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First came the athletes, now the grandees. The leaders of the International Olympic Committee will sit down in London today to discuss last-minute glitches dogging the London Games and allegations of multi-million pound corruption against one of its most ...Source: www.independent.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: Australian basketball to review travel arrangements after discrimination claim - Daily Telegraph
Bernie Harrower, whose daughter Kristi will represent Australia at London 2012, told ABC radio that players had complained internally about the policy for years.
He said: "It's always been a bone of contention amongst people in the know that the women have always flown, wherever they have gone, they have always flown in economy and the men have gone business class.
"It always comes down to funding. If somebody gave me the choice of flying business class or flying economy I know what I'm going to take, and it is certainly not going to be in economy class."
The Australian women’s basketball team, ranked No 2 in the world, is expected to do well at the Olympics. The team will be captained global star Lauren Jackson who is a WNBA three-time Most Valuable Player.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
An Inspector Calls At... Newick Park Hotel and Country Estate, East Sussex - Daily Mail
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The leafy drive looks promising. Then a lake by a meadow creeps into view. In the distance, the South Downs are bathed in evening sunlight.
There could be disappointment round the last corner, but instead it’s joy unconfined as we come to a halt outside the Grade II*-listed Newick Park in East Sussex.
Privately owned. Set in 255 acres of parkland. Tasteful. Top-notch antique furniture; cabinets of fine old glass and china; stellar food. Discreet and efficient service. And an almost zen-like atmosphere.
Stately: Newick Park Hotel is set in more than 200 acres of landscaped gardens and parkland
It’s mainly Georgian, built on three floors with two tall bays on each side. At one time it was occupied by the Chief Justice of Bengal, reputed to have buried treasure from India in the garden.
Today, there are 13 rooms in the main house and three in the Granary. Ours is pretty in an understated, British sort of way. There’s something comforting about the old-fashioned headboard, a luggage rack, dressing table, huge cupboards, thick curtains, and a roll-top bath that looks like it’s been there for ever.
The public rooms downstairs are big and grand, fabulous for a party. A wedding will be held here in the morning, which is why the library has become the temporary dining room. It’s a gorgeous space, with a grand piano, bookcases galore, duck egg walls, elaborate cornicing.
Each round table easily seats four so there’s bags of room. Nothing grates here (well, perhaps the fussy pelmets) and it’s the antithesis of corporate.
A framed letter from John Major, who stayed in May 1994, hangs in the corridor. ‘I am particularly grateful to you and your staff for making me feel so welcome.’
I feel moved to write a similar sort of letter — even though it might not get quite the same treatment.
We went for a long walk in the morning and then played a game of croquet — anything to delay our departure. Newick Park is a discovery.
Travel Facts
Newick Park Hotel and Country Estate
Newick
E. Sussex
BN8 4SB
Tel: 01825 723633, www.newickpark.co.uk
Doubles from 165 B&B
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Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: Oscar Pistorius primed to offer Michael Johnson and critics a swift response - Daily Telegraph
“It only concerns me when people say, ‘Oscar’s prosthetics are lighter, therefore he has an advantage.’ “Michael has calculated a lot of variables: what the experts are saying about my legs in terms of tendons, muscles, straight-line running-speed, acceleration, deceleration. He does not disagree with the tests that we have done. There are just certain points that he has an opinion about.”
The point about Pistorius’s legitimacy, or lack of it, as an Olympian is rather crucial, however. For when this charming young man from Johannesburg appears in the Olympic Stadium on Aug 4 for his 400m heat, it promises to be one of the seminal moments of the Games.
Paralympians have transferred to the Olympic stage before – not least South African swimmer Natalie du Toit, who lost her left leg aged 16 – but never a double amputee. Ever since Pistorius was born on Nov 22, 1986, without fibulas in either of his legs, his resolve to surmount his disability has been a global cause célèbre. He is not prepared for his greatest accomplishment to be eclipsed by the critics.
“These prosthetic legs follow exactly the same model that has been around since 1996,” argues Pistorius, whose right to enter able-bodied competitions was endorsed four years ago by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. “People say that the technology is futuristic, but it’s not. It’s made of carbon-fibre, which has been used in prosthetic legs for more than 20 years.
Michael knows that the leg I’m using is not a cutting-edge piece of equipment. There isn’t a single other Paralympic athlete besides me who has even run under 50 seconds in the 400m using one.” For the record, Pistorius’s personal best in the 400m is an extraordinary 45.07sec, recorded in Lignano last summer.
Let us briefly, but dispassionately, examine the evidence. Pistorius’ artificial legs are, to give them their full trade name, Ossür Flex-Foot Cheetahs, a pair of passive elastic springs designed to emulate biological limbs. The decision by the CAS to overrule the International Association of Athletics Federations, who claimed that Pistorius could run at the same speed as able-bodied competitors while using less energy, was unanimous.
Similarly, the notion that he could be less susceptible to injury, due to the absence of muscles or joints below the knee, was suspect. Paralympians, sustaining nine injuries in every 1,000 hours of training, are shown to suffer more than non-amputee sprinters, who endure an average of six over the same period.
