phelps

Women's Team Sabre in Foshan (CHN)... Gold: France Silver: Russia Bronze: Poland Final Bout: France b. Russia 45 - 36

other events from today... Men's Individual Sabre in Madrid (ESP)... Gold: Vincent Anstett Silver: Sandro Bazadze Bronze: Luca Curatoli & Kim Jung Hwan Final Bout: Anstett b. Bazadze 15 - 9 Men's Individual Foil in St.Petersburg (RUS)... Gold: Dmitry Zherebchenko Silver: Dmitry Rigin Bronze: Andrea Baldini & James-Andrew Davis Final Bout: Zherebchenko b. Rigin 15 - 6

p.s. sfuma il sogno del Forte Dei Marmi nell'Eurolega di Hockey Pista... i Portoghesi dell'Oliveirense vincono la semifinale per 3-2 e conquistano la finale di domani contro i connazionali del Benfica, che in precedenza avevano battuto 4 - 3 ai rigori (1-1 i regolamentari + supplementari) il favoritissimo Barcellona... domani alle 15 (Italiane), quindi, comunque vada, sarà un trionfo Lusitano...

chiamali "un poco"...è stato un fallimento totale sotto ogni punto di vista...sia nel C1 che, ancor più, nel K1, dove almeno un finalista avremmo dovuto piazzarlo...

io spero che in qualche modo si riesca a far rientrare anche Marconcini...i 3 ragazzi (con Manzi - talento vero e purissimo, che delle scelte assurde dei tecnici hanno rischiato di lasciar fuori da questi Giochi in nome di chissà quale "prospettiva" per il 2020 - e Basile) potrebbero essere tutti da podio (a differenza di un'eventuale qualificazione tramite quota Continentale di Valentina Moscatt, destinata, comunque vada, ad uscire di scena al primo o, al massimo, al secondo turno)... p.s. e non nutro grande fiducia nemmeno in Giuffrida e, soprattutto, Gwend, finora sempre una gran perdente nelle occasioni che contano davvero...

last couple of weekends in the 2015/2016 World Cups... Olympic qualifications are done, but these events still mean a lot to the qualified fencers, since their results count for the world ranking that will determine the Olympic table draws... first event of the week, the Women's Individual Sabre in Foshan (CHN)... Gold: Olga Kharlan Silver: Ji Yeon Kim Bronze: Qian Jiarui & Mariel Zagunis Final Bout: Kharlan b. Kim 15 - 11

I see...now I'm watching the C1 final (on Dvojka, since the Italian tv is "missing in action"...once again...)...

unfortunately the ref blew the whistle too early...and then Olimb wasted another big chance...so, game over for the Norwegians...pretty unlucky, today...

c'mon, man!!! that's a robbery!!! Markstrom didn't have the puck fully covered... however, Norway are giving Sweden a pretty good scare...still 35 secs to go...

not at all...I think Molmenti could have still given a sign of life in the big occasion, meanwhile I don't see how De Gennaro can finish on the podium of the Olympic Games... and I didn't like that all the qualifying races have been held in Liptovsky Mikulas (also the previous 2 were held in SVK last month)...they should have chosen at least 3 different courses, not only one for all the selecting events...

Molmenti fuori dai Giochi... stando ai criteri pubblicati, Giovanni De Gennaro ha vinto le selezioni interne per il posto a Rio in K1...temo che questo ci costerà una medaglia (penso che il campione avrebbe piazzato la zampata al momento giusto, mentre De Gennaro non lo vedo da podio)...

Maarten Hermans, who ended up in 14th place overall in the semifinals (and this is his final place, since only the top 10 advance to the final run)... by the way, in the Italian team, after a pretty disastrous semifinal stage, it should now be official...Daniele Molmenti won't defend his Olympic Gold medal from London 2012...our representative in Rio will be in fact Giovanni De Gennaro, who won the internal selection after the end of the entire process...

well, actually even if Belarus get the last place is not a problem for us (I didn't consider that the battle to avoid relegation is between HUN and BLR...I was still thinking about the fact that GER and FRA can't go down this year because they're the co-hosts of the next Worlds)... the only important thing is that GER and FRA stay up, so we get a chance for next year...so, might the best team between HUN and BLR be saved...and good luck to both of them...

yes...and Slovak, too... I have the Kombi Pack from the satellite Skylink package...of course, I don't understand more than 2 or 3 worlds in total (apart for those channels which also have the English audio, like Eurosport or EDGE Sport...great channel that one...I discovered the Surfing sport there and it's quite entertaining, especially the women's events...), but at least I can enjoy a lot of sports I like that I would never see on the Italian tv (Hockey, Handball and Floorball above all)... about hockey, well...I haven't watched as many WCHs matches I liked this time...I had to make some choices and of course the NHL has almost always prevailed until now... I can say that I'm a bit surprised (in positive) by the Czech team until now (I didn't expect them being so strong, looking at the "names" of their roster), meanwhile I'm really disappointed with Slovakia (Ok, it's not your better team, but I think you should do better than this in any case...), Russia and Switzerland (both of them are playing well below their usual standard until now...and that goal taken by Berra against the Kazakhs...)... finally, obviously I hope that Hungary will be last in their group, so to see the unbelievable Italian team promoted to the next Top Class Worlds (and this is the biggest hockey surprise of the year to me)... by the way, today is a pretty busy day...I'd like to watch as much as possible of NHL Eastern Conference final game #1 between Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay, Switzerland - Russia at the Hockey Worlds, Judo Grand Prix, Slalom Canoeing ECHs, Athletics Diamond League event in Shanghai and the Fencing World Cup competitions... it's not gonna be easy...but I give it a try...

