LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) – London, an ancient city steeped
in theatre and pageantry, stages its third summer Olympics
against a sombre backdrop tempering the excitement and
anticipation before the world’s greatest sports festival.

Euphoria in Singapore, where London secured the Games in
2005, was succeeded within 24 hours by horror in the British
capital when 52 commuters were killed by four suicide bombers.

LONDON (Reuters) – World 100 meters record holder Usain Bolt could break the nine-second barrier if he gets a start as fast as his training partner Yohan Blake, according to the former world 200 meters record holder Tommie Smith.

Bolt, who was beaten by Blake in both the 100 and 200 at this year’s Jamaican trials, set his world record of 9.58 seconds at the 2009 Berlin world championships. He also reduced his own world 200 record to 19.19 in Berlin.

LONDON, July 10 (Reuters) – World 100 metres record holder
Usain Bolt could break the nine-second barrier if he gets a
start as fast as his training partner Yohan Blake, according to
the former world 200 metres record holder Tommie Smith.

Bolt, who was beaten by Blake in both the 100 and 200 at
this year’s Jamaican trials, set his world record of 9.58
seconds at the 2009 Berlin world championships. He also reduced
his own world 200 record to 19.19 in Berlin.

LONDON (Reuters) – Sprinter Dwain Chambers and shot putter Carl Myerscough, who have served doping bans after testing positive for anabolic steroids, were named on Tuesday in the British athletics team for the London Olympics.

The pair are the beneficiaries of a Court of Arbitration ruling which overturned the British Olympic Association’s lifetime Games bans for drug offenders.

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) – Sprinter Dwain Chambers and shot
putter Carl Myerscough, who have served doping bans after
testing positive for anabolic steroids, were named on Tuesday in
the British athletics team for the London Olympics.

The pair are the beneficiaries of a Court of Arbitration
ruling which overturned the British Olympic Association’s
lifetime Games bans for drug offenders.

LONDON (Reuters) – Reggae pounded and rum flowed at a darkened Shoreditch nightclub in east London during an afternoon fashion launch for the Jamaican Olympic team kit.

Senses may have been dulled by the beat, the heat and the booze as models paraded the team uniform designed by Bob Marley’s daughter Cedella to the strains of “One Love”.

LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) – Reggae pounded and rum flowed at
a darkened Shoreditch nightclub in east London during an
afternoon fashion launch for the Jamaican Olympic team kit.

Senses may have been dulled by the beat, the heat and the
booze as models paraded the team uniform designed by Bob
Marley’s daughter Cedella to the strains of “One Love”.

LONDON (Reuters) – A mythical athlete from the Caribbean clocks 8.99 seconds over 100 meters in the year 2909. Some centuries earlier, in 2245, a Kenyan runs the marathon in one hour, 57 minutes, 58 seconds.

These fictitious case studies, according to John Brenkus in his book “The Perfection Point” which calculates ultimate limits for a host of sporting achievements, contain the fastest times humanly possible for the shortest and longest events on the Olympic athletics program.

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) – A mythical athlete from the
Caribbean clocks 8.99 seconds over 100 metres in the year 2909.
Some centuries earlier, in 2245, a Kenyan runs the marathon in
one hour, 57 minutes, 58 seconds.

These fictitious case studies, according to John Brenkus in
his book “The Perfection Point” which calculates ultimate limits
for a host of sporting achievements, contain the fastest times
humanly possible for the shortest and longest events on the
Olympic athletics programme.

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal enthusiasm at the height of the golden Edwardian summer helped to determine first the course and then the length of the epic 1908 London Olympic marathon.

The race concluded with a potential fatality when Italian Dorando Pietri collapsed after entering the stadium on a stiflingly hot July afternoon. His disqualification after he was helped to his feet led paradoxically to an astonishing explosion in marathon racing.