phelps

they have announced they're going to use 3 channels, 2 of them in HD and 1 only in SD...moreover, the main channel has to deal with the general news broadcasts at certain hours of the day (1 pm, 8 pm, midnight) that are basically untouchable (even at mid August, where usually nothing interesting happens)... after that, we also have to cope with their reporters, who normally don't even know what are they talking about for most sports (there are just 2 or 3 exceptions) and with the fact that they generally show only the Italian athletes and very little of the main sports without Italian participation, but nothing of the less known disciplines nor team sports with no Italian teams on the field... finally, nothing has been said about the on-line coverage, but we all know that they would just stream (with very poor quality) their terrestrial channels, without any additional feed... our only hope is that the IOC channels on Youtube won't be blocked, as it was in 2012 (when at least we had the paid option of the 12 Sky Italia channels, where we could watch almost every event...option that this time doesn't exist anymore)... basically, they make tv as if they were still in the '60s...

I like to think it's because judges Boxing itself is not the problem (and I like too much all fighting sports...so I can't stop watching them only because of their shameful administrators)...

BBC coverage in 2012 was the ideal coverage... I think it should be the model for all the Olympic broadcasters, always and forever...and instead it will remain just an unicum... however, I hope that my satellite dish would help me to make up for the shameful rai coverage we have to face this time in Italy (once again, London 2012 with its 12-channel coverage by Sky Italia has been and will stay as an exceptional and unmatched situation)...

I wouldn't say it was her fault, by the way... another unexpected result was Ukranian Viktor Petrov's loss against the Turkish guy in the men's -64kg...ok, he got injured at the beginning of the second round, but the fact that round #1 was given to his opponent makes me think... moreover, I don't know why I'm still asking myself how there can be 2 judges of the same bout scoring 30-24 for a fighter (I mean, it's a 2-point margin in each round) and the 3rd judge giving a 30-27 win for the other boxer?

of course, we know that...

I read an article about Discovery having sold the free-to-air tv rights to NOS for both the 2018 winter games and the 2020 summer games in the Netherlands... NOS should have about 10 hours-a-day of live broadcasting for 2018 and 14 hours-a-day for 2020, with discovery reserving for themselves 2 sports as exclusive rights (Ice Hockey being 1 of the 2 for 2018)... I think that's impossible...discovery group would keep for themselves all pay-tv rights for sure...the only open competition is for the free to air part...and I only hope that RAI won't be involved in any case (then, if they keep also those rights for their free channels or sell them to other networks, it's the same...just get rid of that fuckin' public shit of our darling, mamma rai (you already know what are they going to do next august with the rio games, so you can understand why I'm writing those lines)...

Joshua won't even try to qualify, since GBR have stated that no "real Pro" would be named...they would go till the end with the guys who have represented the Country through the whole Olympic cycle... in any case, the established pro fighters will only be allowed to enter in the final Aiba Pro Boxing qualifying tournament in June...the other meets are only intended for the guys committed with aiba only... p.s. I don't think Scheurich will qualify here in Samsun...she has to beat the current World Champion (Savannah Marshall, GBR) to get through to the final (and thus earn an Olympic spot)...and I don't see hw it could happen under normal circumstances (even if we know that in boxing there are no normal circumstances, especially under aiba rules)...

daily results and following daily schedule are posted on the aiba website at the end of the day (usually very late in the night)...

good start for Italy, today... Marzia Davide won her bout in the -51kg and now she must face her historical rival Petrova (BUL)...the winner shoud then cruise to the final (and earn an Olympic spot)... meanwhile, among the boys, there's some justice, after all...despite one of the judges, in fact, Manuel Cappai defeated (2-1 the score) the Turkish boxer in the -49kg...the no.1 seed Zamotaev (UKR) is next... finally Monica Floridia (Women's -75kg) lost her first round bout against Scheurich (GER), but it was widely expected... I hope that also the evening's fights would go as they are supposed to for us...

nice...at least this time we have some "almost live" results...

