• Injured pair return;Hockey

Radio Choice;Radio Friday 14;TV & Radio
Chris Campling

80 字

2008 年 3 月 8 日

The Times

T

The Knowledge 63

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
Teacher Flower World Service, 9.06am; 12.06pm; 8.06pm; 12.06am
During the 1980s, Kathy Flower was quite possibly the most famous non-Chinese person on Chinese television, as she taught English to an unseen audience of millions. Now she returns to China, to report on the changes from the country she once knew to the one soon to mount an Olympic Games.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
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Sport

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

Rick Broadbent

611 字

2008 年 3 月 8 日

The Times

T

101

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
In the end the most stunning performance from a British sprinter at the World Indoor Championships did not come from Dwain Chambers. Jeanette Kwayke, the Chingford flier, produced a wonderful display to smash a 22-year-old British record for the 60metres and take the team's first silver medal of the day.
Kelly Sotherton and Chambers followed suit to cap a day that will have been bittersweet for the UK Athletics hierarchy and those selectors who picked Chambers under the threat of legal action.
Kwayke almost won gold, but she recorded 7.08sec to finish just behind Angela Williams, of the United States. It is a long time since British women have bothered the scorers on the international stage, but Kwayke's success suggests she is a genuine prospect for the London Olympic Games in 2012 when she believes she will be at her peak. "I had to stop myself from crying," she said. "I watched the tape and did not know that I was in the lead. It's amazing."
Meanwhile, Sotherton missed out on gold by a matter of centimetres in the pentathlon. Three in fact. Had she not had what she termed a "poor" high jump and managed only 1.81metres, she would not have ended up a mere 15 points adrift of the bespectacled Belgian, Tia Hellebaut.
"You've got to keep smiling," she said. "I thought we'd win five or six medals here so to get three silvers in ten minutes is fantastic. I've just done a PB in the 800metres, equalled my PB in the shot and had a season's best in the long jump."
Sotherton started in impressive style and won the 60metres hurdles in a time of 8.25sec. Lyudmila Blonska, the Ukrainian she labelled "a cheat" at last year's World Championships, was a tardy fourth and ended up receiving medical treatment when she collapsed at the end of the 800metres.
However, there was plenty of pressure from other avenues. Hellebaut, the European indoor and outdoor high jump champion, led after two events after leaping 1.99metres, while Sotherton, who has a personal best of 1.88, struggled and dropped to third.
Hellebaut maintained her lead after the shot, with Sotherton dropping to fifth despite equalling her personal best of 14.57metres. As someone considering a post-heptathlon career as a long jumper, that was always going to be an event for Sotherton to make up ground and she did not waste it, opening - after two no-jumps - with 6.45metres to win the event and move into second place going into the 800metres.
It proved a bridge too far, although one more second on the Belgian, who staggered over the line, would have seen her home. It means that she again encountered the nearest of misses, having finished second to Carolina Kluft in the European indoors last year by 17 points.
There were some impressive performances elsewhere from the British. Chris Tomlinson made short work of qualifying for tonight's long jump final, his first effort of 7.95metres being enough, while Helen Clitheroe, Lisa Dobriskey and Mo Farah made it through the heats in the 3,000metres. Simeon Williamson will also feel that he achieved what he needed to by making the final of the 60metres.
There were some disappointments, too. Marilyn Okoro failed to make the 800metres final, but Jenny Meadows looked in good shape, running the second fastest time, some four seconds faster than Maria Mutola, seeking her eighth world indoor title.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
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Sport

