phelps

no, he's not the same guy...Vijay is one of the most common names in India (as far as I know), therefore I guess it's just a question of 2 people having the same name...

naaa...I don't think so... South Tyrol is always full of foreign tourists...and they are always very happy about local infrastructures and how they perfectly work (as I always said, that's not Italy...luckily)... if we think about Italy as the "Divina Commedia", South Tyrol is definitely Paradise, Trentino is Purgatory and all the rest of the Country is Hell (some places are more hellish than others, of course)... I always pray God that preserves ST as it is right now...by far, the most beautiful place in our Country...

I don't have any sort of problem with their website...I can see the proper page...

the problem is always the same...local people don't want even hear about the Olympic Games in their Region... it's a no brainer in any case...there's no chance that the Games out there would even be proposed...

no, in South Tyrol it would never happen... and I also think that the area is protected by law, therefore they could not build an indoor track even if they wanted...

sure... but frankly I also had 2 points in favor of the Mexican at the end...round 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 for him and "only" 1, 4 and 10 through 12 for GGG... imho, it was a lot more scandalous the tie in the previous match than this win by Canelo... but I'm not a judge, just a fan (a neutral one)...

that's the only Italy Winter Olympic bid I'd really support...a South Tyrol bid only... Alpine Skiing and Snowboarding in Groden, Val Badia and Madonna di Campiglio, Freestyle somewhere in the beautiful villages around Bozen, Cross-Country, Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined in Toblach, Biathlon in Antholz, Speedskating in Collalbo/Ritten, Curling in Meran, Figure Skating, Hockey and Ceremonies in Bozen (only exception, the Sliding Sports Track in Cortina, which isn't that far from South Tyrol, anyway)... that would be the perfect "old style" & "fully mountaneer" Olympics... the state-of-the-art Winter Olympics... basically, my dream come true... but it will never happen, I fear...

it would work this way only if the 2006 venues were still there...but the Ski Jumping Hills in Pragelato and also the Cesana Sliding Sports Track have been totally dismissed...basically they should be rebuilt from 0, therefore there wouldn't be any cost cutting nor any efficient management of the venues... not to mention that the 2006 Olympic Village now is just an abandoned block occupied by homeless, criminals, drug dealers and such kind of people... OMG!!!! there's an earthquake!!! ah, no...it's just the FC Inter that scored the go-ahead-goal in the Soccer Champions League Game against Tottenham FC... ah, my neighbours...

no, the shameful "3-headed monster" has gone... a more reasonable (but still improbable, senseless and I hope "hopeless") 2-headed monster with Milan and Cortina will now be proposed by the 2 regions involved (and if we can keep our National government out of this, it's only good for the bid itself and for the Sport in general)... with no 5-star people in it, at least there's a remote chance they can do something...they are the cancer killing anything and anybody in this fu**in' Country...

imho, it's the team that pissed him off...they are so bad that he might have asked himself: "why should I put my health at risk because of this bunch of suckers? I'm rich enough, now...I'd better enjoy my retirement before I end up in a hospital because of a teammate missing a tackle"...

Minasyan (-55kg) is the guy who dominated the Junior Europeans just a few weeks ago (where he defeated the Italian Giovanni Freni in the final...Freni who lost today the first bout against the Korean in a very stupid way -he went down 6-0 after a minute or so and then he couldn't complete his comeback, losing 8-6...then the Korean lost as well, so it was the end of our day)... p.s. happy for my Swiss neighbours...

as posted in the Baseball thread... the tournament between the top 6 teams of the last European Championships named Super Six starts tomorrow also for what concerns Softball... infos and online coverage are reported in the Baseball thread linked above... the Softball teams taking part into this tournament are: Czech Republic Great Britain Greece Italy Netherlands Russia

from tomorrow, a new tournament starts in Hoofddorp (NED)... it's named Super Six and it's a short competition with the top 6 teams of the last European Championships: Belgium Czech Republic Germany Italy Netherlands Spain this is the official website with all the infos (the Softball tournament is also covered by the same website): https://www.super6baseballsoftball.com/ most of, if not all, the games should be broadcasted by this website: https://www.baseballsoftball.tv/

