phelps

forelast event in Changwon...the women's skeet was won by the US veteran Kimberly Rhode, who also established a new world record for the final series (58/60)... Amber Hill (GBR) ended up in second place and Amber English (USA, despite her family name ) in third... only a disppointing 4th place for Italy thanks to Katiuscia Spada, with the "big guns" Chiara Cainero and Diana Bacosi already out in the qualifying stages (and not even close to the score they would have needed to make the final 6)... China always number #1 in the medal table with 4 Gold medals ahead of Russia with 3 and a bunch of other Countries stuck to just 1 Gold...

once again, this Italian team is trying to waste what they've brilliantly built... last night they made me feel ashamed of being Italian once again... I hope that today they will show something more than yesterday, but I'm very pessimistic...I really think they can't stand any sort of mental pressure...and today there will be a lot of that on the ice...

and finally Lugano's dream is over... the Zurich Lions win game #7 on the road with a score of 2-0 (first goal after just 3 minutes on a bad defensive mistake, second one an empty netter wuth only 19 seconds on the clock) and take the title home... Lugano didn't play their best hockey through the first 2 periods (they were too tired and probably they also did feel too much pressure for playing this decider at home), but tried everything they could in the 3rd period and only a miracle save by Zurich's goalie Lukas Flueler on a Hoffman shot with less than a minute to play allowed the Lions to avoid the OT... well deserved success for Zurich...but what a pity for those so brave Lugano players... so, all the European leagues are now over...time to focus on the World Champs and "time to say goodbye" (cit. Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman) for me... see you next Hockey season...

I'm back... last event for today...the men's -81kg class...Gold for the local man Sagi Muki (ISR), who won against Sami Chouchi (BEL)... Antonio Esposito (ITA) and Aslan Lappinagov (RUS) got the Bronze medals in this class... so, it's over for Today... Russia still on top of the medal table with 3 Gold medals, followed by 6 Nations with "only" 1 Gold...22 Countries in total have at least 1 medal... Tomorrow, the final day will be on stage with the men's -90kg, -100kg and +100kg and the women's -78kg and +78kg...

and now it's the Netherlands that take a Gold medal... Kim Polling, infact, wins the women's -70kg class (for the 4th time in 5 years ) in the Golden Score time by beating Sally Conway (GBR) in the final match (great fight, by the way)... Bronze medals in this class go to Gemma Howell (GBR) and Michaela Polleres (AUT)... p.s. and she could have been fighting for Italy, if only our federation was ready to give her the benefits she was asking for when she was in heavy dispute with the Dutch federation...

it was the forelast move before the match was stopped, when Heydarov started the attack, but Karapetian countered it and turned the Azeri on his side and got the second waza-ari, which means ippon according to the new rules (from the blind side view replay it's possible to see that Heydarov touches the ground with his hip and doesn't actually avoid the score...to be honest, I don't like that much this new rule which states that if you're turned around and touch the ground even with only a part of your side it's a score...I prefer the old one, when you had to put at least part of the back of your opponent on the ground to get a score)...

and surprise, surprise..Ferdinand Karapetian from Armenia wins the men's -73kg class, by beating Hidayat Heydarov of Azerbaijan in the final match (ended with a very unsportsmanlike behaviour by the Azeri, refusing the final handshake by the Armenian)... Bronze medals in this class go to Bilal Ciloglu from Turkey (I don't know if this makes me more or less angry for Basile's loss this morning ) and Tommy Macias from Sweden...

first gold of the day goes to France, thanks to Clarisse Agbegnenou, who defeated Tina Trstenjak (SLO) in the final of the women's -63kg class... Bronze medals in this same category go to Martyna Trajdos (GER) and Lucy Renshall (GBR)...

today's results so far... Men's -73kg Semifinals: Ferdinand Karapetian (ARM) vs Tommy Macias (SWE) Vadzim Shoka (BLR) vs Hidayat Heydarov (AZE) p.s. in this class, the Italian Olympic Champion (@ 66kg), Fabio Basile, shamefully lost to unknown Bilal Ciloglu (TUR) in round #2... Men's -81kg Semifinals: Antonio Esposito (ITA) vs Sami Chouchi (BEL) Aslan Lappinagov (RUS) vs Sagi Muki (ISR) Women's -63kg Semifinals: Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA) vs Martyna Trjdos (GER) Tina Trstenjak (SLO) vs Alice Schlesinger (GBR) Women's -70kg Semifinals: Gemma Howell (GBR) vs Kim Polling (NED) Barbara Matic (CRO) vs Sally Conway (GBR)

last pistol/rifle competition of this world cup stage... Chinese Wang Zeru wins the women's 50m 3-position rifle ahead of Austria's Franziska Peer and Slovenia's Ziva Dvorsak. Therefore China put some distance between them and Russia in the medal table, with no major changes in the lower rankings... Italy's Petra Zublasing still totally out of shape...