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

Matt Hughes

645 字

2008 年 3 月 8 日

The Times

T

110

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
* Arsenal manager says winning isn't everything
* Portuguese remains the ultimate pragmatist
Arsene Wenger responded strongly yesterday to Jose Mourinho's taunts as their ongoing row returned to the spotlight, even though they are no longer in direction competition. It is clear that the former Chelsea manager's sarcastic description of him as an idol who has won nothing for years rankles with Wenger, who won one FA Cup while Mourinho was picking up five leading trophies in three seasons at Stamford Bridge.
Wenger and Mourinho clashed repeatedly during that time, with their spats reaching a nadir when the Portuguese described the Arsenal manager as a voyeur three years ago. The Frenchman has not forgiven Mourinho for his use of such an innuendo-laden insult, suggesting that his accomplishments are tarnished by the manner in which they were achieved.
In contrast to Wenger's love of pure football, Mourinho is the ultimate pragmatist, even demonstrating in an advertisement for a financial services company how he instructs his players to block goalkeepers at set-pieces. Mourinho also boasted in his autobiography how he used an earpiece to get round a Uefa touchline ban when at FC Porto, while The Times revealed last year how he was smuggled into the dressing-room in a laundry basket to dodge a similar suspension at Chelsea. Although Wenger has not called Mourinho a cheat, it is clear that such methods represent an affront to the Frenchman's sense of fair play.
"I try to do my job as well as I can," Wenger said. "If it's not good enough, people will tell me. I don't feel under more pressure to win trophies this year than any other year. I know people who have won trophies and I don't rate them. I can give you examples of people who have won 100- metre medals in the Olympic Games and they have cheated. I know people in football who have done exactly the same. That is the history of football."
Wenger puts the building of a club, the development of young players and the production of entertaining football at least on a par with collecting silverware. In another reference to his nemesis, Wenger expressed disbelief that destruction has become a part of football, a response to Mourinho's claim that he wants to "kill Chelsea" if he comes up against his former club.
"Winning cannot be everything," Wenger said. "To destroy people can never be everything. I do not understand those who come out to destroy people, that is not what life is about. Why should you always have to kill other people to exist? If you do that then somewhere you feel you are not good enough.
"What is important for me is to play in a fair way and in a way that people will enjoy. A trophy is what you can show, but the way you play, the way you behave - these are also important. To win trophies is important, but that is not the only thing in sport. Moral integrity is important. For me sport is more than just winning trophies."
Wenger's vision is shared by others at the club, with Keith Edelman, the Arsenal managing director, saying yesterday that the fans would continue to flock to the Emirates Stadium even if the team failed to win trophies. "I think one of the great things about Arsenal football club is that the fans are fully supportive," Edelman said. "We are a very together club. The fans, manager, board, all the staff are doing our best.
"If we don't win a trophy this year our fans would be upset, but they would come back and support the team just as hard next year."
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
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Sport

