Athens 2004 silver medalist Denis Nizhegorodov (left) set a new world record in the 50 km walk by clocking three hours, 34 minutes and 14 seconds at the World Race Walking Cup on Sunday, 11 May, according to a Reuters report.

The 27-year-old Russian bettered the time of 3:35.47 set by Australian Nathan Deakes on Dec. 2, 2006 in Geelong, Australia.

“It becomes a good tradition for me to set records before the Olympics,” said Nizhegorodov, who won the silver medal in the 50 km walk at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

“I broke the world record in May 2004, a couple of months before the Games in Athens, but unfortunately that record wasn’t ratified. I hope it’ll be different this time round.”

PHOTO SOURCE: olympic.org

Will China overtake the United States in the Olympic medal race? Some crystal ball gazers think so but China’s drive for Olympic dominance might be stalled by over-training.

From AFP:

When Frenchman Christian Bauer saw the Chinese fencing team he was hired to train for the Olympics the first thing he did was to send them all home.

“They were washed out through over-training and every one of them was carrying an injury,” he said. “So I gave them a vacation.”

The move upset Chinese sports officials who summoned Bauer for a dressing down. After that, they watched his every move in the training gym under a banner that reads “Love your pain”.

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China will emerge as the new overall Olympic champion when the final medal tally is counted in Beijing. Says who? Researchers from Sheffield Hallam University who predict that the host nation will win 46 gold medals during the Beijing Olympics.

From BBC: “China has set its stall out to become the number one nation in sport and to top the table in its host event,” Professor Simon Shibli told BBC Sport.

“We are forecasting China will win 46 gold medals, which probably exceeds most other people’s forecasts.”

Professor Shibli analysed past Olympic performances, China’s record in turning bronze and silver medals into gold ones, and recent success on the international stage to reach his conclusions.

“Its improvement from the Seoul Olympics in 1988 to second place and 32 gold medals in Athens is unprecedented,” said Professor Shibli.

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Nigerian athletes who, as we blogged about earlier, were “directed” by their President to produce eight gold medals in Beijing are not happy with the grants given them and have vowed to fight for more funding.

From the Sunday Tribune:

Apparently afraid of experiencing what athletes have had in the past as regards shabby treatment during international competitions, the athletes have made up their minds to fight the battle from home even before the start of the Olympics.

Tribunesports gathered that the athletes were hell bent on truncating the country’s chances of winning medals in Beijing unless there is an improvement in their welfare package before the commencement of the Games.

Shabby treatment? And then you expect them to produce eight gold medals? Our idol, Nigerian President Umar Musa Yar’Adua should look into this before it’s too late.

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She’s the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth and the reigning eventing world champion. She is some kind of a model too.
Zara was recently named to the British equestrian team going to the Beijing Olympic Games.

She will be following the footsteps of her father, Mark Phillips, who won the gold medal at the three-day event in the 1972 Munich Olympics, and her mother, Princess Anne, who competed at the 1976 Montreal Games.

PHOTO SOURCES: blogs.ya.com and AFP.