phelps

men's football European qualifiers... http://www.uefa.com/under21/news/newsid=2428250.html format will be the same as 2017 sub-21 Euro...the 12 teams qualified for the final tournament will be divided in 3 groups... then the groups' winners and the best second ranked team will qualify for the semis (and the OG, considered that there will be 4 spots allocated to UEFA)... a 5th place playoff will be contested only if 1 or more British teams will reach the semis... men's South American qualification will be played at Sudamericano Sub-20 in January 2019 (all 10 teams are already qualified to that tournament, of course)... location is still TBD... no idea about times and dates for the other Continents...

Russian success thanks to Yana Egorian (who defeated the Hungarian Anna Marton in the final bout with a score of 15-11) in the Women's Sabre Grand Prix event in Cancun... decent (but not unforgettable) performance for the Italian team, with 2 girls in the top 8 (and many in the top 32), but none of them on the podium... Foil queen Arianna Errigo this time got to second round, thanks to a victory over Anna-Elizabeth Stone (USA) in round #1...but then she went out (15-12 the final score) against Manon Brunet (FRA), who eventually got to the quarterfinal stage (where she lost to Marton)... Today it's the boys' turn...

it's almost sure that Synchro Swimming Mixed Duet will be part of Tokyo 2020 program (and no, I'm not joking)... by the way, about boxing... I know that many of you would like to see the number of weight categories receiving a further cut, but it's technically very difficult, because it would create some health issues... don't forget that we're talking of a sport made mainly of hits to the head...and putting one against each other 2 people with too much fork in weight and power (and other physical features like height and reach, too) exposes them to very high risk (we already have too many "fatal accidents" on the rings throughout the world)... and when we consider athletes just 1.60/1.65m tall and 50/55/60kg heavy, even a small 4 or 5 kg difference is quite important in that way... on the other hand, if they make like they do with the girls (less weight classes with also a minimum weight officially set), it could lead to many cases of dangerous (and often illegal) practice to cut (or put on) too much weight in too short time many times a year to keep up with those weight windows for all the fighters not naturally included in the "new" Olimpic categories, creating other potentially very serious health problems... p.s. to fix the problem, the IOC should ban Boxing from the Games in full...and it would be a good decision, based also on the corruption issues that this sport has...

Nice weekend for Italy... Today Alessio Foconi won the Men's Foil GP in Turin (ITA) beating Alexander Massialas (15-7 the score) in the Gold Medal bout and the Italian team won the men's Sabre Team World Cup in Gyor (HUN), beating all their strongest rivals (GER in qtrs, RUS in semis and KOR in the final bout)... this make up for the girls disappointing performance from yesterday in the Women's Foil GP (Errigo and Volpi ended up only in 3rd place, both going down to the Americans Kiefer - the eventual winner - and Ross) and the Men's Individual event in Gyor (Montano was the best among our guys, ending up in 7th place, meanwhile Korea got the double with Oh Sanguk having the edge over teammate Gu Bon Gil)...

I couldn't agree more...

sure... I also have NHL.tv, by the way (and my faithful motorized dish, which allows me to find always new hockey matches on the Swiss & German networks or some feeds from the KHL and other leagues, too)... basically, we can say that I'm hockey addicted... my only regret is that I don't know any of those Eastern European languages (and now it's too late to start studying them)... I'd really like to understand a bit more what local commentators say...just to know those places and environments better...

I know...right now i'm enjoying the whole kombi pack from Skylink, so I have regular view of sport1 & 2, nova sport 1 & 2, arena sport 1 (if only they had a better picture quality...it's my only reliable source for the SHL - apart for those couple of games you can find on youtube once every while), Golf Channel (man, how I'd love to see it in HD) and all Slovak and Czech public channels (included CT Sport HD, another great channel)... frankly, I think this is a lot better tv package than many of the most famous ones, skysport Italia included (which is basically only about football, basketball and motorsports, with all the other sports in their lineup getting really a bad coverage)... and it's not so expensive (at least for the Italian standard)...

I watched it on Sport2 HD (satellite tv @ 23.5 East)... fortunately for me, I don't understand Slovak that well (actually, I don't understand it at all, if not for the numbers, the players' names and a couple of other hockey related terms), but I clearly heard the name Magnitogorsk more than once...

and they wasted the PS, too... hope the next outing it's gonna get more 'satisfaction' to the fans...

alpine skiing scheduling must take into consideration the fact that they only have 1 track for speed events, so they had to spread them throughout both weeks (men's and women's courses clearly need different settings, they can't be used at the same time)... snowboarding and figure skating events have been set in the Korean morning because of the US Network NBC... as usual, they want the 2 most watched sports in the USA in their prime time... and if they order, the local organizers just execute...like good soldiers... by the way, I don't like this schedule...on each day there are just 2 strong blocks of events all at the same time and many empty hours... so, it's gonna be impossible to follow everything live...we'll necessarily have to rely on VOD services, hoping that our broadcasters (atm in Italy Discovery group have all the rights...and nothing indicates that they're going to share the FTA part with any other network) would give us some decent ones... p.s. @hckosice I'm just watching another Slovan Bratislava crazy exhibition in the KHL...they never play ordinary/boring games...

