Sports : life magnified

Another centimetre added to the world pole vault record and she says:

I don’t know how high I can jump, maybe 5.10 or even 5.15. I just don’t know my potential

It is the 14th time the 23 year old has broken the record and the slower she reaches her potential, the better it is for her. Why? because the Olympic champion receives a $50,000 bonus each time she breaks a world record. So whats the great hurry!

Sergei Bubka beat the record 35 times. And she has set herself to beat that number.

25-14= 21 times $50,000=$1,050,000!

If that comes along with the olympic medals, why not!

If the Windies cricketing problem is pathetic, F1 is no less. The latest fiasco regarding driver safety, arising out of Indianapolis opens a can of worms.

Coulthard:

Coulthard said: “All these rules - qualifying, single lap and 10-place penalty - they are not designed to wreck races but they have.”

Is the safety concerns of the drivers of paramount importance? Yes.
Do we need another fall out in F1? No.

The best thing would be to resolve the issues fast but that is unlikely to happen.

The 4th stage couldnt be more contrasting for race leader uptill the 3rd stage, Zabriskie race leader after the 4th stage, Armstrong. With a little more than a kilometer to go to the finish, Zabriskie crashed, fell and lost precious time.

If he had crashed within the last km, according to the rule he could take the time of the last rider of his team in the TTT. Armstrong and the Discovery Team, strongest in the trials, proved exactly that and more as the official web site of the letour reports:

The Discovery Channel team has set the fastest average speed for a team time trial in the Tour de France. The nine riders finished the 67.5km course in one hour, 10 minutes and 39 seconds. The average speed is 57.31km/h - eclipsing the previous best (that of Gewiss-Ballan from 1995 - 54.930km/h).

The question every one is asking is how Armstrong’s body will cope next week in the mountains. We will see.

One after the other former Indian test players are dying which is an unfortunate coincidence. After the recent demise of Eknath Solkar, Baloo Gupte has now passed away.

Gupte played 3 tests for India with an ordinary record but, as cricinfo reports:

He was a colossal presence in the domestic circuit, when he played for Mumbai, Bengal, and Railways, and one of the leading wicket-takers in the Ranji Trophy of his time (he finished with 255 Ranji wickets at 23.47). His 9 for 55 for West Zone against South Zone in the 1962-63 Duleep Trophy final is still the best in the competition. He ended with 417 wickets in 99 first-class games at an average of 24.88, including a staggering 26 five-wickets hauls and five ten-wicket hauls.

Gupte spoke with cricinfo a few years ago and here is a rare interview with the man.

Condolences to his family.

So Barcelona will have a small trip to Holland before the Asia tour. They have got Van Bommel and the side surely has a stronger look to it. how do you guarantee the side will remain strong for a long period now?

You get Samuel Eto’o to sign a contract till 2010. If that is not enough, you get Lionel Messi, one of the stars of Argenitina’s win in the under 20 World Cup into the first XI.

It is certainly difficult to break into the first XI of the Barca team but Lopez in a game last season showed how stars can emerge. Messi joined the club at age 14, progressing through the teams and his contract runs till 2012. He is one of the best examples of the Barca youth system.

From the Official Barca site:

At 13 years, Lionel Messi crossed the Atlantic to try his luck at FC Barcelona, joining the club as an under 14 player. Since then, Messi has progressed spectacularly through the different youth categories (Under 14 A, Under 16 B, Under 16 A, Under 18 A, Barça C and Barça B) in record time. During the 2003-2004 season, aged just 16, Messi’s dream came true when he played with the first team in a friendly with Porto to celebrate the inauguration of the Portuguese side’s new stadium. In the 2004-05 season he joined the first team on its ‘On Tour Asia 2004′ trip.