phelps

there's more than an explanation, but all of them are related to the spelling and the meaning of the word "even" (which means "stone", more or less)... it could either be intended as a sign of the prosecution of life from the dead people to those still alive visiting his/her grave or a more complicated interpretation of the letters composing the word "even", meaning basically "I have just visited a defunct"... another interpretation is that the stones are a memory of the historical Jerusalem's Temple... this what I've been told, but more likely there could be some more versions, as it all comes from very old traditions...

earlier today, finally the great game of Hockey made its official comeback on the European rinks... the new KHL season started in fact as planned in Moscow, with a nice matchup between CSKA Moscow and AK Bars Kazan... the game ended just a few minutes ago and AK Bars got a surprising win, 3-2 at the overtime... the first goal of the season, however, was scored after only 51 seconds of play by CSKA's Dmitry Samorukov...but AK Bars was able to make up for that in the 2nd period... then, a bit of fireworks happened in the third period, with CSKA getting the lead back after only 2 minutes of play in the period, but once again AK Bars didn't lose their minds and tied the match with about 7 minutes still on the clock... finally, only 1.31 mins into the OT, Dmitry Voronkov scored the game winner for the team from Tatarstan... p.s. the game was played in front of a limited crowd of 2,347 because of the covid-19 protocol... here's the game script (and links to the official stats...YT's comprehensive highlights are not available yet, only the single actions videos are already published on the official KHL website)... https://text.khl.ru/en/872319.html now we have the highlights of the game, too...

despite the inclement weather, earlier today Leonardo Fabbri scored an amazing 21.99m in the men's shot put at the Italian Nationals in Padua... he improved his PB by 40cm and his performance is the world no.2 (behind the 22.91m shot by Ryan Crouser) and the european no.1 this season... unfortunately the awful weather did really influence in a negative way all the other results: Marcel Jacobs won the men's 100m in 10.10 (but with +3.3 wind) after Filippo Tortu pulled out just before the final, Luminosa Bogliolo easily won the women's 100m Hurdles in 13.03 (regular wind), Larissa Iapichino won her first senior Italian title in the women's Long Jump (but with a vey modest 6.32m and -1.7 wind), Gianmarco Tamberi won the men's High Jump with 2m28cm and finally, in absence of Davide Re (injured in the Stockholm DL race last week), Edoardo Scotti won the men's 400m in 45.77... all the remaining events are not even worth mentioning...

c'mon, guys! Abe might have been forced to resign because of his health troubles, but the "Abenomics" is not even to be discussed in Japan... moreover, until the end of the supposed Abe tenure, it will be his loyal Financial Minister to take care of the PM duties ad interim, which means that nothing will change in the economical choices and attitude towards the Olympics in that Country... and with Koike being elected once again as the Mayor of Tokyo, there's no way that politics and politicians are going to force to cancel the Olympic Games for electoral consensus purposes... the Olympics are not in danger at all, if not because of the pandemic issues (but I think we can be quite confident that at least one or two vaccines will be available worldwide by the end of next Spring)...

maybe it's true...and also calling a strike in a factory doesn't change anything... but a ballgame boycotted after another, a strike called every single day in every factory maybe could have an impact sooner or later... it's always a little ball of snow rolling down the mountain that starts an avalanche...

luckily last night the boring Soccer UCL final didn't go to OT and I could switch to some NBA Basketball... and I've seen "the light"...Luka Doncic...oh, man! what a player is he???

yesterday it was all about NHL Hockey playoffs (final games of round #1) and the first stage of the Sport Climbing World Cup... today it's gonna be a busier day for sure...still some NHL Hockey (start of playoffs round #2 with Colorado vs Dallas, game #1), but also Soccer (European Champions League final between Bayern Munich and PSG), Golf (European Tour, this week) and maybe some NBA Basketball playoffs if I can still find some time...

2020 Sport Climbing World Cup, Stage #1 (Briançon, FRA) men's Lead Gold: Adam Ondra Silver: Domen Skofic Bronze: Jakob Schubert Full Ranking: https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition/calendar/?task=resultathletes&event=65&result=1 women's Lead Gold: Laura Rogora Silver: Janja Garnbret Bronze: Fanny Gibert Full Ranking: https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition/calendar/?task=resultathletes&event=65&result=5

just wow! we just discovered a little jewel...not that she wasn't unexpected to become a star in this sport, but what Rogora did last night was really amazing... her improvement (even in her body shape...now you can start seeing some muscles in her slim arms and legs...until last season she was just skin and bones) is stunning... however, when Janja (still my favourite, though...she's so lovely) reached the top I thought there was no chance for Laura to win it all anymore, but she proved so strong, self-confident and technically sound (obviously, on the other hand she's one of the only 2 women in history to have climbed a 9b natural wall...at such young age!!!) that it was almost a joke for her to get up to the top (she was even so smart in nailing the final clip without making any further risky move to hang from the actual top hold as normally sport climbers do)... and the competition itself was really exciting, with athletes falling on many different points and not all on the same critical passage (which normally is one of the factors that kill the excitement) and the hype kept until the last move of the day... on the men's side, as expected, it was an Adam Ondra show...when he's not distracted by his activity on the natural walls and makes enough specific training, he's just unbeatable on the artificial ones...

