phelps

2019 World Series Schedule game #1, Tuesday, October 22nd @ Houston (19.08 local time, h.02.08 CET on Wednesday) game #2, Wednesday, October 23rd @ Houston (19.07 local time, h.02.07 CET on Thursday) game #3, Friday, October 25th @ Washington (20.07 local time, h.02.07 CET on Saturday) game #4, Saturday, October 26th @ Washington (h.20.07 local time, h.02.07 CET on Sunday) game #5 (if necessary), Sunday, October 27th @ Washington (h.20.07 local time, h.01.07 CET on Monday*) game #6 (if necessary), Tuesday, October 29th @ Houston (h.19.07 local time, h.01.07 CET on Wednesday*) game #7 (if necessary), Wednesday, October 30th @ Houston (h.19.08 local time, h.01.08 CET on Thursday*) * = DST ends in Europe, meanwhile in the United States it ends on the following Saturday, November 2nd

AMERICAN LEAGUE POST-SEASON BRACKET Wild Card Game* League Division Series** League Championship Series*** A New York Yankees 3 Minnesota Twins 0 New York Yankees 2 Houston Astros 4 Tampa Bay Rays, 5 B Houston Astros 3 Oakland A's, 1 Tampa Bay Rays (AL WCG winners) 2 NATIONAL LEAGUE POST-SEASON BRACKET Wild Card Game League Division Series League Championship Series A Atlanta Braves 2 St.Louis Cardinals 3 St.Louis Cardinals 0 Washington Nationals 4 Milwaukee Brewers, 3 B Los Angeles Dodgers 2 Washington Nationals, 4 Washington Nationals (NL WCG winners) 3 * = Single Game Match-up ** = Best-of-5 Series *** = Best-of-7 Series WORLD SERIES (Best-of-7 Series) Houston Astros (AL Champions) vs Washington Nationals (NL Champions)

Altuve's walk-off homer sends Astros to Series The Astros weren’t built to win just one championship. Raising the trophy one time was never going to be good enough. You don’t endure three consecutive years of losing 100 games to rebuild into a juggernaut and get just one taste of champagne at the end of October. Perhaps that’s what drove the Astros to wash away last year’s heartbreaking playoff loss to the Red Sox and come roaring back to a club-record 107 wins. Maybe that’s why they remained laser-focused despite being tested by the Rays in the American League Division Series and never took anything for granted when they pushed the mighty Yankees to the brink of elimination in the AL Championship Series. And when Yankees first baseman DJ LeMahieu hit a stunning two-run homer in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the ALCS to tie the game, that simply set the stage for Josè Altuve -- the only Astros player who endured the three 100-loss seasons in a row -- to send the Astros back to the World Series. Altuve crushed an Aroldis Chapman slider and hit a towering walk-off two-run homer in the ninth inning to score George Springer for a 6-4 win over the Yankees in Game 6 on Saturday night at raucous Minute Maid Park. The Astros won the best-of-seven series, 4-2, to punch their ticket to the World Series for the second time in three seasons. “We're not going to the World Series because of me,” said Altuve, who was named the ALCS MVP after hitting .348 with two homers. “We're going to the World Series because of everybody inside of the clubhouse.“ The Astros will play host to Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park against the National League champion Washington Nationals, who overcame a 19-31 start to reach their first Fall Classic. Nearly eight months after the Astros and Nationals -- who share a Spring Training facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. -- began the season with an exhibition game, they will meet for the right to be called World Series champions. “We’ve said all along our goal was to win multiple championships,” Astros president of baseball operations and general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “We’re not there yet.” It’s the third time in five seasons the Astros have eliminated the Yanks, who battled with Houston for the best record in baseball all season before losing home-field advantage in the final week of the regular season. “I feel like we are on equal footing with them,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Unfortunately, sports can be a little bit cruel for the team that goes home and such can happen in the series.” The Astros, who have been headlined all season by their star-studded starting pitching, had to turn to their bullpen to try to finish off the Yanks, saving dominant ace Gerrit Cole for a possible Game 7 -- and in a perfect world -- Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday. The start of the game couldn’t have gone any better, with Brad Peacock using seven pitches to breeze through the first inning. Needing a hero, Yuli Gurriel -- 1-for-20 in the ALCS entering the game -- blasted a three-run homer to left in the bottom of the inning to give the Astros a 3-0 lead. Gary Sánchez answered with an RBI single off Peacock in the second. “It's nice when you take the lead, especially in an elimination game on the other side, it puts an immense amount of pressure on those guys,” Astros manager AJ Hinch said. “It wouldn't surprise me that Yuli was in the middle of it, because he's been mere feet away from being in the middle of virtually every good thing that's happened to us offensively in this series.” Now it was up to Houston’s bullpen. Could it hold the lead? Ryan Pressley bailed Josh James out of a bases-loaded jam in the third but not before reinjuring the right knee that caused him to have surgery in August. Wide-eyed rookie Josè Urquidy allowed a solo homer to Gio Urshela in the fourth but managed to hold the lead through 2 2/3 innings. “He was incredible tonight,” Hinch said of Urquidy. “What's hard for a young player is not really knowing what was going to happen or how he was going to be used. It probably would have been easier on him emotionally just to start the game and have the normal routine, and we weren't going to do that. And we told him we weren't sure if or when he was going to pitch, but the way the game was progressing and we went through a lot of pitching early, we don't win this game if Urquidy doesn't come in and get the outs that he did at the time in which he did to turn it over to the back end of the bullpen.” Then there was steady veteran Will Harris, who got the final out in the sixth and three more big ones in the seventh, with an unreal assist from left fielder Michael Brantley. He made a diving catch of an Aaron Hicks fly ball and doubled up Aaron Judge at first to end the inning and make Minute Maid Park erupt with noise. Joe Smith worked a scoreless eighth, getting another spectacular play -- an Altuve-to-Carlos Correa-to-Gurriel double play -- to end the inning, with Correa’s throw to first registering 94.5 mph by Statcast. Roberto Osuna gave up the two-run dinger to LeMahieu, but Houston’s bullpen day was a success. “Our bullpen, we all read what everybody writes that everybody we face has a better bullpen than us and to do it on a bullpen day [was sweet],” Smith said. “It took everybody out there, though.” From pitching to defense, the Astros were doing everything they had to do to overcome their offensive shortcomings in the series. They were two outs away from a tense win when LeMahieu socked his game-tying homer just over the glove of a leaping Springer. Minute Maid Park sat in stunned silence. “I knew that was gone,” Osuna said. “That was a terrible feeling. I felt terrible. When Altuve hit the homer, obviously I came back to life and pretty excited right now.” In the end, it worked out like it should have for the Astros. It was Altuve sending the rocket into the night. It was Altuve humbly rounding the bases and into a mass of teammates. It was Altuve that sent the Astros back to the Fall Classic. “You make sure the ball is gone before you celebrate,” he said. “Then I'm thinking, ‘We're going to the World Series.’” All Credits: MLB.com

