phelps

do I really have to explain why I vote for Leticia Bufoni? https://www.instagram.com/leticiabufoni/?hl=it

well, I don't follow motorsports that much, so to me (I wrote that those are my absolutely personal picks and not the given truth ) he's a newcomer (in the sense that he was earning his place in the general sports headlines week after week for the first time*, not literally, of course...otherwise it would be almost impossible to find someone that strictly fits to this category...even in the US Sports awards they do normally interpretate this category in that wider way)... *and in any case this was only his second season in Moto2 class, so he was really I don't say new, but not an established contender for sure... unexpected...well, in this case his world title was really unexpected...nobody here in Italy had any Italian rider even close to winning a world title this year before the season started...

here in Italy the's no official ceremony about the "athletes of the year" and basically, all media operators name their own "man/woman/team of the year"... but the most prestigious award of this kind is surely the "Gazzetta Sports Awards", voting and ceremony organized by the famous Italian daily sports newspaper... the main problem with this, however, is the fact that the results are determined by the fans vote (everybody can register and express his/her preference in each of the 9 categories), which means that the final result is highly influenced by the popularity of the sport and/or the mediatic impact of the connected event and there's no real technical evaluation of the degree of difficulty of those achievements... however, the event has its own website and you can see how it works and who are the remaining candidates in each category (the journalists of the newspaper have chosen 8 nominees in each class and then the fans voting -today's the last day- will determine the 3 finalists in each category...then, from tomorrow until Dec. 3rd, there will be a new voting procedure to choose the winner of the award in each category...and on Dec. 4th there will be the actual ceremony with the official announcement of the winners -who get a beautiful and very precious ring as the prize for their win)... here's the website (where you can see the 8 remaining candidates in each category...just pass with your mouse on the small picture to see the name and/or click on "Vota il tuo Preferito" to see how voting is going right now): https://sportsawards.gazzetta.it/categorie/ my (absolutely personal...some of them won't even make the top 3) picks: Uomo dell'anno (man of the year): that's a no brainer...Francesco Molinari Donna dell'anno (woman of the year): that's really difficult...I'd rather choose a 3-way tie between Sofia Goggia, Arianna Fontana and Michela Moioli...but if I only have to choose 1, I'd go for Moioli (because she didn't win an Olympic Gold medal only, but she dominated the entire season like no one else)... Squadra dell'anno (team of the year): the actual vote is almost a plebiscite for the woman's volleyball team, but my choice is definitely different, as the girls didn't even win the title...my team of the year is the men's quadruple sculls (Rowing), which came back on top of the world after 18 years and dominated European and World champs but it's not even in the last 8 candidates list... Allenatore dell'anno (coach of the year): once again...the actual vote is only about Davide Mazzanti and the women's volleyball, but my personal pick is another man not even in the top 8 list, Christian Minotti (Simona Quadarella's coach)... Best Performance of the year: once again, I don't agree at all with the official choice...to me, this time it can't be (it should and it must not be) anything else than a 3-way tie between the 3 Olympic Gold medals in Pyeongchang... Exploit dell'anno (Most Unexpected success of the year): very difficult to choose one single event, but I go with someone already in the actual list of candidates, Francesco "Pecco" Bagnaia... Promessa dell'anno (Most Promising athlete): a good 2-way tie between Giorgia Villa and Letizia Paternoster (even if Letizia is somehow already a well established competitor also among the senior ranks)... Rivelazione dell'anno (Newcomer of the year): well, I don't understand why they didn't include Francesco Bagnaia in this category...if there's a successful newcomer among the Italia athletes, it must be him... Paralympic Athlete of the year: a no brainer...Martina Caironi (women) and Alex Zanardi (men) are the Italian stars of Paralympic sports...

Men's Team Epee (Bern, SUI) Final Results Gold: Russia Silver: Italy Bronze: South Korea Semifinals: Italy b. South Korea 45-31 Russia b. Hungary 45-29 Bronze Medal Match: South Korea b. Hungary 36-28 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. Italy 31-27 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/559/results/rank

Women's Team Foil (Algiers, ALG) Final Results Gold: France Silver: Russia Bronze: Italy Semifinals: France b. Italy 45-39 Russia b. Hungary 45-26 Bronze Medal Match: Italy b. Hungary 43-36 Gold Medal Match: France b. Russia 37-36 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/492/results/rank

I'm afraid you put the Irish Flag to the Ivory Coast in the women's and mixed events...

