New Your Sport Edition 2

8/14/2019 New Your Sport Edition 2

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A Lighter look at the world of sport. Its not glossy, itsnot flash, ITS FREE All contributions from readers willbe looked at individually, and if selected for publica-tion will be rewarded with whatever we can blag forfree (maybe even cash!) Funny, fighting talk, controversy, downright disgraceful...anything you think

YourSport might like, SEND IT IN!

OURSPORT Y Free MONTHLY

I have been

bannedfor tak-

ingdrugs,

and I stillcant get

any- where

nearhim!!!

9.58secWR

SMILEFOR THE

CAM-ERAS


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USAIN BOLT: THE FASTEST MAN IWILL EVER SEE?

At 28 years of age, for a couple more days at least, I am finding ithard to comprehend just how significant the World Athletics 100mFinal run of 9.58 seconds by Usain Bolt really is.

Yes, he won the gold medal, but I have seen him do that before, atthe Olympics in Beijing last year.

Yes, he broke the World Record, but I have seen him do that be-fore, at the Olympics in Beijing last year.

Yes, he made the second, third, fourth; fifth, sixth and so on fast-

est men in the world look pedestrian. But, again, I have seen thatbefore, every time he runs.

The numbers highlight just how good this run was, and always willbe. In the past two major finals Bolt has reduced the time and in-creased the speed at which human beings can move by more thanthe previous twenty major championships. So, with a quick bit of maths, makes him ten times better than everyone else.

The 100m is the blue ribbon event because its when the humanrace moves at its fastest. Crowds love a fast car, the fastest car,the fastest planes and crowds are also drawn to the peak of ath-


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leticism, the sprint. Usain bolt ran close to 28mph during the final,if he kept up that pace for a full 100m he is capable of close to 8seconds.

In the Olympics the Jamaican slowed down to break the World Re-cord, this time he seemed to give it his full effort, and by that Imean he ran for 100m instead of his preferred 60m sprint 40mwalk combo that he seems to enjoy. So if 9.58 was at full-tilt, canthe lightening bolt go quicker? According to the man himself, yes,according to his coach, yes, according to me, I am undecided. 9.4seconds was the figure quoted by Bolt, which would make him, indistance terms of 10m per second, some 40 meters faster thananybody on the planet.

I prefer to remain unconvinced by his ability to go faster. Mainlybecause his achievements are still, watching them back, on thefifth or sixth time, unbelievable. So I will stay in the unbelievingcamp thank-you. It makes the reality more enjoyable. Is UsainBolt the fastest man I will ever see? If I live for another 40 years,for another 20 major championships, I will be speechless if I seesomeone break the record Usain Bolt will leave us with. Not evenevolution is a fast as Bolt.

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ANDY MURRAY @ WIMBLEDON

Andy Murray began his campaign for Wimbledon success before the tourna-ment even began. He was crowned champion at Queens Club. He becamethe first Britain to do so for over seventy years. He was then buoyed by thenews that Raphael Nadal would not be defending his Wimbledon crown dueto injury, meaning Murray would not have to beat anyone seeded higherthan him until the final. He came so close.

Opening Round: Timid and under pressure was the best way to describehis first round victory over Robert Kendrick of the United States. He beathim in four sets, losing the second set tie-break before stepping up a gearat the correct time in each of the last two sets. Something he would doregularly. Disappointing otherwise. 6 out of 10.

Second Round: Next up for Murray was Ernst Gulbis from Latvia. A natu-rally talented player who can show brilliance and stupidity within the spaceof two shots. He was not given the opportunity to show brilliance, Murraydominated from the outset, and his serve in particular was outstanding inits placement and precision. The power element of the serve was there butnot in the same league as Karlovic and Roddick. Murray sailed through 6-27-5 6-3. 9/10

Third Round: Andy Murray V Vicktor Troicki (6-2 6-3 6-4) Another exhi-bition for the Scot, he never really allowed his opponent to settle and hisopponent Vicktor regularly delivered outbursts of frustration. He neednthave, Murray made him look like a club player. 8/10

Fourth Round: Second Week Murray makes history. The Briton becomesthe only player to ever win a full indoor grass court match at Wimbledon.The costly roof was used for the first time in the match between Safina andMauresmo, however, that clash began under the consistent sunshine thathas blessed these Championships. Murray brought the roof down, if youcan pardon the phrase, with a thrilling five-set victory that tested the well

drilled nerves of the British public. Stanislav Wawrinka played his part, andon form like that could be a player to watch for future events, but yousomehow feel his performance was the top of his game, and his mentaltoughness failed him. Wawrinka is a good outside bet in any match up, andworth the punt. Murray nicked the contest with a late kick for the line, justat the right time, again. 8/10

Quarter-Final The Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero was the next challenge,and for the third time in the championships and turned on the style. Hisbest performance of the tournament. Outstanding in every department.

