John Terry 'makes emotional call to distraught wife'

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 01:25 PM

London, February 11 (ANI): John Terry reportedly made an emotional call to his distraught wife in a bid to save his marriage.

The sacked England soccer captain was said to have pleaded for an hour over the phone to Toni, who flew to Dubai after reports of Terry's affair with French model Vanessa Perroncel emerged.

Toni, mother of their three-year-old twins, was seen sitting alone on a beach deep in conversation with the football star.

"Toni looked like she had the world's worries resting on her shoulders. She seemed so alone and in need of a hug," the Sun quoted an onlooker as saying.

Terry was stripped off the England captaincy over infidelity reports involving Perroncel, the former girlfriend of his best pal and Chelsea player Wayne Bridge.

He had a four-month fling with the lingerie model during which he got her pregnant and arranged for an abortion, reports claimed. (ANI)

Source: Web Search

Roddick eases through to advance at San Jose

Published Thu, Feb 11 10 01:11 PM

Andy Roddick brushed off a second set fightback to defeat qualifier Ryler DeHeart 6-1 7-6 and advance to the second round of the San Jose Open on Wednesday.

Fellow American DeHeart served for the set at 5-3 but could not close it out as Roddick fought back to force a tie-breaker, then sealed it 7-1 with a forehand winner.

Playing in his first match since the Australian Open, Roddick finished with 11 aces and will next meet Leonardo Mayer in the second round.

Earlier, Czech Radek Stepanek became the first defending champion to lose in the tournament's first round in 20 years when he was ousted by Belgian Xavier Malisse 6-3 6-4.

German fourth seed Tommy Haas was also eliminated, falling 7-6 6-2 to Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin in the second round of the $531,000 hardcourt tournament.

Third seed Stepanek had four break points against Malisse, but it was the Belgian who made the most of his chances, breaking once in each set to upset the world number 14.

"It's always tough to play the champion of the previous year because obviously they felt pretty good here, and everybody likes the winner of last year," Malisse told reporters.

"I've been injured for a while, so this time I had no pressure on me ... There was nothing to lose."

The victory was the former top 20 player's first on tour since June.

Stepanek had beaten American Mardy Fish for the title last year and was a losing finalist to Andy Roddick in 2008.

Haas failed to convert five break point chances in the opening set against Istomin, who will play sixth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals after the German thrashed Israel's Dudi Sela 6-2 6-0.

Czech fifth seed Tomas Berdych also made the quarter-finals, posting a 6-3 6-2 victory over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.

Source: Web Search

It's baby boy for Boris Becker, wife

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 01:08 PM

Washington, Feb. 11 (ANI): Tennis ace Boris Becker and wife Sharlely have welcomed a baby son.

Sharlely, 33, gave birth to Amadeus Benedict Edley Luis Becker in London at 12:53 p.m. Tuesday, Becker told the newspaper Bild.

"With this baby, my wife, Sharlely, gave me the most wonderful gift," said Becker, 42. "We are all overcome and rejoice in our life together with our son and a sibling for Noah, Elias and Anna."

Amadeus is Becker's fourth child. Noah, 16, and Elias, 10, are his sons with ex-wife Barbara Feltus, 43. Anna, 9, is Becker's child with Ann Ermakowa, 43, who lives with their daughter in London, reports People.

Boris and Sharlely got married in June in St. Moritz, Switzerland. (ANI)

Source: Web Search

I can win gold without quad, says Chan

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 10:14 AM

Canadian teenager Patrick Chan is not one for listening to his elders, dismissing "old" Yevgeny Plushenko's prediction that skaters would need to do a high-scoring quadruple jump to win Olympic figure skating gold.

Russian Plushenko, who has come out of retirement to defend his Olympic title in Vancouver, said after winning European gold last month that he was surprised recent world titles had been won without a quad and that this could not happen at the Games.

Chan, last year's world silver medallist and popular with fans for his intricate footwork, is one of the top challengers to 27-year-old Plushenko's crown but has no quad in his armoury.

Asked on Wednesday if he could win without the tricky jump, he told reporters: "Of course. Jeff (Buttle) was able to win the world (title) without it.

"Worlds and Olympics are very much the same in my mind so I don't see why it's not possible.

"I didn't want to risk it. I have never done it in a competition, so why do it in the most important competition of my life which comes only every four years? I stuck with the plan to do just two triple axels and a well-balanced programme."

He was determined not to be intimidated by the experienced Plushenko, saying he admired his technique even if his routine lacked the aesthetic appeal of more artistic skaters like him.

"He has the confidence that he doesn't need to do the transitions because he can do what I think is a magnificent quad. But he's old!" Chan, 19, said with a smile.

"For me the transitions are one of the most important things in a programme, it's very boring to watch a routine without transitions."

Under the new scoring system introduced following a 2002 judging scandal, marks are awarded for technical components and presentation.

