MOTOCROSS: Scheele full of steel for bid

Watching Hawke's Bay motocross rider Kieran Scheele blat around a training track on a mate's Bay View farm this week was a bit like watching a baby eagle's first flight.

Yes, Scheele was soaring but a little tentatively. And like baby eagles which await their first flight, it's fair to say the past eight weeks have been rather anxious for Scheele.

The 17-year-old Napier Boys' High School student broke his left collarbone during the last race of the final round of the national series in New Plymouth back in December.

``It was the smallest of crashes but one which has done the most damage to me,' recalled Elsthorpe's Scheele who has been racing since he was seven.

``I've been pretty keen to get back on the bike for awhile now but I did exactly what the specialist told me ... I didn't want to damage the long-term prospects,' said Scheele.

That's a wise decision from Scheele who will celebrate his return after receiving a doctor's clearance by competing at the Valley Champs near Matamata this weekend.

He's one of 30 riders hoping to make the New Zealand under-19 250cc class team of 10 for the world junior championships, which start in Taupo on August 16.

``It's the first time the championships have been staged out of Europe ... they're going to be huge and I'm pretty focused on getting there,' said Scheele.

``The worlds will test whether or not I can make a career out of motocross and, if I can't, I'll chase a builder's apprenticeship,' said Scheele who is regarded as one of the most consistent performers on the national age group scene.

After this weekend's event, he will tackle the Auckland championships at Pukekohe on February 14-15 and several others before the team is announced at the end of next month.

The promising Hawke's Bay age group rugby representative will give rugby a miss this winter so the injury risk is reduced and he's even prepared to sacrifice school time so he can train.

``I'll be doing at least 90 minutes every night,' said Scheele who was third at last year's national championships in the 125cc class and second in the 13-16 years 85cc class at the 2007 nationals.

A campaign was launched this week aimed at securing sponsorship for Scheele's world champs quest. Fivestar Suzuki were quick to get involved and, as a result, Scheele will ride a Suzuki RMZ 250 instead of a KTM 125.

Gone are the days when Scheele had to rely on his father, Elsthorpe farmer John Scheele, to do his repairs.

It wasn't uncommon in the past to see Scheele turn up at events with tyres around the wrong way or to have mufflers fall off because his bikes had been repaired in Burt Munro-type style.

Fivestar Suzuki's Willie Rathbone told SportToday he had been keen to offer Scheele a sponsorship deal for a while.

``Of all the young riders in Hawke's Bay, we feel he has the most potential to reach the top ... he's got that killer instinct,' said Rathbone.

As a result of his deal, Scheele has two Suzuki RMZ 250cc bikes - one for racing on and one for training on. A Fivestar Suzuki mechanic will also accompany Scheele when he travels around the country.

``He's on a level playing field now ... the rest is up to him. But we're confident the news will be good when the New Zealand team is announced next month,' said Rathbone.

So is SportToday ... particularly now Scheele doesn't have to be part of a ``Burt Munro-type' approach to major events.

07.02.2009

SHANE HURNDELL

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U.S. women's tennis hitting a slump

Hey, has anyone checked out the lineup for the U.S. Fed Cup team, which will be hosting Argentina at Surprise, Ariz., this weekend? It features a pair of 30-somethings: Jill Craybas (the "household name" on the squad) and Julie Ditty, whose ranking is south of No. 100 -- with little chance of improving, given her age.

I wish them the best of luck, and it isn't as if the Argentina squad, led by Gisela Dulko, is unbeatable. In fact, the U.S. could win this thing if 17-year-old Fed Cup rookie Melanie Oudin gets inspired and 34-year-old Craybas takes a good long drink from the fountain of youth. But the fact that Oudin and Ditty, who turned 30 a few days ago, are both Fed Cup first-timers means the U.S. has the experience thing covered at both ends of the spectrum -- and not in a good way.

How did it come to this? I mean, the Russian Fed Cup team is putting out Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova -- an Olympic gold medalist (in singles) and a top-5 former Grand Slam champ, respectively. The Italians are going with an A-team of solid tour veterans (and former Fed Cup winners), Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone. The French feature rising young star Alize Cornet and former Wimbledon and Australian Open champ Amelie Mauresmo.

