phelps

my picks for the Olympic qualifiers... Men: Ukraine and Japan to the final and Russia and Mexico in the 3rd place play-off for the last spot (hoping that MEX can get this last ticket to Rio)... Women: USA and Italy in the final, with Great Britain and Chinese Taipei to fight for the last spot (my support goes to the Europeans)...

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jun/14/operation-puerto-blood-bags-must-be-released-judge-madrid https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/11/wada-drugs-operation-puerto-judges-decision http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/operacion-puerto-blood-bags-to-be-handed-over-to-anti-doping-authorities/ so we have Dr.Fuentes back in action, possibly no sanctions for the athletes caught cheating but at least we're going to "officially" know some of their names... I'm not sure that this time we can say "justice has been done"...

good-bye, mr. Hockey... R.I.P.

after monday's road win, which gave them a 3-1 lead in the series, yesterday night the Pittsburgh Penguins wasted their first chance to clinch the title at home, losing by a score of 4-2... now they have to fly back to San Josè for game #6 on Sunday night... hoping to see a decisive game #7 next week, go Sharks!!!

this week was mainly dedicated to Football (Copa Centenario and from tonight Euro 2016) and Hockey (Stanley Cup finals)... and I also enjoyed a bit of Athletics (Diamond League in Rome and Oslo)...

Joonas Donskoi scores the OT winner and the San Josè Sharks cut the Pittsburgh Penguins' lead in the Stanley Cup Finals to 2 games to 1... game #4 is scheduled for Monday night, once again in California... go Sharks!

Men's Individual Foil in Shanghai (CHN)... Gold: Alexander Massialas Silver: Lee Kwang Hyun Bronze: Alessio Foconi & Chen Haiwei Final Bout: Massialas b. Lee 15 - 5

Women's Individual Foil in Shanghai (CHN)... Gold: Arianna Errigo Silver: Lee Kiefer Bronze: Martina Batini & Ysaora Thibus Final Bout: Errigo b. Kiefer 15 - 8

Pittsburgh Penguins 2-0 ahead of the San Josè Sharks in the Stanley Cup finals... in game #1 they scored the (3-2) winning goal just 2 mins before the end of regulation, in game #2 they won 2-1 in OT... but I still hope that the Sharks can comeback and take the Cup to California...

also in Croatia they have sold the FTA rights to the public TV, in this case HRT... basically, they are sub-licensing almost everywhere in Europe to the public Networks... at the end I think they will do the same all around the Old Continent, maybe with Italy being the only exception, since here they have also a few FTA channels and our public TV sucks big time...

if it's gonna be the case, it's already decided that the Olympic qualifying tournament will be the Premier 12 in 2019... and since Premier 12 is made only by the best 12 teams in the World Ranking, we can be sure that there won't be much regard to the Continental representation (even if I guess that they would guarantee the start of at least 3 Continents, giving th berths to the 3 medallists, Japan - host of the Games - the next best American team and the next best non Asian/American team)...

Ok...I don't follow BMX so closely and I didn't consider that much the rest of the season... but, in general, when I see a World Champion almost repeating himself after "only" 12 months I don't take that as a surprise...never... maybe he had a poor first part of this season, but the talent is still there...and he showed it when it really mattered (and I'm pretty sure that he will be on the podium also in Rio...I don't think there are many people who can deny him a medal in August, right now)...

well, considering that he was the defending champion, I wouln't name his medal "surprise"... by the way, those are the Supercross Final Results... Men's Elite 1 - DAUDET Joris 2 - KIMMANN Niek 3 - LONG Nicholas Women's Elite 1 - PAJON Mariana 2 - BUCHANAN Caroline 3 - POST Alise

Women's Individual Sabre in Moscow (RUS)... Gold: Olga Kharlan Silver: Mariel Zagunis Bronze: Irene Vecchi & Yuliya Gavrilova Final Bout: Kharlan b. Zagunis 15 - 13

ops...my big mistake...I didn't see that also the finals had already been held... those are the final results... BMX World Championships 2016 Women's Time Trials Caroline Buchanan, 42.170 Laura Smulders, 41.920 Mariana Pajon, 41.873 Men's Time Trials Niek Kimmann, 36.858 Sam Willoughby, 36.895 Maris Strombergs, 37.100 For those who can watch the BBC, tonight's races will be streamed Live on their website and will be broadcasted with a slight delay (at 9 p.m. British Time, 10 p.m. CET) on the Red Button Channel (available for free on satellite @ 28.2 East)... and I just discovered that in Europe also Sport 2 (HUN), CT Sport (Czech Rep.) and Be IN Sport 2 (FRA) will broadcast tonight's session LIve...

BMX World Championships 2016 Time Trials qualifications were contested yesterday... Women's Time Trials Mariana Pajon, 41.873 Laura Smulders, 41.920 Caroline Buchanan, 42.170 Men's Time Trials Sylvain Andre, 36.374 Joris Daudet, 36.839 Niek Kimmann, 36.881 For those who can watch the BBC, tonight's races will be streamed Live on their website and will be broadcasted with a slight delay (at 9 p.m. British Time, 10 p.m. CET) on the Red Button Channel (available for free on satellite @ 28.2 East)...

