Sad goodbye for Henin:
There were few out there who could say that they were not surprised by Justine Henin’s decision to retire from professional tennis at the ripe old age of 25 whilst atop the women’s world rankings, but happen it has and one can only applaud her for making a massive decision when she was at the peak of her powers.
Having played tennis since the age of five and having turned professional aged 16 in 1999 her reasons for retiring are not to dissimilar to those expressed by her compatriot Kim Clijsters when she retired last year; wanting to get away from the daily grind of training and travelling to tournaments in various parts of the world and having more of a normal life.
What comes as more of a shock is her timing. Having won the last three French Open titles one could have imagined that she would have been champing at the bit to make it four in a row. She also had an Olympic gold medal to defend in Beijing later in the year, but even sticking it out for a few more months is not something she could stomach after a 2008 in which she has won two titles but suffered some bad reverses along the way, not least to Dinara Safina in the third round of the German Open recently.
Over the last five years Henin has been the dominant figure on the women’s tour, wining seven grand slam titles and 47 tournaments in all. She has been top of the women’s rankings 117 times and in 2007 became the first female tennis player to earn more than US$5 million. The French Open was her favourite tournament and having won it in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 she was expected to add a fifth this year. She was also champion at the US Open in 2003 and 2007 and the Australian in 2004. The only slam to escape her was Wimbledon, where she finished runner up in 2001 and 2006.
2007 was undoubtedly the best year that she has enjoyed. As well as the French and US Opens and the $5 million, she added another eight titles to become the first women in 10 years to win 10 titles in a season, including the end of season championship. There was also the reconciliation with her father and brother from whom she had become estranged following the death of her mother when she was aged 12. Also in 2007 she announced that she was splitting from her husband and ex-coach Pierre-Yves Hardenne, though in both cases kept the reasons for them to herself.
Indeed there has been many this week speculating that with those chapters of her life closed she lacked the drive and desire to prove herself that had driven her to the heights she reached. The immediate and sudden announcement gives credence to this theory and the statement on her personal website talks of her having a bitter taste in her mouth were she to carry on until the season’s end.
Whatever the reasons the truth is that women’s tennis has lost one of its undoubted superstars, its best player in fact. Sure they still have the showbiz potential of Maria Sharapova or the Williams sisters, but she was a breath of fresh in the sport. Henin was not afraid to speak her mind and like Martina Hingis before her wasn’t worried about ruffling a few feathers with her comments in contrast to the usual self-centred banalities that most players come out with.
There has been the obvious talk of burnout and a comparison can be made to Hingis’ retirement after she was unable to compete with the power game of Sharapova, the Williams and Aurelie Mauresmo. The difference with Henin is that she could handle the power game and often overcame if. That she could is nothing short of miraculous considering her slight 5 feet 5 inch frame, especially in comparison to the aforementioned 6 feet tall Amazonian quartet. As well as having a deadly accurate forehand and backhand, she worked phenomenally hard on her serve and the fact that she reached two Wimbledon finals shows just how well she could negate the powerful serve and volley game.
There could be the worry that we may not see her like again, that we are far more likely to see more of the power hitters athletes who can adapt their game from the hard courts that dominate the season to the few weeks in which they have to venture onto clay or grass. Thankfully this week at the Rome Masters French women Alize Cornet reached the final where she lost in straight sets to defending champion Jelena Jankovic. Like Henin the Nice native is diminutive in stature, but has a delicate touch and good movement around the court. At 17 years of age she provides the hope that women’s tennis may have some variety in years to come. Should she reach the heights that Henin has reached though, it should be hoped that she doesn’t feel the need to turn her back on the sport when at the peak of her powers.
CAS makes common sense decision:
It has been a long road for Oscar Pistorius, the ‘blade runner’, but finally the South African Paralympic runner has got his wish of competing in able-bodied competitions, including of course this summers Olympic Games in Beijing.
Having been turned down by the International Association of Athletics Federations, Pistorius, the 2004 Paralympic gold medallist took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland and this Friday they confirmed that he can run alongside able-bodied runners, so long as it is on the prosthetic limbs, or cheetah blades as they are known, that he has been using thus far.
Originally the IAAF refused Pistorius his request, believing that the blades gave him an unfair advantage. What advantage existed was not obvious when he ran in a number of meetings in 2007 and finished well outside the top three. However, the man himself always argued that there was no advantage and he was able to prove it to the CAS.
