phelps

now I know what happened...I'm not interested anymore in those streams (I was wasting some time earlier this afternoon when the game was being played and as I wrote, they stopped the live broadcast when things were getting more interesting... so, I'm not gonna waste any time anymore with them...

don't overestimate yourself...you could always find someone ready to make you cry...

yes, but unfortunately they stopped the live broadcast after less than 7 innings (not to mention that it was just a still picture from behind the catcher and nothing else)... however, good but unlucky outing for Italy...we lost "only" 1-0 after 10 innings of play in a pitchers' duel "for experienced fans" only... MVP for Italy, the starting pitcher Luis Lugo, with only 2 hits given up and good 9 K's in 5 innings...

Today is the opening day of the 29th Haarlem Baseball Week, the most important tournament for National teams held on European soil... This is the official website: https://honkbalweek.nl/ Participating teams: The Kingdom of the Netherlands Cuba Japan Germany Italy Chinese Taipei tournament format: round robin play followed by a modified page-system playoff (with the top 4 teams of the round robin still on course for the final success)... unfortuately, it looks that there's no TV and/or streaming coverage... @heywoodu do you have some info about it?

and last night Italy had a disastrous outing against Spain, who won 8-4... now we have to face the Netherlands already in the semifinals on Saturday, which means that 1 of the 2 European powerhouses (and it's gonna be Italy, I fear) won't qualify for the U-18 World Cup later this year...and for Italy this would be the final nail on the grave of our hopes to earn a spot to the senior 2019 Premier 12 (the 1st and only global qualifier to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics)...

The U18 European Baseball Championship is kicking off in Grosseto, Italy on Monday the 9th of July, 2018. The Euros serve as a qualifier for the 2019 U-18 Baseball World Cup for which the two top teams of the competition will be qualified. Participants Group A Czech Republic France Great Britain The Netherlands Ukraine Group B Germany Ireland Italy Lithuania Spain Full Schedule, Results and Stats http://www.baseballstats.eu/2018/grosseto/schedule.php

Italy repeats as U12 European Baseball Champion in Budapest, Hungary. The italians beat the czechs 11-0 in the Championship game. Earlier that day, Russia finished third with a win over The Netherlands. 14 teams were participating to the competition which served as a qualifier for the 2019 U12 Baseball World Cup to be played in Taïwan. Final standings 1- Italy 2- Czech Republic 3- Russia 4- The Netherlands 5- France 6- Germany 7- Hungary 8- Belgium 9- Ukraine 10- Slovakia 11- Great Britain 12- Austria 13- Poland 14- Croatia

purtroppo il governo eterogeneo che ci troviamo temo finirà per imporre un obbrobrio "misto" Torino-Milano, azzerando ogni possibilità di essere anche soltanto presi in considerazione dal CIO (a meno che non si ritirino tutte le altre candidate o presunte tali, Sapporo e Calgary incluse)... e invece l'unica soluzione che, senza se e senza ma, potrebbe avere un minimo di chances è Milano "da sola" (con tutti gli sport del ghiaccio in città -quindi con almeno un nuovo palasport grande e davvero "moderno" da affiancare al Forum, non certo con il "nuovo" Palalido come sede credibile per l'Hockey- e gli sport della neve e il budello ghiacciato tra Valtellina e St.Moritz, non certo con le sedi flop del 2006, Cesana e Pragelato)... in ogni caso io rimango dell'idea che i pochi soldi che sono destinati allo sport Italiano sarebbe meglio, molto meglio, indirizzarli alla preparazione degli atleti olimpici e ai vivai degli stessi e non sprecarli per una vetrina -di serie B, perchè è inutile girarci intorno, i Giochi Invernali sono la serie B dell'Olimpismo- che poi ci porterebbe, come già visto dopo Torino 2006, a passare altri anni senza possibilità di essere competitivi a livello globale per mancanza di risorse economiche e umane... io tifo Stoccolma...sempre e comunque...

