phelps

nooooo...why brass knuckles, knives, pistols and, above all, "maria" (the first picture, for those who don't know the Italian slang for that) are not allowed??? this championship is going to be so boring on the stands...

OK, I can't guarantee a full commitment, but starting after the second event of each weapon, I'm gonna try to post provisional rankings and/or simulations for what concerns every team competition (which is basically the way 90% of fencers are going to qualify through)... for what concerns the individual events, as the OQP is long and still so "green", I'm gonna post simulations of qualified athletes only, let's say, after the World Champs (or at the beginning of the new season, when the last few and most significant events are going to be contested)... for now, keep calm and enjoy the single competitions, as the road to Tokyo is very long and still at the earliest stages...

well, speaking about tv only, I can watch also the Swiss, Austrian, German and French TV channels showing the world champs... and I normally have access to the sat TV original clean feed... so, no...I won't have any trouble at all... but still, I feel sorry (and angry) for those Italian fans who don't have all the chances I have...

there's no such website... and there won't be in the future, as well... if you want to keep track of the competitions only in this OQP, you have to do it by yourself...

don't be disappointed, it's the usual routine...also last year there was no tv coverage in Italy... and when there was one (2016 & 2017, on a paid TV channel), it was only about our NT matches and the "final 4"... last time we had a comprehensive coverage on TV, it happened for the joint bid SWE/FIN (and the finals in Stockholm), but it was on a shameful tv channel that nobody watch (and if you try and watch it, in any case you just can't see the puck because of the sh*ty picture quality)... p.s. however, with the Italian tv networks you can never be sure...they normally wait until the last second (and sometimes beyond that) before buying the tv rights...it's their usual tactics to save some money... it could well be that friday morning (if not saturday) a tv channel makes an announcement: "hey, guys! you know whaat? we're gonna show some ice hockey in the next couple of weeks...stay tuned!"

how many from Italy? is it just 0 or is it possible to go down to relative numbers (-3, -17 and so on)?

Men's Individual Epee (Cali, COL) Final Results Gold: Kazuyasu Minobe Silver: Radoslaw Zawrotniak Bronze: Marco Fichera & Tristan Tulen Semifinals: Minobe b. Tulen 15-10 Zawrotniak b. Fichera 15-12 Gold Medal Match: Minobe b. Zawrotniak 15-12  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/113/results/rank

Women's Individual Epee (Cali, COL) Final Results Gold: Sun Yiwen Silver: Mara Navarria Bronze: Katrina Lehis & Ana Maria Popescu Semifinals: Sun b. Popescu 14-13 Navarria b. Lehis 15-10 Gold Medal Match: Sun b. Navarria 15-13  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/95/results/rank

Russia vs Italy...for double digit scoring, I bet on this game... we're gonna get at least 12 goals against in that match (especially because we play vs RUS the day after our game vs LAT, which is one of the 2/3 crucial matches for us)...

Youth League, Stage #1 (Limassol, CYP) Full Results, here: https://www.sportdata.org/wkf/set-online/popup_main.php?popup_action=results&vernr=273&active_menu=calendar Dominating performance by Egypt and Jordan, with Russia also getting many medals (especially in the U-14 division) and Ukraine being a powerhouse in the women's Cadet division... for Italy, very good results in the women's Junior Kumite lighter weights and in all the Kata events, as usual... as always happens in Karate, however, a lot of Nations are on the final medal table...

Semaine Olympique Française 2019 (Hyères, FRA) Medallists Recap men's Laser Standard Gold: Matthew Wearn Silver: Sam Meech Bronze: Tom Burton women's Laser Radial Gold: Tuula Tenkanen Silver: Maria Erdi Bronze: Emma Plasschaert men's RS:X Gold: Mattia Camboni Silver: Thomas Goyard Bronze: Piotr Myszka women's RS:X Gold: Charline Picon Silver: Chen Peina Bronze: Lu Yunxiu Full Results: http://sof.ffvoile.fr/sof2019/resultats.aspx

too strong, the US boys...quite an easy win for them... and in the women's event, Russia just destroyed France...

we haven't seen them very often until today, but with a super-talent like Cheung Ka Long, now they have to be considered a very dangerous team, if not real medal contenders (also when it really matters)... today they beat Italy in the quarterfinals (45-44) and then they just destroyed France in the semis... I'm really curious to watch the final against the USA...

guess what? the Olympic Qualification period has started...and our men's Foil team starts losing (and today it happened after yesterday we had an individual 1-2)... meanwhile the women's team lost once again to Russia...

Men's Team Foil (St.Petersburg, RUS) Final Results Gold: United States Silver: Hong Kong Bronze: South Korea Semifinals: USA b. South Korea 45-29 Hong Kong b. France 45-35 Bronze Medal Match: South Korea b. France 45-43 Gold Medal Match: USA b. Hong Kong 45-35  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/571/results/rank

Women's Team Foil (Tauberbischofsheim, GER) Final Results Gold: Russia Silver: France Bronze: Italy Semifinals: Russia b. Italy 44-41 France b. USA 45-42 Bronze Medal Match: Italy b. USA 45-41 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. France 45-33  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/201/results/rank

Japan on fire, this week... if it wasn't for Janja... she's definitely a class apart...right now, I don't see anybody beating her...she's only herself who could make a mistake a lose a competition... among the boys, this time Adam Ondra was at the start of the competition, but he had a poor semifinal outing and couldn't even make the final, which was almost a full Japanese show, with 4 of their guys in the top 5 places (the gods of climbing save Schubert)...