Of course if technological developments mean that he starts using a new pair then they too will have to undergo a rigorous testing procedure before he can use them in non-paralympic competition and CAS was at pains to make clear that the ruling applied only to Pistorius and his cheetah blades. For now though all parties are happy, with IAAF President Lamine Diack welcoming him with open arms and wishing him well.
However, it is still highly unlikely that Pistorius will make it to Beijing for the Olympics. The ‘A’ qualifying time is 45.55 seconds, with a ‘B’ qualifying time of 45.95, which allows a country to enter one athlete if none has finished in the ‘A’ time. Currently his personal best for the 400m is 46.46, with a 2007 best of 46.56, though he did finish second in last year’s able-bodied 400m at the South African championships.
For now though that doesn’t matter, though the man himself believes that the ruling will spur him onto to better times. What is important is that he has been given the chance, whilst the IAAF can be satisfied with their stance because any rush to allow him would have opened a can of worms and left them open to accusations of tokenism. Moreover at a time when athletics is being kicked from pillar to post with stories of drug taking, Pistorius’ good news story provides a refreshing change.
JI 19/05/08
lunedì 19 maggio 2008
domenica 11 maggio 2008
Notes from a sporting week – 12/05/08
Manninger the unlikely hero:
It is not just the English Premier League that has come down to the final weekend to decide who will win the title. A week ago Italy’s Serie A should have been done and dusted. Season-long leaders Inter were ‘away’ to city rivals Milan at San Siro and a win would have sewn up the championship with two weeks to go. Despite Inter’s protestations before the match that they were the underdogs it was still some surprise that a Milan team that has long been off colour ran out 2-1 winners. It thus left Roma, who beat Sampdoria, three points behind, when it appeared they had thrown away their chance of overhauling Inter a couple of weeks ago with a 1-0 defeat away to Livorno.
So to this weekend when Inter were at home to Siena, whilst Roma hosted Atlanta at Stadio Olimpico knowing that all Inter had to do (again) was take maximum points to leave whatever Roma did as irrelevant. That said Siena have taken great delight in being a thorn in the bigger team’s ambitions, having defeated Roma and Juventus in previous weeks.
Things began as planned when Patrick Viera opened the scoring for Inter early on. Ten minutes later in the capital Christian Pannucci was popping up with yet another important goal for the giallorossi to keep up their part of the bargain. At the half hour mark things took a twist when one-time Middlesbrough striker Massimo Macaroni drew Siena level. It wasn’t to last till half time though, when Inter’s 17 year-old sensation Mario Balotelli put Inter back in the lead. With the goal coming just before half time and despite Danielle de Rossi putting Roma 2-0 ahead, few would have argued with that being that.
The Tuscans are made of sterner stuff though and two minutes after de Rossi’s freekick found the net, Houssine Kharja brought Siena back on level terms with a low shot past Inter keeper Julio Cesar. Having done well to draw level once, fantastically to do it twice most Roma fans would have been preying to their gods that they wouldn’t let it slip again.
For a while though it appeared that they would. As ever with most controversial incidents in Italian football it involved Marco Materazzi, Zinedine Zidane’s bete noire from the 2006 World Cup final. This time he was involved with a game of pushy-shovey with Christian Rigano in the Siena penalty area in the build up to a corner that resulted in both men falling to the ground and the referee inexplicably pointing to the penalty spot.
Having dusted himself down Materazzi could only watch in horror as poetic justice came round quicker than expected when Alex Manninger got down low to block the shot and then got to his feet in enough time to catch the resulting cross. The ex-Arsenal keeper has been off Anglo-Saxon radars for a number of years having left Highbury to join Fiorentina in 2001 and was an unlikely protagonist in shaping the title’s destiny. He will head home to Austria once the season ends for the European Championships and will be hoping to help his country end fears that they could be the worst tournament hosts ever.
And there it remained till fulltime, despite a late Atalanta goal giving Roma a few nervous moments before the final whistle and meant that one point is all that separates the two teams going into the final whistle.
At San Siro the TV cameras kept zooming onto Inter owner Massimo Moratti and with good reason. The Pirelli tyre tycoon has pumped millions upon millions of Euro into the nerazzurri and has precious few trophies to show for it. They may have won the last two scudetti, but the first was only after Juventus had it stripped from them following the calciopoli match-fixing scandal, then 2007 was tainted by Juve not being present in Serie A, whilst likely challengers Milan, had points docked from the start of the season after their involvement in calciopoli.