Chan said that for this reason even if a skater landed the quad cleanly it was still no guarantee of a gold medal.

"It's not only about the quad," he said. "You don't win automatically with it, you have the rest of the programme which is where I come in, the footwork, the transitions, the interpretation."

Source: Web Search

I can win gold without quad, says Chan

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 10:10 AM

Canadian teenager Patrick Chan is not one for listening to his elders, dismissing "old" Yevgeny Plushenko's prediction that skaters would need to do a high-scoring quadruple jump to win Olympic figure skating gold.

Russian Plushenko, who has come out of retirement to defend his Olympic title in Vancouver, said after winning European gold last month that he was surprised recent world titles had been won without a quad and that this could not happen at the Games.

Chan, last year's world silver medallist and popular with fans for his intricate footwork, is one of the top challengers to 27-year-old Plushenko's crown but has no quad in his armoury.

Asked on Wednesday if he could win without the tricky jump, he told reporters: "Of course. Jeff (Buttle) was able to win the world (title) without it.

"Worlds and Olympics are very much the same in my mind so I don't see why it's not possible.

"I didn't want to risk it. I have never done it in a competition, so why do it in the most important competition of my life which comes only every four years? I stuck with the plan to do just two triple axels and a well-balanced programme."

He was determined not to be intimidated by the experienced Plushenko, saying he admired his technique even if his routine lacked the aesthetic appeal of more artistic skaters like him.

"He has the confidence that he doesn't need to do the transitions because he can do what I think is a magnificent quad. But he's old!" Chan, 19, said with a smile.

"For me the transitions are one of the most important things in a programme, it's very boring to watch a routine without transitions."

Under the new scoring system introduced following a 2002 judging scandal, marks are awarded for technical components and presentation.

Chan said that for this reason even if a skater landed the quad cleanly it was still no guarantee of a gold medal.

"It's not only about the quad," he said. "You don't win automatically with it, you have the rest of the programme which is where I come in, the footwork, the transitions, the interpretation."

Source: Web Search

Koreas will not march together in Vancouver - IOC

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 09:54 AM

The teams from North and South Korea will not march together at the Vancouver Olympics opening ceremony on Friday as they have done in previous Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday.

"They will not be marching together this time," an IOC official told Reuters.

South Korea and North Korea are technically still at war having ended their conflict in 1953 with no peace agreement.

They had entered the stadium together during the 2006 Turin Winter Games' opening fiesta in an effort to improve relations.

But worsening political ties since 2006 stopped them from repeating their joint march during the Summer Games in Beijing two years later as plans to take reconciliation a step further also stumbled on the selection procedure for a planned joint team.

Source: Web Search

Koreas will not march together in Vancouver - IOC

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 09:50 AM

The teams from North and South Korea will not march together at the Vancouver Olympics opening ceremony on Friday as they have done in previous Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday.

"They will not be marching together this time," an IOC official told Reuters.

South Korea and North Korea are technically still at war having ended their conflict in 1953 with no peace agreement.

They had entered the stadium together during the 2006 Turin Winter Games' opening fiesta in an effort to improve relations.

But worsening political ties since 2006 stopped them from repeating their joint march during the Summer Games in Beijing two years later as plans to take reconciliation a step further also stumbled on the selection procedure for a planned joint team.

Source: Web Search

Snow falls but Vonn injury really chills Games

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 09:40 AM

Top American skier Lindsey Vonn, the standout face of the 2010 Winter Games, sent tremors through the Olympic world on Wednesday with news that injury might stop the women's downhill favourite from competing.

While Vonn dropped the bomb two days before Games open in Vancouver, organisers finally got good news on the weather front as flakes fell on Cypress Mountain, the freestyle skiing and snowboard venue notorious these days for its lack of snow.

Snow also dusted the high-mountain slopes of Whistler, home to the Alpine events, but came with thick fog that aborted the first day of training for the men's downhill and raised the spectre of race postponement.

No amount of snow or nasty weather, however, could take the spotlight off the leading lady of what pundits have coined the "Vonn-couver" Games.

"Now I'm questioning whether I'll be able to ski," the fresh-faced Minnesotan told a news conference on Wednesday ahead of the 25-year-old's attempt for her first Olympic medal.

Vonn sustained a shin injury while in training in Austria last week and said it "was the most painful injury I have ever had," although she has not yet taken any pain medication.

Despite her skepticism, team doctors said Vonn should be able to train as scheduled on Thursday and they will make a final decision early in the day.

"I think she is heading in the right direction to be 100 percent ready for Sunday's super combined," said Bill Sterett, U.S. ski team doctor.

VONN'S COMPETITIVE DRIVE

The American is a gold medal contender in five events and arrives in Canada in a class of her own, with wins in eight of the 11 World Cup super-Gs and downhills so far this season.