Sofia Grand Prix Day #3, Medallists Recap men's -80kg Gold: Saleh Elsharabaty Silver: Seif Eissa Bronze: Moises Hernandez & Icaro Miguel Martins Soares women's -49kg Gold: Wu Jingyu Silver: Kim So-Hui Bronze: Tijana Bogdanovic & Wenren Yuntao

well, they all had some different features and a not 100% straight design whch made them more "tv-friendly"... this one is really like the Prague's unwatchable channel...basically, there's also no room for course setters to build varied and interesting routes without getting "dirty tricky", which will make the competitions less enjoyable and exciting... looking at the test event results (at least the heats), on a course like that, physically strong paddlers have quite the edge over the most technical ones...

so, Game #1 of the 2019 Japan Series is in the bag... in a packed Yafuoku! Dome in Fukuoka, women's heavyweights Judo World Champion Akira Sone threw the ceremonial first pitch and then, after the illusive solo HR by Abe in the top iof the second inning for the Tokyo Giants, it was all a home team show... when the Yo,iuri's starting pitcher Yamaguchi tired up a bit, the home team bats started to pile hits up and between the 6th and the 7th inning they opened the score up to 7-1. It was all over...and the last HR by the Giants in the 9th and final inning was just cosmetic...7-2 the final score for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in game #1, which means that now they lead the series 1-0... most notable players for the Home Team, left fielder/3rd baseman Gracial (hitting the 2-run HR that started it all for the Hawks in the second inning) and the starting pitcher Senga, with a dominant performance over 7 innings (only 3 hits and 1 earned run allowed, 5 K's)... here's the boxscore of Game #1 http://npb.jp/bis/eng/2019/games/s2019101901838.html game #2 is about to start (always in Fukuoka) in less than half an hour...

and since I'm crazy and these days I'm enjoying a Japanese IPTV with a 95 channels lineup to watch the finals of their Baseball league, this morning I've also noticed that NHK is broadcasting many events, included the Slalom Canoeing's... @hckosice tbh, it's a quite disappointing environment...it's just a straight concrete channel with plastic barriers on the side and a zig-zag course...it reminds me a lot the Prague channel, by far the least attractive in the regular Slalom Canoeing circuit... I already miss La Seu d'Urgell (not to mention the Natural River courses like the Noce River's or Bourg St.Maurice) so much... unfortunately, I just can't find any picture of today's races (and I can't take the Japanese Tv stream), but at least I found this video taken a couple of days ago during the training session before the test event heats started...

just found this interesting video featuring some points of the Olympic MTB CC circuit (pictures taken during the test event)...

