phelps

Evening Session Semifinals -57kg Gold Medal match: Lazaro Jorge Alvarez Estrada vs Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov Bronze: Peter McGrail & Tsendbaatar Erdenebat -69kg Gold Medal match: Andrei Zamkov vs Pat McCormack Bronze: Ablaikhan Zhussupov & Bobo-Usmon Baturov -81kg Gold Medal match: Dilshodbek Ruzmetov vs Bekzad Nurdauletov Bronze: Julio La Cruz & Benjamin Whittaker +91kg Gold Medal match: Kamshybek Kunkabayev vs Bakhodir Jalolov Bronze: Justis Huni & Maksim Babanin

in the men's -67kg class we have the snatch gold and the total silver medals coming from group B (both won by the Chinese Feng Lyudong) how the hell you put a Chinese lifter in group B?

Afternoon Session Semifinals -52kg Gold Medal match: Shakhobidin Zoirov vs Amit Bronze: Billal Bennama & Saken Bibossinov -63kg Gold Medal match: Andy Cruz Gomez vs Keyshawn Davis Bronze: Manish Kaushik & Hovhannes Bachkov -75kg Gold Medal match: Gleb Bakshi vs Eumir Marcial Bronze: Hebert Conceicao Sousa & Tursynbay Kulakhmet -91kg Gold Medal match: Muslim Gadzhimagomedov vs Julio Cesar Castillo Torres Bronze: Radoslav Pantaleev & Vassily Levit

almost all of them are just Jewish Americans, who live and play in the US Baseball system... how strong their relationship with Israel as a Country is, frankly I don't know...

no special policy for them...they fight against everybody without any problem...

Men's Tournament Standings after 2 out of 3 matches in each Pool Pool I Semenov / Leshukov, 2W - 0L Nicolai / Lupo, 1W - 1L Kantor / Losiak, 1W - 1L Gerson / Heidrich, 0W - 2L To be played tomorrow: ITA vs SUI & POL vs RUS Pool J Brouwer / Meeuwsen, 2W - 0L* Andre / George, 1W - 1L Plavins / Tocs, 1W - 1L Berntsen / Mol, 0W - 2L** To be played tomorrow: NED vs NOR & LAT vs BRA * Mathematically qualified to the Semifinals ** Mathematically eliminated

Women's Tournament Standings after 2 out of 3 matches in each Pool Pool I Liliana / Elsa, 2W - 0L Hermannova / Slukova, 1W - 1L Wojtasik / Kociolek, 1W - 1L Wang / Xia, 0W - 2L To be played tomorrow: CZE vs CHN & ESP vs POL Pool J Menegatti / Orsi-Toth, 2W - 0L Ittlinger / Laboureur, 1W - 1L Graudina / Kravcenoka, 1W - 1L Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig, 0W - 2L To be played tomorrow: ITA vs GER & LAT vs AUT

Men's Team 50m 3-Position Rifle Gold: Norway Silver: Czech Republic Bronze: Hungary Men's Individual 50m 3-Position Rifle, Shooters qualified to the Final (tomorrow) Simon Claussen* Henrik Larsen* Karolis Girulis Petr Nymbursky Jon-Hermann Hegg* Lorenzo Bacci Filip Nepejchal* Dean Bale * NOT eligible for an Olympic Quota place

Italy had to wait until the extra innings to close the match vs RSA... at least, in the 10th it was an explosion of our offense...they scored 6 unanswered runs and the game was over (thanks also to a spectacular triple play in the defensive half of the inning that sealed the deal)... final score, Italy b. South Africa 10-4 (after 10 innings) and tonight, the showdown against Israel (8 p.m. CET)

Frank! and tomorrow it's gonna be an interesting revenge between him and Sidakov, who won a very close match against Burroughs just on the final second thanks only to the last point scored (the bout ended 3-3)...

