Funmazamasti

Sri Lanka v India, 2nd ODI, Colombo

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:58:00 +0000

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/slvind2009/content/current/story/388369.html

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:12:00 +0000

Batman-2 The Dark Knight (2008) - Watch online DVD-Rip Xvid

Monday, July 21, 2008

Starring : Christian Bale, Eric Roberts, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman,
Director : Christopher Nolan
Producer : Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
Writer : Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan
Story : Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer
Composer : Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard
Genre: Action and Adventure
Rating : 9.8/10
Official Website : thedarkknight.com
Distributor : Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date : July 18, 2008
Duration : 2 hrs. 22 min.
Box Office : $66,400,000 (US total)

Story Preview :-

Download English movie Batman-2 The Dark Knight (2008):-
Part-1 :: Part-2 :: Part-3 :: Part-4 :: Part-5 :: Part-6

Watch online Batman-2 The Dark Knight (2008):-
Part-1 :: Part-2 :: Part-3 :: Part-4 :: Part-5 :: Part-6

Hijack (2008) songs

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:09:00 +0000

Hijack (2008) songs

Cast: Shiney Ahuja, Esha Deol, K.K Raina, Mona Ambegaonkar, Kaveri Jha
Director: Kunal Shivdasani
Producer: Dinesh Vijan, Kunal Shivdasani
Writers: Gavendra Agarwal, Kunal Shivdasani
Music: Justin-Uday
Lyrics: Kumaar
Story: Kunal Shivdasani, Gavendra Agarwal
Screenplay: Kunal Shivdasani, Gavendra Agarwal
Banner: Aleya Motion Magic, Eros Entertainment
Genre: Action, Adventure and Thriller
Release Date: 29 August 2008

Hijack (2008) mp3 songs List :-

Theme Of Hijack Click here
Suraj Jagan, Uday
Koi Na Jaane Click here
K.K, Shilpa Rao
Aksar Click here
K.K
Dekh Dekh Click here
Sunidhi Chauhan, Suraj Jagan, Rap by Joi
Dekh Dekh [Club Mix] Click here
Sunidhi Chauhan, Joi
Aksar [Unplugged] Click here
Shaan
Aksar [Sad Version] Click here
Shaan
Aksar [Remix] Click here
K.K, Joi

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:53:00 +0000

Watch online and download newly realeased bollywood movie Mission Istaanbul (2008).

Starrings : Zayed Khan, Viveik Anand Oberoi, Nikitin Dheer, Shabbir Aluwalia, Shreya Sharan

Director : Apoorva Lakhia
Producers : Suniel Shetty, Ekta Kapoor, Shabbir Boxwala, Shobha Kapoor
Banners : Popcorn Motion Pictures Pvt. Ltd., Balaji Motion Pictures Ltd.
Genre : Action / Adventure / Thriller
Lyricists : Sameer, Shabbir Ahmed, Mika Singh, Hamza Faruqui, Ishq Bector, Virag Mishra, Chirantan Bhatt
Music On : T-Series
Release Date : 25 July 2008
Complete movie info. :- imdb

Watch online mission istaanbul (2008) movie online links :-

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Download Mission Istaanbul (2008) movie Links:-

Part-1

Part-2

Part-3

Part-4

Bachna Ae Haseeno[2008]

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:15:00 +0000

Bachna Ae Haseeno[2008]

Bachana Ae Haseeno Watch Online Link:

Server 1 : PART-1 || PART-2 || PART-3 || PART-4 || PART-5

Megaupload LINKS :-

Part-1 || Part-2 || Part-3 || Part-4

God Tussi Great Ho (2008)

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:02:00 +0000

God Tussi Great Ho (2008)

Watch online Links

PART 1 . . . PART 2 . . . PART 3 . . . PART 4 . . . PART 5 . . . PART 6 . . . PART 7 . . . PART 8 . . . PART 9

Movie Download links

http://rapidshare.com/files/137789865/God_Tussi_Great_Ho_2008_1CD_PDVDRip_Xvid_Subs_By_JAYKINGRAJ.avi.001

http://rapidshare.com/files/137789762/God_Tussi_Great_Ho_2008_1CD_PDVDRip_Xvid_Subs_By_JAYKINGRAJ.avi.002

http://rapidshare.com/files/137792110/God_Tussi_Great_Ho_2008_1CD_PDVDRip_Xvid_Subs_By_JAYKINGRAJ.avi.003

http://rapidshare.com/files/137789446/God_Tussi_Great_Ho_2008_1CD_PDVDRip_Xvid_Subs_By_JAYKINGRAJ.avi.004

Subs:

http://rapidshare.com/files/137788710/God_Tussi_Great_Ho_2008_1CD_PDVDRip_Xvid_Subs_By_JAYKINGRAJ.srt

Hollywood English Movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:46:00 +0000

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) movie watch online

Starrings : Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kane and others
Director : Dave Filoni
Producers : George Lucas, Catherine Winder
Genres : Science Fiction/Fantasy and Animation
Running Time : 1 hr. 38 min.
Release Date : August 15th, 2008
Rating : 6/10
More Movie Info : imdb

Watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars Animation Movie Online:

Part-1 || Part-2 || Part-3 || Part-4 || Part-5

Download Star Wars: The Clone Wars Movie Links:

Singh Is Kinng (2008) mp3 songs

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:49:00 +0000

Download Mp3 songs of Bollywood hindi movie Singh Is Kinng 2008 | 320 Kbps | CD-Rip format

Star Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Neha Dhupia, Javed Jaffrey, Ranvir Shorey, Kamal Chopra, Gurbaksh Singh, Om Puri.

Singh Is Kinng movie songs list:-

1. Singh Is Kinng - Snoop Dogg, Akshay Kumar
Click here to download

2. Talli Hua - Neeraj Shridhar, Labh Janjua
Click here to download

3. Jee Karda - Suzi Q, Labh Jajua
Click here to download

4. Teri Ore - Shreya Ghosal, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Click here to download

5. Bhootni Ke - Daler Mehndi
Click here to download

6. Bas Ek Kinng - Ashish Pundit, Mika Singh, Neeraj Shridhar, Hardkaur
Click here to download

7. Bhootni Ke (Tiger style Mix) - Mika Singh
Click here to download

8. Bhootni Ke (Remix) - Daler Mehndi
Click here to download

9. Talli Hua (Jay Dabhi Mix) - Neeraj Shridhar, Labh Janjua & Style Bhai
Click here to download

10. Bas Ek Kinng (Tiger style Mix) - Mika Singh, Neeraj Shridhar, Ashish Pundit, Hard Kaur
Click here to download

11. Teri Ore (Lounge Mix) - Shreya Ghosal, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Click here to download

12. Jee Karda (Remix) - Labh Janjua, Suzi Q
Click here to download

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:14:00 +0000

Watch online CHAMKU [2008] movie

Watch online and Download New Bollywood Bobby's movie Chamku [2008]

Director : Kabeer Kaushik
Producer : Vijayta Films
Writer : Kabeer Kaushik
Lyricist : Sameer
Music : Monty Sharma
Genre : Action, Thriller
Banner : Vijayta Films Pvt. Ltd.
Cinematographer : Gopal Shah
Studios : Filmcity, Sankraman Studios
Music On : T-Series
Release Date : 29th August 2008

Cast : Bobby Deol, Priyanka Chopra, Irfan Khan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Rajpal Yadav, Danny Denzongpa, Akhilendra Mishra

Chamku 2008 Hindi Movie Watch Online In desirippers Link :

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7

Download Chamku 2008 Hindi Movie Rapidshare Link :

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4

Wallpapers

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:13:00 +0000

http://movie4masti.blogspot.googlepages.com/index.htm#

Downlod songd of God Tussi Great Ho (2008) hindi movie MP3 songs

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:12:00 +0000

http://movie4masti.blogspot.com/2008/07/god-tussi-great-ho-2008-hindi-movie-mp3.html

USA Presidential election 2008 results

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:07:00 +0000

nited States presidential election, 2008 Wiki-pedia Informations

The U.S. presidential election in 2008 will take place on November 4, 2008. The election to determine the turnout for the U.S. Electoral College and presidential candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College (at least 270) will be 44 U.S. President. If no candidate obtains a majority in the electoral college then the President-elect by a vote in the House of Representatives.

presidenti Election results missouri, maryland, florida. News for virginia, wisconsin and washington state election results

As in the 2004 presidential election, the distribution of electoral votes for each state is partly based on the census in 2000. The elected President will take place Tuesday, January 20, 2009.

Watch the results of presidential election 2008 USA.

In the 2008 presidential election, the figures are very difficult to fight, because the battle has not been appointed by the President or Vice President ongoing, and the custom is not clear. Democratic group intends to make the ongoing conflict in Iraq is a central issue in the campaign, while Republicans try to maintain the historic interest of foreign policy. On the domestic front, Republicans have claimed that since 2003,'s economy has been growing rapidly, even though the Democrats will seek to secure a point that only the wealthiest citizens are the economic benefits of the current expansion is.

minnesota primary election results, midterm election, md election results

It is clear that the first competition will be a battle between Democrats and Republicans, each party will organise competitions for the purposes of determining each party's nominee. Jockeying candidates as the current situation and their full-scale campaign activities will begin in good time before the Iowa Caucus January 14, 2008, and the New Hampshire primary January 22, 2008.

On the Democratic side, Senator Hillary Clinton has all the name recognition he needs, but he has shown to be a large number of highly divisive election. Barack Obama is a party's golden child, but it is uncertain if they think the voters are ready for the presidency.

Primary Season Election of virginia, election, minnesotaPresidential Elections in midterm, md election, kansas and colorado statesdetroit Presidential election results oklahoma

John McCain leads pack-and the GOP is leaning to the political right to maximise the opportunities for his nomination. Experts expect that it will move the center of the nomination if he wins. Rudy Giuliani is a very formidable opponents to show more favorable ratings in the polls.

Here for the Presidential Election 2008 in Usa Two party are famous as listing below.

Democratic Party

Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
Tom Vilsack
Dennis Kucinich
Evan Bayh
Joe Biden
Bill Richardson
Wesley Clark
John Edwards
Mike Gravel

Republican Party

John McCain
Mitt Romney
Mike Huckabee
Rudy Giuliani
George Pataki
Tommy Thompson
Scott Brownback
Chuck Hagel

The following issues are responsible for The Presidential Election 2008 :-

Illegal immigration - The candidates for the eggshells feet when it comes to illegal immigration, because nobody has a simple solution.
Abortion Debate - For decades, about life and pro-choice groups have used for the presidential elections to sound off. 2008 is no exception.
War in Iraq - Candidates running for cover as they voted for the war, saying "I told you that" if there is not.
The tax cuts and from the side Economy-- Thanks to Ronald Reagan, Republicans have an excuse for tax cuts for the wealthy. They may argue that the hand of Economy help the poor more than the union of subsidies that Democrats want to spend. The universal health care - Every election cycle, we hear about the forty million uninsured citizens. There is no shortage of proposed solutions, but nobody is guaranteed to work.
Dianemitiki Budgeting - The economy is soaring, but so is the budget deficit. The country does not seem to control his own finances, as a single party that both the Congress and the White House. But when the power is divided into balancing the budget is in vogue concern, because there anyway inevitable stalemate. Nancy Pelosi passed "go" legislation in the first hundred hours as speaker, now we'll see if that helps during the elections.

Overall Medal Standings

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:07:00 +0000

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/GL/95A/GL0000000.shtml

Belarus paddlers in sudden gold rush

The Belarusian team won the Canoe/Kayak Flatwater Kayak Four (K4) 1000 meter final on Friday, August 22. Led by Athens K2 500m bronze medalists Raman Piatrushenka and Vadzim Makhneu, the team stayed in front of the race from start to end. [Full story]

Schedules & Results

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/Schedule/index.shtml

Records

As of Aug 22 2008

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/REC/index.shtml

Photos: Women's 4 x 400m Relay first round

Updated: 2008-08-22 20:56:29

Christine Ohuruogu (R) of Great Britain competes with Indira Terrero of Cuba. (Photo credit: Xinhua)

Photo Gallery>>

The Women's 4 x 400m Relay first round was held at the National Stadium on August 22, 2008.

The Russian team (R) competes with the team from Great Britain. (Photo credit: Xinhua)

German runners celebrate. (Photo credit: Xinhua)

China's Wang Jinping (R) competes. (Photo credit: Xinhua)

Photos: Chinese Guo wins Table Tennis bronze

Updated: 2008-08-22 21:04:14

Guo Yue of China competes. (Photo credit: Xinhua)

Photo Gallery>>

Women's Singles bronze medal in the Olympic Table Tennis tournament on Friday, August 22. Wang Nan, 2000 Olympic Singles champion, will take on defending Olympic champion Zhang Yining in the all-Chinese final late Friday night.

Guo Yue of China competes. (Photo credit: Xinhua)

Guo Yue of China celebrates. (Photo credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

Chinese trio fight way into Women's Table Tennis semifinals

Updated: 2008-08-21 20:10:47

(BEIJING, August 21) -- World No. 1 Zhang Yining, World No. 2 Guo Yue and third seed Wang Nan, all of China, beat their respective opponents to enter the Women’s Table Tennis semifinals to be held Friday morning at the Peking University Gymnasium.

Zhang Yining met a serious threat in Feng Tianwei of Singapore. Feng drove Zhang all the way to the fifth game, which Feng lost by a mere two points. Wang Nan won her match against Tie Yana of Hong Kong with the same 4-1, but her fight was a much easier one compared to Zhang’s. Guo Yue scored a 4-0 victory over Wu Xue of the Dominican Republic. It was not an easy win, however, as the score suggests, considering one of the games went to a depth of 16-14.

World No. 6 Li Jiawei of Singapore ended the progress of the only US player in the quarterfinals, Wang Chen, by winning their match 4-1.

In Friday’s semifinals, Zhang Yining will play Li Jiawei and Wang Nan will face her teammate Guo Yue.

Photos: Hadi Saei of Iran wins Men's 80kg Taekwondo gold

Updated: 2008-08-22 21:00:38

Mauro Sarmiento (blue) fights with Hadi Saei. (Photo credit: Zou Zheng/Xinhua)

Photo Gallery>>

Hadi Saei of Iran claimed the Men's 80kg Taekwondo title at the Beijing Olympics, beating Mauro Sarmiento of Italy in the final.

The bronze medals went to Steven Lopez from the United States and Zhu Guo from China.

Hadi Saei celebrates his victory. (Photo credit: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Hadi Saei performs a somersault to winning the gold medal. (Photo credit: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

BRYAN CLAY UPDATES: Big lead with two events left

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:06:00 +0000

American Bryan Clay of Kaneohe expanded his lead in the Olympic decathlon after two firsts and a second-place tie in the first three events of the second and final day, in Beijing today.
Clay put up the best marks in the 110-meter hurdles (13.93 seconds, 984 points) and the discus (53.79 meters, 950), and tied for second in the pole vault (5.00 meters, 910) to move closer to the gold medal.
He had a sizable lead with two events — the javelin and 1500-meter run — remaining.
Clay finished the second day’s morning session with 7,365 points. Andrei Krauchanka of Belarusia was second with 7,049.
Barring injury or some other disaster, Clay was nearly a shoo-in to win the gold medal after eight events.
Clay finished the first day (five events) with 4,521 points. Krauchanka was second with 4,443 and Trey Hardee of the U.S. third with 4,428.
“I had three very, very good events,” said Clay after the first day, when he was first in the 100 and long jump and second in the shot put. “Then I had one not so good event, a poor event, which was high jump. Then just an OK event in the 400, nothing special in the 400, but it was OK.”
Clay, a Castle High graduate, completed the first day's events with a time of 48.92 in the 400 meters, worth 865 points.
Following the high jump, Clay had 3,656 total points to second-place Aleksandr Pogorelov of Russia, who had 3,510.
Clay scored 794 points after clearing 1.99 meters, but missing all three attempts at 2.02. He was 11th in the event.
Clay, the silver medalist in 2004 at Athens, won the 100 meters and the long jump and was second in the shot put to build an early lead in the first day's morning session.
The 2005 world champion ran the 100 meters through a deluge in 10.44, then long-jumped 7.78 meters. Clay followed with a personal best of 16.27 in the shot.
More quotes from Clay on his first day, from a USATF news release:
"I don't know about scores. I really don't pay attention to scores until we get to about the javelin, then I look to see what I need to do to stay in the position that I'm in."
"I'm coming out tomorrow just trying to compete against the conditions and the competitors. Hopefully I'll be the best one there and be at the top of the podium at the end of the day."
"I think every event in the decathlon is important. You can't win the decathlon without having all ten events. Anytime you have a poor event, that's going to set you back a bit, and every time you have a good event, that'll put you ahead."
"I don't think it was the rain. I think that I was a little fatigued. We started in the rain and mentally and physically, it takes a lot to get through that and I think I did it very well. That made me a little fatigued going into the high jump and the 400."

