Saturday, August 30, 2008

Two-time defending champ hopes to solve the big oval tracks

FONTANA, Calif. -- Aiming to build some momentum heading into NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, Jimmie Johnson got off to a good start Friday, winning the pole at Auto Club Speedway.

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Jimmie Johnson

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Jimmie Johnson claimed his fourth pole of the season at California, and hopes it's a momentum boost going into the Chase.

The two-time reigning Cup champion was easily the fastest driver on the 2-mile oval in qualifying for Sunday's Pepsi 500, turning a fast lap of 180.397 mph.

"I'm really very proud of that lap," said Johnson, the defending race winner.

For much of the session, it appeared that the front row would be all Hendrick Motorsports, with Jeff Gordon sitting in the second spot with a lap of 179.565. But A.J. Allmendinger, one of nine drivers who had to qualify on speed, elbowed his way between the teammates with a lap of 179.659.

Kasey Kahne was fourth at 179.158, followed by Gillett Evernham Motorsports teammates Patrick Carpentier at 178.860 and Elliott Sadler at 178.492. Rounding out the top 10 were Martin Truex Jr. at 178.434, Dave Blaney at 178.381, Kurt Busch at 178.165 and rookie Aric Almirola at 178.134.

For Johnson, it was his first pole at the Southern California track, but the series-leading fourth of the season and the 17th of his career.

Heading into the penultimate race of the "regular season," Johnson is fourth in the season points. But, based on his two victories this year, he currently would be the third seed in the Chase, trailing only eight-time winner Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, a six-time winner this season.

And Busch and Edwards have been the story lately, with Edwards winning three of the last four races and Busch turning in a win and a pair of runner-up finishes during the same span.

Johnson knows he has a lot of work to do if he is going to beat those two hot drivers once the Chase gets going. And a win here on Sunday would be a great way to gain some momentum.

"Yeah, it would mean a lot for us to win on a big track like this," Johnson said before his qualifying run. "Mile and a half and above tracks and downforce tracks have been kind of our weak spot.

"We've been making a lot of gains. Hopefully, we made some gains that will help us this weekend and moving into the Chase."

Friday, August 29, 2008

Josh Beckett was diagnosed with a strained right elbow

Josh Beckett was diagnosed with a strained right elbow and was placed on the 15-day disabled list Friday, retroactive to Aug. 18.

The announcement was made prior to the Red Sox's game Friday night against the Chicago White Sox. Tests on Beckett's elbow, taken during his visit with Dr. James Andrews on Friday, were clean, according to manager Terry Francona.

"I don't trust anybody more than I trust him when it comes to stuff like that. Just to go down there and hear it from him. It's something I needed to do, just to clear my mind," Beckett said. "He said my ligament looked fine. That's what I was afraid of. ... It was a big relief."

Francona said that if things progress, he expected Beckett to be ready next week for the series opener against the Rangers in Texas.

US OPEN LATEST news

NEW YORK -- Third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia lost in the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday, making a slew of errors to hand the match 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-3 to an aggressive Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.


Kuznetsova, who clinched the 2004 title and was last year's runner-up, was the second big name to tumble out of the tournament in two days. Top seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia lost her second-round match on Thursday.

Kuznetsova said 28th seed Srebotnik, who has never gone beyond the third round at the U.S. Open, had played an "unbelievable" game.

"She played her top game," Kuznetsova said. "I didn't play bad. She just played her best game and I was not at my good level.

"I was fighting and I wanted so much to win that match. She served very well, she came to the net many times, she was more aggressive than I was," she said.

The first set went with serve until the eighth game, when a couple errors from Kuznetsova handed 28th seed Srebotnik a break and a chance to serve for the set. She wrapped it up with a solid game including an ace, one of six in the first set.

Kuznetsova played a commanding tiebreak in the second, winning it 7-1, but stuttered again in the third set.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

EASY WIN FOR ENGLAND !

Broad claimed five for 23 in a 10-over new-ball spell to help dismiss South Africa for a lowly 83 and secure England's emphatic triumph by 5.35pm in a match billed as a day-night international.

