Toni-Ann Williams has started off with a good vault just making a step outside the lines with her landing, scoring 14.1 but made a few mistakes on the uneven bars and another step on her landing, making her score a low 11.533. Hang in there Toni-Ann, more events to come and the top 24 Gymnasts make it to the All-Around. She is currently in 18th place.
Tennis
Venus Williams lost in the 1st round vs. Belgium’s Flipkens in a 3-set tie break yesterday. Venus allowed Flipkens to come back from 4-1 down in the 3rd.
Who won the 1st Gold Medal?
The USA, in shooting. Go figure.
Swimming
Our Alia Atkinson and Timothy Wynter will be in the pool today starting at 12:56pm.
CPL T20
Photo: www.cricbuzz.com
Russell made the fastest 100 in CPL history off of 41 balls to help the Tallawahs beat the Knight Riders into the final. They will face the Warriors who beat them the other day to claim their Finals berth.
Will the Warriors lose their 3rd final or will the Tallawahs make history and be the only team to win 2 CPL T20 titles?
The finals will be in St. Kitts today at 6pm Ja time and 7pm St. Kitts time.
The Games of the 31st Olympiad in Rio, Brazil began yesterday with football but officially start today! The Games will run from August 5-21. Athletics begin next Friday, August 12.
The Opening Ceremony will start at 6pm this evening at the Maracaná Stadium and will be shown on TvJ with a Pregame show at 4pm. No station seems to have full rights to show the Games so no channel should be blocked.
Brazil’s Olympic Village may not be ready but our Jamaican athletes surely are ready.
However, Suga does not expect the level of magic that occurred in Beijing and London to occur in Rio. Jamaicans need to understand that our Athletics is going through a change in generation, where veterans are either no more such as Kerron Stewart or not as fast after rounds as they used to be, e.g. VCB, and most of the young, upcoming athletes are not quite ready to deliver the quality we have been spoilt with over the past 2 Olympiads.
However, enough of being a Debbie Downer. Even though that may be at the back of my mind, I remain positive and know that veterans like Usain Bolt can still deliver and newcomers like Elaine Thompson should deliver. Omar McLeod and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are on the ropes but there seems to be something about the Olympics that just puts a torch under our you know what and then sparks just fly.
We have newcomers to look forward to in Gymnastics such as Toni-Ann Williams, Yona Knight-Wisdom for Diving and Timothy Wynter for Swimming.
Will our Alia Atkinson finally get her Olympic medal? I sure hope so. She gets closer every time.
Swimming, Tennis and Basketball start tomorrow. Fret not for the hot races in Athletics because they are mostly in the evenings and on weekends. You can set in your calendars from now:
Women’s 100m FINAL:
Saturday, August 13 @ 8:35pm
Men’s 100m FINAL:
Sunday, August 14 @ 8:25pm
Women’s 200m FINAL:
Wednesday, August 17 at 8:30pm
Men’s 200m FINAL:
Thursday, August 18 at 8:30pm
The 4×100m Relay FINALS will be run on the Saturday before the Olympics end.
If you didn’t get your Free Jamaica Observer Olympics Supplement in the Sunday paper, you can be sure to stay tuned to Suga’s posted schedules, updates and commentary on this website and like Suga Lifestyle’s Facebook page.
There is also a Flow Rio 2016 App that you can download on your phones for free. Not sure if it is as user friendly as the London 2012 app yet but it seems to have a decent layout so far. Too early to endorse.
Word is Usain Bolt was looking good in his practice session before today’s London Diamond League. He will be running the 200mtoday at 3:52pm to satisfy the JAAA’s requirement to prove his fitness for RIO after getting medical exemption from the Jamaica trials.
Photo: www.diamondleague.com
This will be a 2-day Diamond League. It starts at 2pm today and the Women’s 400m at 2:05pm will showcase Diamond League Leader, Shaunae Miller from the Bahamas amongst a packed field including our very own National Champ, Stephenie Ann McPherson and other challengers such as Great Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu, USA’s Francena McCorory and Natasha Hastings.
The 100m hurdles Women Final will be at 3:15pm with those who came out on top from the 2 Heats in a packed field including Diamond League leader, Kendra Harrison from the USA who shockingly failed to make the USA team, her compatriots Nia Ali, Brianna Rollins and Kristi Castlin, Cindy Roleder from Germany and Alina Talay from Belarus.
Races to watch tomorrow will be the 100m and 200m Women. The 200m Women will be at 10:15am featuring Diamond League leader Dafne Schippers from the Netherlands and Jeneba Tarmoh from the USA.
The 100m Women at 10:26am will feature our pocket rocket, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce assuming she will make it out of her heat. Other likely contenders may be Trinidad’s Michelle-Lee Ahye, Jamaica’s Simone Facey and Christania Williams.
Congrats to the Jamaica Tallawahs for winning 4/4 at home! Last night they beat the Barbados Tridents who opted to field first, by 36 runs.
Thank goodness Chris Gayle has a stronger team this time around, especially since he is injured. He was dismissed early again but Chadwick Walton was the one last night who stepped up and scored 97 with the support of Sangakkara and he won Man of the Match.
Photo: @cpl (Twitter)
The Tallawahs had an all around performance throughout the 4 games here. Well deserved victories.
It was a pleasure to see so many Jamaicans come out and support the Cricket, drinking or not drinking. Well done CPL. For those who actually follow the CPL, the Tallawahs leave home at the top of the table.
