phelps

I just can't stop asking myself who's the genius that decided to schedule both Milan and Rome's Marathon on the same exact day?... by the way, this was a problem only for the tv networks, not certainly for the organizers to have a decent lineup, as in both races the course records fell one after the other... in Milan, it was a well expected Kenian festival: Titus Ekiru won the men's event in 2h04m46s ahead of Evans Chebet (2h07m22s) and Edwin Koech (2h08m24s)... meanwhile, the women's race was won by Vivian Kiplagat in 2h22m25s, with no other girl running under the 2h30min mark... both times are also the new All-Comers Records for the Italian territory... in Rome, instead, it was Ethiopia to grab all the honours: the men's race went to Zawude Heyi (2h08m37s, the only competition between Milan and Rome that didn't break the course record), while the women's event was won by Alemu Megertu in 2h22m52s...

Men's Cadet Individual Sabre Final Results Gold: Vasyl Humen Silver: Giorgio Marciano Bronze: Lee Do Hun & Park Dong Hwan Semifinals: Humen b. Lee 15-13 Marciano b. Park 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Humen b. Marciano 15-10 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/240/results/rank

Women's Cadet Individual Sabre Final Results Gold: Luca Szucs Silver: Chloe Gouhin Bronze: Honor Johnson & Benedetta Fusetti Semifinals: Gouhin b. Johnson 15-10 Szucs b. Fusetti 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Szucs b. Gouhin 15-10 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/239/results/rank

Trofeo Princesa Sofia (Palma de Mallorca, ESP) Medallists Recap men's 470 Gold: Anton Dahlberg & Fredrik Bergstroem, 47 Pts Silver: Jordi Xammar & Nicolas Rodriguez, 84 Pts Bronze: Luke Patience & Chris Grube, 86 Pts women's 470 Gold: Hannah Mills & Eilidh McIntyre, 39 Pts Silver: Camille Lecointre & Aloise Retornaz, 56 Pts Bronze: Tina Mrak & Veronika Macarol, 67 Pts men's 49er Gold: Dylan Fletcher & Stuart Bithell, 40 Pts Silver: Diego Botìn Le Chever & Iago Lopez Marra, 64 Pts Bronze: Yago Lange & Klaus Lange, 70 Pts women's 49er FX Gold: Martine Soffiatti Grael & Kahena Kunze, 64 Pts Silver: Alexandra maloney & Molly Meech, 81 Pts Bronze: Charlotte Dobson & Saskia Tidey, 82 Pts men's Finn Gold: Andrew Maloney, 41 Pts Silver: Giles Scott, 43 Pts Bronze: Josh Junior, 68 Pts men's Laser Standard Gold: Christopher Bernard, 67 Pts Silver: Elliot Thompson, 69 Pts Bronze: Nick Thompson, 79 Pts women's Laser Radial Gold: Anne-Marie Rindom, 75 Pts Silver: Marit Bouwmeester, 79 Pts Bronze: Erika Reineke, 85 Pts mixed Nacra 17 Gold: Jason Waterhouse & Lisa Darmanin, 69 Pts Silver: Vittorio Bissaro & Maelle Frascari, 83 Pts Bronze: John Gimson & Anna Burnet, 84 Pts men's RS:X Gold: Michael Cheng, 53 Pts Silver: Chen Hao, 66 Pts Bronze: Pedro Pascual Suitt, 113 Pts women's RS:X Gold: Tan Yue, 30 Pts Silver: Chan Hei Man, 52 Pts Bronze: Laerke Buhl-Hansen, 74 Pts Full Results: https://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/en/default/races/race-resultsall

Coxsey? no way...she's always been good only in bouldering...and I don't think she's gonna improve that much in the other disciplines to be a contender in Tokyo...I'd rather bet on Garnbret to improve her speed skills (she said she's training at that and she's gonna start in a few discipline's world cup events this year... Noguchi right now is even slower than Garnbret in the speed event...we have to wait and see if she wants/can improve that section of the game, otherwise she's risking to lose her "virtual" silver medal rather than improving to gold...

right now, Jessica Pilz and maybe, but I don't think she's in the same class as the other 3 girls over the 3 events, Kim Ja In... someone among the rest of the Japanese armada could well improve a lot, in any case...it's too early to make serious predictions on an event like the "combined"...most of the top athletes are still trying to understand if they can find their way to be competitive in more than 1 or 2 disciplines...things could change a lot in more than a year, I think...

