phelps

here in Italy that's not a big problem, since our TV will show the games live (with the chance to record them) and also a few replays at a favourable time...

second stage of the Karate 1 Premier League in Rotterdam (NED)... and once again Japan taking the major honors with 4 Gold Medals... France followed in the final medal table with 3 Gold Medals... Azerbaijan, China, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Ukraine and Uzbekistan all got one single Gold Medal... the Olympic classes "as they stand" went to Japan (both Kata events, male and female), France (Men's -67kg and -75kg Kumite), Ukraine (Women's -55kg Kumite) and China (Women's -61kg Kumite)... the "no limits" weights in the Olympic Kumite program (which let's remember will start at +75kg for the men and +61 kg for the women) have been won by JPN (up to 84kg) and GER (over 84kg) in the Men's division and by AZE (up to 68kg) and JPN (over 68kg)... finally, here are the full results of the Dutch tournament... https://www.sportdata.org/wkf/set-online/popup_main.php?popup_action=results&vernr=110&active_menu=calendar

and finally, we know the 4 teams qualified for the semifinals... after Japan and the Netherlands in Tokyo, last night in San Diego Puerto Rico and the hosts from the USA got their tickets for the final round in Los Angeles... quite surprisingly, in fact, the Dominican Republic lost their 2nd game in 4 days in Southern California against the USA and were eliminated, losing the chance to repeat themselves after their triumph in 2013... the semifinals are so set: PUR vs NED (Monday night) and JPN vs USA (Tuesday night)... and the winning teams will meet on Wednesday night in the "big final"... hoping to see 3 great games (and maybe the USA losing once again)...

yes, Italy yesterday were totally empty, despite another good start... however, thanks to our Mexican friends, now we have another shot at advancing the next round... unfortunately for you, now it's also a mess about who's gonna play tonight against Italy in the playoff match, since MLB has announced that Venezuela will play, but Mexico is contesting the ruling of only 8 defensive innings counted for them in the game against Italy (but I don't think they have margin for success in their protests...MLB rules - which are used for this event, except for the special exemptions for pitchers - are quite clear...to be counted as a defensive inning, at least 1 out must be recorded...and that didn't happened in the 9th Mexican defensive inning on Thursday against Italy)... by the way, with this pitching staff, I'm not sure I want to see Italy playing against the Dominicans, the US boys and another time against Puerto Rico... maybe it's gonna be better if we lose "in style" tonight's playoff match, rather than risking 3 blowouts in San Diego...

wow! it's been tough, but I'm still alive... what a night of baseball...it's just March, but emotions flew like it's October... first, another unbelievable slugfest between Italy and Venezuela (unfortunately, this time with the winners coming from the wrong side...), then a wonderful game between the USA and the Dominican Republic, with the Caribbeans coming back from a 5-0 deficit and upsetting the (supposed) home heroes in front of the biggest crowd ever registered at Marlins Park in Miami (not a single MLB game has ever had so many spectators in that stadium...another unbelievable stat of this WBC)... and lately, just to go on with this crazy tornament, Israel defeated also the mighty Cubans...thus being just one win away from the miracle of reaching the final round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic... just...wow!

game over, 4-1 for the South Americans...and the first surprise of the day is served...

honestly, it would be a huge upset if we beat VEN...I mean, we can play...we also have a very good number of MLB players, but VEN is filled up with real MLB superstars... moreover, we are not that good in the pitchers department... but if we can find a good day on the mound and VEN doesn't take the game too seriously (like they did the other night against PUR), then there's room for the previously named "huge upset"... but we need to keep the game close in the early innings...for sure we won't get another "remuntada" like 2 days ago... the beginning is very promising...Gaviglio looked quite sharp in the first outing and we've already hit their pitcher hard...right now, 1-0 for us...c'mon guys!

rather, Canada looking outstandingly bad against Colombia... by the way, I'm already "hot" for our big game against Venezuela...should we make another upset like Thursday's, we'd be through to the next round and VEN would be unbelievably out of the tournament...but I'm just dreaming...the previous match-ups between ITA and VEN don't speak in our favor at all...

wow! what a night it's been... I didn't really expect a "remuntada" like that when we got 9-5 down against MEX... I feel sorry for our friend mrv86...I guess it's been a real shock... on the other pitches, we've seen quite a good number of exciting games, despite being so early in the season... in particular, the game between Cuba and Japan was a high class effort from both sides (maybe not by the pitchers...)...and also earlier today CUB vs AUS was a thrilling one, with the highly favourite Caribbeans that almost went out in round #1, with AUS coming just short in their comeback... waiting for the US debut later tonight, yesterday it was also an impressive start by the reigning champions, the Dominican Republic...it won't be easy to stop them also in this year's tournament...

I don't think they can beat NED (if NED play at their best), but for sure they're not joking...today they also destroyed Chinese Taipei, which is another big surprise... and if NED can do the same (beat the Asians, I mean), both "European" teams will go through to the next round (and their match ups will be just useless tests)...

by the way, in any case this is the most qualified and exciting International tournament in Baseball... for what concerns the Olympics, a few days ago the MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred made a press conference and expressed many doubts that the MLB players will be available for Tokyo... at the moment, all the owners are totally against the Olympic break (and they will never release their players if the season is not stopped in those days)... so, I guess we're going to have another soap opera like the Hockey one for Pyeongchang from now to 2020...

only indirectly... I mean, this tournament gives (many) points for the World Ranking, which is the only things that matters for the participation to the 2019 Premier 12 tournament (which is the only qualifying event for Tokyo 2020, at least for what we know until now...the final qualification path is still to be officially confirmed, however)

