phelps

after winning her battle against cancer, Elena Fanchini was supposed to make her return to the world cup... but while training on the same track where Lindsay Vonn injured herself, she also paid another tribute to bad luck...she broke her leg and a hand (and she also had a torn knee, but no ligament damage, it seems)... I'm so sad for her...she's been so unlucky in these last few years... p.s. Fanchini's injury actually happened the day before Vonn's...

naaa...it will be ITA, DEN, AUT and ROU...I'm pretty sure of that...

yes, I figured it out later, when I had already written that post...

she WAS the world champion...

Rink Hockey in the past tried to allow Catalunya to play the world champs as an established Country (they would be medal contender for sure, if not the main favourite in all the champs they would play), but then political pressure by Spain held them off... however, Catalunya have somehow recognized national teams in Rink Hockey, Handball, Basketball and Football (and the football team -as also Basque Country- until a few time ago used to play "official" International Friendlies)... Rink Hockey still let them play friendlies...

my "serious" picks... England to win the title FRA, GER, ESP and (shouldn't GBR take part into the Olympic tournament) BEL to qualify to the Tokyo Games... my hopes (well beyond any chance to become true)... Italy winning it all... AUT, BEL and SRB to fill the remaining Olympic spots... the teams I'd really like NOT to see in Tokyo... FRA, GER, ESP and GBR (if they are entitled to participate, which frankly at the moment I don't remember if it's possible or not)...

and Austria is in, too (thanks to another 1-0 win over Greece)... so, now we know all the 12 teams that will battle it out for the glory of the 2019 Euro Sub-21 title and for the Olympic spots reserved to Europe... those 12 teams are: Italy (Host Country) Croatia (Group 1 winners) Spain (Group 2 winners) Denmark (Group 3 winners) England (Group 4 winners) Germany (Group 5 winners, Title Holders) Belgium (Group 6 winners) Serbia (Group 7 winners) Romania (Group 8 winners) France (Group 9 winners) Austria (Play-offs) Poland (Play-offs) How does the draw work? The draw (Friday, Nov. 23rd, h.18.00 CET in Bologna, ITA) will split the 12 teams into three groups of four (A, B, C). Italy will be placed as team 1 in Group A, with the two best-ranked sides in the UEFA Under-21 national team coefficient rankings positioned as B1 and C1. The remainder of the pots and draw format will be confirmed once the qualifiers are known. How does the tournament work? Teams play each other once in the group, with the winners and the best runner-up advancing to the semi-finals, where it becomes a knockout competition. The tournament will also act as UEFA's qualifier for the 2020 men's Olympic football tournament in Japan. Knockout format Semi-final 1: Winner Group A v runner-up of Groups B or C or winner of Group C Semi-final 2: Winner Group B v runner-up of Group A or winner of Group C

well, I just watched this bout... and even if Petrova was clearly the best boxer of the 2, I wouldn't say it's such a scandal of a verdict... in round #1, they both did absolutely nothing...and Sonia was the one who got closer to land at least 1 or 2 jabs...so, I'd give this round to her, too... in round #2, it was only Petrova...she took control of the center of the ring and of the pace...and she landed a pair of good hits, too...I refuse to believe that a single judge gave this round to the Indian girl... in the last round, to me Sonia didn't do anything good enough to earn the call, despite Petrova not being aggressive enough, too...but no way a fair judgment could go in her direction... however, Petrova was indeed too arrogant and "lazy"...I didn't like her attitude at all and I understand all those who might favor the Indian girl in a tight call because of that...but still, to me this is another wrong and unfair result, after all... p.s. how biased are those commentators? I understand the colour commentator being part in the cause, but the play-by-play...he's definitely not and Indian voice, but still he's saying a lot of bullsh*t and all of them always in the same direction...

EU Boxing Championships 2018 (Valladolid, ESP) Medallists Recap -49kg Gold: Federico Emilio Serra Silver: Sakhil Allakhverdovi Bronze: Martin Molina Salvador & Jakoub Slominski -52kg Gold: Gabriel Escobar Mascucano Silver: William Thomas Francis Cawley Bronze: Nodari Darbaidze & Tinko Rosenov Banabakov -56kg Gold: Kurt Anthony James Walker Silver: Peter McGrail Bronze: Artyush Gomtsyan & Jordan Rodriguez -60kg Gold: Sofiane Oumiha Silver: Calum French Bronze: Radomir Obrusniak & Francesco Maietta -64kg Gold: Luke McCormack Silver: Paolo Di Lernia Bronze: Dimitri Galagot & Frederik Lundgaard Jensen -69kg Gold: Pat McCormack Silver: Youba Sissokho Ndiaye Bronze: Kieran Molloy & Filip Wachala -75kg Gold: Andrej Csemez Silver: Carl Fail Bronze: Victor Carapcevschii & Salvatore Cavallaro -81kg Gold: Benjamin Whittaker Silver: Andrei Aradoie Bronze: Matus Strnisko & Gaetan Ntambwe -91kg Gold: Aziz Abbes Mouhiidine Silver: Toni Filipi Bronze: Cheavon Clarke & Cristian Filip +91kg Gold: Frazer Edward Clarke Silver: Petar Rumenov Belberov Bronze: Marko Milun & Ayoub Ghadfa Drissi El Aissaoui Final Medal Table ENG, 4 / 4 / 1 ITA, 2 / 1 / 2 ESP, 1 / 1 / 2 FRA, 1 / 0 / 2 IRL, 1 / 0 / 1 SVK, 1 / 0 / 1 GEO, 0 / 1 / 2 BUL, 0 / 1 / 1 CRO, 0 / 1 / 1 ROU, 0 / 1 / 1 POL, 0 / 0 / 3 MDA, 0 / 0 / 2 DEN, 0 / 0 / 1

