phelps

by the way, Suzanne Schulting dominated the event among the women, winning also the 1000m distance ahead of teammate Selma Poutsma and Anna Seidel... that was enough to mathematically secure the Overall Title, too, despite she ended up with a DSQ in the 3000m Superfinal, which was won by Sofia Prosvirnova... in the men's division, Semen Elistratov won the 1000m distance and the Overall Title, meanwhile the young Italian Pietro Sighel surprisingly won the 3000m Superfinal, which led him to win also the Overall Silver medal, breaking somehow the Russian/Dutch domination... in the Relays, we already said of the unexpected French success among the women, while the men's event was won by the Netherlands ahead of Italy and Russia...

full replay of women's Relay's Final...

surgical first drive by the Bucs...

yeah, the Russians did throw down ITA and NED, so they were DQed and FRA took advantage of the other 2 teams being well behind after the fall...

c'mon, man! today you just played against a group of zombies... I hope our NF would eventually fire all these girls and rebuild everything starting with the youngsters that won junior world and european medals 2 years ago... this group hasn't got anything left in the tank...

game over...if it wasn't over since an hour or so, yet...

don't waste your optimism for those girls...

so, now it looks that we still have a game... but I wouldn't bet a single cent on Italy in any case...I'm pretty sure they sooner or later find the way to waste it all... p.s. refs are depressing, though...

ready? steady? go! and we are 0-3 down, 0/4 with the man advantage and 2 missed penalty shots... those girls are just a waste of time... I'm so disappointed and frustrated...because it's not that they can't play...they're just mentally lost, a bunch of losers...

last event of the day, the Relays' semis... in the women's 3000m relay, Netherlands, Italy, Russia and France did qualify to the final act... in the men's 5000m event, Netherlands, Italy, Hungary and Russia are the "last 4 teams standing"...

no...the dignity of the sport is still safe... in the men's 500m, Konstantin Ivliev quite surprisingly won the race ahead of Pietro Sighel, who overtook with a great inside move Itzhak De Laat, who finally got the Bronze medal... in the Overall standings, it's all about Russia with Elistratov and Ivliev tied at 34 points each and Ayrapetyan 3rd (tied with De Laat) with 21 points...

scandal decision coming after the men's 500m, I fear...

Suzanne Schulting won also the women's 500m and basically booked the Overall Gold, too Home called Silver for Natalia Maliszewska and Bronze for Xandra Velzeboer in the shortest distance of the program...

it looks like a Nations' Grand Prix in the men's 1500m... Russian 1-2 on top, followed by the Dutch pair and the Hungarian duo... individually, Semen Elistratov won the Gold medal, Denis Ayarapetyan got the Silver medal and Sjinkie Knegt won the Bronze medal...

D-Fisch throws a possible podium finish out of the window with a bad mistake... after the great start this morning, things are turning the wrong way for the Italian Winter sports specialists...

Suzanne Schulting won the women's 1500m Anna Seidel was the only skater relatively close to the Dutch woman and won the Silver medal Sofia Prosvirnova edged out Cynthia Mascitto to earn the Bronze medal now it's up to the men over the same distance...

yesssssss!!!!!! Rieder/Rastner win in Igls...and this is the first win for an Italian double since December 2015... first Sofia, now Ludwig & Patrick...what a start of the day for us

there's a chance that the disrupted preparation has something to do with it... when you haven't tested ski, boots and everything related enough and you're not in super perfect shape at the end of a 2-min effort and still have to make a big turn or jump at 140+ kmph, there's a high chance you make a capital mistake and get yourself in troubles... by the way, heavy injuries in alpine skiing are a problem not only in this season...it's quite a long time that we suddenly get missing top tier skiers in the middle of a campaign (or even before the season starts) because of severe injuries (many of them happening in training sessions)...

it might be a smart move...

by the way, missing the podium in the home race for just 0.1 secs after 20kms must hurt a lot...poor Hofer (and poor Dudchenko, too...he was so close to make a miracle)...

and those idiots want to get rid of the 15/20km individual race... because it doesn't fit the average tv audience, they say...

no, it's not only your feeling... also the Italian tv commentators yesterday were underlining this particular situation while explaining why Anterselva/Antholz is quite a different location than almost all the other world cup stations (the stadium is 1600+ meters in altitude)... and they made the same example of Ebba Andersson and her fail in Val Mustair followed by the usual top results in the other TdS locations... they also explained how the altitude affects not only the cross-country skiing (which is quite obvious and evident), but also the shooting phase because of its action on the blood and oxygen pressure...

by the way, we already know that NED vs GRE will be played at 6 p.m. CET on Saturday, meanwhile ITA vs HUN will start at 8 p.m. CET (as of request of the Italian TV)...

imho the best qualification system for all sports would be...just ask me who I want to see at the Games!

by playing effortless in order not to win with more than a 12-goal margin, so to be sure to end up 2nd in the preliminary group...