phelps

it's been a crazy day, but at least in women's sabre we're finally heading towards a highly expected new chapter of the Velikaya vs Kharlan saga... in the men's foil, instead, however it goes, we're gonna have a really unexpected outcome...

women's individual Sabre, Quarterfinals Sofya Velikaya b. Anna Marton 15-7 Theodora Gkountoura b. Cecilia Berder 15-13 Bianca Pascu b. Anne-Elizabeth Stone 15-13 Olga Kharlan b. Alina Komashchuk 15-14 women's individual Sabre, Semifinals Sofya Velikaya vs Theodora Gkountoura Bianca Pascu vs Olga Kharlan

she just needed some more excitement...it was too easy...

no medal for the host Nation, today... Velikaya simply untouchable so far...she gets better round after round...

Stage #6, Corona Open J-Bay (Jeffreys Bay, RSA) Gold: Carissa Moore Silver: Lackey Peterson Bronze: Malia Manuel & Caroline Marks Full Ranking: https://www.worldsurfleague.com/events/2019/wct/2918/corona-open-j-bay/results?resultsType=prizes

Stage #6, Corona Open J-Bay (Jeffreys Bay, RSA) Gold: Gabriel Medina Silver: Italo Ferreira Bronze: Kolohe Andino & Filipe Toledo Full Ranking: https://www.worldsurfleague.com/events/2019/mct/2917/corona-open-j-bay/results?resultsType=prizes

men's individual Foil, Quarterfinals Marcus Mepstead vs Michal Siess Son Young Ki vs Lee Kwang Hyun Dmitry Zherebchenko vs Andrea Cassarà Enzo Lefort vs Ryan Choi Chun Yin

up... women's team Epee, Round of 16 United States b. Canada 45-25 Italy b. Germany 29-28 China b. Hungary 42-36 South Korea b. Romania 45-42 Russia b. Japan 45-39 Estonia b. Hong Kong 38-25 Ukraine b. France 45-44 Poland b. Switzerland 45-36 women's team Epee, Quarterfinals (Tomorrow) United States vs Italy China vs South Korea Russia vs Estonia Poland vs Ukraine

this men's Foil draw is absolutely crazy... by the way, Cassarà won the Italian derby against Garozzo by a score of 15-10...now we are all in his hands to save the last 24 years of our history... for sure, Cassarà and Lefort have a big, big chance right now...they are by far the best still in business...

it's over! we won it!!! unbelievable!!! Fiamingo can still win a match at the last hit!!!!! this is a super imprtant result for us...we still have a chance to qualify this team (and also the other results are helping us, with Poland close to win vs SUI, KOR well ahead vs ROU and FRA and UKR already OUT...

28-28 between ITA and GER with 1 minute to go

by the way, another impressive stat is the streak of Italian and/or Russian wins in women's individual Foil...now we are at 21 consecutive ITA or RUS individual gold medals... the last non-ITA or non-RUS winner was Sabine Bau in La Chaux-de-Fonds (SUI) in 1998...

yeah...don't remind me those stats...it's so painful to watch this championships... and now big drama in women's team epee...GER is 22-21 ahead after 8 of the 9 assaults...Fiamingo vs Ndolo the last and decisive match up (basically we have already lost before the start)...

women's individual Sabre, Quarterfinals Sofya Velikaya vs Anna Marton Cecilia Berder vs Theodora Gkountoura Bianca Pascu vs Anne-Elizabeth Stone Olga Kharlan vs Alina Komashchuk 8 girls from 7 different Nations involved... Ukriane is the only Country having 2 fencers, but unfortunately for them now they have to face each other in the quarterfinals, which means that they are going to win a medal (a safe medal) and don't have any chance to double it up... and once again we have at least 1 big surprise from a non traditional fencing Nation...this time is the Greek girl, Gkountoura...

right now our friend @MHSN will be jumping for joy...Iran beat China and basically secured an Olympic spot (now they are almost sure to be the second best Asian team behind the world's no.1 KOR)...

