phelps

I hope they don't add almost anything (maybe just Squash, taking mixed doubles and team events off table tennis, tennis and badminton to make room for it), but they make huge adjustments to the 2020 program...

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/alex-ovechkin-olympics-nhl-russia-1.4291095 https://www.nhl.com/news/alex-ovechkin-releases-statement-regarding-olympics/c-291069080 shame...shame...and shame again on IOC, NHL and IIHF...

Now it's official... congratulations to Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028... https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-makes-historic-decision-by-simultaneously-awarding-olympic-games-2024-to-paris-and-2028-to-los-angeles

USA dominate gold medal game, win U-18 Baseball World Cup for fourth time in a row The USA make history as they become the first to win 4 U-18 Baseball World Cups in a row after Cuba did it between 1984 and 1987. USA dominated the gold medal game against Korea: 8-0, 12 hits to 4. Korea had an early chance to score, but perfect defense prevented runs and in the clutch Korea fell apart committing 5 defensive errors. Korea apparently are not allowing easy outs to USA starter Matt Liberatore. Bae Jihwan, the first batter, grounds to shortstop and tries to reach sliding head first. He’s the first out, but shows team spirit. With 2 outs, center fielder Jang Junhwan gets the first hit and designated hitter Kang Baekho takes Liberatore deep, off the wall in left field. Thomas comes up with a perfect play and relay on first bounce to prevent Jang from scoring and the at bat ends as first baseman Gwak Been grounds out to second. Korea starter Kim Young Jun gets 2 quick outs and then walks right fielder Kelenic. First baseman Casas scares Korea sending the first pitch he sees to the moon (but foul), then literally blows away first baseman Gwak Been glove on a line drive. He reaches on a base hit, but the inning ends on a deep fly ball to left by catcher Mc Nair Seigler, very well fielded by Yi In Hyok. In the top of the third Korea is dangerous again. Star shortstop Turang plays the wizard as he lines out Yi In Hyok on a bullet to his left. But there’s nothing second baseman Young can do on a roller to second base base bag by Bae Ji Hwan. With 2 outs and Bae at second, Liberatore walks Jang Junghwan but, after a coaching visit, retires Kang Baekho on a grounder to second to end the inning. USA take the lead in the bottom of the third baseman Gorman leads off the bottom of the third with a single to right. He’s then the first out at second on a hard chopper to first by center fielder Siani. Young singles up the middle and Siani runs all the way to third. After falling 3-0 in the count, Kim Young Jun strikes out Kelenic. On the play, Young steals second and Siani scores as catcher Cho Dae Hyun throws in the dirt and beyond the second base bag. Young reaches third on the error. Casas make it 2-0 as he slugs one in the gap to left center for a stand up double. The third run scores on a base hit to left by Mc Nair Seigler. The day is over for Kim Young when Thomas singles to the right and Mc Nair Seigler advances to third. Right hander Seo Jun Won takes the mound. The inning is over when Yi In Hyok flies out Turang on the warning track in left field. USA are back to business in the fourth, as designated hitter Delgado singles and Gorman walks. Gorman is forced out at second when Siani grounds to first base. Siani then steals second and Young walks to load the bases. Second baseman Choi Jun Woo gets to a grounder in the gap at right by Kelenic. He gets the force out at second as Delgado scores, but the throw by shortstop Bae Ji Hwan is in the dirt and off the first base bag. Siani scores and Kelenic reaches second. Casas follows with a mammoth shot to right center. The 2 run homer makes it 7-0 and sends Seo Jun Won to the showers. Korea gives the call to Ha Jun Young. Team USA pitchers have allowed so far 3 earned runs in the tournament and their defense executes everything at a high speed and with great accuracy, so the probability of a comeback by Korea is unlikely. There’s more: USA are not done and they in the bottom of the fifth USA they add a run. Turang leads off with a single. Korea has a chance to trap him on his steal attempt. The throw to second by first baseman Gwak Been is off the bag and Turang is off to third. He scores on a base hit by Gorman. Yang Changseop takes the mound for Korea in the seventh and falls into trouble as he loads the bases with 2 outs in the eighth. He gets out of the jam striking out Turang on an off speed pitch. Liberatore is done after 6 and USA send to the mound Mitchell Wilcox for the seventh (throws a perfect inning) and Mason Denaburg for the eighth (allows a walk). Hard throwing right hander John Ginn heads to the mound for the ninth, when the celebration is already on the go amongst USA fans. He completes the task facing only 3 batters and striking out 2. Han Donghui is the last out of the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2017. Gold Medal Game Highlights Recap: BRONZE Medal Game: Japan b. Canada 8-1 GOLD Medal Game: United States b. South Korea 8-0 Men's Sub-18 Baseball World Championships 2017 Final Standings: Gold: United States Silver: South Korea Bronze: Japan 4th: Canada 5th: Australia 6th: Cuba 7th: Chinese Taipei 8th: Netherlands 9th: Italy 10th: Nicaragua 11th: Mexico 12th: South Africa

