phelps

Women's Team Sabre Final Results Gold: Russia Silver: Hungary Bronze: France Semifinals: Hungary b. France 45-40 Russia b. Italy 45-39 Bronze Medal Match: France b. Italy 45-42 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. Hungary 45-34  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4579-2018/results/

in the meantime, also the Men's Team Foil has reached the Quarterfinals stage... and the pairings are: Italy vs Ukraine Germany vs Poland France vs Great Britain Russia vs Hungary

Italy (and specifically Gregorio) almost threw it away against a very modest team like Azerbaijan... but why we always have to complicate our life in this way? and why Gregorio is always used as a closer?

from today, the very important (for the Olympic Qualification) Team Events... in the Women's Team Sabre, we're already down to the last 8... and the Quarterfinals (starting at 11 a.m. CET) are: France vs Poland Hungary vs Ukraine Italy vs Azerbaijan Russia vs Germany

Time to celebrate the season that ended last week with the NHL Awards... and yesterday night in Las Vegas it was Nikita Kucherov the star among the stars, honoured with the Hart Trophy, the League MVP prize... among the other awards, Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy (best Goalie), Mark Giordano won the Norris Trophy (best Defenseman), Elias Pettersson won the Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year) and Barry Trotz won the Jack Adams Award (Coach of the Year)... here are all the winners of all the 2018/2019 Awards... https://www.nhl.com/fans/nhl-awards-event At the same event, also the 2018/2019 NHL All-Star Team and the 2018/2019 NHL All-Rookie Team votes were disclosed... the All-Star Team for this season is: Goalie: Andrei Vasilevskiy Defense: Mark Giordano & Brent Burns Forwards: Connor McDavid (center), Alexandr Ovechkin (left wing), Nikita Kucherov (right wing) Full voting results, here: https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-all-star-teams-announced-for-2018-19-season/c-307914356 meanwhile, the All-Rookie Team is: Goalie: Jordan Binnington (who else? ) Defense: Rasmus Dahlin & Miro Heiskanen (that was easy, too) Forwards: Elias Pettersson, Brady Tkachuk & Anthony Cirelli Full voting results, here: https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-2018-19-all-rookie-team/c-307914766 Finally, a few rule changes for the next season have been approved... here all the details... https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-expected-to-detail-rule-changes-from-competition-committee/c-307915432

bus parking is always the best tactic... if you want to win, forget about the "beautiful football"...it's only about taking 1 goal less than your opponent... by the way, that amount of modest players with the blue shirt don't deserve anything...we won against Spain only because they are even worse but much more arrogant than us...and because we were lucky, very lucky... p.s. I wrote well in advance that Poland are a pretty good team (even if they play a very utilitaristic and ugly to watch style of football)...

he officially retired at the end of 2017, but a few weeks ago I read something about his possible comeback, targeting the team event at Tokyo 2020... we can only wait and see...

Men's Individual Sabre Final Results Gold: Veniamin Reshetnikov Silver: Kamil Ibragimov Bronze: Sandro Bazadze & Max Hartung Semifinals: Reshetnikov b. Hartung 15-10 Ibragimov b. Bazadze 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Reshetnikov b. Ibragimov 15-7  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4575-2018/results/

he tried every trick he has in the bag...provoking, delaying the restart of the action, stopping the start of the action for an unbelievable number of times raising his hand with no reason and finally, he made a clear false start in the last action (when he was already under yellow card), but the ref didn't show him a well deserved red card (which would have cost him the 14-15 point) for some unexplicable reason... and he and his coach didn't stop protesting and using trash talk all the time (by the way, being Curatoli a proud southern Italian with bloody character -he's from Naples, he also replied with no fear and didn't behave like an old gentleman )... basically, Zalomir started the whole feud, but both should have been sanctioned by the ref, who was the weakest link of the entire contest (and the part who made the most mistakes)...

well, the Dutch just destroyed us the last time we played them... OK, it was quite a long time ago (and especially, we didn't have a coach like Milena Bartolini at that time, yet)... however, I think we are still at a point where we can't underestimate anybody and we can't be so arrogant to choose who's better or not to play against... but hopefully, with a bit of luck, the Olympic dream might well come true...

and Montano is out, too... he tried, but it's quite painful to watch him right now...he still has a few classy hits in his hand, but it's not enough to win big matches and global medals anymore...

and the men's sabre guys also are experiencing a disastrous day... Samele threw away a match he basically already won against Apithy in the round of 32 (but he's the only one to blame), meanwhile Curatoli lost, or, better, was robbed big time by the ref and by the Romanian Zalomir, despite coming back from 9-14 to 14-14 (always in the round of 32)... and sad to be noticed, the Romanian and his coaches kept an awful, miseducated and highly unsportmanlike behaviour for the entire match...I hopehe goes out immediately in the next round...he doesn't deserve any success at all... only Berrè has been capable of winning his bout in the round of 32 so far (against Beka Bazadze)... and our last guy, the great Aldo Montano, has not been lucky at all with the draw, as he has to face Aron Szilagyi (always in the round of 32)... and right now, he needs almost a miracle to win a match against the great Hungarian...

