phelps

here we are...the new season has officially begun... in Meiringen, the first Bouldering event of the year is underway... men's Bouldering, climbers qualified to the semifinals (tomorrow, 11 a.m. CET) Stefano Ghisolfi Alexander Megos Pan Yu Fei Taisei Ishimatsu Chon Jong Won Aleksey Rubtsov Gregor Vezonik Tim Reuser Rei Sugimoto Anze Peharc Yoshiyuki Ogata Tomoaki Takata Alex Khazanov Jernej Kruder Keita Dohi Kokoro Fujii Adam Ondra Tomoa Narasaki Nathaniel Coleman Nathan Phillips as expected, Japan are absolutely the most dominant squad, with Slovenia as their main rivals... but with the Olympics in sight, it looks that the great Adam Ondra will regularly attend the world cup, which makes him the favourite in all the bouldering and lead events he's gonna enter... and @heywoodu...it looks that in this first event of the year there's also some Dutch interest... women's Bouldering, climbers qualified to the semifinals (tomorrow, following the men's semifinals) Lucka Rakovec Oceania MacKenzie Alex Johnson Berit Schwaiger Ievgeniia Kazbekova Petra Klinger Julia Pinggera Shauna Coxsey Sa Sol Katja Kadic Afra Hönig Alanna Yip Emily Phillips Futaba Ito Julia Chanourdie Sandra Lettner Fanny Gibert Akiyo Noguchi Kyra Condie Janja Garnbret almost all the top girls are there, but there are also a lot of newcomers (some of them, very young)... not surprisingly, the USA team is starting to show up big in both the men and women's events, once the Olympics are getting closer... still, the great Janja is always the woman to beat... bad outing for the Italian team in general (and our young raising star Laura Rogora in particular), but we know that Bouldering is our weakest discipline...

Olympic Qualifying times, Italian Nationals, Day 4 "A" Standard - Piero Codia (men's 100m fly) - Margherita Panziera (women's 100m backstroke, even if she did better yesterday in the medley relay) - Matteo Restivo (men's 200m backstroke) - Luca Pizzini (men's 200m breaststroke) - Filippo Megli (men's 200m free) - Gabriele Detti (men's 200m free) "B" Standard - 7 girls in the women's 100m backstroke - 3 girls in the women's 200m fly - 4 girls in the women's 50m free - 9 guys in the men's 100m fly - 3 guys in the men's 200m breaststroke - 4 guys in the men's 200m backstroke - 12 guys in the men's 200m free

Italian Nationals, Day 4 Recap men's 100m fly: very exciting race, but with a disappointing final clocking...Santo Condorelli got really close to his first Italian National title, but he was edged out by the European Champion from last year, Piero Codia...51.75 for the man from Sardinia, 52.06 for the new member of out NT. Young talent Federico Burdisso was 3rd with 52.10. Unfortunately, all the guys weren't even close to their PB nor the required target for the world champs pass... women's 100m backstroke: Margherita Panziera dominated the race as expected, but, despite recording a good 59.77 (world champs official pass), she didn't come close to the new NR swum yesterday in the medley relay's opening leg (58.92). Silvia Scalia was second today, but with a modest 1.00.89, which is well outside her PB (and far away from the world pass required target)... men's 200m backstroke: European Bronze medallist from last year, Matteo Restivo won the title with a time of 1.56.45, very close to his own PB & NR and of course inside the require target for the qualification to the world champs...Marco mencarini was second in 1.57.65, but unfortunately this is not enough to make the team for Gwangju... women's 200m fly: one of the most depressing race of the Italian champs so far...Ilaria Cusinato easily won the gold medal, but with a time just below 2.10...needless to say that's not even close to the world pass target... men's 200m breaststroke: when you thought you've just seen the worst of the champs, here you go with something even more scary...the race was dominated by the favourite Luca Pizzini (also Bronze medallist in Glasgow last summer), but in a really modest 2.10.17...second was the veteran Edoardo Giorgetti, who at least made the final 25 meters of the race interesting, but still he finished well above 2.10, too...of course nobody reached the world standard time... women's 50m free: here we are so far away from international excellence that's not even worth mentioning anything but the name of the new National Champion, Nicoletta Ruberti, who won her first National Title in 25.17 at the age of 24 (which in women's swimming is something almost unbelievable...and the worst possible sign for the future of this discipline in Italy)... men's 200m free: Filippo Megli took advantage of a reasonably quick start and of a very slow start by Gabriele Detti and won the National title over the distance in 1.46.56, new PB and world champs qualifying time...Detti finally ended up in second place after a furious comeback in the second 100m with the time of 1.47.02...from 3rd to 8th we have a bunch of guys at 1.48 "low", finishing almost all together, with the surprising Stefano Ballo completing the podium in 1.48.05 and probably earning a spot in the men's 4*200m free relay team, which is of course officially qualified for the world champs after today's race... p.s. in the women's 4*200m free club team relay, Federica Pellegrini swam 1.55.4 in an internal leg...

