phelps

and also today we can't say that we didn't have any surprising result in the preliminary stages... actually, especially in the men's +100kg we don't have almost any of the favourite still in the competition (and the 2 absolute favourites are "only" in the repechage round, which means that they can still win a bronze medal, but no more than that)... p.s. today it's also "shopping day" in Baku, since we still have in the afternoon session the Azeri guys (Kindzerska used to compete for Ukraine until not many seasons ago and Kokauri is a newly acquired Georgian born man) and Kara Sayit from Turkey, who was known until 3 years ago as Ketty Mathe and she used to represent her native France)... ooops...I wrote that Turkey and Azerbaijan went for some shopping? no...that's really something I've never thought it was possible...

by the way, today we had the quickest morning session of them all... and since it's already over, let's see what happened in the last couple of hours... women's +78kg semifinals Idalys Ortiz vs Maria Suelem Altheman Sarah Asahina vs Larisa Ceric repechage Sarah Adlington vs Ivana Maranic (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Asahina / Ceric) Irina Kindzerska vs Kara Sayit (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Ortiz / Altheman) men's +100kg semifinals Guram Tushishvili vs Duurenbayar Ulziibayar Bekmurod Ultiboev vs Ushangi Kokauri repechage Roy Meyer vs Hisayoshi Harasawa (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Ultiboev / Kokauri) Temur Rakhimov vs Lukas Krpalek (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Tushishvili / Ulziibayar)

I was referring to the upsets and big throws we've watched in the preliminary stages (actualy, there have been some upsets also in the finals session, but nothing compared to the morning)... the big weights are often as you described...so, when something different happens, it should be underlined...

because of shameful and biased refereeing...

naaa...Packers are just one dirty "roughin' the passer" away from the nightmare getting true...

just one word about today's competitions...wow!

women's -78kg Gold: Shori Hamada Silver: Guusje Steenhuis Bronze: Marhinde Verkerk & Aleksandra Babintseva men's -100kg Gold: Cho Gu Ham Silver: Varlam Liparteliani Bronze: Niyaz Ilyasov & Otgonbaatar Lkhagvasuren

so, the first part of the day is already over... and this is our usual quick recap of today's early action... women's -78kg semifinals Guusje Steenhuis vs Ma Zhenzhao Shori Hamada vs Marhinde Verkerk repechage Katie Jemima Yates-Brown vs Madeleine Malonga (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Hamada / Verkerk) Klara Apotekar vs Aleksandra Babintseva (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Steenhuis / Ma) men's -100kg semifinals Varlam Liparteliani vs Otgonbaatar Lkhagvasuren Cho Gu Ham vs Niyaz Ilyasov repechage Ramadan Darwish vs Jorge Fonseca (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Cho / Ilyasov) Michael Korrel vs Aaron Wolf (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Liparteliani / Lkhagvasuren)

and Marhinde Verkerk is the 4th girl in the semifinals, after beating Aleksandra Babintseva in pool D final of the women's -78kg class... it was expected to be a French day in this weight category...but it didn't work out at all for them... can now become a Dutch fest? well, with 2 girls in the semifinals it could really be...

Guusje Steenhuis is also through to the semifinals of the women's -78kg, after beating Katie Jemima Yates-Brown in the final of pool A... meanwhile, the last man through to the semifinals in the -100kg class is Otgonbaatar Lkhagvasuren, who's really on fire and destriyed Jorge Fonseca in pool C final with another very spectacular ippon...

and the day of upsets continues... Ma Zhenzhao giving a judo lesson to Madeleine Malonga...and France who were hoping for a clean sweep of the -78kg class would be lucky to end up with just a little bronze medal...

and Varlam Liparteliani is the winner of pool A, after beating Ramadan Darwish...

OMG!!! Niyaz Ilyasov beat Aaron Wolf and makes it through to the semifinals (where he'll face the Korean Cho in the decisive match of the bottom half of the draw)

men's -100kg Cho Gu Ham is the first man through to the semifinals after beating Michael Korrel

men's -100kg pool B final: Jorge Fonseca vs Otgonbaatar Lkhagvasuren

women's -78kg pool B final: Madeleine Malonga vs Ma Zhenzhao; pool D final: Aleksandra Babintseva vs Marhinde Verkerk

and here we go with one of the biggest upsets of the entire world championship... Aleksandra Babintseva just threw Audrey Tcheumeo shoulders to the mat and eliminated the big favourite of the tournament... and also the reigning world champion Mayra Aguiar is out, thanks to Ma Zhenzhao

women's -78kg pool C final: Klara Apotekar vs Shori Hamada

men's -100kg pool A final: Varlam Liparteliani vs Ramadan Darwish

men's -100kg pool C final: Michael Korrel vs Cho Gu Ham; pool D final: Aaron Wolf vs Niyaz Ilyasov women's -78kg pool A final: Guusje Steenhuis vs Katie Jemima Yates-Brown

and finally, after 5 years of troubles (mental and physical), Tiger is back... he won the Tour Championship tournament in Atlanta and almost took also the big prize money, which was instead won by Justin Rose thanks to a birdie in the final hole of the day... and from Friday, it's Ryder Cup time (on one of the most beautiful golf courses in the world, Le Golf National in St.Quintin just outside Paris)...I just can't wait...

ho appena finito di distruggerli su OA... e ho già scritto in sintesi ciò che penso nei giorni scorsi anche qui... non mi va di ripetermi un'altra volta... dico solo: licenziate Murakami e "dimettete" tutto il consiglio federale finchè siamo ancora in tempo... ah, se solo Malagò la smettesse di fare il pagliaccio con improbabili candidature Olimpiche (tanto nessuno lo farà mai santo nè si ricorderà di lui una volta serenamente "dipartito") e si occupasse di tutti gli sport Azzurri ormai allo sfascio...

Majdov wasn't that bad...he lost by 3rd shido (very controversial, too) against a young and promising Frenchman, who we'll see on the podium in many international events very soon, I guess...it can happen... Kukolj, instead...well, he just had a bad (very bad) day...

Georgian born, but he's been living in Spain for quite a long time now... as far as I know, he's been always competing for them, I don't remember him with the Georgian team...

not the podium I expected, today... and by the way, today it's the first day where I've seen many controversial (not to say missed...and sometimes biased) calls by the refs and the video judges... as if Japan would really need that help (on the other hand, France would have their good reason to be totally unhappy with today's outcome)...