phelps

updated after the end of the tournament... things are getting really hot for the Asian Continental spot, especially if neither CHN and/or KOR could eventually sneak in into the top 4 of the overall OQR... France 267 (Q) Switzerland 202 (Q) Ukraine 191 (Q) Italy 188 (Q) China 174 (Q as the best Asian team outside the top 4 overall) South Korea 172 Russia 166 (Q as the best European team outside the top 4 overall) Japan 156 Hungary 141 United States 138 (Q as the best Panamerican team outside the top 4 overall) Kazakhstan 128 Denmark 122 ... Egypt 95 (still safe in the top 16, Q as the best African team outside the top 4 overall)

c'mon! I didn't think it was possible to make a robbery in Epee...but today that's what happened! France robbed Italy of a well deserved win in today's final match in Bern... frankly, I'm disgusted!

interesting results for the men's epee in terms of Olympic qualification... France are still on top and they will stay on top also at the end of today's event...moreover, they're going to increase their margin over their opponents, as they are already qualified to today's Gold Medal match... Italy, who are France's opponents in today's Final, are the biggest climbers of the week, jumping from 7th to a sure top 4 place at the end of the day... on the other side, Russia are the biggest losers, as they are scheduled to play for 13th or 14th place today and they will go down in the ranking from 4th to 7th (but they would still keep a qualifying spot as the best European team outside the top 4, as those teams are all from Europe)... here are the current projected rankings, before today's finals... France 255/267 Switzerland 200/202 Ukraine 187/191 Italy 188/200 China 174/176 South Korea 170/172 Russia 165/166 Japan 156/162 Hungary 140/141 United States 138/139 Kazakhstan 127/128 Denmark 122/123 ... Egypt 95/96 (still safe in the top 16)

Women's Team Foil (Cairo, EGY) Final Results Gold: Italy Silver: Russia Bronze: France Semifinals: Russia b. USA 45-34 Italy b. France 45-38 Bronze Medal Match: France b. France 45-40 Gold Medal Match: Italy b. Russia 42-40  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/events/results/781E5D68490E40E0B71768CE5C3915BC

yesss!!! the men's epee specialists have made the final! we won a thrilling semifinal bout at the OT against Ukraine that could prove decisive in the race for a spot at the Tokyo Olympics... with this result we're going to make a good climb on the OQR...

Men's Team Epee (Bern, SUI) Final Results Gold: France Silver: Italy Bronze: Ukraine Semifinals: Italy b. Ukraine 32-31 France b. Japan 45-40 Bronze Medal Match: Ukraine b. Japan 32-31 Gold Medal Match: France b. Italy 45-44  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/559

Women's Team Sabre (Orleans, FRA) Final Results Gold: Russia Silver: South Korea Bronze: Ukraine Semifinals: Russia b. Hungary 45-26 South Korea b. Ukraine 45-43 Bronze Medal Match: Ukraine b. Hungary 45-36 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. South Korea 45-41  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/825

no results at the moment...not even a small tweet or anything... this is a real shame! when FIE would eventually understand that they must not allow Countries with technological blocks on the internet to host any sort of international event, it will always be too late... HD streaming/TV production of the whole event and a true live scoring system should be the minimum requirement even to bid for an event...

Grand Slam (Osaka, JPN) Day #3 Recap finally, on day #3 we have some other Nations shining in Osaka... Japan, in fact, today won "only" 3 out of 5 Gold Medals (Ryonosuke Haga, men's -100kg; Mami Umeki, women's -78kg; Akira Sone, women's +78kg) and we also saw only 1 full Japanese affair out of 5 Gold Medal bouts (the women's -78kg class)... Today's 2 non-Japan champions are Beka Gviniashvili (men's 90kg) and Inal Tasoev (men's +100kg)... so, the final medal table obviously has been dominated by Japan with 11 Gold, 8 Silver and 15 Bronze medals, followed by France, Georgia and Russia with 1 Gold Medal each... in total, 16 Nations won at least a medal (adding those not winning any gold)... very disappointing (useless and just "cosmetic") appearance by the Italian team, with only 5 fighters participating and a single 7th place as the best result... Full Results, here: http://www.ippon.org/gs_jpn2019.php

and finally, Arianna Errigo is back to full success... hopefully, it's a sign of renaissance and she doesn't mess up with her fragile mind when the season comes to the crucial moments... however, as I wrote before, this is definitely not a good day for our fencing...too many flops compared to the only (usual) event where we always come up with something, even in our worst days...

