phelps

I know they're in altitude and in SLC they have a magician as the ice master...but let's be serious...this is the last competition of a very long season, with most of the athletes already off their supposed peak period...and world records (even those 10 years old) are falling like the leaves in autumn? maybe I'm a bit too suspicious, but this epic day can't be all "mother nature"'s result...

who knows? probably, yes...but they would be crazy (or the team would be such a disaster) still to think about him as a possible starter for Italy in Tokyo... now we have an established group with Luca Curatoli, Luigi Samele and Enrico Berrè (with the sub-23 European champion from last year, Dario Cavaliere, as the first reserve, waiting for the real raising star, Matteo Neri, who soon is going to break out also among the seniors, after having swept all the youth classes in these last few years)... I don't think they're going to change that so easily in the competitions that really matter...

I just read some enthusiastic comments by Australian athletes and officials about their entry in Fencing, therefore I suppose this is one of those sports where they will surely start at the next AG...

WADA, where are you?

a must-have for global viewers who love the NCAA sports system... https://www.espnplayer.com/packages all of their events are live and also on-demand (for 30 days)... picture quality is very good (like all the other US Sports OTT portals) and you have a fully functional 7-day trial to make yourself a good idea if you like it or not...

busy day... Winter Sports (Biathlon, Alpine Skiing, Cross-Country Skiing, Short Track Speedskating)... Fencing, men's Sabre World Cup (semifinals and final, only) Hockey, Swiss NLA Playoffs (Quarterfinals, Game #1, EV Zug vs HC Lugano)...

Men's Individual Sabre (Padua, ITA) Final Results Gold: Luca Curatoli Silver: Aldo Montano Bronze: Max Hartung & Benedikt Wagner Semifinals: Curatoli b. Wagner 15-12 Montano b. Hartung 15-10 Gold Medal Match: Curatoli b. Montano 15-13  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/156/results/rank

Women's Individual Sabre (Athens, GRE) Final Results Gold: Sofia Pozdniakova Silver: Olga Kharlan Bronze: Kim Ji Yeon & Lisa Pusztai Semifinals: Pozdniakova b. Kim 15-11 Kharlan b. Pusztai 15-5 Gold Medal Match: Pozdniakova b. Kharlan 15-10  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/469/results/rank

it's not this Century, but Aladàr Gerevich and Pal Kovacs were 50 and 48 respecitively when they won the team Gold at the Rome 1960 Olympics... and it's this Century, but it's it's not men's Sabre...however, Valentina Vezzali won the Silver medal at the Team World Champs in 2016, when she was already 42 years young... and I could go on for quite a while (for instance, Geza Imre won Rio 2016 Silver medal in the men's epee also at the age of 42 - actually, 41 years and 8 months, to be precise), but I'd rather stop here... Fencing is a sport where a talented guy can start winning very early, but it also allows big veterans to be able to get their honors, too... it's very democratic...let's say that...

women's 3000m Relay, Teams qualified to the A-Final Netherlands Russia South Korea Canada men's 5000m Relay, Teams qualified to the A-Final Russia South Korea Hungary China

women's Overall Provisional Standings 1st, CHOI Min Jeong, 34 Pts (CDR = 12) 2nd, Lara VAN RUIJVEN, 34 Pts (CDR = 87) 3rd, Kim BOUTIN, 21 Pts (CDR = 16) 4th, FAN Kexin, 21 Pts (CDR = 25) 5th, Suzanne SCHULTING, 13 Pts (CDR = 24; Highest Rank = 2) 6th, Sofia PROSVIRNOVA, 13 Pts (CDR = 24; Highest Rank = 3) 7th, KIM Ji Yoo, 8 Pts 8th, ZANG Yize, 5 Pts (CDR = 27) 9th, Martina VALCEPINA, 5 Pts (CDR = 35) 10th, Hanne DESMET, 5 Pts (CDR = 74) men's Overall Provisional Standings 1st, HWANG Dae Heon, 34 Pts (CDR = 10) 2nd, LIM Hyo Jun, 34 Pts (CDR = 58) 3rd, Samuel GIRARD, 24 Pts 4th, WU Dajing, 21 Pts 5th, LEE June Seo, 13 Pts (CDR = 16) 6th, REN Ziwei, 13 Pts (CDR = 30) 7th, Semen ELISTRATOV, 10 Pts 8th, Steven DUBOIS, 8 Pts 9th, Sandor LIU Shaolin, 5 Pts 10th, XU Hongzhi, 3 Pts

men's 1500m Gold: Lim Hyo Jun Silver: Samuel Girard Bronze: Lee June Seo men's 500m Gold: Hwang Dae Heon Silver: Wu Dajing Bronze: Ren Ziwei women's 500m Gold: Lara Van Ruijven Silver: Fan Kexin Bronze: Suzanne Schulting

Schulting not only unbalanced Huot Marchand, she also hit the French girl with her head (as I wrote earlier this afternoon, a old school keirin move)... Valcepina "only" used her right arm to push Van Ruijven aside and find some space where to place her toe... that said, imho Valcepina's DQ hurts, but it's perfectly within the rules and the standard (a very strict standard, it must be said) used today... so, no complaints...only many, many regrets because ,as @Andry84 wrote, she skated a masterpiece to comeback from 4th to 2nd and then she just tried too much and eventually she got nothing (but I did really appreciate the effort and the winning attitude Martina showed in that episode...it's definitely not common among the Italian athletes -and I'm not talking only of the short track skaters)... and it hurts also to have both of our relay teams also DQed...but I haven't watched the races yet (I'm not sure I'm gonna watch them, too), so I just can't say anything about that...I can only take notice of those results and cry...

sadly, I have to go... back later with results and rankings...

and the first gold goes to...yes, you're right! South Korea!!!

women's 1500m Gold: Choi Min Jeong Silver: Kim Boutin Bronze: Sofia Prosvirnova

yeah, she made a move that looked like a rugby tackle to gain the provisional lead of the race (which she won on the ice, but then she was more than rightly DQed)...

Seidel wins the B-Final...now it's time for the first "big one" of the day...

as I wrote before, Schulting's mistake was actually evident and "stupid" (at least, really unnecessary)... other calls, instead, were at least more questionable...

men's 1500m, Skaters qualified to the A-Final Steven Dubois Samuel Girard Xu Hongzhi Hwang Dae Heon Keita Watanabe Lee June Seo Lim Hyo Jun Semen Elistratov

in the last few years, they repeatedly changed the rules for safety reasons... that's why nowadays almost nothing is allowed anymore..you just have to keep your line and skate as fast as you can...

if the judge is Italian, it's highly likely to happen...

and here it comes...De Laat out and the second Korean advanced to the A-Final...

I fear De Laat's going home...

I agree...it's a lot like modern keirin in track cycling...it's no longer the exciting sport it used to be... but still, if those rules are in place, you have to play according to them...and someone is not always doing that... p.s. yesterday, it was Seidel who was advanced despite being guilty of that crash...