MyHeadlines | News for professionals

About us | Contact

Sources | Newsletters | Top Ten | Search | FAQ

My News

Dossiers

Select News

Home > All Sources > Olympic Games 2008

Olympic Games 2008

Keep abreast of the latest news on the Olympic Games in Beijing from the best available sources, selected for you in the MyHeadlines Olympics Dossier.

1-10 > Next 10

Athletics: Britain's forgotten star seeks historic home run in Tokyo
The Guardian | Olympic Games 2008 21 11 2008 Justice in sport is a law unto itself. Take the women's marathon in Beijing in which the world record holder, Paula Radcliffe, came 23rd and her Bedford club-mate Liz Yelling 26th. Also ran, 17 places ahead of Radcliffe, Mara Yamauchi. In the Olympic event her sixth place made her Britain's prima runner as opposed to donna, matching Priscilla Welch in 1984. After it she was unremarked. Radcliffe has made herself a phenomenon. Her second phenomenal failure in two Games was the story. Yelling was bloody from a fall, too. Yamauchi took it in her stride. Before the race she had said: "I can just get on with my thing, get my head down and train hard. I don't have to worry about media interest." After it Britain's second fastest marathon woman said nothing. No one asked her. Three months on, having got her head down again, she runs in the Tokyo Marathon tomorrow, one of only seven overseas invited athletes. They love her there. The name helps. But it counts against her here. "I'm the person with the funny names who lives in Japan," she says. "The combination flummoxes people." Born in Oxford, she was born to run too. Mara is a river in Kenya. Her sister is Malindi, a port; she rows. Their parents, who lived there for 25 years, got them the right way round. The daughters were also born to compete. Their father, Norman Myers, an authority on biodiversity, once held the record for the fastest ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. Mara returned to Oxford, graduated in politics, philosophy and economics, joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and, posted in Tokyo, met and married Shigetoshi. Much has changed since. Early in 2006 she took unpaid leave to run full-time. Shige, too, gave up his job in legal compliance and is now "my masseur, manager, nutritionist, training partner, cook, coach [besides Bob Parker in Britain] and bag-carrier, all self-taught. Most serious marathon women have this sort of arrangement," she says. Shige bikes to keep up. For all her faraway absence, Yamauchi has been back enough to earn her stripes and supporters and has tapped into an expertise that is generously forthcoming. Liz McColgan, winner in New York, Tokyo and London, shared training tips. Veronique Marot, British record holder for 13 years, advised more on "keeping out of trouble, responding to breaks and minimising effort. Mara prepared meticulously, did not overtrain but was let down by conditions less harsh than expected." There may be a mystique about the marathon but Yamauchi belongs to the magic circle with its culture of rivalry and respect. No one can complete the course without regard for others ahead or behind who have done the same. Close watchers of the Beijing finish were disappointed to feel that Yamauchi had to look beyond her team-mates for due credit. She herself declines to be drawn - once a diplomat always a diplomat. At least UK Athletics recognised her feat. Her top-eight finish, 45 seconds off gold, 22 off bronze, pushed up her funding. Thoughts are already turning to 2012, when she will be 39. First, though, comes Tokyo - the 30th and last running of the first internationally recognised marathon. Britain's Joyce Smith won the first at 42 and is invited out as starter. The race is being discontinued as the police oppose two city centre closures and the newer fun run is so popular - seven times oversubscribed. "People here don't run for charity," says Yamauchi. "They run to challenge themselves. Many races have strict time limits and runners are swept up if they don't make the cut-off times at each 5km." Such is fun in Japan. The upshot for tomorrow will be huge and knowledgeable crowds. "The city is plastered with posters showing all past winners and asking who will be the final one," says Yamauchi. "I really want it to be me and to set a personal best [currently the 2hr 25min 10sec with which she began the year in winning at Osaka]." Her name may not stand out but she will certainly be appreciated.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds ]]>

