phelps

and Gold medal for Richard Kruse (GBR)... decent effort by Cassarà and Avola for Italy, very bad performance by the other guys... among the Women, Errigo is back on top after all the troubles with injuries that partially compromised her results in the second half of last season and in the first half of this one... on the other hand, another inconsistent outing for Elisa Di Francisca...the chance to have the all-Italian clash in the Olympic tournament before the Gold medal bout is always higher...

and as promised, at the end of the European Juniors here we are with the final summary... first of all, the key point of the individual competitions was the unexpected domination of the French team with 3 out of 6 Gold medals... meanwhile in the Team events it was Russia to sweep half of the titles up for grabs... Italy and Hungary confirmed themselves as the usual powerhouses with a couple of Gold medals each and Poland and Germany took the remaining top honors (one each)... so, this is the list of the new Junior European Champions: Men's Individual Epee: Gergely Siklosi, HUN Women's Individual Epee: Nadine Stahlberg, GER Men's Individual Foil: Maximilien Chastanet, FRA Women's Individual Foil: Erica Cipressa, ITA Men's Individual Sabre: Charles Colleau, FRA Women's Individual Sabre: Manon Brunet, FRA Men's Team Epee: Hungary Women's Team Epee: Russia Men's Team Foil: Russia Women's Team Foil: Poland Men's Team Sabre: Italy Women's Team Sabre: Russia and this is the final medal table for the Junior competitions: France 3-2-3 Russia 3-2-3 Italy 2-4-4 Hungary 2-0-1 Poland 1-1-3 Germany 1-1-2 Czech Republic 0-1-1 Israel 0-1-0 Ukraine 0-0-1 finally, this is the overall medal table (Cadets + Juniors): Russia 7-6-6 Italy 6-8-6 Hungary 5-1-2 France 3-3-6 Germany 1-2-4 Israel 1-2-0 Poland 1-1-5 Czech Republic 0-1-1 Romania 0-0-3 Austria 0-0-1 Turkey 0-0-1 Ukraine 0-0-1

yeah, but knowing a bit about Russian habits, I think that things are just not as they stated in the official version of this story... http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/ilya-kovalchuk-stripped-of-ska-captaincy-benched-for-two-more-games/ by the way, I saw yesterday's game against Dynamo Moscow and he didn't play bad at all (though the SKA's daily hero was for sure the Finnish goalie Koskinen)...

Just an update about the main European leagues... Last weekend saw the final regular season action in Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia... In the Slovak Republic HC Kosice was the expected king of the RS, leading the final table with a 9-point margin over HK Nitra...the play-offs are set to start on march, 11th with the quarterfinal ronud (best-of-7 series)... But the most notable fact of the year is for sure the sad story of Skalica, thrown off the competition with just few weeks still to go because of heavy financial troubles... Meanwhile, in Germany it was the EHC Red Bull Munich to win the regular season of the local DEL ahead of the usual suspects Eisbären Berlin... the main surprise is maybe the elimination from the play-offs of the Hamburg Freezers, while Adler Mannheim at least could make it into the top 10 despite an underperforming season... the preliminary round of the PO in the DEL is going to start on Wednesday, with the best 6 teams from the RS already waiting for their opponents in the quarterfinal round, set to start next week... the end of the RS also designated 4 of the 6 Champions League qualifiers (Berlin, Krefeld, Ingoldstadt and Mannheim), with the last 2 spots up for grabs in the upcoming play-offs... finally, in the Czech Republic Bily Tigry Liberec and Sparta Prague had a run on their own in the Extraliga 2015/2016 regular season (3rd ranked Mountfield Hradec Kralove ended up 30 points behind Liberec in the final standings)... today start the prelimnary round of the play-offs...and if we don't get to a Liberec vs Sparta showdown in the final series is definitely going to be a huge surprise... but the outstanding upset of the year is for sure the forelast place in the standings achieved by the current champions Verva Litvinov, which now have to play in a very dangerous relegation tournament to avoid the unbelievable descent to the Hell of the second division... last quick news: - PSK Narva won the Estonian title 2016 - Ritten Sport won the regular season of the Italian league - KHL Conference Semifinals start today with the Western Conference match-ups (CSKA Moscow vs Torpedo Nizhni Novgorod and Dynamo Moscow vs SKA St.Petersburg), meanwhile the Eastern Conference Semis will start tomorrow (Avangard Omsk vs Salavat Yulaev Ufa and Metallurg Magnitogorsk vs Sibir Novosibirsk are the match-ups)

The last quick update for today is about the Junior European Championships... The first 4 Individual Gold medals have been awarded and France have been the main protagonists until now, winning 2 of those 4 titles, with Italy and Hungary getting 1 Gold medal each... More details in the next couple of days...