Raised the hopes of the watching public and punditry

to such an extent that his upcoming semi-final with Andy Roddick was re-


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ported as if the result was a mere formality. Not good. Made Ferrero looknot good. The scoreline flatters Ferrero. The rating does not flatter Murray.He couldnt have played any better. Shame he didnt save some of it forthe semi-final! 10/10 (7-5 6-3 6-2)

Semi-Final Anti-climax for British fans as Murray does a Henman. He losesin four thrilling but at times tactically brilliant sets of tennis from Andy Rod-dick. Murray very rarely gets out thought. He did here. Roddick executedhis plans brilliantly, attacking the second serve, coming into the net suc-cessfully, power aces when break points down, and brilliant winners at cru-cial times. The atmosphere was deflated, but in true British style showersof praise were given to Andy Roddick, he deserved them. Just a sidethought, Roddick is a big serving American former World number one, a bitlike the great Pete Sampras (I really do just mean a bit like), and maybethe omens werent too good. Lets hope this is a one off and does not be-

come a trend. The fans could not endure another decade of nearly misses.Murray will come good, Im sure -ish. 6/10bh

OH, and Federer won it by beating Roddick in the longest final ever. Sowe have decided to do the shortest report, ever. Here goes. He (RF) won.Again.

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Monday 5 Aston Villa v Manchester City 8.00pm ESPN

Saturday 17 Aston Villa v Chelsea 12.45pm Sky

Sunday 18 Blackburn Rovers v Burnley 1.00pm Sky

Sunday 18 Wigan Athletic v Manchester City 4.00pm Sky

Monday 19 Fulham v Hull City 8:00pm ESPN

Saturday 24 Chelsea v Blackburn Rovers 5.15pm ESPN

Sunday 25 Liverpool v Manchester United 2.00pm Sky

Sunday 25 West Ham United v Arsenal 4.15pm Sky

Saturday 31 Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur 12.45pm Sky

Saturday 31 Manchester United v Blackburn Rovers 5.15pmESPN

November

Sunday 1 Birmingham City v Manchester City 4.00pm Sky

Saturday 7 Wolves v Arsenal 5.15pm ESPN

Sunday 8 Hull City v Stoke City 1.30pm Sky

Sunday 8 Chelsea v Manchester United 4.00pm Sky

Monday 9 Liverpool v BirminghamCity8.00pm ESPN

Saturday 21 Liverpool vManchester City 12.45pmSky

Saturday 21 ManchesterUnited v Everton 5.15pm ESPN

THE ALL-IMPORTANTTV FIXTURES UNITL

DECEMBER!


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Tiger Woods has come under criticism for his sulking antics when crashingout of the recent British Open in Turnberry. Throwing his clubs, spouting foulF-bombs, damaging tee-boxes (yes tees must have boxes). Lawrence Done-gan (who uses the American-phrases above) describes the abuse hurled atTiger from American sports- anchor Rick OReilly. Here are some of the com-ments from fans across the world.

Joking apart, Tiger does push the boundaries of what's acceptable. I don't mean theswearing, because I defy anyone to find a golfer who isn't prone to frequent F-bombs.But slamming his club into the tee box is a very poor example. Any young golfer thatwatches Tiger thinks that kind of behaviour is acceptable will soon find themselvesbanned from the course.

While we're at it, can we please clear up the loitering mob of morons who shout "getin the hole!" every time he hits the ball? This is by far the worst knock-on effect of the

Woods era. It's no wonder he's throwing his club around; I wish he'd hit them some-times...

People who shout "get in the hole" should be shot. And then buried. so their friendscan also shout "get in the hole".

Also, I've worked out where Tiger is going wrong...look at the picture...he has a bentclub. If i was him I'd get hold of Nike and tell them to sort it out.

And another thing.... nobody seems to be giving any attention to his recent habit of knocking the razor out of my hand when I go to shave.... absolutely ridiculous behav-iour!

TOP FIGHTING TALK!What I take from this article is that parents around the globe now have yetanother crutch to lean on when their half a**ed parenting produces yet an-other incident child influenced by Tiger-antics.I can see it now...

