• Injured pair return;Hockey

Olympic Games in 2004, set four British records, twice European Cup winner
* Greg Rutherford
* Age 21
* Home town Milton Keynes
* Height 6ft 2in
* Personal best 8.26m
* Coach Frank Attoh
* Honours European silver medal-winner in 2006, European junior champion in 2005
* Head-to-head Tomlinson 2 Rutherford 3
Road to Beijing
* March 7-9 World Indoor Championships, Valencia.
* July 11-13 Norwich Union Trials, Birmingham. July 25-26 Norwich Union Grand Prix, Crystal Palace
For more information go to www.ukathletics.net
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080228e42s0004e

Business

BAA chief quits amid debt problems at airports group;Factbox

David Robertson

551 字

2008 年 2 月 27 日

The Times

T

44

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
* Former Severn Trent chief to step in
* Credit crunch hinders attempts to refinance
Stephen Nelson, the chief executive of BAA, has quit, amid growing concern that the beleaguered airports operator faces severe debt problems.
BAA, which owns Heathrow and Gatwick, will confirm his departure today, sources close to the company said.
Mr Nelson has been head of the BAA for less than two years, during which time the company has come under sustained pressure for poor service and long queues at its airports.
Mr Nelson has also squeezed every penny out of the seven airports that BAA owns in order to pay the enormous debt that Ferrovial, the Spanish infrastructure company, took on to buy the company.
He is expected to be replaced by Colin Matthews, the former chief executive of Severn Trent.
Mr Nelson is one of several senior BAA executives to have left since Ferrovial took over the company and he leaves the group as it is forced to consider drastic measures to reduce its Pounds 10billion debt, including a cash injection from a new investor or a sovereign wealth fund.
The company, which owns Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, wants to reduce its interest payments by refinancing the debt. Its preferred option is to securitise income from the airports and replace about Pounds 4.7billion of bonds. It is also selling assets, including the retailer World Duty Free.
The credit crunch has made debt deals hard to put together and BAA has delayed refinancing by six months. If it failed to refinance, the interest rate would rise further and the debt could be moved to junk status, making it almost impossible for the company to raise more money.
Analysts have given warning that this could lead to BAA running out of cash, potentially forcing it to stop maintenance at airports and to halt building projects, such as the renovation of Heathrow's Terminals 1 and 2 before the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Ferrovial has said that it can continue with its existing financing arrangements until 2011, but analysts believe that it must complete a deal within a few months or the company could be crippled.
Robert Crimes, an analyst with JPMorgan, said: "They will be forced to refinance to maintain their debt ratings, but it is going to be tough to get it done by the middle of the year."
Alternatives to the securitisation plan are thought to include taking on new bank debt or finding someone to swap debt for equity. BAA is advised by Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup: the latter received a cash injection from the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund last year.
Nicolas Villen, chief financial officer of Ferrovial, admitted that it was considering alternatives to refinancing. "The capital markets are very difficult. We are working on the refinancing. We think it is possible but we have to study alternatives," he said.
Ferrovial hopes to complete a Pounds 400million sale of World Duty Free next month, with Dufry, the Swiss retailer, the French conglomerate Lagardere and Altadis, the Spanish tobacco group, among the bidders. BAA also plans to sell its property arm in April.
Pounds 10bn Level of BAA's debt
Source: Times archives
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080228e42r00094

