phelps

thanks... I took for granted what a local website wrote... but it looks that I shouldn't have done it...

OK, back in topic... yesterday I watched some Ice Hockey (KHL playoffs round #1, Metallurg Magnitogorsk vs Avtomobilist Ekaterinenburg, game #7 and NHL regular season, New York Islanders @ Calgary Flames)... Today, it's Ice Hockey (I have many options -NHL RS, Swiss NLA and Czech Extraliga playoffs above all- so, I guess I have to take some hard decisions when it's Hockey time ) and Football (Soccer) Champions League (Roma vs Shakhtar Donetsk)...

the Val Gardena Downhill has a long history of winners started with very high numbers... Markus Foser in 1993 won with #66 (ahead of Werner Franz, AUT with #52), Max Rauffer (GER) in 2004 won with #46... and they're not the only ones...

Basketball no. #2 in Italy? it wasn't anywhere close to that even in its best days in the Eighties...TV ratings on free tv (1 game a week) are about 0.3% (apart for the Olimpia Milano games, which go up to 0.5/0.6)...there are just 1 or 2 exceptions a year for the possible game #7 of the final series if there's Milano on the court, but we still talk of 4/5% ratings on the 2nd or 3rd major Italian public channel... Euroleague games are not even broadcasted (they're on the eurosport player, with about 80000 subscribers in a 60-million people Nation)... NBA is only on pay-tv since the Middle Age (we're talking of 50/60k average for the RS and 150/200k spectators for the finals)... if this is our second most popular sport... and for what concerns F1 and MotoGP, they should write Ferrari and Valentino Rossi, because without those 2, nobody would watch a single race (apart for the usual few die hard fans, but this is common to all disciplines in all Countries) Cycling is indeed our 2nd most popular discipline... and no comment on Golf, Rugby or Tennis being more popular than Alpine Skiing or Swimming (actually, no comment on Golf at all...I guess we are no more than a few thousends here in Italy to know that golf is not only a Volkswagen car model )... p.s. they don't even name Boxing, but here it's still a big sport...if only there weren't many idiots trying to boycott it (together with all fighting sports) and they could still broadcast it in prime time on free TV (which at the moment is illegal), a good Boxing fight would make very good tv ratings (Clemente Russo and Roberto Cammarelle finals in London 2012 are 2 among the most watched sport events of the last 10 years outside the "magic circle" -Football, Ferrari, Valentino and Road Cycling)... and I don't go back to the Mike Tyson's prime (when his fights were broadcasted live on free tv and replied in prime time the day after)...he used to have soccer-alike tv ratings... I appreciate the effort, but they should live here for a while to make an idea of how things works (the sad truth is that outside the socalled "magic circle", all the remaining sports are just for the die hard fans...the average Italian people don't even know they exists)...

today it was time for some Speedskating (All-Rounds Worlds) and Biathlon (World Cup Mass Start races)... I also followed the last day of the Youth Europeans in Fencing... now I'm watching some NHL Hockey (Boston Bruins @ Chicago Blackhawks) on a slight delay, since this game was played earlier (but at that tiime I was first preparing and then eating my dinner )... later tonight, I'm gonna end up my day with a bit of Golf (final holes of the US PGA Tour Valspar Championship)...

and also another year of Continental Youth Champs is over... in Europe, Italy and Russia shared the most Gold medals (8 each), with the Southern Europeans leading the medal table because of 2 more Silvers (and a 20-19 total)... good campaign also for Hungary and, only among the juniors, for France (they didn't even compete at cadets' level)... Germany and Turkey (nice surprise) won the only remaining Gold medals (1 each), with 15 different Countries winning at least 1 total medal... in the other Continents, almost everything went according to the previews, with Korea winning the most medals ahead of Japan in Asia (China was very disappointing, though...even if they never show up at their best in this youth events) and USA dominating as usual the Pan-American zone (here also Mexico had a very good campaign with 4 Gold medals, not all of them really expected)... In the African zone, we saw Egypt taking most of the honors, but they were not as devastating as they used to be, with Algeria emerging as the second force of the Continent and, good news if compared to the recent past, some more Countries making their appearance in the final medal table (and it could be even better if some day we'd get the cadets results, tooo...because we have to say that the usual lack of information is still a big problem with African Fencing -and many other sports, but this is another question)...

