olympic 2012 - Dhaka Mirror

End of a supreme carnival

Admin — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:57:48 +0000

London Olympic 2012
End of a supreme carnival
At the end of a long, raucous night, it was inevitably the words of Lord Sebastian Coe that best summed up the last sixteen days of whirlwind madness in London.
“When our time came, we did it right,” said Coe in his short and sweet speech towards the end of the Closing Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium, and it had the capacity crowd at the stadium clapping in agreement.
And London did do it right. Pre-Games jitters about transport, budget et al where brushed aside emphatically by the performances of a galaxy of stars including Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Jessica Ennis, Mohammad Farah, David Rudisha and Sir Chris Hoy.
There were intricate storylines, from Michael Phelps defending his juggernaut reputation to Usain Bolt ascending the pantheon of legends. But there was also a blind archer who broke a world record and a man without legs who made it to the finals of a 400-metre relay.
And then, there was also the collective euphoria that carried Team Great Britain or Team GB as they were known to exalted heights. At the 2004 Athens Games, Great Britain combined for just nine gold medals and 30 overall. This was not a sporting powerhouse. When the nation was granted these Olympics, the government invested in infrastructure and training, and suddenly there were times it felt like no other nation stood a chance. The United States and China still finished first and second in the medal standings but “Team GB,” as it was hailed, finished third with 29 gold medals and 65 overall.
For once, the British had their own heroes, and they delivered. Jessica Ennis won the heptathlon, Mohammad Farah sent the stadium into raptures and in the futuristic Velodrome, Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy shot them to new heights.
London, then, had much to celebrate of their own.
But even if they lacked characters of their own, they could certainly adopt many. Michael Phelps came into London with his reputation on the wane. In his swansong, the legendary swimmer proved true the oldest rule in the book: never count out a champion. He left London as the most decorated Olympian of this Games and also the most decorated Olympian of all time.
But if we are to celebrate London, then we need to turn our attentions to the one man who transformed what might have been just a good Games to what became a phenomenal one.
Sport needs characters, and in Usain Bolt, track and field has found its Muhammad Ali. Bolt is currently the most thrilling athlete in the world, and you can feel it in the electric pulse that resonates across the stadium whenever the crowd catch a glimpse of him. Bolt performed for less than two minutes in London, but those are two minutes that will be seared in the memory of all those lucky enough to have been there. He also took home three gold medals and regaled all with panache and character. Bolt really was the fulcrum of the Olympics.
But London 2012 would also not have been what it was without the help of the 70,000 volunteers who stood day and night outside underground stations, at malls, at bus stops and inside the stadium to help out every single visitor, media personnel or athlete who might have run into any difficulty. The Gamesmakers really did what their name said they would — they made these Games.
In the end, it was all so picture perfect, that even the weather decided it would cooperate.

-With The Daily Star input

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Blake to carry Bolt legacy

Admin — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:06:28 +0000

In the run-up to the London Olympics Glen Mills faced one sweet problem on whether to pursue Usain Bolt for further glory or prepare Yohan Blake to break the final barrier.
Now the Games is over and Mills, the coach of Racers Track Club in Jamaica, where both Bolt and Blake train, can happily look back into it to see both of his boys doing exactly what they were expected to do.
While Bolt completed his journey towards becoming a living legend, Blake took the stepping stone, winning two silvers behind his senior partner and passing him the baton for relay win.
After their world record win in 4×100 metre relay, Bolt wanted to keep the baton with him but was denied the opportunity by the Games’ officials who argued it was against the rule.
The officials even went to the scale of threatening Jamaica to be declared disqualified if he does not return the baton before they got back their senses and fulfilled his wish.
His team-mate Blake later explained that Bolt wanted his baton to have a signature of all Jamaican athletes, who contributed to the stunning 36.84 seconds record relay win.
With his age now close to 26, Bolt is unlikely to have the same sparkle in Rio de Janeiro and he hinted several times that lack of motivation could drive him out of athletics anytime soon.
So one cannot really blame Bolt for his simple wish, though it is not actually permitted by law. His gold medals are not there to share, so he needed something else materialistic to pass on to his next generation.
In his immediate reaction after the race was over Blake joked that this group
of Jamaican athletes are not humans and dropped from space like comedy king Mr Bean. ‘Mr Bean is not a normal guy. We are not normal guys. We are from space, I am from Mars.’
On any other day this could be viewed as an audacity. But no one took it in that way as it was not difficult to see the lighter part of it. Bolt scolded Blake for saying these crazy words and added: ‘If he keeps talking like that, someone is going to put him in a straight jacket one day.’
From Mars or any other planet, Bolt, however, believes his next generation of athletes will emulate his feat in the coming years and at the moment his best bet is Blake himself.
Since his defeat in Jamaican trial, Bolt reminded Blake all the time how he was going to avenge this in London but at the same time also motivated him to be prepared for the future.
‘I have always told him that he has born in a wrong time and London is going to be my Olympics,’ Bolt said on several occasions. ‘But he is now only 22 and will be on top of his form in Rio.’
Blake has no reason to disagree. He handed Bolt the baton in the relay to complete the world record and has the chance to take it back from him with his signature to carry Bolt’s legacy if he is not around in four years time in the Brazilian capital.

