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Gymnast dies in ‘freak accident’
A 19-year-old woman died in a gymnastics
trainingaccident inTownsville, Queensland
in June. Michelle Maitland hit her head
after a falling from the tumble track.
Gymnastics Queensland has announced
its own investigation and its president
Wayne Hill said it appears to have been a
freak accident in a top-class facility.
“It’s got good governance and good
safety practices which it adheres to and
if this was going to happen in any club, it
would probably be the last club we would
have expected,” he said.
Mr Hill says he has never heard of an
accident like it before. “I think she hit
her head on a floor well away from the
tumble track. They’ve got matting around
the tumble track and within all the
requirements that we put down as the
governing body - it was just something
that was totally freakish.”
Beckham stays on top
of Sunday Times Rich List
English football superstar David Beckham
has again topped The Sunday Times
Rich List for sports stars with a personal
fortune estimated at £125m, unchanged
from last year.
The list is dominated by footballers and
motor racing stars, although Lennox
Lewis, despite now being retired from
boxing, is second on the list. Former
Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine third.
Individuals’ wealth also takes in to account
that of their entire family and earnings
outside sport, with Michael Owen and
Robbie Fowler, now playing his football in
the Australian A-League, benefiting from
property investments.
Jenson Button, the Brawn GP F1 driver is
the highest placed new entry as well as
topping the young sportsmen rich list with
wealth of £40m up 14% from last year,
though reigning world champion Lewis
Hamilton was not included.
Olympic Village
to be publicly funded
The Olympic Village for the London 2012
Games is to be publicly-owned after the
government said an extra £324m of public
funds will be used in the project.
The £1bn Village, which includes 2,800
flats, was initially a privately-funded
project but was switched to a public-
private financed initiative after the impact
of the recession.
The government said the money would
be paid back after the flats were sold.
Men are from Mars and
Women from Venus even
when it comes to football
Researchers at the Leon Root Motion
Analysis Laboratory in the Hospital for
Special Surgery in New York City say that
the underlying causes of gender-based
kicking patterns could help lead to better
treatment, or even prevention for present
and future football stars.
Using video motion analysis researchers
examined the dynamics of the kicking
motion. They found that female football
players face a greater risk of ACL injury
and patellofemoral problems, while
male players are more at risk for sports
hernia.
Platini criticises ‘excessive’
£80m Ronaldo transfer fee
UEFA president Michel Platini criticised
the recent £80m world record transfer of
Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real
Madrid labelling the deal as ‘excessive’
and ‘puzzling’.
He said: ‘These excessive transfers are
happening almost every day. It is very
puzzling at a time when football faces
some of its worst ever financial challenges.
These transfers are a serious challenge to
the idea of fairplay and the concept of
financial balance in our competitions.’
The deal is £24m more than the highest
ever transfer – a deal signed earlier the
same week when Madrid unveiled Brazilian
Kaka for a reported £56m, surpassing the
previous world record fee of £45.6m,
which Real also paid for Zinedine Zidane
in 2001.
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