Her absence could run deep in these Games, robbing broadcasters, sponsors and spectators of golden moments from a bone fide golden girl.

"Lindsey Vonn was going to be one of the great stars of these Olympics and probably the standout American heading into these Games," said Robert Boland, professor of sports management at New York University.

Some in the ski world wondered, however, if it was all just a bit of pre-Olympic drama that would evaporate as soon as the Feb. 12-28 Games start.

"Knowing her, her competitive drive, if anybody can be ready to go when the gun goes off, it will be Lindsey Vonn," said Bill Marolt, president and chief executive of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.

As the worries around Vonn surfaced, others eased.

The biggest headache for organisers thus far subsided somewhat as welcome snow arrived at a key venue craving a fresh dumping of the white stuff.

A record warm January in Vancouver forced organisers to mount a massive snow lift to Cypress this week and threatened to dampen the spectacle in this weekend's inaugural races.

"We have had a nice little dumping that's covering the trees. We expect more of this in the next couple of days. We are very happy," said venue spokesman Stephen Bourdeau.

POSSIBLE DOWNHILL DELAY

Fog and snow up on Whistler made organisers call off the first men's downhill training session after 42 of the 87 skiers had completed the course.

Skiers worried that weather might thwart training on Thursday and Friday also, which would lead to a postponement in Saturday's race since all competitors must complete one training run.

Some 5,000 athletes and officials will descend on Whistler and Vancouver for the Games, which will kick off on Friday with the first indoor opening ceremony ever in the 86-year history of Winter Olympics.

Under the traditional blanket of secrecy conferred to opening ceremonies, speculation swirls around the Canadian city who will light the Olympic flame and whether it will burn inside the stadium.

Buzz was building about a second cauldron that will burn on the Vancouver waterfront, a few minutes' run away from the opening ceremony.

Source: Web Search

Snow falls but Vonn injury really chills Games

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 09:34 AM

Top American skier Lindsey Vonn, the standout face of the 2010 Winter Games, sent tremors through the Olympic world on Wednesday with news that injury might stop the women's downhill favourite from competing.

While Vonn dropped the bomb two days before Games open in Vancouver, organisers finally got good news on the weather front as flakes fell on Cypress Mountain, the freestyle skiing and snowboard venue notorious these days for its lack of snow.

Snow also dusted the high-mountain slopes of Whistler, home to the Alpine events, but came with thick fog that aborted the first day of training for the men's downhill and raised the spectre of race postponement.

No amount of snow or nasty weather, however, could take the spotlight off the leading lady of what pundits have coined the "Vonn-couver" Games.

"Now I'm questioning whether I'll be able to ski," the fresh-faced Minnesotan told a news conference on Wednesday ahead of the 25-year-old's attempt for her first Olympic medal.

Vonn sustained a shin injury while in training in Austria last week and said it "was the most painful injury I have ever had," although she has not yet taken any pain medication.

Despite her skepticism, team doctors said Vonn should be able to train as scheduled on Thursday and they will make a final decision early in the day.

"I think she is heading in the right direction to be 100 percent ready for Sunday's super combined," said Bill Sterett, U.S. ski team doctor.

VONN'S COMPETITIVE DRIVE

The American is a gold medal contender in five events and arrives in Canada in a class of her own, with wins in eight of the 11 World Cup super-Gs and downhills so far this season.

Her absence could run deep in these Games, robbing broadcasters, sponsors and spectators of golden moments from a bone fide golden girl.

"Lindsey Vonn was going to be one of the great stars of these Olympics and probably the standout American heading into these Games," said Robert Boland, professor of sports management at New York University.

Some in the ski world wondered, however, if it was all just a bit of pre-Olympic drama that would evaporate as soon as the Feb. 12-28 Games start.

"Knowing her, her competitive drive, if anybody can be ready to go when the gun goes off, it will be Lindsey Vonn," said Bill Marolt, president and chief executive of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.

As the worries around Vonn surfaced, others eased.

The biggest headache for organisers thus far subsided somewhat as welcome snow arrived at a key venue craving a fresh dumping of the white stuff.

A record warm January in Vancouver forced organisers to mount a massive snow lift to Cypress this week and threatened to dampen the spectacle in this weekend's inaugural races.

"We have had a nice little dumping that's covering the trees. We expect more of this in the next couple of days. We are very happy," said venue spokesman Stephen Bourdeau.

POSSIBLE DOWNHILL DELAY

Fog and snow up on Whistler made organisers call off the first men's downhill training session after 42 of the 87 skiers had completed the course.

Skiers worried that weather might thwart training on Thursday and Friday also, which would lead to a postponement in Saturday's race since all competitors must complete one training run.

Some 5,000 athletes and officials will descend on Whistler and Vancouver for the Games, which will kick off on Friday with the first indoor opening ceremony ever in the 86-year history of Winter Olympics.

