• Injured pair return;Hockey

• Injured pair return;Hockey

• Pendleton leads the charge as Britons eye gold rush;Cycling Track World Championships;Factbox

• Cuba to provide Britain's Beijing hopefuls with ultimate warm up;Boxing;Fa ctbox

• Coaches start to cry foul after success of supersuit;Swimming

• Let's hear it for the boy: Daley sets out platform for Olympic success;Div ing Britain's golden prodigy;Interview;Tom Daley;Factbox

• Drugs policy will help Britain to clean up;Special report Cycling

• IOC caution on Tibet;Olympic Games 2008

• Kluft's Beijing defection brings an end to the fun and Games;Heptathlon;Athletics;Opinion

• Growing appeal of London on the buses;UK Business

• Artist sues his bank over investments that lost a fortune

• The new world order;Mark Atherton's ISA Insight;Emerging Markets;Investmen t

• Faiths competing for most visibility at Olympic venue

• Wanted lists and a news blackout as crackdown builds;Tibet

• Youthful Daley takes plunge on big stage;Swimming;European Championships

• Why I don't back a Beijing boycott;Comment;Opinion

• The Tibet solution is under China's nose;Comment;Opinion

• Right now all the torch represents is China - the sport comes later;Olympi cs

• Inflamed passions as symbol of peace prepares to travel across troubled globe;Olympics;Factbox

• Hoy's big wheels keep on turning as he sets off in pursuit of another gold;Special report Road to Beijing

• Hopes of an Olympic hat-trick take dive for Van den Hoogenband;Swimming;European Championships

• Funding strategy 'threatens medals goal';Olympic Games

• Andrew plans meeting with Johnson to discuss role with England;Rugby union

• Top hardliner sounds call for 'life or death struggle' to quell uprising

• Times men prove to be a knockout at the Oscars of sports journalism; Sport s Journalists' Association awards

• Tough regime expected to make Britain's medal hopes fit for purpose in Qingdao;Sailing

• Next stop Beijing for traveller proud of his roots;Special report; Boxing;Interview;Billy Joe Saunders

• Police want mugshot database for Games

• Olympic Games in Beijing;Comment;Opinion

• Australia dictate terms but given Wembley finale;Rugby Union

• Olympic hopeful fined Pounds 1,000 for abusing fellow competitor;Equestria nism

• Tibetan prisoners are paraded on trucks as China tightens its grip

• Blatter threat to Britain;Football;The Debate;The Columnist;Talking point;Opinion

• If you haven't got a head for admin, it's best not to stray;Column

• Olympic site 'will attract prostitutes';Factbox

• Defiant people yearn for the 'political monk in Gucci shoes';Tibet

• Rivals line up in the race to bring you Olympic Games on your mobile;UK Bu siness

• China faces crisis as world leaders call for restraint;Tibet

• Kwakye awake to possibilities of ending the embarrassment

• Tibet turmoil spreads as more monks join the fray

• Gebrselassie caveat;Olympic games

• 'We can help China change';Interview;Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron;A rts

• Health before glory;Haile Gebrselassie;The face

• Judge R. S. Pathak;Lives Remembered;The register

• Dreams do come true;Over to you;Letter

• Blatter's muscle-flexing;The Continent;Football

• Blatter strongly against Great Britain 2012 team;News in brief;The News;Fo otball

• China says it has foiled Olympic terror threat

• Chance to be Chancellor;Budget 2008;UK Business

• Radio Choice;Radio Friday 14;TV & Radio

• Sotherton and Kwayke make it a close-run thingfor Britons;Athletics World Indoor Championships

• Wenger rounds on 'cheats' after taunts from Mourinho over lack of silverware;Football

• Haye must not let himself get stuck in cruise control;Boxing;Haye v Maccar inelli

