… fernando alonso won his first grand prix of 2008.  the singapore night race took place at the same time i was enjoying a despedida (farewell party) bash in brussels.

…  rafael nadal led his national side to semifinal victory against the USA.  the whole weekend this took place i was in prague, visiting an old classmate from my MaNaMa days.

… my ateneo blue eagles and eaglets took the UAAP champions titles in men’s basketball.  fly high, blue eagle the king!  i also missed the bonfire held on the muddy bellarmine field — it was the day we landed in manila and frankly, the body was awfully tired though the mind was moderately interested.

… realised that this will be my last month of blogging.  svelte sport is going off the air by the end of this month.  unless something comes up, of course.

it’s been a struggle to like the hamster on a personal level; he’s not unlike roger federer for me.  you can see the obvious talent, the silky execution, the suave air in the press conferences but none of these do anything.  i’m not excited, nor titillated, nor compelled to scream for him.  lewis hamilton may be one of the brightest young stars in british sports (alongside andy murray and theo walcott, who give the brits something over which to feel proud).in the wake of his “no balls” statement about kimi raikkonen’s driving at the controversial chicane at spa-francorchamps last weekend that saw the stewards demoting hamilton to third place with a 25-second penalty after podium awarding ceremonies had taken place, i’m back in the same place i was last year, exactly at this time of the season, too.  nothing, nothing would thrill me more than to see the lew-ser NOT win the driver’s championship for the second year in a row.   

sebastian vettel of toro rossi holds up a triumphant finger after securing pole position at the italian grand prix qualifying session earlier in monza 

and as if the rain gods had heard me and most of the folks in this F1 forum, hamilton struggled to qualify and ended up a dismal 15th in Q2, just one place behind world champion kimi in 14th, the man hamilton had bragged had no balls as he.  robert kubica of bmw was eased out by massa to 11th, the brazilian struggling to hold onto his P10. in Q3, sebastian vettel of toro rossi buoyed team spirits by taking pole position for the first time this season, teammate sebastien bourdais following with an impressive P4.  massa was able to clinch P6, pushing fernando alonso down two places to P8.  other impressive showings in the wet conditions were mark webber of red bull, heikki kovalainen of mclaren, nick heidfeld of bmw, nico rosberg of williams, and jarno trulli of toyota.  i’m looking forward to an exciting monza race tomorrow at 14.00. rain is in the forecast so anything can happen.  as for lewster, good on ya for stinking up the joint in Q2!  that should teach you to bite your foot real hard whenever you feel the urge to proclaim yourself the best driver on the grid.  ahhh, the vicissitudes of life. 

*photo courtesy of itv-f1.com

multiple slam winners did it again over this hurricaned weekend.  congratulations to serena williams (now with 9 titles) and roger federer (with 13)!

roger and serena at the player’s party before the start of the USO two weekends ago

nole bows out to roger in their four-set semi-final clash yesterday afternoon in new york 

and the muzzah is in his first grand slam final!  i am soooo happy for andy murray.  which is surprising considering he just kicked my beloved rafael nadal out of the USO in an exciting four-set match that spanned two days and a lot of rain.i caught myself crying when nole beat roddick, and then again last night when he lost to roger federer, and then again when i woke up this morning.  but the brave-hearted scotsman with the wild hair rescued my USO for me.

andy murray in his first grand slam final 

in tomorrow’s final, men who have not won a slam title in 2008.  andy sailed into his first grand slam semifinal with an emotional win over fellow junior, the tall argentine juan martin del potro and finally notched his first victory over rafa, making their head-to-head 1-5, murray-rafa.in the ladies’ final which is scheduled to start in 2 1/2 hours, first time slam finalist jelena jankovic of serbia takes on 8-time grand slam winner and 2-time USO champion serena williams of the united states.  jelena’s slam count? zero.  

signature rafa celebration — although it may just be my imagination but is the boy fatigued? time to go home to mallorca now, my sweet. what a great year you’ve had so far! 

roger’s slam count? 12.  andy’s? zero.i’m rooting for the players who have never won a slam tomorrow!  they may fail at the last hurdle but they must be hungry, really really hungry.

jelena jankovic in her first grand slam final after she defeated elena dementieva 6-4 6-4 in friday’s semi-final 

ajde jelena!  go andy! 

