The morale of the Australians was undermined by the classic psychological sting
The morale of the Australians was undermined by the classic psychological sting. There is the blond, cheeky one, the gingery one, the one with the Wigan accent and the strong, silent one Take That with gold medals. There is even a twin, Andrew Atherton, whose identical brother Kevin suffered a bad knee injury three weeks before the Commonwealth Games and had to make do with an armchair view in front of the television back home in Shropshire. The injury deprived the team of their national champion and the Athertons of a unique place in sporting history. No other set of identical twins – they have been known to hand in each other’s homework – has competed in the Commonwealth Games.
When his brother dislocated his knee in a warm-up competition in Denmark, Andrew was next to vault He withdrew because he felt so sick.
IF ANY music agent had an eye on forming a new boy band, the five members of the England gymnastics team would be prime candidates for audition. United look to have a much more potent strike force since they recruited Dwight Yorke and need not fear from La Liga champions Barcelona, who lost some key players during the close season and made heavy weather of beating Extremadura 1-0 at home on Saturday night.Arsenal are fancied to emerge with a draw from their visit to Lens, who went down 2-0 to Monaco on Friday.Club C H L SAston Villa 1-3 2-7 4-11 2-7Draw 10-3 10-3 11-4 7-2Stromsgodset 6-1 8-1 7-1 7-1Blackburn 10-11 8-11 10-11 4-5Draw 9-4 12-5 9-4 9-4Lyons 12-5 3-1 12-5 11-4Kosice 3-1 11-4 7-2 3-1Draw 12-5 9-4 9-4 11-5Liverpool 8-11 4-5 4-6 4-5Leeds 4-9 2-5 2-5 4-11Draw 5-2 11-4 11-4 3-1Maritimo 6-1 6-1 6-1 6-1Man Utd 6-5 5-4 6-5 6-5Draw 9-4 2-1 11-5 2-1Barcelona 7-4 15-8 9-5 2-1Lens 7-4 6-4 7-4 13-8Draw 11-5 2-1 11-5 15-8Arsenal 5-4 8-5 5-4 6-4C Coral, H William Hill, L Ladbrokes, S Stanley. Whereas Blackburn have slipped to 18th place in the Premiership, Lyons lie second in the French League following their 2-1 victory over Sochaux on Saturday. Lyons are capable of winning this tie, but will be more than content to return home with a draw.
The Premiership leaders Aston Villa should overwhelm the Norwegians Stromsgodset, who lost 4-0 at Stabaek on Saturday; Liverpool will be quite content to come home with a draw draw after their visit to Kosice and Leeds are fancied to contain the moderate Maritimo of the Portugese league, who produced nothing to write home about when drawing 1-1 at Braga at the weekend.On Wednesday, Manchester United can lay low Barcelona in their Champions’ League tie at Old Trafford.
Two titles were clinched, with Nissan securing the manufacturers’ title and Tommy Rustad winning the Autosport Independents’ Cup for non- works drivers.. DISMAL LOSERS 3-0 at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, Blackburn have no business whatsoever being odds-on to beat Lyons in their first- round, first leg Uefa Cup tie at Ewood Park tomorrow night. “It doesn’t feel like it’s mine, but it is possible to win,” the Scot said.Rydell said: “Today’s pace is not good enough, we will have to make the car quicker for Silverstone.”Honda’s James Thompson took the other win, while the remaining podium spots went to Alain Menu, third in the sprint, and his Renault team mate, Jason Plato, who was second in the feature race ahead of Audi’s Yvan Muller in third. The eight and four were both fourth and the single sculler, Peter Haining, finished fifth, aggrieved that his lane on the far side of the course had been unfairly exposed to the stiff cross wind and the quadruple scull was a creditable seventh..