Record Spread A record 87 countries won medals. 5 were first-time medal winners — Bahrain (1 gold), Tajikistan (1 silver, 1 bronze), Sudan (1 silver), Afghanistan and Togo (1 bronze each)

Faster, Higher, Stronger 43 world records were broken at Beijing, 10 more than at the 2004 Games

Rising Asia won 90 gold, 56 silver and 86 bronze for a total of 232 medals, almost 1 in every 4. S Korea getting its 2nd highest tally ever of 31 helped. India chipped in with a record 3 medals

American Pie The US may be 2nd behind China, but its haul of 110 medals is its highest since St Louis 1904 and Los Angeles 1984, which was boycotted by the Soviet bloc

Soviet Power Russia slipped, but the countries of the former Soviet Union put together won 43 gold, 45 silver and 86 bronze — 171 medals in all, which would have put it behind only China

Britain Rocks, Germany Rolls Britain climbed from just 15 medals in Atlanta 1996 to 47, including 19 golds, the most since London 1908. In contrast, Germany has gone steadily downhill from 82 medals in Barcelona 1992 to 41 here

LOW BLOWS
Chinese authorities admitting that ‘smiling angel’ Lin Miaoke, who sang at the opening ceremony, was only lip-syncing for a less charming girl
Allegations of Chinese gymnasts, including double gold medallist He Kexin, being underage. IOC probe cleared the gymnasts
Games hailed as dope-free, but 6 athletes caught using banned drugs—Ukranian weightlifter Igor Razoronov, heptathlon silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska, Greek hurdler Fani Halkia, N Korean shooter Kim Jong Su, Spanish cyclist Isabel Moreno and Vietnamese gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do
Cuba’s Angel Valodia Matos expelled from international taekwondo competitions for kicking ref

STARS
Beijing 2008 will always bring to mind the awesome
feats of Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. But many others too lit up the arena. Here are 8 of the best
Chris Hoy (Great Britain) | The 32-year-old cyclist became the first Briton in 100 years to strike triple gold in a single Olympics
Stephanie Rice (Australia) | The swimming sensation who once posed in underwear ads shattered two world records and won three gold medals
Elena Isinbayeva (Russia) | The glam girl set her 23rd pole vault world record with a new height of 5.05m

Ma Lin (China) |
Became the ping pong king of China
by trouncing world champion Wang Ho to win gold
Zou Kai (China) | The most successful gymnast in Beijing scooped up three golds in floor exercise, horizontal bar and men’s team
Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) | The double world champion bagged a rare Olympic double — winning gold in both the women’s 5000m and 10,000m. Her countryman Kenenisa Bekele achieved the same feat — the first man to do so at the Olympics since 1980
Guo Jingjing (China) | Became the most successful female diver in Olympic history with six medals
Most Touching Moment 10m air pistol shooting gold medallist Nino Salukvadze of Georgia embracing runner-up Natalia Paderina of Russia even as their countries’ armies fought in Georgia

QUOTE OF THE GAMES

Eww, that’s nasty. I have never, ever hooked up with Michael Phelps… Come on, I have really good taste AMANDA BEARD

Set to taken over by

LONDON: In a bid to pose competition to the Indian Premier League, England may “effectively abolish” its traditional county cricket structure and stage a 50 million pound Twenty20 tournament from June 2010.

“A blueprint has been prepared for a 50 million pound Twenty20 tournament to be staged in England which will rival the Indian Premier League. The radical proposal would see the county structure replaced by nine franchises based on the grounds that already stage Tests and One-day games,” the ‘ BBC Sport ‘ reported.

“They have said the event would be scheduled for June and July from 2010. The document of proposals for the 25-day spectacle will be put forward for discussion by the England and Wales Cricket Board this month,” it added.

It is also suggested that each squad would consist of 12 home-grown players, of which three must be under-23, with a salary cap of 1.5 million pounds.

The England and Wales Cricket Board, however, made its stance clear, saying “We don’t know anything about (the proposals). Nothing’s been presented to the Board yet and it’s not on the agenda for our next board meeting.”

But BBC Radio 5 Live cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew believes “This tournament would effectively abolish the long-established county structure.