"Well, I don't know what happened to little Johnny to turn him into themoody-lashing-out type. If I had to guess, it was the time Tiger pushed his 5iron into the burn on 16, threw his club all the way onto Ailsa Craig, gobbedall over Lee Westwood's 500 dollar shoes and went on a expletive laced ti-rade in Japanese just to make sure Ryo Ishikawa was suitably offended aswell. Damn you Tiger, don't you realize that kids are watching. Won't SOME-BODY please think of the children!!"

Tiger Woods: On Course Maniac?


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Funny Quotes of the Month

Weightlifting commentator: 'This is Gregorievafrom Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morningduring her warm up and it was amazing.'

Dressage commentator: 'This is really a lovelyhorse and I speak from personal experiencesince I oncemounted her mother.'

Paul Hamm, Gymnast: 'I owe a lot to my parents,especially my mother and father.'

Boxing Analyst: 'Sure there have been injuries,and even some deaths in boxing, but none of

them really that serious.'

Softball announcer: 'If history repeats itself, Ishould think we can expect the same thingagain.'

Basketball analyst: 'He dribbles a lot and the op-position doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all

over their faces.'

At the rowing medal ceremony: 'Ah, isn't thatnice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging thecox of the British crew.'

Soccer commentator: 'Julian Dicks is every-where. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the

field.'


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INSERT YOUR

OWN

ERM...GAG!

Olympic offi-cials promise tolook into Fenc-ing regulationsafter horroraccident...


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FIRST ASHES TEST: MATCH REPORT

Everything began brilliantly for England... and Wales. Every-thing ended brilliantly for England... and Wales. Everythingin between was poor. Poor batting, poor bowling, poor shotselection, poor tactics, poor England.

Australia let England believe that 435 was a competitive to-tal in the first innings, before coming down on them with atonne of bricks. six-hundred and seventy-four for six. Itsounds a lot longer in written rather than numerical form. Itseemed a lot lot longer watching it ball by ball.

Australia lost key pace bowler Brett Lee before the gamebegan, injured with a side-strain, shame. England won thetoss, and appeared to make the right decision selecting twospinners for the bunson-burner (turner) of a pitch, they alsobatted first and made over 400. A typical score for battingfirst. Australia then made nearly 700 and only lost just overhalf there total wickets. It was painful. The Australia secondinnings was the key innings, the Aussies have the strongerbatting line-up and before the game everyone believed(apart from the Aussies) that England had the strongerbowling attack. The baggy greens soon put pay to thatmyth, although the pitch played a huge part, offering no se-rious threat to anyone. It also highlighted the weakness of England's batting, poor decisions-poor concentration-poorbatting, everything the Australians were not.

It looked like the game was going to be a comfortable vic-tory for Australia heading in the second session on day five.England were rocking on 70-5 before lunch and when Flin-toff and the main hero of the day - Paul Collingwood - cameout to bat, all the commentators agreed it was just a matterof time before the game would end, another collapse, an-other loss from the jaws of safety, another example of Eng-land buckling under the pressure. Paul Collingwood wasn'tlistening. He batted, and batted, and batted. Not in the tra-ditional sense of batting. Not to score runs. Not twenty20.


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Not swing-six, swing-four, swing-miss-out. But block-leave-block-block-leave-block. Everything that was required. Bor-ing you might say? Not for a real cricket fan. It was tenseand towards the end of the match, was bringing a cheerfrom every ball. Especially when Monty and Jimmy Anderson(both bowlers - not batters - usually) were blocking awaytowards the end. Huge cheers. Every ball. No runs, no wick-ets, no appeals, just blocks or leaves, but still huge cheers.Brilliant. They survived. England got away with a draw. Itwill feel like a win to every player. On we go to Lords, thehome of cricket, it will take some beating to better the showput on at the home of Welsh cricket.

Note: The hype and over-reaction to Kevin Pietersen's shot is ri-diculous. All the England batsmen got starts and got out. They all

played bad shots. They all played badly. On commentary, Michael Holding gave a fantstic explanation of what the greatest modernbatsmen used to do (Viv Richards) before batting. He used towatch the first few overs - decide his plans for different shots hecould and could not play against different bowlers - then go and relax. Simple but hugely effective. And brilliant advice for the Eng-land team. Monty and Jimmy had plans. They blocked. KP should

have had a plan not to sweep Hauritz when the ball was six foot outside off stump. But to suggest - like some columists - that Eng-land should drop the best batsmen they have, is just as stupid asthe shot itself.