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Live Blog Day 14: Canoe and kayak, track and beach volleyball

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:52:00 +0000

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Live Blog Day 14: Canoe and kayak, track and beach volleyball
Posted: August 21, 2008, 8:16 PM by Chris Boutet
Olympics
Update: Thomas Hall has won a bronze in the canoe, and Karine Sergerie will fight for gold in the Taekwondo 67kg event at 8 a.m. ET.
Hello and welcome to Day 14 of the National Post's live coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Every day for the duration of the games, the Post's Olympics editors will be curating a day-long post like this one that will set up the day's main events, provide recaps and results as well as any relevant analysis and insight. Post online editor Chris Boutet blogs until 3 a.m. ET (or 3 p.m. Beijing time), after which Noah Love takes over from 4 a.m. ET to noon.
Medal count so far Schedule of events
A rundown of the top headlines tonight on the Post's Beijing Games page:
Lamaze's golden turnaroundIOC orders probe over Chinese medallist He's ageOrlando 17th after first day of qualificationsJapan scores epic softball upset over U.S.Jamaica continues its dominance on the trackBeijing not as party-friendly as host cities past
And on our Posted Sports blog:
Olympics postcard: That's the way the cookie crumblesOlympics postcard: Picture this
Today's Events
A look at the main events happening from now until 3 a.m. ET:
Thu. 21 - 7:30 pm: Track and Field — Men's 50km WalkThu. 21 - 8:30 pm: Hockey — Women's Classification 11-12Thu. 21 - 9:00 pm: Beach Volleyball — Men's Bronze Medal MatchThu. 21 - 9:01 pm: Beach Volleyball — Men's Final RankingThu. 21 - 9:30 pm: Water Polo — Men's Classification 11th-12th PlaceThu. 21 - 10:30 pm: Cycling BMX — Women's Final RunThu. 21 - 10:40 pm: Cycling BMX — Men's Final RunThu. 21 - 11:00 pm: Beach Volleyball — Men's Gold Medal MatchThu. 21 - 11:00 pm: Hockey — Women's Classification 5-6Fri. 22 - 3:00 am: Synchronized Swimming — Team Event Technical Routine
Here are some of the main events happening between 4 a.m. and 12 p.m. ET:
Fri. 22 - 5:05 a.m.: Canoe — Double 1000m Men's FinalFri. 22 - 5:20 a.m.: Kayak — Four 1000m Men's FinalFri. 22 - 7:55 a.m.: Track — Men's Pole Vault FinalFri. 22 - 9:15 a.m.: Track — Women's 4x100m FinalFri. 22 - 10:10 a.m.: Track — Men's 4x100m Relay Final
Canadians in action tonight: Kara Grant of Stratford, P.E.I., and Monica Pinette of Langley, B.C., compete in the women's modern pentathlon (10-metre air pistol, fencing epee, 200-metre freestyle swimming, show jumping and 3,000-metre running) at 8:30 p.m.(all times ET); Samantha Cools of Airdrie, Alta., competes in the women's BMX semifinals at 9 p.m.; Massimo Bertochi of Tottenham, Ont., enters the final day of the decathlon (110-metre hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 metres) beginning at 9 p.m.; at 9:30 p.m., Karine Sergerie of Sainte-Catharine, Que., begins her medal quest in taekwondo's 67-kilogram class; the men's water polo team plays China for 11th place, also at 9:30 p.m.; and in men's taekwondo, Sebastien Michaud of Quebec City competes in the 80-kilogram class. Updates to follow on all these events.Elsewhere tonight, we'll check in on the men's beach volleyball gold-medal game between the United States's Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers and Brazil's Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes.
Live blog begins below — most recent content at top. All times ET unless otherwise noted.
Taekwondo — Women's 67kg Class
5:30 a.m.: A big update on Sergerie — she advanced through the quarters against the Argentinian, and then in the semis, she took on Asuncion Ocasio Rodriguez. She took that match 2-0 and is off to the gold medal match. She's also guaranteed to win a medal, it's just a question of what colour it will be.10:45 p.m.: Canada's Karine Sergerie has advanced to the quarter-finals in women's 67kg taekwondo, besting Australian Tina Morgan 0:0 (Won by Superiority). She now goes on to face Vanina Paola Sanchez Beron of Argentina at 3:15 a.m.
Kayak/Canoe — Flatwater
Kayak Four (K4) 1000m Men's Final5:25 a.m.: The Canadian quartet run in lane 9 for this race and are not expected to contend for a medal. Canada is at the back of the pack from the very start, more than a full boat length behind at the first interval. Belarus wins its second gold in as many races and the Canadians go home with a last-place finish.
Canoe Double (C2) 1000m Men's Final5:18 a.m.: Andrew Russell and Gabriel Beauchesne-Sevigny run in lane 7. The Germans hold a big lead halfway through, the Canadians are three seconds back in fifth. The team from Belarus makes a huge move in the final 250 metres and catches the Germans. Russell and Beauchesne-Sevigny make a push for bronze but come up short, finishing sixth. Hungary takes bronze.
Canoe Single (C1) 1000m Men Final
3:50 a.m.: And just 10 minutes later, Canada's Thomas Hall has a brilliant final 200 metres to come from behind and win the bronze! Attila Sandor Vajda of Hungary wins the gold with a 3:50.467, while David Cal of Spain finished second with 3:52.751. Hall's third-place finish was in a time of 3:53.653.
Kayak Single (K1) 1000m Men Final
3:40 a.m.: Canada's flagbearer Adam van Koeverden came into this race favoured to win gold, and he has to be disappointed with the result. Van Koeverden had spent the race firmly in second place heading into the final 200 metres, but appeared to run out of gas and just could not keep pace, finishing well out of the medals, eighth in a field of nine.
Tim Brabants of Great Britain handily won the gold with a time of 3:26.323, Eirik Larsen of Norway the silver with 3:27.342 and Australia's Ken Wallace rounded out the podium with a time of 3:27.48. Van Koeverden finished with a time of 3:31.79.
"I just didn't have it," a clearly shaken Van Koeverden told the CBC after the race. "Hell of a time not to have it. I was a spectator. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry.""I'm just incredibly disappointed."
Pitcher Yoon Suk Min (L) and catcher Kang Minho of South Korea celebrate after defeating Japan. (Danny Moloshok/Reuters)

Baseball — Men's Semi-Final
2:10 a.m.: Korea continued its surprise march into the the baseball gold-medal final tonight as Lee Seung-yuop notched a two-run homer in the eighth inning to shock rivals Japan by a score of 6-2. From Reuters:
Lee, who earns his living playing for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan, may not be so welcome upon his return after sinking Japanese gold medal hopes with a two-run blast into the right field bleachers that keyed a decisive eighth inning four-run burst.
The surprise package of the baseball tournament, Korea has never before reached the Olympic final and will now have a chance to claim the last gold medal before the sport is dropped from the Games programme after Saturday’s final.Korea will now await the winner of Friday’s other semi-final between three-times Olympic champions Cuba and their bitter rivals the United States.
Track and Field — Men's Decathlon

1 a.m.: After beginning the day 88 points ahead of the field, American Bryan Clay is closing in on the Olympic decathlon gold after a morning at the hurdles left him 283 points clear with three events remaining. From Reuters:
Clay, the 2004 Olympic silver medallist, began the day 88 points ahead and immediately stretched that to 124 with a 13.93 110 metres hurdles, the second-best of the day.
He then posted a 53.79 metre discus to open the gap to a formidable 283 points.
Clay, who said he began the day “exhausted, just like everybody else”, needs only to avoid disaster in the pole vault to go into the evening javelin and closing 1,500 metres with what should be an unassailable lead.
Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine moved up to second place after the discus, ahead of Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus and Trey Hardee of the United States.
The pole vault event began at 12:55 a.m. and is underway now.
Philip Dalhausser (R) and Todd Rogers of the U.S. celebrate victory against Brazil in their men's beach volleyball final match. (Gil Cohen Magen/Reuters)

Men's Beach Volleyball
12:25 a.m.: Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser of the United States have followed up the U.S. women's beach volleyball gold medal with one of their own tonight, defeating Brazilians Marcio Araujo and Fabio Luiz Magalhaes in three sets, 23:21,17:21,15:4.
Earlier, Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos, also from Brazil, won the bronze medal, beating Jorge Terciero and Renato Gomes of Georgia 15:21,10:21.
Modern Pentathlon
12 a.m.: The second event in the women's pentathlon, one-touch epee fencing, has concluded, and Yane Marques of Brazil has moved up to split the lead with Lena Schoneborn of Germany, both with a total score of 1892. Marques recorded 14 victories and 9 defeats for a fencing score of 736, while Schoneborn went 18-5 for a fencing score of 832, second best in this event. Omnia Fakhry of Egypt is third, going 13-10 for a fencing score of 712 and total of 1880.
Among the Canadians, Monica Pinette struggled mightily in the fencing event, notching just 6 victories and 17 defeats to bump her down to 24th overall with 1724 points. Just ahead of her is Kara Grant of Stratford, P.E.I., in 23rd place with 1736 points.
Next up is 200m freestyle swimming at 2:30 a.m.
10:10 p.m.: The first of the pentathlon's five events has wrapped up, and Canada's Monica Pinette is off to an encouraging start, sharing second place in the 10m air pistol shooting event with a score of 187 and a pentathlon total of 1180. Anastasia Samusevich of Belarus posted identical numbers to Pinette, while Belinda Schreiber of Switzerland is in first, shooting 188 for a total score of 1192. Hungary's Zsuzsanna Voros, gold medallist for women's pentathlon in 2004, is currently in 12th place with a total of 1120.Next up is the Women's Fencing Epee One Touch, now underway.

Competitors walk through a corner during a lap of the National Stadium at the start of the men's 50-kilometre race walk. (Gary Hershorn/Reuters)

Track and Field — Men's 50km Walk
11:25 p.m.: The race is over, and Italy's Alex Schwazer wins the gold, finishing the 50k with a time of 3:37:09. Jared Tallent of Australia takes silver with 3:39:27 and Denis Nizhegorodov of Russia the bronze with 3:40:14. Canada's Tim Berrett finishes in 38th place with a time of 4:08:18.
9:45 p.m.: We're now halfway through the men's racewalk, and Tim Berrett of Canada is well back of the lead at the 25-kilometre mark, in 37th place with a time of 1:57:09. Australian Jared Tallent has moved up from third position to take the lead with a time of 1:49:00, in a dead heat with Alex Schwazer of Italy. Russian Denis Nizhegorodov, leader at the 20k mark, is one second back in third place, along with China's Li Jianbo.
Sammy Cools of Canada retrieves her bike after an early fall in the BMX women's final. (Jean Levac/Canwest News Service)

Cycling BMX — Women's Semi-Finals

10:30 p.m.: Apparently, we were a bit confused earlier on the status of Samantha Cools' medal hopes. Turns out the Airdrie, Alta., racer did, in fact, squeak through to the final after finishing fourth after three heats. Cools, however, failed to complete the race, crashing out shortly after the start.
Anne-Caroline Chausson of France wins the first-ever gold in this inaugural event, while countrywoman Laetitia le Corguille took silver. The bronze went to Jill Kintner of the United States.
9:25 p.m.: Canada's Samantha Cools will not advance to Friday's BMX women's final after finishing sixth of eight in Heat 1 with a time of 39.765 seconds. The top four racers — in order: Anne-Caroline Chausson of France, New Zealand's Sarah Walker, Gabriela Diaz of Argentina and Jenny Fahndrich of Switzerland — move on.-->

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:27:00 +0000

SILVER LININGRock Hill Herald - Rock Hill,SC,USAA man named David Haigler kept checking his cell phone for updates on therace. "Shawn came home last time, he come to the house and

SILVER LINING
Van Wyck proud of its Olympian, even though Crawford says he didn't earn runner-up medal
By Columnist · The HeraldUpdated 08/21/08 - 7:50 AM
-- Read the full story" name=body>
Comment on this story

VAN WYCK -- An Olympic silver medal in a place of hard brick and harder work shouldn't happen this way. Disqualifications do not give joy to men who bake bricks from clay and rock and heat so hot it hurts, or to a runner who has made so many dreams of his own and others come true.
A stunning turn of events propelled Van Wyck's favorite son, Shawn Crawford, to the silver medal in his race Wednesday morning at the Beijing Olympic Games after he appeared to finish fourth. Crawford had spent four years focused on nothing else, just training, trying to repeat his 2004 Olympic gold medal glory. When, for an eyelash under 20 seconds in the 200 meters, he was the fastest man on earth.
But Crawford wasn't fastest Wednesday. Not second-fastest, or third. A human gale named Usain Bolt of Jamaica won. Easily, convincingly, astonishingly, Bolt smashed the world record. No less astonishing is that the third-place finisher was disqualified right away for stepping out of his lane, then the second-place finisher was disqualified for the same infraction.
Crawford was awarded the silver medal and in true Crawford and Van Wyck "I didn't earn it so I don't want it" style, immediately tried to give the medal away.
Nobody in Van Wyck just across the Catawba River in Lancaster County was surprised Shawn Crawford didn't want what he didn't win. This tiny hamlet that watched Crawford rise from obscurity to fame had been anticipating the race for weeks, and the nervous edge felt like sandpaper. Signs at the tiny community center and post office boasted of Crawford the native son. Banners waved in front of homes. Red, white and blue ribbons covered the signs that lead into this crossroads that say Van Wyck is home to Shawn Crawford, 2004 gold and silver medalist. The anticipation boiled over at the Boral brick factory. The only employer in this tiny town of about 300 people -- 400 when the bricks are being made. On one forklift with his name on it toiled an icon of the town and factory, Jimmie Crawford, uncle of Shawn.
"Been here working 14 years on this forklift, every day," said Jimmie Crawford. "Shawn runs like we work. Puts in the time, every day. Knows you get nothing free in life. All of us do, and Shawn, too."
Winning the silver medal through a double disqualification "is not how Shawn wants to win anything," Jimmie Crawford said. "He wants rewards from running. He wants to beat the other guy. Fair and square. Shawn Crawford wants no gifts from nobody."
Nobody in that factory of brick wants or gets a freebie, either. The men sat and stood around at breaktime lined with sweat, clay dust and grime and spoke with love of Shawn Crawford, who makes them all proud because he is one of them.
"I grew up with Shawn, know him all my life," said Robert Foster. "He was always runnin'. Runnin' here, runnin' there. He said when he was in high school he'd win the Olympics. He did it, too. Worked for it, and nobody ever gave him nothin'."
A brickmaker named Winfred Hood proudly called out, "I know Shawn Crawford all his life! Never changes, Shawn. Humble."
A man named David Haigler kept checking his cell phone for updates on the race.
"Shawn came home last time, he come to the house and signed cards for everybody," Haigler said. "Didn't have to do it, but wanted to."
Other guys, Charles Harris, Craig Thompson, James Stevenson, more, who make these bricks every day, spoke of Crawford as people speak of their own brothers. So many growing up together at the White Oak AME Zion Church. They used words such "love," "faith," "friendship" and "pride."
The race in China wasn't televised live Wednesday, so all these guys had to use phones and the Internet to get the results. Haigler the dusty brickmaker walked up to Jimmie Crawford.
"If it's bad news, don't tell me," Jimmie Crawford said.
"Bronze," Haigler told Jimmie Crawford.
Then, much later, silver.
Nobody wanted it this way.
"I pulled open a drawer this mornin', saw a shirt from Jamaica on it," Jimmie Crawford said. "Never been there, somebody must have given it. Bad omen, but I didn't want to tell nobody."
People at the post office, in the houses of Van Wyck, said it is no surprise Shawn didn't want to get a silver this way.
Chad Crawford, Jimmie's son and just a year older than Shawn, so they grew up together and even call each other "brother," had sent Shawn this text message before the race from his job in Fort Mill: "Whenever you got God with you, who can be against you? They can't beat you with him by your side."
Shawn Crawford won that 2004 gold medal in Athens, and he wore that gold with pride. He won a silver in those games for a relay race, and he was proud of that one, too.
Then the Wednesday race, and a silver that won't shine as bright.
Yet, joy came anew from these men of work, for achievement, not loss. The next text message from Chad to Shawn: "You still #1 to me. I'm proud of you anyway. We'll bring the gold home in 2012 li'l brother."
In that brick factory Wednesday morning after Shawn didn't win, a worker named Mark Stinson gushed forth this immediately legendary line: "We don't make but two things in Van Wyck -- bricks and Olympians."
He's right. Van Wyck bricks are strong and hard and last forever. Just like Van Wyck's Olympian, whose legend of greatness in winning silver and gold in 2004, and in not wanting silver he did not think he earned in 2008, will last forever.

Chinese Gymnasts Age Update: IOC Begins Investigation on He Kexin

In an interview with The Times of London, the International Olympic Committee has officially ordered an investigation on He Kexin’s age. Any official evidence proving that Kexin did not meet the age requirements for gymnastic competition in the 2008 Olympic games could ultimately strip the Chinese gymnastic star of her medals.
The investigation came about as US-computer security expert Mike Walker claimed that he had uncovered official Chinese government documents, which have been previously removed from a website, that cites Kexin’s date of birth as January 1, 1994, making her 14, rather than 1992, which is printed in her passport.
Walker told The Times of London that he wasn’t even a sports fan and that he was investigating this matter as “citizen journalist.”
Walker explains, “There was a conclusion here. These documents existed, on a state-wide website, and now they don’t exist, and this change has taken place recently. I was interested because these were documents that no-one could find - it was a challenge.”
“Because of troubling new developments, the committee had instructed the International Gymnastics Federation, the sport’s governing body, to investigate,” said IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies.
“More information has come to light that did point to discrepancies. We have asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further with the national Chinese federation. If there is a question mark, and we have a concern - which we do - we ask the governing body of any sport to look into…as to why there is a discrepancy.”
AsianWeek will be following the investigation closely. Stay tuned for updates!

