phelps

even with 4 silver/bronze medals the final outcome for Italy wouldn't have been super-positive... aside of the usual good results in the LM2X, among the senior boats 12 months ago we had 1 Gold and 1 Silver for an inch or so...only going up to 2 Gold medals in those 2 events (quadruple Sculls and Fours) would have made the final outcome super-positive... silver and bronze are just small consolations, MINOR medals... I want and I expect those 2 boats to win the Gold medal next year, nothing less than that would satisfy me at all... and I think that's time to stop pursuing phantoms...the Sinkovic are not beatable at all...just put Lodo & Vicino in the middle of the M4- and make it the best in the world, in order to reasonably aim at 3 medals (the LM2X and the 2 senior 4), but 2 of them really going for Gold... the new M2- can be built with those coming off the Four and the Eight (in the qualifying regatta I'd pursuit only the Doubles quali, as we can get only 1 more boat per gender in any case)... and god save us from stupid ideas like not leaving Martini on the single seat for the rest of his career (unless in the next few years we can find a newcomer way better than him already while being still a junior, with real growth perspective)...

way better than expected: Netherlands, China and Poland... special award to GBR, qualifying 10 boats with all the injuries they had lately is something amazing in terms of depth of their program... on the negative side: USA, Canada and Italy* above all, but somehow also France and South Africa... *looking at the quality of results in the supposed stronger Olympic boats, because the non-Olympic boats did well as expected and tbh, the total number of qualified boats is beyond any expectation (especially on the women's side)... but to me only the medals in the Olympic classes count...and here it's been a disaster...

and this is the full list of Quota Places by Nation awarded at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, after all the races have been completed... GBR 10 NED 10 ITA 9 NZL 9 AUS 8 USA 8 ROU 7 CAN 6 CHN 6 GER 6 POL 6 FRA 4 IRL 4 LTU 3 NOR 3 ESP 3 SUI 3 BLR 2 CRO 2 CZE 2 DEN 2 AUT 1 BEL 1 GRE 1 RSA 1 SRB 1

and the last Quota Places awarded at the 2019 World Rowing Championships... women's Eights: / / / / men's Eights: / / / /

the last medallists of the 2019 World Rowing Championships... men's Singles Gold: Oliver Zeidler Silver: Sverri Nielsen (actually, ) Bronze: Kjetil Borch women's Singles Gold: Sanita Puspure Silver: Emma Twigg Bronze: Kara Kohler men's Eights Gold: Germany Silver: Netherlands Bronze: Great Britain women's Eights Gold: New Zealand Silver: Australia Bronze: United States

men's Double Sculls Gold: China Silver: Ireland Bronze: Poland

Final Medal Table RUS, 3 / 2 / 3 ITA, 2 / 1 / 2 TUR, 2 / 0 / 2 IRL, 1 / 0 / 1 FIN, 1 / 0 / 0 ROU, 1 / 0 / 0 POL, 0 / 2 / 1 ENG, 0 / 2 / 0 UKR, 0 / 1 / 4 FRA, 0 / 1 / 2 BLR, 0 / 1 / 1 BUL, 0 / 0 / 1 CZE, 0 / 0 / 1 SWE, 0 / 0 / 1 WAL, 0 / 0 / 1

Medallists Recap -48kg Gold: Iuliia Chumgalakova Silver: Demie-Jade Resztan Bronze: Hanna Okhota & Roberta Bonatti -51kg Gold: Busenaz Cakiroglu Silver: Elena Saveleva Bronze: Tetyana Kob & Wassila Lkhadiri -54kg Gold: Lacramioara Perijoc Silver: Karina Tazabekova Bronze: Yuliya Apanasovich & Caroline Cruveillier -57kg Gold: Irma Testa Silver: Karriss Artingstall Bronze: Stanimira Petrova & Sandra Krystyna Kruk -60kg Gold: Mira Potkonen Silver: Maiva Hamadouche Bronze: Amy Sara Broadhurst & Sema Caliskan -64kg Gold: Francesca Amato Silver: Aneta Rygielska Bronze: Mariia Bova & Ornella Kheteeva -69kg Gold: Darima Sandakova Silver: Angela Carini Bronze: Rosie Eccles & Busenaz Surmeneli -75kg Gold: Aoife O'Rourke Silver: Elzbieta Wojcik Bronze: Anastasiia Shamonova & Love Holgersson -81kg Gold: Elif Guneri Silver: Victoriya Kebikava Bronze: Anastasiia Chernokolenko & Anna Ivanova +81kg Gold: Zenfira Magomedalieva Silver: Tetiana Shevchenko Bronze: Flavia Severin & Vendula Kucerova

