phelps

well, the fact the KHL play some games abroad is not really new...even a few years ago CSKA Moscow and Dinamo Riga played a game in Davos a few days before the start of the Spengler Cup (they both were among the participants to that edition of the Christmas classic)... and I can see why they're doing it again...they just want to expand their market (actually, the NHL does the same with the European and Chinese matches...think about how happy are the US/Canadian fans to have 1 or 2 home games in another Continent )... Wien, for instance, is one of the city that would like to enter the KHL in the near future (the Capitals have already asked for it, but their request has been frozen for a while at the moment)... and I guess that Slovan has been chosen as the host of those Wien games because Bratislava is quite close to the Austrian Capital and there's a strong relationship between the 2 Countries, not only in sport things... I don't think they want to punish Slovan for that fault... the same criteria apply to Jokerit and Estonia, which basically is a Finnish province in demographic and cultural terms (even if Estonia is an Independent Nation, of course)... meanwhile Dinamo Riga has been chosen to play in Zurich because of the strong relationship between the team and Swiss Hockey (among them, Kenins playing with ZSC Lions in Zurich and Elvis "miracle man" Merzlikins in Lugano...moreover, Dinamo is often guest to the Spengler Cup)... so, if we really want, we can find a proper explaination for the KHL decisions... but still, I can understand the Slovan, Jokerit and Dinamo fans arguing that in this way they lose 2 home games (and 2 very important ones in Slovan and Dinamo's case)... probably they could have chosen more average games, but then the neutral site fans could have been not so intrigued by the uncommon experience and could have not pursued the tickets with the same enthusiasm... it's always difficult to find the perfect balance in this kind of things, I guess...

The 2018 European Championship Shotgun in Leobersdorf, Austria, will be live on TV and in Internet The live TV broadcasting will include the Finals in five Olympic events: Trap Men, Trap Women, Trap Mixed Team, Skeet Men and Skeet Women as well as in Skeet Mixed Team. Program and timing of the transmissions: https://www.eurovision.net/newsletter/view/home.php?action=abstract&businessId=14261&version=2&nlToolId=1016 The live Internet streaming on the ESC website will include the Individual and Mixed Team Finals as well as the Medal Matches of the Team competitions in both – Trap and Skeet and also in the Double Trap Mixed Team event. Live Results here: http://results.sius.com/Championships.aspx

painful... but I always remember 2 perfect games (not just no-hit) ruined with just 1 out to go... the first one by Mike Mussina (at the time with the NY Yankees) @ Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox, the last one by Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers at home against Cleveland (and that one became really in-famous because it was an awful mistake by the 1st base umpire to destroy it)... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armando_Galarraga's_near-perfect_game

Main European Leagues Start Date Champions Hockey League: Thursday, August 30th (Opening Day with 6 matches) KHL: Saturday, September 1st (Opening Game: AK Bars Kazan vs SKA St.Petersburg) Finnish Liiga: Friday, September 14th (Opening Day with 7 matches) German DEL: Friday, September 14th (Opening Day with 7 matches) Austrian (open) EBEL: Friday, September 14th (Opening Day with 6 matches) Czech Extraliga: Friday, September 14th (Opening Day with 7 matches) Slovak Extraliga: Tuesday, September 4th (National U-20 Team games) / Friday, September 14th (actual overall start, Opening Day with 6 matches) Swedish SHL: Saturday, September 15th (Opening Day with 6 matches) Swiss NLA: Friday, September 21st (Opening Day with 6 matches)

really? I thought it was done by (manipulated) "draw"... in this case we can only blame fate and underperforming teams like GBR, ARG and NZL... sorry for my misinterpretation (I hope the local organizers will forgive me for the bad thoughts about them)...

KHL Full Regular Season Calendar is out... https://en.khl.ru/calendar/

and here we go... one between ITA, IRL and IND (all Countries with a name beginning with "I", by the way...for those who like "kabbala" or "cabala", depending on your language) will be in the top 4... and the other team in the same semifinal as ITA/IRL/IND will come from the trio GER/BEL/ESP... the English organizers did build their pathway to the final really shameless...but their girls wasted that gift big time...

final day at the Judo Grand Prix in Zagreb (CRO) today's titles went to Georgia (Avtandili Tchrikishvili in the -90kg & Guram Tushishvili in the +100kg) + Russia (Niyaz Ilyasov in the -100kg) among the men, meanwhile they were France (Madeleine Malonga in the -78kg) and Slovenia (Anamari Velensek in the +78kg) to spoil the party in the women's division... Japan won the medal table (who else?) with 3 Gold Medals, followed by France and Georgia with 2. 7 more Countries won 1 Gold medal each and in total 24 Nations won at least 1 medal (all Continents but Oceania represented in the final medal table)...

wow! what a final match! congrats to Portugal...they are for sure the best team in this age class, but chapeau! also to our guys, who have fought with all of their pride for 120 minutes and gave Portugal a lot of troubles... unfortunately, this time it wasn't enough, but maybe at next year's u-20 world champs we're gonna get our sweet revenge... p.s. the Portuguese boys should have avoided those irritating simulations in the last couple of minutes of the OT...that's not fair play, dudes!