Grand Slam tournament in Osaka...and as expected, the hosts swept the rest of the world out badly... 11 of the 14 possible Gold medals in fact went to the Country of the Rising Sun... and 6 of those 11 wins were underlined by an all-Japan Gold Medal match, too (moreover, 4 times Japan won at least 3 medals -Gold/Silver/Bronze- with the icing on the cake of the women's -63kg class, where they won all 4 medals -Gold, Silver and 2x Bronze)... the remaining 3 Gold medals finally went to Canada (Jessica Klimkait in the women's -57kg class), Cuba (Idalys Ortiz in the women's +78kg, where she upset the Japanese Armada made by Sone, Asahina and Inamori) and Netherlands (the already mentioned Henk Grol in the men's +100kg, the only weight class in the entire weekend with no Japanese players in the Gold Medal match)... Full Results here: https://live.ijf.org/gs_jpn2018/results

yeah, we have a new German coach just for that... happy to see that our money hasn't been wasted... meanwhile Plaikner comeback's effect is still to be seen...

nooooo...that's a big spoiler! I just wanted to watch it later today... naaa...just kidding... by the way, for those who might be interested in watching some women's football from Oceania, all games are available in streaming on the OFC website (for the older ones you have to search a bit through the pages)... https://www.oceaniafootball.com/category/2018-ofc-womens-nations-cup/ p.s. so, now we know the semifinal pairings: it will be Papua New Guinea vs Fiji and New Zealand vs New Caledonia

2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships Final Medal Table CHN, 4 / 1 / 0 TPE, 2 / 0 / 0 IND, 1 / 1 / 2 PRK, 1 / 0 / 2 GER, 1 / 0 / 1 IRL, 1 / 0 / 0 UKR, 0 / 2 / 0 TUR, 0 / 1 / 2 KAZ, 0 / 1 / 1 NED, 0 / 1 / 1 BUL, 0 / 1 / 0 COL, 0 / 1 / 0 THA, 0 / 1 / 0 USA, 0 / 0 / 3 JPN, 0 / 0 / 2 AUS, 0 / 0 / 1 BLR, 0 / 0 / 1 KOR, 0 / 0 / 1 MGL, 0 / 0 / 1 RUS, 0 / 0 / 1 WAL, 0 / 0 / 1

2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships Medallists recap Women's -48kg Gold: Mary Kom Silver: Hanna Okhota Bronze: Madoka Wada & Kim Hyang Mi Women's -51kg Gold: Pang Chol Mi Silver: Zhaina Shekerbekova Bronze: Tsukimi Kamiki & Virginia Fuchs Women's -54kg Gold: Lin Yu-Ting Silver: Stoyka Petrova Bronze: Nandintsetseg Myagmardulam & Kristy Lee Harris Women's -57kg Gold: Ornella Gabriele Wahner Silver: Sonia Bronze: Jo Son Hwa & Jemyma Betrian Women's -60kg Gold: Kellie Anne Harrington Silver: Sudaporn Seesondee Bronze: Karina Ibragimova & Oh Yeon Ji Women's -64kg Gold: Dou Dan Silver: Mariia Bova Bronze: Sema Caliskan & Simranjit Kaur Women's -69kg Gold: Chen Nien-Chin Silver: Gu Hong Bronze: Nadine Apetz & Lovlina Borgohain Women's -75kg Gold: Li Qian Silver: Nouchka Mireille Fontijn Bronze: Louise Lauren Price & Naomi Graham Women's -81kg Gold: Wang Lina Silver: Jessica Sinisterra Bronze: Viktoria Kebikava & Elif Guneri Women's +81kg Gold: Yang Xiaoli Silver: Sennur Demir Bronze: Danielle Perkins & Kristina Tkacheva