As Aimee Mullins, the American Paralympian who also underwent a double amputation, puts it: “If it was the legs that were making us super-fast, I would have done a decade ago what he is doing now, and so would others. Oscar is not running with any different technology than what I ran with in Atlanta in ’96.”
Pistorius is acutely sensitive to accusations that his mere presence in London threatens to lead his sport into unchartered ethical waters. He walked out of a BBC interview last year when asked if he thought he was an “inconvenient embarrassment” to the authorities. Here, even in the more restful surrounds of Gemona, where the landlady of his hotel has baked him a cake bearing the five Olympic rings, the resentment lingers.
“You’ll find a journalist who has not approached the story properly, or somebody with the title of professor or doctor who wants to make a name for himself. He will argue that water is dry, or that orange used to be green. They will try to be controversial for the sake of it.”
Flanked by long-time coach Ampie Louw and manager Peet van Zyl, he says: “I read an article that mentioned ‘our scientists’. They were not, they were a group of three people we got together and whose findings we promised to publish. These were not guys who had been sucking their thumbs – they had reputations.They did a whole host of tests, and our results are open for peer review.
“Honestly, this is not something I can give much more energy to. I would be answering these questions for days.”
Instead, Pistorius must preserve his intensity for the track. As fortune would have it, the Mayor of Gemona del Friuli is so honoured by the arrival of this celebrated figure that he has built him one. Directly before this interview he has reeled off lap after lap in torrential rain, unrelenting in his quest for the sub-45 second time that he and Louw believe is within reach. But what, in terms of an outcome in London, does he see as attainable?
“A decent position in the semi-final,” he replies. “I wasn’t happy with my performance at the World Championships in Daegu. I had an unbelievable race in the heats, but misjudged the semi and finished last. This time I’ll have to go flat-out from the start.”
The stage is far too grand to afford any miscalculations. The arc of the Pistorius narrative, encompassing his first efforts to walk and his astonishing precocity as a sprinter, has all been leading to the Olympic crucible in London. His parents, his brothers, his best friends and even his grandmother will all be at the Olympic Park to savour his history-making display.
“I’d like to show people that if you put the hard work in and you believe in yourself, then you can do whatever you want to,” he says. “I still find it strange, I suppose, when I say to someone, ‘Can you just pass me my leg?’ But I don’t ever think about my disability.
“Putting on my legs is like putting on my shoes. I understand that’s how some people might think differently, but I hope that in London, their perceptions open up.”
To Johnson and the doubters, there could be no more eloquent riposte.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London 2012: Uzbekistan's Sakina Mamedova in Felixstowe - BBC News
"I'm quite famous in Uzbekistan, but no-one recognises me in Felixstowe," said Olympic shooter Sakina Mamedova as she trained in the Suffolk town.
The 27-year-old from Tashkent is the former Soviet nation's only qualifier in the shooting events at London 2012 and it is her first Olympic Games.
She has been training at Felixstowe Rifle Club's ranges since 7 July with her coach Igor Potopov.
Her two events are the 10m air rifle and the 50m rifle three position - which involves standing, kneeling and lying down with a .22 cartridge rifle.
“Start Quote
End Quote Sakina MamedovaI've had fish and chips and it was very nice and I've also tried roast beef and Yorkshire pudding”
"The facilities are very good and the people have been very friendly," she said.
"The sea is nice, but I haven't been swimming - it looks too cold, but we've walked along the promenade for exercise.
"I'm used to plov [rice dish] and fish in Uzbekistan, but I've had fish and chips and it was very nice and I've also tried roast beef and Yorkshire pudding at Bill's house."
Top tipsBill Bond is the vice-chairman of Felixstowe Rifle Club, which has 10m, 20m and 50m ranges.
He said: "I got an email from Vladimir Filimonov, a Russian who I knew as a British Paralympic team coach, and we were obviously delighted at the prospect of having an Olympic guest.
"It was only when Vladimir arrived to check the facilities were OK that I realised he was also an Ipswich taxi driver."
The club is usually only open on weekday evenings and Sunday mornings, so they have had to organise a rota of 16 club members to come in to open up at other times for their guest.
Club members have been able to watch Mamedova training.
"You can pick up tips just by watching Sakina on stance, concentration and the dedication required to develop a rhythm and consistency," said Mr Bond.
"Members have realised there's a huge difference between county standard and Olympic standard."
19th Century gunsAlthough the club was founded in 1900, the Felixstowe range dates back to the Napoleonic era when the town's Landguard Fort was a coastal defence.
Mamedova tried some of the club's replica 19th Century weapons.
"I had a go with a black powder musket and a revolver and it was good fun, but more smoke than I'm used to," she said.
Mamedova is ranked in the International Shooting Sport Federation's top 50 for the 50m three position event and in the 70s for the air rifle event, but she still "hopes to be able to get a gold medal".
She has been staying at The Norfolk Guest House near the seafront and, while they are used to foreign guests from the town's container port, they say Mamedova is their first Uzbek.
Dawn Northcut, owner, said: "We have hosted the rifle club's German guests, so we said we'd love to have an Olympian.
"They're warm and lovely people - she'll come back from a day's shooting and tell us she's home.
"We'll miss them and we'll be following her progress avidly."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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