phelps

Women's Individual Sabre (Cancun, MEX) Final Results: Gold: Olga Kharlan (UKR) Silver: Arianna Errigo (ITA) Bronze: Cecilia Berder (FRA) & Yana Egorian (RUS) Semifinals: Errigo b. Berder 15-14 Kharlan b. Egorian 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Kharlan b. Errigo 15-6 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Yesterday's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/152/results/rank

I can tell you right now that Italy at 99.9% will use just 5 (max 6) men's quota (Nenzi in 500/1000m, Giovannini, Tumulero, Ghiotto, Bugari for all the other individual events and the Team Pursuit and maybe a further reserve guy -with no chance of skating in the actual Olympic event, however- for this last one) and only 3 women's quota (Yvonne Daldossi 500/1000m, Bettrone 1000m/Mass Start and Lollobrigida 3000m/Mass Start)... there's no chance to see any other athlete in our team...

actually he (and the other relay guys) are absolutely furious, because it wasn't just a oops by Sabbioni, but it was the starting "device" (as they call it) that got broken thanks to the organizers that didn't make an accurate control before they put it on before the race... if that's true, shame on the OC...we just missed out an easy gold because of that...

I know we hve a dedicated thread, but it's in the Tokyo 2020 section and the following news are only about Pyeongchang (at least for now)... finally, also in Italy Discovery Group sub-licensed the free-to-air TV rights of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games to our public network, RAI... details are still undisclosed, but they will come up in the next few hours for sure... here the news in Italian: https://www.digital-news.it/news/sport/44261/rai-cda-approva-accordo-con-discovery-eurosport-per-olimpiadi-invernali-2018 RAI board also established their terms for further negotiation about the Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (which doesn't necessarily mean that this deal will be automatically finalized)...

down and down and down and down the Italian Hockey goes... it's so depressing realizing that, beyond the awful present, there's no future too for the most beautiful sport in the world here in Italy...

finally, at least some good news for this disgraced Olympic Hockey Tournament...

no, there are a lot of different issues in short course swimming... in the 50m pool you have the start (with the underwater section limited to max 15m) and then good 35m of surface swimming... in the 25m pool you have the start (with its 15m underwater swim), then just 10m of surface swim before you get to the turn (followed by another up to 15m underwater section) and finally inly the last 10m of surface swimming... so, you can easily undertand how short course specialists, who generally are perfect in the art of the initial dive (the strongest point for Scozzoli) and of the turns (Progoda by far the best in yesterday's field), have a big advantage on those powerful swimmers like Peaty, who's strenght is his surface swim that just "opens the water"... and the shorter the distance, the biggest advantage have the specialists (and generally the swimmers with most powerful natural swim on the surface are not among them...just consider Ian Thorpe, who always said he did feel like "caged" when swimming in the 25m pool and never really recorded times comparable to those he got in the bigger pool)... p.s. however, I don't see Scozzoli nor Prigoda nor anyone else beating Adam in the 100m...there he'll surely get his revenge...

Japanese women (and Kodaira more than any other) are just unbelievable... I understand the fact that the Dutch skaters are focused on their Olympic selection races in a few weeks time and North Americans always hide themselves in the first part of the Olympic season, but wow! those girls are skating faster than ever and beyond any reasonable imagination... still, don't expect them to sweep the field in Pyeonchang (not even Kodaira, who's gonna face a very different Sang Hwa Lee in 2 months time)...

OK...but if that's up to DEN to decide, it's not lack of fair play choosing the most favorable option... it's just an unforgivable Italian mistake, which they paid the highest prize for... then we can talk about the rules, which should be different (it was clear that no stone was influenced by that minimal super-light and not intentional touch, so in this case DEN shouldn't have been allowed to opt for such a big turnaround of the real facts)... but until the rules say that, the players have full right to take advantage of them...any further complaint is totally out of order...

be serious...

if that's the only point, it's all clear and simple...so, still I don't understand all the rest of the following dispute, though... however, Italy still had the game in their hands even after that silly and unforgivable mistake...and they did throw the Olympic qualification away also in the 9th and once again in the 10th... I'm so angry about their decision-making...

Men's Individual Epee (Doha, QAT) Final Results: Gold: Park Sang Young (KOR) Silver: Jung Jin Sun (KOR) Bronze: Andrea Santarelli (ITA) & Paolo Pizzo (ITA) Semifinals: Park Sang Young b. Pizzo 15-13 Jung Jin Sun b. Santarelli 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Park Sang Young b. Jung Jin Sun 3-3 (Priority) Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/387/results/rank Women's Individual Epee (Doha, QAT) Final Results: Gold: Ana Maria Popescu (ROU) Silver: Mara Navarria (ITA) Bronze: Choi In Jeong (KOR) & Hou Guangjuan (CHN) Semifinals: Navarria b. Choi In Jeong 15-10 Popescu b. Hou Guangjuan 14-9 Gold Medal Match: Popescu b. Navarria 10-6 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/79/results/rank

FIS official website... but this is Halfpipe...Boudjelal competed (and ranked 14th in his heat, which means he'll be 27th or 28th overall at the end of today's final) in the Big Air event...