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SECOND TEST: MATCH REPORTLIVE on Twitter

WWWWWWIIIIIICCCCKKKKEEEEETTTTT for Eng-land. Fred Flintoff you LEG-END! Haddin gone inthe 2nd over of the day!

Come on Swanny start turning it square. TheClarke wicket is crucial and he plays spin so well.Moving his feet first ball faced.

BOWLED HIM...SWANNY...CLARKEGONE...WICKET WICKET WICKET...AUS 356-7...

Not quite turning it square, but that was a greatdelivery, especially cause it was only the 2ndbowled by Swann. Only 3 wickets left...

FLINTOFF AGAIN! Bowled AGAIN! Well left Nathan(u did a KP)... Can Fred get a 'five-for' at Lords?

Ill say he will!Australia 363-8. England need two wickets. Aus-tralia need 159. Flintoff 4-69 bowling with realvenom.

Runs still flowing for Australia, Johnson plays awonderful off drive for four runs. Can the Austra-lian tail wag enough for the World Record


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Andrew Flintoff: Lords Honours Board: 5-82.Sounds Fantastic. Writing the Script. Crashed overSiddles stumps by the way...

Aus 389-9. Johnson moves past fifty, but this hasbeen the Flintoff show. His 3rd five-wicket haul.One more wicket left.

I wonder if Glenn McGrath thinks this series isgonna finish 3-1? I bet his money is on Four-Nil to

Australia? Even NOW!England win. First time since 1934. Swann bowlsJohnson. England win by 115 runs. Flintoff lastgame at Lords.


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The Ashes: Fifth TestAll the talk before the decisive fifth and final Ashes test at The Oval

focused on the fragile England middle order, and the growing ex-pectations of one final fling from Freddie Flintoff.

No-one mentioned the Australian side. They had just delivered acrucial blow at Headingley by pounding the hosts with an all-paceattack. No change from the tourists, same team, same result.Oooops, big mistake, not the same wicket. Australia did not selecta spinner, after two or three hours it became clear to everyone(and I am including the Australian selectors) the wicket was aspinners delight. Dry and dusty with variable bounce and a top

surface breaking up before our very eyes. Critical error, as itturned out the England selectors should probably have selected asecond spinner in the young Yorkshire leg-spinning middle orderbatsmen who has scored two centuries and taken five wicketstwice in his last two championship games.

The selectors did make the correct call about the middle orderthough, picking Warwickshire Jonathan Trott to bat at five, andpromoting Ian Bell to number three. Both scored vital runs at vitaltimes under incredible pressure. Trotts second innings 119 de-serves special mention, and is a great example of picking playersfrom the domestic game, at the right time, and will surely bring toan end the test career of Paul Collingwood in the upcoming twelvemonths should Kevin Pietersen return and Ravi Bopara settle in atsix if the extra batsmen is required.

When England reached 307-8 at the end of the first days play, thegeneral feeling was the home side had under-performed. Australiawould be able to bat past 500 and start to dominate the test.

Thankfully for England, and the millions of fans watching and hop-ing for Ashes victory, it was the crucial second day that would fi-nally decide the outcome of the 2009 Ashes series. Friday 21 st Au-gust 2009 will be a day that will live long in the memory of StuartBroad. Stuart Broad speaking in The Daily Mail

I said before the Headingley Test that the bowler I really want tobe like is Glenn McGrath, who probed outside off stump, and that type of bowling will perhaps be the future for me when the dust settles on our achievement. I certainly hope so because Friday waslike an absolute dream.


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He scored a useful 30 odd with the bat, and then ran in andbowled, like Glenn McGrath, aiming at the top of off stump, anddestroyed the Australian top order batsmen. Taking 5 19 in 47balls and blowing away the whole side for a meagre 160 all out. Itgave England a vital lead, and enabled them to set an impossibletarget of 547 to win. It looked decidedly and perhaps mind-blowingly, probable, when Ponting and Hussey were batting on thefourth day, easing past 200 for the loss of just two wickets.

