Martin Parry
AFP News Editor for Australia/New Zealand/Pacific
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/ 30 October 2007

Top stars see boom in Asian golf

The Asian Tour has more potential for growth than any other tour in the world, according to some of the world’s most successful stars who have seen big improvements in recent years. Lee Westwood, Michael Campbell and Vijay Singh have all been regular visitors to Asia over the past decade and they are impressed with what has been happening.

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/ 2 September 2007

Gay joins exclusive three-gold club

Tyson Gay joined an exclusive club on Saturday in Osaka, Japan, by becoming only the third man ever to win three gold medals at a single world championships, overshadowing Meseret Defar’s 5 000m victory. Only fellow Americans Carl Lewis (1983 and 1987) and Maurice Greene (1999) have achieved the feat before.

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/ 30 August 2007

Gay lands historic sprint double

Tyson Gay romped to the 200m world title on Thursday, giving him a rare sprint double at the World Athletics Championships. He joined an exclusive club that includes fellow Americans Maurice Greene and the disgraced Justin Gatlin as the only men to win both the 100m and 200m crowns.

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/ 28 August 2007

Kenyans shine in Japan

Pole-vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva won gold on Tuesday but failed in a world record attempt, as Kenyan runners held sway on the track at the World Athletics Championships. Kenya’s formidable men’s 3 000 m steeplechasers toyed with the opposition before delivering the expected clean sweep.

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/ 15 May 2007

Singapore race a shot of high octane for F1

From three grands prix four years ago to six today, Asia has become the new focus for the movers and shakers who drive Formula One (F1). The announcement of Singapore as a host city last week reinforces F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone’s belief that the region is a key cog in the sport’s future development.

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/ 29 March 2007

Remarkable Phelps takes it to new level

The remarkable Michael Phelps shattered his third world record of the Swimming World Championships in Melbourne on Thursday to bag a fourth gold medal and stay on course for an ambitious tilt at eight titles. The American marvel took apart his own world mark in the 200m individual medley, lowering it by almost a second.

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/ 28 March 2007

Phelps stars as three more records fall

Michael Phelps, Laure Manaudou and Leila Vaziri obliterated world records in Melbourne on Wednesday on another sensational night at the World Swimming Championships, but Grant Hackett’s reign as king of the 800m freestyle ended. Phelps (21) carved a huge 1,71 seconds off his own 200m butterfly world record to set a new mark of one minute 52,09 seconds.

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/ 21 March 2007

Russia march on at world swimming meet

The Russian Federation’s Vladimir Dyatchin held off a charging Thomas Lurz to win the men’s 10km open-water world title in a photo finish on Wednesday in Melbourne, Australia, as ”massive” jellyfish again took their toll. China, meanwhile, continued their push for more diving gold at the world championships.