Dara Torres at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (Photo from Bryan Allison)
Dara Torres is a veteran of five Olympic Games, from the Seoul in 1988 all the way to Beijing in 2008. She had amassed a total of 12 Olympic medals, four of them gold. The then 41-year old Dara won three silver medals in Beijing. At the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, the 45-year old placed fourth in the 50m freestyle finals, narrowly missing a ticket to her fifth straight Olympics.
My
college coach suggested that I take up dancing classes a few years back,
to improve hip mobility. I'm not really the dancing type, so I ignored
his advice! I chose hurdle drills over dancing lessons! But then again,
hip mobility is imperative for efficient hurdling clearance.
Screenshot from Al-Jazeera Sport
Michelle Jenneke obviously doesn't share my dancing shyness. The Australian
junior has become the latest internet sensation, thanks to a viral
Youtube video of her doing a pre-race dancing jig before her qualifying
heat.
Lo and behold, this young Aussie is a
hurdling gem. She topped her heat in effortless fashion, registering a
time of 13.52s. She ran 13.41s in the semis, two-hundredths of second
off her personal best. Jenneke’s technique is picture perfect. It is
efficient. There is hardly any wasted movement. Her trail leg action, as
expected, is remarkably snappy. She even clears with a bowed lead foot. Indeed, she is every inch the hurdling technician.
Michelle eventually wound up fifth in the final, stopping the clock in 13.54s.
You can see from her expression and her
body language that she really loves what she is doing. I’ve said it
before and I’ll say it again: happy hurdlers are formidable competitors.
The bubbly Aussie takes the concept further by adding the dance factor,
reminiscent of such classy performers like Blanka Vlasic and Chaunte
Lowe.
P.S.
Netizens are calling her the new Allison Stokke. Let's just hope that this does not go overboard.
At just 19 years old, Angelica Bengtsson has won all the major age-group single titles.
The World Youth Champion from 2009, Bengtsson had topped the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore two years ago. Despite being just 17-years old, she also won gold at the World Junior Championships in Moncton the same year - a title which she successfully defended in Barcelona a few days back. Angelica is also the reigning European Junior Champion.
She has a personal best of 4.58m outdoors and 4.63m indoors. Indeed, Bengtsson is the future of pole vaulting.
My favorite moment of the 2010 Barcelona European Championshipswas when Verena Sailer stormed to first place at the 100m dash. Since then, I've been a fervent supporter of Verena. Unfortunately, the German sprinter's performance have been hampered by injury.
The Helsinki European Championships was her first major international since her breakout win in Barcelona a couple of years ago. The German champion performed magnificently. Sailer notched a season's best of 11.14s in the 1st Round. Verena (11.17s) finished second in her semifinal, behind the fast-finishing Olesya Povh Олеся Повх (11.13s)of Ukraine.
Sailer, however, missed the 100m dash podium as she crossed the finish line in fifth place (11.42s).
But she did not leave Helsinki empty-handed.
The German 4x100m relay squad of Leena Gunther, Anne Cibis, Tatyana Lofamakanda Pinto, and Verena, demolished the opposition, stopping the clock in a European-leading time of 42.51s. The Dutch team was almost three-hundredths of a second behind the German victors, as a faulty baton exchange ruined the hopes of the favored Ukrainian quartet.
With their swashbuckling run in Helsinki, the Germans earned an outright ticket to London as the second-fastest team in the world this year.
The retired Nigerian sprinter is an athletics legend. It is difficult enough to qualify for one or two Olympic Games, but Onyali-Omagbemi represented her country at the Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Olympics. She had also won seven All-Africa sprinting titles and two Commonwealth Games gold medals.
Mary was part of the bronze medal-winning Nigerian 4x100m relay squad at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. Despite a doping suspension months prior to the Atlanta Olympics, Onyali-Omagbemi bucked these difficulties to land third at the 200m dash. The 1992 Nigerian 4x100m relay team was featured in the Celebrate Humanity advertisement series:
The Nigerian has personal bests of 10.97s in the 100m (1993) and 22.01 (1996) in the 200m. She still holds the Nigerian national record in the 200m dash, her best event.
Onyali-Omagbemi is considered as a pioneer in Nigerian and African women's sports. She came from a time when it was not normal for a woman take part in professional sports. Her winning ways, according to an article by the Ladybrille magazine, "opened the door for many women" to do the same.