and now it's time for the last titles to be awarded... women's Double Sculls Gold: New Zealand Silver: Romania Bronze: Netherlands

last quota awarded in Today's B Finals (only the women and men's Eights still to complete their World Champs list later in the A Finals)... women's Singles: / / men's Singles: / / women's Double Sculls: / / / / men's Double Sculls: / / / /

he's not that used to this kind of competition that he just can't be good enough to beat the tour regulars without the help of biased judges (he's not even a skateboarding Park and/or Street specialist, he used to be good only on Vert, which is quite different from the other 2 disciplines in terms of required skills)... if he's really capable of a top 3 at the world champs with no other competition contested in the last few years, then it would only mean that skateboarding doesn't have any decent strenght in depth and doesn't deserve at all to be included in the Olympic program, without even wasting time to speculate on all the other arguments against it...it would be just a question of talent involved in it)... p.s. personally, I think he's overestimated also as a snowboarder and 2 of his 3 Olympic Gold medals were really gifted to him (Turin 2006 for sure...Pyeongchang 2018, I'm not fully convinced he should win, yet)...

Group Stage Day 2, Part 2 Sunday 01.09.2019 - Schedule* Group D 15:00 Yunost Minsk (BLR) - Ocelàři Třinec (CZE) 18:00 Lahti Pelicans (FIN) - Lausanne HC (SUI) Group E 16:00 Skellefteå AIK (SWE) - Grenoble (FRA) 18:00 Kärpät Oulu (FIN) - SC Bern (SUI) Group F 17:00 GKS Tychy (POL) - Adler Mannheim (GER) 19:30 Vienna Capitals (AUT) - Djurgården Stockholm (SWE) Group H 16:00 Frölunda Indians (SWE) - Mountfield HK (CZE) 17:00 Cardiff Devils (GBR) - Graz 99ers (AUT) *All times CET Watch live Check here for details of live TV broadcasts: https://www.championshockeyleague.com/en/fans/where-to-watch All games are also live on the CHL website for free, subject to geo-blocking restrictions in certain countries due to TV rights.

Group Stage Day 2, Part 1 Saturday 31.08.2019 - Results Group A 19:30 KAC Klagenfurt (AUT) - Frisk Asker (NOR) 3-0 19:45 EHC Biel/Bienne (SUI) - Tappara Tampere (FIN) 1-0 Standing : 1. Klagenfurt 6, 2. Biel/Bienne 6, 3. Tampere 0, 4. Asker 0 Group B 17:00 EV Zug (SUI) - HPK Hämeenlinna (SUI) 3-4 (SO) 17:45 HC Pilsen (CZE) - Rungsted Seier Capital (DEN) 9-3 Standing : 1. Pilsen 5, 2. Zug 4, 3. Hämeenlinna 3, 4. Rungsted 0 Group C 15:30 Luleå Hockey (SWE) - Bìlì Tygři Liberec (CZE) 4-1 20:30 Belfast Giants (GBR) - Augsburger Panther (GER) 2-3 (OT) Standing : 1. Augsburg 4, 2. Luleå 4, 3. Belfast 4, 4. Liberec 0 Group G 15:30 Färjestad Karlstad (SWE) - HC Ambrì Piotta (SUI) 2-1 16:00 Red Bull Munich (GER) - HC05 Banskà Bystrica (SVK) 3-0 Standing : 1. Färjestad 6, 2. Munich 6, 3. Ambrì 0, 4. Banskà Bystrica 0

today's early action recap... Mixed Team Competition Gold Medal match: Japan vs France Bronze Medal match #1: Azerbaijan vs Russia Bronze Medal match #2: Mongolia vs Brazil

men's Cross-Country Race Gold: Nino Schurter Silver: Mathias Flueckiger Bronze: Stephane Tempier

in Italy, we call that "sfiga"... poor guy...he did a masterful race, he was already enjoying the 2nd world silver medal in a row...and then, zac! you're punished so hard by fate... I hope he's not going to lose his mind for such an unlucky day...

