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5630. alistairconnor - 6/26/2007 5:48:29 PM So Alinghi rounds the last mark ahead, they have an 8à metre lead and they have the faster boat downwind... they just need to cover...
Unbefeckin'lievable! Ed Baird allows TNZ to get a kilometre of lateral separation, they pick a wind shift ant they're back in the race! 5631. alistairconnor - 6/26/2007 5:51:20 PM They are only a km from the finish, and more than a km apart! They will be converging on the finish line on opposit gybes...Anyone's race, the wind gods will decide. 5632. alistairconnor - 6/26/2007 5:55:45 PM I'm not going to say who won... watch it on TV if you can... A classic for the ages. 5633. wonkers2 - 6/26/2007 6:15:18 PM Great coverage. Now to my Tivo! 5634. alistairConnor - 6/26/2007 10:36:46 PM Woo! Americas Cup defender Ernesto Bertarelli is furious that the race was held at all in today's light, changeable conditions :
I didn’t come to the America’s Cup to do this sort of racing. It’s match racing at the end of the day. It’s not offshore racing where you just have to see whether the wind decides the regatta. I don’t think the wind should decide the regatta, the competitors should decide it on their ability. The wind should be way more stable than it was today for the race to take place. I’m sure for those who are watching it is exciting for sure, but you can go to Las Vegas for that. It’s not exactly what sailing should be about.
Boo fuckin' hoo. Heads will roll, mark my words.
5635. wonkers2 - 6/27/2007 12:57:32 AM Today's race was one of the most interesting America's Cup race in memory. The lead changed six times, with the sixth change coming at the finish when NZ came from behind to break into the lead 2-1. NZ blew a big lead at the first leeward mark when the spinnaker got sucked into the starboard jib fairlead. This mishap allowed Alinghi to pass NZ on the second windward leg. Very exciting racing. I bet the odds in Vegas now favor NZ. At least that's where I'd put my money, but not a whole lot. 5636. wonkers2 - 6/29/2007 9:40:58 PM NZ should have won today. They blew a big lead with a monumental spinnaker snafu. Now they trail 3-2. America's Cup--Alinghi leads 3-2 in best of nine series. 5637. alistairConnor - 6/30/2007 11:29:19 PM And today, after leading in the first two legs, NZ got overtaken near the top mark...
4-2. Alinghi have three match points. I can't see Team NZ coming back from there, I just hope they win tomorrow to keep the match alive. 5638. wabbit - 7/2/2007 12:24:14 AM  Jack Cust sat at his locker while most of his teammates chowed down at a table in the visitors locker room at Yankee Stadium. He sheepishly admitted to being tired after a rare full day in the field. Cust slugged his way to the finish Sunday, hitting a three-run homer in Oakland's seven-run second inning against Andy Pettitte and finishing with four RBIs in the Athletics' 11-5 victory over the slumping New York Yankees. Dan Haren (10-2) pitched 5 1-3 innings to win his career-best 10th straight decision and improve to 4-0 in seven career starts against the Yankees. He allowed a season-high five runs in his shortest outing since he lasted only five innings in a no-decision against New York on April 13.
Kameron Loe won his fourth consecutive start, and Michael Young had a pair of hits on Sunday to lead the Texas Rangers over the Boston Red Sox 2-1. Loe (5-6) allowed one run, six hits and two walks in six innings. He hasn't lost since being sent to Triple-A after winning just once in his first 15 starts; he was in the minors so briefly that he didn't have a chance to pitch there. Josh Beckett coughed up a four-run lead, giving up Sammy Sosa's 602nd career homer to break a fifth-inning tie as the Texas Rangers beat Boston 5-4 on Saturday night. The loss prevented Beckett (11-2) from keeping pace with C.C. Sabathia, who won his 12th game for Cleveland.
Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 585th homer Sunday, a three-run shot that left him one behind Frank Robinson for sixth on the career list. The 37-year-old outfielder reached for a down-and-away pitch from St. Louis left-hander Mike Maroth in the third inning and sent it off the base of the batter's eye in center field, his 22nd homer of the season. The Cincinnati Reds outfielder has been on a hitting tear since he overcame a broken left hand that wiped out most of his spring training and two other medical problems. He missed time in April with an inflamed digestive tract and inflammation around the lungs. Since June 1, Griffey has hit 11 homers and put himself in position for his 13th All-Star selection in the fan voting.
