phelps

Today's Results... Men's -63kg: Gold: Lovre Brecic Silver: Hakan Recber Bronze: Bradly Sinden & Deni Andrun Women's -53kg: Gold: Tatiana Kudashova Silver: Inese Tarvida Bronze: Tijana Bogdanovic & Madeline Folgmann Men's -68kg: Gold: Christian McNeish Silver: Sarmat Tcakoev Bronze: Viacheslav Minin & Karol Robak Women's -57kg: Gold: Jade Jones Silver: Hatice Kubra Ilgun Bronze: Marija Stetic & Patrycja Adamkiewicz

final update for Today... Men's Team Kumite Gold Medal Bout: Spain vs Turkey Bronze Medal Bouts: Portugal vs Ukraine & Azerbaijan vs Serbia Women's Team Kumite Gold Medal Bout: Italy vs Switzerland Bronze Medal Bouts: Turkey vs France & Bulgaria vs Croazia

1 p.m. CET https://www.iaaf.org/home#

in both tournaments we had 2 very unbalanced halves of the table draw...a quite a few surprises, too... both these things will probably lead to a pair of one-sided finals, with the best of the show already gone in the early rounds of the tournaments (which nobody, apart from the people in the stands of the arena, can watch )...

quick update on the Kumite Team Events... Men's Team Kumite Semifinals Spain vs Portugal Azerbaijan vs Turkey Women's Team Kumite Semifinals Winner of the Bout (ENG vs ITA) vs Winner of the Bout resulting from the matches (GRE vs SLO) vs (SRB vs TUR) Bulgaria vs Winner of the Bout (SUI vs SVK) for the definitive results from today's action we have to wait until very late this afternoon/early evening...

and something fresher...from Today: Men's -63kg Gold Medal Bout: Hakan Recber (TUR) vs Lovre Brecic (CRO) Bronze Medal Winners: Bradly Sinden (GBR) & Deni Andrun (CRO) Men's -68kg Semifinals Sarmat Tcakoev (RUS) vs Viacheslav Minin (RUS) Karol Robak (POL) vs (Christian McNeish, GBR or Si Mohamed Ketbi, BEL) Women's -53kg Gold Medal Bout: Tatiana Kudashova (RUS) vs Inese Tarvida (LAT) Bronze Medal Winners: Tijana Bogdanovic (SRB) & Madeline Folgmann (GER) Women's -57kg Gold Medal Bout: Jade Jones (GBR) vs Hatice Kubra (TUR) Bronze Medal Winners: Patrycja Adamkiewicz (POL) & Marija Stetic (CRO) Live streaming of today's finals, as yesterday, on Russian network Match!TV website (VPN needed in most cases), starting in about 30 mins from now...

Still from Yesterday... Men's -58kg: Gold: Mikhail Artamonov Silver: Jesùs Tortosa Bronze: Valeriy Shimanov & Stepan Dimitrov Women's -49kg: Gold: Kristina Tomic Silver: Natalia Antipenko Bronze: Patimat Abakarova & Yasmina Aziez

day #2 already well underway in Novi Sad... Men's Team Kata Gold Medal Bout: Russia vs Spain Bronze Medal Bouts: Italy vs Montenegro & Azerbaijan vs Turkey Women's Team Kata Gold Medal Bout: Italy vs Spain Bronze Medal Bouts: Germany vs Turkey & Russia vs France Shame on the male trio...they've been able to lose against the Russians...I can't believe it! on the other hand, Spain is basically unbeatable in Europe in this discipline, both individually and as a team...

the Boston duo Krejci and Pastrnak are just illegal with the IIHF-size rinks... they have completely changed the outlook of their team... and Pastrnak (what a player he is!) has just killed my prediction (I had the Russians winning by 1)... meanwhile I just missed the Canadian winning margin against NOR by a single goal (I had +6)... not a bad day, I'd say...if it wasn't for this OT winner by the #88 in red... p.s. imho, this CZE-RUS has been the best match of this championship so far (not that there have been that many to remember)...

on the contrary, I think it will kill many mid-tier teams hopes... the top team will always have 2 swimmer per discipline...those standard are tough, but you can be sure that USA, AUS, RUS, GBR, JPN and many other powerhouses won't have any problem to find 2 men/women that can match those times (even Italy has at least 3/4 girls who could swim 4.38 or close in the women's 400 IM, for instance)... it's the small Nations that could find even the B-standard outside their chances... imho, the A-standard is correct as it is...it's the B-time that's a bit too hard and should be slightly amended...

