American Michael Phelps smashed Ian Thorpe’s 200m freestyle world record on an extraordinary evening at the World Swimming Championships on Tuesday. Four world records tumbled in the space of 90 minutes at the Susie O’Neill pool with Aaron Peirsol, Natalie Coughlin and Federica Pellegrini setting new marks in one of the most remarkable days in the event’s history.
American Michael Phelps smashed Ian Thorpe’s 200m freestyle world record to win gold at the Swimming World Championships in Melbourne on Tuesday. Phelps left his rivals in his wash as he raced to a stunning victory in one minute 43,86 seconds, wiping 0,20 seconds off the previous record of 1:44,06 set by Australian Thorpe at the 2001 world championships in Japan.
High winds forced the suspension of the women’s 25km open water final at the world championships on Saturday. Organisers ordered the swimmers out of the water halfway through the race as the gusts, reaching up to 40 knots, whipped up the seas off St Kilda Beach.
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/ 29 January 2007
The Super 14 series kicks off this weekend without some of the sport’s biggest names after they were ordered to save themselves for the 2007 World Cup. New Zealand have blocked their leading 22 players from appearing in the first seven rounds of the competition to undergo ”conditioning” while Australia and South Africa will almost certainly rest key performers.
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/ 10 January 2007
Amelie Mauresmo has admitted she has work cut out winning a second Australian Open title after tumbling out of the last major warm-up event on Wednesday. Mauresmo’s hopes of some valuable match practice hit a major stumble when he was knocked out of the Sydney International by in-form Serb Jelena Jankovic.
Australia inflicted more misery on England with a record-breaking 77-run victory in their one-off Twenty20 match on Tuesday. Despite missing almost half the team that humiliated England 5-0 in the Ashes Test series, Australia racked up a world-record total to leave the visitors without a win in any form of the game since arriving down under more than two months ago.
England fought back from another batting collapse on Wednesday to grab four wickets before Australia began to reassert their control on the second day of the fifth and final Ashes Test. England blew their chance of posting a big first-innings total when they lost their last six wickets for just 46 runs in the morning to be all out for 291.
Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen rescued England from a shaky start to reach 149 for two at tea on the opening day of the fifth Ashes Test on Tuesday. The pair shared an unbroken third-wicket partnership of 91 runs after Australia had dismissed England’s openers cheaply.
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/ 28 December 2006
Australia thrashed England by an innings and 99 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday, wrapping up a fourth straight win in the Ashes series with more than two days remaining. Australia secured victory after tea on the third day when they bowled the tourists out for 161 to remain on course for a first 5-0 whitewash over their oldest rivals.
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/ 15 December 2006
Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden scored half-centuries to help Australia seize control of the third Ashes Test against England in Perth on Friday. Ponting continued his insatiable run-feast with an unbeaten 57 and Hayden posted his best score of the series to reach the close on day two, also on 57 not out, with Australia on 119-2 in their second innings, 148 runs ahead.