phelps

Avancini becomes first Brazilian Mountain Bike UCI World Champion at Marathon Worlds One week after the cross-country Olympic and downhill UCI Mountain Bike World Championships presented by Mercedes Benz, off-road action shifted to Auronzo, Italy, for the 16th edition of the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships. Henrique Avancini became the first Brazilian rider in mountain bike history to win a world title with his victory in the men's race, while Annika Langvad of Denmark successfully defended her title in the women's race to take her fifth win in the Marathon. The 2018 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships took place in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, within the UNESCO World Heritage site Tre Cime di Lavaredo, in the Italian Dolomites mountains. Women raced 89 kilometres and climbed 3’400 metres, while the men covered 102 kilometres and climbed 4’200 metres. The women's race saw most of the top contenders close together as they went over the first climb, including Langvad and other former winners Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa of Norway and Maja Wloszczowska of Poland. However, by the time they reached the Tre Cime climb it was only Langvad at the front, with Christina Kollmann-Forster of Austria a distant second, more than seven minutes back, and Wloszczowska in third, which was the finishing order. Six-time winner Dahle Flesjaa was fourth and recent crowned XCO UCI World Champion Kate Courtney of the USA finished ninth. "It was really tough, for sure the most selective race I've ever took part in," said Langvad. "I tried to be aggressive from the very first climb. Since I felt fine, I kept my pace until the end, and I managed to increase the distance from my opponents. I could not be more stoked about ending my season like this! A massive thanks to all the people and my Specialized mountain bike team who were behind me for making this possible." In the men's race, the lead group of 14 was gradually whittled down to just five by the Tre Cime climb - Avancini, Hector Paez Leon (Colombia), Howard Grotts (USA), Alexey Medvedev (Russia) and Daniel Geismayr (Austria), the defending bronze medalist. Paez Leon was the first to attack, but Avancini and Geismayr bridged across, dropping the others for good. Coming into the final kilometre, Avancini and Geismayr were still together, with Paez Leon only 10 metres back, setting the stage for a sprint finish after 102 kilometres of racing. Avancini came out of the last corner with a few bike lengths lead and held it to the finish line. "I knew I was in good shape but also aware I was an outsider," said Avancini. "In order to best play my cards, I tried to break the pace of the Marathon riders and I think I made it. I don't have a favourite discipline; I feel that I am a biker first of all, and during this season I've tried to show it. I didn't expect to close the year with a world title." 2018 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Champions Annika Langvad (DEN) and Henrique Avancini (BRA) All Credits: UCI.org

MTB Cross-Country Marathon World Championships 2018 (Auronzo di Cadore, ITA) Women's Race (89km) Gold: Annika Langvad Silver: Christina Kollmann-Forstner Bronze: Maja Wloszczowska Men's race (102km) Gold: Henrique Avancini Silver: Daniel Geismayr Bronze: Hector Leonardo Paez Leon

our Russian friends once again in the bad news headines... https://unitedworldwrestling.org/article/update-cas-upholds-wada-appeal-boltukaev-suspension

my mistake... the races were held yesterday... now the date should be the correct one...

Italy are entering just the women's team and 5 Greco-Roman specialists (among others, Giovanni Freni -former Cadet world champion & recently winner of the silver medal at the European champs- in the -55kg and Jacopo Sandron -both junior & senior European bronze medallist this year- in the -60kg class)...

some news... Greco-Roman... https://unitedworldwrestling.org/article/three-reigning-greco-roman-junior-world-champions-registered-trnava2018 Freestyle... https://unitedworldwrestling.org/article/returning-freestyle-world-champs-steveson-fix-enter-trnanva2018-field Women's Wrestling... https://unitedworldwrestling.org/article/world-champs-susaki-larroque-lead-trnava2018-field

yes, we can say they are quite "disgraced" races, that almost never have a really intriguing starting field... I also think FINA shoul do something for that...moving them in the calendar, cancelling them or anything else I don't know right now...but frankly it's completely senseless leaving those races just like they are now...

Swimming Marathon World Cup stage #7 (September 16th, 2018 @ Chun'An, CHN) Men's 10km Gold: Jack Burnell Silver: Rob Muffels Bronze: Gregorio Paltrinieri (4th, Ferry Weertman) Women's 10km Gold: Xin Xin Silver: Leonie Beck Bronze: Ana Marcela Cunha (4th, Sharon Van Rouwendaal) Back to the "normal" World Series races, with a really qualified lineup, including also the 1500m Freestyle World & Olympic Champion Gregorio Paltrinieri, at his second Open Water Series competition ever... Both races were held in very complicated conditions, with very hot water (and many athletes were happy to test themselves in this circumstance because that's what probably they will have to face also in Tokyo 2020)... More news here (Full Results, as usual, are not available yet, as often happens with events held in China ): http://www.fina.org/news/xin-chn-wins-home-first-2018-gold-burnell-gbr

