Beijing Olympics 2008

Yelena Soboleva broke her own world record in winning the 1,500m title at the World Indoor Championships on Sunday.
The Russian finished in 3 minutes, 57.71 seconds to shave 0.34 seconds off her former mark, heading off compatriot Yuliya Fomenko (3:59.41) and Gelete Burka of Ethiopia (3:59.75).
It was the second time this winter she improved on her own record, finishing in 3 minutes, 57.71 seconds to shave .34 off the old mark. The title and record earned Soboleva US$90,000.
Maria Mutola missed out on a record eighth indoor gold medal, finishing third in the women’s 800m behind winner Tamsyn Lewis of Australia.
At 35 and running in her last indoor championships, Mutola ran a poor tactical race and let Lewis sweep past her on the inside with 300m to go.
Lewis won in 2 minutes, 2.57 seconds, edging Tetiana Petlyuk of the Ukraine by 0.09 seconds.
“I should have done better,” said Mutola, who finished in 2:02.97.
Lewis said she couldn’t get around the pack from the outside, so she made a move on the inside to win.
“I got caught by surprise,” Mutola said. But no one was more surprised than Lewis, the 29-year-old who won her first major title.
“I was just hoping to make the final. I did win, didn’t I?” Lewis said. “Maria is a star. I always wanted to get close to her.”
Mutola, who won her first gold in 1993, retired from indoor competition after the race, but the Mozambique runner will now focus on winning a second Olympic gold in Beijing.
In the women’s 400m, Olesya Zykina of Russia won in 51.09 — just 0.01 second ahead of teammate Natalya Nazarova, with Shareese Woods of the United States third.
Nazarova won gold in the 4×400m relay for her seventh gold overall to tie Mutola.
In the last event, Blanca Vlasic of Croatia won her 22nd straight high jump competition, defeating Olympic champion Elena Slesarenko of Russia and Vita Palomar of the Ukraine.
Bryan Clay of the United States earlier won gold in the heptathlon after Olympic champion Roman Sebrle withdrew because of injury.
Clay opened with a win in the 60m and won three more events, scoring a personal best 6,371 points for his second world title.
He could have set a new points record by running under 2 minutes, 45.47 seconds in the final 1,000-meter event but struggled to a last-place time of 2:55.64 — still a season best.
For the women, with sprinters Veronica Campbell and Allyson Felix in absentia, the only running event that was at anything resembling full strength was the women’s 1500, in which Yelena Soboleva of Russia got more than a measure of revenge over Maryam Yusuf Jamal, the Bahrainian who beat her in Osaka.

Self-belief comes naturally to Ato Boldon, a four-time Olympic medalist, who says he was born to run, and who will serve as a sports analyst for NBC at the upcoming Beijing Games.
Success builds confidence, of course, and the 34-year-old Trinidad and Tobago (TT) sprinter has had a good run. Starting his sporting life as a soccer player he switched to athletics and competed in his first of four Olympics aged 18, in Barcelona.
A world champion in the 200 m, Boldon has only been beaten by his American rival Maurice Greene in terms of sub-10 second 100 m races. His career segued into politics after retiring from the track and he became an opposition senator in 2006, gained a pilot’s license and commentated for Britain’s BBC, the United States’ CBS and NBC.
He has produced and directed a documentary about TT’s qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He also coaches the Saudi Arabian athletics team and is part owner and writer for a leading athletics website.
“I approach everything I undertake as though I were born to do it — it removes the fear, because as humans we often believe we aren’t capable or aren’t good enough,” he said in an exchange of e-mails from the United States, where he lives.
The self-assured US-based sociology major is quick to offer his views on a range of sport-related subjects.
For instance, though he was accused and cleared in 2001 of using the performance-enhancing drug ephedrine (found in common flu remedies, Boldon had been treating a cold), he is virulently anti-drugs.