Overseas news

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

Jane MacArtney in Beijing

506 字

2008 年 2 月 27 日

The Times

T

36

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
* Beijing unveils new air terminal for Olympics
* Luggage system twice as fast as at Heathrow
Beijing opens its doors this week to its latest Olympics project - the biggest airport terminal in the world.
The city's Terminal 3 has been designed to instil the same awe in visitors as they enter the country that the Forbidden City of the emperors was intended to inspire in outsiders.
The building, designed by Lord Foster of Thames Bank, has a soaring golden roof that is scattered with raised triangles to resemble a dragon's scaly back - although there are fewer triangles than planned because of budget difficulties. The 2,600ft-wide (790m) roof and Canadian-built mass-transit system are testimony to the determination to have the most modern facilities in the world.
Dong Zhiyi, the deputy general manager of the Capital Airport Holding Company, described the airport as a "safe and efficient non-competition venue for the much-anticipated Beijing Olympic Games". The iconic National Stadium - also known as the Bird's Nest - and the aquatic centre by its side will open for the Games.
The first passengers will enter Terminal 3 on Friday. Determined to minimise problems, airport authorities have already held six dress rehearsals. During the latest, 8,000 volunteers and 7,000 pieces of luggage were processed - about the same number expected to pass through the terminal each day after the first six airlines, including British Airways, move in at the end of the week. The numbers will swell to about 100,000 a day from March 26 when the national flag carrier, Air China, and 20 other airlines - mostly international - will transfer across from the old terminal, which is itself less than a decade old and already unable to cope with soaring demand.
The project is not without its shortcomings. International passengers must board a train to get from the check-in counters to the flight gates, which will add about half an hour to journey times initially. A high-speed commuter train to the city will not begin trial runs until April 1.
The airport is confident that its luggage system is able to transport 20,000 pieces an hour and to run at 10 metres per second - twice as fast as at Heathrow. The terminal's three buildings contain 445 lifts and a car park for 7,000 vehicles. Its floor space is 17 per cent bigger than the whole of Heathrow - including Terminal 5. "We feel very proud of our nation," Mr Dong said.
PREPARING FOR TAKE-OFF
Pounds 1.8bn
cost of the new terminal
50,000
number of workers on site at the height of the work
1.8m
cubic metres of concrete were used on the project
500,000
tonnes of steel used
40
miles of baggage carriers move luggage around
90m number of passengers predicted to pass through the airport by 2012
Source: Beijing airport
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080227e42r00052

