phelps

oh, no...I'm so bad at predicting this kind of results that's better I limit myself to take notice of what actually happens on the mat... the only weight class I'm ready to put some money on, it's the men's Heavyweights...should one between Horne and Arkania not qualify through the OQR, then I'm pretty sure he would make it in Paris... by the way, I'm pretty sure France would eventually take a lot of quota places in Paris, even if some of their athletes are not exactly at the top of the current ranking... and all the Russians, despite being very low in the rankings, will be very dangerous...

for her it's gonna be very complicated...she has to hope that both Semeraro and Plank qualify at the Paris tournament (because she can't get up to places 6 or 7 of the whole OQR, even if she wins the next ECHs) and moreover, she has to collect a lot more points than Palacio Garcia at the upcoming european champs (and I'm not sure she can even overtake the Spanish girl -we have to make calculations of how many points the 2 girls scored in Lisbon and then take into consideration how many points they both could score in Porec), so, in such case, she has to hope that also Palacio qualifies via the Paris OQT... basically, right now she's the 4th in line for one single place...but, as @MHSN wrote, everything could change after the Paris tournament...and not only because some European athletes could make some spots free, but also because those from other continents could change the whole perspective of which weight class would eventually be available as a repechage spot for the European fighters... frankly, WKF made this qualification process a real mess...and it's very difficult make previews and predictions because one single event in one continent reflects over the whole world...

@hckošice I leave it up to you to report from the Slovakian Extraliga Final Series...

DEL, Finals, Game #1 More final series around Europe... Today it was the time for the German DEL to start their final act (which is only a best-of-3 series, so, it's gonna be fast and furious...and we'll know the name of the Champions already on Wednesday or at latest on Friday)... This year's showdown is between Eisbären Berlin and Grizzlys Wolfsburg... The guys from the Capital have the home field advantage thanks to a better finish in the regular season, but Wolfsburg didn't waste any time and overturned that already in game #1, taking a big win on the road in OT after a very tough battle and crazy last 5 mins, where most things happened (a 6-on-5 equalizer by Berlin with only 38 seconds to play included)... The game winning goal came after 77:59 minutes of play thanks to Julian Melchiori. Game #2 is scheduled for next Wednesday, May 5th at 7.15 p.m. local time (CET) in Wolfsburg. Eisbären Berlin - Grizzlys Wolfsburg 2-3 after OT (series score: 0-1) Game #1 stats: https://www.penny-del.org/event/eisbaeren-berlin-grizzlys-wolfsburg/7436 Highlights: https://www.magentasport.de/event/eisbaeren-berlin-grizzlys-wolfsburg/690464/289543 Full Game Replay: https://www.magentasport.de/event/eisbaeren-berlin-grizzlys-wolfsburg/690464/289347

K1PL Lisbon 2021, Medallists Recap Women's Individual Kata Gold: Hikaru Ono Silver: Grace Sheung Lau Mo Bronze #1: Dilara Bozan Bronze #2: Lidia Rodriguez Encabo Men's Individual Kata Gold: Enes Ozdemir Silver: Yuki Ujihara Bronze #1: Alì Sofuoglu Bronze #2: Kazumasa Moto Women's Team Kata Gold: Spain Silver: Italy Bronze #1: Egypt Bronze #2: Spain "B" Men's Team Kata Gold: Turkey Silver: Italy Bronze #1: Spain Bronze #2: Azerbaijan Women's Individual Kumite, -50kg Gold: Junna Tsukii Silver: Moldir Zhangbyrbay Bronze #1: Miho Miyahara Bronze #2: Alexandra Recchia Women's Individual Kumite, -55kg Gold: Anzhelika Terliuga Silver: Yassmin Attia Bronze #1: Tuba Yakan Bronze #2: Jana Messerschmidt Women's Individual Kumite, -61kg Gold: Jovana Prekovic Silver: Giana Lofty Bronze #1: Leila Heurtault Bronze #2: Merve Coban Women's Individual Kumite, -68kg Gold: Gong Li Silver: Elena Quirici Bronze #1: Feryal Abdelaziz Bronze #2: Marina Rakovic Women's Individual Kumite, +68kg Gold: Meltem Hocaoglu Akyol Silver: Maria Torres Garcia Bronze #1: Laura Palacio Gonzalez Bronze #2: Hamideh Abbasali Men's Individual Kumite, -60kg Gold: Kaisar Alpysbair Silver: Kalvis Kalnins Bronze #1: Angelo Crescenzo Bronze #2: Darkhan Assadilov Men's Individual Kumite, -67kg Gold: Steven Dacosta Silver: Abdel Rahman Almasatfa Bronze #1: Alì Elsawy Bronze #2: Burak Uygur Men's Individual Kumite, -75kg Gold: Luigi Busà Silver: Bahman Askari Bronze #1: Abdalla Abdelaziz Bronze #2: Stanislav Horuna Men's Individual Kumite, -84kg Gold: Zabihollah Poorshab Silver: Ryutaro Araga Bronze #1: Farouk Abdesselem Bronze #2: Ugur Aktas Men's Individual Kumite, +84kg Gold: Gogita Arkania Silver: Asiman Gurbanli Bronze #1: Jonathan Horne Bronze #2: Sajad Ganjzadeh

