phelps

last event of the season in the K1 Premier League and, as expected, the home Nation dominated the medal table with 5 out of 12 "serious" Gold Medals (just for info, they swept also the 2 Team Kata events, but those competitions are not so meaningful in this kind of tournaments, since we always very few participants and often with B- or C-teams)... France and Turkey also had a very strong week in Tokyo, collecting 3 Gold medals each (curiously, FRA won them all in the women's Kumite classes and TUR won them all in the men's Kumite classes)... the last Gold medal went to Italy, with the immense Luigi Busà, who came back this week after a few months out for injury and stated that he's still the man to beat in his class just a few weeks away from the World Championships (Madrid, November 6th through Nov. 11th)... 7 more Countries then had the honor to come home from the Japanese temple of martial arts with at least a medal, but no gold ones...

Karate 1 Premier League Stage #7 (Season Finale) (Tokyo, JPN) Final Results women's Kata Gold Medal Match: Kiyou Shimizu b. Sandra Sanchez Jaime Bronze Medal Match #1: Mizuki Ugai b. Viviana Bottaro Bronze Medal Match #2: Mirisa Ohuchi b. Emiri Iwamoto women's Kumite -50kg Gold Medal Match: Miho Miyahara b. Gema Morales Ozuna Bronze Medal Match #1: Ayaka Tadano b. Maryia Koulinkovitch Bronze Medal Match #2: Shara Hubrich b. Sophia Bouderbane women's Kumite -55kg Gold Medal Match: Shiori Nakamura b. Sabina Zakharova Bronze Medal Match #1: Jana Bitsch b. Lorena Busà Bronze Medal Match #2: Sabrina Ouihaddadene b. Sara Yamada women's Kumite -61kg Gold Medal Match: Gwendoline Philippe b. Alexandra Grande Bronze Medal Match #1: Jovana Prekovic b. Merve Coban Bronze Medal Match #2: Mayumi Someya b. Yin Xiaoyan women's Kumite -68kg Gold Medal Match: Alizèe Agier b. Elena Quirici Bronze Medal Match #1: Silvia Semeraro b. Cheryl Murphy Bronze Medal Match #2: Halyna Menyk b. Luana Debatty women's Kumite +68kg Gold Medal Match: Nancy Garcia b. Ayumi Uekusa Bronze Medal Match #1: Clio Ferracuti b. Aleksandra Stubleva Bronze Medal Match #2: Natsumi Kawamura b. Eleni Chatziliadou men's Kata Gold Medal Match: Ryo Kiyuna vs Kazumasa Moto Bronze Medal Match #1: Yuhei Horiba vs Alì Sofuoglu Bronze Medal Match #2: Issei Shimbaba b. Damian Hugo Quintero Capdevila men's Kumite -60kg Gold Medal Match: Eray Samdan b. Kajith Kanagasingam Bronze Medal Match #1: Mattia Pampaloni b. Douglas Brose Bronze Medal Match #2: Ihor Uhnich b. Oleh Filipovych men's Kumite -67kg Gold Medal Match: Burak Uygur b. Hiroto Shinoara Bronze Medal Match #1: Yves Martial Tadissi b. Vinicius Figueira Bronze Medal Match #2: Ikboljon Uzakov vs Steven Dacosta men's Kumite -75kg Gold Medal Match: Luigi Busà b. Yuta Mori Bronze Medal Match #1: Gabor Harspataki vs Stanislav Horuna Bronze Medal Match #2: Ken Nishimura b. Scott Thomas men's Kumite -84kg Gold Medal Match: Ugur Aktas b. Rikito Shimada Bronze Medal Match #1: Ivan Kvesic b. Anton Isakau Bronze Medal Match #2: Igor Chikhmarev b. Valerii Chobotar men's Kumite +84kg Gold Medal Match: Hideyoshi Kagawa b. Gogita Arkania Bronze Medal Match #1: Ilyes Kloutz b. Aliaksei Vodchits Bronze Medal Match #2: Daniel Molnar b. Asiman Gurbanli

about Vault... did you see Simone Biles' new jump? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUOZm_NJucw

actually he's Michael's son... https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/45805417

don't worry...I was just joking, I didn't have any intention to criticize your amazing job...

and Gold for Italy in Show Jumping... by the way, the only "famous" name (in terms of past equestrian events) in the competition (Jack Whitaker) didn't even make the top 20...

not a very good day for the Italian men, all of them going out too early (especially Busato in men's Kata, who looks in costant decline and at risk of compromising his chances to qualify for Tokyo 2020)... meanwhile, decent results from Ferracuti and Semeraro, even if they could/should have done better (they lost to opponents they're supposed to beat each and every time they face each other)...

