phelps

p.s. in the first match of the day, Spain beat South Africa 7-1

and they also blocked the youtube braodcast in Italy... if they think that I'm going to watch and above listen to their broadcast, they're just a bunch of poor guys... better watch Israel thrashing out the Kingdom of the Netherlands (right now the score is 6-1 for in the bottom of the 5th)...

Women's Wrestling, Day #6 Medallists (and Olympic Quota places) -57kg Gold: Risako Kawai Silver: Rong Ningning Bronze: Odunayo Folasade Adekuoroye & Iryna Kurachkina Olympic Quota for: / / / / / -59kg Gold: Linda Morais Silver: Ljubov Ovcharova Bronze: Shoovdor Baatarjav & Pei Xingru -65kg Gold: Inna Trazhukova Silver: Iryna Koliadenko Bronze: Elis Manolova & Wang Xiaoqian -76kg Gold: Adeline Maria Gray Silver: Hiroe Minagawa Suzuki Bronze: Aline Rotter Focken & Epp Maee Olympic Quota for: / / / / /

Men's Junior Individual 50m Pistol Gold: Andrei Chilikov Silver: Massimo Spinella Bronze: Kiril Kirov * the Team title has not been awarded, as only 2 teams (Italy and Russia) entered the competition with the required 3 shooters... p.s. just for the coming generations...Italy won the "virtual" Gold Medal, scoring 1620 points against the 1617 of the Russians...

p.s. the 3rd phase groups will be played with the good old classic round robin format...3 matches per team (against all the other pairs in the same group)... the top 2 in each group advance to the semifinals... the winner of the semifinal matches earn an Olympic Quota Place for their respective NOC...

Men's Tournament Third Phase Draw Pool I Gerson / Heidrich Semenov / Leshukov Nicolai / Lupo Kantor / Losiak Pool J Brouwer / Meeuwsen Andre / George Plavins / Tocs Berntsen / Mol

Women's Tournament Third Phase Draw Pool I Hermannova / Slukova Wang / Xia Liliana / Elsa Wojtasik / Kociolek Pool J Menegatti / Orsi-Toth Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig Ittlinger / Laboureur Graudina / Kravcenoka

Men's Tournament Pairs qualified to the Third Phase Gerson / Heidrich Nicolai / Lupo Andre / George Berntsen / Mol Semenov / Leshukov Plavins / Tocs Brouwer / Meeuwsen Kantor / Losiak

Women's Tournament Pairs qualified to the Third Phase Hermannova / Slukova Wang / Xia Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig Menegatti / Orsi-Toth Liliana / Elsa Ittlinger / Laboureur Graudina / Kravcenoka Wojtasik / Kociolek

and as expected... "South-Africa Italy will resume from the exact point of suspension on Friday, 20 September, at 11 a.m. CET. This will modify the schedule of the whole day in Parma. Game 7 South Africa-Czech Republic will now start at 2.30 p.m. CET. Game 8 Israel-Italy start time will remain at 8 p.m. CET as scheduled."

Men's Freestyle Wrestling, Day #7 Finals -57kg Gold Medal match: Suleyman Atli vs Zavur Uguev Bronze Medal match #1: Nurislam Sanayev vs Stevan Andria Micic / Givi Davidovi / Liang Shaofeng Bronze Medal match #2: Kumar Ravi vs Reza Atri / Mahir Amiraslanov / Bekhbayar Erdenebat Olympic Quota so far: / / / -65kg Gold Medal match: Gadzhimurad Rashidov vs Daulet Niyazbekov Bronze Medal match #1: Iszmail Muszukaejev vs Haji Mohamad Alì / Takuto Otoguro / Amr Reda Ramadan Hussen Bronze Medal match #2: Bajrang vs Tulga Tumur Ochir / Alexander Semisorow / Chang Yu-Hsuan Olympic Quota so far: / / /

Women's Wrestling, Day #7 Finals -62kg Gold Medal match: Taybe Mustafa Yusein vs Aisuluu Tynybekova Bronze Medal match #1: Marianna Sastin vs Henna Katarina Johansson / Kriszta Tunde Incze / Luo Xiaojuan Bronze Medal match #2: Rim Jong Sim vs Yuliia Tkach Ostapchuk / Yukako Kawai / Alejandra Romero Bonilla Olympic Quota so far: / / / -68kg Gold Medal match: Tamyra Mariama Mensah vs Anna Jenny Eva Maria Fransson Bronze Medal match #1: Anna Carmen Schell vs Sara Dosho / Blessing Oborodudu / Michelle Yvonne Montague Bronze Medal match #2: Alla Cherkasova vs Battsetseg Soronzonbold / Koumba Selene Fanta Larroque / Buse Tosun Olympic Quota so far: / / /

Updated after this morning's repechage rounds...

