phelps

European Juniors Championships - Men's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: Russia Silver: Poland Bronze: Italy Semifinals: Russia b. Italy 45-21 Poland b. Germany 45-44 Bronze Medal Match: Italy b. Germany 45-22 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. Poland 45-26

European Juniors Championships - Men's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: Hungary Silver: Italy Bronze: France Semifinals: Italy b. Poland 45-38 Hungary b. France 40-36 Bronze Medal Match: France b. Poland 45-37 Gold Medal Match: Hungary b. Italy 34-27

Pan-American Cadets & Juniors Championships - Final Overall Medal Table USA, 10 / 6 / 7 MEX, 4 / 1 / 7 CAN, 2 / 3 / 5 BRA, 1 / 3 / 1 ARG, 1 / 1 / 0 CHI, 0 / 1 / 5 COL, 0 / 1 / 0 CRC, 0 / 1 / 0 PUR, 0 / 1 / 0 VEN, 0 / 0 / 2 CUB, 0 / 0 / 1 PER, 0 / 0 / 1

Pan-American Juniors Championships - Final Medal Table USA, 8 / 3 / 3 MEX, 2 / 1 / 6 CAN, 1 / 2 / 3 BRA, 1 / 1 / 1 CHI, 0 / 1 / 2 ARG, 0 / 1 / 0 COL, 0 / 1 / 0 CRC, 0 / 1 / 0 PUR, 0 / 1 / 0 CUB, 0 / 0 / 1 PER, 0 / 0 / 1 VEN, 0 / 0 / 1

Pan-American Juniors Championships - Men's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: Brazil Bronze: Mexico Pan-American Juniors Championships - Women's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: Canada Bronze: Mexico Pan-American Juniors Championships - Women's Team Sabre Final Results: Gold: Mexico Silver: United States Bronze: Canada

Australia won the 27th edition of the traditional men's tournament "The Sultan Azlan Shah Cup"... earlier today, they defeated England 2-1 in the final match Argentina (3-2 over the hosts from Malaysia) ended up in 3rd place, meanwhile India (4-1 over Ireland) were 5th more infos: http://www.azlanshahcup.com/

European Juniors Championships - Women's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: Germany Silver: Italy Bronze: Hungary Semifinals: Germany b. Poland 45-35 Italy b. Hungary 45-25 Bronze Medal Match: Hungary b. Poland 45-23 Gold Medal Match: Germany b. Italy 45-43

European Juniors Championships - Women's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: Italy Silver: Russia Bronze: France Semifinals: Russia b. France 45-40 Italy b. Czech Republic 45-27 Bronze Medal Match: France b. Czech Republic 45-28 Gold Medal Match: Italy b. Russia 45-42

European Juniors Championships - Men's Team Sabre Final Results: Gold: France Silver: Russia Bronze: Germany Semifinals: France b. Belarus 45-37 Russia b. Germany 45-33 Bronze Medal Match: Germany b. Belarus 45-39 Gold Medal Match: France b. Russia 45-39

after the 2006 experience, I don't think so... and I also hope that nothing will happen...Italy can't waste their small sport budget to host the Games once again, we must invest in our boys and girls and find some talents, not just watching the others winning medals on our home soil... I hope that at least sports officials did learn the Torino 2006 lesson (after that, our medal table just dropped to the shameful results we had in Vancouver and then in Sochi and, moreover, the sliding track and the jumping hills have been dismantled...just to name the 2 biggest waste scandals* that followed the disgraced year 2006)... *if we speak only about sport...because what happened to the Olympic Village goes beyond imagination... so, no, thanks...we don't want the Olympics anymore here in Italy...

Pan-American Juniors Championships - Men's Team Foil Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: Argentina Bronze: Chile Pan-American Juniors Championships - Women's Team Sabre Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: Canada Bronze: Mexico Pan-American Juniors Championships - Women's Team Epee Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: Colombia Bronze: Mexico

1) it makes sense, since we spread our resources all around in many sports, so we can compensate the tops and flops every time... moreover, we have those 2 "core sports" (fencing and clay target shooting) which always guarantee the most of our medals with a certain regularity...then the other disciplines are just for the cosmetics" of our medal table (and, as I wrote, sometimes it's judo, sometimes it's swimming and sometimes is something else doing this "job")... that's how I explain our really constant results at the Summer Games (but, as I wrote before, it's just my personal interpretation, not "the truth about it")... 2) we are not a real powerhouse in Karate, but we have "tradition" and many good athletes that in a given day can even win the world title (it has happened more than once)... at the moment we have 3 "sure contenders" (women's Kata -with more than 1 girl fighting for the spot, women's -55kg Kumite and men's -75kg Kumite), who are currently among the top 3 Nations in their respective classes (and they are all veterans who already won world and European titles) and 2 young rising stars (-68kg women's Kumite and +84kg men's Kumite, with Simone Marino who already won the senior European Champs at 20 last year)... however, in this sport the situation is even worse than the early days of Taekwondo...referees and judges are a real problem...and there's nothing "safe"... in Tokyo I expect a Japanese domination, almost a clean sweep of the Gold medals (the 2 Kata Gold medals are already written in the standings...they don't even need to start the competiton)...and I expect Italy to win those 3 medals I already named "sure contenders"...anything more than that would be a pleasant surprise (and, as I wrote 2 days ago, with this qualification pathway -just 10 spots per class, with Japan taking one place; Continental representation granted, even if in Karate all Continents are strong, also Africa; and 1 tripartite place when Japan don't use their host quota because they qualify via world ranking -which is likely to happen in all the classes- it's gonna be a lot more difficult to qualify than winning a medal once you fly to the Games)...

