phelps

starting in a minute, all Bronze Medal matches... and later Today @ 2.30 p.m. CET, all the Gold Medal matches... Live here:

sorry, mate! it didn't go the right way (your right way, at least)...

confirmed, as well... those 6 guys are set to battle the medals out this afternoon...

please, be serious!

The Junior European Championships 2018 were held this week in Sofia (BUL)... here you can find the full recap of the individual results and the final medal table: http://www.ippon.org/ec_jun2018.php the team event is scheduled for tomorrow... p.s. quite a busy week for Bulgaria...Judo Junior Europeans, Rhythmic Gymnastics Worlds, Rowing Worlds and Volleyball Worlds all at the same time in the Country... congrats for hosting so many events...

why Italy is always such a disaster? why???

hey, man! this is the "world cup" of Karate...there are prizes up for grab... it's not only about qualifying for the Olympic Games... actually, every K1PL tournament is only open to the best 50 players in the world in each class... with your idea, the Japanese guys shouldn't even take part into the world championships...

2 more Italians in the medal matches...good...even if the women's -68 and +68kg classes could lead to some troubles within our team, since Semeraro should be the girl representing ITA in the Olympic Heavyweights and not Ferracuti (and today's results don't go in this direction)... also in the men's -60 and -67 it's a shame that we're gonna have to choose only one between Maresca and Crescenzo...they are both potential medallists... I really think that the Olympic format they've chosen sucks...and sucks big time...

Karate 1 Premier League Stage #6 (Berlin, GER) Day #2 action... Men's Kata Gold Medal Match: Issei Shimbaba vs Ryo Kiyuna Bronze Medal Match #1: Kazumasa Moto vs Damian Hugo Quintero Capdevila Bronze Medal Match #2: Yuta Hibi vs Alì Sofuoglu Men's Kumite, -84kg Gold Medal Match: Ryutaro Araga vs Daniyar Yuldashev Bronze Medal Match #1: Ugur Aktas vs Zabiollah Poorshab Bronze Medal Match #2: Timothy Petersen vs Jessie Da Costa Men's Kumite, +84kg Gold Medal Match: Sajad Ganizadeh vs Gogita Arkania Bronze Medal Match #1: Herolind Nishevci vs Andjelo Kvesic Bronze Medal Match #2: Shahin Atamov vs Jonathan Horne Women's Kumite, -61kg Gold Medal Match: Alexandra Grande vs Leila Heurtault Bronze Medal Match #1: Haya Jumaa vs Giana Lofty Bronze Medal Match #2: Ayamai Moriguchi vs Gwendoline Philippe Women's Kumite, -68kg Gold Medal Match: Eda Eltemur vs Irina Zaretska Bronze Medal Match #1: Miroslava Kopunova vs Silvia Semeraro Bronze Medal Match #2: Kayo Someya vs Elena Quirici Women's Kumite, +68kg Gold Medal Match: Ayumi Uekusa vs Clio Ferracuti Bronze Medal Match #1: Shymaa Abouelyazed vs Ayaka Saito Bronze Medal Match #2: Meltem Hocaoglu vs Laura Palacio Gonzalez

and the 6 men qualified to the Final of the Combined Event should be: Kai Harada Tomoa Narasaki Jakob Schubert Kokoro Fujii Adam Ondra Jan Hojer but, once again, don't take this ranking for granted...we must wait for official confirmation...

Men's Boulder Gold: Kai Harada Silver: Chon Jong Won Bronze: Gregor Vezonik Full Competition Results here: http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition#!comp=1564&cat=6&route=-1

each Continent has 1 quota place up for grab at the 2019 Continental Championships...so, yes, in Tokyo there will be at least 1 African climber... in the qualification thread you can find the entire qualification procedure...

at least today they've built a reasonable route and we're looking at a great competition...because yesterday it was really sad, tbh...

and today we can't say that we have watched a poor session or that we didn't have any major surprise... this afternoon finally it's been a geat show with many upsets, starting with the elimination of Jernej Kruder, Adam Ondra, Aleksei Rubtsov, Jan Hojer and Mickael Mawem...all of them true medal candidates and all of them destroyed by the really inspired Asian climbers... let's see what the technical commission is gonna do with the final's route...hoping that they won't build anything crazy, which would end up ruin the show (like they did yesterday with the girls and in the men's Lead final)...

Men's Boulder, climbers qualified to the Final Kokoro Fujii Chon Jong Won Gregor Vezonik Kai Harada Keita Watabe Nathan Phillips Full Results of the Semifinals: http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition#!comp=1564&cat=6&route=2

p.s. the men's boulder semis have just been completed...and it was a great session* (this afternoon we could have got drunk big time if we renovated yesterday's night bet )... *I'm not writing anything more than that...I just don't want to make any spoiler to those who might want to watch it later...

no, they're counting them, as we know for sure that 1 of the missing finals is the LM2X, where Ireland won the Gold medal ahead of Italy...

not only...if I did count correctly, they're still missing 4 of today's finals (at the end of the day 21 A-Finals have been completed and I only see 17 Gold Medal listed in their table)... I guess they're still banqueting...there's not much hurry to get back working on a Saturday afternoon...

Recap of today's races: http://www.worldrowing.com/news/close-finishes-for-world-rowing-championship-titles Updated Medal Table: http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2018-world-rowing-championships/medals

well, 1 Gold and 2 Silver medals in the Olympic classes is not "awful", but not exceptional, too... tbh, the men's classes have been great in the long boats (waiting for the men's Eight, but even just making the final is a good result), good but not outstanding in the Lightweight Double Sculls (it's not a secret that Oppo & Ruta should have won Gold to "fill their contract" after dominating world cup and europeans), but a real disaster in the short boats (and in men's Pairs we were the defending champions, even if with a different crew)... meanwhile, once again, the women's division is not less than shameful (the women's Pairs were 4th, but 15 seconds behind the top 2, only because most big names weren't at the start...the others couldn't even make the A-Final)... we definitely should do better than this...

and the USA win the women's Fours over the super-favourite Australians, who got "only" the silver medal, meanwhile Russia with a very strong last stint earn their bronze medal just a fraction behind AUS... in any case, very entertaining race in this discipline...and it wasn't expected...

worldrowing.com

and Ireland win the LM2X quite easily...too strong their last 500/600m..congrats to them! however, good Silver medal for Italy and Bronze for Belgium, who had a really strong finish... and now it's time for the women and men's Fours...

good start for Italy, but Ireland now are flying...I fear they're gonna beat us in the final stint...

and now it's time for our guys to raise their game... by the way, we have the advantage of Norway missing their star Brun, who had to withdraw (and being substituted) just a few minutes before the final because of an injury...