Broad deserved to be named man of the match, and was Englandsleading wicket-taker in the series. At 23, if he keeps bowling likethe afternoon session of the second day, he has the potential tobecome Englands leading wicket -taker of all time. He is the sec-ond fastest player, after Sir Ian Botham, to reach 50 test wickets.However, because of his batting ability, that might just hinder hisdurability and longevity to enable him to surpass Sir Beefys 379test victims. He will, without doubt, take more wickets and scoremore runs than Andrew Flintoff (Beefy the Second), not in thesame barnstorming style, but with far more substance and consis-tency. However, Frederick Andrew Champion-of-the-People Flin-toff, with pure style, delivered the final nail in the Australian coffin.He let rip with a thunderbolt, from about 22 yards, that smashedthe stumps. Not with a bowling action, but more of a baseballpitch, that ran out the Aussie Captain on 66 and triggered a col-lapse, and maybe and end to Ricky Pontings last test match in-nings in England.

England beat Australia by 197 runs, WITH A DAY TO SPARE, to win

the series two-one.What a sentence. What a summer for English cricket fans.


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SERIOUS REPORT TIME: TOP SECRETBRITISH TENNIS:

WHY ARE WE SO CRAP?*apart from the Murray clan!

Andy Murray has just cruised through to the 3rd round at Wimble-don, in spectacular style, continuing his brilliant form from the pre-vious twelve months. Not even one minute has been lost to rain.The current girls champion, Laura Robson, is British. Jamie Murray,the lesser known brother, was the first in the family to claim aWimbledon singles title (the mixed doubles two years ago). Wehave five women in the World's Top 200. Unprecedented. So why

the outcry this year after the dismal performance of the Britishwildcard entries?

The Lawn Tennis Asscociation (LTA), according to Sports MinisterGerry Sutcliffe, recieves huge amounts of financial backing.

"Tennis gets 25m from Wimbledon, 30m from Aegon (as part of a five-year sponsorship deal) and 27m from Sport England, publicmoney that goes into grassroots."

However, it is naive to lay all the blame at the doorstep of the LTA.Jamie Murray, of family name fame and mixed doubles success,believes the problem is far simpler than funding, Wimbledon wild-cards or British coaching. The lack of public courts is the problem.Tennis has plenty of private membership clubs, but hardly anyfree, well maintained, tennis courts. I play tennis, very badly. Iplay, as 'a visitor', in the local 'private' tennis club. This is usuallybusy, and is tarnished by the elitist attitute of its members. Iimagine this to be true across the country. The courts I used as a

youngster, in another part of the country, have now had, ironically,a school built on them. Plenty of kids, nothing for them to do.

So how do players like Andy Murray develop and others are leftbehind?

Murray first picked up a tennis racquet when he was two years old,and was soon playing with his older brother Jamie. Leon Smith,Murray's tennis coach from 11 to 17, said he'd never seen a five-year-old like Murray, describing him as "unbelievably competitive".Murray attributes his abilities to the motivation gained from losingto Jamie, who had been the second-best junior player in the world.


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When playing against Rafael Nadal, who was a year older thanMurray, he found out Nadal was training with Carlos Moya, theworld number one. Murray was angry that he had only his brother

to practice with, so when he was 15 he moved to Barcelona, Spain.He attended the Schiller Internaional School and trained on theclay courts of the Snchez-Casal Academy. Murray described thisas "a big sacrifice to move away from your family, and spendmoney training over there when you're not making any back".

So Murray was not a product of the British system, he had to goelsewhere to learn the edge he appears to have. The desire, theselfishness, the focus. Nothing to do with the LTA. In fact, whenthe LTA did get involved and appointed him with the world classcoach Brad Gillbert, Murray dispensed with his services as soon aspoosible, and appointed his own. He does it his own way, alwayshas, always will. The LTA has adopted the attitude that IT will dothe hardwork for the players currently in the system, and just letthem play tennis. This just creates losers. Clearly.

We should also all stop measuring the success of British players bythe results they have at Wimbledon. These players play all yearround, all over the world. The results of the British women in the

last twelve months have been a real positive.(5 in top 200). Butthe results of the British men continue to disappoint.

The only solution is more public courts (free for kids). Tennisbrought back to schools. Funding to be given to players who pro-gress. Imagine if the funding and wildcards were removed fromthe British players' paths? If they wanted it enough, they wouldwork harder to qualify and earn sponsorship. Surely? If they didn'twant it enough, they should not recieve the money anyway!

Let us hope Murray claims the title and helps all tennis fans forgetabout the lack of depth. British tennis back on the GrandSlam map. All will be well, till nextyear... II was always pretty

shit. but was the bestshit one of my era!