Olympic Qualifying times, Italian Nationals, Day 3 "A" Standard - Gabriele Detti (men's 800m Freestyle) - Gregorio Paltrinieri (men's 800m Freestyle) - Domenico Acerenza (men's 800m Freestyle) - Marco De Tullio (men's 800m Freestyle) - Ilaria Cusinato (women's 200m IM) - Federica Pellegrini (women's 100m Freestyle) - Alessandro Miressi (men's 100m Freestyle) - Manuel Frigo (men's 100m Freestyle) - Santo Condorelli (men's 100m Freestyle) - Simona Quadarella (women's 1500m Freestyle) - Giulia Gabrielleschi (women's 1500m Freestyle) - Alisia Tettamanzi (women's 1500m Freestyle) "B" Standard - 5 girls in the women's 200m Individual Medley - 5 girls in the women's 100m Freestyle - 11 girls in the women's 1500m Freestyle - 11 guys in the men's 800m Freestyle - 7 guys in the men's 200m Individual Medley - 13 guys in the men's 100m Freestyle

Italian Nationals, Day 3 Recap men's 800m free: Gabriele Detti confirmed his very good shape and edged out Gregorio Paltrinieri with high caliber clockings (7.43.83 vs 7.45.35)...good 3rd was Domenico Acerenza in 7.47.20...unfortunately for him, there are only 2 spots in the team in any race... women's 200m IM: Ilaria Cusinato easily won the title in 2.11.89, but once again she was slower than expected and, above all, outside the required target for the world champs pass... men's 200 IM: Thomas Ceccon withdraw from the final at the last moment because of a physical problem and the race lost the biggest point of interest...still, it was quite a good competition, despite the clockings of the top guys just above the 2-minute mark (the title went to Alberto Razzetti in 2.00.11, well outside the require target, of course)... women's 100m free: needless to say that it was another 1-woman show by queen Federica (Pellegrini)...she dominated the race in 53.72, but the depressing news are about the fact that all the girls following her in the standings are above the 55-second mark, which means that our women's 4*100m free relay team is NOT officially qualified for the world champs (and if they send them to Gwangju in any case because it's the Olympic qualifying event, they still don't have any chance to make the final)... men's 100m free: there were a lot of expectations on this race, especially after this morning's heats (and the unusual 4-way tie at the top of the ranking)...and finally, it was quite an exciting race, with Santo Condorelli trying a flashy start and a killer split at 50m... unfortunately for him, after that crazy start, he was left with the tank empty after only 75/80m and the European Champion Alessandro Miressi could complete one of his now traditional comebacks, winning (48.32 his time) with some margin in front of the newcomer Manuel Frigo (48.56 for him) and the brave Condorelli (48.57 at the end for Santo)...4th and 5th were respectively Lorenzo Zazzeri and Ivano Vendrame in 48.96 and 48.98. Luca Dotto was 6th in 49.00. This gives our men's 4*100m free relay team not only the official pass for the world champs, but also some decent chances to be competitive when it will really matter... women's 1500m free: red carpet-alike exhibition for Simona Quadarella, winner in 16.04...following her, a few girls who normally swim the open water races in 16.15 or worse... p.s. in the women's club 4*100m Medley Relay, Margherita Panziera in the opening leg did improve the Italian Record over the 100m backstroke, swimming the distance in 58.92...