I guess the key factor is our federation needs to show our NOC they can win some medals to get more funding... but with this kind of policy, they're wasting the only real talent they have... hopefully from next year on he won't have to show up in all these minor events anymore...

US Nationals 2018, Day #4 recap women's 400m Free Katie Ledecky, 3.59.09 Leah Smith, 4.02.21 men's 400m Free Zane Grothe, 3.46.53 Grant Shoults, 3.46.90 women's 100m Breaststroke Lilly King, 1.05.36 Katie Meili, 1.06.39 men's 100m Breaststroke Michael Andrew, 59.38 Andrew Wilson, 59.43 women's 100m Backstroke Kathleen Baker, 58.00 (new World Record) Olivia Smoliga, 58.75 Regan Smith, 58.83 men's 100m Backstroke Ryan Murphy, 52.51 Matt Grevers, 52.55

32 at the end of the games (late August)... in London she clearly missed out on the entire meet (she was swinging from Lucas and our federal site in Verona...and obviously she was caught in between the war those 2 were making)...and still she was 5th in the 200m... in Rio she ended up 4th despite she had very big "period" troubles just a short time before the final...had she been not so unlucky, she would have been there with Ledecky and Sjostrom until the last stroke for sure... remember..."never underestimate the heart of a champion" (cit.)... p.s. looking at how she reacted (and how she started the season, with a world record so early last Winter), last year Ledecky was more than annoyed by the only defeat of her career since London 2012... p.p.s. I just read an interview with Niccolò Campriani...and he says he's not excluding at 100% his comeback (I guess he's being put under heavy, heavy pressure by our NOC...and actually I also think he's too young to really retire from such discipline like shooting -he normally was one of the youngest starters in all the finals he's done in his life)... if this comeback will really happen, it would increase our medal chance at least by 3 (his 2 individual events + the mixed air rifle competition with his fiancèe -wife? I don't know if they got married in the meantime or not- Petra Zublasing)... because if he's coming back, he's gonna be the main favourite in all these events, I think...

yes, I remember the Hejduk's house (I also gave a look at the website of the real estate agency that was selling it)... I guess that many NHL players have similar "small places" to spend their time away from the ice (even if some of them might have an NHL-size rink inside their house, like Hejduk...just not to forget how to skate in the off-season)...

