Cast your minds back to August 16th 2008 and the men’s 100m final at the Beijing Olympics. Who could forget the phenomenal world record of 9.69 seconds set by Usain Bolt. And what did he do exactly one year later??? Only obliterated him own record with a staggering time of 9.58sec – taking an unheard of 0.11 seconds off the previous mark. The greatest chunk off of the 100m record prior to last Sunday was 0.05 seconds – achieved by Bolt and Maurice Greene before him. Unbelievable!!!

So when Thursday night’s men’s 200m final came around – a full year to the day since the Beijing final when Bolt broke Michael Johnson’s 200m record, I was more than a little surprised to hear all the pundits claim there would be no world record. What, athletics greatest showman simply settling for the gold medal? Never… And Bolt didn’t disappoint, amazingly taking, that’s right, 0.11 seconds off his own world record to take the gold in 19.19 sec.  The Berlin track is supposedly not that fast, yet a record five men dipped under 20 seconds in that race. Usain felt that the race was fast but not that good (what?), so just how much faster can he go??? Perhaps we’ll find out on August 20th next year?

Almost as entertaining as the race itself were the celebrations afterwards. Ahem, here’s where I have to admit a guilty secret… I have a bit of a thing for sports mascots and Berlino the Bear is one of my favourites. Following the 200m Berlino raced Usain around the track and stopped for photos with the World Champion, even posing next to the world record timer. Earlier in the week the cheeky bear also got it on with gold medallists Steffi Nerius and Anna Rogowska, and was launched over the shoulders of Robert Harting. Best of all was the ride he gave Melaine Walker after her victory in the 400m hurdles. Clearly high on the atmosphere in the Olympic Stadium, Berlino gave Melaine a piggy-back around the stadium only to be stopped in his tracks by a trolley full of hurdles at which point he dropped the Jamaican on her arse! (Being the true gent he is, he quickly picked her up and checked she was OK). http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/8213221.stm

Berlino, you’re a legend and I love you…are you single??? 

The 12th World Championships of Athletics begin in Berlin tomorrow and I can barely contain my excitement. Being the 3rd biggest global sporting event after the Olympics and football World Cup, I feel I have good reason to be dancing around the living room in my underwear in anticipation.

Go on, admit it, with the prospect of the three fastest men in history going head to head over 100 metres on Sunday you know you want to throw off your trousers and do the samba!

Let’s take a look at the facts. The event’s outstanding favourite is triple Olympic champion and fastest man in the whole wide world ever Usain Bolt. Bolt is yet to win a World title, taking a measly silver behind Gay in the 200 metres in Osaka two years ago. But you’d have to be a stark, staring lunatic (or Sanchez…no wait, Sanchez is a stark, staring lunatic) to bet against a man who’s p.b. is 9.69 seconds!!! That’s over 23mph for Pete’s sake. Tyson Gay, however, is the reigning World 100 and 200m champion and has posted this year’s fastest 100m time of 9.77sec. He was kept out of last year’s Olympic 100m final due to injury, denying us all the head-to-head this year’s event promises.

Add to this the fact that the IAAF is paying a $100,000 bonus for any athlete breaking a world record at the championships and I think we’ll see fireworks!

I feel duty bound to say that former world record holder Asafa Powell should also be in the mix, but as we’ve witnessed in successive Olympic and World finals, great times don’t guarantee you a medal and Powell seems to let himself get beaten before the gun’s even gone off. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the guy and he’s clearly immensely talented, he just lacks that winning mentality when it comes to the major finals, which is a real shame and I truly hope he does turn up this time, as what an epic final that would make. 