2020 Sport Climbing World Cup, Stage #1 (Briançon, FRA) men's Lead, climbers qualified to the Final (later tonight, 8.45 p.m. CET) Adam Ondra Jakob Schubert Alexander Megos Domen Skofic Mejdi Schalck Nao Monchois Luka Potocar Mathias Posch in absence of all the non-European climbers because of the Covid-19 protocol, all the favourites did shine in the early rounds of this event... unfortunately, not so good outing for the Italians... women's Lead, climbers qualified to the Final (later tonight, 7.30 p.m. CET) Laura Rogora Nina Arthaud Janja Garnbret Vita Lukan Tjasa Kalan Lucija Tarkus Jessica Pilz Giorgia Tesio Fanny Gibert unbelievable performance by Laura Rogora here...she's dominating the weekend so far...it looks she's really exploding and getting to the level she's expected since quite a while... by the way, also the "big names" from the last few seasons are still there... to be remembered, also in the women's event the Covid-19 protocol left the non-European climbers home, which means that we're missing many medal contenders like the Koreans and the Japanese armada... but still, it's gonna be a high level final in any case... I really missed the SC world cup...so, I just can't wait to watch tonight's show...

here we go with this year's World Cup... unfortunately, this week's event might well be the only one in the whole season, with all the remaining ones already postponed (and scheduled in places that should be defined "at high risk"), if not cancelled... by the way, we already had the preliminaries and semifinals in this event, and tonight we're going to have the Finals (women starting at 7.30 p.m. CET, men following at 8.45 p.m. CET)... all the semis and finals action is Live (and then available also ondemand) as usual on Youtube on the IFSC page...

even today, quite a rich menu... NHL Hockey (Washington vs NY Islanders #4 from last night) and NBA Basketball (Toronto vs Brooklyn #2) playoffs Soccer, Champions League semifinal (Bayern Munich vs Lyon) Athletics, Gyulai Memorial meet

It's Edoardo Scotti... Vladimir Aceti was only 6th in 46.7 in Hungary... by the way, the Italian men's (and mixed) 4*400m have a newcomer...the US born runner Robert Grant has been cleared by WA to start under the Italian Flag from now on... he's got the Italian citizenship because of his heritage, as his grand-grandfather and his grand-grandmother (from his father's side) come from the Verbano-Cusio-Ossola province (North-West of Italy, near the Swiss border in the Lago Maggiore area)... p.s. apparently, it wasn't our NF going for shopping (they almost didn't know about him), but it was Grant himself who asked our officials to be enrolled by our National Team...

not that Football, Basketball and Hockey don't have stupid unwritten rules, too... try to score a TD on the last snap of a game when you're ahead in the score in Football...those Baseball brawls would easily disappear in front of what would happen in such case...

I agree...way better to implement the mercy rule...if you're 10 or 12 runs down after 7 or 8 innings, there's no chance to get back...why put players' health at risk playing senseless stints? just stop and call it a day...normally, the season is 162 games long, it's not that you don't have many chances to make up for a bad loss or the fans don't have many other chances to watch some baseball... if I were the commissioner, my first actions would be: - get rid of DH also in the AL (not having him in the NL)... - mercy rule (12 point difference after 7 or 10 after 8 and the game is over) - cancel the pure sh*t of the 3-batter rule and the "international-alike" extra innings with runners on base at the start - allow games to end with a tie after 12 innings, at least in RS (frankly, I just can't find anything interesting in watching position players pitching in the 16th or 18th or having the bullpen completely burnt for a week because one of the 162 games of the season went too long) - allow a 28 (maybe even 30)-man roster from the beginning of the RS (without the super extended rosters in September)

well said... in a sport and in an era where the individual stats are basically the main point the teams build the players' contracts on, how can you still ask people to give up such kind of chances? tbh, I'm really tired of these "unwritten rules" of the US pro sports...they're just pure hypocracy...they might have been good 100 years ago, but c'mon, man! we're in 2020 and everything is different from the age when they were established...

for those who haven't seen Evanepoel's fall yet... video #1: https://twitter.com/i/status/1294652276162822145 video #2: https://www.facebook.com/gianluca.trentini.9/videos/10223439772205818/?t=6 by the way, Evanepoel's accident wasn't the only scary and life-threatening moment of the day... also Maximilian Schachmann was almost killed by an idiot who hit him with her car in a zone where nobody was supposed to be there... here's the video: https://www.eurosport.it/ciclismo/il-lombardia/2020/incidente-per-schachmann-un-auto-civile-gli-taglia-la-strada_vid1336468/video.shtml after those 2 unacceptable accidents, UCI is expected to denounce RCS (the organizers of the race) in the coming days...

