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| Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe in the pool together |
At Spyns we are very excited to see Michael Phelps and Australian 5 times Olympic gold medallist Ian Thorpe battle it out in the pool. We have a range of 4, 5, 7, and 10-day intimate luxury London 2012 Olympic tours packages on offer. Included are Olympic Hotels and Olympic Tickets with VIP London guides into some of the most sort after attractions (Royal Buckingham Palace tour after hours).
Fourteen-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps won the men’s 200-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly on the opening day of the Indianapolis Grand Prix Thursday. Both victories (1:46.27 in the 200 free and 51.75 in the 100) were the fastest times in the world this year.
“It was the best time in the world, so I’ll take it. I’m definitely happy,” Phelps said after winning the 200.
Tonight, Phelps will try to add a third gold medal in the 200 fly and tomorrow will feature a showdown between Phelps and Ryan Lochte, who established himself as the most dominant swimmer of 2010, in the 200 IM. Lochte, who set the world record at 1:54.10 back at the 2009 World Championships in Rome, is trying to remain the new king of the 200 IM.
The competition, which continues through Saturday, is being held at the Indiana University Natatorium on the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis.
TV: 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET Friday, Universal Sports
Webcast: 6 p.m. ET Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday, usaswimming.org
GYMNASTICS
Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup, March 4, Jacksonville, Fla.
AT&T American Cup, March 5, Jacksonville, Fla.
Seven Olympians and a competition featuring the nation’s best rising gymnasts will highlight two days of gymnastics at Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville. The Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup Friday features 36 female gymnasts who qualified for the event at 17 regional invitational meets. The field includes 2009 world vault champion Kayla Williams and 2010 Supergirl Cup silver medalist Kassandra Lopez. The meet is run as a partnership between Liukin and USA Gymnastics and is designed to give up-and-coming gymnasts experience in a big-time competition.
The 2011 AT&T American Cup is the first of four 2011 all-around World Cup events, featuring 16 gymnasts, including 2010 World all-around bronze medalist Jonathan Horton, Alexandra Raisman and Jordyn Weiber of the U.S. Weiber won the 2009 American Cup. The field also includes 2010 world all-around champion Aliya Mustafina of Russia. Overall, seven Olympians and 10 world medalists are competing. In addition, six of the seven members of the 1996 U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team will be honored 15 years after their gold-medal performance at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.
TV: 7-9:30 p.m. ET Friday and 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Universal Sports; 1-3 p.m. Saturday, NBC
Also in gymnastics:
2011 Winter Classic, March 5-6, George Brown Convention Center, Houston
WOMEN’S SOCCER
Algarve Cup, March 2-9, Vila Real de San Antonio, Portugal
The U.S. women’s soccer team, which defeated Japan 2-1 on Wednesday in its opening game of the Algarve Cup in Portugal, was to continue its Group A play Friday against Norway and Monday against Finland.
Amy Rodriguez and Megan Rapinoe, both members of the Philadelphia Independence in Women’s Professional Soccer, each scored in the first 18 minutes of the game against Japan. Abby Wambach played in her 150th career game for the U.S., making her the 14th player in history to do so.
“It was a good start and in the first 45 minutes we played some very good soccer,” U.S. coach Pia Sundhage said.
The Americans have been working on showing patience with their offense.
“We’ve been working really hard on keeping the ball and being patient and getting our outside back involved, and really getting everyone involved, if we can,“ said Rapinoe, a midfielder.
The medal games will be played March 9. If Team USA makes it to the championship game, it would be played at noon ET.
FIGURE SKATING
World Junior Figure Skating Championships, Feb. 28-March 6, Gangneung City, Republic of Korea
Keegan Messing of Alaska, who finished eighth in the 2011 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, is skating toward gold at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships. After scoring 72.58 points in his short program Thursday, he led the men’s field. “I went out and had some fun and at the end of my program my energy increased, and I was on top of the world,” Messing told icenetwork.com.
U.S. junior pairs champions Ashley Cain and Joshua Reagan placed fourth, moving up four spots after a strong free skate. Christina Gao was the top American female finisher in the short program in third.
Also in figure skating:
2011 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships, March 2-5, Ontario, Calif.