Day 2 Results Men's -60kg BARSEGHYAN Samvel (ARM) - HARUTYUNYAN Robert (GER) WP 1:2 KOMADINA Matteo (CRO) - RAMLAVS Artjoms (LAT) WP 0:3 SKURDELIS Edgaras (LTU) - GOKCEK Volkan (TUR) WP 0:3 ERANOSYAN Otar (GEO) - TORRES Bernard (NOR) WP 3:0 SAFARYANTS Vazgen (BLR) - JITARU Robert (ROU) WP 3:0 VALENTINO Domenico (ITA) - LACRUZ Enrico (NED) WP 2:0 VARGA Miklos (HUN) - ZATORSKY Michal (SVK) WP 3:0 Men's -69kg FLODIN Oliver (SWE) - BEQIRI Alban (ALB) WP 0:3 NIELSEN Mikkel (DEN) - ARRO Kaupo (EST) WP 3:0 KIWIOR Damian (POL) - CHLADEK Zdenek (CZE) WP 0:3 (Bout Stopped at R3 1:13) KHUDEDA Vahram (SUI) - ABASHIDZE Gela (GEO) WP 0:3 PATTINSON Cyrus (GBR) - ABDILRASOON Muhammad (FIN) WP 3:0 MESSAOUDI Anas (BEL) - CHAMOV Simeon (BUL) WP 0:3 FETAHOVIC Adem (BIH) - SAMOFALOV Yaroslav (UKR) WP 3:0 TSAGKRAKOS Dimitrios (GRE) - BACSKAI Imre (HUN) WP 0:3 Men's -75kg PIVORUN Tomas (LTU) - KUJALA Ilari (FIN) WP 1:2 BIACHO BOLEQUIA Damian (ESP) - DRENOVAK Aleksandar (SRB) WP 3:0 SHAKHSUVARLY Kamran (AZE) - MBILLI ASSOMO Christian (FRA) WP 0:3 FOWLER Antony (GBR) - KHVISTANI Konstantine (GEO) WP 3:0 VENKO Aljaz (SLO) - SIRBU Valeri (MDA) WP 1:2 LARSEN Martin (NOR) - KRAL Vit (CZE) WP 0:3 VAN DER PAS Max (NED) - FARACI Davide (SUI) WP 3:0 CHARTOI Leon (SWE) - KALENGA MISHIKA Lay (BEL) WP 0:3 BANDARENKA Vitali (BLR) - TSAGKRAKOS Pavlos (GRE) WP 3:0 CAVALLARO Salvatore (ITA) - HOVHIKYAN Arman (ARM) WP 0:3 AMBAGO Ritti (DEN) - HARCSA Zoltan (HUN) WP 0:3 KAJOSHI Arjon (ALB) - BLUE PLANTIC Luka (CRO) WP 3:0 Men's -81kg KARLSON Ainar (EST) - MACHEDON Alexandru (ROU) WP 3:0 UNAL Mehmet (TUR) - SEKHNIASHVILI Nikoloz (GEO) WP 3:0 KUSHITASHVILI Georgii (RUS) - SINKEVICS Raitis (LAT) WP 3:0 KALAMARAS Polyneikis (GRE) - TRYC Mateusz (POL) WP 1:2 TALLOSI Peter (HUN) - STRNISKO Matus (SVK) WP 0:3 BUATSI Joshua (GBR) - NOVIKAU Siarhei (BLR) WP 3:0 TURKUS Klemen (SLO) - MARINAJ Syrja (ALB) WP 1:2 Men's -91kg OKOLIE Lawrence (GBR)* - CONSTANTINOV Cristian (MDA) TKO R1 2:47 OMBA BIONGOLO Paul (FRA) - XHOXHAJ Armend (KOS) WP 3:0 KARNEYEU Siarhei (BLR) - HONKA Tomi (FIN) WP 0:3 Shocking result of the day, it's for sure the last one, with the Finnish guy Honka beating one of the Heavyweights class favourites... Anything else, it was more or less predictable (apart from Cavallaro's loss, but when you don't give your 100% and face biased judges you can't expect to come home with a win)...

