phelps

on the uww website there's the mat and match number of each bout still to be wrestled... https://uww.org/event/european-og-qualifier?tab=results

because the ranking is showing the total number of points without any discard, meanwhile the table with the provisionally qualified teams takes into account also 1 discarded results (and with that in mind, Russia is virtually ahead of KOR and HKG in the standings)... next week I'll try to post a more detailed analysis with all the possible combinations of results that could happen in the last event of the season...

US double in the first 2 events in New Delhi... Lucas Kozeniesky (men) and Mary Carolynn Tucker (women) won the Air Rifle competitions...

Naaa... +5 is a very good score that almost locks their qualification up... Meanwhile Serbia were back to -1, but then Russia started a 5 goal break that basically closed the game... Now Russia have a 4 goal lead with less than 5 mini tour be played...

meanwhile, in another group, Russia leading Serbia by 4 with 22 mins still to be played...

it's over...Montenegro win against Norway... I just can't imagine the Olympic Games without Norway...

I think it's about 50-50... surely, there's a new policy by our NF (recently a new board has been elected, even if the federation's president is always the same man), but also they got a bit more money from our NOC than in the past... as said, they manage also Judo and Karate, and all the success we had recently in those 2 sports (also at youth level, even in wrestling we got a few global junior and cadet medals, like Freni, Piroddu and some girls) led our NOC to give them more money... meanwhile, those youth medals, convinced our federation to give those guys a few opportunities to see if they can translate that early success into senior medals one day or the other... and of course we're also taking advantage from those foreign wrestlers often training in Italy that nowadays sometimes also decide to switch to our NF (like Conyedo, Kakhelashvili and others to come*)... *Chamizo is a different story, as he got married with Dalma Caneva when still living between Cuba and New York after he was left out of the Cuban team in 2012 and so he decided to come and wrestle for our Country, even if the Cubans tried to get him back in their team (but it was too late and he's too proud to forget the 2012 disrespect they had for him)... now we have to see how things develop after this pandemic, because our "small" sports have been hit hard and there's a chance we're going to lose many youngster among those practicing those disciplines (I mean, swimming pools and gyms are still closed here in Italy and "contact" sports are only authorized at olympic level, but they're still stopped for what concerns all the amateur and youth activity, which are the craddle where to find athletes for the future of our National teams)...

a Covid cluster with 30+ positive people has been recorded after the Sabre events in Budapest... Japan look to be the team paying the highest prize with 5+ positive members of their staff (athletes, coaches, trainers and officials)... this could potentially lead to another stoppage of the international activity and cancellation of the next events on the calendar... the news in French: https://www.lequipe.fr/Escrime/Actualites/Cluster-a-budapest-lors-de-la-manche-de-coupe-du-monde-de-sabre/1233476

only the semifinals will have a good coverage on many tv networks around the Continent (some of them, viewable through their website or on satellite)... p.s. @Giovanni Gianni Cattaneo sky Italia has the tv rights here in Italy, but there will be only a delayed broadcast @ 9.30 p.m. (all 3 days: today, tomorrow and saturday) on skysport Arena HD...

looking at the FS draw, I see quite a few very unbalanced sides in almost each weight class... in the -57kg, Vangelov has almost a freeway on his side of the draw, in the bottom half there are more trustable candidates, my pick however is Harutyunyan... in the -65kg, Aliyev just can't miss such easy chance in the top half of the draw, in the bottom half instead there are once again more candidates, my pick is Khinchegashvili... in the -74kg, the top half should be a question between Kuramagomedov and Gadzhiyev, meanwhile in the bottom half my pick is Demirtas, even if he won't have an easy route to the final... in the -86kg, once again the top half of the draw is a lot easier than the lower side...I'd be very surprised if someone not being Shabanau or Ianulov would eventually qualify, in the bottom half there's more competition, but I still think Aminashvili would finally prevail (this is quite a kamikaze guess, I suppose )... in the -97kg, the top half should be a question between Ruano Conyedo and Hushtyn, but I'm too biased and I support "my" former Cuban guy...in the bottom half my pick is Karadeniz (another kamikaze guess, however I strongly support the guy, Scherrer, despite he isn't among the favourites at all)... in the -125kg class, finally, my pick are Magomedov (basically a free pass for him) in the top half and one between Sharipov or Kramiankou in the bottom half...

that's good news for Italy... I'd never think Lanzi could make it, but it looks she's lucky enough to sneak in thanks to reallocations... the more athletes we qualify, the better it is for our very "tormented" sport right now...