“The smaller counties will see this as the beginning of the end… But the most controversial aspect is that the event is not going to be owned by the ECB, it will be a new company in which the ECB would be merely a stakeholder. It’s a radical suggestion - but it’s purely that at the moment,” it said.

The 57-match tournament is said to have the backing of MCC, Lancashire, Hampshire and Surrey. An MCC, however, spokeswoman declined to comment.

It can be seen as IPL the “Manoranjan ka Baap” has adopted English Cricket too.

Where does India Stand?

India: ICC’s Cash Cow

Individual Test Rankings: As per the latest ICC ranking available, none of the indian batsman has been able to be in top 10 slot, whereas in bowlers category our old wine Anil Kumble is still selling on counter number-8.

Name Country 1 K.C. Sangakkara SL 2 S. Chanderpaul WI 3 M.E.K. Hussey AUS 4 Mohammad Yousuf PAK 4 R.T. Ponting AUS 6 J.H. Kallis SA 7 M.L. Hayden AUS 8 D.P.M.D. Jayawardena SL 9 Younis Khan PAK 10 K.P. Pietersen ENG	Name Country 1 M. Muralidaran SL 2 D.W. Steyn SA 3 S.R. Clark AUS 4 B. Lee AUS 5 M. Ntini SA 6 R.J. Sidebottom ENG 7 W.P.U.J.C. Vaas SL 8 A. Kumble IND 9 Shoaib Akhtar PAK 10 S.E. Bond NZ

Individual ODI Ratings: In the batsman our new found brand ambassador MSD (read as “Mahendra Singh Dhoni”) is scaling new heights and is standing at 2nd position just after South African Captain Graeme Smith. Little Master Sachin Tendulkar is trailing not far behind but at 6th position. Bowling has always been india’s kamjor-kadi (weak link) and same is reflective in the rankings with no Irfan or Ishant Sharma being present in the coveted list.

Name Country 1 G.C. Smith SA 2 M.S. Dhoni IND 3 R.T. Ponting AUS 4 M.E.K. Hussey AUS 5 S. Chanderpaul WI 6 S.R. Tendulkar IND 7 Mohammad Yousuf PAK 8 A.B. de Villiers SA 9 A. Symonds AUS 10 K.C. Sangakkara SL	Name Country 1 N.W. Bracken AUS 2 D.L. Vettori NZ 3 S.E. Bond NZ 4 M. Muralidaran SL 5 W.P.U.J.C. Vaas SL 6 A. Nel SA 7 M.G. Johnson AUS 8 B. Lee AUS 8 J.E. Taylor WI 10 K.D. Mills NZ

Team Rankings:

Test Cricket: In this format of the game India has just managed a place in top fives with current standing at fourth place.

ODI Cricket:

India can proudly say they are at IInd best position, however a close look in the rankings suggests that four teams after Australia are fghting for margins to beat each other in the rankings table.

“Nadal shocks Federer for Wimbledon title”

“Five-time champion’s reign at the All England Club ends in five-set battle”

Rafael Nadal snapped Roger Federer’s 65-game winning streak on grass, topping the five-time Wimbledon champion in five sets. It was the longest men’s championship match in Wimbledon history.

WIMBLEDON, England - Back and forth they went in the Wimbledon final, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, the two greatest tennis players of their generation producing one of the greatest matches of any generation on the sport’s grandest stage.

For five sets, through rain, wind and descending darkness, the two men swapped spectacular shots, until, against a slate sky, Nadal earned the right to fling his racket aside and collapse on his back, champion of the All England Club at last.

“Is impossible to explain what I felt in that moment, no?” Nadal said after accepting the golden trophy that has belonged to Federer since 2003.

The No. 2-ranked Nadal ended No. 1 Federer’s five-title run at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament by the slimmest of margins, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7, Sunday night. Nadal is the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win Wimbledon and the French Open in the same season.

“Probably my hardest loss, by far,” said Federer, who was trying to become the first man to claim six consecutive Wimbledon championships since the 1880s.

Nadal stopped Federer’s streaks of 40 victories in a row at Wimbledon, and a record 65 in a row on grass, thereby stamping his supremacy in their rivalry, no matter what the rankings say.

“Look, Rafa’s a deserving champion,” said Federer, who hadn’t lost a set all tournament before Sunday. “He just played fantastically.”

