Philippe Gilbert

 

 

Belgium’s new victor proved he was tougher then the rest today after speeding thought the relentless circuit in Limburg to become World Road Race Champion.

The 30-year-old cyclist was four seconds ahead of Team Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen and Alejandro Valverde in a brutal 267km race that Britain’s Olympians, Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome failed to finish.

For once Lollipop and I weren’t commenting on the dominant Brit cycling trio. Instead they were nowhere to be seen as Gilbert broke away over the summit of the Cauberg hill leaving Hagen and Valverde more concerned with each other.

Our champion even had time to celebrate  before crossing the line as he emulated fellow pro Eddy Merckx who also won a world championship in Holland in 1967.

But is he someone Lollipop and I should have had her eye on?

As only the second Belgian to win the Road Race,  Gilbert won five one-day Classics last year. He also took the opening 191.5 km stage of the 2011 Tour de France, winning by three seconds over Australian Cadel Evans – he became the first person to put on the yellow jersey as overall leader.

But 2012 has not proved as epic for BMC Racing team member. His Season goals for his new squad were to perform highly in the Spring Classics and help his team-mate Cadel Evans repeat his 2011 feat of winning the Tour de France.

None of these were achieved.

He also lost both of the Belgian National Championship titles he held, the Road Race and the Individual Time Trial.

In fact his form only returned in recent weeks at the Tour of Spain. So no wonder he was off Lollipop’s radar.

With such a wondrous win and holder of the Rainbow coloured jersey for the next 12 months Gilberts season is picking up pace. Whether he can hold on to this run will be questioned by pundits and upcoming champs like Tour of Britain winner Jon Tiernan-Locke who finished just five seconds behind.

Until then we’ll let Gilbert embrace his six hours, 10 minutes and 41 seconds victory finish.

 

 

Tirunesh Dibaba

Its raining it pouring but the marathon must go on. Olympic gold Medallist, Tirunesh Dibaba raced to victory in the rain at the Great North Run, the annual half marathon from Newcastle to South Shields.

26- year-old Dibaba and 35-year-old William Kipsang were champions of the men and women’s races.

And it is Dibaba that is my Lollipop’s champ. After her dominant defence of the Olympic 10,000m title just months ago in London the Ethiopian proved her talents didn’t just lie on the track.

In her marathon debut she won with a hugely impressive time of 1:07:35 leaving competitors Lorna Kiplaget and Tiki Galena trailing helplessly behind in second and third.

After she told the BBC: “Hopefully next time I can run a faster time and I am thinking of running a marathon next year.”

So could this mark Dibaba’s transition from Olympic champion to Marathon Queen?

Nicknamed the Baby Faced Destroyer, Dibaba has won three Olympic gold medals on the track. She won the 5,000m and 10,000m double in Beijing, along with her epic 10k title in London 2012 . She has also won four golds at the World Championships, and five world cross-country titles.

She is the seventh athlete from her country to win three individual gold medals. So having achieved practically everything she’d ever dreamed of on the track why shouldn’t she move on to greater distances.

Her gripping win on the streets of Newcastle shows her dominance in athletics and over her peers in the biggest ever Great North Run -39,953 people crossed the start line as Olympians Mo Farah, Greg Rutherford and Ellie Simmonds started the race.

So could the young girl from the village of Bekoji be the marathon and track queen pundits have been waiting for – Lollipop thinks she already has.

 

 

 

 

 

Lollipop’s Paralympics Champion

London 2012 has reached its pinnacle. Its now time for Lollipop and I to say goodbye to a sumptuous summer of sport.

The medals have been decided, the athletes are spent so there’s only one thing for Lollipop to consider. Who is our number one? Our Paralympian Champion?

After series of debate we decided Northern Ireland’s Jason Smyth should take the crown.

After narrowly missing out on the chance to compete in the Olympics in May 2011 where he ran 10.22 in the 100m – just 0.04 secs off the A Time needed to cement a place- his hopes switched solely to the Paralympics.

But when the 26-year-old soared to the finish line in the T13 100m and 200m in record-breaking times the disappointment of last year was erased.

Smyth clocked a time of 21.05 in the 200m 0.90secs ahead of second place and 0.38s quicker than his old world record. He successfully defended both T13 titles he won four years ago in Beijing – making him the fastest Paralympian in the world.
The Derry athlete finished yards away from the racing pack. Each stride was so immense you almost forgot his central vision is affected by Stargardt’s disease– an inherited juvenile macular degeneration that causes progressive vision loss usually to the point of legal blindness.

Yet he bids to compete with the greatest Olympians on the track. Training in Florida with American Olympic medallist Tyson Gay has clearly improved Smyth’s time. His 100m final was also marked as the fastest in Paralympics history.

It would have been incredible to see Smyth race against Bolt or Gatlin but his wins topped that for Lollipop.

His Paralympics success meant Ireland won 8 golds at this years games.

Lollipop and I have learnt a lot of new names over these past 11 days – David Weir, Jonnie Peacock, Sophie Christiansen, Ellie Simmonds. And to name them as champions has made their success even more special.

Richard Whitehead

Lollipop and I are stunned by team GB’s Paralympians.

Watching Whitehead in the T42 200m final  scrape half a second off his previous world record of 24.93secs with a new time of  24.38secs was inspiring – maybe even more so than Usain Bolt achieving the double in the 100m and 200m just weeks ago.

It was more the fashion in which the 31-year-old Nottinghamshire runner powered past his rivals. The USA‘s Shaquille Vance and Germany‘s Heinrich Popow trailed him in second and third.

As the only athlete on the track to start from a standing position in the class for single above-knee amputees or combined arm/leg amputees and after such a slow start Whitehead looked beaten in the first 100m. But 10 seconds or more later his prosthetic limbs glided past his competitors as he finished more than a second in front.

Similar to Bolt he struck a pose before he crossed the line flexing his muscles like the true champion he is.

Because once again Whitehead is a Paralympics record holder.

The British athlete is also the marathon world record holder but was denied a chance to compete in London with arm amputees in the T46 class due to International Paralympic Committee (IPC) regulations.

Whitehead took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport last year but failed to change the regulations. But he still hopes to compete in the Marathon in 2016.

To master the 200m Whitehead – who was born without the lower part of his legs had to learn how to run the bend at the age of 35. Five times, in training and competition, he has snapped his running blades trying to complete the curve.

But today there were no breakages. And after the patriotic champion stood on the podium to collect his awaited medal.

Team GB are now up to 8 golds and 32 medals in total. And Lollipop can’t wait to see if Whitehead adds more to the tally in the T42 100m.