phelps

the Boston duo Krejci and Pastrnak are just illegal with the IIHF-size rinks... they have completely changed the outlook of their team... and Pastrnak (what a player he is!) has just killed my prediction (I had the Russians winning by 1)... meanwhile I just missed the Canadian winning margin against NOR by a single goal (I had +6)... not a bad day, I'd say...if it wasn't for this OT winner by the #88 in red... p.s. imho, this CZE-RUS has been the best match of this championship so far (not that there have been that many to remember)...

on the contrary, I think it will kill many mid-tier teams hopes... the top team will always have 2 swimmer per discipline...those standard are tough, but you can be sure that USA, AUS, RUS, GBR, JPN and many other powerhouses won't have any problem to find 2 men/women that can match those times (even Italy has at least 3/4 girls who could swim 4.38 or close in the women's 400 IM, for instance)... it's the small Nations that could find even the B-standard outside their chances... imho, the A-standard is correct as it is...it's the B-time that's a bit too hard and should be slightly amended...

So, here's the final recap of today's action... we have 7 Countries with 2 or more athletes in the Gold Medal Bouts (TUR, AZE and ITA 3, CRO, FRA, ESP and UKR 2 each)... other 7 instead only have 1 finalist (AUT, BIH, GRE, HUN, MKD, SRB and SUI)... finally, 14 Nations have 1 or more athletes qualified for the Bronze Medal bouts... In total, we have 28 Countries still hoping to end up in the final medal table (14 of them being sure of getting at least 1 medal)... for Italy, it's been a decent but not exceptional day...we still have 3 finalists and 5 other people in the Bronze Medal bouts, but the expectations were definitely higher, especially our stars Busà and Cardin missed out badly their goal (which was obviously to win another European Gold)...and the fact that they got so close is not a consolation...actually, it's the opposite...it just adds more and more regrets...

Men's Kumite -60kg Gold Medal Bout: Angelo Crescenzo (ITA) vs Emil Pavlov (MKD) Bronze Medal Bouts: Johan Lopes (FRA) vs Evgeny Plakhutin (RUS) & Dominik Imrich (SVK) vs Kalvis Kalnins (LAT) Women's Kumite -50kg Gold Medal Bout: Bettina Plank (AUT) vs Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu (TUR) Bronze Medal Bouts: Mariya Koulinkovitch (BLR) vs Nurana Aliyeva (AZE) & Alexandra Pop (ROU) vs Alexandra Recchia (FRA)

now we still have to complete the field of the men's -60kg (we are at the quarterfinal stage) and of the women's -50kg (Bettina Plank, AUT has already won the Pool B -and therefore she's the first finalist- but the Pool A is still stuck at round #1...so, there's still a long way to go for those girls)... we'll have the full results from today's action later tonight... by for now...

and finally Cardin lost a bout she had already won against the Ukranian...2-1 ahead, she was hit by a 2-point waza-ari with 7 seconds left when she should have had the full control of the match...shame on her...

naaa...we still have almost all the close matches where it's easy to pick the wrong winner...the real competition has yet to start...

the previous match against the Latvian seem to have waken up Sara...in the quarters she destroyed the Spaniard Fernandez Osorio by a score of 4-0... now she has to face her long time rival Anzhelika Terlyuga from Ukraine in the semifinal...

power play goal in OT by the US...end of the Latvian dream (and of my nightmare)... at least I got some points for the right winner, even if I missed the goal difference (I had a comfortable +3 for the North-Americans)...

and just another perfect score for my predictions... thanks, Slovakia... meanwhile I just can't say the same to the US boys, who are driving me crazy this afternoon...now I hope they can win in this OT (or PS, if needed) so to pick at least the eventual winner of the game...

wow! finally some good (very good, I suspect) luck for Italy, with Sara Cardin beating Liene Prikaza (LAT) only at the Hantei in the women's -55kg...

Women's Kumite -55kg Gold Medal Bout: Alesandra Hasani (CRO) vs Anzhelika Terliuga (UKR) Bronze Medal Bouts: Tuba Yakan (TUR) vs Carla Burkitt (ENG) & Sara Cardin (ITA) vs Jana Bitsch (GER)

Men's Kumite -67kg Gold Medal Bout: Stefan Joksic (SRB) vs Burak Uygur (TUR) Bronze Medal Bouts: Stefan Pokorny (AUT) vs Tural Aghalarzade (AZE) & Yves Martial Tadissi (HUN) vs Luca Maresca (ITA) Women's Kumite -61kg Gold Medal Bout: Anita Serogina (UKR) vs Lucie Ignace (FRA) Bronze Medal Bouts: Bettina Alstadsaether (NOR) vs Tjasa Ristic (SLO) & Merve Coban (TUR) vs Noemie Kornfeld (SUI)

and another early elimination for Italy...this time is Laura Pasqua in the women's -61kg class (a clean and clear 0-3 against Merve Coban, TUR)...

at least, Uygur went through to the final...so, Maresca can still play his chances to win a consolation Bronze... however, this day is turning into a very bad day for Italy...we lost one of our defending champions in rd #1 and we also missed out on 2 finals that should have been reached by Busà and Maresca, corrupted judging or not (they should have won their bouts well before going to the Hantei, which is always a risky situation, especially when you're facing people coming from certain Countries)

