phelps

more DSQ coming...

well, this time is not that random...she definitely hit Huot Marchand with head...looked like a keirin move, more than a short track's... and Marchand was also already under threat (and then actually out of the race) because of her previous hazardous move... p.s. and now also Liu Shaolin is out...actually, I expected more than 1 DSQ in this race...

wow! this first semifinal skate in the men's 1500m looked like a good old keirin race from the Eighties, with a lot of contact between the skaters...I guess the video judge would have to watch it carefully...

but also Schulting and Hout Marchand...

women's 1500m, Skaters qualified to the A-Final Kim Ji Yoo Hanne Desmet Veronique Pierron Choi Min Jeong Ekaterina Efremenkova Kim Boutin Sofia Prosvirnova

Christie...

Franco Bragagna is one of the most experienced sports commentators of the Italian TV... he self-proclamed himself as "the truth" about everything he follows (and he follows a lot of things...from almost every winter sport -mainly CC skiing, but also Biathlon, Short Track, Speedskating and Ice Hockey- to Athletics, Canoeing -especially Wildwater Canoeing, Slalom and the good old "downhill"- Shooting and others)... but instead he's only a logorroic and disparess speaker who doesn't let his mates in the booth talk (as he's always monopolizing the mic)... and since he's always been a public TV speaker, he often starts really offensive pamphlets against the other companies and their journalists (his most famous public feud was against sky Italia's face and voice Fabio Caressa, when Caressa had the fool idea of commentating the swimming events at the London 2012 Olympics...p.s. Caressa never followed anything but Football...he's "the voice" of the Italian ride to the 2006 Football world cup...some of his emphatic presentations and claims during that world cup are still used nowadays in commercials...but that time he's been actually crazy, he should have necer exposed himself like that -basically from that moment everybody started hating him, more than because of his faults and self-absorbed football broadcasts)... but what makes Bragagna a complete idiot to my eyes (and ears...and everything) is his behaviour in the Schwazer's scandal... basically he used his public tv place to insult Alex and to host repeated "trials" against him, always having in the booth those people who's been proved being active part in the cospiration against Alex and in favor of the convicted dopers from the Russian race walking team... he's Rio 2016 broadcast during the 50km race walk has been the lowest point a human being can reach...a real shame for the entire Country of Italy... but of course nobody did anything against him... since that moment I just stopped listening to him...I rather give up watching any event, than listening to him... p.s. and when he used to commentate Ice Hockey...well, I can say he doesn't understand anything about that game... my favourites Italian sports commentators are Stefano Borghi (currently on the OTT portal DAZN, football, he's a real encyclopedia of international football, especially the South American competitions and players) and Pietro Nicolodi (he works for sky Italia and he also does a lot of disciplines very different from each other -Football, almost every Winter Sport -especialy Ice Hockey, he's definitely the best Italian commentator for that...actually, the only one I really like- Fencing, Canoeing, Baseball and more...I like him especially for Hockey and Baseball)... but since I mainly watch global sports events and US Sports, my myth, legend, favourite broadcaster of all time is the now retired Vin Scully, "the voice" of the American Baseball (and in particular of the Los Angeles Dodgers)... I miss him so much... I also used to like the Los Angeles Kings (NHL Hockey, of course) voice, Bob Miller...but he also had to give up his job after an heart attack...and I have to admit that I like also his substitute, Alex Faust... another of my favourites is Al Michaels (NFL Football on the NBC)...when he was paired with John Madden, they were the best duo of all time... and I also like the great Joe Buck (Football and Baseball of Fox)... but the current top of ranking is surely Tony Romo (even if he's a technical commentator and not a play-by-play speaker like the others)...

