phelps

Sebastian Colloredo (31 y.o.), the best Italian male ski jumper for many years announced his retirement after the end of this season (which happened yesterday)...

do you think is this shocking? it's just another day at the office for AIBA members, their accolades and those "survivors" playing their (dirty) games around the world of boxing... p.s. by the way, French Boxing officials don't even have the word "honesty" in their vocabulary and I'm also not sure they know what the sport of Boxing is about... and mr. Virgets is as corrupted as his "friends", just reading his words about those bouts he says he saw and couldn't find any sign of manipulation...

you're right, man... but still, international Karate authorities at the moment are more focused on the feud against the Paris 2024 organizers than anything else... and it's quite normal that in the continents outside Europe the organization of the various tournaments is not taken into consideration with the same urgency... "long terms" and "perspective" must be expressions and words not included in their vocabulary (cit. "the great" Antonio Cassano )... p.s. I did check also the US and the Canadian federation's websites...and their events calendars don't go beyond 2019, too... therefore I guess we'll have to wait for quite a while before we know when (and where) the 2020 PKF champs will be held...

2019 World Cup, Stage #2 (Acapulco, MEX) Women's Individual Skeet Gold: Kimberly Rhode Silver: Chloe Tipple Bronze: Zhang Donglian Olympic Quota: New Zealand, China

you're asking too much to WKF, my friend... they didn't even publish the dates of a few of the 2019 competitions yet, and you're already thinking of 2020?

the problems were not with Patrick Favre joining France (it was well known already before the Pyeongchang Olympics that he would eventually leave the squad)... Wierer's feud was with Patrick Obereggen, who literally abandoned the Italian team in the middle of the pre-season trainings to go with the Norwegian women's team... and it was also a man Wierer had a closer (professional) relationship with...from that, things did heat up a bit when the misdemeanor happened, but Doro finally decided not to waste any energy on that and simply chose not to talk to him and of him anymore... and when Obereggen tried to talk with Wierer quite some time after they had those troubles (around the Antholz world cup stage, I read), she just refused even to listen to him...basically she has cancelled him from her life...

she always said that next year's World Champs at her hometown village (Anterselva/Antholz) would mark the end of her career... but of course all the Italian sport officials are already working to prevent that... I secretely hope she's gonna keep racing until Beijing 2022, so to give time to our most promising youngsters (Lardschneider, Carrara, Comola just name some of them) to develop their skills with the right timing, without having to rush them in the World Cup team before they're actually ready...

Karate PKF American Championships 2019, Final Medal Table USA, 4 / 2 / 4 VEN, 2 / 3 / 1 BRA, 2 / 1 / 5 DOM, 2 / 1 / 3 PER, 2 / 1 / 1 COL, 2 / 0 / 2 MEX, 1 / 1 / 2 CUB, 1 / 0 / 4 CAN, 0 / 2 / 2 CHI, 0 / 2 / 2 ECU, 0 / 1 / 0 JAM, 0 / 1 / 0 URU, 0 / 1 / 0 ARG, 0 / 0 / 2 PAN, 0 / 0 / 2 ESA, 0 / 0 / 1 GUA, 0 / 0 / 1

