phelps

you should look at the tournament bracket... they always follow the order from top to bottom of that to fill the contest list... no.1 seed always have the advantage of going first (so to have a few minutes more of recovery time)... unfortunately, this time the advantage turns out to be a disadvantage...

today's early action recap... women's -63kg semifinals Clarisse Agbegnenou vs Juul Franssen Tina Trstenjak vs Miku Tashiro repechage round Liao Yu-Jung vs Martyna Trajdos (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Trstenjak vs Tashiru fight) Gankhaich Bold vs Sanne Vermeer (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Agbegnenou vs Franssen fight) men's -81kg semifinals Saeid Mollaei vs Matthias Casse Sagi Muki vs Mohamed Abdelaal repechage round Antoine Valois-Fortier vs Dominic Ressel (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Muki vs Abdelaal fight) Sharofiddin Boltaboev vs Luka Maisuradze (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Mollaei vs Casse fight)

then, just buy a Czech/Slovak TV subscription (like I did )...you'll be able to watch as much Hockey as you want... actually, you will have so much of that to make it come out from your ears and eyes and nose and...better stop, now...

I wasn't saying that Butbul is that good...actually, I was trying to let you know that Nourine is very, very modest...that's all...

I don't know for sure, but I think nowadays she has to be based with their team (where she also has a very good training partner/opponent in Jess Klimkait in the same weight class and Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard in the -63kg class)... of course it's not like in Japan, but Canada are enjoying quite a good team in recent times (also among the men)... they've won a lot of medals in the IJF World Tour in the last few seasons (and also this morning Constantin Gabun had a very good tournament and lost only at the Golden Score against Orujov in the round of last 16, after beating in the earlier fight the Pole Wiktor Mrowczynski), which is quite a good first step towards building a winning team also in the global events... so, maybe Canadian Judo it's not a big deal, but for sure it's "a respectable thing"...

he wouldn't win against Butbul even if the Israeli guy fights blindfolded...

Christa Deguchi represents Canada since 2017... and despite she was born and raised in Japan, she has all the rights to do it because her father is Canadian...

justice is (partially) done! at least Kowalczyk got a small consolation with her Bronze medal (and a lot of regrets, as today she was the best on the mat...she was really, really impressive) and Yoshida didn't get a full success, which would have been totally undeserved... Deguchi's Gold is a good compromise, as it's the right prize for her great season so far... in the men's class, Shohei Ono was dominant all day long and he really deserved to win Gold...pity for Tajikistan...they had 2 guys in the final block, but they didn't get any medal (and Khojazoda would have deserved to win one)...

Today's final action recap... women's -57kg Gold: Christa Deguchi Silver: Tsukasa Yoshida Bronze: Julia Kowalczyk & Rafaela Silva men's -73kg Gold: Shohei Ono Silver: Rustam Orudjov Bronze: Hidayat Heydarov & Denis Iartcev

like to ask him how (if, better) did he sleep at night after that?

today's early action recap... women's -57kg semifinals Tsukasa Yoshida vs Rafaela Silva Christa Deguchi vs Ivelina Ilieva repechage round Julia Kowalczyk vs Daria Mezhetskaia (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Deguchi vs Ilieva fight) Sarah Leonie Cysique vs Nora Gjakova (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Yoshida vs Silva fight) men's -73kg semifinals Rustam Orujov vs Hidayat Heydarov Shohei Ono vs Denis Iartcev repechage round Tohar Butbul vs Behruzi Khojazoda (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Ono vs Iartcev fight) Bilal Ciloglu vs Somon Makhmadbekov (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Orujov vs Heydarov fight)

I guess that the Japanese team is good enough not to need the shameful gifts they received between yesterday and today... what happened yesterday to Manuel Lombardo against Abe and earlier today to Julia Kowalczyk against Yoshida is really shameful, it's really unacceptable... and those 2 are just the worst examples, but I've seen many, many dubious calls, despite having the chance and the help of the video replay of all the action...

frankly, I'm quite disgusted! as IJF's boss likes Italian pop/folk singers, he should switch their soundtrack from Al Bano and his "felicità" (happyness) to Antonello Venditti his "in questo mondo di ladri" (in this world of thieves)... it would be definitely more appropriate to what I've watched in the last couple of days...

it's the opposite...it's a perfect organization...only 2 mats and 2 weights per day, so to give people the chance to watch a lot of fights... it should be taken as the example by all the fight sports, instead of putting 200 mats and matches at the same time in the schedule (and maybe not even organize a good tv/streaming coverage)...

I don't know the exact selection criteria of the Japanese team, but I'm sure that the IJF Ranking doesn't count anything for them, as they participate only in a few tournaments a year to secure the eligibility for the Games (all the athletes from no.1 to the last qualified judo player's position in each class are eligible to start in Tokyo, then it's up to the single NOCs to take their decision if they have more than one)... I've read something about a combination of results of the 2019 and 2020 All Japan Champs and these world champs as their main selection tournaments, but as I wrote I don't know the details... however, I'm sure about one thing...they will be fair to all the competitors and strict in their evaluation...if they say: "you need to do X, Y and Z to win the quota", then if you do it, you get it...there's no place for personal interpretation in their culture...

