phelps

I think that now we can take it for granted... the main Olympic Sports portal in Italy has also published an article about Karate at the next Olympic Games, indicating a WKF Tweet as the original official source... and basically it's all confirmed... the 3 weight classes will be the already said -55kg, -61kg, +61kg for the girls and -67kg, -75kg, +75kg for the boys... moreover, it's explained that in each class there will be a Japanese athlete, 1 athlete named by the WKF/Tripartite Commission (which of the 2 committee, it's not specified) with a Wild Card and 8 qualified athletes on the basis of a World Ranking that will take into consideration World Championships (with big bonus points), Continental Championships and a few other tournaments (especially the Premier League ones) where it will be possible to sum up useful points... other news are about the tournament format, which will be contested over 2 days (2 male and 2 female events per day) and, at least according to the current proposal, each Kumite class will be played with 2 poules of 5 athletes facing each other in a round robin, with the first 2 of each poule going through to the semifinals (which also means that only 1 Bronze medal per class will be awarded)... p.s. it's more than just a rumor the new rule on penalties that they want to put in place... according to the same sources, the idea is to put together in a single "penalty count" the current C1 and C2 type of warnings, allowing each athlete to sum up only a maximum of 5 of them, with the 6th representing the end of the bout... here's the article (in Italian only, unfortunately) http://www.oasport.it/2016/11/karate-80-atleti-alle-olimpiadi-a-tokyo-tre-categorie-di-kumite-e-una-di-kata-per-entrambi-i-sessi-le-modalita-di-qualificazione/

I also read about Men's -67kg, -75kg and +75kg weights as the Olympic classes... the only source that seems to confirm that is here: http://www.karatebyjesse.com/karate-tokyo-olympic-2020/ frankly, I don't know if he's a reliable source or not...I hope he is...

wow! what an emotional ending for the World Series 2016... yesterday night we saw the game that most people never expected...Corey Kluber paid the prize for the third consecutive start in short rest and gave the Cubs the chance to open up quite a big gap, but Cleveland showed their heart and started a sensational comeback against the big Cuban closer of the Cubs... then, a rain delay happened...and that short pause did a big favor to Chicago, slowing down the pace and making the arm of their reliever Shaw too cold... and that was the end of the Indians' dreams, despite another brave attempt in the bottom part of the 10th inning... so, the curse is over...and after 108 years the Cubs Nation can start the party... 9-8 (in 10 innings) the final score of game #7 (winning pitcher Aroldis Chapman, loser Bryan Shaw, save for Montgomery), 4-3 the final score of the series... and a few moments after the end of this season, I feel empty...and I can't wait for next March and the beginning of a new exciting season...

and finally, we have a game #7 in the World Series 2016... backed up by a solid start of Jake Arrieta, the Cubs lineup destroyed Josh Tomlin from the beginning in game #6, with the contest being virtually over after just 3 innings... 9-3 the final score, Arrieta the winning pitcher and Tomlin, obviously, the losing side... the decisive game #7 is going on stage tonight, at about 1 a.m. CET... Corey Kluber (winner in game #1 & #4) will make his third start in the Series, once again in short rest (therefore taking a higher risk), for the Cleveland Indians, meanwhile Kyle Hendricks will start (in "regular" rest) for the Cubs... imho, the Cubs are heavily favourite, more than ever right now that they are coming from behind with great enthusiasm after having found their powerful bats back from a dangerous slump in the first games of the series... the key will be as usual, more than usual, Kluber's performance...in fact, should Cleveland have the lead after 5 or 6 innings, their almost untouchable bullpen staff could shut Chicago down, without leaving them a single chance to comeback... from the Cubs' point of view, they desperately need to take an early lead off Kluber, otherwise they know their chances would drop drastically against the lights of the great Miller & Allen combo in the late innings... back in Asia, instead, also the Korea Series have come to an end, with the Doosan Bears Seoul completing the sweep of the NC Dinos from Changwon... 6-0 & 8-1 respectively the scores in game #3 & #4 for the team from the Nation's Capital...4-0, of course, the final standings of the Series...

there's still life in Chicago... beautiful and close game #5 of the World Series last night in Wrigley Field, with Indians paying the prize for a sloppy 4th inning by their starter Trevor Bauer, who gave up in that fraction all the 3 decisive runs... for the second night in a row, the team that took the early lead couldn't maintain it through the middle part of the game and when things got hot, the bullpen of the leading team shut down the opponents... final score, 3-2 for Chicago... winning pitcher was Jon Lester, who had another very strong and convincing outing (6 IP and only 1 run conceded)... game #6 is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday (usual start time, first pitch at about 2 a.m. CET), with Jake Arrieta (winner in game #2) starting on the mound for the Cubs and Josh Tomlin for the Indians (winner - even if not officially, because of the complicated rules about wins in Baseball - in game #3, once again in short rest)...

personally, I'm not gonna follow this Championship... In these weeks I already have too much Baseball to watch with the Final Series of the main senior Pro leagues of the World... moreover, the level of this tournament has nothing to do with the real situation of the world baseball (and imho, it's quite senseless having world tournaments for this age group, when the best players of this class are already playing in the top pro leagues)...

