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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Its bye bye to 2008 & HELLO to 2009!! WoooooooooooooHooooooooooooooo!!
:))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) A fresh & bright start to a new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Labels: sweet dreams..

Y9:43 AM

Thursday, August 28, 2008

2day, i wan 2 share with all of u here the highlights of the big olympic event wich took place in Beijing, the capital of China. I know the olympics r alreadi over, but the trick is i had 2 wait 4 the whole event 2 finish b4 i can know evrythg & blog abt it.

From the opening ceremony on the 8th of August all the way to the closing ceremony on the 24th of August, we have seen many athletes who shine & many who don't. s i hav said b4, life is full of ups & downs, so dis is gg 2 b a loooooooonnggg post....so pls b mentally prepared 4 it(p.s. if yur eyes r tired, pls do NOT 4ce yurself 2 read!! yur health is more impt.)

I shall blog abt my top 8 favrite olympic sports & some athletes(nt all of course) which/whom i fancy & admire a lot.

GYMNASTICS

Let me start with the Gymnastics. Over here, i shall share my views abt gymnasts like He Kexin & Nastia Liukin. I lyk female fgymnasts becoz their bodies r veri attractivli flexible & their bones r veri soft(2 hav tt kind of body, u nid 2 start frm a baby age).

The gymnast whom i admire the most is He Kexin. He Kexin (Chinese: 何可欣) is a Chinese gymnast, the 2008 Olympic champion on the uneven bars, and a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese Olympic Team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She is an uneven bars specialist, and is referred as "Princess of the Uneven Bars".[citation needed] In 2008, she won two World Cup titles on the uneven bars. She is one of the few gymnasts in the world to score over 17.00 under the current Code of Points. With an A-score of 7.7, she has one of the highest difficulty scores in the world in the event, along with Yang Yilin, Nastia Liukin and Beth Tweddle.

He Kexin proudly showg her gold medal 2 all her supporters(above) & performg on an uneven bar(b-low).

My nxt most attractive gymnast is Yang Yilin(Chinese: 楊伊琳). In 2007, Yang was a member of the Chinese team for the World Championships. She won two medals: a silver with the Chinese team, and an individual bronze on the uneven bars. She also placed sixth all-around. Just lyk Kexin, there has been a controversy abt her 'young' age but she stil managd 2 defy the odds & eat the words of the ppl who complain tt she canot do it.

(p.s. sry no pics of Yilin 'cos canot find..:x)

My third choice gymnast is Nastia Liukin. She is a Russian-American artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic individual all-around gold medalist, the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars. With nine World Championships medals, seven of them individual, Liukin is tied with Shannon Miller as the American gymnast having won the most World Championship medals.[1][2] Liukin has also tied Miller's record as the American gymnast having won the most medals in a single Olympic Games.[3]

(Above) Liukin standg on the metal podium at the 2008 U.S. National Championships. (B-low) Liukin doing a handstand on an uneven bar during her per4mance.

My 4th gymnasts is Beth Tweddle(Elizabeth "Beth" Kimberly Tweddle is her full name) (born April 1, 1985) is a British gymnast. She is the 2006 World Champion and European Champion on the uneven bars. Tweddle was the first gymnast from Britain ever to win a medal at the World and European Championships, and is considered to be the most successful British gymnast of all time.[1][2][3][4][5] She is also the seven-time British National Champion, having won the title every consecutive year between 2001 and 2007.[6]

(again sry no pictures of her)

There r 3 other gymnasts whom i oso admire & they r all chinese, Deng LinLin, Jiang YuYuan & Lin ShanShan. But there has been a suspicion tt they, 2gether with Yang Yilin & He Kexin r all 2 young 2 participate in the Olympics. It has been said tt a minimum age of 16 is requird b4 a gymnast can take part. But these 5 chinese gymnasts r all suspectd 2 b underaged, abt 3 of them could b 14 & 2 of them could b 15. Should their identities b true, they could lose their hard-earnd gold medals 2 other nations, wich i feel is nt fair. In my opinion, we shld nt look at the ages but instd we shld juz focus on the quality of the gymnasts, the fact tt they r underaged & yet can stil produce such an x-cellent per4mance goes 2 show tt they r veri impressive alreadi. dis is deir home, dey rightfully d-serve the medal, so y d-squalify them? i don understd...i realli feel tt there shld b no age limit or age restrictions on olympic sports lyk dis 1 here, it is ruing the beauty & the reputations of such a huge sport event. In fact, i b-live tt the younger the athlete, the better becoz it wil help 2 n-courage all the other future athletes 2 start young so tt they can quickli learn frm their mistakes & per4m even better s dey grow older. Of course i'm nt sayg start juz aftr u r born..no..but wat i mean is juz 2 go 4 it s earli s u possibli can in order 2 b the head & nt the tail. These gymnasts hav such bright talents, it'll b such a waste if deir medals r taken away.. & i hope the same thing wil nt happen in the 2012 Olympics..