it's a terrible rule only because of the distance discrimination... but it's good in terms that it finally states that those people have an advantage over biologically "normal" women... by the way, even as bad as it is, it applies to all known cases like Semenya's (Nyonsaba and Wambui among the most famous...also Pamela Jelimo if we think about the recent past...but potentially also to the Kenian girls who dominated last year's women's 800m at the junior Worlds in Nairobi)... there are many cases ready to jump to most people's attention...and IAAF had to do something before getting into a lot more troubles than just the current women's 800m situation... hopefully, CAS would only lift the distance discrimination from this rule and not stop it entirely (which would be worse than leaving it as it stands right now)...

and today it's time to... also in Germany and Finland... In the Finnish Liiga, infact, Kärpät Oulu just won another title thanks to a goal scored with only 4:28 minutes still to be played in regulation of the 6th game of the series. 1-0 the score of today's match in Tampere and 4-2 the final score of the final series for Kärpät. On the other side, in the German DEL a sprint start (4-1 after the 1st period, 6-3 the final score) in the decisive game #7 secured Red Bull Munich the second success in a row. Nothing could do all the efforts of the Eisbären Berlin to try and comeback also in today's match. And tomorrow (20.15 CET) in Lugano there will be another decisive game #7, this time in the Swiss NLA, which is (unusually for them) the last of the main European leagues to come to a close this year... I just can't wait for my personal 5th game #7 in just over 3 days...

OK, thanks... I don't follow that much the YOG situation, so I didn't know exactly how the distribution of places is organized...

it should be, but I also read that Italy only had La Piana qualified fro this tournament and not both our god medallists... so, probably it's only 1 per NOC (we already another qualified girl from previous events), even in case of gold...

and it's over! the young Czechs have done it! CAN are out!

game over (USA-RUS 5-1) in Chelyabinsk... 18 seconds to complete the miracle for the Czech guys (timeout, right now)...

and let's make it 5-1 for the USA with 7 secs on the clock... meanwhile CAN couldn't take advantage of their power play and now they have the goalie on the bench with just over a minute to go...

4-1 with an empty netter for the US boys...game over for the hosts...

now's coming some troubles, though...power play for CAN with 4 mins still on the clock... p.s. USA almost through...3-1 lead over RUS and just a minute to play...

and Kosovo takes the last class of the day, the women's -57kg, thanks to Nora Gjakova, who defeated the German Theresa Stoll... Bronze medals in this category go to Monteiro (POR) and Konkina (RUS)... tomorrow's program will be about the women's -63kg and -70kg and the men's -73kg and -81kg...

I don't think Italy will send their top guys at the mediterranean games (and in any case in this class we have some depth, so Medves, whose result from today is a true surprise, couldn't even make the team next time round)...

and the first non-Russian Gold medal goes to Slovenia, thanks to Adrian Gomboc, who won the men's -66kg final against Matteo Medves of Italy... the 2 Bronze medals go to Shershan (BLR) and local man Tal Flicker (ISR)... good result for Italy in this class and in general, especially considered the fact that last year we got a supreme total of 0 medals overall...

and it's 3 out of 3 for the Russians... Kuziutina just launched Krasniqi at the beginning of the Golden Score time and won the Gold medal in the women's -52kg... Bronzes go to Tscopp (SUI) and the 18-year young local hero Gefen Primo (ISR)... luckily, there are no more Russians in the Gold medal finals...

yeah, I saw during the Extraliga final they've taken the bad attitude of the Italian networks to put announcements on the screen...they already have the countdown to the Worlds since a few days... and since I can watch Czech, Slovak, German, Austrian and Swiss TV, I guess I won't miss any match I want not to miss... p.s. about the online streaming, here in Italy we don't have almost any tv coverage (probably only the semis and the final, but it's not official yet), but at least we have all the 64 games working on the IIHF Youtube channels...so, I'm OK also with that... p.p.s. earlier today I watched Zdeno Chara's Boston Bruins in the amazing game #7 of the NHL playoffs round #1 against Toronto...one of the best matches of the playoffs so far...

second Gold medal for Russia... Isam Yashuev wins the men's -60kg final against Gerchev of Bulgaria in the Golden Score time (with a wonderful uchi-mata technique, though)... Bronze medals go to McKenzie (GBR) and Mudranov (RUS)...