Men's Baseball WBSC World Baseball Classic 2017 Various Cities - 6 March 2017 - 22 March 2017 Totallympics Results Thread

so, it's because of this encouragement that we (in Italy) are going so far ahead (hope you can read a bit Italian)... http://www.gazzetta.it/Volley/18-02-2017/volley-scelta-palmi-c-tiffany-era-rodrigo-180886408883.shtml http://www.gazzetta.it/Volley/20-02-2017/volley-tiffany-spezza-rete-per-nostro-campionato-fuori-quota-180911537845.shtml

they are just destroying this sport... by the way, it's now official (we just have to wait for ratification at the deadline) that 10m Pistol, 10m Rifle and Trap are the 3 Mixed Events that will be chosen for Tokyo 2020, thus cutting once and for all 50m Pistol, Prone Rifle and Double Trap off from the Olympic program... http://www.issf-sports.org/news.ashx?newsid=2729

if you want to watch the full replays (and highlights) of all the Rio events (Paralimpycs, too), the Italian public TV rai has its dedicated website still working... http://www.rai.it/rio2016/ you just have to click on the "Home" menu (high left), then go to the calendar ("calendario") and choose the event you want to watch day by day... all videos have at least the environmental audio, most things also have both Italian and English audio...

and Germany beat France 3-2 (after Penalty Shootout) in the opening game of group D in Japan...meanwhile Japan is 2-1 ahead of Austria in the 2nd period at the moment... p.s. all games from both tournaments can be watched for free on the Olympic Channel (and for those who can watch those channels, Saturday's SUI vs NOR will be live on the Swiss National TV SF2 HD and Sunday's SUI vs CZE will be live on the Czech public Sport channel CT Sport HD)...

well, it's clear that the IIHF has done all they could do... basically Fasel said to the NHL & NHLPA representatives: "OK, we've gone as far as we can go; our door is always open (until the last second)...now it's only up to you and your own internal questions...let us know what you want to do as soon as possible and we're going to set up things for the Games"... I guess the window is closing quicker and quicker, but I still hope there's a little margin for those idiots on the other side of the Ocean to make up their minds and still be part of the Olympics... by the way, if I were the IIHF I'd still go down hard on the other part of the Hockey World in case they give up on the Games (I mean...something like "every player that put a single skate on North American Ice is no longer elegible for any other IIHF tournament - even in the amateur ranks - for the rest of his career")...they can't let this thing go as if nothing serious happened...

First big tournament of the new Karate season, the Premier League 1 event in Paris (FRA)... Japan dominated the field with 5 Gold Medals, followed by Italy and Iran with 2 Gold Medals each... France, Serbia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Venezuela won the remaining Gold Medals (one each)... If we look at the Olympic classes only, Japan won both Men and Women's Kata events and 1 of the "regular" 2 classes which, added together, will make the Olympic Heavyweights in both the Men and Women's Kumite... the other 2 "halves" of the Olympic Heavyweights went to Iran among the boys and France among the girls... the Olympic Lightweights, meanwhile, went to Venezuela among the boys and Iran among the girls in the actual Olympic weights (with Uzbekistan - boys - and Japan - girls - taking the lower classes that are supposed to be added together to make the Olympic Lightweights)... the only existing class that is also a pure Olympic class (Middleweights) was won by Ukraine (men) and Serbia (women)... here are the full results from the French capital... https://www.sportdata.org/wkf/set-online/popup_main.php?popup_action=results&vernr=109&active_menu=calendar

French success in New York... Cecilia Berder won the Women's Individual competition at the NY World Cup stage, beating South Korea Ji Yeon Kim in the final assault (15-11 the final score)... Bronze went twice to Italy, thanks to the veteran Irene Vecchi and the youngster Martina Criscio (her first podium finish among the senior ranks)... the Team event is not over yet, but we already know that the Bronze Medal bout wil be contested by Russia and Hungary, meanwhile the Gold Medal bout will be fenced by South Korea and France... Italy lost to France in the quarterfinals and endd up in 6th place...more or less the same story of the entire past Team World Cup season...

great success for Italy in the Men's Team World Cup of Heidenheim (GER)... after a few convincing wins against second tier opponents, they survived a scare in the semis, beating China 14-13, but in the final bout they managed a masterpiece of tactics and beat France 45-40... Bronze went to Ukraine... on the other hand, yesterday in the individual event the Italian guys didn't do as well as today and the final win went to Park Kyoung Doo (KOR), who defeated Yannick Borel (FRA) by a score of 15-13 in the Gold Medal assault... Bronze was taken by Koki Kano (JPN) and 18-year young Mate Tamas Koch (HUN), both at their first World Cup podium finish in their career... Today and tomorrow it's the time of the Women's Sabre in New York, with the Individual event first, followed as usual by the Team competition on Sunday...

naaa...it's not Trump (even if he could be happy of that)... it's Golf itself, which heavy heritage from its own history and tradition still allow things like that to happen here and there in almost every part of the World...

I don't think so... here in Italy our public broadcaster is not gonna spend a single cent for the Winter Games (they already left Sochi 2014 in the hands of the FTA branch of our main pay-TV Network...and it proved to be an absolute disaster...basically they only showed Figure Skating and Alpine Skiing, with just a couple of notable exceptions...they didn't even show all of our very few medal winners on the FTA channel - they missed out on the Biathlon Mixed Relay, since they were showing, guess what? yes, you win! Figure Skating!!!)... so, I'm pretty sure that at least for the Winter Games they won't be able to stick with their original plan at 100%... and in Germany (where public broadcasters ARD/ZDF definitively called themselves out from the competition) they already announced their program for Pyeongchang 2018... in GER they will show the 2018 games on 2 of their FTA channels + the 2 Eurosport paid channels + the Eusp360 service...which is always a perfect coverage, but it's still a mostly paid offer...and many fans don't like that...