Karate 1 Premier League Stage #7 (Tokyo, JPN) Qualifications, Day #2 Results men's Kata Gold Medal Match: Kazumasa Moto vs Ryo Kiyuna Bronze Medal Match #1: Yuhei Horiba vs Alì Sofuoglu Bronze Medal Match #2: Damian Hugo Quintero Capdevila vs Issei Shimbaba women's Kumite -61kg Gold Medal Match: Gwendoline Philippe vs Alexandra Grande Bronze Medal Match #1: Merve Coban vs Jovana Prekovic Bronze Medal Match #2: Mayumi Someya vs Yin Xiaoyan women's Kumite -68kg Gold Medal Match: Alizèe Agier vs Elena Quirici Bronze Medal Match #1: Silvia Semeraro vs Cheryl Murphy Bronze Medal Match #2: Halyna Menyk vs Luana Debatty women's Kumite +68kg Gold Medal Match: Ayumi Uekusa vs Nancy Garcia Bronze Medal Match #1: Clio Ferracuti vs Aleksandra Stubleva Bronze Medal Match #2: Eleni Chatziliadou vs Natsumi Kawamura men's Kumite -84kg Gold Medal Match: Rikito Shimada vs Ugur Aktas Bronze Medal Match #1: Anton Isakau vs Ivan Kvesic Bronze Medal Match #2: Valerii Chobotar vs Igor Chikhmarev men's Kumite +84kg Gold Medal Match: Hideyoshi Kagawa vs Gogita Arkania Bronze Medal Match #1: Aliaksei Vodchits vs Ilyes Kloutz Bronze Medal Match #2: Asiman Gurbanli vs Daniel Molnar

junior competitions are always deceptive, since not all the Countries are used to push their youth athletes to the limit as some others regularly do... moreover, not every Country has the same consideration for this kind of events... there are a lot of factors that should be examined before trying to find out what kind of future awaits kids of this age...and often nobody knows well enough how these kids live andtrain to make a reasonable prediction about them...

definitely, yes... however, Ceccon swam 48.7 less than 2 months ago, despite flopping badly in the 100m free heats this time in Buenos Aires (I guess he was still a bit tired after all the races he had this week and the double semi+final -with double medal- from the night before in the 50m free + 50m back)...so, he could have at least made things more interesting (and probably he could have been better than Minakov, if only he didn't waste his chances in the heats) also in this event... by the way, it's clear that Kolesnov swims in another class right now compared to those guys and I don't know how useful for him was his participation at tehse YOGs...

no, it would be around 48.5/48.6 ("the instructions" say that you need to add 6 to 8/10s of a second to flying starts to have a comparable time with a start from the block, depending on what's the reaction time of the flying start)...

it would make it very difficult to follow, then...it's already not easy at all isolating from the rest of the world for 16 days to watch the entire Games...doing it for 22/23 days would be absolutely impossible... the perfect solution is reducing the whole schedule by getting rid of some sports which have too much doping problems and/or they are only in hands of a bunch of biased (if not corrupted) judges (Boxing, Weightlifting, Artistic Swimming and circus stuff like Trampoline Gymnastics or all the new farcical mixed events)... but this would hurt hardcore fans who want to watch as many events in as many sports as they can... how could I watch let's say some weightlifting if I already have to watch 3 or 4 fencing events on the same day? and should I put aside all the swimming and athletics program because on the same day there are 14 consecutive hours of Judo or Wrestling? no, thanks... actually, I'd like to spread even more the single disciplines (with 1, max 2 events per day on the most days as possible), so to be able to watch almost everything, but just a bit of everything everyday (for more days)...

but you should have told us before... now that we know the final results it's not the same thing anymore...

however, imho the sentence at point B4 saying that any NOC can qualify 2 boats per event is wrong (unless they do mean that a NOC can qualify a boat in each of the men and women's "parallel" events, so to say...I mean, K1 sprint M and W, K1 long distance M and W and so on)... all the rest of the document clearly let readers understand that there will be only 1 boat per NOC per event (and with such few boats starting in any Olympic race, it would be crazy and extremely unfair to do otherwise)... by the way, canoeing program at the Olympics is by far the most stupid, unfair and badly built of all the sports included in the Olympic schedule...

after a few months out for injury, Busà is back with a vengeance...today he just destroyed all of his opponents on his route to the final match, including local favourite Ken Nishimura... very good competition also for his sister Lorena, who reached the bronze medal match in her weight class... on the other hand, not a very good day for the other Italian top guys who were in action earlier today (especially Maresca and Cardin, both losing to a pair of Kazakh fighters...slightly better performance by Angelo Crescenzo, but still not good enough to earn a spot in Sunday's finals)...