2016 World Cadet & Junior Championships - Juniors Nations Cup Italy, 362 Pts Russia, 362 Pts France, 298 Pts Hungary, 216 Pts United States, 206 Pts In total, 63 Nations out of 97 did get at least 1 Point

2016 World Cadet & Junior Championships - Final Medal Table (Juniors) Russia, 3-3-3 France, 3-1-0 Italy, 2-4-3 Japan, 2-0-2 United States, 1-1-2 Poland, 1-0-1 CHN, HUN, GBR and KOR with 1 or more medals, but no Golds

2016 World Cadet & Junior Championships - Day 10 (Final) Women's Junior Team Epee Gold: France Silver: Russia Bronze: United States Final: France - Russia 45 - 41 Men's Junior Team Foil Gold: Japan Silver: Italy Bronze: Great Britain Final: Japan - Italy 45 - 44

no livescore (as usual for events held in China)... entries are on the FIE website...and I guess that also the final results will be posted there by the end of each day of competition (at least I hope)... tomorrow while the competition is running I try to find more info about "almost live" updates, if there will be any...

Day 1 Results Men's -52kg - Round #1 TOUBA Hamza (GER) - LOBAN Siarhei (BLR) WP 3:0 Men's -64kg - Round #1 AGATELJAN Erik (CZE) - WALSH Dean (IRL) WP 0:3 PIJETRAJ Erik (CRO) - AMZILE Hassan (FRA) WP 0:3 SROUR Hadi (NOR) - GOZGEC Batuhan (TUR) WP 0:3 MWANDILA POULSEN Enock (DEN) - KOSTECKI Mateusz (POL) WP 3:0 VANACKERE Antoine (BEL) - BACHKOV Hovhannes (ARM)* TKO R2 2:44 DAUHALIAVETS Yauheni (BLR) - OROZCO OJEDA Johann (ESP) WP 2:1 Men's -91kg - Round #1 TAMASAUSKAS Tadas (LTU) - STANKOVIC Milutin (SRB) WP 3:0 SIMONYAN Rafayel (ARM) - DIMITROV Kristiyan (BUL)* TKO R3 1:26 Men's +91kg - Round #1 TABORSKY Daniel (CZE) - VYKHRYST Viktor (UKR)* TKO R1 1:41 NYSATER Simen (NOR) - GARDINER Dean (IRL) WP 0:3 KALEYEU Aliaksandr (BLR) - ZAVATIN Alexei (MDA) WP 0:3 Women's -51kg - Round #1 DRABIK Sandra (POL) - ISTIK Neriman (TUR) WP 0:2 PAPOUTSAKI Antonia (GRE) - GRIGORYAN Anush (ARM) WP 0:3 AGHAYEVA Anakhanim (AZE) - COROLI Iulia (MDA) WP 1:2 Women's -60kg - Round #1 BUGAR Tasheena (GER) - SCHMORANZOVA Martina (CZE) WP 0:3 MATOVIC Milena (SRB) - ALEXIUSSON Agnes (SWE)* TKO R4 1:27 CAMERON Chantelle (GBR) - ALEKSEEVNA Yana (AZE) WP 0:3 TSYPLAKOVA Iuliia (UKR) - BELIAKOVA Anastasiia (RUS) WP 0:3 PITA Nikoleta (GRE) - SIWA Kinga (POL) WP 0:3

and those are the pots for the draws (both men and women)... http://www.fina.org/content/rio-2016-water-polo-teams-groups?platform=hootsuite basically, the only unbalanced pot in the men's draw will be the 6th, with Brazil and Spain (or the 4th with Japan and Spain, if the Spaniards should lose the Bronze medal game against France today)... and we already know also that we won't have "historical" pairings like Italy vs Hungary nor Serba vs Croatia in the preliminary rounds (but in any case we will have other very interesting match-ups like SRB-HUN or SRB-ITA and CRO against ITA or HUN as well)...