“Sport should clean up and Marion (Jones) is the latest and best example of the fact that no matter how high you get, if you get there illegally the skeletons in your closet may still come calling some day.”
He can also be diplomatic. Director Stephen Spielberg’s recent resignation from the Olympic ceremonies creative team drew a tempered reaction.
“Everyone has their own personal outlook, and I respect that. Lots of countries that will remain nameless have had human rights violations, but somehow the media focuses on the ones they choose to. Sports and politics will always be intrinsically linked because they both evoke such passion in people.”
As for China’s organization of the Games, Boldon says he’s expecting fireworks at the opening ceremony, even without Spielberg.
“(The Chinese) invented them I think they’re going to do a fantastic job of hosting and surprise a lot of people. They are perfectionists and they will host the Games as such.”
Regarding his new role at the Olympics as a broadcaster, Boldon said he will rely on natural ability, preparation and timing, as befits a top-rate athlete.
“The true art is knowing when to shut up. You can talk through certain things and ruin the moment forever. The best times during a track and field broadcast are when nothing is said, sometimes, like before the gun sounds to start the 100m dash final, or after a huge victory.
“Apart from that, it’s about conveying your passion and finding the balance between talking to an audience that knows the sport well and to someone who has never ever seen it.”
He says the highlight of the Games will likely be in the pool and on the track. He rates the US track team as the best ever and says he is looking forward to a Jamaica versus US duel in the sprint and relay events.
Pressed for a possible lowlight, he pointed to another potential drug scandal comparable to what happened with disgraced Canadian 100 m runner Ben Johnson at Seoul 1988.
Though Boldon has had his fair share of success, he has also dealt with disaster. A car crash in 2002 practically ended his career as a competitive runner and the fallout over how his case was handled by TT police led him to make some bitter comments about his country.
But Boldon does not regret missing out on Olympic gold, having racked up three bronze and one silver in the 100 m at Sydney 2000. It turns out his favorite sporting memory isn’t an individual medal. Instead, it’s winning silver in the 100m relay at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Canada.
“It was a very young team that I led and we almost became the best in the world. No one foresaw it except us four and no one could have predicted it.”
Asked whether it would be a bittersweet experience commenting on the action rather than being part of it in Beijing, Boldon said he is ready for a new challenge.
“I had my time and I retired when I wanted, at 30. I was on the podium four times, at four Olympics, and even though I never got Olympic gold my life was forever changed by being on that stage and by being able to represent my country.”

North Carolina - They are rivals, both seeking gold at the Beijing Olympics, but American hurdler Allen Johnson and China’s top athletics hope Liu Xiang are also friends.
“When I see him run well, I am genuinely happy for him, and I feel like when I run well, he is happy for me,” Johnson, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist and seven-times indoor and outdoor world champion, told Reuters.
“We both respect and admire one another,” Johnson said of the Chinese world record holder and 2004 Olympic champion whom he first met in 2001.
The language barrier prevents anything more than limited conversations, but there are other ways expressing their respect, Johnson, a three-times Olympian, said.
“There have been a couple of times I have been in races (with him) when I didn’t run so well,” the 37-year-old American said.
“He kind of patted me on the back like it was going to be all right. Don’t worry about it. It was just one race.
“Even though those weren’t the words that he said, that was the body language,” Johnson said.
The two will renew their friendship at the world indoor championships in Valencia, Spain from March 7-9. Both will compete in the 60 meters hurdles.
Johnson finished second to countryman David Oliver in the U.S. championships last weekend.
Johnson believes Liu is the man to beat at the Olympics.
“I guess you have to go with the defending world champion, the home favorite,” Johnson said.
“He is very good. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. He is very consistent … If you aren’t ready, he is going to whip you.
“I couldn’t imagine what he goes through. I think he has handled it well so far, but Beijing is going to be totally different. I can only imagine all the people will be pulling him in a million different directions.”

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

U.S. pentathletes are set to begin the 2008 World Cup Season and final push to the Beijing Olympic Games with first stop in Cairo, Egypt, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) announced on Tuesday.
Seven U.S. pentathletes will compete in the first World Cup stop of the 2008 Modern Pentathlon season on February 20-23 in Cairo, Egypt with the goal of earning valuable ranking points in hopes of qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, the USOC said in a statement.
The women’s semifinal will be held on Wednesday, February 20 with the men’s semifinal set for Thursday, February 21. The women’s final will be on Friday, February 22 and the men’s on Saturday February 23.
The remaining five World Cup stops during the Olympic qualification period will be critical to determining the athletes that will make up the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team for Modern Pentathlon.
The 2008 World Modern Pentathlon Championships, May 27-31 in Budapest, Hungary, will serve as a direct Olympic qualifier for the top three finishers who have not already qualified their spot for the Olympic Games.
The final and most likely way for the U.S. to qualify for a final Olympic slot will be through the Modern Pentathlon World Rankings for the Olympic qualification period of June 1, 2007 - June 1, 2008.
This final means of qualification will go to the top seven ranked athletes that have not already qualified by some other means.
Each country can only qualify a maximum of two men and two women. If the U.S. has more than two men or two women that meet the qualification criteria, USA Pentathlon will determine the two Olympic representatives based on the two highest ranked U.S. athletes in the World Cup standings.
The top four U.S. women will all compete in World Cup #1 in Cairo. Michelle “Mickey” Kelly has already qualified a spot for the 2008 Olympic Games by virtue of her performance at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and will look to use the World Cup season to keep her ahead in the pack. Sheila Taormina, Emily Shertzer and Margaux Isaksen will be joining Kelly.
On the men’s side, the U.S. will be represented in Cairo by Niul Manske, Sam Sacksen and Will Brady. Top ranked U.S. pentathletes Eli Bremer and Dennis Bowsher will sit out the first World Cup stop, deciding to focus their energies on preparing for the second World Cup stop of the season in Mexico City, Mexico, March 5-8.
Bremer has already qualified his spot for the 2008 Olympic Games based on his gold medal performance at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bowsher is in line to qualify through the World Ranking system, but must keep himself in that position.

