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
Jacques Kallis scored a patient half-century on Wednesday as South Africa set a modest 191-run victory target against Sri Lanka in the crucial third one-day international. South African skipper Graeme Smith won the toss and decided to bat first in a match that the visitors must win to stay in the five-match series.
Jenna Dreyer, the 18-year-old South African diving champion who ”bombed” out in the 10m platform discipline, came good at the Athens Olympics on Wednesday when she qualified for the semifinals in the 3m springboard at the Aquatic Centre. Dreyer made it through to Thursday’s finals with a 267,84-point total.
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.
Click on image for full-size view.
It stood for 350 years, bearing fruit for a dozen generations, but strong winds finally brought down what is believed to be the oldest pear tree in Scandinavia. Ever since the mid-1600s, the massive pear tree had helped feed the people outside Enkoeping, an hour’s drive west of Stockholm.
He had to change his tires 11 times and once fell to the ground and spent the night in a ditch. But a Russian amputee, Vladimir Ksenchak (65), finally rolled into Madrid on Tuesday after a 5 000km wheelchair trip designed to inspire the disabled and to denounce drugs.
The trial of 14 suspected foreign mercenaries, accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, resumed in Malabo on Tuesday when their South African alleged ringleader was cross-examined by defence lawyers. Nick du Toit, who has admitted a limited role in a coup bid in Equatorial Guinea, responded to questions by lawyers.
Mann’s million-dollar promise