Mike Hargrove resigned as manager of the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, saying his "passion has begun to fade" for baseball even though his team is the hottest club in the majors. Hargrove was to manage Sunday's game against Toronto and will be succeeded by John McLaren, his bench coach. McLaren's first game as manager will be Monday against Kansas City. The Mariners have won seven straight games, and Hargrove's startling resignation came hours before the team tried to extend its longest winning streak in more than four years.
MLB scores
5639. wabbit - 7/2/2007 12:24:32 AM  Showers wiped out most action at the All England Club on Saturday, and it was drizzling when 2004 champion Maria Sharapova finally finished her 6-3, 6-3 victory despite the No. 26-seeded Ai Sugiyama's animated protests it was too slick to play. In the only other singles match completed, defending champion Amelie Mauresmo beat No. 28 Mara Santangelo of Italy 6-1, 6-2 in 57 minutes to reach the fourth round. Mauresmo's serve was right on target. She hit 11 aces. Playing serve-and-volley tennis more than half the time, she won the point on 10 of 11 trips to the net in the first set.
Seven men's and women's singles matches were suspended in progress, and seven men's matches were postponed entirely until Monday -- when the forecast calls for more precipitation. The two-week tournament traditionally takes the middle Sunday off, and while rain-created backlogs in the past forced organizers to schedule matches on that day -- most recently in 2004 -- the referee's office announced Saturday that wouldn't be necessary this year, even though five of six days so far have been interrupted.
Three-time champion Venus Williams has time to ponder her second-set struggles against 71st-ranked Akiko Morigami of Japan. Williams won the first set 6-2 but was trailing 1-4 in the next when play was halted. The winner meets Sharapova for a quarterfinal berth. In other matches carried over to Monday, French Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic, No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 11 Nadia Petrova, No. 12 Elena Dementieva and No. 14 Nicole Vaidisova each was up a set.
No. 7 Tomas Berdych took the first set of the only men's match that got under way. Among those who didn't play a point in their third-round matches Saturday: three-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal and 2002 Wimbledon winner Lleyton Hewitt. Roger Federer got a bye into Wimbledon's quarterfinals when his fourth-round opponent, Tommy Haas, withdrew from the tournament Sunday with a torn stomach muscle. The 13th-seeded Haas and four-time defending champion Federer were scheduled to play in the fourth round Monday.
Vehicle blockers were set up in front of gates to the All England Club on Sunday as part of efforts to tighten security at Wimbledon after two foiled car bombings in London and a fiery attack on Glasgow's airport. Tournament organizers already had stepped up measures in recent days, including more stringent searches of bags carried by people onto the grounds.
Wimbledon
5640. alistairconnor - 7/2/2007 5:13:27 PM The Tour de France kicks off on Saturday with the prologue in central London. (Official site)
Jörg Jaksche has joined the whistleblowers team : Jaksche said that he had used drugs throughout his nine-year career, which included spells at the Polti, Telekom, CSC and Oncé teams. During the 1998 Tour de France the French police seized the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), growth hormone and steroids from the Festina team; according to Jaksche his Polti team, sponsored by a manufacturer of home appliances, appropriately hid their supply of EPO in a vacuum cleaner.
This year's favourite Alexander Vinokourov comments that "it is easy to be a witness when there is a fat cheque at the end of it", a reference to the fact that the German is apparently being paid for his story (by German paper Der Spiegel). Which is true enough, but doesn't actually undermine the credibility of the story.
So, will this year's tour be dope-free?
Does a bear use a public toilet? 5641. alistairconnor - 7/3/2007 3:13:59 PM OK so the Americas Cup stays in Europe.
Race isn't over yet -- another twenty minutes or so -- but Alinghi are clear out in front, and Team NZ copped a penalty in an astonishing kamikaze move -- they call it a dial-down -- at the top mark.
Oh well. I'd just like to point out that Alinghi are my home team, based in Geneva just a couple of hours' drive east of here. 5642. alistairconnor - 7/3/2007 3:36:31 PM Goddam! Just when you thought it was over...
The Swiss seem to have buggered themselves with the spinnaker pole, a few hundred metres out from the line. While they are flapping around helplessly under a flaccid kite, Team NZ powers past, and gets an 80 metre lead before Alinghi are powered up again. The Kiwis do their penalty turn... they are still ahead, a few metres out from the line, but downspeed... will they make it?
