phelps

Funding cuts are involved into this, but there's also an internal feud... British Fencing didn't approve his choice to train with the London-based Pole Wojciewski and not within the federal circles and he reacted by leaving the team events (moreover, his relationship with J.A. Davis are not that good -I've read an interview where it was said that the Errigo vs Di Francisca dispute is nothing compared to theirs, another fact which helped him to take this decision)...

good job, Alessio! half the damage is done, now the last step...c'mon, man!

by the way, Velikaya vs Egorian...

it's not a disaster..but still it's a disappointing outcome, especially when 2 other people waste such a chance against clearly weaker opponents... frankly, once getting to that specific quarterfinals situation, it was absolutely normal to expect 3 Italians among the top 4...and as it didn't happen, it's also absolutely normal being unhappy (I'm pretty sure that Avola and Garozzo are the first to blame themselves for those losses and even more because at a certain point they looked in control of thier respective assaults)... now let's hope that Foconi doesn't imitate his teammates and "fills his contract" by winning that fu**in' Gold medal...

shame! shame! shame! on Garozzo and Avola...they literally threw a medal away against no-name fencers... by the way, quite a lot of surprises also in both today's events...not our usual World Champ (it's the Chinese jinx, of course)...

in the meantime, the team events of the women's epee and of the men's sabre have been completed... and as expected, the Italian Epee girls are already out (they lost to Germany in the round of last 16)... tomorrow those events will start directly from the quarterfinals, as they are: women's team epee China vs Germany South Korea vs France Russia vs Poland Estonia vs United States men's team sabre South Korea vs France Georgia vs Iran Hungary vs Germany Italy vs Russia

Men's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Alessio Foconi (ITA) Silver: Richard Kruse (GBR) Bronze: Heo Jun (KOR) & Carlos Llavador (ESP) Semifinals: Foconi b. Heo 15-12 Kruse b. Llavador 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Foconi b. Kruse 15-8 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/244/results/rank

Women's Individual Sabre Final Results: Gold: Sofia Pozdniakova (RUS) Silver: Sofya Valikaya (RUS) Bronze: Anne-Elizabeth Stone (USA) & Yana Egorian (RUS) Semifinals: Pozdniakova b. Stone 15-6 Velikaya b. Egorian 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Pozdniakova b. Velikaya 15-13 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/245/results/rank

men's foil quarters are: Foconi vs Lefort Garozzo vs Heo Jun Kruse vs Davis Avola vs Llavador

their sabre girls saved the face, at least... they have 3 women among the 4 medallists... meanwhile in the men's foil they are all already out before the last 8 (where there are 3 Italians, 2 Britons and no Americans, by the way)

but tonight he didn't do anything wrong... we can't even blame him...we just deserved to lose. point.

it's obvious that this team has a lot of troubles under many points of view...they always take bad shooting decisions (giving up too many favourable chances because they're afraid to make a mistake), they lack shooting power (they should spend many more hours in the gym, imho), they're too slow in swimming skills for the small size they have if compared to most of their opponents (except for Palmieri, I guess, who is in any case too much overweight) and they're always so inconsistent (you can't go from 2 up to 2 down then again 2 up and finally lose missing the decisive penalty-shot with 5 seconds on the clock in just a period of play)... you just can't win with a team like that...

yes, nothing to say about them... they surely didn't have any influence on the final result... the only thing, if just we want to be precise, is that they had quite a different style of interpretation...Stavridis used to let the game flow a bit more, meanwhile his French collegue used to whistle a bit too much to my taste...but they were both right on all the main decisions...and that's enough...

well, I decided to go with my "traditional" 5 (Fencing, Judo, Wrestling, Swimming and Field Hockey), but it doesn't make justice to my real addiction to most of the Olympic sports (and not only them)... I also considered the idea to vote for Golf and Baseball, but actually the Olympics are the less interesting event for those sports, so I gave up the idea... more recently, I also appreciate Sport Climbing a lot among the newcomers at the Games, but once again, the Olympic event format is so stupid and senseless that I left that choice out, too... however, apart from what I call non-sports (Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, Artistic Swimming, Surfing and so on), I always say that I love all the sports in the world...just I prefer some of those to some others...

naaaa...I have a full medical exemption for a very long list of medicines and treatments... I bet on (I hope) Ledecky...

