phelps

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...

by the way, the day has just finished in Lisbon...and we finally have the men's kumite -75kg results, despite the stream stopped working 2 hours ago... Men's Individual Kumite, -75kg Gold Medal Match: Luigi Busà vs Bahman Askari Bronze Medal Match #1: Zhangbyr Beybarys vs Abdalla Abdelaziz Bronze Medal Match #2: Stanislav Horuna vs Karoly Gabor Harspataki

I can only imagine something related to a late injury or covid... I don't think she missed this week's event intentionally, even if she had quite a few chances to qualify via ranking and it might be that she's already focusing on the Paris repechage tournament...

pretty disappointing day for Italy...the only good news is Samdan's loss in the early rounds, which makes Angelo Crescenzo the gift of the Olympic qualification without too much pressure on him at the upcoming Euro Champs... now let's hope tomorrow to see the right combination of results in the women's -68kg, so to add also Silvia Semeraro to our list of qualified athletes...

Day #1 Recap Women's Individual Kata Gold Medal Match: Hikaru Ono vs Grace Sheung Lau Mo Bronze Medal Match #1: Dilara Bozan vs Veronika Miskova Bronze Medal Match #2: Sakura Kokumai vs Lidia Rodriguez Encabo Men's Team Kata Gold Medal Match: Italy vs Turkey Bronze Medal Match #1: Spain vs Kuwait Bronze Medal Match #2: Azerbaijan vs :Egypt Women's Individual Kumite, -50kg Gold Medal Match: Moldir Zhangbyrbay vs Junna Tsukii Bronze Medal Match #1: Li Ranran vs Miho Miyahara Bronze Medal Match #2: Alexandra Recchia vs Sara Bahmanyar Women's Individual Kumite, -55kg Gold Medal Match: Yassmin Attia vs Anzhelika Terliuga Bronze Medal Match #1: Tuba Yakan vs Veronica Brunori Bronze Medal Match #2: Jana Messerschmidt vs Sara Cardin Men's Individual Kumite, -60kg Gold Medal Match: Kalvis Kalnins vs Kaisar Alpysbair Bronze Medal Match #1: Karime Aboeitta vs Angelo Crescenzo Bronze Medal Match #2: Darkhan Assadilov vs Luca Spitz Men's Individual Kumite, -67kg Gold Medal Match: Abdel Rahman Almasatfa vs Steven Dacosta Bronze Medal Match #1: Burak Uygur vs Sultan Alzahrani Bronze Medal Match #2: Alì Elsawy vs Muratcan Deniz p.s. men's kumite -75kg not completed yet, results coming soon...

hypocrisy at its best, then... they still allow people to go to the local baseball games (even if only at 10 to 50% of seating capacity, depending on the city where they play) and they want to stop people from going to watch the Olympic events? mah... frankly, I'm a bit tired of all this "ideas" going against all the logics and everything they're doing right now in the world (and in Japan) with all the sports...

since I could only pick 1 sport, I went with Swimming, but to be honest, a multiple choice poll would have been more accurate, as I love also Rowing, Canoeing (especially the Slalom events) and Sailing (especially the windsurfing class)... on the other hand, I'm not a big fan of either Diving and Surf, even if I could enjoy the highest level of competition and the fight for the medals in both disciplines... meanwhile having Artistic Swimming under the category sport, it's just a farce, an insult to the true sports...that's just an entertaining (for some people, at least) artistic activity that has nothing to do with a competition and any objective judging criteria...it should be removed from the Olympics immediately...actually, it should have never been named an olympic discipline...

just watched the decisive game #7 of the final of the Czech 2nd tier league (Chance Liga)... and the amazing Jaromir Jagr (49 years young) is still there on the ice, bringing his team (Rytìři Kladno) in the top division of Czech Ice Hockey for the next season... I have no more words for the great Jaromir... p.s. Jagr is also the owner of the team of his native town...

https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/venues/ some of them, also have their very own website...maybe there you can find more photos... this is the Yokohama Baseball Stadium, for instance... https://www.yokohama-stadium.co.jp/ also google could be a good source...just type the name of the venue + pictures and enjoy...

well, not so quickly, maybe... but his bone cancer was well known since the beginning, in the early months of 2020... and with that type of cancer, the prognosis very rarely is good, unfortunately... however, I'm still devastated by the news...

normally, Motorsports classes are "open", too...

