phelps

there are quite a few medal contenders...and it could be one of the closest competition of the Games... I only hope it won't end up in some kind of "political results"... my picks: Ferreira, Igarashi, Medina

as usual, it's almost impossible to make a good prediction without knowing the weather conditions in sailing (it's already complicated when we know that)... but my favourite for the gold medal in any case is the Chinese Yunxiu Liu... if we're gonna have strong wind and (relatively) big waves, De Geus could really be a strong contender, too... other contenders with rough sea are surely Noceti-Klepacka and maybe Marta Maggetti and Emma Wilson... with calm sea, Kathy Spychakov and Charline Picon should be Yunxiu's strongest competitors... making a good mix, my picks are Yunxiu, De Geus and Spychakov...

Super-Greg strikes again! Yesterday it was a sprint finish in the 5k, today he just destroyed the field with an amazing last k in the 10km...

she's just won my personal gold medal after I saw her hair in last Sunday's meet...

which means that if Dascalu makes it on his own and gives his U-23 spot to GBR, then it's basically certain that they can do the trick by selecting Pidcock for the road race... and they could even do that in any case by sacrificing another less competitive cyclist of a different discipline/event (thinking of some girls in road racing or MTB, if they are in qualifying position)... I definitely see Pidcock at the start of the Olympic MTB race...

well, he's not totally unknown here, too...even if it's more because he participated to a reality show for one of our thousends of commercial tv channels than because of his success on the mat...

are you sure? well, in this case, the road race would be only an escamotage, a fake start, abandoning after a few mins of "training"...

no, quota won at world champs/world cup are for the NOC...so, you might choose other shooters (the main problem is that you can only swap 1 quota between different events -and not between genders- so you still have to choose at least 1 rifle specialist that is clearly a 3rd choice behind the 2 misbehaving contenders)...

it looks like the Baldini vs Cassarà affair at the 2008 Fencing Europeans, when Baldini tested positive and immediately claimed he was framed by his rival Cassarà (at the time they were fighting for the second and last Italian spot in the Individual Foil in Beijing 2008, when no team event for that weapon was scheduled)... In the end, Baldini could demonstrate he didn't take any drug intentionally and a few months later it was even proved that he was someone from Cassarà's entourage that put the banned drug in Baldini's water bottle, but the damage was done, as Baldini was provisionally suspended and Cassarà went to the Beijing Olympics (where he miserably failed...because Karma is a bitch an so on)... ah...the good old glory days of 13+ years ago...when I was younger and healtier...

still, Pidcock could be selected for the road race and then he'd be entitled to participate also to the MTB race...

in men's K1 1000m the first 2 are qualified... you can see how many places in each event are available in post #6 in this same thread...

close to 0... looking at this morning's heats, DEN and BEL are a class apart...I'd be surprised if they don't fight for the top 2 places... in the men's C1 1000m, instead, I hope Tacchini would eventually show all of his talent, after wasting the last few seasons because of the idiotic policy of our federation, who forced him to waste time and energy in the age competitions all year long instead of focusing on the truly important senior events...

that's not the reason... the athletes simply refused to have a 15-day quarantine period before the training camp, the the camp itself and maybe another quarantine after voming home from Japan (which currently is the required procedure in many Countries)... if they accepted that situation, they would miss all the lucrative DL and Continental Tour meets scheduled before and after the training camp... the athletes and their federation (and especially the USTF) don't give a crap about the current Japanese situation since they have got their vaccination (all those who wanted) with the very effective Moderna or Pfizer vaccines and they wouldn't have any contact with the Japanese population in any case during that camp nor the Olympics...

74kg Gold: Dake (USA) Silver: whoever is not going to be in the same half of the draw with Dake between Chamizo (ITA) and Sidakov (RUS) Bronze: the remaining one between Chamizo and Sidakov in 1 half of the draw, then I picked Khadimagomedov (BLR) for the other Bronze, but only because he impressed me at the last OQT...the truth is that it's really open and most will depend on the draw... 86kg Gold: Taylor (USA) Silver: Yazdani (IRI) Bronze: the top 2 are just on a class of their own, the rest is just a lottery...I picked Ali Shabanau (BLR) and Naifonov (RUS) because of their pedigree, but once again it will depend mostly on the draw (they could well be on the same half and make my prediction impossible)...

not surprised at all...almost every Nation has or has recently had an Italian coach in shotgun... I think we have more high level Italian Fencing and/or Shotgun Shooting coaches abroad than in Italy... p.s. if the Italian coach & Slovak athlete cooperation works like in alpine skiing, it might be promising for Bartekova...

Softball medallists: USA and Japan are a locked Gold & Silver (or Silver & Gold)...I mean...they will play the Gold Medal match for sure, even if I think this time it might be too close to call who's gonna win between those 2 teams... then, I picked Canada to upset Australia for Bronze, even if on paper the Aussies should be the favourite for the last medal... about our Polls: my choice is for 1 daily poll...

