Roar Guru
Joined June 2012
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University Postgraduate Journalist.Freelance sports journalist filing for News Ltd, WA News and Perth Now outlets since 2014.Former satellite circuit tennis player. ABC radio correspondent for Tennis and rural weather.Initiated first Hopman Cup radio/online commentary in 2010 & 2011. Australian Open Radio 2013-2014 Former track and field athlete as well as state level triathlete. I was told be the doctors I would never run or play tennis again after being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Spent the years since proving them wrong. Confessed sport addict. Worked for SOCOG at the Sydney Olympics as a Media Supervisor. World ranked Over 50's veterans tennis player.
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Author Chales Caleb Colton coined the modern term in 1820 that “Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.” If that is true then take a…
Florence-Griffiths Joyner’s 34-year-old 100 metre record of 10.49 seconds is one of the longest standing in track and field and also one the most…
There is only one Australian Open tennis tournament: it's in Melbourne and starts on Monday, 20 January, with qualifying already underway. It has not…
One sure way to make the always polite and highly-mannered Roger Federer roll his eyes in a press conference is to keep asking the…
Astra Sharma took more than two hours to wear down fellow Australian and wildcard entrant Priscilla Hon in the first round of the women’s…
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Sally Pearson has discovered her form and mojo in the nick of time to defend her world 100 metres hurdles title in Moscow at…
Is it time? August 2013 might be the time when two of the longest standing world athletics records are broken at the 14th IAAF…
World and Olympic Champion Sally Pearson could use the happy memories of her triumph in the London Olympic Stadium to inspire her to get…
Nine times grand slam champion and former world number one player, Martina Hingis has announced her comeback to the 2013 WTA doubles tour. The…
It is not every day that Australian track and field teams finish ahead of the mighty USA on the medal tally, so when it…
It has been a great week for Australian female Javelin throwers. Hot on the heels of Kim Mickle’s and Kathryn Mitchell’s efforts in the…
Western Australian javelin thrower Kim Mickle almost pulled off the upset of the year, akin to Sabine Lasicki's defeat of Serena Williams, at the…
The surprise defeat of Usain Bolt by Justin Gatlin last week in Rome put athletics in the news bulletins for a moment, but the…
Serena Williams enters this year's French Open as the one to beat. Not only did she secure her number one ranking with a straight…
Injuries to top ranked players and stunning form from some of the lower-ranked players have made the lead up to Paris most intriguing. Picking…
Tommy Haas showed age is no barrier to him playing brilliant tennis in claiming the Munich Masters 250 title on Sunday. The 35-year-old veteran…
Any doubts about whether Rafael Nadal is back to his best were annihilated when he trounced long-time rival Roger Federer 6-4, 6-2 in one…
World number two Roger Federer survived a scare in the fourth round of the Paribas Open in Indian Wells, needing three sets to defeat…
Chris have you ever watched any wheelchair tennis to judge the skill level?
Is Esther Vergeer the world's most dominant athlete?
Yeah perhaps getting close Paul but if he had not lost a one on one contest since 2001 he would be considered. Although he was won the 11 titles there are many defeats included in that. Equivalent of Esther being number one player sine 2001 but the fact that in that time she is completley undefeated.
Is Esther Vergeer the world's most dominant athlete?
Good call Jerry. Is there any current athlete still competing as dominant? My research has not turned up one.
Is Esther Vergeer the world's most dominant athlete?
Yes I think he graduated from the Bernard Tomic school of public relations early in his career and he did get a lot of people offside. Just because he is British is not liked by all. the same way not all Australians are hewitt fans for the same reason. Yes it is a shame his around in the Roger Federer era as he may have two or more Slams by now….Then again a lot of players curse they are around in the Federer era….Murray’s best chances may come post Federer retirement and also with Nadal’s persisted knee injuries his best could be behind him too. Can Murray keep the fire burning till then all the time fending off the newbies on the block.
