phelps

World Qualification Tournament in Baku (AZE) Draw Sheets are out... here you can already find all of them (no need for translation, since you can see the weights by yourself)... http://www.fpi.it/ita-boxing/news/6713-parte-oggi-il-torneo-mondiale-di-qualificazione-olimpica-di-baku,-primi-due-azzurri-in-gara-domani-itaboxing-road2rio-noisiamoenergia.html

yes, I saw that document... by the way, here you can also watch the winning lifts in all the weight categories... http://www.allthingsgym.com/2016-chinese-national-weightlifting-championships/

well, strong wind made it difficult for all teams today... luckily the young Italian girls have been mentally very strong and focused in all of their matches and earned this very, very important Olympic chance... and now they will be very dangerous ousiders also for the medals...

I don't think so...or at least she didn't even show up at the Chinese Nationals (where many unofficial world records were broken), which usually in the Olympic year are one of the most important events for their selections... by the way, Meng Suping's result (140+190=330kg) out there was close to Kashirina's total at the 2015 (and 2013) World Champs (where she got 332 and 333 respectively)... and at last year's Worlds she even got a better lift in Snatch (145)...so, potentially Meng can compete with the Russian (unless Kashirina gets back to her 2014 results...in this case she would be absolutely untouchable - she got almost 350kg in the Olympic Total that year)

yes, these Continental Champs are the last 2 tournaments before the Olympics... so, the team events brackets will be known after the end of them, meanwhile the individual brackets will be established only after the athletes selected for the individual competitions by the Nations which have qualified for the team event will be confirmed... however, we will have the official confirmation of the brackets by FIE only a few days before the start of the Games...

at the moment it looks she hasn't been selected by the NZ Olympic Committee (I just did a quick research on their website and no athletes are indicated in the Fencing section)... the most recent news I could find about her possible participation to the Games are here: http://www.fencing.org.nz/news.php?cat=7

so, congrats to the Pens... but I absolutely don't agree with Crosby winning the Conn Smythe trophy...it should have gone to the Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel line alltogether...and being that "impossible", well, they should have at least recognized the great playoffs run by Bonino, Kessel or Letang... however, it's just a couple of days that we ended the 2015/2016 season, but I can't wait for the start of the new one (luckily we don't have to wait that much...the new CHL season is just around the corner...the start is scheduled for August 16th )...

my picks for the Olympic qualifiers... Men: Ukraine and Japan to the final and Russia and Mexico in the 3rd place play-off for the last spot (hoping that MEX can get this last ticket to Rio)... Women: USA and Italy in the final, with Great Britain and Chinese Taipei to fight for the last spot (my support goes to the Europeans)...

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jun/14/operation-puerto-blood-bags-must-be-released-judge-madrid https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/11/wada-drugs-operation-puerto-judges-decision http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/operacion-puerto-blood-bags-to-be-handed-over-to-anti-doping-authorities/ so we have Dr.Fuentes back in action, possibly no sanctions for the athletes caught cheating but at least we're going to "officially" know some of their names... I'm not sure that this time we can say "justice has been done"...

good-bye, mr. Hockey... R.I.P.

after monday's road win, which gave them a 3-1 lead in the series, yesterday night the Pittsburgh Penguins wasted their first chance to clinch the title at home, losing by a score of 4-2... now they have to fly back to San Josè for game #6 on Sunday night... hoping to see a decisive game #7 next week, go Sharks!!!

this week was mainly dedicated to Football (Copa Centenario and from tonight Euro 2016) and Hockey (Stanley Cup finals)... and I also enjoyed a bit of Athletics (Diamond League in Rome and Oslo)...

Joonas Donskoi scores the OT winner and the San Josè Sharks cut the Pittsburgh Penguins' lead in the Stanley Cup Finals to 2 games to 1... game #4 is scheduled for Monday night, once again in California... go Sharks!