and Alex Pullin (AUS) finally doubled up yesterday's success... Today he ended up in front of Alessandro Haemmerle (AUT) and Mick Dierdoff (USA)... in the women's event, today it was the great Lindsay Jacobellis (USA), who won the race. Second was Eva Samkova (CZE) ahead of Chloe Trespeuch (FRA)... for Italy, decent 4th place for Michela Moioli among the girls, meanwhile the men's race was an absolute disaster, with all the guys already out in the early stages...

Karate 1 Premier League, stage #5 (in Leipzig, GER) Back to usual business in the 5th stage of the K1PL, with Japan showing how good and far away from the rest of the world they are... at the end of the week, they won easily the Medal Table with 6 Gold Medals, meanwhile all the remaining Gold medals well spread between 8 different Countries (AZE, GEO, GER, ITA, RUS, ESP, UKR and VIE)... and, beyond the obvious happiness for Luigi Busà's new success, I'm particularly surprised and pleased by this last one... The 8 Olympic Classes have been won by Japan (4 Golds, among which both Kata events), Georgia, Italy, Ukraine and Vietnam (1 Gold Medal each)... Here are the full results of this K1PL stage: https://www.sportdata.org/wkf/set-online/popup_main.php?popup_action=results&vernr=113&active_menu=calendar

In sailing sometimes mechanical accidents happen...I still remember the medal race of the 49er class in Beijing 2008...it was a real mess because of the strong wind...and it was unfair to many athletes, too... but in the end it was also very spectacular (despite Italy throwing away at least the silver, maybe even gold medal in that infamous day)... however, today also the Finn Gold Cup (the World Championships of that class) got to the end... Gold: Max Salminen (SWE), 47 Pts Silver: Jonathan Lobert (FRA), 48 Pts Bronze: Nicholas Heiner (NED), 50 Pts Full Results here: https://www.2017finngoldcup.org/results

Nacra 17 Foil World Championships 2017 Gold: Ben SAXTON/Katie DABSON (GBR), 92.0 Pts Silver: Fernando ECHAVARRI ERASUN/Tara PACHECO van RIJNSOEVER (ESP), 95.0 Pts Bronze: Ruggero TITA/Caterina BANTI (ITA), 109.0 Pts Full Results (and News) here: http://nacra17.org/events/2017-world-championship/

