phelps

UP... Qualified Boxers so far...

Women's Foil qualified fencers: Aikaterini-Maria KONTOCHRISTOPOULOU Delila HATUEL Malina CALUGAREANU Irem KARAMETE

Nadir Unal (TUR) has just defeated Oleksandr Khyzhniak (UCR) in the Light Heavyweight (-81kg) box-off and qualifies for Rio 2016... I havent't watched the bout...but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it's another one of "those results"...

well, in the previous 2 events they started as outsiders...on paper this time Wohlgemuth should come up as the winning side (even though Calugareanu is a quite promising youngster and has had international success in the youth categories in the past few years)...

tomorrow's events will feature the Women's Epee (Heidemann, GER + Samuelsson, SWE + maybe Geroudet, SUI are the favourites for the only available spot), the Women's Sabre (Mikina, AZE is the great favourite, but she has to not underestimate Pascu, ROU + Navarro, ESP and Limbach, GER) and the Men's Foil (the competition is very open between the top 6 of the ranking among the starters in my opinion...almost unpredictable who's gonna get the qualifying spot, even though I support Martino Minuto, who's still a 100% Italian guy despite starting for Turkey in the Fencing tournaments)...

Women's Foil Quarterfinals (The Winners Qualify for Rio 2016) Olga Leleyko (UKR) vs Delila Hatuel (ISR) Aikaterini-Maria Kontochristopoulou (GRE) vs Anastasia Turcan (MDA) / Natalia Sheppard (GBR) Irem Karamete (TUR) vs Milja Mondt (NED) Olivia Wohlgemuth (AUT) vs Victoria Duxbury (IRL) / Malina Calugareanu (ROU) Round of 16 running right now, Quarterfinals scheduled for 6.50 pm...

now the qualified athletes for today are known (check the semifinals results at page #16)... it's been Eastern Europe all the way...

And all the other qualified athletes are: Women's Fly (48-51kg) Stanimira PETROVA Nicola ADAMS Women's Light (57-60kg) Yana ALEKSEEVNA Irma TESTA Women's Middle (69-75kg) Iaroslava IAKUSHINA Anna LAURELL NASH Men's Fly (-52kg) Narek ABGARYAN Muhammad ALI Brendan IRVINE (Winner of Today's Box-Off against Daniel ASENOV, BUL) Men's Bantam (-56kg) Aram AVAGYAN (Winner of Today's Box-Off against Mykola BUTSENKO, UKR) Javid CHALABIYEV Qais ASHFAQ Men's Light (-60kg) Sofiane OUMIHA Joseph CORDINA Winner of Tomorrow's Box-Off between David JOYCE, IRL and Volkan GOKCEK, TUR Men's Light Welter (-64kg) Lorenzo SOTOMAYOR Evaldas PETRAUSKAS Winner of Tomorrow's Box-Off between Hovhannes BACHKOV, ARM and Batuhan GOZGEC, TUR Men's Welter (-69kg) Vladimir MARGARYAN (Winner of Today's Box-Off against Vasilii BELOUS, MDA) Vincenzo MANGIACAPRE Eimantas STANIONIS Men's Middle (-75kg) Christian MBILLI ASSOMO Anthony FOWLER (Winner of Today's Box-Off against Xhek PASKALI, GER) Zoltan HARCSA Men's Lght Heavy (-81kg) Joshua BUATSI Peter MULLENBERG Mehmet Nadir UNAL (Winner of Today's Box-Off against Oleksandr KHYZHNIAK, UKR) Men's Heavy (-91kg) Paul OMBA BIONGOLO Lawrence OKOLIE Winner of Tomorrow's Box-Off between Abdulkadir ABDULLAYEV, AZE and Gevorg MANUKIAN, UKR Men's Super Heavy (+91kg) Magomedrasul MAJIDOV Joseph JOYCE Winner of Tomorrow's Box-Off between Istvan BERNATH, HUN and Alì Eren DMIREZEN, TUR

Fabrizio Cappai earn another spot for Italy, beating the Spaniard Carmona Heredia in the box-off of the men's -49kg... Yafai (GBR) wins the final bout in the same weight class against the Armenian Hovhannisyan... so, the 3 qualified athletes in the men's Light Flyweight (-49kg) are: Artur HOVHANNISYAN Galal YAFAI Manuel Fabrizio CAPPAI

all streams have suddenly gone (now it's only available the first couple of hours of the day on-demand) with 1 weight class still to go in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman...

Men's Freestyle semis (the winners qualify for the Games): -74kg Jabrayil HASANOV (AZE) vs. Suren KHACHATRYAN (ARM) TF, 10-0 Taimuraz FRIEV NASKIDAEVA (ESP) vs. Jakob MAKARASHVILI (GEO) 8-12 -86kg Amarhajy MAHAMEDAU (BLR) vs. Ibragim ALDATOV (UKR) 3-3 Istvan VEREB (HUN) vs. Radoslaw MARCINKIEWICZ (POL) 8-3 Men's Greco-Roman semis (the winners qualify for the Games): - 75kg Zurabi DATUNASHVILI (GEO) vs. Karapet CHALYAN (ARM) 2-1 Igor BESLEAGA (MDA) vs. Viktor NEMES (SRB) 0-3 -85kg Alexey MISHIN (RUS) vs. Denis Maksymilian KUDLA (GER) 3-0 Nikolay Nikolaev BAYRYAKOV (BUL) vs. Artur OMAROV (CZE) TF, 4-2 Women's Wrestling semis (the winners qualify for the Games): - 58kg Mimi Nikolova HRISTOVA (BUL) vs. Luisa Helga Gerda NIEMESCH (GER) FALL, 4-0 Oksana HERHEL (UKR) vs. Mariana CHERDIVARA ESANU (MDA) FALL, 6-2 -63kg Anastasia BRATCHIKOVA (RUS) vs. Irina Petrovna NETREBA (AZE) 7-2 Maryia MAMASHUK (BLR) vs. Marianna SASTIN (HUN) 4-2