This year was the season in which Inter were to show the world that they hadn’t won the last two titles by default. At one point they led the table by 11 points, but Roma have stuck to their task doggedly. Even when they lost their talisman and captain, Francesco Totti through injury they have held on. Now though it is Inter that will be worried over one of their key players after Esteban Cambiasso, the tigerish Argentinian midfielder who has been talked of as a future captain was helped from the field at the final whistle. Nerves are taking hold in the Inter camp, but they know all they have to do is win their next match, away to Parma, to be crowned champions. If only it was a simple as that.
Sinbad leaving selectors few excuses:
There was one name that stood out during the Gloucester versus Bath match that decided who finished top of rugby union’s Premiership before the playoffs begin next weekend. That James Simpson-Daniel who finished as man of the match, scored the only try and made a number of important tackles.
With the summer tour to New Zealand approaching new England coach Martin Johnston will have to find a pretty good reason why Simpson-Daniel won’t be on the plane to Auckland such is the Gloucester man’s form not only this season, but over a number of years.
Having impressed in his international debut in 2002 he was injured and missed the 2003 World Cup. There has been a sprinkling of appearances in a white shirt since then, but further injury and selection policies have meant he has missed out more often than not.
Now though he is yet again showing what he is able to do and with the ability to impress on the wing and in the centres and bring speed and creativity to a side he should have earned more than just the 10 caps to his name.
By the time of the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand he will be 29 and around his peak. There is a lot of talk at the moment about England’s young starts: Toby Flood, Matthew Tait, Danny Cipriani and the like have been earning rave reviews week in week out. However, whilst they may keep learning and developing these next few years, most teams need a core of players around the 30 year-old mark to add the steadying hand to youthful exuberance.
Johnston should get him in his team now and allow him time to bed in because a player like him should not be allowed to miss out an opportunity to demonstrate his abilities to the world, yet alone miss out on a World Cup for a third time.
JI 12/05/08
It is not just the English Premier League that has come down to the final weekend to decide who will win the title. A week ago Italy’s Serie A should have been done and dusted. Season-long leaders Inter were ‘away’ to city rivals Milan at San Siro and a win would have sewn up the championship with two weeks to go. Despite Inter’s protestations before the match that they were the underdogs it was still some surprise that a Milan team that has long been off colour ran out 2-1 winners. It thus left Roma, who beat Sampdoria, three points behind, when it appeared they had thrown away their chance of overhauling Inter a couple of weeks ago with a 1-0 defeat away to Livorno.
So to this weekend when Inter were at home to Siena, whilst Roma hosted Atlanta at Stadio Olimpico knowing that all Inter had to do (again) was take maximum points to leave whatever Roma did as irrelevant. That said Siena have taken great delight in being a thorn in the bigger team’s ambitions, having defeated Roma and Juventus in previous weeks.
Things began as planned when Patrick Viera opened the scoring for Inter early on. Ten minutes later in the capital Christian Pannucci was popping up with yet another important goal for the giallorossi to keep up their part of the bargain. At the half hour mark things took a twist when one-time Middlesbrough striker Massimo Macaroni drew Siena level. It wasn’t to last till half time though, when Inter’s 17 year-old sensation Mario Balotelli put Inter back in the lead. With the goal coming just before half time and despite Danielle de Rossi putting Roma 2-0 ahead, few would have argued with that being that.
The Tuscans are made of sterner stuff though and two minutes after de Rossi’s freekick found the net, Houssine Kharja brought Siena back on level terms with a low shot past Inter keeper Julio Cesar. Having done well to draw level once, fantastically to do it twice most Roma fans would have been preying to their gods that they wouldn’t let it slip again.
For a while though it appeared that they would. As ever with most controversial incidents in Italian football it involved Marco Materazzi, Zinedine Zidane’s bete noire from the 2006 World Cup final. This time he was involved with a game of pushy-shovey with Christian Rigano in the Siena penalty area in the build up to a corner that resulted in both men falling to the ground and the referee inexplicably pointing to the penalty spot.