SPEEDSKATING
Essent ISU World Cup Final, March 4-6, Heerenveen, Netherlands
Trevor Marsicano, who ranks No. 1 in the World Cup standings in 1,500 meters, and Heather Richardson, No. 1 in the 1,000, lead the U.S. Long Track World Cup Team into the World Cup Final this weekend in the Netherlands. Five U.S. skaters are ranked within the top three in their events. Team USA has won 27 World Cup medals and five World Championship medals this season.
“Several of our skaters are in a position to earn both individual and overall medals this weekend, so they are staying focused on the task at hand,” said Ryan Shimabukuro, U.S. tong track head coach.
Also in speedskating:
American Cup Final-Long Track/Champions Challenge, March 4-6, Salt Lake City.
Wisconsin State Short Track Championships, March 6, Waupaca, Wis.
SKIING
FIS World Nordic Ski Championships, Feb. 24-March 6, Oslo, Norway
Nineteen-year-old Peter Frenette of Saranac Lake, N.Y., qualified for the championship round of the ski-jumping competition Thursday on the 134-meter Holmenkollbakken jump, then placed 35th in the fog-delayed event. He was the only American who qualified in the jump.
“For my jump, I could only see right in front of me, but that is about all you need to ski,” he said. “It was fun and there were a lot of people here. You couldn’t see the crowd until you get down to the bottom, you could only hear them cheering.”
Andy Newell, Kris Freeman, Noah Hoffman and Tad Elliott will ski for the U.S. in Friday’s men’s 4x10-kilometer mixed technique relay. The women’s competition in the World Nordics finishes Saturday with the 30-kilometer classic. The men’s 30-k classic will be Sunday.
Also in skiing:
Alpine World Cup, women, March 5-6, Tarvisio, Italy
TV: 2:15-4 p.m. and 7:15-9 p.m. ET Saturday, 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. and 7:15-9 p.m. Sunday, Universal Sports
Alpine World Cup, men, March 5-6, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia
TV: 5:15-6:30 p.m. ET Saturday, 2:15-3:30 p.m. and 4:45-6 p.m. Sunday, Universal Sports
Freestyle World Cup, March 6, Meiringen-Hasliberg, Switzerland
TRACK AND FIELD
USA Indoor Masters Track and Field Championships, March 4-6, Albuquerque, N.M.
Trish Porter (formerly, Trish King), an Olympic high jumper in 1988, and four-time U.S. Masters champion Dan Holton are among more than 800 athletes, ranging from age 35 to 96, who will compete in the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships this weekend. Running events range from 60 meters to 3,000 meters, and the competitor field includes 77 current world indoor master champions and 34 world outdoor master champions.
Also in track:
USA Indoor Combined Events Championships, March 5-6, Bloomington, Ind.
USA 50 Mile Trail Championships, March 5, Rocksprings, Texas
USA 50km Championships, March 6, Lloyd Harbor, N.Y.
LUGE
Norton National Championships and Seeding Races, March 5-6, Lake Placid, N.Y.
Two-time Olympian and 2009 world champion Erin Hamlin and five-time Olympian Bengt Walden will be among the competitors in USA Luge’s final event of the season. The Norton National Championships will decide national titles, as well as positioning for next year’s senior team.
Hamlin is the defending women’s champion and will face 2002 Olympian Ashley Walden and 2008 World Junior champion Kate Hansen, among others. Chris Mazdzer, a 2010 Olympian, will join Walden and 2006 Olympian Preston Griffall in the men’s competition. The national championship races will be held Saturday on the Mt. Van Hoevenberg chute at the Olympics Sports Complex in Lake Placid, with the seeding races scheduled for Sunday.
SKELETON
U.S. National Championships, March 4-5, Lake Placid, N.Y.
More than 30 athletes, including World Cup participants Matt Antoine, John Daly and Katie Uhlaender, will compete in the first national championships to be held in skeleton in four years. Antoine finished seventh in the men’s World Championships last week and Uhlaender was ninth in the women’s competition. “This is a great opportunity to bring athletes from our entire program together,” said Tuff Latour, U.S. skeleton head coach.
Twenty-one men and 15 women will compete on Lake Placid’s 19-curve course, which will be host to the 2012 World Championships. Like the World Championships or Olympic Winter Games, races will be run in four heats with a combined time from all four heats determining the winners. The competition was moved up to Friday and Saturday due to an expected storm system that may bring warm winds to upstate New York.