And that tremendous play lasted a record 4 hours, 48 minutes, longer than any of the classic Wimbledon men’s finals it will be recalled alongside, including Borg’s five-set victory over John McEnroe in 1980.

Nadal, the first Spanish man to triumph at the All England Club since Manolo Santana in 1966, managed to regroup after blowing a two-set lead, managed to recover after wasting two match points in the fourth-set tiebreaker. He earned his fifth Grand Slam title, but first away from the French Open.

Nadal did it by showing fortitude on his serve, saving 12 of 13 break points. He did it by breaking serve four times — twice as many times as Federer lost serve in his previous six matches combined. And Nadal did it by being better from the baseline, winning 24 of 38 points that lasted 10 or more strokes, according to an unofficial AP tally.

“He was rock-solid, the way we know him,” said Federer, who hit 25 aces. “He’s definitely improved his game.”

Borg and Santana watched from the front row of the Royal Box at Centre Court, which next year will have a retractable roof. Perhaps Mother Nature wanted one last chance to leave her mark, delaying Sunday’s start by 35 minutes with rain. Showers again caused a delay of 1 hour, 21 minutes late in the third set, then another of 30 minutes at 2-2, deuce, in the fifth set.

When action resumed at 8:23 p.m., it already was tough to see, and the players traded service holds until 7-7. That’s where Nadal finally broke through, as Federer’s forehand really began to break down. A forehand into the net gave Nadal his fourth break point, and a forehand long conceded the game — the first break of serve by either man since the second set.

Nadal still had to serve out the match, though, and he still had to avoid the sort of nerves Federer noticed when his opponent led 5-2 in the fourth-set tiebreaker.

“I played terrible there,” said Nadal, who double-faulted to 5-3.

Down 6-5, Federer erased a match point with a 127 mph service winner. Down 8-7 — again, one point from losing — Federer hit a backhand passing winner.

A forehand winner put Federer ahead 9-8, and when Nadal missed a backhand return, the match was even. Federer jumped and screamed, and the crowd of about 15,000 joined him.

No man since 1927 had come back to win a Wimbledon final after losing the first two sets, and none had overcome a match point to seize victory since 1948. If anyone could, it figured to be Federer, especially on this particular lawn.

“But Rafa keeps you thinking, and that’s what the best players do to each other in the end,” Federer said. “That’s what we both do to each other.”

Delhi: It was their sixth Grand Slam final, already more than between any other pair of men in the 40-year Open era, and there could be several to follow. Federer is only 26, after all, and Nadal is 22. Federer has led the rankings for a record 231 consecutive weeks, and Nadal has been second for a record 154.

Nadal defeated Federer at the French Open en route to each of his championships there, in the 2005 semifinals and the past three finals, including a 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 rout last month that was Federer’s most lopsided loss in 180 career Grand Slam matches.

WIMBLEDON, England — Rafael Nadal, grass stains on his white shirt and a Spanish flag tucked under his arm, scampered through the Centre Court stands to celebrate his first Wimbledon title with hugs and handshakes.

Roger Federer sat in his changeover chair, protected from the night’s chill by his custom-made cream cardigan with the gold “RF” on the chest. Alone with his thoughts, alone with the knowledge that he had come so close to becoming the first man since the 1880s to win a sixth consecutive championship at the All England Club.

Two points from victory, the No. 1-ranked Federer couldn’t pull it out, instead succumbing to No. 2 Nadal 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7 Sunday night in a 4-hour, 48-minute test of wills that was the longest men’s final in Wimbledon history — and quite possibly the greatest.

Even Nadal felt sympathy for Federer.

“I am very happy for me,” Nadal said, “but sorry for him, because he deserved this title, too.”

Through rain, wind and descending darkness, the two greatest players of their generation swapped spectacular shots, until, against a slate sky, Nadal earned the right to fling his racket aside and collapse on his back, champion of the All England Club at last.

“Is impossible to explain what I felt in that moment, no?” Nadal said after accepting the golden trophy that has belonged to Federer since 2003.

The first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win Wimbledon and the French Open in the same year, Nadal stopped Federer’s streaks of 40 victories in a row at the All England Club, and a record 65 in a row on grass, thereby stamping his supremacy in their rivalry, no matter what the rankings say.

“Probably my hardest loss, by far,” Federer said. “I mean, it’s not much harder than this right now.”

