phelps

in fact I didn't write that's something previously unheard...I only underlined her new "home" and I just noticed that she was the last qualified athlete... and yeah, I forgot Viktoriia Demchenko among the "famous daughters"...however, she's a lot more experienced of Hannah and Nina...the real "rivalry" for now can only be this one, including the Russian in this comparison at the moment would be unfair to the other 2... in a few years, instead, it's truly gonna be "a 3-head monster" (and maybe more...who knows?)...

some news from today's Nations Cup... first, I'm very happy with the fact that Florian Gruber's injury wasn't as bad as it looked when it happened... he's already back in competition, even if his duo with Simon Kainzwalder didn't have an easy start in the first WC stage... second, I'm quite surprised by how good were our girls, with Andrea Voetter dominating the NC run... but even more encouraging was the result by the 16-year young Nina Zoeggeler, daughter of the great Armin, who was 9th and did qualify for the actual WC race at her first attempt among the "real women" (and moreover, she did beat Hannah Prock...their fathers have been rival for so many years and now the fight will get new boost with these 2 young girls...I can only imagine their daddies' reaction week after week in the coming years )... to be noticed, the 14th ranked and last qualified for the WC race is Aileen Frisch, who's now sliding for the Olympic Games hosts, South Korea, instead of her native Germany...

la "fortuna" delle nostre compagini degli sport invernali continua...anche Elena Curtoni fuori per tutta la stagione causa rottura del crociato della gamba destra avvenuta ieri in allenamento sulle nevi del Colorado... se va avanti così, non avremo neanche un numero sufficiente di atleti da mandare alle Olimpiadi...

It's just nothing, if compared to Poisson's tragedy... but in any case it's some news to be reported... Italian "lucky period" in this Olympic season continues... Elena Curtoni out for the rest of the year with ACL gone in her right leg (it happened yesterday, while she was training in GS in Colorado with our team)...

Men's Team Foil (Tokyo, JPN) Gold: United States Silver: South Korea Bronze: Japan Semifinals Results: USA b. Japan 45-38 South Korea b. Denmark 45-37 Bronze Medal Match Result: Japan b. Denmark 45-25 Gold Medal Match Result: USA b. South Korea 45-34 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/206/results/rank

well, Francesca would be even better if those idiots of the ISU and IOC adopted the Dutch Marathon Cup format...the races would be a billion times more exciting (and fair to the better athletes)... when they skate in the traditional 400m ovals, they normally make 80 laps (32km)...and of course there are no silly (and senseless) intermediate sprints... p.s. the boys usually skate over 125 laps (50km)

Nice to see Cassarà having a good day...despite getting older, he can still deliver once every while... and even nicer to see Luperi back where he should have been on regular bases, according to the early expectations according to the talent he did show when he was still a kid... unfortunately, his career didn't go as most people would have wanted until now, but he's still young and he can easily bounce back from all the injuries, failures and deceptions he had in the last couple of years...

Men's Individual Foil (Tokyo, JPN) Final Results: Gold: Erwann Le Pechoux (FRA) Silver: Andrea Cassarà (ITA) Bronze: Edoardo Luperi (ITA) & Gerek Meinhardt (USA) Semifinals: Cassarà b. Meinhardt 15-11 Le Pechoux b. Luperi 15-8 Gold Medal Match: Le Pechoux b. Cassarà 15-14 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/137/results/rank

I'm very, very happy for Nathalie... unfortunately she got close, but not quite to the top..however, it's definitely a great result for her... on the other hand, it was a shameful day for the girls who still represent the Italian Flag...especially for Navarria (who won the first stage 3 weeks ago) and Fiamingo (as usual, not in good shape in the early stages of the season), who were beaten already in the round of 64...

Women's Individual Epee (Suzhou, CHN) Final Results: Gold: Sun Yiwen (CHN) Silver: Nathalie Moellhausen (BRA) Bronze: Renata Knapik-Miazga (POL) & Magdalena Piekarska (POL) Semifinals: Sun Yiwen b. Piekarska 10-4 Moellhausen b. Knapik-Miazga 15-9 Gold Medal Match: Sun Yiwen b. Moellhausen 15-9 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/97/results/rank

