phelps

well, actually only the finals he won in Las Vegas and at the recent Europeans were "close bouts" (plus we have to admit he won clearly but only after a controversial call - probably he should have lost that bout - against Asgharov in Las Vegas)... but all the other fights were really dominated by him (the only loss he had in Belarus earlier this year doesn't mean nothing...he was just preparing the Euro Champs and didn't take that tournament so seriously)...

I hope Frank Chamizo can also storm through his rivals as he did last year in Las Vegas...

Women's -48kg Emilia Alina VUC (ROM) and Elitsa Atanasova YANKOVA (BUL) are the 2 qualified wrestlers... Women's -53kg Katarzyna KRAWCZYK (POL) and Nina HEMMER (GER) are the 2 qualified wrestlers...

Men's Freestyle semis (the winners qualify for the Games): -57kg Garnik MNATSAKANYAN (ARM) vs. Anatolii BURUIAN (MDA) 5-3 Zoheir EL OUARRAQE (FRA) vs. Vladimir Vladimirov DUBOV (BUL) 0-12 -65kg Zurabi IAKOBISHVILI (GEO) vs. Andriy KVYATKOVSKYY (UKR) 2-3 Devid SAFARYAN (ARM) vs. Magomedmurad GADZHIEV (POL) 2-7 Men's Greco-Roman semis (the winners qualify for the Games): - 59kg Sanal SEMENOV (RUS) vs. Aleksandar Stoyanov KOSTADINOV (BUL) 11-2 Stig-Andre BERGE (NOR) vs. Kristian FRIS (SRB) 0-8 -66kg Tamas LORINCZ (HUN) vs. Dominik ETLINGER (CRO) 6-2 Shmagi BOLKVADZE (GEO) vs. Dawid KARECINSKI (POL) 5-0

let's do as if I didn't write anything... stream gone after just 2 rounds of boxing...

finally, we have some live coverage also for this European Olympic Qualifier... http://www.aiba.org/blog/watch-live-european-olympic-qualification-event-semifinals/

not at all...don't forget that it's not the Turkish people nor politicians judging the bouts... the aiba mafia has different paths and plots, not necessarily always on the same page of the general feeling of the host Country (the only almost untouchable principle they follow is "don't penalize - to be read: "let them win despite anything happens on the ring" - the home boys")...

yes, Armenia are being heavily helped...and that's a fact... as I wrote, I only have suspicion - and nothing else, since AIBA doesn't give us any chance to see this tournament...maybe just because they don't want too many people watching their "Italian jobs" - about those 2 bouts, but not based only on the results, but on what very experienced and trustable coaches and officials write and on the fact that I know quite well the history and the "quality" of those 2 fighters (and, trust me, they are already well beyond their normal capabilities)... the same for the 2-1 only win by Mangiacapre against the Bosnian guy...for sure something strange happened on the jury table, because under normal circumstances Mangiacapre would destroy Fetahovic even with no hands and his eyes closed... Cappai's victory was surprising for sure, but if it had been undeserved our Federation's website would have written something about it...they are always really "fair" and pay a lot of attention to not write "heavy" criticism about the refereeing and judging (the most they write is "lucky win" when our boxers steal the verdict and "match full of regrets" when our guys get robbed big time)...

meanwhile, Armenia are just robbing their opponents twice at the same time...on ring A, Artur Hovhannisyan defeated the German Christos Cherakis and on ring B Narek Abgaryan completed the shamful triumph for the Caucasian Country against Vincenzo Picardi (ITA)... Obviously, I haven't seen the bouts...but if both fights have had a fair judgment, tomorrow comes the end of the World (those Armenian guys are both really, really modest...they can't have won those fights for real)... by the way, at least Cappai (-49kg) got an unexpected win over the no.1 Zamotaev (UKR) and he's through to the semis (and hopefully would get 1 of the 3 spots for Rio available in this tournament)... on the other hand, Vianello (+91kg) almost made a miracle against the great Magomedrasul Medzhidov (AZE), but unfortunately the judges did protect the old champion beyond his merits (the Italian federation website writes about a "great match" and "big regrets" for Vianello, which means, interpretating the usual "political balance" of the words written on our official site, that also this decision has been a big robbery)...

McEvoy was just 2/100 of a second slower than Florent Manaudou at the Frnch Nationals (21.44 vs 21.42) and takes the second fastest time of the year... meanwhile Cate Campbell swam 23.93 in the semis of the women's 50m free, new Commonwealth Record, fastest time of the year and only 20/100 of a second outside the supposed untouchable record set by Britta Steffen in Rome in 2009 (with the rubber/rubbish suits)...

because it affects the visual field of a fighter (especially if it starts bleeding heavily), compromising his defensive chances and exposing him to the most dangerous hits... moreover, the eye is one of the most delicate parts of the human body, where it's also easier to take an infection that could prove very dangerous...

if the first 3 of this list (and especially "miss swimming" at no.2) are innocent, I'm God, the Pope and all the Angels at the same time... c'mon, man!!! they are multiple offencers aready caught for a lot more substances than meldonium only... they are not trustable anymore at any level...