she's a (former) Muay Thai star (35 wins, 3 losses -among those, her last fight in this discipline- and 1 draw...most of her wins by KO)... now she's trying with boxing because she wants an Olympic medal (but I fear she's done this move a bit late )... by the way, after destroying the youth world champion (so, basically a baby girl, who couldn't manage Betrian's strenght and power, rather than her boxing skills), in the next round she's going to fight against the reigning senior world champion, Alessia Mesiano, who earlier today won a very difficult match against probably her toughest rival in this half of the draw sheet, Michaela Walsh... we'll see in the next couple of days if Betrian is for real also in this sport...

Dutch grand Prix in The Hague has just finished... and this week Russia and Ukraine are the big winners with 2 Gold Medals each... then we have good 10 Countries with 1 Gold Medal: BLR, BEL, BUL, CHN, GEO, GBR, ISR, JPN, MGL and SRB... nicest result of the week... Cameroon winning their (I think ) first medal (Silver in the women's +78kg class) in a European stage of Grand Prix, thanks to Hortence Vanessa Mballa Atangana... Full Results here: https://live.ijf.org/gp_ned2018/results

Men's Team Sabre (Algiers, ALG) Final Results Gold: South Korea Silver: Russia Bronze: Germany Semifinals: South Korea b. Germany 45-40 Russia b. Italy 45-43 Bronze Medal Match: Germany b. Italy 45-44 Gold Medal Match: South Korea b. Russia 45-31 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/759/results/rank

2018 World Sub-23 Wrestling Championships Overall Final Medal Table JPN, 9 / 2 / 2 GEO, 6 / 1 / 2 RUS, 3 / 7 / 8 TUR, 2 / 2 / 3 AZE, 1 / 4 / 2 CHN, 1 / 2 / 3 UKR, 1 / 1 / 6 MDA, 1 / 1 / 1 CUB, 1 / 1 / 0 IRI, 1 / 0 / 8 EGY, 1 / 0 / 1 CAN, 1 / 0 / 0 NOR, 1 / 0 / 0 SVK, 1 / 0 / 0 ROU, 0 / 3 / 5 USA, 0 / 3 / 2 HUN, 0 / 1 / 2 DEN, 0 / 1 / 0 IND, 0 / 1 / 0 KAZ, 0 / 0 / 5 MGL, 0 / 0 / 4 BLR, 0 / 0 / 2 GER, 0 / 0 / 2 KGZ, 0 / 0 / 1 TKM, 0 / 0 / 1

Men's Greco-Roman Wrestling Final Medal Table GEO, 3 / 1 / 1 JPN, 2 / 0 / 0 RUS, 1 / 1 / 2 TUR, 1 / 1 / 2 MDA, 1 / 1 / 0 EGY, 1 / 0 / 1 UKR, 1 / 0 / 1 AZE, 0 / 2 / 1 HUN, 0 / 1 / 2 ROU, 0 / 1 / 1 CUB, 0 / 1 / 0 DEN, 0 / 1 / 0 IRI, 0 / 0 / 4 BLR, 0 / 0 / 2 KAZ, 0 / 0 / 2 KGZ, 0 / 0 / 1 Women's Wrestling Final Medal Table JPN, 5 / 2 / 1 CHN, 1 / 2 / 1 TUR, 1 / 1 / 0 CAN, 1 / 0 / 0 CUB, 1 / 0 / 0 NOR, 1 / 0 / 0 RUS, 0 / 2 / 3 UKR, 0 / 1 / 3 ROU, 0 / 1 / 2 AZE, 0 / 1 / 0 KAZ, 0 / 0 / 3 MGL, 0 / 0 / 3 GER, 0 / 0 / 2 USA, 0 / 0 / 2 Men's Freestyle Wrestling Final Medal Table GEO, 3 / 0 / 1 RUS, 2 / 4 / 3 JPN, 2 / 0 / 1 AZE, 1 / 1 / 1 IRI, 1 / 0 / 4 SVK, 1 / 0 / 0 USA, 0 / 3 / 0 ROU, 0 / 1 / 2 IND, 0 / 1 / 0 CHN, 0 / 0 / 2 UKR, 0 / 0 / 2 MDA, 0 / 0 / 1 MGL, 0 / 0 / 1 TUR, 0 / 0 / 1 TKM, 0 / 0 / 1