Under the traditional blanket of secrecy conferred to opening ceremonies, speculation swirls around the Canadian city who will light the Olympic flame and whether it will burn inside the stadium.

Buzz was building about a second cauldron that will burn on the Vancouver waterfront, a few minutes' run away from the opening ceremony.

Source: Web Search

Defender Stepanek ousted in first round of San Jose Open

Published Thu, Feb 11 10 08:54 AM

Czech Radek Stepanek became the first defending champion to lose in the first round of the San Jose Open in 20 years when he was ousted by Belgian Xavier Malisse 6-3 6-4 on Wednesday.

German fourth seed Tommy Haas was also eliminated, falling 7-6 6-2 to Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin in the second round of the $531,000 hardcourt tournament.

Third seed Stepanek had four break points against Malisse, but it was the Belgian who made the most of his chances, breaking once in each set to upset the world number 14.

"It's always tough to play the champion of the previous year because obviously they felt pretty good here, and everybody likes the winner of last year," Malisse told reporters.

"I've been injured for a while, so this time I had no pressure on me ... There was nothing to lose."

The victory was the former top 20 player's first on tour since June.

Stepanek had beaten American Mardy Fish for the title last year and was a losing finalist to Andy Roddick in 2008.

Haas failed to convert five break point chances in the opening set of his loss to Istomin, who will play sixth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals after the German thrashed Israel's Dudi Sela 6-2 6-0.

Czech fifth seed Tomas Berdych also made the quarter-finals, posting a 6-3 6-2 victory over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.

Top seed Roddick and second seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain were to play their opening matches later on Wednesday.

Source: Web Search

Olympics - U.S. team rock solid behind revitalised captain

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 07:54 AM

She nearly quit the family business of curling, but U.S. Olympic captain Debbie McCormick said she got her groove back with equal measures of training and bonding with her team.

Over the past year, McCormick's squad has gone back to basics on the rink, taking it, as they say, one rock at a time, and one end at a time.

They have also gotten in touch with each other's feelings, with the help of a psychologist.

In fact, the women are so close they finish each other's sentences and frequently trade inside jokes.

It's represented a big transformation for McCormick, the 36-year-old from Rio, Wisconsin, who came close to hanging up her broom after losing the U.S. qualifying match for the 2006 Olympics in Turin.

"I was just devastated that we didn't win. Like, I really felt that I was supposed to be there, the team was supposed to be there," she told Reuters.

"We had worked so hard, we had done so well. I didn't understand how we did lose, what we did wrong. It wasn't like we played a bad final."

But team mate Allison Pottinger, who plays third position on the U.S. team, worked to persuade her to stick it out. McCormick's grandmother also weighed in to remind the eight-time U.S. national champion that she is no quitter.

It became a question of taking time to "mourn the loss".

"I knew I still had the drive in me, I still wanted to be an Olympic gold medalist," she said.

The Vancouver Games represent her third trip to the Olympics.

One constant in her career has been the support of father, Wally Henry, himself a two-time U.S. champion. He has another important role, too -- he's also the team's coach.

McCormick said she found it easy to distinguish his roles, respecting him as coach on the ice and father off it.

Having qualified for Vancouver about a year ago, the team, which also includes Nicole Joraanstad, who plays second position, lead Natalie Nicholson and alternate Tracy Sachtjen, has trained without the pressure of worrying about their spot.

It has allowed a lot of work with a sports psychologist, who has run them through exercises aimed at bringing them closer, and keeping them genuine.

The aim to focus solely on shots and strategy while on the ice, and keep other emotions out of the mix.

Nicholson said McCormick excels at making sure each player is contributing to the team, putting aside her own success on the national and international curling scene.

"It's hard, because I have played with skips who haven't down that," she said. "So I left 'em."

Source: Web Search

Critics question Vancouver's green credentials

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 07:18 AM

Sites for Vancouver's Winter Olympics boast low-flow toilets that use rainwater to flush, energy efficient grass-clad roofs and separate bins for compostable waste, setting them on course to meet ambitious environmental targets, organisers said on Wednesday.

But critics are giving the Games a bronze medal at best, and that was before the officials started airlifting snow to a rained-out ski- and snowboard hill just outside a snowless Vancouver.

"We think it's very symbolic in terms of the impact of climate change," Paul Lingl, a campaigner with Canadian environmental group the David Suzuki Foundation, said of the snow lift. "It's a bit of a wake-up call."

The use of trucks and helicopters to ship now-slushy snow to Cypress Mountain has become one of the symbols of the run-up to the Games, focusing attention on how lush and green Vancouver looks compared to previous snow-covered host cities.

But Linda Coady, vice-president of sustainability at the VANOC organising committee, said the helicopter shuttles would boost the Games carbon footprint by less than one percent, even if the choppers flew for eight hours a day right through to the Feb 28 closing ceremonies.

