phelps

by the way, in the last Panamerican Pre-Qualifiers match Brazil beat Argentina 77-55 and advance to the actual OQTs...

c'mon! the USA are playing these tournaments with 5th tier players (and still dominating), Japan are playing with their best team, but they are so poor that they don't need this kind of help to suddenly become a mid-rank placings contender (not to mention the medal candidates being on another planet)... this qualification system is just a farce (the 3X3 B'Ball system instead is a pure cheat)...

they wrote that they are going to set up "Geographically balanced groups"... then, what does this mean, I don't know...

Men's Street Final Results Gold. Sora Shirai Silver. Jake Ilardi Bronze. Lucas Rabelo 4. Dashawn Jordan 5. Yuto Horigome 6. Angelo Caro Narvaez 7. Nyjah Huston 8. Kelvin Hoefler

Asia/Oceania Pre-Qualifiers China, South Korea, Australia advance to the actual Olympic Qualification Tournaments (together with Japan, who were already automatically qualified as OG hosts) from this area... African Pre-Qualifiers Nigeria and, surprise, surprise Mozambique advance to the actual Olympic Qualification Tournaments from this region... Panamerican Pre-Qualifiers the final day is still to be played, but Canada and United States are already sure to advance to the next round...the last 2 teams will be determined by tonight's matches ( vs in Edmonton and vs in Bahia Blanca)...

Full Videos from today's action Women's Mass Start Men's Mass Start - Heat "A"

Today's races Full Results Women's Mass Start https://sesongstartskiskyting.no/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/kvinner_fellesstart_resultater.pdf Men's Mass Start - Heat "A" https://sesongstartskiskyting.no/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/menn_fellesstart_resultater.pdf Men's Mass Start - Heat "B" https://sesongstartskiskyting.no/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/mennB_fellesstart_resultater.pdf

Knockout Stage Round Of 16, Second Leg, Part 1 Tuesday 19.11.2019 - Schedule* 18:00 Frölunda Indians (SWE) - Färjestad Karlstad (SWE) 18:00 Luleå Hockey (SWE) - SC Bern (SUI) 18:00 Djurgården Stockholm (SWE) - Skellefteå AIK (SWE) 19:00 Adler Mannheim (GER) - Mountfield HK (CZE) 19:45 EV Zug (SUI) - Tappara Tampere (FIN) 19:45 EHC Biel/Bienne (SUI) - Augsburger Panther (GER) 19:45 Lausanne HC (SUI) - HC Pilsen (CZE) Round Of 16, Second Leg, Part 2 Wednesday 20.11.2019 - Schedule* 20:00 Red Bull Munich (GER) - Yunost Minsk (BLR) *All times CET Watch live Check here for details of live TV broadcasts: https://www.championshockeyleague.com/en/fans/where-to-watch All games are also live on the CHL website for free, subject to geo-blocking restrictions in certain countries due to TV rights.

Women's Street Final Results Gold. Pamela Rosa Silver. Rayssa Leal Bronze. Aori Nishimura 4. Roos Zwetsloot 5. Gabriela Mazetto 6. Virginia Forte Aguas 7. Alexis Sablone 8. Mariah Duran

Men's Park Final Results Gold. Cory Juneau Silver. Jagger Eaton Bronze. Ben Hatchell 4. Thomas Schaar 5. Alex Sorgente 6. Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg 7. Pedro Barros 8. Gavin Rune Bottger

moreover, the next tournaments will be during the Spring Training period, so many players we saw in this Premier 12, being fully committed to make the Big League teams, probably won't show up, leaving the US team to be built only with mid/low level triple A players (if not Double A and or College guys only)... even if the same could be for PUR, DOM and CAN at least... the team that most likely would benefit from the schedule is Cuba, but the team I saw in the preliminary stage of the Premier 12 is so poor (especially the pitching staff is depressing -and probably they won't have the NPB players, too...in any case) that I fear they won't be able to take advantage of that...

