Question for Michael O’Hara: To hurdle or not to hurdle?
O’Hara is taller, with longer legs, and should have no trouble with the higher hurdle. Moreover, he will likely have the same hurdling coach as Mason. That’s Kevin Pryce, who sired dozens of fast timber toppers at Calabar High, before joining the Racers Track Club. In fact, the young prospect has been so good as a 4x400m relay runner that he should probably try the 400 metres hurdles. His former Calabar teammate, Javon Francis, once ran that event in 52.3 seconds and Francis doesn’t have O’Hara’s experience in the sprint hurdles. He’d have to learn to alternate lead legs, but after that, the sky would be the limit. That last flight of fancy isn’t likely. His new handlers, including celebrated sprint guru Glen Mills, are unlikely to relinquish his awesome sprint capabilities. That’s understandable, but his potential as a sprint hurdler is awesome, too. For some, his size and sprint speed makes him a candidate to be the next Usain Bolt, but there’s only one Usain Bolt. When you pull away the camouflage, he looks more like a big and powerful sprint hurdler in the mould of Olympic gold medallist Anier Garcia and the American pair of World champions, David Oliver and Greg Foster. It’s a look I could live with. – Hubert Lawrence has made notes at track side since 1980. No problem for him You may not know it, but Michael O’Hara is the best young sprint hurdle prospect on Earth. His sprint prowess is superbly camouflaged, but a closer look reveals that as a hurdler, he has enormous potential. With Jamaican sprinting aglow with the achievement of Bolt and company, O’Hara must decide whether to hurdle or not to hurdle. Tyler Mason, the 2014 World Junior runner-up, has graduated nicely from the high-school ranks with a 110-metre hurdle personal best of 13.32 seconds and fourth place at the Pan-Am Games. Jaheel Hyde has won the World Youth and Youth Olympic gold medals and has the World Youth record. O’Hara, however, has consistently beaten them both during their high-school years. In fact, in 2013 when Hyde won the World Youth title, he had been defeated by O’Hara at Boys and Girls’ Championships earlier in the year. O’Hara scorched his way into the record books with a time of 13.50 seconds. He has, in fact, won the sprint hurdles class one, two and three. That’s a distinction he shares with Kevin ‘MacGyver’ Mitchell, the Jamaica College Champs star of the 1990s. This year, at Champs, he beat Hyde in the most highly anticipated encounter of the entire meet. Here’s how he hides his hurdling prowess from view. While Mason and Hyde hurdled their way to prominence in summer junior international competition, O’Hara focused on the sprints. The returns were good. He won the 200-metre gold medal at the 2013 World Youth Championships and bronze at last year’s World Junior Championships. So it’s easy to forget that he hurdles. Mason made a smooth transition from the 39-inch high junior hurdle to the 42-inch barrier that faces seniors.
The LFA’s 1st division league continues this weekend with two matches at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in what is expected to be exciting encounters in Monrovia.Fourth place LISCR FC will be hoping to move on to the 3rd place when they go against 8th place ELWA United at 4:00pm. LISCR FC is in 4th place with eight points out of seven games since the start of the national 1st division league.LISCR last week moved on to the fourth position after defeating Keitrace FC 2-1 at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium, while ELWA United has played five games and is in the 8th position with 4 points. Meanwhile, 11th place NPA Anchors who held 1st division leaders BYC to a 1-1 draw at the Blue Field, will lock horns with 10th place Keitrace that is yet to secure a win, on Sunday at the same venue.BYC is still on top of the log with an unbeaten run after winning five and drawing three of their eight games. FC Fassell is in the second position with 14 points out of six games, while Holder FC is in the third position with 10 points after seven games. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
Ronald Jairam, the driver who struck down an 11-year-old girl while she was using a pedestrian crossing at Grove Public Road, East Bank Demerara (EBD), was on Monday sentenced to six months in prison by Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman.Jairam was slapped with three charges when he appeared at the Providence Magistrate’s Court. He pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving, driving an uninsured vehicle and for being an unlicensed driver.Adalia GeorgeThe victim, Adalia George, a Grade Six student of the Soesdyke Primary School, was hospitalised for at least two weeks after the accident, and was recently discharged from the Georgetown Public Hospital.It was reported that on Tuesday, November 19, George, along with her siblings, had just disembarked a minibus and were crossing the road.A car had stopped to allow the group to cross, but as they were doing so, another car, driven by Jairam, failed to stop and as a result, the vehicle hit the schoolchild. Jairam was reportedly going at a fast pace.After the accident, the child’s siblings immediately rushed to her aid. Without hesitation, the driver of the car picked her up and rushed her to the Diamond hospital, where she was treated and referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital to which she was admitted.The driver was subsequently taken into Police custody and charged. The child is set to write the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) next year.