she still has the final tournament in Paris...even if it's gonna be a very crowded event with many talented girls aiming for the very few spots...

in Europe, among the women, Semeraro or Plank... currently the Austrian has the edge (she's 7th in her category and 50kg are easier than -68kg, where Semeraro is 8th and she can't be better than 6th by my calculation, if not even only 7th...even by winning the European Champs)... but I fear it also depends on who qualify in the other continents... it's still early to say, it's a very complicated puzzle to be completed... among the men, if he doesn't qualify by ranking, Ivan Kvesic is clearly the best among the eligible athletes, then, if he does qualify through the OQR, it's a quiestion between Kalnins and Gurbanli... but once again, we need to wait and see who get the spots in the other continents, because Europe is the last to make their calls...

no way...rather, they should scratch synchro diving from the olympic schedule (4 gifted gold medals to China, with no real competition, unless they make some improbable mistake)...

after yesterday, I'm more and more convinced that our girls can only lose the gold medal by themselves... Egonu at the moment is just on another planet...they can't waste such talent, such kind of opportunity...

don't forget they have some chances also in men's Handball, Shooting (men's skeet, men and women's 3-position rifle), Rowing (men's 1X and L2X), the Ingebritsens in Athletics and maybe even men's Triathlon and Sailing... of course they won't get all those medals, but I'm sure they will do a lot better than in Rio...

well, it's already 12 different sports...if they get 3/4 gold medals in Track Cycling, 2/3 in Rowing and a couple in Taekwondo and Equestrianism + 1 each in all the others, they're already close to 20...

Boxing (Eurmir Marcial, men's Middleweights...he's really among the favourites)... but they have outside shots also in Karate (women's kumite -55kg) and Gymnastics (the already named Carlos Yulo)...

Day #2 Recap Men's Individual Kata Gold Medal Match: Yuki Ujihara vs Enes Ozdemir Bronze Medal Match #1: Alì Sofuoglu vs Emre Vefa Goktas Bronze Medal Match #2: Kazumasa Moto vs Ariel Torres Gutierrez Women's Team Kata Gold Medal Match: Italy vs Spain "A" Bronze Medal Match #1: Egypt vs Spain "C" Bronze Medal Match #2: Slovakia vs Spain "B" Women's Individual Kumite, -61kg Gold Medal Match: Giana Lofty vs Jovana Prekovic Bronze Medal Match #1: Leila Heurtault vs Mayumi Someya Bronze Medal Match #2: Merve Coban vs Rozita Alipour Women's Individual Kumite, -68kg Gold Medal Match: Elena Quirici vs Gong Li Bronze Medal Match #1: Halyna Melnyk vs Marina Rakovic Bronze Medal Match #2: Feryal Abdelaziz vs Alizèe Agier Women's Individual Kumite, +68kg Gold Medal Match: Meltem Hocaoglu Akyol vs Maria Torres Garcia Bronze Medal Match #1: Eleni Chatziliadou vs Hamideh Abbasali Bronze Medal Match #2: Laura Palacio Gonzalez vs Anastasiya Stepashko Men's Individual Kumite, -84kg Gold Medal Match: Zabiollah Poorshab vs Ryutaro Araga Bronze Medal Match #1: Ugur Aktas vs Kenji Grillon Bronze Medal Match #2: Farouk Abdesselem vs Andrii Toroshanko Men's Individual Kumite, +84kg Gold Medal Match: Gogita Arkania vs Asiman Gurbanli Bronze Medal Match #1: Sajad Ganjzadeh vs Mehdi Filali Bronze Medal Match #2: Jonathan Horne vs Ryzvan Talibov

Ferracuti is out in any case...we want Semeraro to qualify (I don't know why she didn't compete today, she was in Lisbon...I hope she didn't injured herself in the hours just before today's event)...

if only I was living alone...

