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My father doesn’t ask for help from just anyone. And yet he asked for mine. He believed in me
My dad and I believe in many of the same things: cheesecake; the Geelong football club; my mum. And that we should immediately be experts at anything. First try. No practice. No revision.
He taught me this in kindergarten. Every day he pushed me to be brilliant. We played spelling games in the car and did maths workbooks for fun. Before I started school I had “published” a library of my own books, complete with copyright information. I had become – and I’m assuming this is true of most Guardian writers – a precocious kid who irritated everyone around her by being boisterously, aggressively right about everything all of the time. Just like my dad. (Obviously I’ve grown a lot since then.)
Continue reading...A first-of-its-kind study shows the prevalence of miscarriage in Australia but experts fear multicultural groups remain underrepresented
On a quiet street in western Sydney, Farhana Laffernis races her curious English staffy and boisterous three-year-old daughter in the front door.
Inside, her three-year-old wears a pink tutu and excitedly babbles as she cuddles her toy doll. The family life Laffernis has built did not come easy.
Continue reading...Fiery Diamond League comments partially walked back
On Hocker: ‘Cole and I talked it through after the race’
The double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen has issued a part-apology for calling his rivals “losers” and a “bunch of cowards” after a spicy men’s 1500m Diamond League final on Friday.
However, Ingebrigtsen has continued to maintain that he was still right to accuse the Olympic 1500m champion Cole Hocker of cowardice – because he asked for a strong pace and swapped in his own pacemaker only to then hide behind others in the race.
Continue reading...The Gallagher brothers’ comeback concerts are given the full fan-worship treatment, but it’s impossible to begrudge the euphoria they have created
“Hello … hello … It’s good to be back.” With these words – and the unfortunate possibility of a royalty payment to a certain disgraced ex-pop star – this highly enjoyable fan-worship documentary revives the memory of last year’s staggering and already mythic Oasis reunion tour. It also recollects how effortlessly funny the Gallagher brothers are, like a great comic double act. There’s a big laugh in the tense scene in the rehearsal room, when Liam finally shows up after Noel and everyone else had been there for hours – and the very first thing that comes out of his mouth is a fierce and magnificently sullen objection to the baffles on the drum kit: “They’re giving me the hump.”
Yet to the surprise of many who did not believe, and these biblical echoes are strangely appropriate, Liam and Noel did not fall out; the resulting stadium tour put a fresh coat of paint on the word “phenomenon”. Middle-aged and elderly people together with young people sporting bucket hats, some accompanied by their pets in bucket hats, sang their hearts out as if it was the 90s again and Manchester City had just won the World Cup 10-0 (although this film was evidently completed before Wonderwall’s moment at this year’s World Cup).
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BRUSSEL (ANP) - Femke Broeders-Bol (26) is bij haar eerste finale van de Diamond League op de 800 meter tweede geworden. In het Koning Boudewijnstadion in Brussel noteerde de Nederlandse 1.54,81. Audrey Werro, de Europees kampioene uit Zwitserland, was nipt sneller en won in 1.54,75. Saida Tsehaye uit Ethiopië werd derde: 1.57,57.
Broeders-Bol won de voorgaande vijf edities de Diamond League-finale op haar oude discipline, de 400 meter horden. Eind vorig jaar maakte ze de keuze om over te stappen naar de dubbele afstand zonder obstakels.
Op de 800 meter heeft ze al in haar eerste seizoen aansluiting gevonden met de absolute top. Vorige maand maakte ze haar EK-debuut met een bronzen medaille. In de finale evenaarde ze het Nederlandse record waarmee Ellen van Langen op de Spelen van Barcelona in 1992 goud won (1.55,54). Bij de daaropvolgende Diamond Leagues scherpte ze die toptijd afgelopen weken tot twee keer toe aan: in Lausanne klokte ze 1.55,41, in Zürich dook ze daar nog ruim een halve seconde onder met 1.54,71.
BRUSSEL (ANP) - Nadine Visser (31) is bij de finale van de Diamond League vijfde geworden op de 100 meter horden. De Europees kampioene noteerde 12,54 seconden en zag de Amerikaanse wereldrecordhoudster Masai Russell naar de winst lopen in 12,30 seconden. Devynne Charlton uit de Bahama's werd tweede (12,33), voor de Jamaicaanse Megan Simmonds (12,43).
Visser verkeert dit seizoen in uitstekende vorm. Vorige maand in Birmingham won de Noord-Hollandse op de 100 meter horden na acht grote finales zonder medaille (op WK's, Olympische Spelen en EK's) voor het eerst de Europese titel.
Russell verbrak vorige week bij de Diamond League in Zürich het wereldrecord met een tijd van 12,09 seconden. In die race eindigde Visser met haar beste seizoenstijd van 12,34 als derde. In de buurt van die tijd kwam ze in het Brusselse Koning Boudewijnstadion niet.
De Nederlandse recordhoudster stond dit seizoen zeven keer aan de start van een wedstrijd in de Diamond League en eindigde slechts eenmaal buiten het podium, op de vierde plek. Ze werd vier keer derde en eindigde twee keer als tweede.