(all photos courtesy of the los angeles times)

there he was, being interviewed on court by barcan.  and then suddenly the crowd started booing.  what had novak djokovic said in a post-match interview on centre court at flushing meadows?  he had just beaten american andy roddick in four sets.  there was a very cold handshake at the net and then a lot of fiery, intense heart jabbing and head thrown back with matching yell to the night sky.

roddick had said in an interview two days before that he thought nole had 16 injuries or so.  as a fan of nole, i found this remark funny but i also knew that it could spur nole into an abyss of anger and resentment.

when nole came on court tonight, his eyes were dark, shooting daggers across the net.  he calmly and coldly flattened roddick in the first two sets before the american found his bearings and managed to steal the third set.  when nole grabbed the match by the throat in a tense fourth set tiebreak, little did anyone expect the dark, bitter molasses of his heart to spill out.

it doesn’t matter whether this crowd loves me or not, nole told the blubbering announcer darkly, they always think i’m faking it anyway.

barcan sputtered, wait, this crowd didn’t say this, only andy did and it was a joke.

nole would have none of it.  it’s not a nice thing to say, nevertheless, he shot back.  and i am absolutely thrilled to have beaten the homeboy in his home tournament and oh, his favourite too, right?

i will admit that i did not see it myself but read about it through impassioned roger fans for the most part.  but when i read a transcription of what happened, my maverick balls just kicked in (after i dried the tears that had washed off my moisturiser).

you go, nole.  you must be sick and tired of pleasing a crowd that is only critical of everything you do.  the public is fickle but the people who matter aren’t.  so know who they are.  as for your parents, man, i wish you could get away from them for a while!  but they’re the ones who love you unquestioningly.  so it’s hard. who am i to judge?

just know i’m firmly in your camp, nole.  firmly there.

ok, after seeing the youtube clip of the post-match interview, i’m grinning broadly and just LOVING nole.  ajde!!! enjoy it with me.  go, johnny mac!  woohoooo!

*photo credit: corned beef hash

why don’t you just say it outright, lorena?  your LPGA tour prioritises business and snagging (and snogging) sponsors over the quality of the game.  how else can you explain their shitty rule to impose an english speaking requirement on its players beginning in 2009?  what does the LPGA CEO say?  so that the players can coordinate better with their sponsors.

or maybe this is a way to slowly ease out the largest group of winningest players from korea who speak mostly through interpreters.  this is a dangerous precedent and smacks of outright arrogance and discrimination.  i hate it when money talk overpowers sport talk.

one big BOO to the LPGA.

on the beijing olympics:  critics who slam the summer games for china’s abuse of human rights, refusal to free tibet, having a pretty girl lip-sync a pretty voice, possibly having an underaged gymnast, the horrid smog of beijing, the authoritarian no-fun-games.  let’s take each point mentioned above and slam it to the ground once and for all.