US Open: The door is open for Andy Murray
Agree Jazze Jazz. Lets hope Tomic has enough success on the court to coincide with him growing up and realising the error in his ways and that he is letting his ego write cheques his results cannot cash. This US Open for Tomic is the same PR disaster that Hewitt had in his youth making reference to a line judge favouring James Blake…a gaff that I am sure the mature, worldy family man Hewiitt has lived to regret and wished he could withdraw….If Tomic continues to underperform and thinkt he tennis world owes him a living then it wont be long before he is too on reality shows trading on a faded celebrity name to make ends meet….he needs a SERIOUS pr agent behind him…
Indifferent Tomic risks further alienation
Bolt is the most supreme athlete in the world at the moment…he is THE fastest not just A fastest!…end of story…so glad to to see the WR go in the womens relay…even though I am not convinced about Jeter…the fewer records that remain from prior to 1989 the better for the legitamcy of the sport…cannot believe Flo Jo was granted a WR on a day whent the tail wind was so strong it blew over the wind meter!
My medallists from London 2012: Bolt, Pearson, and our sailors
Tom it is your home games your are meant to do well…the true test is whether you can back it up four years later in Rio….it is a bit like an AFL team and other codes…..winning at home is seen as a given…it is the away matches on enemy turf that are the true test….Aust not only backed up in Athens they went better….speak to you this time in four years time….Aussie worst result in 20 years London 10th with 7 gold medals. Great Britain= Atlanta 1 gold and 36th place.
SPIRO: Hurrah! Australia has finally won more gold than New Zealand
I think the proliferation of how well everyone speaks English around the world since it is the international language of business is just one indication of the blurring the “national” lines….the spectors may belong to one nationality in the future but not so the athletes….while you can understand the immigration of some from developing countries to western economies to escape poverty and civil conflict…and Australia is one that has gained much from European and African immagration since 1945…but almost saw evidence of athletes almost going the other way….I saw some track athletes that were originally from oil rich Arabian nations that were now competing for European nations like Russia….that is what first prompted me to think of a draft and recruiting in future for the best athletes…..is going to make the lead up to the next Games VERY interesting….
Pilfered Aussie coaches bring British Olympic success
and you wonder why John reacts the way he does….that was shameless disgracefull baiting…he handled it with dignity…
Should Steffensen even be in the 4x400m relay team?
You are a class act Cam for having the bravery to admit that…Class people are always the first to admit that may be wrong or have misjudged something….it is pity so many others have not retracted such vitrolic statements towards Steff especially after Steve Hooker verified the racist treatment….so many people had bagged John for “playing the race card’ when he made the statements ..so later when the truth comes out none of those bloggers on this site retracted those comments….shame….classy or you Cam to make that statement…John was very hard on himself
Should Steffensen even be in the 4x400m relay team?
Chris I am glad someone else saw that and John was very gracious in not accepting the bait….
Should Steffensen even be in the 4x400m relay team?
Nicely written Andrew. The sporting and social world changed forever when the Berlin wall came down. The ability of coaches and atheletes to leave their home shores and move to other countries saw a mega shift in the succes of some ‘countries’ in their sports. Perhaps the biggest and quickest rise of this was the success of Russian tennis players who moved to the likes of Spain and US to train.
It really is now a global village on all counts. Ease of travel between continents and countries and easing of “work” retrictions has led to people of all aspects in the sporting world seeking employment opportunies. I was only thinking that watching the Olympics that not only are the coaches and science staff movely freely amongst teams and countries but so are the athletes. Amazing how many of them do not compete for their country of birth. You even have husband and wives that compete for seperate countries. We all know of the practice of oil rich middles eastern countires offering citizenship to many of the Kenyans, Who could blame them. They would be far and away the national champion in 80% of the other countries but cannot make it on to the Kenyan national team purely due to their depth.
I was even thinking that furture Olympics may even become like an AFL draft where “countries and teams” are made up of many nationalities recruited for the sole purpose of boosting teams.( if it has not already) Kazekstan is a great example of how they have recruited from their former soviet comrades Russia.
Pilfered Aussie coaches bring British Olympic success
Exactly Tim….you are on a hiding to nothing when you get mid pack in a 4×4 and have to endure that traffic in the change zone
Should Steffensen even be in the 4x400m relay team?
james you must have been watching a difference race to me as Steff did not have a clean run…no-one does in a 4×4 if you get back in the field as the change over zone is a dog fight for all….you obviously did not see the push and shove from the Dominican Republic….and if you were a student of relays you would know that you do not always put your fastest last in fact quite often they run first to set up being in the front bunch to avoid the traffic in the change zone…hence why Solomen ran first……it appears nothing short of Steff breaking the worl record would appease all the vitriole and haters….even after Steve Hooker has come out and verified that the racial abuse DID happen in Beijing everyone still wants to berate him…..and dont forget there were 3 other runner in that relay team…but no, the headline still has to read the Steffensen didn’t perform….I still think they all did the best they could…
Should Steffensen even be in the 4x400m relay team?