2016 World Cadet & Junior Championships - Day 9 Women's Junior Team Sabre Gold: Russia Silver: China Bronze: United States Final: Russia - China 45 - 42 Men's Junior Team Epee Gold: Italy Silver: Hungary Bronze: China Final: Italy - Hungary 45 - 42

Mullenberg is a "fake" no.1 because there are at least 3 fighters (AZE, UKR and RUS) who are clearly better than him (and 2 of them already got many international medals to prove that, the only not yet so successful cruiserweight - at senior level - is the young Georgian boxing for Russia)... on the women's side, there's nothing wrong with Fontjin...she is definitely a very good boxer... it's just my personal idea that Savannah Marshall (GBR) will win the fight beween them (if they actually end up meeting in the semis)...nothing more than a simple prediction (and don't worry...I usually miss more predictions than I guess right)...

let's have a quick look at how the whole drama could develop... Men's -49kg the bottom half of the draw is as simple as it looks...Rufat Huseynov (AZE) will cruise into the final (and the Olympic spot) with the usual help of the judges... in the top half, the Turkish guy is very, very weak, but I guess he will be taken with force at least into the decider against Zamotaev (UKR, no.1 seed) in the quartrfinals...I hope that at least the Ukranian can stop him (if it was a fair game, the spot would be contested between the Ukrainian, Cappai - ITA - and Jagodzinski - POL - but we all know that ths is not a fair game at all)... my picks: UKR, POL and AZE to qualify... Men's -52kg this class is quite open...in the top half we have the Irish Irvine as no.1 seed, the German Hamza Touba and the Italian veteran Picardi as the best fighters on paper (but we also have a Turkish man, not to be forgotten)... in the bottom half, my favourite is Muhammad Ali (GBR), but Asenov (BUL) has always had a certain luck with the judges and Riscan (MDA) is always a dangerous boxer... my picks: IRL, BUL and GBR to Rio... Men's -56kg Qais Ashfaq (GBR) and Butsenko (UKR) should be the semifinalists in the top half of the draw, meanwhile in the bottom part the 1st round match-up between Chalabiyev (AZE) and Gojan (MDA) is the actual top fight of this class, but, once again, we can't forget that there is a Turkish boxer, who could mess up the whole field, especially in this class, where he's been gifted the no.4 seed... my picks: GBR, AZE and TUR to the Games... Men's -60kg top half: the fight between Sofiane Oumiha (FRA) and the German Robert Harutyunyan (which would take place in the second round, if everything goes according to plan) should establish this side's finalist... the bottom half is a lot more open, with Domenico Valentino (ITA) being the classiest man in the field, but with also a few other serious pretenders to the Olympic spots (from David Joyce, IRL, no.3 seed to Joseph Cordina, GBR, no.2 seed...without forgetting the Hungarian Miklos Varga and the man from Belarus Safaryants)... my picks: GER, GBR and BLR to qualify... Men's -64kg the top half of the draw is quite easy for both the Ukranian Petrov and the Cuban (starting for Azerbaijan) Sotomayor... the bottom half should see Petrauskas (LTU) through to the semifinals, meanwhile the other spot is really everybody's chance (I secretly hope in a stunning performance by the young Italian Arecchia, medallist at the last Youth Olympics)... my picks: AZE, UKR and LTU to the Games... Men's -69kg top half of the draw almost unpredictable, even the no.1 sed Stanionis (LTU) can't consider himself above the rest of the field... bottom half with Mangiacapre (ITA) clearly being the best boxer, but with many opponents who could easily spoil the party for the Azzurri (especially the Hungarian Bacsai in a possible second round match-up)... my picks: LTU, ITA and GER to qualify... Men's -75kg top half with 4 strong pretenders to the only 1 or 2 places for the Games: Christian Mbilli-Assomo (FRA), Michael O'Reilly (IRL), Antony Fowler (GBR) and Bogdan Juratoni (ROU)... bottom half with less quality...Mytrofanov (UKR) should get the spot accessing the final bout...and I hope Cavallaro (ITA) can at least make it through to the semis and fight for the Games in the play-off bout (Paskali, GER, no.3 seed and the Hungarian Harksa should be his strongest rivals)... my picks: FRA, UKR and ITA to qualify... Men's -81kg top half with a fake no.1 seed (th Dutch Peter Mullenberg)...the fight will be almost certainly between one of the most overrated boxer ever, Teymur Mammadov (AZE) and the almost unknown Russian (formerly from Georgia) Kushitashvili...the only outsider could be Mehmet Unal (TUR)...we know with which methods... the bottom half on paper will be an easy task for Oleksandr Khyzhniak (UKR), with the German Serge Michel as only trustable opponent... my picks: AZE, UKR and GER to qualify... Men's -91kg Abdulkadir Abdullayev (AZE) is the no.1 seed and the favourite to earn the Olympic spot in the top half, but he shouldn't underestimate Darren O'Neill (IRL) in the possible quarterfinals matchup nor the the man from Turkey in the eventual semifinal bout... The Pole Jakubowski and the Belarussian Karneyeu, instead, are the 2 best fighters in the bottom half, at least on paper...it would be an interesting semifinal if they really meet at that stage... my picks: AZE, BLR and (I hope) POL to qualify (but I really fear the local "hero")... Men's +91kg Unfortunately for Italy and Great Britain, I don't see how AZE, RUS and TUR won't get the available spots in this class (maybe Joseph Joyce has a better chance against Babanin in the top half of the draw, but the bottom part is definitely closed for anybody not coming from AZE and TUR)... finally, my Women's picks: -51kg: GBR and the winner of the early rounds bout between ITA and BUL -60kg: IRL and her legitimate successor as the best women's fighter pound for pound, 17 year young multi-youth champion of everything Irma Testa (ITA) -75kg: GBR and RUS