the main problem would be that they will get those quota only among the already qualified (in other disciplines) athletes... I'm pretty sure that there won't be any special qualification event for those mixed competitions, but they will take only some shooters already there for other events based on some weird "combined ranking"... and frankly I don't like disciplines without the real specialists, with the medals going just to some good all-rounders who could just take a good placing in that same event if the "big guns" would be there... by the way, I'm totally against all those changes...so, my vote would go to "option C": let all things exactly as they were in Rio (the only move I'd like would be the reintroduction of the Running Target competition, replacing the Prone Rifle - it's always a men's rifle event, but more spectacular and more "for real specialists")... but, since I'm not the one who takes those decisions, imho option A is not as bad (being "good" is something else) as option B...

I think the UEFA sub-21 Football tournament (next edition, with the final round scheduled for June 2019) is the first event with Olympic implication to start... if they keep the same scheme from the most recent tournaments (the one ending next June included), the qualifying rounds will start as soon as March/April 2017... also the qualification period of Judo should start quite early, in Spring 2018, I guess... meanwhile I'm pretty sure about Fencing, going from April 2019 to the end of March 2020...

this is the lates version of the official schedule for Pyeongchang 2018... some details are still to be fixed, but I think this is pretty close to the final release... http://www.olympia.at/download/files/{5D5317BA-F710-4591-AAB5-2B8DB6E22B4D}/PyeongChang_2018_-_Olympic_Competition_Schedule_Version_7_October_2016.pdf

and here we have the Draw Sheets for the Junior World Championships, starting today in Burnaby (CAN): http://mastkd.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20161114xx_Graficas-Mundial-Juvenil-Taekwondo.pdf

Definitive changes on the WTF Rules starting next December The proposed agenda for the WTF Executive Board meeting to be held in Burnaby, Canada details the new changes as well as new proposals for the Taekwondo Rules. Here all the news: http://en.mastkd.com/2016/11/definitive-changes-wtf-rules-starting-next-december/

wow! I'm quite shocked by the Finnish epic fail... by the way, yesterday I watched the 2 games of the Czech teams...and it wasn't the most entertaining show of the week, I must say... Vitkovice vs Liberec was played at a very slow pace, with many youngsters getting a lot more ice time than what they get in their own domestic league and all the highlights condensed just in the 3rd period and OT...the only good note was the Ostrava arena, almost filled to capacity... meanwhile, Sparta Prague played a great game, but it was clear that HV71 didn't have any special interest in this tournament (they played a lot of youngsters for longer than normal, too)...and moreover, watching the stadium basically empty was really depressing... right now, instead, I'm watching Zurich vs Lugano...and once again we have an empty stadium and teams playing with less than 1% the intensity and hustle they have in their domestic NLA matches... frankly, I really don't understand why almost every European Hockey Club (and European Hockey fans, too) always seem to boycott this way any attempt to establish a true European Hockey Flagship event...we saw the same attitude in the past and nothing seems to have changed, despite all the the shouting when this competition was restarted 3 years ago and the IIHF's good will...

according to the Italian website, the option #1 is the one in place at the moment... personally, I'd prefer something like this: - 1 World Champion - 1 Wild Card - 0 or 1 Japanese athletes (I'd give them only half the places as Host Country quota and leave them a chance to qualify on the mat in the other events) - 7 or 8 (depending on the qualification of a Japanese athlete) qualified through ranking but I know that's not even on the table...so, I guess that the first option is the best one (if compared with the other you named)...

a day to remember for all the Italian teams, I see... on the other side, yesterday I saw the SWE vs CZE match...despite quite a few sloppy plays (typical of this kind of test matches), it was an entertaing night of Hockey... p.s. today I'm looking forward to the Deutschland Cup games, too... I hope to watch some good Hockey, there (now the MLB Baseball season is over...I think I'm gonna get a Hockey overdose in the next months between NHL and IIHF tournaments )...