Avancini becomes first Brazilian Mountain Bike UCI World Champion at Marathon Worlds One week after the cross-country Olympic and downhill UCI Mountain Bike World Championships presented by Mercedes Benz, off-road action shifted to Auronzo, Italy, for the 16th edition of the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships. Henrique Avancini became the first Brazilian rider in mountain bike history to win a world title with his victory in the men's race, while Annika Langvad of Denmark successfully defended her title in the women's race to take her fifth win in the Marathon. The 2018 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships took place in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, within the UNESCO World Heritage site Tre Cime di Lavaredo, in the Italian Dolomites mountains. Women raced 89 kilometres and climbed 3’400 metres, while the men covered 102 kilometres and climbed 4’200 metres. The women's race saw most of the top contenders close together as they went over the first climb, including Langvad and other former winners Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa of Norway and Maja Wloszczowska of Poland. However, by the time they reached the Tre Cime climb it was only Langvad at the front, with Christina Kollmann-Forster of Austria a distant second, more than seven minutes back, and Wloszczowska in third, which was the finishing order. Six-time winner Dahle Flesjaa was fourth and recent crowned XCO UCI World Champion Kate Courtney of the USA finished ninth. "It was really tough, for sure the most selective race I've ever took part in," said Langvad. "I tried to be aggressive from the very first climb. Since I felt fine, I kept my pace until the end, and I managed to increase the distance from my opponents. I could not be more stoked about ending my season like this! A massive thanks to all the people and my Specialized mountain bike team who were behind me for making this possible." In the men's race, the lead group of 14 was gradually whittled down to just five by the Tre Cime climb - Avancini, Hector Paez Leon (Colombia), Howard Grotts (USA), Alexey Medvedev (Russia) and Daniel Geismayr (Austria), the defending bronze medalist. Paez Leon was the first to attack, but Avancini and Geismayr bridged across, dropping the others for good. Coming into the final kilometre, Avancini and Geismayr were still together, with Paez Leon only 10 metres back, setting the stage for a sprint finish after 102 kilometres of racing. Avancini came out of the last corner with a few bike lengths lead and held it to the finish line. "I knew I was in good shape but also aware I was an outsider," said Avancini. "In order to best play my cards, I tried to break the pace of the Marathon riders and I think I made it. I don't have a favourite discipline; I feel that I am a biker first of all, and during this season I've tried to show it. I didn't expect to close the year with a world title." 2018 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Champions Annika Langvad (DEN) and Henrique Avancini (BRA) All Credits: UCI.org

MTB Cross-Country Marathon World Championships 2018 (Auronzo di Cadore, ITA) Women's Race (89km) Gold: Annika Langvad Silver: Christina Kollmann-Forstner Bronze: Maja Wloszczowska Men's race (102km) Gold: Henrique Avancini Silver: Daniel Geismayr Bronze: Hector Leonardo Paez Leon

our Russian friends once again in the bad news headines... https://unitedworldwrestling.org/article/update-cas-upholds-wada-appeal-boltukaev-suspension

my mistake... the races were held yesterday... now the date should be the correct one...

Italy are entering just the women's team and 5 Greco-Roman specialists (among others, Giovanni Freni -former Cadet world champion & recently winner of the silver medal at the European champs- in the -55kg and Jacopo Sandron -both junior & senior European bronze medallist this year- in the -60kg class)...

some news... Greco-Roman... https://unitedworldwrestling.org/article/three-reigning-greco-roman-junior-world-champions-registered-trnava2018 Freestyle... https://unitedworldwrestling.org/article/returning-freestyle-world-champs-steveson-fix-enter-trnanva2018-field Women's Wrestling... https://unitedworldwrestling.org/article/world-champs-susaki-larroque-lead-trnava2018-field

yes, we can say they are quite "disgraced" races, that almost never have a really intriguing starting field... I also think FINA shoul do something for that...moving them in the calendar, cancelling them or anything else I don't know right now...but frankly it's completely senseless leaving those races just like they are now...