Men's Epee World Cup #1 (Bern, SUI) Team Event Gold: France Silver: Switzerland Bronze: Russia Here's the Link to Rankings and Results: http://fie.org/competitions/2017/559/results/rank

deja vu in Chicago (the curse looks to work once again)... in a somehow game #1-alike ride, the Cleveland Indians took advantage of another great performance of Corey Kluber on the mound and destroyed the Chicago Cubs by a score of 7-2 in game #4 of the 2016 World Series... now they lead the series 3 games to 1 and only need another win to secure their first title since 1948... the possibly decisive game #5 is scheduled for tonight, once again in Chicago... first pitch at about 2 a.m. CET... starters, Trevor Bauer for Cleveland and Jon Lester for Chicago... meanwhile, after the end of the Japan Series, now it's time for the final showdown of the third most important league in the World, the Korean KBO... this year the Korea Series are up for grabs between the NC Dinos from Changwon and the Doosan Bears from Seoul, the team that dominated the regular season with a 9 game advantage over the same Dinos... the heavy favorite Doosan Bears won both the first 2 games of the best-of-7 series on home soil at the Jamsil Stadium in Seoul with the score of 1-0 and 5-1 respectively, taking an encouraging 2-0 lead in the Series... game #3 is scheduled in Changwon at Masan Stadium (home of the NC Dinos) for Tuesday (11.30 a.m. CET)...

Final Medal Standings 01. JAPAN 6 - 2 - 1 02. FRANCE 3 - 2 - 4 03. IRAN 3 - 0 - 3 04. EGYPT 1 - 2 - 2 05. AZERBAIJAN 1 - 1 - 1 06. AUSTRIA 1 - 0 - 1 07. ENGLAND 1 - 0 - 0 08. SPAIN 0 - 3 - 2 09. BRAZIL 0 - 1 - 0 09. DENMARK 0 - 1 - 0 09. GREECE 0 - 1 - 0 09. HUNGARY 0 - 1 - 0 09. MOROCCO 0 - 1 - 0 09. NETHERLANDS 0 - 1 - 0 15. ITALY 0 - 0 - 4 16. GERMANY 0 - 0 - 2 16. SLOVAKIA 0 - 0 - 2 16. VENEZUELA 0 - 0 - 2 19. BOSNIA & HERCEGOVINA 0 - 0 - 1 19. CHINESE TAIPEI 0 - 0 - 1 19. CROATIA 0 - 0 - 1 19. KOSOVO 0 - 0 - 1 19. MONTENEGRO 0 - 0 - 1 19. TURKEY 0 - 0 - 1 19. UKRAINE 0 - 0 - 1 19. UNITED STATES 0 - 0 - 1

Team Events Results Women's Kata Final: SPAIN 0 - 5 JAPAN Bronze: CROATIA 0 - 5 ITALY Bronze: EGYPT 2 - 3 TURKEY Men's Kata Final: FRANCE 0 - 5 JAPAN Bronze: ITALY 4 - 1 EGYPT Bronze: MALAYSIA 1 - 4 SPAIN Women's Kumite Final: SPAIN 0 - 2 FRANCE Bronze: ITALY 0 - 1 EGYPT Bronze: ECUADOR 1 - 2 UNITED STATES Men's Kumite Final: JAPAN 2 - 3 IRAN Bronze: GERMANY 3 - 0 SPAIN Bronze: AZERBAIJAN 1 - 3 FRANCE

