phelps

today it's time for some Sport Climbing (women's Olympic qualifier) on Youtube, some NFL Football (last night's match-ups) on NFL GamePass, Nordic Combined and Cross-Country Skiing on Eurosport and some live College Football on ABC & CBS through USTVNow service (free package)...

McColl? no way...he's quite good in all the 3 standalone disciplines, but he's not good enough to be a winner of at least 1 stage...and you desperately need at least a "1" to be among the top guys in this Combined Format... Schubert? yes, but only if he does really improve in the speed discipline (like Ondra, at least)..otherwise, with a "18" or worse as a multiplying factor, he doesn't have any chance... what drives me crazy is the fact that most likely the medals will be decided by the weakest discipline for all the contenders...discipline which is also the most subject to the "luck" factor...I just can't get myself to appreciate this new kind of event...I'm really a conservative traditionalist for what concerns Sport Climbing...they must keep the 3 disciplines "standalone" only, as it's been until 2/3 years ago...

still, imho they have to deserve that reward, i.e. getting at least good (nobody ask them to be medal contenders) in that discipline... what we saw last Summer with the Korean Waterpolo teams at the world champs is absolutely unacceptable to me...

be serious, man!

no comment, instead, on Ghisolfi's drama...he just killed himself with an awful speed performance, then he had a good (for his poor standard) bouldering, but not good enough to make up for the disaster in the 1st discipline...and finally, that heartbreaking lead climb... by the way, it was obvious that they were not going to try and separate Ghisolfi and Ginès Lòpez, which means that actually there was not so much pathos as they tried to sell on the YT broadcast...the only way for the Italian to qualify for the final was to win (with no tie) the Lead discipline...and with the Spaniard tying his result, he was out all the way... now he only has the very last continental spot up for grabs, but it will be almost impossible for him, as it will be an event with also the already qualified specialist going to false the overall result, especially for those who only rely one 1 single very good special discipline and try to limit the damage in the other 2...

Frankly, it wouldn't be a serious Olympic Tournament without him... there was no doubt he would eventually make it... imho, Ondra is the main favourite for the Olympic Gold, with Pan (in 8 months time he's going to improve a lot...he's definitely on the rising curve of his still very young career) and the Japanese guys right behind him...

Men's Qualification, Combined Final Results (Top 8 advancing to Saturday's Final) 1. Adam Ondra, 28 pts (Olympic Quota) 2. Pan Yufei, 49 pts (Olympic Quota) 3. Alberto Ginès Lòpez, 302.5 pts (Olympic Quota) 4. Jan Hojer, 312 pts (Olympic Quota) 5. Bassa Mawem, 420 pts (Olympic Quota) 6. Kokoro Fujii, 448 pts 7. Nathaniel Coleman, 450 pts (Olympic Quota) 8. Meichi Narasaki, 486 pts Full Ranking: https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition/calendar#!comp=8322&cat=45&route=-1

Men's Qualification, Lead Result 1. Adam Ondra =2. Stefano Ghisolfi =2. Alberto Ginès Lòpez Full Ranking: https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition/calendar#!comp=8322&cat=45&route=2

tbh, I'd rather watch the "original" Cricket at the Summer Games... I agree with @Olympian1010 we have already quite a few legitimate winter sports left off the Games, before starting taking seriously those extravagant "newcomers" (even if...synchronized skating, no thanks! )...

Men's Qualification, Combined Result after 2/3 Events (Top 8 advancing to Saturday's Final) 1. Pan Yufei, 7 pts 2. Bassa Mawem, 21 pts 3. Meichi Narasaki, 27 pts 4. Adam Ondra, 28 pts 5. Nathaniel Coleman, 30 pts 6. Kokoro Fujii, 32 pts 7. Jan Hojer, 39 pts 8. Alfian Muhammad, 44 pts 9. Keita Dohi, 48 pts 10. Nikolai Iarilovets, 70 pts Full Ranking (don't look at those provisional scores, they will change to the traditional rules after the end of the Lead phase): https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition/calendar#!comp=8322&cat=45&route=-1

Men's Qualification, Boulder Result 1. Pan Yufei 2. Adam Ondra 3. Meichi Narasaki Full Ranking: https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition/calendar#!comp=8322&cat=45&route=1

it was expected...they are pure Sprint specialists...and Boulder and Lead are completely different sports than Speed, they're antithetical to say the least...