Sofia Grand Prix Day #2, Medallists Recap men's +80kg Gold: Maicon Siqueira Silver: In Kyo-Don Bronze: Sun Hongyi & Ivan Sapina women's -67kg Gold: Ruth Gbagbi Silver: Lauren Williams Bronze: Julyana Al-Sadeq & Nur Tatar Askari women's +67kg Gold: Zheng Shuyin Silver: Bianca Walkden Bronze: Milica Mandic & Myeong Mi-Na

Men's Speed World Cup Final Ranking 1st, Bassa Mawem, 329.00 Pts 2nd, Vladislav Deulin, 312.00 Pts 3rd, Alfian Muhammad, 286.00 Pts 4th, Zhong Qi Xin, 285.00 Pts 5th, Dmitrii Timofeev, 283.00 Pts 6th, Reza Alipour, 236.00 Pts 7th, Sergey Rukin, 234.00 Pts 8th, Aleksandr Shikov, 203.00 Pts 9th, Kostiantyn Pavlenko, 181.00 Pts 10th, Jan Kriz, 162.00 Pts Full Ranking https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?option=com_ifsc&view=dr&layout=calendar&Itemid=102#!type=ranking&cat=ICC_MS&cup=19_WC

Women's Speed World Cup Final Ranking 1st, Song Yi Ling, 460.00 Pts 2nd, Anouck Jaubert, 355.00 Pts 3rd, Aries Susanti Rahayu, 333.00 Pts 4th, Elizaveta Ivanova, 261.00 Pts 5th, Niu Di, 201.00 Pts 6th, Anna Tsyganova, 197.00 Pts 7th, Aleksandra Kalucka, 194.00 Pts 8th, Patrycja Chudziak, 188.00 Pts 9th, Aleksandra Miroslaw, 180.00 Pts 10th, Iuliia Kaplina, 172.00 Pts Full Ranking https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?option=com_ifsc&view=dr&layout=calendar&Itemid=102#!type=ranking&cat=ICC_FS&cup=19_WC

last day of the individual weight classes in Marrakech...and Japan swept all the 4 Gold Medals awarded today, regaining on the finish line the top of the medal table... tomorrow the championship will end with the Mixed Team Event... women's -78kg Gold: Rinoko Wada Silver: Renèe Van Harselaar Bronze: Patricia Sampaio & Christina Faber women's +78kg Gold: Ruri Takahashi Silver: Kim Ha Yun Bronze: Tahina Durand & Marit Kamps men's -100kg Gold: Kazunari Kamigaki Silver: Ilia Sulamanidze Bronze: Mert Sismanlar & Zsombor Veg men's +100kg Gold: Sosuke Matsumura Silver: Erik Abramov Bronze: Kim Min Jong & Richard Sipocz Full Results: http://www.ippon.org/wc_jun2019.php

2019 Sport Climbing World Cup, Stage #11 (Xiamen, CHN) Women's Speed Gold: Aries Susanti Rahayu Silver: Song Yi Ling Bronze: Mariia Krasavina Men's Speed Gold: Zhong Qi Xin Silver: Lev Rudatskiy Bronze: Vladislav Deulin

yes, to me it's clear...the second part of your quote is absolutely explicit: whrever the 1st spot comes from, the reallocation comes through the WT Olympic Ranking...there's no mention at all of possible reallocation through the Grand Slam Series...

very good result for Dell'Aquila, who now has really overtaken and got the edge of his arch-rival Jesus Tortosa Cabrera...he started losing by some margin, he cut down the distance, he started winning close bouts and now he's literally dominating the Spanish guy... and I can smell the same is happening against the Korean Jang Jun...he was losing big time against him until the world champs, but now it's the second time in a row that he loses to the world champion by a (relatively) narrow margin... probably Tokyo is coming a bit too early to overtake the Korean too, but at least now we can say he's a real medal hope for the Olympics (if he gets a reasonably good draw)...