Having dusted himself down Materazzi could only watch in horror as poetic justice came round quicker than expected when Alex Manninger got down low to block the shot and then got to his feet in enough time to catch the resulting cross. The ex-Arsenal keeper has been off Anglo-Saxon radars for a number of years having left Highbury to join Fiorentina in 2001 and was an unlikely protagonist in shaping the title’s destiny. He will head home to Austria once the season ends for the European Championships and will be hoping to help his country end fears that they could be the worst tournament hosts ever.
And there it remained till fulltime, despite a late Atalanta goal giving Roma a few nervous moments before the final whistle and meant that one point is all that separates the two teams going into the final whistle.
At San Siro the TV cameras kept zooming onto Inter owner Massimo Moratti and with good reason. The Pirelli tyre tycoon has pumped millions upon millions of Euro into the nerazzurri and has precious few trophies to show for it. They may have won the last two scudetti, but the first was only after Juventus had it stripped from them following the calciopoli match-fixing scandal, then 2007 was tainted by Juve not being present in Serie A, whilst likely challengers Milan, had points docked from the start of the season after their involvement in calciopoli.
This year was the season in which Inter were to show the world that they hadn’t won the last two titles by default. At one point they led the table by 11 points, but Roma have stuck to their task doggedly. Even when they lost their talisman and captain, Francesco Totti through injury they have held on. Now though it is Inter that will be worried over one of their key players after Esteban Cambiasso, the tigerish Argentinian midfielder who has been talked of as a future captain was helped from the field at the final whistle. Nerves are taking hold in the Inter camp, but they know all they have to do is win their next match, away to Parma, to be crowned champions. If only it was a simple as that.
Sinbad leaving selectors few excuses:
There was one name that stood out during the Gloucester versus Bath match that decided who finished top of rugby union’s Premiership before the playoffs begin next weekend. That James Simpson-Daniel who finished as man of the match, scored the only try and made a number of important tackles.
With the summer tour to New Zealand approaching new England coach Martin Johnston will have to find a pretty good reason why Simpson-Daniel won’t be on the plane to Auckland such is the Gloucester man’s form not only this season, but over a number of years.
Having impressed in his international debut in 2002 he was injured and missed the 2003 World Cup. There has been a sprinkling of appearances in a white shirt since then, but further injury and selection policies have meant he has missed out more often than not.
Now though he is yet again showing what he is able to do and with the ability to impress on the wing and in the centres and bring speed and creativity to a side he should have earned more than just the 10 caps to his name.
By the time of the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand he will be 29 and around his peak. There is a lot of talk at the moment about England’s young starts: Toby Flood, Matthew Tait, Danny Cipriani and the like have been earning rave reviews week in week out. However, whilst they may keep learning and developing these next few years, most teams need a core of players around the 30 year-old mark to add the steadying hand to youthful exuberance.
Johnston should get him in his team now and allow him time to bed in because a player like him should not be allowed to miss out an opportunity to demonstrate his abilities to the world, yet alone miss out on a World Cup for a third time.
JI 12/05/08
lunedì 5 maggio 2008
Notes from a sporting week 05/05/08
Oars in for Beijing:
Rowing has been one of Britain’s best sources of medals at the Olympics Games and this week the team’s preparations were finalised and the various teams named for the World Cup that begins in Munich this week and who, barring a disaster, are expected to stay together all the way through to Beijing in August.
That expectations are high around rowing is largely thanks to the efforts of firstly Sir Steve Redgrave and then Sir Mathew Pinsent, who won five and four consecutive medals respectively. However, since their retirements there is now a realisation that the there is more to rowing than just those two.
At Sydney 2000 the team won three medals, including gold for Redgrave and Pinsent in the coxless fours and gold for the eights, as well as silver for the women’s quad sculls. Four years on in Athens the number of medals increased to four, with the men’s four retaining their gold medal. There are hopes that the number will increase in Beijing, having taken seven medals in Olympic class events at last years World Championships in Munich.
Once more the men’s fours has taken the majority of the attention, with a last minute change to the line-up. Just before Athens Alex Partridge was forced to withdraw from the four with a collapsed lung. This year he has been moved to the eight with the four made up of Steve Williams, who survives from 2004, Peter Reed, Andy Hodge and Tom James. Having won the 2005 and 2006 World Championships as part of 27 consecutive wins, there was a feeling that the team had gone stale, having finished seventh in Munich.
