phelps

earlier today Sarah Sjostrom swam the best time of the year over the women's 200m Freestyle at the Swedish Nationals: 1:54.34... in the same race Michelle Coleman clocked 1:56.12, slightly slower than 10 days ago in Rome...

actually it was in the quarterfinals, not in the semis (which will be contested tomorrow)...

and by the way, Amnat Ruenroeng* (THA) and Carmine Tommasone (ITA), the 2 only real "PRO" who have been outside the AIBA system untl now, will meet tomorrow in the Lightweights' Semifinal... basically, this will be the only match with a bit of non-AIBA flavour not only of the entire tournament, but of the entire history of the AIBA connection with the world of real PROs... a great success for the world governing body, I guess... *by far the most successful boxer starting in this farce...he even fought 5 times for the IBF Flyweights World Title between 2014 and 2015 (beating former AIBA stars like McWilliams Arroyo, PUR and, above all, Zhou Shiming, CHN, one of the most overrated Olympic Champions - actually, double Olympic Champion - ever)...

Yesterday's (Quarterfinals) Results Session #4 http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/06/dia-3-manana.pdf Session #5 http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/06/dia-3-tarde.pdf Today's rest day in Vargas, Tomorrow the Semifinals in all weight classes will be on stage... Here's the Schedule: http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/06/sched.pdf

Day 1 (Today) Schedule http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/06/C58-C58D0703.pdf Day 2 (Tomorrow) Schedule http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/06/C58-C58D0704.pdf

Cate Campbell stole the show, but she's not the only Aussie in good shape 35 days before the start of the Games... here some other news from Downunder... http://www.swimvortex.com/james-magnussen-gathers-momentum-in-time-for-4x100-aussie-rio-relay-tilt/ http://www.swimvortex.com/cate-campbell-drops-a-52-06-bomb-for-100m-world-record-faster-than-mike-wenden/

yes, but despite their good records as a pro (Tommasone is unbeaten), they are nothing special... but still, I'm very curious to see what they can do in the AIBA context... here you can find some infos about them (just fill the form with their names): http://boxrec.com/people

Pulyaev, Iartsev and Valkova for sure, as they were involved in the Meldonium chaos (and therefore to me they are playing dirty at 100%)... all the other guys , instead, are not guilty until the contrary is proven... but you know..."not guilty" doesn't necessarily mean "innocent"...

team Italy for the Olympic Games Women's Foil Elisa Di Francisca, Arianna Errigo Men's Foil Giorgio Avola, Andrea Cassarà, Daniele Garozzo Team Event only: Andrea Baldini Women's Epee Rossella Fiamingo Men's Epee Marco Fichera, Enrico Garozzo, Paolo Pizzo Team Event only: Andrea Santarelli Women's Sabre Rossella Gregorio, Loreta Gulotta, Irene Vecchi Team Event only: Ilaria Bianco Men's Sabre Aldo Montano, Diego Occhiuzzi

and he also had a 89-meter+ throw and the remaining 3 were all around or above 85m...very very impressive... not only, the second German, Julian Weber, improved himself up to well beyond 86 meters... Germany is definitely going to be the main force at the Games in this discipline...

I hope so... but we all know that they are like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde when it comes down to the Olympic Games and that they don't care that much about the remaining competitions... so, I don't think that last year's results have any consequence on their minds...unfortunately... however, based on yesterday's results, I guess that in Rio they will swim at least 4 or 5 seconds faster than in Kazan, putting them well outside the reach of any other team...

Thomas Rohler!!! just a few minutes ago in Turku he had 2 throws beyond 91 meters!!! of course I'm writing about men's Javelin...