I think that now we can take it for granted... the main Olympic Sports portal in Italy has also published an article about Karate at the next Olympic Games, indicating a WKF Tweet as the original official source... and basically it's all confirmed... the 3 weight classes will be the already said -55kg, -61kg, +61kg for the girls and -67kg, -75kg, +75kg for the boys... moreover, it's explained that in each class there will be a Japanese athlete, 1 athlete named by the WKF/Tripartite Commission (which of the 2 committee, it's not specified) with a Wild Card and 8 qualified athletes on the basis of a World Ranking that will take into consideration World Championships (with big bonus points), Continental Championships and a few other tournaments (especially the Premier League ones) where it will be possible to sum up useful points... other news are about the tournament format, which will be contested over 2 days (2 male and 2 female events per day) and, at least according to the current proposal, each Kumite class will be played with 2 poules of 5 athletes facing each other in a round robin, with the first 2 of each poule going through to the semifinals (which also means that only 1 Bronze medal per class will be awarded)... p.s. it's more than just a rumor the new rule on penalties that they want to put in place... according to the same sources, the idea is to put together in a single "penalty count" the current C1 and C2 type of warnings, allowing each athlete to sum up only a maximum of 5 of them, with the 6th representing the end of the bout... here's the article (in Italian only, unfortunately) http://www.oasport.it/2016/11/karate-80-atleti-alle-olimpiadi-a-tokyo-tre-categorie-di-kumite-e-una-di-kata-per-entrambi-i-sessi-le-modalita-di-qualificazione/

I also read about Men's -67kg, -75kg and +75kg weights as the Olympic classes... the only source that seems to confirm that is here: http://www.karatebyjesse.com/karate-tokyo-olympic-2020/ frankly, I don't know if he's a reliable source or not...I hope he is...

wow! what an emotional ending for the World Series 2016... yesterday night we saw the game that most people never expected...Corey Kluber paid the prize for the third consecutive start in short rest and gave the Cubs the chance to open up quite a big gap, but Cleveland showed their heart and started a sensational comeback against the big Cuban closer of the Cubs... then, a rain delay happened...and that short pause did a big favor to Chicago, slowing down the pace and making the arm of their reliever Shaw too cold... and that was the end of the Indians' dreams, despite another brave attempt in the bottom part of the 10th inning... so, the curse is over...and after 108 years the Cubs Nation can start the party... 9-8 (in 10 innings) the final score of game #7 (winning pitcher Aroldis Chapman, loser Bryan Shaw, save for Montgomery), 4-3 the final score of the series... and a few moments after the end of this season, I feel empty...and I can't wait for next March and the beginning of a new exciting season...

and finally, we have a game #7 in the World Series 2016... backed up by a solid start of Jake Arrieta, the Cubs lineup destroyed Josh Tomlin from the beginning in game #6, with the contest being virtually over after just 3 innings... 9-3 the final score, Arrieta the winning pitcher and Tomlin, obviously, the losing side... the decisive game #7 is going on stage tonight, at about 1 a.m. CET... Corey Kluber (winner in game #1 & #4) will make his third start in the Series, once again in short rest (therefore taking a higher risk), for the Cleveland Indians, meanwhile Kyle Hendricks will start (in "regular" rest) for the Cubs... imho, the Cubs are heavily favourite, more than ever right now that they are coming from behind with great enthusiasm after having found their powerful bats back from a dangerous slump in the first games of the series... the key will be as usual, more than usual, Kluber's performance...in fact, should Cleveland have the lead after 5 or 6 innings, their almost untouchable bullpen staff could shut Chicago down, without leaving them a single chance to comeback... from the Cubs' point of view, they desperately need to take an early lead off Kluber, otherwise they know their chances would drop drastically against the lights of the great Miller & Allen combo in the late innings... back in Asia, instead, also the Korea Series have come to an end, with the Doosan Bears Seoul completing the sweep of the NC Dinos from Changwon... 6-0 & 8-1 respectively the scores in game #3 & #4 for the team from the Nation's Capital...4-0, of course, the final standings of the Series...

there's still life in Chicago... beautiful and close game #5 of the World Series last night in Wrigley Field, with Indians paying the prize for a sloppy 4th inning by their starter Trevor Bauer, who gave up in that fraction all the 3 decisive runs... for the second night in a row, the team that took the early lead couldn't maintain it through the middle part of the game and when things got hot, the bullpen of the leading team shut down the opponents... final score, 3-2 for Chicago... winning pitcher was Jon Lester, who had another very strong and convincing outing (6 IP and only 1 run conceded)... game #6 is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday (usual start time, first pitch at about 2 a.m. CET), with Jake Arrieta (winner in game #2) starting on the mound for the Cubs and Josh Tomlin for the Indians (winner - even if not officially, because of the complicated rules about wins in Baseball - in game #3, once again in short rest)...

personally, I'm not gonna follow this Championship... In these weeks I already have too much Baseball to watch with the Final Series of the main senior Pro leagues of the World... moreover, the level of this tournament has nothing to do with the real situation of the world baseball (and imho, it's quite senseless having world tournaments for this age group, when the best players of this class are already playing in the top pro leagues)...

Men's Epee World Cup #1 (Bern, SUI) Team Event Gold: France Silver: Switzerland Bronze: Russia Here's the Link to Rankings and Results: http://fie.org/competitions/2017/559/results/rank