Contador wins third Tour as Armstrong bows out

July 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Spaniard Alberto Contador claimed his third Tour de France title on Sunday as seven-times champion Lance Armstrong made his final exit from the race.

The 27-year-old Contador stayed safe in the main bunch and the last stage, over 102.5 km from Longjumeau, went to Briton Mark Cavendish for the second year in a row.

Over three weeks, Contador showed some weaknesses in the mountains and almost cracked in the final time trial but it was enough for him to beat Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck by 39 seconds. Russian Denis Menchov took third place, 2:01 off the pace.

Contador said on the podium: “I’m happy, very happy. I’ve had difficult days, from a psychological and a physical point of view.

“Thank you to those who supported me. I would have wanted to be better, but I suffered a lot to get this result and words cannot describe what I feel right now.”

The victory kept the Spanish flag flying high on the Champs-Elysees following triumphs for Oscar Pereiro in 2006, Contador in 2007, Carlos Sastre in 2008 and Contador again last year.

The Spaniard took the overall leader’s yellow jersey when he benefited from Schleck’s chain problem on Monday.

He gained 39 seconds in the process, the exact time that separated him from Schleck at the end of the Tour.

“It did not work out this time but next year, I will come back here in this color,” said Schleck, who won the white jersey for the best under-25 rider, as he pointed toward Contador’s yellow jersey.

CAVENDISH AGAIN

Armstrong, 38, riding his last Tour de France, finished 23rd overall after losing all chance in the first mountain stage.

But the seven-times champion drew some consolation as his RadioShack outfit won the team competition.

That helped make up for an incident which delayed the start of Sunday’s stage by 15 minutes when all RadioShack riders sported black jerseys with the number 28.

They were expressing their support of the estimated 28 millions of cancer-affected people in the world and of Armstrong’s Livestrong campaign to fight the disease.

But organizers reminded them that competition rules say that the same jersey should be used from the prologue to the final stage and they were forced to change clothing before the start.

“The idea was to talk about the significance, the magnitude of the disease. Unfortunately the commissars did not agree with this,” said Armstrong.

“But in the end, we got more attention than we expected.”

As usual, the last stage one of the shortest in Tour history, was effectively a parade before the peloton hit Paris.

Contador was seen drinking champagne with his Astana team mates. The champion and Schleck even faked attacks on each other for a while before shaking hands and returning to the main pack.

It was an ironic summary of a Tour in which they never really challenged each other.

At the finish, Cavendish outsprinted Italian Alessandro Petacchi and New Zealand’s Julian Dean in impressive fashion to notch his fifth stage win in this year’s race.

Cavendish said: “It didn’t start too well. In the first week I was wondering what was happening. But we continued to work and then it went better.”

But it was Petacchi who narrowly clinched the sprinters’ green jersey for the points classification. France’s Anthony Charteau won the polka dot jersey for the best climber.

(Editing by Dave Thompson)

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Enigmatic Armstrong in final Tour curtain call

July 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Lance Armstrong drew the curtain down on an amazing career in top-class international cycling on Sunday as a hero to his devoted followers but much less so to the skeptics.

Armstrong, who won the Tour de France a record seven times, helped cycling shift from a sport of tradition and folklore into a modern, professional, global one.

The 38-year-old American, who finished a distant 23rd in his final Tour de France, has won the world’s greatest race more than anyone else, reigning on the Tour from 1999-2005.

It seemed impossible in 1999, when he collected the first of his 82 yellow jerseys and the third of 23 stage wins, for anyone to win seven Tours — in particular a rider like Armstrong who almost lost his life to testicular cancer diagnosed in 1996.

His attention to detail and obsession with the Tour are well known but his pure sporting skills and extraordinary strength of character were often overlooked.

Sunday, in the train taking the Tour peloton to the start of the final stage, Armstrong sat down with three media representatives, including Reuters.

He recalled: “(It was) a very traditional sport, very old school, almost relaxed. We just wiped it all clean and said ‘we’re gonna analyze every little thing.

“If it’s a composition of a team, if it’s a diet, if it’s reckoning the courses, if it’s the tactics, if it’s radios, whatever it is, we sort of led the push there.”

Like Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault or Jacques Anquetil, Armstrong was not interested in being a popular rider. But he came back to the sport at the end of 2008 after three years in retirement, keen to help the plight of cancer sufferers.

SQUARED OFF

In his domination of the Tour, Armstrong found motivation in duels with his challengers, the most notable being Jan Ullrich, who finished second three times.

Alberto Contador was the other, although they really squared off only once, in 2009. That year, Armstrong lost a psychological battle and ended up third overall, but ready to have another shot at an unprecedented eighth title.

It proved a cruel swansong for the Texan, who started the race with his own RadioShack team, but had to concede defeat in the first mountain stage after losing considerable time following an early crash.

With hope gone of prevailing one last time, Armstrong, battered and bruised, continued in the race with dignity, hanging on for dear life in the mountains.

A long breakaway in the most prestigious stage reminded everyone, if need be, that a champion has to hold his head high.

“I’ve got my competitive fix for the next 40 years, it will take until about 80 (years old) and then I don’t think I will wanna come back,” he said with a laugh.

LEAST Favorite

“I find it wonderful to observe that Lance Armstrong really loves the Tour de France,” said Tour director Christian Prudhomme.

Finally, in return, the Tour de France loved Armstrong, who once had been voted France’s least favorite athlete.

