phelps

Women's Tournament Pairs qualified to the Third Phase Hermannova / Slukova Wang / Xia Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig Menegatti / Orsi-Toth Liliana / Elsa Ittlinger / Laboureur Graudina / Kravcenoka Wojtasik / Kociolek

and as expected... "South-Africa Italy will resume from the exact point of suspension on Friday, 20 September, at 11 a.m. CET. This will modify the schedule of the whole day in Parma. Game 7 South Africa-Czech Republic will now start at 2.30 p.m. CET. Game 8 Israel-Italy start time will remain at 8 p.m. CET as scheduled."

Men's Freestyle Wrestling, Day #7 Finals -57kg Gold Medal match: Suleyman Atli vs Zavur Uguev Bronze Medal match #1: Nurislam Sanayev vs Stevan Andria Micic / Givi Davidovi / Liang Shaofeng Bronze Medal match #2: Kumar Ravi vs Reza Atri / Mahir Amiraslanov / Bekhbayar Erdenebat Olympic Quota so far: / / / -65kg Gold Medal match: Gadzhimurad Rashidov vs Daulet Niyazbekov Bronze Medal match #1: Iszmail Muszukaejev vs Haji Mohamad Alì / Takuto Otoguro / Amr Reda Ramadan Hussen Bronze Medal match #2: Bajrang vs Tulga Tumur Ochir / Alexander Semisorow / Chang Yu-Hsuan Olympic Quota so far: / / /

Women's Wrestling, Day #7 Finals -62kg Gold Medal match: Taybe Mustafa Yusein vs Aisuluu Tynybekova Bronze Medal match #1: Marianna Sastin vs Henna Katarina Johansson / Kriszta Tunde Incze / Luo Xiaojuan Bronze Medal match #2: Rim Jong Sim vs Yuliia Tkach Ostapchuk / Yukako Kawai / Alejandra Romero Bonilla Olympic Quota so far: / / / -68kg Gold Medal match: Tamyra Mariama Mensah vs Anna Jenny Eva Maria Fransson Bronze Medal match #1: Anna Carmen Schell vs Sara Dosho / Blessing Oborodudu / Michelle Yvonne Montague Bronze Medal match #2: Alla Cherkasova vs Battsetseg Soronzonbold / Koumba Selene Fanta Larroque / Buse Tosun Olympic Quota so far: / / /

Updated after this morning's repechage rounds...

we should learn quite a few things from Hungary (and no, I'm definitely not talking of the Orban's politics towards immigrants and even less of his relationships with the media -actually, in this field it's huim that learned by our former prime minister Berlusconi )... p.s. my favourite protest it's still the Mongolian coach stripping off in Rio...

yeah, this is a huge disappointment... even Caneva lost badly in Round #1... I fear that no Italian is well prepared for this event...they just can't win a match and lose also to people they already defeated in the past tournaments this season...

women's -49kg Group B Full Video (only the W -49kg Gr. B, despite what they say in the title)

yeah...here in Italy, the worst enemy is Italy itself! I mean, all the robberies, the corrupted (and the stupid) politicians, all the idiots with racist ideas...they are all Italians, but they are always acting against their own Country... until we get rid of that sh*t, we just can't think abount the rest of the world...we are just not entitled, we don't deserve and we can't afford to do it...

yeah, it's the regular format for world beach volleyball...the pairs are seeded according to their world ranking and the best faces the worst (and of course the 2 in between face each other) in the group's semifinals, then the winners are already through to the next ranking (but play for the group win and to have a better seeding in the knockout stage) and the losers play for the 3rd and last qualifying position in the group... now here we have an abnormal situation because only 2 pairs advance to the semis, but in any other tournament all pairs still get 2 chances to go through (but of course you can be safe already at the firstr try, if you win the first match), so it's not so unfair... the idea is to save some time (less matches in the schedule of the tournament without cutting the number of participants) and also to have all pairs playing 1 less match than what would need with a round robin preliminary stage, so to have the top pairs less tired and in better shape for the final phases of the tournament...

no, baseball has a long tradition also here in Italy...but nowadays it's declining more and more...there are always less kids playing, so we have to go with a lot of guys with Italian heritage, but not born and raised here... it's the same for many disciplines (also Ice Hockey has this same problem, but I could name quite a few more)...

game over in Parma...the rain won't stop early enough...the match will resume on Friday morning (most likely, when both teams will be in Parma once again, meanwhile tomorrow they will play in Bologna -and a match can't start in one place and end in another)...

also ITA and ESP have a lot of players who were not born in the Countries they're representing right now... and actually even the Kingdom of the Netherlands have the same "nature"... it's called "globalisation"...

Israel beat Spain 3-0, with a 3-hit complete game shutout by their pitcher, Joseph Wagman... Italy and South Africa still in the locker rooms because of heavy rain in Parma (and I think that for tonight we're done and dusted...I don't see any chance for the weather to change in the next hour or so...and by rule the game can't re-start after Midnight)... currently, the score is 4-4 after the usual nightmarish start by Alessandro Maestri, nowadays absolutely boiled and frankly not good enough anymore to play at this level...