Archery: both teams (6 archers) should qualify, anything less would be a major disappointment Artistic Swimming: full set for sure (8 girls, since the best male artistic swimmer in the world by far is still discriminated by the IOC and FINA ) Athletics: difficult to say, depending on the presence of the relays and the strenght in depth of many disciplines (thanks the new rules)...if in Rio it was little less than 40, this time I think it will be just beyond that (I wanna trust some of our youngsters to improve enough to qualify) Badminton: 0 to 3, more likely 1 or 2 Baseball: almost impossible to say at the moment (it depends on how many major leaguer we're able to collect for the European Qualification tournament in early 2020, since there's no way we can get to the Premier 12 this time round)...I'm quite pessimistic, anyway... Basketball: 3 (very pessimistic view, only the women's 3X3) to 30 (all teams, very, very optimistic view)...more likely, this time we're gonna have at least 1 5-aside team (and the 3X3 girls)... Beach Volleyball: 4 - 6 (1 M + 1 F pairs for sure, possibly a second men's pair) Boxing: I still hope that the IOC gets rid of this farce, but, in a different scenario, probably we're going to be able to qualify 2-3 women and 3-5 men... Canoeing - Slalom: 3 (both men's disciplines and women's K1)... Canoeing - Sprint: 2 (pessimistic view, only Tacchini in men's C-1 and the K-1 200m) to 9 (very optimistic view...men's K-1 200 and 1000, men's K-2 1000, men's K-4 500, men's C-1 and C-2 1000, women's K-1 200)...more likely, something in the middle of that... Cycling - BMX: 0-1, 0 more likely than 1 (unless someone appears from nothing in the freestyle section, which I admit I don't know anything about it)... Cycling - Mountain Bike: 3 men, 1 woman Cycling - Road: full set (6 M + 4 W, I think) Cycling - Track: both team pursuit crews, both omnium races, both madison races for sure...possibly the women's team sprint and the men's keirin (but it's a very long shot at the moment)... Diving: 1-3 men, 1-5 girls (depending a lot on the possible comeback of Tania Cagnotto)... Equestrian: hopefully both the Jumping and Eventing teams, but it's gonna be difficult (especially for the "eventers")... Fencing: 14-18 (18-24, if we consider also the reserves in the team events)...other than the full set would be a real shame, but the epee situation is really scaring at the moment, so it could well happen that we could miss out on both teams in this discipline... Field Hockey: I really hope that the girls this time can make it (16), but it's still a very long shot... Football: 20, only the men have a real shot at it (especially because we're gonna host the finals of the sub-21 champs -the qualifying event in Europe- next year)... Golf: 1-4...more likely 3 (2 M + 1 W) Gymnastics - Artistic: women's team + 1 or 2 male specialists (1 more likely than 2) Gymnastics - Rhythmic: full set (both the group and the 2 individualists) Gymnastics - Trampoline: 0 Handball: are you kidding me? 0 Judo: 5-11 (pessimistic view...-73 & -81 M + -52 & -63 W + 1 Continental repechage spot; optimistic view...5 M + 5 W through the ranking + 1 continental repechage spot)...more likely, 7 or 8 guys in total... Karate: if politics stay away from the mat, we have a chance to be one of the top Countries with up to 7 spots out of possible 8...even with this really stupid criteria...but, since I don't trust IOC and WKF, I guess that 4 spots would be already a success (both Kata places should be safe, and at least Busà and Cardin should qualify in the Kumite classes, even if I hope in the clean sweep among the boys and I trust Semeraro a lot among the girls) Modern Pentathlon: anything less than 4 would be ashame, even if this season's results are not as good as we expected (especially in the men's division)... Rowing: all the men's crews except for the single scull, not less than that...and hopefully 2 or 3 women's boats (both lightweight and senior double sculls and the senior pairs) Rugby Sevens: c'mon, man! 0, what else? Sailing: 5 (reasonably safe boats: men's laser, mixed nacra and both RS:X's) - 11 (optimistic view...adding both 470 boats, women's laser radial and men's finn to the reasonably safe boats)...good chance that at the end the magic number will be 9... Shooting: full set in shotgun shooting (I don't even consider any other option)...hopefully 3-6 pistol and rifle shooters (Giordano and Zublasing should be safe, the rest is just "light up a candle" to the Holy Virgin and wait)... Skateboarding: 1-3 (Ivan Federico at the moment is our only real threat, but Asia Lanzi is growing -she's still a baby- and maybe Alex Sorgente takes his final decision about competing for Italy or the USA)... Softball: it's the eternal fight between ITA and NED...the Dutch are the favourites to take the only European spot, but it's gonna be close, I guess... Sport Climbing: hopefully 1 M + 1 W, but the new Olympic format is a farce and we still have to see the real development of the game in this direction...from now to the Tokyo Games, there will be some surprising results, that's sure... Surfing: 0-3...Fioravanti has slim chances among the boys...and we have 3-4 girls that could even earn a spot (with some...actually, a lot of luck)...however, just 1 spot (it doeasn't matter who wins it) would be great for us... Swimming: too difficult to say right now (too many variables pending atm)...let's try and say 22-25 men and 15-18 women (4 more if the 4*200m free relay does qualify)... Table Tennis: boh??? I hope 1 M + 1 W, but I don't know if we can do it... Taekwondo: 1-3, 1 (Dell'Aquila in the men's -58kg) more likely than 3 Tennis: 1 W (if they want Giorgi in the team and she keeps up with her recent Wimbledon shape) and 2/3 M Triathlon: hopefully 2 M + 3 W Volleyball: both teams...I refuse to think they will miss out... Water Polo: see just above... Weightlifting: given the current situation of this sport, there's a chance to earn 3 M + 2/3 W spots...let's see if it really happens... Wrestling: atm only Chamizo and (if and when his Italian passport comes) Kudiiamagomedov in the men's Freestyle are "real threats" (even for the medals, not only to qualify, which should be easy for them), but we have at least 3/4 other "hopefuls" (Sandron in men's GR, Conyedo -who's in the same situation as Kudiiamagomedov- in men's FS and Caneva & Da Col in women's wrestling) to at least earn their flight to Tokyo... Total Sports: All but 3 (with 6 or 7 more "in between") Optimistic Total Athletes: 480/490 Realistic Total Athletes: 350/360 Pessimistic Total Athletes: I don't want to think of that!

none...