-With New Age input

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Jamaica’s win cements Bolt’s Games

Admin — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:04:52 +0000

If Beijing belonged to Michael Phelps, London belongs to Usain Bolt.
The fastest man on earth completed a unique, unprecedented triple double after running anchor as Jamaica crushed the world record to win the men’s 4X100 metres relay at the
Olympic Stadium in London on Saturday.
Fittingly, Bolt’s last run was the end of the athletics programme at the Olympic Stadium and completed a unique set for the Jamaican legend. Bolt is six for six in Olympic finals; in baseball parlance that is equal to pitching a no-hitter, in cricketing parlance, it probably equals hitting six consecutive centuries in World Cup games.
It’s a rare, almost superhuman feat.
Bolt, on his own, is almost unbeatable. Bolt with Yohan Blake and other members of Jamaica’s growing sprint brethren is almost alien. No wonder then, that in the mixed zones after the race, Blake said, “We dropped from space like Mr Bean. Mr Bean is not a normal guy, he makes jokes. We are not normal guys. We are from space, I am from Mars.”
That had the press in fits. Even Bolt shook his head.
“I told him, if he keeps talking like that, someday someone is going to put him in a straitjacket,” said Bolt.
On Saturday night, no one could. Blake has been almost a shadow Bolt in London — waiting, biding his time to make his move. He is four years younger and if he manages to keep up his level of growth, Bolt’s records might not hold as long as many might believe.
Blake ran the third leg of the relay. When he got the baton, Jamaica were clearly behind, but Blake accelerated in searing pace and when he handed the baton to Bolt for the last 100, the Jamaicans were caught in a dead-heat down the straight with the USA. Ryan Bailey is fast, but against Bolt, he stood no chance as the latter won by a couple of metres.
The Jamaican barrelled down the straight in lane seven sealing a quite unbelievable series of triumphs. “My lucky number,” he said later after he had bent down to kiss the athletic track.
This time there were less histrionics from Bolt. In a manner of speaking, he expected this. The USA team was good. In truth they were excellent, equalling the Jamaicans’ previous world record of 37.04, but the Caribbean team were better, stopping the clock under 37 seconds for the first time.
Maybe he didn’t smile as much, asked the press?
“I think the crowd will forgive me for not celebrating as much,” said Bolt.
But in truth he did, joining the British distance runner Mohammad Farah on stage to pull out a celebration that will yet live on as one of the most iconic images of the games. Bolt passed over his famous ‘to di world’ pose to Farah and borrowed the Briton’s expansive Mo-bot.
“Me and Mo, we go way back,” said Bolt. “We have been through many ups and downs together.
“I had planned to do the MoBot before, but it slipped my mind. Before the race today, I watched Mo win the 5000 metres and made a note to do this,” he said.
It was a fitting image to bring the curtain down on track and field in the Games. Usain Bolt and Mohammad Farah; two of the most enduring athletes of the Games, together, celebrating as 80,000 plus people inside the stadium cheered endlessly.
It will possibly also be the last time we see Bolt in the Olympics. He has already branded Rio in 2016 as a ‘very difficult challenge’ and Bolt seems like a man who has achieved every goal he ever set out for himself in this sport.
“The rest of the season, I will just be running for my fans,” he admitted. “Running as a living legend.”
For Bolt, life now seems about relaxing. Asked what he would probably be doing in 2022, Bolt’s answer was instantaneous.
“Just chilling somewhere. I am a lazy person.”

