Usain Bolt can have his final sporting wish granted at World Athletics Championships

Agencies
August 12, 2017

London, Aug 12: He had demanded that the world write one last headline about him - "Unbeatable. Unstoppable." - and at the World Athletics Championships on Saturday, Usain St Leo Bolt can still have his final sporting wish granted.

Those quicksilver feet which always dealt in gold have another chance to obey his command as he seeks to bring down the curtain on his matchless sprint career and land a 20th global championship title in the 4 x 100 metres relay.

There may never have been an anti-climax in sport quite as deflating as Saturday's 100 metres final when Bolt, in his last solo race, proved both beatable and stoppable, defeated by the two-time doping offender Justin Gatlin.

It seemed the greatest entertainer that athletics -- and maybe even the whole panoply of sport -- has known had run out of magic, betrayed by a creaking start from the blocks.

Even as he posed for all the selfies afterwards, demonstrating a grace and sportsmanship that proved him just as big a winner in rare defeat, it still felt wrong, a desperately downbeat way to depart for a sportsman who has brought so much joy to all.

So, to the good news. Delightfully, there are now two last spins for the road. There was supposed to be only one, the 4 x 100 metres relay final on Saturday night, but Bolt has offered us an extra treat by opting to run the heats too earlier that morning.

Saturday night will, he promises us, be the last time we ever see him flowing down a track, with that unique ground-devouring stride that used to make other fine sprinters appear like shrimps wallowing in treacle.

No worries about having to haul himself stiffly out of the blocks here; he'll take the baton on the anchor leg and fly. He always did look his most imperious with a rolling start and he still holds the fastest 100m relay leg time, an unreal 8.65 seconds.

UNTOUCHABLE LANDMARKS

But then all the records are his. He departs with landmarks that feel for the moment untouchable, especially that 100 metres milestone of 9.58 seconds -- nobody has come within a tenth of a second of that one -- and the 200m mark of 19.19.

Since he first ran the blue riband shorter event in 2007, he has run 54 100m races, excluding heats, and won all but six. Of his 200 metres races since his breakthrough 2008 season, he's lost, astonishingly, just one of 30.

The statistics tell of a longevity of domination that the fickle world of sprinting had never seen before. Yet no athlete could be defined less by cold, emotionless figures.

With Bolt, the pleasure, the gasps of incredulous laughter, always came with just watching him make the impossible look workaday.

When he leaves us, perhaps with one fitting final gold and one last daft 'Lightning Bolt' pose, it will feel like a light illuminating world sport has just been switched off.

Then where will athletics be? It is hard to imagine a sport that needed a figurehead more than it needed Bolt. Mired in doping scandals, strangled by disinterest and treated with increasing public cynicism, Bolt was its joyous bolthole.

His farewell championships have given a glimpse of athletics life without him.

LIFELONG FANS

We had a 100m winner Gatlin booed to the rafters and a 200m victor Ramil Guliyev, whose winning time was nearly a second slower than Bolt`s best and who ended up being interrogated in the victory press conference about his adopted country Turkey`s doping record.

Then, Bolt`s supposed successor as the sport`s main attraction, Wayde van Niekerk, wept over suggestions of IAAF 'sabotage' from a rival Isaac Makwala who was not allowed to run the 400 metres because of a virus he claimed he didn't have.

It was never like that when Bolt was doing his thing. Bolt brought a pure, clear simplicity to the sport, rich in entertainment, delivered with a smile -- and on a diet of chicken nuggets.

The world did not just love Bolt, smiling with him as he made winning look preposterously easy; athletics trusted Bolt in an era when the sport was engulfed by disenchantment.

When Sebastian Coe, the IAAF President, watched his farewell to Jamaican athletics in Kingston this year, he told Reuters: "He's connected with young people, with people that didn't even think they liked track and field, he's turned them into lifelong fans.

"I'm not just saying that as the president of the world sport, I`m saying this as a fan."

Because Bolt made us all his fans. He was athletics` Muhammad Ali and Pele rolled into one.

If anyone else had declared, as he did after his 200m triumph at London 2012, "I am a living legend. Bask in my glory!", he would have appeared an appalling braggart. Not Bolt; he just made it seem like a bit of fun.

And that was, ultimately, his crowning glory. Not just that he was the fastest man in the world but that he so obviously loved every hundredth of a second of us enjoying him. Let's bask in his glory one last time.

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News Network
February 24,2020

Feb 24: India captain Virat Kohli had no qualms in admitting that his team was outplayed by New Zealand in the opening Test but said they "can't help" if a few want to make a "big deal" out of the 10-wicket defeat. Hosts New Zealand thrashed India by 10 wickets at the Basin Reverse on Monday to go 1-0 ahead in the two-match series. This was India's first defeat in the World Test Championship, coming after two inept batting efforts. "We know we haven't played well but if people want to make a big deal out of it, make a mountain out of it, we can't help it as we don't think like that," the skipper said at the post-match media interaction.

Kohli said he fails to comprehend why one Test match defeat should be made to look like the end of the world for his team.