Sport

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

Matthew Syed

870 字

2008 年 2 月 27 日

The Times

T

74

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
* Teenager spotted by The Times on big stage
* Project takes young players to Beijing Games
One of the most extraordinary stories in British sport has taken another twist with the announcement that Darius Knight, a prospect for Olympic gold at the London Games in 2012, has been selected to compete at the Dunlop Masters at the Albert Hall in London, the most prestigious table tennis competition to take place in the UK for more than a decade.
The tournament on March 17 will provide the 18-year-old from Battersea, South London, with the toughest challenge of his career: a showdown with some of the world's top players live on Sky Sports and in front of more than 4,000 spectators.
Knight was first spotted by this newspaper playing in a garden shed in Wandsworth in the summer of 2002 along with three young friends from council estates in London. The boys would travel to the shed - owned by a well-wisher - after school and honed their techniques under the guidance of Gideon Ashison, a former part-time library assistant and an inspirational coach.
"It was obvious that Darius had a special talent," Ashison said. "The problem is that we could not afford decent facilities so the shed was the only option. The boys used to spend afternoons and school holidays there, with precious little room to swing their rackets. But they had incredible desire to learn and improve."
The transformation in Knight's life in the past few years has been dramatic. Transported from the gang culture of his housing estate by an invitation to the English Table Tennis Association's National Training Centre, Knight fell under the guidance of some of the world's best coaches. At 14 he was at the top of Europe in his age group and has won gold medals at the European Youth Championships and the Youth Olympics.
But if Knight's odyssey provides testimony to the transformative power of sport, even more remarkable is the impact he has had on the lives of other young people. After publication of the article six years ago, readers of The Times spontaneously sent in cheques to aid Knight's development. Soon afterwards two London businessmen who had read the article came up with the idea of creating an organisation to improve the life chances of other youngsters through table tennis.
The resulting project, called Table Tennis for Kids (TTK), employs more than 20 full-time coaches, including Ashison, and works with more than 3,000 teenagers each week in some of the toughest areas in London as well as the Rhondda Valley in Wales. This summer, 20 of the most enthusiastic youngsters will be taken to a training camp in Beijing and provided with tickets to watch the table tennis events at this year's Olympic Games.
Michael De Giorgio, a retired businessman who is behind the success of TTK, is convinced of its social impact. "Sport changes lives, not only through its impact on health but by raising the self-esteem and aspiration of the youngsters," he said. "Table tennis is a great sport to engage with young people in urban areas because you can get a lot of tables into a relatively small amount of space."
Knight concurs. "God knows what would have happened had I not got involved with table tennis," he said. "By the time I started playing, my dad had already left home. I am not sure where he was, I don't have anything to do with him any more.
"It would have been easy to get involved in drugs had it not been for sport. My mum did as much as she could for me and my sister, but things were tough. One of the best things about the last few years is that, because of my success, I have been able to give money back to my mum - and she knows that it is clean money."
Knight's participation at the Dunlop Masters will give a good indication of how far he needs to progress to challenge the world's best. Timo Boll, the lightning fast left-hander from Germany and former world No1, is part of the line-up, as is Chen Weixing, the spectacular defensive specialist who represents Austria. Paul Drinkhall, Knight's great rival and the British senior No1, will also be challenging for the title.
* Profits from the Masters will be donated to TTK. Tickets for the tournament, promoted by Matthew Syed, can be bought at www.royalalberthall.com
* AMAZING JOURNEY
2000 Darius Knight is introduced to table tennis at a local youth club
2001 Lack of adequate facilities forces him to train in a shed in Wandsworth, southwest London
2002 First cap for England Youth team at a competition in Italy (first time he had been on an aircraft)
2005 Wins gold medal at European Youth Championships
2007 Wins gold medal at Youth Olympics in Australia.
2008 Selected to compete in the Dunlop Masters at Albert Hall in London
2012 Ambition is to win Olympic gold in London
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080227e42r00047

Sport

Williamson confirmed in support role to Chambers;Athletics

Rick Broadbent, Athletics Correspondent

545 字

2008 年 2 月 27 日

The Times

T

74

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
Simeon Williamson got his international call-up yesterday and may get to share a room with Dwain Chambers, the sport's latest pariah. The 22-year-old sprinter was named in the Great Britain team for next week's World Indoor Championships in Valencia and has voiced an approval for Chambers that is at odds with the hardline stance of the hierarchy of UK Athletics (UKA).
Dave Collins, the UKA performance director, said that not a single member of the team had expressed concern at Chambers's controversial inclusion. Athletes will be asked to share rooms in Spain and, given that Williamson has been outspoken in his support of Chambers and received a few training tips, one of Britain's brightest young talents could room with a convicted drug cheat.
"For some individuals it will be a challenge," Collins said when asked how he felt the team would react to the presence of Chambers. "To an extent it was ever thus - there will be people you get on with in the team and people you don't. There is a wide spectrum of opinion in athletics."
But had anyone expressed any reservations? "Not to me, no," Collins said. "I think the athletes' attitude is they are there to do a job and that's it."
The claim made by Niels de Vos, the UKA chief executive, that Chambers's inclusion would be "deeply uncomfortable for everyone" has been undermined by apathy from some quarters and support from others. Yesterday, Collins appeared to be softening.
Having said initially that he would not celebrate if Chambers won gold, he said: "I will be pleased for Dwain if he did well. I watched his performance at the trials and it added to the frustration at seeing this potential wasted."
The 60metres final is on Friday week, after which Chambers will decide whether to challenge his life ban from the Olympic Games by the British Olympic Association.
Also in the second wave of selections, Michael East, the former Commonwealth champion, was named in the 1,500metres. East lost his National Lottery funding last year and was unhappy at finding out via UKA's website. Plagued by injuries and with his wife on maternity leave, East is to run despite being out of the UKA system.
Mo Farah will run in the 3,000metres, having originally planned to miss the indoor season, while Lisa Dobriskey is added to the women's equivalent, alongside Helen Clitheroe.
* Great Britain squad
Men 60 metres: D Chambers, S Williamson. Reserve: RFifton. 400 metres: R Buck, S Green. 800 metres: R Hill, D Moss. 1,500 metres: J McIlroy, M East. Reserve: J Brewer. 3,000 metres: M Farah, NMcCormick. 60 metres hurdles: A Scott.
High jump: S Oni. Pole vault: S Lewis. Long jump: CTomlinson. Triple jump: P Idowu. Shot putt: CMyerscough. 4x400 metres relay: R Buck, SGreen, R Tobin, N Leavey, D Ademuyewo, DGarland*.
Women 60 metres: L Turner, J Kwakye. Reserve: MDouglas. 800 metres: J Meadows, M Okoro. 1,500 metres: J Simpson, S Scott. 3,000 metres: HClitheroe, L Dobriskey. 60 metres hurdles: SClaxton. Pole vault: K Dennison. Pentathlon: KSotherton.
*subject to fitness
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080227e42r00046