-With The Daily Star input

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2012 ‘off-the-chain’

Admin — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:03:19 +0000

London Olympics 2012
2012 ‘off-the-chain’
If there ever was a one-word summary to describe the 30th Olympiad in London, the USA athlete DeeDee Trotter found it during one of many press conferences at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday.
“Off-the-chain,” said Trotter and the whole room burst out laughing. “And that is putting it mildly,” she continued. Trotter was right. London has indeed been, in the parlance of the times, ‘off-the-chain.’
Before the Games had started, much had been made of the fact that London was hosting the Games in times of such austerity. But in truth, all of the three times London hosted the Games have been during times of struggle. But the British had risen to the challenge then and they had risen to the challenge now, putting on a show of such honed perfection, that there really can be no complaints.
London lacked the gloss of Beijing or the freshness of Sydney, but in its own way, London hosted the Games like no city ever can, supporting it, nurturing it and loving it more than anyone ever has. If indeed, the Games were to have a spiritual home, London would probably be it.
Usain Bolt famously complained about the petty rules that the organisers imposed that make no sense to him, but even he admitted how kind London had been to him. “I don’t get the chance to run here often, but I love this place.”
A big part of all that love has definitely been the crowds who have turned up for every single session of the Olympics, be it heats, first rounds, semifinals, etc.
“I have never seen a crowd as big for heats,” admitted Trotter. “It was chaos, but it was good chaos,” she concluded.
Indeed, the sentimentality of the British public, many of whom spent a lot of time and a lot of money navigating the archaic website system to secure a ticket, was perhaps the biggest victory of the Olympics.
Many local newspapers characterised the Britons as serial moaners leading up to the Games, where numerous issues about transport and budget seemed headline news everyday.
But come Games time, everything went without a hitch, thanks in large part to the excellent volunteers or Gamesmakers, who were helpful, polite and friendly to thousands of strangers who had descended upon their city.
But as mentioned, the fans were special. Not just in lauding their own heroes in Jessica Ennis and Mohammad Farah. True, the stadium felt like it would explode when Ennis secured gold, and it felt like it would evaporate in a wall of sound when Mohammad Farah did his double gold or when Bolt pulled out his amazing feats.
But it was the applause feted out to those less lucky, or less fortunate but no less enduring that made this so special. The stadium blew its top to honour Caster Semenya, the South African girl who won silver after so much controversy over the last couple of years. It clapped relentlessly as Oscar Pistorius finished his 4×400 relay in last place and it also saluted Sarah Attar as she ran the 800 metres heat and finished last.
Through their fans, London managed to portray the image of itself it had hoped to emanate through the Games. Gold medals are important, but in true Olympic ideals, it’s not the winning that matters, but
the taking part. Oscar Pistorius’s mother would have understood.

