phelps

women's team Sabre, Quarterfinals France b. Ukraine 45-34 South Korea b. United States 45-39 Italy b. Hungary 45-38 Russia b. China 45-28 women's team Sabre, Semifinals France vs South Korea Italy vs Russia

1) I forgot Pignatiello, but she still has to swim those times in a global event...it's not the same thing doing a great result in aminor meet and on the main stage... for what concerns Smith, I think she's too important for the US 4*200m free relay to start focusing more on the 800m/1500m double rather than on the shorter distances...not all the women in the world can be medal contenders from 200m to 1500m at the same time...there's only 1 Ledecky, I hope... 2) yeah, it was a typo... probably they're not, but I mean that she's already won a race like that, when she wasn't supposed to win...so, I don't take for granted that all the missing swimmers would beat Federica...I think she will eventually make the podium and that she would do it also with all the missing girls starting... 3) not saying that...I only hope he can at least change his mood, which would be important before taking any decision for the next campaign... taking decisions when you're in a wrong mood, is always the best way to take wrong decisions...

the tournament has started... GBR are thrashing ESP out at the moment... pretty good quality streaming of all matches on Youtube...links can be found on the schedule & results page of the official website, here: https://olympicsoftball.wbsc.org/en/2019/e-2019-europe-africa-softball-olympic-qualifier/schedule-and-results

yeah, Italian tv commentators were very harsh on that decision...and normally they don't talk about the refs, unless they do something really idiotic...

France, Italy and Russia are already through to the semis in the women's team sabre...USA and KOR are fighting for the last spot in a very tight match (37-36 for KOR right now)...

1) the same Li that didn't even make the final over the 400m free and opted for the 200m free instead of the 1500m but swam a modest 1.57.5 in the heats? and that has a PB just below 16 mins? and as I wrote, I don't remember Smith being so strong over the 1500m...she's definitely very good over the 800m, great over 400m, pretty good over the 200m free...but not exactly a medal contender over the longer distance... as I wrote, with Wang, Kesely and Kohler we have the best possible starting field (except for Ledecky, of course)... and now we have also Belmonte, even if she does look totally out of shape (and in fact she was originally eliminated over the distance)... 2) I agree on Ruck, but I think McKeown and Ledecky were in the pool 2 years ago... 3) not good at all for him... hopefully, in the next few days he's going to improve his mood...

1) we didn't do anything...if Ledecky got sick, it's only bad luck (for her)...but the other top 800m free girls are all there (except for Titmus, but she's obviously more 200m/400m oriented...there was no chance she sould start in this race since the schedule was known)...find me someone else better than Belmonte, Wang, Kesely and Kohler in that discipline -maybe Smith could do well over the 800m, but surely she's not a top 1500m specialist, as she's also more a 200m specialist than a long distance's)... 2) I think Titmus and Sjostrom don't agree... but I hope...of course... 3) it can happen...we'll see in the next few days if Wellbrock just wasn't focused enough today or if he dedicated himself too much to open water swimming and he's momentarily "lost the touch" in the pool (after his heat, Paltrinieri this morning said it was really diffcult to get back to competitive swimming in the pool in such a short time after the open water races)...

so, you're mostly for tax havens...

wow! last night's session has been one of the most surprising heats session ever, I guess... between DNSs and poor performances by some of the most expected athletes, there was no time to fall asleep despite the time (European time, of course)... it might sound a bit rough, no intention to denigrate anybody, trust me...but I'm so happy to see Paltrinieri on top of the 800m heats and Wellbrock out of the final with such a poor performance... after the last 2 seasons full of troubles and full of losses against the German (and Romanchuck, who's still there), it was a really needed boost for Greg... p.s. and now I'm really curious to watch the women's 1500m free final without Ledecky...it could be an interesting race...

last (only) time it happened at the Olympics was in 1996, when they held the slalom canoeing events on the Ocoe River (in Tennessee, not even close to Atlanta)... all the other Olympic races were held on artificial courses... if only Rome could bid for the 2024 Olympics, the slalom course would have been on a natural river...but unfortunately (or luckily, it depends on the point of view) it didn't go that way...

but that's a perfectly legal move...you just have to ask permission to the ref and once he/she agrees, you can change your weapon as many times as many reserve weapons you have in your bag (because the ref keeps the weapons changed by the fencers and give them back only at the end of the match just to avoid people trying too many of those tricks)... just look at how many times Ivanova changed her foil against Volpi when she was struggling... it's a perfectly normal way to gain a few seconds...sometimes it's a tactical move, sometimes just because you need a deep breathe when you're really tired... you won't find any fencer complaining for that...never...there are a lot of different things that could irritate a fencer (asking always for the video replay even when you don't have anymore, for instance), but not asking to change the weapon...

