The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Bolt and Rudisha head stellar Zurich field
- Djokovic, Serena cruise, Wozniacki crashes out
- Paralympics: 'Inspirational' Paralympics to open in London
| Bolt and Rudisha head stellar Zurich field Posted: 28 Aug 2012 06:54 PM PDT ZURICH - Sprinting legend Usain Bolt and 800m world record-holder David Rudisha will headline a stellar track and field line-up at Thursday's Diamond League meeting in Zurich. Bolt and Rudisha are just two of 15 newly-crowned Olympic champions on show at the sold-out Letzigrund Stadium, where 14 reigning world champions will also feature. In his only post-Olympic race this year, Rudisha will try to beat the mark of 1min 40.91sec he set in winning the 800m at the London Games, and will have compatriot and regular pacemaker Sammy Tangui on board to ensure a blistering first lap. Three other Kenyans - Anthony Chemut, Timothy Kitum and Leonard Kosencha - will also run alongside Ethiopian teenager Mohammed Aman, British duo Andrew Osagie and Michael Rimmer, and American Duane Solomon in what promises to be a fascinating race. Bolt, fresh from his second successive triple gold haul at the Olympics, again races in the 200m, coming off the back of victory in Lausanne earlier this month in 19.58sec, ahead of Dutch runner Churandy Martina and compatriot Nickel Ashmeade. Martina and Ashmeade will both be in Zurich, along with American Wallace Spearmon and Jamaican duo Warren Weir - the Olympic bronze medallist - and Jason Young, with six of the field having already clocked sub-19.95sec season's bests. The strong Jamaican influence continues in the 100m, where world champion and Olympic silver medallist Yohan Blake could again steal Bolt's thunder. Blake lit up Lausanne when he raced to victory in 9.69sec to move into second place on the all-time performers list, which he now shares with American Tyson Gay. Bolt leads the way with the 9.58sec he set when winning at the 2009 Berlin World Championships. Gay and Jamaica's Nesta Carter, second and third behind Blake in Lausanne, are also on the start list, along with US duo Ryan Bailey and Darvis Patton, another Jamaican in the shape of Michael Frater, and Trinidad's Keston Bledman. Only France's European champion Christophe Lemaitre and St Kitts and Nevis veteran Kim Collins, who was axed from the Olympics by team officials after an apparent row over visits to see his wife, have failed to break the 10sec barrier this season. Elsewhere on the track, Russia's Yuliya Zaripova has forsaken pacemakers in her bid to better the world record she holds in the 3000m steeplechase, while Olympic champion Sanya Richards-Ross of the United States faces no less than six of her opponents in London over the 400m. The men's 5000m might be missing the presence of Britain's Mo Farah, who claimed a memorable distance double on home turf at the Games. But his training partner, Galen Rupp, will be running in a high-quality field arguably much tougher than that at the Olympics because countries are not restricted to just three entries. No less than nine Kenyans and six Ethiopians will compete, making Rupp's team tactics alongside fellow Americans Bernard Lagat and Lomong Lopez crucial over the 12-and-a-half-lap race. - AFP |
| Djokovic, Serena cruise, Wozniacki crashes out Posted: 28 Aug 2012 07:22 PM PDT Published: Wednesday August 29, 2012 MYT 9:53:00 AM Updated: Wednesday August 29, 2012 MYT 10:22:00 AM NEW YORK - Defending champion Novak Djokovic and triple women's winner Serena Williams stormed into the US Open second round on a breezy and humid Tuesday night at Flushing Meadows. World number two Djokovic needed just 73 minutes to finish off an embarrassingly one-sided 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 mauling of hapless Italian Paolo Lorenzi. The second-seeded Serb overcame dropping his serve in the opening game to reel off 18 of the next 19 games, firing seven aces as well as 32 winners against 30-year-old Lorenzi, who has never won a Grand Slam match. "My game was great from start to finish. It was important to be economical with my time on court. I tried to get to the net and stay focussed," said Djokovic, who next faces Brazil's Rogerio Dutra Silva. Williams, the champion in 1999, 2002 and 2008, and twice a runner-up, was just as ruthless in the concluding match on Arthur Ashe Stadium, sweeping past US compatriot Coco Vandeweghe 6-1, 6-1. The Wimbledon and Olympic champion, who has 14 Grand Slam titles to her name, next tackles Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. "The conditions were really crazy, but, hey, it's the US Open so you have to be ready for the worst conditions," said Williams, who has won 37 of her last 39 matches on tour. "I was ready for today and coming here as Olympic champion, I feel so great." While Djokovic and Williams were enjoying evening strolls, next door on Louis Armstrong court, former world number one and 2009 runner-up Caroline Wozniacki, without a title this year, was crashing to a painful first-round loss. The Danish eighth seed, watched by golfing superstar boyfriend Rory McIlroy, was beaten by World No. 96 Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2, 6-2. Wozniacki came into the match with her knee heavily strapped, having picked up an injury at New Haven last week, and she needed more treatment on Tuesday before slipping to defeat. "I tried and didn't succeed in playing well. There were too many errors. It's frustrating but I will have to move on," said Wozniacki, who made the semi-finals in the last two years. Andy Roddick, America's last men's major champion when he captured the 2003 US Open title, eased past compatriot and qualifier Rhyne Williams, the World No. 289. His comfortable 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win was a gentle way to start his 13th successive US Open appearance, which also comes just two days before his 30th birthday. Roddick will next face