Obviously, Venus Williams and Serena Williams chose to pass up Fed Cup. That's consistent with their approach to tennis these days. About the only place you can bank on their showing up to play lately is the Grand Slam events, and frankly I have my doubts about how eager they'll be to do battle on the slow red clay of Roland Garros, come May.

But the fact that all the other U.S. women ranked above Craybas (who's at No. 75) also chose to skip Fed Cup is pretty alarming.

What? There are no U.S. players ranked above No. 75? Can that be?

You bet, but with an asterisk. That punctuation mark is Bethanie Mattek-Sands (No. 40), who was ready to play for the Stars and Stripes until she was sidelined by injury. Yes, after Venus and Serena, the next two names on the depth chart are Mattek-Sands and … 34-year-old Craybas.

This underlines the terrible shape the U.S. women's game is in these days, and it underscores the fact that the fame and popularity of the Williams sisters is like a towering, gorgeous veneer. Poke your finger through it, and there's nothing else back there. This is an even more shocking state of affairs than exists on the men's side, where there's a fistful of scrappy guys (Sam Querrey, John Isner, Robby Ginepri, Bobby Reynolds et al.) doing a little damage here and there in support of Andy Roddick and James Blake.

Nobody has been affected more profoundly by the globalization of the game than the U.S., and the women's game has degenerated even more rapidly than the men's. Fortunately, hope for Americans is on the horizon. Patrick McEnroe, who heads the USTA's Elite Development Program, says the U.S. has a pretty good crop of youngsters coming through the pipeline.

The hope is that those girls pop out of that tube quickly because if Venus and Serena decide to quit the stage, there won't be an American left to sing in the pro tennis choir, never mind perform a solo.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Posted by Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com

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India and Sri Lanka Cricket Match - After Game Review

India fended off a spirited challenge by Sri Lanka to snatch a thrilling 15- run victory in the second one- dayer and has taken a 2-0 lead in the series of total five matches. After posting a competitive 256 runs for 9 wickets, Sri Lanka’s fight back was late to stop them at the 241 with four balls to spare in the pulsating flood-hit encounter.

Now visiting the fast bowler Ishant Sharma took four wickets for 56 runs from his nine overs and Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan and Pragyan Ojha chipped single wicket each. Only one player that sent the Indian team in vain was Thilina Kandamby, who bated brilliantly at 93 unbeaten. The final moments were tensed all because of the romp nightmare that Kandamby gave to the Indian bowlers. With this match India has successfully registered another consecutive win in the One day International Matches.

Bolstered by two consecutive victories, the confident Indian Team is all ready to warp up the five match series when they take on Sri Lanka in the third One Day International match on 3rd February. Now Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team members are not willing to take any chance under the present floodlight situation after they have just managed a close 15 run win with a nail-biting day-night match at the Premdassa Stadium on Saturday.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has led the team in the consecutive seven successive ODI wins and has now warned his teammates that if they drop out against any of their guards, they would lead the Indian Cricket Team in a big trouble.

This match witnessed a few chinks in the Indian armour when the bowlers looked confused in their power play overs and the captain wanted the bowlers to show a more disciplined act of their performance.

The batting of the Indian Team has also not fired but to be fair, some umpiring decisions were unsporting and they created a sense of unethicalness in the Indian Team. The top order batsmen have to get into the act quickly if they hope to clinch the series in the upcoming match on 3rd February itself.

The ongoing series could be decided on Tuesday night and the play of Indian players in the second ODI demonstrates that the team is in no mood to relent as they are in a compete mood to deliver a knockout for the Srilankan Team. Their intent was evident in the second ODI and they are very much in a position to script one more victory.

Opening super batsman Sachin Tendulkar has not fired yet and nor Zaheer Khan has been in his elements. Both these players are expected to give contributions to their team be small or big, to let their reach that eventually prove decisive. The only pitfall that Indian team displayed in this second ODI was fretfulness and every one is praying for the Indian team to become persuaded of their win, in order to accomplish it and that too self-confidently. Let’s all hope that India creates a cricket results history and make all Indians blissful.