Champions Hockey League - Quarterfinals Schedule The schedule for the Champions Hockey League Quarterfinals has been confirmed today. Five teams are playing at this stage for the first time: Bílí Tygři Liberec, Brynäs IF, JYP Jyväskylä, Kometa Brno, Oceláři Třinec. Here is the schedule (all times are CET): First Leg, 5 December 17:00 Oceláři Třinec - Brynäs IF 18:00 JYP Jyväskylä - Kometa Brno 19:15 Bílí Tygři Liberec - ZSC Lions Zurich 20:00 SC Bern - Växjö Lakers Second Leg, 17 December 17:30 Kometa Brno - JYP Jyväskylä 18:30 Brynäs IF - Oceláři Třinec 18:30 Växjö Lakers - SC Bern 20:00 ZSC Lions Zurich - Bílí Tygři Liberec

nice game between SUI and CAN yesterday night... SUI, despite not having a lot of their best players (who were on the ice the night before in the CHL) on their roster, played a very good game and took the early lead, but CAN immediately reacted and tied the score... then a minute of down focus by the Swiss gave the Canadians the chance to score 2 goals in a row and since then the game was under control of the guys with the maple leaf on their sweaters... a late goal by the Swiss (with the empty net) was just "cosmetic" and Canada took the win home by a final score of 3-2... to be honest, CAN weren't that impressive, but still they got what they wanted more and could take care of the usual Swiss team, a group of players who always play well but who always have so much troubles to score some goals...they just can't do it... unfortunately I couldn't watch much of the CZE @ SWE match, but for what I saw Sweden were clearly the better team, with the Czechs having quite a bad performance for what concerns their defensive game... later tonight I expect a very good show with the Russia @ Finland game (which I'm not gonna miss for any reason...thanks to CT4 HD )...

and while most of the world fans were tuned in into the MLB World Series, in Japan the Softbank Hawks from Fukuoka won their 8th title in the Japan Series, topping the Yokohama Bay Stars by a series score of 4 games to 2... https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2017/11/8a6f09797b56-update1-baseball-hawks-stave-off-baystars-to-clinch-japan-series-in-6-games.html

very old news...it was all known since at least 1 year... however...here are some news about the road cycling course for the Tokyo Olympics... https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2017/11/7225cbb0aae3-olympics-2020-mens-road-cycling-route-to-pass-foot-of-mt-fuji.html it's expected to be a tough course, not good for sprinters...

Champions Hockey League - Quarterfinals Draw JYP Jyväskylä vs Kometa Brno Brynäs IF vs Oceláři Třinec Växjö Lakers vs SC Bern ZSC Lions Zurich vs Bílí Tygři Liberec

Champions Hockey League - Round of 16 - 2nd Leg Results Nottingham Panthers 0-3 (Aggr. 1-6) ZSC Lions Zurich EV Zug 2-5 (Aggr. 5-9) Kometa Brno Red Bull Munich 2-5 (Aggr. 5-7) SC Bern Växjö Lakers 5-3 (Aggr. 6-5) Red Bull Salzburg Frölunda Indians 4-6 OT (Aggr. 7-8) Bílí Tygři Liberec Brynäs IF 2-1 (Aggr. 5-3) Adler Mannheim Oceláři Třinec 2-1 (Aggr. 4-2) Malmö Redhawks Tappara Tampere 3-2 (Aggr. 4-5) JYP Jyväskylä So, in the top 8 of the CHL this year we have 3 teams from Czech Republic, 2 teams each from Sweden and Switzerland and just 1 team from Finland. It looked a more promising season, but when it really matters, once again we have only teams from the top 4 participating leagues left and none from 2nd tier European domestic championships.

Champions Hockey League - Round of 16 - 2nd Leg It's elimination hockey, and tonight eight teams will be leaving the 2017/18 Champions Hockey League as the Round of 16 Return Legs take place. No team starts more than two goals ahead. Tonight's games 18:00 Oceláři Třinec vs. Malmö Redhawks (Agg. 2-1 ) 18:00 Tappara Tampere vs. JYP Jyväskylä (Agg. 1-3 ) 18:30 Brynäs IF vs. Adler Mannheim (Agg. 3-2 ) 19:00 Frölunda Indians vs. Bílí Tygři Liberec (Agg. 3-2) 19:00 Växjö Lakers vs. Red Bull Salzburg (Agg. 1-2) 19:30 Red Bull Munich vs. SC Bern (Agg. 3-2) 19:45 EV Zug vs. Kometa Brno (Agg. 3-4) 20:00 Nottingham Panthers vs. ZSC Lions (Agg. 1-3) All times CET The Round of 16 comes to an exciting climax on Tuesday night with the eight 'Return Games' taking place. No team leads by more than two goals going into the second leg. What happens if it's a tie on aggregate? If the score is tied on aggregate after 60 minutes in the return game, the following tie-breaking procedure is used: Overtime: 4-on-4, sudden death, for 10 minutes. If there are no goals, a shootout follows: 5 shooters for each team If the game is still tied after five shots by each team, the shootout will continue with a tie-break shootout by one player of each team, with a reversed shooting order. The same, or new, players can take the tie-break shots. The aggregate score is all that is important. If the game "on the night" finishes 1-1, but on aggregate it is 4-2, then no overtime is played. There is no "away goals" rule like in football Who gets home advantage in the next round? Home-ice advantage in the Quarter-Finals (and Semi-Finals) will be decided by the overall record of teams (Group Stage + Round of 16 / for Semi-Finals: + Quarter-Finals), with the team with the better ranking playing the return game at home – subject to arena availability of each team. This means that every match carries importance, as teams are not only trying to qualify for the next round – but also do so with a good enough record to secure home-ice advantage at the next stage. The confirmed schedule for the Quarter-Finals will be released on championshockeyleague.com by the end of this week.

