phelps

lead finals were contested in difficult conditions, after heavy rain...so, technically it wasn't a great competition, with almost all the climbers falling at the only really complicated passage... however, we still have the best specialists at the top of the rankings...so, we can't say that the event was completely turned around by the unfavourable weather... pity for Ondra, who just missed out on the podium by a really small margin at his 1st world cup event of the season... now it's time for the World Cup to take a short break because of the Youth World Championships in Moscow in the next weeks, it will be back just after mid-August with the Munich stage (Boulder only), which will be the last one before the Senior Worlds (in Innsbruck in the first half of September)...

by the way, I did find something that could be good as a birthday present... https://www.nhl.com/news/pittsburgh-penguins-owner-mario-lemieux-quebec-castle-up-for-sale/c-299601468?tid=281396148 if someone wants to give his contribution, I'll be grateful for the rest of my life...

grazie ragazzi... stavo anche pensando di farmi un "piccolo regalo"... https://www.nhl.com/news/pittsburgh-penguins-owner-mario-lemieux-quebec-castle-up-for-sale/c-299601468?tid=281396148 se qualcuno di voi volesse contribuire, gliene sarei grato per sempre...

purtroppo non ho potuto vedere il match di Frank (nè il preliminare della Passoni)... sai com'è...a volte il giorno del proprio compleanno bisogna "distrarsi" un attimo dalle normali attività... anche quando la voglia di celebrarlo è meno di zero (e non certo perchè gli anni cominciano a esser tanti, troppi)...

Janja does it again! what a woman... meanwhile in the speed races, it's an Eastern European show, with a Russian double among the girls and the second win in a row for the man from Ukraine, Boldyrev...

IFSC World Cup, Stage #10 (Arco Di Trento, ITA) Women's Lead 1st, Janja Garnbret (SLO) 2nd, Jessica Pilz (AUT) 3rd, Anak Verhoeven (BEL) Men's Lead 1st, Jakob Schubert (AUT) 2nd, Stefano Ghisolfi (ITA) 3rd, Domen Skofic (SLO) Women's Speed 1st, Iuliia Kaplina (RUS) 2nd, Mariia Krasavina (RUS) 3rd, Anouck Joubert (FRA) Men's Speed 1st, Danyil Boldyrev (UKR) 2nd, Aleksandr Shilov (RUS) 3rd, Reza Alipourshenazandifar (IRI)

probably because we are the only hardcore Olympic fans, really caring for the competitive aspect of the Games, meanwhile IOC, politicians and media networks are only interested in getting as much money as they can in their pockets...

day #2 at the Judo Grand Prix in Zagreb (CRO) Akil Gjakova (men's -73kg), Dominic Ressel (men's -81kg), Nami Nabekura (who defeated the Slovenian ace Tina Trstenjak in the final match of the women's -63kg) and Marie Eve Gahie are today's winners in Zagreb... 10 more Nations won a medal, but no Gold... for Italy, "only" a silver medal at the end of the day, thanks to the -66kg Olympic Champion Fabio Basile, who was second in his new -73kg class... he looked very inspired through the preliminary block, but then he got a slight injury to his right leg that gave him some trobles in the semifinal (still managed to beat Butbul, ISR) and too many troubles in the final, where he had a really poor outing against Gjakova (and beside that, he was also heavily annoyed by the ref, an Asian woman, who gave him a couple of shido quite early in the bout, closing her eyes on Gjakova's repeated escape from fighting)...

sì, dove non si distinguono neanche gli atleti...praticamente non si capisce se si sta guardando una gara maschile o una femminile... p.s. comunque pessima prestazione di Basile (anche se in realtà è stato danneggiato dall'arbitra e da un infortunio alla gamba destra) e di Esposito (e qui non ci sono giustificazioni...aveva 2 shido di vantaggio e li ha sprecati...aveva bloccato a terra Egutidze e si è fatto catapultare come se fosse una piuma) nelle rispettive finali... bravi ad arrivare fin lì, ma poi, specie Esposito, scarsa capacità di concretizzare... p.p.s. comunque per un movimento modesto come il nostro, sprecare Esposito e Marconcini nella stessa categoria mi sembra un lusso che non dovremmo concederci...

I'd rather put the Sinkevich brothers in Rowing in the "they just can't be beaten" category...

I don't think that any of those can be named "big time favourite" in their respective competitions... sure, they start from the pole position, but imho they all have some very strong contenders, who can't be considered a big surprise if they win...

why not in the 400m and 800m, too? (I don't put the 200m in this list, because Pellegrini could come back and make her cry once again )...

good 3 medals for Italy, even if I'm always asking myself why an already established senior like Tacchini must waste a lot of energy by competing every year in all the age group races? (when you're an Olympic finalist and 4th at the following world champs, you shouldn't go anymore to this kind of events)...