Today's final action recap... women's -52kg Gold: Uta Abe Silver: Natalia Kuziutina Bronze: Majlinda Kelmendi & Ai Shishime men's -66kg Gold: Joshiro Maruyama Silver: Kim Lim Hwan Bronze: Hifumi Abe & Denis Vieru

well, I think he already almost secured the Japanese spot at the Games, since he beat Abe first at the All Japan Championships earlier this Spring and then he did it once again today (not only by getting a better placement, but winning the direct match up, too)... unless Abe destroys him more than once next year, I fear that the Japanese selection in this class is done and dusted...and not in favour of Abe...

no, next year they will feel a lot more pressure... more fails coming...I hope...

today, instead, we have the most expected semifinals...nobody got even close to get a surprising entry among the forelast round of the competition... we can find a couple of unexpected players only among those who are going to fight in the repechage matches... for Italy, yesterday there was a disappointing outing by Elios Manzi in the men's -60kg (not so much because he lost to Smetov in his 3rd fight, but because how he fought in all of his 3 bouts, including the 2 he narrowly won)... today, it's even more disappointing... 2018 junior world champion Manuel Lombardo first had to escape an already lost match against Shmailov, then he was too tired in the quarterfinal's match and he didn't understand anything against Vieru (who already beat him a couple of time earlier this season), who easily beat him thanks to a painful arm lock (I hope he won't have any trouble against Iadov in the repechage match later on because of that)... European Games/Championships runner-up Matteo Medves, instead, was joked again by Abe (as it happened last year)...but that was well within expectations... the real disaster came once again from Odette Giuffrida, who lost at the golden score against Kuziutina after more than 5 mins in which she didn't do absolutely nothing...and that's unacceptable by an Olympic Silver medallist, who started the competition with explicit ambition of coming back home with at least a medal...

well, yesterday we saw some surprising fights among the guys, meanwhile the expected match for Gold was actually the women's outcome... and the Ukranian sensation, Daria Bilodid, did it again...18 years young and already twice senior world champion...wow! in the men's division, painful day for Japan, who had their 2 guys fighting each other only for a not so consolating Bronze medal...however, it turned out to be a wonderful, spectacular fight, with Nagayama turning things around at the last second against the 2018 world champion, Takato... the unexpected Gold medal went instead to Georgia...and not even with their supposed no.1 guy... but Chkhvimiani had the day of his life, escaping many times through the tournament from very difficult situations and closing all of his bouts with authority...well deserved world title for him...

today's early action recap... women's -52kg semifinals Amandine Bouchard vs Natalia Kuziutina Uta Abe vs Majlinda Kelmendi repechage round Joana Ramos vs Charline Van Snick (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Abe vs Kelmendi fight) Chelsie Giles vs Ai Shishime (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Bouchard vs Kuziutina fight) men's -66kg semifinals Kim Lim Hwan vs Denis Vieru Joshiro Maruyama vs Hifumi Abe repechage round Bogdan Iadov vs Manuel Lombardo (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Maruyama vs Abe fight) Mohamed Abdelmawgoud vs Baskhuu Yondonperenlei (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Kim vs Vieru fight)

Yesterday's final action recap... women's -48kg Gold: Daria Bilodid Silver: Funa Tonaki Bronze: Distria Krasniqi & Urantsetseg Munkhbat men's -60kg Gold: Lukhumi Chkhvimiani Silver: Sharafuddin Lutfillaev Bronze: Ryuju Nagayama & Yeldos Smetov

luckily, the Chinese domination in this sport has gone (for a while)... unfortunately, now we have the same kind of domination by another Country... it might be fun to watch, but the final outcome of this sport is never enjoyable... p.s. and 19 out of 20 medals overall flying to Asia... p.p.s. and trust me, I don't have anything against that Continent...it's the same in other sports when it's Europe or America or Africa having the same superiority over the rest of the field...

today's early action recap... women's -48kg semifinals Funa Tonaki vs Distria Krasniqi Daria Bilodid vs Urantsetseg Munkhbat repechage round Melanie Clement vs Paula Pareto (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Bilodid vs Munkhbat fight) Laura Martinez Abelenda vs Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Tonaki vs Krasniqi fight) men's -60kg semifinals Ryuju Nagayama vs Lukhumi Chkhvimiani Sharafuddin Lutfillaev vs Gusman Kyrgyzbayev repechage round Yang Yung Wei vs Yeldos Smetov (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Lutfillaev vs Kyrgyzbayev fight) Naohisa Takato vs Kubanychbek Aibek Uulu (winner going for Bronze vs loser of Nagayama vs Chkhvimiani fight)

however, the full suspension is only related to the International Hockey Federation... for what concerns his career in the NHL, he's not going to face such a long ban for sure...if he's going to face any... https://www.nhl.com/news/evgeny-kuznetsov-suspended-four-years-by-iihf/c-308636836