phelps

naaa..if you did watch the whole yesterday's game, you surely have noticed that, too...

and once again Italy are trying to commit suicide in the men's Trap...it would take a miracle to find one of our guys in the top positions tomorrow...

2019 World Cup, Stage #5 (Changwon, KOR) Women's Trap Gold: Deng Weiyun Silver: Wang Xiaojing Bronze: Ashley Carroll Olympic Quota: United States, France

naaaa...trying to talk about hockey here in Italy would lead you directly to the mental care pavillion of the nearest hospital... better not take that risk... jokes aside, today he's been fantastic, but once again the rest of team did show that this is not our level of hockey...we're just not good enough under every single aspect of the game: skating speed, skating skills, individual technical skills, attitude, physical conditioning and strenght...this time, we don't even have a decent tactical plan (basically the only thing we have always had in the past)... it's just 5 guys at a time skating around in a total mess without having any idea of what they should do as a group... it's so depressing and frustrating...as an Italian hockey fan, it's almost impossible to me to describe with words how I feel when I watch our Blue Team in the most recent years (and this year in particular, of course)...

and he clearly has strong Italian heritage, too (if only he asked for it, probably hew would easily get also our passport)...

unlucky championship...the bad weather conditions have really disturbed the entire week of sailing, forcing the jury to cancel many races (only 6 qualification races + the medal race have been completed)... despite that, Italy still manged to perform a lot worse than expected... fun facts... the men's European Ranking has the same Gold and Silver medallists of 2018, only the Bronze medallists are different... meanwhile, in the women's European Ranking, Gold and Silver medallists from 1 year ago have switched their final position...and also in this case we have a new pair winning the Bronze Medal...

470 Open European Championships 2019 (Sanremo, ITA) Medallists Recap men's 470, European Ranking Gold: Anton Dahlberg & Fredrik Bergstroem Silver: Jordi Xammar & Nicolas Rodriguez Bronze: Kevin Peponnet & Jeremy Mion women's 470, European Ranking Gold: Camille Lecointre & Aloise Retornaz Silver: Hannah Mills & Eilidh McIntyre Bronze: Afrodite Zegers & Lobke Berkhout men's 470, Regatta Overall Results Gold: Matthew Belcher & Will Ryan Silver: Anton Dahlberg & Fredrik Bergstroem Bronze: Paul Snow-Hansen & Daniel Willcox women's 470, Regatta Overall Results Gold: Camille Lecointre & Aloise Retornaz Silver: Hannah Mills & Eilidh McIntyre Bronze: Afrodite Zegers & Lobke Berkhout

and then someone shouldn't think about or talk of politics having (bad, really bad) influence on the Sports world...

Top 10 placings of the Olympic Qualification Ranking so far (it's an Italian website, but names and numbers should be understandable by everybody)... OQR Current Standings

Detailed Schedule http://kickingforglory.com/timetable/ Live Streaming http://www.worldtaekwondo.org/competition/world-taekwondo-championships/championships-2019/live/

yess!!! double success for our Sabre specialists!

meanwhile SUI needed some magic from Nico Hischier late in the 3rd period to beat Latvia (the last goal could be deceptive, it was an empty netter with only a few seconds still on the clock)... p.s. no comment on Italy...it's so frustrating...yesterday they surrendered before the game started, today they just blew it out in the 3rd period after 2 "decent" stints (only for the score, not surely for how they played)...

yes, he was well faster than Rylov earlier tonight... unless he gets involved in some doping affairs (hopefully not, but with CHN you can't be sure), he's gonna be a real medal threat at the world champs later this Summer (and in Tokyo next year, too)...

quite depressing set up for the finals of this WC stage... and also today's men's event...

however, despite the weird format and many reviewable (to say the least) aspects, both meets (Guangzhou and Budapest) saw some really good swimming... and frankly, I didn't expect so many high caliber clockings at this point of the season...

it's written...it was the 200m Backstroke...

Grand Slam (Baku, AZE) Day #3 Recap 5 different Countries won the 5 weight categories held today in the final day of the GS tournament in Baku... among the Ladies, in the -78kg there was an all German Gold Medal match, where Luise Malzahn defeated Anna Maria Wagner, meanwhile in the +78kg class, it was Ukraine to gain the top prize (thanks to Yelyzaveta Kalanina)... in the men's division, today's headlines are for Serbia (Nemanja Majdov, -90kg), Netherlands (Michael Korrel, -100kg) and Georgia (Gela Zaalishvili, +100kg)... Because of those results, after 3 days of exciting (and sometimes funny, really funny ) action, Japan and Brazil won the medal table with 2 Gold Medals each, followed by Azerbaijan, Israel, Moldova, France , Germany, Ukraine, Serbia, Netherlands, Georgia and Spain with 1 Gold Medal each... Full Results here:  https://live.ijf.org/gs_aze2019/results

well, to me, it looks more a wishful thinking than a proper agreement... basically the Iranian officials say that they are going to ask the Parliament to find a proper legal resolution, which means that at the moment nothing has been decided yet...and there's no guarantee that anything is going to change... they hope...but we all hope (and I'm sure the Iranian athletes are on top of the list of those who hope) sooner or later this farce is going to end... the problem is that nobody knows when it's going to happen (and it's not realistic to think that it will happen in a short time)...

and the first one is in the bag... now let'see if the girls are capable of equalling the boys...

Italy on fire! both teams in the Gold Medal match...that's good news!

Women's Team Sabre (Tunis, TUN) Final Results Gold: Italy Silver: Ukraine Bronze: South Korea Semifinals: Ukraine b. South Korea 45-39 Italy b. Japan 45-30 Bronze Medal Match: South Korea b. Japan 45-43 Gold Medal Match: Italy b. Ukraine 45-42  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.engarde-service.com/files/fie_fencing/tunis2019/saber_women_tean/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

Men's Team Sabre (Madrid, ESP) Final Results Gold: Italy Silver: Russia Bronze: South Korea Semifinals: Russia b. South Korea 45-41 Italy b. Hungary 45-41 Bronze Medal Match: South Korea b. Hungary 45-38 Gold Medal Match: Italy b. Russia 45-31  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.engarde-service.com/files/rfee/vm19/vm_eq/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

Stage #2 (Beau Vallon Beach, SEY) women's 10km Gold: Arianna Bridi Silver: Ana Marcela Cunha Bronze: Lara Grangeon Full Results: http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/fina-marathon-swim-world-series-2019-women-10km/event men's 10km Gold: Marc-Antoine Olivier Silver: Nicholas Sloman Bronze: Kristof Rasovszky Full Results: http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/fina-marathon-swim-world-series-2019-men-10km/event

Velikaya still the best in business...only Kharlan in top shape can match her talent (and we haven't seen too much of that, lately)...

what a wasted chance for Vecchi... no comment on the other Italian girls...the usual disaster...