KHL Conference Finals Eastern Conference: by the way, finally Avangard won game #4 by a score of 4-2, thanks to the day of his career by Ilya Mikheyev, who scored twice, included the game winner just after Salavat's comeback mid second period... now the guys from Omsk/Balashikha lead the series 3-1 and next Saturday in Balashikha (5 p.m. local, 4 p.m. CET), in game #5, they have the chance to earn their Gagarin Cup spot at home... and just to remember the big rivalry between the 2 teams, why not gifting the audience a couple of big brawls? "nema problema"...today we also had that, both at the end of period #2 and at the end of the game, after the Avangard's ridiculous insurance goal scored by Denis Zernov with just a little more than a minute to go...the highlights below these lines, today are more than recommanded... game #4 highlights

and when things looked so good for Avangard, Salavat put on a show... first they shortened the distance with the usual suspect, Teemu Hartikainen (leading scorer in the KHL playoffs so far)...and then Pyotr Khokhryakov tied the game with a shorthanded goal on a quick counter... the Ufa Arena is almost going to explode now...Salavat's fans are so hot!

lethal...just lethal... stupid penalty (goalie interference) taken by Salavat and Avangard's power play does not show any mercy...great shot by Ilya Mikeev and 2-0 for the guests... things are getting really complicated for the guys in Green (and Blue)...

and my mortal jinx renovates once again... not even the time to post the provisional result, that Sergei Shumakov scores on a quick counter and gives his Avangard the lead in game #4... now Salavat must show some real urgency, if not desperation...

the ice looks so hot in Ufa! I'm not an expert in Russian facts, but the rivalry between Salavat and Avangard must be really deep...every action is good for some dirty hits from both sides... by the way, at the moment things are still on the starting 0-0 tie when they've played around 21 mins (2nd period just started)...

the important thing is that Abdulrashid is officially in... https://twitter.com/hashtag/WrestleBucharest?src=hash

curious fact in the morning heats of day 3 of the Italian Nationals... in the men's 100m freestyle, Luca Dotto, Santo Condorelli, Alessandro Miressi and Ivano Vendrame all swam the same exact time, 49.02 (nobody was faster than them, at least)...

only because I just can't afford it...

proud of my beard and hair getting grey... now the young women look at me in a different way, with more respect and interest...and as I'm old "inside", but not so old "outside", this feature makes me interesting also for women in their 30s and 40s...which means that I've never had so many "chances" like nowadays...

we thought the same when the "5* stars" movement first appeared on the Italian political scene... now we have them leading the government...with the results that all the people around the world can see day by day... never underestimate the stupidity of the majority of the voting people...even in a politically more "educated" Country like France...

KHL Conference Finals Eastern Conference: Ready? Steady. Go! not even 10 minutes into the 3rd game of the series and it was basically already over... Salavat Yulaev Ufa took advantage of the great athmosphere in their home arena and started fast and furious, scoring 3 goals in the first period (Artyom Sergeyev, Joonas Kemppainen, Teemu Hartikainen), who killed any hope for Avangard...the last 2 periods were just "cosmetic"... the final score was 5-1 in favor of the home team, adding also a pair of empty netters just for the stats... So, now Avangard still lead the series 2-1, but Salavat look definitely on top of their game and today thet have the chance to tied the match up by playing once again in front of their very supportive home fans in game #4... game #4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, which is scheduled for later Today in Ufa (7 p.m. local, 4 p.m. CET) Game #3 highlights Western Conference: There has been very marginal difference between game #3 and #4 in this series... CSKA played better, had more puck possession and more ice time in the offensive zone...they did even score the first goal of the game in the 1st period (thanks to Mikhail Naumenkov), like it happened last Monday... but once again SKA refused to lose in front of their fans and came back like last Monday, first tying the game in the 2nd period (goal by Nikolai Prokhorkin) and then scoring a couple of goals in the 3rd stint, thanks to Nikita Gusev first (game winner, power play goal) and Sergei Plotnkiov then (basically this is the only difference with Monday's game...they dind't need to go to the OT...and the final score was 3-1) with the cooperation of a not so focused CSKA's defence, especially on the 3rd goal... now the series flies back to Moscow on the tied score of 2-2...we'll see if CSKA get back dominating as in the first 2 games played at home or if SKA have finally found the way to get into CSKA players' minds and keep their positive streak running... game #5 of the Western Conference Finals is scheduled for Tomorrow in Moscow, as usual @ 7.30 p.m. local, 6.30 p.m. CET game #4 highlights

if that's the prize to pay to get rid of that fuckin' break dance, I'm fine with it...even the complete cancellation of the entire IOC and of the Olympics... break dance at the Olympics? the Olympics are DEAD...they no longer exists to me... in case you ask me? yes, this morning I woke up with the wrong foot...

