Trashed elbow

1. Noguchi Mizuki has pulled out of the marathon for girls, leaving me with little inclination to get up early Sunday and watch the wretched business. Noguchi's run in Athens was definitely the highlight for me of the last Olympics, sugaring the pill of Britain's favourite, Paula Radcliffe, weeping in the gutter like a despondent tramp.
(Radcliffe is competing with an injury this time - Mara Yamauchi might be Britain's best hope for a medal.)

2. I'm riven by the baseball. I don't object to it being an Olympic sport especially, but I think the format could use some change: the only non-American, non-East Asian country represented at the games is Holland, and I don't exactly anticipate them giving Japan a hiding this evening.

• Baseball could be a useful source of revenue for the games, revenue which in turn could be used for the development of other sports.


• Big-league players shouldn't be competing, otherwise it will be centuries before a European or African team have any chance of making the rostrum.


• If big-league players aren't allowed to compete, baseball's potential for generating revenue will decline sharply, but


• how big a slice of the pie are Ichiro et al getting for gracing us with their presence?


• Under the current situation, gold in the baseball is like winning the World baseball classic.

3. My quadrennial argument with students about the relative demerits of synchronised swimming is no more polished than it was four years ago.
DAN: "Kimochi warui!"

4. I don't have a worst-case scenario for the men's 100m at the moment, although I'm sure one will evolve before tomorrow evening. I think I'd be happy for any one of the three main contenders (Tyson Gay, USA; Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt, both Jamaican) to win. My slight preference would be for Powell who has shown a Colin Jackson-like inability to perform in major championships before.

5. Haile Gebrselassie is running in the 10,000 again. Homeboy's well past his prime and I was half-expecting him to have a tilt at the marathon. For anyone who doesn't know the name, there's always youtube-- the man's a legend.

6. I'm wearing my white "No Drugs" (nee "Smirnoff") wristband again. Let's keep it clean, folks!

Labels: NEWS