Fencing FCA Cadet & Junior Asian Championships 2019, Final Overall Medal Table KOR, 11 / 7 / 9 JPN, 7 / 5 / 11 CHN, 4 / 5 / 10 SGP, 2 / 1 / 2 HKG, 0 / 2 / 3 KAZ, 0 / 2 / 2 KUW, 0 / 1 / 2 TPE, 0 / 1 / 0 UZB, 0 / 0 / 3

Fencing FCA Cadet & Junior Asian Championships 2019, Junior only Medal Table KOR, 6 / 5 / 5 CHN, 2 / 3 / 6 JPN, 2 / 3 / 4 SGP, 2 / 0 / 0 KAZ, 0 / 1 / 1 KUW, 0 / 0 / 1 UZB, 0 / 0 / 1

Men's Junior Team Foil Final Results Gold: Japan Silver: South Korea Bronze: China Semifinals: South Korea b. Singapore 45-28 Japan b. China 45-28 Bronze Medal Match: China b. Singapore 45-36 Gold Medal Match: Japan b. South Korea 45-31  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.engarde-service.com/files/fie_fencing/asian_championship_amman2019/foil_men_junior_team/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

Women's Junior Team Epee Final Results Gold: South Korea Silver: China Bronze: Japan Semifinals: South Korea b. Singapore 45-34 China b. Japan 37-36 Bronze Medal Match: Japan b. Singapore 45-42 Gold Medal Match: South Korea b. China 35-28  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.engarde-service.com/files/fie_fencing/asian_championship_amman2019/epee_women_junior_team/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

today's race medal summary... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imaginary_Invalid

among the European top-tier leagues, also the Swiss NLA has just ended their regular season... and after 50 games, SC Bern were once again the best team in Switzerland with 101 points, followed by EV Zug with 97... the remaining 6 teams qualified to the playoffs (starting directly with the best-of-7 series of the Quarterfinals) are: Lausanne HC (3rd), EHC Biel/Bienne (4th), HC Ambrì Piotta (5th ), SC Langnau Tigers (6th), HC Lugano (7th ) and Genève-Servette HC (8th)... it's been a RS full of surprises, with the Lausanne + Bien/Biel + Ambrì trio ending up as high in the standings as no man would have even thought before the start of the season...the everlasting bottom of the table that unbelievably did rise to the occasion and got 3rd, 4th and 5th...amazing! and not less surprising is the epic fail of the Zürich SC Lions, probably one of the richest clubs in Europe who couldn't even make the playoffs, finishing the season in a depressing 9th place... final note...with more than 2 million spectators in total on the stands (6949 per game, +116 if compared to last year), this was the second most followed RS in the Swiss League history since the introduction of the playoffs system, behind only the record-breaking 2015/2016 season... so, now it's playoffs time! it all starts tomorrow, with game #1 of the quarterfinal series... and these are the match-ups: SC Bern (1) vs Genève-Servette HC (8) EV Zug (2) vs HC Lugano (7) Lausanne HC (3) vs SC Langnau Tigers (6) EHC Biel/Bienne (4) vs HC Ambrì Piotta (5) all Details, Results, Ranking and more...here: https://www.sihf.ch/de/national-league/ p.s. and Let's Go Ambrì!!! Tessin is always (and only) white & blue!

yeah, it looks like the Barclays Center in New York... it's a building not originally projected to host an ice rink, which then has been put in place by removing a lot of "normal" seats... and in this case you can also clearly see that the ice surface is not frozen on an appropriate platform, at least not a good one in terms of "choreography" and that has a really awful look, both for the spectators on site and for those in front of their TV/PC screen...

