phelps

https://www.wkf.net/karate1-main/158

that's what we should call "a big surprise"... by the way, I don't think Viviana has a single chance to repeat this success in Tokyo, I fear (and I somehow suspect that in the Olympic tournament she will be in the semifinal group with Sandra Sanchez and not in the group with Shimizu )... in any case, today's "big moment" for us comes with the preliminary rounds of the men's -60kg in Kumite...Crescenzo must take advantage of the favourable draw and reach at least the semis, so to gain a few points over Samdan (who has Alpysbay and Sago on his way to the pool final and maybe this time he fails to score big)...

being ambitious is always good...if you are not somehow ambitious, you normally don't get anything in professional sports... overestimating the chances of your team...well, that's another story... by the way, I think that winning a medal in Tokyo is not impossible for Poland...Kowalczyk definitely has enough talent to get it (actually, she already won a medal at the last world champs)...

naaa...the mid-section turns are really GS turns...there are more places where they don't reach the 90/100 km/h... a provisional standing like today's tells it all...

by the way, this is a GS with just a few DH seconds at the beginnning...

Vlhova...

Top karatekas ready to shine at Karate biggest stage The 2020 Karate 1-Premier League starts in a week in Paris (France) and the best karatekas in the world are ready to fight for the gold medals. The coveted points to ascend in the Olympic standings are also at stake. Who will win in Paris? FIRST EVENT OF THRILLING SEASON The historic year of international Karate started last weekend with the Karate 1-Series A Santiago. However, the opening event of Karate’s first-class series of events takes places in Paris. Traditionally the first Karate 1-Premier League of the season, the tournament in the capital of France inaugurates a season with even more relevance as the sport is getting closer and closer to make its debut in the Olympic Games. The Karate 1-Premier League is – after the World Championships – the competition attributing more points to the Olympic Standings. HISTORY IN THE MAKING As the only venue hosting Karate 1-Premier League events in all the nine editions of Karate’s first-class series of international competitions, the Karate 1-Premier League Paris is one of the most prestigious tournaments of the international scene. Karatekas competing this year in the capital of France will be part of a historic event since the Karate 1-Premier League Paris will be the last major international event in the city before the anticipated Olympic Qualification Tournament in May. FACTS - After Paris, the 2020 Karate 1-Premier League Paris travels to Dubai (UAE), Salzburg (Austria), Rabat (Morocco), Madrid (Spain) and Moscow (Russia). - Over 700 competitors from no less than 92 countries have confirmed their participation in the 2020 Karate 1-Premier League Paris. - Last year 20 countries went home with medals. - In the last edition of the event in Paris, Japan topped the medal table with four gold medals. French athletes also registered deserving performances with two titles. - Competitors taking gold in Paris will receive between 870 and 990 points, depending on the category and the number of bouts. - The current leaders of the Olympic standings are Ryo Kiyuna of Japan (Male Kata), Darkhan Assadilov of Kazakhstan (Male Kumite -67kg), Bahman Ghoncheh Asgari of Iran (Male Kumite -75kg), Ugur Aktas of Turkey (Male Kumite +75kg), Sandra Sanchez of Spain (Female Kata), Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu of Turkey (Female Kumite -55kg), Xiaoyan Yin of China (Female Kumite -61kg) and Irina Zaretska of Azerbaijan (Female Kumite +61kg). - No less than 19 countries have thus far placed athletes among the top 4 competitors who will qualify to the Olympics by standings in each category. - Iran, Turkey and Italy, with four competitors each are the countries with more representatives among the top 4 in the Olympic standings for the moment. - No less than 204 territories around the world are broadcasting the event. - The 2020 Karate 1-Premier League takes place in Stadium Pierre de Coubertin in Paris (82 avenue Georges Lafont). - Over 100 journalists from over 25 countries are expected to attend the event. - The 2019 Grand Winners will be honoured at the Karate 1-Premier League Paris. The awarding ceremony of the best competitors of last season is scheduled for Saturday at 19.30. - The Grand Winners are the best competitors of the season in Karate 1-Premier League in each category. They are the only athletes who are allowed to wear the special karategi with the golden embroidery on the shoulders. - The current Grand Winners are Sandra Sanchez of Spain (Female Kata), Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu of Turkey (Female Kumite -50kg), Anzhelika Terliuga of Ukraine (Female Kumite -55kg), Xiaoyan Yin of China (Female Kumite -61kg), Irina Zaretska of Azerbaijan (Female Kumite -68kg), Ayumi Uekusa of Japan (Female Kumite +68kg), Ryo Kiyuna of Japan (Male Kata), Darkhan Assadilov of Kazakhstan (Male Kumite -60kg), Steven Dacosta of France (Male Kumite -67kg), Rafael Aghayev of Azerbaijan (Male Kumite -75kg), Ugur Aktas of Turkey (Male Kumite -84kg) and Sajad Ganjzadeh of Iran (Male Kumite +84kg). COMPETITION PROGRAMME - Friday, 09:00 – 19:45: Elimination rounds (Female Kata, Male Team Kata, Male Kumite -60kg, Male Kumite -67kg, Male Kumite -75kg, Female Kumite -50kg, Female Kumite -55kg) - Saturday, 09:00 – 19:30: Elimination rounds (Male Kata, Female Team Kata, Female Kumite -61kg, Female Kumite -68kg, Female Kumite +68kg, Male Kumite -84kg, Male Kumite +84kg) - Saturday, 19:30-20:00: 2019 Grand Winners ceremony - Sunday, 09:30-13:30: Bronze Medal bouts (Live Streaming available) - Sunday, 14:30 – 16:30: Gold Medal bouts (Live Streaming available) - Sunday, 16:30 – 17:00: Awarding ceremony p.s. a bit of gossip... Jana Bitsch (women's Kumite, -55kg specialist) recently got married and therefore from now on she's listed as Jana Messerschmidt...

