phelps

Champions Hockey League 2017/2018 Champions Hockey League is back with round #5 of the group stage. and it's a busy day, as tonight 13 games take place across Europe. More than a handful of teams could secure their places in the next round, while for others it's about winning – or not losing – to stay alive into next week's games. Today's Schedule 17:00 Bili Tygri Liberec vs. HC Davos 18:00 Grizzlys Wolfsburg vs. Red Bull Salzburg 18:00 Red Bull Munich vs. Brynäs IF 18:00 JYP Jyväskylä vs. Neman Grodno 18:30 Frölunda Indians vs. Gap Rapaces 18:30 HV71 Jönköping vs. Oceláři Třinec 19:00 Esbjerg Energy vs. Adler Mannheim 19:30 KAC Klagenfurt vs. ZSC Lions Zurich 19:30 Vienna Capitals vs. EV Zug 19:30 Comarch Cracovia vs. IFK Helsinki 19:30 Kometa Brno vs. Malmö Redhawks 20:00 Nottingham Panthers vs. TPS Turku 20:00 Cardiff Devils vs. Växjö Lakers All Times CET

2017 MLB Regular Season is over... Los Angeles Dodgers (National League) and Cleveland Indians (American League) dominated the scene and head into the playoffs as the main favorites to earn a pass for the World Series, but they have to face really stong opposition on their way to success...from the defending champions (Chicago Cubs) to the "hot" Arizona D-Backs, from the New York Yankees (back in the post-season after a few disappointing years) to their arch-rivals Boston Red Sox, from the excellent Houston Astros to the surprise of the year, the Minnesota Twins (which last season lost more than 100 games before bouncing back to the playoffs in 2017)... I'm pretty sure that we're going to have very intriguing and exciting playoffs...and I can't wait to follow them very carefully... Here's a recap of what happened in the last 6 months... Regular Season Final Standings http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/index.jsp Individual Stats Leaders http://m.mlb.com/news/article/257131486/2017-individual-leaders-impress-with-big-stats/?topicId=27118122 and here's what to look for in the next month or so... Postseason Fan Guide http://m.mlb.com/news/article/256992372/mlb-playoffs-home-field-matchups-explained/?topicId=27118122 Postseason Picture http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/postseason-picture/ Postseason Schedule (with results updated day-to-day) http://m.mlb.com/postseason-schedule

Lanfranco "Frankie" Dettori at the age of 47 can still deliver... Riding the unbeaten and unbeatable Enable, in fact, he won his 5th "Arc De Triomphe", becoming the first man ever to reach this mark... wow! what a career he had (and he's still having, actually)... http://www.bbc.com/sport/equestrian/41459569 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/racing/2017/10/01/prix-de-larc-de-triomphe-can-frankie-dettori-win-enable-live/ https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/oct/01/enable-wins-prix-de-larc-de-triomphe-frankie-dettori-horse-racing https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2017/oct/01/frankie-dettori-wins-prix-de-larc-de-triomphe-enable-horse-racing-pictures

unfortunately today we have some very sad news... Famous US broadcaster Dave Strader, named "The Voice" dies at only 62 because of Cancer... https://www.nhl.com/news/dave-strader-dies-at-age-62-of-cancer/c-291498528 https://www.nhl.com/news/dave-strader-death-social-media-reaction/c-291499618 we'll miss you...R.I.P. Dave

I hope so... but I also fear what could be in 4 and a half months time...

p.s. by the way, Wednesday night is coming... I just can't wait...

Crvena Zvezda will play against DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc (HUN), Corona Brasov (ROU), Txuri Urdin San Sebastian (ESP) in their Group C matches (in Brasov, as you wrote)... meanwhile Group B will be hosted in Riga (LAT) and will feature GKS Tychy (POL), HC Donbass (UKR), Kurbads Riga (LAT), Narva PSK (EST)... both Groups B & C will be contested from October 20th to October 22nd, 2017...