European Cadets & Juniors Championships - Final Overall Medal Table ITA, 8 / 7 / 5 RUS, 8 / 5 / 6 HUN, 4 / 4 / 4 FRA, 2 / 1 / 5 GER, 1 / 2 / 3 TUR, 1 / 0 / 2 POL, 0 / 1 / 3 ROU, 0 / 1 / 3 BUL, 0 / 1 / 0 DEN, 0 / 1 / 0 GBR, 0 / 1 / 0 AUT, 0 / 0 / 2 NED, 0 / 0 / 1 SWE, 0 / 0 / 1 UKR, 0 / 0 / 1

European Juniors Championships - Final Medal Table ITA, 4 / 4 / 2 RUS, 4 / 2 / 3 FRA, 2 / 1 / 5 HUN, 1 / 2 / 2 GER, 1 / 1 / 2 POL, 0 / 1 / 0 ROU, 0 / 1 / 0 NED, 0 / 0 / 1 SWE, 0 / 0 / 1 AUT, 0 / 0 / 1 TUR, 0 / 0 / 1

European Juniors Championships - Women's Team Sabre Final Results: Gold: Russia Silver: Italy Bronze: Hungary Semifinals: Italy b. Germany 45-36 Russia b. Hungary 45-13 Bronze Medal Match: Hungary b. Germany 45-43 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. Italy 45-33

European Juniors Championships - Men's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: Russia Silver: Poland Bronze: Italy Semifinals: Russia b. Italy 45-21 Poland b. Germany 45-44 Bronze Medal Match: Italy b. Germany 45-22 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. Poland 45-26

European Juniors Championships - Men's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: Hungary Silver: Italy Bronze: France Semifinals: Italy b. Poland 45-38 Hungary b. France 40-36 Bronze Medal Match: France b. Poland 45-37 Gold Medal Match: Hungary b. Italy 34-27

Pan-American Cadets & Juniors Championships - Final Overall Medal Table USA, 10 / 6 / 7 MEX, 4 / 1 / 7 CAN, 2 / 3 / 5 BRA, 1 / 3 / 1 ARG, 1 / 1 / 0 CHI, 0 / 1 / 5 COL, 0 / 1 / 0 CRC, 0 / 1 / 0 PUR, 0 / 1 / 0 VEN, 0 / 0 / 2 CUB, 0 / 0 / 1 PER, 0 / 0 / 1

Pan-American Juniors Championships - Final Medal Table USA, 8 / 3 / 3 MEX, 2 / 1 / 6 CAN, 1 / 2 / 3 BRA, 1 / 1 / 1 CHI, 0 / 1 / 2 ARG, 0 / 1 / 0 COL, 0 / 1 / 0 CRC, 0 / 1 / 0 PUR, 0 / 1 / 0 CUB, 0 / 0 / 1 PER, 0 / 0 / 1 VEN, 0 / 0 / 1

Pan-American Juniors Championships - Men's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: Brazil Bronze: Mexico Pan-American Juniors Championships - Women's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: Canada Bronze: Mexico Pan-American Juniors Championships - Women's Team Sabre Final Results: Gold: Mexico Silver: United States Bronze: Canada

Australia won the 27th edition of the traditional men's tournament "The Sultan Azlan Shah Cup"... earlier today, they defeated England 2-1 in the final match Argentina (3-2 over the hosts from Malaysia) ended up in 3rd place, meanwhile India (4-1 over Ireland) were 5th more infos: http://www.azlanshahcup.com/

European Juniors Championships - Women's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: Germany Silver: Italy Bronze: Hungary Semifinals: Germany b. Poland 45-35 Italy b. Hungary 45-25 Bronze Medal Match: Hungary b. Poland 45-23 Gold Medal Match: Germany b. Italy 45-43

European Juniors Championships - Women's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: Italy Silver: Russia Bronze: France Semifinals: Russia b. France 45-40 Italy b. Czech Republic 45-27 Bronze Medal Match: France b. Czech Republic 45-28 Gold Medal Match: Italy b. Russia 45-42