Judo Fabio Basile finalmente dà segni di vita...è in finale nei -73kg al grand prix di Zagabria (dove affronterà Akil Gjakova, KOS)... Antonio Esposito invece disputerà la finale per il Bronzo nei -81kg contro Anton Egutidze (Georgiano naturalizzato Portoghese)... oggi male invece le donne, specie Edwige Gwend, uscita al primo turno... sessione con le finali a partite dalle 17 (diretta Free su Youtube)...

in the Speed discipline, Anouck Joubert has been the fastest in the women's qualifying climb ahead of Iuliia Kaplina... among the top 16 there are 5 girls from Poland, 4 from Russia, 3 from France and 1 each from Italy, USA, Ecuador and Austria in the men's Speed qualifications, Dmitrii Timofeev just edged out Reza Alipoushenazandifar... meanwhile in the top 16 we have 6 Russians, 3 Italians, 2 Ukranians and 1 man each from USA, France, Czech Republic, Poland and of course Iran... unfortunately there were no Indonesians at the start (both the men and women's classes), since they are focusing mainly on their Home Asian Games... the Lead finalists, instead, are: women's Lead Jania Garnbret Jessica Pilz Christine Schranz Claire Buhrfeind Anak Verhoeven Manon Hily Ievgeniia Kazbekova Helene Janicot of course here a new chpter of the great challenge between Garnbret and Pilz is expected...any different outcome for Gold and Silver would be a huge surprise (actually, good half of the finalists are already surprisingly there)... men's Lead Sascha Lehmann Adam Ondra Jakob Schubert Domen Skofic Shuta Tanaka Stefano Ghisolfi Alberto Ginès Lopez Min Hyun Bin here we have definitely more guys aiming for the final win, from local hero Stefano Ghisolfi to "podium subscribers" like Schubert and Skofic...but my absolute favourite is Adam Ondra, finally back to world cup action after his great "natural" climbs outside the competitions... surprisingly out in the earlier stages the Frenchman Romain Desgranges and the German Alexander Megos, multiple time medallists (and even winners) in the previous world cup rounds...

Italy, and in particular the Sport Climbing "Mecca" Arco di Trento is the location for the 10th stage of this year's World Cup... Lead and Speed are the disciplines scheduled to be contested in this weekend... after yesterday's qualifications and this morning's semifinals, today in the late afternoon and tonight the big finals will be on stage... here you can watch the speed finals @ 6 p.m. CET meanwhile here you can follow the lead finals, starting with the women @ 7.45 p.m. CET

US Nationals 2018, Day #3 recap women's 400m IM Ally McHugh, 4.34.80 Brooke Forde, 4.35.09 men's 400m IM Chase Kalisz, 4.08.25 Jay Litherland, 4.10.21 women's 100m Fly Kelsi Dahlia (Worrel), 56.83 Katie McLaughlin, 57.51 men's 100m Fly Caeleb Dressel, 50.50 Jack Conger, 51.11 Michael Andrew, 51.68 women's 50m Breaststroke Lilly King, 29.82 Molly Hannis, 30.07 men's 50m Breaststroke Michael Andrew, 26.84 (new US Champs record and = US All Comers record) Devon Nowicki, 27.12 women's 50m Backstroke Olivia Smoliga, 27.70 Ali Deloof, 27.88 men's 50m Backstroke Ryan Murphy, 24.24 (new American record) Justin Ress, 24.31

Tom Wilson, one of the key players in the recent Stanley Cup success, got a new contract with Washington (6 years, 31 million US $)... https://www.nhl.com/news/tom-wilson-signs-six-year-contract-with-washington-capitals/c-299304788?tid=281072352

it's the -74kg, however... the good thing is that this time we're gonna have adecent live streaming... https://unitedworldwrestling.org/event/yasar-dogu-4

thanks, mate! however, I'd rather stop counting the years gone by...they're just a little too many for my taste... I feel soooo old... p.s. wonderful cake...I love it!

day #1 at the Judo Grand Prix in Zagreb (CRO), with some valuable points in the race to Tokyo up for grab... and Japan, who else? is immediately on top of the medal table with 2 out of 5 possible Gold medals (Ai Shishime, women's -52kg and Naohisa Takato, men's -60kg)... Canada (Christa Deguchi, who beat Jessica Klimkait in an all-Canadian bout in the final of the women's -57kg), Ukraine (Daria Bilodid, women's -48kg) and Israel (Tal Flicker, men's -66kg) won the remaining Gold medals (1 each, of course)... 8 more Countries won at least 1 medal, but no Gold... unfortunately, Italy is not among them...only 2 5th places for us...

I really hope that's a mistake...to me, that's the worst format in the world (in the women's football I'd rather change it to 4 groups of 3, with the best 2 in each group going through to the quarters)... and also, why use 2 stadiums (with many games at the same time) for Field Hockey? if they just don't want to go until the last day of the Games, it would be enough to have day #1 of the preliminary stage (both women and men) in the 2 days before the opening ceremony and keep the usual format with 6 games per day in 1 single venue... I just don't understand the IOC/local organizers when they build such a senseless schedule...

se leggi l'articolo ti spiega perchè, anche cercandoli, non li troverai... in pratica, prima hanno eseguito una manipolazione del campione originale "drogato" con liquido contaminato, poi hanno "ammazzato" il DNA presente in tutto il campione "bruciandolo" con massicce dosi di raggi UV, poi hanno reimmesso urina di Alex in quantità abnorme per far risultare solo il suo DNA all'interno del campione... e proprio questa impossibilità scientifica che ci siano così tante molecole di DNA di Schwazer in un solo campione è la prova che c'è stata manipolazione "truffaldina"... eventuali presenze di DNA esogeno ormai sono irrintracciabili...