I guess they won't...but it would be an interesting idea...

not anymore... Men's Epee Semifinals (comin'up around 1.30 pm) Radoslaw Zawrotniak (POL) vs Josef Mahringer (AUT) Yulen Pereira (ESP) vs Jiri Beran (CZE)

any deal that save us from RAI having exclusive coverage of any event of any sports is more than welcome... to me, the important is to keep RAI away from sports...always and forever...they're just an undeserved punishment for all the Country's sports fans...

https://www.facebook.com/preolimpicosanjose2016/

I just can't believe what the judges have dared to do against Katie Taylor... and they tried something similar against Testa, but at least 1 of the 2 cheaters (the 3rd judge actually watch the bout and scored it consequently) made up his mind at the last second and gave the final preference to the young Italian star... I hope we're not gonna pay this "act of justice" in the Men's division, against the new "powerhouse" of the World Boxing, Armenia...

So, we have all the qualified athletes for today... Men's Freestyle -57kg Garnik MNATSAKANYAN (ARM) and Vladimir Vladimirov DUBOV (BUL) -65kg Andriy KVYATKOVSKYY (UKR) and Magomedmurad GADZHIEV (POL) Men's Greco-Roman - 59kg Sanal SEMENOV (RUS) and Kristian FRIS (SRB) -66kg Tamas LORINCZ (HUN) and Shmagi BOLKVADZE (GEO)

well, actually only the finals he won in Las Vegas and at the recent Europeans were "close bouts" (plus we have to admit he won clearly but only after a controversial call - probably he should have lost that bout - against Asgharov in Las Vegas)... but all the other fights were really dominated by him (the only loss he had in Belarus earlier this year doesn't mean nothing...he was just preparing the Euro Champs and didn't take that tournament so seriously)...

I hope Frank Chamizo can also storm through his rivals as he did last year in Las Vegas...

Women's -48kg Emilia Alina VUC (ROM) and Elitsa Atanasova YANKOVA (BUL) are the 2 qualified wrestlers... Women's -53kg Katarzyna KRAWCZYK (POL) and Nina HEMMER (GER) are the 2 qualified wrestlers...

Men's Freestyle semis (the winners qualify for the Games): -57kg Garnik MNATSAKANYAN (ARM) vs. Anatolii BURUIAN (MDA) 5-3 Zoheir EL OUARRAQE (FRA) vs. Vladimir Vladimirov DUBOV (BUL) 0-12 -65kg Zurabi IAKOBISHVILI (GEO) vs. Andriy KVYATKOVSKYY (UKR) 2-3 Devid SAFARYAN (ARM) vs. Magomedmurad GADZHIEV (POL) 2-7 Men's Greco-Roman semis (the winners qualify for the Games): - 59kg Sanal SEMENOV (RUS) vs. Aleksandar Stoyanov KOSTADINOV (BUL) 11-2 Stig-Andre BERGE (NOR) vs. Kristian FRIS (SRB) 0-8 -66kg Tamas LORINCZ (HUN) vs. Dominik ETLINGER (CRO) 6-2 Shmagi BOLKVADZE (GEO) vs. Dawid KARECINSKI (POL) 5-0

let's do as if I didn't write anything... stream gone after just 2 rounds of boxing...

finally, we have some live coverage also for this European Olympic Qualifier... http://www.aiba.org/blog/watch-live-european-olympic-qualification-event-semifinals/

not at all...don't forget that it's not the Turkish people nor politicians judging the bouts... the aiba mafia has different paths and plots, not necessarily always on the same page of the general feeling of the host Country (the only almost untouchable principle they follow is "don't penalize - to be read: "let them win despite anything happens on the ring" - the home boys")...

yes, Armenia are being heavily helped...and that's a fact... as I wrote, I only have suspicion - and nothing else, since AIBA doesn't give us any chance to see this tournament...maybe just because they don't want too many people watching their "Italian jobs" - about those 2 bouts, but not based only on the results, but on what very experienced and trustable coaches and officials write and on the fact that I know quite well the history and the "quality" of those 2 fighters (and, trust me, they are already well beyond their normal capabilities)... the same for the 2-1 only win by Mangiacapre against the Bosnian guy...for sure something strange happened on the jury table, because under normal circumstances Mangiacapre would destroy Fetahovic even with no hands and his eyes closed... Cappai's victory was surprising for sure, but if it had been undeserved our Federation's website would have written something about it...they are always really "fair" and pay a lot of attention to not write "heavy" criticism about the refereeing and judging (the most they write is "lucky win" when our boxers steal the verdict and "match full of regrets" when our guys get robbed big time)...