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The Tour de France is the pinnacleof sporting fitness. Just ask BradleyWiggins, possibly the greatest total-tour-de-France-rider in British his-tory. He finished fourth in this yearsevent and claimed after the race thateven 4 th at the Tour de France is

worth more to him than his threeOlympic gold medals. This is opento interpretation, but highlights thesignificance placed on it by thosetaking part. Seven-time TdeF (Tour de France) winner Lance Armstrongfinished ahead of Wiggins in third.Second went to one of the highly-rated Schleck brothers. And victory

went to the even higher-rated Span-iard Alberto Contador. He was bril-liant and breathtaking when extend-ing his lead over Armstrong headinginto the final week of racing. He justheld back before that, there wasnever any doubt in most respectable

pre-race predictions as to who thewinner would be, and who will be

the man to beat in the future.

If Contador is the new Armstrongcapable of excelling at all aspects of TdeF racing, then Mark Cavendish isthe new Osain Bolt of cycling. Hissprinting was outstanding. He wonsix stages. He set a new British re-cord. He failed to win the green jer-sey (the one for top sprinter over thewhole tour based on points won atseparate sections of each individual

stage. I didnt say this cycling lark was easy to understand.) But thiswas a major controversy during one

particular stage when the eventualwinner (Thor Hushvold) made anofficial complaint, which resulted inCavendish getting disqualified fromthe whole stage, and in reality hiswhole chance of green jersey suc-cess.)

2009 TOUR DE FRANCE JERSEY WINNERS:

Yellow jersey: Alberto Contador (Spa/Astana)Green jersey: Thor Hushovd (Nor/Cervelo)Polka dot jersey: Franco Pellizotti (Ita/Liquigas)White jersey: Andy Schleck (Lux/Saxo Bank)

MARK CAVENDISH AFTER HIS SIXTH STAGEWIN OF THE 2009 TOUR AND 10TH IN TOTAL:"It was amazing. I had to win, I said all alongthat I wanted to win on the Champs Elyseesand the feeling does not disappoint. Every

single sprinter in the world dreams of cross-ing the line here with their hands in the air - Iwanted it so bad. George went and justsmoked everybody, then Mark went and Icame past him."

FINAL STANDINGS IN 2009 TOUR DE FRANCE:

1. Alberto Contador (Spa/Astana) 85 hrs 48mins 35 seconds2. Andy Schleck (Lux/Saxo Bank) + 4 mins 11secs3. Lance Armstrong (USA/Astana) + 5 min 24secs4. Bradley Wiggins (GB/Garmin) + 6 min 01secs5. Frank Schleck (Lux/Saxo Bank) + 6 mins 04secs6. Andreas Kloden (Ger/Astana) + 6 mins 42secs


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Kim Clijsters wins US Open asa wildcard, but more impor-tantly to her, as a mum, tocomplete arguably the great-est comeback victory in ten-nis history.

The last time she competed at FlushingMeadows, in 2005, she won the tourna-ment, so maybe we should not be sosurprised. But being surprised or notshould not take away from the triumph,especially when her route to the finalconsisted of victories over both Williamssisters when usually one victory wouldusually suffice in winning any grand slamtitle.

Throw into the mix she had been off starting a family for the last three years,and complete the astounding picture byhighlighting this was only her third tour-nament back and only her second grandslam victory ever!

The photos of mummy with her daugh-ter, and the US Open trophy, filled thefront pages of all the newspapers andwebsites.

Her opponent was the womens versionof Andy Murray or Lleyton Hewitt, a mas-ter tactician who uses the angles andtries to work you around the court. Thefirst Danish women to reach a GrandSlam final, Caroline Wozniacki, wowedthe crowd, or at least certain parts of them during the post-match ceremony,

by using the microphone to offer thanks(or at least I am assuming thats what shewas saying) in her native Danish andfinally in Polish; showing her intelligenceas well as her obvious other talents.

5 BRITISH SPORTING COMEBACKS(ALTHOUGH NOT QUITE THE SAMEAS CLIJSTERS IF YOU GET MYDRIFT... ;@)1. FA Cup final, Wembley 1953, Blackpool 4Bolton 3. Blackpool, with Stanley Matthewson the wing, come back from 3-1 down afterStan Mortensen scored a hat-trick for Bolton.2. US Masters, Augusta, 1996. Nick Faldo goesinto the final round trailing Greg Norman bysix strokes. Faldo goes on to win as Norman'snerve breaks.3. Grand National, Aintree, 1973. Red Rumcomes back from 30 lengths or more behind

to pip Crisp at the finishing post for first of ahat-trick of wins in the great race.4. Embassy World Championships, The Cruci-ble, 1985. Dennis Taylor comes back fromseveral frames down to beat Steve Davis onthe black in the last frame in the final.5. Champions League final, 1999. ManchesterUnited are trailing 1-0 for most of the gameto Bayern Munich, who have dominated.Then in injury time substitute Teddy Shering-ham equalises, before setting up a sensa-tional winner a minute later for Ole GunnarSolskjaer.