Jiang YuYuan durg her per4mance YuYuan lookg abit d-stractd while grippg on n uneven bar
All the chinese gymnasts standg on the podium proudli showg off deir hard-earnd gold medals

SWIMMING

Next i wan 2 talk abt Swimming & over here it is all abt Michael Phelps, Tao Li & the 10km swimmers.
Michael Phelps is at the very centre of the world olympics' attention, he went a perfect 8-for-8(8 gold medals in 8 events) in Beijing, breaking Mark Spitz's single-Games record for gold medals. He swam 17 times over nine days and broke the world record in four of his five individual swims. His three relay teams also set world marks.

Golden Guy

An advertisd pic of Michael Phelps proudly showg off his 8 gold medals.

Phelps won seven gold medals (200m free, 100m fly, 200m fly, 200m IM, 400m IM, 4x100m free and 4x200m free) and set five world records (200m free, 200m fly, 200m IM, 400m IM and 4x200m free) in one of the most dominant swimming performances ever at the 2007 Worlds. All of the individual event world records that Phelps broke were his own, except for the 200m freestyle, where he shattered Ian Thorpe's mark from 2001. Phelps shaved .2 of a second off Thorpe's time and won the race by almost 2.5 seconds.

Early Bloomer
He was the youngest man on the U.S. swim team, but despite his age and lack of international experience, he made the final in Sydney and finished fifth. Five months after that race, Phelps became the sport's youngest male world-record holder when he claimed the 200m fly mark.

Michael Phelps won 6 gold & 2 bronze medals in Athens.

Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands is n-other most impressive swimmer. He said he surprised himself at these Championships, where he has been very successful and re-solidified his place among the world's best. First he placed 4th in the 10km and secured himself a trip to Beijing, then he took bronze in the 5km before winning the 25km. "I thought that if I win a medal in one of my three races I would be happy," he exclaimed. "I was the only male competitor to swim in all three events, and I thought it might put me at a disadvantage, but now I'm world champion." Looking towards Beijing, Van der Weijden says it feels awesome to be one of the first Olympic gold medallists 10km marathon swimmers. "My dream of the last four years was to be world champion, and now, to do my second dream and go to the Olympics is amazing." Credit 2 my 2 other 10km swimmers, David Davies(UK) & Thomas Lurz(Germany) who finishd 2nd(silver) & 3rd(bronze) respectivli. While Michael Phelps is good at short d-stances, these top 3 marathon swimmers r far better at longer d-stances.

Another thing helping Van Weijden, he added, is his experience with beating leukaemia, with which he was diagnosed in 2001, a revelation that halted his swimming career in its tracks for at least a year as he underwent treatment. "I learned from the cancer period," he said. "I learned to approach challenges step-by-step. I can see that having leukaemia is helping me now: It's making me stronger because everything I go through in life from now on will be easier than what I went through to beat the cancer. The pain and fatigue that you feel in this [the 25km] race, well, I went through that for a whole year to beat the cancer, so, I know I can do it here for five hours [in the race]."

Maarten van der Weijden cannot believe he is the 10km swimming marathon champion.

Our only Singapore representative in Swimming is Tao Li. She is onli 18 years old & she qualified for the final of the women’s 100m Butterfly and set a new Asian and National record with a time of 57.54 sec this morning at the Beijing Olympics. Swimming in Lane 5, she finished third in the first semi-final behind Lisbeth Trickett and Christine Magnuson.