Features

Dragon Tongue Squad;Pop;Music;First Night

Lisa Verrico

439 字

2008 年 2 月 26 日

The Times

T

Times2 14

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
DRAGON TONGUE SQUAD. Linbury Studio, ROH. *
If the concept of Chinese hip-hop wasn't odd enough, the Beijing- based rappers Dragon Tongue Squad made their British debut in a sterile, seated theatre in the Royal Opera House. Part of a lottery- funded arts exchange inspired by the forthcoming Olympic Games, the event was well-intentioned but ill-conceived. Rather than lift the lid on Chinese youth culture, a preposterous performance proved why most hip-hop consumed in that country is - and probably always will be - American.
That Chinese hip-hop has so far failed to catch on is due partly to strict censorship - lyrics are vetted, so the usual staples of violence, drugs and guns are out - and that, well, drugs, guns and big-breasted gold-diggers in bikinis aren't pressing local problems. Judging by Dragon Tongue Squad, however, the biggest stumbling block may be their amateurish output.
As soon as the band bounded on stage, the crowd struggled to stifle their giggles. "Yo! What's up London?" shouted J-Fever, the trilby-sporting tallest of the trio. Besides braiding his hair, the crew member Crazy Chef had hung assorted accessories such as a disused leather purse, sun visor and jewellery on his low-slung trousers, doubtless to disguise the fact that, by day, he's just "chef". But all eyes were on the pint-sized rapper Carbo Lee, who cut a ludicrous dash in neon green, backwards baseball cap with the price tag still attached, pink sunglasses and a gigantic pendant on a chain thick enough to moor a small boat. Mid-set, he pulled up his T-shirt to show off the gaudily patterned pants peeking high above his trousers. Picture Little Britain doing a hip-hop parody.
The music, sadly, was much less memorable. Despite being backed by a dextrous scratch DJ - a Brit, DJ Phat, who was also their support act - Dragon Tongue Squad offered flat raps over anaemic beats. Mostly, they sang in Mandarin, although even they have admitted the language doesn't lend itself well to flowing rhymes. Handily, translated lyrics were circulated, so we knew that Dragon Tongue-ism contained the couplet "Learn how to be good at learning skills/ Learn how to communicate smoothly". Only once did they shine, and for all the wrong reasons. Chinese Food was a comic masterpiece - "Thai, Thai! Why, why?" went the chorus, possibly, while the verses listed authentic takeaway dishes.
If it's fame they're after, a sketch show rather than the pop charts looks more likely.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080226e42q00009