Golf (European PGA), right now... Handball Champions League final later in the afternoon... BMX World Champs in the evening...

well, Karate (Kumite) can be very spectacular, sometimes (Kata is just a joke)... meanwhile in Sport Climbing the combined event doesn't even exist as a single discipline right now (even if there is a minor prize for the best combiners at the end of the World Cup season, but no one of the top 15/20 of each special discipline normally start in the others, with very few exceptions double starting in the Lead and Boulder events...and Speed is just another sport)...

and here we have the results from La Coruña... Women's 20km Hong Liu, 1h27m43s Shenjie Qieyang Eleonora Giorgi Men's 20km Zhen Wang, 1h20m17s Alex Schwazer Miguel Angel Lopez

Ops...I totally forgot that there are still the last 2 Grand Prix events (Sabre in Moscow this week and Foil next week in China)... Here are Today's Results Men's Individual Sabre in Moscow (RUS)... Gold: Kim Jung Hwan Silver: Xu Yingming Bronze: Vincent Anstett & Nikolay Kovalev Final Bout: Kim b. Xu 15 - 7

Women's 200m Libania Grenot, 22.56 (new NR, beating Manuela Levorato's 22.60, which stood for good 17 years) later today, in La Coruña (ESP) there will be the traditional 20km Race Walking IAAF Challenge race (women's start at 18.30 CET, men's at 18.50 CET)... most of the strongest specialists will be at the start of this race, including Alex Schwazer, looking for an Olympic qualifying time also in the 20km race, after his triumphant comeback in the 50km a few weeks ago in Rome...

here we go...now we have also the last 2 teams battling out for the last event of the season (and the most important one, too)... Pittsburgh Penguins and San Josè Sharks are the Stanley Cup contenders... The Finals (best-of-7 series) are scheduled to start on Monday night in Pittsburgh...I just can't wait for it!

Women's Boxing World Championships 2016 Gold Medal Bouts Results Women's Light Fly (45-48kg) Nazym KYZAIBAY b. WANG Yuyan WP 3:0 *Women's Fly (51kg) Nicola ADAMS b. Peamwilai LAOPEAM WP 2:1 Women's Bantam (54kg) Dina ZHOLAMAN b. Stoyka PETROVA WP 3:0 Women's Feather (57kg) Alessia MESIANO b. Sonia LATHER WP 2:1 *Women's Light (60kg) Estelle MOSSELY b. Anastasiia BELIAKOVA WP 3:0 Women's Light Welter (64kg) YANG Wenlu b. Kellie HARRINGTON WP 2:0 Women's Welter (69kg) Valentina KHALZOVA b. GU Hong WP 2:1 *Women's Middle (75kg) Claressa SHIELDS b. Nouchka FONTIJN WP 3:0 Women's Light Heavy (81kg) YANG Xiaoli b. Kaye SCOTT WP 3:0 Women's Heavy (+81kg) Lazzat KUNGEIBAYEVA b. Shadasia GREEN WP 3:0 *Olympic Weight Final Medal Table Kazakhstan, 4 - 0 - 2 China, 2 - 2 - 2 United States, 1 - 1 - 3 France, 1 - 0 - 1 Great Britain, 1 - 0 - 1 Italy, 1 - 0 - 0 Australia, 0 - 1 - 1 Bulgaria, 0 - 1 - 1 Ireland, 0 - 1 - 1 India, 0 - 1 - 0 Netherlands, 0 - 1 - 0 Russia, 0 - 1 - 0 Thailand, 0 - 1 - 0 Finland, 0 - 0 - 2 Turkey, 0 - 0 - 2 Canada, 0 - 0 - 1 Chinese Taipei, 0 - 0 - 1 Germany, 0 - 0 - 1 North Korea, 0 - 0 - 1 Medal Table, Olympic Weights Only France, 1 - 0 - 1 Great Britain, 1 - 0 - 1 United States, 1 - 0 - 0 Netherlands, 0 - 1 - 0 Russia, 0 - 1 - 0 Thailand, 0 - 1 - 0 Chinese Taipei, 0 - 0 - 1 Finland, 0 - 0 - 1 Ireland, 0 - 0 - 1 Kazakhstan, 0 - 0 - 1

Women's Boxing World Championships 2016 Semifinals Results Women's Light Fly (45-48kg) WANG Yuyan b. ESPARZA Marlen WP 3:0 KYZAIBAY Nazym b. U Yong Gum WP 3:0 Women's Fly (51kg) ADAMS Nicola b. SHEKERBEKOVA Zhaina WP 3:0 LAOPEAM Peamwilai b. OURAHMOUNE Sarah WP 2:1 Women's Bantam (54kg) PETROVA Stoyka b. CRUZ Christina WP 3:0 ZHOLAMAN Dina b. LIU Piaopiao WP 3:0 Women's Feather (57kg) MESIANO Alessia b. ELISEEVA Denitsa WP 3:0 LATHER Sonia b. KHOJABEKOVA Aizhan WP 3:0 Women's Light (60kg) MOSSELY Estelle b. TAYLOR Katie WP 2:1 BELIAKOVA Anastasiia b. POTKONEN Mira WP 3:0 Women's Light Welter (64kg) YANG Wenlu b. NICOLSON Skye WP 3:0 HARRINGTON Kellie b. KALI Sara WP 3:0 Women's Welter (69kg) GU Hong b. GUSTAFSSON Elina WP 2:0 KHALZOVA Valentina b. APETZ Nadine WP 3:0 Women's Middle (75kg) SHIELDS Claresa b. CHEN Nien-Chin WP 3:0 FONTIJN Nouchka b. MARSHALL Savannah WP 3:0 Women's Light Heavy (81kg) YANG Xiaoli b. CREWS Franchon WP 3:0 SCOTT Kaye b. GUNERI Elif WP 2:1 Women's Heavy (+81kg) GREEN Shadasia b. DEMIR Sennur WP 3:0 KUNGEIBAYEVA Lazzat b. WANG Shijin WP 3:0

Today, for me just NHL Hockey (Eastern Conference Final, gm#5)... and some Major League Baseball later tonight to relax a bit before going to sleep...