Home success for Manon Brunet in the women's Sabre, meanwhile the Swiss stage of the men's Epee was quite a triumph for the Ukranian team, with Igor Reizlin winning a thrilling final against Vadim Anokhin at the OT, followed by his teammate Roman Svichkar also on the podium in bronze medal position... what do these 2 events have in common? but it's so obvious! the Italian shamful performance, with nobody even close to the medals... Italian disgraceful results that go on in Cairo, where 2 medals are safe, but where the first one by Elisa Di Francisca is "only" a bronze, after she lost her semifinal match against Shi... now only Errigo can save our day, which in any case can't be named "sufficient", even in case Arianna wins gold later today...

Men's Individual Epee (Bern, SUI) Final Results Gold: Igor Reizlin Silver: Vadim Anokhin Bronze: Alexandre Bardenet & Roman Svichkar Semifinals: Reizlin b. Bardenet 15-10 Anokhin b. Svichkar 15-8 Gold Medal Match: Reizlin b. Anokhin 11-10  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/385

Women's Individual Sabre (Orleans, FRA) Final Results Gold: Manon Brunet Silver: Olga Nikitina Bronze: Shao Yaqi & Olga Kharlan Semifinals: Nikitina b. Shao 15-11 Brunet b. Kharlan 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Brunet b. Nikitina 15-12  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/467

Women's Individual Foil (Cairo, EGY) Final Results Gold: Arianna Errigo Silver: Shi Yue Bronze: Elisa Di Francisca & Ysaora Thibus Semifinals: Shi b. Di Francisca 15-11 Errigo b. Thibus 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Errigo b. Shi 15-6  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2020/125

and for Volpi and the sabre specialists, the season opened like the previous one ended...in a total disaster... Volpi was clearly defeated (15-10) in today's round of 64 by Harvey, most sabre specialists (among them, Gregorio and Vecchi, the supposed no. 1 & 2 of our team) were also eliminated very early in today's competition (by fencers well behind them in the WR), with the best 2 (Criscio and Battiston) only making the top 16... let's see if someone among the survivors can somehow save the day... add this to the skiing and luge results...and it looks a pretty depressing day for the Italian sport...

because among the starters there were the 3 German stars of the last 10 years... the other placings (and the other races apart for the women's) were almost always subject to the weather lottery and heavily influenced (falsed) by that...

I don't know why they are always obsessed with Igls opening the season so early... places like this and the German track should only be used for official competition in January...that's the only month of the year cold enough on average not to risk having lottery races (like it always happens in this period of the year)... p.s. and no matter how weather conditions are...I'm really disappointed with the Italian riders so far (waiting for Nagl/Malleier to save the day, which in any case is highly unlikely)...

p.s. good luck for the situation in your Country... I hope everything gets fixed in a good manner quickly and nobody (other than those unfortunately already have) gets hurt anymore...

usual Igls result...those starting early had a big track advantage... and many girls made big driving mistakes here and there (Voetter managed to completely mess up the start, just to make an example)... overall, not a good 1st run for Russia and Germany (despite Tiebel's being currently in 2nd place) in particular... however, this women's world cup season announces itself to be quite interesting (at least on the tracks outside Germany...on their races, I expect also girls like Taubitz and Tiebel on top of the rankings...

Love that! of course Palmeiras is also my favourite Brazilian team, as they are closely related to the Italian community (the team was founded by the Italians)...

Grand Slam (Osaka, JPN) Day #2 Recap and if yesterday Amandine Bouchard was the hero of the day for the rest of the world, avoiding the Home Nation's clean sweep of Gold Medals, today nothing could stop Japan from winning all 4 the Gold Medals up for grabs. Masashi Ebinuma (-73kg) plus Takanori Nagase (-81kg) among the men and Masako Doi (-63kg) plus Yoko Ono (-70kg) among the women are today's champions in Osaka. Moreover, not happy with this amazing superiority, Japan added to their Gold medals also 3 out of 4 Silver and in the women's -63kg class they had a true clean sweep of that weight category, taking all 4 medals. The best of the rest, therefore, was Kim Polling, who was the only non-Japanese fighter reaching a Gold medal match (women's -70kg), where unfortunately she lost to Yoko Ono by a strangle technique in the Golden Score period... Full Results, here: http://www.ippon.org/gs_jpn2019.php

it's quite obvious that I was joking about @Laraja being a fan of another Brazilian team wishing FLA all the worst... p.s. but now I'm curious...which team might it be?

mmmmh...someone from Brazil shouting "go River!" am I missing something?

mmmmh...someone from Brazil shouting "go River!" am I missing something?

@MHSN Today Saei Mollaei made his official comeback on the World Tour after the messy end of the 2019 Worlds in Tokyo... of course, he competed in his own -81kg class under the IJF patronage... he did look in decent, but not perfect shape...but he still managed to win his first 2 bouts against Emmanuel Lucenti (ippon) and Lee Sung Ho (hansoku-make), before losing the pool final against Sotaro Fujiwara (ippon) and the repechage round against Frank De Wit (ippon at the golden score)...