2019 Sport Climbing World Cup, Stage #1 (Meiringen, SUI) women's Bouldering Gold: Janja Garnbret Silver: Akiyo Noguchi Bronze: Shauna Coxsey

by the way, this 4th and final boulder lookes really a bit too difficult for the girls (apart for the wonderful Janja and Noguchi, of course...but they're not in the same class of the other competitors)... something a little bit easier would have made the competition more exciting also for the places below the top 2...

Janjaaaaa!!!

2019 Sport Climbing World Cup, Stage #1 (Meiringen, SUI) men's Bouldering Gold: Adam Ondra Silver: Tomoa Narasaki Bronze: Rei Sugimoto

his style might not be perfect, but he's the best climber ever...and his climbs on the most difficult walls out in the mountains are something unbelievable, watching him on a 9b/9c wall is just amazing...

14.38.34 (3.51.14 at 400m, 7.46.39 at 800m and 11.42.69 at 1200m the main splits)...you can find all the daily recaps of the Italian Nationals in the 2019 general swimming thread (where @intoronto is also posting the results of the Canadian trials)...

pretty dominant performance by our guys, who have been able to renovate the winning tradition in this discipline of these last few years... and unexpected but very, very good medal also in the girls' event, with Taricco who's been capable of beating an established world cup protagonist like the Hungarian Liza Pusztai in the quarterfinals... I'm also a bit surprised not to see any Russian among the medallists in the men's competition...and I also didn't expect Botello to lose against Mikhailova, even if the Russian is a very good fencer and we can't say this is a real upset...

Men's Junior Individual Sabre Final Results Gold: Lorenzo Roma Silver: George Dragomir Bronze: Giacomo Mignuzzi & Mitchell Saron Semifinals: Roma b. Saron 15-6 Dragomir b. Mignuzzi 15-9 Gold Medal Match: Roma b. Dragomir 15-8 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/228/results/rank

Women's Junior Individual Sabre Final Results Gold: Alina Mikhailova Silver: Natalia Botello Bronze: Benedetta Taricco & Yoana Ilieva Semifinals: Mikhailova b. Taricco 15-10 Botello b. Ilieva 15-13 Gold Medal Match: Mikhailova b. Botello 15-10 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/227/results/rank

Olympic Qualifying times, Italian Nationals, Day 5 (final day) "A" Standard - Simona Quadarella (women's 400m free) - Pier Andrea Matteazzi (men's 400m IM) - Margherita Panziera (women's 200 backstroke) - Gregorio Paltrinieri (men's 1500m free) "B" Standard - 7 girls in the women's 400m free - 4 girls in the women's 200m backstroke - 3 guys in the men's 400m individual medley - 4 guys in the men's 1500m free

Italian Nationals, Final Day recap women's 50m breaststroke: Martina Carraro completed the "triplete" (all 3 breaststroke titles)...she won today's race with 30.52, edging out the new sensation of Italian swimming, Benedetta Pilato, who's only 13 years young and today was second in 30.61 (smashing all youth classes records, of course). Arianna Castiglioni (Bronze medallist last year at the European Champs and National record holder with 30.30) was disappointing once again and only managed to get 3rd in 31.05... men's 50m breaststroke: it was another epic battle between the veteran (Fabio Scozzoli) and the youngster (Niccolò Martinenghi)...and once again Scozzoli's experience paid off...he won the race in 26.82, ahead of his rival in 26.98... women's 400m free: right now, Simona Quadarella is almost unbeatable in Italy in the middle and long distances of freestyle...and so, even if she's definitely not in top shape, she won also this event (in 4.06.92)... men's 400m IM: it used to be one of the strongest events in our swimming program, but nowadays it's just the opposite...we just can't find any guy capable of renovating the past success...just for the books, today's race has been won by Pier Andrea Matteazzi in 4.15.73... women's 200m backstroke: that's no longer the truth... Margherita Panziera, in fact, won the title and she also did improve herself up until 2.05.72, new National Record and world leading time in 2019 (so far)...behind her, the desert... men's 1500m free: Gabriele Detti withdrew already yesterday evening because he felt too tired after all the races he had to swim this week, but Gregorio Paltrinieri didn't seem to be bothered by his friend and rival's absence...yesterday Florian Wellbrock swam 14.44.something and did challenge him on the social networks, today Greg answered big time, swimming a solo race in 14.38.34...the bad news is that the other guys completed their race when he was already under thw shower... women's 50m fly: Elena Di Liddo took advantage of a wrong touch on the board by Silvia Di Pietro and edged her out to win the title, but the time is nothing special...26.46 vs 26.52 for the top 2 girls... in the men's 4*100m free club team relay, there were at the start all of our best specialists, but they "only" swam a bunch of "high" 48s... that's all, folks! it was quite a good championship overall, with 20 guys breaking at least once the world champs standard time set by our federation... let's see if in Korea we're gonna have some better results than in the past (we're always good at the European champs, but we did never really raise the game at the worlds and at the Olympics...this could be the time to start doin'it)...