The 10km FINA/CNSG Marathon Swim World Series 2021 has started last Saturday in Doha (QAT)... Marc Antoine Olivier (men) and Ana Marcela Cunha (women) are the winners of the race that opened the season... more details, here: https://www.fina.org/news/2064946/golden-olivier-fra-and-cunha-bra-on-the-return-of-marathon-swimming-action

on FINA's website, the adjusted Waterpolo Schedule is available (even if they haven't posted on the Tokyo 2020 official website yet)... https://www.fina.org/competitions/5/olympic-games-tokyo-2020/results?discipline=WP&disciplines=

well, men's Team Epee is so far the weapon with more decisions still to be taken... France and Italy are mathematically qualified through the World Ranking, as well as the USA are also already qualified to the Tokyo Games because of the Panamerican Continental spot... everything else, it's still open... right now (1 event still to go), Switzerland and Ukraine would be in through the World Ranking, South Korea thanks to the Asian continental spot and Hungary thanks to the European continental spot (Egypt only need to stay within the top 16 of the WR, currently they are 14th and they have to keep at least 2 between Estonia, Spain and Germany behind them to qualify, which however it won't be easy, as they are only a few points behind Egypt and they all have the chance to earn more points than the Africans in the last WC stage)... on the other hand, South Korea have an awful score of 8 points to be discarded, meanwhile Switzerland so far have 25 points as their worst result, Ukraine have 23, Hungary have 24 and Russia (who are the first out among the european teams, just 3 points behind HUN) only 21... all this, means that KOR are most likely to gain the 4th World spot after the last event and cause an earthquake among the remaining european teams, which are likely to lose a spot in favour of the second best Asian Team (Japan are 3 points ahead of China right now, but CHN have 8 points to be discarded and JPN have 25, which means that virtually CHN are 17 points ahead before the last competition)... so, considering the current standings and the whole "game" of discards, I think SUI are the heavy favourites to stay in the top 4 overall among the European teams and therefore to qualify to Tokyo 2021 as they still have quite a good margin in the standings over their direct rivals... KOR are also likely to sneak in into the top 4 overall, so giving a second Asian team (China rather than Japan, unless they make up at least 18 points on CHN in the last event) a place at the Olympics... imho, also Egypt are going to save their place somehow and therefore the fight for the European Continental spot is on between UKR, HUN and RUS, with UKR having to defend a 24 point lead over HUN and 27 over RUS... The full current Ranking is here, so you can make yourself all the calculation about the projected scores... https://tokyo2020.fie.org/ranks?weapon=E&gender=M

with such an even draw, the preliminary round in Tokyo is going to be useless...we already know that Egypt and the European teams will be in the quarterfinals... there's no chance to have an unbalanced draw with a stronger group with 5 teams competing for the 4 quarterfinals spots... not that it's a problem (with so many things to watch at the Olympics, team sports preliminaries are definitely at the very bottom of my list), but still...

Women's Team Sabre (Budapest, HUN) Gold: Poland Silver: Italy Bronze: South Korea Semifinals Poland b. South Korea 45-41 Italy b. France 45-43 Bronze Medal Match South Korea b. France 45-41 Gold Medal Match Poland b. Italy 45-44 Final Ranking https://engarde-service.com/index.php?Organisme=hunfencing&Event=2021_03_11-14_gkk_wc&Compe=sws-eq&Page=clasfinal.htm

Men's Team Sabre (Budapest, HUN) Gold: Russia Silver: Germany Bronze: Hungary Semifinals Russia b. Hungary 45-35 Germany b. South Korea 45-41 Bronze Medal Match Hungary b. South Korea 45-40 Gold Medal Match Russia b. Germany 45-43 Final Ranking https://engarde-service.com/index.php?Organisme=hunfencing&Event=2021_03_11-14_gkk_wc&Compe=sms-eq&Page=clasfinal.htm

still, it should be ITA vs HUN in the Olympic semifinal (provided both teams win theur respective quarterfinal match...and both IRI and USA are not to be underestimated)...