Today's Results Women's Kata Final: SAYED SARAH 0 - 5 SHIMIZU KIYOU Bronze: ORA SISILIA AGUSTIANI 2 - 3 BOTTARO VIVIANA Bronze: WIENINGER KRISTIN 0 - 5 SANCHEZ JAIME SANDRA Men's Kata Final: QUINTERO CAPDEVILA DAMIAN HUGO 0 - 5 KIYUNA RYO Bronze: SMORGUNER ILJA 3 - 2 SHAWKY AHMED Bronze: LIM CHEE WEI 0 - 5 DIAZ ANTONIO Kumite Women's 50kg Final: MIYAHARA MIHO 3 - 5 RECCHIA ALEXANDRA Bronze: SRUNITA SARI SUKATENDEL 1 - 3 SAYED RADWA Bronze: PLANK BETTINA 0* - 0 SEGARAN SHREE SHARMINI Women's 55kg Final: THOUY EMILIE 2 - 0 KUMIZAKI VALERIA Bronze: WEN TZU-YUN 4 - 1 JEFRY KRISHNAN SYAKILLA SALNI Bronze: CARDIN SARA 1 - 3 YAMADA SARA Women's 61kg Final: IGNACE LUCIE 0 - 2 LOTFY GIANA Bronze: SEROGINA ANITA 5 - 0 YIN XIAOYAN Bronze: SUCHANKOVA INGRIDA 8 - 0 THI NGOAN NGUYEN Women's 68kg Final: PEDERSEN KATRINE 1 - 6 BUCHINGER ALISA Bronze: CAVAR IVONA 2* - 2 BRUNSTAD GITTE Bronze: SEMERARO SILVIA 0 - 0* RAKOVIC MARINA Women's +68kg Final: CHATZILIADOU ELENI 0 - 2 UEKUSA AYUMI Bronze: HURRY KATIE 0 - 5 TATAROVA DOMINIKA Bronze: VIDIC MASA 0 - 2 ABBASLI HAMIDEH Men's 60kg Final: BERENS GEOFFREY 1 - 9 MEHDIZADEH AMIR Bronze: AMEKNASSI ABDESSALAM 0 - 0* FARZALIYEV FIRDOVSI Bronze: MARESCA LUCA 4 - 4* AGOUDJIL SOFIANE Men's 67kg Final: TADISSI YVES MARTIAL 0 - 8 THOMAS JORDAN Bronze: DACOSTA STEVEN 4 - 1 UYGUR BURAK Bronze: FIGUEIRA VINICIUS 0 - 2 MADERA ANDRES Men's 75kg Final: AGHAYEV RAFAEL 4 - 1 ABDEL RAHMAN OMAR Bronze: SMAAL RENE 1 - 4 ASIABARI ALIASGHAR Bronze: SCOTT THOMAS 2 - 3 BUSA' LUIGI Men's 84kg Final: ARAGA RYUTARO 5 - 0 MAMAYEV AYKHAN Bronze: POORSHAB ZABIOLLAH 3 - 0 HERRERA CESAR Bronze: ARKANIA GOGITA 4 - 4* GRILLON KENJI Men's +84kg Final: GANJZADEH SAJAD 3* - 3 OUCHEN ACHRAF Bronze: KVESIC ANDJELO 3 - 0 SUJKOVIC HARIS Bronze: ISHEVCI HEROLIND 5 - 0 GRINEVICH ANDREI * = Hantei (Judges' decision)

Men's Epee World Cup #1 (Bern, SUI) Individual Event Gold: Nikita Glazkov Silver: Satoru Uyama Bronze: Andrea Santarelli & Bogdan Nikishin Here's the Link to Rankings and Results: http://fie.org/competitions/2017/385/results/rank p.s. 240 starters...show me another ordinary World Cup stage in any sport with more participants than that... and Fencing is not spread enough to get its full program (just 2 titles and 16 total athletes more than now) at the Olympic Games... no comment...

by the way, the Cleveland Indians yesterday had another outstanding performance by their pitching staff and won game #3 (the first in Chicago) by the minimum score of 1-0... now they lead the best-of-7 series by 2 games to 1... game #4 is scheduled for tonight (first pitch at about 2 a.m. CET)... and Cleveland are going for the jugular vein of the Cubs, giving the start to their iconic pitcher Cory Kluber (even if he normally isn't that good in socalled "short rest")... risky move by the Indians manager Terry Francona...but if it pays off tonight, the Cubs will be in big, big trouble... in the meantime, on the other side of the Ocean, the great upset has been completed...the Nippon-Ham Fighters from Sapporo won the 4th consecutive match (this time on the road) against the heavy favourite Hiroshima Toyo Carp by a score of 10-4, thus conquering the NPB Japan Series Title 2016 (succeding just to the Carp)... congrats to them...

naaa...they should have won last year to match that prediction... moreover, quite a few other details there predicted are also far away from reality (you can't have WS between the Cubs and the Marlins, since they are in the same League nowadays and we're not arrived to a best-of-9 series yet...we're still at the good old best-of-7 format and so on)... so, basically the movie hasn't got that close to the real 2015 (and 2016) situation...

here there are the final rankings, where we can see who won the bronze medals bout until now... first look...disaster for Italy, losing...losing...and losing again... great news, instead, for our friend HC Kosice...Slovakia got not one, but two (2) bronze medals already...both Dominika Tatarova (+68kg) and Ingrida Suchankova (-61kg) won their match and earned the Bronze Medal...

