phelps

yes, all of today's matches (tonight's city of Milan derby included) have been post-poned... official news talk about a heart attack in the middle of the night, while he was sleeping, being the cause of Astori's death... R.I.P.

the women's final at the 5* major tournament in Fort Lauderdale (Fla, USA) will be an all Brazilian affair... Barbara & Fernanda (who won 2-1 against Sweat & Summer, USA, in their semifinal match) will face later this evening at 10 p.m. CET their teammates Taiana Lima & Carol Horta (who beat Schneider & Bieneck, GER, also by a score of 2-1 in their semifinal match)... meanwhile, the men's tournament has come to the semifinal stage (from 1.15 a.m. CET later tonight), where the Olympic Silver medallists fromRio 2016 Nicolai & Lupo, ITA, will face Pedro Solberg & George, BRA and then local heroes Dalhausser & Lucena, USA, will face Samoilovs & Smedins, LAT men's finals are scheduled for tomorrow (5 p.m. CET the 3rd place match & 7 p.m. CET the "big final")...

Asian Juniors Championships - Men's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: South Korea Silver: Japan Bronze: Kazakhstan Asian Juniors Championships - Men's Team Sabre Final Results: Gold: South Korea Silver: FIE, aka Kuwait Bronze: Japan Asian Juniors Championships - Women's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: Japan Silver: Singapore Bronze: South Korea

African Juniors Championships - Men's Individual Epee Final Results: Gold: Ahmed El Sayed (EGY) Silver: Mohamed El Sayed (EGY) Bronze: Mohab Mowafy (EGY) & Christiaan Bester (RSA) African Juniors Championships - Men's Individual Sabre Final Results: Gold: Ahmed Ferjani (TUN) Silver: Anis Mairi (ALG) Bronze: Mazen El Arabi (EGY) & Mahamadou Samake (MLI) African Juniors Championships - Women's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Yara El Sharkawy (EGY) Silver: Noura Mohamed (EGY) Bronze: Meriem Mebarki (ALG) & Noha Hany (EGY)

for @Bestmen's delight, some African Champs results comin'up later tonight (FIE has just published a few of them...but only about juniors, unfortunately)...

European Cadets Championships - Women's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Adelina Bikbulatova (RUS) Silver: Claudia Memoli (ITA) Bronze: Elena Petrova (RUS) & Martina Favaretto (ITA) Semifinals: Memoli b. Petrova 15-13 Bikbulatova b. Favaretto 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Bikbulatova b. Memoli 15-12

European Cadets Championships - Men's Individual Epee Final Results: Gold: Davide Di Veroli (ITA) Silver: Dmitriy Shvelidze (RUS) Bronze: Alexander Biro (AUT) & Paul Veltrup (GER) Semifinals: Shvelidze b. Biro 15-13 Di Veroli b. Veltrup 13-6 Gold Medal Match: Di Veroli b. Shvelidze 15-8

it's not that I forgot them...I don't have them at all... I only have live results from Asia and Europe (actually, for Europe I also have the Live Streaming on Youtube)...

European Cadets Championships - Women's Individual Epee Final Results: Gold: Eszter Muhari (HUN) Silver: Kinga Dekany (HUN) Bronze: Sara Maria Kowalczyk (ITA) & Karolina Staszulonek (POL) Semifinals: Muhari b. Kowalczyk 15-10 Dekany b. Staszulonek 15-7 Gold Medal Match: Muhari b. Dekany 15-9 p.s. yes, it's all right...Kowalczyk is from Italy (with clear Polish heritage)...

European Cadets Championships - Men's Individual Sabre Final Results: Gold: Magamed Khalimbekov (RUS) Silver: Ian Ren (GBR) Bronze: Oleg Yuzhakov (RUS) & Balazs Kaiser (HUN) Semifinals: Khalimbekov b. Kaiser 15-12 Ren b. Yuzhakov 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Khalimbekov b. Ren 15-9

and hopefully sooner or later also the cadets results from Africa and Pan-American zone will also be published somewhere (not relying too much on FIE's website)...

and Yuka Ueno is the only fencer to repeat herself at both cadets and juniors level as a Gold medallist (meanwhile Hsieh won 2 medals, but not 2 Gold ones)...

they have quite a decent tradition in men's epee...it's not so unusual to see good results from them...

of course I just forgot that competition... now I'm gonna fix it...

Asian Juniors Championships - Men's Individual Epee Final Results: Gold: Kim Myeong Ki (KOR) Silver: Jin Min Wook (KOR) Bronze: Akira Komata (JPN) & Kentaro Murayama (JPN) Asian Juniors Championships - Men's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Yudai Nagano (JPN) Silver: Rui Fujikura (JPN) Bronze: Lok Wang Lawrence Ng (HKG) & Darren Jun Hao Tan (SIN) Asian Juniors Championships - Men's Individual Sabre Final Results: Gold: Song Eun Gyun (KOR) Silver: Chak Fung Terence Lee (SIN) Bronze: Kento Hoshino (JPN) & Nazarbay Sattarkhan (KAZ) Asian Juniors Championships - Women's Individual Epee Final Results: Gold: Yu Sihan (CHN) Silver: Ko Ye In (KOR) Bronze: Kaylin Sin Yan Hsieh (HKG) & Kim Che Arin (KOR) Asian Juniors Championships - Women's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Yuka Ueno (JPN) Silver: Sumire Tsuji (JPN) Bronze: Rio Azuma (JPN) & Amita Berthier (SIN) Asian Juniors Championships - Women's Individual Sabre Final Results: Gold: Jo Ye Won (KOR) Silver: Lau Yiwen (SIN) Bronze: Jolie Kar Yi Lee (SIN) & Hong Ha Eun (KOR)

