phelps

Sorry, I do not remember who decides to boycott which thing  

Which is why we choose to skip this one, right @Gianlu33 and @phelps and @Dunadan and @Pabloffo and @Olympian1010? 

I remember singer Laura Pausini also once taked about that in a radio interview, when she was asked how her first experience in Brazil (where she should be quite famous) was...
 
and yes, the gesture of putting the thumb between index and middle finger here means the act of fuc*ing...
the supertitious gesture is just crossing index and middle finger (with the thumb just aside of those 2 fingers...like the emoticon -smiley, section 2- in this forum, by the way)...

I knew about "fica" because I watched an interview with singer Mafalda Minnozzi (she's moderately famous in Brazil and she speaks Portuguese quite well) and she said she brought her parents to visit Brazil once and the first thing that was said to them was "fica a vontade" (literally "stay as you wish", but it actually means "make yourself home"). I can imagine they have a bad opinion about us and our fascination about "fica". 

Also, we use the word "figa" in Brazil to refer to the gesture of putting your thumb between your index and middle finger. I was told this gesture is quite obscene in Italy, but in Brazil it means a way to superstitiously protect yourself against curses and bad luck (and it was appropriated by African-Brazilian religions as a way for one to protect oneself from bad things). 

Droga means "drug" also in Italian (actually, between Italian and Portuguese and Spanish there are a lot of words with similar meaning)...
but when it comes to the ITA vs POR translation, the most "tricky" word is the verb "ficar", which is "to stay" or "to put" (I don't know the exact use of that in POR)...
so, if you use the imperative form, it sounds "fica...and so on"...but in Italian that world literally means "vagina" (and it's not the medical version for that, since in this case you have to say "vagina" -pronounced "vageena"- also here)...
p.s. some of you might also have geard the word "figa", which is exactly the same (it's used in many regions, especially in Northern Italy instead of the proper Italian word with the "c")...on the other side, if it's written and said in the male version ("figo") literally means "cool"...it's not a word you should use in a formal speech, but nowadays is normally accepted also on tv broadcasts at least)...
 

and with this one, it's really over...
the 2017/2018 season, which started back in August of last year, has just delivered the last match of the season...
I'm quite exhausted...I don't know how many games I've watched in these months, but they've been a monster number for sure...
I feel I really need a break...but I'm sure that in a week or so, I'm gonna be heavily depressed (I'm gonna have a real abstinence crisis) and very anxious about the new season to start...actually, I just can't wait for that right now...
my dear hockey fans...see you soon...

to be noticed...in this final there wee 2 teams from Slovakia, 2 teams from Spain and 2 teams from Italy...
 
and finally, a decent result also for our team (even though this WC stage is still very poor for our standards)...
 
p.s. and I still hate this farce events...give us back the Double Trap (both the men and women's competitions) instead of this sh*t...

and another European league becomes "open"...
 
I have some kind of mixed feeling for that...
from one side, it's good because normally it improves the league itself and gives a big opportunity to the best teams from smaller Countries, which can't have a really competitive league...
but from the other side, it takes the National Identity of a league away, at least in part...and I don't like this at all...

When they will return back the K4-1000 and Canoe Slalom C2, I´ll be ok with the deal to dismiss the Mixed Trap then

Helloooo, Olympic skateboarding forever, always said this should be on the program and never be taken off!
 
 

years spent watching this sport (search for Seoul 1988 scandals or London 2012 matches between Cuba and Iran in the men's -91kg or the superheavyweight final between Cammarelle and Joshua or all of Tischchenko's bouts in Rio 2016...just to name the most evident scandals, but in the "minor" events it's always a lot worse)...
and the fact that almost regularly refs and judges are caught while accepting money or other favors to take their decisions and/or fired by AIBA itself because of their proven corruption...
last but not least, just read all the stories about the Azery Company and former AIBA president Wu Ching-Kuo or, even more scary, who's the real "owner" of AIBA right now (the infamous criminal from Uzbekistan Gafur Rakhimov)...
then, if someone still wants to trust Santa Claus (or the Earth being flat)...well, I can't do anything to change those opinions...
 

Clay Target World Cup, Stage #5 (Siggiewi, MLT)
 
Men's Trap
 
Gold: Aaron Heading
Silver: Du Yu
Bronze: Marian Kovacocy

wow! this is a world premiere!
It's the first time ever I see the qualification rounds of a shooting event shown on tv (or online)...
not even at the Olympic Games they've ever been broadcasted...
chapeau! to Maltese TV for this wonderful effort...
and now ISSF and IOC have no more excuses...they MUST show us also the elimination rounds of the shooting events in Tokyo...

sure! and considering that all the table draws are set by this ranking, there's a lot to care about it already in these days...
moreover, the qualification through the WR is very, very strict (top 2 in each class, except the -75kg men and the -61kg women, which have the top 4)...so, every tournament will be crucial...probably just 1 single mistake and the chances to qualify through the WR are gone...

June has only 30 days...

Women's Race
 
Gold: Laura Smulders
Silver: Merel Smulders
Bronze: Judy Baauw

I'm surprised he's not here writing something yet...

actually, second, third and fourth for 3 different South American Countries (COL, CHI and ARG) in that race...

wow! this is a world premiere!
It's the first time ever I see the qualification rounds of a shooting event shown on tv (or online)...
not even at the Olympic Games they've ever been broadcasted...
chapeau! to Maltese TV for this wonderful effort...
and now ISSF and IOC have no more excuses...they MUST show us also the elimination rounds of the shooting events in Tokyo...

I'm ready to bet on the fact that this won't be the trio on the podium in Tokyo...

and finally, mong the women, Diana Bacosi, thanks to a couple of decent (23/25) final rounds, saved the honor of Italy and will take part into the final 6 of the Women's Skeet competition...
 
the qualified shooters are:
 
Amber Hill (GBR), Caitlin O'Connor (USA), Amber English (USA), Zhang Dongliang (CHN), Diana Bacosi (ITA) and, just to make our friend @hckosice happy Veronika Sykorova (SVK)...
 
I remember once again, the final is scheduled for 6 p.m. CET later today...
 
 

The competition is also shown live on Maltese tv on this link https://www.tvm.com.mt/mt/live-tvm2/

more on that...
 
Belmont Stakes are the 3rd of the 3 races of the well known US Triple Crown...
and this year, for the 22nd time, we have a horse that won the first 2 "chapters" (Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes): his name is Justify
but the Belmont Stakes are longer and quite different from the other 2 races, so the Triple was completed only 12 times, the last one being the 2015 triumph by American Pharoah (and before him, the last TC hero was Affirmed in 1978)...
 
all you need to know on the Triple Crown races, it's on this website:
http://www.triplecrownraces.com/

finally, we did see some fencing, too...
but I expected a lot more in terms of atmosphere...the theatre was almost empty and even the lights, the background and all surroundings were not that good...
missed chance, imho...they could have done a lot better...

it looks that TV limitations are very strict this time...
https://www.canoe-europe.org/
 
by the way, I can watch Czech Tv CT Sport HD (they're broadcasting all semis and finals live)...so, who cares about the streaming?
 
p.s. with a decent VPN, everybody can watch the Czech TV online (and maybe for this event there's even no need of a VPN...must check)...
 
p.p.s. I've just checked...VPN is required (at least here in Italy)...
http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/sport/zive-vysilani/