phelps

good overall performance for Italy, but always falling a bit short of the main goal... too many losses in the quarterfinals (moreover, to athletes that didn't go through to the final, leaving our karatekas out also from the repechage rounds for bronze) and 3 qualifcations to the bronze medal bout... pity for our star Busà, who lost in the semis to the Egyptian Abdel Rahman, a fierce but not so unbeatable opponent...another final bout between him and Aghayev would have been the highlight of the Championships... and even more regrets for the young Silvia Semeraro, who lost in the quarterfinals to the home crowd favourite Alisa Buchinger only after the hantei (but then she did very well to keep her focus and make it through to the medal round)... let's hope that the other guys tomorrow will be a bit more lucky...

in the meantime, the second most important Baseball league in the World (NPB, Japan) is also currently playing the Final Series, named Nippon Series... the defending champions, Hiroshima Toyo Carp, are already 2 games to 0 ahead in the best-of-7 series, having won both yesterday and today's home games against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters from Sapporo with the same score of 5-1... now the series move to Sapporo, before possibly come back to Hiroshima for games 6 & 7...but it would be a huge surprise if this trip to the North of the Country isn't also the last stop for this year...

first news on this thread, of course, are about the Major League Baseball and their final showdown, the World Series... Everything is set, in fact, for the 2016 grand final of the main Baseball Championship in the World... next Tuesday the Cleveland Indians (that surprisingly won the American League, defeating Toronto 4 games to 1 in the ALCS) and the Chicago Cubs (4 games to 2 over the Los Angeles Dodgers ) will start their battle for glory... the Cubs are quite heavily favourite (they've been the best team in the league throughout the whole season), but the Indians in the playoffs played so well that they could even upset their rivals... pitching, as always, but this time more than usual, will be the key to success... and, whoever ends up with the title, it's gonna be a great party, because Cleveland are waiting for this since 1948, meanwhile Chicago have been now waiting for 108 years!

Women's Epee World Cup #1 (Tallinn, EST) Team Event Gold: Estonia Silver: France Bronze: Ukraine Here's the Link to Rankings and Results: http://fie.org/competitions/2017/751/results/rank

Men's Foil World Cup #1 (Cairo, EGY) Team Event Gold: France Silver: United States Bronze: Italy Here's the Link to Rankings and Results: http://fie.org/competitions/2017/205/results/rank

Women's Epee World Cup #1 (Tallinn, EST) Individual Event Gold: Tatiana Logunova Silver: Violetta Kolobova Bronze: Irina Embrich & Renata Knapik-Miazga Here's the Link to Rankings and Results: http://fie.org/competitions/2017/80/results/rank

Men's Foil World Cup #1 (Cairo, EGY) Individual Event Gold: Race Imboden Silver: Alessio Foconi Bronze: Andrea Cassarà & Lorenzo Nista Here's the Link to Rankings and Results: http://engarde-service.com/files/egyptianfencingfedration/phc/fm/

Kata + 3 weight classes for Kumite were proposed when Karate started its procedure to be included in the OG program...but for now there's nothing official about the actual Tokyo2020 Karate schedule, nor those 3 possible weight categories for Kumite have been unoffcially determined yet...

it's gonna be the same as 2008... so, Men's Foil and Women's Epee won't have the Team event in Tokyo, unless this stupid rotation is finally cancelled and all 12 events are going to be contested (but it's easier to see the snow in the desert than this happening)...

Last Saturday & Sunday the World Cup 2016/2017 started in Cancun (MEX) with the first tournaments of this campaign: the Women's Individual and Team Foil competitions... Without the Russians and the Olympic Silver medallist Elisa Di Francisca, the weekend ended with a not so unusual Italian total domination, 3 girls on the individual podium and a quite easy win in the Team competition... Here are the full rankings (and the links to the single bouts results): Individual Event http://fie.org/competitions/2017/125/results/rank Team Event http://fie.org/competitions/2017/492/results/rank By the way, this is the full calendar of the 2016/2017 World Cup for all the 3 weapons: World Cup Events Grand Prix Events just remember that both WC and GP are parte of the same World Cup standings (and all of them contribute to the World Ranking), the only difference being the amount of points awarded for the various final placings in the Individual Events (and the fact that the GP events don't have the Team competition included in their stages)...

