Yohan Blake delivered a shock that will be felt all the way to London 2012 by handing the world's fastest man, Usain Bolt, a rare defeat in the Jamaican Olympic trials. On a night when anticipation of quick times charged the atmosphere of Kingston's national stadium, Blake did not disappoint the large crowd. In a furious dash down the track, he recorded a time of 9.75sec to claim the 100m title, comfortably ahead of a fast-finishing Bolt, who clocked 9.86, just getting by Asafa Powell for second, who finished third in a time of 9.88.
For Blake, this went a long way in settling doubts about the 22-year-old sprinter's quality, but for Bolt, the world record holder, it was a performance that raised questions in the buildup to next month's Games. All three men qualified for the Jamaican Olympic team and will line up against a formidable US contingent when the Games start on 27 July.
A few stunned spectators still slumped forward in their chairs stared blankly in disbelief following the sub-10 second race, hardly able to fully comprehend the sight of Blake still celebrating a well-deserved win on the bright blue track. Yet an upset had not been wholly unexpected.
Bolt finished first in his semi-final heat, in 10.01, only just ahead of Michael Frater, after another wretched start left the Olympic champion with plenty of work to do to get back to the field. He did it easily enough, as he had in the first round, but perhaps the disapproving headshake on crossing the line was the clearest sign that things were not quite right for him.
"Asafa and Yohan, these guys have good top-end speed so for me to get left in the blocks like that was not a good thing. I guess it was just one of those things," Bolt said.
"In the semi-finals the guy in lane seven moved and it threw me off. I keep seeing these guys in my peripheral vision. It's kind of hard to ignore them. When they move it throws you off and then you get left. After you get left like that it is always hard to get back."
Bolt's sluggish start had been cause for concern, particularly after losing his world championship title to Blake after a false start in the 2011 final in Daegu. This season there was no occasion more evident that timing his acceleration from the blocks is still a problem than the 10.04 he recorded in Ostrava, where Bolt got away slowly, before recovering with a trademark late burst. He beat Powell twice, with impressive times of 9.76 (Rome) and 9.79 (Oslo) but again seemed to find the starting blocks more like giant sand traps that a means of propelling himself forward.
At his best the 6ft 4in superstar has never been a quick starter. However, his tardiness should be a worry for both himself and his coach Glen Mills, who coaches Blake as well. But Mills, while stating that he was not surprised by the performance of any of the athletes, dismissed any concerns about a substandard performance in London.
"I wasn't surprised by his performance, Bolt is not at his best but he is good enough to compete," Mills said. "We are right where we want to be going into London. We just want to keep them healthy and that is key. We didn't send Yohan to Europe so he is in far better shape than Bolt at this time, but we have four weeks. We will take it in stride and we know exactly what to do."
Bolt and Blake are set for another showdown in the 200m final today as both cruised into the semi-finals. Bolt won his heat in 21.21 and Blake his in 21.43, both running into strong headwinds.
The Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce sent a clear warning to rivals hoping to claim her crown, as the diminutive sprinter blew away the other competitors on the way to a new personal best of 10.70sec. Despite a slow start to season Fraser-Pryce's dismissal of a strong field, which included the world champion Carmelita Jeter, at a grand prix in New York, gave clear indication that she was rediscovering her best form. Fraser-Pryce seems to have improved the last part of her race. "The people that work hard are going to be the ones able to defend their title in London," she said.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
TomKat to Split: Katie Holmes Files for Divorce from Scientologist Hubby Tom Cruise - ibtimes.co.uk
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"This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family. Katie's primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest," Holmes's attorney Jonathan Wolfe said to People in a statement.
Cruise, 49, got the blow from his 33 year old wife just a few days before his 50th birthday on 3 July.
Blindsided Cruise
Sources say that Tom Cruise was totally uninformed about Holmes' decision to end their marriage until he learned about the divorce suit. The actor is in Iceland, filming his new sci-fi film Oblivion.
Is Scientology to Blame?
Scientology is supposedly the major factor behind the divorce. Cruise has been following Scientology since the 1990s and his first wife, actress Mimi Rogers, was believed to have introduced him to the controversial religion that rose in the 20th century. Cruise, an advocate for the Church of Scientology, has been known for being outspoken and giving controversial statements on psychiatry.
The "irreconcilable differences" of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, who married in November 2006, are also said to be related to their six year old daughter Suri Cruise's religion choices. While Cruise has been arguing that Scientology should be an important part of Suri's life at her age, Holmes did not want him to control religion-related matters, according to insiders, TMZ reports.
