phelps

The final of the Team event at the Vancouver Men's Epee World Cup stage will be the great classic of this weapon... Italy and France will face each other in a few moments (actually in more than an hour...the assault should start at about 0.30/0.45 CET)... Italy beat Israel, Germany and South Korea on their way to the final bout...France defeated China, Ukraine and Hungary to reach the final act of the competition... Live Streaming (also the Bronze medal match should be streamed live here, but I'm not sure): https://www.twitch.tv/fencingworldcup2018e

the guys who worked out this Olympic schedule must be real genius! I think this is the worst Olympic scheduling ever by far...I really don't remember anything like that (and I've been following the Olympic Games since 1984)...

that was more or less my schedule during the Beijing Olympics (actually it was more 23 p.m. to 2.30/3 a.m.)... and probably it will be the same in 2 years time for the Tokyo Games... during the Rio Games, instead, it was a lot easier...O used to go to sleep at about 5/5.30 a.m. until about 10 a.m. these Winter Games, on the other hand, are not giving me enough motivation to change my daily schedue too much, so I normally wake up a little earlier than usual and stop. I only gave up my sleeping last Thursday night (there were too many events to get back in track during the late morning and the afternoon)... tomorrow, instead, it will be like the Olympics aren't even running...there are just a couple of interesting events (to me, of course) and both of them are at 1 p.m.

maybe I could come up with some bets about history of the World Cup...I was quite good in history at school (actually, it was more than 25 years ago....but still)...

after a couple of depressing Olympic hockey matches, it's time for some "real" Hockey, the NHL... and here and there also some Golf... probably, tonight more Golf than Hockey, I guess...

no comment...

I think the Chinese guy deserved the Gold medal more than Abramenko (based on the final jump only, of course)... but someone else is thinking that it was all done against his hero, the real man who should have won it all (once again)... https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-olympics-2018-belarus/belarus-president-blasts-freestyle-skiing-judges-after-kushnir-eliminated-idUKKCN1G20FT

[hide] Men's Tournament Knockout Round February 20th - February 25th, 2018 Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match and Gold Medal Match Round of 16 Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 20th 2018, h. 12:10/16:40/21:10 Switzerland 1 Germany February 20th 2018, h. 12:10/16:40/21:10 Finland 7 South Korea February 20th 2018, h. 12:10/16:40/21:10 Slovenia 2 Norway February 20th 2018, h. 12:10/16:40/21:10 United States 1 Slovakia [/hide]

no idea...

Karate1 Premier League, Stage #2 (Dubai, UAE) overall, Turkey dominated this K1PL stage with 4 Gold medals... Spain and France each got 2 and Italy, China, Japan, Azerbaijan, Egypt and a not better identified WKF team took 1 Gold medal each... counting the Olympic events only, Spain unbelievably topped the ranking by taking both Kata events (and that was really a big surprise since also some of the best Japanese athletes were there)... meanwhile the 6 Kata events went to 6 different Countries: Italy, Japan, China (women), France, Azerbaijan and Turkey (men)... here you can find all the results of this Dubai K1PL stage: https://www.sportdata.org/wkf/set-online/popup_main.php?popup_action=results&vernr=163&active_menu=calendar

you have to use the SIUS portal... just select the event running (right now is the men's air rifle youth) and there's also a live scoring (but it's really awful, it's really difficult to understand anything from it)... p.s. and of course our young girl threw it away in the final of the youth's girls air pistol...she ended up only in 6th place...

6th place is not exactly an exciting result (and not "on top" for sure)... however, I wrote "not usual"...it's not that it never happened...actually, we also got some gold medals in the past...but still, it happens very rarely...

sure, but this is also the European Championship competiton... however, I was just surprised to see Italy on top in a girls' competition...it's not that usual for us (we have a definitley better tradition and depth in the boys' events)...