so, after the end of this week's tournament, we can give a look at the updated Olympic Ranking in the Men's Team Sabre... tbh, no major changes were expected and no major changes happened... actually, the final ranking of today's tournament is almost the same of the current OQR... among the top 5, only Russia could make up a couple of points on Germany (they are 5th and 4th in the OQR, meanwhile today they were 4th and 5th respectively)... and among the Nations currently in qualifying position, only USA and Egypt lost a few points over the teams already ahead of them as much as over the immediate followers, but they are still well above the "danger zone" (Egypt only need to end up in the top 16 of the final OQR, as they don't have any real opponent among the African teams)... therefore, this is the projected ranking after the Cairo World Cup stage... 1. KOR (1st Today), 296 Pts (Q) 2. HUN (2nd Today), 244 Pts (Q) 3. ITA (3rd Today), 224 Pts (Q) 4. GER (5th Today), 196 Pts (Q) 5. RUS (4th Today), 182 Pts (Q, top European Team outside the Top 4 overall) 6. IRI (6th Today), 174 Pts (Q, top Asian Team outside the Top 4 overall) 7. USA (9th Today), 163 Pts (Q, top Panamerican Team outside the Top 4 overall) 8. EGY (14th Today), 141 Pts (Q, top African Team outside the Top 4 overall) 9. FRA (8th Today), 138 Pts 10. ROU (10th Today), 137 Pts 11. CHN (7th Today), 134 Pts 12. GEO (13th Today), 128 Pts 13. JPN (11th Today), 129 Pts 14. CAN (16th Today), 114 Pts 15. UKR (12th Today), 109 Pts 16. GBR (15th Today), 105 Pts

considering the fact that there were no chance to see the MLB stars from the beginning, WBSC could have even pushed for a "normal" 12 team-tournament (and a 10-team competition for Softball, too), as the IOC is already going beyond the 10.500 athletes limits after adding the most improbable disciplines to the schedule and in Tokyo the Baseball stadiums are not a problem for sure (there are 4 NPB teams + Yokohama, which incidentally is the venue going to be used for the Games, in the Tokyo Metropolitan area let alone)...

Samurai Japan beat South Korea and climb on top of the World The Home Team made a crowd of 44,960 ecstatic as they overcame an early deficit to defeat South Korea 5-3 in the Final and became the Champions of the 2019 WBSC Premier 12. Japan's starter Shun Yamaguchi didn't go beyond the first inning, as Korea wasted no time getting to him. The Yomiuri Giants 15-game winner walked lead off hitter Lee Jung-Hoo on 6 pitches and then allowed a 2-run homer to shortstop Kim Ha-Seon. Left fielder Kim Hyun-Soo followed with a solo shot that gave superstar starter Yang Hyeon Jong a three-run lead to work with. But those 3 runs proved to be a too slim margin for him and his team. In the bottom of the 1st inning the Korean starter walked Hayato Sakamoto and a few seconds later he scored on a double by Seiya Suzuki. In the bottom of the 2nd inning, history repeated: Yang walked Tsubasa Aizawa, then Ryosuke Kikuchi singled and finally, with 2 men on 1st and 2nd, first baseman Tetsuto Yamada launched a 3-run blast that turned the score around. Japan also added 1 more insurance run in the bottom of the 7th inning when Hayato Sakamoto first hit a double and then scored on a single by Hideto Asamura. Meanwhile, after Yamaguchi shaky start that cost him an early exit after only 1 inning pitched, the following 6 Japanese relievers limited Korea to 3 hits, 1 base-on-balls and no score for the rest of the night. Gold Medal match Boxscore https://premier12.wbsc.org/en/2019/schedule-and-results/box-score/3971 Gold Medal match Highlights

Japan won it! 5-3 the final score for the Home Nation...

huge insurance run for Japan in the bottom of the 7th (Sakamura scored on an Asamura's single with 2 outs)... 5-3 for the Home Nation after 7 full innings...