Asian Cadets Championships - Men's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: South Korea Silver: Kazakhstan Bronze: Japan & Singapore Asian Cadets Championships - Men's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: South Korea Silver: Japan Bronze: Hong Kong & Chinese Taipei Asian Cadets Championships - Men's Team Sabre Final Results: Gold: South Korea Silver: Uzbekistan Bronze: FIE, aka Kuwait & Japan Asian Cadets Championships - Women's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: South Korea Silver: Japan Bronze: Australia & Hong Kong Asian Cadets Championships - Women's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: Japan Silver: Singapore Bronze: South Korea & Chinese Taipei Asian Cadets Championships - Women's Team Sabre Final Results: Gold: Hong Kong Silver: South Korea Bronze: Uzbekistan & Singapore

Asian Cadets Championships - Men's Individual Epee Final Results: Gold: Khassan Baudunov (KGZ) Silver: Zhang Xinkun (CHN) Bronze: Seiya Asami (JPN) & Simon Renjie Lee (SIN) Asian Cadets Championships - Men's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Youn Jeong Hyun (KOR) Silver: Kwon Jun Sung (KOR) Bronze: Koya Narita (JPN) & Benjamin Shih (TPE) Asian Cadets Championships - Men's Individual Sabre Final Results: Gold: Kim Hyun Jin (KOR) Silver: Lee Hyo Bin (KOR) Bronze: Mohammed Al Fadhli (FIE, aka KUW) & Abdulaziz Jomah (FIE, aka KUW) Asian Cadets Championships - Women's Individual Epee Final Results: Gold: Kaylin Sin Yan Hsieh (HKG) Silver: Anna Nagai (JPN) Bronze: Kim So Hui (KOR) & Tamaki Terayama (JPN) Asian Cadets Championships - Women's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Yuka Ueno (JPN) Silver: Sophia Wu (HKG) Bronze: Yukino Tosa (JPN) & Maxine Jie Xin Wong (SIN) Asian Cadets Championships - Women's Individual Sabre Final Results: Gold: Ma Ho Chee (HKG) Silver: Lee Ju Eun (KOR) Bronze: Back Ga Young (KOR) & Yeon Ha Young (KOR)

This (and next) week the World Cup takes a break to allow the Continental Youth Championships to take place... This year's calendar: - Asian Cadets & Juniors Championships in Dubai (UAE) from February 24th to March 4th - African Cadets & Juniors Championships in Lagos (NGR) from February 28th to March 5th - Pan-American Cadets & Juniors Championships in San Josè (CRC) from March 1st to March 10th - European Cadets & Juniors Championships in Sochi (RUS) from March 2nd to March 11th

to me, for now it's OK for Fencing... we'll see later on if I can take something else...

it's the new format for all the main FIVB beach volleyball tournaments... basically, in each group there are 2 semifinals and then the 3rd place (to determine the only eliminated team after the 1st phase) and 1st place (to determine the team jumping directly to the 1/8 finals) matches... meanwhile the losers of the 1st place match and the winners of the 3rd place match in each pool must go through to a 1/16 final round... one thing in favor of this format is that the pool pairings are not done with a pure draw, but they are formed through the teams' position in the FIVB ranking (best against worst in one match, the 2 "mid-ranked" teams in the other match-up)... still, I hope they won't use this format also at the Olympics...

I hope they don't...WSL surfers are by far the best in the world...so, I hope that they will be considered first...then, they can easily go to the lower quality ISA stuff (hoping that the most possible WSL guys would eventually really take part in those competitions)... because it's a good thing to see Countries like CRC, PER, POR and others having real shots at qualifying, but in a 20 starters field only we need the biggest number of top athletes to make a decent competition...

very interesting... nice simulation of the current situation (of course I hope it would change a bit from now to the end of the qualification period...just to see Italy qualified )......

late afternoon sessions are avilable on BBC Red Button channel (free on satellite @ 28.2 East) and on BBC website (with VPN, I suppose)... most things go also on Eurosport 1 & 2 (always late afternoon session, of course...no early qualifiers)...they also said they would have all the world champs on their player, but I can only see the usual sessions, not this early afternoon stuff running right now...

I meant that in those sports not affected by the Bosman rule, the various federations/leagues can still put a limitation on foreign players... I just wrote it down too quickly...

very sad and scary news... if 'ndrangheta have got their hands on Slovakia's main interests and got some kind of connection with their main political leaders, they don't even imagine what kind of tragedy could be for their Country... sooner or later they're gonna strangle any kind of activity where they have some interest...