To be eligible to represent an NOC that has been allocated a quota place through the FIVB Beach Volleyball Olympic Qualification Tournament, the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball Senior World Championships or the Olympic Ranking List of 15th June 2020, all athletes must have participated as an individual in a minimum of 12 of the following events: the FIVB Beach Volleyball Olympic Qualification Tournament; the 2019 FIVB Senior World Championships; the 2019 FIVB World Tour Finals; FIVB World Tour 1*-5* events; recognised Continental Tours Finals, scheduled from 1st September 2018 until 14th June 2020. In the event that an NOC/NF has earned a quota place through the FIVB Beach Volleyball Olympic Qualification Tournament, the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball Senior World Championships or the Olympic Ranking List of 15th June 2020, the NOC/NF must choose its athletes from its twelve (12) best eligible athletes according to the FIVB Ranking Points accumulated within the Qualification Period while participating in events listed in the previous paragraph.

my friend, I know you're furious right now... but take a big breathe and let things flow... don't take any initiative when you're under the pressure of facts that just happened... losing you and your always interesting commentaries, would make this forum (and the entire sport community) a lot poorer than ever... and trust me, here there's at least one person (me) who's not happy at all about all this sh*t going on... I will always support you and be against any influence of politics in sport (because we see day after day what kind of disgrace they bring with themselves)... I'm sure that most of those "it was time" comments have been written too quickly, without thinking of how big of a damage this decision does not to politicians nor sport officials, but to the athletes themselves (and especially the younger generations, who most likely are going to see their career cut short because of that) and to the fans, that shouldn't pay for things well beyond their control...

finally, a decent (dream) draw also for us...Aurora Campagna (silver medallist at this year's European Champs) has a real shot at the semis (and the consequential Olympic Quota)... it would be really important for us to earn at least 1 quota (other than Chamizo's, of course)... even Davidovi is not so badly placed...he's going to lose vs Atli in the second round, but with a bit of luck, the Turkish guy could send him through the repechage, where it would be between him and Micic to go through to the bronze medal game (and the OQ)... well, maybe here I'm a bit optimistic...but we don't have anything better to put our hopes on...

I'm always reading them with a lot of interest... should you stop doing them, it would be a big loss for the forum... p.s. the 5th quarter are we talking about the slaughter of a calf?

we were complaining about a "traditional" (even if not so "ancient") event, well established in the Olympic program... here we are talking about a few events that have never been in the Olympic program and also many of them being basically the same thing, just changing the distance or the number of seconds between the single series... it's slightly different, I guess (because nobody is complaining about the 50m free pistol or the running targets -which are not here, too)... moreover, the main concern is about all these team events (most of them are really senseless, especially when you have only 3/4 teams showing up with the required 3 shooters and the result being the simple addition of the individual scores -at least the mixed events have a different format, which partially justify their existence)... p.s. and in any case, I'm not complaining because all those events exists...I was just saying that I'm losing count of the so many competitions that are scheduled in this event, with the most important ones just relegated to 1 day and not well spread through the entire week...

Women's Wrestling, Day #5 Medallists (and Olympic Quota) -50kg Gold: Mariya Stadnik Silver: Emilia Alina Vuc Bronze: Valentina Islamova Brik & Ekaterina Poleshchuk Olympic Quota for: / / / / / -53kg Gold: Pak Yong Mi Silver: Mayu Mukaida Bronze: Vinesh & Pang Qianyu Olympic Quota for: / / / / / -55kg Gold: Jacarra Gwenisha Winchester Silver: Nanami Irie Bronze: Olga Khoroshtavtseva & Bolortuya Bat Ochir -72kg Gold: Natalia Vorobeva Silver: Alina Berezhna Stadnyk Makhynia Bronze: Paliha & Masako Furuichi

Mixed Team Junior 50m Pistol Gold: Russia 1 Silver: Russia 2 Bronze: Ukraine

and also the last Italian fighter still in the tournament has gone out... Salvatore Cavallaro (-75kg), in fact, earlier today was declared as the loser of the quarterfinals bout against the Brazilian joker Hebert Da Conceicao Sousa...a man who used to raise his arm after every punch (well off the target) he threw...once even after having taken a hit on his face... but despite that (and the fact that he landed just 1 punch in the entire match and went with his ass on the ground in rd.#1 -somehow not even counted by the ref.), Sadie Duffy, Yaroslav Renev, Manuel Vilarino and Shawn Reese (oh, once again this name among the judges when there's a controversial to say the least final result ) still saw the Brazilian as the winner of today's match... not that it was unexpected (especially by the Russian and the Irish judges, our political enemies since a very long time), but still...as a boxing fan, it hurts to see day after day how the Olympic Boxing is dying after corruption and interests that have nothing to do with the sport...

now I'm also experimenting the blocked live broadcast on Youtube... but at least the live broadcast on the Thailand TAWA Facebook Page is working great... https://www.facebook.com/OfficialThailandTawa/videos/784069175346671/

Men's Tournament Second Phase Draw Pool E Gerson / Heidrich Grimalt / Grimalt Brouwer / Meeuwsen Pool F Herrera / Gavira Kantor / Losiak Plavins / Tocs Pool G Semenov / Leshukov Andre / George Seidl / Waller Pool H Berntsen / Mol Perusic / Schweiner Nicolai / Lupo

Women's Tournament Second Phase Draw Pool E Hermannova / Slukova Lahti / Parkkinen Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig Pool F Menegatti / Orsi-Toth Heidrich / Vergè-Deprè Wojtasik / Kociolek Pool G Liliana / Elsa Angela / Carol Horta Ittlinger / Laboureur Pool H Graudina / Kravcenoka Keizer / Meppelink Wang / Xia