super-Greg Paltrinieri just swum a new European Record in the men's 1500m at the Settecolli meet in Rome in 14.33.10... yesterday he was really close in the men's 800m Free, when he swum 7.40.22 (less than a second above his own ER), but today he was just fantastic...a wonderful solo ride against the clock (the second placed swimmer was Domenico Acerenza in 14.49.98)... more notable results in these 3 days in Rome: Gabriele Detti won the men's 400m Free in 3.43.73 ahead of Marco De Tullio in 3.44.94; Nicolò Martinenghi won the men's 100m Breast in 59.43 and the 50m Breast in 26.94; Benedetta Pilato, as already written, swum a new Junior World Record (and also Italian Senior Record) in the women's 50m Breast in 29.85; the Swiss Lisa Mamiè won the women's 100m Breast in 1.06.60; Federica Pellegrini just took a relaxing bath to win both the women's 100m and the 200m Free in 54.33 and 1.57.80 respectively; finally, 100m Free reigning European Champion Alessandro Miressi won both the men's 50m and 100m Free in 21.93 and 48.15 respectively...

yeah, but normally we don't "buy" them... they just come to live in Italy after they get married with Italian people (and they're not escaping from their Country, in most cases the marriage actually happens in Cuba, with authorization of the Cuban officials) and after a few years living here, they just get our citizenship and a few of them start competing for Italy (only because they're not good enough to make the Cuban team...the only exception are Frank Chamizo -wrestling- and Osmany Juantorena -volleyball)... p.s. and even if we wanted to buy them, we just can't, as Cuba is one of those Nations we don't give away our passport that easily...it takes years to become Italian for them, even after marriage (which in most cases instead is an almost automatical thing)...

looking at the official schedule on their website, I think the time is the Finnish one...so, it's 6 p.m. local, 5 p.m. CET, 4 p.m. back in the UK etc. etc.

Steven Nyman suffered a right Achilles Tendon injury at a recent on-snow camp at Official Training Site Timberline Resort & Ski Area... https://www.fis-ski.com/en/alpine-skiing/alpine-news-multimedia/news-multimedia/news/2020-summer/steven-nyman-suffers-achilles-tendon-injury

competitive swimming is back also in Italy! from today through thrsday, in fact, the traditional Settecolli meet is on stage in Rome... since this time the competition is also awarding the Italian National Summer titles, basically all the best Italian swimmers are at the start...from Federica Pellegrini to Simona Quadarella, from Gabriele Detti to super-Greg Paltrinieri (who's definitely the focal point of the event, after he changed coach and training center in the middle of the Spring, during the covid-19 imposed break)... there are 3 sessions every day...in the morning only the slowest heats in each discipline are swam, meanwhile the top 16* swimmers on paper (based on the entry times) in each race will be on stage every evening at 7 p.m. CET *top 10 only in the 800m and 1500m free races being an international meet, however, means that also some good swimmers from other Countries are going to swim in Rome... entry lists and clockings can be found here: http://fin2020.microplustiming.com/NU_2020_08_11-13_Roma_web.php live coverage of the evening session (7 p.m. CET) will also be available on the sports channel of the Italian public TV, Raisport+ HD... here's the stream (hoping that swimming is not geo-blocked): https://www.raiplay.it/dirette/raisportpiuhd

and 21.57 (outdoor PB, just 2 cm behind his indoor PB, set last March also in Stockholm) for Leonardo Fabbri in the men's shot put... happy to see him back to the pre-covid shape and to see his performance curve starting to raise again...maybe by next year we will have a world class athlete since quite some time (except for the race walkers, we have to go back to Tamberi's results before the 2016 injury)...

well, technically, if a striker takes his clothes off while celebrating a goal, he suddenly becomes a streaker... by the way, yesterday was a busy day for me... I started with game #5 between Toronto and Columbus (NHL Hockey) from the previous night, then I watched the last round of the PGA Championship (Golf) also from Sunday night... finally, last night I watche some Soccer, UEFA Europa League, live (FC Inter vs Bayer Leverkusen)... today, surely I'm going to watch the Settecolli meet (Swimming) main session (7 p.m. CET) and tonight I still have to take a decision: will it be Soccer (UEFA Europa League) or NHL Hockey (Tampa Bay vs Columbus, game #1 of the playoffs "true" 1st round)? I guess it will be Hockey, obviously...but who knows?

c'mon, guys! there's no reason to be sad... Tania already had a wonderful career and now she's going to have her second son/daughter... I'm sure she's very, very happy and excited for that as we also should be... good luck for the pregnancy, in any case...