phelps

World Cup, Stage #4 (Dresden, GER) mixed 2000m Relay teams qualified to the final Russia South Korea Hungary Great Britain

World Cup, Stage #4 (Dresden, GER) men's 1000m, Run #1, Final Results Gold: HWANG Dae Heon Silver: Charle COURNOYER Bronze: HONG Kyung Hwan women's 1000m, Run #1, Final Results Gold: Sofia PROSVIRNOVA Silver: CHOI Ji Hyun Bronze: Cynthia MASCITTO men's 1500m, Final Results Gold: KIM Gun Woo Silver: Charles HAMELIN Bronze: LIM Hyo Jun women's 1500m, Final Results Gold: KIM Ji Yoo Silver: Kim BOUTIN Bronze: Suzanne SCHULTING

https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/47095072 https://www.supersport.com/athletics/news/190201_Twelve_Russian_track_and_field_athletes_suspended_for_doping https://www.dw.com/en/russian-athletes-banned-for-doping/a-47330519

for Italy, in the girls' race, very disappointing outcome for Verena Hofer, who lost a very much anticipated gold medal because of a very poor 1st run... meanwhile the bronze medal won by Lukas Gufler among the boys has to be considered a good result... let's see what happens tomorrow in the doubles' race, with another chance for Italy (namely, Gufler and Felderer) to get some satisfaction in this really shady winter for our luge sport...

and somehow the home Nation always finds the way of getting unexpected medals... very good final run by Dierdorff, who took advantage from the really slow start and the consequential struggle to comeback in touch by "oldie" Perathoner, who was dominat through the previous rounds but probably felt too much pressure in the final act... Samkova instead didn't suffer from anything like that and dominated the day from start to finish... good, actually, very good team result for the Italian girls (3 in the top 6), but still somehow disappointing because of Moioli "only" getting the Bronze medal and especially because of her very passive attitude in the final run (she didn't even try to get anything more than the 3rd place)... in general, good but not great day for us, as also in the men's division we saw Visinting failing big time once again...the guy definitely can't handle the big events...he's just a good world cup racer and nothing more than that... fortunately Perathoner saved the day for our boys, but he also left the feeling of an incomplete effort, after being so dominant in the qualifications run and in the previous rounds of the actual competition... p.s. despite the women's field being not that deep, long life to snowboardcross...by far the most exciting (and upset-prone) event in the whole snowboard & freestyle program...

Olympic gold (Moioli), silver (Pereira) and 4th ranked (Jacobellis) in the same heat...

Women's Snowboardcross, Round of 16 (Tomorrow) Heat #1 SAMKOVA Eva ODINE Meryeta BRUTTO Raffaella IHEDIOHA Hanna Heat #2 MOIOLI Michela JACOBELLIS Lindsey PEREIRA de SOUSA Julia SIEGENTHALER Sina Heat #3 BANKES Charlotte TRESPEUCH Chloe CASANOVA Lara BELINGHERI Sofia Heat #4 MOENNE LOCCOZ Nelly GALLINA Francesca PAUL Kristina BRENNEMAN Carle

Emanuel Perathoner won the qualifications of the men's Snowboardcross... and also all the other Italian guys are through to the final brackets, despite a poor performance in today's races... this is the Final Ladder for tomorrow's competition: Round of 32 Heat #1 PERATHONER Emanuel HERNANDEZ Regino LAMBERT Adam WILLIAMS Steven Heat #2 BAUMGARTNER Nick VUAGNOUX Ken BECKHAUS Leon LINDFORS Anton Heat #3 PULLIN Alex MARIN TARROCH Lluis HILL Kevin WATTER Nick Heat #4 EGUIBAR Lucas GRONDIN Eliot BROCHU Baptiste GODINO Michele Heat #5 BERG Paul NOERL Martin SCHAD Konstantin MOMONO Shinya Heat #6 VEDDER Jake PACHNER Lukas TAKAHARA Yoshiki BOLTON Cameron Heat #7 HOLLAND Nate DOUSCHAN Hanno HAEMMERLE Alessandro KOBLET Kalle Heat #8 DIERDORFF Mick BOZZOLO Loan VISINTIN Omar CORDI Fabio