Dozens of fans gathered by his team bus every morning, thousands lined up along the roads to support him and millions were glued in front of their TV sets to witness his last Tour.

“Whatever he does, he is a story. He is an incredible character,” Frenchman Alain Gallopin, one of RadioShack’s sports directors, told Reuters.

Armstrong, who reached beyond his sport like no rider before him, is now longing to enjoy days on the beach with his growing family and will race only minor events.

TIGHT SCRUTINY

“He’s just a legend,” said Giro champion Ivan Basso of Italy.

The legend, however, has been under very tight scrutiny.

Although he never tested positive, Armstrong has faced doping allegations throughout his career and the American will have to fight them when he gets back home.

A federal investigation in the U.S. is focusing on whether Armstrong used government money to dope and win his seven Tours with the U.S. Postal team – following allegations made by his former team mate and disgraced 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis.

“That’s not new, it didn’t start in May (at the time of Landis’s allegations) that started in 1999. I’m so immune to that. That’s totally fine, I have no problem with that. I gave up fighting that a long time ago,” he said.

In 2005, shortly after his seventh Tour title, French daily L’Equipe claimed samples from the 1999 Tour showed traces of the banned blood-booster EPO.

Armstrong was cleared of any wrongdoing following an independent probe, although then-WADA president Dick Pound questioned the independence of the investigation.

“I can assure you that there is not gonna be a teary-eyed confession from me,” said Armstrong.

“I’m 100 per cent confident. I know what I did and didn’t do. And I know that the press is … incredibly sensational, I’m not a fool, that’s what they need, that’s okay. In the end it will all come out.”

Armstrong, who has hired a criminal defense attorney to fight the allegations, is confident the investigation will go his way – eventually.

“We will certainly field the best team but in the end it’s a fair competition, that’s why ultimately – maybe not yet, maybe not right now – but ultimately it will be a fair competition and I’ll get my chance to speak about it,” he said.

Asked what his legacy would be, Armstrong, mindful of a modern 24/7 media, blogs and speculation, said: “There’s much noise out there for a lot of people.

“Legacies won’t ever be the same. If Frank Sinatra lived today, he’d have a much more difficult time being Frank Sinatra.”

(Editing by Dave Thompson)

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Disappointed Sky learn a lot from first Tour

July 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Disappointed by the below-par performance of leader Bradley Wiggins and by the lack of stage wins, Team Sky still learnt a lot in their first year on the Tour de France.

Launched in 2009 with big money and high ambitions, Sky were brought back to earth by the day-to-day reality of the world’s biggest and most arduous cycle race.

But they remain confident their five-year plan to take a British rider to the Tour podium is realistic.

“It was a major part of our plan to put young British riders in the environment of a big race like the Tour and that’s what we did here,” team manager Dave Brailsford told Reuters.

“And the response from the fans has been phenomenal. In that sense it’s a tremendous success which surpasses our expectations.”

With their menacing metal black team bus, glamorous Jaguar cars and hi-tech approach, the team have made cycling traditionalists raise their eyebrows.

Seven-times Tour winner Lance Armstrong said: “They looked at every little thing, everything. All the way down to wearing a skin-suit in road stages. If we’d done that 10 years ago, they may not have let you start the race.

“They’ve done it. It has not necessarily paid off in terms of results but they pushed it.”

Fourth last year, Wiggins, individual pursuit Olympic champion, failed to deliver, finishing a distant 24th.

Norway’s Edvald Boasson-Hagen, the most promising talent in cycling, had his first Tour hampered by health problems.

The best-placed Sky rider was Sweden’s Thomas Lovkvist, who finished 17th.

HUGE DIFFERENCE

Wiggins described his performance as “consistently mediocre” and even suggested he might refund the British fans who made the trip to France to see him race.

But his former Garmin Transitions team manager Jonathan Vaughters felt this Tour, with a tough first week and highly demanding stages in the Alps and the Pyrenees, was probably too hard for Wiggins.

He told Reuters: “Sky have done a great job of supporting him. They did not do anything wrong. I don’t see any great problem with Brad.

“You go to another year, to a traditional Tour with two long time trials and fewer mountains and Brad can do a great Tour.”

But Vaughters suggested that the approach Brailsford had applied to track was not necessarily transferable to road cycling, a claim the head of British Cycling, who helped his country sweep Olympic and world medals, readily accepts.

Brailsford said: “At the Olympics, we achieved our goals. But the difference between the Olympics and the Tour is huge.

“At the Olympics, you’re in a medal or nothing environment, and the nation is a big factor whereas in the Tour, you’re also in an entertainment environment.

“To take an athlete to his best level on a given day has always been tricky, on track or on the road. It’s not an exact science.”

Team Sky never claimed they would conquer the 107-year-old race on their first attempt. They have four more years to do so.

Vaughters said: “Their approach is rigid and organised. It did not work in the short term but it might very well work in the long term.”

(Editing by Dave Thompson)

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Focus on Landis, Armstrong lawyer says

July 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

France (Reuters) – Lance Armstrong’s lawyer advised U.S. authorities on Saturday to investigate disgraced rider Floyd Landis rather than doping allegations against the seven-times Tour de France champion.

Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title following a positive dope test, has accused former team mate Armstrong and several other American riders of using performance-enhancing drugs before retiring in 2005.