Men's Freestyle Wrestling, Day #8 Finals -70kg Gold Medal match: David Baev vs Nurkhoza Kaipanov Bronze Medal match #1: Yones Emami vs Joshua Miguel Trambulo Riley / Nicolae Cojocaru Bronze Medal match #2: Magomedmurad Gadzhiev vs Ikhtyor Navruzov / Andrei Karpach / Zurabi Iakobishvili -74kg Gold Medal match: Zaurbek Sidakov vs Frank Chamizo Marquez Bronze Medal match #1: Jordan Ernest Burroughs vs Mao Okui / Kamil Rybicki / Victor Eduardo Hernandez Luna Bronze Medal match #2: Zelimkhan Khadjiev vs Daniyar Kaisanov / Lee Seung Chul / Marc Dietsche Olympic Quota so far: / / / -92kg Gold Medal match: Ali Reza Karimi vs J'den Michael Tbory Cox Bronze Medal match #1: Irakli Mtsituri vs Nurgali Nurgaipuly / Mohamed Fardj Bronze Medal match #2: Alikhan Zhabrailov vs Liubomyr Sagaliuk / Georgii Rubaev -125kg Gold Medal match: Taha Akgul vs Geno Petriashvili Bronze Medal match #1: Deng Zhiwei vs Khasanboy Rakhimov / Alexandr Romanov Bronze Medal match #2: Oleksandr Khotsianivskyi vs Badzha Khutaba / Egzon Shala Olympic Quota so far: / / /

Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, England...18 out of 32 semifinalists (medallists) come from those 4 Nations (15 from the first 3)... aiba is still well in the hands of the same mafia as the last 10 years...

Today's Semifinals -52kg Billal Bennama vs Shakhobidin Zoirov Saken Bibossinov vs Amit -63kg Andy Cruz Gomez vs Manish Kaushik Hovhannes Bachkov vs Keyshawn Davis -75kg Gleb Bakshi vs Hebert Conceicao Sousa Tursynbay Kulakhmet vs Eumir Marcial -91kg Radoslav Pantaleev vs Muslim Gadzhimagomedov Vassily Levit vs Julio Cesar Castillo Torres -57kg Lazaro Jorge Alvarez Estrada vs Peter McGrail Tsendbaatar Erdenebat vs Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov -69kg Andrei Zamkov vs Ablaikhan Zhussupov Bobo-Usmon Baturov vs Pat McCormack -81kg Julio La Cruz vs Bekzad Nurdauletov Benjamin Whittaker vs Dilshodbek Ruzmetov +91kg Kamshybek Kunkabayev vs Justis Huni Maksim Babanin vs Bakhodir Jalolov

Men's Freestyle Wrestling, -125kg Semifinals Taha Akgul vs Deng Zhiwei Geno Petriashvili vs Oleksandr Khotsianivskyi Olympic Quota so far: / / /

Men's Freestyle Wrestling, -92kg Semifinals J'den Michael Tbory Cox vs Irakli Mtsituri Alikhan Zhabrailov vs Ali Reza Karimi

Men's Freestyle Wrestling, -74kg Semifinals Zaurbek Sidakov vs Jordan Ernest Burroughs Frank Chamizo Marquez vs Zelimkhan Khadjiev Olympic Quota so far: / / /

Men's Freestyle Wrestling, -70kg Semifinals Nurkoza Kaipanov vs Yones Emami Magomedmurad Gadzhiev vs David Baev

updated after this morning's repechage rounds...

updated after this morning's repechage rounds...

I'd rather prefer a competitive baseball tournament... and without the MLB players, neither Italy, Netherlands nor Israel can guarantee anything close to "quality games", therefore I'd rather leave all of them home... but, since it's impossible to do that (unless all european teams reject this quota), Israel would be my primary choice, as they can add more quality players (pitchers, especially) to this already reasonably good team in time for the Tokyo Olympics... ITA and/or NED (especially our team) would only lead to a few blowouts next year...

and tomorrow in Parma, after the warm-up (a dangerous warm-up, as they start from the 6th on a 4-4 tied score) against South Africa (11 a.m. CET), Italy will face Israel in a match that could prove the qualification decider... first pitch at 8 p.m. CET...live streaming on the usual Youtube's WBSC page...

and both games are over... Italy b. Czech Republic 5-1 Israel b. Netherlands 8-1

meanwhile Italy are 5-1 ahead of the Czechs in the bottom of the 8th inning, which means that we still have to manage one last Czech offensive inning before we can get our 1st win in this tournament (bot 8th is an offensive inning for ITA)...

c'mon! those 3 are just a matter of when they do it, there's no chance they miss out on the qualification... and even the baseball team is not out of contention yet... Italy are not reliable at all, but I think they can still beat ISR and lose to the NED, making it a question of Team's Quality Balance (runs scored/offensive innings played - runs allowed/defensive innings played)... sure, a 1-8 loss like tonight's (so far, they're still in the 8th) doesn't help...but not everything is lost yet...

guys, I recall to all of you that we have a marvellous and very useful button (the one replying the youtube logo -in black- in the posting window)... with that, you can post a smaller version of the youtube video window and you can also set the exact time of the video you want your segment to start -it doesn't cut the video, just moves the start at the indicated time when you launch it)...