At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. I shall never forget sitting in the front row and watching Ben Johnson hurtling towards the finish line in the 100 metres and then raising his hand aloft in an almost contemptuous "I am Number One" gesture.

Twenty years later, sitting -- lucky me -- in the front row again, my indelible memory of the Beijing Games will always be that magical last 100 metres when Usain Bolt looked left and right, spread his arms wide and thumped his chest for sheer joy.

He was glorifying in his talent, treasuring a moment that he would relive for the rest of his life. So will I.  

Kevin Fylan adds: This is the third in our series of snapshots from the Beijing Games, where Reuters reporters give their thoughts on what it was like to be there at the key moments of the Olympics.

Read Snapshot Beijing, 1: Matt Emmons, by Erik Kirschbaum here.

Read Snapshot Beijing, 2: Matthias Steiner, by Sophie Hardach here.

More to follow over the course of the day.

PHOTO: Usain Bolt (L) of Jamaica celebrates winning the men's 100m final of the athletics competition in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 16, 2008. REUTERS/Gary Hershorn

It looks tough enough on the surface. Lord knows what is happening under the water. This is a contact sport with a vengeance.

The exclusion rules -- a free throw is granted and the offender excluded for 20 seconds -- say it all. Exclusion fouls include intentionally splashing water in an opponent's face, kicking or striking them, using foul language to the referee and "committing an act of brutality".

The first casualty when I watched it the other day was Italy's Elisa Casanova in a bruising encounter with China. "After two minutes, Elisa took a hit to her nose and could not play for the rest of the match," said coach Mauro Maugeri.

The encounter between Australia and the United States was a classic no-holds barred contest with the Americans squeaking home narrow 9-8 winners in the last minute. Australia's Emma Knox was the first to admit "it does get pretty rough. Pretty much whatever you can get away with that the referee can't see, you get away with."

PHOTO: Anett Timea Gyore of Hungary (R) fights for the ball with Alette Sijbring (L) of the Netherlands during their women's semi-final water polo match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 19, 2008. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh

The men do 40 km over 160 laps, the women 25km over 100 laps. That's the easy part.

It starts getting complicated when the action hots up with a series of intermediate sprints. Riders get points for winning each sprint. But then any rider who gains a lap on the main bunch is awarded is awarded 20 points. Those losing a lap have 20 points deducted.

Still with it?

The winner is the one with the most points. But what if there is a draw? Then the judges have to check who placed where in the final sprint of the marathon race.

If you thought that was a tough call, try following the rules for the madison and the keirin. The cycling newcomer will shake his head in astonishment, wondering what on earth is happening in these surreal contests.

In the madison, the riders get to hold hands. In the keirin they get to ride behind a man on a moped. Honestly.

The madison has nothing to do with 1960s dance routines. It is a race named after the first time it was run at New York's Madison Square Garden. Reading the explanatory resume for the race will leave your head in a spin.

There are two-man teams who take turns in riding and sprinting every five kilometres. They trade off by gripping hands with the outgoing lead rider giving the oncoming rider a "handsling" to propel him forward.

Many a cycling newcomer may be tempted to crack up with irreverent laughter watching the keirin, which originated in Japan as a betting race in the 1940s. The moped, with its rider sitting bolt upright in the saddle, sets off as pacemaker to the field. For five and a half laps, his speed gradually increases from 25 to 40 kph. Then he leaves the track and the riders go flat out over the last two and a half laps.

But, arcane rules apart, nothing beats the thrill of watching up close and personal as riders hurtle round the "wall of death" track at angles of up to 47 degrees.

Those magnificent men and women on their cycling machines take your breath away.

Mao Zedong once said, "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man."

Tell me about it.

After experiencing the mayhem of the Olympic torch relay on Thursday, there was time to treasure a moment of pure tranquility. The calf-wrenching walk up a one-in-two incline is worth every step. Up at the top of the wall you feel like some minuscule character in the background of a Chinese painting.

Mist rises over the mountains. The only sound is crickets chirruping in the trees. The wall stretches over the horizon and disappears into the distance. Pure magic.