we should learn quite a few things from Hungary (and no, I'm definitely not talking of the Orban's politics towards immigrants and even less of his relationships with the media -actually, in this field it's huim that learned by our former prime minister Berlusconi )... p.s. my favourite protest it's still the Mongolian coach stripping off in Rio...

yeah, this is a huge disappointment... even Caneva lost badly in Round #1... I fear that no Italian is well prepared for this event...they just can't win a match and lose also to people they already defeated in the past tournaments this season...

women's -49kg Group B Full Video (only the W -49kg Gr. B, despite what they say in the title)

yeah...here in Italy, the worst enemy is Italy itself! I mean, all the robberies, the corrupted (and the stupid) politicians, all the idiots with racist ideas...they are all Italians, but they are always acting against their own Country... until we get rid of that sh*t, we just can't think abount the rest of the world...we are just not entitled, we don't deserve and we can't afford to do it...

yeah, it's the regular format for world beach volleyball...the pairs are seeded according to their world ranking and the best faces the worst (and of course the 2 in between face each other) in the group's semifinals, then the winners are already through to the next ranking (but play for the group win and to have a better seeding in the knockout stage) and the losers play for the 3rd and last qualifying position in the group... now here we have an abnormal situation because only 2 pairs advance to the semis, but in any other tournament all pairs still get 2 chances to go through (but of course you can be safe already at the firstr try, if you win the first match), so it's not so unfair... the idea is to save some time (less matches in the schedule of the tournament without cutting the number of participants) and also to have all pairs playing 1 less match than what would need with a round robin preliminary stage, so to have the top pairs less tired and in better shape for the final phases of the tournament...

no, baseball has a long tradition also here in Italy...but nowadays it's declining more and more...there are always less kids playing, so we have to go with a lot of guys with Italian heritage, but not born and raised here... it's the same for many disciplines (also Ice Hockey has this same problem, but I could name quite a few more)...

game over in Parma...the rain won't stop early enough...the match will resume on Friday morning (most likely, when both teams will be in Parma once again, meanwhile tomorrow they will play in Bologna -and a match can't start in one place and end in another)...

also ITA and ESP have a lot of players who were not born in the Countries they're representing right now... and actually even the Kingdom of the Netherlands have the same "nature"... it's called "globalisation"...

Israel beat Spain 3-0, with a 3-hit complete game shutout by their pitcher, Joseph Wagman... Italy and South Africa still in the locker rooms because of heavy rain in Parma (and I think that for tonight we're done and dusted...I don't see any chance for the weather to change in the next hour or so...and by rule the game can't re-start after Midnight)... currently, the score is 4-4 after the usual nightmarish start by Alessandro Maestri, nowadays absolutely boiled and frankly not good enough anymore to play at this level...

To be eligible to represent an NOC that has been allocated a quota place through the FIVB Beach Volleyball Olympic Qualification Tournament, the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball Senior World Championships or the Olympic Ranking List of 15th June 2020, all athletes must have participated as an individual in a minimum of 12 of the following events: the FIVB Beach Volleyball Olympic Qualification Tournament; the 2019 FIVB Senior World Championships; the 2019 FIVB World Tour Finals; FIVB World Tour 1*-5* events; recognised Continental Tours Finals, scheduled from 1st September 2018 until 14th June 2020. In the event that an NOC/NF has earned a quota place through the FIVB Beach Volleyball Olympic Qualification Tournament, the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball Senior World Championships or the Olympic Ranking List of 15th June 2020, the NOC/NF must choose its athletes from its twelve (12) best eligible athletes according to the FIVB Ranking Points accumulated within the Qualification Period while participating in events listed in the previous paragraph.

my friend, I know you're furious right now... but take a big breathe and let things flow... don't take any initiative when you're under the pressure of facts that just happened... losing you and your always interesting commentaries, would make this forum (and the entire sport community) a lot poorer than ever... and trust me, here there's at least one person (me) who's not happy at all about all this sh*t going on... I will always support you and be against any influence of politics in sport (because we see day after day what kind of disgrace they bring with themselves)... I'm sure that most of those "it was time" comments have been written too quickly, without thinking of how big of a damage this decision does not to politicians nor sport officials, but to the athletes themselves (and especially the younger generations, who most likely are going to see their career cut short because of that) and to the fans, that shouldn't pay for things well beyond their control...

finally, a decent (dream) draw also for us...Aurora Campagna (silver medallist at this year's European Champs) has a real shot at the semis (and the consequential Olympic Quota)... it would be really important for us to earn at least 1 quota (other than Chamizo's, of course)... even Davidovi is not so badly placed...he's going to lose vs Atli in the second round, but with a bit of luck, the Turkish guy could send him through the repechage, where it would be between him and Micic to go through to the bronze medal game (and the OQ)... well, maybe here I'm a bit optimistic...but we don't have anything better to put our hopes on...