Italy are using the same boys and girls in the Cadets and Juniors events... interesting result in the Women's Sabre...Giovannelly lost to the Turkish Cakir in the Cadets' event, but then she won against the same girl in the Junior event...

wow! Italy leading the women's air pistol youth after qualis...

no, the European Champs are under the European Confederation management... this is the ESC page: http://www.esc-shooting.org/ meanwhile this is the webpage where results for the European Shooting events can be found: https://results.sius.com/Championships.aspx

Men's Individual Epee (Vancouver, CAN) Final Results: Gold: Bogdan Nikishin (UKR) Silver: Daniel Jerent (FRA) Bronze: Yannick Borel (FRA) & Pavel Pitra (CZE) Semifinals: Nikishin b. Borel 15-11 Jerent b. Pitra 15-9 Gold Medal Match: Nikishin b. Jerent 15-13 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Yesterday's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/104/results/rank

of course I meant February 2018's Goggia vs February 2018's Vonn... OK that I'm a fan of her, but I'm not drunk and I never meant to compare an 81 World Cup races + multiple world and Olympic medallist's career with just a nothing more than a very good skier of the last 2/3 years... and obviously she can easily miss out on a medal also in the downhill, because that's a sport event and not a mathematical operation... but still, here inItaly everybody's expectation is Sofia winning Gold...and nothing less than that...and I really think she can only lose if she makes another big mistake (look at today's race detailed analysis...had she completed a clean run, she would have destroyed the field...and this wasn't her best discipline nor the most suited course design for her)... and more or less I agree on your picks...however, at this point I wouldn't count out for the downhill also another surprise like Ledecka's...if not just another Ledecka's win -provided she does take part in the DH...

[hide] Women's Tournament Knockout Round February 17th - February 22nd, 2018 Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match and Gold Medal Match Semifinals Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 17th 2018, h. 13:10 United States 3 Finland February 17th 2018, h. 21:10 Canada 4 Olympic Athletes from Russia [/hide]

really... surely, in downhill not coming back home with a medal (actually, the Gold medal) would be a huge fail...but also in super-G the expectations were high... with Stuhec out of contention, Goggia is right now the most inconsistent but by far the quickest skier in the world...only Vonn at her best (but only on certain kind of track and course design, with no heavy, difficult turns to the right, since her left knee is no longer the one it used to be) can keep up with her...IF she doesn't make very big mistakes... unfortunately, it happens once every too few times (and never at big events like Worlds and Olympics)...I mean, Goggia not making big mistakes... she would/should have easily won this... and of course, she should (now...she MUST) win the downhill by literally seconds, not fractions... but once again, I'm never optimistic with her... meanwhile, Schnarf and Brignone did a very good race...I don't think the they could have done better than this (especially Brignone...on such a track she's not big, heavy enough to manage the very many flat sections)...pity for Johanna, who was already 4th in Vancouver 8 years ago (and missed the Sochi Games because of injuries)...

he just gave it all earlier last night against Italy... so, after winning 2 games as underdogs, finally we lost the only match we should have won (on paper)... but who cares? in curling, our Games have already been better then our most optimistic expectations...

[hide] Women's Tournament Knockout Round February 17th - February 22nd, 2018 Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match and Gold Medal Match Quarterfinals Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 17th 2018, h. 12:10 (16:40) Olympic Athletes from Russia 1 Switzerland February 17th 2018, h. 16:40 (12:10) Finland 2 Sweden [/hide]

after a very busy Olympic day, now it's time for some Europa League football (soccer)... tomorrow, my Olympic highlights would be Alpine and Cross Country Skiing and Snowboard in the morning, Speedskating and Curling + Hockey (all of them delayed) in the afternoon... of course I'll try to watch also the other medal events here and there throughout the day (at least in summary, if just I can't do it in full because of the lack of time)...