Photo: cplt20.com
There are more matches to be played in St. Lucia followed by Florida who does not have a team and then the Playoffs and Final will be played St. Kitts. The Final will be played on Sunday, August 7. Continue to support the Tallawahs by tuning in to TVJSN, Sportsmax, ESPN Caribbean or any other Sports Channel that may be showing the matches.
You can also follow CPLT20 (@CPL) on twitter to keep up and tweet your support.
The Tallawahs will play St. Lucia next on Saturday, July 30 in Lauderhill, Florida.
CPL T20 will be at Sabina Park starting today! The Guyana Amazon Warriors are on top but will the Jamaica Tallawahs who are just 1 spot away take over in Ja? Schedule:
Tonight at 8pm: Jamaica Tallawahs vs Guyana Amazon Warriors
Saturday at 6pm: Tallawahs vs. St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots
Monday at 8pm: Tallawahs vs. Trinbago Knight Riders
Congratulations to all winners this weekend! Huge Congrats to Serena Williams for finally hitting 22. She now ties Steffi Graf for winning the most Grand Slam titles in the Open Era. Margaret Court still stands at 24.
Congrats to Venus Williams for winning her 6th Doubles Wimbledon title with Serena. It has been a struggle for her since diagnosed with her autoimmune disease but she has never given up. She made it to the Semi Finals of the Singles in Wimbledon and did well in the Doubles to win the Finals with her sister.
Andy Murray won the Gentleman’s title in straight sets as well. Congrats to him.
Football
For the big winners of the weekend, Portugal! EURO 2016 Champions! Should I also say Cristiano Ronaldo? He came off the field after about 25 minutes with an injury to the knee but he won from the sidelines. How does the great Lionel Messi feel now? He didn’t rally his team together like that. It is hardly likely they will ever get that opportunity again to win an International title. Congrats to them for seizing the moment.
Athletics
Dafne Schippers ran 10.90s for the 100m in the European Championships. Although she had no competition, I expect her to be more impressive in the 200m at RIO. I haven’t seen her time for that as yet.
At the US trials, Justin Gatlin had to run for his life after running 2nd in the semis and getting lane 8 for the final. He beat LaShawn Merritt (19.79s) and Ameer Webb in 19.75s.
For the 200m, Allyson Felix did not make it! Prandini edged her out for the 3rd place spot and it was all about Tori Bowie who won in 22.25s.
The Women’s 100m Hurdles was one to see! Such a packed field. Dawn Harper did not make the finals. Jasmin Stowers fell before the line, Sharika Nelvis did not make it and one of the favourites, Keni Harrison who ran 12.24s this year did not make ut either!
Brianna Rollins won in 12.34s followed by Kristi Castlin, then Nia Ali.
The US Men’s 110m hurdles had a new winner, Devon Allen! David Oliver did not run the final. He had a hamstring injury after the semis. Aries Merritt and Jason Richardson also failed to make it.
Gymnastics
Gabby is back! After falling on the beam Friday night at the US Gymnastics trials and again last night, Gabby Douglas still made the US Fierce Five team for her solid routine on the bars.
Congrats to Gabby and the other 4 who made it, especially Simone Biles who won it all. That team is probably one of the hardest to make. Looking forward to seeing them in RIO!
Andy Murray (2) won his 2nd Wimbledon Title and 3rd Grand Slam Title this morning by defeating Milos Raonic (6) 6-4, 7-6, 7-6. Raonic served well only losing serve once but Murray and the crowd were too pumped up and he did not have enough answers to complete rallies on Andy’s serve.
Andy Murray was in endless tears after the win. Emotional is an understatement. It definitely meant more to him than the 1st Wimbledon.
Congrats to Andy Murray.
UP NEXT at 2pm…
Suga’s thoughts? Ronaldo may feel he has a lot to prove because of Messi’s recent failure but France has a better chance and it is up to them to lose.
If you missed the Ladies’ Wimbledon final today, you missed history. Serena defeated Kerber 7-5, 6-3 and finally won her 22nd Grand Slam title.
Serena started out looking very good! Her serve was on point for the entire match. She won ALL service games. The wind started to pick up in the 2nd set but she overcame that.
Kerber won more of the rallies especially the long ones. But towards the end of both sets when it mattered, Serena won the important rallies and pressured Kerber to make unforced errors. Kerber made very few unforced errors. It was quite a competitive and clean match on both sides. Spectacular tennis.
Angelique Kerber met the real Serena Williams today and when Serena plays her best tennis, there are no answers, she is unbeatable.
Kudos to Kerber for keeping her composure and playing out the match with quality shots. We look forward to seeing her as the future of women’s tennis with Garbiñe Muguruza.
Serena now finally ties Steffi Graf with the most Grand Slams in the Open era, 22. Suga believes she can keep it going a bit more. Margaret Court still stands at 24. Afterall, Serena IS the GOAT. She said it herself, not only is she one of the best female athletes of all time but one of the best athletes of all time.
Congratulations to Serena Williams who is also immediately ready to take on the Doubles Final and win one for ‘V’, her sister, Venus Williams, which will be played later today.
Andy Murray (2) won his 2nd Wimbledon Title and 3rd Grand Slam Title this morning by defeating Milos Raonic (6) 6-4, 7-6, 7-6. Raonic served well only losing serve once but Murray and the crowd were too pumped up and he did not have enough answers to complete rallies on Andy’s serve.
If you missed the Ladies’ Wimbledon final today, you missed history. Serena defeated Kerber 7-5, 6-3 and finally won her 22nd Grand Slam title.