CONSTRUCTION BONANZA

"Within our carbon forecast, we do have contingency for variability of this nature," she told a news conference.

"We're standing by our 118 thousand tonnes (of greenhouse gas emissions)."

Organisers say that forecast -- a figure that includes greenhouse gas emissions during the seven-year construction bonanza that preceded the Games -- is lower than that from previous Winter Games.

Turin amassed an estimated 160 thousand tonnes of carbon over the days of the Games alone, and the figure for Salt Lake City was twice the Vancouver target, Coady said.

But Lingl noted that Vancouver had certain advantages out of the starting gate, given that rain-soaked British Columbia is fueled mostly by renewable hydroelectric power.

"It's 90 percent hydro here. Much better than the coal-fired they had in Salt Lake City," he said.

The Suzuki Foundation gave the Vancouver Games a bronze medal in a report released last week, complaining about difficulty in getting the environmental message across and a lack of long-term transportation benefits.

A sparkling new Canada Line monorail whisks passengers from Vancouver Airport to downtown in a matter of minutes, but organisers opted to double to the size of the Sea to Sky highway linking Vancouver with the Alpine center at Whistler rather than trying to build a train.

"We looked very carefully at the option of a rail line," said Dan Doyle, executive vice president in charge of construction at VANOC. "It was cost-prohibitive."

Another environmental group, including Native Canadian representatives, said they remained worried about the environmental impact of the games, and about environmental policies of various sponsors and of the Canadian and BC governments.

"Green games are really a greenwash," the groups said in a release.

Source: Web Search

NEWSMAKER - Olympics - Vonn-couver in fear of losing leading lady

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 07:14 AM

The pre-Games hype dubbed them the Vonn-couver Olympics, but the big show is in danger of losing its leading lady before the curtain is raised and organisers hope the script turns more feelgood than horror.

Lindsey Vonn was poised to set the Games alight; she was the face of the U.S. Olympic team that has swept all before her in a crushing season of domination on the World Cup Alpine skiing circuit.

With a clutch of endorsements befitting her status, Vonn was set to sweep aside her rivals on the piste of Whistler Mountain but a training run injury to her shin picked up in Austria last week threatens to ruin her Games and leave organisers looking for another marquee name to pick up the marketing baton.

The 25-year-old from Minnesota is the most successful female American skier ever, has dominated the speed events on the World Cup circuit this season and there has been talk of her making a clean sweep of the gold medals.

But now her focus is, not for the first time at a big event, on her fitness rather than her form.

"I've dealt with a lot injuries before, and I've always been able to persevere," she told reporters on Wednesday as she sought to put on a brave face.

"Knowing that I have done it before definitely gives me a lot of confidence," she added.

Vonn has around a dozen endorsement deals in place including contracts with companies like Cover Girl cosmetics and Secret deodorant, not traditionally known for signing up skiers.

BIGGEST STIR

She was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the U.S's top sports magazine, last week in a pose that caused some discussion and an even bigger stir is expected for her racy pictures in the annual swimsuit edition of the magazine this month.

Her absence could run deep for these Games.

"Lindsey Vonn was going to be one of the great stars of these Olympics and probably the standout American heading into these Games," Robert Boland, professor of sports management at New York University, told Reuters.

"I think it could be a huge story not just for Lindsey Vonn, which is a personal one, but it could be a big one for the success of the TV ratings and the attractiveness of these Games in the U.S."

But perhaps the headlines about the 'Vonn-couver Games' were tempting fate because the American has gone from the hyped up hope to the wounded heroine before.

Four years ago, in training for the Turin Games, Vonn, then known by her maiden name Kildow, suffered a painful back injury after crashing halfway down the Fraiteve Olympic piste in San Sicario.

Vonn, lost control, did the splits and then tumbled spectacularly down the icy course before being flown by helicopter down the Italian mountains to hospital in Turin.

Then, as now, the talk was of battling against pain, of doing it all against the odds but as each event passed, it become increasingly evident that the U.S's medal hope was struggling to reproduce her best.

GUTSY PERFORMANCE

Vonn was released after an overnight hospital stay and earned plaudits -- and a U.S ski award -- for her gutsy performance as she raced through the pain barrier to eighth in the downhill.

She then finished seventh in the super-G and 14th in the slalom -- creditable results in the circumstances but not ones she would find in any way acceptable this time around.

The difference between Turin and Vancouver is that this time she arrives at the Games, not as a promising youngster with medal dreams, but as the undisputed number one in women's skiing and a woman who is simply expected to win gold medals.

The other difference is that the shin injury is more serious, more painful and more of a hamper to her efforts than the more noticeably gained back injury four years ago.

Whereas 48 hours after he crash in Turin, Vonn was racing a downhill, this time she has not skied for a week since her injury.

"It is the most painful injury I have ever had," Vonn said on Wednesday. "It's going to be very challenging and difficult."

