Rayna Saldanha, Saumya Vora shine for Maharashtra

Rayna Saldanha and Saumya Vora from Mumbai helped the Maharashtra swimming team to bag the overall Championship with 360 points at the sub-junior nationals aquatic championshipsthat concluded on Thursday at Laxman Singh Taran Pushkar swimming pool in Indore.

Nine-year-old Saldanha won the girls’ group IV (under-10) championship with 29 points, while Vora finished on top of boys’ group III (under-12) with 23 points.

Both Saldanha and Vora are trained by Smita Divgikar who considered their feats commendable. “Rayna is just nine, according to the regulations 10-year-olds are allowed to participated in Group VI, so she was younger than most of the girls in the competition. Saumya is 12 but faced taller boys, who could have been overage. In Maharashtra, the boys are tested at the KEM and Sion hospitals but many states do not do that,” she said.

Saldanha, a student of Billabong High School, trains at the Otters Club in Bandra. She won medals in seven of the eight categories with five golds and two bronze. She won gold medals in 50 meters butterfly, 100 meters free, 200 IM, 4x50 free and medley relays events, and bronze in 50 meters back stroke and 50 meters freestyle events.

Vora, from Gopi Birla Memorial High School, trains at the NSCI. He bagged gold medals in the 50, 100 and 200 meters free style events and helped his teammates clinch the silver medals in 4x50 free style relay and 4x50 medley relay.

Other medalists from Mumbai: Aryan Makhija - 2silver; Ishaan Jaffer - 1 silver; Muskaan Tolani -1 gold, 2 silver; 1 bronze; Neel Roy - 1 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze; Neha Prasad - 1 bronze; Prashant Gokhle - 1 silver;1Bronze and Teesta Rawal -1 silver.

Khade, Sejwal make a splash at Singapore Swimming Championships

Indian swimmers Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal won eight medals including four golds, between them at the seventh Singapore Open Swimming Championships on Saturday.

Khade bagged two golds and three bronze, while his teammate Sejwal brought home two golds and a silver at the event.
Asian Games medalist, Khade won the gold in the 50m and 100m Freestyle events clocking 23.21 and 51.08 seconds respectively.

The young sensation added three bronze medals to his tally while competing in the 200m Fresstyle event (1:52.54), 100m Butterfly Event (55.37) and as a significant member of the 400m Freestyle Relay team.

Sejwal too was impressive in his performance, securing podium finishes in all the events he participated in.

The 22-year-old from Delhi won the gold in 50m Breaststroke with a timing of 29.10 seconds. His second gold came in the 100m Breaststroke event, clocking 1:03.72.

Sejwal ended his campaign with a silver in the 200m Breastroke event with a time of of 2:17.50.

Phelps is one of the most amazing athletes I have seen: Stephanie Rice

Since her three-gold feat at the Beijing Olympics, Stephanie Rice has been regarded as one of the best women swimmers ever. However, herglamour quotient has made the 21-year-old a popular name on the fashioncircuits as well.

Phelps is one of the most amazing athletes I have seen: Stephanie Rice

Michael Phelps recalls early years, Olympics in new book

The closest Michael Phelps' bid for an unprecedented eight Olympic gold medals came to being ruined was on one turn when he wasn't even in the pool.

In his book, "No Limits: The Will to Succeed", to be released in the US on Tuesday, Phelps recalls how American teammate Jason Lezak was nearly a full length behind Frenchman Alain Bernard on the final turn of the 400-meter freestyle relay at
the Beijing Olympics, putting his bid for a historic eighth gold medal in jeopardy.

But Bernard made "a stupid, and what would turn out to be colossal, mistake" that allowed Lezak to pull out an amazing comeback victory.

"After the flip, instead of swimming in the middle of his lane, he had drifted to the left," Phelps writes. "That meant that Jason, now to Bernard's left, could again tuck in behind him. Bernard was doing the hard work. Jason was cruising, preparing to slingshot by Bernard."

Lezak touched the wall first with the fastest relay split in history, helping the US win in a world-record time and give Phelps his second gold of the games.

In the book, co-authored by Alan Abrahamson of the NBCOlympics.com Web site, Phelps describes himself as a child who was given to whining and crying, and with his big ears and scrawny build, was constantly being picked on. In sixth grade, he was diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and a doctor prescribed the stimulant Ritalin.

Phelps took three doses daily during the week, including a lunchtime dose that required a trip to the school nurse's office, which made him stand out among his classmates.

By seventh grade, Phelps told his mother he wanted to stop taking Ritalin. "I viewed it as an unnecessary crutch." he writes. He was later weaned off the medicine.

"I had proven to myself that I could set a goal and, through willpower and being mentally tough, not only meet that goal but beat it," he writes.

Phelps' mother, Debbie, became a recognizable face in the stands at the Water Cube during the Beijing Olympics. But his father, Fred, wasn't there and is never mentioned publicly by Phelps.

In the book, he offers a brief glimpse of their early years together, recalling how his father took him fishing and to Baltimore Orioles games.

"He taught me to look people in the eye when I was meeting them and to shake hands like I meant it," Phelps writes.

"Unquestionably, I inherited my competitive athletic drive from him. If I was playing sports, no matter what it was, my father's direction was simple: Go hard and, remember, good guys finish second."

Phelps' parents were high school sweethearts in a mill town in western Maryland. Fred Phelps, who had played small-college football, moved out of the family's home when Michael was seven, the same year he started swimming.

"As time went on, we spent less and less time together," Phelps writes. "Eventually, I stopped trying to include him in my activities and he, in turn, stopped trying to involve himself in mine."

Phelps writes that the last time he saw his father was at his sister Whitney's wedding in October 2005, and they didn't speak.

