Paula Radcliffe has been focussing on very little this year apart from the Beijing Olympics, particularly since missing the London Marathon with a toe injury. But now it appears that another injury may rule out her chances in China too. On Wednesday an MRI scan revealed a stress fracture in her left femur.
Radcliffe’s chances of [...]
Archive for May, 2008
Paula Radcliffe’s Olympics On A Knife Edge
Posted in Air pollution, Athletes, Environment, Protests, The Games, tagged beijing olympic games, Beijing Olympics, london marathon, marathon, olympic marathon, paula radcliffe on 22 May 2008 | 4 Comments »
Olympics = Dialogue
Posted in Media, Preparation, Protests, Public expectation, tagged beijing olympic games, Beijing Olympics, china review on 22 May 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The latest issue of the China Review came out this week, and was predictably packed with Olympic-centric articles. One quote particularly caught Bob’s eye and had to be included here:
“Being pragmatic, people inside and outside China should look past the temporary politics, and celebrate this event as a key moment in the encounter and dialogue [...]
Olympic Champion Henin Retires (Early)
Posted in Athletes, The Games, tagged Beijing Olympics, french open, henin, justin henin, justine henin, olympic champion, olympics tennis, tennis, us open on 20 May 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Some news that has been slightly overlooked in light of everything else in the last week: the Beijing Olympics will be missing one more gold medal holder since Justine Henin has announced her (shock) retirement.
Described as the best of her generation by former Champion Billie-Jean King, Henin is the reigning World no 1, and French [...]
Three Minute Silence & Three Day Torch Relay Break
Posted in Media, Public expectation, olympic torch, tagged Beijing Olympics, hangzhou, olympic torch relay, sichuan, sichuan earthquake, three minute silence, wenchuan, wenchuan earthquake, west lake on 19 May 2008 | 4 Comments »
A three minute silence was observed today at 2.28pm Beijing Time (6.28 GMT), one week after the terrible earthquake in Sichuan. This was accompanied by three minutes of noise by drivers of cars, ship and trains blasted their horns for three minutes of noise.
Here you can see a CCTV report which includes coverage of the [...]
Oscar Pistorius – The Blade Runner Rides Again
Posted in Athletes, Legacy, London 2012, Paralympics, tagged 400m, Athletes, balde runner, Beijing Olympics, beijing paralympics, cheetah, oscar pistorius, ossur, Paralympics, paralympics athletes, prosthetics on 17 May 2008 | 3 Comments »
The international news and the blogosphere this week has rightfully been dominated by coverage of the dreadful events in Sichuan, and the relief efforts. It’s difficult to concentrate on other news.
However this Friday saw ground-breaking news that will reflect strongly on the Olympics, if not in Beijing then certainly in future events. After months of [...]
Flood Threat Hampers Beichuan Quake Relief
Posted in Environment, Media, tagged beichuan, beichuan earthquake, beichuan evacuation, earthquake, evacuation, sichuan earthquake, wenchuan earthquake on 17 May 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Beichuan was struck by panic today (Saturday) and hurriedly evacuated, as rumours spread through the quake-ravaged city that a river up-mountain had burst its banks. Fear of flood waters bearing down on the remains of the city were enough to prompt a complete evacuation, halting the rescue efforts in their tracks.
The BBC’s Paul Danahar has [...]
Olympic Torch Relay Scaled Back In Respect
Posted in Environment, Protests, olympic torch, tagged chinese earthquake, earhtquake, sichuan, wenchuan, wenchuan earthquake on 13 May 2008 | 1 Comment »
It seems rather futile blogging about other issues in light of the fact that thousands of people still left buried by the Earthquake in Sichuan. The death toll now exceeds 12,000 and is sure to increase. The Olympics seem relatively trivial.
The New York Times (via CDT) describes how many people in China have been incensed [...]
7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Sichuan
Posted in Environment, tagged beichuan, earthquake, quake, suchuan, wenchuan on 12 May 2008 | 3 Comments »
The largest natural disaster to hit China in decades has struck in to the Sichuan county of Wenchuan. An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale occurred at 1428 Beijing time, on Monday.
The worst hit area appears to be Beichuan county, 50km from the epicentre, where the BBC reports that 80% of buildings were destroyed [...]
Liu Xiang Starts Season With a Win
Posted in Athletes, Preparation, Public expectation, tagged 100m hurdles, Beijing Olympics, Liu Xiang, olympic champion, olympic hurdles, osaka on 12 May 2008 | 2 Comments »
Olympic 110m hurdles champion Liu Xiang has begun is season as he means to continue it in Beijing, with a gold medal.
(Via Xinhua) Liu said: “I’ve always started my season strongly in Osaka so I hope this will be a good omen.” As Liu knows very well, the rest of China is hoping this [...]
Wild China, A Wild Success
Posted in Culture, Environment, Media, tagged bbc, cctv, chinese landscape, guilin, wild china, zhangjiajie on 11 May 2008 | 2 Comments »
Wild China, the joint venture between the BBC and CCTV aired earlier this evening on BBC 2, and it was spectacular!
“The last hidden world… China.”
An audacious opening line to the series, which epitomises the mystery that still surrounds China in much of the rest of the world. Having spent a long time with borders closed, [...]
