phelps

earlier today: Football, Copa America (last 2 QTF matches) Rowing, last stage of the World Cup in Poznan now: Football, Euro 2016 (mainly FRA-SUI, but with an eye also on ROU-ALB) later: Golf, US Open (final round)

Sad news for Yuan Ping... but at least we have some fresh news (and this is already something "big", knowing FIE & co.)...

Day 2 - Evening Session Results Session 3A http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/05/C74-C74E05.pdf Session 3B http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/05/C74-C74E06.pdf Day 3 Schedule http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/05/C58-C58D0618.pdf once again, no surprising results...today I'm especially looking for Valentino's debut in this competition...this is his Swan's song I guess, so, I hope that everything goes according to plan...

today's afternoon session results are out... http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/05/C74-C74E03.pdf http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/05/C74-C74E04.pdf no major surprise yet...maybe just Germany's Hamza Touba's loss against South Korean Kim In Kyu was a bit unexpected...on the other hand, we also had a couple of convincing wins by the US guys (usually not a factor among the AIBA boys in the last few years) and, above all, our Salvatore Cavallaro (-75kg) destroyed the Turkish guy Onder Sipal (which is never to be taken for granted in a boxing meet held in Baku)...

World Qualification Tournament in Baku (AZE) Draw Sheets are out... here you can already find all of them (no need for translation, since you can see the weights by yourself)... http://www.fpi.it/ita-boxing/news/6713-parte-oggi-il-torneo-mondiale-di-qualificazione-olimpica-di-baku,-primi-due-azzurri-in-gara-domani-itaboxing-road2rio-noisiamoenergia.html

yes, I saw that document... by the way, here you can also watch the winning lifts in all the weight categories... http://www.allthingsgym.com/2016-chinese-national-weightlifting-championships/

well, strong wind made it difficult for all teams today... luckily the young Italian girls have been mentally very strong and focused in all of their matches and earned this very, very important Olympic chance... and now they will be very dangerous ousiders also for the medals...

I don't think so...or at least she didn't even show up at the Chinese Nationals (where many unofficial world records were broken), which usually in the Olympic year are one of the most important events for their selections... by the way, Meng Suping's result (140+190=330kg) out there was close to Kashirina's total at the 2015 (and 2013) World Champs (where she got 332 and 333 respectively)... and at last year's Worlds she even got a better lift in Snatch (145)...so, potentially Meng can compete with the Russian (unless Kashirina gets back to her 2014 results...in this case she would be absolutely untouchable - she got almost 350kg in the Olympic Total that year)

yes, these Continental Champs are the last 2 tournaments before the Olympics... so, the team events brackets will be known after the end of them, meanwhile the individual brackets will be established only after the athletes selected for the individual competitions by the Nations which have qualified for the team event will be confirmed... however, we will have the official confirmation of the brackets by FIE only a few days before the start of the Games...

at the moment it looks she hasn't been selected by the NZ Olympic Committee (I just did a quick research on their website and no athletes are indicated in the Fencing section)... the most recent news I could find about her possible participation to the Games are here: http://www.fencing.org.nz/news.php?cat=7

so, congrats to the Pens... but I absolutely don't agree with Crosby winning the Conn Smythe trophy...it should have gone to the Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel line alltogether...and being that "impossible", well, they should have at least recognized the great playoffs run by Bonino, Kessel or Letang... however, it's just a couple of days that we ended the 2015/2016 season, but I can't wait for the start of the new one (luckily we don't have to wait that much...the new CHL season is just around the corner...the start is scheduled for August 16th )...

my picks for the Olympic qualifiers... Men: Ukraine and Japan to the final and Russia and Mexico in the 3rd place play-off for the last spot (hoping that MEX can get this last ticket to Rio)... Women: USA and Italy in the final, with Great Britain and Chinese Taipei to fight for the last spot (my support goes to the Europeans)...

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jun/14/operation-puerto-blood-bags-must-be-released-judge-madrid https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/11/wada-drugs-operation-puerto-judges-decision http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/operacion-puerto-blood-bags-to-be-handed-over-to-anti-doping-authorities/ so we have Dr.Fuentes back in action, possibly no sanctions for the athletes caught cheating but at least we're going to "officially" know some of their names... I'm not sure that this time we can say "justice has been done"...

good-bye, mr. Hockey... R.I.P.

after monday's road win, which gave them a 3-1 lead in the series, yesterday night the Pittsburgh Penguins wasted their first chance to clinch the title at home, losing by a score of 4-2... now they have to fly back to San Josè for game #6 on Sunday night... hoping to see a decisive game #7 next week, go Sharks!!!

this week was mainly dedicated to Football (Copa Centenario and from tonight Euro 2016) and Hockey (Stanley Cup finals)... and I also enjoyed a bit of Athletics (Diamond League in Rome and Oslo)...

Joonas Donskoi scores the OT winner and the San Josè Sharks cut the Pittsburgh Penguins' lead in the Stanley Cup Finals to 2 games to 1... game #4 is scheduled for Monday night, once again in California... go Sharks!

Men's Individual Foil in Shanghai (CHN)... Gold: Alexander Massialas Silver: Lee Kwang Hyun Bronze: Alessio Foconi & Chen Haiwei Final Bout: Massialas b. Lee 15 - 5

Women's Individual Foil in Shanghai (CHN)... Gold: Arianna Errigo Silver: Lee Kiefer Bronze: Martina Batini & Ysaora Thibus Final Bout: Errigo b. Kiefer 15 - 8

Pittsburgh Penguins 2-0 ahead of the San Josè Sharks in the Stanley Cup finals... in game #1 they scored the (3-2) winning goal just 2 mins before the end of regulation, in game #2 they won 2-1 in OT... but I still hope that the Sharks can comeback and take the Cup to California...

also in Croatia they have sold the FTA rights to the public TV, in this case HRT... basically, they are sub-licensing almost everywhere in Europe to the public Networks... at the end I think they will do the same all around the Old Continent, maybe with Italy being the only exception, since here they have also a few FTA channels and our public TV sucks big time...

if it's gonna be the case, it's already decided that the Olympic qualifying tournament will be the Premier 12 in 2019... and since Premier 12 is made only by the best 12 teams in the World Ranking, we can be sure that there won't be much regard to the Continental representation (even if I guess that they would guarantee the start of at least 3 Continents, giving th berths to the 3 medallists, Japan - host of the Games - the next best American team and the next best non Asian/American team)...

Ok...I don't follow BMX so closely and I didn't consider that much the rest of the season... but, in general, when I see a World Champion almost repeating himself after "only" 12 months I don't take that as a surprise...never... maybe he had a poor first part of this season, but the talent is still there...and he showed it when it really mattered (and I'm pretty sure that he will be on the podium also in Rio...I don't think there are many people who can deny him a medal in August, right now)...

well, considering that he was the defending champion, I wouln't name his medal "surprise"... by the way, those are the Supercross Final Results... Men's Elite 1 - DAUDET Joris 2 - KIMMANN Niek 3 - LONG Nicholas Women's Elite 1 - PAJON Mariana 2 - BUCHANAN Caroline 3 - POST Alise

Women's Individual Sabre in Moscow (RUS)... Gold: Olga Kharlan Silver: Mariel Zagunis Bronze: Irene Vecchi & Yuliya Gavrilova Final Bout: Kharlan b. Zagunis 15 - 13