Skeet event in Barcelona 1992: Olympic Champion, a Chinese woman (Zhang Shan)... after that, ISSF decided to launch the women's only events and end the "open" era...

in Wintersports, Natural Track Luge doubles are an "open" competition (and has already happened that a few actual pairs were male + female* even at the highest level -talking of world championships)... *the last one, it was Slovenia 3/4 years ago, if I remember well (but the Country might be wrong, I should check)...

not following the discipline at all, but from what I read, I fear this will be a one-team show... so, I also voted for France...

KHL, Finals, Game #6 Avangard wins Gagarin Cup 2020/201 Two years ago, as CSKA advanced on its first ever Gagarin Cup win, Sergei Tolchinsky found himself out of favour with the Army Men. As the playoffs started, the former Carolina Hurricanes forward was serving with CSKA’s farm club in the VHL. Today, the 26-year-old delivered his revenge with a vital goal as his new club, Avangard, defeated the team where he learned the game and lifted the Gagarin Cup for the first time. Wednesday’s hard-fought victory saw Bob Hartley and his team avenge the loss they endured two years ago against CSKA. It’s been a longer wait than usual: although these are back-to-back finals, the 2020 campaign was lost to the pandemic, meaning Omsk had two years to wait before getting back to the final and, at last, winning the title. It’s longer still since 2012, when the Hawks led 3-1 against Dynamo Moscow in that year’s final, only for Oleg Znarok’s team to fight back and deliver a first major trophy for their coach. And it’s close to two decades since Avangard was last crowned champion of Russia after winning the Superleague in 2004. Tolchinsky’s goal late in the first period separated the teams. It also cemented his position as Avangard’s leading scorer in the playoffs and put him dead level with CSKA’s Konstantin Okulov in the overall post season scoring race. The two players had identical records — 6 goals, 14 assists, 20 points — although Okulov played two games fewer. CSKA welcomed back the top goalscorer in the playoffs, Maxim Shalunov. He missed game five through suspension but was available again tonight to replace Nikita Soshnikov. Shalunov was banned after a foul on Andrei Stas, who also returned to action after missing game. Youngster Yegor Chinakhov missed out for the first time in the final. One of the striking things about this year’s final has been the change in CSKA’s style. In the regular season, typically, the Army Men got on top of the opposition not by firing in a relentless barrage of shots but by calmly and carefully probing until they fashioned a clear cut shooting opportunity. However, in the face of Avangard’s hugely disciplined defense — something that has gotten stronger throughout the series — things have had to change. Suddenly, Igor Nikitin’s team is showing greater readiness to shoot pucks at the net as often as possible, while the Hawks are seeing a sharp uptick in the number of blocked shots. That was certainly the tale of the first period. In terms of saves, the teams were almost equal — 11 stops for Simon Hrubec, nine for Lars Johansson. In terms of attempts, CSKA had 25 against 15 for Avangard. The home team blocked 10 shots in that opening frame as the visitor looked to save the series with the help of a fusillade on the home net. However, the tactic did not pay off. Neither team managed to create a really big chance in the opening frame and then, just before the intermission, Avangard found a way to get in front. Oliwer Kaski darted around the back of Johansson’s net and fed the puck to Sergei Tolchinsky just beyond the right-hand circle. The former CSKA man fired in a shot which deflected off Sergei Andronov’s stick, deceiving Johansson and giving Avangard the lead. CSKA almost tied it up right away in the second. Mat Robinson saw a chance to abandon his defensive duties and surged down the right-hand channel, only to see his shot ding the iron and bounce to safety. It was as close as anyone came to scoring in the middle frame as tensions rose and chances were harder and harder to come by. Ilya Kovalchuk almost fashioned a breakthrough when he stole the puck from Mario Kempe and created a chance on the slot, but CSKA survived. With the home crowd roaring its approval of every successful Avangard play — be it a pass, a hit, a clearance or a shot — the home team created more in the third. After CSKA again made a lively start, the Hawks responded with some clear-cut chances of their own. Alexander Khokhlachyov almost converted a three-man rush before Maxim Goncharov hit the frame of the net as the defenseman rushed forward in a manner reminiscent of Robinson’s earlier attempt. There was another anxious moment when Alexei Bereglazov’s deflected point shot dribbled wide of the net, just slipping away from the outstretched stick of a home forward ready to steer it into an unguarded net. CSKA also had its chances, with Hrubec relieved to see a shot flash narrowly wide only to watch on as two quick penalties reduced his team to three skaters. Denis Zernov and Ville Pokka offended the officials just 12 seconds apart; with 4:22 on the clock, Avangard had a huge penalty to kill and the Army Men had one last, golden chance to save the game and the season. However, this was Damir Sharipzyanov’s moment. In recent games the D-man grabbed the headlines for his scoring prowess; here he showed his mettle at the other end of the ice. Three blocked shots in quick succession meant more than a minute of that two-man advantage elapsed without Hrubec having to make a save. Nikitin called a time-out, looking to calm his troops and plot the play that would finally unlock this defense. It almost worked, but Hrubec pulled off one last big save to keep his goal intact. Once Avangard returned to full strength, the clock was firmly in its favor. The Hawks successfully shut down the remaining couple of minutes before the final hooter sparked wild celebrations in the arena in Balashikha and back home in Siberia where many fans were waiting up as the clock ticked past midnight, anxiously rooting for their team. Credits: http://en.khl.ru Avangard Omsk - CSKA Moscow 1-0 (series score: 4-2) Game #6 stats: https://en.khl.ru/game/1046/877124/protocol/ Highlights:

yes...those who show up are always right and deserve to take advantage of their commitment, absents are always wrong and deserve to lose their privilege...

Nobody will ever convince me that men and women have comparable physical skills on average...in 1500, in 2021, in 2250... that's why they shouldn't compete against each other, even in sports with a net separating them and not having a true physical contact between them... there could always be very few exceptions (which normally are used to justify the existence of that specific event), but normally women just don't have the same strenght, speed and endurance of an equally trained man... that's why they shouldn't compete against each other, not for some obscure or antiquate reason...that must be clear... p.s. not saying that sometimes it might be fun to watch, but still, I don't think it's a good thing to have that kind of (normally unbalanced towards the male side) events...

Triathlon Relay and Archery competition are the only 2 "mixed gender" events that makes sense to me... so, I picked those 2 options... I know that mixed doubles in racket sports have a long tradition, but still I'm definitely not a fan, as I don't think men and women can/should play a "phisical" game directly against each other... the Judo, Swimming and Athletics farce...well, I hope they get cancelled as soon as possible...

Extraliga, Finals, Game #5 HC Oceláři Třinec are the Extraliga champions 2020/2021! Another undisputable home win by the Steelers completed the job and allowed them to start the party for their 3rd title, 2nd in a row... Liberec did never show to have any chance through the entire series, Třinec's superiority was clear from the start to the end of the series in any aspect of the game... HC Oceláři Třinec - Bílí Tygři Liberec 3-0 (series score: 4-1) Game #5 stats: https://hokej.cz/zapas/2894223 Highlights

KHL, Finals, Game #5 game 5 was nothing to be compared to game 4, but still an interesting match with a quite surprising outcome... 2 amazing counters in the second period (Damir Sharipzyanov and Reid Boucher, this one, once again, shorthanded) proved to be enough for the hosts to win the match and take the lead in the final series, with a chance tomorrow in game 6 to win the Gagarin Cup... Game #6 is scheduled for Tomorrow, April 28th, at 7.00 p.m. Moscow time (6.00 p.m. CET) in Balashikha (Avangard's home ice)... CSKA Moscow - Avangard Omsk 0-2 (series score: 2-3) Game #4 stats: https://en.khl.ru/game/1046/877139/protocol/ Highlights:

yes, since not all the continental champs will be held in each continent before the Games, they won't be used in any case for the Olympic Tornament's seed purpose... I think we can officially start to speculate on the matchups of the Olympic Tournament(s)...

anything but Gold for Italy would be a huge disappointment (even if light wind and flat sea could make a lot of damage to our sailors, but this is not what people expect from the Olympic Sailing area in Summer)... our main rivals should be the Australians... Bronze should go to GBR or ARG, I picked GBR this time... the rest of the crews would need a lot of luck (and unexpected weather conditions) to end up ahead of the top 4... all this, according to the results of the last 3/4 years in this class...

Updated after the Asian Qualification Tournament, as of April 26th, 2021

you'd be surprised to see how deep is the game... the main problem is that more or less every Country has its variation... the 2 main kind of bowls game (Petanque and Raffa) have a lot of Countries capable of shining at the world champs...

nothing... I don't even waste a vote for this...