So, here's the final recap of today's action... we have 7 Countries with 2 or more athletes in the Gold Medal Bouts (TUR, AZE and ITA 3, CRO, FRA, ESP and UKR 2 each)... other 7 instead only have 1 finalist (AUT, BIH, GRE, HUN, MKD, SRB and SUI)... finally, 14 Nations have 1 or more athletes qualified for the Bronze Medal bouts... In total, we have 28 Countries still hoping to end up in the final medal table (14 of them being sure of getting at least 1 medal)... for Italy, it's been a decent but not exceptional day...we still have 3 finalists and 5 other people in the Bronze Medal bouts, but the expectations were definitely higher, especially our stars Busà and Cardin missed out badly their goal (which was obviously to win another European Gold)...and the fact that they got so close is not a consolation...actually, it's the opposite...it just adds more and more regrets...

Men's Kumite -60kg Gold Medal Bout: Angelo Crescenzo (ITA) vs Emil Pavlov (MKD) Bronze Medal Bouts: Johan Lopes (FRA) vs Evgeny Plakhutin (RUS) & Dominik Imrich (SVK) vs Kalvis Kalnins (LAT) Women's Kumite -50kg Gold Medal Bout: Bettina Plank (AUT) vs Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu (TUR) Bronze Medal Bouts: Mariya Koulinkovitch (BLR) vs Nurana Aliyeva (AZE) & Alexandra Pop (ROU) vs Alexandra Recchia (FRA)

now we still have to complete the field of the men's -60kg (we are at the quarterfinal stage) and of the women's -50kg (Bettina Plank, AUT has already won the Pool B -and therefore she's the first finalist- but the Pool A is still stuck at round #1...so, there's still a long way to go for those girls)... we'll have the full results from today's action later tonight... by for now...

and finally Cardin lost a bout she had already won against the Ukranian...2-1 ahead, she was hit by a 2-point waza-ari with 7 seconds left when she should have had the full control of the match...shame on her...

naaa...we still have almost all the close matches where it's easy to pick the wrong winner...the real competition has yet to start...

the previous match against the Latvian seem to have waken up Sara...in the quarters she destroyed the Spaniard Fernandez Osorio by a score of 4-0... now she has to face her long time rival Anzhelika Terlyuga from Ukraine in the semifinal...

power play goal in OT by the US...end of the Latvian dream (and of my nightmare)... at least I got some points for the right winner, even if I missed the goal difference (I had a comfortable +3 for the North-Americans)...

and just another perfect score for my predictions... thanks, Slovakia... meanwhile I just can't say the same to the US boys, who are driving me crazy this afternoon...now I hope they can win in this OT (or PS, if needed) so to pick at least the eventual winner of the game...

wow! finally some good (very good, I suspect) luck for Italy, with Sara Cardin beating Liene Prikaza (LAT) only at the Hantei in the women's -55kg...

Women's Kumite -55kg Gold Medal Bout: Alesandra Hasani (CRO) vs Anzhelika Terliuga (UKR) Bronze Medal Bouts: Tuba Yakan (TUR) vs Carla Burkitt (ENG) & Sara Cardin (ITA) vs Jana Bitsch (GER)

Men's Kumite -67kg Gold Medal Bout: Stefan Joksic (SRB) vs Burak Uygur (TUR) Bronze Medal Bouts: Stefan Pokorny (AUT) vs Tural Aghalarzade (AZE) & Yves Martial Tadissi (HUN) vs Luca Maresca (ITA) Women's Kumite -61kg Gold Medal Bout: Anita Serogina (UKR) vs Lucie Ignace (FRA) Bronze Medal Bouts: Bettina Alstadsaether (NOR) vs Tjasa Ristic (SLO) & Merve Coban (TUR) vs Noemie Kornfeld (SUI)

and another early elimination for Italy...this time is Laura Pasqua in the women's -61kg class (a clean and clear 0-3 against Merve Coban, TUR)...

at least, Uygur went through to the final...so, Maresca can still play his chances to win a consolation Bronze... however, this day is turning into a very bad day for Italy...we lost one of our defending champions in rd #1 and we also missed out on 2 finals that should have been reached by Busà and Maresca, corrupted judging or not (they should have won their bouts well before going to the Hantei, which is always a risky situation, especially when you're facing people coming from certain Countries)

Men's Kumite -75kg Gold Medal Bout: Rafael Aghayev (AZE) vs Gabor Harspataki (HUN) Bronze Medal Bouts: Stanislav Horuna (UKR) vs Enes Garibovic (CRO) & Luigi Busà (ITA) vs Ruslans Sadikovs (LAT)

of course I couldn't watch how it really went, but I have more than a feeling that the men's -75kg semifinal between the 2 legends of Karate Luigi Busà (ITA) and Rafael Aghayev (AZE) has been some kind of a compensation for the facts from earlier today... I have a lot more than a feeling that Aghayev didn't deserve the favor of the judges at the Hantei... and also in the men's -67kg class an Italian athlete (Luca Maresca, in this case) loses his quarterfinal bout thanks to an unfavourable Hantei (against Burak Uygur from Turkey, so, always from the same geographical area)... is it just bad luck or should I think about something else?