No man since 1927 had come back to win a Wimbledon final after losing the first two sets, and none had overcome a match point to seize victory since 1948. If anyone could, it figured to be Federer, especially on this particular lawn.

He hadn’t lost a match on grass since 2002, and he hadn’t lost a set during this tournament before Sunday. He also hadn’t faced anyone nearly as talented and indefatigable as Nadal.

“Look, Rafa’s a deserving champion,” Federer said. “He just played fantastically.”

Indeed he did, earning Spain its first Wimbledon men’s title since Manolo Santana won in 1966.

Nadal managed to regroup after blowing a two-set lead, managed to recover after wasting two match points in the fourth-set tiebreaker, managed to hold steady when Federer needed only two points to end the match while ahead 5-4 in the fifth.

He earned his fifth Grand Slam title, but first away from the French Open, by showing fortitude on his serve, saving 12 of 13 break points. He did it by breaking serve four times — twice as many times as Federer lost serve in his previous six matches combined. And Nadal did it by being better from the baseline, winning 24 of 38 points that lasted 10 or more strokes, according to an unofficial AP tally.

“He was rock-solid, the way we know him,” said Federer, who hit 25 aces. “He’s definitely improved his game.”

Borg and Santana watched from the front row of the Royal Box at Centre Court, which next year will have a retractable roof. Perhaps Mother Nature wanted one last chance to leave her mark, delaying Sunday’s start by 35 minutes with rain. Showers again caused a delay of 1 hour, 21 minutes late in the third set, then another of 30 minutes at 2-2, deuce, in the fifth set.

When action resumed at 8:23 p.m., it already was tough to see, and the players traded service holds until 7-7. That’s where Nadal finally broke through, as Federer’s forehand really began to break down. A forehand into the net gave Nadal his fourth break point, and a forehand long conceded the game — the first break of serve by either man since the second set.

Nadal still had to serve out the match, though, and he still had to avoid the sort of nerves Federer noticed when his opponent led 5-2 in the fourth-set tiebreaker.

“I played terrible there,” said Nadal, who double-faulted to 5-3.

Down 6-5 in that tiebreaker, Federer erased a match point with a 127 mph service winner. Down 8-7 — again, one point from losing — Federer hit a backhand passing winner.

A forehand winner put Federer ahead 9-8, and when Nadal missed a backhand return, the match was even. Federer jumped and screamed, and the crowd of about 15,000 joined him.

“Rafa keeps you thinking, and that’s what the best players do to each other in the end,” Federer said. “That’s what we both do to each other.”

It was their sixth Grand Slam final, already more than between any other pair of men in the 40-year Open era, and there could be several to follow. Federer is only 26, after all, and Nadal is 22. Federer has led the rankings for a record 231 consecutive weeks, and Nadal has been second for a record 154.

Nadal defeated Federer at the French Open en route to each of his championships there, in the 2005 semifinals and the past three finals, including a 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 rout last month that was Federer’s most lopsided loss in 180 career Grand Slam matches.

But the Swiss star kept reminding everyone this week that he has had the upper hand on surfaces other than clay.

Not this time.

Nadal lost to Federer in the 2006 Wimbledon final in four sets, and the 2007 final in five. Although the latter was certainly suspenseful, it featured neither the drama nor the all-around excellence of Sunday’s encounter, which ended at 9:15 p.m., when Federer pushed a forehand into the net on Nadal’s fourth match point.

Federer made clear afterward he was not pleased that play continued despite the low visibility at the end.

“It’s rough on me now, obviously, you know, to lose the biggest tournament in the world over maybe a bit of light,” he said.

Said Nadal: “In the last game, I didn’t see nothing.”

Both players figured that if Federer had broken back to 8-8 in the fifth, play would have been suspended until Monday because of darkness.

“It would have been brutal,” Federer said.

It didn’t happen. Nadal came through.

Afterward, the new champion was asked if it was the greatest match he’d ever played. Plenty of others around the grounds, including John McEnroe — whose five-set loss to Borg in 1980 gets many votes — already were calling it the greatest match they’d ever seen.

“I don’t know if it’s the best,” Nadal said.

Then he thought about it for a moment.

“Probably,” he continued. “Probably the best, yes.”

Courtesy: The Associated Press