The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Cavendish enjoys golden day
- Pacquiao eyes another Marquez fight
- The "paralympic" nightmare of a Rio disabled athlete
| Posted: 13 Sep 2012 01:27 AM PDT LONDON: Team Sky rider Mark Cavendish was victorious in a sprint finish on the fourth stage of the Tour of Great Britain in Blackpool on Wednesday, as he claimed the overall leader's gold jersey. Having already won Tuesday's third stage from Jedburgh to Dumfries, the defending world road race champion started the day level with Australia's Leigh Howard of Orica-GreenEdge atop the standings. Cavendish was part of the peloton that eventually closed down a small breakaway group towards the end of the 156-km ride and, after being led out by Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins and Luke Rowe, the Manxman crossed the line under the city's iconic tower just in front of Australia's Garmin rider Steele Van Hoff. The time bonus for winning the stage allowed Cavendish to open up a six-second lead over Howard in the general classification. Following his victory, Cavendish hailed Wiggins, whose knowledge of the local area played a vital role in the team's success in windy conditions. "Bradley lives not far from Blackpool and the route included a lot of the roads he uses for training," he said. "He told us it was very open, and very windy, and he knew the exact place we should go on the attack. It was the perfect call. "It was a grim day but we ploughed through and waited until that moment 22km from home to split things apart. "On those last 5km along the front we just made it so fast that nobody else could get close to us. "We'd expected a crosswind, but in the end it felt like a tailwind, and we were flying." The 27-year-old said that Sky had tried to help Rowe in his bid for overall glory until he saw Howard make his own bid for the line. "Luke Rowe is going for the overall so we tried to let him get a bit of a gap like the other day, but then Leigh Howard jumped so I had to go with him, and then it was quite straightforward for me in the sprint," he said. Rowe and Boy Van Poppel of the Netherlands are both 14 seconds off the pace heading into Thursday's fifth stage, a 147-km ride around Stoke-on-Trent. The eight-stage race finishes in Guildford, Surrey, on Sunday. -AFP |
| Pacquiao eyes another Marquez fight Posted: 13 Sep 2012 01:29 AM PDT SYDNEY: The behaviour of some members of Australia's London Olympic men's swimming team was "childish", veteran Libby Trickett said Thursday, amid accusations of disciplinary problems and pranks. Australia endured its worst swimming haul in decades in London, winning just one gold medal, six silver and three bronze for its lowest tally in the pool since Barcelona in 1992. The lacklustre performance, in which Australia failed to pick up a single individual swimming gold medal for the first time since the 1976 Montreal Games, is being considered as part of an independent review of the sport. Reports Wednesday claimed some members of the six-man freestyle relay team had an initiation ritual in the days leading up to the Games that involved taking Stilnox - a sleeping medication banned by the Australian team. There are also claims of swimmers upsetting teammates and coaches by prank calling and knocking on their doors late at night at their camp in Manchester, two days before the team went to London. "I did hear about the knocking on doors and prank phone calls," Trickett, a three-time Olympian, including in London, told reporters. "I kind of look at this and think this is very childish. "I'm all for having a good time and being light-hearted but I just think there's a time and place." Tommaso D'Orsogna, a heat swimmer for the under-fire relay team, admitted to the Ten Network they behaved more like schoolboys than Olympians. "That kind of behaviour shouldn't be tolerated nor should it be allowed," he said on reflection. "I can definitely confirm that there's no way that any other Australian team that went away to the Olympics would have been mucking around and doing that stuff." D'Orsogna refused to confirm the Stilnox allegations. "I'm not going to be the guy that stands up here and lies to Australia but at the same time I'm just not going to comment." Reports have also said there was a general feeling within the squad that some individual swimmers pursued their own aims, rather than those of the team, something D'Orsogna acknowledged. "We're not there to win medals for ourselves and I think that's something that some people may have lost sight of more than anything," he said. -AFP |
| The "paralympic" nightmare of a Rio disabled athlete Posted: 13 Sep 2012 01:31 AM PDT RIO DE JANEIRO: For Viviane Macedo, Brazil's five-time wheelchair dancing champion, the Rio Paralympics won't have to wait until September 2016. She is already trying to tango with the challenges right here and now, in this city where virtually nothing is done to meet handicapped people's needs. At a bus stop, several buses whizzed by, ignoring her. Those that do stop are not equipped to lift her wheelchair. For the 35-year-old Macedo, getting around this metropolis of 6.5 million people, which will host the Summer Olympics and Paralympics four years from now, is a daily nightmare. Indeed, challenges facing the disabled here run the gamut from subway elevators breaking down a lot, to sidewalks being uncommon, and often pocked with potholes. That makes it hard for anyone in a wheelchair to get around. Meanwhile traffic lights rarely have sound features for the blind, and taxi drivers often refuse to take clients in wheelchairs. "It is virtually impossible for me to get on a bus in this city," said Macedo, who had to move to the Copacabana district to be able to use the subway, which only runs on two lines and covers part of the tourist area. And she does not know whether she will be able to stay in the district much longer, given the skyrocketing real estate prices fueled by an oil boom and the approaching 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Her rent soared 100 percent in one year. She gets no state aid and is suing city authorities to try to get a computerized prosthesis which costs around $30,000. Macedo forgets her misery only when she goes dancing the samba or the zouk (a popular French Caribbean dance) or when she teaches her sport to handicapped children. Wheelchair dancing is not a paralympic sport, but she hopes that the Rio Paralympics, in which 4,200 athletes from 150 countries will compete, will leave a lasting legacy for all of Rio's disabled. Only half of the city's bus fleet is adapted to carry the handicapped, compared with 100 percent in London, which has just staged very successful Paralympics. Rio city officials have pledged that the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system for the 2016 Olympics will be adapted for people with reduced mobility. But in the Barra da Tijuca district where those buses have begun operating, access ramps are too steep, said Teresa Amaral, president of the Brazilian Institute for the Rights of the Disabled. "Blind people in Rio are risk-takers. One of my blind friends died, and was run over by a car as she was crossing the street opposite the Blind Institute, where the city's only traffic lights equipped with a sound alarm for the blind is located," she says. On his return from London with the paralympic banner, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes vowed that things will change. "All (Rio residents) must commit to making this city an accessible and welcoming place for the handicapped," he said. Brazilian paralympians shone in London, winning 43 medals, the seventh biggest haul among participating nations. "The disabled athlete often experiences a moment of glory but when he returns home, he must face a harsh reality: he has no job and his rights are not respected. After winning gold, some even go hungry," said Amaral. -AFP |
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