here we go... these are the draws for the European Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Samsun: http://www.eubcboxing.org/the-official-draw-held-this-morning-in-samsun-for-the-euro-olympic-qualification-event-samsun2016-road2rio-headsup/

2016 World Cadet & Junior Championships - Day 8 Women's Junior Team Foil Gold: Poland Silver: United States Bronze: Italy Final: Poland - USA 42 - 40 Men's Junior Team Sabre Gold: Russia Silver: Italy Bronze: China Final: Russia - Italy 45 - 43

CRIT = Qualified to the Individual discipline crit. = qualified because of the Relay, but without the OQT for the Individual race yet by the way, at page 3 you listed the Italian National Champs from May 5th through 8th, but actually they will be held between April 19th through 23rd...

surprising Gold Medal for Italy...not in the sense that we won it, but because it went to our no.3 epee specialist, who defeated first the no.1 seeded (and no.1 Italian) girl, then the German Stahlberg (another one of the pre-competition favourites)... congrats to her... not so successful for us was the Men's foil, but it was expected...coming home with a bronze is good enough... on this side, I'm a bit disappointed by the early exit of Geofferey Tourette, who was so impressive in his run to the Cadets' Gold but failed to confirm himself among the 3 year elder guys... tomorrow it's time for the Junior Teams' events to start (Women's Foil and Men's Sabre will have the honor)...

2016 World Cadet & Junior Championships - Day 7 Women's Junior Individual Epee Gold: Alice Clerici (ITA) Silver: Xiang Yixuan (CHN) Bronze: Irina Okhotnikova (RUS) & Hee Ju Jeon (KOR) Men's Junior Individual Epee Gold: Takahiro Shikine (JPN) Silver: Andrey Matveev (RUS) Bronze: Guillaume Bianchi (ITA) & Kyosuke Matsuyama (JPN)