by the way, that cream is for general skin use, not only lips... it's used to treat any form of burned skin all over the body... Clostebol is also the same substance which the Italian sailor Roberta Caputo and beach volley player Viktoria Orsi-Toth were stopped for just before the Olympic Games 2 months ago (but at least they used different products with no explicit warning about that substance being among those used to make up their medicines)... so, as you can easily see, it's quite a common substance used in medicines often needed by those who spend entire days under the sun and have their skin inflmmated and ruined by that... on the other hand, I just can't understand the Norwegian doctor, since that specific medicine is clearly indicated as doping on its box...

so, the first big event of the hockey season is over... as I wrote in the past, I was never really convinced about this tournament for many reasons (the 2 "all-star" teams, the period of the year in which it has been played - in full pre-season training, with players out of shape and mainly trying to avoid annoying injuries for the upcoming NHL season), but I have to admit that I was wrong big time... we had a wonderful tournament, with most players giving 100% out of themselves, the 2 "improbable" teams playing a lot better than expected also under a tactical point of view and fast-paced amazing hockey games... speaking of the 2 games of the final series, game #1 was played definitely better and was also more entertaining than game #2 for what concerns the level of play, but it was also less even, with Canada showing how stronger than the rest of the World they are... Game #2, instead, was a lot slower, more tactical and with all the poor shape of players (except for goalies, with Halak and Price simply phenomenal once again) coming out all of a sudden, but, on the other hand, it was closer and tighter and left all of the excitement for the last few minutes, when Canada found the way to overcome the European "renegades", who definitely deserved the "stage win" more than the hosts... But when you are the best, you always find that "plus" that saves you even when you look done and gone... Now let's hope not to have to wait 4 more years to see this kind of hockey, even if the news about the NHLers to take part into the 2018 Winter Olympics are worse & worse day after day... By the way, I can't wait for October 12th and the new NHL season to start...I'm really sick for hockey...

wow! amazing performance by the European underdogs and well deserved success... as I wrote in the past, I was one of the most scheptical about the presence of 2 "all-star teams" in this tournament, but they proved I was wrong, at least for what concerns their attitude on the ice and the results they got (especially the Europeans)... now I'd really like them to spoil the Canadian party, but I guess it would stay as a dream and nothing else, since the hosts have been absolutely untouchable so far...

yes, but frankly I don't follow women's rink hockey that much...so, I can only post some useful links, but I can't give really appropriate comments on the events... here's the official website of the competition http://www.mundialdehockeypatiniquique2016.org/ live streaming of all games http://firs.rollersports.tv/live/?liveId=A217BCEBB2594BDF8FE2E65131DBF663029 schedule of group stage, consolation pool and title play-offs http://www.rollersports.org/component/phocadownload/category/150-program and, most important of all, full results, standings and game-sheets of all games http://www.rollersports.org/component/phocadownload/category/151-results

as expected, Canada won against Russia and earned a place in the World Cup of Hockey final series... the final score is quite close (5-3)...and we can also say that we had a real game for 45 of the 60 minutes...but the truth is that the Canadians never looked really in trouble and the Russian never did the impression they could win the match, even when they suddenly scored a couple of goals and did take momentarily a 2-1 advantage... when the hosts accelerate their pace at the beginning of the third period, it was immediately clear that there was no chance to stop them...they scored 3 in a while and everything else was just "for the books"... but at least we saw a very entertaining game, with so many great players taking it seriously (which wasn't so sure before this tournament started, considered the fact that we are just at the beginning of the NHL pre-season) and giving the audience a night to remember... now I'm really looking forward to the second semifinal game between Sweden and Team Europe...I hope it's gonna be a really close game and a good show...

well, last day of the preliminary stage of the WCH2016 quite sleepy, if compared to the exciting day we had on Wednesday... the first period of the SWE-North America match was definitely the best period of hockey we've seen this week, fast pace, a lot of goals and exciting plays from both ends... if only we had a few more games like that every season... and also the "friendly" game between Europe and CAN, despite not counting that much anymore and being as expected mainly one-sided, did offer the audience some great hockey moments (the double miracle save by Halak's worth the cost of the ticket alone by itself)... I'm still totally against the farce of having 2 "all-stars" teams among the participants to a National Teams' event, but I have to admit that in any case it's a great tournament... and, despite being basically the first pre-season action for most of those players, they're already in good shape just to give us an exceptionally entertaining show we're going to miss a lot as soon as it's over... by the way, my picks for the semis are Canada and Sweden, with Canada going on to win the Trophy (they look too strong even to be put only in a slight danger...and I can't imagine them losing a single game...not this week and under these circumstances, at least)...