Ok, it was the post-Olympic event... OK, some Countries weren't there with their best teams... but wow! Italy did show some magic in Sarasota... today we added to our medal table 3 more medals...1 Gold and 2 Bronze...and one of those 3rd place-finish was the men's Eight, where we last were on the podium 11 years ago at Lake Dorney (London 2012 Olympic venue)... we had 5 boats in the 7 men's Olympic events finals and all of them went on the podium (1 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze)... we also won the final Medal Table with 9 medals overall (3-3-3) ahead of NZL with 7 total medals (3-2-2) and AUS with 6 (3-2-1)... but to me the highlight of the day was the hyper-unexpected first loss of the American girls in the Eight after a 10-year domination of this event...I think Romania really did a masterpiece in taking home that win... Rowing is always a wonderful sport...

by the way, Min Jeon Choi won all 3 individual disciplines, adding today the 1000m to yesterday's 500m and 1500m... and of course she and her teammates won also the women's relay... among the boys, Lim added another tally to the Korean gold medals list, but a least we had a different winner in the men's relay (only the second overall in the entire weekend): Canada, in fact, took the last event of the competition just ahead of China and Japan... for Italy, good things have been shown by Arianna Fontana and in the women's relay (they were just unlucky in the semifinals, when, without the accident involving also the Dutch girls, they could have easily made the last 4)... meanwhile the guys were an absolute disaster, with no one capable of going beyond round #2 individually and out in the heats in the relay... overall, not good news for the sport of short track speedskating looking at the upcoming Olympics...we're probably going to see a Korea-only show in Gangneung...

to me it's the opposite...this year's Worlds will be the highlight of the season... finally, we're going to see how this sport should be if only the world was made just by honest people...

also the men's lightweight double scull was a very exciting race, better than expected...France confirmed themselves unbeatable, but the final sprint for silver between Italy and China (with Poland coming back strongly, too) was really amazing... and Italy is getting medals as if it was raining...very good job, guys!

well, finally it was local hero Shaolin Sandor Liu to break Korea's dominance, meanwhile in the women's 500m Korea won the gold, with Fontana good second...

and finally Slovenia spoiled the Slovak party in men's C1... good 5th place in the end for Colazingari, but it doesn't change the awful world championship Italy had... Men's C1 Gold: Benjamin Savsek (SLO) 94.81 (2) Silver: Alexandr Slafkovsky (SVK) 96.29 +1.48 (0) Bronze: Michal Martikan (SVK) 98.23 +3.42 (0)

as I expected, the men's pair final was a fantastic race, with the Italians coming back strongly in the last 500 meters and winning a wonderful gold medal just a point ahead of the great Sinkovic brothers... NZL was together with ITA and CRO for most of the race, but they disappeared when ITA and CRO changed gear in the final few meters...

and the boys short distance isn't that different...2 Koreans, the Chinese Wu and local hero Liu will battle for the win in this first WC stage...

well, the girls 500m don't look that promising...2 out of 4 finalists are once again from KOR...Fontana and St.Gelais will have a difficult race with those 2 (by the way, the Canadian should have been disqualified in the first semifinal...she clearly used her hands to keep Christie behind at the start)...

and time for the first Korean wins... Women's 1500m Gold: Choi Min Jeong (KOR) Silver: Kim Boutin (CAN) Bronze: Deanna Lockett (AUS) Men's 1500m Gold: Lim Hyo Jun (KOR) Silver: Hwang Dae Heon (KOR) Bronze:Sjinkie Knegt (NED) I hope that at least in the 500m we're going to see different winners...

men's C1 just under way, by the way...

to be noticed also that 2 out of 10 finalists from today's K1 were also in yesterday's C1 final (Fox and Lawrence from AUS)... sorry for my previous mistake...I was convinced that Jones made yesterday's final, but I was wrong (she only managed 13th place in the semis)...