tonight I'm gonna start the second season of 'L'Art du crime', nice French dramedy about crimes related to the world of Arts, with investigations led by an unconventional pair featuring a reluctant detective (who doesn't like at all his new task and would like to get back to the homicide section) and a naive art expert, who wants to act as a detective... easy going for sure, but really nice...perfect for a relaxing soirèe in front of your TV screen... and tomorrow's time for "The Blacklist", season #6...can't wait for Raymond Reddington (James Spader at his best) and his new "cheating" adventures...

@heywoodu we left Loek Van Mil in big troubles a few weeks ago... https://totallympics.com/index.php?/topic/768-baseball-2018-discussion-thread/&do=findComment&comment=184422 but it looks that he fully recovered from the injury and he's already back in good shape... last Sunday he had a very good (and decisive) outing for his Brisbane Bandits in the semifinal series of the ABL... and earlier Today he did pitch once again for his team in game #1 of the ABL Finals and he did have another good (decisive) outing, playing a perfect 7th inning and a scoreless (he gave up just 1 hit) 8th, before handing the ball over to Brisbane's closer Ryan Searle for the last 3 outs of the game... now he and his team are just 1 win away from the 4th title in a row in the ABL (game #2 is scheduled for Saturday @ 9 a.m. CET, live for free on Youtube, ABL Baseball page)... here you can watch the full game #1 of the ABL Finals (as written before, Van Mil's performance came into the 7th and 8th innings, starting @ about 2h14m30s of the video)...

CHL places for 2019/20: Switzerland overtake Finland to earn 5 Season 2019/20 EV Zug and other Swiss teams' performances mean their league will get five places next season. Red Bull Munich could earn four for Germany by winning the final in regulation. While we now know the two teams who'll contest the Champions Hockey League Final in 2019, there are also changes to the amount of teams some leagues will get in the 2019/20 competition. Back in 2017/18 the Champions Hockey League introduced a new format with 32 teams and based on sporting merits only. Since then, the CHL League Ranking is used to allocate the number of places per league. There were no changes in the ranking in the first two years that affected the number of places a league will receive. But now there is one - Switzerland has managed to climb up the ranking and overtake Finland. As the Swiss are now ranked second, they will get five places for the 2019/20 season (previously four) while the Finnish Liiga will be reduced to four. The CHL League ranking is based on point per game in average, and while all Swiss teams went out in the Round of 16 their performance prior to elimination was strong enough to be second overall as a league in 2018/19 (1,88 points per game in average). Combined with their performances in the previous seasons, it was the key to finally overtake Finland and achieve one more place for next season. Another country which can hope for more CHL places next season is Germany. Thanks to the success of Red Bull Munich and their qualification for the CHL Final, the DEL has currently overtaken the Czech Republic and is now ranked fourth after the Semi-Finals. If the Germans can keep this spot it would bring them four places next season, while the Czech Republic would lose one place as they are now only fifth. The outcome of this will go down to the wire in the CHL Final - a win for Red Bull Munich is needed in regulation, otherwise the CHL League Ranking will be reversed again and the Czech Republic will be able to keep their position and the four places they received in previous seasons. The CHL League Ranking calculates the performance of teams over each CHL season and the better the teams perform, the more places a league can achieve. For calculating the index, four consecutive CHL seasons are taken into consideration (weighted 100, 75, 50 and 25 percent – in which the newest season counts the most). However, the six founding leagues remain ranked 1-6 while all challenger leagues follow. How does the CHL League Ranking work? Teams must earn their place in the CHL on the ice in their own league, based on sporting merits only. Teams must reach one of the following criteria in order to qualify for the CHL: 1. CHL champions 2. National league champions 3. Regular season winners 4. Regular season runners-up 5. Regular season third-placed team 6. Regular season fourth-placed team 7. Regular season fifth-placed team

