phelps

may I say that, despite going to an always exciting game #7, these world series have been quite disappointing? basically, we didn't see a single really close game (not even game 1, despite the final score was just 5-4 in favour of the Nats)... sure, we had some outstanding performance here and there (Strasburg last night was just exceptional, Rendon is always someone to watch carefully), but the real show has been posted in the earlier rounds... for what concerns tonight, I only hope that game 7 would eventually make up for the other 6 and offers the most exciting hours of the season...

(until) Seoul 1988: the good old 5 judges, scoring bouts "like the pros"...the worst Olympic Boxing scandal ever... London 2012...the devilish scoring machines...the second worst Olympic Boxing scandal ever... Rio 2016...the latest scoring system (3 judges, scoring the bout on a 10-pt scale, like the pros)...just another oscenity... you can change the scoring system as many times as you want, but this is not the problem of boxing (and especially Olympic Boxing)... the real problem are the men in charge, who are always at least biased, when often not truly corrupted... until there is a single man coming from the old establishment, there's no way we're going to have a clean boxing tournament at the Olympics...

yeah...I love them, too...but...between sports and movies/tv series I already have 7/8 of them (paid, not counting those I can cheat and get for free when I'm not supposed to)... frankly, I'm just on the edge of going too much further...only the idea of having my beloved content even more fractioned between thousand of streaming services is driving me sick...it's not that I can grab money from the trees in the garden in front of my house...

thanks... but I have to manage too much baseball and hockey in this period of the year... and I have to cope with an awful internet provider, too...today I was left without connection for the entire afternoon... p.s. moreover...at the moment, hotstar is not available in Europe because of this new stupid GDPR rule voted by the European Union...

considering that we're talking of the WBSC, we're already very lucky to have a good streaming/tv coverage for their events... intros and things like that are the last of my concerns about Fraccari and his Federation...

great goal indeed... Rögle so far are the biggest surprise in the SHL...they are 2nd in the standings and they play a quite entertaining hockey... I definitely didn't expect them to be so competitive before the season started... on the other side, seeing Linköping and Växjö in the bottom 3 places of the SHL (despite losing important pieces of their respective puzzle to the NHL and other European leagues in the last couple of seasons) is also a big surprise, but definitely a negative one...

if all 4 top european teams qualify the whole package, then Carlos Llavador in men's Foil should be one of the individual qualifiers (at the moment, he and Kruse are surely the best fencers in our continent outside ITA, FRA, RUS and GER)... then, there are a couple of big "if"... Yulen Pereira has the chance to achieve the qualification in men's Epee, but here the contenders are so many and especially in this weapon it's everything so close that you can never be sure to end up on top of any tournament... and finally, I wouldn't call the women's sabre specialists out before the end of the qualification race...if all the top European teams/fencers qualify earlier, then at the final tournament, one of them could grab an Olympic spot with a bit of luck... at the same time, I don't see any chance for any team, even the men's epee (despite some good results in the recent past, there are too few places available and too many very good teams already ahead of them)...

WBSC unveils TV opening for Premier12 With only four days until the world’s best compete in the Global Baseball Battle, the World Baseball Softball Confederation unveiled the official TV opening for the 2019 WBSC Premier12. Set to ‘Heroic Charge’, a dynamic piece by Australian composer Bryce Jacobs, the titles will feature in all 32 Premier12 games, and reach millions of viewers worldwide. The titles incorporate the Premier12 trophy, logos of the top 12 ranked baseball nations in the world, as well as iconic Premier12 moments, projected on to this year’s venues, including Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, Estadio de Béisbol Charros de Jalisco, Gocheok Sky Dome and the Tokyo Dome. The opening sequence was directed by the WBSC Media and Marketing Departments, and produced by WORKS Ltd, the Leeds-based branding experts who have rolled out the look for some of sport's biggest global events, including the FIFA World Cup. The inaugural WBSC Premier12 generated $131 million USD in brand exposure, with a potential global broadcast reach of 253.7 million households. The most important international baseball competition in recent history, the flagship WBSC Premier12 will award two tickets to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, in addition to $5.2 million USD in prize money. Seoul (KOR), Taichung (TPE) and Guadalajara (MEX), will host opening round matches, with Super Round and medal games taking place in Chiba and Tokyo (JPN). The Netherlands and USA will open the Premier12 on 2 November in Guadalajara.