I'm not going to tell you. 5643. wonkers2 - 7/4/2007 4:28:10 PM NZ lost by one second. Alinghi wins the Cup! 5644. alistairConnor - 7/6/2007 11:46:57 PM  Marion Bartoli knocks out Justine Henin, world number one, to reach the Wimbledon final, and deny her opponent a Grand Slam.
She's only number three in France, number 19 in the world ranking... but her unorthodox style had Henin struggling and gasping in disbelief. She was touched by grace today, a sensational match.
She'll be playing Venus in the final tomorrow...
All round good day for France : Richard Gasquet knocks out Andy Roddick, gaining the honour of losing to Federer tomorrow in the semi-final.
5645. wabbit - 7/7/2007 12:27:43 AM  I missed most of the tennis today and was sorry to see that Marcos Baghdatis lost. I was rooting for him to get through one more round. And although Alistair beat me to this post, here it is anyway.
There were a couple upsets today at Wimbledon. Andy Roddick blew a two-set lead and lost to Richard Gasquet in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Gasquet came back from a two-set deficit for the first time in his career to knock off the No. 3 Roddick 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3), 8-6 and move on to a semifinal against four-time defending champion Roger Federer. Roddick had won 18 consecutive tiebreakers before losing the third set. Roddick and Gasquet finished with the same number of unforced errors, 29 apiece, but Gasquet compiled a 93-60 edge in winners, including 18 passing shots.
Justine Henin will have to wait another year to try to complete a career Grand Slam after being stunned in the women's semifinals by Marion Bartoli, who will face Venus Williams in Saturday's final. Williams, a three-time Wimbledon champion, beat No. 6 Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-4. Bartoli ran Henin around the court over the final two sets, using incredible accuracy to come back from a set and break down to win 1-6, 7-5, 6-1. The No. 31 Williams and the No. 20 Bartoli are the two lowest-ranked women to reach the Wimbledon final since the computer rankings began in 1975.
Joining Gasquet and No. 1 Federer in the semifinals were No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 4 Novak Djokovic. Alistair, what do you think of Gasquet's chances against Federer?
5646. alistairConnor - 7/7/2007 12:35:03 AM When did Federer last lose anything important?
About nil, but I'm usually wrong. 5647. wabbit - 7/7/2007 7:42:45 AM Hey, maybe Federer has some kind of mental block with French tennis? But I agree with you, I don't see him losing. The Nadal/Djokovic should be fun to watch. 5648. iiibbb - 7/7/2007 5:27:40 PM Le Tour starts today. I'm excited even though I'm still pissed about last year.
Regarding Landis, at the end of the day I'm more sure that the French Lab should be shut down, than Landis is guilty, and both may be true. 5649. wabbit - 7/7/2007 11:41:16 PM  Winning Wimbledon never gets old. Venus Williams giggled as she clutched the championship trophy against her chest, threw back her head and whooped at the sky. Williams won tennis' most prestigious tournament for the fourth time Saturday, beating surprising finalist Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-1. It was Williams' sixth Grand Slam title, and her first since winning Wimbledon in 2005. She was also the champion at the All England Club in 2000 and 2001. At No. 31, Williams became the lowest-ranked women's winner in Wimbledon history. Plagued in recent years by injuries that sent her ranking sliding, she rediscovered her championship form this week on the surface that always seems to inspire her best efforts.
Not as great a match as I had hoped. Novak Djokovic tried to grin and bear it against the relentless Rafael Nadal with a bad toe plus a bothersome lower back, not to mention sheer exhaustion from playing on a sixth consecutive day thanks to rain interruptions. He also stopped during his 2006 French Open quarterfinal against Nadal, and lost in three sets to the Spaniard in this year's semifinals at Roland Garros. Nadal, of course, has won three French Opens in a row, something no one had done since Borg. Now, like his rival Roger Federer, Nadal is chasing Borg again, trying to become the first man to win at Roland Garros and the All England Club in the same year since the Swede did it every year from 1978-80. But Federer stands in Nadal's way, just as Nadal stands in Federer's.
Federer beat No. 12 Richard Gasquet of France 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 in a semifinal that was competitive for a set. Here's how relaxed Federer was against Gasquet, a 21-year-old playing in his first Grand Slam semifinal. In addition to taking time to enjoy Bjorn Borg's presence, Federer also glanced at the scoreboard during changeovers, keeping track of what was happening in Nadal-Djokovic. Federer is so talented on the court and so universally well-liked off it that Borg said Saturday he wouldn't mind seeing the Swiss star equal his 1976-80 reign at Wimbledon.
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