we're already at the Quarterfinal stage... today's schedule top half of the draw Sweden vs Netherlands France vs Spain bottom half of the draw Serbia vs Hungary Italy vs Portugal interesting match-ups between FRA and ESP and between SRB and HUN (who are playing at home, in Sopron)... quite surprising to see RUS already out at this stage of the tournament (yesterday they lost to Sweden in the round of 16)...

actually, that's a really disappointing result for Visca...she has almost 57m as her PB...yesterday she should have won with margin, but I guess she's just another promising youth class athlete who can't even make a decent transition to the junior level (not even counting how many of those can't make it to the senior level)...

that's the problem...this year it won't be our "usual" situation, since Chinese methods are well known...

Olympic Champion Kikkan Randall (USA) diagnosed with breast cancer... apparently it's been diagnosed early enough and the prognosis is good... https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2018/07/11/kikkan-randall-breast-cancer-olympic-gold-medalist/775482002/ https://twitter.com/kikkanimal good luck to her...I hope in a full and (relatively) quick recovery...

around the NHL in your ordinary Summer days... Nikita Kucherov signs 76 million US $ 8-year deal extension with Tampa Bay... https://www.nhl.com/news/nikita-kucherov-signs-eight-year-extension-with-lightning/c-299452510 and it looks that the Florida team won't stop their market with this move... https://www.nhl.com/news/steve-yzerman-talks-nikita-kucherov-extension/c-299458778 on the other side, the NHL unveiled the 2019 Winter Classic logo (the jury is still out to deliberate if I like it or not )... https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-unveils-2019-winter-classic-logo/c-299451760 finally, some gossip (no comment on that )... this is actually from last week, but in case you missed it... https://www.nhl.com/news/pk-subban-lindsey-vonn-independence-day-bathing-suits/c-299414982?tid=281396148 and here are the latest news... https://www.nhl.com/news/pk-subban-sports-illustrated-cover-short-shifts/c-299457944?tid=281396148 p.s. I'm just asking myself: "Is Lindsey who has a bad influence on him or viceversa? or are they both "really like it does look" and therefore are they the "perfect match" as the magazine claims? )...

and, as expected for a sport event held in China, it looks that Live Scoring and Live Streaming will be only available through their website...and not through the usual sites like Fencing Worldwide or Youtube, which is really scary... I hope for some late (good) news...but I'm not that confident...

Official Schedule http://www.wuxifencing2018.cn/en/jsrc.html Live Scoring and Results Recap https://fencingtimelive.com/tournaments/eventSchedule/63E63654903643BFB7B643531CB24D67#today

Fencing FIE World Championships 2018 Wuxi (CHN) - 19 July 2018 - 27 July 2018 Totallympics Results Thread