Armstrong, who has faced doping allegations throughout his career but never tested positive, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

“The more appropriate investigation and use of taxpayers’ money should focus on the confessed fraud committed by Landis, an admitted perjurer with an agenda,” Armstrong’s lawyer Timothy Herman said in a statement on Saturday.

“These kind of leaks and the stories based on them are inaccurate, are extraordinarily unfair and are used for publicity and advancing personal agendas.”

The statement was a reaction to an article by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday claiming that an alleged federal investigation into Landis’s claims has been making progress.

“Garbage in, garbage out. That’s the best way to describe the Wall Street Journal article today based on improper leaks and discredited innuendo about the investigation into Floyd Landis’s ever-changing stories,” the statement read.

Landis, who tested positive for testosterone in the 2006 Tour, denied he ever used performance-enhancing drugs until last May when he confessed to doping throughout his career.

Armstrong, who lies 14th in the overall standings, told reporters after the seventh stage that there was nothing new in the Wall Street Journal article.

“I don’t think there is anything new. Is there something that I missed ?,” he said.

“Like I said the first time, it’s like a carton of sour milk, one sip, you know it’s bad you don’t drink the whole thing. I don’t need to keep taking sips of it. It’s bad.

“Tell me if I missed something and I’ll respond. We have a supposedly legitimate press outlet just repeating themselves. Is that what we have?,” he added.

(Editing by Dave Thompson)

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Catwalk for Venus, cakewalk for Federer before rain pours

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Venus Williams and Roger Federer caught the eye again at Roland Garros on Wednesday as both moved smoothly through to the third round of the French Open.

Defending men’s champion Federer produced some “Ooh la la” tennis on Court Phillipe Chatrier during a rain-hit 7-6 6-2 6-4 win over Colombia’s Alejandro Falla after Venus had overpowered tricky Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-2 6-4.

Impressively as Williams played, however, it was not just her groundstrokes and lethal serve that made an impact.

Once again, the 29-year-old American strode on court wearing a revealing lacy black corset which would not have looked out of place down the road at the Moulin Rouge cabaret.

After completing an impressive victory to move a step closer to a possible repeat of her 2002 final here against sister Serena, Venus described her latest creation as an illusion.

Her form so far here has been anything but and she looks in the mood to challenge for a title that has proved beyond her.

Having dispatched wily Swiss Patty Schnyder in the first round, the seven-times grand slam champion was again in dominant form against the unorthodox Santonja who plays double-handed on both wings and is especially tricky on clay.

After fending off a break point in her first service game she took command on a stadium which would have been quarter full had it not been for the presence of hundreds of youngsters taking advantage of Children’s Day at Roland Garros.

“She definitely kept me on my toes,” Venus told reporters in reply to one of the few questions about the match itself.

“Overall, today I just thought I played the bigger points, especially on my serve, I played those really well, and I think that was key.”

SARTORIAL ELEGANCE

Explaining the outfit that she designed especially for Roland Garros and which also requires her to wear flesh-coloured underwear, Venus was happy to talk.

“It’s really about the illusion,” she said. “What’s the point of wearing lace when there’s just black under. The illusion of just having bare skin is definitely for me a lot more beautiful.”

Federer’s sartorial elegance at Wimbledon is well-known but elsewhere the Swiss needs no props to look cool.

That was the case again on Wednesday against Falla although initially he struggled to time the ball — spraying some unforced errors off his frame as his south American opponent looked the more impressive in the first 11 games.

Federer, without a title since the Australian Open, managed just three points on Falla’s serve and was broken himself at 5-5 before responding immediately to break back and win a tiebreak.

Twice the players were forced off by rain that interrupted the schedule all day but Federer kept his game together and suffered no further alarms.

Robin Soderling, who Federer beat in last year’s final, is looming as a quarter-final opponent this year and the Swede was the most impressive player in second-round action on Wednesday, demolishing American Taylor Dent 6-0 6-1 6-1 in 71 minutes.

Eigth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also reached the third round with a straight-sets win over fellow Frenchman Josselin Ouanna while Marin Cilic of Croatia continued to impress, beating Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-3 7-6 6-2.

Meanwhile women’s champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was in some peril when rain again halted play late in the afternoon on Court One, losing the first set 6-4 to Germany’s Andrea Petkovic.

(Editing by Miles Evans.

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Lance Armstrong to take part in Tour of Luxembourg

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong will continue his preparations for the world’s greatest race by taking part in the Tour of Luxembourg next week, his RadioShack team said on Wednesday.

The American, who crashed out of the Tour of California last week, featured in an eight-man squad unveiled by Radioshack as he is looking to get more racing days ahead of the Tour.

Armstrong’s season has been hampered by illness and last week’s crash.

The 38-year-old Texan sustained facial injury when he crashed during the fifth stage of the Tour of California.

The Tour of Luxembourg runs from June 2-6.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Pritha Sarkar; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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‘Broody’ Jordan ‘demands sex seven times a day from Alex Reid’

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 18 (ANI): Katie Price a.k.a Jordan insists her husband Alex Reid to have sex seven times a day, it has emerged.

Jordan is desperate to get pregnant for the fourth time but the couple is facing difficulty conceiving, so she demands for the action seven times a day.

Alex, 34, has admitted that the pair may have some good news soon after photos of them emerged visiting a fertility clinic last week, reports the Daily Star.