More about our Final venue Gothenburg's Scandinavium will host the 2019 Champions Hockey League final, it has been confirmed. Frölunda Indians won the right to host the final, having had a better record than Red Bull Munich over the CHL campaign. It will be the venue for the CHL's showpiece event, where the winner will be decided and the European trophy presented. Opened in 1971, the Scandinavium has been Frölunda's home ever since. The arena has a capacity for hockey of 12,044 and as such will be the biggest venue to host a CHL final so far. During it's 48 years, the Scandiavium has hosted other notable events such as the 1985 Eurovision Song Contest, 1981 and 2002 IIHF World Ice Hockey Championships, 1993 and 2011 World Men's Handball Championships, 2005 and 2012 ISU World Synchronised Skating Championships, and Tennis' Davis Cup final four times (1984, 1987, 1988 and 1997). It has also played host to concerts, and has been the venue of the annual Göteborg Horse Show since 1977. The arena is located approximately 250 meters from Korsvägen, a major public transport hub in Gothenburg, where more than 15 different bus lines, and trams four and five, all stop. Scandinavium itself has stops on tram lines six, eight, thirteen and fourteen. This will be the second time that Gothenburg has hosted the Champions Hockey League final; in 2017, the Indians beat Sparta Prague in overtime at Frölundaborg. Tickets sold out Tickets for this season's Champions Hockey League final went on sale at 10 a.m. on January, 23rd. By lunchtime, they had sold out! Any pre-booked tickets that are unclaimed are on sale this week, if available.

One week to go! Game Time and Game Officials for the Final decided After being confirmed that the 2018/2019 CHL Final will take place on Tuesday, February 5th in Gothemburg, it's also been announced that the game would start @ 7 p.m. local (CET) time. Also the Officials designated for the 2018/2019 CHL Final match have been announced. Top game officials from Switzerland and Finland will take charge of this season's Champions Hockey League Final, including the two referees who both have previous CHL Final experience. Head Referee for the Final on 5 February in Gothenburg will be Marc Lemelin. A native of Albuquerque, USA, Lemelin joined Switzerland’s National League in the 2018/19 season, after officiating over 50 games in the NHL. It is the second consecutive CHL Final for Lemelin, who has refereed in the EBEL and DEL in past seasons. He was also selected for the Gold Medal Game at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongchang and worked several games at the IIHF World Championships. Joining Lemelin with the armbands will be Liiga referee Mikko Kaukokari who was previously assigned to the CHL Final 2017 in Gothenburg. The Finnish official has experience of more than 460 games in his own country, and has been selected for two World Junior Championships Finals. Running the lines will be Hannu Sormunen (FIN) and Bryce Kovacs (SUI). "These game officials are all top-ranked in their domestic leagues," CHL Senior Sport Advisor Bo Lennartsson said. “They stood out with great performances in the Champions Hockey League and, as currently part of the world’s elite, they have very much deserved the chance to officiate this years’ CHL Final in Gothenburg.”

I know that...and I don't like it... actually, I'm against multiple starts also in any other sport (and yes, I didn't enjoy that much Ledecka's achievement in Pyeongchang, as it only shows how poor the level of those competitions is, also at the top -or, if you prefer, that there's no enough difference between her to sports to justify the presence of both at the Games)... for instance, in Swimming 3 individual races + the relays would be a good compromise, in Athletics, no more than 2 + relays... but this just my opinion... what's really important, however, is to have simpler qualification rules in any sport to avoid "strange things" around the qualification process...and it's almost never the case, unfortunately...

tbh, there's more than one reason that would legitimate Squash as an Olympic Sport more than both Table Tennis and Badminton together... and for sure, once you have Artistic Swimming, Rhytmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, 3x3 Basketball, Surf, Skateboarding and BMX Freestyle already in the Oympic Schedule, it's no joke at all thinking about Squash getting a chance, too (that said by a non-fan of any raquet sport, tennis more than the others)...

