An Australian hotel catering for homosexuals has won the right to ban heterosexuals from its bars so as to provide a safe and comfortable venue for gay men. The Victorian state civil and administrative tribunal ruled last week that the Peel Hotel in the southern city of Melbourne could exclude patrons based on their sexuality.
France named an inexperienced side on Wednesday for the first Test against New Zealand in Auckland on Saturday. Coach Bernard Laporte was denied the services of players from Toulouse, Biarritz, Clermont Auvergne and Stade Francais because of the conclusion of the French championship.
A survey of 45 of the world’s top cricketers say most players were not impressed by this year’s World Cup and have little faith in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) ability to govern the game. The survey found 56% of players were both not satisfied by the ICC’s ability to deliver World Cup events and lacked confidence in the ICC governing cricket.
Cricket Australia wants to play Zimbabwe at a neutral venue after the government on Sunday barred the team from three one-day international games. Prime Minister John Howard announced the ban on the tour, saying it would be an ”enormous propaganda boost” for the regime of Robert Mugabe.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has ordered the country’s national cricket team to cancel their planned tour of Zimbabwe later this year. The Australian government had previously outlined its determination to scrap the tour in protest over Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s regime.
Former Wallaby Ben Tune scored a try in his final match before his home crowd as Queensland netted only their second win of the Super 14 season with a 23-13 triumph over the Cheetahs in Brisbane on Saturday. First-half tries from James Horwill and Tune, who is retiring at the end of the season, gave the Reds their first win in ten matches.
New Zealand flanker Jerry Collins has been cleared of a serious neck injury after he was stretchered off during a Super 14 match in Christchurch on Friday.The 26-year-old Hurricanes forward, capped 38 times by the All Blacks, was taken off after a seemingly innocuous tackle during the 23-13 defeat by the Crusaders at Jade Stadium.
Gerhard Zandberg won the men’s 50m backstroke final on Sunday to provide South Africa with their second gold medal at the world championships. Zandberg stormed to victory in 24,98 seconds, giving South Africa their second win after Roland Schoeman won the men’s 50m butterfly.
Five-times Olympic champion Ian Thorpe has denied using performance-enhancing drugs and vowed to clear his name after a drug test before his retirement last year showed unusually high levels of naturally-occurring hormones.
Australian swim officials huddled on Saturday to discuss a report that Ian Thorpe, the world record holder and Olympic champion, showed ”abnormal levels” of two banned substances in a doping test last year before he retired. Anti-doping officials in Australia threw out the case against Thorpe, one of the sport’s most recognisable athletes, for lack of scientific proof.
Michael Phelps scooped up his fifth gold medal at the World Swimming Championships on Friday but is still to face his toughest test. The 21-year-old American stayed on course to win an unprecedented eight titles in Melbourne when he made it five from five with victory in the 4×200 metres freestyle relay.
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.
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.
South African rookie Cameron van der Burgh’s only thought going into the 50m breaststroke final of the World Swimming Championships on Wednesday was not to finish last. Instead he won a bronze medal. No one was more surprised than the 18-year-old. ”I can’t describe it. I never even thought about it. It’s my first world championships,” said the United States-based nutrition student.
A Ukrainian swimming coach has been banned from making contact with his daughter after they were filmed fighting in Melbourne in what a leading athlete called another example of ”that ugly parent syndrome”. Mikhail Zubkov (38) was thrown out of the World Swimming Championships and police issued a domestic violence order against him.
Australia’s women’s water polo team has lodged an official complaint alleging an Italian opponent bit their star player Kate Gynther. The incident apparently happened in Australia’s 12-8 victory over the Olympic champions at the world championships in Melbourne on Tuesday.
South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh broke the African record in the men’s 50m breaststroke at the Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday. He broke one of the oldest records in the swimming history books when he completed the race in 27,49 seconds. The 18-year-old could not improve on his time in the evening’s semifinal, but qualified for the final in 27,99 seconds.
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.
South African Roland Schoeman again denied American Ian Crocker to successfully defend his 50m butterfly world title in Melbourne on Monday. The Arizona-based Schoeman held off the 100m butterfly world-record holder’s desperate finish to win the one-lap scamper by 0,29secs in 23,18 seconds.
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.
New Zealand flyhalf Dan Carter scored 16 points in his first match this year to lead the Canterbury Crusaders to a 36-11 win over South Africa’s Stormers in a Super 14 match in Christchurch on Saturday. Carter kicked two conversions and four penalties and set up two of his team’s four tries as the Crusaders moved into the top four for this first time this season.
New Zealand’s Auckland Blues returned to the top of the Super 14 standings with a comprehensive 34-6 thrashing of Australia’s New South Wales Waratahs at Eden Park on Friday. The Blues scored four unanswered tries to collect a bonus point and leapfrog the Sharks at the top of the table, although the South Africans can reclaim first place if they beat the ACT Brumbies in Durban on Sunday.
American superstar Michael Phelps has greatness on his mind as he embarks on swimming’s monumental challenge of eight gold medals at the world championships in Melbourne. Compatriot Mark Spitz is considered the greatest swimmer of all time, with seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
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.
Fears that rugby union is in decline in Australia have gathered pace in this World Cup year amid wretched Super 14 performances, an indecisive rugby administration and public agitation over a lack of running rugby. Generally there is a heightened anticipation as teams prepare for the World Cup. Not so in Australia, where there is a foreboding of an early Wallaby Cup exit.
South African flyer Roland Schoeman believes if his second lap is on par with his rivals he can win the 100m freestyle gold medal at the World Swimming Championships. Schoeman is confident he can do his first lap in 22,4 seconds, but it is the second 50m which is the problematic part for him.
Kimi Raikkonen showed he’s the man to step into Michael Schumacher’s shoes at Ferrari, winning his first race with his new team at Sunday’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Raikkonen has already beaten a Schumacher mark at the Italian team. The German had to wait until his seventh race to notch his first win with Ferrari.
Ian Thorpe glanced at the pool and felt a bit of an urge to dive in — but no chance. The swimming community bid farewell to one of its greatest performers on Saturday night, honoring the ”Thorpedo” at the opening ceremony for the world championships in his home country.
Kimi Raikkonen took pole position on Saturday for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, the season’s Formula One opener. It was Raikkonen’s 12th career pole, but his first in a Ferrari. Formerly of McLaren, the Finn joined Ferrari to replace seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who retired last year.
Formula One (F1) supremo Bernie Ecclestone has hinted Australia should consider staging their grands prix at night to boost their chances of extending their current F1 licence, reports said on Saturday. Ecclestone wants to include a number of night races on the F1 schedule as early as next season.
Spectators at this year’s Melbourne Grand Prix will have a new insight into Formula One race teams’ tyre strategy thanks to new rules for the 2007 season — if they can see it on a spinning tyre. Under new regulations, Bridgestone, F1’s sole tyre supplier, must provide two specifications of dry weather tyres at each round.