2019 Sport Climbing World Cup, Stage #1 (Meiringen, SUI) men's Bouldering, climbers qualified to the Final (later tonight, 7 p.m. CET) Tomoaki Takata Chon Jong Won Kokoro Fujii Rei Sugimoto Tomoa Narasaki Adam Ondra not that it wasn't expected, but that's still really impressive... the Asian armada, 4 Japanese guys (and 1 Korean) vs the lone star from Europe, Adam Ondra, is today's Final lineup... and I fear we will see more of this kind of lineups through the season... women's Bouldering, climbers qualified to the Final (later tonight, following the men's Final) Oceania MacKenzie Shauna Coxsey Petra Klinger Fanny Gibert Janja Garnbret Akiyo Noguchi here we have definitely a lot more variety at the start of the final act, with the European girls being the dominant force... and always nice, we also have someone from the home Nation (former world champion Petra Klinger), which could make the audience a bit more "intense"... we don't lack a great surprise, too...with the not-yet 17 years young Australian Oceania MacKenzie who had a sensational 1st competition of the year, when in the last season she wasn't even able to make the final in any discipline at the youth worlds...

SHL The last top tier european league to end its quarterfinal stage was the Swedish SHL... there's always a lot of balance in this league and this year it looks that there's no difference with the recent past... despite that, no real surprise came in the quarterfinals, where all the better seeded teams won the series against their respective opponents... Quarterfinals Recap Färjestad BK b. HV71 4-3 (1-2OT; 3-1; 2-3; 3-1; 3-2OT3; 3-5; 3-2) Frölunda HC b. IF Malmö Redhawks 4-1 (4-0; 2-3; 7-2; 5-3; 4-1) Djurgårdens IF b. Skellefteå AIK 4-2 (0-2; 6-3; 3-1; 4-2; 2-3; 4-1) Luleå HF b. Växjö Lakers HC 4-1 (3-1; 5-4OT; 4-0; 2-3OT; 4-1) Semifinals (best-of-7 series) will start later Today, April 6th according to the following pairings: Färjestad BK vs Djurgårdens IF and Luleå HF vs Frölunda HC

KHL Conference Finals Western Conference: the script was a bit different from the first 2 games played in Moscow, but outcome definitely wasn't... this time SKA tried to play their game, to put CSKA under pressure, but Moscow isn't home and in the end they couldn't do anything against the Red Army once again... Maxim Mamin's day of his life (he assisted Mat Robinson on the 1st goal of the game, once again in the last minute of the 1st period, and personally scored the second goal of the game, which basically killed SKA's hopes) and Ilya Sorokin's shutout, in fact helped the team from the Russian Capital to win game #5 of the western conference finals by a score of 3-0 and now they lead the series 3-2... now SKA must win both the next 2 games (first at home, but the possible game #7 on the road), if they want to get back to the Gagarin Cup Finals after they already missed last year's decisive act... game #6 is scheduled for Tomorrow in St.Petersburg (5 p.m. local time, 4 p.m. CET)... game #5 highlights

EWF's website now has all the info...here: http://ewfed.com/ewf-senior-weightlifting-championships-batumi-2019-results-and-live-streaming.html Group A live action is on Eurosport/Eurosport2/EurosportPlayer (at least here in Italy)...

as usual in the past few seasons, Semifinals and Finals will be streamed live on Youtube (IFSC page)...

