The Australian Open of Surfing

I am a fan of all sports in general (there are a few slight exceptions) but this week increased my appreciation for the more extreme sports, surfing and skateboarding.

This week Manly Beach, Sydney has hosted the Australian Open of Surfing. With some of the biggest names in surfing and some classic skaters thrown into the mix also, this weekend saw some great action.

Surfing

The surf competition showcassed some great talent, with Joel 'Parko' Parkinson and Taj Burrow; unfortunately both got knocked out, but aside from the pros there were some great juniors.

Matt Banting was pulling some sick moves and in one heat landed two almost perfect scores both over 9, to end with a 19.8.

Skating

The skaters line-up this week included some classic Tony Hawks Skateboarding names, Bob Burnquist; Bucky Lasek and Rune Glifberg. Unfortunately seats were at a premium, so we weren't able to catch these classic skaters.

However we did see the junior competition and these youngsters were so gutsy, with 11 year olds pulling tricks like you wouldn't believe. Check out Luke Russell in this clip

Bethany Hamilton

The undoubted highlight of the weekend for me was hearing from Bethany Hamilton. This girl is a real legend.

At the age of 13 whilst surfing in Kauai, Hawaii where she grew up she was attacked by a tiger shark. The shark tore her left arm and left her with a stub.

Despite this she said she knew God's peace through it all. Not content to let the use of one arm hold her back, Bethany got back out on her board. Not only that she began to compete and is now one of the top females in World Surfing.

Her story is one of incredible courage, her surfing ability (one armed) is only rivalled by her rock solid faith. Her book was turned into a film in 2011 called 'The Soul Surfer' she is truly inspirational and definitely worth checking out the film and book.

The Curse of the Asterix

Unfortunately it has become far too common in modern sport, it occurs in all sports and it is never a good sign.

Examples of the asterix range from Marseille in the European Champions League, to England v South Africa and England v Pakistan cricket games.

In case the title didn't give it away, it's the curse of the asterix. The little sign -*- that denotes a disclaimer around what is seemingly a fact or statistic.

Cycling*

In light of the Contador case my focus is on cycling.

To be honest since the Tour de France was invented their could be an asterix over many of the tours. As early as the second tour in 1904 there is an asterix next to the name of Henri Cornet, who finished 5th but became defacto winner by virtue of the other 4 having at some point taken the train during the race!

Then the race became blighted by drugs, except it was an unwritten rule, Henri Pelissier the winner in 1923, claimed that he took cocaine and chloroform for his eyes and gums.

The list goes on of Champions and the tainted varnish drugs smeers over their trophies, even the great Eddy Merckx, 5 times Tour de France and Giro D'italia winner tested positive three times (although never in the Tour).

Landis and Contador
The 2006 tour with the Landis affair seemed like the ultimate, his performance that day defied belief, and subsequently proved that belief to be correct.

The 2010 tour will now forever be tainted by the bain of sport the asterix, though it will now say Andy Schleck won, the truth is there is no winner just an asterix that says the winner cheated.

What makes the whole episode so farcical is that Contador was able to continue to compete and continue to win. The fact that ban of two years is partially retrospective, meaning he only has 6 months left to serve, means all the wins since the positive test are now subject to the asterix.

The link here shows how long that list will now be http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/new-winners-emerge-from-contadors-suspension it is incredible how it has taken so long for this all to be played out, the truth is there is now some closure, but the record books will never be truly closed.

*if you wish to read an interesting synopsis of the Contador verdict click here.

Superbowl, Spinners, Switch-hits and Clenbuterol

It's been a big week in the world of sport. Well, the truth is there are rarely quiet weeks. There is always something going on whether in the ups and downs of the season or the season curtain-raiser.

Switch-Hits

This is a re-hash of a previous controversy. Kevin Pietersen first sparked this of with his switch-hit, but David Warner re-opened the can of worms by switch-hitting Indian spinner Ravi Ashwin 100m for a 6.

The controversy is that a switch-hit involves the batsman switching stance either from right handed to left handed or vice versa.

The fact that a bowler cannot change style of bowling, or the side of the wicket or hand he releases from but the batsman can suggests an unfair advantage.

The shot has been legalised by the ICC, and is a very difficult shot. Warner hit it 100m, further than most batsman can hit with their chosen hand, but this is less to do with the shot and more to do with his frakish and exceptional talent.

I think the fact only the best players can succeed with the shot, is a proof that it is not cheating but a highly-skilled shot.

Spinners

England have just been beaten 3-0 by Pakistan in the latest cricket series. It was by all accounts an abject performance, with averages amongst the batsman ranging from low teens to mid twenties, with only Matt Prior (coming in at no.7) averaging over 30.

The fact is England were undone by the spinners from Pakistan, Rehmann and Ajmal, and struggled to play them at all. Thier overconfidence due to their no.1 world ranking and the fact that many of the batsmen seemed out of touch, didn't help.

The truth is in my opinion to be truly no.1 in the world, you have to be able to win home and away, against both seam attacks and the spinners, hopefully we can improve in Sri Lanka.

With matches against Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa and India still to come, if England are still no.1 at the end they will truly deserve it.
Superbowl

There is little to say about the superbowl as I've only seen highlights. This was probably my most bizarre superbowl experience, being at work on a Monday morning while the game was being played. The game did not finish until mid-afternoon Australian time. It makes it very difficult to watch the game being at work and all!

The game featured two very good quarterbacks, but this is only ever half the story, a quarterback needs the support of a good offence to protect him, good wide-receivers to offer options to pass to and good running backs to offer an alternative and take pressure off.

For instance Tom Brady's touchdown throw for the Patriots came due to a great set of plays culminating in some great offence that provided him with what seemed like an age (or a superbowl in itself - it seemed so long) that he could easily pick out a receiver for the touchdown.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d826aedd4/Super-Bowl-XLVI-highlights

In the end i believe the best team won.

Clenbuterol

Finally to my favourite sport, cycling, unfortunately so often overshadowed by doping, and no more so than today.

I will post more on this soon, but just to give an overview of my thoughts.

Today was no shock, the investigation has been a long saga, much longer than was necessary and cycling has been greatly damaged for it.

This only shows once again the incompetence of the authorities and the muddle of the doping authorities. CAS overrules the Spanish body on behalf of WADA and the UCI, with the Spanish Government also interfering.

There are no winners from this, just losers and defacto winners, but that means very little, to them or anyone else.

On the face of it, it seems like the case was a trial of guilty until proven innocent, in many ways this is true, but a better analogy is one of a crime scene.

A murder has occurred and the suspect's DNA has been found, now he must prove why it was there. The fact is he couldn't, and even though the burden of proof for doping was lacking, there was equally no proof that it was contaminated meat, although as ludicrous as that sounds it is plausible.

What is clear is that cycling is the big loser, Contador was able to continue competing and winning, despite now being judged to be guilty, others are denied their glory and cycling seems no further ahead than in the mid-noughties, despite the opposite being true.