phelps

as I wrote, never trust the Italian media operators... it was just a joke...no hockey on the Italian version of Eurosport...motorsports and cycling, cycling and motorsports...and when it's not those 2, it's snooker... could there be a useless sport channel? p.s. actually, it's better for the Italian viewers if they don't show this farce...

well, Kristiina was 20 years young in 1994, so, nowadays she isn't a "girl" anymore (hopefully, she's a beautiful "woman", meaning she's still alive and in good health) and therefore she's definitely not in the group you met yesterday...

we wrote in the previous days that Italy is always the black sheep when it comes down to the media coverage of ice hockey...well, this morning we received some good news...all the games of the Italian NT will be broadcasted live on tv by Eurosport 2 HD (the Italian version only, of course)... acquisition that came after the world champs had already begun...as I wrote in the past day, never lose your nerves with the Italian TV Networks...it ain't over till it's over! (cit.)

Grand Slam (Baku, AZE) Day #1 Recap Brazil on top of the standings in the first day of the 4th GS tournament of the season, the last one with 50% scores in the Olympic Qualification Ranking... They won 2 of the 5 contested weight classes, thanks to Felipe Kitadai (men's -60kg) and to the Rio Olympic Champion, Rafaela Silva (women's -57kg)... The remaining Gold Medals went to Moldova (Denis Vieru, men's -66kg...at his second success in a GS tournament this year, after winning the prestigious Paris Open); Spain (Laura Martinez Abelenda, women's -48kg...where we had an unusual all-Spanish Final) and France (Amandine Bouchard, women's -52kg)... Shamefully, Italy is not participating in this tournament... meanwhile the Japanese contingent in day #1 was limited to 2 girls...and both came home with a Silver Medal (Ai Shishime, -52kg and Tsukasa Yoshida, -57kg)... unfortunately, Shishime looks to have suffered a serious knee injury (she had to abandon the final bout with the help of Bouchard, as she couldn't even lay her left leg down on the ground)... Full Results here: https://live.ijf.org/gs_aze2019/results

2019 World Cup, Stage #5 (Changwon, KOR) Women's Skeet Gold: Vincent Hancock Silver: Christian Elliott Bronze: Mansour Al Rashedi Olympic Quota: South Korea, Finland

happy to see that you survived yesterday's emotions and you enjoyed the day... your description reminds me those beautiful days of 1994, when the World Champs final round was held here, in Milan...and I also enjoyed one of the best weeks of my life, lost between the hockey games, the unbelievable amount of beer the Finnish fans (but not only them) were able to drink already from the early hours of the day until very late at night and a Finnish fan in particular, named Kristiina (from Turku)...

it's Italy, after all... p.s. however, the BBC will show both sessions on Saturday and Sunday live on the Red Button Channel (FTA on satellite @ 28.2 East) and online on their iPlayer (in this case a VPN is required)...

Friday May 10th, 2019 Preliminary Round Day 1 Results Group A Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Finland 3 - 1 Canada Period-by-Period: 1-1, 0-0, 2-0 May 10th 2019, h. 16:15, Steel Arena, Košice United States 1 - 4 Slovakia Period-by-Period: 1-1, 0-2, 0-1 May 10th 2019, h. 20:15, Steel Arena, Košice Group A Provisional Standing After Day 1 Nation P W(OTW) L(OTL) GF GA +/- Pt. Slovakia 1 1(0) 0(0) 4 1 +3 3 Finland 1 1(0) 0(0) 3 1 +2 3 Denmark 0 0(0) 0(0) 0 0 0 0 France 0 0(0) 0(0) 0 0 0 0 Germany 0 0(0) 0(0) 0 0 0 0 Great Britain 0 0(0) 0(0) 0 0 0 0 Canada 1 0(0) 1(0) 1 3 -2 0 United States 1 0(0) 1(0) 1 4 -3 0 Group B Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Russia 5 - 2 Norway Period-by-Period: 2-0, 2-0, 1-2 May 10th 2019, h. 16:15, Ondrej Nepela Arena, Bratislava Sweden 2 - 5 Czech Republic Period-by-Period: 1-0, 1-2, 3-0 May 10th 2019, h. 16:15, Ondrej Nepela Arena, Bratislava Group B Provisional Standing After Day 1 Nation P W(OTW) L(OTL) GF GA +/- Pt. Russia 1 1(0) 0(0) 5 2 +3 3 Czech Republic 1 1(0) 0(0) 5 2 +3 3 Austria 0 0(0) 0(0) 0 0 0 0 Italy 0 0(0) 0(0) 0 0 0 0 Latvia 0 0(0) 0(0) 0 0 0 0 Switzerland 0 0(0) 0(0) 0 0 0 0 Sweden 1 0(0) 1(0) 2 5 -3 0 Norway 1 0(0) 1(0) 2 5 -3 0

and the most classic empty netter nails it for the Czechs with only 50 seconds left on the clock...