PUR vs KOR; CAN vs JPN to feature in live-streamed Premier12 warm-up games World No. 1 Japan and reigning champion Korea will headline Premier12 warm-up games to be live-streamed by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) this week. Japan will battle No. 10 ranked Canada in Okinawa, Japan, while Korea go head-to-head with No. 11 ranked Puerto Rico at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Korea in the lead-up to the Premier12 which begins on 2 November. Japan face Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Chinese Taipei in Group B, while Korea take on Australia, Cuba and Canada in Group C. Every game of the 2019 Premier12 will be broadcast LIVE on the WBSC’s Youtube Channel, subject to geo-blocking. Fans in Korea can watch their team's games via SBS, the nation's public broadcaster. In Japan, TV Asahi and JSport will broadcast the 31 October game, while JSport and TBS will broadcast the game on 1 November. Canada vs Japan Okinawa Cellular Stadium 31 October, 19:00 JST WATCH LIVE Japan vs Canada Okinawa Cellular Stadium 1 November, 19:00 JST WATCH LIVE Puerto Rico vs South Korea Gocheok Sky Dome 1 November, 19:00 KST WATCH LIVE Puerto Rico vs South Korea Gocheok Sky Dome 2 November, 17:00 KST WATCH LIVE

so, with the past weekend's events completed, the 2019 Satellite Circuit is over... from next week on, it's the real stuff...with the Olympic qualification well in sight! I just can't wait for it!

yeah, I was not referring to Egypt when I wrote about North Africa dominating the event, rather to the very good results, way better than usual, for the other Countries of that Region (I mean, all the North African Nations, except for LBA, won at least 1 Gold and more than 1 medal, which is quite unusual to see in the other sports)... and of course I agree on anything else...

from the official rules of field hockey, as on the FIH website... A penalty stroke is awarded: a) for an offence by a defender in the circle which prevents the probable scoring of a goal If the ball hits a piece of equipment lying in the circle and a probable goal is prevented, a penalty stroke may be awarded. I don't think this was the case, though... I still think they took a wrong decision..

if the CBC doesn't work in your Country, this should do it... https://fih.live/view/event/80660

weird edition of the Youth Worlds, to say the least... competitions held in an anything but safe environment, media coverage cut down to the basic result lists, many powerhouses not participating at all (Japan, Iran and not only them), some other supposed "big houses" being there with small delegations (Italy among them, missing entire classes, especially in Kumite)... and, unique situation rather than rare, North African Countries totally dominating the field, with Egypt clearly on top of the overall medal table (7 Gold, 4 Silver and 8 Bronze medals for them)... hopefully, it will be better the next time...

and here we have the last couple of Medal sets decided... women's Cadet & Junior Team Kata Gold: Spain Silver: Egypt Bronze: Turkey & France men's Cadet & Junior Team Kata Gold: Egypt Silver: United States Bronze: France & Spain

so, apparently there are only 2 events left: the Gold Medal matches in the Cadet & Junior Team Kata competitions... hope to get the final results soon (the live scoring system seem to have stopped working right now...at least for me)...

Day #5 Medallists Individual Kumite women's U-21, -50kg Gold: Niswa Ahmed Silver: Chaimae Elhayti Bronze: Rabia Elik & Yuliia Palashevska women's U-21, -55kg Gold: Valentina Toro Meneses Silver: Gulsen Demirturk Bronze: Anna Sokk & Ahlam Youssef women's U-21, -61kg Gold: Gwendoline Philippe Silver: Alessandra Mangiacapra Bronze: Fatima-Zahra Chajai & Diana Shostak women's U-21, -68kg Gold: Feryal Abdelaziz Silver: Victoria Isaeva Bronze: Danielle Van Wyk & Skylar Lingl women's U-21, +68kg Gold: Lucija Lesjak Silver: Lora Ziller Bronze: Sunita Khalimova & Nomis Rodriguez Marique

this is really the weirdest thing I've ever seen... and frankly, I refuse to name it a "sport"...