-With The Daily Star input

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A question and grim reality

Admin — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 19:59:51 +0000

The American journalist was clearly irritated by the presence of so many Bangladeshi newsmen at the press conference after almost every athletics event at London.
He had no clue as to why a country would be so highly represented despite them having no stake in any of the events. Spurred on by the question from his deep inside, he finally took the courage on Saturday and asked the obvious.
Before Usain Bolt had his last press conference he politely approached a Bangladeshi journalist sitting next to him and said in a controlled voice: ‘ Can you please tell me why so many Bangladeshis are here?’
The answer was almost ready for him: ‘We are here because we love the game.’
The journalist in his mid-40s must have wondered athletics is a highly popular game in Bangladesh it would be no surprise to see the next Usain Bolt coming from the country.
While he will be partly correct in thinking that it is very popular in Bangladesh, any thought of seeing an athlete, who can compete at global stage would appear absurd.
With the London Olympics is now over, it is perhaps now time to look back, how far Bangladesh are behind from the world in terms of track and field, which is called queen of all sports.
In London, Bangladesh had just one representative in athletics and the timing of Bangladesh’s lone athlete Mohan Khan came as yet another shock if not a big surprise.
He ended his 100-metre sprint heat in 11.25 seconds, exactly 1.62 seconds less than fastest man Usain Bolt in the competition. After his event Mohan had claimed to have made some kind of progress as it was still his best timing in career.
But it was certainly not the best timing for Bangladesh in the Olympics. In 1988 Seoul Olympics, Mohammad Shahjalal completed his 100-metre in 10.94 seconds, which was just a second more than then fastest man Carl Lewis, who took 9.92 seconds.
In 24 years time when top athletes are thinking if it was possible to run 100 metres in 9.4 seconds, the gap with Bangladesh only widened. Shahanuddin Chowdhury ran 200 metres for Bangladesh in 21.18 seconds at Barcelona in 1992 and it is still the Olympic record for the country in the event.
Bangladesh failed to find a new talent in 20 years to improve the record of Shahanuddin Chowdhury. The same can be said about 400m, 800m and 4x100m relay.
Milzar Hossain ran 400 metres in 48.76 seconds in the Seoul Games and no-one came later to improve his record. Milzar also holds the Olympic record of 1:51.16sec for Bangladesh in 800-metre.
Since Sahajalal, Shahanuddin and Milzar, Bangladesh had also produced some talent in Mahbub Alam, Bimal Chandra Tarafdar, but could not get the best out of them.
Bimal ran away from the Games’ village in Atlanta to put the country in a shame, while Mahbub ended his long fight with poverty when he died in a car crash in 2010.
With no new talent on the horizon, Bangladesh is unlikely to find their own hero anytime soon and can only look at Bolt, Blake and others to appease their thrist. No American will realise it unless they know the reality.

-With New Age input

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Gold eludes Brazil again

Admin — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 20:42:23 +0000

London Olympics 2012
Gold eludes Brazil again
Romario couldn’t do it, Bebeto couldn’t do it, Rivaldo couldn’t do it, Ronaldinho couldn’t do it. Neither could Brazil’s latest poster boy Neymar. The weight of history proved far too much for Mano Menezes’s young Selecao and their dreams of Olympic gold crumpled to dust on the picture-perfect Wembley turf on Saturday.
Mexico were their latest conquerors, as two goals from the dynamic Oribe Peralta saw them coast to a 2-1 win at the home of football. It also provided a re-run of football’s oldest narrative; that collective discipline beats individualism every time.
For Brazil, the galling part was that both goals came from largely avoidable errors. The first, after just 25 seconds, came after the Manchester United right-back Rafael was caught in possession by Javier Aquino and the ball broke for Peralta to send an emphatic finish inside Gabriel’s near post. It was the fastest goal in Olympic history and the fastest ever in the final of a FIFA tournament.
The second goal after 75 minutes, saw the Brazilians leave Peralta inexplicably unmarked from a set-piece to place a header into the bottom corner of the net.
By then though, they game was almost over.
Brazil, looking uncharacteristically uninspired had struggled to employ any measure of control on the game throughout. They were not helped by the head-scratching tactic of Menezes of employing the defensive minded Alex Sandro in place of Hulk in the starting line-up. It seemed neither Menezes nor Sandro was sure of what the latter’s role in the line-up was as he was consistently shuffled either left or right after Menezes finally corrected his error following a painful half-hour in which Brazil failed to muster a single effort on goal.
The newly-introduced Hulk soon remedied that statistic with a pile-driver from range that the Mexico goalkeeper Jose Corona did well to keep out. But that was the one bright spot in an insipid Brazil display in the first half.
The South Americans showed signs of life early in the second half but despite some good probing by Oscar and Neymar, there really was no finishing quality to the approach play. The Santos star missed the most presentable opportunity when he side-footed over the bar after the ball had broken to him inside the box.
Mexico though, were always threatening on the break and were unlucky not to grab a goal when Marco Fabian only managed to hit the bar after being set clean through on goal from another defensive lapse. But Mexico need not have worried because moments later and from a soft free-kick Peralta made sure that the El Tri would crown an emerging nation of talented footballers with the gold.
For Brazil, Hulk’s goal at the end and the silver medal will provide scant consolation for a performance lacking in vigour, belief or fantasy; three of many qualities that had made them such a name to be reckoned with in the past.
The serial champions of Brazil have not won a title in three years, and even that was the Confederations Cup. Their last title of any significance was the Copa America in 2007 and the pressure will indeed intensify on Mano Menezes, who was tasked with the responsibility of building a Brazil side capable of winning the World Cup at home in 2014.
Not all is wrong however, and using just this final as evidence of an inquest into the state of Brazilian football would be a knee-jerk reaction. Indeed, it had all started so promisingly for Brazil, as their exuberant attacking play throughout the Olympics had won them many admirers across the breadth of Great Britain. London, then was supposed to be their crowning glory, the final denouncement in a play that had seen their other great challengers, Spain and Uruguay fall by the wayside early. The stage it seemed was set for Brazil to finally win the one trophy that still eludes them.
But Mexico were not to be written off. Their recent titles in youth level showcase a team who show grit to go with their flair and on Saturday at Wembley they showcased exactly that, proving far more astute tactically than the naïve Brazilians.
The South American’s take the Olympics seriously, so much so that the great Ronaldo was famously asked just moments after the World Cup triumph in Asia in 2002 whether he would be leading the side into the Athens Games in 2004.
There comes a time for every nation when the past stops being an inspiration and starts to become a burden. For the Brazilian’s their failure in London would suggest that the Olympics seem to have reached that stage already.