it's not always yesterday...for Italy... still, a decent silver medal in men's foil is not to be disliked... fun fact...Filippi beat Anton Borodachev in the quarterfinals, then Kirill, Anton's brother, got a "family revenge" in the final assault... if today's event was an episode of a TV series, it would have got the most abused title ever for TV series episodes..."Blood ties"...

European Juniors Championships - Women's Individual Sabre Final Results: Gold: Alina Mikhailova (RUS) Silver: Liza Pusztai (HUN) Bronze: Lisa Gette (GER) & Aylin Cakir (TUR) Semifinals: Mikhailova b. Cakir 15-11 Pusztai b. Gette 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Mikhailova b. Pusztai 15-8

European Juniors Championships - Men's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Kirill Borodachev (RUS) Silver: Davide Filippi (ITA) Bronze: Wallerand Roger (FRA) & Daniel Giacon (NED) Semifinals: Filippi b. Giacon 15-10 Borodachev b. Roger 15-10 Gold Medal Match: Borodachev b. Filippi 15-10

Finally, the double gold medallists' party in the women's section is over... and still a good spread of medallists among the North and South American Countries...

Pan-American Juniors Championships - Men's Individual Epee Final Results: Gold: Alexandre Camargo (BRA) Silver: Jonathan Piskovatskov (USA) Bronze: Theodore Lombardo (USA) & Eduardo Garcia (PER) Pan-American Juniors Championships - Women's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Delphine Devore (USA) Silver: Arantxa Inostroza (CHI) Bronze: Lauren Scruggs (USA) & Anabella Acuero (VEN)

according to Italian press, he had 4 "no show" in 12 months, not only 3...

back to usual business... which means...Hockey, Hockey and Hockey again (both European leagues playoffs and NHL "quest for the playoffs")... but also the final stretch of Winter Sports (this week, Speedskating above all), the Fencing Youth Eurochamps, some Soccer (Champions League mainly) and some Golf...

basically it will work like in 2016... in the qualifications thread, events and continental spots available for Europe have been already posted yesterday (or a couple of days ago)... finally, as @Benolympique wrote, the first world quota will be awarded at this year's multi-discipline shooting world champs in South Korea (then it will be the turn of the 2019 world cup stages -and clay target shooting world champs- and eventually the continental events early in 2020)...

in my opinion... 1) because that's more or less the average level of our Olympic sports (in these last 15/20 years we've always had about the same number of people practicing high level sport and the same overall budget, so it's quite logical to have a "regular" standard of performance in both quality and quantity)... and until we can find a Phelps or Scherbo, who could bring us on a higher level by winning 4/5 gold medals as an individual, it's difficult to change this trend (unless we suddenly convert our usual 50/60 medal chances with a not realistic percentage...or, on the other side, unless we're so unlucky to get less than 40/50% out of our chances)... 2) because we have a good number of chances in many sports (apart from Campriani, most of our medallists fro Rio will be back in Tokyo and some of our most promisinig youngsters have been constantly improving since then) and because the new events (2 more fencing competitions, the swimming men's 800m and women's 1500m and 8 karate weight classes just to mention those where we have already got continental and/or world medals in the last few years) will give us at least 10/12 shots more than the previous Games...

wonderful day for Italy... and how much I love things like today's... Favaretto couldn't get better than a bronze medal among the cadets, but here among the juniors wins gold (and beating 2 established world cup fencers like Martyanova, number #12 of the senior world ranking, and Ebert, number #30 of the same women's ranking)... meanwhile Di Veroli (and Biro, too) just repeated the same exact result of the cadets' competition and did make up for the disappointing performance by the other Italian guys (especially the highly expected Valerio Cuomo)...

European Juniors Championships - Women's Individual Foil Final Results: Gold: Martina Favaretto (ITA) Silver: Leonie Ebert (GER) Bronze: Marta Martyanova (RUS) & Victoria Yusova (RUS) Semifinals: Favaretto b. Martyanova 15-9 Ebert b. Yusova 15-7 Gold Medal Match: Favaretto b. Ebert 15-14

European Juniors Championships - Men's Individual Epee Final Results: Gold: Davide Di Veroli (ITA) Silver: David Nagy (HUN) Bronze: Arthur Philippe (FRA) & Alexander Biro (AUT) Semifinals: Nagy b. Philippe 15-4 Di Veroli b. Biro 15-12 Gold Medal Match: Di Veroli b. Nagy 15-8

so, once again in the girls' section, the Cadets champion wins also the Juniors event... after Guo (CAN) in the epee, it's the turn of Botello (MEX) with her sabre... and this time we have a second double medallist (Pekelman from Brazil), too...