phelps

while Francesca Lollobrigida is winning medal after medal at the In-Line Speedskating European Championships, her younger sister Giulia (Lollobrigida) has been provisionally suspended after she tested positive (diuretic) at the Italian National Championships earlier this Summer... http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2018/08/22/roller-skating-lollobrigida-suspended-in-doping-case_83f1daa7-aa4e-422d-a788-cfd9441ac17d.html http://www.nadoitalia.it/it/home-it/news/archivio-comunicati/12681-prima-sezione-positiva-giulia-lollobrigida-tesserata-fisr-,-sospesa-in-via-cautelare.html

http://boxingchamps-bp2018.com/2018/08/22/day-2-22-aug-session-results/

and in fact women's Baseball is not an Olympic discipline... by the way, 4 Continents are good enough to ask for the Olympic status...we can't be so stupid to pretend that Africa, with all the problems they have, can invest much money in many "less worldwide spread" disciplines...otherwise at the Olympic Games we should have just 5 or 6 sports and that's it (because having just 4/5 Countries out of more than 50 playing some sport -like it happens in Africa in most disciplines- it's not like a full Continent having a decent program related to that specific sport)...

good news... however, I also did find out that fujitv.live works here in Italy without even using a VPN, so I can enjoy the Japanese original networks (not so much helpful for the Asian Games, but when it comes to NPB Baseball...well, that's another story)... I think it should work without VPN also in many other European (and maybe North American) Countries, too... there's a 1-day free trial (just an email needed, so, with dynamic ip and a good cache clean up, you can work out a different email address every day and get it for free until they get too suspicious and find the way to blacklist you -but then a VPN could help, maybe ) and apps for windows and macOS and android systems (android Tv, too)...

well, that's my typical "kiss of death"... when I say something, you can be sure that it's gonna happen just the opposite of that...

Final Standings Gold: United States Silver: Panama Bronze: Chinese Taipei 4th, Japan 5th, Cuba 6th, Dominican Republic 7th, Brazil 8th, The Kingdom of the Netherlands 9th, Australia 10th, China 11th, Germany 12th, South Africa

USA can now add the WBSC U-15 Baseball Cup to a growing list of accomplishments on the global baseball stage. Reigning World Champions at the U-12, U-18 and Senior National Team levels, USA claimed their first world title in the history of the U-15 Baseball World Cup, with a 7-1 win over host Panama in front of over 8,000 fans at Estadio Kenny Serracín. Panama – with a population of approximately 4 million – finished second in the world to claim the silver medal, which is the nation’s best result ever at the U-15 Baseball World Cup. USA 7, Panama 1 Three first inning errors proved costly for Panama who found themselves down 6-0 after one inning of play. A pair of walks issued by Panama starting pitcher Joaquin Tejada Ortega followed by a Brady House RBI single and three ensuing errors gave USA a quick 4-0 lead before the first out was recorded. USA starting pitcher Andrew Painter was solid over 5.1 innings of work allowing one run on four hits and two walks while striking out five batters to earn the win. Luke Leto entered the game with one out and two runners on in the sixth and was able to secure the victory. After the opening the tournament with two wins, USA suffered a 2-1 defeat to Chinese Taipei before going on a run of six consecutive victories to claim the world title.

because to be constantly good in a true team sport you need a lot of people practicing that activity (and in Norway they don't have that many volleyball players), meanwhile it's a lot easier once every while to find a pair working well together and establishing among the best in the world... for what concerns the weather, we all know that all the best players are used to travel around the world the whole year, looking for the hot sun (even the Italian players always spend our winter/early spring in the Brazilian summer to find a better climate than in Italy...I mean, Italy...where we have 20 degrees or more around Christmas in the southern regions)... so, that makes it a non-factor, after all (and still, they also train a lot indoor even in beach volley, especially the youngsters who don't travel the world so much as the professionals)... p.s. by the way, it's full of European Countries with the same "problem" of Norway...look at Latvia, Austria, Czech Republic (mainly among the women), Switzerland (a few years ago they had 3 pairs fixed in the top 10 of the world ranking and won even Olympic medals)...the same Germany (recently they improved a lot also in indoor volleyball, but their men basically has always been competitive only in beach volley...and the women's results, despite being better than the men's, are also not comparable in terms of global success between indoor and beach...in favor of the outdoor version, of course)...