“We’ve seen the pictures of me and Kate ‘visiting a clinic’ but it is not something I want to talk about. When we have news I will let you all know!”, Alex says in his Star Magazine column.

Kate, 31, is so keen to have her fourth child that she has stuck up a chart in their bedroom to show when she is ovulating.

A source said: “She has gone baby crazy and won’t stop till she’s pregnant. It’s taking over her life said a source close to Kate.

“The chart states exactly when Kate is ‘ripe’, as Alex calls it, and when that happens they are at it six or seven times.” (ANI)

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Rosberg apologises to frustrated Schumacher

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Nico Rosberg apologised to a frustrated Michael Schumacher on Saturday after the seven times world champion complained he had been slowed by his Mercedes team mate in Monaco Grand Prix qualifying.

Rosberg was outqualified for the first time by the 41-year-old in Spain last weekend but turned the tables on his fellow German by taking sixth place on the starting grid for the season’s most glamorous race with Schumacher seventh.

“I have to say from my perspective that all of our colleagues drove very fairly. The only car that blocked me was my team mate,” Schumacher told television reporters after the session.

“It’s a shame but there you go. It happened in quali three (the third phase) when there were only 10 cars on the track.”

Rosberg, son of Finland’s 1982 world champion Keke, told reporters he had apologised for a situation that Mercedes said was their fault rather than the driver’s because they sent him out at the wrong time and the radio had failed as well.

“I feel extremely frustrated about today because we had a good car all weekend and as a team we didn’t perform well in Q3,” said team principal Ross Brawn.

“There was a problem with Nico’s car getting out of the garage,” he explained.

“The last thing we wanted was to have our two cars on the same piece of track… the plan was to split them but when we came to release Nico’s car we had a problem with releasing it. It left the garage 20 or 30 seconds later than we planned.

“So then we had both cars together and Nico was getting squeezed,” added Brawn. “I think Michael was annoyed after the second or third lap… when I explained to him what happened he was OK, just frustrated…. we cocked up.”

Schumacher, making his comeback after three years in retirement, has won five times in Monaco and a sixth win would equal the record of the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna.

“I don’t think it would have been my quickest lap time anyway but it would have been a banker and that was my aim — to put a banker in and then go obviously full attack for the last lap,” said Schumacher of the incident.

(Editing by Ken Ferris

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Luckiest man in the world gives away his lottery fortune

May 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 14 (ANI): He has cheated death seven times, celebrated his fifth marriage and now given away his lottery worth 600,000 pounds – Frano Selak, dubbed the world”s luckiest man, is grateful for his “good luck” and has now decided to lead a frugal life.

Selak, 81 has fallen out of a plane door to land on a haystack, survived a train wreck, been in a fatal bus accident and sent his car flying over a 300 ft precipice – and miraculously, escaped from each of these disasters alive.

And now, he has given away his lottery fortune of 600,000 pounds to lead a meagre lifestyle, for he says – money can’t buy happiness after all.

He kept the last bit of his winnings for a hip replacement operation so he could enjoy life with his wife and also so he could build a shrine to the Virgin Mary to give thanks for his luck.

“All I need at my age is my Katarina. Money would not change anything.

“When she arrived I knew then that I really did have a charmed, blessed life.

“I never thought I was lucky to survive all my brushes with death. I thought I was unlucky to be in them in the first place,” The Telegraph quoted him as saying.

After surviving plane and train crashes and numerous other accidents, the pensioner has finally realized how lucky he is.

He said that people were always telling him he was lucky to have survived so many disasters but he added, “I always think I was unlucky to have been in them in the first place but you can”t tell people what they don”t want to believe.” (ANI)

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Schumacher refuses to say sorry for cheating last time in Monaco

May 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 13 (ANI): Seven times Formula one champion Michael Schumacher, who is on a comeback trail, has refused to say sorry for cheating the last time he raced in Monaco.

He was dumped at the back of the grid and branded a ”scumbag” after one of the most infamous incidents in F1 history.

Schumacher deliberately parked his car at the famous Rascasse Corner to wreck title hopes of rival driver Fernando Alonso’s qualifying lap four years ago.

“It doesn’t change things if we go back into it. We are now in 2010. Let’s look forward and not backwards. I had great fun in the race. I came through the field from last and finished fifth. That was good fun,” The Sun quoted Schumacher, as saying.

Asked if the incident was a low point of his career, Schumacher said: “You made it, yes. You all did. You journalists. Some of you guys.”

And when asked if he would repeat the trick this Saturday to take pole, he moaned: “You”re boring.”

Schumacher’s career is littered with cheating controversies.

He drove into Damon Hill in Adelaide in 1994 to win their title decider and tried the same trick on Jacques Villeneuve in the season finale three years later in Jerez.

That saw the German stripped of all his points for the season, the paper reports.

On the Monaco incident, Schumacher claimed he had locked up his Ferrari, having stopped at the corner to slow then Renault rival Alonso, who was on a quicker lap. (ANI)

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Wheel failure ruins Hamilton’s day in the sun

May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Lewis Hamilton cast around for positives on Sunday after a wheel rim failure pitched him out of the Spanish Grand Prix while in second place and with only a lap to go.

The misfortune left the McLaren driver further than ever behind championship leading team mate Jenson Button after five of 19 races.

“I’m absolutely gutted that my accident happened so close to the finish, but that’s motor racing,” said the 2008 champion, who set the fastest lap of a race won at a canter by Red Bull’s Mark Webber at the Circuit de Catalunya.