USA Water Polo Teams Make a Big Splash at 2008 Olympics with New ...

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:21:00 +0000

Clark, NJ (PRWEB) August 21, 2008 -- During this Olympic summer season, U.S. sports fans have overcome global barriers to keep up with the USA Water Polo teams. This year, the USA Water Polo Teams are ensuring that fans know what's going on at all times with a new user-friendly mobile Web site, http://usawaterpolo.mobi/.
Water polo, one of the oldest Olympic team sports, is often lost in the Olympic Games activities menu, and their mobile Web site is a key part of a campaign to help the USA Water Polo Teams gain popularity and support. The mobile Web site was designed and produced by Gold Mobile, a leading mobile solutions provider. The media campaign is led by media specialist agency, Kinetic, and its mobile marketing unit, Kinetic Mobile. It is backed by a host of media sponsors.
Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://usawaterpolo.mobi/" alt="Link to website">Mobile technology is a natural for sports fans U.S. Olympic fans are texting in to receive the teams' mobile web link and sign up for free text schedules and score updates. Of the mobile site visitors, 42% sign up for the scores and schedule updates via SMS. The usawaterpolo.mobi mobile Web site has already received over 20,000 visitors. The site itself features game schedules, match scores, team member profiles, free wallpapers and the ability to have schedule and score alerts sent directly to mobile phones. To receive these updates for both the men's and women's USA Olympic teams, fans can sign up from their cell phones by texting "OPOLOY" to 51684.
"Few national governing bodies have the good fortune to capitalize on the Olympic Games with a targeted message about the merits of their sport," said Christopher Ramsey, CEO of USA Water Polo. "This campaign breaks new ground and will bring many new young people to water polo, including future Olympians."
"Mobile technology is a natural for sports fans," said Bob Gold, CEO of Gold Mobile "They can get the latest updates wherever they are and stay current on their favorite players. The .mobi domain certifies that consumers receive content that works on a mobile phone."
About Gold Mobile:Gold Mobile is a leading provider of mobile marketing programs for agencies, companies and brands. Gold Mobile provides a highly sophisticated, high performance mobile platform for mobile marketing, mobile enterprise CRM, mobile multimedia and mobile phone-based transactions. For more information visit www.gold-mobile.com.

Venus and Serena Williams take doubles Olympic gold

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:08:00 +0000

Venus and Serena Williams take doubles Olympic gold!!!!!

Clive Brunskill / Getty Images

Sisters Venus and Serena Williams of the U.S. show off their gold medals during the awards ceremony for the women's tennis doubles competition on Sunday in Beijing.

The Williams sisters win the top medal, beating the Spanish team 6-2, 6-0.

By Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
6:45 AM PDT, August 17, 2008

BEIJING -- Put an Olympic gold medal in front of the Williams sisters, send them out to play doubles, and they are like kids in a candy store.

For the second time in two tries, Venus and Serena won the doubles gold, beating a team from Spain here Sunday at the Olympic tennis complex. They did the same thing eight years ago in Sydney. And they did it in similar fashion Sunday.

Overall Medal Standings Till August 17th.

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:55:00 +0000

Rank	NOC Name	Men				Women				Open/Mixed				Total				Rank by Total
Rank	NOC Name	G	S	B	T	G	S	B	T	G	S	B	T	G	S	B	T	Rank by Total
1	CHN - China	14	6	3	23	21	7	9	37			1	1	35	13	13	61	2
2	USA - United States	12	5	12	29	7	14	13	34		2		2	19	21	25	65	1
3	GBR - Great Britain	5	3	4	12	5	3	2	10	1		2	3	11	6	8	25	=5
4	GER - Germany	3	4	2	9	3	2	4	9	3			3	9	6	6	21	8
5	AUS - Australia	2	5	7	14	6	4	4	14		1		1	8	10	11	29	4
6	KOR - Korea	5	5	2	12	2	4	3	9	1			1	8	9	5	22	7
7	JPN - Japan	4	3	3	10	4	2	4	10					8	5	7	20	9
8	RUS - Russian Fed.	4	3	9	16	3	8	3	14					7	11	12	30	3
9	ITA - Italy	2	5	3	10	4	1	3	8					6	6	6	18	10
10	UKR - Ukraine	3	1	3	7	2	2	3	7					5	3	6	14	11
11	FRA - France	4	8	9	21		1	2	3			1	1	4	9	12	25	=5
12	ROU - Romania			1	1	4	1	2	7					4	1	3	8	=14
13	ESP - Spain	3	1	1	5		1		1					3	2	1	6	=18
14	SVK - Slovakia	2			2	1	1		2					3	1		4	=29
15	NED - Netherlands			2	2	2	3	2	7		1		1	2	4	4	10	=12
16	POL - Poland	2	3		5			1	1					2	3	1	6	=18
17	CZE - Czech Republic	1	2		3	1	1		2					2	3		5	=21
18	JAM - Jamaica	1			1	1	2		3					2	2		4	=29
19	CAN - Canada	1	1	2	4	1		2	3					2	1	4	7	17
20	PRK - DPR Korea			1	1	2	1	2	5					2	1	3	6	=18
21	NZL - New Zealand		1	2	3	2			2					2	1	2	5	=21
22	SUI - Switzerland	2		2	4			1	1					2		3	5	=21
23	GEO - Georgia	2			2			1	1					2		1	3	=35
24	CUB - Cuba	1		2	3		3	2	5					1	3	4	8	=14
24	KAZ - Kazakhstan	1	1	2	4		2	2	4					1	3	4	8	=14
26	ZIM - Zimbabwe					1	3		4					1	3		4	=29
27	AZE - Azerbaijan	1	2	1	4			1	1					1	2	2	5	=21
28	NOR - Norway	1	2		3			1	1					1	2	1	4	=29
29	INA - Indonesia	1		2	3			1	1		1		1	1	1	3	5	=21
30	SLO - Slovenia	1		1	2		1	1	2					1	1	2	4	=29
31	BUL - Bulgaria			1	1	1	1		2					1	1	1	3	=35
31	FIN - Finland			1	1	1	1		2					1	1	1	3	=35
33	MGL - Mongolia	1			1		1		1					1	1		2	=41
34	BRA - Brazil	1		3	4			1	1					1		4	5	=21
35	DEN - Denmark	1		1	2			1	1			1	1	1		3	4	=29
36	ETH - Ethiopia					1			1					1			1	=51
36	IND - India	1			1									1			1	=51
36	THA - Thailand					1			1					1			1	=51
36	TUN - Tunisia	1			1									1			1	=51
40	HUN - Hungary		4		4			1	1						4	1	5	=21
41	BLR - Belarus		2	3	5		1	4	5						3	7	10	=12
42	SWE - Sweden		2		2		1		1						3		3	=35
43	TUR - Turkey			1	1		2		2						2	1	3	=35
44	KEN - Kenya						2		2						2		2	=41
45	AUT - Austria		1		1			2	2						1	2	3	=35
46	ALG - Algeria		1		1			1	1						1	1	2	=41
46	COL - Colombia		1		1			1	1						1	1	2	=41
46	CRO - Croatia		1		1			1	1						1	1	2	=41
46	GRE - Greece		1		1			1	1						1	1	2	=41
46	KGZ - Kyrgyzstan		1	1	2										1	1	2	=41
46	SRB - Serbia		1	1	2										1	1	2	=41
46	UZB - Uzbekistan		1	1	2										1	1	2	=41
53	CHI - Chile		1		1										1		1	=51
53	ECU - Ecuador		1		1										1		1	=51
53	EST - Estonia		1		1										1		1	=51
53	MAS - Malaysia		1		1										1		1	=51
53	SIN - Singapore						1		1						1		1	=51
53	TRI - Trinidad/Tobago		1		1										1		1	=51
53	VIE - Vietnam		1		1										1		1	=51
60	ARM - Armenia			5	5											5	5	=21
61	TPE - Chinese Taipei							2	2							2	2	=41
62	ARG - Argentina							1	1							1	1	=51
62	EGY - Egypt			1	1											1	1	=51
62	LTU - Lithuania			1	1											1	1	=51
62	MEX - Mexico							1	1							1	1	=51
62	TJK - Tajikistan			1	1											1	1	=51
62	TOG - Togo			1	1											1	1	=51
Total:		83	83	98	264	76	77	86	239	5	5	5	15	164	165	189	518

Legend
G - Gold	S - Silver	B - Bronze	T - Total
'=' - Equal sign indicates that two or more NOCs share the same rank by total

Note

Rank by total is calculated by total number of gold, silver and bronze medals.

Host nation jubilant over Olympic miracles

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:40:00 +0000

BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Olympic host China basked in jubilance on Sunday as the nation shared international athletes' triumphs and marveled at their supremacy in the competition for a total of 37 Olympic gold medals up for grabs.

Michael Phelps apparently won the nation's 1.3 billion hearts when he completed his all-eight gold hunt with a seventh world record at the Beijing Olympics.

The entire audience roared when Phelps turned a third place behind Japan and Australia into the lead in the third leg of the men's 4x100m medley relay final, securing first place for his teammate Jason Lezak, who completed the final lap in a record-breaking 3 minutes and 29.34 seconds.

It was more than the Americans that were thrilled -- nearly all the Chinese, who made up the bulk of the 10,000-odd audience at the Water Cube in northern Beijing, marveled at the miracle.

"I think Phelps is the greatest swimmer of all times: he's talented and trains hard," said Ma Mengqiao, an 18-year-old spectator from Beijing. "I guess his success will reinforce the status of this sport in the Olympic agenda."

Ma, one of innumerable youngsters in China who idolize Phelps, said her admiration for the American star who won six golds in Athens at 19 has shaped herself into an amateur swimmer.

"He's really a miracle. I enjoyed seeing him smile every time he won gold," said Beijing bus driver Guo Ruijie, who bought a hard-won ticket for Sunday's finals after making reservations online last summer.

Guo, 24, said Phelps, with his eight golds, has put an additional "lucky eight" to the Beijing Games, which opened on Aug. 8, 2008.

"He's my idol because he has devoted himself to his ambitions," said Liu Zige, who won China's only swimming gold at the Beijing Games in women's 200m butterfly on Thursday. "There's a lot I should learn from him."

Besides the lucky ones who gained access to the Water Cube, most residents in Beijing stayed home on the drizzling, overcast Sunday morning, watching the Games on TV and chatting about their favorite stars on the Internet.

Notably, the heated discussions about the Games in China's cyber community, which has some 210 million Internet users, are by no means limited to Chinese players.

While Internet surfers rejoiced on Sunday over witnessing China's gold medal collection surpass the 32-mark set in Athens with the Games just past halfway, Phelps and other international stars still dominated the online chats.

In an online poll at China's leading portal website sina.com.cn, 76 percent of the nearly 40,000 people surveyed agreed Phelps is the "greatest sportsman in human history."

"Phelps would have ranked fifth on the gold medal table (of the Beijing Olympics) even if he represented a one-man team," gushed an 18-year-old netizen in his blog. "I'd say he's a fish with no gills."

"The Phelps legend proves that human potentials are unlimited. The Olympic Games are forever leading the human race to become faster, higher and stronger...So the Beijing Games are more than a spectacular opening ceremony, they have posed more aggressive challenges to test our limits," said a netizen named "soul of the setting sun" on xinhuanet.com.

As Chinese netizens heaped praises on Phelps, few people seemed to mind their country's own disadvantage in the pool, with only one swimming gold out of the total 32.

The nation was truly delighted on Sunday when Chinese shooter Qiu Jian miraculously upset American shooter Matthew Emmons to take gold in men's 50m rifle three positions.

In fact, it was Emmons who "miraculously" conceded a firm grip on the gold medal with a shocking last shot of 4.4 points. "It's incredible," said a netizen named "Simagang." "I nearly froze in front of the television when I saw you lose. Sorry, Emmons, but you're still among the best shooters in my heart."

For avid Chinese spectators, the past week has been full of laughters and tears, excitement and disappointments, abstracted working hours and sleepless nights. "Can you imagine we're allowed to leave the television on in the office?" said Wang Yan, an office worker at a Beijing-based private firm.

As hosts of the world's largest sports rally, the Chinese have transcended from their national sentiments to value sportsmanship and extend heartfelt welcomes and congratulations to every Olympian, regardless of their nationality or race.

Under the "One World, One Dream" theme of the Beijing Olympics, people have stopped distinguishing "us" from "them" and have heartily celebrated every miracle and regretted every failure.

In a more open attitude, Chinese spectators have been cheering for both domestic and foreign players, and have extended friendly gestures to their former heroes who now represent foreign teams. They stood up to applaud former Olympic fencing champion Luan Jujie, who now represents Canada, and made the U.S. women's volleyball team coach Lang Ping, the beloved "iron hammer" of the Chinese team 20 years back, feel at home when her team met the host team in a preliminary game on Friday night.

Out of their respect for the true heroes, Chinese spectators marveled at Usain Bolt's stunning speed when he sprinted the men's 100-meter in a record-breaking 9.69 seconds to win the Olympic gold on Saturday night. "So how fast on earth can human beings actually run?" many people gasped.

Yet out of respect for the Olympic spirit, some also criticized the Jamaican for slowing down at the end to check if he was still ahead and punch his chest in joy in front of some 91,000 spectators. "I was just having fun, that's me," the 21-year-old Bolt had said.

"But you could have done better," said a Chinese Internet surfer, whose opinion was echoed by many others. "You could have made it at 9.60 seconds."

The numbers don't lie: Phelps is the best swimmer ever

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:38:00 +0000

The numbers don't lie: Phelps is the best swimmer eve

Are there any superlatives left to describe Michael Phelps?

A year ago, ESPN.com asked the question: "Who is the greatest swimmer of all time?" This was after the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. We created a swimming index: a mathematical, yet still debatable, system of calculating swimming greatness.

[+] Enlarge

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Michael Phelps won an unprecedented eight gold medals in a single Games in Beijing.

Phelps, the freakishly perfectly built swimmer from Baltimore, won't be relinquishing his top spot -- at least not for a long time. Some believe that won't change in our lifetime, especially after he bettered Mark Spitz's record of seven golds in one Olympics.

Even Spitz, who won seven Olympic gold medals and set as many world records 36 years ago at the 1972 Games in Munich, has been awed.

"It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time," Spitz told The Associated Press after Phelps matched his 7-for-7 Olympic gold medal record. "He's the greatest racer who ever walked the planet."

If Spitz can say that, then we figure there's no doubt that Phelps is No. 1.

According to our calculations, Phelps has trounced the rankings, earning a whopping 286 points. That's 119.5 points more than the 166.5 earned by Spitz. And we might have to update these numbers again in four years should Phelps continue his march through the record books at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Just to get an idea of how impressive Phelps has been in Beijing, consider this: He racked up 92.5 points just in these Games alone. Those points include five individual Olympic gold medals (50 points), three Olympic relay golds (7.5 points) and world records in four individual events (200 free, 200 IM, 400 IM and 200 fly for 35 points).

Some other interesting updates to our list: Aaron Peirsol jumped from No. 8 to No. 4 after capturing a gold medal in the 100 backstroke and a silver in the 200 backstroke. He now has three individual Olympic golds and two silvers in individual events. Australia's Michael Klim dropped from No. 5 to No. 6; but with no individual Olympic gold medals, we've bounced him from the Top 10. Japan's Kosuke Kitajima, the first man to win the 100 breast and 200 breast in successive Olympics, is new to the list, just ahead of Matt Biondi, who won eight Olympic medals (five in Seoul).

Of course, the main story is Phelps, the man who's been quite lonely at the top.

"The great ones, Jordan, Woods, Montana, seem to not only win, but win in the most dramatic fashion, blending excellence with great theater," NBC's Bob Costas told the U.S. audience this weekend. "Add Michael Phelps to the list."

It's one of the few lists in which he seems to have company.

Rosewater's Swimming Index
Amy Rosewater created the following formula to calculate the greatest male swimmer of all time. Each swimmer has individual scores for individual Olympic medals, relay Olympic medals, individual World Championship medals and world record points. • Individual Olympic medals: Gold (10 points), Silver (5 points) and Bronze (3 points). • Individual World Championship medals: Gold (5), Silver (3), Bronze (1). • Relay Olympic medals: Gold (2.5), Silver (1). • World record points: 10 points for each world record that is initially set; 5 points for record in same stroke, different distance; 1 point for the swimmer who breaks his own record. • Overall score compiles individual Olympic medals, relay Olympic medals, individual World Championship medals, plus the amount of the world record points multiplied by two. We multiplied the world record points because we believe that is the greatest measure over the history of the sport.
Swimmer	Oly (Ind.)	WC (Ind.)	Oly (Relay)	WR	Total
1. Phelps	103	51	10	61	286
2. Spitz	48	--	12.5	53	166.5
3. Hackett	30	78	1	15	139
4. Peirsol	40	51	5	21	138
5. Thorpe	38	44	6	24	136
6. Klim	5	77	7	22	133
7. Matthes	43	18	2	29	121
8. Gross	35	10	1	36	118
9. Popov	45	29	4	15	108
10. Kitajima	40	23	0	18	99
11. Biondi	33	15	12.5	18	96.5
12. Salnikov	30	20	2.5	21	94.5
13. Hoogenband	38	21	1	15	90
14. Hansen	8	39	5	17	86
15. Weissmuller	30	--	5	24	83
16. Schollander	25	--	7.5	25	82.5
17. Crocker	5	29	7.5	12	65.5
18. Hall Jr.	33	6	8.5	0	47.5
19. Lochte	21	21	5	0	47

r

Olympics: day six - live!

