phelps

yeeeeesssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!! guys, I'm spent!

and now, the divine, Queen Federica... today my heart rate is really high, dangerously high... gotta take a couple of pills, maybe...

Scott chose to swim the 200 IM...it was just a technical/tactical decision...

well, with Wellbrock and Romanchuk not in good shape, it would be painful for us if it's not gonna happen... by the way, great win by Paltrinieri, but very disappointing performance by Detti...the 1-2 in this race was our real target after the heats...

to me, GER still have good chances to overtake RUS... it's not impossible... the main problem with the German team is that they are quite inconsistent, on a given day they can make the final in any event but the following week they can lose in the round of 16... RUS instead is definitely more solid, they always make the top 5/6 (if not better) tournament after tournament...

reasonably likely...I'd say it's easier that Russia make it through to the top 4 than Hong Kong, but it's not to be taken for granted... I think it will go down to the draw in the next world cup events...should HKG get Egypt rather than KOR or even a direct match up with the Russians in the quarterfinals, then it would change a lot the final outcome of the event, imho...

Final Medal Table RUS, 3 / 3 / 1 FRA, 2 / 3 / 0 KOR, 2 / 0 / 2 HUN, 1 / 2 / 0 UKR, 1 / 1 / 2 CHN, 1 / 1 / 0 USA, 1 / 0 / 1 BRA, 1 / 0 / 0 ITA, 0 / 1 / 7 GBR, 0 / 1 / 0 GRE, 0 / 0 / 1 HKG, 0 / 0 / 1 IRI, 0 / 0 / 1 ROU, 0 / 0 / 1 SUI, 0 / 0 / 1

final day recap... women's team Sabre Gold: Russia Silver: France Bronze: South Korea Semifinals France b. South Korea 45-43 Russia b. Italy 45-37 Bronze Medal Match South Korea b. Italy 45-35 Gold Medal Match Russia b. France 45-40 Full Ranking (and Results), here: https://2019budapestfencing.com/files/hunfencing/2019_wfc_bud/sws-eq/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm men's team Foil Gold: United States Silver: France Bronze: Italy Semifinals United States b. Russia 45-30 France b. Italy 45-32 Bronze Medal Match Italy b. Russia 45-32 Gold Medal Match United States b. France 45-32 Full Ranking (and Results), here: https://2019budapestfencing.com/files/hunfencing/2019_wfc_bud/smf-eq/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

well, we've won the last 3...so, yes, this should be the good one... but those wonderful birds are always there on their perch...

they say they bring bad luck with themselves... but owls are so classy, so beautiful...

and another Gold for CHN...

'cause they like speedskating more than swimming...

as I wrote, after Pellegrini and Paltrinieri's success we have always more and more kids trying to swim for real, quite a good amount of money to invest in infrastructure and development and a new generation of coaches who were humble enough to go abroad (especially in the USA) to study all what you need to know to make your swimmers improve (methodology, strategy, technical things)... however, it's since the Lamberti era that we are at least a decent swimming Nation in Europe...but we've always had troubles on the world's stage... in the last couple of years, things seem to have changed also there, I think more than anything because we have a larger basis of good athletes where to pick from and try and build really good swimmers...

do you remember Kazan 2015? he knocked a Brazilian female swimmer out on the side of the training pool only because she didn't make room for him to walk through... and this was the most dramatic but not the only time he was involved in some rough situations...

because once in our lifetime we've got the right timing in our set-up... but normally it's not the case (see the Rio flop, except for Paltrinieri/Detti)...

the problem is that the opposite (Sun getting someone knocked out) is a lot more probable...

women's team Sabre, 5th-16th Placements 5. Hungary 6. Ukraine 7. United States 8. China 9. Japan 10. Poland 11. Germany 12. Spain 13. Azerbaijan 14. Turkey 15. Canada 16. Hong Kong

too strong Russia...Italy will face Korea for Bronze in the women's team sabre... the gold medal instead is a French / Russian affair...

women's team Sabre, Semifinals France b. South Korea 45-43 Russia b. Italy 45-37

I don't know about GBR, but in Italy there are a lot of people practicing competitive swimming and a new generation of very good coaches (and a lot of money invested by our NOC/federation, which is not the usual stuff at this latitude)... it's one of the few sports where you can find athletes from all around the Country, while most sports are just "regional"...

unfortunately, no European record for Simona...but wonderful, wonderful win...

Kohler and Wang...

men's team Foil, Quarterfinals United States b. China 45-30 Russia b. South Korea 45-28 France b. Germany 45-24 Italy b. Hong Kong 45-28 men's team Foil, Semifinals United States vs Russia Italy vs France