Men's Sabre Qualification Lists updated as of March, 14th 2021 (Team List completed)...

and now also the men's Team Sabre field is completed... South Korea Hungary Italy Germany Russia Iran United States Egypt in the men's Individual Sabre, instead, we also have to wait for the Continental tournaments, but so far we already have 3 fencers from any of the 8 Nations qualified to the Team competition, possibly some Japanese wild cards and the qualified athletes via World ranking: Bolade Apithy Sandro Bazadze Fares Ferjani Shaul Gordon Xu Yingming Kento Yoshida

K1PL Stage #1, Istanbul (TUR) Medallists Recap Women's Individual Kata Gold: Sandra Sanchez Jaime Silver: Dilara Bozan Bronze #1: Carola Casale Bronze #2: Terryana D'Onofrio Men's Individual Kata Gold: Damian Hugo Quintero Capdevila Silver: Alì Sofuoglu Bronze #1: Ariel Torres Gutierrez Bronze #2: Enes Ozdemir Women's Team Kata Gold: Spain Silver: Slovakia Bronze #1: Egypt Bronze #2: Turkey "B" Men's Team Kata Gold: Turkey Silver: Egypt Bronze #1: Spain Bronze #2: Azerbaijan Women's Individual Kumite, -50kg Gold: Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu Silver: Shara Hubrich Bronze #1: Sara Bahmanyar Bronze #2: Reem Ahmed Salama Women's Individual Kumite, -55kg Gold: Valeria Kumizaki Silver: Valentina Toro Meneses Bronze #1: Dorota Banaszczyk Bronze #2: Anzhelika Terliuga Women's Individual Kumite, -61kg Gold: Jovana Prekovic Silver: Rozita Alipour Bronze #1: Merve Coban Bronze #2: Ingrida Suchankova Women's Individual Kumite, -68kg Gold: Silvia Semeraro Silver: Feryal Abdelaziz Bronze #1: Alisa Buchinger Bronze #2: Irina Zaretska Women's Individual Kumite, +68kg Gold: Sofya Berultseva Silver: Meltem Hocaoglu Akyol Bronze #1: Johanna Kneer Bronze #2: Clio Ferracuti Men's Individual Kumite, -60kg Gold: Eray Samdan Silver: Firdovsi Farzaliyev Bronze #1: Sadriddin Saymatov Bronze #2: Emil Pavlov Men's Individual Kumite, -67kg Gold: Alì Elsawy Silver: Burak Uygur Bronze #1: Ernest Sharafutdinov Bronze #2: Yves Martial Tadissi Men's Individual Kumite, -75kg Gold: Luigi Busà Silver: Dastonbek Otabolaev Bronze #1: Noah Bitsch Bronze #2: Alì Asiabari Men's Individual Kumite, -84kg Gold: Zabiollah Poorshab Silver: Daniyar Yuldashev Bronze #1: Michele Martina Bronze #2: Ahmed Ramadan Mohamed Men's Individual Kumite, +84kg Gold: Sajad Ganjzadeh Silver: Ryzvan Talibov Bronze #1: Gogita Arkania Bronze #2: Asiman Gurbanli

Women's Sabre Qualification Lists updated as of March, 14th 2021 (Team List completed)...

the most beautiful thing about team events in Fencing is that the results are not a pure addition of individual values... this kind of team relay is totally different from the old method... you need just another mindset than in the individual events and in the old team format...you just can't afford any blackout without damaging your team...

so, the women's Team Sabre field is completed... Russia Italy France South Korea Hungary United States China Tunisia in the women's Individual Sabre, instead, we have to wait for the Continental tournaments, but so far we already have 3 fencers from any of the 8 Nations qualified to the Team competition, possibly some Japanese wild cards and the qualified athletes via World ranking: Olga Kharlan Theodora Gkountoura Misaki Emura Gabriella Page Nada Hafez Bhavani Devi Chadalavada

Ok, this time it's gone the right way... our girls are in the top 4...good 45-39 win over HUN... frankly, I don't understand why they just can't perform individually, but they often manage to succeed in the team event... however, let's take everything we get...