Monday International Sports News

Will the Games be
green enough?
Beijing
It’s been billed as the ‘Green Olympics’, but do the showpiece venues that will host the Games’ key events live up to the theme? The record is mixed, experts say, with the best venues for the Beijing Games setting a standard for energy-efficient building while others betray the promise of environmental sustainability. In the end, much was left to the developers, with few mandatory guidelines set by Olympic organisers, meaning they had little leverage to impose consistent standards.
‘The intention is always positive, but if you don’t give people some mandatory parameters on which they have to work, then you allow them to make shortcuts,’ said Theodore Oben, head of the sport and environment programme at the United Nations Environment Programme.
The National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest; for its latticework of interwoven steel, and the National Aquatics Centre, or Water Cube, the rectangular swimming venue that sits by its side, are considered among the world’s most architecturally adventurous new buildings. But are they the most green? ‘It’s an iconic structure, but a green building it ain’t,’ Robert Watson, CEO of green building consultancy EcoTech International, said of the Bird’s Nest. The stadium features non-flush toilets equipped with sewage treatment systems, a rooftop photovoltaic system with a capacity to generate 130 kilowatts of power, and facilities to collect 58,000 cubic metres of rainwater annually.
But to Watson the structure itself, which used some 42,000 tonnes of steel, is the problem. ‘The fact that it uses 10 times the materials of a normal stadium, any green virtue is inundated by that,’ he said. ‘Ninety percent of the structure does nothing but hold itself up,’ said Watson, who founded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system for green buildings.


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Toni considered retirement
Sportinglife . London
Italy striker Luca Toni has admitted he considered retiring from international football in the wake of his side’s exit from Euro 2008.
The Bayern Munich forward failed to score in the tournament as the Azzurri lost their quarter-final clash with eventual winners Spain on penalties.
The world champions’ poor showing in Austria and Switzerland cost coach Roberto Donadoni his job, and Toni admitted he too was left questioning his future with the national team.
The 31-year-old told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper: ‘After the exit I considered whether I ought to retire.
‘But it is my country, it is my team. I cannot and do not want to give that up. If (new Italy coach Marcello) Lippi wants me, I am available for the defence of the title in 2010.’
Toni’s goal return at Euro 2008 was in stark contrast to his performances for Bayern last season, for whom he scored 39 times in all competitions.
The former Fiorentina forward won the Bundesliga title and the DFB Pokal in his debut year in Germany, but believes new coach Jurgen Klinsmann has to strengthen the squad if Bayern are to challenge for the Champions League.
The German champions have been strongly linked with a move for Stuttgart frontman Mario Gomez, but so far midfielder Tim Borowski and back-up goalkeeper Hans-Jorg Butt are their only acquisitions this summer.
‘We have a good team, but in my opinion it is very clear,’ he said. ‘Yes (Bayern have to strengthen).
‘In order to win the Champions League you need as many champions as possible. Let’s see what Bayern are still prepared to invest.’


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Bolt hopes to avoid injury curse
Agence France-Presse . Athens
Jamaica’s 100 metres world record holder Usain Bolt expressed his fears here on Saturday that the injuries which have affected his two main rivals for the Olympic title would hit him with just under a month to go to the sporting showpiece.
The 21-year-old admitted that the hamstring injury suffered by US 100m champion Tyson Gay and the minor groin problem his Jamaican team-mate Asafa Powell pulled up with in Rome on Friday had got him worried.
‘I am worried all the main guys are getting injured,’ admitted Bolt, who is here to run in what has been considered his speciality event the 200m.
‘I’m quite worried, nervous, I may be the next. Tyson says his injury is not serious. I’m looking forward to see him running. I wish them all the best. If I beat them when they are at their top, I could say I am the best.’
Bolt, though, will have been encouraged by the news that Powell - a former holder of the 100m world record - was not that concerned by the pain that he declined to undergo a scan on it.
Bolt, who ran 9.72 seconds in New York in late May to eclipse Powell’s mark of 9.74sec, said he was really looking forward to running the 200m here, an event in which he became the youngest ever world junior champion in 2002 in Kingston.
‘I want to see where I am actually on the 200m,’ confessed Bolt.
‘I am gonna run hard and hopefully I can get under 19.75 (his personal best and Jamaican record).’
However Bolt added he did not envisage breaking Michael Johnson’s world record of 19.32sec this year.
‘This year, I don’t think so. Maybe next year, I may focus on it.’


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Chambers at mercy of courts
Agence France-Presse . Birmingham
Dwain Chambers won the 100m at the British Olympic trials on Saturday, but now faces an anxious wait for a High Court decision over whether or not he can run at the Beijing Games.
Chambers, who served a two-year doping ban, is fighting a British Olympic Association lifetime ban for drug cheats and a court decision is expected on Wednesday as his lawyers attempt to get the rule overturned.
The 30-year-old did his part on the track by winning the final on Saturday in a time of 10.00sec ahead of Simeon Williamson and Craig Pickering.
‘It was hard work. I’ve done my part and I just have to hope things go well next week,’ said Chambers who served a ban for testing positive for THG. ‘I tried to keep my head clear. I feared I would mess up so I had to keep cool. Now I have to wait. I will try to kepe my spirits high and hope that this good performance will work in my favour.


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