Irma Testa (ITA) beat Estelle Mossely (FRA) and is through to the semis...our young rising star is now just 1 success away from the Olympic berth...

and 1 has gone...Stanimira Petrova (BUL) was given a clear victory over Marzia Davide (ITA) in the Women's -51kg quarterfinals... I bet on Italy being caned all day long, today... if we are lucky, we can get 1 win and 5* losses (but maybe we could also be swept out in full)... *in addition to the forced walkover by Valentino, of course (so, it will be 1-6 if not 0-7 at the end of the day)...

sure...I'm already a VPN addicted... moreover, I have a motorized dish, so I can watch many European channels also on satellite, like BBC/ITV, all the free German channels, the French public ones and I also have a few official subscriptions to some European broadcasters (public channels from Austria and Switzerland and the Czech and Slovak channels included in the Skylink platform (all the public ones, but also many commercial ones...even Hustler and Penthouse TV...)... being a huge non-mainstream sports fan since the '80s and living in Italy, I had to take some countermeasures a long, long time ago... now I just follow what happens on the Italian tv channels for pure curiosity...but fortunately I don't have to rely on them anymore...and I'm so happy...

they have announced they're going to use 3 channels, 2 of them in HD and 1 only in SD...moreover, the main channel has to deal with the general news broadcasts at certain hours of the day (1 pm, 8 pm, midnight) that are basically untouchable (even at mid August, where usually nothing interesting happens)... after that, we also have to cope with their reporters, who normally don't even know what are they talking about for most sports (there are just 2 or 3 exceptions) and with the fact that they generally show only the Italian athletes and very little of the main sports without Italian participation, but nothing of the less known disciplines nor team sports with no Italian teams on the field... finally, nothing has been said about the on-line coverage, but we all know that they would just stream (with very poor quality) their terrestrial channels, without any additional feed... our only hope is that the IOC channels on Youtube won't be blocked, as it was in 2012 (when at least we had the paid option of the 12 Sky Italia channels, where we could watch almost every event...option that this time doesn't exist anymore)... basically, they make tv as if they were still in the '60s...

I like to think it's because judges Boxing itself is not the problem (and I like too much all fighting sports...so I can't stop watching them only because of their shameful administrators)...

BBC coverage in 2012 was the ideal coverage... I think it should be the model for all the Olympic broadcasters, always and forever...and instead it will remain just an unicum... however, I hope that my satellite dish would help me to make up for the shameful rai coverage we have to face this time in Italy (once again, London 2012 with its 12-channel coverage by Sky Italia has been and will stay as an exceptional and unmatched situation)...

I wouldn't say it was her fault, by the way... another unexpected result was Ukranian Viktor Petrov's loss against the Turkish guy in the men's -64kg...ok, he got injured at the beginning of the second round, but the fact that round #1 was given to his opponent makes me think... moreover, I don't know why I'm still asking myself how there can be 2 judges of the same bout scoring 30-24 for a fighter (I mean, it's a 2-point margin in each round) and the 3rd judge giving a 30-27 win for the other boxer?

of course, we know that...

I read an article about Discovery having sold the free-to-air tv rights to NOS for both the 2018 winter games and the 2020 summer games in the Netherlands... NOS should have about 10 hours-a-day of live broadcasting for 2018 and 14 hours-a-day for 2020, with discovery reserving for themselves 2 sports as exclusive rights (Ice Hockey being 1 of the 2 for 2018)... I think that's impossible...discovery group would keep for themselves all pay-tv rights for sure...the only open competition is for the free to air part...and I only hope that RAI won't be involved in any case (then, if they keep also those rights for their free channels or sell them to other networks, it's the same...just get rid of that fuckin' public shit of our darling, mamma rai (you already know what are they going to do next august with the rio games, so you can understand why I'm writing those lines)...

Joshua won't even try to qualify, since GBR have stated that no "real Pro" would be named...they would go till the end with the guys who have represented the Country through the whole Olympic cycle... in any case, the established pro fighters will only be allowed to enter in the final Aiba Pro Boxing qualifying tournament in June...the other meets are only intended for the guys committed with aiba only... p.s. I don't think Scheurich will qualify here in Samsun...she has to beat the current World Champion (Savannah Marshall, GBR) to get through to the final (and thus earn an Olympic spot)...and I don't see hw it could happen under normal circumstances (even if we know that in boxing there are no normal circumstances, especially under aiba rules)...

daily results and following daily schedule are posted on the aiba website at the end of the day (usually very late in the night)...

good start for Italy, today... Marzia Davide won her bout in the -51kg and now she must face her historical rival Petrova (BUL)...the winner shoud then cruise to the final (and earn an Olympic spot)... meanwhile, among the boys, there's some justice, after all...despite one of the judges, in fact, Manuel Cappai defeated (2-1 the score) the Turkish boxer in the -49kg...the no.1 seed Zamotaev (UKR) is next... finally Monica Floridia (Women's -75kg) lost her first round bout against Scheurich (GER), but it was widely expected... I hope that also the evening's fights would go as they are supposed to for us...

nice...at least this time we have some "almost live" results...