great win for Volpi (perfectly directed by Giovanna Trillini on the bench)... I have to admit that I didn't expect her to reach this level of fencing, after watching her for years in the junior ranks first and then in the early seasons of her senior career... I'm very happy I made such a mistake...she might not be the brightest talent in the world, but she's the perfect example that the Italian Foil school is the best in the world and can build a champion in any moment... no comment on the (expected) shameful outing of our male epee specialists...it's so sad watching a group of guys that just a couple of years ago was second only to France and now they just can't get beyod the second round of the direct elimination draw... now I think it's time to change everything in this class of our fencing, before it's too late and they get to watch Tokyo 2020 on TV...

and France makes it 2 finals out of 2 competitions, today...

and also the table draws for the women's epee and the men's sabre team events are out... Italy will have to face GER in the round of 16 and possibly CHN in the quarterfinals in the women's team epee, meanwhile we're gonna have a big clash against RUS in the quarters of the men's team sabre... so, I guess we won't see any of those 2 Italian teams among the medallists...

whaaaatttt? but why should we get such a national TV??????? just to let everybody know...they stopped live broadcasting from Fencing WC to air a senseless sports news show filled with "old" stuff (because yesterday's events are already old stuff)... well, at least today Eurosport is still live with fencing...

and Limardo's magic is back...Nikishin totally confused and out...

Men's Individual Epee Final Results: Gold: Yannick Borel (FRA) Silver: Ruben Limardo Gascon (VEN) Bronze: Bogdan Nikishin (UKR) & Roman Svichkar (UKR) Semifinals: Limardo Gascon b. Nikishin 7-4 Borel b. Svichkar 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Borel b. Limardo Gascon 15-4 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/242/results/rank

Women's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Alice Volpi (ITA) Silver: Ysaora Thibus (FRA) Bronze: Arianna Errigo (ITA) & Ines Boubakri (TUN) Semifinals: Thibus b. Errigo 15-2 Volpi b. Boubakri 15-7 Gold Medal Match: Volpi b. Thibus 15-12 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/243/results/rank

WTF is happening in women's foil??? I just can't believe what I've seen so far... at least Volpi is in the final (and Errigo didn't lose to any no name girl, even if the semifinal bout against Thibus was more than shocking...in a negative way, of course)...

European Championships 2018 men's semifinals Smedins/Samoilovs 2-0 Semenov/Leshukov Herrera/Gavira 0-2 Mol/Sorum men's Bronze Medal match Herrera/Gavira 2-1 Semenov/Leshukov men's Gold Medal match Smedins/Samoilovs 0 - 2 (17-21, 13-21) Mol/Sorum

davvero una bellissima giornata... e possiamo aggiungere anche Jakob Weger oro mondiale giovanile nella canoa slalom (K1 under-23) e Marta Bertoncelli argento (C1 junior)... nonchè gli Azzurrini under-19 del calcio che conquistano la semifinale dell'europeo di categoria e la conseguente qualificazione al mondiale under 20 del prossimo anno... peccato solo per il disastro agli europei di Beach Volley...con una medaglia lì avremmo centrato un pokerissimo "da paura"... p.s. precisiamo che Molinari il mese scorso ha vinto il suo primo titolo sul PGA Americano, perchè in quello Europeo aveva già vinto diversi tornei (oltre a 2 Ryder Cup, una Coppa del Mondo e a un torneo del WGC)...praticamente ora, eccezion fatta per le Olimpiadi, può dire di aver vinto almeno un torneo in tutte le categorie che contano (Majors, WGC, PGA USA, PGA Europeo, tornei "particolari" a squadre)... davvero un grandissimo atleta che non avrà mai abbastanza celebrazioni per ciò che ha dato e che dà allo sport Azzurro... p.p.s. e mo' li voglio proprio sentire tutti i troll anti-golf che popolano il nostro Paese e i webeti nostrani... p.p.p.s. oggi tra Navarria, Vallortigara, le ragazze dell'hockey prato e Molinari mi sto consumando gli occhi dalle lacrime (per Chicco ho persino rischiato le dita, immergendole nell'olio bollente mentre preparavo la cena...fortunatamente ormai le ho d'amianto come i cuochi professionisti e non ho avuto danni particolari )...