Men's Qualification, Speed Result 1. Bassa Mawem 2. Alfian Muhammad 3. Jan Hojer Full Ranking: https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition/calendar#!comp=8322&cat=45&route=0

never seen Ondra celebrating like that! for a 14th place!!! and he won so many gold medals here and there! that's a sign of how much does he feel the pressure and how does he really want to make it to the Olympics...and well, now he can only lose his spot, after such a good (for his standard) performance in his only weak discipline...

and Ghisolfi's hopes are already gone! 21st out of 22 in the Speed...game over!

https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition/calendar#!comp=8322&cat=45

Bhutan's long tradition in Archery is safe! since Los Angeles 1984 they never missed a single participation in Archery at the Olympics...

well, their participation started before the ioc started to put any limit to the numbers of starters in most sports, so they also had a full team more than once, not only "universality places"... here's their history at the Games (in London and Rio Archery wasn't the only sport in which they competed): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan_at_the_Olympics

Both the qualifications and finals will be streamed live on Youtube from 28 November to 1 December. Fans can join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag, #IFSCToulouse or #ClimbToTokyo. Today's events Men's Qualification, Speed Men's Qualification, Boulder Men's Qualification, Lead

Schedule (GMT +1) Thursday 28th November 11:00 Men's Speed Qualification 13.00 Men's Boulder Qualification 16.45 Men's Lead Qualification Friday 29th November 11:00 Women's Speed Qualification 13.00 Women's Boulder Qualification 16.45 Women's Lead Qualification Saturday 30th November 19.00 Men's Speed Final 19.45 Men's Boulder Final 21.40 Men's Lead Final Following Award Ceremony Sunday 1st December 19.00 Women's Speed Final 19.45 Women's Boulder Final 21.40 Women's Lead Final Following Award Ceremony

by the way, right now I'm also watching (in 4K) Juventus vs Atletico Madrid, Football (Soccer) Champions League on SkySports Italy...

yeah, in fact I'm not that interested in NBC Gold... I'm more than happy with MLB.tv/NHL.tv/NFL GamePass (the NBA is already very well covered by the Italian TV)... my only regret is not to have a full NCAA working app to follow the entire College Football season... I mean, ESPN player offers tons of college sports, but it's only about the ABC/ESPN family games...and of course I'd rather watch some of the SEC on CBS and B1G/PAC-12 on Fox main match-ups, which at the moment are not legally available here in Italy (I can still use the CBS website with a VPN or the basic package of a service like USTVNow for the saturday afternoon games, but I can't follow the primetime matches and it's not the same thing as having them ondemand directly on my tv screen while comfortably lying on the couch, meanwhile FOX programming is just out of reach)...

yeah, we've been enjoying it (and we can also enjoy NHL.tv, MLB.tv and NBA League Pass + the International Service for College Sports by ESPN, ESPN Player) for quite some time... and the International version is even better than the US's, as we have all games live and ondemand (condensed 40-min summaries and 7/8 mins highlights included), RedZone every Sunday (a must watch, I'm really addicted...Scott Hanson is one of my favourite hosts in the whole world) and a lot of special features like NFL Films and other NFL productions and so on... it's quite expensive if compared to MLB and NHL, but European fans have a chance to play dirty and buy it behind a vpn at the same prize of other Nations where it's cheaper (personally, I've got it as if I were in India, paying 60% less than the normal European price)... and the best thing of this trick is that you only need to buy the Pass outside your Country, but then it works regularly without any further trick once you've completed the transaction (the same trick works for the NBA League Pass, meanwhile MLB and NHL have the same price all over the world, so there's no chance to save some money)... unfortunately, we don't have any chance to subscribe other interesting services like CBS Total Access or NBC Gold or use the FoxSports Website, as they all are directly connected with the US cable Tv operators and even a good vpn doesn't make up for that...

they first posted them after the 1st weekend of the season... but they changed the layout of the page in the last 2 weeks, because I remember that when I saw them for the first time, they had just the total amount of points and not the full table with all the single events... now it really looks like it should have always been since the beginning of the OQR...

Schedule confirmed for Quarter-Finals The schedule for the 2019/20 Champions Hockey League has been confirmed. Eight teams will battle for four places in the Semi-Finals. Games are scheduled as follows (all times CET): First Leg: Tuesday 3 December 2019 18:00 Mountfield HK vs EV Zug 18:00 Frölunda Indians vs EHC Biel/Bienne 18:00 Djurgården Stockholm vs Red Bull Munich 20:15 Lausanne HC vs Luleå Hockey Second Leg: Tuesday 10 December 2019 18:00 Luleå Hockey vs Lausanne HC 19:45 EHC Biel/Bienne vs Frölunda Indians 19:45 EV Zug vs Mountfield HK 20:00 Red Bull Munich vs Djurgården Stockholm