Alwyn Myburgh emerged as the pick of the South African 400m hurdles crop when he edged defending Olympic champion Angelo Taylor and runner-up Hadi soua An Al Somaily out of the Athens Olympic finals in a nail-biting semifinal at the Olympic Stadium on Tuesday night. ”Oh man, I just can’t believe this,” said a jubilant Myburgh.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
”I am starting to push myself into influential positions. That is the only way left. Most of the guys on the local youth league are weak intellectually and I can convince them. Based on other people’s experiences, it should enhance my prospects of getting a job in the government,” said Bonolo, a 24-year-old graduate. Naked opportunism or practicality?
The world is heading for wildly uneven population swings in the next 45 years, with many rich countries ”downsizing” during a period in which almost all developing nations will grow at breakneck speed. A new report predicts that at least an extra 1 000-million will be living in the world’s poorest African countries by 2050. There are more people on Earth than ever before, and fewer resources to support them.
I am not cynical about EIAs, I just have a skewed view of their effectiveness when most of the times I hear about them it is from the same advocacy groups conducting campaigns in the media. The truth is that a hungry stomach does not see the grace in the buck, writes Donald Kau.
Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic added the Olympic gold medal — and the Olympic mark — to his world record by completing a come-from-behind victory on Tuesday in the decathlon. Ezekiel Kemboi led a Kenyan sweep in the 3 000m steeplechase and Tonique Williams-Darling won the 400m in 49,41 seconds.
If South Africa’s top swimmers want to swim for Uganda, then they must go, said Swimming South Africa’s president on Wednesday at a press conference called to respond to statements made by South Africa’s Olympic medallist Roland Schoeman that he will have to leave South Africa if he cannot make a living out of swimming.
I remember being present at the time of the announcement of the results of the first democratic election when President Thabo Mbeki — then not yet president nor even deputy president — spoke, seeking analogy from a line from Wordsworth’s poem on the French Revolution: ”Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”. And indeed it was, and for many of us it has been since then. But not for us all, writes Arthur Chaskalson.
Another weightlifter has failed a dope test at the Olympics, bringing the number of known cases to 10, it was announced on Wednesday. Sam Coffa, vice-president of the International Weightlifting Federation, said that the athlete was prevented from competing after the positive test was confirmed.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
Last season’s runners-up, Monaco, as well as Inter Milan, Liverpool and Deportivo reached the group stage of the Champions League on Tuesday. Monaco hammered Slovenian side Hit Gorica 6-0, after winning the first leg 3-0. Inter Milan put on an impressive display to defeat Basel 4-1 and advance.
The South African men’s hockey team finally turned opportunities into goals, taking their frustrations of the pool matches out on Egypt by beating them 5-1 in the classification matches of the Olympic tournament. Megan Hall finished 36th in the women’s triathlon and diver Jenna Dreyer moved up in the 3m springboard preliminaries.
Special Report: Olympics 2004