Sports

Not too long ago it was the national cricket,  now athletics is being saddled with unrealistic expectations before a major competition.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Lucas Radebe is a personal friend  of Nelson Mandela, a FIFA ambassador and one of Leeds United’s  finest players of modern times but he still vividly recalls the  grim Christmas when he nearly turned his back on what was  destined to be a brilliant future.

The brother and sister pair of N’Sade and Nylon Wray scored some much-needed points for the Richard Ishmael Secondary School yesterday, when cycling wrapped up at the North Georgetown District No.11 Champion of Champions.

Clive Atwell, Cecil Smith, Mark Austin and Simeon Hardy signed their contracts yesterday for the ninth edition of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control/Guyana Amateur Boxing Association Pro-Am card at the GBBC office on Avenue of the Republic.

The national rugby Sevens team came in for praise from the Leicester Tigers rugby club of England after they completed a five-day training programme in England prior to their departure for the Commonwealth Games which are being held in New Delhi, India.

MOHALI, India, (Reuters) – Opener Gautam Gambhir and  paceman Ishant Sharma will miss the second test against  Australia because of knee injuries, Board of Control for Cricket  in India (BCCI) secretary N.

The reigning Division Three league champions, Beepat Scorpions will tip off the Division Three finals of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) Pepsi Street Playoff Series against the second-seed Ravens tonight at the Burnham basketball court.

KHANTY-MANSIYSK, Russia, CMC – Barbados and Jamaica ended the 39th World Chess Olympiad on a winning note as their men scored convincing victories but there was no such luck for Trinidad and Tobago as they slumped to a bad loss on Monday.

DHAKA, (Reuters) – A brilliant all-round performance  by Shakib Al Hasan steered Bangladesh to a pulsating nine-run  victory over New Zealand in a rain-interrupted first one-day  international yesterday.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Athletes at the Commonwealth  Games are battling a plague of Delhi bugs as much as opponents  with organisers forced to blanket venues with a pungent  insecticide after an influx of insects.

KARACHI, (Reuters) – The International Cricket Council  will hold appeal hearings for suspended Pakistan cricketers  Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif in Qatar on Oct.

Swimmers representing over 15 schools turned up at the Castellani Swimming Pool on Homestretch Avenue to compete in the swimming events of the North Georgetown District No.11  Champion of Champions meet which began yesterday.

Guyana’s middleweight boxer Devon Boatswain is to be in action today at the Talkatora Stadium as boxing in the XIX Commonwealth Games commences in New Delhi, India.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – The official weigh-in for the  Commonwealth Games boxing competition ran into complete chaos  yesterday with teams complaining of faulty test scales at the  Talkatora Indoor stadium.

– Stephenson records personal best in 50m breaststroke Guyana’s lone swimmer at the Common-wealth Games, Jessica Stephenson recorded her personal best time yesterday when she contested in the heat three qualification of the women’s 50m breaststroke at the nineteenth Common-wealth Games, currently underway in New Delhi, India.

NEWPORT, Wales, (Reuters) – Graeme McDowell withstood  the greatest pressure of his career to secure the winning point  as Europe, led out by Ian Poulter and Luke Donald, regained the  Ryder Cup after fending off a brilliant United States fightback  on Monday.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Nigerian schoolgirl  weightlifter Augustina Nwakolo scooped the first gold medal at  the Delhi Commonwealth Games on Monday, dashing hosts India’s  hopes of claiming it for themselves.

DHAKA, (Reuters) – New Zealand have been denied warmup  matches by the weather for the second time in a row on a tour of  Bangladesh in an early setback to their preparations for next  year’s 50 overs World Cup on the Indian subcontinent.

BERNE, (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Super Eagles were  grounded yesterday when the country was barred from  international soccer because of government interference, three  months after narrowly escaping suspension for the same reason.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Ernest Hilaire expected there would have been players unwilling to sign the West Indies Cricket Board’s central retainer contracts.