I suggest training a bit by following some US Sports in the middle of the European nights...

Track Cycling, Rowing, Sailing, Athletics, Swimming, Gymnastics, women's 3-position rifle, Equestrian, Triathlon, Boxing, Taekwondo, Canoeing...they have a lot of Gold medal chances...remember how many medals they won in Beijing, London and Rio... maybe they're going to lose something, but not going back to the old days of Atlanta (and not even those days of Sydney and Athens)... I think GBR and JPN would eventually fight for the places 3 through 5 of the medal table (together with Russia...I refuse to name that farce, ROC)...

well, it all depends on Judo and women's Wrestling...they could easily win 11/12 gold medals between those 2 sports... and then the 20 Gold medal target is not a dreamy one...add something in Softball, Baseball, Gymnastics, Trampoline, Karate (at least the 2 Kata events), Skateboarding (women's Park is a locked Gold), the 2 men's Race Walking events in Athletics, maybe something in Archery and Sailing (both 470 classes)... I mean, it might be extremely optimistic, but it's not totally out of order (if everything works in their favor)...

SHL, Finals, Game #1 The first game of the SHL ended with a win by the home team, despite the hosts started strong and looked in control of the situation in the first period. But a slight defensive blackout was enough to give up the leading goal to Richard Gynge. The second period was the exact opposite of the first, with the home team dominating the game, but giving away the tying goal to Rögle 1 minute before the second interval. The third period was the closest one, with the fear of losing the match dominating the atmosphere. However, the Lakers at least tried a bit more to establish their supremacy, and finally scored the game winner with about 10 mins still to be played thanks to Pontus Holmberg... Rögle's reaction wasn't enough to tie the game once more, thanks also to the good performance by their goalie, Erik Källgren. Game #2 is scheduled for next Monday, May 3rd at 8 p.m. local time (CET), once again in Växjö. Växjö Lakers HC - Rögle BK 2-1 (series score: 1-0) Game #1 stats: https://stats.swehockey.se/Game/Events/545490 Highlights: https://www.shl.se/play/video/122944?provider=staylive&autoplay=1

did you see the venue of the taekwondo european champs in Sofia a couple of weeks ago? (which will also host the taekwondo european olympic qualifier next week)... this hall looks a 5* place compared to a 1* of that Sofia hotel... or do you remember the Karate Premier League in Istanbul last month? by the way, it's not the first time they use some hotel hall for fencing tournaments...also more than a world cup stage (in different places around the world) have been held in such kind of environment...

Tomorrow, May 2nd 2021, the big Final of the men's Swedish League will be available worldwide with no geoblocking on SVT Play... SVT2's live broadcast is scheduled for 3 p.m. local time (CET), but it will also be available ondemand for about 6 months... p.s. take note that the previous event (Swedish Basketball) is geoblocked on their EPG, therefore if you tune in before the same EPG has switched to Floorball, you'd likely find a blocked screen...

sure they have some chances...but to me it would be a huge surprise if they really win the gold medal (actually, any winning team outside Brazil or Russia to me would be surprising, even Italy and Poland, who are next in line and ahead of France)...

Today it's time for the SHL to start their Final Series... @ 3.15 p.m. CET, Växjö Lakers HC and Rögle BK Ängelholm face each other in game #1... Växjö Lakers HC are playing their 3rd SHL Final Series and won the previous 2 in 2015 and 2018, meanwhile Rögle BK Ängelholm are playing their first showdown ever... Växjö Lakers HC finished on top of the standings in the regular season (102 points in 52 games, just 4 points ahead of Rögle BK, which ended up in second place), therefore they have the home ice advantage in the Final Series... the next 3 games are scheduled for May 3rd, 6th and 8th...if necessary, games 5 through 7 are set for May 10th, 13th and 15th respectively...

I hope this is the right time for Italy to make up for this historical bug, but I fear we will eventually end up with a medal of a different colour, as it often happened in the last 25 years or so... so, I just picked Brazil because I'm a bit superstitious when it comes down to the Italian sports teams...

the sweetest moment was in the end for Italy, as our star Luigi Busà cruised to the -75kg gold medal match... and it will be an instant classic between him and one of his main rivals, the reigning world champion Bahman Askari from Iran... can't wait till Sunday...