Australia's Bernard Tomic. Fellow US veteran Venus Williams, the 2000 and 2001 winner, also won an all-American match-up, beating wildcard Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3, 6-1. Williams, playing her 14th consecutive US Open, missed nine months of action with the fatigue-causing Sjogren's Syndrome and came into the tournament ranked at 46. Victory was a welcome relief after slumping to a first-round loss at Wimbledon this year. The 32-year-old next faces German sixth seed Angelique Kerber, who knocked her out of the Olympics. Wimbledon runner-up Agnieszka Radwnaska and former world number one Ana Ivanovic also breezed into the second round as both women look to bury their woeful Flushing Meadows records. Polish second seed Radwanska and Ivanovic, the 12th-seeded Serb who was French Open champion in 2008, have never got beyond the fourth round in New York but have been quarter-finalists at the other three majors. Radwanska began her campaign with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Nina Bratchikova with the Russian's challenge undone by 28 unforced errors. Next up for Radwanska is Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro. Ivanovic defeated 17-year-old Ukrainian qualifier Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-2 and goes on to face Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson. French fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a quarter- finalist in 2011, advanced to the second round by defeating Slovakian qualifier Karol Beck 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (7/2). There were also wins for Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, who beat Belgium's David Goffin 7-5, 6-3, 6-3, and Spanish 11th seed Nicolas Almagro, who saw off Czech veteran Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4. Canadian 15th seed Milos Ranoic survived a gruelling five-setter to beat Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, firing 30 aces in the process. On a bad day for Argentina, 10th seed Juan Monaco surrendered a two-set lead to lose to Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/3). And former world numer three David Nalbandian pulled out of the tournament, where he was set to face compatriot and 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro on Wednesday, with a rib injury. - AFP |
| Paralympics: 'Inspirational' Paralympics to open in London Posted: 28 Aug 2012 06:51 PM PDT LONDON - The Paralympic torch was on Wednesday heading to London in an overnight relay through the countryside of southern England, to arrive in the British capital for the Games' traditional opening ceremony. The Paralympic torch was lit at the spiritual home of disabled sport - Stoke Mandeville - on Tuesday evening and sent on a 92-mile (148-kilometre) journey southeast carried by 116 teams of five people. Once in London, it will pass well-known landmarks such as Lord's cricket ground, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey and Tower Bridge, gradually heading east to the Olympic Stadium for the ceremony at 1930 GMT. Queen Elizabeth II was due to formally open the Games during a spectacular called "Enlightenment", billed as a "celebration of the inspirational spirit of the Paralympic Games that challenges perceptions of human possibility". The British Paralympic Association (BPA) said earlier this year that the ceremony would be "groundbreaking in its inclusivity and innovative staging", showcasing deaf and disabled artists. The ceremony has been created by artistic directors Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings, both of whom have a long history of hosting live shows involving disabled performers. More than 3,000 adults will be among the cast, as well as over 100 children and 100-plus professional performers, while "Aerobility", a British charity that trains disabled people to become pilots, will perform a fly-past, the BPA said. The traditional curtain-raiser to 11 days of elite disability sport comes as the Games have been hailed as the biggest and most-high profile Paralympics since the inaugural edition in Rome in 1960. A record 4,200 athletes, including an unprecedented number of women, are due to take part in 20 sports, with the event a near sell-out for the first time and due to be broadcast to millions worldwide. Organisers believe much of the interest has come after a successful Olympics for British athletes, which saw the host nation finish third in the overall medal table behind the United States and China. Britain is also considered the "spiritual home" of the Paralympics, as the first recognised sports events for athletes with disabilities was held in Stoke Mandeville in 1948. The sporting action begins on Thursday, with shooting set to provide the first gold of the Games in the women's 10m standing air rifle. Medals are also up for grabs in the velodrome with the finals of the men and women's individual pursuit, in four weight categories in judo at the ExCel Arena and at the Aquatics Centre, where 15 swimming finals are to be held. The showpiece athletics programme gets under way on Friday, with the highlight Oscar Pistorius, who is seeking to defend his T44 100m, 200m and 400m titles from Beijing four years ago. Pistorius, dubbed the "Blade Runner" because he runs on carbon fibre blades, made history earlier this month by becoming the first double-amputee to compete in the Olympics, when he ran in the 400m heats and 4x400m relay final. But on Tuesday he played down expectations of repeating his Beijing treble, with Britain's world-record holder Jonnie Peacock and world champion Jerome Singleton of the United States likely to feature in the 100m final. "It's important to note that I haven't run a 100m personal best in five years. It's not really my event," he told a news conference, adding that he would "be happy" with a medal of any colour in the blue riband sprint. - AFP |
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