-With The Daily Star input

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Curtain drops on Olympics tonight

Admin — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 20:40:52 +0000

After two weeks of frantic excitement, on and off the field dramas, a loud cheer from the fans and birth of many new champions, the London Olympics comes to an end tonight with a dazzling closing ceremony.
The cauldron of the Games will be formally extinguished sometime in zero hour in London to signal the end of what the British media have already called the most successful ever Olympics.
The closing is unlikely to match the Games’ glitzy opening ceremony but it promises at least some glamour with performance from Spice Girls and some other famous British bands.
Titled ‘A Symphony Of British Music’ the closing ceremony will mainly highlight the 50 years of British music and culture just like the opening ceremony projected the country’s industrial and technological might.
The details of the closing ceremony, which will start with a pre-show at 1:00am (Bangladesh Standard Time), were kept secret officially but it did not end the guessing game.
Local media have already revealed many secrets and they were helped by rehearsal held at Ford car park in Dagenham in east London.
Photographs of all five reunited Spice Girls dancing atop black London taxis in rehearsal emerged in newspapers making a rendition of some of their hits almost certain.
The globe-conquering boy band One Direction along with Coldplay, Muse, The Who, Queen, Madness, Annie Lennox, Kaiser Chiefs, Tinie Tempah, Jessie J Ed Sheeran and Elbow are also expected to feature.
Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell are set to feature in a segment celebrating British fashion while Jessie J will reportedly perform in an open-top Rolls Royce before Pet Shop Boys enter the stage on cycle-rickshaws.
Daily Mail reported that the show will also feature models of London landmarks including Tower Bridge, Big Ben and St Paul’s Cathedral.
The creative director and choreographer of the ceremony is Kim Gavin, who may not have the fame as Danny Boyle, the Oscar-wining film director who had conducted the opening ceremony, but he has at least something in him.
Kim Gavin has overseen tours for the band Take That and directed London’s 2007 Princess Diana memorial concert, which made him a worthy choice for such a glamorous ceremony.
Es Devlin, who designed the sets for closing ceremony, is also not known as any callow having an experience of creating sets for everyone from Lady Gaga to the Royal Opera.
The closing ceremony will have some protocol events as usual like playing the Greek national anthem, lowering the Olympic flag and a parade of athletes.
To mark the transition of Olympics from one city to another, an artistic segment of the closing ceremony lasting eight minutes, will be devoted to the next host city Rio de Janeiro. The segment is an invitation to the youth of the world to attend the next Olympics.