earlier today...Judo Grand Prix (final block, on satellite feed) and Hockey (NHL playoffs thanks to nhl.tv and a few minutes of CZE-KAZ and GER-BLR, thanks to CT Sport HD)...meanwhile now I'm watching the second semifinal of the Euroleague Basketball (they're playing the OT right now)...

yes, for the Italian law you can go back as long as you want...the only important, fundamental feature is that the full bloodline did never quit the Italian citizenship... however, also her grandfather by her mother's side was Italian (the bloodline reported by Dragon is her father's side)... *there is a very hard dispute here in Italy about this advantage that blood heritage has in our laws...many people would like to give an easier route also to the socalled "iure soli", which at the moment has a lot harder requirements to satisfy in order to become Italian (typical situation: a couple coming from outside the EU needs 10 years of continuative residence to earn our citizenship...and their children, if they were born abroad before they came to Italy, can't have the Italian citizenship until their 18th birthday**...and it's not an automatic procedure..they have to ask for the Italian passport)... **to make a sport related example, that's why Italy couldn't start Mario Balotelli in the Football Olympic Tournament in 2008 (he wasn't 18 yet...and so he didn't have the Italian passport, yet)...

initially they said so, but then they started to say "top 8 but within a certain distance from the medallists"... basically, they wanted our athletes to show a certain level of competitivness, which Giupponi failed to give... but with Italian sport federations you can be sure that no standard is so strict...they will always find the way to adjust things to their favor, if they really want... and the same will happen with swimming...we can be sure that at the end the team will be larger than expected, with some late additions even if the original criteria haven't been matched...

well, this is the dominant feeling about him in any case... but they should think about all their problems, rather than being envious of someone else...

but too much outside the required time...at 99.99% he wouldn't have been selected in any case after sunday's race... however, with the Italian federation you never know...sometimes they are very strict with their decisions, some others they are not...but being the Olympics, I guess that our NOC wouldn't allow any sort of "good intentions"...

no, in both races...

don't forget Mexico and Ukraine...they have some chances, too...

not exactly true...after the disaster at the last World Champs, the Italian federation decided to cancel all the nominees of the male race walkers and announced that the team world championships 2016 had to be considered as one-shot trials for the Rio Olympics (with very strict criteria to earn a spot - top 8 finish or sub-1h20m for the 20km and sub-3h45m for the 50km)... so, basically Schwazer didn't steal anything to anyone, since only De Luca and Caporaso (both in the 50km) have matched the selection criteria other than him... and no other Italian race walker has got the required performance in the right moment...so, no complaints are justified by his missed "teammates"...they can only blame themselves...

no, Brazil used all of their 8 additional wild cards for otherwise non-qualified athletes...so all the 5 spots they won on the piste will stay... there can't be any reallocation...

so, in Rio we're going to have a 9-team competition in team events in both men's and women's epee...

no way...I don't agree at all... First of all, in 2008 mr. Tallent wasn't robbed, since Schwazer at that time was absolutely clean...all of his Beijing samples have been re-exhaminated more than 10 times in the last 4 years with all the new techniques and the final result was always the same: no doping at all, not even substances at that time legal and then become prohibited...so, for what concerns 2008 (and Barcelona 2010 Europeans), it's only an infamous bla bla bla... second, I know that he has been robbed of the pleasure of the medal ceremony, but in 2012 mr. Tallent won his Gold medal, which he will receive in the next weeks, after the final words over Kyrdyapkin's career have been written)...so, late justice...but no robbery once again... and now...well, we all know the rules...the first doping ban can't be for life*...Schwazer has paid his tribute to the cause (and he has paid more than almost every other athlete in the world, receving no support at all by the Italian institutions - unlike all the other Countries, where politicians and judges are always ready to cancel doping bans to their athletes, meanwhile Alex here in Italy has been even sentenced and fined by a "general" trial court and he's considered a criminal more than proved rapists and killers) and now he has the full right to get back and win again (since he was the best race walker in the world before being exhasperated by the Russians and consequently decide to race with their same weapons and he's still the best now)... and his current coaching staff, I'm sure that right now he's as clean as no other athlete (WADA are doing his doping tests by themselves, not delegating them to the Italian Authorithy, which is the normal procedure used with 99.9% of athletes...just to say how he's still treated by the sport community)... so, basically he's just another of those athletes who failed a drug test and got a second chances...frankly, I'm sick and tired of seeing all those hate against him, when I never read so many disgusting lines against all the other cheaters, even those billion times worse than him... *no misunderstanding...I don't like cheaters and I'm in favor of life ban at the first doping infraction...but it must be the same for all the athletes of all sports...I hate rules made "ad personam" (and it's the same for the Russian case...I don't think they are the only ones doing what they do)... by the way, these are my first and also last words on this question...