Tao Li(centre) in Lane 5

she became the first Singaporean to qualify for a swimming semi-final. She did one better today by being the first Singaporean to qualify for the final, breaking the Asian record which was set yesterday by China’s Zhou Yafei. She had the 4th best timing in the semi finals but sadly, she faild 2 win a gold medal aftr being eliminatd. Good try, TL!

Tao Li giving her best 4 Singapore

Another 10km marathon swimmer whom i wan 2 congratulate is a female, of course! Larisa Ilchenko is known for her race tactics of sitting just off the feet of the leaders and moving past them in the final stages and that is just how the race panned out for the dominant Russian who won in 1:59:27.7, just 1.5 seconds ahead of Britain's Keri-Anne Payne.

Ilchenko reaches the finishg line

The pre-race favorite and 3-time world champion of Russia put in a faint finishg burst with only 50 metres remaing 2 win a gold medal in the Women's 10km Marathon swimmg race at the Shunyi olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.

Larisa Ilchenko celebratg her victory

SYNCHRONISED SWIMMING

Over here there r 2 of the world's most impressive synchronised swimmers by the names of Anastasia Ermakova & Anastasia Davydova, both r Russians. Yes, it is gold, frm Russia with love.
Team Anastasia
Ermakova and Anastasia Davydova started competing together as juniors in 1998. In 2001 they won their first international medal by winning silver in duet at Worlds. A year later they won their first senior national championship gold medal at Europeans in Berlin, where they performed a nearly flawless routine (five perfect 10s in the final free program). The duo went on to claim the duet title at the 2003 Worlds in Barcelona, where the Russian team was also victorious. As for training, they generally spend eight hours in the pool each day and spend an additional ten hours a week training out of the pool. Ermakova lives with her team at a training camp outside of Moscow.

The Anastasia sisters hav been competg with each other 4 a decade.
Synchro Life
Ermakova started synchronized swimming when she was five years old. Davydova, on the other hand, started synchronized swimming when she was six years old after her parents took her to a nearby pool.

Swimming In Gold
Anastasia Davydova and her team have set a new standard in synchronized swimming, as they have taken home gold in every international competition since 2002. Building off a double gold in Sydney, and another double gold in Athens, the Russians have dominated the podium since. Their gold medals include two titles in team and duet competition from the 2006 European Championships and six titles in both events from the 2005 and 2007 Worlds, Davydova a key competitor in all. Congrats 2 Spain & China too 4 claimg silver & bronze respectiveli.

B-low r sum of the pics of the synchronised pics. N-joy!

Synchro: Handstands/Legs in the air Duet: Free PrelimsDuet: Technical PrelimsSynchro SnowflakesDuet: Medal CeremonyTeam FinalTeam Free Final: Medal Ceremony
FOOTBALL

This is nt abt individuals, but it is abt a team. I hav been a football fan since the year 2002.
While i admire Argentina's(Men) repeat of olympic glory by claimg the olympic medal yet again since the Athens Olympics in 2004, i oso feel veri sry 4 Brazil(Men) s they stil faild 2 win a single olympic gold medal aftr so many years. The Olympic Gold Medal was the only treasure tt is missg frm Brazil's hands & they stil hav 2 wait for n-other 4 years, they onli managd 2 claim a bronze. It is quite ironic on how a team lyk Argentina can win a gold medal in omost evry olympic event & how a football team lyk Brazil can carry on their endless wait 4 olympic events but stil goldless..how opposite!!
B-low r the pics on how Argentina outplayd Brazil:

Sergio Aguero(right) of Argentina beats Anderson of Brazil 2 the ball. Ronaldinho(in yellow) of Brazil strugglg 2 get the ball
Argentina players celebratg their victory
The Men's Brazilian football team aside, the Women's Brazilian football team oso faild 2 clinch a gold medal, wich meant a double d-sappointmt 4 Brazil. Well, at least the female Brazilians r slightli better by being able 2 win silver medal instd of bronze. Underneath r the pics on how Brazil(Women) lost 2 U.S.A.(Women):

Natasha Kai (No. 6) of the United States controllg the ball. Fabiana (No.15) of Brazil is tackled by Lori Chalupny.Angela Hucles (No.16) of United States is tackled by Formiga. Carli Lloyd (Captain) of United States celebrates with her teammates aftr scoring.
DIVING

N-other beautiful olympic sport aftr gymnastics & synchronisd swimmg. I m amazd by the top 3 female divers Chen Ruolin(China), Wang Xin(China) & Emilie Heymans(Canada).