Medallists Recap women's Individual Kata Gold: Maria Dimitrova Silver: Sakura Kokumai Bronze: Jessica Kwong & Andrea Armada Ruiz women's Individual Kumite, -50kg Gold: Aurimer Campos Silver: Ana Villanueva Fabian Bronze: Alicia Hernandez & Cheili Carolina Gonzalez Castillo women's Individual Kumite, -55kg Gold: Alessandra Vindrola Silver: Kathryn Campbell Bronze: Baurelys De La Caridad Torres Alverdi & Valeria Kumizaki women's Individual Kumite, -61kg Gold: Merillela Arreola Silver: Jacqueline Factos Bronze: Alexandra Grande & Karina Diaz Medina women's Individual Kumite, -68kg Gold: Cheryl Murphy Silver: Skylar Lingl Bronze: Melissa Bratic & Cirelys Martinez Leon women's Individual Kumite, +68kg Gold: Maya Wasowicz Silver: Omaira Molina Bronze: Shanee Torres doncel & Yoandra Moreno Perez men's Individual Kata Gold: Ariel Torres Gutierrez Silver: Antonio Diaz Bronze: Nykolai Josef Arango Soto & Hector Cencion men's Individual Kumite, -60kg Gold: Douglas Brose Silver: Maximiliano Larrosa Bronze: Rafael Nascimento & Joaquin Gonzalez Lavin men's Individual Kumite, -67kg Gold: Guillermo Ramirez Gutierrez Silver: Camilo Velozo Bronze: Breno Teixeira & Vinicius Figueira men's Individual Kumite, -75kg Gold: Thomas Scott Silver: Alton Brown Bronze: Antonio Diaz Torres & Julio Ichiki men's Individual Kumite, -84kg Gold: Ruben Dario Henao Amu Silver: Freddy Valera Bronze: Jorge Merino & Fabian Huaiquiman men's Individual Kumite, +84kg Gold: Lazaro Jordan Chapman Mora Silver: Rodrigo Rojas Bronze: Brian Irr & Adam Ramos women's Team Kata Gold: Peru Silver: Brazil Bronze: Dominican Republic & Mexico men's Team Kata Gold: Dominican Republic Silver: Peru Bronze: Colombia & Argentina women's Team Kumite Gold: Venezuela Silver: Canada Bronze: Panama & United States men's Team Kumite Gold: Brazil Silver: Mexico Bronze: United States & Canada

I didn't know that (I mean, Beckert publishing his blood values)... I only tried to guess looking at where they are from...but maybe it was a bad method to associate them to those treatments... your list sounds definitely more logical...

blood doping helps recovery... also those involved in the BALCO scandal, despite being all of them sprinters and throwers (Marion Jones, Dwayne Chambers, CJ Hunter) used to have blood treatment to increase the work rate during trainings...

Beckert is actually from Erfurt (and he's a long distance specialist)... and Ihle is from Chemnitz (still the old "East Germany")... imho those 2 have more chances to be involved in this scandal (even because they got the best results among those in the list)...

today it's a very bad day for Italy, too... no shooters in the women's skeet final... the top 6 from today's qualification round are: Samantha Simonton, Zhang Heng, Kimberly Rhode, Chloe Tipple, Zhang Donglian and the winner of the shoot-off between Agnieszka Sieracka and Amber Hill... in terms of the Olympic Quota Places, the USA have already filled their 2 spots, all the remaining girls and Nations (the 2 going at the shoot-off included) instead have yet to earn their place at the Games...

just another flop and a missed chance for Italy... the Olympic qualification in both men and women's epee will be really tough for us...

Men's Team Epee (Buenos Aires, ARG) Final Results Gold: Japan Silver: Switzerland Bronze: Russia Semifinals: Switzerland b. Russia 45-37 Japan b. Venezuela 45-37 Bronze Medal Match: Russia b. Venezuela 30-29 Gold Medal Match: Japan b. Switzerland 45-32  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/489/results/rank

no, wait...she'll be fighting for that for sure... but if you ask me to choose just 1 name to win it, that's Dahlmeier (if she really wants it) or Oeberg... then I think there will be some other girls also in the hunt (Wierer, Vittozzi, Roeiseland, Davidova and maybe some more surprising names)... the only girl among those mentioned above that I think she's just too inconsistent to win the Overall title is Eckhoff...

maybe she has self-imposed some kind of a break to the extra-curricular activities in this season's finale to save some energy and now she feels she wants to make up for that...

if Dahlmeier takes it seriously from the beginning to the end of the season, there's no way she's gonna be beaten... if she leaves some space to the others (like this year), well, my bet is on Oeberg more than anybody else...and I wouldn't rule Davidova out...she could/shoul be the next star of this game...

however, her husband is part of the staff of the Italian team... so, it's not that they haven't been together since a long time ago...

triple bronze for Italy...not bad, but looking at how things went, some regrets are more than justified... meanwhile, in the men's team epee in Argentina, the top teams are falling like the leaves in Autumn...Korea (no.2), Hungary (no.4) and France (no.3) are already out and didn't make even the top 8...

