phelps

frankly, it looks that all of last year's mess, the McLaren report and all those issues have been thrown out of the window and quickly forgotten... we only had a collective nightmare...nothing happened for real...and now we're back to the usual business... let me tell you...it sucks!!!

Kata is totally unwatchable...it's not even sport (same situation we discussed a couple of days ago about synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics and so on...) Kumite, if you like combat sports, is just another one of them... maybe I don't count anything in the world, but I like those disciplines... the only big problem is that we all need fair judging to take them seriously (and often this doesn't happen), but it's the same for all sports where referees and/or judges can determine the final result...

Italian TV commentators talked of more than 6/7000 spectators (the arena has 12000 seats) in all the morning sections before today... in the afternoon the stands are always almost full..the only empty seats are those in front of the diving pool (probably from that angle it's impossible to follow the swimming events) and the stripe just above the swimmers' stand, where VIP seats are located (and I guess that those seats are in any case sold out, just the owners show up only once every while when it's their particular interest)... if compared to other world champs, this year we're having a really good audience in all the pools (and also at Balaton Lake for the Open Water Swimming there were a lot of people both on the stands in front of the finish lane and on the beaches beside the course)...

I don't know if she was injured, but she definitely asked for a change after the 6th leg against Vecchi... so, the French coach didn't have any other choice but risking the young Queroli in the closing assault...and fortunately for us, this time it did not pay off...

I don't agree at all... the only weapon where we're stronger than any other opponent is the women's foil... then we have a very good team (men's foil) not always supported by team spirit and mental strenght (especially thanks to Cassara's moments of crazyness) and a good but not exceptional team (men's sabre) with clear mental problems in closing matches almost already won... men's epee, instead, can't count on that talent...individually, we only have pretty modest athletes (apart from Pizzo, who unfortunately never shows in the team event the same class he puts into the individual events...and this should be investigated...why does it happen regularly?)...so, team results in the last 2 years are well above our actual level... the women's sabre - despite today's exceptionally good and unexpected performance - and the women's epee teams are generally pretty average...and not because we lack of talents, but because we always give too many privilege to older athletes that should be taken out of the team when they do not perform at top level, instead throwing into the battle our great youngsters (who dominated the junior level in the last few years, but who can't even make the 8-man world cup team regularly...so, let's imagine when they get a chance at world and Olympic level)... however, earlier comments were not negative because we lost against a (good) team like SUI, but because of the manner we lost...with a fool tactic that's used too often, despite not being so effective most of the times (and, moreover, it puts us always in danger of losing also against weaker teams like CZE, VEN, UKR, RUS, ISR etc. - which happened many times in recent years)... finally, despite what I wrote in the previous lines, today I have to congrats with our sabre girls, who in the end did reach the world final against all expectations (and with Vecchi and Gregorio who finally played their fencing at top level, after the oscene attitude shown in the individual competition 3 days ago)... and let's hope that they can take advantage of the enormous chance they have to win...you won't face an opponent like Korea once again in a world final...

and the last semifinalist are Hungary, after Novosjolov committed suicide with just 0.3 seconds on the clock (and after having come back from hell)...

game over...usual Italian epee team... frankly, I don't know how they won world and Olympic Silver medals 2 years in a row... however, if they don't change their minds and their tactics, I guess they won't won anything anymore...awful fencing...really awful... so, we have FRA vs RUS and SUI vs HUN or EST in the men's epee semifinals...

as expected, very tactical match between ITA and SUI... and frankly, too many problems with the scoring machines for the organizers...this is not what you would expect from a world champ and from Germany... p.s. how stupid is the rule that automatically close an assault if there are no hit for 60 seconds...

here I am! and wow! we start immediately with a couple of upsets...Russi and USA are out in the quarterfinals of the women's team sabre... and France beat Ukraine, too (which wasn't that obvious)... so, ITA vs FRA and KOR vs JPN are the girls' semis... meanwhile the men's team epee quarterfinals are just underway: FRA vs EGY (the shocker of the day so far), RUS vs UKR (re-match of the recent european champs final), HUN vs EST and our little derby between "cousins", ITA vs SUI...

I wouldn't say "impossible", but for sure it's very unlikely (we have at least 6 athletes with a big margin over her best: Ledecky, Pellegrini, McKeown, Bonnet, Hosszu and Coleman)... I guess she will struggle even to make the final...

wow! another big shocker (even bigger than Italy's loss) in the women's tournament! Hungary out against Canada!!!

-200 days in Korea already -199...

wow! Canada is really giving Hungary a lot of troubles until now... I think the local girls are feeling too much pressure...and that could cost them a lot...

in men's sabre, Korea was on fire, but Hungary didn't have anything left in the tank of their mental strenght...so, basically we didn't even have a real final bout, but just a one-team show, an exhibition rather than a competition... despite another last assault in pure "Curatoli style", Italy at least won a good bronze medal (before the competition, I'd have taken that without any doubt, even if now it's quite a bitter result)... in women's foil, Italy is really too strong in depth for all the opponents...the only team that could give us some trouble, Russia, today wasn't in good shape and didn't even reach the final... the US girls, despite all the good press always surounding them, just disappeared against our champions (with 2 new faces -Volpi and, above all, Mancini- being active part of the team, which is also very encouraging for the future)... tomorrow I guess we won't live another day like today, but I hope to see the men's epee team and the women's sabre team (who have a good draw until the semis) at least among the top 4...

now it's really time for the soap operas... no, I'm joking...better some Tv series like Homeland and The Americans...

c'mon! you can't start a world quarterfinal 0-4 in the first period and then take another 4-0 partial run between 3rd and final period... errors are human, but...you know the following...

and now it's over... I've just seen a bunch of scred bunnies...no one with the bravery to take a good last shot... shame on those losers...

it's almost over...we only have 1 action left...it's now or never (no, I'm not singing Bon Jovi)...

when the going gets tough...Italian girls don't understand anything... not that we haven't already lived an experience like that...

and it's not gonna be the superclassic of the last 15 years...ITA vs USA is the final in women's team foil... I agree...really bad performance by the Olympic and World Champion (Zagidullina almost saved the day for the Russians, but Inna wasted her job in the last assault of the bout)... psycologically, I think it would have been better for us to face the Russians...but I still hope our girls can show their superiority also against the Americans... we'll see later in the afternoon/evening...

oh, what a miracle! there's life in the Italian squad in Budapest, after all... maybe the soap operas can wait for the next half an hour or so...

and here we go...after that stupid loss in fencing, now we also have those girls who are insulting the Italian flag... in the mines you too, waterpolo girls!!! today's sport events are just getting me frustrated... I'd better watch some soap operas...

more than stupid... he's not and he's never gonna be a champion...he does not have "huevos", he's always unsure and never attacks properly... wasted talent... meanwhile Cipressa took almost the entire day before understanding that Batini was only doing damages to the team, but at the end he put Camilla Mancini in and Italy destroyed Germany in the last 2 assaults of the bout...

and Germany finally win a high drama bout against France in the women's foil quarters... so, we have ITA vs GER and USA vs RUS in the semis... p.s. all men's and women's semis are scheduled at the same time (2 p.m. CET) on the 4 coloured pistes...really an awful choice...

Pakdaman kept the scoring tied until 42 each, but then Szilagyi's class came out and HUN won 45-42... shame that this bout wasn't on 1 of the coloured pistes with video coverage... so, ITA vs HUN and KOR vs USA are the semis in the men's team sabre...