“The guys did an incredible job all weekend, though.

“There are many more races to go this season and I’ll keep my chin up. I know we can still fight for this championship,” added the 25-year-old.

The silver McLaren, with the front wheel flapping and flailing, careered off the track and into the tyre wall without any warning.

Instead of closing the gap at the top to a single point ahead of next weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton dropped to sixth overall and 21 points adrift of Button.

“Up until that point it was pretty positive, I was just cruising to the finish line,” he said.

“I didn’t sense anything odd before the accident, the car was feeling great, so that’s why it was such a surprise,” added the driver, who has earned scant reward for some thrilling drives this season.

The blowout was similar to one that Hamilton suffered at the Nuerburgring in his 2007 debut season and the Briton reflected ruefully that he seemed to have more than his fair share of such incidents.

“It’s my third or fourth tyre blow out in my career. More than most people have in their whole lifetime,” he said.

Button, who finished in fifth place, also had his own problems when the dashboard display failed just as he was trying to get past the Mercedes of seven times world champion Michael Schumacher.

“He lost the dash early in the race, he then couldn’t run the launch sequence at the pitstop,” said team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

“That then caused clutch drag, because he was at too high rpm, the wheels were spinning and that delayed the pitstop. Otherwise he would have come out ahead of Michael quite easily. So it was no fault of the driver.”

Button said the car’s pace was encouraging, which made the failure even more frustrating.

“As everyone knows, it’s almost impossible to overtake around here and Michael was moving about a bit to make sure I couldn’t get past,” he said.

“Fifth wasn’t the result we’d wanted and it wasn’t the result we really deserved either because we were pretty quick.”

(Editing by…To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Webber wins for runaway Red Bull in Spain

May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Australian Mark Webber won the Spanish Grand Prix for rampant Red Bull on Sunday after leading from start to finish at Formula One’s most predictable circuit.

For a record 10th year in succession at the Circuit de Catalunya, the driver who started on pole position took the chequered flag as winner in the Catalan sunshine.

“Fantastic, you were untouchable,” the team told Webber, the first driver to win from pole this year, after he crossed the line a massive 24 seconds clear of Ferrari’s second placed Fernando Alonso.

“It was a fantastic result and I’m absolutely thrilled,” said the Australian of his third career win. “We had a faultless grand prix weekend.

“We’ve missed a few points in the constructors’ (championship) but a very special day for me.”

Spaniard Alonso, celebrating his first home race for the Italian team, inherited a crowd-pleasing runner-up position when McLaren’s hard-charging Lewis Hamilton crashed out when a front tyre suddenly deflated on the penultimate lap.

“I was just cruising to the finish line – it was great points for me. But then I blew a tyre with two laps to go. That’s motor-racing,” Hamilton told BBC television.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who had started on the front row alongside Webber, finished third despite suffering brake problems.

SCHUMACHER FOURTH

Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher was fourth, the best result so far of the 41-year-old’s comeback season, with McLaren’s Jenson Button unable to find a way past and forced to settle for fifth.

Button, Hamilton’s team mate and reigning world champion, stayed top of the standings with 70 points to Alonso’s 67 after five of the season’s 19 races.

“The pace was good but it doesn’t make any difference if you can’t overtake,” said Button.

“I damaged my tyres quite badly. Really disappointing. It all came from the first pit stop. We had a problem with the clutch dragging. It’s not the result we wanted or deserved.”

Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa was sixth, Germany’s Adrian Sutil seventh for Force India and Poland’s Robert Kubica eighth for Renault.

Williams returned to the points with Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in ninth place and local youngster Jaime Alguersuari took the final point for Toro Rosso at his home track and despite a drive-through penalty.

The biggest challenge Webber faced, after holding off Vettel’s attempts to squeeze past at the start, was keeping alert as he lapped in splendid isolation and headed for a seemingly inevitable triumph.

Webber was the fourth different winner in five races.

Hamilton’s exit was the biggest shock of what had otherwise threatened to be a slow-burning afternoon after three thrill-filled races in the Far East.

“It was a deflation. It could have been debris caught in the rim. It’s not a straightforward puncture,” said McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

“The tyres were in reasonable shape. I think probably debris caused the failure, but that’s speculation.”

Germany’s Nico Rosberg, who had been second overall going into the weekend, finished out of the points and behind team mate Schumacher for the first time this season.

On a nightmare afternoon for the young German, he had a problem at his first pitstop when the team released him before the front right wheel nuts had been tightened and had to stop and be pushed back.

(Editing by Kevin Fylan. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Schumacher’s ex-boss writes off his chances of a glorious comeback

May 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 5 (ANI): Seven times Formula One champion Michael Schumacher’s former team boss has written off his chances of making a glorious comeback.

Ex-Renault chief Flavio Briatore, under whom Schumacher drove at Benetton, said that there is no way he will recapture his glory.

Asked if he expected Schumacher to improve during the season, Briatore said: “On the contrary, I think it will be harder and harder for him.”

“I don’t know how he can recover. The competition is so fierce. He made the decision to return without thinking that, in four years, the cars and tyres have changed massively,” The Sun quoted him, as saying.

Schumacher has been outraced by Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg and has finished a dismal 10th during the last race in China.