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Source: www.ibtimes.co.uk
Katy Perry: 'Watching Russell Brand divorce in doc was uncomfortable' - Digital Spy
Source: www.digitalspy.co.uk
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' divorce 'won't be recognized by church of Scientology' - Daily Mail
By Louise Boyle
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The divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will not be recognized by Scientology, according to the church's doctrines.
The religion offers little advice to those for whom divorce has become the only option, preferring to focus on providing couple's therapy to fix relationships.
Katie, 33, filed divorce papers from 49-year-old Cruise on Thursday after it was reported that she had been unhappy in the marriage for years. The former Dawson's Creek actress was seeking sole custody of the couple's six-year-old daughter Suri, in what is expected to become a bitter legal battle.
Dream wedding: The pair married in an Italian castle in 2006 and filed their marriage certificate in California
There is a belief in the church of Scientology that marital problems come from 'withholds' or 'overts' - undiscussed issues or problems.
According to the official website, marriage is considered essential to family life along with the belief that the religion will strengthen bonds between partners.
Scientologists also claim that people who follow the religion are more likely to stay married.
If a couple runs into a problem, they can take courses on how to improve their marriage or speak to counselors.
However Stephen Kent, a religion professor at the University of Alberta, told ABC: 'There's no real annulment in the church. Many members have been divorced, even founder L. Ron Hubbard was married three times.'
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were married in November 2006 in a fairy-tale, A-list wedding at a 15th century Italian castle before a church of Scientology minister.
When the romance began – Katie had met Tom to discuss the possibility of appearing in Mission Impossible III – she was immediately sent on an intensive and lengthy study course about Scientology, the religion founded by sci-fi author L Ron Hubbard in 1954, which holds that humans are descended from an exiled race of aliens called Thetans.
Support act: The church offers courses and advice to couple's with marital problems
Although Holmes was raised a Catholic, she embraced the religion of her new husband at the start of their relationship. However she is alleged to have come to dislike and distrust the movement.
The church of Scientology bans members from having contact with doubters of the faith or unbelievers called PTS - potential trouble source.
A difference of religious viewpoints can lead some Scientology members to divorce.
Holmes, 33, is believed to have blind-sided her Mission Impossible star husband by initiating divorce proceedings.
The divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes looks set to become a bitter custody battle for their six-year-old child Suri.
With a financial pre-nuptial already in place, it is thought that Holmes purposefully filed for divorce in New York state and not California because New York dislikes giving warring parents joint custody.
With sole custody of Suri, Holmes would be able to remove her daughter from the Church of Scientology despite her husband's enthusiasm for it.
The estranged couple have been raising Suri in accordance with the doctrine of the Church of Scientology - treating her as an adult, free to make her own decisions.
Church-goers: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on their way to the Scientology Celebrity Center in Los Angeles when they were first married
Pawn: The couple's six-year-old daughter has been caught in the middle of what is likely to become a bitter divorce battle as Holmes fights for sole custody
Hollywood superstar Cruise said he was ‘deeply saddened’ that his younger wife had filed for a separation and was concentrating on his three children. Cruise has two adopted children Conor and Isabella with ex-wife Nicole Kidman.
Cruise revealed that Katie had initiated the split, bringing a dramatic end to one of Hollywood's most high-profile - if bizarre - romances.
'This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family,' Holmes's lawyer Jonathan Wolfe said in a statement to People magazine.
'Katie's primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest.'
Cruise, who is the main breadwinner of the couple's $275 million fortune, has been married twice before.
He was married to actress turned professional poker player Mimi Rogers - who is believed to have introduced him to Scientology - followed by Nicole Kidman.
Skeptic: Katie Holmes is said to dislike and distrust Scientology - of which her estranged husband is a vocal advocate - and no longer wants their daughter to be raised in accordance with its doctrines
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
London Olympics rain preparation: 250,000 ponchos - msnbc.com
LONDON — A quarter of a million rain ponchos, an army of volunteers equipped with umbrellas and rain jackets, and five dedicated weather forecasters -- it must be a British Olympics.
Planning any outdoor event during the unpredictable British summer, renowned for its potential to throw up more rainy spells than sunshine, requires drawing up contingency plans and keeping a close eye on the weather.
Multiply that challenge for several million spectators, 70,000 volunteers and 10,500 of the world's top athletes, and then you have some idea of the challenge facing organizers of the London Olympics.
The United Kingdom's national weather forecaster, the Met office, has a dedicated five-person team working on Olympic weather predictions, but said it was too early to forecast with any accuracy conditions for the July 27-Aug. 12 Games.