Fencing Pan-American Championships 2016 Final Medal Table United States, 8 - 5 - 5 Canada, 1 - 1 - 5 Brazil, 1 - 1 - 1 Cuba, 1 - 1 - 1 Venezuela, 1 - 1 - 1 Mexico, 0 - 2 - 3 Argentina, 0 - 1 - 1 Colombia, 0 - 0 - 1

Fencing Pan-American Championships 2016 Women's Team Foil Semifinals United States 45 - 21 Mexico Canada 45 - 19 Colombia Bronze Medal Final Mexico 45 - 34 Colombia Gold Medal Final United States 45 - 25 Canada Men's Team Sabre Semifinals United States 45 - 28 Mexico Argentina 45 - 41 Canada Bronze Medal Final Canada 29 - 45 Mexico Gold Medal Final United States 45 - 36 Argentina

OK, I was just dreaming... the men's 200m Free final was on a totally different level than the earlier rounds...3 guys at 1.45 and Lochte at 1.46 just mean that their 4*200m Free Relay is still untouchable... Ledecky still on her "normal" times over the girls' 200m Free, but it's better wait for today's final before saying/writing anything... finally, I'm very, very sad about Franklin's poor shape......I hope she can still save a spot in one or two different races, it would be a big loss for the entire swimming sport not to see her in any of the individual events at the Olympic Games...

to be honest, I was expecting better results from day 2 of the US Olympic Trials... those bunch of 1.47 (with just 1 guy swimming twice "high" 1.46) in the heats and the semis of the men's 200m Free give a totally different look at the men's 4*200m Free Relay... it could become one of the most exciting races ever, with many teams all very close to each other (especially if they don't get rid of their stiff rules and use also Lochte - who's going to miss the top 4 here, I guess - and Phelps, despite not qualifying in the pool at this meet)... and I also expected Ledecky to destroy her WR over the women's 400m Free...now I'm very, very curious to see her over the 200m Free... not bad, but worse than yesterday in the semis, Kevin Cordes over the men's 100m Breast...I think the lights of Peaty and Van Der Burgh are still too far away for him to be a real Gold medal contender in Rio... finally, I agree on the men's 100m Back being the highlights of yesterday's session...

but I guess this time the US guys won't have many chances to win the Gold medal (which they have always won since the end of the great Tamas Darnyi's reign)... Hagino looks well beyond the reach of Kalisz (not to mention Litherland, who is just on the line to make the final and nothing more)... encouraging from an Italian perspective also the "high" 3.43 by Conor Jaeger in the men's 400m Free... at the moment, Gabriele Detti looks stronger (on Friday he swam 3.44.2 just down from a hard training period in altitude)...

final day in Rome and Federica Pellegrini stole the show as expected...1.54.55 in the women's 200m Free...now this year in this event she's second only to Katie Ledecky (waiting for her races at the US Olympic Trials, which started today)... in the same competition in Rome, Michelle Coleman swam 1.55.88... finally, Gabriele Detti showed his form once again for the third time in 3 days and swam 7.43 over the 800m Free, beating by a 7-second margin his training partner, the reigning World Champion of the distance, Gregorio Paltrinieri... on the other side of the Ocean, instead, Kelsey Worrel swam 56.something and Dana Vollmer 57.50 in the heats of the women's 100m Fly at the US Trials, Day 1... in the other races, easy qualification to the final for Ryan Lochte in the men's 400m IM with a 4.11 clocking, 59.05 by Kevin Cordes (5 boys below the 1-minute mark) in the men's 100m Breast and a bunch of 3.47 in the heats of the men's 400m Free...

some news from the Italian Championships... Gian Marco Tamberi jumped 2.36 in the men's High Jump... Matteo Galvan ran 45.12 (new National Record, top result in Europe this year so far and Olympic qualifying time) in the men's 400m... men's 200m: Eseosa Desalu won in 20.31, Davide Manenti was second in 20.44 and Matteo Galvan was third in 20.50 (all of them with qualifying time for Rio 2016)... Ayomide Folorunso won the women's 400m Hurdles in 55.54 (qualifying time for the Games, too)... finally, one of the most promising youngsters of our Athletics, Carolina Visca (not yet 16), threw her senior Javelin at 53.07 (best U-18 in Europe this year so far)...