and now you have to face NZL in the cross-over to the quarterfinals (with AUS waiting for the winner of that)... not an easy route, then... meanwhile, since GBR wasted their chance to win their preliminary group (and assuming they end up 2nd, not making any "trick" to go down to a more favourable 3rd position), we could have a bracket with ITA (I don't see them winning against NED, even if the Dutch girls fall asleep on the pitch during the game) vs USA (this US team ) or IND...and the winner of that going against IRL in the quarterfinals, which means that almost surely we're going to have a big time surprising team in the top 4 at the end of the tournament... p.s. very entertaining game last night between AUS and NZL...

lead finals were contested in difficult conditions, after heavy rain...so, technically it wasn't a great competition, with almost all the climbers falling at the only really complicated passage... however, we still have the best specialists at the top of the rankings...so, we can't say that the event was completely turned around by the unfavourable weather... pity for Ondra, who just missed out on the podium by a really small margin at his 1st world cup event of the season... now it's time for the World Cup to take a short break because of the Youth World Championships in Moscow in the next weeks, it will be back just after mid-August with the Munich stage (Boulder only), which will be the last one before the Senior Worlds (in Innsbruck in the first half of September)...

by the way, I did find something that could be good as a birthday present... https://www.nhl.com/news/pittsburgh-penguins-owner-mario-lemieux-quebec-castle-up-for-sale/c-299601468?tid=281396148 if someone wants to give his contribution, I'll be grateful for the rest of my life...

grazie ragazzi... stavo anche pensando di farmi un "piccolo regalo"... https://www.nhl.com/news/pittsburgh-penguins-owner-mario-lemieux-quebec-castle-up-for-sale/c-299601468?tid=281396148 se qualcuno di voi volesse contribuire, gliene sarei grato per sempre...

purtroppo non ho potuto vedere il match di Frank (nè il preliminare della Passoni)... sai com'è...a volte il giorno del proprio compleanno bisogna "distrarsi" un attimo dalle normali attività... anche quando la voglia di celebrarlo è meno di zero (e non certo perchè gli anni cominciano a esser tanti, troppi)...

Janja does it again! what a woman... meanwhile in the speed races, it's an Eastern European show, with a Russian double among the girls and the second win in a row for the man from Ukraine, Boldyrev...

IFSC World Cup, Stage #10 (Arco Di Trento, ITA) Women's Lead 1st, Janja Garnbret (SLO) 2nd, Jessica Pilz (AUT) 3rd, Anak Verhoeven (BEL) Men's Lead 1st, Jakob Schubert (AUT) 2nd, Stefano Ghisolfi (ITA) 3rd, Domen Skofic (SLO) Women's Speed 1st, Iuliia Kaplina (RUS) 2nd, Mariia Krasavina (RUS) 3rd, Anouck Joubert (FRA) Men's Speed 1st, Danyil Boldyrev (UKR) 2nd, Aleksandr Shilov (RUS) 3rd, Reza Alipourshenazandifar (IRI)

probably because we are the only hardcore Olympic fans, really caring for the competitive aspect of the Games, meanwhile IOC, politicians and media networks are only interested in getting as much money as they can in their pockets...

day #2 at the Judo Grand Prix in Zagreb (CRO) Akil Gjakova (men's -73kg), Dominic Ressel (men's -81kg), Nami Nabekura (who defeated the Slovenian ace Tina Trstenjak in the final match of the women's -63kg) and Marie Eve Gahie are today's winners in Zagreb... 10 more Nations won a medal, but no Gold... for Italy, "only" a silver medal at the end of the day, thanks to the -66kg Olympic Champion Fabio Basile, who was second in his new -73kg class... he looked very inspired through the preliminary block, but then he got a slight injury to his right leg that gave him some trobles in the semifinal (still managed to beat Butbul, ISR) and too many troubles in the final, where he had a really poor outing against Gjakova (and beside that, he was also heavily annoyed by the ref, an Asian woman, who gave him a couple of shido quite early in the bout, closing her eyes on Gjakova's repeated escape from fighting)...

sì, dove non si distinguono neanche gli atleti...praticamente non si capisce se si sta guardando una gara maschile o una femminile... p.s. comunque pessima prestazione di Basile (anche se in realtà è stato danneggiato dall'arbitra e da un infortunio alla gamba destra) e di Esposito (e qui non ci sono giustificazioni...aveva 2 shido di vantaggio e li ha sprecati...aveva bloccato a terra Egutidze e si è fatto catapultare come se fosse una piuma) nelle rispettive finali... bravi ad arrivare fin lì, ma poi, specie Esposito, scarsa capacità di concretizzare... p.p.s. comunque per un movimento modesto come il nostro, sprecare Esposito e Marconcini nella stessa categoria mi sembra un lusso che non dovremmo concederci...