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:19:00 +0000

Olympics: day six - as it happened

· Political controversy: Coe dismisses Britain's chances
· Boxing: Billy Joe Saunders beaten by Cuban
· Swimming: Kitajima seals double breaststroke gold

Hammer refresh to get the latest updates, and email scott.murray@guardian.co.uk with your questions, witticisms, and points of information. To see today's results so far, click here

Russell Cunningham, Alan Gardner, Howard Swains and Scott Murray
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday August 14 2008 01:20 BST
Article history

Russell will be here from 1.45am...

1.56am: Good morning everyone, and welcome to day six. Five days gone and what have we learned? That a diving pool is a tough place to learn about office politics; that Australian wit is a loosely defined quality when applied by sport officials; and that swimming records now have the lifespan of a mayfly.

We return to the pool this morning, when the men's 100m freestyle world record will no doubt be lowered again, having already been broken twice in the semi-finals yesterday. Medals are also up for grabs in the men's 200m breastroke, women's 200m butterfly, women's 200m butterfly, and women's 4x200m freestyle. At the fencing, the women attempt to make a point or two in the sabre quarters and semis, with the finals later this morning. In gymnastics there'll be medals all around in the men's all around. In judo British hopes are with Peter Cousins in the men's -100kg, which will move through the preliminaries and repechage to the finals later this morning. Plus we have the women's skeet shooting final, as well as boxing, softball, volleyball and beach volleyball. Let the daze begin ...

2.12am: Let's run our eye over some British interests for today. As well as Peter Cousins in the judo, veteran Mark Foster takes one almighty breath and dives into the 50m freestyle heats, while 400m gold medallist Rebecca Adlington returns to the Water Cube in the 800m freestyle heats. In badminton, Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms are in the mixed doubles quarter-finals.

2.29am: Michael Phelps, who by now must surely have a full medal jacket in his wardrobe, isn't exactly prospecting for more gold today but the American is in action this morning in the 200m individual medley semi-finals.

3.01am: Let's go poolside now, where the men are emerging for the 200m breaststroke final. Japan's Kosuke Kitajima is the defending champion here.

3.09am: No change at the top there, then. No world record either, but Kitajima defends his title in a time of 2min 7.64sec, holding off Australia's Brenton Rickard, in second, and France's Hugues Dubosq in third. Kitajima add the 200m title to his Beijing 100m gold as he successfully defends the two titles he won in Athens.

3.20am: Sensation in the women's 100m freestyle semi-finals, where China's Pang Jiaying is disqualified for starting too early. Great Britain's Fran Halsall qualifies fourth fastest for the final. Pang won her semi-final in 53.49sec but was disqualified for flinching at the start.

3.27am: Britain's Gregor Tait now lines up in lane 3 for his 200m backstroke semi-final.

3.30am: Tait finishes fourth in his semi, and qualifies sixth fastest for the final in 1.56.72.

3.33am: But where's the green and gold? Paul from Canberra reckons any suggestion that Australian swimming is in decline is rubbish: "Yes, we're happy to acknowledge GB's improved showing in the pool, just as we're happy to acknowledge the wonderful performances of the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese swimmers and divers who all sit above or equal to the GB swimming team in the medal tally." Well, wattle you think of that?

3.51am: Still, Australia's hopes in the women's 200m butterfly decline as Jessicah Shipper is caught by Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang in a Chinese one-two in the women's 200m butterfly. Liu takes gold and breaks the world record in 2min 4.08sec.

3.51am: Is it possible to set a blistering pace in a pool? If ever it was going to happen it's now, in the men's 100m freestyle final.

3.56am: No record, but what a finish. Alain Bernard's fingertip wins gold for France in 47.21sec, ahead of Australia's Eamon Sullivan - who still holds the world record in 47.05 - and the US's Jason Lezak. Bernard, whose shoulders must have their own postcode, then waves to the crowd who are all hooping and hollering like baseball sluggers at a Madonna concert.

Read our full report on this morning's exciting races

4.15am: Ho-hum, Michael Phelps wins another race. The American strolls through his 200m individual medley semi-final to win in 1min 57.70sec. Britain's Liam Tancock finishes fourth in 1:59.42 and awaits the second semi to see if he makes the final. Phelps' US team-mate Ryan Lochte qualifies fastest in 1:57.69, bumping Medal Man back to second.

4.21am: Tancock qualifies seventh fastest for the final, and is joined by fellow Brit James Goddard, who finishes third in his semi, and qualifies sixth fastest for the final, in 1:58.63.

4.46am: Welcome back, Australia. The Antipodean women smash the world record in the 200m freestyle relay, slicing 5.78sec off the world record to win gold in 7:44.31. It's a third Beijing gold for Stephanie Rice. Silver to China, bronze to the US, with all three teams finishing under the old world mark. The wonders of deep, deep water and a bit of techno kit.

4.49am: Meanwhile, things are looking promising gymnastics-wise for Britain's Daniel Keatings, currently third in the men's all around final.

4.50am: A few results to keep you up to date: in the fencing women's team sabre, Poland beat Canada 45-44 and Russia beat South Africa 45-13. The Netherlands beat China 1-0 to go top of Group A in the women's hockey, while Spain account for Germany 72-59 to move to top of Group B in the men's basketball.
Visit our results and schedule page.

5.05am: In another corner of the Water Cube, the Croatia water polo team have morphed into a bunch of David Wilkie lookalikes. Seems the Croatians have grown the moustaches for the Olympics for good luck. "Maybe it's working but it's too early to tell," said Igor Hinic after the team's win over Italy.

5.11am: Oooh, that's got to hurt. Japan's Hiroyuki Tomita comes apart at the rings and crashes to the mat in a heap. Ice on the neck, pain on the face. But why did the judges feel the need to watch the replay over and over and over again before awarding their marks, one wonders?

5.13am: Britain's Naomi Folkard is out of the women's archery after losing 106-97 to her Japanese opponent, Nami Hayakawa.

5.23am: Mornin' all. Alan here. Russell's toddled off to scrape Olympic images from his retinas, and the cleaners have joined the team in the office. Stick with us for news on the ultra-stacked men's gymnasts; action from the beach volleyball (where, unlike elsewhere, there are never any empty seats); and British updates as and when they filter into the Guardian bunker.

5.29am: By my reckoning, we've had four golds so far today, and there are another 13 in the offing. In the pool they've been going record-crazy, but all eyes have turned to the National Indoor Stadium, where the men's individual all-round event is taking place. Team GB's Daniel Keatings is currently languishing pretty far down - but he's only completed three disciplines, while most others are on four.

5.35am: Brazil, as you might expect from a coast-heavy country, are beating the Greeks in the beach volleyball. Meanwhile, for those who might have doubts about the merits of watching blokes in, essentially, girls' smalls twirling and spinning for the judges' delight, feast your eyes on some of the above antics...

5.42am: Team GB Gah! Our 'one to watch' for today, Peter Cousins, has been dumped out in the judo. Keatings, meanwhile, is looking pretty good on the floor, as far I can tell (basically he hasn't fallen over yet).

5.46am: Team GB gymnastics Matt 'Here's one I made earlier' Baker is all over the 'nastics, and apparently Keatings has his speciality to come - the pommel, if I heard correctly. Which is a kind of horse.

5.49am: It's the USA... no, only kidding, it's China... leading, with Yang Wei apparently some way clear at the top. I know you're waiting to hear of spectacular, high-speed, mid-air balls-ups, though, so don't fear, I've got 'em peeled.

5.55am: Emails from John Senior, Mark Webster and Al Parkes, re: Brazil's coastline. Apparently Greece has much more of it. "If coastlines really were an indicator of beach volleyball prowess then Greece (13,676km) should be comfortably ahead of Brazil (7,491km)." says Mark. "Canada (202,080km) would of course be heading for gold, though I guess ambient temperature might be an additional factor." I'm not going to argue, but I was thinking Copacabana, sun-tanned Brazilians, and all that entails... rather than the British package holiday-infested Greek sands. Fair dos?

Anyway, Brazil won.

6.01am: News on the lookey-likey thread from yesterday. I'm not sure how best to illustrate this for people, but my colleague Patrick Whyte has forwarded on a suggestion from Andrew Jolly in Australia: Michael Phelps and Quark the Ferengi from Star Trek. Have they ever been seen in a room together?

6.04am: Team GB gymnastics Keating is on the pommel horse, whirling madly...

6.05am: And the Beeb has gone to the news. Fandabydozy.

6.08am: Keatings is in 17th after an "excellent performance on the pommel horse", according to Rishi Persad, but I can't relay his score. Probably wouldn't have meant much to you or I though, would it? Baker fancies the Russian, Khorokhordin. And I think he's pretty tasty too. But he's not going to win.

6.14am: Coastline face-off: Austria (0km of coast) v Mexico (9,330km) up next in the beach volleyball. I know where my money is. And Indonesia, the world champions, are through in the mixed doubles badminton, soundly beating Thailand. They lie on the other side of the draw to Emms and Robertson, though.

6.19am: Ancient Greek history class. Apparently gymnos is the Greek word for naked - which explains the vacuum-packed leotard arrangements. A gynasium was a place for exercising naked, rather than a place to go and smoke roll-ups behind, as is the modern meaning.

6.24am: Team GB judo Michelle Rogers is taking on Jeong Gyeongmi of Korea, and it's 0-0. Apparently she went to the same school as Ryan Giggs.

6.26am: Rogers has just conceded a 'koka' (complete guess), the smallest score available to competitors, apparently. GB 0-1 Korea

6.29am: British judo's Beijing suffocation continues, Rogers dumped out by the canny Korean. The smallest margin of defeat is still defeat, lest we forget.

6.35am: China may have 19 gold medals (it's looking like that will be 20 shortly, as the men's gymnastics draws to a close) already (and the US topped the table at Athens with only 16 more than that)... but such international point scoring shouldn't be paid heed to, reckons Andy Bull. And if you'd like a comprehensive rundown of this morning's swimming, Robert Kitson has the word.

6.38am: Closer to home, the Blackwall tunnel is looking a bit grim. You don't want to get caught in a snarl-up there, I can tell you. Olympic Breakfast with Sue and Hazel coming up...

6.40am: China's Yang Wei takes gold in the men's all-round gymnastics, Japan finish with silver, while France nick a bronze.

6.46am: Team GB Weather in Beijing has come over all BST, and as well as providing a convenient cue for Chilesey on the Beeb's couch, it's also contributed to the sailing being delayed this morning. Ben Ainslie and the Yngling girls, both leading their classes, will presumably get their booms back in order later on though.

In the boxing, we've got Blisterin' Billy Joe Saunders about to step out in the welterwight category. He's taking on Carlos Banteaux Suarez of Cuba - and the Cubans know how to produce a boxer, that's for sure: they won five golds in the ring four years ago.

6.51am: Saunders bows to the four corners. The British southpaw is in blue, Banteaux red. Saunders is caught taking the fight to his opponent: CBS 4-1 BJS at the end of the first round.

6.55am: The Caravan Kid, as I'm reliably informed Saunders is known, comes out swinging, but he has to beware Banteaux's counter-punching. Beautiful feint and he lands a left flush on the Cuban's chest. BJS pulls it back to 4-5 at the end of the second round.

6.58am: Bit of handbags, the Cuban trying to hold Saunders and negate some of his energy. Banteaux is working cleverly on the inside, and despite his efforts BJS is unable to land more than one point in round three. 9-5 to CBS.

7.02am: Saunders has to get his coat, after a bit of a schooling. Even when he was showboating, Banteaux landed the cleaner shots. Final second-round score, 13-6. Still, not a bad show from the Caravan Kid, who's only 18 and can look forward to going out in the semis at London 2012. Honk!

7.08am: China have collected their third gold of the day, although admittedly it was about half an hour ago. Du Li blew away the opposition in the women's 50m rifle. Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic, the Games' first gold medalist came second, with Eglis Yaima Cruz of Cuba in third.

7.15am: Team GB Smiley, smiley Shirley Robertson is broadcasting from Qingdao, where the sailors are concerning themselves with knots of the rope variety as there's no action on the water. Which allows me to segue neatly into Al Parke's zinger: "I just realised (helped by Wikipedia), that Yngling is not a typo for "Angling". Angling did strike me as an odd Olympic sport. However, given that the games include something as bizarre as beach volleyball I thought nothing more of it." Al, if angling were an Olympic sport, Bob Nudd would have his tackle out there in a shot - and we'd all be talking about it.

7.24am: Canada are currently 1-0 up against the Americans in the women's softball. That'll smart, I imagine, if the Canucks win. Meanwhile, Robin Hazlehurst has written to express his concern about the nature of Du Li's victory: "Blimey, have they changed the rules, I thought they were supposed to shoot at paper targets, not at each other." She metaphorically blew them away, Robin. It was basically a dressed-up lie.

7.32am: We're currently in the fallow part of the morning, at least in terms of coverage on the gogglebox. Unless Steve Ovett has actually just won gold in the 800m. Apparently Team GB's Michelle Rogers, whom I castigated for defeat earlier, has made it into the judo repechage. So well done her.

China are playing Poland over in the badminton mixed doubles. Not a cat-gut string between them currently.

7.35am: Team GB boxing Tony Jeffries will go against Colombia's Eleider Alvarez in the light heavyweight class imminently.

7.37am: Perfunctory boxing-into-the-camera from Jeffries. He received a bye in the first round, so this will be the first we've seen of him...

7.41am: Jeffries executes a few punch, miss, cock-your-arm moves. Whether that threw the Colombian, I don't know - but neither manages to score. Appears Jeffries was denied a scoring shot by the judges, though. 0-0

7.44am: Couple of close-range rabbit punches to the head from the Brit, but he's having difficulty scoring even when he manages to pop his opponent cleanly. Hope this isn't going to go the way of Joe Murray. 2-1 to Jeffries

7.48am: Battle proper is almost joined, but the fight continues to simmer. The Colombian keeps bringing down an overhand right which pulls him up score-wise - but the ref has warned Alvarez about ducking down. Solid jab to end the round from Jeffries. 4-3 to Jeffries

7.52am: Another good shot opens up a two point lead for Jeffries, but Alvarez is looking to finish strongly. He bangs Jeffries with an uppercut, and then takes one in the face which isn't scored for the GB boxer. Jeffries evades his opponent until the last 20sec when he pulls level... 5-5

7.53am: Tony Jeffries goes through, winning on the countback. He looked confident, but the fellas on the mics reckon it was mighty close.

8.01am: The Chinese pair have beaten their Polish opposition in the badminton mixed doubles, 22-20, 23-21. Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson are up at around 2.15pm. And Kyle Hauptman has asked and answered his own question... "The term 'the Mexican wave' has been on this blog a few times, instead of just 'the wave' as it is called in Canada, the US and some other places. Is there another kind of audience wave?" Kyle enquired, only to follow up with the Wiki's answer a moment later. Apparently it's less Mexican than we've been led to believe...

8.08am: Anyway, there's only so much a box of Pro Plus and a plethora of Firefox windows can do for a man... I'm zonked. Howard Swains will be guiding you expertly through the tumult of 8-11 (and maybe a few minutes beyond). I'll leave you with Tony Jeffries wonderful Mackem brogue. He's pretty pleased to have beaten Alvarez a few minutes ago to reach the quarter-final. Shame his side will get a pummeling on Saturday when the Prem kicks off.

8.13am: Morning all, and welcome to the hidden corner of Beijing known as Farringdon Road. Alan and Russell have successfully beaten off the email botherings of those in the southern hemisphere, which leaves me to deal with those early morning ramblings of anyone hauling themselves into the office in and around the GMT zone. Tell me what happened on the bus this morning by emailing here: hswains@gmail.com.

Yesterday, having been thrown unawares into the minute-by-minute mix, each event was greeted on the television as something completely unexpected, and I rather enjoyed it. Today, I at least have some idea of what's coming up: we've got some baseball, softball, volleyball, handball, beach volleyball, water poloball, boxingball, judoball, highball, lowball, stoolball, whiffleball, wallball and airflowball happening right now.

I'd kind of been looking forward to watching Sunderland's Stadium of Light burger van proprietor Tony Jefferies taking his place in the Olympic ring, but it seems he's already boxed for the delectation of Alan Gardner, and won. See update at 7.53am. I guess all we can do is speculate on other unlikely professions for British Olympians or, indeed, Olympians from any other countries. I'd like to see a traffic warden in the dressage, or something like that.

Still to come: table tennis, some canoe/kayaking and some sailing. Gold medal winners will be decided in the team dressage, judo, fencing, wrestling and some archery. Not sure if that will be on my watch or not, but you'll surely be here all day, right?

In other non-Olympic competition, the battle is on to keep Walthamstow Greyhound Track open, although I'm indifferent on that one. I spent a night there a year or so ago and got well and truly duffed up by the bookies and their porridge-laden mutts.