"There just hasn't been anything to say for a while," he writes. "Maybe there will be later."

In November 2004, a few months after winning six medals at the Athens Olympics, an under-21 Phelps was charged with drunken driving.

In the book he recounts how his first phone call was to his agent, rather than his mother or coach Bob Bowman, both of whom he said he knew would yell at him.

Later, he called Bowman, who was supportive but told him, "Michael, just because you want to blow off some steam doesn't mean you can be an idiot."

Debbie Phelps cried at the news.

"That hurt worse, maybe, than anything," Phelps writes. "I had never seen my mother that upset."

In Beijing, Phelps was asked after winning his sixth gold medal what he would say to people who suspected his feats were aided by doping.

"I know, for me, I am clean," he said. "I purposely wanted to do more tests to prove it."

Phelps, along with teammates Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin, volunteered for extra drug testing leading up to the Olympics.

From early June through the end of the games, Phelps said he was tested probably 25 to 30 times. He was tested daily at the US trials and at the games.

"I'm clean. Always have been, always will be. Facts are facts."

He and Bowman were "feeling slightly paranoid" before Phelps' first race in Beijing, the 400-meter individual medley. So Bowman made sure to keep Phelps' water bottle in his sights while his star swimmer warmed up.

"That way we could make extra certain no one was going to do anything outlandishly stupid like trying to poison me."

Phelps plans to return to training early next year in preparation for the world championships in Rome. He will be 27 at the 2012 London Olympics, which figure to be his last.

"My plan all along has been to be retired from swimming by the time I'm 30," he writes.

Ebbw Vale Sports Centre to open early in the New Year

FOR those of you who like your workouts early, Ebbw Vale Sports Centre will open at 6.30am in the New Year.

Starting on Monday, January 5, the sports centre will open for public sessions in the loose weights room, the lifestyle studio and swimming pool at the new earlier time.

Jason Owen, Blaenau Gwent Council’s executive member for leisure services, said: “We always try to listen to what people are telling us at Blaenau Gwent Council and opening Ebbw Vale Sports Centre earlier is another good example of how we put the customer first.

“Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important for all of us and we are keen to encourage more people to lead an active life and get more exercise.

“We hope the new opening hours will help more people to do this from the New Year.”

Source : http://www.walesonline.co.uk

Michael Phelps Named 2008 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year

Sports Illustrated Group Editor Terry McDonell announced today that Michael Phelps is the 2008 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. Phelps is SI's 55th Sportsman of the Year and joins Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, among other athletic greats who have received this award.

The SI Sportsman of the Year is presented annually to the person or team who transcended the year in both athletic performance and character. The descriptor, "It is not for the victory alone that he is honored. Rather, it is for the quality of his effort and the manner of his striving," lifted from the pages of SI in 1957, represents the defining principle of the award.

"Michael Phelps as the 2008 Sportsman of the Year was the easiest choice I have made," McDonell said. "Look at what he did in Beijing last summer. I was there. I saw him race after race, win again and again - we all saw that. And then to know him now -- it is so obvious that he changed not only swimming, but also the entire Olympic landscape."

Two thousand eight was a year of powerful moments in sports. The New York Giants' dramatic Super Bowl win, Tiger Woods' U.S. Open playoff victory on one leg, the Nadal/Federer Wimbledon final and a last-second shot in the NCAA men's basketball championship, but it was Phelps' unprecedented eight-gold- medal, seven-world-record achievement in Beijing under the intense spotlight of a global audience that rises above all.

Phelps will be honored at a ceremony in Manhattan this evening along with Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver -- the first recipient of the Sportsman of the Year Legacy Award -- and SI Kids' SportsKid of the Year, Derek Andrews.
"It is for elevating his sport -- and all of us out of our seats -- with a beguiling grace and humility that SI honors Phelps with its 55th Sportsman of the Year Award," writes Alan Shipnuck in his profile of Phelps. The magazine hits newsstands on Wednesday and marks Phelps's sixth appearance on the cover of SI.

In Beijing Phelps delivered a performance for the ages in breaking Mark Spitz's 36-year-old mark of seven gold medals in a single Olympiad. Phelps won individual gold in the 400-meter individual medley, 200-meter freestyle, 200- meter butterfly, 200-meter individual medley and 100-meter butterfly to go along with team golds in the 4x100-meter freestyle, 4x200-meter freestyle and 4x100-meter medley relays. His 0.01-second victory over Serbia's Milorad Cavic in the 100-meter butterfly and his U.S. team's come-from-behind triumph over France in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay provided two of the most iconic moments of the 2008 Summer Games.

Other athletes named Sportsman on the strength of their Olympic performance include Bobby Joe Morrow ('56), U.S. Olympic hockey team ('80), Edwin Moses and Mary Lou Retton ('84), Bonnie Blair and Johann Olav Koss ('94).
About Sports Illustrated

SI is a multimedia sports brand that takes the consumer into the heart and soul of sports. The SI franchise is anchored by Sports Illustrated, the most respected voice in sports journalism which reaches a weekly audience of nearly 21 million adults, and www.SI.com, the magazine's 24/7 sports news website that delivers more than 150 original stories to its users each week. The SI franchise also includes Sports Illustrated Kids ( www.sikids.com), a monthly magazine targeted to kids age 8 and up; Golf Magazine and www.Golf.com; www.FanNation.com, a social networking and sports-news aggregation platform; www.SIOncampus.com, a website dedicated to college sports and the college sports lifestyle; SI Presents, the magazine's specialty publishing division; as well as SI Books, SI Pictures, SI Productions, SI Digital and SI Events. Founded in 1954, SI is a division of Time Inc., the world's leading magazine publishing company and a subsidiary of Time Warner.