Spelsberg says anyone interested in competing over the age of 55 is welcome to register, with the registration deadline set at June 6.For Track and Field, there is a full slate of events available to compete in, while those interested in Tennis have the option to sign up for either singles, doubles and even mixed doubles.This year’s B.C. Senior Games will take place in Burnaby from August 21-25.- Advertisement -If interested in competing in either of these events or looking for more information, contact Grant Spelsberg at 250-785-5733 or email him at gcspelsberg@shaw.ca.
AZUSA – She leaps for the rebound, reaching above the taller players around her, grabs the ball and turns toward the opponent’s basket. She runs with her elbows flailing out to the side, nearly hitting her crumpled ponytail flying behind her. She sees defenders closing in, decides to continue to the hoop and buries her head in the chest of a defender. Somers struggled to grow up in a modern world while being raised with what she considered antiquated rules. “I came home from school, I did my homework, \ tutored me,” she said. “We did math problems, I read. He even told me I should read the dictionary and the encyclopedia for fun. We’d always do stuff on the computer, CD-ROM stuff. He made me speak and taught me typing. “I was really into school because that’s how they brought me up. They weren’t big on friends, hanging out and stuff like that, because in their day, you worked. You got a job and an education to prepare you for the future.” The vocational studies began to wear on an adolescent Somers, who started rebelling when she wasn’t allowed to go to sleepovers and parties. She kept her grades up, but things weren’t as happy at home as they had been. As high school loomed, things became so strained a change of scenery was needed. Her aunt, Olympic marathoner Linda Somers, had married triathlete Scott Smith in San Luis Obispo. She was open to the idea of raising the rambunctious pre-teen Monica had become. “We didn’t really want kids yet. We hadn’t talked about having kids at all,” Somers-Smith said. “She was just like any adolescent. She had an attitude. She was developing her own personality, her own direction and the things they were thinking about doing with her sounded pretty drastic. So we had her come out for us over a summer just to see what she was like. “It was nothing a little bit of guidance couldn’t help.” The athletic prowess of the two Somers now considers her mother and father became the perfect scenario to foster Monica’s burgeoning enthusiasm for basketball. It’s a sport she’s been passionate about as far back as she can remember. With their encouragement, she became a standout player in high school and by her senior year was fielding offers from various NCAA Division I schools. Ending up at APU may be more clandestine providence than anything else. “I was at the Oregon Trail Tournament, I believe, my senior year. I was recruited late (by APU),” said Somers, 21, a three-year starter. “I had been on, I think, five or six recruiting trips to Dartmouth, Cal State Northridge, UC Santa Barbara … not big schools, but pretty big schools. “They had all pretty much told me that I was too small or that I had an attitude or something because I was always … when I played basketball, I was always very aggressive and I was very outspoken.” The quality some schools saw as a problem was viewed as a positive by former APU coach Matt Elofson. He offered her a full scholarship, which she accepted after visiting the campus and staying with former Cougars forward Lindsey West. “\ is one of my best friends in the whole world and I think she’s one of the biggest reasons I came to this school,” said Somers, an athletic training major. “I just fell in love with her and she was so sweet. I was just like, `Hey if she’s gonna be here for three years, I can make it.’ ” But it wasn’t quite that easy for Somers, who had major problems controlling her aggression during her freshman season and as a result started just five games. The same edge that had allowed her to play with such fire and intensity also cut deep into her teammates, put off the upperclassmen and scared her fellow freshmen. “We joke about it now, because she’s completely changed since then, but she was pretty out of control out there,” said Danelle Bishop, who was named the Cougars coach prior to Somers’ freshman year and has led APU to three consecutive postseason appearances. “She’s still spunky, but her personality was off the charts abrasive.” For three seasons, Somers’ competitiveness would bubble over in games and force Bishop to bench her until she calmed and refocused. It’s something that still happens on occasion, but those times now are few and far between. Somers’ maturation has been a long process, but now she’s enjoying the best season of her basketball career. With a recent penchant for scoring outbursts, she’s averaging 21.4 points per game, tops in the Golden State Athletic Conference and second nationally in the NAIA. Earlier in the season, Somers scored 42 points just one off the GSAC record and has averaged 26.4 points over the past seven games, starting with that hallmark performance. All have been wins for Azusa (21-5, 13-4), which has won nine of its last 10 games, 20 of its last 23 and could go deep in this year’s postseason tournament. Somers has been the team’s high scorer in all but eight of the Cougars’ 25 games and is the APU career leader in free throws attempted and made. It’s a direct result of her aggression on the court and driving to the basket with contact in mind. The intensity still is present, but it’s more tempered now refined, like the person Somers has become. “I honestly care about that kid with all my heart,” Bishop said. “I think the combination of things for her were able to make her grow, like, `Hey, I went through these things to help me grow into the person I am today.’ And I think her being at APU has helped her understand that instead of looking at those things in a negative way, look at it as that without those things, she wouldn’t be the same Monica Somers she is today. “I get teary-eyed every time I talk about it because to go through the stuff that she’s gone through. She’s one of those people that instead of blaming others for her circumstances, she’s just gone with it and learned from it. It takes a strong person to do that.” sean.moses@sgvn.com (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2213 160Want local news?Sign up for the Localist and stay informed Something went wrong. Please try again.subscribeCongratulations! You’re all set! Her life hasn’t been easy, but the senior guard at Azusa Pacific University has kept fighting. She’s having the best season of her career and has the Cougars poised to record one of their best basketball seasons in school history. “I seriously thank God for everything I’ve been through because it’s built my character and has put me in situations that I’ve had to overcome things, situations \ other people … aren’t going to know what to do and they’re going to run,” Somers said. “I think with the things I’ve overcome, I have the courage to stand up to anyone. I don’t let anyone walk all over me and I don’t take crap from anyone.” Somers, abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at a San Diego park at age 2, has lived with three groups of family members since then, going from California to Ohio and back. Her grandmother found Somers in the park talking to someone who was trying to help her find her mother. She would have taken care of her on her own, but a teaching job kept her busy, so Somers was moved to Cincinnati to be with her great aunt and uncle on her grandmother’s side. 
She’s knocked to the floor but somehow still manages to make the shot. She gets back up with a grimace on her face, which makes it difficult to tell if she’s elated or irate. Monica Somers is tough. And if you knew the things she’s been through, you’d know why she’s had to be. 
Every Championship club’s best signing of the decade, including Taarabt and Dack Liverpool legend Graeme Souness has compared the current crop of Reds players to that of Barcelona at their very best.Jurgen Klopp’s men have made a perfect start to their season with five wins from five games – their most recent triumph coming at Tottenham’s expense after beating them 2-1 at Wembley. Some are backing Liverpool to win their first ever Premier League crown this season RANKED The likes of Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi helped Barcelona achieve all manner of success Goals from Georginio Wijnaldum and Roberto Firmino either side of half-time helped the Reds see out the result despite Erik Lamela’s stoppage-time strike.And Souness, who claimed the current squad was the best Liverpool team he’s seen since they last won a league title in 1990 earlier this week, had even more praise for his former club after the Spurs game.Speaking as a pundit for Sky Sports, Souness said: “You go back to Barcelona at their very best, you enjoyed their passing and moving football with their magicians like Messi and Iniesta – but it was easy to overlook their work rate.“It’s the same with this Liverpool team. If they can keep this intensity going, whoever finishes in front of them this season will win the league. Latest Football News 2 silverware impact Top nine Premier League free transfers of the decade possible standings highlights 
England’s most successful clubs of the past decade, according to trophies won Best clips, calls and talkSPORT moments of 2019, feat Hearn, McCoist and more “This is the best Liverpool team since they won the league.“I think they’ve got a great chance to win the league. City are fabulous, they’ve got equally fabulous players, and I think it’ll be nip and tuck all the way through if that’s the intensity Liverpool can play with.”After coming through arguably their biggest test in the league so far the Reds get their Champions League campaign underway when they face Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield on Tuesday night. Every current Premier League club’s best kit from the past decade MONEY Forbes list reveals how much Mayweather, Ronaldo and Messi earned this decade How the Premier League table could change after the Boxing Day fixtures smart causal 2 REVEALED Which teams do the best on Boxing Day in the Premier League era?
