| Comedy and war help in novices’ pursuit of sporting excellence
Hang in here with the idea, but if Great Britain does indeed achieve its stated goal of finishing fourth in the Olympic medals table in 2012, we may have to attribute much of the success to a Gulf War military leader. The man in question is Major-General Patrick Cordingley, who led the Desert Rats into Iraq in 1991 – and it is not a case of him leading our troops into Olympic battle. But if you ask a group of the best young sports coaches in the country, they will tell you that they have learnt as much about their trade from this man as any other. That said, they will also tell you about having to learn to be a stand-up comedian and how going house-hunting is important, too. The eight-strong group of coaches officially graduated last night. At a ceremony at The Belfry, in the West Midlands, they were presented with their certificates by Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister.
Evans achieves Olympic qualification
Badminton Ireland has announced that Scott Evans, has reached the qualification standard for next year's Olympic Games in Beijing. Evans is currently ranked 45 in the world and his qualification will be confirmed next May by the Olympic Council of Ireland. .
IOA proposes National Club Games to cast wider net for talent
New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) To infuse life into the largely inactive state Olympic associations and individual federations, IOA has proposed the launch of the National Club Games aimed at encouraging sports culture at the grassroots level in the country.
The Indian Olympic Association plans to start these Games right from the village and local level upward next year and the first cycle is to be completed with the National Club Games in 2009. The all-India event will be held every other year in which the National Games will not be organised.
"The National Club Games will help us cast the net wider for talented sportspersons right at the bottom of the pyramid so that they can be eventually assimilated in the mainstream of sports activities," IOA Secretary General Randhir Singh said today.
Outlaws move to 11-1 at home
MASON CITY — Great hockey teams find a way to win.The North Iowa Outlaws proved they could be a great team, escaping with a 3-1 NAHL Central Division victory over the Fargo-Moorhead Jets on Saturday at the North Iowa Ice Arena."We’re doing everything we can to win," North Iowa forward Ross-Ring Jarvi said. "Great teams always find a way to win games, and that’s what I think we are, a great team."North Iowa defenseman Matt Morin put North Iowa in front 1-0 heading into the first intermission, scoring a power-play goal with 31 seconds remaining in the opening period.Fargo-Moorhead’s Mark Johnson tied the score with 2:46 left in the second leaving the third period to decide the outcome."We were a lot better in the first period (Saturday) than we were (Friday) and then kind of got a little uninterested in the second period," said North Iowa coach Dave Boitz, whose team improved to 6-0-0 against the Jets this season.
'Female Yao'
Wei Wei, the sizable center of the Guangzhou women's basketball team, caused quite a stir at the 6th Chinese City Games. Her performance earned her a reputation as a "female Yao Ming". Although her team failed to top the podium last week after losing to defending champion Nanjing 80-72, plenty of observers took notice of the towering talent. The 18-year-old Wei is 2.07m tall, three centimetres taller than Zheng Haixia, the enormous centre who helped the national women's basketball team win the silver medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. "Other than Wei Wei, we haven't found any other potential stars," said Gong Luming, former head coach of the Chinese women's national basketball team. Standing at 2.07 metres, Wei Wei will be a scene in the WNBA if she realises her dream of playing in the world's top women's basketball league.
Groban Gets Oprah Bounce, Jordin Sparks Doesn't Fly
The Grinch might be stealing Christmas from music retailers, but thanks to Josh Groban and Oprah, there's still some singing in Whoville. For the sales week kicked off by Super Tuesday—the release date before Thanksgiving when record labels typically schedule their big guns—the figures were abnormally bad, with only one Top 10 bow and a seven-week-old album topping the charts. Still, that album, Groban's Noël, can thank last week's performance on The Oprah Winfrey Show for driving it past Alicia Keys and into the number one spot. Noël crowned the Billboard 200 by selling 405,000 copies for the week ended Sunday, according to SoundScan numbers released today. The holiday disc, featuring Groban's take on "Silent Night," "O Come All Ye Faithful" and other wintery classics, originally debuted in the 10 spot in mid-October.
Court in session
It might be hard to tell, considering Saturday's pair of Class 4A semifinal football games in the Four Corners, but the basketball season has begun. Ready or not. Aztec and Kirtland Central's boys basketball teams are still waiting to complete their squads. With the Broncos and Tigers still in the thick of the state football playoffs, the gridiron games take full precedent over shooting hoops. Piedra Vista and Bloomfield practiced with full squads for the first time this week, mere days before tip-off. The Bobcats and Panthers' football teams were eliminated from the playoffs last weekend, much to the chagrin of students, coaches and fans. But at least their basketball teams are at full strength, right? Quite the contrary, actually. A majority of the area's seven basketball squads agreed that success is infectious.
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