Men's Team Sabre (Budapest, HUN) Final Results Gold: South Korea Silver: Hungary Bronze: Italy Semifinals: Hungary b. Italy 45-43 South Korea b. Germany 45-44 Bronze Medal Match: Italy b. Germany 45-29 Gold Medal Match: South Korea b. Hungary 45-41  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/827/results/rank

Women's Team Sabre (Sint Niklaas, BEL) Final Results Gold: France Silver: Russia Bronze: Italy Semifinals: Russia b. Italy 45-39 France b. Poland 45-27 Bronze Medal Match: Italy b. Poland 45-29 Gold Medal Match: France b. Russia 45-43  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/756/results/rank

OMG!!!!! I just can't believe the results I see in this women's team epee competition! and once again what a missed chance for Italy to improve their ranking before the OQT starts...losing to Germany...

Women's Team Epee (Chengdu, CHN) Final Results Gold: Germany Silver: Estonia Bronze: Italy Semifinals: Germany b. Italy 41-34 Estonia b. China 42-38 Bronze Medal Match: Italy b. China 31-28 Gold Medal Match: Germany b. Estonia 45-39  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/750/results/rank

as we anticiapted a couple of days ago, in the KHL also the Eastern Conference semifinals ended in 5 games only... Avangard Omsk (vs Barys Astana) and Salavat Yulaev Ufa (vs the no.1 seed Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg), in fact, won their series against all the odds and now they are going to play for the Conference title... Eastern Conference, Semifinals recap Salavat Yulaev Ufa (#6) b. Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg (#1) 4-1 (1-0; 0-2; 2-1OT; 4-2; 4-1) Avangard Omsk (#4) b. Barys Astana (#2) 4-1 (3-1; 2-4; 5-0; 3-1; 5-3) Therefore, the 2 Conference Finals (best-of-7 series) are: Western Conference: CSKA Moscow vs SKA St.Petersburg (all the action starting next Thursday, March 28th) Eastern Conference: Avangard Omsk vs Salavat Yulaev Ufa (all the action starting next Friday, March 29th) Fun fact: Avangard are having such a good season just on the year when their home arena was closed down due to structural problems and they are playing their home games in Balashikha (a city in the Moscow Region), something around 2700km (1665 metric miles) away from Omsk... in the meantime, also the Swiss NLA completed the Quarterfinal series... and all the top seeded teams went through to the semifinals without too many problems...even HC Lausanne, who was forced to game #7 by SC Langnau Tigers, didn't actually have to worry that much, since they've always been ahead late in the series and once they got to the series decider, they just thrashed out their rivals with a score of 8-1, which says it all about the kind of game that was played yesterday night in Lausanne... Quarterfinals recap SC Bern (#1) b. HC Genève-Servette (#8) 4-2 (0-2; 3-2OT; 2-3OT2; 2-1; 4-3OT; 3-2OT3) EV Zug (#2) b. HC Lugano (#7) 4-0 (3-2; 5-1; 5-4; 5-4OT2) EHC Bienne/Biel (#4) b. HC Ambrì-Piotta (#5) 4-1 (3-1; 3-2; 5-3; 1-2; 2-1) HC Lausanne (#3) b. SC Langnau Tigers (#6) 4-3 (1-5; 3-0; 5-2; 2-1; 1-5; 2-4; 8-1) and because of these results, now we have the following Semifinals pairings (best-of-7 series, all the action starting next Tuesday, March 26th): SC Bern vs EHC Bienne/Biel EV Zug vs HC Lausanne Finally, breaking news from the EBEL, where the defending champions HC Bolzano/Bozen Foxies have been eliminated in the quarterfinals by KAC Klagenfurt (4-1 the series score), which means that in Austria we are sure to have new champions at the end of the playoffs...