VIENNA, Austria – Officials in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hometown of Graz quietly and under cover of darkness removed giant metal letters spelling out his name on a soccer stadium. The California governor had asked for his name to be stricken from the 15,300-seat arena after critics in his birthplace, where opposition to capital punishment runs high, scorned him for refusing to block this month’s execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams. Late Sunday night or early Monday, authorities in the southern Austrian city unbolted the 20 letters spelling out the action star-turned-politician’s name from Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium. They timed the work to take advantage of the Christmas lull to avoid attracting attention “and keep the media from taking photos,” a local City Hall official who declined to be named told Austrian television. Capital punishment is illegal in Schwarzenegger’s native Austria, where many people consider it barbaric. Opposition had run especially high in Graz, whose official slogan is “City of Human Rights.” AD Quality Auto 360p 720p 1080p Top articles1/5READ MORERose Parade grand marshal Rita Moreno talks New Year’s Day outfit and ‘West Side Story’ remake After Williams’ Dec. 13 execution triggered a firestorm in Europe and reignited calls for Graz’s stadium to be stripped of Schwarzenegger’s name, the governor opted for a pre-emptive strike: A week ago, he dashed off a letter to local officials ordering his name to be removed and said he was returning an ornate ring of honor that Graz officials gave him in 1999. With the Hollywood star’s name gone, the sign atop the main entrance to the stadium in Graz, about 120 miles south of Vienna, read simply, “Stadium Graz Liebenau,” as it was known before it was renamed in Schwarzenegger’s honor in 1997. The overnight removal caught locals by surprise. “Arnie banished from the stadium’s name,” the Graz daily Kleine Zeitung headlined Monday. Calls to the City Hall in Graz went unanswered on Monday, a national holiday. Last week, Graz Mayor Siegfried Nagl wrote to Schwarzenegger urging him to reconsider his decision to cut ties to the city and to keep the ring. Nagl said he reassured Schwarzenegger that most local residents still admire him despite fierce opposition to his pro-death penalty stance. Nagl said he was worried that severing ties to Schwarzenegger, one of Austria’s most famous sons, potentially could cost the city millions in tourist revenue. But the movement to scrap Schwarzenegger’s name from the stadium, led by local officials of the pacifist Green Party, had gained momentum in recent weeks, and a majority of the City Council in Graz was said to support the idea. The ring arrived at Graz’s City Hall late last week, and officials were considering putting it on display at a local museum, Nagl told the weekly newspaper Die Woche. Many Europeans have scorned the United States’ use of capital punishment in general, and Schwarzenegger’s refusal to grant clemency to convicts on California’s death row in particular. They are now waiting to see how Schwarzenegger deals with the scheduled Jan. 17 execution of a 75-year-old inmate. Schwarzenegger was born in 1947 in the village of Thal just outside Graz, where he began his bodybuilding career. He emigrated to the United States in 1968 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1984, but has retained his Austrian citizenship. He remained quite popular in Austria, where he is known simply as “Arnie,” and enjoyed a surge of celebrity after his 2003 election as governor. In July 2004, when Austria’s post office issued a special postage stamp in his honor to coincide with his 57th birthday, the 600,000 stamps bearing his likeness sold out within a few days. But many Austrians began to sour on him last January after he allowed California’s first execution in three years to go forward. Donald Beardslee, 61, was given a lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco. His Jan. 19 execution triggered protests in front of the U.S. Embassy in Vienna.160Want local news?Sign up for the Localist and stay informed Something went wrong. Please try again.subscribeCongratulations! You’re all set!
