phelps

The Netherlands won earlier today the women's Pro League 2019, beating Australias by a score of 4-3 after the shootout (regulation ended 2-2)... Germany and Argentina tied 1-1 the 3rd place match and then they won 3-1 the shootout, ending up in 3rd place...

Pakistan almost committed suicide against their neighbours from Afghanistan, but finally they were able to score enough runs in the final 3/4 overs... now they're in pole position to upset the Host Team, unless there's some kind of match fixing tomorrow in the IND vs ENG matchup or some other strange and unexpected result in the last few days of the round robin play... NZL, AUS and IND are basically already safe through the Final Four...not much has changed if compared to 4 years ago (only PAK or ENG would eventually replace RSA in the semis, the other 3 teams being exactly the same)...

they were not at the start... GER & GBR planned to participate in this WC stage with a second tier team, as they notoriously don't like the Tacen course...

normally, yes... but for Italy, this was highly expected...it can't hurt too much... hopefully, the women's football hysteria in Italy is going to stop now...

among the boys, instead, Asiman Gurbanli is now in pole position for the male Olympic Spot, as Quintero and Ivan Kvesic shouldn't miss out on the qualification via OQR...

by the way, great win for Silvia Semeraro, dominating the reigning world champion in her weight class... unfortunately for Italy, Laura Palacio's success could be a big threat to get the lone Olympic Quota from this tournament, as both Semeraro and Palacio most likely won't qualify directly via OQR... now she has to be higher than Palacio in the OQR at the end of the OQP (even if both don't get a direct quota place) and the Spaniard is heavily favoured by the less competitive Heavyweight Class, rather than the most crowded at the top level Cruiserweights, where normally Semeraro fights... it will be an interesting race until next April...even if I hope that no more girls will be added to that (hoping that the no.1 seeded girls will win the remaining classes)...

I don't think Sandra Sanchez is "only" a safe silver medal in Tokyo...she can definitely go for the biggest prize...

2019 African Championships, Final Medal Table EGY, 5 / 7 / 9 TUN, 5 / 3 / 3 MAR, 2 / 0 / 0 SEN, 0 / 1 / 2 RSA, 0 / 1 / 0 ALG, 0 / 0 / 4

well, they were a lot quicker than I expected to update that page (this morning the results of the medal matches were still missing)...

OMG!!!!! thunderstorms coming!!!

yes, it was last Spring...so, he's the reigning world bronze medallist...

Karate, men's +84kg semifinals Asiman Gurbanli vs Gogita Arkania Andjelo Kvesic vs Jonathan Horne

Karate, men's -84kg semifinals Ugur Aktas vs Valerii Chobotar Ivan Kvesic vs Michele Martina

Karate, women's -68kg semifinals Irina Zaretska vs Halyna Melnyk Elena Quirici vs Silvia Semeraro

good and bad news for Italy... the notorious chance waster Clio Ferracuti is out in the women's +68kg class, meanwhile Silvia Semeraro easily beat Miroslava Kopunova and Alizèe Agier after a draw against Irina Zaretska and therefore she and the Azeri girl are through to the semifinals in the women's -68kg class... Karate, women's +68kg semifinals Meltem Hocaoglu vs Titta Keinanen Eleni Chatziliadou vs Laura Palacio Gonzalez

Zaretska on fire in the last couple of matches...

by the way, Mattia Busato lost once again against Alì Sofuoglu in men's Kata and will fight "only" for Bronze, meanwhile Viviana Bottaro filled her contract and will win the Silver Medal among the women (no chance she can beat Sandra Sanchez)... so, the first 2 Gold Medal matches of the Karate tournament are: Men's Kata: Damian Hugo Quintero Capdevila vs Alì Sofuoglu Women's Kata: Sandra Sanchez Jaime vs Viviana Bottaro now let'go to more serious stuff, the Kumite events... first on the mat, the women's -68kg and +68kg...

yeah...and I don't like Kata at all...

yeah, we only need the "real Hockey" (the one played on the Ice, for those who still don't want to accept that ) season to start again... don't worry...it's less than 2 months, my friend!

2019 Swimming World Championships: the Italian Team here's the list of the Italian swimmers named for the upcoming Worlds...no Vergani (as expected and because it's the correct decision to take) and no women's relays 4*100m free and 4*200m free (this also was expected, but with our federation you just can't be sure until the official lineup comes out)... Men: Domenico Acerenza (Long Distance Freestyle) Stefano Ballo (4*200m Free Relay) Alessandro Bori (Sprint Relays) Federico Burdisso (Fly) Thomas Ceccon (Sprint Backstroke, maybe 200 IM) Matteo Ciampi (4*200m Free Relay) Piero Codia (Sprint Fly) Santo Condorelli (Sprint Free and Relays) Marco De Tullio (400m Free) Gabriele Detti (400m & 800m Free and 4*200m Free Relay) Stefano Di Cola (4*200m Free Relay) Luca Dotto (Sprint Free and Relays) Manuel Frigo (Sprint Relays) Nicolò Martinenghi (Sprint Breaststroke) Filippo Megli (200m Free, Individual & Relay) Alessandro Miressi (100m Free, Individual and Relay) Gregorio Paltrinieri (1500m Free, maybe also the 800m Free...surely the 10km Open Water, probably also the Team Event in the Open Water) Luca Pizzini (200m Breaststroke) Matteo Restivo (200m Backstroke) Simone Sabbioni (Sprint Backstroke) Fabio Scozzoli (Sprint Breaststroke) Women: Ilaria Bianchi (Fly) Martina Carraro (Breaststroke) Arianna Castiglioni (Breastroke) Ilaria Cusinato (Individual Medley) Elena Di Liddo (Sprint Fly) Giulia Gabbrielleschi (1500m Free) Margherita Panziera (Backstroke) Federica Pellegrini (100m & 200m Free) Benedetta Pilato (50m Breaststroke) Simona Quadarella (from 400m to 1500m Free) Silvia Scalia (Sprint Backstroke)

Men's Individual Foil Final Results Gold: Race Imboden Silver: Guilherme Toldo Bronze: Gerek Meinhardt & Alexander Massialas Semifinals: Imboden b. Meinhardt 15-7 Toldo b. Massialas 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Imboden b. Toldo 15-4  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2019/798

Women's Individual Epee Final Results Gold: Kelley Hurley Silver: Maria Martinez Bronze: Maria Luisa Doig & Nathalie Moellhausen Semifinals: Hurley b. Moellhausen 15-11 Martinez b. Doig 15-9 Gold Medal Match: Hurley b. Martinez 15-7  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2019/797

Men's Team Sabre Final Results Gold: Egypt Silver: Tunisia Bronze: Algeria Semifinals: Egypt b. Senegal 45-29 Tunisia b. Algeria 45-21 Bronze Medal Match: Algeria b. Senegal 45-44 Gold Medal Match: Egypt b. Tunisia 45-34  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4650-2018/results/

Men's Team Epee Final Results Gold: Morocco Silver: Senegal Bronze: Egypt Semifinals: Morocco b. Egypt 45-41 Senegal b. Algeria 45-27 Bronze Medal Match: Egypt b. Algeria 45-18 Gold Medal Match: Morocco b. Senegal 45-31  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4648-2018/results/

Women's Team Foil Final Results Gold: Tunisia Silver: Egypt Bronze: Algeria Semifinals: Egypt b. Togo 45-4 Tunisia b. Algeria 45-37 Bronze Medal Match: Algeria b. Togo 45-5 Gold Medal Match: Tunisia b. Egypt 45-39  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://fie.org/competitions/2019/592