well, I wouldn't call Squash a niche sport if compared to most of the Current Olympic Sports... not in terms of high level players, not in terms of development around the world and for sure not in financial terms... in the men's division, this is a quick summary of Countries' representation in the World Ranking (and I'm only talking of the Pro Tour, the highest level of competition in this discipline...but there are many good players also outside that)... top 10 EGY GER COL NZL FRA Places 10-20 PER IND HKG AUS ENG SUI Places 20-40 WAL QAT MEX SCO ESP MAS and this an Olympic Qualification simulation based on the current world ranking with the top 32 players / max 2 per NOC EGY 2 GER 2 COL NZL 2 FRA 2 PER IND 2 HKG 2 AUS 2 GBR 2 SUI 2 QAT MEX 2 ESP 2 MAS 2 PAK 2 FIN USA CAN -Cut @ position #73- First OUT = ARG @ #76 meanwhile this is the current situation in the Women's division... top 10 EGY NZL FRA ENG WAL Places 10-20 USA HKG MAS IND Places 20-40 AUS BEL CAN NED Olympic Qualification simulation based on the current world ranking with the top 32 players / max 2 per NOC EGY 2 NZL 2 FRA 2 GBR 2 USA 2 HKG 2 MAS 2 IND 2 AUS 2 BEL 2 CAN 2 NED RSA 2 LAT MEX 2 PAK PHI COL CZE -Cut @ position #85- First OUT = FIN @ #86 Financially, there are more tiers of tournaments, with the top class having 160,000/180,000 US $ Prize Money... If you want more details, the PSA official website and the wiki page should help... http://www.worldsquash.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_PSA_World_Tour

in Canoeing (and Rowing) it would be better to allow a certain (reasonable) number of boats in any event, forbid any form of multiple starts for all the athletes and therefore having the athletes' quota coming only and simply as a direct consequence of the number of boats allowed to compete... p.s. and I would be even stricter on the relationship between qualifiers and actual OG events...any athlete should only be allowed to take part in the Olympic Games in the same event he has qualified for (no switching allowed, only replacing with someone who didn't compete in any Olympic qualifier in case the coaches need/want to replace a qualified athlete because of injury or poor form, if compared with the previous year)... that would make it simple and fair from the beginning, with no tricks, tactics and Countries (athletes) that have to wait until the last second to know if they are in or out because they have to wait for other people's decision making their fortune or misfortune...

what are they doing in the main area? have they re-sized the entire ice sheet or are they just putting new boards on?

thanks to the lights of Marton and Pusztai, Hungary is improving very fast and now they've become a very dangerous opponent, making the relatively small women's team sabre field of real contenders a bit bigger... not good news for Italy (enjoying some big results in the last couple of years more because of weak opponents rather than their own quality as individuals)...that's sure...

I've just checked it out...and actually she won the Bronze Medal, not Gold (still, that's an important result and doesn't change her -really good- perspective...the other Bronze medal at the 2017 U-21 Worlds went to Egypt's Feryal Abdelaziz, another established player in that category, meaning that the starting field for that event was very competitive)...

2019 Short Track Speedskating Junior World Championships Final Medal Table KOR, 5 / 2 / 0 CHN, 2 / 3 / 0 USA, 1 / 0 / 0 NED, 0 / 2 / 1 RUS, 0 / 1 / 1 ITA, 0 / 0 / 3 CAN, 0 / 0 / 2 JPN, 0 / 0 / 1

Results men's 3000m Relay Gold: China (new Junior World Record) Silver: Netherlands Bronze: Russia

Results women's 3000m Relay Gold: South Korea (new Junior World Record) Silver: Russia Bronze: Italy

when you skate a relay with only 2 good skaters and and a turtle in your team... by the way, still a good bronze for our girls...