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

Owen Slot, Chief Sports Reporter

1,051 字

2008 年 3 月 8 日

The Times

T

92

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
Overconfidence may just be his Achilles' heel
Former trainer recalls the champion's lazy days
David Haye is being trumpeted by many as the next great gift to heavyweight prizefighting. He will step up in weight after the biggest night of his career tonight - the bout with Enzo Maccarinelli at the O2 Arena in southeast London to unify the world cruiserweight titles.
Yet for an understanding of the type of talent under discussion, we need ask only one question: why did Haye not go to the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000?
This was the question on the lips of Mick Carney, his trainer at the time, when he went to see the Great Britain team staff after they had selected Courtney Fry ahead of Haye to compete in the last pre-Sydney Olympic qualifying event. Their decision killed off Haye's last chance - and Carney's point was that Fry was a boxer whom Haye had beaten.
The response came in the form of the training log that documented the Britain squad's work. Against Haye's name there appeared a long sequence that read repeatedly "missing", "gone home", "did not appear" and "did not show".
As Carney recalls, with an undisguised lack of warmth: "David Haye was a pain in the arse to train. He was the most talented kid to walk in this gym, but he was the laziest, too. If I had a gym full of Hayes, I'd have committed suicide long ago."
Indeed, while the Fitzroy Lodge gym in Lambeth, South London, was not exactly full of Hayes, it did contain two. The other, younger brother James, a light heavyweight southpaw, won 24 of 25 amateur bouts and, according to Carney, "could have been as good as David". He now describes James as "wasted talent". "David was also a lazy person," he said. "But underneath he is sharp, sharp, sharp."
Carney saw some of Haye's school essays and could not believe the quality. However, Haye's sharpness did him no favours. "David thought he was being smart," Carney said. "But it was all being noted down. They also told me that he used to hide in the bushes when the national team were doing their running."
According to Carney, Haye "got lazier as he got older". This was possibly because he became increasingly aware of his rare talent. Even as a teenager, Haye had the right hand for which he now is feared. "He just got used to banging them," Carney said. "He'd hit them and they'd go down."
So this is one of the key issues to the man appropriately named "The Hayemaker". The WBC and WBA cruiserweight champion takes on Maccarinelli, the WBO title-holder from Wales, tonight in what will be as complete an examination as we will get of whether the "kid with potential the likes of which I'd never seen", according to Carney, has reformed. "I find it hard to believe that he works as hard as Maccarinelli," Carney said. "Not in a million years."
If Carney sounds bitter, it should be pointed out that he is about as admired a figure as you will find in amateur boxing. Of the Hayes family, he says that he "never saw so much love showered on two boys by their parents". The opinion of Haye's father, Darren, is that David has simply been completing the process of growing up. And Darren has the utmost respect for Carney. He has also probably fought David more than anyone, in time away from the day job as a Catford minicab driver, with young David wearing the gloves and Darren not.
"It would be playing," Darren said. "But I was his punchbag and even as a little kid he could really let go. The good news is I'm 52 and I've still got my own teeth."
Yet when discussing his son, Haye Sr makes no attempt to give the impression that David could be contained as a boy. Like Carney, he talks about his boundless confidence, even after suffering his one professional defeat, by Carl Thompson 3 1/2 years ago. Yet if complacency towards training is an issue, self-confidence can become a flaw. Haye's biggest win to date was in November last year, when he got off the canvas to take the WBC and WBA titles off Jean-Marc Mormeck, the Frenchman. This was hailed as a victorious breakthrough. "But even against him, David still seemed to get tired," Carney said.
This is also the view of Thompson. "Even against Mormeck, David looked tired and fought in a tired way," he said. "David's flaw is that he cannot fight at pace. Before our fight I knew he didn't have the pace. I drained him and then overpowered him. He caved in."
So that is the adverse view: that Haye believes too much in his publicity and is in danger of taking his conditioning for granted. Adam Booth, his trainer since he left Carney seven years ago, would disagree. But consensus has it that his talent is so great that he can survive. One of the few boxers to have taken on Haye and Maccarinelli is Ismail Abdoul, the Belgian, who maintains that Haye is the heaviest puncher he has faced.
That is also the view of Rudiger May, the German who sparred with him in the weeks before this bout. "In cruiserweight, I have not felt a punch like his," he said. May is 33, has had 51 professional contests and countless sparring partners and says that only Johnny Nelson, who held the WBO cruiserweight title for six years, can compare.
"But David is much more aggressive," he said. "And he moves so well. He was not just able to hit you, he could avoid the punches at the same time - that is the key."
May thus became another convert. "David will become a very good heavyweight champion," he said. A lot of other independent voices believe this to be the case. Haye believes it, too, which is kind of the point: does he just believe it too much?
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
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Sport

Winning incentive;Swimming

75 字

2008 年 3 月 8 日

The Times

T

92

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
British Swimming will reward success at the Beijing Olympic Games by paying bonuses to coaches of medal-winners - Pounds 5,000 for a bronze, Pounds 7,500 for a silver and Pounds 10,000 for gold. Michael Scott, the national performance director, is behind the scheme, which follows the example set by Australia and the United States. Medal-winners will receive extra funding through UK Sport.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080308e4380006e