Rugby union: Wilful Wells shows no sign of running dry with quickfire results for England's speed merchants
The Guardian | Olympic Games 2008 21 11 2008 To watch Margot Wells get high on speed at the Guildford Spectrum this week was an experience that bordered on the evangelical. This is the woman with the task of making England's rugby players feel the need for speed and when she speaks about her passion her hands make fists and her eyes shine brightly. "Speed frightens some people, coaches and players, because how can you tackle what you can't catch?" says the wife of Allan Wells, the 1980 Olympic 100 metres gold medallist. "But it's my comfort zone. I adore it in all its forms. It inspires me. I love the look on people's faces when you run fast. It's exciting. The crowd is excited by it. The players love it." Wells holds no official position. She deals with individuals and, by word of mouth, her fame has spread. "Right now I'm so busy I make God look lazy but it's great to get up in the morning and know I can make a difference," she says. "I have seven Wasps, three Harlequins, some London Irish and some other club and university players." She sees 28 rugby players regularly, 10 less routinely and, occasionally, another 10 university and school players. Of the current England squad Wells has coached Danny Cipriani, James Haskell, Riki Flutey and Paul Sackey. This remarkable coach comes without books and badges and those who have adopted the conventional path to tracksuit and stopwatch may suspect her of a certain quackery. "When I get resentment from some coaches I just say, 'Where's your Olympic gold medal?' They have to respect that I coached the fastest man on the planet and spent the past 30 years working out how I did it. So they're not going to beat me on the speed thing, are they? "No one seemed to want to know what I knew but they do now. People are seeing that I can help. Just watch my players. Judge me on my players. If I can move James Haskell I can move anything. "What I teach applies to all sports that involve running. Football thinks it's wonderful but look at Michael Owen. He used to be fast and now he's not. Injuries? Rubbish. Age? Rubbish - unless you're 60. You can't un-fast yourself. It should be a criminal offence to make people slower." Wells was once a champion sprinter who exasperated her father by asking him why she could run faster than anyone else. "Because you were born like that," he would say. She would ask: "But why was I born like that?" She then subordinated her own career to help her husband win Olympic gold. "It's difficult for there to be two superstars in one household," she says. "One needs to be helping. But I was very good at watching him run. I always had a coach's head, rather than an athlete's head. I knew technically and instinctively what went where and where it should be going when it wasn't. Allan was narcissistic. Selfish doesn't even cover it. But you have to be like that to reach the top." Allan, now a systems analyst at Surrey University, started working with London Scottish in 1988 and brought Margot in to help. She did so for three years before returning to PE teaching and parenthood but, she said: "It just evolved. Snowballed, really. Guildford Rugby Club, the local school, the phone kept ringing. I was only 27 in 1980. Now I know so much more. Bad spelling jumps out at some people; bad running jumps out at me. Now I have formed my own company, Wellfast." So what is her method? "I keep everything simple. Sport has become over-technical. It is a myth that some people were just not born fast. I can make anyone faster in five minutes. The trouble is there is no information out there on speed and power. It's my job to spot the physical weakness that prevents someone from running fast. There is too much isolation in sport. Someone does the weights, someone else does this or that. I do it all. I turn strength into power, and power into speed. I do the nutrition, too. "I think rugby lost the plot a bit. It made people big and slow. But ask the players and they want to be faster, not bigger. I've had prop forwards out there this morning running like the wind." She would love to get involved in the 2012 London Olympics, for athletics is her "first love". But even after a poor Olympics for Britain "in every event that involved running", the call has not come. There is a moment in Chariots of Fire when the coach Sam Mussabini (played by Ian Holm) punches a hole in his straw hat when the distant national anthem tells him Harold Abrahams has won 100m gold at the 1924 Olympics. If you are near Guildford tomorrow, a scream of delight might tell you how England are faring against the Wallabies.Springs in their step Wasps and England players who have benefited from training sessions with Margot Wells Danny Cipriani Recovered from a serious ankle injury and is quicker than before. "That has given me particular satisfaction," says Wells James Haskell A regular visitor to Guildford. Also uses psychologists and the advice of the former All Black No8 Zinzan Brooke Riki Flutey Partnership with Cipriani gives England more speed at Nos 10 and 12 than ever before Paul Sackey First worked with Wells while at London Irish and won an England place after moving to Wasps