Finally, also in the Women's Team Sabre the definitive situation of the Olympic tournament is established once and for all... Seedings #1 Russia (424 points) #2 Ukraine (364 points) #3 France (308 points) #4 United States (274 points) #5 Poland (248 points) #6 Italy (236 points) #7 South Korea (230 points) #8 Mexico (177 points) so, the table draw of the Olympic tournament should look like this: Quarterfinals: #1 Russia vs #8 Mexico #4 USA vs #5 Poland #3 France vs #6 Italy #2 Ukraine vs #7 South Korea Semifinals: RUS/MEX vs USA/POL FRA/ITA vs UKR/KOR

Fencing Pan-American Championships 2016 Women's Team Sabre Semifinals United States 45 - 27 Canada Mexico 45 - 38 Venezuela Bronze Medal Final Canada 45 - 42 Venezuela Gold Medal Final United States 45 - 41 Mexico Men's Team Epee Semifinals Cuba 37 - 32 Colombia Venezuela 45 - 31 Brazil Bronze Medal Final Brazil 30 - 45 Colombia Gold Medal Final Venezuela 45 - 36 Cuba

and after today's event (which caused a lot of changes in the standings, some of them really unexpected) we also have the second definitive seedings and table draw of the Rio 2016 Fencing competition, the Women's Team Epee... Seedings #1 China (348 points) #2 Romania (340 points) #3 Russia (324 points) #4 Estonia (290 points) #5 South Korea (266 points) #6 France (235 points) #7 United States (234 points) #8 Ukraine (215 points) #9 Brazil (in as hosts, 86 points) therefore, the table draw of the Olympic tournament should look like this: Preliminary Round: #8 Ukraine vs #9 Brazil Quarterfinals: #1 China vs UKR/BRA #4 Estonia vs #5 South Korea #3 Russia vs #6 France #2 Romania vs #7 United States Semifinals: CHN/UKR (BRA) vs EST/KOR RUS/FRA vs ROU/USA

Fencing European Championships 2016 Final Medal Table Russia, 6 - 1 - 3 France, 2 - 4 - 3 Italy, 1 - 4 - 1 Romania, 1 - 1 - 2 Germany, 1 - 0 - 2 Estonia, 1 - 0 - 0 Hungary, 0 - 1 - 1 Switzerland, 0 - 1 - 0 Ukraine , 0 - 0 - 4 Great Britain, 0 - 0 - 1 Poland, 0 - 0 - 1

Fencing European Championships 2016 Women's Team Epee Semifinals Estonia 39 - 30 Hungary France 41 - 36 Romania Bronze Medal Final Hungary 19 - 27 Romania Gold Medal Final France 28 - 33 Estonia Men's Team Sabre Semifinals Russia 45 - 32 Romania Italy 45 - 43 Hungary Bronze Medal Final Hungary 32 - 45 Romania Gold Medal Final Russia 45 - 42 Italy

spectacular race between Kromowidjojo and Pellegrini in the 100m Free today in Rome, with the Dutch edging the Italian star by just 0.04 secs in a very quick event, especially considering the full training period (53.14 to 53.18, which is also a new Italian Record for Pellegrini, who destroyed her previous best time - 53.55 - dating back to the rubbish...ehm...rubber era in 2009)... in the same pool, Inge Dekker was 5th in the women's 100m Fly in 59.26...and Gregorio Paltrinieri just took a bath for the fans in the men's 1500m Free (he won in 14.51.something)... yesterday there was also a very good and promising time by Gabriele Detti in the men's 400m Free (3.44.21), once again in full training period and just after getting back from altitude training in Sierra Nevada (today he swam 1.46.78 to win the men's 200m Free ahead of Dominik Kozma, HUN, who was just above 1.47)...