2019 Sport Climbing World Cup, Stage #4 (Wujian, CHN) women's Boulder Gold: Janja Garnbret Silver: Akiyo Noguchi Bronze: Ai Mori men's Boulder Gold: Tomoa Narasaki Silver: Kai Harada Bronze: Jakob Schubert

2019 Sport Climbing European Cup, Stage #1 (Innsbruck, AUT) women's Boulder Gold: Luce Douady Silver: Celina Schoibl Bronze: Urska Repusic men's Boulder Gold: Nicolai Uznik Silver: Mikel Asier Linacisoro Molina Bronze: Alfons Dornauer

Interesting team, as usual, for my Swiss friends... as always, they have really solid goaltending... back on defense, the top guys (Josi above all, but also Diaz and Fora) are mainly offensive defensemen, with the exception of Weber... probably they will lack some people like Bezina, Untersander, Baltisberger or Chiesa...all good old fashion physical defensive minded guys (well, Untersander maybe is not such a limited guy...he's a more complete player, but still, he's also a good physical defender)... and I'm really curious to see how all the newcomers (Genazzi, Frick, Janis Moser), will adjust to this level of play... on offense, there's a good mix of hard workers and pure talent, but I fear they lack size and physical presence (Scherwey is the only guy playing a real tough-if-not-sometimes-dirty style of hockey) and I'm sure they will miss a lot a man like Niederreiter, who's their only player capable giving at the same time of both socoring insting and physical, hard work along the boards... but the Swiss key to success is always the locker room chemistry, which in the past proved to be not always that good and this clearly reflected on the overall performance and results of the team... being my neighbours, as usual I wish them all the best and I will support them will all of my heart...but this time starting only from the second game of the Championship, since the first one is against my poor Italian Blue Team...so, I hope they have quite a slow start...there's always time to change up the gear and start winning...

as I wrote many times before, I don't think it's a good idea to put all the 3 "puck eaters" together in the Russian roster... the only times that Kovy, Ovi and Gino played together for the Russian team, it didn't go exactly according to the plan...do you remember Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014?

thanks... unfortunately, as I wrote a few days ago, I can only watch the highlights posted on YT (not even those on the Liiga's official website)... and reading Finnish language is not exactly easy for me (google translation...well, it's more a joke than something useful ), so also the press articles are a limited source... I'd really like to be able to watch more Liiga's videos, but outside Finland is almost impossible (I must confess that I tried to subscribe the Liiga Pass on Telia's website, but they ask for verification of credentials by bank account -and of course I don't have one in Finland- or by mobile phone, which could save my day, but they only send the verification message to Finnish numbers which leaves me out of chances...maybe one day I'm gonna make a trip to Finland only to watch a few games live and subscribe to the Liiga Pass directly on site )... p.s. however, it really looks that HPK's players did it all by themselves in the action you described above... If I were a Kärpät fan, I wouldn't be so happy about the ref's call and about the bitter end of the season...

Finnish Liiga HPK Hämeenlinna win surprising title the unexpected finally happened. Kärpät Oulu were 3-2 ahead in the series and had the home ice advantage in the 7th and decisive game. But in the end it's not been enough. HPK fought hard and slowly but steadily came back: first, they won game #6 at home, then they made their final masterpiece. They went to Oulu to play the Championship Game firmly believing that they could upset the heavily favourite hosts. And despite the opening goal scored by Jasper Lidsten (in power-play) for Kärpät after only 7 minutes and 41 seconds of play, they didn't stop fighting and playing their game. The prize for them came at 34.16, when Arto Laatikainen tied the game, 1-1. Then both teams started to feel the pressure, well knowing that givin'up a goal late in the game could prove impossible to make up. The obvious consequence was the match going to OT. Game #7 going to OT!!! what (neutral) fans could ask for more than that? OT...the perfect time for miracles to happen...and once again a miracle happened...totally against the flow of the game, at 75.24, Markus Nenonen scored the Championship winning goal for HPK. It's the second Liiga trophy for HPK. Game #7 Final Score: Kärpät Oulu, 1 vs HPK Hämeenlinna, 2 @ OT (1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1) Final Series Recap HPK Hämeenlinna b. Kärpät Oulu 4-3 (1-4; 3-1; 3-0; 2-4; 0-2; 1-0; 2-1OT) game #7 highlights

well, it's obvious, as he plays for a top tier club in a top tier league... it's difficult to become famous abroad when you play in a small league with very few followers and no media attention...

to be honest, in the past few years (and this season is no exception), the number of non-Italian born players has lowered down dramatically... this team, in particular, only has 5 "imported" players (Trivellato, who was born in Italy, but has dual citizenship ITA and GER, where he lived most of his life; McMonagle, who's Italian by marriage; Miceli, Bardaro and Rosa, who are Canadian born, but have taken advantage of their Italian heritage)... even Zanatta, despite his father being the Canadian born former Italian NT player Ivano, was born and raised here in Italy (and then went to SUI to play in a more competitive league)... all the other guys, even those with names that might sound not Italian at 100% are instead a full Italian product (all of them coming from the Italian and German dual speaking region of South Tyrol)... p.s. Hochkofler's given name is Peter, not Thomas p.p.s. about goal scoring ability, Bardaro is definitely the most talented sniper in this team...and also Lambacher is a more offensive oriented player than Morini (who's more a defensive forward than anything else, even if he's very quick on the skates and therefore he can score some goals on counter attacks)...