2 x-amples of divg
Chen Ruolin(A)

So far so gd, Chen Ruolin is the world's best diver, havg accumulatd the most points 'cos her splash is the smallest.

Chen Ruolin(B)

& furthermore, it was a 10 metre platform, the highest platform wich mani ppl wouldn't dare 2 dive. & even if dey do hav the courage 2 dive, it wld b veri d-ficult 2 make a veri small splash, in othr words, it doesn't matter wat stunts u do in the air but its how u land in the water tt counts.
So credit 2 the world's 1st 3 divers!

Chen Ruolin stretchg her legs in the air b4 divgEmilie Heymans doing a handstand(b-low) & makg her size s small s possible in order 2 reduce splash(far b-low)Wang Xin doing a dolphin flip while divg
Although the real "Diving Queen" is Guo JingJing, havg bcum the most decoratd diver in olympic history, hers was onli a 3 metre plat4m. Nevertheless, she is China's most famous female face in the Olympics, & wat makes her even the more favorite 2 b at the centre of attention was tt she had her country's most shiny, precious medal awardd on the day tt China has overtaken the 2004 tally of 32 Gold Medals. In my opinion, i stil tink Chen Ruolin is the better candidate 'cos her plat4m is higher than JingJing's.

Guo JingJing lighteng her body b4 landg into the water

Double divers Chen Ruolin & Wang Xin(above & beneath)

Other 4(for)ms of divg

SPRINTING

Usain Bolt of Jamaica danced in front of television cameras and a stunned crowd of more than 90,000 at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing after smashing his second world record of the Games and blowing away the field. A new sprint king was crowned. The 4mer sprint king, Asafa Powell, oso a Jamaican, had his world record of 9.74 secs broken by Bolt with a mere 0.02 secs tken away.
Bolt produced the first sprint double the world has seen in 24 years, and for the first time in history, won both the 100 and 200-metre events in world record time.
He went on to set another world record with the Jamaican men’s 4x100 relay team.
Three events, three gold medals, three world records. No one came close to catching the “Lightning Bolt” from Jamaica. Impressive! It goes 2 show tt Jamaica really knows how2 create world class runners.

Usain Bolt(in yellow), shoots frm the startg point like a bullet durg a friday 100m heat in Beijing.

Usain Bolt reactimg aftr settg a world record by 19.3 secs to win a gold medal in the men's 200m final

While Bolt & Powell may b good at 100-200metres, Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya, however, is n x-pert at marathons(wich means runng a much longer d-stance than the 1 wich Bolt ran & takes a much longer time of n hour or 2 unlike the 200 metres wich onli takes a few secs.) Wow, i like runng marathons 2! but can't run dis fast, of course! :x
Wanjiru, 21, set a searing pace in the final athletic competition at the Beijing Games, obliterating the Olympic record with a time of two hours 6.32 minutes on Sunday morning.

Sammy Wanjiru reaches the finish line on a Sunday's men's marathon in Beijing.

While both Jamaica & Kenya n-joyd their respective sprintg successes, China, however, could only grieve over the injurd superstar hurdler, Liu Xiang. The 2004 gold medallist had 2 give up the 110 metre hurdles he had 2 b stretcherd off. Right frm the start, evrythg went wrong 4 him. He lookd uncomfortable s he warmd up & onli managd 2 clear 2 hurdles upon his preparation 4 the race. It was a grave d-sappointment 4 the host nation s all the Chinese' very high hopes 4 him 2 win were dashd. The injury made Liu Xiang unable 2 make history of the Olympic Games, causg the1.3 billion ppl in China 2 mourn & grieve. He was highly x-pectd 2 win gold medals but un4tunateli, he had 2 pull out of the 0lympic Games due 2 n Achilles injury. His torn lane markers couldn't hav come at the worst possible time s he faild 2 bring glory 2 the billions of people in his home country. What a pity!