Speedskating Day #7 & Freestyle Day #3, 2018 Worlds Final Recap The final curtain went down on the 2018 edition of the Inline Speed Skating and Inline Freestyle World Championhships in Arnhem and the closing feelings can only be positive: a successful format unified speed, freestyle and side events in a urban cluster downtown Arnhem. World Skate President Sabatino Aracu: "I would like to thank the Netherland Federation and TIGsport for the great job done. These world championships fit perfectly the core of our world, bringing the sports into the hearth of the city. And I would like to thank the athletes and the coaches: their passion and perseverance make all of us so proud to be part of this great family!" SPEEDSKATING MARATHON Since Nanjing 2016, the Junior and Senior categories have been unified: the Women started at ten o clock and the Men at twelve. The 42.195mt have been divided in 7 laps from the starting line of the road circuit throught the famous Anrhem bridge of the movie "A bridge so far" and back to the road starting line. In the women race, Ho-Chen Yang crossed the line 0.005 seconds before Francesca Lollobrigida who finished the race in 1:10:33.440. The Italian champion arrived at the final sprint together with the two Colombians Johana Viveros, desqualified for fault, and the Junior promise Maria Camila Guerra Guevara who got the Bronze in 1:10:33.602. The Chinese champion Dan Guo, crossed the line fourth. Gold - Ho Chen Yang - CHINESE TAIPEI Silver - Francesca Lollobrigida - ITALY Bronze - Maria Camila Guerra Guevara - COLOMBIA Also in the men race, a Junior guy was able to reach the podium: Jason Suttels representing Belgium won the Bronze Medal - 1:02:15.988 - behind the Ecuadorian Jorge David Bolaños Villacorte - 1:02:15.626. Felix Rijnen was the first to cross the line in 1:02:15.607. Gold - Felix Rijhnen - GERMANY Silver - Jorge Davide Bolaños Villacorte - ECUADOR Bronze - Jason Sutterls - BELGIUM FREESTYLE The last competitions in the Freestyle Worlds were the battle for all the categories. Junior Women Gold - Sofia Bogdanova - RUSSIA Silver - Anna Smirnova - RUSSIA Bronze - Liu Jia Xin - CHINA Junior Men Gold - Gleb Velikanov - RUSSIA Silver - Gu Kun Qi - CHINA Bronze - Zeng Chen Yu - CHINA Senior Women Gold - Vasilisa Petushok - BIELORUSSIA Silver - Daria Kuznetsova - RUSSIA Bronze - Zoe Granjon - FRANCE Senior Men Gold - Zhang Hao - CHINA Silver - Lorenzo Guslandi - ITALY Bronze - Valerio Degli Agostini - ITALY

and now it's game over... as we wrote many times, it was quite a sub-par edition off the European Juniors, with very few great talents, who were also not totally focused on the event, doing just what they did need to grab the medals they expected to win... for Italy (for us the shame of getting no gold medal, despite the 14 podium places, 4th highest number overall), it was one of the worst appearances at the EJCs in the last 15/20 years, with Ceccon looking more or less a phantom, Burdisso not swimming the clockings we expected from him and the remaining boys and girls doing what they could, but not really rising to the occasion... last day's champions: Men's 400m Medley: Maksim Stupin, 4.16.79 Women's 100m Backstroke: Daria Vaskina, 59.90 (best performance of the day) Men's 100m Breastroke: Vladislav Gerasimenko, 1.01.36 Women's 100m Breastroke: Kotryna Teterevkova, 1.08.03 Men's 200m Freestyle: Kristof Milak, 1.47.19 Women's 200m IM: Anastasiia Sorokina, 2.14.38 Men's 100m Fly: Kristof Milak, 51.78 ( Burdisso is 3rd with 52.88, after swimming 51.73 in Rome last week ) Women's 50m Fly: Anastasiya Shkurdai, 26.44 Men's 50m Freestyle: Bjoern Seeliger, 22.27 Women's 4*200m Free Relay: Hungary, 8.02.24 Men's 4*100m Medley Relay: Russia, 3.35.58 in the final medal table, Russia dominate the field with 18 Golds, followed by Hungary with 12. Great Britain, despite a final day without success, keep the 3rd spot with 6 Golds. Lithuania and Sweden enlarged the Gold medal club to 9 Countries (a more reasonable spreading, if compared to the early days). Full Medal Table here: http://ejc2018.microplustiming.com/indexEJC2018_web.php?s=TG9hZE1lZGFscygpOw==&cat=ASM&page=045&spec=005&bat=001&td=CGR1&hg=19:08&descIT=TWVuIC0gNHgxMDAgbSBNaXN0aSAtIEZpbmFsZQ==&descEN=TWVuIC0gNCB4IDEwMCBtIE1lZGxleSAtIEZpbmFs&descFR=SG9tbWVzIC0gNHgxMDAgbSBRdWF0cmUgTmFnZXMgLSBGaW5hbGU=&curCatSel_M_F=&sport=Swimming

unfortunately I couldn't find a better picture... I hope someone sooner or later posts a video showing a ride around the course, like they did before Rio...

