导出博客文章RIO DE JANEIRO -- Padraig Harrington was a strong voice in golfs bid to become
an Olympic sport for the first time in more than a century.And then golfs image
took a hit as players began dropping out, and the Irishman went quiet.He
desperately wanted golf to succeed, and that meant unified support from the top
players. But as they began pulling out -- particularly Rory McIlroy of Northern
Ireland -- it became personal. Without players withdrawing, he wouldnt have a
chance to play.I was wearing two hats when it came to this, Harrington said.
Obviously, I want golf to be a success in the Olympics, but I clearly wanted to
go. So I wasnt jumping up and down saying, `Guys, you should all go. I was
staying out of it. Because it is a dream of mine.It becomes a reality when
Harrington arrives in Rio de Janeiro on Monday and the draw is announced for the
72-hole competition that starts Thursday and concludes with the first medals
awarded since 1904 in St. Louis.Golf began its bid process in April 2008, about
the time Harrington soared to his greatest heights. He repeated as British Open
champion that year, and then won the PGA Championship to become the first
European to win back-to-back majors in the modern lineup of Grand Slam
events.Harrington joined the biggest names in golf -- Tiger Woods, Phil
Mickelson, Annika Sorenstam -- in a strong pitch to the IOC to put golf back in
the program. But when the Rio Games rolled around, Harrington was nowhere close
to qualifying because of three Irish golfers well ahead of him in the world
ranking.And then McIlroy pulled out, citing the Zika virus. Graeme McDowell
withdrew because his wife is due with their second child and he didnt want to be
out of the country. Shane Lowry also withdrew. And now Harrington, the most
famous of all Irish golfers, is headed to the Olympics.He hasnt even met the
other Irish qualifier, Seamus Powers, who plays on the Web.com Tour. But he is
thrilled to have him as a teammate.Id be hoping that the two of us have a chance
coming down the last nine holes, Harrington said.Why are the Olympics so
important? Why would a three-time major champion care more about gold than the
silver claret jug or Wanamaker Trophy?That dates to his teenage years, when
Harrington was starting to blossom in golf and was invited to three or four
banquets each winter that honor the best sporting achievements in Ireland and
feature the heroes of Irish sport over the years.Every sports awards I went to
from 15 years of age, the first man they called out was a guy named Ronnie
Delany, who won the 1,500 gold medal in 1956, he said. Every sports award. Thats
how big a deal it is. I sat there and looked up and this guy ... who is this
guy? Its a huge deal in Ireland.Harrington can recite the Irish history in the
Olympics, from Delanys gold medal in Melbourne to Pat OCallaghans two golds in
boxing in 1928 and 1932, Bob Tisdall in the 1932 Olympics for the 400-meter
hurdles, even Jack Butler Yeats winning a silver in mixed painting, when art
competitions were part of the games.So yes, its a huge deal.He even chose to
sacrifice his standing on the PGA Tour. Harrington played the Travelers
Championship in Connecticut last week, failing in his bid to move into the top
125 in the FedEx Cup. There are two events remaining, but hell be in Rio --
playing one week, watching the next.I normally come back and would play, but I
think so much of the Olympics, Im going to take a weeks holiday and go to a
number of events, Harrington said. Its an opportunity of a lifetime to really
have a great weeks holiday the second week. The first week will be all business
but hopefully the second week well have a good week.On his agenda are table
tennis, gymnastics, diving, cycling, boxing.Im sure Im missing out on one or
two, he said. This is all the second week. So Im trying to do two things a day
the second week. Im really keen on it. Its really great fun watching all those
sports. The Olympics ... the pain of losing is exceptional, the joy of winning,
its right there on the line. So Id watch anything in those circumstances and
obviously, the Olympics is the pinnacle of it all.He felt that way when he
lobbied hard for golf to be part of it. And now he gets to take part of it
himself.To listen to him, this is pure joy.
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defending champion beat Gael Monfils of France 7-6
, 6-3, while second-seeded
Andy Murray of Britain dispatched Edouard Roger-Vasselin, also of France, 6-3,
6-3. Making his first appearance since injuring his wrist a month ago, Del Potro
had difficulty with his service games in the first set.
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. Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche
beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start
in team history.
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If this was Aaron Gordons final home game at Arizona, and it almost certainly
was, then he went out in style.
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Sale .Y. -- Bills receiver Stevie Johnson has a bone to pick with the NFL
schedule maker. Joel Garner, the former fast-bowling great who is now West
Indies team manager, feels players from the region have promise but dont work
hard enough.Weve always had promising players, weve always had attractive
players, the problems we have is that, most of the players are identified, I
dont think they work hard enough, and they fall away, Garner said, in a media
interaction on Tuesday. I think that if the players are prepared to work as hard
as they need to work, they can get to the top of world cricket as well.When
asked which areas the players might need to work harder on, he pointed to the
lack of long innings and sizeable partnerships, which has been a problem for
West Indies right through their ongoing Test series against India, apart from
the final day of the drawn second Test in Jamaica.I think that the longer they
spend in the middle, the easier the batting becomes, he said. And I think that
is one area that Id like to see improve, where youd like to see the fellows
batting long, not only batting long but batting effectively.If you look at it,
partnerships are important in any cricket game. The reason we were able to save
the game in Jamaica was we had batting partnerships virtually whole day. If you
dont get the partnerships, you wont get the performances. Its very important to
take something away from the game in Jamaica, to look at how we prepare and how
we can build on it.Garner said the lure of T20 may be hampering West Indies
younger players coming through the junior ranks.I think that, when you look at
our cricket, we are challenging maybe up to Under-19s, he said. If you look at
every world competition, when you look at them, West Indies is there. Where we
have the challenge is when we go away. I think everybody looks at the T20
cricket and they want to play the T20 format of the game as opposed to playing
the longer version of the game, and, you know, it is a matter of choice. Why
work for five days if you can work for three hours? I think that thats the
mentality and its something that weve got to try and change in terms of how our
players look at the cricket and the typee of cricket our players want to
play.ddddddddddddWhile Garner clarified that he wasnt dissuading players from
playing T20, he wanted revenues earned from T20 to be invested in the
grassroots, and for the players to be able to play more first-class cricket. He
compared the current situation, where domestic players play ten matches a year,
to the situation of the best West Indies players of his era, who were all
overseas professionals in county cricket.I dont know about discouraging [players
from taking part in T20], he said. As I said, T20 cricket is used to raise
finances for everybody, and I think that if you look at it, that is where we
should have been trying to say we can, you know, earn some income that we can
reinvest in our junior cricketers and in our local cricket.We are fortunate that
we can play ten games now as opposed to five. Are ten games enough in a year?
When I played, I played 20-somebody or 40-somebody games in a year playing
county cricket, and that is where the strength of the cricket is - the more you
play, the more you get accustomed to it, the harder the cricket is, and the more
professional you become.Asked about the proposal to split Test cricket into two
tiers, Garner said such a move would keep Test cricket to a chosen few.I wish
them luck if they want cricket to remain with the big three or the big four, he
said. You have the two-tier system, I mean, youve got to start someplace, and
the only way you can get into the two-tier system is by playing against the
teams that are above you in the table. If you cant play the teams above you on
the table, how will you get in?So, to me, it begs the question, what purpose
does it serve? Are you trying to preserve Test cricket or are you trying to keep
it to a chosen few? I cant answer it for you because you want to preserve Test
cricket, the only way you can preserve Test cricket is to let people at the
lower level play against teams above them to be able to compete and to be able
to progress. ' ' '
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