unfortunately, this time we only have a pay-per-view streaming... http://wkf.net/wkf-payperview.php and I can't even find any working illegal stuff... p.s. if you somehow can get BeIN Sports tv channels, they're broadcasting all finals live...

yes...basically it was the same kind of game we saw in the first match, but with reversed roles... the team getting the first lead always win...so, game over after just a couple of innings... I hope to see some more exciting games in the next few days... meanwhile, on the other side of the Ocean, the Nippon-Ham Fighters from Sapporo upset for the third time in a row the Toyo Carp Hiroshima and took a shocking 3-2 lead in the Japan Series 2016... Now the Carp must win both the 2 remaining games at home on Saturday and, if needed, on Sunday to keep their title...

in the meantime, Italy had another somehow disappointing day, with Sara Cardin not repeating herself (however she's going to fight for Bronze, at least...as also Luca Maresca will do)... so, we ended up the qualifications in th Individual events with no guys in the Big Finals, which is very bad...and 5 in the Bronze Medal bouts, which is not that bad... but I expected a lot more from these Champs, especially now that this sport is going to have the honor to take part in the Olympic Games... p.s. which Kumite classes would you choose for the Tokyo 2020 Games? would you pick 3 of the already existing weights or would you build 3 "special" categories trying to optimize the weights? should I take this decision, I'd like to have -65kg, -75kg, +75kg (-70kg, -80kg, +80kg is also a good chance) for men and -54kg, -62kg, +62kg for women...

under "draw records"... https://www.sportdata.org/wkf/set-online/veranstaltung_info_main.php?active_menu=calendar&vernr=74&ver_info_action=catmitlist#a_eventheadend and I can tell you that NED have a Gold Medal contender once again...Geoffrey Berens made it through to the Big Final in the Men's Kumite -60kg (he'll face Amir Mehdizadeh from Iran)...

the Cleveland Indians won the first game of the World Series... helped by a stunning performance of their starting pitcher Cory Kluber, they smashed the Chicago Cubs 6-0... tonight there will be game #2 (again in Ohio)...starting pitchers will be Trevor Bauer for Cleveland and last year's Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta for Chicago... in the meantime, in Japan the Nippon-Ham Fighters from Sapporo surprisingly won the first 2 games on home ground and tied the series against the Toyo Carp from Hiroshima... tomorrow there will be a pivotal game #5, still in Sapporo...

however she wasn't the only Slovakian to do well today... also the other 2 girls had a very respectable tournament (especially Dorota Balciarova in Kata, who ended up in 7th place, losing - to the home girl - just the last bout before getting a chance to fight for bronze on Saturday)...

sure, there is (like in all the weight classes)...

good overall performance for Italy, but always falling a bit short of the main goal... too many losses in the quarterfinals (moreover, to athletes that didn't go through to the final, leaving our karatekas out also from the repechage rounds for bronze) and 3 qualifcations to the bronze medal bout... pity for our star Busà, who lost in the semis to the Egyptian Abdel Rahman, a fierce but not so unbeatable opponent...another final bout between him and Aghayev would have been the highlight of the Championships... and even more regrets for the young Silvia Semeraro, who lost in the quarterfinals to the home crowd favourite Alisa Buchinger only after the hantei (but then she did very well to keep her focus and make it through to the medal round)... let's hope that the other guys tomorrow will be a bit more lucky...

in the meantime, the second most important Baseball league in the World (NPB, Japan) is also currently playing the Final Series, named Nippon Series... the defending champions, Hiroshima Toyo Carp, are already 2 games to 0 ahead in the best-of-7 series, having won both yesterday and today's home games against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters from Sapporo with the same score of 5-1... now the series move to Sapporo, before possibly come back to Hiroshima for games 6 & 7...but it would be a huge surprise if this trip to the North of the Country isn't also the last stop for this year...

first news on this thread, of course, are about the Major League Baseball and their final showdown, the World Series... Everything is set, in fact, for the 2016 grand final of the main Baseball Championship in the World... next Tuesday the Cleveland Indians (that surprisingly won the American League, defeating Toronto 4 games to 1 in the ALCS) and the Chicago Cubs (4 games to 2 over the Los Angeles Dodgers ) will start their battle for glory... the Cubs are quite heavily favourite (they've been the best team in the league throughout the whole season), but the Indians in the playoffs played so well that they could even upset their rivals... pitching, as always, but this time more than usual, will be the key to success... and, whoever ends up with the title, it's gonna be a great party, because Cleveland are waiting for this since 1948, meanwhile Chicago have been now waiting for 108 years!