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30th November 2007

Christine Ohuruogu playing down medal chances

Just after being cleared of an Olympic ban, Christine Ohuruogu is still playing down her chances of winning a medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Ohuruogu won gold recently at the World Championships in Osaka.

“It’s not going to be just a case of turning up and taking an Olympic gold medal,” she said.

“There are some very good competitors and they are going to want to fight me as much as I want to fight them for it.

“My mental strength isn’t going to change. I believe, with what I’ve gone through, I’ve shown I’m pretty strong and pretty tough anyway. I don’t think they are going to be able to break me.”

Read more: OHURUOGU PLAYS DOWN MEDAL CHANCES

29th November 2007

Jiang Yuyuan wins gymnastics all-rounder

Fifteen year old Jiang Yuyuan won the women’s all around at the Good Luck Beijing Olympic games warm-up event. She scorred 61.225 points.

Daria Joura from Australia won the silver and bronze went to Bridget Sloan of America.

Read more: Jiang tops women’s all-around at Olympic gymnastics test

27th November 2007

Becoming a Chinese citizen to participate in the Olympics

Jennifer Lee from the US faces a tough decision. Currently she needs to change citizenship or else she will miss the Olympics.

She is living in Hong Kong, where the 2008 Beijing Olympic equestrian events will be taking place.

“You have to live in Hong Kong, have a close relative who is Chinese, and have a good reason - which the Olympics would be,” she said.

“I have been in Hong Kong for 14 years, I’m married to a local, my two kids are half Chinese and were born here. I am a permanent resident.”

“If I give it up, I have to apply for a visa to go to the United States as a foreigner and they don’t give visas easily. You have to jump through all sorts of hoops,” Lee said.

She will need to be granted special permission to participate in the Olympics to compete as a foreigner.

Read more: US rider in Hong Kong faces dilemma: change citizenship or miss Olympics

26th November 2007

Upcoming gymnastics events in Beijing 1 reply

There are three upcoming events to be held in Beijing as part of the Good Luck Beijing warm event series for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

From November 28th to December 3rd the Artistic Gymnastics invitational will be held. The Trampoline Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament Competition will be held from November 30th to December 3rd and the Rhythmic Gymnastics International Invitational will be held from December 5th to December 7th 2007.

For the recent Good Luck Beijing events I have been to, it has been very easy to get tickets on the day as attendances have been fairly low. The events are a great way to see the new Olympic facilities, an international event for fairly low prices.

For more information on the events you can see the official website for the gymnastics events here.

Russia beats Spain in volleyball

Russia beat Spain in Fukuoka on Sunday: 25-21, 25-13, 25-15.

“Spain did not play as well as they did in the European championship. For us, this is the start of the second half of the World Cup and we were determined to start it with a win,” said Russian coach Vladimir Alekno.

“We kept the momentum. It was a very important match for this reason. Hopefully, we can keep our form right to the end,” he added.

The top three winning teams will go on to qualify to play at the Beijing Olympics.

Read more: Russia down Spain in vollebyall World Cup

In other games, Argentina defeated Puerto Rico 19-25, 22-25, 25-16, 25-21, 15-13, while Japan squeezed through to a 25-17, 19-25, 21-25, 25-23, 15-9 win over African champions Egypt.

In Okayama, world champions Brazil beat Australia 25-19, 25-19, 25-21 for a 5-1 win-loss record.

World bronze medallists Bulgaria whipped South Korea 25-20, 25-20, 25-19, while the United States outclassed Tunisia 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-17.

Bulgaria’s coach Martin Stoev said he was relieved to get his team back to winning ways after two straight defeats.

“Everything was good in today’s match but we probably could have done with a better points difference. It’s important because points could be a big factor in deciding the first three places,” said Stoev, whose team is lying in third place in the standings.

Russia are top, with Brazil second.

Australian cyclist says he is unstoppable

Australian cyclist Ryan Bayley has said that he will be “unstoppable” at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after winning a final in Melbourne, Australia.