here we are...the new season has officially begun... in Meiringen, the first Bouldering event of the year is underway... men's Bouldering, climbers qualified to the semifinals (tomorrow, 11 a.m. CET) Stefano Ghisolfi Alexander Megos Pan Yu Fei Taisei Ishimatsu Chon Jong Won Aleksey Rubtsov Gregor Vezonik Tim Reuser Rei Sugimoto Anze Peharc Yoshiyuki Ogata Tomoaki Takata Alex Khazanov Jernej Kruder Keita Dohi Kokoro Fujii Adam Ondra Tomoa Narasaki Nathaniel Coleman Nathan Phillips as expected, Japan are absolutely the most dominant squad, with Slovenia as their main rivals... but with the Olympics in sight, it looks that the great Adam Ondra will regularly attend the world cup, which makes him the favourite in all the bouldering and lead events he's gonna enter... and @heywoodu...it looks that in this first event of the year there's also some Dutch interest... women's Bouldering, climbers qualified to the semifinals (tomorrow, following the men's semifinals) Lucka Rakovec Oceania MacKenzie Alex Johnson Berit Schwaiger Ievgeniia Kazbekova Petra Klinger Julia Pinggera Shauna Coxsey Sa Sol Katja Kadic Afra Hönig Alanna Yip Emily Phillips Futaba Ito Julia Chanourdie Sandra Lettner Fanny Gibert Akiyo Noguchi Kyra Condie Janja Garnbret almost all the top girls are there, but there are also a lot of newcomers (some of them, very young)... not surprisingly, the USA team is starting to show up big in both the men and women's events, once the Olympics are getting closer... still, the great Janja is always the woman to beat... bad outing for the Italian team in general (and our young raising star Laura Rogora in particular), but we know that Bouldering is our weakest discipline...

Olympic Qualifying times, Italian Nationals, Day 4 "A" Standard - Piero Codia (men's 100m fly) - Margherita Panziera (women's 100m backstroke, even if she did better yesterday in the medley relay) - Matteo Restivo (men's 200m backstroke) - Luca Pizzini (men's 200m breaststroke) - Filippo Megli (men's 200m free) - Gabriele Detti (men's 200m free) "B" Standard - 7 girls in the women's 100m backstroke - 3 girls in the women's 200m fly - 4 girls in the women's 50m free - 9 guys in the men's 100m fly - 3 guys in the men's 200m breaststroke - 4 guys in the men's 200m backstroke - 12 guys in the men's 200m free

Italian Nationals, Day 4 Recap men's 100m fly: very exciting race, but with a disappointing final clocking...Santo Condorelli got really close to his first Italian National title, but he was edged out by the European Champion from last year, Piero Codia...51.75 for the man from Sardinia, 52.06 for the new member of out NT. Young talent Federico Burdisso was 3rd with 52.10. Unfortunately, all the guys weren't even close to their PB nor the required target for the world champs pass... women's 100m backstroke: Margherita Panziera dominated the race as expected, but, despite recording a good 59.77 (world champs official pass), she didn't come close to the new NR swum yesterday in the medley relay's opening leg (58.92). Silvia Scalia was second today, but with a modest 1.00.89, which is well outside her PB (and far away from the world pass required target)... men's 200m backstroke: European Bronze medallist from last year, Matteo Restivo won the title with a time of 1.56.45, very close to his own PB & NR and of course inside the require target for the qualification to the world champs...Marco mencarini was second in 1.57.65, but unfortunately this is not enough to make the team for Gwangju... women's 200m fly: one of the most depressing race of the Italian champs so far...Ilaria Cusinato easily won the gold medal, but with a time just below 2.10...needless to say that's not even close to the world pass target... men's 200m breaststroke: when you thought you've just seen the worst of the champs, here you go with something even more scary...the race was dominated by the favourite Luca Pizzini (also Bronze medallist in Glasgow last summer), but in a really modest 2.10.17...second was the veteran Edoardo Giorgetti, who at least made the final 25 meters of the race interesting, but still he finished well above 2.10, too...of course nobody reached the world standard time... women's 50m free: here we are so far away from international excellence that's not even worth mentioning anything but the name of the new National Champion, Nicoletta Ruberti, who won her first National Title in 25.17 at the age of 24 (which in women's swimming is something almost unbelievable...and the worst possible sign for the future of this discipline in Italy)... men's 200m free: Filippo Megli took advantage of a reasonably quick start and of a very slow start by Gabriele Detti and won the National title over the distance in 1.46.56, new PB and world champs qualifying time...Detti finally ended up in second place after a furious comeback in the second 100m with the time of 1.47.02...from 3rd to 8th we have a bunch of guys at 1.48 "low", finishing almost all together, with the surprising Stefano Ballo completing the podium in 1.48.05 and probably earning a spot in the men's 4*200m free relay team, which is of course officially qualified for the world champs after today's race... p.s. in the women's 4*200m free club team relay, Federica Pellegrini swam 1.55.4 in an internal leg...