Athletics
Morning, all. I’ve written a profile piece on Olympic and world Champion pole vaulter Steve Hooker in today’s Weekend Australian Magazine.
As I was writing the piece, I pretty much came to the conclusion that Hooker is Australia’s best current athlete in any sport. If not him, then who?
I’m going to run through a few candidates, then throw it over to you. But my vote goes to the 27 year old Victorian who, apart from being an absolute genius with a five metre pole in his hands, is one of the most natural, chatty, intelligent individuals on the sporting scene.
Continue reading "And Australia’s greatest living athlete is ..." »
Losing is not something we like to talk about much at this time of year.
We’re reminded of the greatest premiership winning teams, the possibility of St. Kilda or Parramatta breaking the drought or Geelong or Melbourne Storm cementing their place as real champion teams.
But given that the team or individual that we follow is more often going to lose the premiership, not win the gold, or fail at the World Cup, our experiences with losing are arguably are more important in defining our support of the team or person than that of winning.
So in the lead up to the two biggest sporting weekends of the year The Punch writers have compiled, in no particular order, the ten teams or people that have let us down or just not performed when it mattered in Australia’s recent sporting history. What are yours?
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Ken Warren says:
4 of your 10 are rugby related… this blog was obviously written in Sydney. Please be aware no-one in Melbourne, Adelaide or Queensland like the game, it’s crap. Rugby/NRL is just a game of grown men constantly grabbing each other and slamming them into the ground. Although, Sydney is the… Read more »
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Mike Stand says:
The 2009 St George dragons surely take the cake. They got the minor premiership purely because the Bulldogs had 14 players on the field for a few seconds, they were beaten easily by the 8th place team that they flogged 1 week out from the finals and then they got… Read more »
An endocrinologist, a gynaecologist, a gender expert and a psychologist are involved in a round of “gender verification” tests on Caster Semenya, who overnight won gold in the 800m at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin. The alarm bells were raised some time ago after Semenya, who has lived her whole life as a woman, started demolishing fields and winning by extraordinary margins.
The Daily Mail has an excellent round up here of the story, including some photos of previous female competitors who were later revealed as men - but there’s more photos and a video interview with Semenya below, where you can hear her speaking.
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Blighty says:
Philp, Are you a girl or a guy? If you are a guy I suggest a visit to specsavers. Read more »
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Joe Bloggs says:
Can’t agree Julian - if looking is the key (and it probably is) , have a closer look instead at the cut of the face compared to the girls behind him; the winning gesture (pointed finger) is that of a (black) man; the hint of facial hair and indeed on… Read more »
It has been an extraordinary few hours in sport.
Overnight Usain Bolt ran a world-record 9.58sec in the 100m sprint, and Tiger Woods just lost the US PGA Championship to Y.E. Yang - the first time he has ever lost a major tournament having held the lead at the start of the final day.
So here’s a question for you: Which do you think is the more amazing feat? I say Tiger’s defeat, and here’s why.
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chris says:
There is no comparison of freakish talent. Bolt has change the way science view human physical capability. Tiger has just pointed out the obvious, the talent pool for golf is very shallow. A person only needs basic social infrastruture to become 100m champion, for Golf a kid needs parents with… Read more »
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Evan says:
How objective is this piece? You’re a mad Irish golfer aren’t you? Jeez, I think I’ve even seen a few videos of your swing (it was pretty good, too) Read more »
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