phelps

women's Kumite, semifinals Spain vs Japan France vs Egypt

Men's Team Kumite Gold Medal Match: Iran vs Turkey Bronze Medal Match #1: Azerbaijan vs Japan Bronze Medal Match #2: Italy vs Senegal

Iran won and so they're once again through to the Gold Medal match...

men's team Kumite, semifinals Azerbaijan vs Turkey Iran vs Italy

Swimming Marathon World Cup, Final Overall Standings Men 1st, Ferry Weertman 2nd, Jack Burnell 3rd, Simone Ruffini Women 1st, Ana Marcela Cunha 2nd, Rachele Bruni 3rd, Sharon Van Rouwendaal Full Final Standings (when they update the page with today's results) here: http://www.fina.org/content/ranking-finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018

Wellbrock and Bridi win last stop in Abu Dhabi Florian Wellbrock (GER) and Arianna Bridi (ITA) were the winners of the eighth and final leg of the FINA/HOSA 10km Marathon Swim World Series, held in Abu Dhabi (UAE) on November 9, 2018. In a very close finish among men, Wellbrock touched in 1h53m00s9, while Bridi managed to get some advantage over the pack in the final metres to earn the gold in 2h00m21s8 It was the second win of the year for both swimmers, with the German athlete previously prevailing in Lake Balaton (Hungary) and the Italian ace dominating operations in Seychelles. The minor medals in Abu Dhabi went to Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA), silver in the men’s race in 1h53m01s4, and to Kristof Rasovszky, from Hungary, third in 1h53m01s7. In the women’s category, Italy was once more in evidence, with the second place of Rachele Bruni (2h00m25s7), while Ana Marcela Cunha, from Brazil, touched third in 2h00m26s2. “The race started really slow and it remained like that until the 5km mark. Then, things got a bit faster, but this initial pace allowed me to save some energy for the final. I could then manage to get into the last metres of the race with additional strength”, confessed Wellbrock after his effort. Also a pool swimmer, he sincerely hopes that he can compete both in the 1500m free and 10km marathon swimming race at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. “I’ll try to qualify for both. Here, it was an easy race – the water was quite flat, so I could imagine swimming in a pool”, he added, smiling. “I’m happy, because being only my second race of the season, I won both!” Wellbrock concluded. On the women’s side, Bridi, winner of the Series in 2017, was also thrilled with the outcome of the race: “My tactics was to stay as much as possible in the pack, and then push faster in the last km. It worked quite well and I even managed to arrive ‘comfortable’ to the finish. Open water races are today very tight, so I was happy to get some advantage in the final metres”. On her 2018 season, the Italian admitted: “I am not disappointed as I didn’t compete enough to accumulate points. I only did five races, but I won two – it’s good”, she said. With these results, Cunha confirmed her overall lead of the World Series ranking, finishing the season with 112 points. The Brazilian star had been the best already in 2010, 2012 and 2014. With her silver medal in UAE, Bruni also gets the second position of the 2018 ranking, with 84 points. In third, the 2016 Olympic champion Sharon van Rouwendaal (NED), who finished only sixth in Abu Dhabi. “I have done a very regular season, so this is a happy conclusion of it. I couldn’t be on the podium in all races, but this is of course a very positive outcome. This is a year without World Championships, so this is the main competition for us. Now, it’s time to take a short break and to prepare for 2019, where we will have the FINA World Championships in Korea. We will be in all individual events, plus the team, so we hope we can do well, and, who knows, get a fourth title in the 25km”, admitted Cunha. The Brazilian ace has accumulated nine medals at FINA World Championships, including three victories in 25km (2011, 2015 and 2017). “Then, the Olympic Games, however I like to think about the upcoming goals once at the time. But I am quite optimistic”. In the World Series, Cunha has won the races in Hungary and Lac St-Jean (CAN), and had an additional silver from Seychelles. Among men, the overall winner was Dutch Ferry Weertman, who finished seventh in Abu Dhabi. Despite that, he had enough points to maintain his advantage, as his main challenger, Jack Burnell (GBR), was also not so much successful in UAE (12th). Weertman, 2016 Olympic champion in Rio, was the best in the initial race in Doha (QAT) and second in Lake Balaton. “It’s the first time for me that I managed to compete the series and win. I had Olympic, World, and European titles – only the World Series was missing. Now, it’s done. Moreover, finishing the year with a race like this in Abu Dhabi is fantastic. The highlight in 2018 was my victory in Doha – it was my first series’ victory!” considered Weertman. “I very much liked the overall experience – travelling to so many places, meeting the same people all the time. We are really an open water family! Now, it’s train, train and train to make the cut for the Olympics in 2020!” A total of 74 men and 46 women completed the 10km race in Abu Dhabi.

Swimming Marathon World Cup stage #8, Final (November 9th, 2018 @ Abu Dhabi, UAE) Men's 10km Gold: Florian Wellbrock Silver: Gregorio Paltrinieri Bronze: Kristof Rasovszky Full Ranking http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018-men-10km/event-5 Women's 10km Gold: Arianna Bridi Silver: Rachele Bruni Bronze: Ana Marcela Cunha Full Ranking http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018-women-10km/event-5

now it's official... tomorrow and saturday @ the Nico Sapio meet in Genua, Santo Condorelli will make his debut as an Italian swimmer... and if he gets the required clockings within the next couple of weeks, he's going to be part of our National Team already at the Short Course Worlds next month in China...