European Juniors Championships - Men's Team Sabre Final Results: Gold: France Silver: Russia Bronze: Germany Semifinals: France b. Belarus 45-37 Russia b. Germany 45-33 Bronze Medal Match: Germany b. Belarus 45-39 Gold Medal Match: France b. Russia 45-39

after the 2006 experience, I don't think so... and I also hope that nothing will happen...Italy can't waste their small sport budget to host the Games once again, we must invest in our boys and girls and find some talents, not just watching the others winning medals on our home soil... I hope that at least sports officials did learn the Torino 2006 lesson (after that, our medal table just dropped to the shameful results we had in Vancouver and then in Sochi and, moreover, the sliding track and the jumping hills have been dismantled...just to name the 2 biggest waste scandals* that followed the disgraced year 2006)... *if we speak only about sport...because what happened to the Olympic Village goes beyond imagination... so, no, thanks...we don't want the Olympics anymore here in Italy...

Pan-American Juniors Championships - Men's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: Argentina Bronze: Chile Pan-American Juniors Championships - Women's Team Sabre Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: Canada Bronze: Mexico Pan-American Juniors Championships - Women's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: Colombia Bronze: Mexico

1) it makes sense, since we spread our resources all around in many sports, so we can compensate the tops and flops every time... moreover, we have those 2 "core sports" (fencing and clay target shooting) which always guarantee the most of our medals with a certain regularity...then the other disciplines are just for the cosmetics" of our medal table (and, as I wrote, sometimes it's judo, sometimes it's swimming and sometimes is something else doing this "job")... that's how I explain our really constant results at the Summer Games (but, as I wrote before, it's just my personal interpretation, not "the truth about it")... 2) we are not a real powerhouse in Karate, but we have "tradition" and many good athletes that in a given day can even win the world title (it has happened more than once)... at the moment we have 3 "sure contenders" (women's Kata -with more than 1 girl fighting for the spot, women's -55kg Kumite and men's -75kg Kumite), who are currently among the top 3 Nations in their respective classes (and they are all veterans who already won world and European titles) and 2 young rising stars (-68kg women's Kumite and +84kg men's Kumite, with Simone Marino who already won the senior European Champs at 20 last year)... however, in this sport the situation is even worse than the early days of Taekwondo...referees and judges are a real problem...and there's nothing "safe"... in Tokyo I expect a Japanese domination, almost a clean sweep of the Gold medals (the 2 Kata Gold medals are already written in the standings...they don't even need to start the competiton)...and I expect Italy to win those 3 medals I already named "sure contenders"...anything more than that would be a pleasant surprise (and, as I wrote 2 days ago, with this qualification pathway -just 10 spots per class, with Japan taking one place; Continental representation granted, even if in Karate all Continents are strong, also Africa; and 1 tripartite place when Japan don't use their host quota because they qualify via world ranking -which is likely to happen in all the classes- it's gonna be a lot more difficult to qualify than winning a medal once you fly to the Games)...

it's not always yesterday...for Italy... still, a decent silver medal in men's foil is not to be disliked... fun fact...Filippi beat Anton Borodachev in the quarterfinals, then Kirill, Anton's brother, got a "family revenge" in the final assault... if today's event was an episode of a TV series, it would have got the most abused title ever for TV series episodes..."Blood ties"...

European Juniors Championships - Women's Individual Sabre Final Results: Gold: Alina Mikhailova (RUS) Silver: Liza Pusztai (HUN) Bronze: Lisa Gette (GER) & Aylin Cakir (TUR) Semifinals: Mikhailova b. Cakir 15-11 Pusztai b. Gette 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Mikhailova b. Pusztai 15-8

European Juniors Championships - Men's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Kirill Borodachev (RUS) Silver: Davide Filippi (ITA) Bronze: Wallerand Roger (FRA) & Daniel Giacon (NED) Semifinals: Filippi b. Giacon 15-10 Borodachev b. Roger 15-10 Gold Medal Match: Borodachev b. Filippi 15-10