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THE PLAYERS REACTION:

Juan Martin Del Potro

"It's difficult to explain this mo-ment," he said. "Since [I was]young, I dream with this and take

trophy with me. I did my dream,and it's unbelievable moment. It'samazing match, amazing people.Everything is perfect."

"The beginning of the match I wasso nervous, I can't sleep last night.I don't take a breakfast today.That's part of the final, you know.But Roger start very good. I startlittle down. Was bad with myserve, and that's importantweapon of my game. When Ibroke his serve for first time, Istart to believe in my game."

"Well, when I won the second set,

I think if I continuing playingsame way, maybe I have chance

to win. But after, when I lost thethird set, going to break up, I startto think bad things, you know. Itwas so difficult to keep trying tokeep fighting. But one more timethe crowd and the fans helped mea lot to fight until last point. Ithink I have to say thank you toeveryone for that."

On building a Grand Slam legacy:"I don't know, I just want to live

this moment. Of course I will bein the history of this tourna-ment. That's amazing for me. Ihave new opportunities in theother Grand Slams to win, be-cause if I did here, if I beat Nadal,Federer and many good players,maybe I can do one more time.But of course, will be difficult, be-cause I was so close to lose today."

Roger Federer

"This one I think is easy to get over justbecause I've had the most amazing sum-mer. I tried everything, you know. Didn'twork. I missed chances. He played welland in the end it was a tough fifth set. It'sacceptable. But life goes on. No prob-lem."


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Fabio Capello has the perfectqualification record. Eightgames, eight wins. Is the suc-

cess down to the Italian orthe players?

Capello came to the helm after theFA was rejected by Jose Morinho. Theoptions of Redknapp andermwell Redknapp anyway, were rejected. There was no English bossgood enough to fit the criteria laidout by the Football Association. Theywanted a manager with a successful,winning record. Capello had that, hedidnt speak the lingo, but hey, whylet a small matter of communicationaffect the decision. He also wanted tobring over a full Italian coachingstaff. He got his request, he got hisEnglish lessons and he gets a stag-

gering 6 million a year. But he alsogets results.

The FA has spent a fortune trying topromote its respect campaign.Thankfully they also spent a fortuneon a manager who has managedsomething I have never seen before,respect from the players. Proper re-spect, not respect for his achieve-ments and previous success, al-though I am positive that helped, butrespect that you have for an oldschool master or a wise old professor.They dont know him as person; theyknow him as a manager.

All the players got the congratulatoryhandshake after qualification wassecured (unlike The Special One whoused to hug and cuddle his captain

Terry). That was all they got. Theyalso got reminded after the gamethat they have achieved nothing andwon nothing, apart from every single

meaningful qualification game, andin style, with more goals than anyother European nation.

He has solved the perceived problemof playing Frank Lampard and StevenGerrard in the same team, with thehelp of Gareth Barry, with devastat-ing effect. He has got Wayne Rooney

scoring goals (he is the top goalscorer in Europe), with the help of Emile Heskey. The Italian has evensolved the problem of who replacesDavid Beckham, with plenty of com-petition between Walcott and Len-non. He might not have solved theproblem of who to play in goal, buthe might be good but he unless hecan have a quiet word with his nativecompatriot Buffon, he can only pickfrom the talent available, and at themoment this is an area of real con-cern for England.

The most critical game played underthe Capello regime so far, under thename of international friendly, wasversus Spain. This game was a foot-

balling lesson, similar to that given toManchester United when they playedBarcelona in the Champions LeagueFinal. The English players were leftchasing shadows. They couldnt getthe ball, and when England werethree nil up versus Croatia, he wasstill shouting furious instructionsabout keeping possession.

His meticulous approach hides theobvious threat he must see in Spain.


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The only other European nation hemust fear. So Capello has made hismark, and justified his huge contract.But this is an England side that has

grown over the last few years, andfor many of the individuals involved,represents the last real chance of international honors. Terry and Ferdi-nand are two of the worlds best, asare Lamps and Gerrard, and WayneRooney is fast becoming the beststriker in the world in Ronaldos ab-sence. Many of the players are at

there peak, last chance saloon. Hope-fully the mix of manager and playershas finally clicked for England.