Today's action so far... Men's Team Kata Gold Medal Match: Japan vs Spain Bronze Medal Match #1: Turkey vs Iran Bronze Medal Match #2: Italy vs Malaysia Women's Team Kata Gold Medal Match: Japan vs Spain Bronze Medal Match #1: Italy vs Serbia Bronze Medal Match #2: Turkey vs Russia

basically I agree on everything... I'd be happy also with just 3+1 minute as the Kumite bouts time limits (4+1 would be better, but still)... and the best competition format to me is the one used in wrestling until last year (I don't like the idea of a competition over more than 1 day)...preliminaries and repechage in the early session and finals in the late session... moreover, having 12 individual events (10 kumite + 2 kata) in the schedule, I'd like to see 3 events per day over 4 days (1 kata and 2 kumite classes in the first 2 days and 3 kumite weights in the last 2 days, with the heavyweights always as the final class, of course)...

that was the past... in the last couple of years all the main events have JPN then ESP and then ITA as an established ranking (since Karate became more widely spread around the world, France are losing day after day their superiority, especially in Kata)...

meanwhile the women's semis weren't so close (neither of the 2)... and once again the Gold Medal match will feature the well expected and kata not only is boring by itself...it's also always the same story in terms of results...

and, as expected, men's team kata Gold Medal match will be between and (but Spain almost lost vs , they only got a slim 3-2 score in their favor)...

men's team kata, semifinals: vs and vs women's team kata, semifinals: vs / and vs I bet on a double ESP vs JPN clash for Gold...as if nobody saw that coming...

wow! we won against the mighty Koreans... with a team made only with Alps League players (except for Trivellato and Pavlu, who play in the DEL, the first one, and in the DEL2, the second one)...

I knew I was going to miss something...I give up...it's too complicated... p.s. fixed...

I think the video replays are shown also on the screens beside the mat, but I'm not sure they have one for each of the 5 mat during the preliminaries... for sure during the medal rounds all the pictures will be shown on the giant screen hanging from the roof and made available to all the people on the stands... p.s. however, I think coaches shouldn't interfere with the video judges...so, I guess this idea of the video room not close to the mat is quite good (of course, being the first time they use it, it needs to be improved...but I think it's the right direction...

Day #2 recap... Men's Individual Kumite, -60kg Gold Medal Match: Naoto Sago vs Angelo Crescenzo Bronze Medal Match #1: Darkhan Assadilov vs Kalvins Kalnins Bronze Medal Match #2: Abdessalam Ameknassi vs Jovanni Martinez Women's Individual Kumite, -50kg Gold Medal Match: Miho Miyahara vs Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu Bronze Medal Match #1: Bettina Plank vs Jelena Pehar Bronze Medal Match #2: Tatiana Rybalchenko vs Sara Bahmanyar Men's Individual Kumite, -67kg Gold Medal Match: Vinicius Figueira vs Steven Dacosta Bronze Medal Match #1: Camilo Velozo vs Abdel Rahman Almasatfa Bronze Medal Match #2: Hamoon Derafshipour vs Raul Cuerva Mora Women's Individual Kumite, -55kg Gold Medal Match: Jana Bitsch vs Dorota Banaszczyk Bronze Medal Match #1: Valeriia Alekhina vs Wen Tzu-Yun Bronze Medal Match #2: Sara Yamada vs Ivet Goranova Men's Individual Kumite, -75kg Gold Medal Match: Bahman Asgari vs Luigi Busà Bronze Medal Match #1: Beslan Mizov vs Ken Nishimura Bronze Medal Match #2: Rafael Aghayev vs Dastonbek Otabolaev Women's Individual Kumite, -61kg Gold Medal Match: Yin Xiaoyan vs Jovana Prekovic Bronze Medal Match #1: Laura Pasqua vs Btissam Sadini Bronze Medal Match #2: Merve Coban vs Giana Lofty

actually there is video review... you don't see the video crew at the judges table because now they are in a separate room (upstairs, in one of the big suites of the Madrid Arena), where they can watch all the videos on multiple synchronized giant screens and let the ref know what's their decision via radio communication...

Mehdizadeh lost 9-4 to the Moroccan guy! that's a huge upset...

yeah, they did nothing for the whole match...but I don't like Saymatov's style at all, so I always pick his opponent in cases like this... about the rules...I don't really know how they got worse in these years instead of improving...I don't think 3 mins of regulation + 1 of OT could compromise the fughters' health...they can surely have (both, men and women) this kind of bouts...

and Saymatov (UZB) survives at the Hantei vs the Egyptian guy...not so deserved win, imho...

Chile!!! they had 1 guy already in the semifinals, now they have another one in the pool final...very good and unexpected team result from them...

in the meantime, in the men's -60kg Mehdizadeh (IRI) won against the K1PL grand winner Samdan (TUR) and Naoto Sago (JPN) just destroyed 6-1 the Asian games champion, Arrosyiid (INA)...people can't always play at home...

yeah...and Germany has 2 fighters in the Kumite finals...meh...