Usain Bolt knocked over by cameraman on segway in Beijing but laughs off incident

August 28, 2015

Beijing, Aug 28: Usain Bolt escaped unscathed after he was knocked over by a cameraman on a segway while celebrating his 200m win at the world championships in Beijing.

Usainbolt

The bizarre accident happened when the cameraman strayed too close to a barefoot Bolt as he posed for photos following his gold-medal run.

The local television journalist bumped into a fixed railing and went flying off backwards, shooting the scooter into Bolt's legs from behind and sending the Jamaican crashing to the ground.

Bolt climbed gingerly to his feet to complete his lap of honour.

"He took me out," said the Jamaican after videos of his mishap quickly went viral.

"The rumour I'm trying to start right now is that Justin Gatlin paid him off, so that's what I'm going with. But I'm all right so it's all good."

Bolt's American rival quickly shot back: "I want my money back, he didn't complete the job!"

Lucky to escape with only his pride hurt, Bolt pondered getting his legs insured in case of future bumps and scrapes after winning his fourth consecutive world title in the 200m.

"I probably should get my legs insured," smiled the six-times Olympic champion. "It was pretty scary when it happened but accidents happen.

"I have a few cuts but it's nothing that I've never done to myself in training so I'll be all right," added Bolt. "He didn't hit me in my ankles, he hit me in my calf area so I'll get over it."

Bolt, winner of an astonishing 11 of the last 12 individual world and Olympic sprint titles since he shot to fame at the 2008 Beijing Games, revealed that the red-faced cameraman had apologised for mowing down the biggest name in athletics.

"He said sorry as much as he could," said Bolt with a chuckle. "But I checked to make sure if he was okay because I think he got the worst of it. He was off-balance going backwards and I'm not sure if he hit his head but I'm just happy that he's okay. I'm fine so it's all fun."

In the chaos that followed the final, Bolt also lost his spikes to a spectator who ran away with them.

"When I jumped over the fence I gave a guy who was calling me my spikes to hold," he said. "When I did my interview I looked around and he was gone, he was just running."

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February 10,2020

Potchefstroom, Feb 10: India's under-19 cricket team manager Anil Patel says the ICC has taken a serious view of the aggressive celebrations by Bangladesh players after their World Cup triumph and will be reviewing the footage of the final game's "last few minutes".

Some Bangladeshi players got carried away while celebrating their historic three-wicket win over India in the final on Sunday. While their captain Akbar Ali apologised for the "unfortunate incident", his Indian counterpart Priyam Garg said their reaction was "dirty".

"We don't know what actually happened," Patel told 'ESPNCricinfo' on Sunday.

"Everybody was in a shock, absolutely, but we don't know what happened exactly. The ICC officials are going to watch the footage of the last few minutes and they are going to let us know," he said.

Even when the match was on, the Bangladesh players were overly aggressive while fielding and their lead pacer Shoriful Islam sledged the Indian batsmen after every delivery.

As soon as the match ended, it became tense with Bangladeshi players rushing to the ground and displaying aggressive body language. The two teams nearly came to blows before the situation was defused by the coaching staff and on-field officials.

Patel claimed that match referee Graeme Labrooy met him and expressed regret at what transpired on the field.

"The referee came to me. He was sorry about the incident. He clarified the ICC is going to take very seriously what has happened during the match and the last session. They are going to witness the footage and they will tell us in the morning (Monday)."

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May 1,2020

Melbourne, May 1: Reclaiming the top spot in Test cricket has brought smiles back on their faces but Australia coach Justin Langer says beating India in their own den remains the ultimate test and their numero uno status will be put to test when they clash with the Virat Kohli-led team.

After a tumultuous transition phase post the ball-tampering scandal, Australia on Friday displaced India as number one side in Test format but Langer is aware that it does not take long for the situation to change.

"We recognise how fluid these rankings are, but at this time it was certainly nice to put a smile on our faces," Langer told Cricket Australia website. "We've got lots of work to do to get to be the team that we want to be, but hopefully over the last couple of years not only have we performed well on the field, but also off the field," Langer added.

The former left-handed opener underlined what he felt will be the ultimate test of character.

"Certainly a goal for us has been the World Test Championship ... but ultimately, we have to beat India in India and we've got to beat them when they come back (to Australia).

"You can only judge yourself as being the best if you beat the best and we've got some really tough opposition to come," Langer put his priorities in place. The team he insists needs to get better as now others will come gunning for them.

"Getting to No.1 is a great thing, but when you're No.1, you're always the hunted," Langer said. "We've been the hunters for a while, now we're the hunted and we need to get better and better."

Langer also hoped that white ball team under Aaron Finch will win the World Cup. "I know how hard it is to win World Cups ... everything has to go right. One day, I'd love to see Aaron Finch with all his mates lift that T20 World Cup above his head."

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May 2,2020

Melbourne, May 2: After becoming the number one side in Test cricket, Australia's head coach Justin Langer has said that his team has won back the respect of the country.

Australia dethroned India from the top spot in Tests and now the Men in Blue are in the third place.

Langer came in as the coach of Australia after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal and it took him some time to get the side back to winning ways.

Ever since the return of David Warner and Steve Smith, Australia went on to become a commendable side and the results reflect that.

"We have got lots of work to do to become the team we want to be. But over the last couple of years, not only have we performed well on the field, we have performed well off it. We have earned some respect back from other teams around the world but also from Australia," Langer said in an official statement.

"When we started on this journey, there had been a lot of talk about Australia wanting to be No. 1 in the world in all three forms of the game.

We took a different approach. Not once did we talk about being No. 1 ranked in the world. We wanted to be No.1 in our values and process. That is what I am most proud of," he added.

In the latest ICC rankings update, that rates all matches played since May 2019 at 100 per cent and those of the previous two years at 50 per cent, Australia (116) have taken over from India as the top-ranked side in the ICC men's Test team rankings with New Zealand (115) remaining in second place.

India is now third with 114 points. With only two points separating them, this is the second closest the top three teams have been since the Test rankings were launched in 2003.

The closest for the top three teams were in January 2016, when India had led Australia and South Africa by a single point.

Australia has also moved to the top spot in the T20I rankings for the first time in the format.

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