http://sportscamp.jp/en/facilities/1222224107

yeas, I agree... it's obvious that Kolesnikov and Milak are totally focused on the major Europeans and they're here just to grab the medals with the minimum effort, so I wouldn't mind too much about their timings... about Burdisso, Friday's time over 200m (fly) is his PB (actually, the new Italian junior record), but his time over the 100m is a lot slower than last week in Rome (but it was only a semifinal, let's wait and see what he does in the final)... about the people becoming world class in the future...it depends on what we want to consider "world class"...if we think about future Olympic Gold medallists I guess that only Milak and Kolesnikov have the stuff for that, meanwhile I'm not convinced at all by Kesely...I see her more like a Kapas kind of swimmer rather than a new Ledecky...so, very good, but not so dominant... here in Italy there are also a lot of expectations on Thomas Ceccon...I don't know what's up with him this week, but he's clearly not even close to his best shape (he's a 53.x swimmer over the 100m back, well below the 2-min mark over the 200m and he also has a 1.54 time over the 200m medley in the short course, so I can't explain what's doing right now -he's even a lot worse than last year)... moreover, they say he still has to build all of his muscles (in fact, he's 2m tall and still very slim and with a childish looking, so I think he still has big growth margins)... let's see if they're right or he's just another burnt talent (like many others among the young Italian swimmers in the recent past)...maybe he's gonna be one of those late comers (relatively, he's only not yet 17 years young) who are quite usual to Italian swimming (and sport in general)...

Freestyle Day #2 The Slalom Classic is one of the first-born discipline in the inline freestyle: the athletes skate on a musical arrangement and the judges asign scores on the base of technical and artistic criteria. On a technical side, the tricks must be blended to allow the athletes moving fluently and, of course, the speed and the rythm of the performance are important as well. In addition, the skaters should integrate different slalom tricks such as sitting, spinning, wheeling and so on and the difficulty of the performed tricks affects the technical score. The artistic score is assigned paying attention to the body performance, music expression and trick management. In the first competitions, Sofia Bogdanova lost the title and got Silver medal; Gold went to her team mate Anna Smirnova and Bronze to Chen Chu Yao, from China. Slalom Classic Junior Women Gold - Anna Smirnova - RUSSIA Silver - Sofia Bogdanova - RUSSIA Bronze - Chen Chu Yao - CHINA It was then the turn of the Junior Men: Shibagaki Taiki won the duel for the Gold over Gu Kun Qi, the defending champion; Bronze went to Gleb Velikanov. Slalom Classic Junior Men Gold - Shibagaki Taiki - JAPAN Silver - Gu Kun Qi - CHINA Bronze - Gleb Velikanov - RUSSIA Su Fei Qian redeemed the Bronze of the 2017 Worlds in Nanjing and conquered once again the Gold medal enchanting public and judges; Silver medal went to Chiu Yin-Hsuan who ranked forth in the past edition; Daria Kuznetsova got the third step of the podium - she was second in Nanjing. Slalom Classic Senior Women Gold - Su Fei Qian - CHINA Silver - Chiu Yin-Hsuan - CHINESE TAIPEI Bronze - Daria Kuznetsova - RUSSIA The last competition was the Senior Men. Zhang Hao confirmed the Gold of 2017. Slalom Classic Senior Men Gold - Zhang Hao - CHINA Silver - Shibagaki Masayoshi - JAPAN Bronze - Lorenzo Guslandi - ITALY