Cricket Livescore ball by ball by ScoresPro.com

Published on 6 Feb 2009, 00:23 by Peri Witny

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Golf: Surgery fails to distract Harrington

IT WAS a measure of how little he expects to be troubled by the removal of two non-malignant melanomas around his right eye that Padraig Harrington, the winner of three of golf's last six major championships, needed only a few words spoken before he returned to action at the Buick Invitational in California to discuss that operation.

"I had them looked at just before Christmas and had them cut out ten days ago," reported the holder of the Open and US PGA titles. It's the second time in three years the Irishman has undergone the same surgery.
As athletes who spend a lot of time golfers need to be safer rather than sorry when it comes to dealing with the threat of skin cancer. Harrington's face above and below his eye was protected by sticking plasters.

Sandy Lyle had an abscess removed from his arm before the Masters four years ago – it wasn't malignant – and it's been estimated 250,000 amateur golfers around the world suffer from skin cancer each year. The European Tour launched a cancer screening programme for their players during the European Open at the K Club in 2007.

Harrington's wife, Caroline, was more forthcoming about the operation and told the Irish Times: "He had more of the sun spots removed two weeks ago – one above the eyebrow and one below. They tried to treat it with a cream when he had the other one removed but it didn't work so they removed them the week before last. They are non-malignant melanomas, like skin spots. It's just better to have them off."

Harrington, who played the North Course at Torrey Pines with Camilo Villegas of Colombia and America's Marc Turnesa during yesterday's first round of the Buick, was as sceptical as ever about his form going into his first appearance of 2009 in America. While some golfers are happy to beat the drum about themselves in order to build confidence, the Irishman is rarely more of a threat than when he has an injury or a grievance about his game.

After indicating there was some doubt in his mind about how well he was playing, Harrington explained: "I'm always playing a mental game. I'm always trying to be reasonably positive. In some ways I'm preparing myself for a battle.

"I don't expect to go out there and find it easy. So when I say that I'm struggling a bit, I'm trying to get into my head that I'm going to have to knuckle down and work hard to save every shot."

As the PGA Tour's player of the year in 2008, Harrington's return to competition in America this week helps fill the void left by Tiger Woods' continuing absence from the game because of a knee operation. Woods has won no fewer than six times at Torrey Pines, including the US Open on one good leg last summer. He's practising and can again make full swings with the driver. However, the world No1 is unlikely to return to action before the CA championship at Doral from 12-15 March. With his wife Elin expecting their second baby, Tiger is in no rush.

If Woods does come back at Doral, he won't have Harrington for company that week since the Irishman, who is playing four weeks running in the US, plans to skip the World Championship event in Florida. With a preference for sneaking under the radar at majors – an advantage he's unlikely to enjoy again any time soon – it goes without saying the Dubliner is eager for Woods to make his comeback.

"When it comes around to those majors, I am looking forward to Tiger coming back and taking some of the spotlight off me," Harrington admitted. "It's much easier to win any tournament under the radar. It's a lot harder when somebody asks you on a Monday of a tournament or somebody asks you two months before the event, 'Are you going to win?' A lot of players won't be asked that question until they're leading on a Saturday night, so they only have to deal with it 24 hours, whereas the week of Augusta, I'll have lots of people coming up to me saying, 'You're going to win'.

"I guess we all know it's harder to win a tournament when you're leading. It's a different sort of pressure and players play a different sort of way, and I feel like that standing on a Thursday morning. I'll go out Thursday morning feeling like the attention is on me as if I was leading the event, whereas normally you can kind of get away with that for three days, three-and-a-half days sometimes. The less stress you put yourself under, the more chance you're going to be strong on a Sunday afternoon."

• Last Updated: 05 February 2009 11:49 PM
• Source: The Scotsman
• Location: Edinburgh

Published Date: 06 February 2009

By Mike Aitken

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NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip: 2009 better be good or I'll retire

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Michael Waltrip, not long after hinting he may step out of the driver's seat, confirmed at Daytona International Speedway that he'll hang up the gloves and helmet if the 2009 season is not competitive for him.

The two-time Daytona 500 winner will start his third season as driver and owner for Michael Waltrip Racing, which he says has mentally drained him and adversely affected his performance, The Associated Press reports.