Other highlights of the week include the men’s 200m (for all the reasons above!), the 400m grudge match between World Champion and so-called successor to Michael Johnson, Jeremy Wariner and last year’s Olympic champ LaShawn Merritt and the battle of the lanky lasses, Blanca Vlasic and her new arch nemesis Ariane Friedrich in the high jump – now there’s a record begging to be broken. I personally love to see the shot put, with Adam Nelson whipping himself up into a frenzy and ripping off his shirt before every attempt and Olympic champ Tomasz Majewski who ‘accidentally’ dropped the shot on rival Christian Cantwell’s foot a couple of week’s ago at Crystal Palace, now, now boys. let’s play fair! I’m looking forward to Jessica Ennis winning the heptathlon – no more lame excuses and fish ‘n’ chip suppers as you’d expect from Kelly Sutherton, no, barring any doped up Eastern European he-birds, I’d stake my house (and have! oh dear god, what have I done?) that Ennis will take the gold.

I promise you this, there will be epic showdowns, world records, tears and tantrums (from the American athletes!) and men with magnificent physiques. What more could a girl ask for…?

First off id like to say hi am Ciaran aka Forge and from now on i will be SweepStakeMagics blogger for Baseball from Wrestling. From A Rod making me laugh so hard with him going out with Madonna to TNA believing that they will have a bigger fan base than the WWE by Xmas.You knw who ye need to look for now.... just find Forge.

For my first assignement i tht id look at something that dosent just effect baseball but all of sports. We all know about the summer blockbuster of Cristiano Ronaldo going from Man Utd to Real Madrid for £80 Million. Then later in the summer hearing Madrid spendin spree is near a quarter of a billion pounds. Think about it, Ronaldo's fee alone beat already what Cardiff paid for a new stadium. A man or a woman depending on how you think he reacts on the pitch going for a wopping £80 million but a whole stadium that can fit thousands of people only cost £50 million pound.

With insane spending going on like that in a economy that is at a horrific low when is it time to say no. Well to be honest its never gunner come. You can talk about salary caps being introduced into football but thats just not going to happen with to many people saying "its not the tradition of the game". Personally i dont think it would matter. The New York Yankees are under the salary cap but still seem to be able to go "Oh he's good we will get him" and bring in anyone they want and still have time to build a multi billion dollar stadium. But its not just about joke spending what chance do lower teams off having keeping their stars. Take Wigan Athletic for a moment a team at the start of last season with alot of unknown stars including Amir Zaki, Wilson Palasios and Antonio Valencia. Instead of trying to make something of the lower team that put faith in these players at the first chance they got they jumped to a top team. Now you can say all you want about how top teams bring out the best of players which now brings me to my point.

The Milwaukee Brewers have never been a popular team in the world of baseball. A few years ago you asked any American the first thing they would say about Milwaukee and quote " Milwaukee, dude they suck". Whats the reason simple the big players never wanted to join Milwaukee. Y would they when they had the Yankees and Red Sox knocking at the door step for their signature. Y would any player go to the Brewers when if they went to New York they would get fame, girls, hosues and cars while in Milwaukee they would never be knowin, only girls there gettin would be a inbred named Dave, a log cabin for home and a nice Waterboy like tractor to get to and from work. Haha no proberly werent that bad but you get my drift. It dosent really help when the state you play for are all massive American Football fans suppoting the local state team in the Green Bay Packers and a decent college team in Wisconsin Uni.

However a few seasons ago Milwaukee came up with a new approach to their season prepartions. Milwaukee traded away many stars for minors and eventually just had a team of minors and kids coming through the academy. At the time these players would be cheap and if you've traded away your stars for these kids you know they were gunner be sumit. Today the entire Brewers squad consists of players that came up through the academy and for the last two seasons enjoyed successful seasons and massive fan turnouts. Alot of there players have become stars such as Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Trevor Hoffman. Of course they had the bigger teams knocking at their door for these guys but insteading of goin the re signed multi year deals to give back to the team that had so much faith in them.

Now Milwaukee is team no longer undestimated and knowin for its young stars taking this team to bigger heights. I believe this is a great thing for sports and i really dont understand y some teams aka the yankees invest so much money in love with them selves stars and still have no were near the season they should. The only person on that Yankee squad thats there for the club i can honestly say is Derek Jeeter. I wanna get your thoughts on this are you happy with how are sports is now in the trading section or do you believe more teams should invest in young homegrown talent like Milwaukee. Lets hear your thoughts people.