Sofia Grand Prix Day #1, Medallists Recap men's -58kg Gold: Jang Jun Silver: Kim Tae-Hun Bronze: Vito Dell'Aquila & Armin Hadipour women's -57kg Gold: Zhou Lijun Silver: Lee Ah-Reum Bronze: Tatiana Kudashova & Hatice Kubra Ilgun men's -68kg Gold: Zhao Shuai Silver: Lee Dae-Hoon Bronze: Huang Yu-Jen & Soroush Ahmadi

Full Playoffs Bracket

Playoff draw in the books! The Road to the Final starts NOW! Liverpool FC legend Sami Hyypiä was the star of the show on Friday at the C More Studios in Helsinki, as the former UEFA Champions League winner draw the Round of 16 matchups at the official CHL Playoff Draw. These pairings set up the 2019/20 Road to the Final, as teams can now see the route they will have to take to become European Trophy winners. Round of 16 Matchups Skellefteå AIK vs Djurgården Stockholm EHC Biel-Bienne vs Augsburger Panther Red Bull Munich vs Yunost Minsk Frölunda Indians vs Färjestad Karlstad EV Zug vs Tappara Tampere Luleå Hockey vs SC Bern Adler Mannheim vs Mountfield HK Lausanne HC vs HC Pilsen All matchups will be played in two games, with the first games at the homes of the group runners-up (teams on the right) and the second games at the homes of the group winners (teams on the left), except where arena and broadcasting obligations necessitate a switch. The first legs of the Round of 16 matchups will all be played on 12/13 November and the second legs on 19/20 November. The schedule will be confirmed next week.

3rd day in Marrakech...and it was a true Georgian festival, with their guys monopolizing both men's weight classes contested today... and Italy won another bronze medal... but also got a bitter 5th place with the most expected of our guys... women's -70kg Gold: Mami Asahi Silver: Madina Taimazova Bronze: Morgane Fereol & Marlene Galandi men's -81kg Gold: Vladimir Akhalkatsi Silver: David Karapetyan Bronze: Tato Grigalashvili & Guilherme Schimidt men's -90kg Gold: Lasha Bekauri Silver: Roland Goz Bronze: Louis Mai & Gennaro Pirelli Full Results: http://www.ippon.org/wc_jun2019.php

3 more events contested today in Marrakech...and Italy won a bronze medal... women's -57kg Gold: Eteri Liparteliani Silver: Kanako Hakamata Bronze: Kim Ji Su & Pleuni Cornelisse women's -63kg Gold: Szofi Ozbas Silver: Anja Obradovic Bronze: Asumi Ura & Laura Fazliu men's -73kg Gold: Somon Makhmadbekov Silver: Georgii Elbakiev Bronze: Victor Sterpu & Edoardo Mella Full Results: http://www.ippon.org/wc_jun2019.php

and after today's game (Kiwoom Heroes won the 3rd match against SK Wyverns 10-1 and swept the series against them), we already have the teams playing the 2019 Korean Series... KBO PLAYOFFS BRACKET Wild Card Series (Best-of-3, with all games on the turf of the higher seeded team, also starting from 1-0 in the series) LG Twins (#4) b. NC Dinos (#5) 2-0 (Bonus Win; 3-1) Semi-Playoffs Series (Best-of-5 Series) Kiwoom Heroes (#3) b. LG Twins (WCS Winners) 3-1 (1-0; 5-4; 2-4; 10-5) Playoffs Series (Best-of-5 series) Kiwoom Heroes (#3, Semi-Playoffs Series Winners) b. SK Wyverns (#2) 3-0 (3-0; 8-7; 10-1) 2019 Korean Series (Best-of-7 series) Doosan Bears (#1) vs Kiwoom Heroes (#3, Playoffs Series Winners) And this is the 2019 Korean Series schedule: game #1, Tuesday, October 22nd, Kiwoom Heroes @ Doosan Bears (h.18.30 local time, h. 11.30 CET) game #2, Wednesday, October 23rd, Kiwoom Heroes @ Doosan Bears (h.18.30 local time, h. 11.30 CET) game #3, Friday, October 25th, Doosan Bears @ Kiwoom Heroes (h.18.30 local time, h. 11.30 CET) game #4, Saturday, October 26th, Doosan Bears @ Kiwoom Heroes (h.14.00 local time, h.07.00 CET) game #5, if necessary, Sunday, October 27th, Doosan Bears @ Kiwoom Heroes (h.14.00 local time*, h.06.00 CET*) game #6, if necessary, Tuesday, October 29th, Kiwoom Heroes @ Doosan Bears (h.18.30 local time*, h. 10.30 CET*) game #7, if necessary, Wednesday, October 30th, Kiwoom Heroes @ Doosan Bears (h.18.30 local time*, h. 10.30 CET*) * = DST over in Europe, no Time change in South Korea

in 1964, 3 different venues were used for the Equestrian competitions: - Karuizawa (Chiba Prefecture) hosted the 3-Day event - the Equestrian Park in Setagaya-ku* (Tokyo) hosted the Dressage competitions - the National (Olympic) Stadium in Shinjuku-ku* (Tokyo) hosted the Show Jumping events * -ku basically means "block"... for more details, check the IOC Tokyo 1964 Official Reports #1 (page 115 and following) and #2 (page 577 and following)... https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll8