Men's Kumite -75kg Gold Medal Bout: Rafael Aghayev (AZE) vs Gabor Harspataki (HUN) Bronze Medal Bouts: Stanislav Horuna (UKR) vs Enes Garibovic (CRO) & Luigi Busà (ITA) vs Ruslans Sadikovs (LAT)

of course I couldn't watch how it really went, but I have more than a feeling that the men's -75kg semifinal between the 2 legends of Karate Luigi Busà (ITA) and Rafael Aghayev (AZE) has been some kind of a compensation for the facts from earlier today... I have a lot more than a feeling that Aghayev didn't deserve the favor of the judges at the Hantei... and also in the men's -67kg class an Italian athlete (Luca Maresca, in this case) loses his quarterfinal bout thanks to an unfavourable Hantei (against Burak Uygur from Turkey, so, always from the same geographical area)... is it just bad luck or should I think about something else?

Women's Kumite +68kg Gold Medal Bout: Eleni Chatziliadou (GRE) vs Anne Laure Florentin (FRA) Bronze Medal Bouts: Laura Palacio Gonzalez (ESP) vs Andriana Vicovac (SRB) & Anamarija Celan Bujas (CRO) vs Dragana Konjevic (MNE) Women's Kumite -68kg Gold Medal Bout: Elena Quirici (SUI) vs Irina Zaretska (AZE) Bronze Medal Bouts: Silvia Semeraro (ITA) vs Cristina Vizcaino Gonzalez (ESP) & Angela Mojsovska (MKD) vs Ivona Cavar (BIH)

so, men's -58kg and women's -46kg seem to remain a full mystery (the only thing Iknow is the Dutch Langeroudi being in the semifinals thanks to a victory over Corelli of Italy in the smallest women's category)... meanwhile we know the finals of the other 2 classes: Men's -54kg Adrian Vicente (ESP) vs Magomed Gagiev (RUS) Vito Dell'Aquila (ITA) and Deniz Dagdelen (TUR) won the Bronze Medal Women's -49kg Kristina Tomic (CRO) vs Natalia Antipenko (RUS) Patimat Abakarova (AZE) and Yasmina Aziez (FRA) won the Bronze Medal p.s. you can find the video of the semifinal between Antipenko and Aziez on the French Federation's Facebook page (and it looks that the Russian win isn't that clear, as often happens in the combat sports, especially when the Russians play at home)...

yes, it's the Russian Channel Match!TV you can find many links to streaming and IPTV for that channel (unfortunately most of them being really poor in terms of picture quality)...

so, it was actually a successful Italian appeal against the result of the quarterfinal bout between Martina and Mamayev... therefore, the following semifinal bout between the Azeri and the Portuguese Hernandez was cancelled and a new one between Martina and Hernandez took place... and finally, the Portuguese lost once again...so, it's Martina that goes through to the Gold Medal final...

the live scoring system must have gone crazy... in the men's -84kg the semifinals were already completed, when the table draw went back to the quarterfinal between Martina and Mamayev and signaled that the final score of that bout has been overturned to 2-1 for the Italian... I just don't understand how it's possible (and if there's a chance of a successful appeal, why the Azeri has already played his semifinal bout against the Portugese? now this guy would be enormously in disadvantage if he has to repeat his effort against a new opponent)... let's see how this story develops (and in any case, such a mess at the European Champs is definitely not a good advertising for the sport)...

I just can't believe it! Dell'Aquila (ITA) was comfortably leading 36-18 his semifinal bout in the men's -54kg class against the Spaniard Vicente and lost because of the 10th warning with only 14 seconds to go! how stupid must someone be to take such kind of a risk???

Men's Kumite +84kg Gold Medal Bout: Shahin Atamov (AZE) vs Ivan Klepic (BIH) Bronze Medal Bouts: Babacar Seck Sakho (ESP) vs Tyron-Darnell Lardy (NED) & Gogita Arkania (GEO) vs Jonathan Horne (GER) Shameful performance by the defendig champion Simone Marino (ITA), who lost in round #1 against the unknown Tanel Paabo from Estonia... he's just having an awful season...and probably he's going to compromise his chances to earn a direct spot through the World Ranking for Tokyo 2020... Men's Kumite -84kg Gold Medal Bout: Ivan Kvesic (CRO) vs Michele Martina (ITA) Bronze Medal Bouts: Valerii Chobotar (UKR) vs Ugur Aktas (TUR) & Helio Hernandez (POR) vs Aykhan Mamayev (AZE) Unlucky result here for Italy, with Michele Martina losing in the quarterfinals against Mamayev (AZE) only because of the Hantei from the Ref and the Judges (he was 2-0 head and let the Azeri recover in the final seconds of the bout)... at least he should have a chance for the repechage, if the Azeri goes through to the final... EDIT: see what happened in the following couple of posts...

Langeroudi (NED) is the first girl to qualify for the semis in the women's -46kg class...she defeated Martina Corelli (ITA) 22-20 in a very close fight...