Waltrip has four top-10 finishes over the past three seasons and would concentrate on ownership and possibly television commentary should 2009 not be a successful campaign for him.

Posted by Jeff Bleiler | Jackson Citizen Patriot

February 05, 2009 11:13AM

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Symonds Out Of SA Tour

The misfortune continues to haunt the cricketing career of Symonds. He must be ruing the sudden rush of impetuosity and the scuffle that he had with Harbhajan Singh in Australia last season, which sort of became the turning point in his brilliant career. The reason why Symonds has not been found among the probable for the South African tour, is the lack of commitment for cricket, as being felt by the authorities in cricket Australia . The officials are of the view that Symonds still needs counseling and has to undergo the process of rehabilitation as he is not match fit.

Just a few months ago, commitment was an issue which was not in lexicon of cricket Australia in association with Symonds, but that is how the cookies crumble feel Cricket360.com. Bad behavior can carry you only up to a limited distance after that the chickens indeed come home to roost and this is what is happening in the case of Symonds as well.

As a matter of fact an advisory has been issued by Cricket Australia to the National Selection Panel (NSP) that the name of Andrew Symonds may not be considered to be included in the national team till he completes further counseling and rehabilitation.

In a statement issued by CA it was informed that “Symonds will be unavailable for consideration for selection for the South Africa Test tour this month and will need to satisfy formal rehabilitation criteria before again being made available for international selection,” it added.

According to James Sutherland, CEO of CA, the Board was forced to re-assess Symonds’ progress with his rehabilitation after the all-rounder was fined $4000 for his infamous radio diatribe against Brendon McCullum. “Our assessment is that he is making good progress but that his commitment needs testing against new, tougher criteria we will finalize after consultation with his counselors, the ACA and Queensland Cricket,” he said.

Symonds indeed is going through a process of intense pain, as these are the players with which he has shared dressing room, and if is resorting to verbal fuselage, there indeed is some problem deep inside Symonds which needs to be analyzed in detail. He would probably be rare few players who are resorting to diatribe against his players, with whom many nights have been spent together forming strategies and devising ways for Australian victory. Could it also eclipse his participation in the IPL would be the million dollar question feels Cricket360 .

Pitched By Cricket360 Smart Guy

Thursday, 05 February 2009

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Finally Murali Equals the Record with Akram

It is always lonely at the top. When Gavaskar had scored 10000 runs and the highest number of records, and the records continued to stand in his name for a long time, Gavaskar had commented that the summit is indeed a lonely place. Wasim Akram must also be wondering the same as it had been years since he had scalped 502 wickets and his record was neither being equaled nor being overhauled.

Murali has now reached the magic figures of 502, and along with Wasim Akram has become the highest wicket taker in the ODI cricket. Two is a good company. The achievement of Murali is more valuable as he was able to equal the record with Akram only in 327 matches at an average of 22.66. Akram could reach this figure in 356 games, and from this perspective the achievement of Murali is more creditable as he still has quite a lot of cricket left in him.

The records were equaled at Colombo on 04 February 2009 and had it not been for the murderous assault that Yuri Singh and Virender Sewage made of the Sri Lankan bowlers, the achievement would have been called for celebration. Even then, Yuvraj Singh was among the first to congratulate Murali for his achievement.

Murali is one bowler whose career has been a journey that has been studded with miles and milestones; there is no other bowler in sight who can equal the achievements of Murali in near future. His achievement becomes more creditable when the weapon of assault i.e. the bat is undergoing all kinds of formulations to make it heavy, and the field of action i.e. the cricket field is also reducing in dimension, sort of murderous cocktail for a bowler. Murali has age on his side; he is fit agile and only 36 years young.

The joy and expectation of claiming a scalp through the miasma that he weaves with his wrist and commands the bowl to obey him is reflected in the sparkle in his eyes and the aura that they reflect. Whatever the situation, his eyes always keep on smiling and this is what endears him to the players all over the world. When the country, to which he belongs, Sri Lanka, is in the middle of a political strife, his achievements could not turn into an occasion for celebration as a national achievement, for the cricketing fraternity it is an occasion to celebrate, feels Cricket360 .

Pitched By Cricket360 Observer
Thursday, 05 February 2009

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