For additional information, please visit: http://www.si.com/sportsman

SOURCE Sports Illustrated

http://www.si.com

Bolt and Isinbayeva scoop awards

Usain Bolt and Yelena Isinbayeva have been named as male and female athletes of the year by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

The Jamaican sprinter and Russian pole vaulter took the awards as well as £67,000 each at a ceremony in Monaco for their superb Olympic displays.

Bolt, 22, became the first man in history to break world records in all three sprint events at a single Games.

Isinbayeva, 26, raised the world record to 5.05m to retain her Olympic title.

Bolt broke the 100m world record of 9.74 seconds held by compatriot Asafa Powell earlier in the season but he again eclipsed the new mark by clocking 9.69 in Beijing.

He then broke Michael Johnson's world record of 19.32 in the final of the 200m by lowering it to 19.30 before leading Jamaica's 4x100m sprint relay to Olympic victory in a record time of 37.10.

"I have a motto that anything is possible, but this really is such an honour," said Bolt, who became Jamaica's first Olympic 100m champion.

"Just to be included with every great name in the sport is wonderful. I'll try to do it year after year."

Isinbayeva, who took athlete of the year honours in 2004 and 2005, added: "I'm very proud. It feels like the first time."

During the season the Russia raised her own world record in the pole vault three times, first to 5.03 metres in Rome and 5.04 in Monaco in June and then at Beijing - her 24th world best mark.

Isinbayeva just edged out Ethiopian distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba, who produced an unprecedented Olympic double victory in the 5000 and 10,000 metres in Beijing.

Cuban 110m hurdler Dayron Robles won the male performance of the year award after setting a new world record of 12.87sec as well as claiming the Olympic title.

Dibaba and Barbora Spotakova, of the Czech Republic, who set a new world record after claiming the Olympic javelin title, took the women's equivalent.

Pamela Jelimo, who won the 800m Olympic title at the age of 18, was given the revelation of the year award.


IAAF Award winners

Male world athlete: Usain Bolt (Jam)

Female world athlete: Yelena Isinbayeva (Rus)

Male performance: Dayron Robles (Cub)

Female performance: Tirunesh Dibaba (Eth)/ Barbora Spotakova (Cze)

Revelation of the year: Pamela Jelimo (Ken)

Distinguished Career award: Kajsa Bergqvist (Swe)/Stefan Holm (Swe)/Jefferson Perez (Ecu)

Inspirational award: Henry Rono (Ken)

80 Years of Women Athletes at the Olympic Games: Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA)

Special Olympic award: Usain Bolt (Jam)/Tirunesh Dibaba (Eth)/Yelena Isinbayeva (Rus)/Francoise Mbango (Cmr)/Angelo Taylor (USA)/Andreas Thorkildsen (Nor)

Young Sports Personality of the Year shortlist features Tom Daley and Laura Robson

Tom Daley and Laura Robson have both been named on a shortlist of 10 to be crowned Young Sports Personality of the Year.

Daley is the current holder of the award, which had its inaugural year in 2001.

The first recipient was Amy Spencer, and she was followed by Wayne Rooney, Kate Haywood, Andy Murray, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Theo Walcott and Daley.

The panel, that includes former winners Aikines-Aryeetey and Haywood, will meet later in November to reduce the 10 to just three.

Daley, at just 14 years old, is already an Olympian, having represented Team GB in Beijing.

He reached the finals in both the 10m synchro and individual platform competition, coming eighth and seventh respectively.

However, he faces stiff competition to retain his crown from Robson.

The 16-year-old was the darling of Wimbledon this year, becoming the first Briton to win a junior singles title at SW19 since Annabel Croft in 1984.

She has now become the youngest British player to compete on the WTA Tour, and won her first senior event on Nov 9.

Daley and Robson won't have it all their own way, though. Like Daley, Aaron Cook was another find of the Olympics.

The taekwondo star, now 17, finished fifth overall in the 80kg weight category, where the average age of those competing was 26.

Meanwhile, canoeist Tom Brady won silver at the 2008 Junior European Championships, picking up GB's first junior men's kayak individual medal since 1992.

Sam Harrison is the next generation of cyclist who is expected to carry on Great Britain's gold-medal success at London 2012, while James Peters is one of the rising stars of British sailing, after winning the 29er competition at the 2008 European Championship.

Scott Redding put himself in the spotlight this season when he won the 125cc race at the British GP, in what was only his eighth race, and, in doing so, became the youngest-ever winner of any MotoGP class.

Eleanor Simmonds became the nation's youngest-ever individual Paralympic gold medallist in Beijing, at the age of just 13, while Elizabeth Simmonds finished sixth in the Olympics 200m backstroke and placed 10th in the 100m backstroke.

The only athletics star on the list is 16-year-old Shaunna Thompson, who won a sprint double at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in the 100m and 200m.

Watery scare for Portugal marshal

Round two of the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura was briefly delayed when a marshal had to be rescued after falling into a lake at the seventh hole.

Graham Finch, who cannot swim, lost his balance and tumbled into the water at the Oceanico Victoria course.

Fortunately, fellow marshal Miguel Palhoa was quick to spot the danger and dived in to rescue his colleague.

Ironically, playing the hole at the time was Jean Van de Velde, famed for losing The Open in a greenside burn.

Finch, a former captain of the High Post club in Salisbury, returned to the same spot later in the day - after a change of clothing.

"I'd been watching drives and had taken a few backward steps when suddenly I did the splits and went down into the lake. It was like going down a children's slide," he explained later.

"It was not funny at the time. I was frightened - it's no good saying I wasn't. I was up to my neck and I can swim only a few yards, so I cried out.

