phelps

men's Overall Standings after 2/4 Events 1st, Shaoang Liu 55 pts 2nd, Shaolin Sandor Liu 36 pts 3rd, Itzhak De Laat 29 pts 4th, Semen Elistratov 18 pts 5th, Stijn Desmet 13 pts (CDR: 13) 6th, Vladislav Bykanov 13 pts (CDR: 25) 7th, Pavel Sitnikov 3 pts (CDR: 17) 8th, Rafal Anikej 3 pts (CDR: 36) Full Ranking https://shorttrack.sportresult.com/Results.aspx?evt=11213100000074&gen=m&ref=64362&view=ocl

women's Overall Standings after 2/4 Events 1st, Suzanne Schulting 68 pts 2nd, Arianna Fontana 21 pts (CDR: 27) 3rd, Martina Valcepina 21 pts (CDR: 43) 4th, Natalia Maliszewska 13 pts (CDR: 23) 5th, Anna Seidel 13 pts (CDR: 45) 6th, Ekaterina Efremenkova 8 pts (CDR: 27) 7th, Lara Van Ruijven 8 pts (CDR: 43) 8th, Hanne Desmet 5 pts Full Ranking https://shorttrack.sportresult.com/Results.aspx?evt=11213100000074&gen=w&ref=64362&view=ocl

women's 500m Gold: Suzanne Schulting Silver: Martina Valcepina Bronze: Natalia Maliszewska men's 500m Gold: Shaolin Sandor Liu Silver: Shaoang Liu Bronze: Semen Elistratov

perfect tactics by Shaoang Liu...he let De Laat lead for almost the entire race and he started his charge exactly when he needed to... if only Arianna was as smart as the Hungarian guy...

men's 1500m Gold: Shaoang Liu Silver: Itzhak De Laat Bronze: Vladislav Bykanov

one woman-race for Schulting, as Fontana started her comeback too late (and wasted too much laps behind Seidel and Efremenkova, clearly not capable of keeping the pace of the Dutch girl when she decided to go full gas)...

women's 1500m Gold: Suzanne Schulting Silver: Arianna Fontana Bronze: Anna Seidel

Bad Kleinkirchheim, January 18th 2018: Goggia 1st, Brignone 2nd and Nadia Fanchini 3rd... the Italian women also have 2 GS clean sweeps...

wow! Italian clean sweep of the podium with our speed specialist no.1 out watching from the stands (if not on tv from her hotel's room)... always if someone doesn't spoil the party...

Sofia Goggia, after today's crash, won't be at the start of Tomorrow's DH for sure...and most likely she won't take part also in Sunday's Super-G... it looks that she doesn't have any physical damage (only bruised right ankle and leg), but she was quite shocked after Today's race and the team managers don't want to take any risk with her (she already has a long history of crashes and bad injuries)...

most likely, on the WKF Youtube Channel... but remember that only the Bronze and Gold Medal matches on Sunday are broadcasted online (and somewhere also on TV)... there are no pictures from the preliminary rounds...

Karate1 Premier League, Stage #1 (Paris, FRA) Day #1 action recap... women's Individual Kata Gold Medal match: Sandra Sanchez Jaime vs Viviana Bottaro Bronze Medal match #1: Kiyou Shimizu vs Grace Lau Mo Sheung Bronze Medal match #2: Hikaru Ono vs Sakura Kokumai men's Team Kata Gold Medal match: Spain vs Turkey Bronze Medal match #1: Kuwait vs Italy Bronze Medal match #2: Morocco vs Egypt women's Individual Kumite, -50kg Gold Medal match: Miho Miyahara vs Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu Bronze Medal match #1: Yorgelis Salazar vs Junna Tsukii Bronze Medal match #2: Sara Bahmanyar vs Radwa Sayed women's Individual Kumite, -55kg Gold Medal match: Anna Cernysheva vs Anzhelika Terliuga Bronze Medal match #1: Wen Tzu-Yun vs Ding Jiamei Bronze Medal match #2: Jana Messerschmidt vs Carlota Fernandez Osorio men's Individual Kumite, -60kg Gold Medal match: Eray Samdan vs Darkhan Assadilov Bronze Medal match #1: Oussama Edari vs Naoto Sago Bronze Medal match #2: Douglas Brose vs Christos-Stefanos Xenos men's Individual Kumite, -67kg Gold Medal match: Steven Dacosta vs Luca Maresca Bronze Medal match #1: Vinicius Figueira vs Rafiz Hasanov Bronze Medal match #2: Yves Lamotte vs Camilo Velozo men's Individual Kumite, -75kg Gold Medal match: Bahman Askari vs Logan Dacosta Bronze Medal match #1: Joaquin Gonzalez Lavin vs Kirill Kuznetcov Bronze Medal match #2: Yusei Sakiyama vs Luigi Busà