Swimming Marathon World Cup stage #5 (July 26th, 2018 @ Lac St.Jean, CAN) Men's 10km Gold: Marcel Schouten Silver: Fernando Ponte Bronze: Diogo Villarinho Full Results here: http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018-men-10km/event-2 Women's 10km Gold: Ana Marcela Cunha Silver: Viviane Jungblut Bronze: Samantha Arevalo Full Results here: http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018-women-10km/event-2 Swimming Marathon World Cup stage #6 (August 11th, 2018 @ Lac Megantic, CAN) Men's 10km Gold: Christian Reichert Silver: Dario Verani Bronze: Fernando Ponte Full Results here: http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018-men-10km/event-3 Women's 10km Gold: Xin Xin Silver: Rachele Bruni Bronze: Samantha Arevalo Full Results here: http://www.fina.org/competition-detailed-results/finahosa-marathon-swim-world-series-2018-women-10km/event-3 Sorry for posting these results so late, but we must say that both Canadian World Series stages have been heavily affected by the European Championships going on basically at the same time, which led all the European top swimmers to skip these events (with just a couple of exceptions by swimmers not involved in the Europeans + the "out of radar" appearance of Rachele Bruni in the 6th stage)... therefore, the final results of these events didn't make the headlines of the usual sport websites and were basically "forgotten"...

he was 37th in the Lead event, 65th in the Speed event and didn't start in Bouldering... I guess he isn't anymore the all-rounder he once was... nowadays the speed event has so many pure specialists that's very difficult for guys good but not "super-good" to make the highest part of the ranking...and if you're not one of the top 5/10 athletes in both lead and boulder, then it gets really complcated to excel in this new combined format (which is still too unbalanced towards those who can win in the 2 most classic disciplines)...

yes, the combined event final is made with a full speed, a full boulder and a ful lead competition between the involved climbers... and the score is determined by taking the final position of any athlete in each section and multiplying te speed points*the boulder points*the lead points (and if 2 climbers are tied in 1 section, their score is the average of their 2 positions...for instance, if 2 climbers finish the boulder section tied for 3rd place, their score will be 3.5 points)...

Final Medal Table AUT, 3 / 0 / 1 SLO, 2 / 1 / 1 JPN, 1 / 1 / 0 POL, 1 / 1 / 0 IRI, 1 / 0 / 0 KOR, 0 / 2 / 1 CZE, 0 / 2 / 0 FRA, 0 / 1 / 0 GER, 0 / 0 / 2 RUS, 0 / 0 / 2 SRB, 0 / 0 / 1 Olympic Events Medal Table AUT, 1 / 0 / 1 SLO, 1 / 0 / 0 CZE, 0 / 1 / 0 KOR, 0 / 1 / 0 GER, 0 / 0 / 1

Men's Combined Final Result Gold: Jakob Schubert, 4.00 Pts Silver: Adam Ondra, 10.00 Pts Bronze: Jan Hojer, 24.00 Pts 4th, Kai Harada, 60.00 Pts 5th, Tomoa Narasaki, 72.00 Pts 6th, Kokoro Fujii, 90.00 Pts

and the champonship ends just like it started, with the home team in triumph! Austria are the Sport Climbing leaders in 2018...

yes, despite a poor Lead (as expected), he's going to finish ahead of the Japanese trio... meanwhile Schubert needs to be at least 4th in the Lead event to win the Combined Gold (otherwise it's Ondra getting the job done)...

Schubert already sure to win a medal...Hojer in very good position, but also very at risk of dropping off the podium, since all the other guys are better Lead specialists than him... and for the Bronze medal is still all open...the Lead part of the competition will be decisive...

Men's Combined Ranking after Boulder 1st, Jakob Schubert, 2.00 Pts 2nd, Jan Hojer, 4.00 Pts 3rd, Adam Ondra, 10.00 Pts 4th, Tomoa Narasaki, 18.00 Pts 5th, Kokoro Fujii, 18.00 Pts 6th, Kai Harada, 20.00 Pts

Men's Combined Speed Results 1st, Jan Hojer 2nd, Jakob Schubert 3rd, Kokoro Fujii 4th, Kai Harada 5th, Adam Ondra 6th, Tomoa Narasaki

Karate 1 Premier League Stage #6 (Berlin, GER) Final Medal Table (Team Kata events NOT included) JPN, 5 / 3 / 6 ITA, 2 / 1 / 3 TUR, 2 / 0 / 1 IRI, 1 / 0 / 2 UKR, 1 / 0 / 0 PER, 1 / 0 / 0 AZE, 0 / 2 / 1 FRA, 0 / 1 / 2 ESP, 0 / 1 / 2 BRA, 0 / 1 / 0 EST, 0 / 1 / 0 GEO, 0 / 1 / 0 KAZ, 0 / 1 / 0 USA, 0 / 0 / 2 CAN, 0 / 0 / 1 CRO, 0 / 0 / 1 EGY, 0 / 0 / 1 GER, 0 / 0 / 1 NED, 0 / 0 / 1

I know and I agree, but I only said that where's money all around, there will be also always someone not playing "fair"... it's the human nature, I guess...

finally a loss for Italy today... but frankly Uekusa is really too strong...

I think he's still recovering from an old injury... Chiara Soldi (commentating the finals on PMG/Youtube stream) said she's talked with him and he promised to be on the mat for the Premier League Final in Tokyo, but she didn't say anything about the reason why he's not in Berlin this week...

and Aghayev lost... basicaly, today's the definition of "perfect day"...

OMG!!! Italy are on fire! the best outing in the last few years...all of our finalists have won their matches, 4 for Bronze (1 not being very important, in the men's team Kata) and 2 for Gold (waiting for the women's +68kg...and not counting the women's team Kata, which also sees an Italian team at the start)... I'm really happy to see that our squad's starting to perform at their best now...

Women's Combined Final Result Gold: Janja Garnbret, 5.00 Pts Silver: Sa Sol, 12.00 Pts Bronze: Jessica Pilz, 24.00 Pts 4th, Akiyo Noguchi, 54.00 Pts 5th, Miho Nonaka, 64.00 Pts 6th, Petra Klinger, 75.00 Pts