Vonn's big event jinx also struck in 2009 at the world championships in Val d'Isere when, in celebrating her win in the downhill, she cut her right thumb opening up a bottle of champagne.

At first the American laughed off the injury but it proved more serious than she thought.

She had surgery to repair a damaged tendon and had to skip the giant slalom and although she took part in the slalom she skied out in the second run.

This time there has been no laughing.

Source: Web Search

New IOC president to be elected in Buenos Aires in 2013

Published Thu, Feb 11 10 07:04 AM

The new International Olympic Committee president will be elected in Buenos Aires after the Argentine capital on Wednesday beat Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur for the right to host the 2013 IOC session.

The IOC will gather in the South American city to elect a new president, with current chief Jacques Rogge stepping down in 2013, as well as pick the host city for the 2020 summer Olympics.

South Africa's Durban will host the 2011 session which will vote on the 2018 winter Games host, while London will be the site of the annual IOC members' gathering days before the 2012 Olympics.

Source: Web Search

NEWSMAKER - Olympics - Vonn-couver in fear of losing leading lady

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 06:14 AM

The pre-Games hype dubbed them the Vonn-couver Olympics, but the big show is in danger of losing its leading lady before the curtain is raised and organisers hope the script turns more feelgood than horror.

Lindsey Vonn was poised to set the Games alight; she was the face of the U.S. Olympic team that has swept all before her in a crushing season of domination on the World Cup Alpine skiing circuit.

With a clutch of endorsements befitting her status, Vonn was set to sweep aside her rivals on the piste of Whistler Mountain but a training run injury to her shin picked up in Austria last week threatens to ruin her Games and leave organisers looking for another marquee name to pick up the marketing baton.

The 25-year-old from Minnesota is the most successful female American skier ever, has dominated the speed events on the World Cup circuit this season and there has been talk of her making a clean sweep of the gold medals.

But now her focus is, not for the first time at a big event, on her fitness rather than her form.

"I've dealt with a lot injuries before, and I've always been able to persevere," she told reporters on Wednesday as she sought to put on a brave face.

"Knowing that I have done it before definitely gives me a lot of confidence," she added.

Vonn has around a dozen endorsement deals in place including contracts with companies like Cover Girl cosmetics and Secret deodorant, not traditionally known for signing up skiers.

BIGGEST STIR

She was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the U.S's top sports magazine, last week in a pose that caused some discussion and an even bigger stir is expected for her racy pictures in the annual swimsuit edition of the magazine this month.

Her absence could run deep for these Games.

"Lindsey Vonn was going to be one of the great stars of these Olympics and probably the standout American heading into these Games," Robert Boland, professor of sports management at New York University, told Reuters.

"I think it could be a huge story not just for Lindsey Vonn, which is a personal one, but it could be a big one for the success of the TV ratings and the attractiveness of these Games in the U.S."

But perhaps the headlines about the 'Vonn-couver Games' were tempting fate because the American has gone from the hyped up hope to the wounded heroine before.

Four years ago, in training for the Turin Games, Vonn, then known by her maiden name Kildow, suffered a painful back injury after crashing halfway down the Fraiteve Olympic piste in San Sicario.

Vonn, lost control, did the splits and then tumbled spectacularly down the icy course before being flown by helicopter down the Italian mountains to hospital in Turin.

Then, as now, the talk was of battling against pain, of doing it all against the odds but as each event passed, it become increasingly evident that the U.S's medal hope was struggling to reproduce her best.

GUTSY PERFORMANCE

Vonn was released after an overnight hospital stay and earned plaudits -- and a U.S ski award -- for her gutsy performance as she raced through the pain barrier to eighth in the downhill.

She then finished seventh in the super-G and 14th in the slalom -- creditable results in the circumstances but not ones she would find in any way acceptable this time around.

The difference between Turin and Vancouver is that this time she arrives at the Games, not as a promising youngster with medal dreams, but as the undisputed number one in women's skiing and a woman who is simply expected to win gold medals.

The other difference is that the shin injury is more serious, more painful and more of a hamper to her efforts than the more noticeably gained back injury four years ago.

Whereas 48 hours after he crash in Turin, Vonn was racing a downhill, this time she has not skied for a week since her injury.

"It is the most painful injury I have ever had," Vonn said on Wednesday. "It's going to be very challenging and difficult."

Vonn's big event jinx also struck in 2009 at the world championships in Val d'Isere when, in celebrating her win in the downhill, she cut her right thumb opening up a bottle of champagne.

At first the American laughed off the injury but it proved more serious than she thought.

She had surgery to repair a damaged tendon and had to skip the giant slalom and although she took part in the slalom she skied out in the second run.

This time there has been no laughing.