2020 Grand Prix (Tel Aviv, ISR) the new Judo season started today in Tel Aviv (ISR), where the first Grand Prix event of the year is on stage... and guess what? the Asian powerhouses dominated the field, with South Korea winning today's 2 men's Gold Medals awarded (Kim Won Jin, -60kg; An Baul, -66kg) and Japan taking 2 out of 3 women's weight classes (Natsumi Tunoda, -48kg; Chishima Maeda, -52kg)... Slovenia's youngster Kaja Kajzer (women's -57kg) saved the European honour by winning the only Gold Medal that didn't fly to Far East... Full Results http://www.ippon.org/gp_isr2020.php Today's Medal Session Replay

it's written in the 2nd paragraph...content only available to US users...

there must be some irony out there... now that paris is out for (at least) the rest of the season, today (W)Innerhofer made his official comeback in the world cup after last year's injury (more or less, the same kind of problem Paris had)... and he wasn't even that bad...16th in the downhill training, only 1.39 off today's leader Jansrud...

do you mean that the virus was spread around by those golfers who need an excuse to pull out of the Olympic tournament?

it's already officially certified that this virus spreads through contact (through saliva, to be precise)... and we have already quite a few cases in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macao, other SEA Nations and the USA...it's only a matter of time that all this becomes pandemic... in China there are at least 9 deceased and hundreds of sick people (officially, probably there are a lot more)... they would be absolutely irresponsible if they don't cancel that tournament and reschedule it far away from those places (once in a lifetime, in this case Qatar or UAE would be a good choice)...

yeah, I know... but you don't need to do that, as you have a comfortable official streaming available that doesn't require any trick to be watched (and it also has better video quality)...

the torture is over... b. 22-2

it's available only in Italy, I think... and in any case, dailymotion videos have a lot better picture quality than rai's... to me that's more than enough not to go with our national broadcaster and their online service (on tv it's a different thing, even if the picture quality is always below decent standards)...

better here (you can watch all the games live and ondemand)... https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7q8ql6

obviously it's like that...but the players are a bit better than that...they are well established AA/AAA (with a few former MLB) players...