Home news

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

Adam Sherwin Media Correspondent

646 字

2008 年 3 月 8 日

The Times

T

17

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
Calcutta Cup will be technology's first test
Cinemas could show Olympics 'as good as live'
How does it really feel to be Jonny Wilkinson sidestepping a pack of marauding forwards? A select group of rugby fans will find out today at the first international sports event to be screened live in 3-D.
The Calcutta Cup, England's Six Nations Championship clash with Scotland, has been chosen to test a technological breakthrough that could revolutionise the way in which we watch big sporting events.
Live BBC pictures from Murrayfield will be beamed in 3-D high-definition via satellite to an audience watching on a cinema screen in a studio in Hammersmith, West London. Representatives of British sport's governing bodies will wear high-quality 3-D glasses for an experience that advocates say will be almost as good as being at the game.
The broadcast is the result of six months' testing by BBC Resources and The3DFirm, a Richmond-based consortium of production specialists. If it is a success, the BBC hopes to beam big sporting events such as the World Cup and Olympic Games live in 3-D to a network of cinemas.
Organisations such as the Rugby Football Union could sell tickets for 3-D screenings at Twickenham when England are playing away; 3-D screenings could become a significant revenue generator for the BBC if it can sell on the technology and take a cut from box-office takings.
The BBC, which has invested a sixfigure sum in the Murrayfield trial, believes that 3-D sport is cost-effective because it does not require special cameras. A stereoscopic hi-def signal is sent from three cameras positioned at pitchside. It is sent via satellite to London where it is converted through a 3-D projection system.
The technology will soon be accessible in viewers' homes through a new generation of 3-D television screens that do not require special glasses. Philips has developed a prototype 132in 3-D TV that offers an "out of screen" experience. The first sets will be available for Pounds 10,000 this year. The next generation of computer games is being designed for 3-D screens.
The BBC has built a grandstand for an audience of 200 guests and sports executives at Hammersmith. Alcohol will be served to replicate the Murrayfield atmosphere. As with the England team, there is no guarantee of a top-level performance.
David Wooster, of The3DFirm, said: "This is a test so the big question is can we actually achieve live 3-D sport? From what we have seen, 3-D can place the audience in the stadium, as if they were actually there, giving a heightened sense of reality."
3-D rugby gives viewers a wider depth of vision and a greater sense of the players' positions. It can also help to judge controversial decisions.
Once mocked for its use of flimsy green-and-red glasses, 3-D is regarded as the next platform for Hollywood. Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings, is creating a 3D Tintin trilogy with Steven Spielberg. The3DFirm hopes to screen live rock concerts in cinemas after the success of a U2 film using the technology.
Aashish Chandarana, BBC Sport's innovations executive, said: "We're trying to do something no one's tried before. Editorially it will not be a fast-cut TV experience but more the experience you'd get if you were at Murrayfield."
The3DFirm will also assess the impact of alcohol on sports fans wearing 3-D glasses. Mr Wooster said: "You probably don't want to drink too much or you will get double vision."
132in Size of Phillips's prototype 3-D television
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
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Features

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

Charles Bremner, Paris Correspondent

590 字

2008 年 3 月 8 日

The Times

T

Travel 2

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
CONTRARY to what foreigners think, the French love to make fun of themselves. A good case is a new comedy about the supposedly bleak north that is breaking cinema records and even has Cabinet ministers quoting its catchphrases. The phenomenon of Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to Ch'ti country) may even force the Government to save France's old vehicle numberplates from extinction.
The film is an unlikely hit because it deals with a region, like England's industrial North, that suffers from a grim reputation. Britons who drive in from the Channel or take the Eurostar to Lille know better, but for Parisians and everyone to the south, Ch'ti country is a godforsaken place. They imagine it as a wasteland of slag heaps and terrace houses peopled by a tribe that talks in a Belgian-sounding dialect and lives on beer and chips. Dany Boon, the man behind the film, is a comedian and actor who is a native Ch'ti or Ch'timi. The word comes from Picardy patois, in which "c" is pronounced like "sh". Boon was tired of his region's yokel image so he used his first film to show that the Ch'timi have hearts of gold.
The plot involves a post office manager in Salon-de-Provence whose superiors punish him by reassigning him to Bergues, near Dunkirk. Colleagues tell him of a dark place where it rains all year and they dunk smelly Maroilles cheese in their coffee.
When he meets Boon, playing the town postman and bellringer, he thinks that he has a fractured jaw, but it is just his accent. The gags fall thick and fast as Boon plays up the stereotypes of the dreadful north, where the postmen get drunk on their rounds and unemployed miners shoot rats for the barbecue. But the Provencal, played by Kad Merad, discovers the hidden magic of the Ch'ti country.
It's a provincial feelgood film, but it has struck a rich vein at a time when France has sunk back into gloom after what seems to have been the false dawn of the Sarkozy presidency. Comedies about national foibles have been enjoying a boom over the past few years and Boon's is the biggest so far. In its first week of release, more than five million people went to see it. Boon's modest hymn to his home is about to overtake the season's blockbuster, Asterix at the