Men's Junior Team Epee Final Results Gold: China Silver: Kazakhstan Bronze: Japan Semifinals: China b. Japan 45-39 Kazakhstan b. South Korea 45-33 Bronze Medal Match: Japan b. South Korea 45-39 Gold Medal Match: China b. Kazakhstan 33-32  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.engarde-service.com/files/fie_fencing/asian_championship_amman2019/epee_men_junior_team/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

Women's Junior Team Sabre Final Results Gold: South Korea Silver: China Bronze: Uzbekistan Semifinals: South Korea b. Uzbekistan 45-35 China b. Japan 45-41 Bronze Medal Match: Uzbekistan b. Japan 45-31 Gold Medal Match: South Korea b. China 42-33  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.engarde-service.com/files/fie_fencing/asian_championship_amman2019/saber_women_junior_team/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

the US Pro Series are now on stage... this week the tour is in Des Moines, Iowa... and the 1500m free were the top event from last night... well, in the women's race Wang Jianjiahe destroyed her PB by more than 7 seconds, swimming a very good 15.46.x (at the moment, that's the second clocking of the season, just a second behind Ledecky)... meanwhile the men's race were by far less impressive in terms of performance, but a lot more exciting to watch, as Anton Ipsen edged out Jordan Wilimovsky by a few hundreds of a second (15.05.x for both swimmers the final time)...

Men's Junior Team Sabre Final Results Gold: South Korea Silver: Japan Bronze: China Semifinals: South Korea b. Iran 45-32 Japan b. China 45-33 Bronze Medal Match: China b. Iran 45-40 Gold Medal Match: South Korea b. Japan 45-27  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.engarde-service.com/files/fie_fencing/asian_championship_amman2019/saber_men_junior_team/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

Women's Junior Team Foil Final Results Gold: Singapore Silver: Japan Bronze: South Korea Semifinals: Singapore b. South Korea 45-32 Japan b. Hong Kong 45-25 Bronze Medal Match: South Korea b. Hong Kong 45-30 Gold Medal Match: Singapore b. Japan 42-38  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.engarde-service.com/files/fie_fencing/asian_championship_amman2019/foil_women_junior_team/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

After the Slovak Extraliga and the KHL, another top-tier European league has just finished its regular season and it's on the runway to start its playoffs campaign: it's the German DEL... Adler Mannheim ended up on top after the 52-game schedule with 116 points, 7 ahead of the reigning champions, Red Bull Munich. the top 6 (the teams already qualified to the quarterfinals) is completed by Augsburger Panther, Kölner Haie, ERC Ingolstadt and Düsseldorfer EG. the teams ranked 7th to 10th are instead qualified for the playoffs preliminary round (starting tonight)...and they are: Pinguins Bremerhaven (7th), Straubing Tigers (8th), last year's runner up Eisbären Berlin (9th) and Thomas Sabo ice Tigers Nürnberg. therefore, the 1st round match-ups (best-of-3 series) are: Bremerhaven vs Nürnberg and Straubing vs Berlin...and it all starts tonight @ 7.15 CET... Full Details, Rankings, Results and more...here: https://www.del.org/

luckily, it's all fixed now...and we have all of our previously missing results...

Women's Junior Individual Epee Final Results Gold: Shi Yuexin Silver: Kim Chea Rin Bronze: Tamaki Terayama & Yang Jingwen Semifinals: Shi b. Yang 15-6 Kim b. Terayama 15-13 Gold Medal Match: Shi b. Kim 15-8  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.engarde-service.com/files/fie_fencing/asian_championship_amman2019/epee_women_junior/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

Men's Junior Individual Foil Final Results Gold: Kyota Kawamura Silver: Xu Jie Bronze: Rui Fujikura & Kim Gyeong Mu Semifinals: Kawamura b. Fujikura 15-10 Xu b. Kim 15-13 Gold Medal Match: Kawamura b. Xu 15-7  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.engarde-service.com/files/fie_fencing/asian_championship_amman2019/foil_men_junior/index.php?page=clasfinal.htm

sadly the scoring system today didn't work, so we have no results of the last junior individual competitions yet...

boxing night quite full of upsets and surprises, also in the undercard... Ortiz almost went down in the early rounds... and the very much expected Bryan De Gracia was KOed by the lesser known Eduardo Ramirez... at least it was a quite entertaining night of boxing...