"At first someone came with an umbrella to try to pull me back to dry land, but I couldn't reach it and every time I tried to put a foot down I went further in.

"But another marshal was brilliant then. He came in and pushed me so I could reach the rocks and clamber out."

Commonwealth Youth Games - Field day for India in track and field, lead medals tally

India continued its winning streak at the 3rd Commonwealth Youth Games here Thursday, leading the medals tally with an outstanding performance in the track and field events.

Indian athletes won six golds, seven silvers and six bronze medals Thursday, taking the country's overall tally to 58, with Australia closely following the hosts with 51 medals.

In the triple jump, both the gold and silver went to India. Maharashtran girl Shradha Ghule clinched the gold with a jump of 13.11 metres while Gayathri Govindhraj took the silver with 12.89 metre jump. Australian Ainsley Ackerman claimed the bronze.

In junior men's high jump, India's Nikhil Chittarasu took the silver clearing a height of 2.09 metres. South Africa's Voigt Willem Wayne took the gold by clearing 2.11 metres while the bronze went to Drouin Derek.

The junior men's javelin event brought India two medals. Krishan Nand Tripathi threw 71.52 metres, a new games record, for the gold while Rohit Kumar managed 67.60 metres for the silver. The bronze went to Australia's John Damon Ulrich with a throw of 65.64 metres.

The junior women's 4X400 metre relay yet again brought laurels for the country when the Indian squad consisting Chinchu Jose, Anu Mariam Jose, Arya Chandrika and Poovamma Raju ran an excellent spell clocking a new games record of 3:42:02. The Canadians and Australians bagged silver and bronze respectively.

In the juniors men's 4X400 metres relay, the Indians again flaunted the yellow metal, with Jithin Paul, Dhrambir, Inderjeet Singh and Parveen Kumar setting a new games record of 3:13:32. South Africa claimed the silver and New Zealand took the bronze.

All-time greats in the history of the Olympic Games

Nadia Elena Comaneci
Nadia Elena Comaneci is a winner of five Olympic gold medals, and the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. Comaneci was the first Romanian gymnast to win the all-around title at the Olympics. She is also the youngest-ever Olympic gymnastics all-around champion.




Mark Spitz
Mark Spitz gave swimming an unparalleled and unforgettable memory in Munich. A total of seven gold medals, and as many world records, were won by the determined Californian during the Games of 1972, adding to what he described as his "disappointing" haul of five medals in 1968.




Carl Lewis
Carl Lewis won 10 Olympic medals including 9 golds, and 10 World Championships medals, of which 8 were golds, in a career that spanned from 1979 when he first achieved a world ranking to 1996 when he last won an Olympic title and subsequently retired. He was voted "Sportsman of the Century" by the International Olympic Committee and was also named "Olympian of the Century" by Sports Illustrated. He also helped transform track and field from its nominal amateur status to its current professional status.




Paavo Nurmi
If long distance running was in need of a role model, one would have to look no further than Paavo Nurmi. The legendary Finn smashed an incredible 22 world records, winning nine Olympic golds on the way. Nurmi won a total of 12 Olympic medals across three Games --- 1920, 1924 and 1928.




Jesse Owens
The German head of state had done everything in its power to leave a taste of Nazi propaganda in the mouths of all the competing nations at the 1936 Olympic Games. Jesse Owens, born the son of a slave in 1913 in segregated Alabama, however, left his own mark by winning four gold medals which would turn Adolf Hitler's theory of racial supremacy on its head.




Dawn Fraser
Whether it was due to a modest background, or a refusal to give up swimming even when banned in the early stages of her career, Dawn Fraser's determination led her to battle adversity and ultimately conquer the sprint events at three consecutive Olympic Games -- 1956, 1960 and 1964. Three Olympic gold titles in 1956, 1960 and 1964 in the 100m freestyle eventually brought the daughter of a Sydney docker justified success. She won a total of eight Olympic medals.




Bob Beamon
Robert "Bob" Beamon leapt to world prominence with a stunning long-jump gold in the 1968 Mexico Games. A virtual flight of 8.90m also broke the Olympic and world records, earning the American a deserved place in athletics history. Beamon's mark was not bettered until the 1991 Tokyo world championships when his compatriot Mike Powell jumped 8.95m.




Fanny Blankers-Koen
Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She accomplished this as a mother of two, during a time when many disregarded women's athletics. Her background and performances earned her the nickname "the Flying Housewife."




Michael Johnson
At the Atlanta Games of 1996 Michael Johnson not only became the first athlete to take Olympic golds in both the 200m and 400m, but shattered the 200m world record with an eye-opening time of 19.32sec. In all, he won five gold medals across three Olympic Games.




Greg Louganis
Greg Louganis can simply be described as the total diver. At age 16, he took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he placed second in the tower event. in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Louganis won gold medals in both the springboard and tower diving events. He repeated his 1984 feat in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, although not without drama. Louganis suffered an injury, hitting his head on the diving board during the preliminary rounds while performing a reverse 2 1/2 pike; he completed the preliminaries, despite a concussion, then went on to repeat the dive during the finals, with nearly perfect scores, earning him the gold medal.




Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Jackie Joyner-Kersee is ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women's heptathlon as well as in the women's long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, in those two different events. "Sports Illustrated" magazine voted her the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th century.




Steve Redgrave
Great Britain's now legendary rower Steve Redgrave pushed his ageing body through more gruelling punishment at the Sydney Olympics as he won his fifth gold medal at consecutive Games - a feat never before achieved in endurance events. After previous victories from Los Angeles (1984) to Sydney 2000, he finally retired from the sport in 2000, and was given a knighthood for his remarkable achievements.




Kristin Otto
East Germany's Olympic swimming champion Kristin Otto is truly unique for the display of talent in three separate styles -- freestyle, backstroke and butterfly -- which brought her six gold medals during the Seoul Games of 1988.




Abebe Bikila
With his win in the marathon in the 1960 Rome Olympics, Abebe Bikila became the first black African Olympic champion. Bikila, who ran the marathon barefoot in Rome ntered Olympic history with a world best time of 2:15:16.2. Bikila also won the gold in the 1964 Games in Tokyo -- this time he ran with shoes and once again set a new world best time of 2:12:11.2.




Olga Korbut
Olga Korbut is a Belarusian, Soviet-born gymnast who won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olympics, in which she competed in 1972 and 1976 for the USSR team. At the 1972 Munich Olympics, she became the first person to do a backward somersault on the balance beam in competition. She was also the first to do a standing backward somersault on bars, and a back somersault to swingdown (Korbut Flip) on beam.

Swimmer aims to kayak to North Pole

Long-distance swimmer Lewis Pugh plans to kayak 1200km (745 miles) to the North Pole to raise awareness of how global warming has melted the ice sheet.

Lewis Pugh has spent his life swimming long distances. But after 20 minutes in the freezing water of the Arctic he decided that his future lay above the waves.

"It's been like trying to change from Roger Federer to Tiger Woods overnight," the 38-year-old British environmental campaigner told me at a training camp in South Africa.

Now, after months of tuition from Hungarian kayaking champion Robert Hegedus, Mr Pugh wants to become the first man to paddle to the North Pole.

"Nobody has ever attempted to kayak to the pole before. In fact, it would have been impossible last year because it was frozen over," he said.

This year, for the first time, scientists predict that the North Pole could briefly be ice free and that has inspired Mr Pugh to try to find a way through.

On Saturday he is due to set off on the 1200km (745 mile) expedition from Norway to the North Pole - a journey expected to take between two and three weeks. A support ship will follow the kayak to provide Mr Pugh with food and respite from the brutal conditions.

"This will be my hardest challenge to date," the self-proclaimed "Ice Bear" told me.

"It's a very long way across an ocean that is so cold, and with high winds. Recently when I was up there training I was wearing a wet suit and a dry suit and I was still freezing cold."

Until now, Lewis Pugh has been famous for completing long distance swims in all of the world's oceans. In 2006 the former lawyer swam the length of the River Thames and then in 2007 he swam 1km (0.6 miles) at the North Pole.

On both occasions Mr Pugh said he wanted to raise awareness of global warming and its affect on the polar regions.

A swimming purist, he has adhered strictly to the Channel Swimming Association rules, which has meant leaping into sub-zero water wearing just swimming trunks, cap and goggles.

Professor Tim Noakes runs the Institute of Sports Science in Cape Town, and has provided advice for all of Mr Pugh's Arctic adventures.

"The stress of the 20-minute swimming at the North Pole was extreme," Prof Noakes told me as Mr Pugh was put through a gruelling fitness test.

"But he knew it was 20 minutes and then it was over. The stress here is less for every session but he is going to have two or three weeks of paddling and that's going to be very, very demanding."

On the lush green slopes of Table Mountain, Lewis Pugh has been trying to prepare himself mentally.

Far away from the tourists queuing for the cable car he sits meditating and listening to music. For the first time in a lifetime of extreme challenges he is not sure that he wants to succeed.

"There's one side of me that desperately wants to get to the North Pole to be able to shake the lapels of world leaders to get them to understand what has happened there," he said.

"But then there's the other side of me that says I really hope I don't get there. I hope I fail because if I am able to get there we really are in deep trouble."

Courtesy : BBC

Maarten van der Weijden surprises favorites : Men's Marathon 10km

Maarten van der Weijden swims. (Photo credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands won the gold medal in a huge upset in the inaugural Men's Marathon 10km Swimming race at a rainy Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park on Thursday, August 21.

The Dutch swimmer, who returned to competitive swimming after beating leukaemia which was diagnosed seven years ago, had not ranked among the pre-race favorites.

He put in a great sprint with 500m to go to overtake medal favorites David Davies of Great Britain (GBR) and Thomas Lurz of Germany (GER) to win in a time of 1:51:51.6.

Davies (GBR), who finished sixth in the 1500m earlier at these Games at the National Aquatics Center and was the Athens 2004 Olympic 1500m bronze medalist, just held on for the silver medal in a time of 1:51:53.1.

Lurz, with more success over the 5km distance but a world title in this distance in 2006 and one of the pre-race favorites, came home strongly to win the bronze medal in a time of 1:51:53.6.

In steady rain, the 25 swimmers hit the water with Davies quickly working his way to the front from Greece's Spyridon Gianniotis with Lurz right on their heels. With Davies, the 1500m specialist, at the front the field quickly became strung out.

Davies, like his compatriots Keri-Anne Payne and Cassandra Patten in the Women's Marathon 10km on Wednesday, led for much of the first three laps. At the beginning of the fourth and final lap the moves began to come. Lurz swam up to share the lead with Davies, until Gianniotis went to the front.

The pack then settled back down with Davies again taking the lead and increasing the tempo and his kicking. The pack split across the course with Van der Weijden, Davies and Lurz pulling away toward the middle of the course for the sprint to the line.

Courtesy : www.en.beijing2008.cn

Duet Synchronized Swimming Gold : Russia

Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova wave to the audience. (Photo credit: Xinhua)



Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova (RUS) lived up to their No.1 ranking, winning their third Olympic gold medal in Synchronized Swimming, at the National Aquatics Center on August 20.

The results mirrored the Melbourne 2007 World Championships with the top eight teams finishing in the same order.

Davydova and Ermakova, who won Duet and Team gold at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, were Beijing gold favorites.

The pair held a 0.416 lead over second-placed Spain in the free routine preleminilary on August 19. They produced an ambitious and beautifully executed routine in the final, earning perfect 10.0's from the five technical merit judges and three artistic impression judges. Their 49.917 gave them a combined score of 99.251.

Spanish duo Gemma Mengual and Andrea Fuentes took silver and in doing so claimed their NOC's first Olympic Synchronized Swimming medal.

Their free routine was well-constructed and executed, scoring 49.500, but their technical and free routines left them 0.917 behind Russia at 98.334.

Japan claimed bronze, continuing their record of never leaving an Olympic Games without a Synchronized Swimming medal. The Japanese duo Harada Saho and Suzuki Emiko improved on their preliminary performance to earn 48.917 in free routine for a combined 97.167.

China's twins Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen were unable to reproduce the timing of their preliminary Free Routine, and their small synchronization errors in the final were costly. A score of 48.250 for a combined 96.334 left them fourth.

Creative choreography was not enough for the fifth-place United States' Andrea Nott and Christina Jones to challenge for a medal.

British Duo Take 10km Swim Medals

Larisa Ilchenko put in a late charge to overhaul Britain's Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten for victory in a dramatic 10km marathon swim in Beijing.

The Russian, unbeaten since 2004, took the lead in the final 100m after Patten and Payne had led for most of the race.

The Stockport Metro club-mates made the world champion work extremely hard for gold as they won the remaining medals.

Ilchenko finished in a time of one hour 59 minutes 27.7 seconds with Payne and Patten just a few strokes behind.

Ilchenko set the pace in the opening stages but was soon overtaken by both Payne and Patten.

The Russian was content to sit on the feet of the leading pair, even when the British duo tried to make a move after one hour and 32 minutes.

With 250m to go, the medal contenders were whittled down to just four, with Germany's Angela Maurer joining Payne, Patten and Ilchenko at the front.

Maurer, though, was unable to match Ilchenko's burst of pace as the Russian pulled alongside the British pair.

Payne fought back, matching her stroke for stroke until Ilchenko inched ahead for the win.

Courtesy : BBC
More : BBC

Michael Phelps amazes world with Beijing eight

Swimmer Michael Phelps went on Sunday where no one has been before to win a record eighth gold at one Olympics and surpass Mark Spitz's famous 1972 feat.

The American stole the limelight even from Jamaican Usain Bolt's audaciously brilliant 100m win in the athletics showpiece that has been the Beijing Games' other defining moment so far.

On an unhappier note, American shooter Matt Emmons threw away gold for a second successive Games with a misfire on his final shot. He did the same four years ago in Athens by firing at the wrong target.

Phelps, 23, held his arms aloft and hugged team mates after a relatively easy men's 4x100 meters medley relay win, unlike the finger-tip finishes in two of his earlier Beijing golds.

The all-time most successful Olympian, who has over nine days in China proved himself to be one of the greatest sportsmen the world has seen, showed he was still human, though.

"I just want to see my mom," said Phelps, who as a child in Baltimore had a screaming fit at his first swimming lesson because he did not want to get his face wet.

Phelps' 14th career gold, after six in Athens, took him past fellow American Spitz's seven at one Games in Munich. He has five more than anyone else in the Olympics' 112-year history. "It's been nothing but an upwards rollercoaster but it's been nothing but fun," he added at his moment of triumph, embracing his tearful mother and sister. "With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination."

Courtesy : Reuters

Food for fuel: Olympian Phelps' unusual diet

As US swimming sensation Michael Phelps sets his sights on more gold medal wins at the Beijing Olympics this weekend, the BBC's Michael Hirst examines the part an extraordinary diet has played in the sportsman's remarkable success.

If it is true that you are what you eat, then here is the suggested intake if you want to become history's most successful Olympian:

For breakfast: three fried egg sandwiches, with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise, followed by three chocolate-chip pancakes; a five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast and a bowl of grits (a maize-based porridge), washed down with two cups of coffee.

For lunch: half a kilogram (one pound) of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread smothered with mayonnaise, washed down by energy drinks.

For dinner: Another half-kilogram of pasta, perhaps with a carbonara sauce, followed by a large pizza and more energy drinks.

That combination may not sound very healthy, and at a staggering 10,000 calories, would feed five average men for a day.

But the menu is reportedly all in a training day's eating for champion swimmer Michael Phelps, who won six gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics and is aiming for eight this time round.

"Eat, sleep and swim, that's all I can do," said the US swimmer, after winning his 11th Olympic gold.

Judging by the amount he eats and swims, that is not altogether surprising.

Fruit and veg

Even though the 23-year-old spends a solid five hours of each day burning off those calories, the diet still seems excessive. Is he following some sort of dietician guru's programme?

Barbara Lewin, a nutritionist who has advised international athletes on their dietary health for almost two decades, thinks not.

"Health-wise, if he were eating like this long-term, he'd probably be having to see a cardiologist regularly," Mrs Lewin told the BBC.

She recommended cutting out the egg yolks, replacing the white bread with whole-wheat, throwing some fruit and vegetables into the mix, and spreading the food out over the day with regular snacking.

But while the quality of the calories consumed by the six-foot four-inch (1.93m) swimmer may not seem healthy, Ms Lewin suggested there are good reasons behind Mr Phelps' diet.

"I've worked with more than 1,000 endurance athletes - swimmers and runners - and one of the most common problems they have is glycogen depletion - the result of not getting enough carbohydrates," she said.

"Nine out of 10 times the reason an athlete doesn't reach their personal best is because they're not getting enough carbohydrates and that's what your muscles need for food."

Carb counting

Phelps won his sixth gold medal in Beijing in the 200m medley on Friday, and will be aiming to equal fellow American Mark Spitz's record of winning seven gold medals in a single Olympic games when he takes to the pool for Saturday's 100m fly.

Fat pile-on

The Phelps diet is not recommended for everyone. Due to his muscle-intensive physique, the swimmer's metabolism - the process of converting food into energy - far exceeds that of a more average man, said Jeff Kotterman, director of the US National Association of Sports Nutrition.


Courtesy : BBC NEWS

Michael Phelps wins historic eighth gold

Michael Phelps won his eighth Olympic gold medal of the Beijing Games to beat Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven, with victory in the 4x100m medley.

The 23-year-old teamed up with Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Jason Lezak to claim the historic gold in a new world record time.

They held off Australia and Japan to win in a world record time of three minutes 29.34 seconds.

Britain finished in sixth, but the race was all about Phelps' place in history.

Phelps, who swam 17 times over nine days and set world records in seven finals, had already won the 400m medley, 200m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 4x100m free relay, 4x200m free relay, 200m medley and the 100m butterfly.

Victory in the 4x100m relay rounded off a remarkable Olympics for Phelps, who has dominated the action in the Water Cube.

However, his final triumph was far from straightforward.

Phelps dived into the water for the third leg butterfly with his team in third position but he powered them into the lead.

Australian Eamon Sullivan tried to chase the Americans down but Lezak held on to clinch Phelps' record win.

It also took Phelps' Olympic medal haul to 14 golds, and 16 overall.

Phelps admitted to being overwhelmed after achieving his feat, and was quick to pay tribute to his team-mates.

"I don't even know what to feel right now," Phelps said.
"There are so many emotions going through my head and so much excitement. I kind of just want to see my mom.

"Without the help of my team-mates this isn't possible.

"I was able to be a part of three relays and we were able to put up a solid team effort and we came together as one unit.

"For the three Olympics I've been a part of, this is by far the closest men's team that we've ever had.

"I didn't know everybody coming into this Olympics, but I feel going out I know every single person very well. The team that we had is the difference.

"Nothing is impossible.

"With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination, and that's something I learned and something that helped me.

"It's been nothing but an upwards roller-coaster and it's been nothing but fun."

His team-mate Peirsol added: "It's a beautiful thing, I am so proud to be a part of this relay team.

"It wasn't like we were doing this for Michael, but it's an honour to be part of it. It would have been something if we hadn't done it."


Courtesy : BBC NEWS

From Miss Nobody to greatest British swimmer for 100 years

Let's start with the numbers.

She's 19 years old.

This was her first Olympics.

On Monday she became the first woman to win a British swimming gold for 48 years.

On Saturday she became the first British swimmer to win two golds at the same Games for 100 years (the last was Henry Taylor in 1908).

She is only the third British athlete since World War Two to win two golds at the same Games (the others being Kelly Holmes, 800m/1500m 2004 and Richard Meade, three-day eventing, 1972). 1308 BST UPDATE: And now Chris Hoy kierin/men's pursuit, 2008.



Adlington won her second gold in the 800m final with a winning margin of more than six seconds - in a new world-record time of 18 minutes 14.1 seconds.

It was a record which had stood for 19 years, the oldest record in the swimming book and she broke it by more than two seconds.

But let's look at some less sexy numbers. The ones that really matter, the real story behind Rebecca Adlington's double gold in the pool.

Her day starts when the alarm goes at 5.15am.

By 5.45am she is getting changed at her home pool in Nottingham - home of Nova Centurion Swimming Club.

After a quick warm-up poolside, she is in the water by 6am.

Over the next two hours she will swim about 320 lengths.

She will have swum around 8,000m before many of us are out of bed.

Then it is home for breakfast, a sleep, a bit of TV - then at 4.15pm it's time to leave for the pool again for the second session of the day - when she gets to do it all again.

This happens every day of the week, except Wednesday - when coach Bill Furniss gives her and the 20 or so other members of the Centurion elite squad the morning off - and Saturday, when they get a whole extra hour in bed.

"The best hour of the week," says Centurion and GB team-mate and friend Jess Sylvester, who estimates that in a week Adlington may swim up to 80,000m.

That's more than 50 miles.

It's not glamorous. And it's not lucrative.

As a member of the British Swimming elite team, Adlington is funded by UK Sport.

For the last few years she has been in one of the lowest funding brackets, category C, which has given her an income of between £8,000-£10,000 a year.

Out of that she and her family have had to fund her full-time career as a swimmer - her travel, their travel, accommodation and kit.

"You've probably heard how expensive those new LZR costumes are, about £200 a go," she confides in whispered tones while we're sitting backstage in BBC TV's Ling Long Pagoda studio in Beijing.

She's joking about the pair of Christian Louboutin shoes she has got her eye on (she has already emailed her mum the internet link).

Adlington is just starting to understand what she has done here in Beijing in her first Olympic Games and what it might mean. A new pair of designer shoes.

"Coming into this meet, nobody wanted to speak to me - I was Miss Nobody!" she gasps in glee to the Today programme's John Humphreys, one of the many people waiting to interview her back home.

It was a very different story as she left the Olympic pool this morning, where a pack of 500 were waiting to speak to her.

Furniss, who describes her as an "aerobic animal", said: "It's going to be a steep learning curve for her, getting used to this attention, but I think the penny dropped when we came out to that crush.

"But she will handle it, she's a Mansfield girl and a pretty amazing one too, she'll keep her feet on the ground."

Indeed though Adlington is hungry and tired after this morning's exploits in the pool - she is still engaging, modest and excited at the prospect of appearing on the sofa to be interviewed by Claire Balding and Adrian Chiles in front of many millions of TV viewers in the UK who have got up for an early Saturday morning breakfast to hear how she got on.

