phelps

Yes, in Italy all federations of all sports disciplines (also motorsports) receive funding and must respond to our NOC (named CONI in Italian), since we don't have an actual Ministry of Sports (Sport is in charge to the Culture & Tourism Ministry, but the only thing they do is establishing the yearly amount of public fincing to the NOC, which is absolutely independent for what concerns ruling and administration of sport)...

oh, that's almost a miracle! but, man, our girl was more than 9 seconds far away from silver and more than 10 seconds from the gold medallist... so, I don't think we can say that this medal has a great value in perspective...

on the FIE biography they wrote that she started fencing at age 7, she did study at Corvinus University in Budapest (now she's a full time athlete) and she speaks German, too... about her sport results, she was cadet world champion and got a silver and a bronze among the juniors... among the seniors, instead, she didn't get any particular success... that's all what I found about Miss Kreiss... meanwhile, coming back to today's competitions I was really impressed by Deriglazova's performance against Errigo...but Volpi almost made me cry with a fantastic comeback... unfortunately her inexperience (despite being almost 25 years young, this was Alice's first World Championship...and this shows how difficult is to make the Italian team in women's foil) came out on the decisive action in the overtime minute... on the other hand, exceptional day for Szatmari in the men's sabre...and in the final bout he just did a masterpiece against Gu, where he also meda a great comeback after a slow start...with the big difference that he, unlike Volpi in the women's foil, completed his job and got his well deserved gold medal...

to be noticed...the usaual absence of Italian specialists on the podium...

I posted this morning the rulebook (with explaination of the scoring system)... here: http://totallympics.com/index.php?/topic/180-the-world-games-2017/&do=findComment&comment=86965

so, today we have 3 Nations with 2 medals each (Russia, France and Italy) and 2 Nations with a single tally (Hungary and South Korea)... later we'll see who gets the first 2 golds...

well, their ranking wouldn't suggest anything different... I think that Walczyk did a great tournament, for sure the best of her life so far... so, she should be happy of that and start from today to build her future... p.s. now it's over...15-9 for the Italian girl... meanwhile, as I wrote before, Mancini got a good fencing lesson from the Olympic Champion...now it's still early for her, but she showed that she is talented enough to get also among the seniors the same great success she had in the youth ranks (she was junior world champion a few years ago)...

no, it's 11-5 for Volpi right now...

I hope, too... but if we put 2 girls in the semis, we can't say it's not a good day, since recently we have not won anything in the men's individual sabre (and even if I think he wasted a great chance of winning a medal, it's not proper to say that Curatoli was among the favourites of today's event)...

meanwhile Errigo is going like a train over Guyart and Volpi, as I expected, is having some troubles against Walczyk...

well, she facing a talented, but young and inexperienced girl at her first ever senior global event after all... I think Mancini already did more than everybody expected from her...it's still too early for her to beat the Olympic champion...

very disappointed by Curatoli's attitude (even if I think that 12th and 13th hit for the Korean were turned around by the ref)... he started well but didn't keep the right consistency throughout the rest of the bout... once again, no individual medal in the men's sabre for Italy...it's a drought that's keep going for way too long... imho, the biggest surprise is Ibragimov because he beat Szilagyi, but I didn't expect among the medallists also Anstett and, above all, Szatmari (Kim and Hartung were definitely my favorite in the lower part of the table)...

not sure about that...Volpi isn't so experienced and historically she doesn't fence well against Polish girls (also among the juniors she always had problems with them), so anything can happen... meanwhile I really liked Mancini against the Korean (who actually wasn't such a strong contender, anyway)...she needs almost a miracle to beat Deriglazova, but today is a good day at least to try and upset the Russian...

no, idea about Shanaeva...maybe she's pregnant, too...who knows? Korobeynikova is injured or didn't make the team, I guess (since at the Europeans she was there, so I don't think it's anything else) p.s. Korobeynikova was Cerioni's favorite...so, it's also possible that she's paying for that...Russian sometimes are not easy to understand in their choices...

sure, with Di Francisca out pregnant... p.s. we also have to say that the Russians do not have the Italian masters and coach anymore...in the long period this would affect them very badly...

2-1, now... Deriglazova somehow and someway did it again... and 2 french girls also in the top 8 (unless Guyart commits suicide)...

great piece of mental work by Volpi...she survived the tricks of Boubakri and came back in style... good win for her...and now just another win to get her first senior world championship medal... now it's Errigo and Mancini's time...c'mon, girls!

OK, I did speak too soon once again... Volpi down by 3 again...

by the way, graphics and video are totally out of sync...red and green lights appear well before the action is concluded on the screen... p.s. Boubakri queen of dirty play, as usual... but it seems that Volpi after a very bad start has just woken up (maybe I'm speaking too soon)...

oh, yeah...I just forgot that we're risking a "bad draw" in the semis... I guess it would be a real shame if we have an undisputed semifinal bout on the first day of the worlds because of those stupid political issues...

p.s. I wrote too quick that I considered Szilagyi unbeatable...Kamil Ibragimov instead did think something different and upset the great Hungarian... and Hartung is out, too... wow! OK, it's a post-Olympic World tournament, but how many surpring result we're seeing today!

actually he is Ukranian (he competed for his native Country in the youth ranks)... he was one of the best juniors in the World between 2013 and 2015, so he was quite expected to become a strong contender... but then he switched to Israeli's team and had quite a difficult transition to the senior level... now it looks that he's started to improve again...and that's not good news for his opponents...

aaargh!!! Batini out against Sauer (GER)... only 3 Italians in the round of 16 in the women's foil...

sure...and she also has at least a couple of medals also in the other distances (she won bronze in the 10km last Sunday, for instance)... but unfortunately for her she missed out on the most important one (Rio 2016, of course)...

good 4th place for Grimaldi, too... we end up the Open Water Swimming section with quite a few medals, but no gold... I don't know if I can be satisfied with that or no...