"For some people, it might be the end of the world but it's not. For us, it's a game of cricket that we lost and we move on and keep our heads high," Kohli said.

It is the acceptance of defeat that defines the character of a side, the world's premier batsman said.

"We understand that we need to play well to win, also at home. There's no cakewalk at international level as teams will come and beat you. You accept it and that defines our character as a side."

It is the acceptance of defeat that defines the character of a side, the world's premier batsman said. "We understand that we need to play well to win, also at home. There's no cakewalk at international level as teams will come and beat you. You accept it and that defines our character as a side."

If he had given credence to the "outside chatter", he said the team wouldn't have been where it is now.

"That's why we have been able to play this kind of cricket. If we would have paid attention to the outside chatter, we would again be at No. 7 or 8 in the rankings. We don't really bother about what people are saying on the outside," the skipper said.

One defeat can't make a team, which has been winning games of Test cricket, "bad overnight".

"If we have lost then we have no shame in accepting that. It means we didn't play this game well. It doesn't mean that we have become a bad team overnight. People might want to change our thoughts, but it doesn't work like that."

The self-belief is intact and Kohli was confident the team would come back stronger in the second Test, to be held in Christchurch in four days time.

"We will work hard, and after four days play just like we have played all these years. Just because we have lost one match in between all wins, doesn't mean that the belief is gone. The dressing room thinks differently and team atmosphere is different."

Kohli felt that there is a very thin line between being ultra-defensive and over-attacking, something that his team didn't get it right in this Test match.

"New Zealand got into the mind of the batsmen and make the batsmen do something that they don't want to. think that's a very thin line and a very delicate balance of when to attack and when to put bowlers under pressure which we failed to do in this match and there is no harm in accepting that."

According to Kohli, it was a combination of both good bowling from the Kiwis and Indian batsmen not putting the pressure back on bowlers, which led to the drubbing.

"That has got to do with partly good bowling from New Zealand and partly us not pressing that momentum on to them when required. "It was perfect for them because they bowled well and we allowed them to bowl well for longer periods rather than doing something about it in a partnership."

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Agencies
May 9,2020

Tokyo, May 9: As the world continues to grapple with coronavirus pandemic, the organisers of Tokyo Game Show have cancelled 2020 showpiece event.

TGS 2020 was slated to be played from September 24 to September 27 at the Makuhari Messe convention center. However, there now talks going on for holding an online event instead.

According to the Verge, this is the first time that TGS has ever been cancelled since it started in 1996.

TGS 2020 gained more attention because of its status as the last major trade show before the launch of the upcoming next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

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News Network
June 13,2020

New Delhi, Jun 13: Five centrally contracted Indian cricketers including Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul have been issued notices by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing to disclose their whereabouts as the BCCI cited "password glitch" as the reason for delay.

The other players to have received the notice include women stars Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, who are among the five cricketers in the 110 strong National Registered Testing Pool (NRTP). Speaking to PTI, NADA DG Navin Agarwal confirmed that BCCI has sent an official explanation for their five NRTP players' failure to submit whereabouts.

"There are two ways to fill up the whereabouts form in the ADAMS (Anti Doping Administration & Management Systems) software. Either athlete does it himself or association fills it up on his or her behalf," Agarwal said. "Now athletes in some discipline aren't educated enough or do not have access to internet and find themselves unable to handle the whereabouts clause of the ADAMS or upload the filled up

"They use assistance of their concerned federations. So federations have accepted responsibility of uploading their whereabouts," Agarwal said.

He said cricketers too at times find it tough to complete the process on their own. "Similarly in cricket also, although these people are well qualified and they can do it, perhaps they don't have the time for whatever reasons, so the federation concerned, the BCCI has taken upon itself the responsibility of uploading their whereabouts." So why didnt BCCI upload the the three-month whereabouts this time?

"Well they have given an explanation which appears to be reasonable but a decision will be taken. They have said that there has been a glitch with regards to password in ADAMS. Now they have said that issue has been resolved," Agarwal added. NADA DG added that "BCCI's explanation will be discussed as to whether it will be counted as one of three filing failures or not. It will be decided on the explanation given and how they (BCCI) proceed from here."

While country has been under lockdown, the rule to submit three months of whereabouts is mandatory. Three such failures to disclose leads to one Anti Doping Rule Violation (ADRV), which could lead up to two years of suspension upon hearing.

While BCCI has "officially gagged" its employees from talking to the media, it couldn't be ascertained that why as normal a glitch as a password error took days to resolve. A BCCI veteran, who has been privy to cricket operations, asked why the five cricketers were not told to upload the form themselves.

"This was lockdown period where they are not living out of suitcases. Some of the names have also engaged in multiple instagram chats and podcasts which their agents are managing," he said.

"If cricket operations team were having a glitch in fixing password, well the five cricketers could have been asked to do so and they would have done it individually with some guidance. "Probably NADA would be lenient this time but if it becomes an official warning, then who's responsible," he added.

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