I also have a telephone date this morning with the incompetents at Iberia airlines, who lost my bag on a flight back from South America on Monday and are yet to locate either it or my flat, I'm not sure which. My phone charger was in that bag, meaning it is now out of juice, as was some expensive(-ish) hair product, which I'm reluctant to replace unless I have to, since I didn't want to buy it in the first place, but have now grown quite reliant on. Oh, there's also a bunch of dirty laundry in there, which they can keep.

So, feel free to send in any ideas of how I can get them to do the laundry and deliver the bag; your memories of Walthamstow dog track; suggestions for professions for Olympians; or, if you must, anything about the greatest sporting event in the world.

8.15am: Get your ears around this: Mike Adamson reports from Beijing in our daily audio update. Today, Mike talks to Lord Coe, who reckons we should not be expecting too much from our athletes (conveniently), and also attends a tense media briefing with Chinese authorities. There's also a results update, plus a run-down of what to expect for the rest of the day and the weekend.

8.22am: The main BBC coverage is showing Olympic Breakfast, with Adrian Chiles and Hazel Irvine interviewing Britain's most decorated Commonwealth Games athlete of all time, Karen Pickering. She keeps all her medals in a plastic bag, apparently, but hopefully not next to a radiator, where they'd likely melt. Meanwhile, Brazil's Washington Silva just won in the boxing ring against Samir Bastie, with Ireland's Kenny Egan up next, against the Turkish boxer with a spectacular name: Muzaffer.

8.26am: A couple of nice left-hand jabs from Kenny Egan -- the European championship bronze medal winner -- gives him a 2-1 lead at the end of the first round. It's a game of "physical chess", we're told.

8.29am: The Dubliner Egan takes a 5-1 lead after the Turk walks onto a couple more left-handers. The fighters end up sprawled, greco-wrestling style on the mat at one point, at which the referee laughs. They get up and continue their neat dance. Meanwhile, in the judo hall, Great Britain's Michelle Rogers has lost in the repecharge to a German judo player, which saves us the trouble of figuring out what would have happened if she'd won. A shot at the bronze medal, I think, but am not sure.

8.33am: Kenny Egan has got this bout wrapped up now, knockout notwithstanding. The Dublin fighter takes a seven-point lead into the final round after outfoxing his Turkish opponent. One right hook, in particular, is a belter. He leads 9-2.

8.38am: "What's the deal with the Beijinger?" harrumphs Kevin Mackenzie. "So far, for me anyway, its made like the British Olympic team on the gold position on the podium, and appeared only the once." Not sure about that Kevin, I'll get the techies onto it. Meanwhile, let's spin your disgruntled email into an advert. The Beijinger is guardian.co.uk's daily email update from the Olympics. You can read previous dispatches, or sign up, by clicking this blue text. As expected, Egan won that bout 10-2 and is now one fight away from a medal for Ireland in the light heavyweight (81kg) division).

8.40am: "Speaking of the Commonwealth games," says Manoj G. Menon, from Mumbai, "I notice that the top nations in those games are barely registering on the Olympics tally. Canada & South Africa are noticeably absent so far. India is struggling with one gold. Australia and GB are not doing that spectacularly either. Is it because the standard in Commonwealth sport is so abysmally poor?" At the risk of giving a one-word answer (which would be "yes"), it's more the case that the other non-Commonwealth countries are pretty good too, I suppose. The Aussies usually do a bit better in the pool, of course, which could also explain it.

8.46am: A quick update from around the channels: the canoe/kayak competition, in which a bunch of speed freaks and/or wannabe astronauts career down white-water rapids in a holed-out lolly stick, has been delayed because of rain. Seems rather like postponing the dressage because of an infestation of horses to me, but I don't make the rules. Also, the sailing has been cancelled today, because there's no wind. Jings. To compensate, "Olympic Breakfast" is showing a repeat of some archery, there's also some repeat of some gymnastics on an internet channel.

8.51am: I think they call this a sloooow day, with news that the rowing has also now been postponed. That's rowing with oars, not arguing, which would make a fine Olympic sport. Thanks to Kate Bevis for this on the subject of the paid employment of Olympians: "This morning Japanese TV treated us to a look at the office where yesterday's Japanese gold medalist (Ueno-san in the 70kg women's judo) works. I missed the start so I don't know what type of company it was, but it was very grey. They also showed us her desk which was described as "very neat" and sported a calendar with some arrows drawn on (training schedule?). Her co-worker then told us she "helps to make databases". She's only there until lunch though - after that she goes to the do-jo. In other exciting Japanese TV news, their 200m butterfly bronze medalist, Matsuda-san, started swimming in a greenhouse made from industrial strength clingfilm. The villagers put it up to cover the outdoor pool so the local children could practice in the winter. Even so the water temperature was only 10 degrees celcius."

8.58am: Italy has won a gold medal, thanks to Chiara Cainero, who is both skeet-shooting champion and a new model of 4WD SUV by the sounds of it. Cainero won a shoot-off against the American and German shooters.

9.03am: There's really very little going on at the Games at the moment, so take a look back at what you've missed by clicking on any of the following:
Political controversy: Coe dismisses Britain's chances
Boxing: Billy Joe Saunders beaten by Cuban
Swimming: Kitajima seals double breaststroke gold

9.13am: So, the weather is shocking in Beijing, bad enough to mean all the water-based sports (rowing and kayaking) are cancelled, but it's not bad enough to postpone the archery, in which competitors and thousands of spectators alike have been kitted out with the kind of ponchos given away beside the log flume at Alton Towers. These are presumably not arrow-proof, so let's hope the wind stays down.

9.17am: This archery is riveting. The Korean archer Yun has just hit three nines (the outer gold), while the American Lorig got two eights (the inner red) and one nine. Yun leads after the first end. This is the semi-final, I think, although will confirm that as we go on.

9.22am A relatively hopeless seven for Khaluna Lorig is followed by a ruthless ten from the Korean Ok-Hee Yun. Lorig responds with a ten, which puts the pressure back on Yun, and she can only manage an eight. Lorig then gets another eight and Yun a nine, so the Korean is leading 51-55 after six (out of 12) arrows.

9.24am: The penultimate three-arrow end also goes to Yun, who pings a 9, a 10 and another 9. Lorig gets 8,8,10 and trails by six points with three arrows left. This one is done, pending disaster.

9.26am: No surprises here as the favourite Ok-Hee Yun ousts the American Khaluna Lorig in what was actually the quarter-finals of the archery. In the final end, Lorig shoots 9,9,10, but leaves Yun only needing a five with her last arrow to win. She gets a 10, and takes her pink bow and fisherman's hat into the semi-final. It's hacking with rain, but the quality of the bow and arrow action defies the elements.

9.30am: Simon Thomas has an idea on how to boost the British medal haul at the Games (and to diminish the achievements of the half-men/half-fish): "It seems to me that swimming has far too many medals," he says. "If you check out the list of past winners of the 100m, 200m and 400m at freestyle, medley and butterfly, the same names come up again and again. Solution: get rid of the 200m in all events and the individual butterfly completely. And since we'll all have a bit more time on our hands, stick back in a non-swimming event that we are really good at - the 1km cycling. Then the world (well, my house) will be at peace again." It's an idea. Let's give him that.

9.37am: David Brigden is one of several of you now writing in with other stuff, presumably to save yourself from more arrow-by-arrow archery coverage. And, you know what, he's got an idea as well: "Today has been a general and memorable discourse about the usefulness of medals table." (see Andy Bull's excellent blog on that very subject) "So in this theme my suggestion (and secret wish) for the whole world to really remember these game in the true Olympic spirit, and not for the number of gold medals, is that instead of the usual "end of games" show, all participants including all backroom people, organisers, etc from all of the competing countries gather together in one humongous CONGA and dance around the streets of Beijing."

9.48am: Back to the archery arena, for my amusement if not necessarily yours. Interestingly, the competitors are summoned to the shooting line by what sounds like a car alarm going off, which also interrupts some dreadful national music, played for the crowd during the breaks. It reminds me of Eastern European turbo-folk, but has a more eastern flavour.
Anyway, once the shooting gets underway again, it's the quarter final between the Korean Kwon Un Sil and the 14-year-old Mexican sensation Marianna Avitia. Despite her tender years, Avitia is a dead eye with the bow and a real prospect for the future. In this, she's beaten 105-99 by the Korean, but I saw beware any teenager who can shoot an arrow. She's my early tip for gold in London in 2012.

9.51am: The next quarter final is between Nam Hagakawa, from Japan, and Park Sung-Hyu, of Korea, the defending Olympic champion. The Japanese archer manages a fairly tame three eights; the Korean gets 9-8-9 and leads by two after the first end.

9.53am: Devastating arrows from Park and there's no answer to that. She gets a perfect three tens, which is better than the 8-9-10 of her Japanese opponent. To paraphrase Sid Waddell: "There's only one word for that - magic archery."

9.56am: Hayakawa is feeling the full force of Park's superlative arrowwomanship here and can only manage 7-8-9 from her three arrows, while Park gets a 9-10-10. "That's just the way she operates," gushes the commentator. Park leads by nine with three arrows left.

10am: Even though she hits only a seven on her second arrow, Park manages two tens with the others and goes through to the semis 112-103, which is the highest of all four qualifiers. There are two from South Korea, one from North Korea and one from China in the semis. Meanwhile, Neil Stainthorpe, from Austria (who are presumably rubbish at archery), has an idea about the medals table: "Wouldn't it be an altogether fairer system to organise the medals table by awarding, say, 3 points for a gold, 2 for a silver and 1 for a bronze and then ranking countries according to the total number of points? Why should a country which has won one solitary gold medal and nothing else be placed above a country which has won, for example, 10 silver and 10 bronze medals?" This has definitely been spoken about before, Neil, but am not sure why it was rejected. Some newspapers do this kind fo thing anyway, which further undermines the authority of an "official" table. How about alphabetical order, huh? The Austrians would be still be pipped by Australia, though.

10.04am: William Fotheringham has been blogging about Great Britain's hopes in the velodrome, and it's well worth a read - if you can tear yourself away from this archery. Richard Alderson has e-mailed on an almost similar subject: "Remove Phelps from the equation and the Americans are having a shocker in this Olympics so far," Alderson says. "Once all the boats and cycles come home over the weekend, it's not inconceivable that we might catch them." The problem is, we can't remove Phelps from the equation, because he's American and has now won 613 gold medals. It's like saying remove Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, and Chelsea would have won the league.

10.10am: Matt Warner is in Belgium, but that doesn't appear to be his fault: "I recently moved to the chips and, it would appear, rain capital of Europe - Brussels," he laments. "At my work people are carrying on as if the Olympics isn't happening with nary a mention in the first week. Is this because the Belgians are poop at everything - or are they going to come into their own in the next few weeks?" I don't really know about the Belgians, but your office doesn't sound too dissimilar to this one, to be honest. Despite our committed band of sport beavers, life continues largely untroubled by the Olympics at Guardian Towers. There's more talk about A Levels today than anything Olympic, even though that very same dead horse is flogged annually, rather than every four years, like this one.

10.20am: Everyone's got an idea of how to make archery more exciting (which gratifies me in some way, even though it implicitly implies that my coverage is boring). John Senior reckons they should host it at the Lakeside or Circus Tavern: "Archery would be so much more exciting if they had beer-bellied Cockneys shouting out the score like in darts. The Korean's perfect score would have caused much more excitement accompanied by a long drawn-out "THIRRRR-TEEEEEEYY!"", while Gordon PITTENDRIGH (who writes his surname in capitals, as though shouting it at someone who continually mispronounces or misspells it), suggests going feral: "The archery would be monumentally more interesting and exciting if all the competitors were deposited in a forest and the last three standing could then have a shoot off against each others for the medals. Remember the Olympic motto - highest, fastest, strongest and bloodiest."

10.29am: Just in case you're baffled by all this, here's what's going on in the Olympics at the moment: hardly anything. The lightning, rain and (lack of) wind has put paid to the rowing, kayaking and sailing, while the only real action is the semi-finals of the women's archery and some basketball between Lithuania and Russia. Lithuania are three points up in the second period there. Charmian Owens, meanwhile, is disappointed by Seb Coe's view on the British track and field chances, which you can hear in Mike Adamson's interview with Lord Seb. "Fair enough it is a concern that we are not medalling as we have done in the past at major championships, but we need to nurture the talent and develop our athletes' mental strength, which were I believe we lack," Charmian says. "What will a statement coming from one of our Senior Olympic Official, do for team morale?" Hear, hear. In brief: although Coe probably has a point, he probably shouldn't have said it.

10.35am: Apart from the men's basketball, the Olympics this morning are all about heavily armed women. The skeet-shooters are now back at their shooting stations, where the commentary includes such gems as "she unloads that spent cartridge and puts in another one", while the dead-eye archers are doing their thing in the Beijing rain. It's the semi-finals there and I'll do some more arrow-by-arrow of the final, if no-one sees the sense to wrestle this keyboard out of my reach before then.

10.43am: OK, we're down to the finals in the archery and there's a vaguely interesting political showdown for the bronze medal, where the North Korean Un Sil Kwon is up against the South Korean Ok Hee Yun. Presumably, Seoul and Pyongyang have ground to a halt. Can the spirit of competition for third place in an Olympic competition heal the divide. We'll see. They were 55 apiece after the first six.

10.46am: In your face, Pyongyang! The South Korean Ok Hee-Yun proves that political liberation rather than nuclear oppression is the only real gateway to Olympic bronze, when she defeats Un Sil Kwon, from the North. The gold medal match to follow. David Lloyd (not that one, or that other one) is zinging this morning: "With all this Asian domination of the archery one wonders why Kevin Costner never bothered entering for the USA." I get where this one is going. "I remember seeing him in a film once about some blokes rushing around a forest with barely a gadget between them and he seemed to manage landing one pointed stick on top of another quite regularly. He even managed a few trick shots, eyes closed on horseback, from a flaming tree hut etc which if included would liven proceedings up considerably don't you think?" Yes. Yes I do.

10.50am: OK, China versus South Korea in this gold medal match, with Park Sung-Hyun representing the visitors and the vaguely Spanish-sounding Juan Juan Zhang up for the hosts. The Chinese nails a 10 on her first arrow, but lets her country, a billion viewers and herself down with a 7 on the next. Meanwhile, Park hits a 9 to start with, but goes into the lead with back-to-back 10s. Game on.

10.53am: Still a two-point gap at the end of the second end, after Zhang gets three nines, and Park gets 8-8-10.

10.57am: Great arrows from Zhang, who sends the home crowd delirious with a 10-9-10 to edge into the lead. Park only manages a 26 to the Chinese's 29.

11am: Amazing stuff here in the archery arena, where Zhang Juan Juan needs to score a nine with her final arrow to win the event and break one of the longest-standing strangleholds in any Olympic competition. The Koreans have never lost in this, but they have now! because Park picks out the gold in the centre of the target and wins herself a shiny gold medal, 110-109. The South Koreans get silver and bronze, but China take their 21st gold of the Games.

11.04am: Scott Murray has just shuffled into sight, and he'll be taking over here once he can find a chair, desk, television and computer. Such luxuries are by no means guaranteed when you sign up for a shift here. I'm not sure what he's going to write about to be honest: all we've got left is live basketball, a thriller between Lithuania and Russia (the Lithuanians lead 69-60 in the third quarter). Kevin McKenzie asks: "For those of us reading your commentary on the fly at work and unable to watch on TV elsewhere, can you please explain what skeet shooting is?" At the risk of providing another one word answer (which would be "No"), I'll try to describe what flashed up on the screen a few minutes ago, but which has since been replaced by judo repeats. It was kind of like clay-pigeon shooting in a rain and wind-swept heath somewhere, the likes of which I didn't know Beijing possessed. The shooters had some kind of shotgun thingy and were dressed in cagoules. Anyway, it's gone now, so let's pretend it never happened.

11.16am: It's a rainy day, and we're cashing in all the pennies saved up for Scott Murray, who is now in the house. He'll be taking you through to the end of this basketball match between Russia and Lithuania, and will also have the pleasure of Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms in the badminton, coming up soon. Thanks for your emails, and keep them coming for Scott. He's going to need them.

11.25am: [MBM reporter sits down and begins to wing it, Barry Davies style] Morning everyone, to the Basketballing Jam Called Thursdays. Lithuania are five points ahead of Russia with two minutes to go. So are we all on the edge of our sea... ah. Minute-by-minute basketball, that it's come to this.

11.29am: It's 84-79 to Lithuania with 31 seconds remaining. Am I actually writing this?

11.29am and 20 seconds: There are 11 seconds remaining, a man has blown a whistle, and now Lithuania take a free pop at goal, or whatever. They're now 86-79 ahead, a timeout has been called by the Russians, and my admiration for the improvisational skills of Barry Davies over the years has just multiplied by 374,958.

11.32am: Peep peep peeeeeeep. That's it, Russia can't score at a rate of nearly a point a second to win - there's a surprise - and the Lithuanians prevail 86-79. They were "consistent throughout the entire game in its entirety", according to the commentator, which suggests basketball analysts are not much further advanced than their footballing counterparts. Lithuania top the group, while Russia, who have now lost three games, look a wee bit jiggered.

11.35am: Hazel Irvine on the BBC has just had a wee bit of fun with Thai boxer Non Boonjumnong's monicker. Apparently it's a bit of a tongue-twister! Really, are we not over this style of light banter in 2008?