• Winning incentive;Swimming

• Watch the big match in 3-D and you'll know how Jonny feels

• Jobless miners shooting rats for the barbecue? Meet the Ch'tis;Corresponde nts

• Are you sure you're the person you think you are?;Comment;Opinion

• Captivated by thrill of watching fallen giants get up off the floor to ris e again;Comment;Opinion

• Terracotta tourists safe after hostage siege

• They shot us, we beat them;Film;Screen

• Brown supports attempt to stop Zimbabwe's tour;Cricket

• Test results give Pistorius reason for optimism in race for Beijing;Athlet ics

• Architects defend their work for Chinese Olympics

• Radcliffe sees Beijing as best chance to bury bad memories;Athletics

• Jowell outlines details of action plan for legacy of London 2012;Olympic G ames

• Saunders gets back on track to qualify for Beijing Games;Boxing

• Britain thrash Mexico as Olympic campaign gets off to a flyer;Hockey

• Andrew Macfarlane;Business big shot;UK Business

• Qualified success as Britain punch weight for Beijing;Boxing

• Britain punching weight in Olympic qualification;Boxing

• Coe lines up Ferguson to take charge of British Olympic side;Football;Excl usive

• Great Britain team still at the mercy of Celtic fears;Football;Factbox

• England's full hand push for Beijing;Boxing

• Britons make splash;Swimming

• Beijing tests possible;Drugs in sport;Olympic Games 2008

• Tomlinson primed for a good, clean fight in approach to Beijing summit;Athletics;Factbox

• BAA chief quits amid debt problems at airports group;Factbox

• Enter the Dragon en route to the Bird's Nest;Factbox

• Knight's tale moves from South London shed to the Albert Hall;Table tennis;Factbox

• Williamson confirmed in support role to Chambers;Athletics

• Dragon Tongue Squad;Pop;Music;First Night

• Counting the cost of staging the Greatest Show on Earth;Monday manifesto;Interview;John Armitt;Factbox

• Cats are out as Beijing starts to preen itself

• Royal smile veils ruthless desire to rule the world;The big interview;Zara Phillips;Profile;Equestrianism

• Bong! And finally, torch still flickers for Christie;Olympic Games 2008;Comment;Opinion

• Games torch relay invite to Christie sparks anger;Olympic Games

• Forget citius, altius, fortius. Sport's new motto is fitter, bigger, bette r ... richer;Opinion

• Arts struggle to compete for Olympic cash

• US athletes plan to dodge the food rules for Olympics

• Phillips prepares for Olympics in Portugal;Equestrianism

• My drugs test confirms IOC must bulk up to win fight against cheats;Olympi c Games;Factbox

• Chinese inflation soars to an 11-year high

• Boycotting the Beijing games may save Darfur;Letter

• Boycotting the Beijing games may save Darfur;Letter

• Moses backs Olympic ban for competitors guilty of drug offences;Athletics

• How watching Power Rangers kicked life into young Briton's Olympic hopes;Taekwondo;Factbox

• Court Circular;The register

• Kluft runs gauntlet of fear over spiked drinks and an innocence lost;Athletics;Factbox

• Skelton hit by Olympic heat;Equestrianism

• Activists to turn torch's global journey into a path of protest;Olympics d ispute

• Court Circular;The Register

Sport

Injured pair return;Hockey

77 字

2008 年 3 月 26 日

The Times

T

77

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
Rachel Walker, the Olton midfield player, and Jo Ellis, the Ipswich forward, have regained their places in the Great Britain squad for the three matches against Ireland in Dublin this weekend. Walker, 28, missed the tour to Australia in February after wrist surgery and Ellis, 26, returned home when she suffered a collapsed lung. The matches are part of Britain's build-up to the Olympic Games.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080326e43q0003l

Sport

Pendleton leads the charge as Britons eye gold rush;Cycling Track World Championships;Factbox