naaa...you don't have to look at the Olympic Games only (OG that are always something "special" and different from the everyday routine of any sport discipline )... by the way, also the last event of this year's Worlds has just ended: Mixed Skeet Team Event, Final Results Semifinal #1 1st Russia 1 (Nadezda Konovalova/Nikolay Teplyy) 2nd Italy 2 (Katiuscia Spada/Tammaro Cassandro) 3rd Slovakia 1 (Danka Bartekova/Stefan Zemko) Semifinal #2 1st United States 2 (Dania Jo Vizzi/ Hayden Stewart) 2nd China 2 (Zhang Fan/Wei Meng) 3rd United States 1 (Kimberly Rhode/Christian Elliott) 5th/6th Place Match United States 1 (Kimberly Rhode/Christian Elliott) b. Slovakia 1 (Danka Bartekova/Stefan Zemko) BRONZE Medal Match Italy 2 (Katiuscia Spada/Tammaro Cassandro) b. China 2 (Zhang Fan/Wei Meng) GOLD Medal Match Russia 1 (Nadezda Konovalova/Nikolay Teplyy) b. United States 2 (Dania Jo Vizzi/ Hayden Stewart) Final Medal Table 1st Italy, 9-6-2 2nd United States, 5-1-6 3rd Russia, 2-4-2 4th Australia, 2-1-1 5th India, 1-2-0 6th Great Britain, 1-1-0 7th Denmark & France, 1-0-0 9th Czech Republic, 0-2-2 10th China, 0-1-3 11th Germany & Spain, 0-1-1 13th Finland & Turkey, 0-1-0 15th Cyprus, 0-0-3 16th Slovakia, 0-0-1

Men's Sub-18 Baseball World Championships Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada (September 1st through September, 10th 2017) Full Recap: Preliminary Round Group A, Final Standings 1st KOR 5W-0L 2nd CAN 3W-2L 3rd AUS 3W-2L 4th TPE 3W-2L 5th ITA 1W-4L 6th NCA 0W-5L Group B, Final Standings 1st USA 5W-0L 2nd JPN 4W-1L 3rd CUB 3W-2L 4th NED 2W-3L 5th MEX 1W-4L 6th RSA 0W-5L Consolation Round, Final Standings 7th TPE 5W-0L 8th NED 4W-1L 9th ITA 2W-3L 10th MEX 2W-3L 11th NCA 2W-3L 12th RSA 0W-5L Super Round, Final Standings 1st USA 5W-0L 2nd KOR 4W-1L 3rd JPN 2W-3L 4th CAN 3W-2L 5th AUS 1W-4L 6th CUB 0W-5L BRONZE Medal Game Japan @ Canada (Today, h.18.00 CET) Live Streaming here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1sZrQ_YyGk GOLD Medal Game South Korea @ United States (Today, h.23.00 CET) Live Streaming here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qruzfeVRMms

well, it once was so... in the last few years the sport has developed with rules and competition formats that lowered the average age of the best shooters... thinking only about men's skeet, Vincent Hancock first and now Gabriele Rossetti just demonstrated that even teenagers can win medals in the most important global events... but also in the other events we've had very young champions in recent years... only in this World Champ in Moscow we've seen Jessica Rossi (who's only 25, despite being on top of the Trap discipline since 2009) winning the Women's Trap and Dania Jo Vizzi (only 22 years young) winning the Women's Skeet... it's like in Golf...until a few years ago, experience was the main feature required to win and we only had not so young champions...meanwhile the development of the game in the last 10/15 years has changed things dramatically and now we're used to younger and more athletic champions even in sports where athletic ability wasn't considered a factor until a while ago... by the way, today the last event of the World Championships 2017 is scheduled: the Mixed Skeet Team Competition and those are the 6 pairs qualified for the Semifinal Stage: Slovakia 1 (Danka Bartekova/Stefan Zemko) China 2 (Zhang Fan/Wei Meng) United States 2 (Dania Jo Vizzi/Hayden Stewart) Russia 1 (Nadezda Konovalova/Nikolay Teplyy) United States 2 (Kimberly Rhode/Christian Elliott) Italy 2 (Katiuscia Spada/Tammaro Cassandro) Italy 1, with their 2 Olympic Champions (Diana Bacosi and Gabriele Rossetti) has been unbelievably eliminated with a score of just 95/100 (9th place at the end)...