I guess she was very angry after yesterday's C1 race... and today she didn't want to take any risk...she just destroyed the field... Women's K1 Gold: Jessica Fox (AUS) 97.14 (0) Silver: Jana Dukatova (SVK) 101.76 +4.62 (0) Bronze: Ricarda Funk (GER) 102.62 ++.48 (0)

not so good results for Italy this morning...once again... we had 3 starters in men's C1 and only 1 got to the last 10, meanwhile in the women's K1 Stefanie Horn, overall our best specialist, was only 23rd and missed out on the minimum score we expected from her... apart from the useless silver medal in the senseless mixed C2, for us tese champs have been a real disaster... let's hope that Colazingari can at least save our face later today, but it would be a huge, huge surprise if he succed... by the way, these are today's finalists: Women's K1 1 Fiona PENNIE (GBR) 101.90 (0) 2 Ricarda FUNK (GER) 102.49 +0.59 (0) 3 Corinna KUHNLE (AUT) 103.12 +1.22 (2) 4 Lisa FRITSCHE (GER) 103.78 +1.88 (0) 5 Katerina KUDEJOVA (CZE) 104.34 +2.44 (0) 6 Marie-Zelia LAFONT (FRA) 104.65 +2.75 (0) 7 Rosalyn LAWRENCE (AUS) 104.69 +2.79 (0) 8 Jana DUKATOVA (SVK) 105.11 +3.21 (2) 9 Luuka JONES (NZL) 105.13 +3.23 (0) 10 Jessica FOX (AUS) 105.40 +3.50 (0) Men's C1 1 Sideris TASIADIS (GER) 97.73 (0) 2 Anze BERCIC (SLO) 98.52 +0.79 (0) 3 Denis GARGAUD CHANUT (FRA) 98.62 +0.89 (0) 4 Michal MARTIKAN (SVK) 98.85 +1.12 (0) 4 Roberto COLAZINGARI (ITA) 98.85 +1.12 (0) 6 Benjamin SAVSEK (SLO) 99.08 +1.35 (2) 7 Alexander SLAFKOVSKY (SVK) 99.46 +1.73 (0) 8 Franz ANTON (GER) 99.47 +1.74 (0) 9 Edern LE RUYET (FRA) 99.63 +1.90 (0) 10 Takuya HANEDA (JPN) 99.83 +2.10 (0) 10 Ander ELOSEGI (ESP) 99.83 +2.10 (0)

quite a good day for Italy once again...the men's senior double reached the final and so we have 5 of the 7 Olympic boats sure to end up in the top 6 (they would be qualified for the Games, if only the Summer Olympics were next year)... unfortunately, the womne's senior double missed out the qualification by quite a narrow margin, so we don't have any women's Olympic boat in the top 6 once again... moreover, in today's non-Olympic boats finals we got 1 Gold (and it was a great one, the second in our centennial history among the girls), 1 Silver, 1 bitter 4th place-finish and 1 5th place-finish... not bad, especially considering the very young age on average of our crews... let's hope to get some satisfaction also in the next couple of days, when it matters more (the men's senior pair shootout between Lodo & Vicino against the Sinkovic brothers is going to be one of the highlights of the entire worlds in my opinion)...

finally, nothing has been changed after all reviews and protests...so, here are the final results: men's K1 Gold: Ondrej Tunka (CZE) 91.84 (0) Silver: Vit Prindis (CZE) 91.86 +0.02 (0) Bronze: Peter Kauzer (SLO) 92.13 +0.29 (2)

I'm watching these finals on their TV and their commentators are pretty excited...but also pretty worried...they don't know if they can let themselves go and start the party or not... situations like this are pretty painful for everybody...athletes, commentators and audience...they should work and find some solutions to this problem...

and he does it! Peter the Great upsets the Czechs and takes the Gold medal! oh, no...he's been given a late touch and the Czechs are back in Gold and Silver medal position...Kauzer is now "only" 3rd... I guess it will take some time and some protest before we have the official and definitive result...