An injurd Liu Xiang in agony durg traing

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

This is a very fun sport which evry1 can use 2 n-joy & relax. Instd of playg volleyball indoors where there r 6 ppl in 1 team & havg 2 play on hard ground, it is better 2 play outdoors where onli 2 ppl r needd in a team & playg on a natural ground like sand is sure a man's best fren, furthermore, its sunny outside wich could bring more life & make the game even brighter. dis game involves diving, serving, spiking, blockg & other technics. Each team has 2 make sure tt the ball does nt land in deir own court but has 2 land in deir opponents' court in order 2 score more points. B-low r some of the technics beach volleyball players use while playg:

Serving Blockg
A volleyball player dives 2 make a successful return serve
This volleyball player dives crazily but fails 2 get the ball, there4, her opponents r given more points
Spiking(far)
I admire the "Dream Team" of beach volleyball s dey could even outplay Brazil, who were the favorites 2 b champions.

A 4(for)m of celebratg

While the champion of the Men's volleyball is USA, the champion of the Women's volleyball is the Dream Team! & they r oso frm USA! What a coincidence!

USA's Todd Rogers, spiking the ball over Brazil's Fabio Malgahaes(Men's)

USA's Philip Dalhausser blocking a shot frm Fabio Malgahaes(Men's)

USA duo Kerri Walsh & Misty May celebratg deir victory aftr the match endd.

Kerri & Misty makg n even crazier celebration

TABLE TENNIS

Finally! We have come 2 the sport tt has made Singapore so proud of..The 3 table tennis players representg our own country have gone s far s reachg a silver medal..Yes, the 0ne & 0nly sport in the whole 0lympics tt has won our nation sumthg.

Li Jiawei playg 4 S'pore

Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu & Feng Tianwei hav all producd miracles throughout the competition includg a very tight game against the South Koreans, who eventualli won a bronze in the end. A great pity tt the S'pore representatives had 2 settle 4 2nd place b-hind gold-medallists, China. Zhang Yining, Guo Yue & Wang Nan were the 3 Chinese representatives. They provd 2 strong 4 S'pore s China were aftr all, highly x-pectd 2 dominate the world table tennis in the 0lympics. And the amazing thing was..China had never lost a women's singles crown ever since the sport was introduced in the 1988 0lympics, & Zhang Yining, especially, has won her 4th gold medal dis year, makg her the world no. 1 female tennis player. She, 2gether with Guo Yue & Wang Nan outplayd our national team to a 3-0 scoreline. But nevertheless, S'pore's overall quality was veri good & impressive enough, havg gone so far all the way 2 the grand final. Although it was acherli onli a silver medal, it felt more like shiny gold bcos it was the very one & onli 0lympic medal tt Singapore has won ever since the R0me 0lympics 48 years ago(where we had a weightliftg champion). It has been a very long wait, wich gives us Singaporeans plenty of reasons 2 celebrate.

Zhang Yining, currently the world's best female table tennis player

So 3 cheers 4 Singapore!!!

From left, Wang Yuegu, Feng Tianwei & Li Jiawei all proudly showg their hard-earnd medals
CONCLUSION

So far, so gd, these r my top 8 favrite 0lympic sports. Y i choose number 8? simple. bcos it is the year 200'8' & the Beijing 0lympics startd on the '8'th of August, wich is the '8'th month of the year. "8" is a very auspicious number 4 the Chinese. & furthermore, it brings good luck & fortune nt only among the Chinese, but oso among othr ppl frm othr countries takg part in the 0lympics, they DID manage 2 win medals in the end, s-pecially tt centre of world attention Michael Phelps who won x-actly '8' gold medals!!! How ironic!! i do hav a passion 4 marath0ns, though..but of course i canot run s fast s Sammy Wanjiru or Usain Bolt!! i oso wish i can b a female gymnast, a female diver or even a female synchronisd swimmer in my nxt life s i lyk & NV deir body shape..lol :p

& of course, congrats 2 Tao Li & the Singapore table tennis players!!! U hav realli done the whole nation proud! =DDD

S 4 the rest of the 0lympic sports(all those sports & athletes wich i did nt list down) i may like some of them 2 but they r jus nt x-actly my favrite, such s basketball, bowlg, weightliftg & tennis s well s deir participants....well..yea...all i can say is.....there is only room for 1 sport in 1 position.

KUD0S!!!!!!!!

Closing Ceremony

Labels: Datz all folkz...

Y8:23 AM