Those figures were the best of his own career, the fifth best by an England player and completely humiliated a South African side who were briefly rated as the best side in the world earlier this year by dismissing them for the second lowest total in their history.

His performance capped another impressive display by an England side galvanised by the appointment of Kevin Pietersen as captain, who is yet to taste defeat since his unveiling after winning the final Test and the opening game of this five-match series at Headingley on Friday.

South Africa's challenge was undermined from the start with Broad given the new ball from the Pavilion End and removed South Africa's leading three batsmen inside the first three overs to set the tone for the remainder of the innings.

Sensing an emphatic triumph, Pietersen went for the kill and brought all-rounder Andrew Flintoff into the attack, who accelerated South Africa's demise by winning an lbw appeal against AB de Villiers with a ball which jagged back into his pads.

Flintoff's hostility also accounted for Mark Boucher, who became the latest of many South African batsmen to edge behind, while Broad followed up by claiming his final wicket in his last over.

Monday, August 25, 2008

The France team celebrates after winning the Men's Handball gold

France takes first-ever Handball gold

The French closed down Iceland's trademark shooting, and whenever Iceland found a gap they were denied by goalkeeper Thierry Omeyer, who saved an incredible 49 percent of all shots and made the Olympic Games All Star Team.

By comparison, Iceland goalkeeper Bjorgvin Pall Gustavsson saved just 36 percent, and his job was made harder by Iceland's suffering defense.

Left-back Nikola Karabatic fired one sharp shot after another, either straight over or straight through Iceland's defense, netting eight goals for France from nine attempts.

Center-back Bertrand Gille (FRA) effortlessly burst through Iceland's defense, scoring four out of five shots from the 6m line.

The match remained close for only 13 minutes, when France netted five goals in a row to take a 9-4 lead, and from then on France were too strong for the Icelandic men.

France steadily increased their lead throughout the second half as Iceland started missing passes, letting France get away with easy steals.

Iceland did have the most fast breaks in the game, but only managed to score from five of 11.

Iceland's attack suffered most from the lack of goals from leading scorer Snorri Steinn Gudjonsson (ISL), as the French blocking restricted him to two goals. The French also succeeded in neutralizing pivot Robert Gunnarsson (ISL), who only got in two shot attempts in the entire game.

A rare success for the Icelandic team was right-back Olafur Stefansson (ISL), who put five shots past goalkeeper Omeyer.

France started celebrating when they went nine goals ahead with six minutes left, and with less than a minute remaining Iceland settled for an Olympic silver medal.

Traditional boxing powerhouse Cuba failed to win a gold medal

Traditional boxing powerhouse Cuba failed to win a gold medal, the first time that it hasn't won a gold medal in boxing since the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. Cuba boycotted the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games.

Prior to Beijing 2008, several champion Cuban boxers pulled out of Cuba's Olympic squad. Despite having an inexperienced squad, Cuba still managed to win eight medals, including four silver medals.

"They (the Cuban boxing team) came here with no experience, and they've won eight medals. No gold, but nobody was expecting more than one or two medals at all for us. Now we have not only eight medals, but also a team with Olympic experience ready to start preparing for the next Olympics," said Cuba's boxing coach Pedro Roque.

While Cuba saw its boxing fortunes decline, China not only won its first-ever boxing gold medal, but it won two gold medals on the same day.

Before the Games had begun, light-flyweight Zou Shiming was expected to win his country's first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sport. Despite the intense pressure, Zou boxed well throughout the whole tournament, culminating in today's win against Mongolia's Serdamba Purevdorj in the final.

Zhang Xiaoping's gold medal in the light-heavyweight class came as a surprise. Zhang defeated Ireland's Kenny Egan in the final 11-7.

Despite Purevdorj's loss against Zou, Mongolia will be very happy at its performance. Apart from the silver medal in the light-flyweight class, the small Asian country also won a gold medal in the bantamweight class when Badar-Uugan Enkhbat defeated Yankiel Leon Alarcon of Cuba.

The other traditional boxing powerhouse that was conspicuously absent from the top of the podium was the United States, who only managed to win one medal – the bronze medal that Deontay Wilder won in the heavyweight class.