-With New Age input

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‘Nice girl’ Felix third time lucky

Admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 09:07:36 +0000

She was accused of being too relaxed in Beijing. Coming as overwhelming favourite, with two world championship titles to her name, Allyson Felix had expected it to be an easy walk in the park.
One of her key aim was to be a role model and for that she had some other commitments too. She voluntarily submitted herself for extra anti-doping test as part of a programme called Project Believe and it successfully restored some image of US sprinters, who were tainted by numerous dope scandals.
It gave her an image of a ‘nice girl’ and needless to say made her some kind of role model. But what needed most for her to be a real role model is the race itself and it is where Felix failed agonisingly.
Instead of seeing her tall on the podium, Felix discovered Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown stole the show once again. She lost 200m-sprint to Veronica in Athens too, but was not at least an upset.
She rather announced her arrival at world stage with silver medal in Athens Olympics. She dominated the race completely over the next four years and was expecting her success to be culminated in Beijing, but the script did not go as she had envisaged.
Life has taught her a lot since her unexpected failure in Beijing and she had had gone though a lot of changes too. The one she changed most is her ‘nice girl’ image which came as a real help.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, winner of three Olympic gold medals in heptathlon and long jump and the wife of her coach Bobby Kersee, had once advised her to start 100m seriously in order to be successful in 200m sprint.
After she finished again as silver medallist in Beijing, Felix had no choice but to take the advice of Jackie, hailed as America’s one of the all-time great athletes, seriously.
But it was not very easy for her to qualify for America in 100 metres, which was already crowded. The trial for London Olympics could be an example of how difficult it could be.
She finished tied with Jeneba Tarmoh for the third and final spot in US trial last June, crossing finish line in identical 11.068 seconds. At first Tarmoh was judged to have beaten Felix for bronze, therefore earning a place in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
However, judges later said the two had finished in a dead heat. After deciding against a coin flip the two were set to race each other to determine who would hold on to the final Olympic qualifying spot.
But Tarmoh pulled out of the race, saying she did not have to run again after already initially being given a place by the judges. Felix, once regarded as ‘nice girl’, did not really bother and grabbed her chance.
The qualification in 100-metre sprint brought back the necessary aggression she was badly missing and the reward was there for everybody to watch. She pushed her one-time nemesis Veronica to fourth place and edged past two-time world’s fasted lady Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to finish 200m in 21.88.
The tension in her face that was reflected on the big giant screen before the race was quickly gone and it was all smiles after she crossed the line, adding an Olympic title to her two silver and three world championships 200m gold medals.
‘It’s been a long time coming. Before the race, I just reflected on the journey I’ve taken. I thought back to Beijing and seeing my family at the end of the race and breaking down. Tonight I saw them and I was just completely happy. Crossing the line was just a flood of emotions,’ Felix said at the press conference.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who was also in her first serious 200m race, fought with her neck-and-neck before the slender and long-legged Felix found another gear in the last quarter of the race to come home a stride in front.
‘I knew there was a lot of speed behind me so I focused on getting out the best I could and kept pushing. I didn’t have any idea where anyone else was. I was in the zone,’ said Felix.

-With New Age input

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The Dream Team rumbles on

Admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 08:55:10 +0000

Even from a distance, the white headband was unmistakable. And you could hardly miss the roar from the crowd as soon as LeBron James touched the ball at the signature North Greenwich Arena in London on Wednesday night. The American was sensational as well in their quarterfinal against the Australians — a match that served up a sumptuous atmosphere. Basketball is perhaps the greatest American sport export and it showed yesterday as Greenwich bore a look very different from the usual Olympic sports.
The North Greenwich Arena had played host to gymnastics until a few days ago, and although the crowd had been raucous even then, there was hardly any sign of the showmanship that accompanies basketball. This is not a sport that comes on its own; there is much more inside the tin, than is promised outside it. For one, basketball, like all other US sports, combines sports with entertainment. The Olympics, it seems, has wholly embraced this ideal as dancers jumped onto the court at every break in play, kiss-cams loomed overhead to swoon in on unsuspecting couples and the stadium announcer moonlighted as a DJ. There is, in short, something for everyone when you come to watch this sport. Not that you really need it, especially when the Dream Team are in such fine fettle.
The loudest cheer of the night was reserved for Kobe Bryant, especially when the teams were being announced at the start of the game. The US superstar wearing the number 10 lapped up the applause but made hardly any impact during the first two quarters. Instead it was left to the maverick LeBron to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and push the USA through to the semifinals.
Kobe did arrive at the party, somewhat late. His second-half play was sensational as he grabbed a team-high 20 points, all in the second-half. The Australians never really stood much of a chance but with their crowd roaring them on to chants of “Aussie AussieAussie, oi, oi, oi” the team nicknamed the Boomers stayed close to their opponents for most of the game, before the USA just ran away with it in the final quarter. For their part, the USA were also keyed up by frequent chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A” from most of the ground. Even in support, the American’s were dominating.
On this evidence, another gold medal for the USA looks almost a formality. They have completely dominated men’s basketball in the Olympics since its introduction in the 1936 Games in Berlin. The won seven successive tournaments since their bow in Berlin and when professional players were first allowed in 1992 in Barcelona, the US Dream Team won gold. Altogether, the USA men’s team have won 13 out of 16 Olympic tournaments they have participated in. The only other side to have won Olympic gold? The Soviet Union, of course.
This means that the USA’s semifinal against Argentina should almost be a formality. The Argentines fended off a strong challenge by their great rivals Brazil to sneak into the semifinal. That game too provided a great atmosphere, mostly because it acted as a substitute for the football rivalry that did not materialise. While the Brazil football team has been dominating others, Argentina inexplicably failed to make it to the Olympics. A phoney war in the basketball courts will have to whet the appetites of those who had been hoping for the clash of the South American giants. At least this time Argentina came out on top.