2020 Grand Prix (Tel Aviv, ISR) Day #2 Recap Today the European nations took their revenge and won 3 out of 4 weight classes... and the only non-European title went surprisingly to Australia, thanks to Katharina Haecker, who won the Gold Medal in the women's -63kg class... the remaining Gold medal among the women went instead to Great Britain, thanks to Sally Conway, who dominated the -70kg class... meanwhile the 2 men's divisions on stage earlier Today were won by the already named Fabio Basile (-73kg) and by Arsen Lappinagov (-81kg)... after Today's results, Japan and South Korea still top the medal table with 2 Gold Medals each, followed by Australia, Slovenia, Italy, Great Britain and Russia with one Gold Medal each... Full Results http://www.ippon.org/gp_isr2020.php Today's Medal Session Replay

so, Basile in the end didn't even have to fight to win his first -73kg GP tournament, as the Armenian Karapetian couldn't show up in the final bout because of a broken finger... with this win now he's going to consolidate a bit his (still in danger) position in the OQR, but, more than anything, this is going to be a huge boost to his confidence for the next tournaments on his way to the Olympics...

finally! today I've seen some flashes from the true Fabio Basile, the Olympic Champion from Rio... he landed a couple of really spectacular ippon throws like only he and a very few other judo players can... now he only has one fight left...and it won't be an easy one against Karapetian, as he doesn't like to fight against those guys with unconventional style and a strong wrestling background...

and expected disaster just happened... Samdan easily reached the Gold Medal match (he destroyed Naoto Sago 9-0 in the pool final ) and Crescenzo once again lost badly in round #2 against Oussama Edari, just like 15 days ago in Chile... this time he's surely going to lose his virtual qualification spot...and since the other finalist is once again the Kazakh superstar Darkhan Assadilov, there's no way he would eventually qualify through the OQR... moreover, since Luca Maresca won the 2019 European Games in the -67kg and he's likely to end up as the best European male in the repechage ranking for the EG winners, there's a good chance Crescenzo would also miss out on the Olympic World Qualification tournament next May (and the Olympics as well, of course...despite being 3rd overall in the OQR and one of the reigning world champions)...

great effort by the Italian boys last night... unfortunately they came up a bit short against Belgium and finally lost 3 matches to 2 (after leading 2-1 and with Stoyanov to the 5th set vs Allegro in the 4th match)... an Italian success would have been a really huge surprise...

https://www.wkf.net/karate1-main/158

that's what we should call "a big surprise"... by the way, I don't think Viviana has a single chance to repeat this success in Tokyo, I fear (and I somehow suspect that in the Olympic tournament she will be in the semifinal group with Sandra Sanchez and not in the group with Shimizu )... in any case, today's "big moment" for us comes with the preliminary rounds of the men's -60kg in Kumite...Crescenzo must take advantage of the favourable draw and reach at least the semis, so to gain a few points over Samdan (who has Alpysbay and Sago on his way to the pool final and maybe this time he fails to score big)...

being ambitious is always good...if you are not somehow ambitious, you normally don't get anything in professional sports... overestimating the chances of your team...well, that's another story... by the way, I think that winning a medal in Tokyo is not impossible for Poland...Kowalczyk definitely has enough talent to get it (actually, she already won a medal at the last world champs)...

naaa...the mid-section turns are really GS turns...there are more places where they don't reach the 90/100 km/h... a provisional standing like today's tells it all...

by the way, this is a GS with just a few DH seconds at the beginnning...

Vlhova...