11.46am: The laugh really is on Boonjumnong now, though. One of the favourites for gold in the welterweight Belting Seven Bells Out Of Folk sport - he won silver at the world championships last year - Boonjumnong's just been slapped all round the ring by Egypt's Hosam Abdin in the round of 16. According to the points system, if I understand it correctly, which I don't, the Egyptian hit his opponent 11 times on the head, while only being smacked in the mouth ten times himself. That's quite an upset.

11.51am: Meanwhile, check out this toaster! Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian has thrown the mother, father and extended family of all hissy fits after only winning bronze in the 84kg greco-roman boo hoo hoo. It's all to do with "politics", according to Abrahamian, who flung his medal away with all the style of a toddler dropping his ice-cream on the pavement. It's not exactly Tommie Smith and John Carlos circa 1968, now is it.

O yay, O yay, 12 o'clock and all's well! Well, all's sort of OK, passable, but let's not split hairs on another lovely day of sport. A lovely day which can only be further embellished by clicking on this link, which will in turn lead you to further YouTube links of Michael Phelps cramming junk food into his gaping maw, some classic Olympic action from 1908 (yes), and that interview with hitherto unrecognised comedy genius Schteve McClaren of Holland. Oh, and the big badminton match is on in 15 minutes, so please hang around. Please.

12.10pm: Mark Foster, flag-carrying Mark Foster, the man who embodies Britain - old, knackered and way past its best - has been knocked out of the 50m freestyle heats. Aw. China Weather News, presented by saucy weathergirl Richard Greaves: "Just got back from my 80-minute cab ride there-and-back trip to the Kayaking where I sat in the rain for two hours only to be told the race would be postponed. Can anyone explain how wet it has to be to be too wet for kayaking?" Wet it has to be to be too wet for kayaking? That sounds like a Bruce Forsyth catchphrase in the making.

Smith & Carlos It Ain't dept. "Thanks for that link to the hissy fit," writes Steve Johnson, who I have to say seems very polite and well brought up. "I have sympathy with the Swede though. I read the article only to find that 'Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw down his 84kg greco-roman bronze medal in protest'. I know these fellas should be pretty strong, but that's a bloody big medal to be lugging about." Ladies and gentlemen, remember the name, I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more of him, put your hands together for Steve Johnson!

12.16pm: Don't worry, you're missing no Emms-Robertson action. They're waiting for some other match to finish before they can start. Which gives us time to consider that great big gurning greco-roman galoot again, in Smith & Carlos It Ain't dept. pt. II: "So, the Swedish wrestler is lamenting that 'it's all politics'," writes Gary Naylor, cueing himself up for the punchline. "At the Olympic Games? Who'd have thunk it?"

12.20pm: Here's some risk-taking journalism for you: I'm off to suck down a cheroot, all the while hoping the Emms-Robertson stramash doesn't kick off before I get back. It's all OK, though: Tom Bryant is on hand to hold the fort should my little scheme somehow go cups up.

12.26pm: As Scott poisons himself downstairs it appears his luck is out as Emms and Robertson are on the court and biffing the shuttle delicately back and forth between them and their opponents. They then manage to lose the serve at their first attempt. Good stuff.

12.29pm: The Brits win a fantastic rally to take the scores to 2-2, prompting a clenched fist from Emms and some, "I'm the man, me"-style posturing from Robertson.

12.30pm: Ah that's better. Thanks Tom. And thank you to Camel cigarettes. The Koreans are 5-3 up now, the 19-year-old Lee delivering a couple of tasty smashes in a row.

12.33pm: Emms looks much the sharper of the British duo at the moment. Robertson slaps a hopeless smash into the net to fall behind 6-4, but Emms wallops two forehands past the Koreans to level the scores at 6-6.

As Bruce Forsyth would say: How wet does it have to be to be too wet for kayaking, to be too wet for kayaking how wet does it have to be? "I would think it more likely to be postponed due to possibility of lightning striking carbon fibre paddles," writes Claire Wright. "I'd rather pull out than take a possible fry-up penalty! I think the fry-ups are better left to Mr Phelps."

12.35pm: The Koreans have romped into a 10-7 lead, but a Robertson smash from the back court sets up Emms to put the return away. And then Robertson flicks one to the far corner to make it 10-9. Great! Ah, hold on, now it's 11-9, and time for a breather. Puff puff drink drinkity drink puff towel towel puff.

12.40pm: Just a fantastic rally from Robertson, who smashes then dinks, dinks then smashes, and finally smashes the cock straight into the chest of Lee YD. He then runs around fistpumping like a lunatic. Is there really any need? When he put away the final point in the last round to put the Chinese number-two seeds out, he started running around in circles, much like Ray Wilkins did when he scored for Manchester United in the 1983 FA Cup final against Brighton. He barely gave poor Emms a cursory hug. There are two of you competing here, Robertson. As a team, yes?

12.45pm: Emms and Robertson are 18-14 down. This set - is it called a set? - looks over for the British pair.

12.46pm: Hold on, it's a game, not a set. Emms and MeMeMe are four game points down, 20-16. But they save the first two. It's 20-18 and hot, hot, hot.

12.50pm: At 20-19, Mr Me sees his serve sail straight back past his lugs, and that's the first game to the Korean pair. "Prior to the Emms-Robertson match was a thrilling Korea v China men's singles, which may yet have a bearing on the current mixed doubles game," reports Ben Roome, doing my job for me. He goes on to relate what appears to be an old episode of Jeux Sans Frontières: "It was full of controversy, mascots falling over and being unable to get up, and the Korean Lee Hyunil to come from behind in the first game despite a terrible umpiring reversal that can only be put down to local pressure to quieten the partisan crowd and crush his opponent in the second. Hyunil demonstrated genuine mental and physical class in his win and as a result you could see the whole Korean badminton camp was lifted by his heroics. Having seen their boy win, I think the Koreans will feed off that and beat the UK pair too."

12.52pm: Emms and Robertson have already let an early 2-0 lead slip in the second; they've got no answer to the much more mobile Koreans and are 5-2 down in the blink of an eye. British sport at its best!

12.54pm: Mr I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. Robertson delivers a decent smash to win a point, flexes his muscles Andy Murray style for the cameras for 17 minutes, then hoicks his very next shot straight into the net. Great. Britain. "Has 'Team GB' won anything today?" asks Oliver Pattenden, who knows the answer to his own question, I've never been more sure of anything.

12.56pm: A couple of decent points from the Brits. Emms leaves a cheeky dink from Lee HJ, and it's a good call because the cock sails just outside the line. They draw level 8-8 - and then go ahead in a game for the first time in the match! 9-8. I should be cynical about British chances more often. Actually no, I probably shouldn't.

12.58pm: Robertson attempts a dink over the net. The shuttle hits the cord and tips over, winning the point. Robertson struts around the court with his arms stretched out wide like Jesus. A Jesus who has just found the cure for cancer, fixed the hole in the ozone layer, and devised a macro-economic policy to eradicate the credit crunch. And yes, of course his very next smash pings into the net like a wet flannel. He's actually becoming increasingly entertaining, I'll give him that.

1.02pm: The Koreans lead 13-11, Robertson finally finding his range and smashing down a beaut which the Koreans leave only for the perfect shot to find the back line. But Korea hit back immediately, then Emms hits two poor shots in a row - the first a simple smash into the net, the second a wayward swipe long and wide - and the Brits are 16-11 down and heading out.

1.05pm: The Koreans are far too good. It's 18-11 and basically over. "I do find the whole Team GB thing quite dispiriting," writes Chris Hatton. "I enjoyed Euro 2008 much more because England didn't qualify - can we go for the same approach to London 2012 so we can actually enjoy sporting
excellence rather than being hammered relentlessly with the news that a
Team GB boxer has made it into the last 16?" Sounds good to me. Chris Hatton is a Professor of Psychology, Health & Social Care, by the way, so he knows what he's talking about. The mental equilibrium of the nation depends on our ability to heed what he's saying.

1.06pm: Reacting to a shuttle toppling off the net cord, Lee Yongdee clips an exquisite and frankly outrageous return to set up nine match points. The first is saved, but there's to be no berserk comeback, as the very next point sees the Korean pair clinch victory, two games to nil. Instructively, Robertson does not run off the court in a huge semi-circle whooping and hollering.

1.10pm: "In small parts we were great," says Robertson in the post-match interview. No you weren't.

1.11pm: The BBC interview goon insensitively asks Emms if she is definitely going to retire. She starts to cry. The interview goon makes no attempt to fill in the dead air time, but in fairness does stops just short of repeatedly poking Emms in the shoulder and chanting the word "LOSER". He switches to Robertson, who makes a bid for Kenneth Tynan/Sex Pistols foul-mouthed legend, but his "we just wanted to bloody win it" sounds too much like Alan Partridge bemoaning "Sunday, bloody Sunday" to be thoroughly convincing.

1.16pm: It's the 800m women's freestyle, featuring Becky Adlington in heat 4, and this is not a live transmission I'll be bound. Let's see what happens here, then.

1.18pm: I wonder if Adlington, who is miles ahead in this heat, will break the Olympic record?

1.20pm: Yep. 8:18.06 is the fastest time in the world this year, the second fastest time in history, and an Olympic record. Gotta love Britain, right here! Emms and who in the what?

1.23pm: "I didn't expect that, I'm really pleased about that," smiles Adlington, barely out of breath as she comes out of the pool. No swearing, you'll note. And therefore no opprobrium.

Groundless Optimism with guardian.co.uk and Andrew Moore: "The Olympics always get going slowly for Britain, because our stronger events are always in the second half of the games. If the London organisers have any say over which order the events are scheduled surely we should schedule our strongest event early so that we can get off to a flier and get people excited. It would be a disaster if the nation is sitting around in 4 years time, waiting for the swimming and greco-wrestling to finish before it can start flag-waving." You do realise the second half of the Games is basically the athletics, Peter? I'm only trying to manage expectations here.

1.40pm: There's a bit of a lull now, which opens a lovely cigarette window for your honest hack. Just in case anything happens in the next few minutes, while I slope off to wheech down a fag, Tom Bryant is keeping an eye out. I'll be back very soon, probably to find Tom reporting on the biggest Olympic story to break since Ben Johnson was busted in 1988.

1.44pm: BREAKING NEWS - massive drugs bust at Olym ... just kidding. In real news, British swimmer Gemma Spofforth has come in sixth in her 200m backstroke heat in 2:10.58, which probably won't be good enough for her to progress. "That could have gone better," she says, unsurprisingly, before admitting that she was over-excited.

1.48pm: "This, for me, is probably the weaker of the 200m backstroke heats," says the man from the BBC as the swimmers sets off at a blistering world record pace, eventually finishing with Kirsty Coventry claiming an Olympic record of 2:06.76. That, right there, is incisive commentary.

1.52pm: In the next heat, our very own Elizabeth Simmonds goes out as if she's got an outboard hidden under her cossie - the sort of pace at which you'd expect her to run out of steam, mid-length, and drown. Fortunately that doesn't happen and she touches home in first with a new British record of 2:08.66 and in second place for the semi-final. Spofforth has also crept in. Woo! for the Brits.

1.55pm: And woo! for Tom Bryant. Thanks for that. And woo! for the Olympics, for suddenly nothing whatsoever is happening. Everyone's kicking back a while.

2pm: Hold on! Roger Federer is a set down to James Blake in the tennis. And it's 5-4 in the second set; Federer will be serving to keep his chance of gold alive.

GOOD SUBSTANCE ABUSE JOKE: "Glad to hear that for Becky Adlington, there was, as you say, 'no opprobrium'," writes Al Parkes. "The taking of any performance enhancing drugs is something we should all
condemn." Federer double faults to give Blake a window of opportunity; it's 15-30 in a game the Swiss has to win.

2.04pm: Federer was 30-30 and on his second serve, but a brilliant serve-and-volley wins the point; one more and that's 5-5 in the second set of this quarter final.

2.08pm: A scream of anguish from Federer at 30-30 as he overhits a forehand when it was certain he'd earn himself a break point. Blake serves out to go 6-5 up. Once again Federer must serve to stay in the tournament.

2.13pm: Two careless forehands from Blake at 0-15 and 15-30. Then Federer nearly smashes a sitter of a volley into the net, but lucks out as the ball pings off the cord and topples over into Blake's court. Federer goes on to hold his serve - without once getting a first serve in. It's going to a tiebreak.

2.13pm: Blake is up in the tie-break, 4-1. Over at the light welterweight boxing, Britain's Bradley Saunders, to give him his full name, has been beaten 11 smacks upside the head to 7 punches in the mouth by Alexis Vastine of France.

2.17pm: Federer is hanging by a thread. He's 5-2 down in the tie-break, and Blake has two serves to come.

2.18pm: Blake pushes Federer to the back of the court with a series of ferocious forehands to give himself four match points. He only needs one: Blake is through to the semi-finals at the expense of the big man.

2.20pm: It's the hockey! And Barry Davies! And where were the Germans? And frankly, who cares? Anyway, it's New Zealand v "Great" Britain in the women's tournament, and it's live, live, live. Both teams really need to win if they want any realistic hope of making the semi finals, so here goes.

2.25pm: Britain haven't shown much up front so far, until Danson goes, er, dancing through the Kiwi defence and would have got a strike on goal were it not for a team-mate getting in the road. That's a long corner, a set piece which, rather like the corner in British association football, is routinely wasted. Does anyone ever score from them?

2.30pm: They score from penalty corners, though. Gemma Flynn of New Zealand gets on the end of a routine and clips the ball into the goal from a sharp angle on the right. That's 1-0 to the Kiwis. This is a pretty appalling day for Britain, isn't it. But let's face it, roaring success would just make us feel uneasy. This is what we know, it feels safe like this.

2.32pm: Here's a thing, though, this Danson looks some player. Whenever she gets the ball she invariably beats two or three opponents with a mazy dribble.

2.33pm: And it's 1-1! Richardson and Wright combine well down the right, the latter crossing for Craddock who flicks on to Danson to guide a high ball home. That, ladies and gentlemen, is hockey.

2.40pm: Craddock twists and turns down the left and wins a penalty corner after... er... yes. The hooter goes, but there's still time to take the set piece - and Panter whacks it home for Britain! Unfortunately, she is judged to have swept the ball into the goal, which is apparently not cricket in hockey, so it's disallowed and the score remains 1-1 at half-time. Although the official Olympic on-screen graphic insists it is 2-1 to Britain. It is 1-1 though. Er. Barry Davies is frothing indignantly at the decision, his funk mothership sailing right into the hot, hot heat of the sun.

2.53pm: And we're off again, after ten minutes of Equestrian Dressage which caused minor blood clots in both of your MBM reporter's eyes. And with half an hour to go, Britain win a penalty corner after a Kiwi attempts to juggle the ball out of the area with their knee, Ronaldinho style. Not that it matters, the subsequent set-piece being eventually hoofed away by the keeper. This is just turning into a kickabout.

2.57pm: This is all Britain, is this. Craddock flicks the ball up on the left and hits a reverse pass into the area which Danson nearly guides home with the back of her stick. I have no idea whatsoever if any of that was legal but it sure looked skilful.

3.01pm: Cullen has just wheeched a penalty corner into the net for Britain with just under 20 minutes left on the clock. They're 2-1 up; to be honest I didn't see much difference with her strike and the disallowed one by Panter on the stroke (literally) of half time. Still, all good and well. "Is this reality or are you trapped in some kind of OBOer's nightmare, where random sports hove into view then disappear again for no reason?" asks Chris Hatton, who you may or may not recall is a Professor of Psychology, Health & Social Care. "The mention of Barry Davies was the clincher for me - surely he went over the Reichenbach Falls in a final struggle with John Motson some time ago?" Oh it's reality alright, but by no means a nightmare. This hockey is fantastic, for example, and Nathan Robertson's preposterous antics were a strange joy to behold. Although during the Dressage the words "class" and "war" did keep scrolling across my line of sight, much like the end credits of Crossroads. Does that count as a nightmare, Professor Hatton?

3.07pm: Fifteen minutes to go. Team GB are still 2-1 up. Can we please hold onto something today?

3.08pm: Unlike Gerard Depardieu, Forgesson of New Zealand is given a green card.

3.10pm: Cullen handles in the area, I think. Whatever she's done, she ain't done no good, for the New Zealand team are awarded a penalty corner. It's cleared, though the Kiwis are turning the screw. "Worrying moments for Great Britain," says Barry Davies. Those five words may as well be recorded by the BBC and played on 24-hour loop for the entire duration of the athletics.

3.16pm: Britain knock it around the back for a while. Barry Davies has got the regal funk on because Britain's play is "difficult to describe as progressive". There's little better on national television than Barry Davies in a self-righteous stew.

3.19pm: With four minutes to go, Britain are awarded a penalty corner. It's wasted. But they pin New Zealand back in their own half for a couple of minutes. The clock is ticking.

3.23pm: And that's it! Britain beat New Zealand 2-1, mainly down to Storry in the goal, who flung herself spectacularly at a penalty corner, a save I might not actually have described at the time. That keeps alive their outside chances of a place in the last four. So there's something to cheer about at the end of a dismal day at the Olympics for Team GB. Still, let's not be miserable about it, what did you expect? We're only Britain, after all.

Beijing is steamy hot!Yesterday my team and I headed to the main Olympic

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:18:00 +0000

River Falls resident Lacey Kleven arrived last week at the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, China. Her work as a travel director for Carlson Marketing Worldwide took her halfway around the world to greet, host and generally meet the needs of top G.E. executives.