"Such a great people with such a great wall will surely have a great future," said Richard M. Nixon, the president who helped to break down barriers between East and West. He wasn't wrong there.

But I hate to disappoint you by destroying one myth. You cannot see The Great Wall with the naked eye from the moon. China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, knocked that on the head in 2003 when failing to spot the barrier from space. The legend has now been taken out of all Chinese school textbooks.

The Great Wall up at Badaling is mercifully free of graffiti but stern warnings are issued at the start of the trek with a notice declaring, "No carrying the problem thing on The Great Wall."

In case you are tempted, the following are prohibited:

• Drugs such as heroin, cocaine and cannabis
• Virulent, caustic or radioactive materials
• Crossbows, daggers and educational guns

PHOTO: Torchbearers take part in the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch relay at the Badaling section of the Great Wall on the outskirts of Beijing, August 7, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Chan

Forget Olympic fever. Nothing beats panda-monium.

The "Olympic pandas" at Beijing Zoo really do drive the crowds wild -- even Germany's beloved polar bear star Knut would be hard pressed to match the panda adoration sweeping the nation.

When the eight pandas in the Olympic Pavilion strut their stuff at feeding time, mothers rush to get a picture of their child with China's national symbol in the background.

Crowds press six deep up against the glass. Everyone jostles for a position. Cameras flash constantly. The very sight of the pandas makes people grin inanely.

They have certainly played their part over the years in breaking down the barriers -- panda power ranks alongside ping pong diplomacy in the breakthrough stakes.

And they have an honourable Olympic history. The first pandas ever sent abroad went to Los Angeles for the 1984 Olympics. Attendance soared at Calgary Zoo when a pair went to the Canadian host city of the winter Olympics.

What is it with cuddly, furry creatures?

Knut transformed the finances at Berlin Zoo, bringing in five million euros ($7.36 million) last year. The furry superstar, who was famously hand-reared by keepers after being rejected by mother Tosca, attracted half a million more visitors to the zoo in 2007.

Next stop could be Hollywood -- the zoo director is considering offers from several production companies about an animated Knut. Could this be the new Nemo, the next Bambi?

PHOTO: Pandas eat bamboo shoots in their enclosure as people visit the Beijing Zoo ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 5, 2008. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Any other suggestions for tired and overused phrases about China? Let us know in the comments... and if you spot any in the media please send in a link. We're quite prepared to name and shame. 

The Beijing authorities have been working long and hard in the run-up to the Olympics to stamp out Chinglish -- but examples still abound all round town of this unique mix of Mandarin and English.

It's fun checking out the slogans on T-shirts to find the finest example of strangulated language.

Some Chinglish has even won the official stamp of approval.

"Brokeback" -- popularised from the movie "Brokeback Mountain" about two gay cowboys --  has passed the test with formal acceptance by Chinese scholars as Mandarin shorthand for gay.

But it would be hard to top the all-time favourite quintet of Chinglish entries picked by the U.S.-based Global Language Monitor:

-- If you are stolen, call the police

-- Airline Pulp (food served aboard airlines)

-- The slippery are very crafty (slippery when wet)

-- Do not climb the rocketry (rock wall)

-- Deformed man toilet (handicapped restroom)

We'll be keeping our eyes and ears open for more...

PHOTO: 21-year-old Beijing T-shirt seller Xinxin stands in her stall in the popular Huawei Shopping Centre in Beijing June 13, 2008. REUTERS/Gillian Murdoch

No news could be said to be good news for the beleaguered church right now and the organisers of the Anglican summit in the English cathedral city of Canterbury may well have the Zulus to thank for that.

Anglicanism has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons as conservatives and liberals lock horns in an increasingly bitter war of words over the ordination of gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions. Up to a quarter of the bishops have stayed away from Lambeth in protest, a move that has shaken the Anglican Communion but, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Willliams says, will not lead to a schism.

Lambeth organisers have come up with a solution to keep the angry rhetoric to a minimum, hoping that their gathering will be given much more anodyne coverage.

The bishops are being split up into "Indaba" groups of about 40. Indaba is a Zulu word for "a gathering for purposeful discussion."