today's new Olympic Qualifying times at the Italian champs... "A" standard - Elena Di Liddo (women's 100m butterfly) - Federica Pellegrini (women's 200m freestyle) - Thomas Ceccon (men's 100m backstroke) - Fabio Scozzoli (men's 100m breaststroke) - Niccolò Martinenghi (men's 100m breaststroke) "B" standard - 2 girls in the women's 100m butterfly - 5 girls in the women's 200m breaststroke - 5 girls in the women's 200m freestyle - 7 guys in the men's 100m backstroke - 8 guys in the men's 100m breaststroke

Italian Nationals, Day 2 recap women's 50m backstroke: Silvia Scalia won the title and improved the National record twice in a day (27.91 in the morning heats, 27.89 in the final), but still this isn't enough to grant her an official pass for the world champs (required target, 27.7)... all the youngsters getting the following placements were well above the 28 secs mark, so, nothing special... men's 50m butterfly: Piero Codia and Santo Condorelli shared the gold medal with a modest 23.76, well outside the required target for the world champs pass (23.2)...Codia actually swam faster in the morning heats (23.58)... women's 100m fly: first disappointing race of the day...Elena Di Liddo won the race, but was slower than this morning (57.61 vs 57.80)...good for her that she got at least the official pass for the world champs...Ilaria Bianchi was second in 58.33, well outside the required target (57.8)...probably she's gonna make the team in any case because of her past results, but today's performance it's not promising at all... men's 100 backstroke: Thomas Ceccon won the race, swam the new NJR (53.60) and got his official pass for Gwangju...behind him, no other guy couldn't swim faster than 54.4... women's 200m breaststroke: Martina Carraro upset the favourite Francesca Fangio in one of her rare outings over this distance, but her clocking (2.25.96) is far away from being competitive at international level... men's 100m breaststroke: the unexpected becoming reality...Fabio Scozzoli was not supposed to be in his best shape (and maybe also going towards the descending curve of his long and successful career), but tonight he just did a masterpiece, showing an amazing mental strenght and upset the big favourite, Niccolò Martinenghi, who was supposed to finally break the 59 secs wall, after his "easy" morning heat...but nothing went according to the original plan...and Scozzoli stamped a 59.52 clocking he hadn't been able to swim for quite a while and won another Italian title. Martinenghi just couldn't react to Scozzoli's pressure and ended up in second place in 59.92, slower than this morning and outside the required target for the world champs (59.5)... 2 more guys at 60.2 and 60.3 made this race one of the best of the championships so far... women's 200m free: queen Federica (Pellegrini) didn't need any particular effort to win another Italian title over her favourite race...she even tried to swim a fast time all alone, but she was too slow in the final 50m, thus stopping the clock "only" at 1.56.60...behind her, Simona Quadarella was second in 1.58.83, Stefania Pirozzi 3rd in 1.59.05 and Linda Caponi 4th in 1.59.07, which means that the women's 4*200m free relay team is qualified for the world champs, but frankly I don't know what they can do, considering the performances of the girls behind Pellegrini... p.s. other notable result, Gabriele Detti swam 1.45.75 in the second leg of the men's club 4*200m free relay...

in cases like that, a good vpn normally does the job...

wow! but the goalie...

Elena Di Liddo (57.61 over the women's 100m fly) and Niccolò Martinenghi (59.65 over the men's 100m breaststroke) already got the Olympic "A" standard time in this morning's heats on day #2 of the Italian Swimming Nationals... (a lot) more to come this aftrnoon in the finals' session (included the 1-woman-show by Federica Pellegrini over her beloved 200m free)... p.s. for those who are interested, live broadcast (and streaming) on our sport channel Raisport+ HD (FTA on satellite, hotbird @ 13 East and hopefully with no geo-blocking on their website here) @ 5.50 p.m. CET... timings (both, live and summary), instead, can be found here: Italian Swimming Championships 2019

the European Olympic Qualification Tournament will be hosted by Italy, in Milan on April 24th and 25th, 2020... the official announcement was made earlier this morning by our National Federation...

