phelps

the series is heading back to Vegas, but the Cup is definitely heading to Washington... last night, despite a stormy start by the Golden Knights, it soone became a one-team show, with the Caps taking a comfortable lead quite early and dominating avery aspect of the game... then they fell asleep for a while mid 3rd period and Vegas shortened the distance to -2, but WSH quickly regained their focus and newly increased their margin, with Vegas that tried to play dirty in the final minutes, but the Caps didn't bite on the hook and easily took the victory home avoiding any major problem... game #5 is scheduled for Thursday night (8.20 p.m. ET, 2.20 a.m. CET)...and I expect a jump start and some rough play from the Golden Knights...but I hope the Caps would be ready for that and finally lift the Cup...

Beside the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, also the "second tier" league of North American Hockey has its final series underway... The first couple of games of the AHL Calder Cup Finals (best-of-7, as usual), in fact, have been played last Saturday and Sunday in Toronto... in game #1, the home team, the Toronto Marlies (Toronto Maple Leafs' farm team) defeated the Texas Stars (Dallas Stars' farm team) by a score of 6-5 in a quite messy game, with a crazy 3rd period... yesterday, in game #2, both teams played definitely better and a more "traditional" hockey game, but this time were the Texas Stars to come home with the victory (2-1 the final score in favor of the Texans)... now the series heads back to Texas for the next 3 games...and game #3 is scheduled for Tuesday night (8 p.m. ET, 2 a.m. CET)... all you need to know about the AHL and the Calder Cup here: https://theahl.com/

Rome GP, Day #3 Results Women's -49kg 1. KIM So Hui 2. Talisca REIS 3. SIM Jae Young and Zeliha AGRIS Men's -80kg 1. Maksim KHRAMTCOV 2. Raul MARTINEZ GARCIA 3. Toni KANAET and Julio FERREIRA

more on that... Belmont Stakes are the 3rd of the 3 races of the well known US Triple Crown... and this year, for the 22nd time, we have a horse that won the first 2 "chapters" (Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes): his name is Justify but the Belmont Stakes are longer and quite different from the other 2 races, so the Triple was completed only 12 times, the last one being the 2015 triumph by American Pharoah (and before him, the last TC hero was Affirmed in 1978)... all you need to know on the Triple Crown races, it's on this website: http://www.triplecrownraces.com/

Aerobic Gymnastics World Championships 2018 Guimaraes - 1st June 2018 - 3rd June 2018 Medallists Recap Men's Individual Gold: Mizuki Saito Silver: Daniel Bali Bronze: Ivan Veloz Women's Individual Gold: Riri Kitazume Silver: Anastasiia Ziubina Bronze: Anna Bullo Mixed Pairs Gold: Italy Silver: Romania Bronze: Hungary Trios Gold: Russia Silver: China Bronze: China Groups Gold: China Silver: Romania Bronze: Russia Dance Gold: South Korea Silver: China Bronze: Romania Step Gold: Russia Silver: China Bronze: Ukraine Team Competition Gold: Russia Silver: South Korea Bronze: Romania Full Results: https://live.fig-gymnastics.com/schedule.php?idevent=15414 Final Medal Table: https://live.fig-gymnastics.com/medals.php?idevent=15414 Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/user/figchannel

Russian power at its finest... Ovi and Kutz dominated the game from start to finish and, despite Holtby's silly mistake, Vegas couldn't do anything to stop the red & blue machine from the US Capital... now WSH are only 2 wins away from the dreamy end of this season... go Ovi, go Caps!

well, the Slovenian referee got really close last night... she literally invented a few Kyong-ho against Jade, so to put her with 9 and still almost a minute to go...only her immense class avoided a shameful ending... and also the semifinal between Mandic and the Korean girl almost ended in a farce, when the judges gave the Korean 2 points well after the central ref called a stop and a kyong-ho against the Korean (which was then also cancelled by the jury after the video replay)...only a miracolous kick at the last second saved the Serbian and allowed her to reach the final (but then was quite empty on a mental level after that semifinal and lost without really fight against the Polish girl)... everytime I watch TKD, it's always the same story like in Boxing...I can't stand those judges anymore...

after a disastrous start of the season in the discipline where some good results were expected (Speed), in the least expected discipline, Bouldering, it came the most improbable first Italian success of 2018 thanks to Gabriele Moroni, who's been able to beat the great Japanese "Armada" at their home event... well done, man! on the women's side, nothing new in the headlines...the invincible duo (Noguchi, then Nonaka) dominated the field also in their home competition...will someone stop those 2, sooner or later?

IFSC World Cup, Stage #5 (Hachioji, JPN) Women's Boulder 1st, Akiyo Noguchi (JPN) 2nd, Miho Nonaka (JPN) 3rd, Ekaterina Kipriianova (RUS) Men's Boulder 1st, Gabriele Moroni (ITA) 2nd, Tomoa Narasaki (JPN) 3rd, Rei Sugimoto (JPN)

Women's Team Sabre (Tunis, TUN) Final Results: Gold: Russia Silver: France Bronze: Italy Semifinals: Russia b. Italy 45-42 France b. China 45-37 Bronze Medal Match: Italy b. China 45-42 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. France 45-35 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/760/results/rank

finally, we did see some fencing, too... but I expected a lot more in terms of atmosphere...the theatre was almost empty and even the lights, the background and all surroundings were not that good... missed chance, imho...they could have done a lot better...