finally, the African Championships... where, as always, it's impossible to find the complete results...this time we have to wait for all the cadets results...maybe by the end of the year we get them...if we are lucky... However, here are the new African Junior Champions for this season (not surprisingly, most of them come from Egypt): African Juniors Men's Individual Epee: Ahmad Elsokkary, EGY Women's Individual Epee: Shirwit Gaber, EGY Men's Individual Foil: Salim Heroui, ALG Women's Individual Foil: Aida Yasser, EGY Men's Individual Sabre: Fares Ferjani, TUN Women's Individual Sabre: Sarah Atrouz, ALG Men's Team Epee: Egypt Women's Team Epee: Egypt Men's Team Foil: Egypt Women's Team Foil: Egypt Men's Team Sabre: Egypt Women's Team Sabre: Algeria Full Results are available on the official FIE website...

and now it's time for the Asian Youth Championships, which went on stage in 2 different Countries, Saudi Arabia and Barhain... p.s. I don't know what do you think about it, but personally, I find shameful and disgusting the fact that they still awarded part of these Champs to Saudi Arabia, despite their refusal to host the Women's events (that's why we have had this tournament splt between 2 Nations)... However, this is the table of the new Asian Youth Champions 2016: Asian Juniors Men's Individual Epee: Wang Zijie, CHN Women's Individual Epee: Miho Yoshimura, JPN Men's Individual Foil: Cheung Ka Long, HKG Women's Individual Foil: Komaki Kikuchi, JPN Men's Individual Sabre: Liang Jianhao, CHN Women's Individual Sabre: Risa Takashima, JPN Men's Team Epee: China Women's Team Epee: China Men's Team Foil: Hong Kong Women's Team Foil: Japan Men's Team Sabre: China Women's Team Sabre: China Asian Cadets Men's Individual Epee: Antoine Elchoueiry, LIB Women's Individual Epee: Tamaki Terayama, JPN Men's Individual Foil: Rui Fujikura, JPN Women's Individual Foil: Amita Berthier, SIN Men's Individual Sabre: Srinualnad Voragun, THA Women's Individual Sabre: Risa Takashima, JPN Men's Team Epee: Japan Women's Team Epee: Kazakhstan Men's Team Foil: Hong Kong Women's Team Foil: Singapore Men's Team Sabre: Hong Kong Women's Team Sabre: NO available Results yet Full Juniors Results are available on the official FIE website and also on the following page (which is also the only one to show the Cadets Full results): http://ajcfc2016.com/index.php/results the 2 main facts about these champs IMHO are the complete absence of South Korea from the Gold medal winners' list (it's obvious that they didn't send their bst youngsters to this tournament) and another champion among the cadets winning also the Junior title (and once again in the Women's Sabre)...

and, as promised, here I am with some results from the Youth Continental Champs 2016 outside Europe... Let's start with the Panamerican Champs, which have been held in Cancun, MEX a few days ago... These are the new Cadets and Junior Champions for this season: Panamerican Juniors Events Men's Individual Epee: Alexandre Camargo, BRA Women's Individual Epee: Cindy Gao, CAN Men's Individual Foil: Sidarth Kumbla, USA Women's Individual Foil: Gabriela Cecchini, BRA Men's Individual Sabre: Josè Quintero, VEN Women's Individual Sabre: Kara Linder, USA Men's Team Epee: Venezuela Women's Team Epee: Canada Men's Team Foil: United States Women's Team Foil: Brazil Men's Team Sabre: United States Women's Team Sabre: United States Panamerican Cadets Events Men's Individual Epee: Alexandre Camargo, BRA Women's Individual Epee: Sofia Komar, USA Men's Individual Foil: Nick Itkin, USA Women's Individual Foil: Jane Caulfield, CAN Men's Individual Sabre: Hunter Moricz, CAN Women's Individual Sabre: Kara Linder, USA Cadets Team Events NOT contested Here you can find the Links to the Full Results and the Final Medal Table(s)... http://esgrima.info/panamericano-cancun-2016 Interesting to see how 2 individual titles have gone to the same guy in both the Cadets and the Juniors classes... and also nice to see the USA not dominating the field as much as in the past (although they still won the final medal table)...

well, to me the German recent results are not a surprise at all, but still not to find them in any of the Olympic team event is quite shocking... however, I think that apart from the Women's Sabre, you have enough talent, depth and above all a good overall sports system in your Country to get back quite soon among the Fencing powerhouses in the next future...

more news about the European and the other Continental Championships for the youngsters coming up in the next few days...

By the way, this week is entirely dedicated to the Cadets and Juniors Continental Championships... In particular, the European Champs 2016 are running in Novi Sad (SRB) until next Wednesday... Today it was the last day of the Cadets events, meanwhile tomorrow the Junior events are going on stage... In the Individual competitions among the 17 years young boys Italy dominated the field with 3 of the 6 Gold medals (Women's Cadet Foil: Serena Rossini, Women's Cadet Epee: Federica Isola and Men's Cadet Sabre: Matteo Neri), meanwhile Israel (Men's Cadet Epee: Stanislav Galper), Hungary (Women's Cadet Sabre: Lisa Pusztai) and Russia (Men's Cadet Foil: Kirill Borodachev) won 1 Gold medal each... In the Team competitions, instead, it was Russia to win the most Gold medals (3: Men's Foil, Men's Sabre and Women's Foil) with Hungary getting to top placings (Women's Sabre and Men's Epee) and Italy only 1 (Women's Epee)... So, the final medal table of the Cadets competitions looks like this: Country Gold Silver Bronze Russia 4 4 3 Italy 4 4 2 Hungary 3 1 1 Israel 1 1 0 France 0 1 3 Germany 0 1 2 Romania 0 0 3 Poland 0 0 2 Turkey 0 0 1 Austria 0 0 1