Source: Web Search

Ganesh, Shabab blast tons for UP in Shakuntala cricket

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 05:24 AM

Unbeaten centuries by Uttar Pradesh openers Shabab Husain (112 not out) and Ganesh Gamind (142 not out) went a long way as hosts UP registered a comprehensive 177 run victory against Jharkhand in their very first league match of the 9th Dr Shakuntala Mishra memorial inter-state cricket for the visually impaired at KD Singh 'Babu' Stadium, Lucknow on Wednesday. While Ganesh's 142 came off 63 balls which featured 22 boundaries, Shabab's 112 resulted off 56 balls which included 18 fours.

Three more league matches were played on Wednesday. Helped by an unbeaten 97 by Dinesh Kumar, Haryana beat Rajasthan by ten wickets while Karnataka beat Maharashtra by 13 runs in their league encounter. Gujarat beat Bihar by 48 runs in their league match. Earlier in the day, the tournament was inaugurated by UP Governor BL Joshi. Brief Scores: (at 'Babu' Stadium): 1st Match: Rajasthan: 133 for one in 20 overs ( Hanuman Punia 76 not out, Ram Swaroop 30 not out); Haryana: 134 for no loss in 12.2 overs ( Dinesh Kumar 97 not out, Ved Prakash 25 not out); Man-of-the-match: Dinesh Kumar (Haryana); 2nd Match: Uttar Pradesh: 283 for no loss in 20 overs ( Ganesh Gamind 142 not out, Shabab Husain 112 not out); Jharkhand: 106 for three in 20 overs ( Prashant 39 not out, Babu Lal 27 not out; U Joshi 1 for 12); Man-of-the-match: Ganesh Gamind (UP); (at Chowk Stadium): 1st match: Karnataka: 152 for three in 15 overs ( Prakash 65 not out, Shekhar 55; Prashant 1 for 24, Swapnil 1 for 24); Maharashtra: 139 for five in 15 overs ( Kailash 33, Anil Belsare 25, Sunil 23, Dinesh 21; Basavaj 1 for 18); Man-of-the-match: Prakash (Karnataka); 2nd match: Gujarat: 168 for five in 15 overs ( Vikas Patel 32, Sanjay 33, Patel Ketan 28, Jignesh 20 not out; Ashish Negi 1 for 26, Ali Akbar 1 for 38); Bihar: 120 for four in 15 overs ( Ashish Negi 43, M Waseem 38; Ketan 1 for 26); Man-of-the-match: P Ketan (Gujarat);

Bhardwaj cricketThe team of St. Ann's Cricket Academy registered a 14 run victory against Indian Eleven in their quarter-final match of the 3rd RD Bhardwaj Memorial Cricket Tournament, in Lucknow on Wednesday.

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Olympics - Games' green credentials barely on podium, say critics

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 05:14 AM

Sites for Vancouver's Winter Olympics boast low-flow toilets that use rainwater to flush, energy efficient grass-clad roofs and separate bins for compostable waste, setting them on course to meet ambitious environmental targets, organisers said on Wednesday.

But critics are giving the Games a bronze medal at best, and that was before the officials started airlifting snow to a rained-out ski- and snowboard hill just outside a snowless Vancouver.

"We think it's very symbolic in terms of the impact of climate change," Paul Lingl, a campaigner with Canadian environmental group the David Suzuki Foundation, said of the snow lift. "It's a bit of a wake-up call."

The use of trucks and helicopters to ship now-slushy snow to Cypress Mountain has become one of the symbols of the run-up to the Games, focusing attention on how lush and green Vancouver looks compared to previous snow-covered host cities.

But Linda Coady, vice-president of sustainability at the VANOC organising committee, said the helicopter shuttles would boost the Games carbon footprint by less than one percent, even if the choppers flew for eight hours a day right through to the Feb 28 closing ceremonies.

CONSTRUCTION BONANZA

"Within our carbon forecast, we do have contingency for variability of this nature," she told a news conference.

"We're standing by our 118 thousand tonnes (of greenhouse gas emissions)."

Organisers say that forecast -- a figure that includes greenhouse gas emissions during the seven-year construction bonanza that preceded the Games -- is lower than that from previous Winter Games.

Turin amassed an estimated 160 thousand tonnes of carbon over the days of the Games alone, and the figure for Salt Lake City was twice the Vancouver target, Coady said.

But Lingl noted that Vancouver had certain advantages out of the starting gate, given that rain-soaked British Columbia is fueled mostly by renewable hydroelectric power.

"It's 90 percent hydro here. Much better than the coal-fired they had in Salt Lake City," he said.

The Suzuki Foundation gave the Vancouver Games a bronze medal in a report released last week, complaining about difficulty in getting the environmental message across and a lack of long-term transportation benefits.

A sparkling new Canada Line monorail whisks passengers from Vancouver Airport to downtown in a matter of minutes, but organisers opted to double to the size of the Sea to Sky highway linking Vancouver with the Alpine centre at Whistler rather than trying to build a train.

