Did I Leave The Iron On?

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Did I Leave The Iron On? by Greebo T Cat

We welcome Egon to the column with a special report.

ATHLETICS:
Norwich Union Grand Prix, Gateshead
International Stadium

The only major annual international athletics meeting to take place in a dingy town in Tyneside, this was also the first atletics meeting I'd been to.

And it was well worth the nine punds entrance fee for uncovered seating. Many big names turned out, including breathtaking Ethiopian distance runner Kinense Bikele, Britain's top athlete Paula Radcliffe,
Yelena Isinbayeva, the best Pole vaulter in the world and a star-studded damp squib of a women's long jump competition.

Bikele was attempting to break Brendan Foster's stadium record for the men's 3000 metres but, despite a fantastic effort, the swirling winds made it hard for him and he missed out by six seconds.

Paula Radcliffe also missed out on a record, in her case the world 10,000 metres record of 29 minutes 31 seconds. By that late point of the evening, the winds were even stronger than for Bikele, and Radcliffe had to make do with 30 minutes 17, the 8th best time ever.

However, her margin of victory was astonishing - she beat second place Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal by 75 seconds, lapped everyone else in the field and lapped happles Portugese Helena Sampaio (or Helen Shapiro, as I misread the scoreboard) three times. Sampaio ending
over five minutes behind Radcliffe. Such was the breathtaking nature of Radclife's run, that even fifth place Brit Hayley Yelling finished inside the previous stadium record.

Radcliffe isn't planning to enter the 10,000 metres at the Olympics. Why? Well, she's doing the marathon, at which she does hold the world record. She has put her name down for the Olympic 10k, just in case she does decide she's up to it, but as no other British athlete has made the A qualifying standard yet, she isn't robbing anyone else of their place.

Isinbayeva did set a world record in the pole Vault. In fact, it was the second consecutive year that Isinbayeva had broke the world mark at Gateshead. Last year the pole vault was the last event to finish, so
few people remained to see her jump of 4 metres 82. This year, however, the event was earlier, and the women's 10k was last, so people saw it, and applauded.

Isinbayeva's exuberant delight at victory was almost as good to watch as the vault.

In the women's long jump, all-time greats Heike Dreschler, of Germany, and British-born Italian Fiona May both showed that they no longer have what it takes to compete at the top level and Marion Jones, the American under investigation by anti-doping officials, as usual only got a decent jump because her intense speed off the board makes up for her dreadful jumping technique. She is a sprinter who also competes in the long jump as a sideshow, but Carl Lewis she ain't. Tatiana Lebedeva showed herself to be Olympic favourite with victory, British number one Jade Johnson was disappointing, but Kelly Sotherton, who is mainly a heptathlete, but has the long jump as a specialism, fell just short of the Olympic A standard. Another British heptathlete, Olympic champion Denise Lewis, showed why the long jump isn't her specialism, finishing last.

Also in the sandpit, Christian Olsson of Sweden and Brazil's Jadel Gregorio showed that they are the main contenders to take over from Gateshead native Jonathan Edwards as the best men's triple-jumper in the world, although Brits Larry Achike and Phillip Idowu both have an outside chance of an Olympic medal.

On the track, successful Brits included Kelly Holmes (women's 800m), Ian Mackie (men's 200), Chris Rawlinson (mens 400 hurdles) and The Great Britain B men's 4x100 relay team, while Carl Myerscough, who won't be going to the Olympics due to a drugs ban earlier in his
career, won the shot put. Daniel Caines ran a good 400 metres to finish second, and Czech javelin thrower Jan Zelezny had pulled out to go to the football in Portugal.

I could write more. I could write about Kim Collins in the men's 100, about Ana Guevara in a stupid speed suit and about how lovely the freshly made doughnuts on sale in the stadium were. I could tell you how, throughout her 25 laps, Paula Radcliffe got a standing ovation from every set of seats she passed, about how no-one's attention flickered throughout her half hour race, about Helena Sampaio getting a standing ovation from the grandstand when she trailed in five minutes
behind Radcliffe.

But I'll just say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and that nine pound is stupidly cheap although, for another fiver, I could have got in the grandstand and stayed dry.

Egon

Several A/K/A Random's 'sporting blues'

Hello, my esteeemed readers. I'm back again with yet another AmSports report. I actually have seen some video from People's Sunday at Wimbledon and wore an orange shirt for The Netherlands (which no-one noticed.) I also take note of the Tour De France bicycle race beginning this week and that it is reported over here the English champion has already been disqualified for doping implications. Unfortunately, there are also doping stories abounding in AmSport.

I don't care to write about them.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) held its annual amateur draft last week, making 30-some instant millionaire$ out of collegians and some high-schoolers. Millions of bytes have been wasted on speculation and hype.

However, in news one won't see just anywhere, the thoroughbred racehorse Smarty Jones, winner of the first two races in the Triple Crown of three-year-old racing (and second in the Belmont, the final course) will finish out this year in select few races and then be retired to stud at the prestigeous Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky, the heart of American horse racing.

Between stud fees and purses won, Smarty Jones is worth some $50 million$ already, and as much as $50,000 per mare he 'services' while in stud.

Three Chimneys also is the resting place for 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew and a bronze statue of Slew has been erected over his gravesite.

And in a non-sports story of the week, we have the following report out of Cleveland, Ohio : More than 2,700 people braved temperatures in the 50's (around 14 degrees Celsius, I think) and a 4 AM start time to take part in a nude photo shoot at a park outside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum along Lake Erie.

Spencer Tunick, a photographer known for taking pictures of dozens, hundreds or thousands of naked people in public places, snapped the photos for a shoot set up by the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art. He posed 2,754 people to set a North American record for the largest group of naked people in a photograph. Montreal (Canada) had the pervious record of 2,500. (I was home in bed, I was not there, I'm 50-some miles away, and I don't go nekkid in public !) (Much... almost never... not lately.)

This is the beginning of a birthday week for me and many of my friends, and for America. I may not be a flag-waving patriot, but I'm sure as hell glad my grandparents' wedding dowry's were a train and boat ride from Poland across the pond.

This just in : In its infinite capacity for theatre of the absurd, Major League Baseball has scheduled an inter-league series between the two Canadian teams, the Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays, for the Canada Day national holiday weekend... but the games are to be played in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

It's a long, convoluted story of corporate greed and avarice, but the Expos are owned by the 29 other clubs and are up for auction to the highest bidder, and play 20-some 'home' games thousands of miles away in a Latin country. The French-English-speaking Montreal fans have all but deserted the vagabond franchise, refusing to use taxpayer money$ to build the team a new pleasure palace and, in essence, are a shining example of taxpayers refusing to cave in to corporate interests.

Over and out. Take care. Peace.

Did I Leave The Iron On? Archive

Master B

with Several a.k.a. Random 
smiley - vampiresmiley - musicalnote

and Egon

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