vorrei scrivere qualche parola a riguardo della farsa Romana, ma ho paura che poi dovrei passare i prossimi mesi nei vari tribunali a difendermi da quintali di querele da parte di tutte le luminosissime stelline della politica itagliota... pur essendo sin dal principio contrario alla candidatura per diverse ragioni, vedere come il mio Paese, che tanto amo, viene preso in giro, umiliato da questo gruppuscolo vergognoso mi fa male, davvero tanto male... ma del resto l'Italia è anche il Paese (caso unico) che ha iniziato non una, bensì due Guerre Mondiali su una sponda per saltare entrambe le volte in corsa sul carro diametralmente opposto... deve essere quindi proprio una peculiarità fondamentale e necessaria per chi comanda gli Italiani, quella di essere solo dei voltagabbana opportunisti privi di ogni principio etico e di senso del rispetto del prossimo...

to be honest, yesterday I didn't watch the games I would have liked to see... the Scandinavian derby, as often happened in recent years, was tight and closed, but played at a slow pace, very tactical with not many scoring chances nor amazing saves... it was one of those games that I like to classify as "for hardcore Hockey fans/true Hockey experts only", which is a gentle way to say that it was quite boring... the North American classic, instead, was played as expected, but once again it was a one sided match, with Canada taking full control of the operations already in the first period right after the lucky opening goal by the USA and letting their rivals far behind with no chance of coming even close to them... and once again I didn't see that famous American heart & pride they are well known for... as a result, we have a group that's already over, with Europe and Canada easily trough to the semis and USA and Czech Rep. ready to get back home... but at least in a few minutes time we have a very interesting match-up between the North American youngsters and Sweden...and I hope they will be more inspired (and inspiring) than yesterday... not sure, instead, what to expect from tonight's clash betwen CAN and Team Europe... but to tell you the truth, I'm afraid we're going to have another blow-out (with CAN winning easily, of course)...

finally, we had a day with 2 very closed and exciting games... Mrazek, every time I see him, reminds me more and more of the great Dominik Hasek...totally unconventional style, amazing saves and sometimes a bit distracted (giving up some bad goals, too )... I'm also always surprised by the European Team cohesion...I didn't really expect them to play like a true team, but they're going for it big time... on the other side, Russia were very lucky to survive the late charge by the youngsters from North America... I hope to see another couple of games like yesterday's also tonight, with the 2 super-classics between SWE and FIN and, above all, CAN vs USA, who desperately need a win in regulation to keep them in contention for a place in the semis (because if they win in OT and then CAN beat Europe in OT in the last game they would be out even by destroying the Czechs in their last match)...

yes, it was the right call, since he intentionally directed the puck towards the net with a part of his body that wasn't the stick (and it doesn't matter if Van Riemsdyck deflected it after Stepan's header - actually a breast shot)...

good night of Hockey...I didn't expct Team Europe to be so disciplined and well organized on defence...and I also didn't expect the USA to play so bad and without their famous "pride"... on the other side, I expected Canada to win against the Czechs, but not with that emphasis...I mean, they really destroyed their opponents on every aspect of the game...

Today's the day... World Cup of Hockey starts tonight at 9.30p.m. CET with the USA vs Europe clash... later in the night (2.00 CET), Team Canada make their debut against the Czech Republic...I'm really looking forward to this game...I hope not to be dispponted after the end of it...

most of the Brazilians playing for Italy have real Italian descent (though there a couple of notable exceptions) and currently play or have played for quite a while in the past in the Italian league... it's not our fault if many Italians in the past 200 years (or more) had to leave our Country and establish elsewhere in the Globe (the American Continent more than any other place)... our laws are clear...those people (and their sons, nephews etc.) are still to be considered Italians, if nobody in the line of succession did give up the Italian Nationality... so, I don't see anything wrong giving them a chance to get back to their origins... for what concerns Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, of course, the situation is a lot different...it's just the smell of oiled money...

yeah, but they scored the winning goal just after they lost their previous lead only 15 seconds before...and that's not so good for your nerves...