Jeremy Whittle

1,188 字

2008 年 3 月 26 日

The Times

T

76

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
* Hopes are high for the host nation as the world's best track specialists congregate in Manchester, Jeremy Whittle reports
Gold medals should never be taken for granted, but Great Britain's cyclists are expected to dominate the 2008 Track Cycling World Championships, which begin at the Manchester velodrome this afternoon.
Since the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, Team GB have established themselves as the leading nation in track racing. With the Beijing Olympics only four months away, and with a partisan home crowd behind them, their wealth of talent promises unprecedented success over the next five days.
In most of the disciplines Britain have a medal contender and in seven events the team are defending a world title. In Majorca last spring, as Team GB won 11 medals in the 2007 World Championships, their rivals were flummoxed.
Even so, many are in Manchester hoping to reverse the trend of British domination in the last meaningful confrontation before the Beijing Games. But if home advantage was was not enough, Team GB can also rely on the experience and talent of riders such as Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Victoria Pendleton, as well as the rapid progression of a clutch of younger challengers.
It says much for the coaching and management skills of David Brailsford, the Team GB performance director, that there has been so much success in track racing in Britain. The foundation for this was laid by Jason Queally's gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and then consolidated, four years later in Athens, by Hoy and Wiggins.
But Brailsford's strongest suit lies in his ability to unearth and mentor new talent. The fresh-faced Pendleton, in particular, is unrecognisable from the frail and uncertain athlete who froze with nerves on her Olympic debut in 2004. The 27-year-old from Bedfordshire, who is a multiple world champion, has transformed herself into Team GB's golden girl, even daringly posing naked on her bike for the cover of one British magazine.
Pendleton is not the only woman likely to shine this week. Shanaze Reade and Rebecca Romero are talked of as potential Olympic medal-winners after a short but intense education in track racing. Reade, a world champion in BMX racing, paired up with Pendleton to win a gold medal in the women's team sprint in the World Championships last year, despite having raced on the track for only two months.
Yet it is Romero who best epitomises Team GB's alchemic qualities. A silver medal-winner in rowing at the Athens Olympics, she has made a remarkably seamless transition to track cycling, taking less than two seasons to win another silver medal, this time in last year's World Championships. Then, in February, Romero, 28, beat Sarah Hammer, the world pursuit champion from the United States, in the Copenhagen round of the World Cup series.
Reade will compete in today's 500-metre time-trial and in tomorrow's women's team sprint, while Romero tackles tomorrow's individual pursuit and Friday's women's team pursuit, a discipline making its debut in the World Championships. Like Pendleton, both women are feared by their rivals. They have quickly become the riders to beat, athletes motivated solely by the thought of world titles and Olympic gold medals.
They are not alone in that respect. Hoy's conversion from disillusioned kilometre time-trial champion - the Scot will be unable to defend his Olympic "kilo" title after the event was surprisingly dropped from the Beijing programme to make way for new events - to world-beating keirin rider has been remarkable. "The loss of the kilo from the Olympic Games was frustrating," Hoy said. "I do miss it, but unfortunately, with it not being in the Olympic programme, I have to focus on events that are."
Demonstrating the pragmatism that characterises Brailsford and his athletes, Hoy changed tack. He is concentrating on three track events - the keirin, individual sprint and team sprint - that offer him the prospect of world titles and Olympic gold medals. "The World Championships are a significant stepping stone, but Beijing is always going to be the big one," he said. "I expect to be in the form of my life for Beijing, although in Manchester I won't be far off it."
Hoy, a world, Commonwealth and Olympic title-holder, is a reliable performer, even down to his traditional pre-championships crash. The 32-year-old's rear tyre exploded while training at the Manchester velodrome last week, although he was not seriously hurt. Such spills are usually a good omen. Hoy also crashed in the athletes' village in 2004, but went on to win Olympic gold.
Yet the threat of this year's World Championships becoming a Brit-fest will be tempered by the presence of other Beijing hopefuls, who, like Team GB, are fine-tuning their squads before August's all-important showdown. The presence of past world champions such as Ryan Bailey, of Australia, Theo Bos, of the Netherlands, Hammer, Juan Llaneras, of Spain, and Arnaud Tournant, of France, will ensure that the medals are spread around.
In the team pursuit, Britain will face strong opposition from Australia, the Netherlands and France, even if, according to Wiggins, the host nation's four man squad are racing "as fast as I have ever seen them". Wiggins, one of the team who took the world title in Majorca, said: "I think we'll be faster than we were at the worlds last year. If ever there is an occasion to do it, it's here."
With the days ticking by until his athletes board their flight to Beijing, Brailsford will surely agree.
FIVE RACES IN WHICH HOME RIDERS SHOULD THRIVE
* Today: Men's 4,000-metre individual pursuit Bradley Wiggins, right, has suffered illness and the death of his father in the build-up to these World Championships, but the world and Olympic champion remains the outstanding track pursuit rider of his generation.
*Tomorrow: Men's team pursuit
Is any other track discipline so spectacular? Great Britain's four pursuit riders, led by Wiggins, need to assert themselves over their rivals, particularly the Australia team, if they are to make themselves the nation to beat in Beijing.
* Friday: Men's sprint Power and controlled aggression in an explosive effort that will take riders such as Chris Hoy from
0-60 (kilometres per hour, that is) in less than ten seconds. Hoy has high hopes for gold, but Theo Bos, the defending world champion from the Netherlands, will make him work hard for success.
* Saturday: Women's sprint Backed by Anna Blyth and Jessica Varnish, the teenagers, Victoria Pendleton will set out to try to retain her world title against strong opposition, including Natalia Tsylinskaya, of Belarus.
* Sunday: Women's keirin Pendleton will again be looking to retain her world title, with Blyth and Varnish in supporting roles, against Shuang Guo, of China, her nearest World Championship rival a year ago.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080326e43q0003i