Men's Team Sabre (Cairo, EGY) Final Results Gold: South Korea Silver: Hungary Bronze: Italy Semifinals: Hungary b. Italy 45-37 South Korea b. Russia 45-39 Bronze Medal Match: Italy b. Russia 45-31 Gold Medal Match: South Korea b. Hungary 45-41  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/759?tab=results

@MHSN Iran surprisingly could take part into this event, too... unfortunately, they lost to Hungary in the quarterfinals (45-39)...

and after the furious start by the Koreans, the Samurai Japan's answer came in a while...1 run scored in the bottom of the 1st and 3 in the bottom of the 2nd and here they come... then, the relievers of both teams proved to be way better than the starters and things did calm down... right now, we're in the bottom of the 6th and the score is still 4-3 in favour of the Home Nation...

Today's Women's Mass Start race (full results .pdf file not available yet)...

and another solo-shot by the Koreans!!! now they lead 3-0!!! if the Japanese manager doesn't take Yamaguchi off the field immediately, the game is going to be over soon...it's obvious that Yamaguchi's not having the day of his life (euphemism, big euphemism)...

what a start for Korea! lead-off walk and 2-run shot!!!

for those who might still have some doubts... https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/niger

Navarro singles in extras, takes Mexico to the 2020 Olympics First baseman Efren Navarro singled on a broken-bat blooper in the bottom of the tenth off left handed reliever Caleb Thielbar to bring home Javier Salazar. Mexico beat the USA 3-2, to earn the 2019 WBSC Premier 12 Bronze Medal and the spot of the Americas Region in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Navarro fouled off as many as four consecutive pitches before looking at a ball. He singled on the eighth offering of his at-bat after going 0 for 4 and striking out three times in the game. "It was a very important at-bat and I'm grateful that I had this chance," said Efren Navarro after the game. "You must credit all of the team for this accomplishment. The pitchers, Matt Clark, who kept us in the game with his home run." Mexico's manager Juan Castro decided to bunt in the bottom of the tenth despite having red-hot Jonathan Jones at the plate. The center field went down 0-2 in the count against Brandon Dickson, then advanced the tie-break runners to second a third with a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt. The USA walked second baseman Esteban Quiroz to load the bases, then went to the bullpen. Left-handed batter Navarro got the game winning-hit off left-handed reliever Caleb Thielbar. The same approach hadn't proved successful for the USA in the top half of the inning. Manager Scott Brosius got a perfect sacrifice bunt from Bobby Dalbec, the same hitter who had put the USA ahead in the top of the seventh. Mexico's reliever Carlos Bustamante intentionally walked right fielder Brooker to load the bases. He then struck out third baseman Alec Bohm on a breaking ball outside and got out of the inning as shortstop Jake Cronenworth popped out to shortstop. The USA came just three out short of the win. Noah Song allowed only a walk in 1.1 innings and handed the ball to closer Brandon Dickson with a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth. Designated hitter Matthew Clark homered on the third pitch to tie the game. "I was looking for something high in the zone." said Clark after being awarded as the Hublot Player of the Game. "He hanged a split-finger and I was fortunate enough to make the most of it." Carlos Bustamante earned the win as the sixth pitcher to step to the mound for Mexico. Juan Castro used three more relievers after starter Arturo Reyes: Brennan Bernardino, Jesus Rios and Eduardo Vera. Today's match Boxscore https://premier12.wbsc.org/en/2019/schedule-and-results/box-score/3970 Today's match Highlights

Men's Park Semifinals Results http://www.worldskate.org/component/phocadownload/category/643-stu-rio-de-janeiro-park-2019-results.html?download=4396:oi-stu-open-men-s-park-semifinal-results Men qualified to the Final 1. Alex Sorgente 2. Ben Hatchell 3. Jagger Eaton 4. Pedro Barros 5. Thomas Schaar 6. Cory Juneau 7. Gavin Rune Bottger 8. Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg