18
Northern Advocate
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
ADVOCATE / Olympics
The heart of the North
HEAD OVER HEELS: All-around champion Nastia Liukin, of the United States, is poetry in motion on the balance beam.
Picture Special:
Associated Press photographers capture the power, grace and emotion of taking part in the greatest sporting show on earth in Beijing yesterday.
IN SYNCH: Canadians Marie-Pier Gagnon and Isabelle Rampling find a use for discarded nose-clips. DESERT QUEEN: Bahraini sprinter Roqaya al-Gassra gives praise after winning her 200m heat. She’s wearing a special high-tech Hijab designed for Muslin atheletes.
OH NO!: Don’t tell us you thought those cuddly Beijing mascots were real . . .
BEND THOSE KNEES: Rashid Sharifi of Iran lifts 238kg — and his feet don’t touch the floor.
Britannia rules — and even the Aussies are impressed
B
RITAIN notched its highest gold medal tally in a century yesterday, with two more victories in cycling and one on the track for the 2012 Olympics hosts. That cemented Britain’s unexpected third place in China, with 16 golds the best since the 1908 London Games — and the perfect way to fire up enthusiasm at home for the next Olympics. Hosts China are way ahead in the gold medal count, their seemingly unassailable lead helping dull some of the national pain over the withdrawal through injury of track idol Liu Xiang. The United States are firmly in second and face a near-impossible task to catch China, whose shining haul reflects their new global economic and political might. While China’s rise may be inevitable, given it has one fifth of the world’s population to choose from, Britain’s success was more surprising. Even traditional rivals
" They’re certainly
serving it up . . . Their new-found cockiness has got some substance to it."
Australia’s Olympic president John Coates of Britain’s achievements at these Games
were impressed. ‘‘They’re certainly serving it up,’’ Australia’s Olympic Committee president John Coates said. ‘‘Their new-found cockiness has got some substance to it.’’ Nowhere have the Britons been cockier than on bikes. Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton won a couple more golds in the men’s and women’s sprints, making it a remarkable eight Beijing golds on road and
track for the new cycling superpower. In Qingdao, on China’s east coast, Paul Goodison made up for disappointment in Athens, where he nearly quit, by winning the sailing Laser title. Britain’s success, which has come chiefly in cycling, rowing, sailing and swimming, is attributed mainly to heavy new investment in sport. That has allowed athletes and coaches to train full time, as well as seen improvements in facilities. Much of the money has come from the National Lottery. ‘‘We can rule the waves again,’’ Britain’s top-selling daily, the Sun said, catching the wave of patriotism. Chinese leaders and people alike showered their injured Olympics 110m hurdles champion Liu with get-well messages a day after he limped forlornly off the track, depriving the hosts of what they hoped might be their greatest single moment of glory.
SUNK? NOT A BIT OF IT: Britain’s Paul Goodison, left, shares a ducking with silver medallist Vasilij Zbogar of Croatia after winning the Laser sailing gold PICTURE / AP yesterday.
Liu, who along with basketball player Yao Ming is China’s most idolised sportsman, surfaced on Tuesday, vowing not to quit. ‘‘There’ll be opportunities next year . . . I’m still in peak condition,’’ he said, calm voice belying a face etched with pain. Liu took gold in Athens in 2004, becoming the first man to win a track-and-field event for China. His — and China’s — great dream was to repeat the feat at home. But local fans who openly wept at Liu’s exit were cheered by a glance at the medal table on virtually every front page. ‘‘There is basically no worry about top spot,’’ state news agency Xinhua said, eschewing China’s pre-Games caution. The locals are loving it: one man cycled 1300km to tow his 98-year-old grandmother to the Games in a pedicab. Further cheering the Chinese national mood, environmental authorities said Beijing had
enjoyed its cleanest air in 10 years this month despite athletes’ preGames fears. Officials promised not to let that slip after the Olympics. ‘‘We will take some new measures to ensure that air quality will reach a new level after the Olympics,’’ environmental official Du Shaozhong said on another sunny day in Beijing. One man whose lungs definitely were not affected by the heat, or any lingering smog, was Germany’s triathlete Jan Frodeno. The 27-year-old outsider, who only took up triathlon to impress a girl, broke away from three of the sport’s biggest names at the end to win the swim-bike-run endurance test, outsprinting Bevan Docherty. ‘‘It was a moment I had dreamed of so many times in my head,’’ said the former swimmer and lifeguard. ‘‘During the race I told myself: ’Boy, be greedy — it’s champagne or fizzy water’.’’
— Reuters