men's team Sabre, Round of 16 South Korea b. Great Britain 45-21 Romania b. United States 45-41 Russia b. Japan 45-24 Germany b. Canada 45-42 Hungary b. Egypt 45-32 Iran b. China 45-41 Georgia b. France 45-42 Italy b. Ukraine 45-32 men's team Sabre, Quarterfinals (Tomorrow) South Korea vs Romania Russia vs Germany Hungary vs Iran Italy vs Georgia

quick recap... women's team Epee, Round of 16 United States b. Canada 45-25 Italy b. Germany 29-28 China b. Hungary 42-36 South Korea b. Romania 45-42 Russia b. Japan 45-39 Estonia b. Hong Kong 38-25 Ukraine b. France 45-44 Poland b. Switzerland 45-36 women's team Epee, Quarterfinals (Tomorrow) United States vs Italy China vs South Korea Russia vs Estonia Poland vs Ukraine

but this is great news for Italy (provided they end up at least in the top 4/5, better if they go on the podium, but I don't see how they could do it)...

yeah, something like that...

in the men's foil, Choi destroyed Imboden... meanwhile 's no.1 Cheung Ka Long lost badly against Zherebchenko... more misery, Meinhardt also went out early... and more misery...Avola went out with the no.4 Kim Dong su and now the only 2 guys reamaining for us (Cassarà and Garozzo) have to face each other in the round of 16... not to mention that we don't have any girl left in the sabre competition...the best of all them, Rossella Gregorio, went out in the round of 16...

yeah, they did it at the last minute... and I don't know what, but something must have happened*, because they were supposed to take part also into this competition (with their individual world champions, not with a B-pair)... *probably a slight injury to one of the two during the warm-up... or maybe FINA paid them to leave at least 1 gold medal to the rest of the world...

and the graveyard of champions is still there... Kim Ji Yeon is out in the women's sabre (round of 32)...she lost to Komashchuk...

yeah, so far Japan and USA are the most disappointing teams of the world champs (followed by Italy)...

and Today's start of the day looks just like yesterday...another Italian reigning champion and no. 1 seed already out in the early stages! I really hope that these painful individual events are just a prelude to a triumphant ride in the team events, which are a lot more important, as they are the key to success for the Olympic qualification...

Yesterday it was quite a strange day for Italy... it started as one of the potential most disappointing day of the Century, but then it suddenly turned out to be very exciting and promising until the medal session...when the disaster came back with all of its power... first Santarelli, who started very well against Siklosi (4-1 ahead in a couple of minutes), but after that flashy start, he went out of the match, technically and mentally...he took a 12-0 partial that would have killed an elephant and had to be satisfied with a Bronze medal, that would have been considered a great success before the competition started, but once you see the names of the other 3 medallists, you understand that's more a wasted chance than a great success... by the way, unexpected but really exciting ride by the young Hungarian Gergely Siklosi...and not only he won a well deserved gold medal, he did it in style, showing a really attractive kind of fencing, not the usual boring epee schemes... congrats to him! p.s. fun fact: the Russian TV commentator for yesterday's events was Sergey Bida's mother...I just can't imagine what her feeling was during her son's matches and how she managed to be professional in a moment like that (being a former top level athlete herself probably helped a lot, I guess)... on the women's side, the competition would have been disappointing in any case, as you can't lose the reigning world champion and no. seed like it happened to Volpi... but what happened in the medal session really hurts and makes the day a half disaster...and don't tell me that 2 Bronze medals in the women's Foil are a good result for Italy...simply, it's not true! first Errigo lost to Ranvier in such an irritating style...she went 7-13 down taking the same kind of hit at least 10 times (showing not to be there with her mind at 100%, as usually happens to her in the the last 3/4 years), then she got back to 13-13 in about 15 seconds of fencing! showing all of her class for a short while...finally, she lost her mind once again taking the 2 most stupid hits in the world in 3 seconds and therefore losing the chance to play for Gold... no comment on the second semifinal between Di Francisca and Deriglazova, with one of the best women's Foil matches of the past few years completely ruined (and turned around in the final outcome) by a woman that should go to work with pigs in a farm, rather than destroying the sport of fencing... so, the final match between the Russian and the French girl was not that exciting, with Deriglazova being too good for Ranvier and always in control of the bout, even if Ranvier fought very well and didn't give up anything easy to the Queen of Foil of these last few years...