phelps

day #2 recap Men's Laser (2 races): Sam Meech 2 pts, Kaarle Tapper 4 pts, Nick Thompson 5 pts Women's Laser Radial (2 races): Vasileia Karachaliou 3 pts, Paige Riley 3 pts, Marit Bouwmeester 5 pts, Line Flem Host 5 pts Finn (4 races): Pieter-Jan Postma 7 pts, Tom Ramshaw 12 pts, Josip Olujic 12 pts Men's 470 (4 races): Kazuto Doi/Naoya Kimura 9 pts, Anton Dahlberg/Fredrik Bergstrom 9 pts, Jordi Xammar Hernandez/Nicolàs Rodrìguez Garcìa-Paz 11 pts Women's 470 (4 races): Ai Kondo Yoshida/Miho Yoshioka 10 pts, Hannah Mills/Eilidh McIntyre 11 pts, Camille Lecointre/Aloise Retornaz 12 pts

we all hope that...but it's gonna be really difficult, especially if our politicians can't fix the Montichiari Velodrome question (it's fresh news that our NOC would eventually pay 1.8 million euro to repair the coverage and run the activity in the next 2 seasons, but until the burocracy makes its course -and it could take months- it's only words, not facts)... our quartets, for instance, to prepare this championship trained in the last week 2 days in Fiorenzuola (near Piacenza), then they went 3 days in Pordenone (which is towards Triest and Udine) and finally 2 days in Milan at the old Vigorelli velodrome (and all those tracks are outdoor and 400m long...moreover, Fiorenzuola and Pordenone are made by concrete...at least Milan is a wooden track)... with this kind of training it's just a miracle what they did last night (which still is not even close to their best times)... but if all things are fixed, then there's a chance to get a couple of Olympic medals (especially in the women's event, since our girls are still very young and not so experienced...so, I guess they have more margin to improve than the boys, who are all veterans -even Ganna, despite his young age overall)... p.s. no idea about Viviani's teeth...

it looks her knee has gone once again... and basically all the girls got injured...I don't know what our coaches did to prepare this championship...

first results... Women's Junior Trap Gold: Erica Sessa Silver: Daria Semianova Bronze: Rebecca Aimee Fergusson Men's Junior Trap Gold: Murat Ilbilgi Silver: Clement Francis Andrè Borgue Bronze: Fabio Beccari (no, it's not a mistake)

interesting trade last night... Jeff Skinner goes to Buffalo for forward prospect Cliff Pu and 3 picks between the 2019 and 2020 drafts (Skinner can become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season)... https://www.nhl.com/news/jeff-skinner-traded-to-sabres-by-hurricanes/c-299664646?tid=278542340

for sure they will (not all races, obviously...it's the same also at the Olympics, unfortunately...there's always only one TV course and many more not covered by live pictures)... Nacra are often really spectacular, but they need some wind, otherwise they just can't raise above the water and literally fly (which is their most spectacular feature)...

thanks... very good, then...I'm not against transfers (of course, Italy has always so many players with National heritage but grown up and trained abroad in so many sport) and I like global integration, but I'm even happier when a sport movement can develop its own players by itself...it's a signal that things work good in that Country (in that specific sector, obviously)...

4.19.330 for GBR, 4.21.928 for Italy...no way we can win Gold here... by the way, the semis will be ITA vs GER (4.25 in the heats for them) and GBR vs FRA (4.27 for them)... ITA and GBR way better than the rest of the field...

by the way, the leaders after today's races in each class are: Finn (1 race): Jorge Zarif (Yellow Fleet) & Josip Olujic (Blue Fleet), 1 pt Men's 470 (1 race): Panagiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis (Blue Fleet) & Anton Dahlberg/Fredrik Bergstrom (Yellow Fleet), 1 pt Women's 470 (2 races): 1st, Camille Lecointre/Aloise Retornaz (8 pts), 2nd Ai Kondo-Yoshida/Miho Yoshioka (13 pts), 3rd Linda Fahrni/Maja Siegenthaler (14 pts)

the stream only covers one regatta course...therefore everyday you only see the class racing on that specific course...today it was 470, tomorrow should be Finn... today were scheduled 2 races for each of the 3 classes, but since there was not enough wind early in the day, all the races were postponed and the second race (in all classes but the women's 470) were postponed to tomorrow beacuse they got too late in the day with the 1st race in each class... tomorrow the women's 470 class and the Finn class will try to have 3 races to get back in line with the schedule...

Ireland are in the semifinals! p.s. just asking to those who follow women's field hockey carefully...I really don't want to make any argument of that...but, how many of those girls are true Irish and how many are 2nd-tier English women?

World Sailing YT Channel is live every day and all the races with tv coverage are available on demand, too (and the streaming is definitely a good one)... https://www.youtube.com/user/isafchannel and after a short delay, the 2018 Sailing Worlds are underway... so far, good start for Ferrari & Calabrò in the men's 470 for Italy...they were second in their fleet in the 1st race... not so well, instead, Berta/Caruso in the women's 470...they were only 17th at the end of the 1st race (dominated by the Swiss crew Fahrni/Siegenthaler)...