Kleven, who also worked the summer games in Torino, Italy, takes care of her clients’ tourism, security, lodging, entertainment and transportation needs. While she anticipates working about 16 hours each day she’s there, Kleven agreed to share with the Journal, photos and periodic e-mail updates as she finds time to send them.

Check here for new updates and the attached photo gallery for new pictures.

Olympics Day Four - As it happened

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:14:00 +0000

Day Four - As it happened

Last Updated 13th August 2008

Beijing Olympics 2008

Cycling - Mens Individual Sprint Hoy 8/13, Sireau 11/4 or Bos 6/1.
Register with Sky Bet, Bet £10 and get £40 free.

Silver joy: Florence celebrates his slalom success
Bagged a bronze: Tina Cook served up a bronze medal for Team GB in the showjumping phase of the equestrian

prev
1 of 2
next

Also see

1730 : So that's it for day four - another good one for Great Britain with David Florence getting silver in the canoeing and two bronze medals coming courtesy of the three-day eventing in Hong Kong. Oh, and some American bloke named Phelps won a gold in the swimming pool. Apparently he's a pretty good swimmer.

1705 : Basketball - The final men's match of the day has just finished, Argentina comfortably defeating Australia 85-68. The next round of games takes place on Thursday.

1655 : GOLDEquestrian - Hinrich Romeike of Germany on Marius wins the gold medal in the individual eventing, having already won the team event earlier. He held his nerve as the last competitor out, just about getting a clear round to do the double. Gina Miles of the United States had to settle for silver with Brit Cook getting the bronze.

1650 : BRONZEEquestrian - Congratulations to Britain's Tina Cook, who has followed up her bronze in the team event with another bronze in the individual final. She managed a clear round in Miners Frolic, not a bad result for a sub! Team GB now have two golds, one silver and three bronze medals so far.

1635 : Equestrian - Tina Cook goes clear in her round! That puts her on top with six to jump and who knows, perhaps GB will finish a good day with another medal?

1625 : Softball - which is not soft at all. Women's preliminary action and the highlight of today has been the USA's 11-0 hammering of Venezuela. China are also comfortable winners, routing The Netherlands 10-2.

1620 : Equestrian - William Fox-Pitt picks up four penalty points in his individual run at the show jumping. Mary King follows straight after and has a similar round, albeit a little quicker.

1605 : Tennis - Federer beats Rafa! Rafa Arevalo of El Salvador that is, not Rafa Nadal of Spain. The Swiss star triumphed 6-2 6-4 over the world number 447, who admitted afterwards that while he had played in stadiums before, they had never been full of people.

1600 : Hockey - Another update from the women's event, this time Pool B. Great Britain of course drew 2-2 with Argentina earlier on, though I'm sure you all knew that. Germany beat New Zealand 2-1 to remain perfect while the US and Japan game finished in a 1-1 draw.

1555 : Equestrian - The individual event is about to be decided with the showjumping round currently going on in Hong Kong under floodlights. Britain's Tina Cook is in with a chance of a medal after a clear round in the team event earlier.

1540 : Tennis - The Murrays now know who their next opponents will be in the doubles, French pair Clement & Llodra. They brushed by Erlich & Ram of Israel in straight sets to set up a clash with the GB brothers.

1535 : Women's hockey round-up at the end of the day - Pool A's final match has seen the Netherlands, Olympic champions in 2000, see off South Korea 3-2. It's double Dutch delight now with two wins from two, though Australia and China also have a perfect record so far.

1525 : Basketball - LeBron James made sure the United States didn't suffer an upset against the basketballing powerhouse that is Angola. The US won 97-76 and next face Greece in a re-match of the semi-final from the World Championships two years ago.

1505 : Tennis - Roger Federer cruised into the next round after a comfortable 6-2 6-4 victory over Rafael Arevalo and he will face Tomas Berdych, who beat him in Athens, next.

1446 : Football - Results from the women's competition, USA 4-0 NZ Japan 5 Norway 1 - Norway had already qualified though, and Sweden 2 Canada 1.

1445 : Equestrian - Germany could land double gold with Hinrich Romeike and Ingrid Klimke first and second in the individual standings. Tina Cook is sixth but within a fence of the leaders so it should be a nail-biting final round later, just one fence down and it's all over!

1444 : Equestrian - Well done to Sharon Hunt, Daisy Dick, William Fox-Pitt, Tina Cook and Mary King for their bronze, especially after World Champ Zara Phillips had to pull out.

1441 : GOLDEquestrian - Germany have claimed the three-day eventing gold, just edging out Australia, while Team GB come away with the gold - there's still the indivdual to go though with Tina Cook well placed.

1440 : Football - China's women are into the quarter-finals after a 2-0 victory over Argentina.

1436 : BRONZEEquestrian - Great Britain have sealed a bronze medal in the three-day eventing. Mary King knocked over two poles which hurt her individual chances but the team points were safe and it's bronze for GB.

1431 : Football - The American women are now 4-0 up against New Zealand and cruising.

1428 : Tennis - Roger Federer is a set ahaed and well in control of his match as he looks to bounce back from a bad year so far.

1404 : Equestrian - Tina Cook goes clear for Great Britain in a superb round of jumping, its makes Britain's bronze medal chances seem a bit more secure while her own individual hopes are looking pretty good.

1338 : GOLDWeightlifting - Well, we did go 14 minutes without a Chinese gold medal so it's about time for a another one - Liao Hui obliges by winning the men's 69kg division.

1335 : Equestrian - Italian Vittoria Panizzon has a sparkling clear round to put pressure on GB with the Italians in fourth, WIlliam Fox-Piit comes in next on Parkmore Ed, who clips one fence and knocks it down - thats a blow to their chances of pressing the top two Germany and Australia.

1332 : Equestrian - Veteran New Zealander Mark Todd is out on the show jump course in the eventing, after an eight-year gap - and he produces the goods with a clear round on Gandalf - just the one time penalty, you don't lose it Mark do you?

1327 : Tennis - Rafael Nadal completes a straight sets victory against Lleyton Hewitt with a commanding 6-1 6-2 success to make the third round - it's a 'follow that' statement from the world number one as his predecessor Roger Federer is up next.

1324 : GOLDFencing - Zhong Man makes it 11 gold medals for China as he wins the individual men's sabre event for the hosts.

1311 : Equestrian - Daisy Dick goes in the team eventing show jumping but has a couple of poles down and gets some time faults and she could be out of the individual reckoning.

1305 : Badminton - Emms and Robertson are still bouncing as they leave the court. Hardly surprising when you think Robertson had been out for so long injured and hasn't played much, while at 17-12 down in the last Emms was staring retirement right in the face - but on the go into the quarters.

1256 : Badminton - What a comeback from Emms and Robertson, back from the dead at 17-12 to take it 21-19 against the number two seeds, in front of their homs crowd, unbelievable stuff from the Athens silver medallists.

1255 : Badminton - Match point for the Brits at 20-19! Hold your breathe time...it's there!

1252 : Badminton - Emms and Robertson are launching an amazing fightback here - coming from 17-12 down to lead 19-17 in the deciding game, its a retirement match for Emms as if they lose she will call it a day! What drama.

1248 : GOLD Judo - Germany's former European champion Ole Bischof has taken the gold medal in the 81 kg division.

1247 : Tennis - Rafa Nadal takes the first set of his match against Hewitt in the tennis competition.

1237 : Equestrian - They're about to get underway in the three-day eventing with the team show jumping competition - Team GB sit in bronze medal position in Hong Kong.

1235 : Swimming - Britain's Jemma Lowe and Ellen Gandy have both qualified for the semi-finals of the 200m butterfly.

1228 : Badminton - The Chinese have fought back well and take the second game to force a decider against Emms and Robertson.

1215 : GOLDJudo - Japan's Ayumi Tanimoto has become the first women to successfully defend her light middleweight title as she wins at 63 kg, also becoming just the second female judoka to win two Olympic golds.

1206 : Football - Results fromt he first two women's games...Germany 1-0 North Korea, Brazil 3-1 Nigeria.

1202 : Badminton: Emms and Robertson take the first game against Gao Ling and Zheng Bo, a great start for the Brits against the number two seeds. Gao beat the British pair in Athens in the final but her new partner has a lot to live up to.

1140 : Tennis - New world number one Jelena Jankovic goes through by beating Alona Bondarenko, and men's top dog Rafa Nadal is on next facing Lleyton Hewitt.

1139 : GOLDWrestling - A Russian double today as Islam-Beka Albiev wins the 60kg category.

1137 : Badminton - Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson face anuphill battle against Chinese number two seeds Gao Ling and Zheng Bo.

1127 : Judo - Euan's gone for a Burton, if you excuse the shocking pun - the Brit has been soundly beaten by Brazilian Tiago Camilo and will miss out on a bronze medal as a result - a decent display from the Scot though.

1121 : Athletics - Big news for Paula Radcliffe as women's Olympic marathon champion Mizuki Noguchi of Japan has just pulled out of the event due to injury - its a wide open race now, catch that on Sunday.

1106 : Judo - The repecharges are underway and Euan Burton will soon by in action looking to claim a bronze medal.

1053 : Football - Phew! It all went medal-tastic for a second there - Half time in the women's football matches and Brazil are 2-1 ahead against Nigeria, while North Korea and Germany are locked together at 0-0.

1042 : GOLDCanoeing - German Alexander Grimm takes gold in the K1 Kayak competition, with a first ever podium place for Togo thanks to Benjamin Boukpeti's bronze medal finish.

1040 : GOLDWrestling - No not the Hulk Hogan variety, but old school greco roman wrestling here - Russia's Nazyr Mankiev has taken the men's 55kg title.

1037 : Archery - It's Naomi Falkard who wins the Battle of Britain as she beats Charlotte Burgess 110-96 to make the last 16 of the individual competition.

1027 : Rowing - Reeve and Whitlam produce a powerful burst to break the Aussies and they push New Zealand all the way but finish second - it's good enough though to make it into the final though.

1021 : Rowing - GB's women's pair Louisa Reeve and Olivia Whitlam and underway in the repecharge, they're in third at the moment but need second to go through.

1020 : Two Brits going head-to-head in the archery as Charlotte Burgess and Naomi Folkard go for a place in the next round.

1018 : Sailing - Paul Goodison finishes in sixth place in the Laser class after coming second in race two.

1012 : Archery - It's all happening now in Beijing, Naomi Falkard wins her elimination contest in the women's individual event.

1006 : SILVERCanoeing - David Florence brings home a silver for Team GB after a superb run in the final - only beaten by the Slovakian superman Martikan in the very last run - thrilling stuff from the canoers.

1006 : GOLDCanoeing - Slovakian Michal Martikan nicks the gold! A superb run from the former Olympic champion and legend of the sport - he pulled out a great run just when needed.

1004 : Canoeing - Stanislav Jezek also has a nightmare, these boys are falling to pieces under the pressure and Florence has a silver with just one man to go who can stop him from grabbing gold.

1001 : Canoeing - It's a guaranteed bronze Britain with Florence as Pole Krzysztof Bieryt nearly rolls over as he has a complete shocker!

0959 : Canoeing - Florence goes into the lead! The Briton takes almost two seconds off the Australian leader and sits on top of the standings at the moment with the time to beat with just three men to go.

0957 : Canoeing - David Florence is underway in his search for gold in the slalom

0948 : GOLDWeightlifting - Pak Hyon Suk of North Korea scoops gold in the women's 63kg category

0947 : Ireland's lightweight fours win their repecharge pretty comfortably ahead of the Netherlands and the USA to make the semi-finals - it was by no means high-pressure though, with just one out of the four boats racing being eliminated - that was Egypt.

0941 : Boxing - Frenchman Jerome Thomas has gone out in the first round of the flyweight competition. Thomas is the man with a rare birth defect that has needed operations all down his left arm, which is shorter than his right, bit he overcame his problems to carve out a great amateur career. Despite the defeat he plans to turn pro.

0928 : Basketball - Vasileios Spanoulis has been on fire for Greece in the men's B-Ball, netting 23 as they beat NBA star Dirk Nowitzki's Germany 87-64.

0924 : Weightlifting - Another day another gutted weightlifter - this time Russian favourite Svetlana Tsarukaeva is in bits after crashing out early - apparently in tears and banging her head against the wall after going out!

0918 : Rowing - Hester Goodsell and Helen Casey make it through comfortably enough to the semis as they win the repecharge - the Greeks came flying through at the end though and there was not a lot in it but a good result for the Brits.

0913 : Something of a controversial defeat there for GB's Joe Murray in the boxing against the home fighter, email me your thoughts on that result and the rest of the action on paul.higham@bskyb.com.

0909 : Rowing - Women's double scull of Hester Goodsell and Helen Casey go for Britain in the repecharge.

0907 : Canoeing - In the K1 slalom, Great Britain's Athens medallist Campbell Walsh has failed to negotiate the semi-finals. Asyou may have heard earlier, GB's David Florence is still in the medal hunt in the C1 class. The final run is at 0947.

0900 : Rowing - Today's action is about to get under way. It's all repechages today - that's basically a second chance for those competing to make progress having failed to do so in their first race.

0857 : Sailing - In the RS:X windsurfing classes, Nick Dempsey is up to seventh overall after a third place in his first race of the day. But fellow Briton Bryony Shaw - in the women's event - has dropped to fifth after only managing 11th.

0855 : Boxing - Gu wins the fight 17-7 and Murray is out. He's the first Briton to depart from the boxing competition.

0852 : Boxing - 12-4 to Gu at the end of the third and surely Murray now needs to stop his opponent if he is to progress.

0850 : Boxing - Murray has to take a standing count at the start of the third round. It's not looking good for the Briton.

0849 : Boxing - Murray slips further behind in the second round and at the halfway point the score it 9-3 in the Chinese man's favour.

0846 : Boxing - The Chinese fighter leads 4-0 on the points system after the first of four two-minute rounds. Plenty of work to do for Murray.

0843 : Boxing - Briton Joe Murray is about to begin his bantamweight campaign against Yu Gu, of China.

0837 : Canoeing - Team GB's David Florence was the fourth-best qualifier for the final of the C1 class. Campbell Walsh goes in the semi-final stage of the K1 soon. The C1 final goes at 0947.

0834 : Sailing - Better news from Qingdao for GB. In the men's 470, Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield are up to sixth overall after winning the third race of their series.

0833 : Shooting - Faulds, the 2000 champion, misses out on a medal this time in the double trap. His final total of 180 is only enough for sixth place - four behind the bronze position. American Walton Eller wins with a total of 190 out of 200 targets hit.

0826 : Shooting - Faulds remains three shots off a medal position and now there are just 10 shots left. He's relying on the pressure getting to someone now.

0825 : Canoeing - David Florence of Team GB is into the final of the his whitewater event. Good news for him.

0823 : Diving - Victory for China in the 10m synchro platform from Australia and Mexico. A disappointing final dive sees the Britons slip down to eighth.

0821 : Judo - Disappointment for Euan Burton. He's lost his quarter-final to Ukraine's Roman Gontiak via Waza-ari. An end to his medal hopes.

0820 : Shooting - Just 20 targets now remaining in the double trap and Faulds is still three shots off a medal place.

0814 : Shooting - Faulds missed two targets in that series of 10 and he's now slipped three shots behind the medal positions.

0813 : Diving - It's now fifth place for the British divers, although a bit of a gap has opened up to the medal positions. China still lead and look well set for gold. One round to go.

0808 : Shooting - With 40 targets left, Faulds is one point behind the bronze position. He's yet to miss in this final round.

0807 : Tennis - French Open finalist Dinara Safina is through to the last 16 of the singles and she is joined there by China's Zheng Jie, who you may remember made the last four at Wimbledon this summer.

0805 : Shooting - Richard Faulds' final round in the double trap is under way and he's already reduced the gap to third place to just one point. He's on 141 from 154 shots.

0802 : Diving - Three dives each gone and GB are now sixth. China still lead - just as they did in the men's event yesterday,

0753 : Sailing - Penny Clark, another British hope at Qingdao, is off to a good start in the Laser Radial class. She's started her campaign with a second place in race one behind Belgium. However, Paul Goodison - winner of the Laser test event at the venue last year - started with a 15th place. There's more bad news for Team GB with Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark being disqualified from yesterday's opening 470 race after an appeal from Slovenia.

0750 : China's Xin Wang and Ruolin Chen still lead in the diving with two of the five rounds gone. GB's pairing have slipped to seventh, although there's no a lot of distance between them and third. The difficult dives - with more points up for grabs - start now.

0739 : Diving - Couch and Powell are joint third after the first round of dives in the synchro platform. Surprise, surprise it's China in front.

0731 : Judo - Burton is through to the quarter-finals. One more win and he will have a fight for a medal. He wins by chui, for those of you who know the judo terminology.

0728 : Judo - Just over halfway through the contest and Burton has moved ahead after the Moroccan was penalised.

0725 : Judo - Briton Euan Burton is back on the judo mat. He's up against Morocco's Safouane Atta right now with a last-eight place up for grabs.

0720 : As for what's coming up, Briton Richard Faulds has a medal chance in the men's double trap shooting - his final round is at 0800. GB's female synchro platform divers Tonia Couch and Stacie Powell go at 0730. There's rowing repechages from 0900 and Campbell Walsh and David Florence have medal hopes in the slalom canoeing on the whitewater at 0800 (semis) and 1030 (finals). Another event worth noting late in the day is the climax to the three-day eventing. Team GB enter the showjumping phase at 1215 in the bronze-medal position. So stayed logged on for our updates!