-With The Daily Star input

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The beach is where it’s at

Admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 08:40:07 +0000

Wolf-whistles ring out after every set, the beers are flowing, the clothes in the stand are posh, even when disguised as they are in the pink parkas to protect against the drizzle. Out in the middle, clothes are lacking. Four women clad skimpily in bikinis stand on each side of a net fighting in the sand. At interludes, Hawaiian dancers put on shows as rakers set the sand for the next battle. Welcome to the hottest ticket of the Olympic Games. This is beach volleyball.
Most of London’s games are set in Olympic Park, an establishment that grew out of what basically was a hole in the ground. The Olympic Park, now a thriving city, hosts the Olympic Stadium, the Veledrome and the Basketball Arena among other things. But London has also spread the games as far and wide as Manchester. The posh surrounds of Central London and Westminister claimed beach volleyball.
“This is the only ticket worth having,” say a couple of guys dressed in suits. They are bankers. “We don’t want to go to the East, man. This is where it is at,” they conclude.
It will be easy to point out the arrogance, if there wasn’t a certain grain of truth in their statements. The East of London, is traditionally viewed as the abode of the less wealthy, a slew of council estates, inhabited by what Londonders call ‘rude-boys’. The East is down-market. The beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade? Now that is in.
To be honest, the experience is slightly surreal. We are in the middle of London. The Big Ben chimes the hours, on the horizon the London Eye dresses up in different colours every minute, the Prime Minister lives a stone’s throw away. But right here in the middle, is a scene right out of the Caribbean. Well, except the rain of course.
“This is amazing, just the fact that beach volleyball is being held here,” says another Londoner. “How incongruous!” he concludes in true London fashion.
Incongruous indeed. The site of beach volleyball is the Horse Guards Parade. This was the grounds once used to mark the birthday celebrations of Queen Elizabeth, the first. For years, it served as the headquarters of the British Army. It’s hard to think they would approve of bikini-clad ladies trampling on their memories.
Minus the glamour factor though, and beach volleyball still remains one of the most difficult sports in the Olympics. The physicality needed to play this game is telling. Agility and perception are paramount; fitness is the be-all and end-all.
Brazil are playing on Tuesday night. The crowd are disappointed. Wolf-whistles turn into whistles of derision. The famously liberal Brazilians are dressed conservatively. The cold rain of London sees them swap their traditional bikinis for full-length tights. Mild boos ring across the 15,000 present, but it changes soon enough.
The Brazilians are the world champions, and it shows. In the first set, they destroy the USA, both teams putting on a feast of athleticism that makes the surrounds and frills around the sport but a distant memory.
But something goes wrong in the second set. Juliana Silva and Larissa Frana start miscommunicating. A Dutchman in the stands isn’t pleased. He cusses loudly.
“I don’t want the Americans to win,” he says. “They are too arrogant.”
But they win nonetheless and April Ross and Jennifer Kessy set up a date for an All-American final with their more illustrious compatriots Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh.
The Dutchman probably won’t be watching.

-With The Daily Star input

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