Today's Medallists (Men's Freestyle Wrestling) -61kg Gold: Magomedrasul Idrisov Silver: Sean Christian Fausz Bronze: Nikolai Okhlokpov & Lu Minghu -74kg Gold: Avtandil Kentchadze Silver: Maxim Vasilioglo Bronze: Timur Bizhoev & Navid Zanganeh -86kg Gold: Kamran Ghasempour Silver: Artur Naifonov Bronze: Gankhuyag Ganbaatar & Murad Suleymanov -92kg Gold: Shamil Zubairov Silver: Aslanbek Sotiev Bronze: Bohdan Hrytsay & Hossein Shahbaz -125kg Gold: Said Gamidov Silver: Youssif Ibrahim Hemida Bronze: Amin Taheri & Rolandi Andriadze

Men's Individual Sabre (Algiers, ALG) Final Results Gold: Ha Han Sol Silver: Luigi Samele Bronze: Enrico Berrè & Oh Sanguk Semifinals: Samele b. Berrè 15-13 Ha b. Ho 15-10 Gold Medal Match: Ha b. Samele 15-9 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/164/results/rank

Men's Freestyle Wrestling tomorrow's Gold Medal matches: -61kg Sean Christian Fausz vs Magomedrasul Idrisov already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Nikolai Okhlopkov & Iman Sadeghi -74kg Maxim Vasilioglo vs Avtandil Kentchadze already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Timur Bizhoev & Andranik Gabrielyan -86kg Kamran Ghasempour vs Artur Naifonov already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Murad Suleymanov & Gankhuyag Ganbaatar -92kg Aslambek Sotiev vs Shamil Zubairov already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Hossein Shahbaz & Bohdan Hrytsay -125kg Said Gamidov vs Youssif Ibrahim Hemida already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Kamil Tomasz Kosciolek & Rolandi Andriadze

Today's Medallists (Men's Freestyle Wrestling) -57kg Gold: Toshihiro Hasegawa Silver: Kumar Ravi Bronze: Taras Markovych & Zou Wanhao -65kg Gold: Rei Higuchi Silver: Alì Rahimzade Bronze: Islam Dudaev & Maxim Sacultan -70kg Gold: Taimuraz Salkazanov Silver: David Baev Bronze: Jintaro Motoyama & Enes Uslu -79kg Gold: Nika Kentchadze Silver: Gadzhi Nabiev Bronze: Omaraskhab Nazhmudinov & Dovletmyrat Orazgylyjov -97kg Gold: Givi Matcharashvili Silver: Kollin Raymond Moore Bronze: Alì Shabani & Igor Ovsiannikov

yes, it's confirmed (according to Italian press, namely OA website)... those are the groups...

updated world ranking has been released... so, we have the following OQTs... 1) Brazil - Egypt - Bulgaria - Puerto Rico 2) USA - Belgium - Netherlands - South Korea 3) Italy - Serbia - Australia - Cameroon 4) Poland - France - Slovenia - Tunisia 5) Russia - Iran - Cuba - Mexico 6) Canada - Argentina - Finland - China

however, right now in the men's competition it's 10-5 for Italy over the Netherlands after 8 ends...

the finals' session is scheduled to start @ 5 p.m. CET (6 p.m. local time)... 70kg class should be the 3rd to be contested, but I'd keep an eye on the whole session, because they could even change the order of the weight classes at the last minute... by the way, on the official site you can find the link to all of the bouts you want to watch... https://unitedworldwrestling.org/event/senior-u23-world-championships-0?tab=results&weight-category=52539bc1-e5b0-11e8-af5f-080027548b1b

2019 Women's European Championships (which will be a pre-qualifying event for the Olympic Qualification Tournament) will be held from June 30th through July 6th in Ostrava, Frydek Mistek and Rybnik...

Men's Freestyle Wrestling tomorrow's Gold Medal matches: -57kg Toshihiro Hasegawa vs Kumar Ravi already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Jahongirmirza Turobov & Zou Wanhao -65kg Rei Higuchi vs Alì Rahimzade already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Morteza Ghiasi & Roman Asharin -70kg Taimuraz Salkazanov vs David Baev already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Oleksii Boruta & Enes Uslu -79kg Nika Kentchadze vs Gadzhi Nabiev already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Yajuro Yamasaki & Isa Shapiev -97kg Givi Matcharashvili vs Kollin Raymond Moore already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Alì Shabani & Magamed Zakariiev

Today's Medallists (Women's Wrestling) -53kg Gold: Momoka Kadoya Silver: Milana Dadasheva Bronze: Khrystyna Bereza & Andreea Beatrice Ana -57kg Gold: Alexandria Rebekkah Town Silver: Akie Hanai Bronze: Alexandra Andreeva & Tserenchimed Sukhee -62kg Gold: Yukako Kawai Silver: Ilona Prokopevniuk Bronze: Gantuya Enkhbat & Luisa Helga Gerda Niemesch -65kg Gold: Ayana Gempei Silver: Elis Manolova Bronze: Iryna Koliadenko & Mariia Kuzetsova -72kg Gold: Buse Tosun Silver: Alexandra Nicoleta Anghel Bronze: Zhamila Bakbergenova & Wang Xiaoqian