Women's Individual Epee Final Results Gold: Coraline Vitalis Silver: Marie-Florence Candassamy Bronze: Ewa Trzebinska & Alexandra Ndolo Semifinals: Candassamy b. Trzebinska 12-11 Vitalis b. Ndolo 15-12 Gold Medal Match: Vitalis b. Candassamy 15-11  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4574-2018/results/

Italian women's epee sucks! but it sucks big time!

7.3 million viewers (33% rating) yesterday night for Italy vs Brazil on the Italian TV... the game was broadcasted live by both the main channel of our public TV, Rai 1, and by the main sport channel of our main pay-tv, skysport uno (1) on sky Italia... to make a comparison, it's about the same amount of viewers and rating of the men's game vs Bosnia last week (European qualifiers) and well above the men's game vs Greece a few days earlier (both games were also live on our main public channel, rai 1, more or less at the same time)... before this world cup started, if someone would say the women's games would have such kind of audience, he would immediately have been taken to the mental health pavillion at the nearest hospital...

Elisa is baaaackkk! finally, an Italian girl capable of beating Deriglazova (who definitely mentally owns Volpi) when it really matters... meanwhile Santarelli wasted a big chance to win his first major individual Gold Medal...but frankly, Freilich was better from the beginning to the end of the decisive assault... the first 2 days of these champs have been great for us, but I hope we can get the best out of the team events, which are way more important in terms of the Olympic Qualification Ranking...

for what I saw yesterday, yes... obviously a full German team would be a lot better than those 2 (and probably also of Italy, which isn't such a great team as many Italian journalists wrote), but yesterday it was more the inconsistence of Denmark that made the final score, rather than a good game by the Germans...

4 more medals for Italy, today... which would be great (and it really is great)... but still, there's also a very bad note also in a day like this... Errigo in fact was just inexcusable and unwatchable against Ivanova...no pride, no "garra", totally not focused on the right tactics... it's a shame that such a talented girl (by far the most talented in the world) is wasting all of her chances to become one of the great of her sport because of her awful mental attitude...

well, they are 4 very modest teams, IMHO... not that those from group A were great, but still all of them are better than the 4 teams from group B... now I'm really curious to see FRA and ENG, even if they aren't even close to their real potential...they miss way too many of their best players (good for Italy, though...maybe we can even win the tournament, if we're lucky to keep Spain out of the semis)...

Women's Individual Foil Final Results Gold: Elisa Di Francisca Silver: Inna Deriglazova Bronze: Alice Volpi & Ysaora Thibus Semifinals: Deriglazova b. Volpi 15-11 Di Francisca b. Thibus 15-13 Gold Medal Match: Di Francisca b. Deriglazova 15-8  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4572-2018/results/

Men's Individual Epee Final Results Gold: Yuval Shalom Freilich Silver: Andrea Santarelli Bronze: Enrico Garozzo & Jiri Beran Semifinals: Santarelli b. Garozzo 15-12 Freilich b. Beran 15-8 Gold Medal Match: Freilich b. Santarelli 15-9  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4573-2018/results/

2 Italian guys in the semis of the men's epee... tournament full of surprising results...

Final Medal Table KOR, 5 / 3 / 5 JPN, 4 / 3 / 7 CHN, 3 / 4 / 4 HKG, 0 / 1 / 3 IRI, 0 / 1 / 1 KAZ, 0 / 0 / 3 VIE, 0 / 0 / 1

Men's Team Epee Final Results Gold: China Silver: South Korea Bronze: Japan & Kazakhstan Semifinals: China b. Japan 45-41 South Korea b. Kazakhstan 44-43 Bronze Medal Match (for Ranking purpose only): Japan b. Kazakhstan 45-23 Gold Medal Match: China b. South Korea 45-41  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://liveresult.fencing-jpn.jp/20190618/FTEvent8192000.htm

Women's Team Foil Final Results Gold: Japan Silver: South Korea Bronze: China & Hong Kong Semifinals: Japan b. China 30-23 South Korea b. Hong Kong 34-33 Bronze Medal Match (for Ranking purpose only): China b. Hong Kong 44-30 Gold Medal Match: Japan b. South Korea 45-29  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://liveresult.fencing-jpn.jp/20190618/FTEvent8192001.htm