrera & Gashim Magomedov men's -63kg Gold: Jaouad Achab Silver: Lovre Brecic Bronze: Levente Jozsa & Marcos Caballero

Links to Streaming sessions for all the 3 competition days, here: https://www.facebook.com/TKDFITA/posts/10156787940217399

Instant Messaging for Bari 2019 is now available. If you want to stay up-to-date as coach or team manager about the last news, drawsheets and results, download the Telegram App and join WTE Bari 2019 instant messaging. Telegram APP

Taekwondo WTE Extra European Championships 2019 Bari (ITA) - 1 November 2019 - 3 November 2019  Official Website

Canada defeated Japan 6-5 in Okinawa in the first warm-up match towards the Premier 12... they scored all of their runs early (2nd inning) and then, despite a few silly defensive mistakes, they were able to survive the Japanese rally... highlights full game replay

finally, the short track world cup is back! and Arianna Fontana is back in the Italian women's team...

by the way, congrats to the Nats for this really unexpected achievement... p.s. Steven Strasburg was named WS MVP...well deserved, I'd say (even if Rendon could have something to say about it, too)... now, we have to wait until March, 26th 2020 for the MLB to start the next season...

probably they were talking of Verlander... he has won everything a pitcher can win in terms of individual trophies and rankings, he has won the world series, he has amazing stats through is whole career (playoffs included)...but he's 0-5 in world series starts... it happens...it doesn't mean anything... the same Clayton Kershaw, arguably the best pitcher in baseball in the last 30 years (at least), comes October has well below the average numbers (not to mention that basically he's one of the main factors of the Nats winning this year's world series)...

surely he's not our top guy (luckily we have someone better than him), but he's one of the 3 safe starters in our men's team...now we only have 2 left (unless Zoeggeler changes his mind and goes with youngster Theo Gruber...but he normally doesn't like to rush his plans...and Gruber is not yet a world cup team full member)...

Emanuel Rieder is out indefinitely because of a broken finger in his left foot... after Robatscher, Italy lose for quite a while another piece of their (already slim) puzzle... not the start of the season we expected...

they go to the next in line, according to the World Championships final ranking, to replace that team as the host of the 3rd tournament... and of course they also follow the same procedure to re-design the 3 groups line-up...

may I say that, despite going to an always exciting game #7, these world series have been quite disappointing? basically, we didn't see a single really close game (not even game 1, despite the final score was just 5-4 in favour of the Nats)... sure, we had some outstanding performance here and there (Strasburg last night was just exceptional, Rendon is always someone to watch carefully), but the real show has been posted in the earlier rounds... for what concerns tonight, I only hope that game 7 would eventually make up for the other 6 and offers the most exciting hours of the season...

(until) Seoul 1988: the good old 5 judges, scoring bouts "like the pros"...the worst Olympic Boxing scandal ever... London 2012...the devilish scoring machines...the second worst Olympic Boxing scandal ever... Rio 2016...the latest scoring system (3 judges, scoring the bout on a 10-pt scale, like the pros)...just another oscenity... you can change the scoring system as many times as you want, but this is not the problem of boxing (and especially Olympic Boxing)... the real problem are the men in charge, who are always at least biased, when often not truly corrupted... until there is a single man coming from the old establishment, there's no way we're going to have a clean boxing tournament at the Olympics...