But the organisers, explaining the concept, warned that even after two weeks of the bishops putting their heads together on every subject from evangelism to transforming society, "Indaba is not shaped for producing a communique, an encycical letter or a text."

"Indaba is open-ended conversation," they explained. Open-ended, but not open to the media -- we can't attend the sessions and report on how they actually work.

As the procedure was explained to us, each Indaba group, after much soul-searching together, appoints a "listener" who will help to put together a final "reflective document." So there will be no messy fights over resolutions like the debate over homosexuality that dominated the 1998 Lambeth Conference.

Little wonder then that Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the 450-year history of the Anglican church, does not expect any fireworks at the conference -- to which he has not been invited.

In an interview with Reuters before Lambeth, Robinson forecast that the Anglican summit "will drive the press crazy. There will be be no resolutions, no proclamations, no lines drawn in the sand, no up or down votes to report the count."

"This is the place where the Archbishop got it exactly right. What we need at the moment is deepening conversation," he said.

The Anglican Communion website has its own Lambeth Daily with news from the Conference, including soundbites and cartoons.

Robinson, a divorced father of two, has received death threats and wore a bulletproof vest at his consecration back in 2003. Two uniformed police officers stood guard last month as he entered into a civil partnership with his longtime partner. He was heckled when preaching in London over the weekend.

"I take the threats very seriously, I have to," he said. "But I am not interested in being a martyr, I just want to be a bishop."

Robinson's visit to Britain concides with the Lambeth Conference, the ten-yearly meeting of bishops from the worldwide Anglican Communion, but he has not been invited to attend. So he has several speaking engagements outside of the conference, including a sermon at Saint Mary's Church in the Putney section of London on Sunday where he urged Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to show firmer leadership and get conservative foes to tone down homophobic taunts.

In an interview with Reuters, there was no hiding the disappointment in his voice when talking about Williams' decision not to invite him. And he repeated that he felt it was high time Williams took a stand against Conservative opponents who taunted him with homophobic mockery.

"There is no place in the Christian Church for someone to say Satan has entered the church with my consecration or that gay people are lower than dogs," the 61-year-old bishop said.

"You cannot say those kind of things about gays and lesbians people and then be shocked when there is violence against them," he said.

Clearly exasperated with a navel-gazing church obsessed with its own internal problems, he said human sexuality was an important issue but added "I would agree with many Africans that there are so many more important things to be dealing with."

But he was clearly proud of what he had achieved in trying to sweep hypocrisy away, saying: "I would like to think I have raised the issue of how destructive 'Don't ask, Don't tell' can be."

Richard Williams cannot bear to watch if his daughters Serena and Venus make it to the Wimbledon final on Saturday -- he will be flying back home to the United States instead.

Venus and Serena, who have six Wimbledon titles between them, are currently on course to clash for the third time in a Wimbledon final -- and Venus is looking for revenge after twice losing to her sister.

Their father, who nurtured their careers from an early age, is happy to cheer them on in their semi-finals on Thursday but the clash on the biggest stage in tennis is too painful for him.

"If your kids got into a fight with each other, could you stand to watch that?. That's the way I feel," he told Reuters at Wimbledon.

"I feel that they are fighting against each other so I wouldn't watch it. I will be on a plane at 36,000 feet," he said. "It is too emotional for me."

Both Serena and Venus have won plaudits for slowly sharpening their skills from round to round at Wimbledon, which for them has always been a number one target.

Richard Williams agreed: "In their first matches they were struggling and then they were struggling a little less and a little less. I think they are peaking as they go."

What always intrigues Williams is how different Serena and Venus are -- both as personalities and as tennis players. One is introverted, the other an open book with her heart on her sleeve.

"When Venus is playing, you never know whether she is winning or losing. Venus just never lets nothing bother her."

In sharp contrast, he said Serena "could throw the racquet down and break it up. She gets to talking to herself."

Asked the inevitable question about which of the two could emerge triumphant on Saturday, he quickly retorts "The winner, the one that makes the least amount of mistakes. Whoever steps up and takes the ball first is going to win."

Enraged and insulted by any suggestion whatsoever that they might contemplate deciding the result in advance, he said "When Venus and Serena play each other, they do the best they can."