Of course such changes are nothing new. Between Sydney and Athens there was the expectation that Pinsent would go for his fourth consecutive gold alongside James Cracknell in the coxless pairs. Initially things went well for the duo and there was the famous day at the 2001 World Championships where 20 minutes after winning the coxless pair gold, they added the coxed pair gold. However, things went wrong in 2003 when they finished outside the medals, forcing coach Jurgen Grobler to act and put them into the coxless fours.
The change comes once again from the German and should silence any doubters. The East German has been winning rowing medals at Olympic Games since 1972 and was the inspiration behind three of Redgrave’s five Olympics golds.
This time there are high hopes for the eight, who along with Partridge have been joined by Colin Smith and Matt Langridge from the coxless pairs and in 2007 won a surprise bronze at the World Championships. The exact line-up has yet to be revealed, with 10 names selected for the Munich event being whittled down as Beijing draws nearer.
One thing that has stood out recently for the British squad is the success of the women’s team, with three of the four medals in Athens coming from the females. In Munich’s World Championships they won two gold medals, two bronze medals and will expect more of the same in Athens.
David Turner, the GB Rowing Performance Director has said that the squad would be pleased with four medals, though he is surely being mischievous with such sentiments. Having topped the table at the 2007 World Championships with eight medals the team will secretly be aiming much higher.
In 1996 it was Redgrave and Pinsent that saved the British Olympic team from utter obscurity by winning Britain’s only gold medal in Atlanta. That in 2008 there are no major names taking to the water shows what an excellent job GB Rowing has done in increasing the talent pool and that despite their attempts to keep a lid on expectations few people will be fooled by Tanners words.
Mixed start for Jamaica:
Another team hopeful of doing well in Beijing is the Jamaica sprint team and to that end they got off to a strong start to the season when Usain Bolt ran 9.76 seconds in Jamaica over the weekend. It gives the team a little fillip after the news that their big hope for 100m gold, Asafa Powell, will miss the meetings in Doha, Oslo and Eugene with a chest injury.
Bolt, the 2007 World 200m silver medallist, finished in a time two hundred’s of a second slower than Powell’s world record of 9.74 and lays down a marker to big rival and 100m world champion Tyson Gay, who ran 20.00 in his first 200m of the season.
There were high hopes for Powell and the Jamaica team going into the Athens Olympics, but they turned out to be one of the anticlimaxes of the Games. Powell disappointed in the 100m final, then failed to show up for the 200m final meaning the team were disqualified from the 4x100m relay. In the end it was the women that saved the day, with Veronica Crawford winning 200m gold, 100m silver and then anchoring the 4x100m team to victory.
Since then there have been strong showings from the Jamaicans in both the 2005 and 2007 World Championships. In Helsinki in 2005 Michael Frater took silver in the 100m, whilst Campbell took the 100m silver and helped the 4x100m team to second. Things improved in Osaka when Powell won the 100m bronze, with Bolt finishing third in the 200m and then they teamed up to win second in the 4x100m relay. Campbell also improved her standing with 100m gold, 200m silver and another 4x100m relay silver.
Of course at the same time the USA flexed its muscles and showed that it can still churn out champion runners. Whilst Justin Gatlin fell off his perch and was exposed as a drug cheat Tyson Gay went on and won double sprint gold in Osaka. There are also the likes of Wallace Spearman and Leroy Dixon who have proved themselves over the last Olympiad.
There should be little doubt that Jamaica is the USA’s main rivals in the sprints and there are few reasons why not. However, the same was true before Athens, but in the end they were unable to handle the pressure of the day and the less heralded ladies team showed them what was possible with a bit of belief. Bolt’s victory this weekend should give the team the belief that they need, they just need to build on it and keep it till Beijing if Powell and co are to truly fulfil their undoubted potential.
JI 05/05/08
Rowing has been one of Britain’s best sources of medals at the Olympics Games and this week the team’s preparations were finalised and the various teams named for the World Cup that begins in Munich this week and who, barring a disaster, are expected to stay together all the way through to Beijing in August.
That expectations are high around rowing is largely thanks to the efforts of firstly Sir Steve Redgrave and then Sir Mathew Pinsent, who won five and four consecutive medals respectively. However, since their retirements there is now a realisation that the there is more to rowing than just those two.
At Sydney 2000 the team won three medals, including gold for Redgrave and Pinsent in the coxless fours and gold for the eights, as well as silver for the women’s quad sculls. Four years on in Athens the number of medals increased to four, with the men’s four retaining their gold medal. There are hopes that the number will increase in Beijing, having taken seven medals in Olympic class events at last years World Championships in Munich.
