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History in less than 2 minutes in Olympic sport - Natalie Coughlin snatches back the world record of 100-meter backstroke
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OMAHA - Call it the one-heat world record. For about two minutes, Hayley McGregory was on the top of the world. Swimming in the second-to-last heat of the preliminaries for the 100-meter backstroke at the United States Olympic Trials, the 22-year-old from Texas clocked a 59.15, breaking the world record by .06 seconds.
When McGregory made the turn at 50 meters on world-record pace, the Qwest Center crowd got firmly behind her, cheering loudly. Natalie Coughlin, whose record McGregory broke, was standing over McGregory’s lane as she finished, getting ready to race in the final heat. The plan was for Coughlin, who this year has recorded three of the five all-time fastest times in the event, to conserve her energy and deliver a nice, easy performance, maybe a second or so faster than her personal best.
When Coughlin saw McGregory’s time, she switched gears. Swimming with a sense of urgency seldom seen from a top swimmer early in the day’s heats, the 25-year-old Coughlin one-upped McGregory with a time of 59.03. McGregory will go down as the world-record holder for less than two minutes. "Not even a whole minute, really," McGregory said with a chuckle. "It’s still awesome." Looking ahead to Monday night’s semifinal, she said, "I’m really excited to race next to her."
The top 16 finishers will race again Monday night, after which the field will be pared to eight finalists, who will compete Tuesday for the two berths to Beijing. "I was planning on going a lot easier this morning," said Coughlin, the gold medalist in the 100 backstroke at the 2004 Olympics with a time of 1:00.37. McGregory’s swim, she said, "gave me motivation to swim a little faster than I was originally planning." Coughlin, a Californian who came into the race with five of the 10 fastest swims in the event, looks at the 100 backstroke as her baby. She wasn’t going to let somebody take it from her without putting up a fight. "I didn’t really want her to have it long," Coughlin said. After all, Coughlin had held the mark uninterrupted since 2002 when she became the first woman to break the minute barrier in this event, going 59.58 six years ago.
Either Coughlin or McGregory, or both, could conceivably take the record down even more in the semifinals later tonight. McGregory may have popped up on Coughlin's radar in a big way, but the 22-year-old from Longhorn Aquatics in Texas is no pretender, having shown sub-minute speed in the event, going 59.46 at a meet in Austin earlier this month. She started her career at the University of Texas, transferred to USC and found herself a bit adrift when the program changed hands from Mark Schubert to Dave Salo when Schubert joined USA Swimming.
The rest of morning preliminaries went to form. Jessica Hardy (1:06.85) of Trojan Swim was the fastest qualifier in the 100 breaststroke, edging her teammates Rebecca Soni, who went 1:06.90. In the men's 100 backstroke, Randall Bal had the fastest time in 53.28. World-record holder and Nike endorser Aaron Peirsol, who experimented with Speedo's LZR Racer, was sixth in the 100 backstroke, going 54.14. "The way everyone's swimming, it looks like it's not that big a deal anymore," Peirsol said, joking of the four world records set here in less than two days.
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Photos courtesy of Al Bello, Donald Miralle/Getty Images, and KCRA
Original Source: NY Times and LA Times
Fuel change breakthrough: biodiesel-powered speedboat Earthrace, around world in 60 days, beats record set in 1998 by 14 days
*Update Jan 6 2010* - Blue Roses to Earthrace Ady Gil: 100% biofuel, spirit of ocean, stands for life, saves crew, sunk by whaler, rests in sea...
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Team Earthrace, led by New Zealand Skipper Pete Bethune, has smashed the world circumnavigation record for a speedboat by almost 14 days. Almost five years of preparation, planning and two record attempts have paid off leaving the bio-diesel powered Earthrace team to claim the round the world speedboat record.
Possibly the coolest powerboat on the planet, the space age, wave piercing trimaran Earthrace took bio-fuel into history as the 78 foot, (24 metre) boat crossed the 'Round the World' finish line in Sagunto, Spain. In just 60 days Earthrace has powered almost 24,000 nautical miles around the world. Earthrace left Spain on Sunday April 27th at 14:35 local time (1325 GMT) and headed west on the long voyage around the world. The previous record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe was 74 days 20 hours 58 minutes 30 seconds, set by the UK boat ‘Cable & Wireless Adventurer’ in 1998.