Men's Rink Hockey World Championships Spain back on top of World Rink Hockey The craziest final ever closes the Rink Hockey World Roller Games. Argentina got the bronze against Italy. France wins the Firs Cup and Israel triumphs in the Confederation Cup. After 4 years from the last title won in Luanda in 2013, Spain won again the World Championship winning 5-4 after penalties an incredible game against Portugal, It's the 17th title for Spain. Spain-Portugal has been one of the most balanced World Championship Final of the last years. And even one of the most intense; really an amazing game with a dramatic end. During the first half, Spain prevailed and scored twice with two similar goals. The first after 6 minutes with a shot by Raul Marin and the second 2 minutes before halftime with a shot diverted by Jordi Adroher. Xavi Malian, the Spanish goalkeeper, saved all the shots and the opportunities created by Portugal. The match changed at the beginning of the 2nd half. Portugal entered the rink very determined and draw in less than 5 minutes. A great shot by Helder Nunes halved the gap and a perfect power-play action led Gonçalo Alves to tie the match after a blue card to Jordi Adroher and the error of Helder Nunes on the direct free shot. The referees showed a second blue card to Reinaldo Ventura, but Raul Marin failed the direct free shot and Spain didn't score during the 2-minutes power play. Spain went ahead thanks to a goal scored by Edu Lamas who shoot twice towards Girao, scoring the 3-2 goal. In the last 10 seconds many things happened. Girao, the Portugues goalkeeper was suspended with a blue card because he went on a player outside his penalty zone. Raul Marin failed the direct free shot and went to the corner to get the ball committing a foul on Diogo Rafael that the referees punished with a blue card. With 4 seconds still to play, Helder Nunes failed the direct free shot and the first rebound, but scored on the second in the last second of the game, leading the final to the extra time. At the beginning of the extra time, Spain didn't score in power play. Portugal reached 9 fouls without committing the 10th and the last shot by Diogo Rafael hitched the post at the last second. At the penalties, Portugal scored first with Joao Rodrigues, but in the last two penalties Spain came back and won: first Edu Lamas tied and Albert Casanovas scored the penalty that gave the title to Spain. Before the Final, Argentina got the third place and bronze medal winning against Italy 4-2. This final too was very balanced: the result was 2-2 until the last two minutes, when Argentina completed the come back (Italy was ahead 2-1 at halftime) and won the game and the bronze medal. The Firs Cup went to France that won the final against Germany 6-4. Israel won the Confederation Cup. 7th/8th Place Match Chile - Mozambique 9-7 5th/6th Place Match Angola - Colombia 5-1 Bronze Medal Match Argentina - Italy 4-2 Gold Medal Match Spain - Portugal 5-4 (on Penalty Shots, 3-3 after Regulation and Overtime)

Shotgun World Championships 2017 Men's Junior Skeet, Final Results Gold: PETERSEN Emil Kjelgaard (DEN) Silver: SDRUCCIOLI Elia (ITA) Bronze: VASILIOU Nicolas (CYP) 4th: SHARAPOV Mikhail (RUS) 5th: LANG Jaroslav (CZE) 6th: MUKHAMEDIYEV Alexandr (KAZ) Men's Senior Skeet, Final Results Gold: ROSSETTI Gabriele (ITA) Silver: HAAGA Vincent (GER) Bronze: ACHILLEOS Georgios (CYP) 4th: NILSSON Stefan (SWE) 5th: ZEMLIN Alexander (RUS) 6th: TEPLYY Nikolay (RUS) well...in the end, it's been a better day for Italy...

Shotgun World Championships 2017 Men's Junior Skeet, shooters qualified to the Final VASILIOU Nicolas (CYP) SDRUCCIOLI Elia (ITA) SHARAPOV Mikhail (RUS) MUKHAMEDIYEV Alexandr (KAZ) At the Shoot-Off for the last 2 Spots: PETERSEN Emil Kjelgaard (DEN) MADENCIOGLU Kemal (TUR) LANG Jaroslav (CZE) Team Event: Gold: ITALY Silver: TURKEY Bronze: UNITED STATES Men's Senior Skeet, shooters qualified to the Final ROSSETTI Gabriele (ITA) TEPLYY Nikolay (RUS) NILSSON Stefan (SWE) HAAGA Vincent (GER) ACHILLEOS Georgios (CYP) ZEMLIN Alexander (RUS) Team Event: Gold: ITALY Silver: RUSSIA Bronze: CZECH REPUBLIC Well, today it looks a better day for Italy... let's hope that the 2 events that really matter (the Individual ones) go as they should...