as we have written in the past, the Italian team qualification to the Games will follow a different pathway, but just for info, if we only look at the time swum in day #1 of the 2019 Italian Nationals, we have a few new "A" standard times reached by some Italian swimmers... - Simona Quadarella (women's 800m free, 8.25.55) - Arianna Castiglioni (women's 100m breast, 1.06.92 in the morning heats, slightly slower in the final, 1.07.11, which is just a few hundreds above the target) - Martina Carraro (women's 100m breast, 1.07.04) - Ilaria Cusinato (women's 400m IM, 4.37.45) - Gabriele Detti (men's 400m free, 3.43.36) - Federico Burdisso (men's 200m fly, 1.54.64) - Andrea Vergani (men's 50m free, 21.53) - Luca Dotto (men's 50m free, 21.98) and if we look at "B" standard, we have: - 7 girls in the women's 800m free - 7 girls in the women's 100m breast (included a 13-year young girl, Benedetta Pilato, who was 5th overall and swam 1.08.88) - 4 girls in the women's 400m IM - 8 guys in the men's 400m free - 9 guys in the men's 200 fly - 11 guys in the men's 50m free who swam faster than that standard time...

meanwhile, in the 1st day of the Italian National Championships (World Champs qualifiers) we had some very good results (and some disappointing ones)... men's 50m Back: Thomas Ceccon won the title, but the clocking of 25.20, despite being his PB and the new Italian Junior Record, is far from the required target (24.7)...however, I'm sure he's gonna do a lot better (and earn his spot in the world champs team) over the double distance... women's 800m free: the 1st and probably biggest disappointment of the day...Simona Quadarella, triple European champion last year in Glasgow, just did her minimal homework and won the title with a very modest 8.25.55 (still, below the rquired target of 8.26, so, at least she did get the world pass also by rule -she would be in the team anyway, thanks to last year's medals)...quite disappointing also the youngster Giulia Salin (european junior medallist), who was only 3rd and not even close to the world qualifying time... men's 400m free: the first fireworks session of the day...Gabriele Detti came back from his shoulder injury and won the race in 3.43.36 (equalling his own National Record and swimming the leading time of the 2019 season so far...faster than Sun Yang's clocking last week in China)...and second ranked was the promising youngster Marco De Tullio (YOG medallist last year), improving himself to a good 3.46.89, which is also a world champs pass (the required target is 3.46.9)...finally, 3 more guys swam under 3.50 (Acerenza 3.47, Ciampi 3.48 and Zuin 3.49) to show some good depth in this event in Italy... women's 100m breaststroke: the most exciting race of the day...Martina Carraro just edged out Arianna Castiglioni once again (1.07.04 vs 1.07.11), but Castiglioni swam faster this morning (1.06.92) in the heats and in any case the NT coaching staff expected a lot more from them (small consolation, in the final -the only race that counts- they both swam exactly the required time to fly to Korea next summer, 1.07.1)... men's 200m butterfly: Federico Burdisso showed the sign of his growth...still 17 (and in Italy, that's a very young sporting age, especially for a male swimmer), he destroyed his PB by more than 1.5 seconds and swam the new National Record in 1.54.64 (with a 53.6 split at 100m)...and of course this is also a world champs official pass... women's 400m individual medley: another disappointing race, where Ilaria Cusinato left herself with the tank empty too early...she won the race in 4.37.45 and she missed out on the official pass for Gwangju by a few hundreds (the required target is 4.37.3)...still, she's not gonna have any problem to make the team in any case by virtue of her European medals from last year, but definitely this is not the best way to start the worlds campaign... men's 50m free: last year's newcomer and European Bronze medallist Andrea Vergani easily dominated the field..he swam an impressive 21.53 and got both the title and the official pass for the worlds later this summer...Luca Dotto was second in 21.98 (outside the required target for the world champs, which is 21.7), meanwhile our "new" man formerly from Canada, Santo Condorelli, was 4th in 22.15 and the 100m free european champion Alessandro Miressi was 6th in 22.23...7 guys at 22.24 or better, however, make this race one of the most competitive of the entire Italian champs for sure...