Tiger Woods amazes once again at Torrey Pines - "He’s good enough he can beat us on one leg"
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Just when you thought there was going to be one less thing to believe in – namely the invincibility of Tiger Woods with a lead in a major golf championship – along he comes to amaze once again.
He slid and bounced about a 15-footer into the side door on the 72nd and final hole to tie the tournament and force the playoff and it was a putt, a moment, that represented the highest kind of drama this sport has to offer. It was amazing stuff, really, and he has done it before and he surely will do it again and no one should ever be surprised when he performs miracles. But he keeps doing it and who isn’t constantly amazed, if only by the sheer volume?
"That man will crawl around if he has to play," Rocco Mediate said of Woods’s wounded knee, which dominated the TV talk and surely was making an impact on Woods, too, although he said the reason his tee shots, most of the day, kept sailing left was “just bad swings."
“He’s good enough he can beat us on one leg,’’ Stephen Ames had said about five hours earlier, when asked who would win. Ames then assumed the stork pose and swung away.
“He can stand up like this and still hit it – ding – 250 (yards) and beat us.’’ read more »
Drivers told to zip lips - NASCAR president Mike Helton says complaining is unfair to fans, who face costly gas, tough economy
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NASCAR is tired of hearing the negative message some of the stock car sport's driving stars have been sending to fans lately. Too many complaints about the new-generation car, bumpy racetracks and numerous other things, and not enough positive reinforcement for fans.
NASCAR president Mike Helton held a "mandatory" meeting yesterday morning for drivers and the team owners at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. Things apparently reached a critical mass last week at Pocono, where it appeared nobody was happy about the rough track or the so-called Car of Tomorrow that is still being developed or the intense heat that had many drivers near exhaustion after a Pocono 500 that most believe shouldn't be longer than 400 miles.
From police reporter to legendary sportscaster: Jim McKay covered 12 Olympic games, host of "Wide World of Sports" for 37 years
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"They're all gone."
More than 35 years later, simply typing those words evokes memories of hooded terrorists and an unspeakable massacre. They were uttered by the great Jim McKay on worldwide television during the 1972 Summer Olympics, after 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were kidnapped in the Olympic Village and slaughtered during a failed rescue attempt at the Munich Airport.
IOC announces four candidate cities to host 2016 Olympic Games: Madrid, Tokyo, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro
"Madrid and Tokyo would seem to be the cities to beat in the race for the 2016 Olympics following the release of the short list determined Wednesday by the IOC Executive Board meeting in Athens. Cut from the field of seven cities were Baku, Doha and Prague. The EB decided on the short list after receiving a report on the seven cities prepared by a panel of IOC experts. The cities were scored by the experts on a 10-point scale across 11 categories. Based on the maximum score received in each category, Madrid and Tokyo ranked consistently higher than the rest of the field and tied in some categories.
In the category of government support, legal issues and public opinion, Madrid scored 9, followed by 8.8 for Rio de Janeiro, 8.5 for Tokyo and 7.9 for Chicago. For general infrastructure, Madrid and Tokyo tied with 8.9, followed by Chicago at 7.4 and Rio de Janeiro with 7.2. Sports venues scores put Madrid at the top with 8.8, followed by 8.7 for Tokyo. Rio de Janeiro scored 7.4 and Chicago 7.2. Tokyo took top spot for its Olympic Village – 8.9 -- with Madrid next at 8.7, Chicago following with 8.6 and Rio de Janeiro trailing with 7.7. In environmental conditions and impact, Madrid and Tokyo tie at 8.8, Chicago scored 8 and Rio de Janeiro 7.6. read more »
Switzerland's Roger Federer Faces Chile's Fernando Gonzalez in French Open Tennis Tournament Quarterfinals
"PARIS (Reuters) - World number one Roger Federer will face Chile's Fernando Gonzalez as he bids to join Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the French Open on Wednesday.
The Swiss top seed has been shunted onto Court Suzanne Lenglen with Centre Court honours going to local favourite Gael Monfils, who will take on Spanish fifth seed David Ferrer in the other quarter-final in the top half of the draw.
Federer should advance having lost only once in 11 meetings with the Chilean, but that one defeat came in their last encounter at the Masters Cup in Shanghai in 2007. Monfils will be hoping to become the first Frenchman to reach the last four at Roland Garros since Sebastien Grosjean in 2001."
Photos courtesy of AP Photo/David Vincent and Reuters/Francois Lenoir
Original Source: Reuters
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