Men's Individual Epee (Bern, SUI) Final Results Gold: Kazuyasu Minobe Silver: Bas Verwijlen Bronze: Federico Vismara & Dmitriy Alexanin Semifinals: Minobe b. Vismara 15-11 Verwijlen b. Alexanin 15-10 Gold Medal Match: Minobe b. Verwijlen 9*-9 (*=Winner on Priority) Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/385/results/rank

Women's Individual Foil (Algiers, ALG) Final Results Gold: Elisa Di Francisca Silver: Sera Azuma Bronze: Martina Batini & Inna Deriglazova Semifinals: Di Francisca b. Batini 15-6 Azuma b. Deriglazova 15-12 Gold Medal Match: Di Francisca b. Azuma 15-11 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2019/125/results/rank

Maybe I made a little confusion with the double of Felderer and Gufler, who were actually second in Nations Cup... however, she would have been better than Robatscher...that's sure... and I would have liked her (and not only her) to get at least a chance to race in the world cup event...

Men's Epee "Final 4" in Bern (start scheduled @ 5 p.m. CET) Women's Foil "Final 4" in Algiers (start scheduled @ 6 p.m. CET)

and the "fencing moms" start their "new" career with a podium finish, as both Elisa Di Francisca and Martina Batini won their quarterfinals bouts (vs Korobeynikova and Volpi respectively) and are through to the semifinals... in the final 4 they will find the Japanese that never surrenders, Serao Azuma, and "Queen" Inna Deriglazova, who survived a good scare vs the young Martina Favaretto...

maybe he's playing the wrong sport...then, some women's tennis would fit him better, I guess...

it was definitely a mistake... i just watched the quarterfinals a few minutes ago and Bas was definitely there (and won against the German Lukas Bellman)...

women's foil back to basics in Algiers... right now we're at the quarterfinals' stage and we have 4 Italian girls (among them, both our "fencing moms" Di Francisca and Batini + our established no.1 Alice Volpi + our raising star Martina Favaretto), 3 Russian girls (their stars Deriglazova and Korobeynikova + Anastasia Ivanova) and only 1 girl representing the rest of the world...and it's not a casualty that she's Serao Azuma from Japan (even if she's not the most expected name among the Rising Sun Country girls)... meanwhile in bern in the men's epee we have some really surprising results so far, with Vervijlen, Minobe, Alexanin and the young Italian Federico Vismara already through to the "final 4"... our biggest talent Davide Di Veroli, at his debut in the senior world cup, lost in the second round to Michele Niggeler by a score of 5-4, after a classic low scoring tactical bout...his lack of experience played its part, I guess...

lucky day on "her" track... let's see if she can do the same (if not better) on the other tracks around the world... and if she can perform consistently, which has always been her main problem in this first part of her senior career... p.s. after her result, I'm even more convinced that Hofer would have been really close (if not on) the podium today...

because the AIBA rules among fighters tied with the same original rank give prority to the guy defeated by the eventual Gold medal winner (which in this case is Yoel Finol)...

just asking myself why Zoeggeler didn't give a chance to the Italian youngsters to start also in the real world cup race, rather then keeping them competing in the Nations Cup only? (where Verena Hofer was second and probably today would have had a good chance to make the top 6/8 overall...for sure she would have been faster than those 2 disasters name Voetter and Robatscher)... and he did the same with the boys, especially the double with Felderer and Gufler (they were also 2nd in the Nations Cup ahead of more than half the field of those who are going to race today and tomorrow)... meh...

Arianna Errigo out in round #1 against Katarzyna Lachman! this girl is completely lost...what a waste of talent... meanwhile Elisa Di Francisca survived a very close fight against the cadet & junior World Champion (and Youth Olympic Gold medallist) Yuka Ueno (7-6 the final score)... Martina Batini was a bit more convincing against Martyna Jelinska (she won 15-12), but now she has to face Camilla Mancini, which could prove a very difficult task...

well, it would be nothing new for them...they were already suspended by FIE (and IOC) for quite a long time not so long ago (even if it was for a different reason, government interference in the federation's proper operations)...

because that "demanding" was to be intended more in a metaphorical sense rather than literally... but you can read it also without those marks, as becoming mother is a really demanding experience...