yesterday's medallists (GR last day): -60kg Gold: Andrej Ginc Silver: Abu Muslim Aptievitch Amaev Bronze: Ararat Manucharyan & Jacopo Sandron -67kg Gold: Aliaksandr Liavonchyk Silver: Joni Khetsuriani Bronze: Miakhdi Abubakarovitch Iakhiaev & Ismail Gun -72kg Gold: Ulvu Ganizade Silver: Magomed Yarbilov Bronze: Malkhas Amoyan & Tamas Levai -82kg Gold: Aleksandr Andreevitch Komarov Silver: Nicu Samuel Ojog Bronze: Kiril Maskevich & Vitalii Andriiovych -97kg Gold: Artur Sargsian Silver: Markus Ragginger Bronze: Arvi Martin Savolainen & Luca Svaicari

no, boxers are second only to wrestlers in cutting weight before the fight... your normal 56kg fighter at the moment of the weigh-in (the day before the fight), the day after weights at least 5 kg more (someone has even a bigger spread)... and this is a big health issue...the more weight classes there are, the less fighters have to adjust their normal weight to the event (and in the lower classes, 3-5 kgs can make a big difference in terms of power, especially if one jumps into the ring too dehydrated because he had troubles to make the weight for his class)... boxing is always a really dangerous sport (the only one where the opponent's head is the main target)...there no need to make it even more life-threatening by reducing the number of weight divisions... by the way, the Olympic question about it is a totally different problem...it's about corruption and diffused illegality, it's about the people who are driving the bus now (and those who have done it in the past)... and until AIBA and its Continental affiliated (and their people) are in charge, there's no reason to keep boxing among the sports recognized by the IOC (not only being in the Games program, even giving them just a full recognition like most of the current non-Olympic disciplines is a problem to me)...

well, there are no more than 2, maybe 3 Italian teams that can pay "serious" amount of money to their players... and because Serbia is not in the EU, they can't sign all the non-EU players thay want...there's a strict limit (that's why our team almost always opt for Croatian and Hungarian players rather than MNE or SRB -given that the super-top players from those Countries are always an option also for our teams, of course)... and about the Romanian team, who knows? I don't know what's goin'on with them, so, I just can't say anything about that...

trust me, I've been living all my life dreaming of a strong and serious Milan Summer Games bid...but now I'm old and experienced enough to know that it will never happen... so, with my heart bleeding, I'm against all of this farce represented by these bids Italy has presented in the last years (and luckily gone missing for one reason or another, despite I really hate the people who killed that Olympic bids for other reasons, since they've done so many damages to the "normal" people living in this Country -and Mayor Virginia Raggi to those living in Rome in particular)... as one of the biggest Olympic fans in this Country, I think the best chance for our Nation is to save money from this kind of events and enjoy the Games organized by other Countries that can easily make a good job for Sport and for the Olympic Games ideal... p.s. good luck to Paris and France...I'm pretty sure that the 2024 Games will be wonderful...

for those who can read Italian, this is the "candidature file" our NOC has chosen... http://torino.repubblica.it/cronaca/2018/08/01/news/olimpiadi_ecco_il_dossier_per_la_candidatura_2026-203164888/?ref=RHPPLF-BH-I0-C8-P2-S1.8-T1 p.s. funny fact...the Figure Skating venue should be a new facility built here in Milan...because using the only decent venue we have in Italy (Forum Milanofiori, where the last Figure Skating Worlds were held with great audience success) would be stupid...and guess what? it should be located just in front of the Sky Italia palace, one of the most dangerous areas of the entire city of Milan... please, God...if you really exist, save us from this farce!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my6q554WE60

probably the 5-star leaders threatened Malagò to cut funding off big time, I guess... do like we want or we destroy everything...you know...it's their normal behaviour also for more serious things (look at ILVA's question, for expample)...

sure, the bid will survive (and it's also a strong one, if the IOC changed the rules to make it "legal")... I've read that the IOC idea was to award the 2026 Games to Italy and 2030 Games to Stockholm in the same session in 2019, so to keep up the pace with the Summer Games and to put themselves "safe" for a longer period (because they're really scared about all those European bids retired at the last moment after public consultations)...

Summer Games? 0, absolutely 0 the government accepted this Winter bid only because it's not that expensive and because the 3 regions are led by their same coalition (Lombardy -not the city of Milan, but the entire region- and Veneto -Cortina- by Lega Nord and Torino by 5-star movement -and that's the problem...our NOC actually wanted Milan as the Olympic bidder, but the 5-star people wanted Torino...so our NOC was forced to accept the political compromise with this 3-headed bid or nothing)... but the Summer Games are definitely another thing (and the only possible bidder is Rome, with all the problems they take with them)...

they're not the only ones, I fear...

it's more complicated than that... basically, our NOC (after the IOC gave them permission to do it) has approved a tri-city bid (Milano, Torino, Cortina)... but now Milan, that thought (with all the reason, I'd say) they would be the real candidate town (with only some events hosted by the other bidders, Torino and Cortina), has decided to opt out from the possible governance of the final bid (in practice, no Milan officials nor politicians will be in the "Local Organizing Committee" of the Games), giving in any case the OK to our NOC to be included among the Olympic Venues (it's still unclear if they want the name of the city included in the official bid -it's still supposed that the Opening Ceremony will be in San Siro Stadium, so it would be really strange if the name "Milano" won't be included- or not)... however, this not a sport bid anymore...it's just a political compromise that has nothing to do with sport, but only with our worst habit, the systematic spoil system of all our public institutons by the governing political parties... and technically it's just something unacceptable (a few proposed venues are just a joke)...

I agree with you at 200% of course I also voted "NO" p.s. for those who still trust AIBA... https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1068163/rakhimov-backed-to-continue-as-aiba-president-following-return-to-uzbekistan-after-removed-from-wanted-list

naaa... this time you have the joker...with Karate in, there's a very good chance you get 1 or maybe even 2 spots... and with a bit of luck, some of your Russian wrestlers can also earn a chance (I'd be surprised if Makoev doesn't make it)... don't be so pessimistic, mate!