Hempel World Cup Series, Stage #1 (Enoshima, JPN) Medallists Recap men's 470 Gold: Mathew Belcher / William Ryan* Silver: Jordi Xammar Hernandez / Nicolas Rodriguez Garcia-Paz Bronze: Kazuto Doi / Naoya Kimura women's 470 Gold: Silvia Mas Depares / Patricia Cantero Reina Silver: Nia Jerwood / Monique De Vries Bronze: Frederike Loewe / Anna Markfort men's Laser Gold: Pavlos Kontides Silver: Matthew Wearn Bronze: Jean Baptiste Bernaz women's Laser Radial Gold: Emma Plasschaert Silver: Anne-Marie Rindom Bronze: Alison Young men's 49er Gold: James Peters / Fynn Sterritt Silver: Benjamin Bildstein / David Hussl Bronze: Tim Fischer / Fabian Graf men's 49er FX Gold: Annemiek Bekkering / Annette Duetz Silver: Alexandra Maloney / Molly Meech Bronze: Julie Bossard / Aude Compan Finn Class Gold: Nicholas Heiner Silver: Josip Olujic Bronze: Ioannis Mitakis men's RS:X Gold: Louis Giard Silver: Bi Kun Bronze: Pierre Le Coq women's RS:X Gold: Lu Yunxiu Silver: Katy Spychakov Bronze: Zofia Noceti-Klepacka mixed Nacra 17 Gold: Quentin Delapierre / Manon Audinet Silver: Ben Saxton / Nicola Boniface Bronze: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Marianna Banti Full Results: https://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/WSC2020Enoshima#!/results?classId=53e885c6-a124-4178-8635-ee90b54dde8e *3rd win in a few weeks for this duo in Enoshima...first, the World Championships...then, the Tokyo 2020 Test Event...now, the 1st World Cup stage of this season... I guess they like the idea of having the next Olympic Regatta in this same place...

I hope some biased judges don't gift him a world medal and the consequential Olympic ticket...

2019 World Cup, Stage #8 (Rio De Janeiro, BRA) Women's 10m Air Pistol Gold: Yashaswini Singh Deswal Silver: Olena Kostevych Bronze: Jasmina Milovanovic Olympic Quota: India, Serbia

2019 World Cup, Stage #8 (Rio De Janeiro, BRA) Women's 50m 3-Position Rifle Gold: Seonaid McIntosh Silver: Kim Je Hee Bronze: Pei Ruijiao Olympic Quota: South Korea, China

Today's final action recap... women's +78kg Gold: Akira Sone Silver: Idalys Ortiz Bronze: Sarah Asahina & Kayra Sayit men's +100kg Gold: Lukas Krpalek Silver: Hisayoshi Harasawa Bronze: Roy Meyer & Kim Min Jong

Cross-Country Under-23 Women's Race Gold: Sina Frei Silver: Laura Stigger Bronze: Loana Lecomte Cross-Country Women's Race Gold: Pauline Ferrand Prevot Silver: Jolanda Neff Bronze: Rebecca McConnell

first of all, there are financial reasons...the local organizers get support from both WorldRowing and the Italian Federation and, more than that, they look for fans/tourists to come and spend money... then, it's a prestige question for the local club... finally, Varese is one of the main training centers for the non-European Nations (especially Australia spend always many months a year to train in the Northern Emisphere summer, they have an official base there...and not only for Rowing, but for most summer sports...moreover, the WorldRowing program for developing Nations is based there and the director of that program is an Italian coach -who also coaches Serbia and Lithuania atm), which makes it one of the preferred places to host regatta not only by the Italian federation, but alsoby WorldRowing themselves...

if we start this kind of speculations, we'd better stop watching sports events... it's obvious that some performances are more suspicious than others, but until we find out some serious proof of cheating, we have to accept what happens on the track/field/regatta course and so on... in the specific case of the LM2X here, I expected IRL to win...it's their strategy to race very few times a year (actually, even Italy normally only start at 1 or 2 world cup stages / year because of financial and technical programming)... and still, they were the defending champions, not just a couple of unknown guys (even if last year the crew was different at 50%, with 2 O'Donovan brothers)...

you could win 1 more quota in the men's double sculls (there are 5 more places for the 6 boats in the B Final tomorrow)... then, there's always the European and the World qualification regatta next year to add some boats...