from: xinhuanet.com 

Betrayed finally by the body which once hurtled along a track faster than any man in the world, Maurice Greene reached journey’s end this month.
At the age of 33, the 2000 Sydney Olympics 100 meters champion conceded that he could not get in shape in time for the Beijing Games and announced his retirement.
“I was getting these little nagging injuries that have just stopped me from training the way that I need to,” Greene told Reuters in a telephone interview from Los Angeles this week.
“It’s a mental battle trying to come back from injuries and I don’t feel like having that mental battle with myself.”
American hegemony in the men’s 100 metres has been taken for granted since the rebirth of the Olympic Games in 1896. In reality, there have been lulls; notably in the 1920s and 1970s and again in the 1990s, the decade when Greene’s raw talent first became apparent in his home town of Kansas City.
After Carl Lewis had run his last great race at the 1991 Tokyo world championships, Linford Christie won the 1992 Olympic title for Britain in Barcelona.
Christie captured the 1993 world title and was then succeeded as world and Olympic champion by another Jamaican-born sprinter, Canadian Donovan Bailey.
Meanwhile, Greene was eliminated in the quarter-finals at the 1995 Gothenburg world championships and, hampered by a hamstring injury, failed to qualify for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics team.

Maurice Greene, former US world and Olympic champion in the 100m and 200m sprints said he would not be competing in the 2008 Games and that his future would probably be in coaching. The veteran Greene, who won the 100m and 200m gold in Sydney in 2000, said that he was sad he would not race here in August but felt the United States had a worthy successor in Tyson Gay

HARD PATH
Greene came up the hard way. In Kansas City he worked in fast food outlets, emptied trucks and tore tickets at a movie theatre. Frustrated by his lack of progress in athletics, he decided in 1996 to drive to Los Angeles with his father Ernest to train with John Smith, by common consent the best sprint coach in the world.
“I just told myself I needed a change,” Greene recalled. “If I really wanted to do something I had to go to someplace else. I decided to go to John Smith.
“He worked me very hard. He asked me what I wanted to do and I wanted to be the best in the world.”
Training with the equally competitive Trinidadian Ato Boldon, who was to finish second to the American in Sydney, Greene set out to attain his goal.
“We knew if we both wanted to be successful we had to work together to get to where we wanted to be,” Greene said.
“He taught me things and I learned a lot from him and we began to study the sport more and learn more things about the sport. We became a dynamic duo.”
Greene’s breakthrough came in 1997 when he won the world 100 metres title in Athens. In the following year he set a world indoor 60 metres record of 6.39 seconds which still stands and then came his golden year of 1999 when he clocked a world 100 record of 9.79 seconds in Athens and the first world 100-200 double in Seville.
“Everybody was talking about U.S. sprint domination being over,” Greene said. “As a U.S. athlete I don’t like that kind of talk.”

JOHNSON TIME
The 100 record held particular significance for Greene.
Bailey’s mark of 9.84 set at the Atlanta Games was the official mark. But everybody knew that Ben Johnson had clocked 9.79 at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, a record that was never ratified after the Canadian’s positive test for steroids.
“I started to really study races and that’s when I really started to piece together how to run that sort of time,” Greene said.
At the turn of the century, Greene was at the top of the world, a position confirmed in 2000 when he won the Sydney Olympic 100 and anchored the 4×100 relay team to victory.
Then came the 2001 Edmonton world 100 final which developed into what Greene believes was his best and also his most frustrating performance.
Greene hobbled over the line after sustaining quadricep and hamstring injuries. Incredibly he still clocked 9.82 seconds, only 0.08 seconds outside Jamaican Asafa Powell’s current record.
“If you look at the race closely, at 65 metres there was a grimace on my face. I just hobbled the rest of the way. The good Lord let me finish that race and I still ran 9.82,” he said.
Asked what the time would have been had he not been injured, Greene replied: “I would say around 9.6.”
Injuries came increasingly to define Greene’s life, although there was one last chance of glory at the 2004 Athens Olympics when he believes he should have beaten compatriot Justin Gatlin.
Greene eased up in the semi-finals and paid for a slow time by getting lane seven in the final, won by Gatlin ahead of Portuguese Francis Obikwelu with Greene third in the closest Olympic three-way 100 metres finish.
“I should have run all the way through instead of easing up. I would have had a better lane and then I could have felt what was going on in the middle of the track,” he said.
“I basically ran that race blind. I’ve always said I messed that race up, I threw away my gold medal.”
Greene’s record stands comparison with any of his predecessors and his tally of 52 sub-10 second marks, far ahead of Powell’s 33, shows his remarkable consistency.
Asked recently who he considered the greatest 100 metres sprinter ever, Powell did not name Lewis or 1936 Olympic quadruple gold medalist Jesse Owens.
Instead he chose Greene “because of his technical abilities and his consistency over the years”.
“I’m flattered that he would say that about me,” Greene responded. “I would want to believe, hope to believe, that I was up there at the top.”

from: chinadaily.com.cn