basically it's always the same system as in the past 2/3 Olympics... the difference is only in those individual places for smaller Nations lost because of the team events of the remaining disciplines are now been added to the program... now there are really very few spots (only 10 in each discipline) for the athletes who don't have the full team qualified to the Games in their respective event... for Italy is great to have now 12 instead of 10 chances to get a medal, but for the sport of fencing overall I think this is not good...actually, in my opinion it's a real mistake to have so few individual spots in each discipline...

well, another good day at the office for our boys and girls... our women are back on top of the podium after Cancun's loss to the usual suspects, the Russians... our male sabre specialists did a great competition until the semis and got to the final bout quite unexpected...shame that in the last match they were never into the fight and lost so heavily (however, Germany were clearly the strongest team today)...

yeah, but I think we should consider the word "relatively" very well... because they can still make a team from this list of players (those currently playing in the DEL, NLA, SHL and EBEL only) and win the Gold medal in style... to be honest, here I see some names other Countries wouldn't get even with the NHL guys going to the Games (they could actually build a team with all former NHLers...and I mean people who had a really relevant NHL career before shipping to Europe)... DEL Canadians...http://www.eliteprospects.com/player_nationalities_in_league.php?LeagueID=DEL&startdate=2017&NationID=3 NLA Canadians...http://www.eliteprospects.com/player_nationalities_in_league.php?LeagueID=NLA&startdate=2017&NationID=3 SHL Canadians...http://www.eliteprospects.com/player_nationalities_in_league.php?LeagueID=SHL&startdate=2017&NationID=3 EBEL Canadians...http://www.eliteprospects.com/player_nationalities_in_league.php?LeagueID=EBEL&startdate=2017&NationID=3 and I didn't even bother to link the Canadian players of the AHL and the other North-American leagues, nor the Shane Doan/Jarome Iginla duo, who's not completely ruled out the chance to live another Olympic experience with their National team, despite being officially retired from club Hockey... p.s. there are almost more Canadian players in those 4 European leagues than Italian professional players registered here in Italy...

Men's Team Sabre (Algiers, ALG) Gold: Germany Silver: Italy Bronze: Hungary Semifinals Results: Italy b. Hungary 45-34 Germany b. Iran 45-34 Bronze Medal Match Result: Hungary b. Iran 45-44 Gold Medal Match Result: Germany b. Italy 45-28 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/759/results/rank

Women's Team Foil (St.Maur, FRA) Gold: Italy Silver: Russia Bronze: China Semifinals Results: Italy b. China 45-33 Russia b. United States 45-39 Bronze Medal Match Result: China b. United States 45-42 Gold Medal Match Result: Italy b. Russia 45-38 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/755/results/rank

very nice... and I agree at 100% with you about the WC Mass Start races...they're just too short and a real mess...and that's unacceptable for me... I saw the last 6/7 laps of both women's and men's races...and it was fun... but, despite not knowing how they normally manage this kind of things, in the girls' event, I have to say that imho Schouten should have been punished somehow for that entry against Lollobrigida during their fight before the final curve... c'mon! I'm not against some kind of physicality, but she pushed the Italian away with her hands, it wasn't just a shoulder-to-shoulder battle for the inside position... for sure, under ISU rules, she wouldn't have got the win...

Sweden and Canada would have the major benefit from such a choice...I believe it's an already written sentence, they will be in the Gold Medal Match at 99.99%... Finland and Czech Rep. wil still be good, but probably the difference between them and the top 2 would increase by some margin... then it will also open the door for some surprising teams, I'm thinking mainly to Switzerland and Germany, who could benefit from the strenght and depth of their main domestic leagues... in general, it's a nightmare for all the Hockey fans, since the level of play would be very, very low (much lower than it's right now without those NHL idiots)... however, I think this is just some kind of an effort to try and make pressure on the IOC not to ban Russia as a whole Nation... I guess in the end Russia will be in Pyeongchang (if the Games are held there in February 2018...this is the major issue right now, in my opinion) with their full team and flag (and without those 25/30 banned athletes, or whatever will result from the next IOC/WADA auditions), ready to take advantage of the best chance to win the Hockey Olympic Gold they have had in the last 26 years (since the so-called CIS won in Albertville 1992)... because they can say what they want, but from mr.Putin to the last hockey fan in Russia, they're really mad about the drought in Olympic success in Hockey (which is still their National pastime and most beloved sport)...

once again, Italy are on the podium in both of today's events... but...there's always some "but"... but not the expected guy in men's sabre and "only" a silver medal in women's foil, which is not the result we normally want to see from our golden girls... so, good, but not very good news for our fencing...