SHL, Finals, Game #5 Växjö Lakers are the SHL 2021 Champions! In game #5 they beat once again Rögle coming from behind. The hosts in fact started very well, kept an high pace and scored the opening goal towards the end of the first period. In the second stint, however, the home team took control of the game and midway through the period found the game-tying goal thanks to guess who? Pontus Holmberg, obviously! who took advantage of a power play situation. At the beginning of the 3rd period, the decisive play happened. It was Fredrik Karlström that scored the game winner with a flashy counter that surprised the entire defense of the men in white & green. When Jack Drury added another goal to Växjö's total with less than 8 minutes to play, the game (and the season) was basically over. Rögle tried the desperate mode, playing without their goalie and using 6 men to attack, but it was quite easy for the home team to score more goals with the empty net. Finally, the final whistle was blown and the party started in Växjö. Game #5: Växjö Lakers - Rögle BK 6-2 (series score: 4-1) Game #5 stats: https://stats.swehockey.se/Game/Events/545494 Highlights: https://www.shl.se/play/video/123466?provider=staylive&autoplay=1

Växjö Lakers are the new Swedish Champions 2020/2021 they just won 6-2 in game #5 against Rögle BK and won the final series by a score of 4-1... more news, stats and highlights to come (likely tomorrow)...

well, in the Ninetis and the early 2000's we've been a true North American team, with generally at least 20 out of 23 players coming from USA and/or Canada, even if they all had strong Italian heritage... then, when most of the european leagues started to have more money to spend and ours lost the only 2 teams that could compete (economically more than technically) with the rest of Europe, things changed dramatically and we necessarily strted to play with more home grown boys (who earlier used to play in our 2nd tier league or in teams regularly stuck on the lower positions of the top tier league ranking)... maybe we got a bit more sympathetic to other Countries, but surely we went down at least 2 or 3 levels in our performance and frankly we have never been a true top division team anymore... and unfortunately I don't see how things can improve without going back to the North American material (with the different that nowadays the "Italian" guys are not that connected anymore to our Country, as they are at least the 3rd generation -if not more- born and raised in Canada and/or the USA -moreover, even if the guys from the past used to speak to each other in English, at least they knew the Italian language somehow...the guys of this generation can't even say "ciao" correctly anymore )...

naaaa, we don't have any good youngster to put in the squad... we need veterans with strong motivation to fight in every game to avoid big scores by our opponents...and this time I'm pretty sure they will give up playing after a period when they are already 5 or 6 goals down, which would result more often than not in humiliating double digit scores even against average opponents (with the risk of a 20+ goal defeat against teams like Russia, Sweden, Canada and so on)... we don't have a serious youth hockey program, our only hope is IIHF to propose once again to change the rules about team switching and this time accept the offer and try and get some decent resources from the North American leagues (we already did the mistake to refuse that chance in 2006, I hope it won't happen again before 2026)...

very surprised to see Hancock missing the vey last shot and miss the shootout against Mehelba (who actually did shoot very well and deserved the win, by the way)... not very happy with the results of the top Italian shooters, too... Rossetti missing the final, Bacosi as well and Cainero flopping in the last session was quite painful...hope it doesn't happen anymore when it really matters... p.s. Despite the good performance by Cassandro, I'm still convinced that we have to swap the 2nd men's skeet quota in favour of a 2nd men's Trap spot...

better for Italy to stay home... with no interest in playing hard to avoid relegation, it might well be a massacre after the other... hope covid would avoid us a series of humiliating scores...

Liiga, Finals, Game #3 Thanks to a goal in the 18th minute of the opening period and a couple of empty netters in the last couple of minutes of the final period, Lukko Rauma won the 3rd game of the Finnish Liiga Finals on the ice of TPS Turku and now they lead 2-1 in the series, with the chance to close things down and win the title in the next match, tomorrow. Game #4 is scheduled for Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 11th at 4 p.m. local time (3 p.m. CET) once again in Turku. Game #3: TPS Turku - Lukko Rauma 1-3 (series score: 1-2) Game #3 stats: https://liiga.fi/en/ottelut/2020-2021/playoffs/55523/seuranta/ Highlights: https://liiga.fi/en/ottelut/2020-2021/playoffs/55523/kooste/

SHL, Finals, Game #3 & #4 The 3rd chapter of the Swedish Finals' saga was likely the most insignificant and disappointing one so far... 2 quick goals by the home team did address the whole game early and also the Lakers' reaction wasn't that furious and convincing, therefore Rögle could easily take the win home and shorten the distance in the series... At the opposite, game #4 was played better by both teams and was also a lot closer then the previous one... Växjö took the lead after about 11 minutes and controlled the rest of the opening period, but in the second stint the home team did show that desperation we already saw at the beginning of game #3 and turned the score around with a pair of goals after only 33 seconds and then at 28th minute of play... But the hosts this time didn't give up and came back in the 3rd period, scoring the game-tying goal just 6 mins into the period. From that moment on, the game became more and more tactical, with both teams looking to not give the opponents any real chance to score another goal. Once again, the result of that attitude was to go to the OT. And once again, it didn't take long for Växjö to score the game winner, thanks to the usual suspect, Pontus Holmberg, who found the net after only 1 minute of the 1st OT, giving his team a 3-1 lead, aka the first "match point", in the SHL Finals. Game #5 is underway right now in Växjö (score: 1-0 for Rögle after 20 mins). Game #3: Rögle BK - Växjö Lakers 5-1 (series score: 1-2) Game #4: Rögle BK - Växjö Lakers 2-3 after OT (series score: 1-3) Game #3 stats: https://stats.swehockey.se/Game/Events/545492 Highlights: https://www.shl.se/play/video/123208?provider=staylive&autoplay=1 Game #4 stats: https://stats.swehockey.se/Game/Events/545493 Highlights: https://www.shl.se/play/video/123298?provider=staylive&autoplay=1

I'd rather turn my TV off than watching something like that... it's something good for those Japanese crazy TV shows like Takheshi's Castle...