SNOWBOARDING
Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, March 2-6, Mammoth Mountain, Calif.
Olympic medalists Kelly Clark and Gretchen Bleiler will lead the competition in the halfpipe Saturday in the Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix. The two-day event also features slopestyle on Friday with a field that includes defending champion Chas Guldemond and two-time Winter X Games champ Jamie Anderson.
Webcast: 6 p.m. ET Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday, www.facebook.com/ussnowboarding
Also in snowboarding:
World Cup, March 5, Moscow
CURLING
World Junior Championships, March 5-12, Perth, Scotland
Becca Hamilton of McFarland, Wis., and Aaron Wald of Chisholm, Minn., will lead the U.S. women’s and men’s curling squads, respectively, into the World Junior Championships, which begin Saturday at the Dewars Centre in Perth. Wald was an alternate for 2010 Olympian Chris Plys’ junior team in 2009 and 2006. Tara Peterson and Sophie Bronson bring three consecutive years of World Championships experience to Hamilton’s squad, including a bronze-medal finish in 2010. Each team will play in a nine-game round robin with page playoffs beginning March 11.
Also in curling:
USA Curling Club National Championships, beginning March 6, Mankato, Minn.
BIATHLON
IBU World Championships, March 3-13, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey will lead the U.S. in the sprint races on Saturday. The Worlds began with the mixed relay competition on Thursday, with Norway taking the gold.
TENNIS
Davis Cup, USA vs. Chile, March 4-6, Santiago, Chile
Andy Roddick was to play the opening match for the U.S. against Chile’s Nicolas Massu, the first of five matches between the two countries in the Davis Cup first-round matchup. The U.S. is 4-0 in previous Davis Cup meetings with Chile, and would meet Belgium or Spain in July in the quarterfinals should the Americans defeat Chile again.
TV: 10 a.m. ET Saturday, 9 a.m. Sunday, Tennis Channel
TRIATHLON
USA Triathlon Elite Race Series, March 5, Clermont, Fla.
Olympians Sarah Haskins and Jarrod Shoemaker will be among more than 50 Americans competing March 5 in the opening event of the USA Triathlon Elite Race Series. The event will consist of a 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bicycle race and 5-kilometer run. The race is also serving as the first-ever USA Triathlon Elite Sprint National Championship. Nine U.S. men ranked internationally and six women will compete, as well as 2010 USA Triathlon Rookies of the Year Sean Jefferson and Gwen Jorgensen.
FENCING
Men’s Epee Senior, March 4-6, Tallin, Estonia
Weston Kelsey, a 2008 Olympian, Benjamin Bratton and Cody Mattern are among the U.S. athletes competing in the three-day men’s Epee senior event.
Also in fencing:
Men’s Sabre Grand Prix, March 5-6, Budapest, Hungary
Men’s Foil Grand Prix, March 5-6, Venice, Italy
JUDO
Pan American Cup, March 3-5, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Team USA headed to the Pan American Cup this week on a good note. Travis Stevens, a 2008 Olympian, won a gold medal at the Dusseldorf Grand Prix last week, becoming the first American to win gold at the Dusseldorf event.
Also in Judo:
San Antonio Open Judo Championships, March 5-6, San Antonio, Texas
WRESTLING
Hungarian Grand Prix, March 5-6, Szombethely, Hungary
Two-time World medalist Joe Warren is among the U.S. wrestlers competing in this weekend’s prestigious Hungarian Grand Prix. The U.S. won no medals in the same competition in 2010.
Also in Wrestling:
Austrian Junior Greco-Roman Open, March 4-6, Gotzis, Austria
EQUESTRIAN
FEI Nations Cup, March 4, Wellington, Fla.
Four riders, including Mario Deslauriers aboard Urico and Margie Engle aboard Indigo, will compete for the U.S. in the FEI Nations Cup competition March 4 at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Club’s International Arena. The jumping competition is a part of the CSIO Wellington event in south Florida.
ARCHERY
U.S. National Indoor Championships, Feb. 25-March 13, various sites
The national tournament continues this weekend at various venues, including MSU Demmer Shooting Sports Center in East Lansing, Mich., and Diamond Archery Technologies in Wichita, Kan.
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