Looking increasingly likely that the County Championship could be decided in the final match of the season at Lord's between Middlesex and Yorkshire.
Well it isn't funny what spending money wisely in terms of investment/coaching and equipment can do to a sport! I doubt these athletes complain about having to work 2/3 day a week (most do more) and the coaches are given time to do their job without great pressure on them within weeks without agents and those above getting in the way. Of course doing well on the International stage is the most important thing to these sports to promote their "brand" The PL just worry about what fans in Asia and America are doing. and football supposed head body in this country can do very little.
Yes... puts European Football in its place really... and so pleasing to see ordinary athletes achieving through years of practice out of the limelight....
More medals today - again in a variety of events which actually just shows how much of an impression the money and coaching has made in so many sports. I wonder if down the line young kids will get fed up with not getting a chance in football and move into these other sports?
It seems to be the difference between people who are prepared to sacrifice just about everything to get to the Olympics and give it their best -their hard work, training etc are monumental - as opposed to a bunch of overpaid prissy prima donnas for whom playing for their country seems to mean very little
Desperately sad news coming out of Rio regarding the Paralympic Games. It has been obvious for a long time that the country was under huge pressure to find the money and spectators to pay for the whole Olympics, but now we see how all those empty seats have impacted on the athletes who have trained as hard as the able bodied. http://www.bbc.com/sport/disability-sport/37135083
Sadly London 2012 was a one off in terms of attendance I suspect.. Mind you due to the costs a lot of sporting events will be losing numbers in terms of public attendance hence the increase in corporate and VIP guests.
Couldn't get Olympic tickets for 2012 but Mrs HF and I spent two fantastic days at the Paralympics. We had a sensational time watching everything from wheelchair tennis and rugby, swimming, athletics, basketball. I think that this year's Olympics have been a bit of an organisational disaster, from security to judging to robbing those who are most disadvantaged. Shocking, actually.
Extremely sad. Dealing with a bullying incident of our disabled son at the moment. Hearing this on the news last night didn't lift our spirits.
Brazil should be ashamed of themselves for making pledges and then breaking them - finance is no excuse to downgrade the Paralympics. Perhapsin future they should be held first and if not done properly the Olympics should be taken away
Sorry to hear that. Is the bullying by his peers or by able bodied, if not entirely able brained, people? Both schools I went to had attachments to lesser abled children (CP at one and troubled, occasionally violent children at the other) and as such bullying is something I can't abide nor understand except for the sheer cowardice of the perpetrators. I hope your boy's problems are resolved pdq.
They should never have been awarded to Brazil in the first place. I can understand the logic of having done so (in the sense of giving them a chance to show what they can do) but it is a country beset with social injustice, riddled with crime and has a seam of corruption running through it. I don't think that they are ready, alas.
Yes- it is a difficult balance between trying to encourage countries that have not had the chance before against making sure it goes well
Bullying is always horrible but it is even more pathetic when the victim is disabled. Hope you get it resolved well
On the one hand there are Olympic and Paralympics...wonderful performances, great dedication, individuals overcoming all kinds of setback. On the other hand there is the corrupt bidding process, the big name sponsors often with very unathletic products, the drug-taking and the chest-beating. I have mixed feelings about the whole process despite the obvious skills on show.
Thanks very much, Fez. It's name-calling by supposed friends who we thought might have been piss-taking before. He doesn't realise yet that they have been being nasty to him for months. We found out about it yesterday. We're going to talk to him tomorrow (my wife is out today and time of day when telling him will be crucial). He has a disability of his brain and is not equipped to deal with bullies who taunt. He just gets withdrawn and sad because he doesn't understand why his friendly and very passive nature can be met with hostility (he thinks he's doing something wrong to make it happen). Parents of offending kids think it's all a misunderstanding. It's not. If racist terms were being used you hope they would find that easy to see as being wrong. Disability discrimination, particularly of mentally disabled it seems to me, is fairly new as being universally socially unacceptable. If it was physical bullying of a child with a physical disability these parents would find that easier to understand as wrong. One of the lads is Indian and yet he and his parents could not see that this form of bigotry i.e. of inherent attribute, is akin to racism. The other family have a little darling on their hands. I was very friendly and trying to help them as their child develops, recognising a mistake and possibly rectifying it. But Little Darling wouldn't do that. It's a shame because you worry how these children will grow up without proper guidance from supposedly responsible adults. My younger son wanted to go on a Bruce Lee rampage. We all do karate but I had to persuade him this wasn't the right way to proceed. God help them though if they do this to his big brother in front of him without me there. NHS dentists are so hard to find.