There are way too many goddamn cats in my ‘burb. Seriously, they’re everywhere. Just when I think I’ve seen them all, I spot a new one prowling around or shitting on my lawn. It’s like the felines of the world have chosen my neighbourhood to get together and plan their world domination.

This morning I saw two of the bastards fucking on my driveway. I was torn between weird fasination and the base desire to yell ‘HEY! QUIT FUCKING ON MY DRIVEWAY YOU FURRY BASTARDS!’

And speaking of fucking pussies, can we talk about Tom Brady for a second? Just about every bookmakers this side of Venus (even the ones in Quadrant 5), have the New England Patriots as their favourite to win the Superbowl. This single fact alone convinces me that, when it comes to football, bookies are all a bunch of bandwagon tossers who just don’t have a clue.

How can a team that missed the playoffs last year (yeah, yeah 11-5 whatever, a miss is still a miss you swine), be considered favourites to win the whole deal? Apparently Brady’s comeback is so bright and shiny that we’re supposed to miss the glaring holes in the defense. Are we seriously supposed to believe that Belicheck and the ‘almighty’ patriots won’t miss two time pro-bowler Rodney Harrison or  long time leader of the defense, Mike Vrabel? When I have this conversation with Patriot fans they like to point out that ‘Tedy Bruschi’s still there!’ Bruschi is fucking 36 years old and only managed 12 starts last year for crying out loud. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU FUCKING PEOPLE?

Have we forgotten that old saying “Offense wins games, defense wins championships” (a philosophy that was proved right only last year by the Pittsburgh Steelers)? Well guess what, Leigh Bodden and Shawn Springs were not the two cornerbacks they were thinking of when that little ditty was invented.

Alright, Tom Brady is back. That’s a big deal, I get it. But do we honestly expect him to be anywhere near as good as before? This is a 32 year old quarterback coming off a year out of football with a recovering knee. I mean, is it just me? Am I the only one in the universe thinking that maybe, just maybe, he might not be the second coming that Pat fans seem to think he will be this year?

Maybe this is all just brutal homerism, but aren’t you getting sick and tired of this mainstream adulation for a team that’s clearly in decline?

…

You know, this could have probably been quite a decent, well researched argument had I been able to stop ranting for a second there. Ah well…

Cricket doesn’t get much better then this. Because, you know, cricket sucks.

Except during the Ashes.

This years grudge match between the old enemies England and Australia has been full of twists and turns (many of them made by me, in search of the remote so I can CHANGE THE FUCKING CHANNEL). First off we had Australia sending home their star bowler Brett Lee because he was spotted having a pint after dinner. No, you didn’t read that wrong, an Australian was sent home for having a drink. What the hell is going on with the world? You can’t blame the recession on that one; that’s just your stereotypical homemade stupidity.

Then, more unexpected then an orgasm in a restaurant, England actually started dominating and took the initial lead in the best of five series. In fact, had it not been for rain, England could well have sealed the ashes already. How Ironic. England fans usually pray for the draw inducing rain delay to avoid humiliation. I love it when God fucks with our heads.

In typical British style however and not wishing to disappoint, England managed to go all out for 102 in their first innings of the penultimate match and once again proved that they still have a chance of clutching defeat from the jaws of victory.

 So, with one game to play the score stands at one a piece. The final match will decide who takes home the beloved ashes. Well, not the ashes of course, they’re in a museum for boring fuckers somewhere. But I digress. With injuries (and hopeless incompetence) mounting up, England are in search of a saviour. And they think they may have found one in 39 year old former star and previous winner of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, Mark Ramprakash. A man who retired from international cricket in 2002. Yeah…

Though in blistering form for his county, Ramprakash hasn’t been officially picked yet, but he will be. And depending on how the final match plays out, he will be hindsight’s deciding factor over whether England came out glorious victors, or once again failed in their usual disastrous, humiliating, fashion.

[BBC Sport]

[Guardian Ashes Blog]