in the meantime, in Bratislava, Czech Republic have just scored the 4-2 lead goal against Sweden... here we have 3 minutes and a few seconds still to be played (and SWE are already playing without their goaltender)... 3rd upset of the day coming...

and it's ooooooveeeerrrrrr!!! Slovakia won their Home World Champs opener against the NHL stars-filled US team by a score of 4-1... wonderful team effort by the home side...and special mention of honor for an amzing Patrick Rybar between the pipes (even if the prize for the player of the game went to his teammate Sukel)... and now... or, if you prefer...

and it's 4-1!!!!! with only 4 minutes to play... the perfect start is almost there...let's go, Slovakia!

Slovakiaaaaaa!!! what a start of second period! now it's 3-1 for the Home Nation after only 5 mins of the middle stint...hopefully, there are no bad news about any heart attack among the spectators at the Steel Arena, yet...which is the most important thing in a moment like this...

yes, but from today through Sunday it's only about measurements, practice, jury meets and things like that... the actual competition starts on Monday, as you might read in the notice of race: http://2019.finneuropeans.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Finn-2019-EURO-NOTICE-OF-RACE.pdf

Friday May 10th, 2019 Preliminary Round Day 1 Results Group A Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Finland 3 - 1 Canada Period-by-Period: 1-1, 0-0, 2-0 May 10th 2019, h. 16:15, Steel Arena, Košice Group B Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Russia 5 - 2 Norway Period-by-Period: 2-0, 2-0, 1-2 May 10th 2019, h. 16:15, Ondrej Nepela Arena, Bratislava

and the first day of the 2019 World Champs does open with a (not so huge) upset...Finland beat canada 3-1, thanks also to a couple of goals by the young rising star Kaapo Kakko... in the other match of the afternoon, Russia took a 5-0 lead over Norway without doing anything special and then went to sleep a bit too early, allowing the Scandinavians to score 2 goals in the final minutes of the game...5-2 for the "Sbornaja", the final score... and now are on the ice the defending world champions, Sweden and the Czech Republic in Bratislava and, above all, the Home Nation against the mighty US boys in Kosice... and Slovakia had quite a strong start, opening the score early, but the USA now have tied the game, 1-1, with less than 2 minutes to play in the first period... I hope our friend @hckosice can enjoy the night and, above all, I hope he can survive the emotions of such an experience...

2019 World Cup, Stage #5 (Changwon, KOR) Women's Skeet Gold: Kimberly Rhode Silver: Diana Bacosi Bronze: Chiara Cainero Olympic Quota: Italy, Italy

Bartekova out...4th place for her... so, we have the 3 girls on the podium: Rhode, Bacosi and Cainero...it remains to be seen which final placing they're going to end up with...

and Rhode once again well in front of the pack...

and also the second Kazakh girl, Assem Orynbay is out!!! 2 Olympic spots for Italy!

oh! Orynbay looks in trouble...3 misses out of 4 shots at the beginning of the second stint...now she's virtually behind both the Italian girls...

and the first elimination is... Olga Panarina so, Italy is sure to get at least 1 Olympic spot in the event that gave us an amazing double Gold & Silver in Rio 3 years ago...

it looks it will be a share between ITA and KAZ... after a great qualification stage, so far Bacosi and Cainero are not shooting well at all in the final...

I don't have any idea why they didn't register all 25 players in this roster...for sure we don't have anybody left (we don't have any NHL/AHL eligible player)... even the official website of our NF does report the 25-man roster as the "official one" and does not mention any scratches... maybe it's something related to a last-minute injury and our coach wants to see if they can be available in a few days or if they just can't play anymore in the next 2 weeks...but it's only my guess, there are no real news about that...

good, it's the same page (and author) that was keeping track of the Road to Rio 4 years ago... absolutely reliable... just saving me quite some time... thanks, David! (but this time,please, don't get a paid service before the last event of the OQP )... and thanks @Dunadan for posting the correct link...