0715 : OK, time for a brief round-up of what's been happening with some of you sure to be logging on around breakfast time in the UK. Michael Phelps has won his third gold of these Games. It is also his ninth of his career and he joins the likes of Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz on that figure. Another gold - which is surely coming tomorrow - will see him become the most successul Olympian of all time. No medals for GB yet today, but Gemma Spofforth came agonisingly close in the pool, missing bronze by 0.04secs in the women's 100m backstroke.

0651 : Judo - Sarah Clark's medal hopes are over. She won't go into the repechage as her conqueror, Claudia Heill, has just gone out. That's the way it works - if you lose early on, your conqueror has to progress to the latter stages to let you back in.

0639 : Shooting - Briton Richard Faulds is into the final round of the men's double trap. His score of 137 put him fifth after the qualifying rounds with the top six progressing to shoot for the medals. Now another 50 targets will be shot with the scores then added to the marksmen's qualification tallies. Faulds is eight behind leader Walton Eller so the gold looks out of reach, but he is just three behind third place so a good final round could push him on to the podium. That final round starts at 0800.

0626 : Tennis - Wimbledon champion Venus Williams is into the last 16 of the women's singles after an impressive display against Czech Iveta Benesova. The American wins 6-1 6-4.

0622 : Judo - Better news for Britain to report now. Euan Burton has just beaten his Argentine opponent in the men's -81kg event to progress to round two.

0613 : Judo - Also bad news from the judo arena with Briton Sarah Clark losing in her opener in the under-63kg section. However, she was up against Athens 2004 runner-up Claudia Heill, of Austria, so no disgrace there.

0610 : Weightlifting - Bad news concerning GB's only competitor Michaela Breeze. She's been forced to pull out injured. She had lifted 85kg in the snatch section of the women's 63kg category but grimaced as she did so and never returned to the stage after that.

0600 : Sailing - Out at Qingdao, today's sailing races are about to start. Once again it's a busy day with six categories competing today. It's a day off for Ben Ainslie and Sarah Ayton's yngling crew, but we'll keep an eye on the results as they come in.

0550 : GOLDShooting - Korea's Jong Oh Jin has clinched the gold medal in the men's 50m pistol.

0543 : Gymnastics - Japan take silver and USA the bronze.

0541 : Gymnastics - China have done it. They've dominated the men's team competition and have just clinched the gold medal, much to the delight of the crowd. We'll bring you the final scores in a moment.

0539 : Got any comments or questions? Email me at andy.schooler@bskyb.com

0520 : Archery - More news on Alison Williamson and the Briton has gone out in the last 16 of the women's individual event.

0517 : Gymnastics - China lead with one piece of apparatus to go in the men's team competition. The crowd are loving this. With a big lead they are on course for gold.

0509 : Badminton - Kellogg and Clark exit in the last 16 of the mixed doubles. They've been well beaten by home hopes He Hanbin and Yu Yang, 21-15, 21-8. Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson - silver medallists from Athens - are on court at 1140 today.

0457 : We've had a request to show footage of Rebecca Adlington's race yesterday. Unfortunately we don't have the online rights to the action but we've got plenty of interviews and clips from Beijing in our video section - including one with golden girl Rebecca,

0451 : Badminton - British mixed doubles hopes Donna Kellogg and Anthony Clark have lost the first game against their Chinese opponents - still time to fight back though as it's best of three.

0442 : Archery - Briton Alison Williamson is into the last 16 of the women's individual event - she won a bronze in this category in Athens.

0440 : Looking elsewhere, the men's team gymnastics final is continuing - news on that later - while today's tennis action is under way, The Murray brothers don't play today but they will find out their opponents with Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement taking on Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram in the first round of the doubles. In the singles, all the big names are in second-round action, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. In the women's singles, Serena Williams has already won this morning.

0438 : Swimming - That's the lot from the pool for this morning. There will be more heats later today. The main news is that Michael Phelps' bid for eight golds is still on - he added his third this morning. No medals for Britain today, but Gemma Spofforth was agonisingly fourth in the women's 100m backstroke, missing third by just 0.04secs.

0436 : Swimming - The news is that Miley's time is not fast enough to make the final.

0435 : Swimming - Coughlin wins the second semi and is safely through. Payne is down in eighth.

0431 : Swimming - Coventry's time of 2:09.53 was an Olympic record. Miley swam 2:12.35 and can afford to see only three women go faster in this next race if she is to make the final.

0430 : Swimming - Coventry wins the first semi ahead of Rice and Hoff. Miley was down in fifth and faces an anxious wait to see if she will make it through. The second semi follows shortly and includes Natalie Coughlin and Briton Kerri-Anne Payne.

0424 : Fencing - An agonising defeat for Briton Alex O'Connell in the men's individual sabre first round. He's beaten 15 points to 14 by Russia Nikolay Kovalev.

0418 : Swimming - The final event in the pool this morning will be the women's 200m individual medley semis. In the first of them, 400m IM winner Steph Rice goes up against Katie Hoff and Kirsty Coventry. Briton Hannah Miley is also in what looks a very difficult race.

0413 : Swimming - Rock finishes sixth and misses out on a place in that final. Phelps is the fastest qualifier and will start as the favourite tomorrow once again.

0412 : Swimming - Phelps comes back in the last 50m to win the second semi and make the final.

0406 : Swimming - Japan's Takeshi Matsusa wins the first semi.

0402 : Swimming - Onto the men's 200m butterfly semi-finals. Phelps will be back in the pool for the second semi when he'll be up against Briton Michael Rock.

0351 : GOLDSwimming - Jones eases to victory, just as expected. It's a new Olympic record of 1:05.17. She won by a whole body length - more than a second and a half.

0348 : Swimming - Phelps has just received his third gold of the Games, but you've missed no action. The women's 100m breaststroke is about to go.

0337 : Swimming - Next up is the women's 100m breaststroke final. Australia's world-record holder Leisel Jones starts as the hot favourite but there is no British interest.

0332 : GOLDSwimming - Tancock fades in the final 25m to finish only sixth. Peirsol storms back to win in a new world record time of 52.54secs. He defends his title from Athens.

0331 : Swimming - Tancock leads at halfway.

0328 : Swimming - Next up is Liam Tancock in the men's 100m backstroke. The Briton is a 50m specialist really but that event is not on the Olympic programme. World record holder Aaron Peirsol goes for the USA, but Australia's Hayden Stoeckel was fastest in qualifying yesterday.

0324 : GOLDSwimming - Spofforth just misses a medal for GB finishing an agonising fourth, just 0.04secs outside the medals. It's a new British record of 59.38secs. Coughlin wins gold in 58.96, with Coventry second.

0319 : Swimming - Renwick finishes down in eighth for GB in 1:47.47. Now it's onto the women's 100m backstroke with Gemma Spofforth going for GB. The gold should be between Kirsty Coventry - who set a world record in the semis - and Natalie Coughlin.

0318 : GOLDSwimming - Clear water for Phelps down the home straight and he storms to victory number three. It's a new world record too in 1:42.96. He betters his own mark by almost a second!

0317 : Swimming - A flying start for Phelps and he's in control at halfway.

0313 : Swimming - The first final of the day now - it's Michael Phelps going for his third gold of the Games in the men's 200m freestyle. However, he didn't look great in the semis yesterday. He was probably holding something back given his tough programme though Robbie Renwick goes for GB here.

0311 : Swimming - Pellegrini eases to another victory with McClatchey third and she will be in the final - the Scot is seventh fastest of the 16 semi-finalists.

0307 : Swimming - The second semi sees Caitlin McClatchey go for Britain. She's up against Italy's Federica Pellegrini, who set a new world record in the heats.

0305 : Swimming - Slovenia's Sara Isakovic wins the semi with Hoff second. Jackson disappointed down in seventh in 1:58.70.

0300 : Swimming - Attention turns to the Water Cube and first up it's the women's 200m freestyle semis. Jo Jackson - a bronze medallist in the 400m yesterday - goes in the first race. She's up against yesterday's runner-up Katie Hoff.

0253 : Hockey - All over and a 2-2 draw keeps Great Britain's hopes alive but only just. They have just one point from their first two games and will surely have to win their remaining three pool matches to reach the semis. It was a good fightback from 2-0 down today mind and that should give them confidence for their next match - against New Zealand on Thursday.

0251 : Hockey - So close to an Argentina winner. With less than two minutes on the clock, they get to the byline but cut the ball behind the unmarked forward in the middle. A real let-off for the British women.

0245 : Coming up at 0300 is today's swimming finals session - we'll turn our attention to that soon - while the men's team gymnastics will also start then.

0243 : Hockey - 10 minutes to go now for either GB or Argentina to find a winner in this women's group match. It remains 2-2.

0234 : Hockey - Goal! Just as I said they weren't turning their penalty corners into goal, they do so. Mel Clewlow produces a fine strike from the edge of the circle and it's 2-2. 18 minutes remain. Can GB snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

0233 : Hockey - Argentina look rattled and are arguing with the umpire. GB have had several penalty corners, but can't make them pay.

0231 : Hockey - Goal for GB! They are back in this game after Helen Richardson drills home a shot against the 10 men of Argentina. It's now 2-1.

0230 : Shooting - A disappointing start from Faulds could have cost him his medal chance already. 45 out of 50 in the first of three qualification rounds may sound good but it's not great at this level.

0225 : Hockey - Argentina go down to 10 after having one of their players sin-binned. A chance for the next few minutes for GB to get in this game. It remains 2-0.

0222 : We'll welcome any emails you have, be they comments on the action or questions about it. The address is andy.schooler@bksyb.com

0216 : Hockey - Britain get the second half under way. Remember they trail Argentina's women 2-0 at the interval and need a fightback in this period.

0210 : Shooting - A chance to tell you Richard Faulds is just starting his medal bid in the men's double trap - effectively clay-piegon shooting. He won gold in Sydney eight years ago for Britain. The qualification round is first. Hopefully he can qualify for the final, which takes place later today. Steven Scott also goes for Team GB.

0207 : Hockey - Half-time and Britain have it all to do in the second half. They trail 2-0 at the break and have 35 minutes to sort this out. A second defeat will all but end their hopes of a medal.

0157 : Hockey - 2-0 Argentina. Another penalty corner routine pays dividends. It ends with Alejandra Gulla deflecting the ball past the British keeper to double the lead. Not looking good for the British women.

0155 : Boxing - We had expected British flyweight hopeful Khalid Yafai to be in action today, but the draw has handed him a bye into the second round. That means Joe Murray is the only British fighter competing today. We will take on China's Yu Gu at 0845 in the bantamweight division.

0150 : Hockey - GB are fighting hard but they still trail 1-0 to Argentina in their pool match.

0140 : Hockey - Argentina bag the opening goal of the game thanks to Agustina Garcia. She nets from a tight angle after her penalty corner had sparked a shot which came back off the post. Team GB are in early trouble, 1-0 down.

0130 : Hockey - The game is under way at the hockey centre.

0125 : Hockey - The first major event of the day we are going to focus on is Great Britain's clash with Argentina in the women's tournament. GB lost their opener 5-1 to defending champions Germany on Sunday so a win here is vital to their chances of making the semi-finals. They need to finish in the top two in their group of six. Argentina started with a 2-2 draw against the USA. The match gets under way at 0130.

0120 : One event we didn't mention is the three-day eventing which reaches a climax tonight - the final showjumping phase gets under way at 1215 BST. in Hong Kong. Team GB are ranked third after yesterday's cross-country.

0115 : Welcome to our coverage of day four of the Games. It's another busy day with more swimming finals to come at 0300, with Britons Liam Tancock and Gemma Spofforth in action, while Michael Phelps continues his quest for eight gold medals. On the shooting range, Sydney Olympic champion Richard Faulds goes for gold again, while two of Team GB's boxers take to the ring for the first time this week. There's more rowing and sailing races, while Campbell Walsh and David Florence go in the canoe slalom - also an exciting event to watch. Stay rright here and we'll keep you up to date with all the news as it happens.

Olympic Clockwatch

noreply@blogger.com (maddy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:10:00 +0000

Radcliffe: Going for gold

0110 Marathon - At the 10k mark, it's Great Britain's Liz Yelling who leads the Olympic Marathon past Tiananmen Square and the Great Hall of the People. Paula Radcliffe is back further in the pack but she looks very comfortable, despite normally being a front runner.

0105 As well as reflecting on Team GB's incredible achievements over the past 24 hours, please do send me your thoughts on Usain Bolt's scintillating 100m victory on Saturday. It really was awesome to watch and to see him celebrate metres from the finish line just emphasised how much better he is than anyone else on the planet. It's disappointing to hear some people say it was disrespectful because I truly believe we need characters and big personalities like Bolt in athletics - and indeed sport in general. Email christopher.hammer@bskyb.com to share your views.

0055 Just in case you're wondering, there are no other Olympic sporting events in Beijing taking place at the moment apart from the women's marathon but in about two hours from now we'll be up and running with swimming, cycling, hockey, basketball, beach volleyball, normal volleyball, table tennis and shooting.

0050 Marathon - The dream is already over for American Deena Kastor, who has pulled up with pain in her right foot. She stepped off the course after hearing "something pop" and she can't go on. It could well be a very serious injury and that's such a shame for her and America.

0045 Marathon - There are thousands of people lining the streets waving flags, predominantly cheering on the three Chinese hopes Chunxiu Zhou, Shujing Zhang and Xiaolin Zhu. It's been a pretty slow start but this is understandable given the humidity. That said the low lying cloud cover is keeping the temperature down at least.

0035 As far one of our readers, Paul, is concerned, it's all doom and gloom. He says: "Paula Radcliffe will drop back and once again drop out in tears. Great Britian had a great 24 hours." Are there any optimists out there? Also I would like to ask any Australians out there if they're worried about finishing below Team GB in the final medal table?!

0030 Marathon - A rather small bunch of world-class athletes are off on their way and among them is Paula Radcliffe, who admits she has unfinished business in the Olympic Marathon after the nightmare of Athens. Could it be her defining moment?

0025 I've only just got my breath back from an absolutely stunning Saturday for Team GB with golds coming left, right and centre in the pool, velodrome and on the water so do let me know how excited you are about our prospects for the rest of the Games? The cyclists can certainly top the podium in more events over the next few days while there's potentially more bling around the corner from the sailing team and the rowers today. And what about track and field - can we hope for much from our athletes. Email me at christopher.hammer@bskby.com and lets get some debate going through the night - or whatever time of day it is where you are.

0015 Welcome to day nine of the Beijing Games, and first up it's the women's marathon where Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe is hoping to banish the memory of four years ago in Athens and claim a glorious gold. A little later this morning, Michael Phelps will be bidding for a historic eighth gold in the pool and that's certainly one not to miss. There's plenty of other sports going on throughout the early hours and I'll be keeping you right up-to-date with all the best of the action. Please send in your views, reactions and predictions to christopher.hammer@bskyb.com and I'll publish as many as possible from around the globe!

Funmazamasti

Sri Lanka v India, 2nd ODI, Colombo

Batman-2 The Dark Knight (2008) - Watch online DVD-Rip Xvid

Hijack (2008) songs

Hijack (2008) mp3 songs List :-

Watch online and download newly realeased bollywood movie Mission Istaanbul (2008).

Bachna Ae Haseeno[2008]

Bachana Ae Haseeno Watch Online Link:

God Tussi Great Ho (2008)

Watch online Links

Hollywood English Movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

Singh Is Kinng (2008) mp3 songs

Watch online CHAMKU [2008] movie

Watch online and Download New Bollywood Bobby's movie Chamku [2008]

Chamku 2008 Hindi Movie Watch Online In desirippers Link :

Download Chamku 2008 Hindi Movie Rapidshare Link :

Wallpapers

Downlod songd of God Tussi Great Ho (2008) hindi movie MP3 songs

USA Presidential election 2008 results

nited States presidential election, 2008 Wiki-pedia Informations

presidenti Election results missouri, maryland, florida. News for virginia, wisconsin and washington state election results

Watch the results of presidential election 2008 USA.

Overall Medal Standings

Belarus paddlers in sudden gold rush

Photos: Women's 4 x 400m Relay first round

Photos: Chinese Guo wins Table Tennis bronze

Chinese trio fight way into Women's Table Tennis semifinals

Photos: Hadi Saei of Iran wins Men's 80kg Taekwondo gold

BRYAN CLAY UPDATES: Big lead with two events left

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Live Blog Day 14: Canoe and kayak, track and beach volleyball

USA Water Polo Teams Make a Big Splash at 2008 Olympics with New ...

Venus and Serena Williams take doubles Olympic gold

Venus and Serena Williams take doubles Olympic gold!!!!!

Overall Medal Standings Till August 17th.

Host nation jubilant over Olympic miracles

The numbers don't lie: Phelps is the best swimmer ever

The numbers don't lie: Phelps is the best swimmer eve

r

Olympics: day six - live!

Olympics: day six - as it happened

Beijing is steamy hot!Yesterday my team and I headed to the main Olympic

RELATED CONTENT

Olympics Day Four - As it happened

Day Four - As it happened

Beijing Olympics 2008

Also see

Olympic Clockwatch