The Individual spots will be decided after the last qualifying event, starting from the next weekend (with the men's and women's foil in La Habana) up to the end of March (men's and women's sabre in Seoul)... However, on this Facebook page you can see all the current standings in all the weapons, with just 1 competition left: https://www.facebook.com/FencingRio2016/

as you might notice, there are only 2 Countries (France and Russia) who have been able to qualify for all the 4 Team Events in the Olympic program... the main surprise and disappointment come from Italy, who failed to qualify in the Women's Team Epee despite they started the OQ Period at the top of the World Ranking... but when you miss for an entire season to make a top 4 finish, that's what happens... But the great losers of this qualification period are the Germans, who failed to qualified in all the Team events...and that was totally unexpected... Another Country not performing as it was supposed it's China, who missed to qualify for the Games 2 Teams, meanwhile it has to be considered a great achievement the first qualification for an Olympic Team Tournament of Mexico and Brazil...

Since we're heading towards the end of the Olympic Qualification Period, it's time to make a short Summary of what's has already been determined until now... as many people might know, the time window to qualify for Rio 2016 goes from April 2015 to April 3rd, 2016 but right now, all the Nations qualified for the 4 Team Events have already been decided. They are (in order of Ranking): Men's Team Epee France (World Ranking Top 4) Ukraine (World Ranking Top 4) Italy (World Ranking Top 4) Switzerland (World Ranking Top 4) Russia (European Quota Place) Hungary (Repechage Quota Place since NO African Team ended in the Top 16 of the OQR) South Korea (Asian Quota Place) Venezuela (Panamerican Quota Place) Men's Team Foil Russia (World Ranking Top 4) Italy (World Ranking Top 4) France (World Ranking Top 4) United States (World Ranking Top 4) China (Asian Quota Place) Great Britain (European Quota Place) Egypt (African Quota Place) Brazil (Panamerican Quota Place) Women's Team Epee Romania (World Ranking Top 4) China (World Ranking Top 4) Russia (World Ranking Top 4) Estonia (World Ranking Top 4) South Korea (Asian Quota Place) United States (Panamerican Quota Place) Ukraine (European Quota Place) France (Repechage Quota Place since NO African Team ended in the Top 16 of the OQR) Women's Team Sabre Russia (World Ranking Top 4) Ukraine (World Ranking Top 4) France (World Ranking Top 4) United States (World Ranking Top 4) South Korea (Asian Quota Place) Italy (European Quota Place) Poland (Repechage Quota Place since NO African Team ended in the Top 16 of the OQR) Mexico (Panamerican Quota Place)

we wouldn't have any chance even if we play against the other division B teams...there's no need to involve those top class teams to sweep us out of the Olympics...

from 1st to 4th of September, to be precise... p.s. my 2 cents about those tournaments go on Belarus, Germany and Norway to qualify for the Games...

It's nice to see how this thread started with the most news about the senseless World Cup of Hockey... and right now that we're just arrived to the best moment of the Hockey season...almost everywhere (apart from the NHL, which has a month and a half left in their regular season) it's play-offs time! so, I'd like to take a while to talk about those European Leagues which already ended their regular season... in the KHL, CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv Yaroslavl dominated the field in the Western Conference and overall, meanwhile in the Eastern Conference Avangard Omsk narrowly beat Sibir Novosibirsk for the eastern title... then, the play-offs started and the first round is also almost done, with CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Moscow, SKA St. Petersburg (disappointing during the RS, but able to defeat the second best team from the RS, Lokomotiv, with a clear result of 4 games to 1) and the surprising Torpedo Nizhni Novgorod (4-2 over the no.2 seed and third best team from the RS, Jokerit Helsinki) advancing through to the Western Conference semifinals; on the other hand, in the East, Avangard Omsk and Sibir Novosibirsk are also through to the Conference semifinals, meanwhile the series Salavat Yulaev Ufa vs AK Bars Kazan and Metallurg Magnitogorsk vs Avtomobilist Ekaterinenburg are not over yet... another Top European League that already ended their Regular Season is the Swiss NLA, with last year's runner-up ZSC Lions (Zürich) earning the honors in the first part of the championship...the play-offs are set to start tonight with a great match up between no.1 seed ZSC Lions and the team with the best attendance in Europe, SC Bern (that despite their super economical budget had another very disappointing RS...once again)... in the Austrian Open league, EBEL, the usual suspect Red Bull Salzburg filled their contract in the RS...now let's see if they can confirm themselves also in the play-offs, which are running right now (round #1 is not over yet)... all the other main European leagues, instead, have still another weekend of regular season to be played, so we will be back to make a summary in the next few days... of course, any comment about the Ice Hockey European leagues is more than welcome...

I'm very happy to see the Forum back... I hope that all the troubles have gone and that we can have a bright future in front of us...