What a weekend of Records – Woza Next Weekend
A lightning Bolt in Berlin shattered the mark set by the previous Bolt of lightning that happened at the Olympics. Usain Bolt is a freak, apparently he needed only 33 strides down the track at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium and sliced the largest chunk off the world record since electronic timing was introduced, but insisted it was all just a fun day at the office. The talk is that this story will still be spoken about in years to come just likes Jesse Owens records in the same stadium over 70 years ago are still spoken about today. I wonder if the Western Province Rugby Union will try to sign him at Wing this week. They have tried to poach from every other province in the country in recent weeks without success, but I think this one may be a little out of the financial reach.
Then there was the taming of the Tiger by the first ever Asian Male winner of a Major on the PGA Tour. In fairness I think it had to happen eventually, but to beaten by a guy that only started playing golf at the age of 19, Wow. That is enough to make a man like want to cry, I have been playing golf longer than that. Clearly the South Korean Yang Yong-eun had something in his make-up as a golfer when he started out, otherwise we would all be taking Tiger on the weekend. Well done to him, I must add though that as a South African, it was nice to see Ernie Else finding a little bit of form again.
And then Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry smashed 194 not out against Bangladesh on Sunday to equal the record individual score in a one-day international. What a pity this was such a low key match. Never the less, you don’t smash 194 not out in any form of cricket unless you have some talent, and clearly this youngster has some of that. What a great shame that your side still finishes up as the loser on an occasion like that though, that must have put somewhat of a dampener on his own celebrations. The joys of team sports hey! The 26-year-old Coventry’s 156-ball knock in Bulawayo matched the effort of Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar against India in 1997. He hit 16 fours and seven sixes.
What about that Scottish terrier? Andy Murray has climbed to the giddy heights of number two in the ATP world rankings, but the Briton may discover that, like Mount Everest, the final push to the summit can end in disappointment. While 24 players have held the number one spot since rankings began in 1973, 11 more have fallen just short of the mark, including some hallowed names in the game. Among the players who nearly made it are grand slam winners Guillermo Vilas of Argentina and Americans Arthur Ashe and Michael Chang. Croatian Goran Ivanisevic and Czech Petr Korda are also in the runners-up club.
With Brett Lee almost certain to be fit for his first appearance of the series in this weeks ashes decider, and England opting for new blood in the form of uncapped batsman Jonathan Trott, along with the return of Formula One racing after a short break, and then the next round of Tri-Nations Rugby and English Premier League football, it promises to be a good week on the sporting front again.
Great weekend for sport indeed. But for me, it was all brought to a halt after the Liverpool defeat.
Now if we had one, it would have been the cherry on the top. So sad, too bad
Better a 2-1 defeat on that side of the River Mersey than that 6-1 drubbing Everton got on the other side.