Share Facebook Twitter Google + LinkedIn Pinterest Leave a CommentFor 100 years, Butler County Farm Bureau has been serving farming, rural and urban communities in the county. To mark our 100th year, the organization celebrated at the annual meeting Aug. 23 with a program highlighting the past years since our origination and honoring the leaders of the organization. Many displays of past memorabilia and articles were on display as well as a “What Is It’ game for attendees guessing what farm or household antique was on display.A keepsake bag featuring the centennial celebration logo was given to all attending the meeting. Many past presidents were in attendance of the more than 170 people at the meeting.To continue the centennial celebration, Butler County will feature a past leaders, organizations, groups, committees and other important parts of the organization that have shaped our history on Facebook each week. Follow us at Butler County Farm Bureau Hamilton OH. Leave a Comment
A new information eraHour by hour, day after day, in workplaces all across this nation and the world, workers are hearing the term “social networking.”They’ve begun to understand that the old information order in which people interacted, taught, and learned exclusively in face-to-face encounters and through the printed word has changed. It’s been replaced or complemented by something radically different — virtual sources of knowledge and communication, accessible at the speed of light.They see their coworkers integrating social media tools — tweeting, posting to Facebook and blogging — into their everyday work. These early adopting colleagues have discovered that using these tools and techniques enables them to connect, share, and make deeper professional imprints among a wider circle of peers.Missing out? But how to begin?The people who haven’t started incorporating social media tools into their work sense they’re missing out on something — something lasting and significant — something big.They are anxious to take the critical first step. But how? How do they master all of this and make it work for them?In other words, how do they become network-literate — fluent in the skills that define communicating in the 21st century? How do they find the time? How do they avoid the perils widely associated with social networking — privacy infringement and copyright violation, to name only a couple? How do they convince their supervisors to encourage social networking as part of their plans of work and evaluate the impacts of their social media efforts?Military Families Learning Network Literacy Community of PracticeThe Military Families Learning Network Literacy Community of Practice was formed to provide professionals not only with the skills but also with the mindset to make optimal use of this new approach to communicating.Our main goal is to engage a broad learning network to help define a new kind of professional — a fully engaged, networked professional equipped not merely to survive in this new, highly competitive communication landscape but also to learn, teach, create, share, and build within both personal and professional networked communities.The times are calling on all of us to build deeply engaged, reciprocal relationships with those we serve, learn from, and create with. Simply learning how to use social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to reach larger numbers of clients isn’t enough. We must learn to use these and other online tools to build two-way, even multi-party, collaborative relationships with our clients.This is why a big part of the Network Literacy effort will involve helping professionals become comfortable with online social networking tools and then to begin building and sustaining collaborative relationships within emerging networks.A critical first step will be learning how to help professionals gain sufficient levels of what networking visionary Thomas Vander Wal describes as social comfort, namely learning how to build networks in which participants not only feel comfortable among each other but also with the technological tools and subject matter.This is the charge of the Network Literacy effort: to build a new-model worker adequately equipped and inspired to use emerging networks to forge close, highly collaborative relationships with their clients.In the course of helping build this new working model, we hope to contribute something equally as significant: a powerful group of transformers, people who, in the course of building open, fully engaged networked environments, also create transformative relationships with their clients.Join our efforts to promote online network literacy Become a member of our community of practice or liking our Facebook page. You can also contribute to our curation of content about social media and online networks by tagging your posts “#netlit”.Find out moreJoin us on Monday, October 3rd, 2011 at 2 p.m. EDT for an interactive webinar discussing Network Literacy and the eXtension Network Literacy Community of Practice. More details are available here.Authors: Jim Langcuster, Bob Bertsch, Peg Boyles and Stephen JuddThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
About the authorPaul VegasShare the loveHave your say Man City ace Gabriel Jesus: I’m learning a lot from Agueroby Paul Vegas10 months agoSend to a friendShare the loveManchester City ace Gabriel Jesus admits he’s enjoying working alongside Sergio Aguero.The Brazilian’s lack of goals was partly down to limited game-time caused by the impressive form of his fellow South American Aguero.City’s all-time leading goalscorer recently missed three games with a groin injury, but City will expect to benefit from having both forwards healthy and in form.”Sergio is a good guy,” Gabriel said.”I like him. I like his football. He is a legend for City and I’m learning a lot from him.” 