phelps

she has to go around 2.08 "low" to get a medal...I don't know if she can really improve that much...

no, we already had our trials in December 2020 and in April this year... Pilato qualified immediately in December, then in April Carraro and Castiglioni had a direct match up at the Spring Nationals and Carraro won it by a few hundreds of a second... for Italy, this meet is not even qualifying for those who are still trying to get a ticket for Tokyo...the last chance event will be in Rome in a few weeks at the Settecolli meet...

Pencak Silat

Dennis Mitchell (her coach, for those who don't know) is cloning her at his image (far too histrionic for my taste...even if at least she has a nice smile)... I hope he's not also helping her with the same "medicines" he used to take by himself during his career...

in the women's 50m breaststroke heats, Benedetta Pilato, still quite angry from the 100m outcome (eliminated after the heats with the 3rd fastest time overall only because she was also the 3rd fastest Italian competitor over that distance), this morning decided to swim at her best and clocked 29.50, just 2 1/100s of a second outside Meilutyte's continental record and 10/100s outside Lilly King's world record...

as many already know imho many of the listed activities are not even to be considered "sports" and should all be thrown off the Games... Artistic Swimming, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, Park Skateboarding are just a few of them... and I'd happily get rid of quite a few other sports from the current schedule... but the poll is about 1 and only 1 sport to be removed...so, I picked the best "example" of non-sport activity (and the most boring to me)...Artistic Swimming, of course...

Mixed 10m Air Rifle: CHN and IND for gold, very open race for bronze...I'd have said HUN before the internal mess within their team, but now I picked CRO because I like Pejcic and Gorsa, but I'm sure there are a lot more contenders... Mixed 10m Air Pistol: CHN, IND and RUS are my picks, not necessarily in this order... Mixed Team Trap: SVK and ESP should be safe picks, then I also picked ITA, if the Rossi vs De Filippis* soap opera ends up with a different couple to shoot in this competition... *for those who don't know yet...they are married, but they are also separated since last year...and a few days ago, when she was chosen as 1 of our 2 flagbearer for the Tokyo Olympics, she said she doesn't want to shoot with her former (technically, not yet) husband in the mixed team event... no decision has been made yet, of course, as we don't even know if De Filippis will be in Tokyo...

by the way, on android systems, there's a nice NPO app, where you can catch up all the NPO programs of the last few days, live broadcast of the swimming ECHs included (I can watch it from Italy even without a VPN...last week I followed the Field Hockey Finals of the men's Hoofdklasse between Bloemendal and Kampong )... p.s. I found also the rest of yesterday's women's 100m Backstroke #1: 5. Wild, 59.82 6. Fesikova and De Waard, 1.00.33 8. Hansson, 1.02.29

only the top 4... 1. Dawson, 58.18 2. Toussaint, 59.02 3. Kameneva, 59.13 4. Panziera, 59.65

this is the worst Canadian team since the 19th Century, I fear... by the way, first ever win for "modern" Latvia against Canada...

yeah, also Rowing uses this terminology to describe their para-events...

they quickly fixed that... by the way, I just can't believe what happened in the 1st period between ITA and GER... maybe we can avoid a few humiliating scores, at least (not against CAN and FIN, though)...

I'm opting for the mercy mode... no Italy, only Zaruba shouting at his beloved Czechs on CT Sport HD on TV...

it was really needed after Canoe's flop earlier this morning...

yes! mission accomplished!

it looks promising for Italy, but I don't believe it until I see our guy passing the finish line... but 52 sec marging is quite something...

no pay, but you need a Portuguese VPN (free stuff like Hola works perfectly)... https://www.rtp.pt/play/direto/rtp2

I'm truly disgusted! Schera (men's K1 1000m) was really unlucky...leading the race for 990 meters in adverse conditions (the top lanes were clearly more under the influence of the strong wind than the lower ones) and being overtaken just on the finish line like that is really, really painful... Fantini (women's 500m) was chanceless from the beginning, I'm even asking myself why wasting money to send not competitive people like our women to this kind of events... Tacchini (men's C1 1000m)...well, he's one of the biggest waste of talent in the Italian sport in the last 10 years...even if I shouldn't be surprised by the fact that our "C" specialists got worse and worse since our federation hired for a second stint Oreste Perri as the head coach of our NT...he only "understand" and cares about Kayak...

gotta tell you, pal... for me, this year it's the lowest hype ever for both the world champs and the NHL playoffs (at least those first couple of rounds)... I just can't stand teams playing each other up to 16 times in 6 months...it gives me a sense of deja-vu, if not of true boredome...hope at least the semis and finals would wake me up as in the past...

I add the very few cents left in my wallet ( )... frustrated and angry man mode, on... I'd really like to torture and kill all the people in the world (and especially the trolls on this forum, which is supposed to be a sports' enthusiasts forum) who are against the Olympic Games (especially this year, but not only)... frustrated and angry man mode, off...

I don't know why yesterday my post wasn't recorded on this thread? so, I repeat myself tonight... W8+, I think it will be an all-English speaking non-European affair...USA on top and AUS, NZL (my picks) and maybe even Canada fighting for the remaining medals... M8+, here, instead, I think it will be an all-European affair, with GER on top and GBR and NED to follow (not necessarily in this exact order)...

I'd be really surprised to see someone not coming from USA and/or Australia on the podium... my picks are the 2 Americans and Gilmore...

if they were honest with themselves, they would see how the increase of covid cases has started when their Baseball season started... they should stop allowing spectators to go to the baseball games, rather than saying all those bullshit on the Olympics as a super-spreading event, when also the kids and the goats know that the athletes would be closed into a bubble without any sort of interaction with the local people and almost all of them would be vaccinated before travelling to Japan...

I'd be really shocked if the 3 girls on the podium are not Garnbret and the 2 Japanese climbers, Noguchi and Nonaka... by the way, the list as it stands, it's quite a mess...some athletes are listed with their full name, some with the Family name only and many also with the first name only...I think it should be fixed somehow...

Petra Zublasing, shooting... she did never recover from the 4th place in Rio and started to folow different interests in the last few years, so her recent results never matched the past ones and so she decided to give up professional shooting... as she's only 32, maybe she's gonna make up her minds in the next few years, but tbh, I don't think it's gonna happen (it was the same for her lifemate Niccolò Campriani, after he stopped his career after Rio 2016 at about the same age)...