Swiss double at the World Champs in the senior Cross-Country races... Jolanda Neff just destroyed the field and won by a huge margin over Annie Last (GBR) and Pauline Ferrand Prevot (FRA), meanwhile the men's event was very close...but at the end it was the great Nino Schurter to win the Gold medal once again. Silver went to his eternal rival Jaroslav Kulhavy (CZE) and Bronze to his teammate Thomas Litscher... Full Results here: http://www.tissottiming.com/Competition/00030E0200FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF/CM/2017

Speedskating - Track Competitions Junior Events Colombia dominated the field with 6 Gold Medals out of possible 12, Italy and South Korea won 2 Golds each and Belgium and Chinese Taipei got 1 Gold Medal apiece. Senior Events Once again, it was Colombia that won most of the races, 6 Gold medals out of possible 10. The remaining 4 Golds went to Spain, Venezuela, Germany and Italy (thanks to Francesca Lollobrigida, who also won a silver medal).

Artistic Skating The 2017 World Roller Games continue in Nanjing, China, with Senior Long programs and Couple Dance with their free dance. Great suspance in the Wutaishan Gymnasium for the final match between Italy’s and Spain’s freeskating. The event looks wide open with a strong group of contenders that can all grab the title. Silvia Nemesio took her second World title in Senior Ladies freeskating producing a strong performance on traditional chinese music. She opened her program nailing a perferct triple lutz-triple rittberger combination; silver for Spain’s Monica Gimeno Coma who today skated a disappoing long program; bronze for Itlay’s Silvia Lambruschi performing to a passionate Bizet’s “Carmen”. Great show for Men Long program event, where Italy won everything. Luca Lucaroni took his second gold medal with a flawless performance of Fred Astaire and his tip tap, showing powerful jumps, speedy spins, good footwork and interpretation. Andrea Girotto, World Champion in 2015, finished second with an amazing and original long program, Alessandro Amadesi, World Champions 2014, came third producing a strong performance to a machine that becomes human. In Junior Couples the free dance confirmed the style results: Portual’s Josè Cruz and Daniela Dias claimed the gold medal skating an excellent program, Italy’s Daniele Da Col and Chiara Martinotti danced to Muse and Coldplay music a very fluid performance and took the silver, Luca Orsetti and Alessia Orsi obtained the bronze skating the most elegant program of the day. In Senior Couple dance Anna Remondini and Daniel Morandin of Itlay claimed their first gold medal together performing to the olimpic dream for rollerskating; silver for Italy’s Silvia Stibilj and Andrea Bassi with an amazing “La La Land” where they put their heart in it, bronze for Portugal brothers’ Jose Souto and Mariana Souto performing to Lady Gaga who sang about violence against women.

In-Line Freestyle Skating Today at the Youth Olympic Sports Park Gymnasium took place the speed slalom competition. Iran and China won their first medals here at the Roller Games and managed to surprise athletes and coaches with their performances. Before now, European countries (especially France and Italy) were considered the best national teams in the speed slalom scene, and lately also China and China Taipei emerged. This year, all the podiums were dominated by Asian countries both in Junior and Senior categories. Not only physical power and accuracy but also great mental strength is needed to accomplish great results in speed slalom and this new generation of speed slalom skaters behaved like super experienced skaters both in the time trials phase and during the finals. The results: JUNIOR WOMEN 1st Ahmadi Taraneh (Iran) 2nd Ting Yu En (China Taipei)
 3rd Liu Chiao Hsi (China Taipei) JUNIOR MEN 1st Yu Jun Yan (China) 2nd Chen Yu-Hsiang (China Taipei) 3rd Shojaei Barjouei Ali (Iran) SENIOR WOMEN 1st Chen Bei-Yi (China Taipei) 2nd Arabi Laya (Iran) 3rd Lo Pei-Yu (China Taipei) SENIOR MEN 1st Zhang Hao (China) 2nd Chen Yu Chi (China Taipei) 3rd Xiao Bing Sheng (China Taipei)