Swimming Marathon World Cup stage #7 (September 16th, 2018 @ Chun'An, CHN) Men's 10km Gold: Jack Burnell Silver: Rob Muffels Bronze: Gregorio Paltrinieri (4th, Ferry Weertman) Women's 10km Gold: Xin Xin Silver: Leonie Beck Bronze: Ana Marcela Cunha (4th, Sharon Van Rouwendaal) Back to the "normal" World Series races, with a really qualified lineup, including also the 1500m Freestyle World & Olympic Champion Gregorio Paltrinieri, at his second Open Water Series competition ever... Both races were held in very complicated conditions, with very hot water (and many athletes were happy to test themselves in this circumstance because that's what probably they will have to face also in Tokyo 2020)... More news here (Full Results, as usual, are not available yet, as often happens with events held in China ): http://www.fina.org/news/xin-chn-wins-home-first-2018-gold-burnell-gbr

Swimming Marathon World Cup stage #5 (July 26th, 2018 @ Lac St.Jean, CAN) Men's 10km Gold: Marcel Schouten Silver: Fernando Ponte Bronze: Diogo Villarinho Full Results here: http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018-men-10km/event-2 Women's 10km Gold: Ana Marcela Cunha Silver: Viviane Jungblut Bronze: Samantha Arevalo Full Results here: http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018-women-10km/event-2 Swimming Marathon World Cup stage #6 (August 11th, 2018 @ Lac Megantic, CAN) Men's 10km Gold: Christian Reichert Silver: Dario Verani Bronze: Fernando Ponte Full Results here: http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018-men-10km/event-3 Women's 10km Gold: Xin Xin Silver: Rachele Bruni Bronze: Samantha Arevalo Full Results here: http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018-women-10km/event-3 Sorry for posting these results so late, but we must say that both Canadian World Series stages have been heavily affected by the European Championships going on basically at the same time, which led all the European top swimmers to skip these events (with just a couple of exceptions by swimmers not involved in the Europeans + the "out of radar" appearance of Rachele Bruni in the 6th stage)... therefore, the final results of these events didn't make the headlines of the usual sport websites and were basically "forgotten"...

he was 37th in the Lead event, 65th in the Speed event and didn't start in Bouldering... I guess he isn't anymore the all-rounder he once was... nowadays the speed event has so many pure specialists that's very difficult for guys good but not "super-good" to make the highest part of the ranking...and if you're not one of the top 5/10 athletes in both lead and boulder, then it gets really complcated to excel in this new combined format (which is still too unbalanced towards those who can win in the 2 most classic disciplines)...

yes, the combined event final is made with a full speed, a full boulder and a ful lead competition between the involved climbers... and the score is determined by taking the final position of any athlete in each section and multiplying te speed points*the boulder points*the lead points (and if 2 climbers are tied in 1 section, their score is the average of their 2 positions...for instance, if 2 climbers finish the boulder section tied for 3rd place, their score will be 3.5 points)...

Final Medal Table AUT, 3 / 0 / 1 SLO, 2 / 1 / 1 JPN, 1 / 1 / 0 POL, 1 / 1 / 0 IRI, 1 / 0 / 0 KOR, 0 / 2 / 1 CZE, 0 / 2 / 0 FRA, 0 / 1 / 0 GER, 0 / 0 / 2 RUS, 0 / 0 / 2 SRB, 0 / 0 / 1 Olympic Events Medal Table AUT, 1 / 0 / 1 SLO, 1 / 0 / 0 CZE, 0 / 1 / 0 KOR, 0 / 1 / 0 GER, 0 / 0 / 1