“I’ve always said it would be difficult for him to stay ahead of Rosberg. You can’t come back in such a competitive sport after four or five years. Alain Prost did, but only one season had gone by,” Briatore told Italy’s Autosprint magazine.

“Today, Michael has found some tough customers because in F1 there have never been drivers as good as this year. There’s Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Rosberg…” (ANI)

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INTERVIEW – Schumacher still a winner, says Brawn

April 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Ross Brawn, the man who helped mastermind so many of Michael Schumacher’s finest moments in Formula One, said the seven-times champion will be a winner again this season once Mercedes give him a good enough car.

In an interview with Reuters at a floating lifeboat station on the River Thames, where he was launching a fund-raising challenge, Mercedes team principal Brawn was optimistic about the 41-year-old German’s prospects after a tough start to his comeback year.

He added that it was only a matter of time before Schumacher’s team mate Nico Rosberg took his first win and applauded world champion Jenson Button’s strong showing at McLaren after leaving Brawn.

“It would be foolish to say he (Schumacher) is where he wants to be but he’s very determined to succeed and I think these frustrations are just going to make him try even harder,” said Brawn.

Schumacher has been outqualified and beaten by fellow German Rosberg in all four races so far but will have a different chassis at next week’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

“The one (chassis) he had got damaged during the first few races and we repaired it as best we could at the races,” said Brawn, removing his orange life-jacket after stepping off a lifeboat onto a jetty by London’s Waterloo bridge.

“Now we are back at base we are going to re-introduce the test chassis and he will be using that in Barcelona.

“We want to eliminate any doubt because obviously Michael has come back, he’s trying to find his references and is trying to work out how to approach things,” he explained.

MAJOR REVAMP

Rosberg will stick with the chassis that has taken him to two podiums in a row but will also benefit from a major revamp for the first race of the season in Europe.

The wheelbase on both cars has been changed to improve weight distribution and there is a big aerodynamic upgrade too.

Schumacher finished 10th in the latest race in China, while Rosberg was third and led early on, and some have expressed concern that he is finding it hard to get back up to speed.

Brawn said both driver and team had work to do but there was no panic, only frustration.

“Undoubtedly these tyres are a bit different to what he’s used to,” said Brawn. “Maybe, with the car and the tyres, it’s not towards the way he likes to have a car which is very responsive and very sharp. We haven’t been able to provide him with that yet.”

“We’ve not had a fantastic start but we are still in there because no-one else is really dominating either,” he added, the platform swaying gently against the wash of passing boats. “There is still plenty of opportunity.

“I was frustrated at the weekend (in China) because Nico could have won that race,” continued Brawn. “He made one mistake in very difficult circumstances.

“He’s very close to winning a race, just needs things to fall into place…but that will come. I’m sure he will definitely do it and I think Michael will when we get the car sorted,” said Brawn.

“He is so determined and you can see that in his driving,” added Brawn, a keen sea angler whose holiday home in Cornwall is right next to a lifeboat slip.

“The bits where it’s not quite working are not because of (lack of) skill or bravery, it’s because the technique needs tuning and the car needs tuning.

“It’s odd places where he’s losing time and that’s why we think he’ll sort it out and we’ll sort it out and get to where we need to.”

Brawn said the team’s own analysis of the three races up to China had shown that Schumacher was getting progressively stronger and closer to Rosberg.

CLEVER BUTTON

Button, who won six of the first seven races in 2009 before fading in the second half of the year, has won twice in four starts for McLaren.

Some commentators had warned him he was making a mistake in leaving Brawn for the ‘Lions’ Den’, a team seen as being dominated by his fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton, but Brawn said Button was showing his true character again.

“He’s taken a really intelligent approach this year,” he said. “He’s highly skilled, we know that. If Jenson starts with the Jenson we had in the first half of last year then he’s going to be very strong.”

“Really the second half (of 2009) came from certain pressures that were building with the championship and so on and wasn’t the natural Jenson. What we are seeing again is the natural Jenson.

“He’s not looked necessarily quicker than Lewis, but he’s doing a better job and he’s getting the results.”

(Editing by Miles Evans. For any queries on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Mercedes switch Schumacher’s car for Spain

April 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Mercedes will switch Michael Schumacher’s car for next week’s Spanish Grand Prix to try and get the seven times Formula One champion back up to speed, team principal Ross Brawn said on Monday.

“It’s not a new chassis per se, it’s a chassis we used in testing,” Brawn told Reuters at a fund-raising event for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution on the banks of the River Thames.

“The one he had got damaged during the first few races and we repaired it as best we could at the races. But now we are back at base we are going to re-introduce the test chassis and he will be using that in Barcelona.”

Brawn said the wheelbase would also be changed to improve weight distribution, and Mercedes are also planning a major aerodynamic revamp for the first race of the European season after four in the Middle and Far East.

Schumacher, a winner at Benetton and Ferrari with Brawn as technical director, is making his Formula One comeback at the age of 41 and after retiring at the end of 2006 with a record 91 race wins.

The German has been outqualified and beaten in all four races to date by team mate and compatriot Nico Rosberg, with concern mounting that Schumacher is finding it hard to replicate his form of old.

Schumacher finished 10th in the latest race in China while Rosberg was third after leading early on.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Justin Palmer; For any queries on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Brit man ”strangles girlfriend to death during sex session that went wrong”

April 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, April 21 (ANI): A British man is said to have strangled his girlfriend to death during a sex session that went wrong.