1. government politics (human rights, tibet):  sure, these are pressing problems that must be addressed AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME & VENUE.  i’ve always maintained understanding that protesters and advocates for these issues would use the olympics as a means to air their grievances, but i draw the line when it comes to using the government’s policies on these issues as the measuring stick to gauge the success (or lack thereof) of the summer games.  
2. of young girls:  whether lip syncing or underaged gymnasts, the games have been slammed by the self-righteous (read:  western interests, particularly the media and a certain martha karolyi, coach of the US gymnastics team who, not strangely enough, got the silver in the team competition — someone remove the stench of sour grapes from the room, please!).  it is rather odd finding out that the pretty, vacuous-smiling girl in the red dress who was obviously singing to a recording was not the actual singer but it really doesn’t bother me.  should it?  as a performer myself, i can see why the beijing officials ordered this to happen.  whatever their reasons, i really can understand the motivations behind them and i’m not one to condemn them for wanting to put a pretty face before a worldwide audience of 4 billion.  you think any of the 2.7 billion non-chinese viewers will remember the not-so-cute genuine singer had she been allowed to be on stage?  i really don’t think so.  it’s an issue that has been blown all out of proportion.  strange, sure, but deserving of contempt?  not.  as for the underaged gymnasts, until the proof has seen the light of day, i’m giving the diminutive, young-faced acrobatic wonders of the unparallel bars the benefit of the doubt (and gold) and hold my peace.  so let the burden of proof begin, western media.  let the mad sleuthing commence!  and may it never end to give the endlessly wagging tongues something to write about when no other american gymnasts apart from shawn johnson and anastasia lukin bear uncle sam’s glorious stripes.
3. smog shmog:  where?  first world spoiled brats moan and wail about the harsh side effects of horrible smog for world-class athletes except for the athletes themselves.  ethopian legend haile gebrselassie pulled out of the premier marathon event citing smog as the reason only to find that the event was held on a smogless rainy day.  i can only commend the medallists from kenya, morocco, and ethiopia for running for glory in a sport that started the olympics in ancient greece millenia ago.  retired justine henin said in her pre-retirement days that she was considering not going to the olympics for the same reason.  did anyone miss her?  i doubt anyone, least of all the enthusiastic crowds, cared that the belgian prima donna was not there.  i didn’t!  the russians were more than enough to excite fans of the women’s tour.  davai!
4. no-fun-games in the socialist country:  the problem i have with critics is that they think that democratic nations are the only ones who know how to put on a good show.  i’ve read more than enough canadian columnists and listened to enough bitter british commentators whine and complain about the chinese communists, daring to claim that the 2010 vancouver winter olympics and the 2012 london summer games can be even better on ethical and moral grounds than the extravaganza the chinese put up in 2008.  enough!  the chinese put on a spectacular show that no stupid red bus morphing into an even more stupid hedge with a bunch of ragtag jazz dancers can outstage or even dream of topping.  can western performers summon the discipline to make 2008 drummers perform in flawless sync?  or dance in breathless formations?  no.  do these western societies even stand a squeak of a chance competing against china’s 5,000-year old history?  oh please.  and then they will take it against the beijing games by writing silly nonsense such as “it was a yawner getting a crash course on china’s 5000-yr history”… to such comments i say, then stop watching and try to do something meaningful instead of showing the world your obvious ignorance and contempt for anything better than anything you or your culture can ever do.  why not try to learn from the masters, instead, and perhaps put on a special show not bent on unflattering moral/ethical comparisons?  

smiling ethiopian long-distance running legend haile gebrsellasie (photo credit: reuters) 

Continue reading this post…

who is the biggest star of the olympics? this certainly makes for an interesting debate, doesn’t it?

if you ask me, the first week of the olympics belonged to the phenomenal michael phelps, who achieved his personal goal of 8 gold medals, surpassing mark spitz’ all-time gold medal record haul that has been in place since the 1972 munich olympics.

A combination photo shows Michael Phelps holding each of his eight gold medals in the swimming competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Phelps won his eighth gold medal on Sunday, beating Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals won at a single Games in 1972. The medals were won in: (Top row L-R) 400m individual medley (August 10), 4×100m freestyle relay (August 11), 200m freestyle (August 12), 200m butterfly (August 13). (Bottom row L-R) 4×200m freestyle relay (August 13), 200m individual (photo credit: the montreal gazette)

 the second week has its undoubtedly brightest star in jamaica’s lanky 6′5 sprinter, usain bolt, breaking his 100-M sprint world record by .04 of a second (could have been faster had he not started celebrating 5 metres before the finish line!) AND, more amazingly, michael johnson’s 12-year world record at the 200-M sprint by .01 of a second!  when bbc’s commentators sue barker and pundit collin asked michael johnson what he thought of the man who had broken his record, johnson enthused, “he’s superman!”

usain bolt of jamaica celebrates winning the 200m final at the national stadium (bird’s nest) last aug 20 (photo credit: the vancouver sun)

21-year old hurdles track star dayron robles from cuba, the man who would break china’s 1.3 billion hearts, stormed to a gold finish earlier, and one wonders if he and liu xiang would have had a battle royale in the 110-M hurdles final.  that race had lost some of its lustre for the chinese, whose favourite son, xiang, limped off the track days ago with a hurting hamstring and right foot injury.

dayron robles of cuba and liu xiang of china (photo credit: bbc photo gallery)

not even the russian beauty yelena isinbayeva who holds the world record for the pole vault, who broke her own record yet once more at the games, could take away from the shine of phelps and bolt.  not even the chaotic race of the 4×100 metre relays of the american men and women can distract one from the glory of the two amazing younsters.  there is no doubt in my mind that michael phelps and usain bolt are the recognised poster boys of the 2008 beijing olympic games.

compared to the legendary sergey bubka, yelena isinbayeva flashes a smile after besting her own record at the pole vault, clearing 5.05 m (photo credit: the telegraph.co.uk)

a question to you (do take this seriously, give me a response, i would really love to know):  will anyone ever remember the amazing run rafael nadal had in winning the olympic gold in men’s singles on his first try, coming after his equally amazing wins in roland garros and wimbledon just one month before?

rafael nadal, olympic gold medallist for his beloved spain, after defeating fernando gonzalez of chile in their gold medal match last sunday, aug 17

olympic trio:  fernando gonzalez of chile, rafael nadal of spain, and novak djokovic of serbia (photo credit: tennis.com)

last december 2007, i made some fearless forecasts at my favourite tennis forum, following a question posed to us regulars, “who are your picks to win the majors in 2008?”  risking ridicule, i posted, on a lark’s prayer, the following:

• australian open:  novak djokovic
• french open:  rafael nadal (going for 4!)
• wimbledon:  rafa (three times lucky?)
• us open:  nole (you rule hardcourts, baby!)
• olympics:  rafa!

as of today, i have made 4 out of 5 guesses.  my beloved rafa, who treats each tennis triumph as a triumph for his beloved spain, gave his mother country the best prize of all — olympic gold.  vamos, mi rafalito, you have made your nation proud, and your loyal supporters happy beyond belief.

bringing the gold home for spain: olympic champion rafael nadal (photo credit: tennis.com)

that he overcame my other favourite player, nole, in the semi-finals, and missed watching this match, makes it somewhat bittersweet for me.  as the rivalry between the two intensifies, it gets increasingly difficult for me to watch the two men play, and sometimes my cheering for one over the other is framed by my desire to split the glory between the two (best example:  see picks above).  in my heart nole is the king of hardcourts but rafa’s win over nole last weekend has tilted the head-to-head advantage in rafa’s favour, with him notching two wins over nole — indian wells 07 and beijing 08 on hardcourts; FO 06 and FO 08 on clay; and Queen’s 08 on grass.  nole has two wins over rafa, both on hardcourt, indian wells 08 and cincy 08.  what moves me is how both young men show ardent love for their country, pushing aside the quest for individual honour for the glory of spain and serbia.

intense rivalry between two intense, charismatic young men, rafa and nole — vamos!  ajde!  (photo credit: tennis.com)

roger federer and stanislas wawrinka snared the elusive tennis gold for switzerland in the doubles, and it was poignant to see the soon-to-be-former world #1 getting his first olympic gold a few days before rafa ascends the top spot in the rankings for the first time in 4 1/2 years.   as roger comes to accept the inevitable reality of his waning domination, my affection for him grows by the day.  i was truly happy to see roger take the gold.

at last, roger!  roger embraces stan after winning olympic gold (photo credit: tennis.com)

the women’s medallists featured a smashing russian 1-2-3 whammy, with elena dementieva doing one better than her previous olympic silver at the sydney 2000 games, winning over compatriot dinara safina and vera zvonareva overcoming homecrowd favourite na li to win the bronze.