do you wanna make a change with the senior world and Olympic medals?

surprising result, but not that much...playing at home, it was clear that they eventually show up with a very good team... and on the Gold Medal game they're going to face the USA (later tonight, at 1 a.m. CET)... disappointing outcome for Japan (they're playing right now the Bronze Medal game against Chinese Taipei -also live on Youtube, for those interested) and very disappointing outcome for Cuba, the reigning (for a few hours) champions, who did play well in the preliminary stage, but then had an epic fail in the Medal Round and didn't make even the top 4)... here's the link to the Gold Medal game (live on Youtube)

in Tonga it was 8.1/8.2 (depending on the source)...

well, China won 4 Gold medals and Japan "only" 3...I guess your sentence is a bit "hazardous"...

in the women's division, Agatha/Duda won the Tour Finals with a clear 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) success over Hermannova/Slukova in the Gold Medal match. Bronze Medal went to Clancy/Artacho Del Solar (2-1 over Maria Antonelli/Carol).

I guess they have to avoid the "Sun" pronounciation as the single word, so they link both first and family name to give it a different sound...

women's 200m Back well slower than Europeans and Pan-Pacs... but still, another Chinese Gold (I fear they're gonna sweep the entire program, considering that the Japanese team is not at their best as they focused on last week's Pan-Pacs)...

wow! I'm falling asleep with all these stops and these everlasting ceremonies... c'mon, men! give this event a bit of pace...

good, but not so impressive 1.45.53 by Sun Yang over the men's 200m Free... meanwhile the Japanese guys are already well below the Pan-Pacs performances...

1st event at the AGs and they're already up to 1 "virtual" Bronze (after women's 1500m Free)...

Li with insane last 100, but still not enough... by the way, both Chinese girls are behind Quadarella's mark at the Europeans (not to be mentioned Ledecky's efforts, of course)...

and think that the equivalent in Karate (Kata) has been gifted the Olympic status...

Baby Sergei is born... https://www.nhl.com/news/alex-ovechkin-shares-news-of-birth-of-son/c-299795388?tid=281396148 Congrats to Mom & Dad...

Slovenian fest in Munich, at the last world cup stage in Bouldering... and this is the 2018/2019 Bouldering Final World Cup Ranking Women 1st, Miho Nonaka (JPN), 500 Pts 2nd, Akiyo Noguchi (JPN), 495 Pts 3rd, Fanny Gibert (FRA), 320 Pts Full Ranking here: http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition#!type=ranking&cat=ICC_FB&cup=18_WC Men 1st, Jernej Kruder (SLO), 442 Pts 2nd, Tomoa Narasaki (JPN), 400 Pts 3rd, Rei Sugimoto (JPN), 334 Pts Full Ranking here: http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition#!type=ranking&cat=ICC_MB&cup=18_WC

IFSC World Cup, Stage #11 (Munich, GER) Women's Boulder (Final) 1st, Janja Garnbret (SLO) 2nd, Miho Nonaka (JPN) 3rd, Akiyo Noguchi (JPN) Men's Boulder (Final) 1st, Gregor Vezonik (SLO) 2nd, Jernej Kruder (SLO) 3rd, Jakob Schubert (AUT)

as expected, Japanese total domination in Moscow, with 6 Gold medals all coming in Boulder and Lead (with USA coming out as the second powerhouse ahead of Slovenia in the Lead events and Italy, France and Great Britain sharing the remaining honors in the Boulder events)... Russia end up in second place thanks only to the Speed events, which were dominated by the hosts ahead of South Korea, Italy and Poland... USA, Italy and South Korea also got 2 Gold medals each as the Russians, meanwhile the most disappointing result came from the Austrians, who couldn't win a single Gold (but at least they got 3 medals overall)...

Final Medal Table JPN, 6 / 1 / 7 RUS, 2 / 2 / 3 USA, 2 / 2 / 2 ITA, 2 / 2 / 0 KOR, 2 / 0 / 0 SLO, 1 / 3 / 1 FRA, 1 / 2 / 2 POL, 1 / 0 / 1 GBR, 1 / 0 / 0 AUT, 0 / 2 / 1 CZE, 0 / 1 / 0 GER, 0 / 1 / 0 ESP, 0 / 1 / 0 UKR, 0 / 1 / 0 CHN, 0 / 0 / 1