according to my quick calculation, based on this rankings, these should be the Lists of selected Climbers: women 01 Lucka Rakovec 02 Zhang Yue Tong 03 Fanny Gibert 04 Kim Ja In 05 Julia Chanourdie 06 Mia Krampl 07 Kyra Condie 08 Song Yi Ling 09 Sa Sol 10 Ashima Shiraishi 11 Aries Susanti Rahayu 12 Ievgeniia Kazbekova 13 Laura Rogora 14 Alanna Yip 15 Elnaz Rekabi 16 Aleksandra Kalucka 17 Sandra Lettner 18 Iuliia Kaplina 19 Oceania McKenzie 20 Elena Krasovskaia* *Cut-off at Rank #31 men 01 Adam Ondra 02 Pan Yu Fei 03 Jan Hojer 04 William Bosi 05 Sascha Lehmann 06 Manuel Cornu 07 Nikolai Yarilovets 08 Chon Jong Won 09 Alberto Ginès Lopez 10 Bassa Mawem 11 Yannick Flohè 12 Alfian Muhammad 13 Alberto Ghisolfi 14 Anze Peharc 15 Nathaniel Coleman 16 Sean Bailey 17 Jernej Kruder 18 Aleksei Rubtsov 19 Zhong Qi Xin 20 Marcello Bombardi* *Cut-off at Rank #31

Finally, the Lead Nations Cup was won by Japan with 1695 points, finishing ahead of Slovenia with 988 points and South Korea with 758 points... Full Ranking is here: https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?option=com_ifsc&view=dr&layout=calendar&Itemid=102#!type=nat_team_ranking&cup=19_wc&cat=1,2

Men's Lead World Cup Final Ranking 1st, Adam Ondra, 300.00 Pts 2nd, Alberto Ginès Lopez, 256.00 Pts 3rd, Sean McColl, 206.00 Pts 4th, Kai Harada, 195.00 Pts 5th, Stefano Ghisolfi, 190.00 Pts 6th, Hiroto Shimizu, 180.00 Pts =7th, Kokoro Fujii, 165.00 Pts =7th, Aleksander Megos, 165.00 Pts 9th, Sean Bailey, 158.00 Pts 10th, Sascha Lehmann, 152.00 Pts Full Ranking https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?option=com_ifsc&view=dr&layout=calendar&Itemid=102#!type=ranking&cat=ICC_M&cup=19_WC

Women's Lead World Cup Final Ranking 1st, Seo Chae Hyun, 480.00 Pts 2nd, Janja Garnbret, 352.00 Pts 3rd, Natsuki Tanii, 243.00 Pts 4th, Lucka Rakovec, 226.00 Pts 5th, Akiyo Noguchi, 224.00 Pts 6th, Ai Mori, 220.00 Pts 7th, Zhang Yue Tong, 207.00 Pts 8th, Kim Ja In, 206.00 Pts 9th, Mia Krampl, 189.00 Pts 10th, Jessica Pilz, 176.00 Pts Full Ranking https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?option=com_ifsc&view=dr&layout=calendar&Itemid=102#!type=ranking&cat=ICC_F&cup=19_WC

2019 Sport Climbing World Cup, Stage #12 (Inzai, JPN) Women's Lead Gold: Kim Ja In Silver: Janja Garnbret Bronze: Seo Chae Hyun Men's Lead Gold: Hiroto Shimizu Silver: Alberto Ginès Lopez Bronze: Stefano Ghisolfi

Stage #9, MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal (Peniche, POR) Gold: Caroline Marks Silver: Lakey Peterson Bronze: Carissa Moore & Tatiana Weston-Webb Full Ranking: https://www.worldsurfleague.com/events/2019/wct/2925/meo-rip-curl-pro-portugal/results?resultsType=prizes

Stage #8, Roxy Pro France (Capbreton/Hossegor/Seignosse, Landes, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, FRA) Gold: Carissa Moore Silver: Caroline Marks Bronze: Johanne Defay & Lakey Peterson Full Ranking: https://www.worldsurfleague.com/events/2019/wct/2922/roxy-pro-france/results?resultsType=prizes