Women's Individual Sabre (Tunis, TUN) Final Results: Gold: Manon Brunet (FRA) Silver: Olga Kharlan (UKR) Bronze: Margaux Rifkiss (FRA) & Bianca Pascu (ROU) Semifinals: Kharlan b. Pascu 15-14 Brunet b. Rifkiss 15-5 Gold Medal Match: Brunet b. Kharlan 15-14 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Yesterday's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/471/results/rank

Great Fencing night in Carthage later tonight... the last World Cup event of the season will be contested in a wonderful scenario, the Roman Theatre in Carthage... and the stars of tonight's show are Olga Kharlan (UKR), Bianca Pascu (ROU), Margaux Rifkiss (FRA) and Manon Brunet (FRA), which are the qualified girls to the semifinals (Kharlan vs Pascu @ 22.30 CET, followed by the French derby Rifkiss vs Brunet and then the final assault)... here's the link to the live streaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuXBgi10Bbo no comment on another Italian flop, with no girls in the last 8 (the only reasonable loss was Errigo's 14-15 against Kharlan in the round of 16)...

horror! horror! horror, again!!! I hate all the mixed events...men and women are NOT made to compete together in sport...they complete themselves in a family, but they must not be put in the same sport competition (I mean, racing against each other...they can easily take part in the same event...but with different rankings)...

yeah, but since I don't know for certain which of the 2 events is the qualifier, I just wrote down both of them...

alla faccia della buon'ora...l'aveva già annunciato prima ancora di Rio 2016 e inizia adesso la procedura... chissà se riuscirà a completarla entro Tokyo 2020 (specie adesso che Mattarella ha altro di cui occuparsi, con questo nuovo governo quantomeno "curioso" nella sua creazione e nella sua natura)... p.s. con la crescita di Miressi e Vendrame (e in prospettiva Ceccon, Burdisso e Deplano) + Dotto (e magari un ritorno di Orsi), lui sarebbe proprio una gran bella ciliegina sulla torta di una 4*100m stile (e mista) da medaglia...

it looks that TV limitations are very strict this time... https://www.canoe-europe.org/ by the way, I can watch Czech Tv CT Sport HD (they're broadcasting all semis and finals live)...so, who cares about the streaming? p.s. with a decent VPN, everybody can watch the Czech TV online (and maybe for this event there's even no need of a VPN...must check)... p.p.s. I've just checked...VPN is required (at least here in Italy)... http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/sport/zive-vysilani/

the 2019 Laser Worlds will be in Niiya, Japan (that's NOT the Olympic site) in July... for what concerns the Finn Worlds (named Gold Cup), 2 more champs are scheduled before the next Olympics...in 2019 they will be in Melbourne in December, then in 2020 they'll be in Palma de Mallorca (ESP), date TBD 2019 RS:X Worlds will be in September, from the 22nd through the 28th... p.s. last year's RS:X World were also held in Enoshima as part of the pre-Olympic campaign (and they were not so good for Italy)...

e tutti gli Azzurri in gara oggi sono fuori... bravo Simone Alessio che è arrivato fino ai quarti di finale (poi ha perso 36-20 contro il Coreano, ma secondo me l'arbitraggio l'ha infastidito e condizionato non poco)... Rotolo (la più sopravvalutata rappresentante di casa nostra...non capisco perchè si è voluto difendere a tutti i costi questa qui e si è sprecata l'occasione di portare a casa la Ciuchitu, che prima o poi vincerà una medaglia mondiale o Olimpica, che la Rotolo si può solo sognare) e Milani almeno un match l'hanno vinto... Rizzelli e Treviso...i soliti Italiani, mi verrebbe da dire...il primo distrutto da Alessio nel primo turno, l'altra fuori subito contro la più scarsa delle Russe... mah... quanto mi mancano le Olimpiadi di Londra...

mi auto-cito per gridare: "che orrore!!!"... ma come si fa a seguire un evento con una ripresa del genere??? ma possibile che in Italia dobbiamo sempre farci distinguere per incapacità totale di garantire uno streaming completo e dignitoso agli eventi in programma nel nostro Paese??? (già la scherma ogni volta è drammatica...peggio di noi, solo i Tedeschi)...

Fortunately the weather conditions have improved and the races have restarted... Jiri Prskavec (CZE) won the 1st qualification run of Men's K1... and also the 2nd qualification run for women's C1, men's C2 and men's K1 have been completed, so we have the full field of qualified athletes in these 3 disciplines (and the bad news for Italy is that no other Italians apart from De Gennaro, Horn and Sabattini have gone through to the semis at the moment)... now the second part of today's program is already underway, and Fiona Pennie (GBR) won the women's K1 1st qualification run, with Stefanie Horn easily through to the semis (5th place for her) for Italy... now the men's C1 1st qualification heat is running...

la diretta del Taekwondo inizierà già con la sessione del pomeriggio (tra pochi minuti)... la trovate qui (ci sono 2 differenti link a 2 diversi tatami...link già attivi): https://www.youtube.com/user/worldtaekwondo

OMG!!! that's an absolute killer! only 1 km loop...they must be totally crazy...so, we're gonna have the same mess we're used to see in the 50km race also in the 20km event... once again...get rid of this farce!

wow! that's something new... IAAF should have changed some rules (since until last year the 2-km circuit also for the 50km race was mandatory)... however, I think this new format is way, way better...the 2km circuit is too short for a race that long...there's always too much confusion with all those lappings..if they can cut them down , it's only a good thing... p.s. always thinking that Race Walking should be cancelled from any sport program...since it's a total farce ran by a couple of cheaters making only their personal interests... any reference to the Damilano family and China + Japan is not unintentional...

Kaspar/Sindler (CZE) win the first qualification run of the men's C2, at its last international appearance... meanwhile Mallory Franklyn (GBR) dominated the field in the first qualification run of the women's C1...and I can't believe my eyes, Italy has qualified a girl to the semifinals in this discipline...