Business

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

Ashling O'Connor

1,709 字

2008 年 2 月 25 日

The Times

T

42

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
The world's eyes will be on London in 2012 and John Armitt has the task of ensuring the capital will be fit for the Olympic Games
When John Armitt oversaw the Pounds 300million Anglo-French contract to build the Second Severn Crossing, he went to the designers with an offer they couldn't refuse.
He told them, before they got too carried away with grand visions, that he would give them 50p for every Pounds 1 of material content that they could save from the design cost of the bridge.
"All I really wanted to achieve was the budget," he said, nodding to a painting of the suspension bridge that hangs in his Canary Wharf office at the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). "Any saving was upside, but my real fear was that once the designers got into the detail, the cost would escalate. They made quite a significant bonus by containing the design."
Handed the task of delivering one of the largest, most time-sensitive and high-profile construction and engineering projects in Europe, the ODA chairman is applying the same approach to contract negotiations for the key venues on the 500-acre Olympic Park in East London. He is expected imminently to announce Balfour Beatty as the construction partner for the aquatics centre, a piece of architecture that is already controversial because of its Pounds 214million price tag.
In the bid document submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2005, the centre - containing two 50-metre pools and a diving pool under an elaborate, wave-shaped roof - was priced at Pounds 75 million. This excluded VAT and was based on 2004 prices, but the cost increase, driven by the design complexity demanded by Zaha Hadid, the architect, legacy planning (which includes changeable depths) and construction inflation sparked a wider fear that the Games would exceed the Pounds 9.3billion budget. Critics have deemed the aquatics centre profligate and cited it as evidence that Olympic infrastructure spending is out of control even before the first brick has been laid in Stratford.
Mr Armitt, a civil engineer who offsets a lack of A levels and a degree with 30 years' experience, admits that it would have been more helpful if the centre had been priced originally at a "more realistic baseline - circa Pounds 140million to Pounds 150million". But he defended the need for it, given that London has only one 50-metre swimming pool and no Olympic-standard diving pool. Besides elite athletes, it will cater for two million visitors a year after the Games in 2012.
"Yes, it's an expensive swimming pool, but we are building something that is undoubtedly iconic. Every Olympics deserves to have one or two iconic structures," he said. "London deserves a very high-quality swimming pool as part of the Olympic legacy."
In the next week, the ODA is also expected to formally sign an agreement with Sir Robert McAlpine's company to build the 80,000-seat Olympic stadium. While it has already been costed at Pounds 496 million, including tax, design and shrinking it to 25,000 seats after the Games, talks are ongoing about McAlpine's "target price".
This will determine the formula through which the ODA, that is the taxpayer, and the construction companies working on the Olympic project share in the "pain and the gain" of missing or hitting targets.
"The idea is to incentivise the contractor to beat that target price because he will share in the savings. He doesn't want to share the pain because that's cutting his margins and we don't want it because it's going to dig into our contingency (fund)," Mr Armitt said, declining to reveal the formula. "Agreeing a target price is always a challenge."
Mr Armitt is no stranger to thankless tasks. Before taking on delivery of the world's biggest sporting extravaganza, he was chief executive of Network Rail after restructuring Railtrack, its ill-fated predecessor, in the biggest shake-up in the railways since privatisation. Remarkably, he emerged from that experience with his reputation not merely intact but enhanced. Described variously as "sensible", "capable" and a "team player", he exudes extreme competence. When someone uses the word "confident" as confidently as he does, it is quite easy to believe him.
Certainly, he is well-qualified in dealings with government, which stands him in good stead to handle one of the most politicised construction projects besides Crossrail. If he gets this one wrong, with all the public scrutiny disproportionately attached to a project accounting for less than one tenth of the Pounds 100billion annual British construction industry and 1 per cent of its labour capacity, the railways will look like a breeze.
"The Government's paying - quite understandably, it wants to ensure value for the taxpayer," he said.