Freestyle Day #1 (Part #2) The competitions started with the speed slalom: concentration, focus and physical strenghts are needed to win the runs even more with the KO system. Traditionally, the European countries used to win these competitions but in the last few years the Asians came back and here in Arnhem, Chinese Taipei ruled. Junior Women Gold - Yu EN Ting - CHINESE TAIPEI Silver - CHen Lu Tsai - CHINESE TAIPEI Bronze - Francesca Pettinari - ITALY Junior Men Gold - Jui Lun Cheng - CHINESE TAIPEI Silver - Yu Hsiang Cheng - CHINESE TAIPEI Bronze - Hsu Chieh Lai - CHINESE TAIPEI Senior Women Gold - Lily Granjon - FRANCE Silver - Wei Jia Wang - CHINESE TAIPEI Bronze - Po Yi Chen CHINESE TAIPEI Senior Men Gold - Yu Jun Yan -CHINA Silver - Jimmy Fort - FRANCE Bronze - Yu-Chi Chen - CHINESE TAIPEI It was then the turn of the Classic Pair and the Italians Lorenzo Guslandi and Valerio Degli Agostini came back on the first step of the podium after the debacle in Nanjing where they ranked 6th. The defending champions Hao Zhang and Ye Hao Qin - China got the silver medal; Bronze to Mu-Lum Hsieh and Yin-Hsuan Chiu - Chinese Taipei. Classic Pair Gold - Valerio Degli Agostini/Lorenzo Guslandi - ITALY Silver - Ye Hao Qin/Zhang Hao - CHINA Bronze - Chiu Yin-Hsuan/Hsieh Mu-Lum - CHINESE TAIPEI

Speedskating Day #6 Recap During the day the 100mt races took place: qualification in the morning and quarter, semifinals and finals in the afternoon. 100mt sprint Junior Women Two colombians in the final for the Gold: Andrea Plaza Bolaño, who passed against Peng from Chinese Taipei, and Valeria Rodriguez Lopez, winning over Mathilde Pedronno - France who got the Bronze Medal. Bolaño was in the front since the gun shot till the finish line. Gold - Andrea Plaza Bolaño - COLOMBIA Silver - Valeria Rodriguez Lopez - COLOMBIA Bronza - Mathilde Pedronno - FRANCE 100mt Sprint Junior Men Alejandro Huertas Vergara, from Colombia, passed against Chang - Chinese Taipei and run in the final against the American Tinson Sabien who won against Ivan Galar - Spain. Galar got the Bronze Medal. Sabien Tinsen passed both the quarter and semifinal at the fotofinish and got the Gold. Gold - Sabien Tinsen - USA Silver - Alejandro Huertas Vergara - COLOMBIA Bronze - Ivan Galar - SPAIN 100mt sprint Senior Women Also in the Senior Women the duel was a "Colombian affair": Yesenia Escobar won the semifinal against Chen, from Cinese Taipei. Erin Jackson could do nothing against Geiny Pajaro who got the second place in the final. Chen got the Bronze Medal. Gold - Geiny Pajaro - COLOMBIA Silver - Yesenia Escobar - COLOMBIA Bronze - Chen Ying-Chu - CHINESE TAIPEI 100mt sprint Senior Men The Spanish Ioseba Fernandez won the semifinal against Simon Albrecht, who started badly, and got the chance to defend the title. Edwin Estrada went to the final by beating the South Korean Kim Jinyoung. Simon Albrecht was injuried and Kim Jinyoung got the Bronze Medal by running alone the race. Estrada and Fernandez were so close but Fernandez crossed the line an handful hundredth of seconds before the Colombian and got the Gold. Fernandez dedicated this victory to his friend Nil now in the hospital. Gold - Ioseba Fernandez - SPAIN Silver - Edwin Estrada - COLOMBIA Bronze - Kim Jinyoung - SOUTH KOREA Tomorrow the Marathon will be run downtown on the traditional 42.195mt: The Senior and Junior Women will start first at 10.30: at 12.00 the road will be all for the Men, both Junior and Senior.

unlucky day for Italy and Stefano Ghisolfi, who ended up 4th on countback in the men's Lead... not a good day for us in the Speed events, instead...