"We looked very carefully at the option of a rail line," said Dan Doyle, executive vice president in charge of construction at VANOC.

"It was cost-prohibitive."

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Olympics - Snow finally falls on bare Cypress

Published>Thu, Feb 11 10 03:28 AM

Vancouver Olympics organisers breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday as Mother Nature finally cooperated and snow began to fall on the barren hills of Cypress Mountain three days before moguls competition begins.

"It's snowing quite well right now," said Stephen Bourdeau, spokesman at the Cypress Mountain Olympic venue. "We've had a nice little dumping that's covering the trees. We expect more of this in the next couple of days."

Temperatures hovered just below freezing so the rain that was falling in Vancouver had turned to snow on Cypress, a mountain on the outskirts of the city.

"It's just cold enough," Bourdeau said. "We're very happy -- we've been waiting for this for a long time."

Once the weather failed to provide enough of a snow blanket on Cypress for the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events, Vancouver organisers had to bring snow to the mountain.

After the warmest ever January in Vancouver organisers started moving snow from other areas of Cypress to the competition site and had to resort to trucking snow in from another mountain nearly three hours drive away.

Helicopters were also called into service, flying overhead in constant sorties and filling the air with the loud chop-chop sound of the rotors as they delivered snow to the higher parts of the courses.

Trucks were moving snow 24 hours a day and the helicopters were operating constantly during daylight hours, except when skiers were training.

Dick Vollet, vice president for mountain operations, said that all contingency budgets for the mountain venues had been reallocated to Cypress to ensure there was enough money to pay for the snow transportation.

Of the C$1.7 billion ($1.6 billion) operating budget, the Vancouver Organising Committee set aside $100 million for contingencies.

ATHLETES SATISFIED

The athletes have trained for two days on the moguls course, where competition begins on Saturday for the women's medal event.

Most had positive things to say about the snow, which has a grainy, slushy appearance and feels more like spring skiing snow than the hard snow often found in February.

"The course is in beautiful shape," said 2002 Olympics moguls silver medallist Shannon Bahrke, who is used to this type of snow from growing up in California. "As soon as it gets a little more skier traffic it's going to be perfect."

Some skiers said the course had improved by Tuesday after colder weather helped harden the snow pack.

Now organisers just have to hope the temperature stays below freezing so the rain forecast for the next couple of days will come down as snow at Cypress.

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Andhra government asks Deccan Chargers to boycott IPL

Published>Wed, Feb 10 10 06:16 PM

Hyderabad, Feb 10 (IANS) Upset over the decision of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to shift all matches out of Hyderabad due to security fears, the Andhra Pradesh government Wednesday asked the Deccan Chargers team to boycott the tournament.

Sports Minister K. Venkat Reddy told reporters that he had asked Deccan Chargers to pull out of the tournament if the IPL refused to reconsider its decision to move out the inaugural and four other matches as per the earlier schedule.

'I have also written a letter to BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) president to hold all IPL matches in Hyderabad as scheduled,' he said.

The IPL last month decided to move the opening ceremony and the inaugural match between local franchise Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders, scheduled to be played here March 12, to Mumbai in view of the unrest for a separate state of Telangana.

However, Venkat Reddy's letter to BCCI president Sharad Pawar revealed that the IPL had decided to move out the remaining four matches as well.

In the letter, copies of which were marked to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and IPL chief Lalit Modi, the sports minister said the decision of the IPL governing council had disappointed cricket lovers in the state.

Venkat Reddy pointed out that Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC), which is spearheading the Telangana agitation, had assured full cooperation to the conduct of matches in Hyderabad and the police was also making necessary security arrangements.

'I as sports minister hailing from Telangana and on behalf of government of Andhra Pradesh assure the IPL of all necessary support for peaceful conduct of the matches,' he wrote.

Venkat Reddy told reporters that he discussed the issue with Chief Minister K. Rosaiah and decided to seek the intervention of Sonia Gandhi and Chidambaram to ensure that Hyderabad hosts all the IPL matches as scheduled.

'If Hyderabad is insulted like this, the local team Deccan Chargers will not play IPL matches,' he said.

To a query, the minister answered that the government was requesting and ordering the Deccan Chargers to boycott the tournament if the IPL refused to reconsider its decision.

The continuing protests over the demand for statehood to Telangana, which comprises 10 districts including Hyderabad, had put a question mark on IPL matches.

Though convenor of the all-party Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) M. Kodandaram has also written letters to BCCI and IPL officials to hold the inaugural ceremony and all matches here as scheduled, a section of students of Osmania University has threatened to disrupt the matches.

The IPL moved the opening ceremony and inaugural match after pro-Telangana activists forced play between Hyderabad and Andhra in the Deccan T-20 Cup at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium to be abandoned.

The BCCI has also shifted two women's one-day matches between India and England to Visakhapatnam and Bangalore, originally scheduled to be held here this month-end.

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