Playoff Draw: Friday, October 18th @ Noon CET The 2019/20 Champions Hockey League Playoff Draw will take place on Friday, October 18th in Helsinki, and it will be conducted by a special guest. Read below to find out all relevant information for the draw and the Round of 16. The Champions Hockey League is proud to announce that former Finnish football player and coach Sami Hyypiä will conduct the Playoff Draw on October 18th in Helsinki. Sami won the UEFA Champions League back in 2005 with Liverpool FC, where he spent 10 years of his storied career. The Finn, who has also played and coached in Germany and Switzerland, is an avid hockey fan. The CHL Playoff Draw will take place two days after the Group Stage has been completed. The live show will be recorded at the CMore studios in Helsinki and streamed live on the CHL’s digital platforms (Website & Facebook). The Playoff Draw starts at 12:00 CEST (13:00 local time). Draw Rules & Regulations - 16 teams enter the Playoff Draw - the 8 group winners and 8 runners-up. - The group winners are all placed in Pot A and the runners up in Pot B. - Teams from Pot A will be randomly drawn against teams from Pot B. The draw will not only produce the Round of 16 pairings, but also determine each team’s position in the playoff tree, showing their potential path all the way to the Final. Starting in the Playoffs, national clashes are now possible. However, teams that played each other during the Group Stage cannot play each other in the first playoff round. As match-ups in all subsequent rounds will be determined by bracket position, they will be able to meet again later in the competition. Once the Playoff Draw for the Round of 16 has been made, no additional draws for the following rounds will be held. Playoff Format & Schedule The CHL Playoffs start on 12/13 November with the first three playoff rounds being a two-game, home-and-away, aggregate scoring series. The season culminates on 4 February 2020 with the ultimate one-game Final. In general group runners-up will play their home game first in the Round of 16, unless an arena is unavailable and the home games must be switched. For the following playoff rounds the CHL will determine the schedule based solely on factors such as arena availability and broadcasting obligations.

game over! Augsburg win in Liberec by a score of 3-2 (the winning goal came thanks to the most classic empty netter, though) and are the 16th and last team to qualify to the knockout stage of the 2019/2020 Champions Hockey League... so, after the end of the preliminary stage, we have the entire field of teams still in contention to win this year's main European Trophy... The 8 Group Winners EHC Biel/Bienne (A) EV Zug (B) Luleå Hockey (C) Lausanne HC (D) Skellefteå IK (E) Adler Mannheim (F) Red Bull Munich (G) Frölunda Indians (H) The 8 Group Runner-ups Tappara Tampere (A) HC Pilsen (B) Augsburger Panther (C) Yunost Minsk (D) SC Bern (E) Djurgården Stockholm (F) Färjestad Karlstad (G) Mountfield HK (H) here you can find also the full final standings in each group (with extended stats)... https://www.championshockeyleague.com/en/standings#tab_standings=group-stage&select_standings=0

Group Stage Day 6, Part 2 Wednesday 16.10.2019 - Results Group A 18:00 Tappara Tampere (FIN) - Frisk Asker (NOR) 7-3 Final Standing : 1. Biel/Bienne 15 (Q), 2. Tampere 12 (Q), 3. Klagenfurt 9, 4. Asker 0 Group C 19:30 Bìlì Tygři Liberec (CZE) - Augsburger Panther (GER) 2-3 Final Standing : 1. Luleå 14 (Q), 2. Augsburg 12 (Q), 3. Liberec 6, 4. Belfast 4 Group G 19:45 HC Ambrì-Piotta (SUI) - HC05 Banskà Bystrica (SVK) 4-3 Final Standing : 1. Munich 12 (Q), 2. Färjestad 11 (Q), 3. Ambrì 10, 4. Banskà Bystrica 3 Group H 17:00 Mountfield HK (CZE) - Graz 99ers (AUT) 7-1 Final Standing : 1. Frölunda 13 (Q), 2. Mountfield 12 (Q), 3. Cardiff 8, 4. Graz 3