he was talking about Bloemen...Ghiotto does train in Italy (with Tumulero, Giovannini and the rest of our team...Marrit Leenstra included )... and of course nobody expected him to be a medal contender after realizing that our team basically is totally out of shape (except for Tumulero...and Leenstra)... but before the Games, yes, many people in Italy thought he could be right on Bergsma and Bloemen's shoulders (since he skated 12.53 on the slow track in Stavanger in december, a 12.43/12.45 -at least- was reasonably within his capability)... unfortunately, his Games have been an epic fail (but he's young and relatively new to the sport, so he can still improve a lot in the next seasons), but Tumulero finally did make up for the rest of the team (waiting for Lollobrigida's Mass Start race, of course)...

not exactly the day I expected and above all not the day I'd have liked... Alpine Skiing: the definition "disappointing" doesn't give the idea well enough... among the women, Brignone lost the silver rather than won the bronze medal...and once again Moelgg and Bassino proved to be big time losers... among the boys, Paris' 4th place (and Fill's 6th) are well in order with the season's goings, but still it's a very, very bitter outcome...and it's also a wasted chance, imho... moreover, the race in general was really boring and the course is just not good for an Olympic event (shame on the organizers and on the track designer for that)... Biathlon: the men were just a disaster (expected, by the way)... the girls, instead, were once again really disapponiting...they just can't stand the pressure of the Games and can't match the expectations... the men's race, at least, was quite exciting till the end, the women's race was frankly almost unwatchable, of a very low level overall (the only good and somehow exciting thing it's been Oeberg's surprising success)... CC Skiing: beautiful race with an unexpected winner... I'd have really liked to see Diggins on the podium, but unfortunately it didn't happen... Luge: what a wasted chance for a medal by Italy...and once again it was D-Fisch the traitor of the Country...after Robatscher wonderful run (second only to Gough and the untouchable Geisenberger), he made so many and remarkable mistakes that cost our team at least the bronze, probably also the silver medal... overall, never in doubt the German success, theres been a good fight for the other top placings...and this was quite entertaining (even if the men's singles final run was something that will remain unmatched for a long time)... Snowboard: the worst upset of the day for Italy...shameful performance by our 3 outsiders, I don't even want to spend a word of Visintin's second unlucky and undeserved early exit in a row at the Games... after having seen how lucky and not in his best shape was the eventual back-to-back champion Pierre Vaultier, our regrets are as big as nopbody can imagine...Omar today was surely better than all the field of the starters, but thanks to Eguibar's senseless move he won't be able to enjoy a more than deserved success... overall, it was not a good and entertaining competition...the track has too few parabolic curves and to many dangerous straight jumps, it's not so technical and moreover there were too many falls and very few fights in the various heats (thanks to this track and also to the sh*tty format with 6 riders per run)... Speedskating: the only flash of light in the Italian day... personally I'm really sorry for Kramer (one of the greatest athletes in the world "pound for pound"), but at the same time I'm so happy for our small movement and especially for Nicola Tumulero, a young talent improving day after day, who absorbed really well the not-so-good performance over the 5000m and today made a small miracle (he improved his PB by about 8 secs) and gave us a really unexpected (and therefore particularly pleasant) medal... overall, I liked Hoon's crescendo and the Bloeman vs Bergsma battle on the edge of 29. secs lappings...imho, the most exciting event of the day... Curling: I never thought I'd have felt so happy for a curling match...but today it happened for the second day in a row...our guys are makin' us proud... we didn't expect them to be able to fight at the same level of powerhouses like CAN, SUI and USA..but they did it...and they also won 2 of those 3 matches (vs SUI and USA)... very, very well done, guys! Hockey: the best from today's action came from the women's tournament, with the classic clash between CAN and USA... and I said it all... and if I can't enjoy these Games even watching Hockey, it really means that more than something's not working as it should be... I hope in 2 years time in Tokyo my feeling would be a lot different...otherwise it would mean that I'm really losing my interest in the Olympic sports and in the Olympic Games...