Indeed, her bubbly nature was visible on the podium, where her tears dried up to be replaced by giggles - the fault of the British swim team who had all gathered around the pool side to celebrate her medal moment.

"I could just hear them all shouting - I could hear Simon Burnett yell, 'I want your babies!' - which I am sure his girlfriend would have something to say about as well as my boyfriend!"

The horseplay indicates what a fantastic mood now resonates within the British swimming camp - where while there has been only one other medal (Jo Jackson), the team has performed well.

Her good friend and fellow GB swimmer Cassie Patten, who jokingly called on the Queen to make her a Dame in the BBC's live post-race interview, has a good chance in the open-water swimming, and Adlington is pleased she can now take time off to go and cheer her on.

As Adlington is whisked away for a spot of make-up, Sylvester, a 100m freestyler who swam in the 4x100m relay team which finished seventh, tells me how they have all been buoyed by her wins.

"It is just so inspiring going to London in four years time. It is a long way away off and will mean a lot of hard work but it gives you the inspiration to do it when Becky can just go out there and smash the world record to win her second gold."

"I have had the privilege of seeing her train every day, and I know what she puts herself through and how tough she is.

"I saw how upset she was after last year's World Championships but to be honest I believe if she had not had that disappointment she might not have done this now because it made her a stronger person."

Adlington had been tipped as an outside medal chance going into the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne - but failed to make the final and left the pool in tears.

"She was bawling her eyes out, she was so upset," said BBC pundit and former GB swimming champion Karen Pickering.

"So that was the only question mark over Becky - there was no doubting her talent or her hard work - but could she do it at a major championship?"

The answer, as we now know, was very definitely yes.

Adlington herself admits that disappointment was what spurred her on over the last 18 months, when she has "pushed her body to the limits".

"I learnt a lot about myself that day. I had trained so hard - no less hard than I have been this year - but it was my first major meet and I was a bit out of my depth to be honest.

"I got out of the pool after failing to make the final and I was distraught, I was in tears, I have never been so upset. I swore then that I was never going to let that happen again, that I was not going to be getting out of the Olympic pool crying my eyes out."

She did, but it was tears of joy as she finished a full six seconds ahead of her nearest rival - then raised her arms aloft as she realised she had got the world record.

As Chiles joked, Adlington was so far ahead she could have turned into the final 50m and given the others a wink as they were coming towards her.

Indeed the distance by which she won had all Brits, starved of swimming success in recent years, pleasantly surprised ("She's six metres clear - and she's British!," squealed BBC commentator Andy Jameson).

It wasn't the close finish Holmes put us through in Athens on the way to her double gold, but in the same way, it could be the enduring image of this games for British fans.

While Holmes was a 34-year-old veteran in Athens, a victim of injury and bad luck for years until it all came right at her last shot at Olympic gold, Adlington is just getting started.

She had been talked about as a hot young talent as far back as 2004 when she won the European Junior Championships aged 16.

But the following year she contracted glandular fever and was laid low for many months, and at the same time, one of her two sisters contracted meningitis.

"It was a really testing time for the family and to be honest a lot of people were questioning whether she could come back from that," said Sylvester. "But it just shows how tough she is."

Adlington bounced back to win a silver at the European Championships in Hungary in 2006 - for which she received a special commendation from the mayor of Mansfield (the town is now going to rename the local Sherwood Baths in her honour).

After that her mum gave up her job to run her daughter's career full-time - though she still helps out in the accounts department at the steel fabrications company where Becky's dad is managing director.

"Mum has given so much for me, she is the one who is always there to ferry me around, to make sure things are right - my dad helps me financially but my mum is basically my manager.

"I owe them both everything."

Between them, her parents had seen every race their daughter had ever swum, until Monday...

They had bought tickets for the 400m final in the Water Cube - but they'd turned out to be fake and were only able to fly out on Wednesday.

"I thought 'oh no, maybe they've have missed my gold so in the 800m I just wanted so much to do it for them'."

"At about 500m, I breathed, and happened to look up and I saw my mum in the crowd with the Union Jack - I wasn't looking for them it was just luck - and I thought 'I've got to do it for them'.

After two golds in Beijing, Adlington is now hugely excited about the prospect of appearing on home turf at London 2012 - where she will be the same age as Michael Phelps now - but admits it also feels a bit overwhelming.

"The prospect of another four years of such hard work feels a bit daunting right now.

But I am going to have a good few months off which will help. But my body is developing; I am more muscley than I was last year so I am getting stronger.

It is early days now but I may focus more on the 200m and the 400m - as the training for the 800m is such hard work!"

But first up is a well-deserved holiday.

Courtesy : BBC

Michael Phelps equals Spitz's gold medal record

American Michael Phelps won his seventh gold on Saturday in the Men's 100m Butterfly final at the National Aquatics Center, to equal Mark Spitz (USA) as the only person ever to have won seven gold medals at a summer Olympic Games.

But Phelps had to survive a big scare from unheralded Serbian Milorad Cavic to do it.

Phelps won in an Olympic record time of 50.58, to take his gold medal tally to seven, but by the slimmest of margins - 0.01 seconds. He had a huge battle on his hands after Cavic touched first on the 50m mark at 0.09sec under the world record.

Phelps and Cavic battled it out in the last 50m. A monumental upset looked to be approaching - until Phelps dug deep and out-touched Cavic on the wall.

Cavic finished with the silver medal in a time of 50.59.

Australia's Andrew Lauterstein won the bronze medal in 51.12. World record holder Ian Crocker of the United States swam in fourth place at 51.13.