"But it's more than that. The whole world is looking in. After Beijing, the IOC will be coming every six months for an inspection to make sure things are on track. If we start to get into difficulties it will not only be reported in The Times but in Le Monde and The New York Times. These are the biggest peacetime events that take place every four years and there are so many hopes and aspirations attached, both political and right down to the spectator."
Through "value engineering", Mr Armitt trimmed Pounds 800million off the total Pounds 6.1billion set aside for infrastructure plus a Pounds 2billion contingency. He says that he has already identified where half of these savings will come from and will find the balance with contractors over the next 18 months.
Does he really think that the Olympics can be delivered with Pounds 9.3billion, the updated budget announced by Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, in December? He cannot guarantee it.
He points to security as "one of the big issues" facing London 2012 organisers and the Home Office, which has "to make do with a bit of a crystal ball at the moment and be prepared to constantly adjust in light of levels of risk". The problem is that nobody really knows if the Pounds 1.2billion earmarked for security will be too little or too much until the Games actually arrive.
"Setting security aside, I can't guarantee (it), but I do feel pretty confident that (Pounds 9.3billion) is a sensible number to be going ahead with," he said. "The No1 priority is time, but right behind it is cost. I'm very confident we will complete on time."
One thing is for sure. The opening ceremony will happen on July 27, 2012, whether ODA workers are still bolting down seats in the stadium with a few days to go, as happened in Athens, or are applying the finishing touches six months out, like the Chinese.
It is the presence of an immoveable deadline that makes the Olympics so high risk and increases the likelihood of cost overruns. There has hardly been a rush of British companies to take the lead on headline projects where profits are small when weighed against the public flogging accompanying failure. McAlpine was the sole bidder for the stadium; Balfour Beatty the last company standing for the aquatics centre after two rivals dropped out. Mr Armitt puts this down to individual companies' assessments of their chances of success and resources deployed elsewhere.
He has little time for the stick approach that failed so miserably in the case of Multiplex and Wembley. The Australian group lost Pounds 183 million and the Pounds 1billion football stadium opened two years late: "If you have too large a threat, contractors spend all their emotional and intellectual energy finding reasons to be excused from the stick as opposed to applying it to how to finish on time. All the things you want them to be motivated by, if you are not careful, become secondary."
Time is a luxury that Mr Armitt does not have. As an Arsenal fan, he prefers to cite the example of the Emirates Stadium, delivered on time and on budget by the same team working on the Olympic stadium, rather than Wembley.
On the latter's disastrous schedule, the Olympics would already have moved to Sochi, Russia, for its winter round in 2014 before London had even opened its doors. And that really would be a bridge too far.
CV
Age: 62
Born: London
Educated: Portsmouth Grammar School; Portsmouth College of Technology
Present job: Chairman, Olympic Delivery Authority
Career: 1996: joined John Laing as a trainee engineer before becoming chairman of its international and civil engineering divisions. 1993: chief executive of Union Railways, responsible for development of the high-speed Channel Tunnel Rail Link. 1997: appointed chief executive of Costain after it had announced losses of Pounds 62million and debts of Pounds 300 million. By April 2001, the company had cash of Pounds 42.7million and Pounds 600million of contracts in its order book. 2001: He joined Railtrack just after it had been put into administration
Other interests: Chairman of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; non-executive director of the Berkeley Group
Q&A
If you could change one thing in the financial and commercial environment, what would it be?
To allow some commercial negotiation into public procurement so there is the maximum opportunity for innovation and value for money
Who is or was your mentor?
A director at Laing (Geoff Harrison), who taught me never to box myself into a corner
What is the most important event of your working life?
The decision to take an opportunity to move into line management. Or accepting the opportunity to work overseas
Does money motivate you?
It's nice to have, but having
a worthwhile job is most
important
What does leadership mean to you?
Providing a clear vision and set of values and then enabling people to maximise their potential
Which business person do you most admire?
Anyone who shows vision, courage and honesty
What gadget must you have?
BlackBerry - it enables me to recover things I have forgotten
How do you relax?
Theatre, fishing and reading
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080225e42p0003m

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