My instinct just says we, or anybodyelse, have not got a game plan goodenough to beat the Spanish.

Influential Welsh midfielderJason Koumas, who plays forPremiership side Wigan Ath-letic, has decided to retirefrom international footballwith immediate effect.

The 29 year-old who has won 34 caps forWales, has suffered for several months

with hamstring injury problems, andbelieves the only way to extend his do-mestic career is to give himself maxi-mum recovery time between matches.

Koumas was born in Wrexham, and in-formed manager John Toshack of hisdecision after withdrawing from thequalifier against Russia with injury. Al-though a number of senior Welsh inter-

nationals have retired early under theToshack regime, Koumas was always abig favorite of the current manager.

Because Wales now have a seeminglyimpossible task to qualify for next yearsWorld Cup in South Africa, this decisionwill give invaluable qualifying experi-ence for some of the younger, upcomingplayers who have played in the recentfriendlys.


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Chris Hoy DIARY.

20 Aug 08, 07:23 AMCourtesy of the BBC dur-ing there coverage of theOlympics I was going to write a tribute to Hoy,but found this to be thebest tribute to the work and effort of champions,and Hoy in particular. Abrilliant read.

Athlete's Village, Beijing

I am physically and mentallydrained.

The main emotion this morning isless exhilaration and more a mixof relief and exhaustion.

For the first time in months andmonths I'll be able to walk up a

flight of stairs without worryingwhether my legs feel tired.

To finally get it all finished is awonderful feeling. For five daysI've been battling to keep myhead above water

I can pinpoint times in the lastfour years when I've gone throughreal suffering.

Certain sessions I've done havebeen simply horrendous. The onlything that gets you through is thethought of the Olympics and thegold medal.

Out here I would visualise thosesessions and remind myself of everything I've gone through.

If I'd even missed one session, Iwould have lined up with doubtand fear in my mind. What wouldhappen if I lost the gold by onethousandth of a second, becausethere was a training session Iskipped or didn't give my all to?

Instead, I lined up here knowingno-one had trained harder thanme, and that gave me enormousconfidence.It's a really strange feeling today.Every day for as long as I can re-member I've woken up thinkingabout nothing else but the Olym-pics. It feels so weird telling my-self that I don't have to any more.


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I should be able to switch off, now it'sall down, but of course I can't. Thehabits are too ingrained.I've got the three gold medals next to

me now.

They come in a presentation box, butI'm still waiting for the ones from thekeirin and sprint so they're all to-gether in one at the moment. Youalso get a spare ribbon for eachmedal, which as it turns out is quitehandy.

The top of the medals is quite a sharpedge, and the ribbon is gettingfrayed already, even though I'vebarely started wearing them.

While the competition is underway,you don't let yourself imagine how itwould feel to win gold. You're sofocused on each individual race, be-cause otherwise there's no way of getting through it. Our team com-pare it to running the hurdles - youhave to take one at a time.

It makes it all the sweeter when itfinally comes together. When Icrossed the line for the final time inthe sprint it just all came out. In the

velodrome, we battered the otherteams into submission. You could seetheir morale was completely dentedby the first few days. I was almostsurprised at how badly some of themperformed. Some of them didn'teven reach the levels they had at theWorld Championships in March.

The lower your morale, the more youfeel the pain. And when they saw

how our team was riding, everyoneelse just started to crack.The emotional side of it is almosttougher than the physical part.

Before each race you think aboutwhat you're going to do, your planand execution. Then you have therace itself, and afterwards the exami-nation of what you did and how youmight improve, and how you shouldplan for the next one.

That absolutely drains you.

To be honest what's happened outhere hasn't really sunk in. I think it'llonly be when I get back home andget the chance to relax and reflectthat I'll appreciate what we've done.Last night I went out with the teampursuit team, Vicky Pendleton andmy girlfriend for a few beers, but itwasn't a big night.We were just too tired - Jason Kennydidn't even make it out - but tonightwill be a bigger night, and the oneafter that bigger still.

I'm so looking forward to goinghome and being able to do normalthings - to be able to see friends, tohave a beer without worrying about

it. I'm going to take a big break nowbefore I decide what to do next. I'vegot a holiday booked in November,and I won't start discussing the fu-ture until then.

For now, I'm just going to enjoywhat's happened here in Beijing. It'san unbelievable feeling to achieve

the absolute maximum you possiblycan.


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