Sport

Cuba to provide Britain's Beijing hopefuls with ultimate warm up;Boxing;Fa ctbox

Ron Lewis

730 字

2008 年 3 月 26 日

The Times

T

75

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
Great Britain's Olympic hopefuls will be given a tough test before their trip to Beijing this summer after Cuba accepted an invitation for a full international match in London in May. Britain's progress in the past year means that, with one qualifying event remaining, they have seven representatives at this summer's Games - two more than their combined total in the past three Olympics - but no nation can hold a candle to Cuba in terms of Olympic success in the ring.
Cuba have finished top of the medals table in all but one of the Olympics they have attended since 1972 - the only time they did not was in Montreal in 1976, when they were denied by a United States squad that included the Spinks brothers, Leon and Michael, and Ray Leonard.
The match is likely to take place on May 30 at Goresbrook Leisure Centre in Dagenham, East London, a short distance from ExCeL, which will host the boxing at the London Games in 2012. By then, Terry Edwards, the Britain head coach, believes that the home nation could be matching Cuba.
"With one tournament to go, Cuba have qualified eight boxers and we have qualified seven," Edwards said. "Last time, Cuba had a full team (of 11 boxers) and we had one - that shows how far we have come. By 2012, we could be the new Cuba.
"This success hasn't happened overnight. The young lads who are going to Beijing have been in our development programme for a number of years and the funding we have received from UK Sport has enabled us to level out the playing field with some of the traditionally stronger nations.
"I've been involved in amateur boxing for 30 years, I know the standard that is needed and we are right up there now. I'm optimistic we can still get a full team to Beijing and then do well there. These boys had the dream of getting to the Olympic Games, now we've got to get them on the podium."
Cuba won eight medals, including five golds, in Athens in 2004, but have suffered a string of defections in the past 12 months. This led to them boycotting last November's World Championships in Chicago, where England won three medals, including their first gold, thanks to Frankie Gavin, the lightweight.
Britain's last chance to assemble a full team for Beijing comes at a tournament in Athens next month, when among those competing in the four remaining weight divisions available are two Commonwealth Games gold-medal winners - David Price, the super-heavyweight, and Stephen Smith, the featherweight.
Price, who is rated as a strong gold-medal hope if he can qualify for Beijing, is unlucky not to have already guaranteed his place. He had to pull out of the World Championships because of a broken hand before his quarter-final, when he might have booked his place in China. At the second qualifying event, in Italy last month, he stopped his first three opponents before being controversially outpointed, despite being ahead on three of the five judges' scorecards. His opponent was then thrown out of the tournament for being ineligible, but organisers drew lots to choose his replacement, rather than give the spot to Price, and the 6ft 8in Liverpudlian missed out.
"David was very disappointed," Edwards said. "But this team is like a band of brothers and they all rallied around him. He's raring to go now."
After the Athens qualifier, Britain will compete in a multinations tournament in Helsinki before a week-long trip to a holding camp in Macau. The match against Cuba will come at the end of a training camp in London, which will allow the team to train alongside the Cubans, as well as boxers from France and Bulgaria.
BY THE NUMBERS
* 32 Number of Olympic gold medals in boxing won by Cuba since 1972
* 1 Olympic gold medal won by Britain since 1972 - Audley Harrison, super heavyweight, 2000
* 2 Cuban three-times Olympic champions: Teofilo Stevenson, heavyweight, 1972, 1976, 1980; Felix Savon, heavyweight, 1992, 1996, 2000
* 7 Cubans who have won at least two Olympic titles
* 1 British two-times Olympic champion: Harry Mallin, 1920 and 1924
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080326e43q0003d