Karate 1 Premier League Stage #7 (Tokyo, JPN) Qualifications, Day #1 Results women's Kata Gold Medal Match: Kiyou Shimizu vs Sandra Sanchez Jaime Bronze Medal Match #1: Viviana Bottaro vs Mizuki Ugai Bronze Medal Match #2: Mirisa Ohuchi vs Emiri Iwamoto women's Kumite -50kg Gold Medal Match: Gema Morales Ozuna vs Miho Miyahara Bronze Medal Match #1: Maryia Koulinkovitch vs Ayaka Tadano Bronze Medal Match #2: Shara Hubrich vs Sophia Bouderbane women's Kumite -55kg Gold Medal Match: Shiori Nakamura vs Sabina Zakharova Bronze Medal Match #1: Lorena Busà vs Jana Bitsch Bronze Medal Match #2: Sara Yamada vs Sabrina Ouihaddadene men's Kumite -60kg Gold Medal Match: Eray Samdan vs Kajith Kanagasingam Bronze Medal Match #1: Mattia Pampaloni vs Douglas Brose Bronze Medal Match #2: Ihor Uhnich vs Oleh Filipovych men's Kumite -67kg Gold Medal Match: Hiroto Shinoara vs Burak Uygur Bronze Medal Match #1: Vinicius Figueira vs Yves Martial Tadissi Bronze Medal Match #2: Ikboljon Uzakov vs Steven Dacosta men's Kumite -75kg Gold Medal Match: Yuta Mori vs Luigi Busà Bronze Medal Match #1: Gabor Harspataki vs Stanislav Horuna Bronze Medal Match #2: Scott Thomas vs Ken Nishimura

don't worry, unfortunately you're right... in any case, this is already a "not Italian bid"... this is a pure Lombardy & Veneto regions bid... if, for any reason, it's going to succeed, it would be only "our" (I'm a proud citizen of Milan, even if I'm against this bid) thing (Rome's government is only needed to approve the bid), with 100% local funding...and, as usual, 0 interest in the Country outside the usual 3 regions where Winter Sports are played and have their hardcore fans (apart for those very few exceptions, of course)... and please, don't think I'm arrogant and harsh on my Country...it's only because I know very well how things works here (unfortunately I'm not that young anymore and I've seen a lot of those things really difficult to understand from outside Italy)...

actually the most ambitious and richest teams (AUT, SUI, GER, ITA, the Scandinavian Countries) already always spend their European Summer in South America to complete their training (ski testing is in March and April, meanwhile conditioning normally is in June and July and in August they already have to start the technical work on ski), since they can't use anymore the glaciers before September (thanks to global warming)... so, I don't think that would be a real problem...as it's been written, the (sad) truth is just that those Countries supposed to host those events are not interested and don't want to waste money for what it is a "minor event" on their scale of interests...

good news for Italy also in Golf and Sailing... in Sailing, we're pretty safe in Gold (women) and Silver (men) medal position in the windsurfing classes after 9 of 12 races...and we're also currently 2nd in the women's Kiteboarding, but here only 4 of 12 races have been completed so far... in Golf, Alessia Nobilio is still tied for 1st (with Grace Kim) after 2 of 3 rounds of play in the girls' event...

and here we go...Gold and Silver for Japan and Bronze for France... Schenk...well, there's some tasty wood for him... by the way, medal for Italy in Taekwondo...Assunta Cennamo won her quarterfinal bout against the Tunesian girl and has assured herself at least the Bronze medal...

no, if Doi goes in front of him, the French gets the bronze medal...

Doi already won Gold before even attempting his Lead climb... but if if he goes top, he denies his compatriot Tanaka a medal, meanwhile if he goes 2nd or 3rd, he gives a medal to Avezou... instead of Schenk... complicated situation...

noooooo...Schenk could reach the top in the Lead section of the men's Climbing final... Gold chances gone...hopefully he can still stay on the podium with a bit of luck (but the Japanese Tanaka must be thrown down for his current 1st place)...

It already happened a few times in the late Eighties and early Nineties... but then the idea was abandoned due to economical issues (most Nations couldn't afford a trip in the Southern Hemisphere)... this is a quick reminder of those times... 1985/1986 2 men's Downhill races in Las Leñas (August 16th & 18th, 1985...both won by Karl Alpiger) 1986/1987 2 men's Downhill races in Las Leñas (August 15th & 16th, 1986...the first one won by Peter Mueller and the second one won by Pirimin Zurbriggen) 1989/1990 1 men's Giant Slalom + 1 men's Slalom in Thredbo (August 11th & 12th, 1989...the GS won by Lars-Borje Eriksson and the SL won by Armin Bittner) 1 women's Downhill + 1 women's Super-G races in Las Leñas (August 8th & 9th, 1989...the DH won by Michaela Gerg and the SG won by Anita Wachter) 1990/1991 1 men's Giant Slalom + 1 men's Slalom in Mount Hutt (August 8th & 9th, 1990...the GS won by Fredrik Nyberg and the SL won by Peter Roth)

the only unnamed plan B (which is well in IOC's mind) is Beijing going back-to-back... () it would be the beginning of the end for the Winter Games, but still, that's the only real option to save the 2026 edition, should things go from bad to worse for the 3 official candidates...