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds ]]>

Observer Writers pick their sports personality candidates
The Guardian | Olympic Games 2008 21 11 2008 Kevin Mitchell, Chief sports writer 1 Chris Hoy 2 Bradley Wiggins 3 Lewis Hamilton 4 David Haye Hoy was incredible, a force of nature. Likewise Wiggins. Team-mates in a cycling co-op we have rarely seen at an event like the Olympic Games. Hamilton held his nerve all the way to the end. And David Haye was awesome in overwhelming Enzo Maccarinelli. If he rounds it off by beating Monte Barrett on Saturday, he is on his way to seriously worrying every heavyweight out there.Brian Oliver, Editor, Observer Sport 1 Rebecca Adlington 2 Lewis Hamilton 3 Chris Hoy 4 Louis Smith The top three look after themselves. It's the fourth place that voters might disagree with. I was very tempted to go for Christine Ohuruogu, but Louis Smith's bronze medal in gymnastics was worth a gold in some of the other sports in which Britons excelled in Beijing. He was up against the might of the United States, China and Russia - the top three in the medals table. And he's only a teenager. Jamie Jackson, Sports feature writer 1 Rebecca Adlington 2 Chris Hoy 3 Lewis Hamilton 4 Tony Pulis The teenager from Mansfield became the first British swimmer in 100 years to win two golds in the same Olympia Games - and her dazzling smile will live long in the memory. Pulis? He followed that victory over Arsenal by quoting Abraham Lincoln to deride a seething Arsène Wenger - that's personality. Jon Henderson, Tennis correspondent 1 Chris Hoy 2 Rebecca Adlington 3 Lewis Hamilton 4 Andy Murray It has to be Hoy - or how many golds does he have to win to be chosen? Kelly Holmes got a royal tap on the shoulder for winning fewer. Lewis Hamilton needs another season to prove he is more than just a driver lucky enough to have a good car who nearly screwed up two world championships.Tim Lewis, Editor OSM 1 Mark Cavendish 2 Rebecca Adlington 3 Christine Ohuruogu 4 Lewis Hamilton There are a billion bicycles on the planet, and yet the fastest man on two wheels is a Brit who hardly anyone here has heard of. Adlington and Ohuruogu beat the best in the world (in competitive fields) and both of them seem utterly unspoilt by the experience.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds ]]>

Suguri takes Cup of Russia lead with short program (AP)
Yahoo! Sports | Olympics 21 11 2008

Vancouver Olympic torch relay to last 106 days (AP)
Yahoo! Sports | Olympics 21 11 2008

2010 Games sets record domestic torch run (Reuters)
Yahoo! Sports | Olympics 21 11 2008

Russia to curb spending ahead of 2014 Games (Reuters)
Yahoo! Sports | Olympics 21 11 2008

Obama makes video pitch for 2016 Chicago Olympics (AP)
Yahoo! Sports | Olympics 21 11 2008

President-elect Barack Obama made a personal appeal Friday to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to his home city of Chicago. Obama appeared in a 90-second taped video message played by Chicago bid leaders to the general assembly of European Olympic Committees, the largest regional group in the Olympic movement.
]]>

Obama offers video message for Chicago Olympic bid (PA SportsTicker)
Yahoo! Sports | Olympics 21 11 2008

Obama makes Chicago Olympic bid appeal
CNN | Olympic Games 21 11 2008

1-10 > Next 10

Latest News | Login: Users | Administrators

© 2008 RISQ | Disclaimer
Website by Maarten van den Berg | RISQ Consultancy

Powered by MyHeadlines © 2004-2006 Mike Agar.
Page generation: 1.27 Seconds