Sport

Coaches start to cry foul after success of supersuit;Swimming

Craig Lord

521 字

2008 年 3 月 26 日

The Times

T

73

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
When Stephanie Rice, of Australia, stopped the clock at 2min 8.92sec to make herself the favourite to win the 200metres individual medley crown at the Olympic Games in Beijing, she took the number of world records established in the pool over the past five weeks to 14.
The run of world-best times coincides with the launch of the Speedo LZR Racer suit, which has been worn in 13 of the 14 world records established since February 16, the week the much-debated technological breakthrough was unleashed on the world. Some coaches have referred to the suit as "technology doping" and some are calling for Speedo to drop the bonded seams that have been developed with technology from Nasa, the American space agency.
It is not only the number of records being broken that has raised eyebrows. When Wu Yanyan, of China, recorded 2:09.72 to set a world 200 metres medley record in 1997, the world cried foul. And so it proved: Wu was suspended for steroid abuse. No one came close for ten years, until Katie Hoff, of the United States, won the world title in 2:10.05 a year ago in a race in which Rice collected bronze in 2:11.42. Now 19, Rice was expected to make progress this year, but at Olympic trials in Sydney, her improvements to world records in the 200 metres and 400 metres medley have exceeded expectations.
In the 400 metres medley, Rice's 4:31.46 shaved six seconds off her best and was nine seconds inside the time she swam to win silver behind Hoff's 4:32.89 - a world record at the time - at the World Championships in March last year. Yesterday at the trials in Sydney, Eamon Sullivan, 22, rattled the four-day old 100 metres freestyle world record of Alain Bernard, the 24-year-old Frenchman, with a time of 47.55sec in the semi-finals. That was 0.05 shy of the global mark and a whopping 0.56 inside Sullivan's Commonwealth record.
The past five Olympiads have produced the following world record count in the lead-up to a Games: six for 1992; none for 1996; 12 for 2000, of which seven were set by Inge de Bruijn, of the Netherlands; three for 2004; and 14 for 2008 and counting. And the bulk of trials around the world are to come over the next few months.
Fina, the international federation for aquatic sports, will meet all suit makers in Manchester on April 12 and Speedo will face pressure to remove one of the key elements of its garment: bonded seams that use a type of panel welding technique developed by Nasa.
The question being posed by people such as Christano Portas, the head of Arena, which launched the R-Evolution suit last week, is whether the LZR Racer breaks rules that disallow "scales" or anything that could be said to be raised or ribbed from the uniform level of a suit.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080326e43q0003b

Sport