luckily I don't have all those problems to locate myself in the history books...it's well clear that I'm one of the last remaining dinosaurs... oh, next Sunday I'm gonna be 45...and I feel all of them...

no, they don't have any chance unless something crazy happens in the pool (their best chance was the 200m IM specialist who ended up in 6th place earlier today)... and yes, their diving perfomance (not only the medal, but also Woo Ha Ram's good results) went beyond any reasonable expectation... Water sports are definitely not Korea's Crown jewels...

no, she was playing her tactics...she was waiting for the Russian attack and then go with a parè and reposte (and at the same time trying to waste some seconds on the clock, obviously...she was ahead with a few seconds to go...who wouldn't do that in the same situation?).. the bout was stopped with 6 secs to go because there was a hit outside the target by Deriglazova... and here Di Francisca asked the ref to change her foil... there's nothing wrong nor illegal with that... then came the call by the assistent ref...the main refactually didn't see anything wrong and never thought to give a red card in such situation, but he was forced to do it once the assistent jumped in... that's how it went... then, we can discuss all night about the call...to me, it was done absolutely in bad faith, there's no chance he saw something that never happened in good faith... other people might have a different opinion... for sure, it was a completely wrong call...the pictures are there to be watched...there's no way anybody can say Di Francisca used her left hand to stop Deriglazova's hit (also because that hit went on the target, but outside the useful area, with the white lamp turning on)...

Today's recap... Women's Team Foil Gold: Russia Silver: Italy Bronze: United States Semifinals Russia b. United States 45-36 Italy b. France 45-37 Bronze Medal Match United States b. France 45-43 Gold Medal Match Russia b. Italy 43-42 Full Ranking (and Results) here: https://2019budapestfencing.com/files/hunfencing/2019_wfc_bud/swf-eq/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm Men's Team Epee Gold: France Silver: Ukraine Bronze: Switzerland Semifinals Ukraine b. China 38-24 France b. Switzerland 45-27 Bronze Medal Match Switzerland b. China 45-35 Gold Medal Match France b. Ukraine 45-37 Full Ranking (and Results) here: https://2019budapestfencing.com/files/hunfencing/2019_wfc_bud/sme-eq/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

he was wrong...I explained a couple of posts above why she got the red card... Italian tv commentators immediately saw the assistent ref waving his hands to ask for attention by the refs...and once they ask for his help, thay can't do anything but register his decision... he's the only one to blame...

not through the OQR, but still she will have a chance at the European Olympic Qualification Tournament next June...

she didn't do anything like that...actually, she didn't do anything wrong...she was just robbed by a biased side piste assistent...

last time Fiamingo was 1st and Navarria 2nd in the world ranking at the moment of the cut (but Navarria had to watch the Olympics on TV because of the max 1 fencer per NOC rule for the Countries that don't qualify a full team)... that was really the most shameful casualty of this stupid procedure...

no, not at all...she asked for permission to change her foil (which was clearly ruined)... and as I wrote before, the red card came for another reason...not because of the mask or any other disciplinary infringment...

it wasn't given for that...the red card came because the assistent ref behind the piste literally invented that Di Francisca covered her target with the arm not handling the foil (which is not allowed, of course)... there have been at least 4 or 5 dubious calls (actually, at least 2 completely wrong) in favor of Russia in the middle of the bout, but that one was clearly a burglary, I just don't believe that it was done in good faith...nobody will never make me think the opposite...

I'd say the only team with chances is the women's epee... for what concerns the individual ranking, we'd better wait the end of the championship and then make the proper calculation... p.s. HKG nowadays is a very good team (they were 3rd in the last world cup event in Russia, beating Italy in the quarterfinals)...Choi and Cheung are never to be underestimated also in the individual events...

women's team Sabre, Quarterfinals (Tomorrow)  France vs Ukraine South Korea vs United States Italy vs Hungary China vs Russia

final update... women's team Sabre, Round of 16  FRA vs TUR 45-24 JPN vs UKR 34-45 KOR vs GER 45-39 CAN vs USA 32-45 ITA vs HKG 45-28 POL vs HUN 41-45 CHN vs ESP 45-42 RUS vs AZE 45-38

now it's over, but when you don't have a match on tv, just use the Youtube streaming...and you don't miss a hit...