phelps

@Gianlu33 in Italy we have a good championship...the overall level is decent for non-US standards, but it was better 10 or 15 years ago... now there are countries like Germany and Austria that are clearly stronger than the others...then we have France, Italy, GBR and some Nordic Nations also with good tradition and level of play...but still a lot lower than Japan, Mexico and of course North America (which is a world apart in this discipline)... Italian Superbowl was played just a couple of weekes ago (it was shown live on Fox Sports HD) and was won by the Seamen Milano against the Rhinos (also from Milan), that had a perfect season until the last game but unfortunately they lost when it mattered the most...

OK...but I have a clear idea about that...I'm a great NFL fan and I also watch some European American Football sometimes...so, I know what's the abyss between us and them...

no, in AF there's a lot more difference between the lower levels of the game in the US and the top levels in the rest of the World... just to tell you...at the last World Championships, the USA sent a team made with players that didn't even play in the third tier university league and dominated the field... that's the kind of difference between them and the others...

sure, but ITA vs FRA (especially in the Individual events) has almost always had the same winner in the last few years... and unfortunately it's not the red, white and green flag...

Ok, it's post-Olympic year...but I've never seen such a turnaround of established values in Fencing, even in this kind of situation... we're just looking at something new and unusual for this sport (probably it's another sign of the global growth of Fencing, with many new faces ready to upset the well known champions as they take even only a minimum break in their focus and training schedule)...

what the fu*k is happening in the women's sabre? top seeds out, Japan with 3 girls in the last 16...the world is going upsidedown... meanwhile in the men's epee we're going to have twice ITA vs FRA in the last 16...it doesn't look promising at all for us today...

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)...