Men's Individual Foil in Shanghai (CHN)... Gold: Alexander Massialas Silver: Lee Kwang Hyun Bronze: Alessio Foconi & Chen Haiwei Final Bout: Massialas b. Lee 15 - 5

Women's Individual Foil in Shanghai (CHN)... Gold: Arianna Errigo Silver: Lee Kiefer Bronze: Martina Batini & Ysaora Thibus Final Bout: Errigo b. Kiefer 15 - 8

Pittsburgh Penguins 2-0 ahead of the San Josè Sharks in the Stanley Cup finals... in game #1 they scored the (3-2) winning goal just 2 mins before the end of regulation, in game #2 they won 2-1 in OT... but I still hope that the Sharks can comeback and take the Cup to California...

also in Croatia they have sold the FTA rights to the public TV, in this case HRT... basically, they are sub-licensing almost everywhere in Europe to the public Networks... at the end I think they will do the same all around the Old Continent, maybe with Italy being the only exception, since here they have also a few FTA channels and our public TV sucks big time...

if it's gonna be the case, it's already decided that the Olympic qualifying tournament will be the Premier 12 in 2019... and since Premier 12 is made only by the best 12 teams in the World Ranking, we can be sure that there won't be much regard to the Continental representation (even if I guess that they would guarantee the start of at least 3 Continents, giving th berths to the 3 medallists, Japan - host of the Games - the next best American team and the next best non Asian/American team)...

Ok...I don't follow BMX so closely and I didn't consider that much the rest of the season... but, in general, when I see a World Champion almost repeating himself after "only" 12 months I don't take that as a surprise...never... maybe he had a poor first part of this season, but the talent is still there...and he showed it when it really mattered (and I'm pretty sure that he will be on the podium also in Rio...I don't think there are many people who can deny him a medal in August, right now)...

well, considering that he was the defending champion, I wouln't name his medal "surprise"... by the way, those are the Supercross Final Results... Men's Elite 1 - DAUDET Joris 2 - KIMMANN Niek 3 - LONG Nicholas Women's Elite 1 - PAJON Mariana 2 - BUCHANAN Caroline 3 - POST Alise

Women's Individual Sabre in Moscow (RUS)... Gold: Olga Kharlan Silver: Mariel Zagunis Bronze: Irene Vecchi & Yuliya Gavrilova Final Bout: Kharlan b. Zagunis 15 - 13

ops...my big mistake...I didn't see that also the finals had already been held... those are the final results... BMX World Championships 2016 Women's Time Trials Caroline Buchanan, 42.170 Laura Smulders, 41.920 Mariana Pajon, 41.873 Men's Time Trials Niek Kimmann, 36.858 Sam Willoughby, 36.895 Maris Strombergs, 37.100 For those who can watch the BBC, tonight's races will be streamed Live on their website and will be broadcasted with a slight delay (at 9 p.m. British Time, 10 p.m. CET) on the Red Button Channel (available for free on satellite @ 28.2 East)... and I just discovered that in Europe also Sport 2 (HUN), CT Sport (Czech Rep.) and Be IN Sport 2 (FRA) will broadcast tonight's session LIve...

BMX World Championships 2016 Time Trials qualifications were contested yesterday... Women's Time Trials Mariana Pajon, 41.873 Laura Smulders, 41.920 Caroline Buchanan, 42.170 Men's Time Trials Sylvain Andre, 36.374 Joris Daudet, 36.839 Niek Kimmann, 36.881 For those who can watch the BBC, tonight's races will be streamed Live on their website and will be broadcasted with a slight delay (at 9 p.m. British Time, 10 p.m. CET) on the Red Button Channel (available for free on satellite @ 28.2 East)...

Golf (European PGA), right now... Handball Champions League final later in the afternoon... BMX World Champs in the evening...

well, Karate (Kumite) can be very spectacular, sometimes (Kata is just a joke)... meanwhile in Sport Climbing the combined event doesn't even exist as a single discipline right now (even if there is a minor prize for the best combiners at the end of the World Cup season, but no one of the top 15/20 of each special discipline normally start in the others, with very few exceptions double starting in the Lead and Boulder events...and Speed is just another sport)...