just a bunch of idiots! Gaspari & co. are just a bunch of idiots... they didn't get a single decision right in the last 3+1 ends and, moreover, they also made a lot of throwing mistakes...frankly, I don't know how such a team even got to this point... they did clearly show that they don't belong to this level of play and didn't deserve to win... but, despite that, I still have to understand what happened in the last shot of the 8th end (or, better, why Denmark got the benefit of the call after that very long dispute)...that was definitely the turning point of the entire match... p.s. the last shot by Dupont wasn't that "amazing"...it was just a lucky ending for a missed shot (Danish "3rd" placing before the shot and their coach's facial expression after it says it all)...

really? robberies football/basketball-alike also in Curling??? c'mon, man!!! however, how stupid are those Italian girls? do they really have to think about strategy in a situation like this? it's so easy...you have the hammer...just make the 9th end void and keep the hammer for the 10th...then you just have to play for the final draw... so...just sweep all those stones away until the last one...

void filled... the guys fly to Korea...now let's wait and see what the girls can do (but I'm not confident in Gaspari at all)...

Yessss!!!! Italy's men are going to Korea!!! first qualification ever for our Curling sport... but what a painful last ends they were...Gonin is just unable, Mosaner is completely crazy and lucky...but, despite not deserving it at all, at the end we have been gifted this historical win... now let's hope that Gaspari is in a better state of mind than yesterday evening and the girls can earn their Olympic ticket, too...

typical from Gaspari...when it really matters, she doesn't understand anything anymore... and I'm pretty sure that even tomorrow against Denmark they will do something stupid sooner or later, so to lose this giant chance they have to earn the first ever qualification to the Games for Italy (we only participated in Torino 2006 as hosts, if I remember correctly)...

European Championships for the Olympic weight classes Day #3 podium places: Women's -67kg Gold: Polina Khan (RUS) Silver: Anika Godel (POL) Bronze: Nadja Savkovic (SRB) and Bodine Schoenmakers (NED) Women's +67kg Gold: Olga Ivanova (RUS) Silver: Milica Mandic (SRB) Bronze: Karina Zhdanova (RUS) and Aleksandra Kowalczuk (POL) Men's +80kg Gold: Dejan Georgievski (MKD) Silver: Yury Kirichenko (RUS) Bronze: Oleg Kuznetcov (RUS) and Mykhailo Shelest (UKR) it was quite expected, but still...wow! Russia won 7 out of 8 possible Gold medals (and several others)... congrats to the lone hero Georgievski, who saved the rest of the Continent's reputation and he's also one of the very few successful athletes from the small Balkan Country at this level, I guess (I don't remember MKD winning European/World/Olympic medals for quite a long time in any sport, apart for a couple of exceptions in Karate)... on the other hand, once again shame on Italy for this new disaster...our TKD is definitely gone...and the Sarmiento and Molfetta's times won't be back soon, I fear...

European Championships for the Olympic weight classes Day #2 podium places: Women's -49kg Gold: Svetlana Igumenova (RUS) Silver: Ela Aydin (GER) Bronze: Viktoriya Bashkirova (RUS) and Iryna Romoldanova (UKR) Men's -68kg Gold: Arman Irgaliev (RUS) Silver: Vladimir Dalakliev (BUL) Bronze: Viacheslav Minin (RUS) and Ali Radwan (BLR) Men's -80kg Gold: Albert Gaun (RUS) Silver: Julio Ferreira (POR) Bronze: Karol Holubowicz (POL) and Aurimas Klemas (LTU)

Italy and China (both ending the round robin phase with a 5-1 record) will play for the first Olympic spot tonight at 7 p.m. CET... the losers will have another chance in the last repechage round against Denmark (4-2 their record in the round robin phase) tomorrow (noon CET)... c'mon, girls!!!

Italy and China are surely through... among the leading 3, only Denmark are not mathematically in yet...

from today to saturday, in Sofia (BUL) the European Championships for the Olympic weight classes are on stage... today's events podium places: Women's -57kg Gold: Tatiana Kudashova (RUS) Silver: Inese Tarvida (LAT) Bronze: Ekaterina Kim (RUS) and Jolanta Tarvida (LAT) Men's -58kg Gold: Mikhail Artamonov (RUS) Silver: Jack Woolley (IRL) Bronze: Vladimir Gritsenko (RUS) and Serghei Uscov (MDA) as expected, it's just a Russian festival...but, still, it's nice to see 2 sisters on the same podium... and in case you're asking yourself...no, they didn't fight against each other...Jolanta lost to Kudashova in the semis (and then her sister lost to the same Russian in the final bout)...

yeah, and if it were not for such a defensive-minded coach like Jacques Demers in his prime years in Minnesota, he could have scored so many more goals and points... I still remember his amazing goals against Russia in the opening game of Torino 2006 Olympics...the first one especially, imho one of the best goals ever...speed, power and technique at their absolute top... actually, that was one of the best hockey games I ever saw at any level...pure orgasm... by the way, this NHL season is really intriguing and a very good show... other than the obvious Kings, I'm watching in particular a lot of games of the Tampa Bay Lightning (because of the Stamkos/Kucherov duo, but not only...they always play so well in general) and of the Washington Capitals (because of Ovi, of course...he's definitely my favorite player in the last 15 years or so)... and if I think that we won't watch those wonderful athletes in Pyeongchang thanks to a brainless commissioner like mr.Buttman (yeah, it's intentional...definitely not a typo ) and to those greedy and arrogant rich men called "owners"...you don't even imagine how do I feel and what I'd like to do to them (or maybe yes, since it's the same for you, I guess)...