Jason O”Malley, 39, who was having affairs with three women at the same time, claimed that his girlfriend Kerry Sneddon liked him to squeeze her throat during sex.

He told officers when arrested that the beauty therapist encouraged him to apply “a little bit of pressure” and they had done it six or seven times in sex sessions although he didn”t like doing it.

Sheffield Crown Court heard 36-year-old Sneddon”s naked body was found at the home they shared. She had been throttled with a ligature on the living room floor.

O”Malley told police he could remember starting to have sex but they had never used a ligature before and he had no memory of the events leading to her death.

He denies murdering his partner whom he met on an Internet dating site. The prosecution say he throttled her after an argument.

“The defendant killed Kerry Sneddon and when he strangled her he must have intended to kill her or at least cause her serious harm,” the Telegraph quoted prosecutor Bryan Cox QC as telling the jury.

“We do not accept the defendant suffered genuine amnesia. We submit he is lying about that.

“We do not accept it may have been an accident during the course of some consensual sexual activity which is the suggestion he has made. A ligature was made and force applied for a considerable period of time,” he stated.

The jury was told O”Malley shortly afterwards rang his ex-wife Karen with whom he still slept occasionally and told her he had done “something stupid” and killed Kerry. She had not been breathing for five or six minutes.

Karen rang for an ambulance.

O”Malley left his wife in July, 2007 to move in with Sneddon at her home in Rotherham town centre after meeting her on the dating site and beginning a sexual relationship.

While Sneddon went on holiday to Turkey with her two children and a friend soon afterwards, O”Malley met another woman on an Internet dating site.

They had a sexual relationship and she became pregnant with his child.

Cox told the court Sneddon saw a copy of the baby scan in her partner”s wallet and it caused some friction between them.

While the beauty therapist was outgoing and bubbly and worked part-time in a pub, O”Malley, an unemployed former driver, was described as insecure, suspicious, jealous, possessive and prone to violent outbursts.

O”Malley wanted to know all her movements and would check her text messages and Facebook profile and contact her if she was just a few minutes late in coming home.

Although it was a volatile relationship and they often argued by the end of 2009 the couple were talking of getting married and moving to Spain, which was Kerry”s longstanding dream.

O”Malley continued to see Lisa Harrison whom he met on the internet while living with Sneddon and he often confided in her about his relationship problems.

He also continued to have sex with his ex-wife and they remained on good terms. He also confided in her.

When police arrived at the house on November 8 last year they found O”Malley kneeling by the stairs with a piece of brown cotton material looped around his neck and tied to the banister as if he had been attempting suicide.

“What have I done, is she going to be all right?” he had screamed at the time.

A pathologist found bruises on Sneddon”s neck and face consistent with death by asphyxiation from a ligature being applied. He said they were not caused during consensual sexual activity as the defendant claimed.

O”Malley told police the couple had drunk some beer and began kissing and stripping each other”s clothes off after watching the X Factor.

He could not remember finishing sex although he remembered starting it. He said he would never have harmed Sneddon as they were “soulmates”.

The hearing continues. (ANI)

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Indian-origin Oz doc gets deregistered for having sex with ”nymphomaniac” patient

April 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, April 17 (ANI): An Indian-origin doctor in Australia is said to have been deregistered after he had a sexual affair with a ”nymphomaniac” patient of his.

When Dr Naresh Parajuli was told by his patient that she “might be a nymphomaniac” he continued seeing her, and even engaged in sexually suggestive conversations with her.

The patient even handed the married doctor her mobile phone number, and during one consultation at the practice in regional NSW, the woman complained of pain caused by sexual activity, but declined to have a female chaperone present during the examination.

She asked him why he had not called her yet and made a suggestive comment before they discussed her sexual preferences.

He called her the following evening and the pair arranged for him to meet at her home the next night, when he arrived with a bottle of wine before they had sex.

The woman continued to visit him at work where he granted her unnecessary doctor”s certificates and bulk-billed her when it was not appropriate to do so.

But the woman”s interest seemed to cool in the last week of June when Dr Parajuli called her up to seven times hoping to arrange more sex.

In early July she made an appointment to see him and arrived with a friend who said she had recorded the pair having sex and would expose him unless he paid 100,000 dollars.

The friend said she had also recorded their telephone conversations.

Dr Parajuli was forced to admit the relationship to the police and was deregistered this week for professional misconduct.

The woman”s friend was charged with demanding money by threat and after pleading guilty was sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

The NSW Medical Tribunal found Dr Parajuli”s abuse of power was likely to be particularly damaging to the patient, who was an illicit drug user, exhibited problematic sexual behaviour and had experienced family law issues concerning her children.

“Far from being a mitigating factor … the patient”s inappropriate sexual advances to the practitioner only emphasised her vulnerability,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted the tribunal as stating.

Dr Parajuli moved from the area and, since 2008, had joined a new practice where he disclosed his past and was being mentored by a senior doctor, the court heard.

He had also consulted a psychiatrist to help him understand boundaries between doctors and patients.

The tribunal accepted that Dr Parajuli was remorseful but it found he did not fully appreciate his misconduct and was therefore at some risk of a future transgression.