Once more the men’s fours has taken the majority of the attention, with a last minute change to the line-up. Just before Athens Alex Partridge was forced to withdraw from the four with a collapsed lung. This year he has been moved to the eight with the four made up of Steve Williams, who survives from 2004, Peter Reed, Andy Hodge and Tom James. Having won the 2005 and 2006 World Championships as part of 27 consecutive wins, there was a feeling that the team had gone stale, having finished seventh in Munich.
Of course such changes are nothing new. Between Sydney and Athens there was the expectation that Pinsent would go for his fourth consecutive gold alongside James Cracknell in the coxless pairs. Initially things went well for the duo and there was the famous day at the 2001 World Championships where 20 minutes after winning the coxless pair gold, they added the coxed pair gold. However, things went wrong in 2003 when they finished outside the medals, forcing coach Jurgen Grobler to act and put them into the coxless fours.
The change comes once again from the German and should silence any doubters. The East German has been winning rowing medals at Olympic Games since 1972 and was the inspiration behind three of Redgrave’s five Olympics golds.
This time there are high hopes for the eight, who along with Partridge have been joined by Colin Smith and Matt Langridge from the coxless pairs and in 2007 won a surprise bronze at the World Championships. The exact line-up has yet to be revealed, with 10 names selected for the Munich event being whittled down as Beijing draws nearer.
One thing that has stood out recently for the British squad is the success of the women’s team, with three of the four medals in Athens coming from the females. In Munich’s World Championships they won two gold medals, two bronze medals and will expect more of the same in Athens.
David Turner, the GB Rowing Performance Director has said that the squad would be pleased with four medals, though he is surely being mischievous with such sentiments. Having topped the table at the 2007 World Championships with eight medals the team will secretly be aiming much higher.
In 1996 it was Redgrave and Pinsent that saved the British Olympic team from utter obscurity by winning Britain’s only gold medal in Atlanta. That in 2008 there are no major names taking to the water shows what an excellent job GB Rowing has done in increasing the talent pool and that despite their attempts to keep a lid on expectations few people will be fooled by Tanners words.
Mixed start for Jamaica:
Another team hopeful of doing well in Beijing is the Jamaica sprint team and to that end they got off to a strong start to the season when Usain Bolt ran 9.76 seconds in Jamaica over the weekend. It gives the team a little fillip after the news that their big hope for 100m gold, Asafa Powell, will miss the meetings in Doha, Oslo and Eugene with a chest injury.
Bolt, the 2007 World 200m silver medallist, finished in a time two hundred’s of a second slower than Powell’s world record of 9.74 and lays down a marker to big rival and 100m world champion Tyson Gay, who ran 20.00 in his first 200m of the season.
There were high hopes for Powell and the Jamaica team going into the Athens Olympics, but they turned out to be one of the anticlimaxes of the Games. Powell disappointed in the 100m final, then failed to show up for the 200m final meaning the team were disqualified from the 4x100m relay. In the end it was the women that saved the day, with Veronica Crawford winning 200m gold, 100m silver and then anchoring the 4x100m team to victory.
Since then there have been strong showings from the Jamaicans in both the 2005 and 2007 World Championships. In Helsinki in 2005 Michael Frater took silver in the 100m, whilst Campbell took the 100m silver and helped the 4x100m team to second. Things improved in Osaka when Powell won the 100m bronze, with Bolt finishing third in the 200m and then they teamed up to win second in the 4x100m relay. Campbell also improved her standing with 100m gold, 200m silver and another 4x100m relay silver.
Of course at the same time the USA flexed its muscles and showed that it can still churn out champion runners. Whilst Justin Gatlin fell off his perch and was exposed as a drug cheat Tyson Gay went on and won double sprint gold in Osaka. There are also the likes of Wallace Spearman and Leroy Dixon who have proved themselves over the last Olympiad.
There should be little doubt that Jamaica is the USA’s main rivals in the sprints and there are few reasons why not. However, the same was true before Athens, but in the end they were unable to handle the pressure of the day and the less heralded ladies team showed them what was possible with a bit of belief. Bolt’s victory this weekend should give the team the belief that they need, they just need to build on it and keep it till Beijing if Powell and co are to truly fulfil their undoubted potential.
JI 05/05/08
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