russian sweep of the medals:  dinara safina - silver, elena dementieva -gold, & vera zvonareva - bronze (photo credit: tennis.com)

to see venus and serena screaming and jumping in delight puts a smile on everyone’s face as the two sisters swept their spanish opponents in two sets. although they failed in their singles bid to medal, they showed that they are the pair to beat with a 10-0 lifetime record as a doubles team.

novak is still on track in his quest for a maiden olympic medal (photo credit: AFP)

tennis:  spain’s rafael nadal struggled in his opener against 71st ranked potito starace of italy, their match going three sets.  however, in the match featuring compatriot david ferrer against serbian janko tipsarevic which lasted two sets, the players were grinding out each point and it took several long rallies and several minutes to conclude one game.  rafa’s match featured several of his service games at love while starace struggled on his serve.  i’m saying that rafa, though he played a deciding set, did not get as tired as ferrer or tipsarevic did.  (incidentally, tipsy won his match against ferru)  in other tennis news, ana ivanovic and lindsay davenport remained the tour’s biggest withdrawals, neither hitting a ball in any singles match. i have yet to read if jelena did play or not.  switzerland’s roger federer won handily in his match against russia’s dmitry tursunov; same with serbia’s #1 novak djokovic triumphing over american bobby ginepri.  britain’s newly crowned masters champion from last week’s cincinnati, however, fell in two sets to the inspired lu-yen hsun of taiwan.  wimbledon semifinalist upset agnez szavay, sania mirza withdrew due to wrist injury, and the williams sisters won their opening matches against their hapless opponents.  so far, all is swell in tenis land for this tennis fan.  it’s a pity murray bowed out but at least my big three are still in the mix.

andy murray crashes out of the olympics round of 64 (photo credit: AFP)

diving:  youngest olympian tom daley of britain and partner blake aldridge finished 8th out of 8 finalists in the 10-m synchronised diving event, bowing to superior chinese, russian, german, and american diving duos.  colombo’s young pair made a delightful dark horse showing, moving up to as high as 6th after 6 rounds.

phelps celebrates after his team snares gold in the 4×100-m freestyle (photo credit: AP)

swimming:  michael phelps continues his quest for 8 gold medals, snaring his second with team USA in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay, pipping the puffed up french quarted by 8 hundredths of a second.  this came one day after he took his first gold medal in the 400-m medley, setting a new world record in the process.  phelps has to thank compatriot jason lezak, who at 32 was the team’s oldest swimmer, who lunged for the wall at the last minute, edging out france’s anchor man alain bernard in 3:12.23.  2 heartbreaking losses were to be had, however, by phelps’ compatriot katie hoff, who missed out on gold in the 400-m individual medley and the 100-m freestyle, both times pipped at the last second, once by australian stephanie rice and the second time by british rebecca addlington.   my eye’s on kirsty coventry of zimbabwe, who has already won a silver medal in tge 400-m individual medley and broke the world record for the 100-m backstroke in her semifinal heat earlier today.

my eye’s on kirsty coventry of zimbabwe (photo credit: SI)

gymnastics:  anna pavlova of russia is my sentimental favourite to win the all-around women’s individual gold but team usa’s shawn johnson, the diminutive power-packed american from des moines, iowa, is tagged by pundits as having the biggest chance to take gold given her unwavering consistency across all events.  compatriot nastia lukin is a strong contender as well and personally, i prefer nastia’s style of gymnastics, characterised by aesthetic grace and artistry, over shawn’s mary-lou-retton-workmanlike quality.with a name like hers, it comes as no wonder to discover that nastia’s father was a former olympian medallist from russia who is now the assistant coach to team USA.  think back to 1984 when bela karolyi, nadia comaneci’s coach from rumania, coached his amercian ward retton to the overall title.  (nadia is my all-time favourite gymnast, scoring the first perfect 10 in the 1976 montreal olympics)

nastia lukin, daughter of a former olympian four-time medallist, has the pedigree to dazzle the world with her grace and technique (photo credit: eurosport)