It directed that Dr Parajuli be deregistered and ordered him to pay the costs of the Health Care Complaints Commission, which had brought the case against him. (ANI)

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Schumacher will be on the top by Malaysian leg of F1: Niki Lauda

March 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar 23 (ANI): Seven times Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, who returned from retirement recently, will shake off a bit more rustiness in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix before fully regaining his brilliance the following weekend in Malaysia, said Austrian legend Niki Lauda.

The Austrian legend took two years out before returning to win the third of his three world titles, albeit not until the third year of his comeback.

Lauda is not concerned that seven-time champ Schumacher was out qualified and outraced by Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg at the opening Grand Prix in Bahrain.

He insisted the 41-year-old German produced a “perfect performance” even though many expected him to be a winner straight away, The Sun reports.

Lauda said: “You can hardly start any better. He ran very little over the winter due to test restrictions, then got into a modified car he had never driven before. So it was simply impossible for him to clock a qualification lap at the push of a button.”

“I suppose he needs about three races to get back up to the same level he was at. When you take all that into account, he did a superb qualification lap, even compared to Nico who was only three-tenths faster.

“My guess is that in Kuala Lumpur he will have regained the ability to switch on for a fast lap that every driver has to have,” Lauda added. (ANI)

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Alonso plays down title hopes

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Formula One title favourite Fernando Alonso did his best overnight to play down his prospects of landing his third world championship.

The two-times champion Spaniard, making his first appearance as a Ferrari driver at a race meeting, was keen to keep expectations under control when he met the media ahead of this weekend’s season opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

The 28-year-old from Oviedo said he was not interested in making any predictions at all – and stressed that the season is not decided in March, but in November.

Accompanied by his Ferrari team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa, the all-British McLaren duo of defending champion Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s former ‘red baron’ seven-times champion German Michael Schumacher, Alonso was in relaxed mood.

“It has been fantastic for me to join Ferrari and I feel very good in the team,” he said.

“We are very determined to do well, to do our best, and I think we are well prepared. But, you know, the championship is not going to be decided now.

“We want to be the world champions in November, not March. Our goal is to win the championship and we know that means a lot of hard work for the next 10 months. We are ready for that.

“A lot of people ask about the winter testing times and what it means and I just think we have to concentrate on our own performances, and try to be as good as we can, as fast as possible.

“I think there are four teams – Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari, and any of these four can be a favourite for this race and in the first part of the championship.

“As well, I think there are other teams like Force India and Sauber who can have good races. We have to see.”

Alonso has described the new Ferrari F10 car as the best he has ever driven, but was reluctant to make any further comment on the advantage he may derive from that machine.

But he was happy to talk about the warm welcome he has received at Ferrari where he is very much at home.

“I think that when you change team you need to adapt yourself to new people and a new philosophy for working,” he said.

“So far, it has been great for me and I have felt very comfortable from my first day.

“I am at home and I feel as if I am ready to win again and to fight for successes.”

Ferrari are the fourth different F1 team of his career after racing previously for Minardi, Renault and McLaren, where he endured a torrid year of troubles in 2007.

“I have learned a lot in my career and now I am ready for this new challenge,” he said.

“But everyone can see this year is going to be very competitive.”

-AFP

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Long-term cannabis use can double risk of psychosis

March 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Using cannabis for 6 years or more doubles psychosis risk

* Experts say 190 million people around world use the drug

By Kate Kelland

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) – Young people who smoke cannabis or marijuana for six years or more are twice as likely to have psychotic episodes, hallucinations or delusions than people who have never used the drug, scientists said on Monday.

The findings adds weight to previous research which linked psychosis with the drug — particularly in its most potent form as “skunk” — and will feed the debate about the level of controls over its use.

Despite laws against it, up to 190 million people around the world use cannabis, according to United Nations estimates, equating to about 4 percent of the adult population.

John McGrath of the Queensland Brain Institute in Australia studied more than 3,801 men and women born between 1981 and 1984 and followed them up after 21 years to ask about their cannabis use and assessed them for psychotic episodes. Around 18 percent reported using cannabis for three or fewer years, 16 percent for four to five years and 14 percent for six or more years.

“Compared with those who had never used cannabis, young adults who had six or more years since first use of cannabis were twice as likely to develop a non-affective psychosis (such as schizophrenia),” McGrath wrote in a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry journal.

They were also four times as likely to have high scores in clinical tests of delusion, he wrote, and a so-called “dose-response” relationship showed that the longer the duration since first cannabis use, the higher the risk of psychosis-related symptoms.

A study by British scientists last year suggested that people who smoke skunk, a potent form of cannabis, are almost seven times more likely to develop psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia than those who smoke “hash” or cannabis resin [nGEE5AT1JQ].

Previous studies had also suggested smoking cannabis can double the risk of psychosis, but the British study was the first to look specifically at skunk. Skunk has higher amounts of the psychoactive ingredient THC which can produce psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.

McGrath said, however, that “the nature of the relationship between psychosis and cannabis use is by no means simple” and more research was needed to examine the mechanisms at work.

As part of his study, McGrath and his team looked at links between cannabis use and psychotic symptoms among a group of 228 sibling pairs and found the association still held. This suggests other influences like genes or the environment were less likely to be responsible for the psychosis, they said.

A international group of drug policy experts published a book earlier this year arguing that laws against cannabis have failed to cut its use but instead led to vast numbers of arrests for drug possession in countries like Britain, Switzerland and the United States, which cause social division and pointless government expense. [nLDE60O08O] (Editing by Myra MacDonald)

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