Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
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The Commonwealth Games are underway in Manchester. 74 countries, I think (more than the actual countries in the commonwealth because British territories compete seperately (as do the home countries of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England).

It is often called the 'Friendly Games' and it does seem to be like that; it is pretty cool in my opinion. It includes athletics and also other sports (like the olympics does) with some extra Commonwealth sports like bowls. As far as the athletics go, a lot of the British athletes rate these games above the World Championships (even though the competition is less fierce in many events) but below the Olympics. I am rather enjoying watching it so far.

Home success so far (home = England, for me) includes golds in the Women's Hammer and the men's team gymnastics.

Canada, Australia and New Zealand are there too, as far as other asylumite nationalities go. Does anyone have a list of the nations in the Commonwealth Games?

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Registered: Aug 2001
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There are 72 federations eligible to compete, it turns out (and only 54 Commonwealth nations).

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
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Botswana
Cameroon
Gambia
Ghana
Kenya
Lesotho
Malawi
Mauritius
Mozambique
Namibia
Nigeria
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
South Africa
Swaziland
Uganda
Utd Rep. of Tanzania
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Belize
Bermuda
Canada
Falkland Islands
Guyana
St Helena
Bangladesh
Brunei
India
Malaysia
Maldives
Pakistan
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Barbados
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Dominica
Grenada
Jamaica
Montserrat
St Kitts and Nevis
St Lucia
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Trinidad & Tobago
Turks & Caicos
Cyprus
England
Gibraltar
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Jersey
Malta
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Wales
Australia
Cook Islands
Fiji
Kiribati
Nauru
New Zealand
Niue
Norfolk Islands
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu

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Registered: Aug 2001
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Cool.

Janna Pitman (Australian woman) just ran a fast 400m hurdles (fastest ever by someone of her age).

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the womens hockey held my attention quite well yesterday. although im not sure if it was a) because i like ice hockey which is similar b) because it was a bit like watching football what with the passes, and the free flowing style of the game or c) because it was Aus Vs Scotland and the Aussies wear skintight lycra tops and rather shorts skirts, oh yeah and there was of course lots of running.

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The Australian women finshed 1-2-3 in the marathon this morning.

Men's 100m was a blowout for England, both our contenders pulled up (Mark Lewis-Francis and Dwain Chambers) and the other guy (Jason Gardner, who is out of form these last two seasons with on-off injury) came last of six who finished. The winner from St. Kitts and Nevis was pretty good, though (Kym something or other). 200m looks rather more promising but the awesom Frankie Fredricks is in that too.

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Registered: Jun 2002
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I watched the Ladies Gymnastics yesterday. I almost got arrested for masturbating with the lounge curtains open.

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Frankie Fredricks of Namibia won the 200m yesterday, which was great to see (he is a cool guy and had a lot of injury troubles, in addition to which, he is 34). The day before that, Paula Radcliffe won the Women's 5000m by running the legs off the rest of the field. Hopefully she will keep getting faster; it looks like she has what is needed to become a real power in long distance running (what is needed, might, of course, be better drugs).

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Registered: Aug 2001
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Colin Jackson got his choke in early, hitting the first hurdle, although he still won silver; the winning time wasn't much good though.

Ian Thorpe, the 19 year old australian won the first two gold medals of his attempt to win 7 golds, setting a new 400m freestyle world record. Karen Pickering won gold for England and an English woman (whose name I forget) set a new world 50m breastroke record in the semis.

Australia lead the medal table with 27 golds, then England with 18 (we won the women's team bowls for first time in a long time).

The judo was pretty good yesterday (saw the English guy beat the Scottish guy with a late ippon when the Scot was ahead; they obviously hate each other). Former Scot and now English World No.1 squash player got through to the final, beating an aussie who had accused a previous opponent of being a cheat.

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Registered: Jan 2001
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Ian Thorpe set something like his 30th world record...

he's a freak, and an annoying pretentious fuck


Go australia!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
The Australian women finshed 1-2-3 in the marathon this morning.

Men's 100m was a blowout for England, both our contenders pulled up (Mark Lewis-Francis and Dwain Chambers) and the other guy (Jason Gardner, who is out of form these last two seasons with on-off injury) came last of six who finished.

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'pulled up' means that they stopped due to injury; despite the accusations cast at Dwain Chambers, they aren't going to stop for any other reason. Other athletes/former athletes have cast aspersions as to their regime, given that they are injured so often; one thing is that they give interviews after qualifying races before warming down properly, for example.

No one knows why Dwain Chambers cramps so much I thought; he said that he was going to find out before he competed again.

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Registered: Jan 2001
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quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git


No one knows why Dwain Chambers cramps so much I thought; he said that he was going to find out before he competed again.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: sydney
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(abs)
The "friendly" games?
I think not.
Basically, this is "we own you, colonial shits" versus "Fuck you, we've drunk better tap water".
Get over it, England.
WE are SUPREME.
Again.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Montreal
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have the Canucks won anything?

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"Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd." R A Wilson (R.I.P)

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Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:

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Originally posted by CRSR
have the Canucks won anything?

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And, yeah, the Australians got the most golds, they did really well. They were supreme in the pool (although England did better than expected there, Australia are best by some considerable way); the only place where they failed (given their excellence in other events) was in the athletics, and they have never been that much good at that anyway.

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Registered: Jul 2001
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Does the Bahamas still have more medals than Scotland?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Tak
Does the Bahamas still have more medals than Scotland?

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