In-Line Hockey World Championships Senior Women's Semifinals USA - Canada 3-2 Spain - Czech Republic 4-0 Senior Men's Semifinals Italy - Czech Republic 3-2 France - Canada 6-0

Men's Rink Hockey World Championships Quarterfinals Spain - Colombia 11-3 Portugal - Mozambique 4-3 Italy - Chile 6-3 (on Penalty Shots, 3-3 after Regulation and Overtime) Argentina - Angola 4-3 (after Overtime, 3-3 after Regulation) 5th/8th Place Classification Matches Colombia - Chile 3-2 Angola - Mozambique 6-3 Semifinals Italy - Spain 0-4 Portugal - Argentina 5-0

Shotgun World Championships 2017 Women's Junior Skeet, Final Results Gold: JACOB Katharina Monika (USA) Silver: SMITH Austen Jewell (USA) Bronze: SIMONTON Samantha (USA) 4th: JONES Aislin (AUS) 5th: HOCKOVA Vanesa (SVK) 6th: ADAMKOVA Hana (CZE) Team Event: Gold: UNITED STATES Silver: CZECH REPUBLIC Bronze: GERMANY Women's Senior Skeet, Final Results Gold: VIZZI Jo Dania (USA) Silver: SHAKIROVA Albina (RUS) Bronze: ELEFTHERIOU Andri (CYP) 4th: RHODE Kimberly (USA) 5th: BACOSI Diana (ITA) 6th: SHI Hong Yan (CHN) Team Event: Gold: UNITED STATES Silver: ITALY Bronze: RUSSIA Awful day for Italy in Russia... after dominateing the Olympic Games last year, our skeet girls couldn't get even close to those results...and the best placing at the end was the 5th rank earned by the Olympic Champion Diana Bacosi... and among the juniors it was a real disaster...no team medal, no individual finalists... let's hope that the guys tomorrow can get a sweet revenge... p.s. by the way, after a full week of competitions, the tv producers still haven't learned anything about shooting...they just can't do their job properly...all the finals are almost unwatchable...

This is a very imporant week for European Ice Hockey... In fact, today is the 6th anniversary of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash (therefore today is the only day in this first months of the season without a single KHL game to be played, just to honor and in sign of respect for that tragedy)... On the other side, this week almost every European top League gets underway... yesterday it was the Belarussian Extraliga the first to begin their 2017/2018 season, meanwhile tonight the season opener of the Swiss National League is on the center stage... then, tomorrow is the X-day, with the Finnish Liiga, the Czech Extraliga, the Slovak Extraliga, the German DEL, the EBEL (the Austrian "open" championship, with teams also from Italy, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia), the Danish Superisligaen, the Norwegian Get-Ligaen and the Interliga (with teams from Hungary, Romania and the EBEL's Vienna Capitals farm team) ready to start their new journey... after the "appetizer" with the start of the KHL and the CHL and waiting for the "big one" (the NHL, of course), I hope it's gonna be a great season of domestic Hockey for every Country... take care and have fun with the most beautiful sport in the world...

fidati, il ritorno della Diouf fa più danni di qualsiasi defezione...sia in campo che nel "gruppo"... con la "gatta di marmo" non si va da nessuna parte...

no, I don't like it...but we don't live in a perfect world... so, if I have to choose the lesser of evils, I still go with the option "keep the limit"...

fantastico...ora aspettiamo solo le fantasiose spiegazioni di rito, così ci facciamo 2 risate... p.s. e se consideriamo il ritorno della Diouf, allora possiamo dire che il progetto di risollevare la nazionale donne (partito con risultati superiori alle attese al WGP) sia già franato completamente...