Top karatekas ready to shine at Karate biggest stage The 2020 Karate 1-Premier League starts in a week in Paris (France) and the best karatekas in the world are ready to fight for the gold medals. The coveted points to ascend in the Olympic standings are also at stake. Who will win in Paris? FIRST EVENT OF THRILLING SEASON The historic year of international Karate started last weekend with the Karate 1-Series A Santiago. However, the opening event of Karate’s first-class series of events takes places in Paris. Traditionally the first Karate 1-Premier League of the season, the tournament in the capital of France inaugurates a season with even more relevance as the sport is getting closer and closer to make its debut in the Olympic Games. The Karate 1-Premier League is – after the World Championships – the competition attributing more points to the Olympic Standings. HISTORY IN THE MAKING As the only venue hosting Karate 1-Premier League events in all the nine editions of Karate’s first-class series of international competitions, the Karate 1-Premier League Paris is one of the most prestigious tournaments of the international scene. Karatekas competing this year in the capital of France will be part of a historic event since the Karate 1-Premier League Paris will be the last major international event in the city before the anticipated Olympic Qualification Tournament in May. FACTS - After Paris, the 2020 Karate 1-Premier League Paris travels to Dubai (UAE), Salzburg (Austria), Rabat (Morocco), Madrid (Spain) and Moscow (Russia). - Over 700 competitors from no less than 92 countries have confirmed their participation in the 2020 Karate 1-Premier League Paris. - Last year 20 countries went home with medals. - In the last edition of the event in Paris, Japan topped the medal table with four gold medals. French athletes also registered deserving performances with two titles. - Competitors taking gold in Paris will receive between 870 and 990 points, depending on the category and the number of bouts. - The current leaders of the Olympic standings are Ryo Kiyuna of Japan (Male Kata), Darkhan Assadilov of Kazakhstan (Male Kumite -67kg), Bahman Ghoncheh Asgari of Iran (Male Kumite -75kg), Ugur Aktas of Turkey (Male Kumite +75kg), Sandra Sanchez of Spain (Female Kata), Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu of Turkey (Female Kumite -55kg), Xiaoyan Yin of China (Female Kumite -61kg) and Irina Zaretska of Azerbaijan (Female Kumite +61kg). - No less than 19 countries have thus far placed athletes among the top 4 competitors who will qualify to the Olympics by standings in each category. - Iran, Turkey and Italy, with four competitors each are the countries with more representatives among the top 4 in the Olympic standings for the moment. - No less than 204 territories around the world are broadcasting the event. - The 2020 Karate 1-Premier League takes place in Stadium Pierre de Coubertin in Paris (82 avenue Georges Lafont). - Over 100 journalists from over 25 countries are expected to attend the event. - The 2019 Grand Winners will be honoured at the Karate 1-Premier League Paris. The awarding ceremony of the best competitors of last season is scheduled for Saturday at 19.30. - The Grand Winners are the best competitors of the season in Karate 1-Premier League in each category. They are the only athletes who are allowed to wear the special karategi with the golden embroidery on the shoulders. - The current Grand Winners are Sandra Sanchez of Spain (Female Kata), Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu of Turkey (Female Kumite -50kg), Anzhelika Terliuga of Ukraine (Female Kumite -55kg), Xiaoyan Yin of China (Female Kumite -61kg), Irina Zaretska of Azerbaijan (Female Kumite -68kg), Ayumi Uekusa of Japan (Female Kumite +68kg), Ryo Kiyuna of Japan (Male Kata), Darkhan Assadilov of Kazakhstan (Male Kumite -60kg), Steven Dacosta of France (Male Kumite -67kg), Rafael Aghayev of Azerbaijan (Male Kumite -75kg), Ugur Aktas of Turkey (Male Kumite -84kg) and Sajad Ganjzadeh of Iran (Male Kumite +84kg). COMPETITION PROGRAMME - Friday, 09:00 – 19:45: Elimination rounds (Female Kata, Male Team Kata, Male Kumite -60kg, Male Kumite -67kg, Male Kumite -75kg, Female Kumite -50kg, Female Kumite -55kg) - Saturday, 09:00 – 19:30: Elimination rounds (Male Kata, Female Team Kata, Female Kumite -61kg, Female Kumite -68kg, Female Kumite +68kg, Male Kumite -84kg, Male Kumite +84kg) - Saturday, 19:30-20:00: 2019 Grand Winners ceremony - Sunday, 09:30-13:30: Bronze Medal bouts (Live Streaming available) - Sunday, 14:30 – 16:30: Gold Medal bouts (Live Streaming available) - Sunday, 16:30 – 17:00: Awarding ceremony p.s. a bit of gossip... Jana Bitsch (women's Kumite, -55kg specialist) recently got married and therefore from now on she's listed as Jana Messerschmidt...

2020 Grand Prix (Tel Aviv, ISR) the new Judo season started today in Tel Aviv (ISR), where the first Grand Prix event of the year is on stage... and guess what? the Asian powerhouses dominated the field, with South Korea winning today's 2 men's Gold Medals awarded (Kim Won Jin, -60kg; An Baul, -66kg) and Japan taking 2 out of 3 women's weight classes (Natsumi Tunoda, -48kg; Chishima Maeda, -52kg)... Slovenia's youngster Kaja Kajzer (women's -57kg) saved the European honour by winning the only Gold Medal that didn't fly to Far East... Full Results http://www.ippon.org/gp_isr2020.php Today's Medal Session Replay