Everyone lighten up…you are going to have to learn to recognise satire when you read it
London and Montreal: A case of Olympic deja vu?
Tim I think Eric knew they were up against it in that heat and had to throw in the best team straight and since BJ was in such good form…yes it would been heartbreaking for Joel…
Should Steffensen even be in the 4x400m relay team?
Lets hope he gets the double treble with the relay…that is going to be hot…
Bolt seals legendary status with unique double
TIm I think the whole team effort was pretty gutsy and they did very well in the face of some awesome competition
Should Steffensen even be in the 4x400m relay team?
I agree that the Kenyan runner cut infront and tripped the South African…no question…but it happens all the time…who is to say that SA were going to finish in a qualifying position in any case….that is the inconsistancy from the IAAF as there were 2 legs still to be run…if it was in the home straingh maybe a different story….
Should Steffensen even be in the 4x400m relay team?
he was serioulsy baited with the questions in the mix zone and he handled them with dignity and professionalism…he should not have been so harsh on himself as he ran a great split..he is always his own harshest critic. Milburn was originally named in the team but with Cole running so well in the 400 hurdles he was brought in…the hurdling boys were always were named in the 6 member team..the spilts Solomon 45.66s, Offereins 46.3, Cole 45.48s and Steffensen 45.67……I agree it appeared on the screen the Offereins let the team down BUT his split is still pretty good…..it just shows the calibre of the opposition…they ran their best and did the country proud….the joke of the whole race is reinstatement of South Africa to final…so does anyone that ever falls over in a distance race get reinstated now…IAAF have opened a huge can of worms on this one…
Should Steffensen even be in the 4x400m relay team?
Tom I refer to them as the Brits or team GB if I have ever used Poms it is only repeating someone else’s terms. And yes they have well and truly exceeded our home Olympics effort. Game, set and match to the Brits. And no need for such vitriole Tom to make your point. The point of my article is that Australia is undertaking the same reviews of its performance that it did in 1976 as I am sure the British did after the 1996 Atlanta games where they only won one gold.
London and Montreal: A case of Olympic deja vu?
steff ran the second fastest split of the four and ran his guts out down the back striaght trying to get Australia into a place…it was Offereins that let the team down.
Should Steffensen even be in the 4x400m relay team?
I am stoked for the kiwis and I think three rowing gold is awesome and loved the fact they defeated much more fancied Europeans and Brits…for their population in many sports they punch way above their weight as doeas Aust…but since they were the first to gloat about it…then they took the shine off their own achievments…that is all I wanted to point out….and that all those saying we have failed at these games…I wish they would just look at all competitiveness across many sports balances our lack of domination in any one….we are back to the levels we had in Atlanta and Barcelona which is a more true indication of our international level.(see my story on Olympics the one that got away)
SPIRO: Hurrah! Australia has finally won more gold than New Zealand
Brett and katzilla, I have been the first to congratulate all my kiwi and for that matter “team GB” colleauges if they had notbeen the first ones to bring up the point that they had won more than us. as if beating Australia is all that matters to them!…..I am loving the fact we are getting medals across so many different sports…I mean 25 years ago who would have thought Australia would have a world champion gymnast?…my favourite result for the entire games has been the win in the Volleyball over the Dutch…number 22 ranked defeats the number 2….no medals won just a great underdog performance….these games are the 1976 deja vu for Australia where we sufferend the complacency from prevoius success….with the retirement of medal winning darling’s like Shane Gould we left the pool with one bronze…unheard of the time…Jenny Turrell and Stephen Holland copped it exactly the same as Magnussen and Jones have at these games…for the “failure”..(see my story on Leisel Jones body scrutiny).and guess what happened after those games….a review into our “poor” performance…and the result was the formation of the Australian Institutue of Sport…
SPIRO: Hurrah! Australia has finally won more gold than New Zealand
Is he still competing or retired ?
Is Esther Vergeer the world's most dominant athlete?