Bayley won gold at the 2000 Athens Games. “I reckon with the way things have been going and the way (coach Martin Barras) has been talking about it … I think I’ve got a lot more in me to come in the next few months,” he said. “By the time Beijing comes around I’m going to be pretty unstoppable.”Bayley and his national teammates are building up to next week’s World Cup track round in Sydney.

Read more: Bayley’s bold Beijing prediction: ‘I’m unstoppable’

Australia’s hockey team prepares for Beijing in Malaysia

The Australian hockey team the ‘Kookaburras’ are playing in Kuala Lumpur this week. The temperature is 33 degrees centigrade with 85 per cent humidity.

Coach Barry Dancer said that the games should be a good opportunity to prepare for similar conditions for the Olympics next year in Beijing:

“Certainly the tournament we’re going to in Kuala Lumpur will have similar conditions of heat and humidity to Beijing so we’ll be using that to explore other conditions to prepare for the Olympics,” he said.

New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Spain will also be playing in the event.

Read more: Trophy to ready Kookaburras for heat of Olympic battle

Chinese runner insures his legs for US$13.3 million

Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang has insured his legs for a reported $US13.3 million.

“You can’t really put a concrete figure on this,” Liu was quoted as saying by the Beijing News newspaper. “They’re priceless,” Liu said.

Xiang won gold in the 110 meter hurdles at the 2000 Athens Games, set a new world record last year and won a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships. He is the hot favorite to win the event at next years Beijing Olympics.

Liu won the 110-metre hurdles at the 200 Athens Olympics, set a new world record of 12.88 seconds last year, and in August won gold at the World Athletics Championships.

Read more: Chinese Olympic hurdler’s legs insured for US$13.3 million ahead of Olympics

22nd November 2007

Final day of the 2007 International Invitational Boxing Tournament in Beijing

The warm-up boxing event for the Olympic Games and part of the Good Luck Beijing series finished today. The event was well run even though attendance was pretty low. Lots of volunteers were on hand and they were friendly and helpful even if they didn’t seem to have much to do, other than standing out in the cold.

I have been taking a subway sandwich each day I have been. The first day I could take drinks in, the next day my can of diet-coke was confiscated. Ok, no can drinks I thought. I bought a Gatorade today and I had to leave that at the entrance also. Felt thirsty later and went to the snack booth only to find that they weren’t selling any drinks at all, just a few Snicker’s bars. Seemed a bit strange to me. You would have thought it would have been pretty easy to get a sport’s drink company to sponsor such an event. Went to pick it up on the way out, only to find someone had drank most of it!

The most enthusiastic supporter awards go to Kazakhstan. I don’t know if they have a high number of people from the country living in China, but they were the most vocal and funny. Silver medal to the lone Mexican supporter who just started singing in Spanish during his countrymen’s fights. Bronze to the Chinese. Big in numbers, but lacking a little creativity and they just seemed a little too organized.

Anyway here is the final results. Videos to of the fights to come soon.

Butdee Chatchal from Thailand defeated Avila Braulio from Mexico in the flyweight 51 kg.

Raynell Williams from the United States defeated Santo Arturo from Mexico in the feather weight 57 kg.

Serik Yleuov from Kazakhstan defeated Ali Sadam from the United States in the the light weight 60 kg.

Ivanov Dmitry from Russia defeated Kanat Orakbayev from Kazakhstan in the 69 kg welter weight.

Daniel Price from England defeated Deontay Wilder from the US in a walk over in the 91 kg heavy weight. This was disappointing as I thought this would be most interesting bout on the card.

Denis Sergeev from Russia came back to beat Michael Hunter in the over 91 kg super heavy weight class.

medal presentation

Japan and South Korea qualify for Olympics

Japan and South Korea booked their berths into the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Japan drew with Saudi Arabia nil-all in Tokyo and South Korea Republic did the same with Bahrain in Seoul.

“We couldn’t play our game because of the Saudi attacks, but I was able to accomplish my mission,” said Japan Olympic coach Yasuharu Sorimachi.

“We once fell to the nether world after losing to Qatar, but it made us tougher, we became stronger mentally.”

Read more: Japan, Korea Republic join Olyroos


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