However, organizers are confident bad weather would not disrupt their plans, while the love-hate relationship between the British public and their country's weather looked likely to ensure solid support for the athletes.
"By definition, being British you have no choice but to prepare for the weather," said Debbie Jevans, director of sport for the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Jevans is responsible for making sure the sporting venues across the UK run smoothly. She is not losing any sleep over the possibility of wet weather in the middle of summer.
"It doesn't keep me awake at night. Clearly if you gave me the choice of rain or no rain, you'd rather have no rain and that's for the spectators as much as anything else," she said.
"(But) we've known from day one when we looked across the sports that they will happen whether it's raining or not, and so the plans have always included that."
Those plans have been extensive.
At Greenwich Park, Britain's oldest royal park that also forms part of a world heritage site, specialist consultants have been drafted in to make sure the venue is up to the challenge of hosting the equestrian events.
"We've been working on the wet areas in the park for the past two and a bit years now," said Lee Penrose, project manager at the Sports Turf Research Institute.
Their work has focused on the 5.7 kilometer cross-country course that is seen as the most exposed of the equestrian events to bad weather conditions.
STRI said over one hundred million "thin but really, really deep" holes had been bored into the course every three weeks to ensure there was no standing water on the turf.
In addition, up to 40 staff armed with mechanical water-removing devices and last-resort hand pumps will be on site for the July 30 event -- just in case.
"You can never really plan for all events but notwithstanding a biblical-type flood I think the cross country course is going to run pretty well on the day," Penrose said.
The cancellation of the high-profile Badminton Horse Trials event after the UK's wettest April in more than a century underscored the need for meticulous preparation.
The wet weather already experienced this year has also proved a blessing in some respects. Heavy rain throughout some of the test events held across London gave planners the chance to tweak their preparations.
However, knowing that the sport will go ahead regardless of the weather may be cold comfort for the spectators.
At the eastern end of the Olympic Park the high stands of the Riverbank arena that hosts the hockey competition are uncovered and exposed to elements. A test event held in early May left some spectators chilled to the bone.
"It was good, so I'm looking forward to the Olympics events, but the weather will play a big part," said Morag Campbell, an admin worker based in London who watched the test events and holds tickets for several hockey sessions during the Olympics.
"On the Saturday night my feet were frozen - by the time I got home they were literally blue!"
For some, wet weather may even prove a bonus.
Part of the event planning has involved kitting out the stores inside the venues with enough wet weather gear to keep spectators dry and happy -- around 250,000 red, white and blue ponchos will be on standby in case the heavens open.
In addition, stalls inside the venues will sell Olympic-branded umbrellas for between £14 and £20 ($22-32).
Source: www.msnbc.msn.com
London 2012: East London residents march over missiles - BBC News
Campaigner Chris Nineham told the BBC's Ben Geoghegan it was ''a mad plan''
East London residents opposed to plans to site surface-to-air missiles on roofs for added security during the Olympics, are to march through Bow.
Six sites have been picked for surface-to-air missiles, some in residential spots, including Bow and Leytonstone.
Campaigners say 1,000 people have signed a petition in protest.
The Ministry of Defence said the safety of the Games was paramount and a "broad range of community engagement" had taken place.
Air threatThe sites, chosen from an original list of 100, include the Lexington Building in Tower Hamlets and the Fred Wigg Tower in Waltham Forest, east London.
The four other London sites identified as suitable for Rapier missiles are Blackheath Common; Oxleas Wood, Eltham; William Girling Reservoir, Enfield and Barn Hill in Epping Forest.
The proposals have yet to be confirmed.
Campaigner Chris Nineham said: "We don't believe they will add anything to security. If they are going to be used they will explode over some of the most densely populated areas in London."
He added: "I simply don't believe that since 9/11 a security system hasn't been put in place to protect Canary Wharf and east London.
"If fighter jets are sent from another country I hope they will be taken out before they get to London."
When a major security exercise took place in April standing joint commander General Sir Nick Parker explained there must be a plan which could deal with "the unlikely but very serious threat" that might exist to the Olympic Park.
He explained: "It's an air threat, really categorised in two ways, the sort of 9/11 threat everyone knows about, and also for the lower, slower type of target which might pop up closer to the Olympic Park, which we would need to intervene."
Residents of Fred Wigg Tower, Leytonstone, have launched legal proceedings in the hope of preventing the installation of missiles on their building's roof during the Olympics.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
I wish i had their problems!
- steve from 1 of the original colonies, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, 30/6/2012 23:14
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