Spain = Venezuela/Dom.Rep. #2 (like Italy = USA #345 and Netherlands = Ned. Antilles #2)... GBR in softball is USA #423... let's be honest...nobody cares about international baseball apart from Japan and Korea... even the Cubans nowadays are a lot more focused on their National League and dream of playing in the MLB rather than in the NT... not to mention all the other Latin American Nations that don't care at all about anything not being the local winter league and/or the MLB...

but when? and for what? because I don't think there was a new draw in between every round... if the draw was just to fill the 1st round pairings, it really didn't have any influence on the race... the initial question was only if the best seeded athlete could pick their favourite course in the 1-run heats (and according to eurosport commentator that happened) or not? obviously, a fair 16 qualified athletes + a 2-run system in each round would be a lot better, but still this wasn't the case (and most likely it won't be also in the near future)... however, with yesterday's format we have: - 1st round: 16*2 = 32 heats - 1/8 finals: 8 heats - QTFs: 4 heats - Semis: 4 heats (because they also keep those senseless -and dangerous for somehow demotivated athletes- 5th/8th place playoffs) - Finals: 4 heats (see above, semis description) Total: 52 heats and more than 90 mins TV time with 16 qualifiers and a permanent 2-run system we have: - 1/8 finals: 8*2 = 16 heats - QTFs: 4*2 = 8 heats - Semis: 2*2 = 4 heats (and get rid of the 5th/8th place playoffs, you can easily rank the skiers eliminated in the QTFs according to their qualification time, as they should do also for the earlier rounds, just to give more sense also to the single placings in the qualification runs) - Finals: 2*2 = 4 heats Total = 32 heats and most likely no more than 50/55 mins TV time (for the happiness of all the international broadcasters and to cope better with the young people's very limited attention span)

today eurosport's broadcaster (Gian mario bonzi) said more than once that the top seed had the chance to pick the course he wanted... therefore I assume it was really that way...

let's not say ***...the highest seeded athlete could pick the course as always... apparently, a few girls however didn't realize that the blue course was faster...

well, in many sports the Asian qualifiers are down to CHN, KOR and JPN... the remaining Nations are not much better than those small Oceanian Countries outside AUS and NZL...

a) team sports: always Oceania and Asia all together... b) individual sports with 20 or less spots per discipline available overall: same as team sports... c) individual sports with more than 20 spots available overall per discipline: AUS and NZL still competing among the Asian Nations and 1 spot for the remaining smaller Oceanian Nations if there are 21 to 32 spots available overall, 2 or 3 spots (depending on the interest and the general competitivness among the other Oceanian Nations...no free spots gifted to the Pitas of this world) if the spots available are 33+ however, the best solution would be no Continental representation at all...the X best teams/athletes in the world in any given discipline should go to the Olympic competition... but I fear that's not an option for anybody...

bad knee injury for Danioth good results for the Italian girls (3rd, 4th and 5th place at the end of the day)... and overall, very entertaining competition with a lot of surprises (if someone did dare to bet on a gold medal clash between Direz and Moerzinger, probably right now he/she'd be preparing his/her luggage to fly to the Caribbean for the rest of his/her life)... p.s. first ever WC podium for both the finalists...

Los Cocodrilos de Matanzas are the new Cuban Champions, as they won the Grand Final of the 59th Cuban National Series, the top level baseball tournament on the Isle... This is an amazing surprise and a great turnaround, as last year they were dead last among the 16 teams of the Cuban Major League...meanwhile 12 months later they're just enjoying their first ever win in the SNC (the acronim with which the Cuban National series is known)... The losing side of this final series are Los Toros de la Llanura de Camagüey, that entered the final series as the big favourites, but their pitching staff couldn't handle the hot bats of the most classical sports "Cinderella" and they had to surrender in 6 games... 59th Cuban National Series, the Grand Final Coodrilos de Matanzas b. Toros de la Llanura Camagüey 4-2 (5-3; 0-8; 6-1; 5-3; 6-9; 11-2) All about Cuban Baseball (in Cuban slang Spanish)... http://www.beisbolencuba.com/ Match Replays Game #1 Game #2 Game #3 Game #4 Game #5 Game #6