Olympic grudge matches

[anonymous-user]

Anyone got some good grudge matches worth staying in for? the proper bitter rivals kind of stuff that they would rather resolve in a bare knuckle fight behind the Dog and Duck on a Saturday night?.... I'll start with a few I'm watching out for but hopefully there are loads more that you can contribute.

Sally Pearson vs Kellie Wells - W100m Hurdles. Pearson was beaten for the first time in 2012 on Saturday by.....Wells.

Anna Meares vs Victoria Pendleton - Womens track cycling sprint. These two have been racing each other for the last six or seven years, Pendleton retires after the olympics, Meares badly wants gold

Liu Cheng vs Dayron Robles - M110m hurdles. Again raced each other for the last twelve months, Liu has the upper hand at the moment...

Christian Taylor vs Phillips Idowu - M Triple Jump. Taylor is the reigning world chmpion, Idowu was silver medalist in 2008 and is Hackney born and bred...

Gay vs Gaitlin vs Bolt vs Frater vs Blake vs Powell vs... - M100m. No idea where to start with that one....

USA vs North Korea - Womens football. Glorious nation of Peoples Democratic Repulic of Korea vs evil western infidels.... the only event in the 2012 Olympics which could possibly end in nuclear war!...

[mizx]

I'm looking for work and it's unlikely anything will come up soon, so should have plenty of time to watch a lot of it Not so interested in track & field but there's not that much else I wouldn't like to see, so there's not really anyone in particular I'm looking out for.

Here's some being mentioned on lots of sites:

Aus - GB - Rowing and Cycling

Aus - Germany - Hockey

China - USA - Gymnastics

Phelps vs Ryan Lochte - Swimming

Lolo Jones vs Dawn Harper - W100m hurdles

Barbora Spotakova vs Mariya Abakumova - Javelin

Christian Cantwell vs Reese Hoffa - Shotput

Veronica Campbell-Brown vs Allyson Felix - W200m

Li Xuerui vs Saina Nehwal - Badminton

Turinesh Dibaba vs Meseret Defar - W5000m

Kiprop vs Kiplagat - 1500m

Federer/Nadal/Djokovic - probably last chance for Fed to win the gold, I'm not sure he can

[Roman]

Has to be GB v Aus in the Team Pursuit

[Tiggsy]

Spain V USA basketball - USA will take it but are under a little pressure as many don't think it's as easy a job as they assume.

[egor110]

Tiggsy said:

Spain V USA basketball - USA will take it but are under a little pressure as many don't think it's as easy a job as they assume.

Why do you think usa will win?

[epom]

USA generally do win.... anything like a dream team this year ??

[egor110]

The players have had a busy year, nba players strike then been playing 3 games a week to catch up.

If i wanted a good odds bet i'd stick a few quid on spain. They have a core of good players pau gasol, serge ibaka and in the womens australia.

[Tiggsy]

egor110 said:

Tiggsy said:

Spain V USA basketball - USA will take it but are under a little pressure as many don't think it's as easy a job as they assume.

Why do you think usa will win?

Because the main advantage Spain have is more bigs inside....which could well cause USA some issues but I can't see it being enough to stop them. International BB is different to the NBA but still, the 2012 squad might not be 92 Dream Team levels but they have players that would have made that team with ease in LB, KD, Kobe. I predict a 105 90 Final to USA V Spain.

Oh, and just about to set off for Manchester to watch team USA V GB ..... Luol is going to need to pull something magic out the bag for this not to turn into a one sided All Star game.

[Tiggsy]

epom said:

USA generally do win.... anything like a dream team this year ??

Sort off...they have LeBron James who should be the best player of all time (if he had Jordan's attitude) and Kobe Bryant who (despite being old) thinks he's the best player of all time and KD who is prob 2nd only to LeBron right now in the NBA. And they have speed which the 92 guys didnt have (as much) - and no old timers only there to give them a nice send off (Johnson and Bird in 92 were hardly "peak")

Main issue is that the world has got better - most teams now have 2 or 3 players in the NBA so they are more experienced in playing at that level and against those people. In 92 it wasn't just how good the DT were, it was how much better than anyone else they were. Spain have a starting 5 who all have some taste of the NBA (some at All Star level....they even have guys on the bench who just missed out on being NBA champs a few weeks ago) - I can't see them winning, but it would be worth a punt at 6/1

[Cheib]

Roman said:

Has to be GB v Aus in the Team Pursuit

Yes....and I think Pendelton v Mears in the track cycling will be unbelievable. Not forgetting the Mens individual and Team Sprint.

There is something gladatorual about track cycling.

[egor110]

Tiggsy said:

Because the main advantage Spain have is more bigs inside....which could well cause USA some issues but I can't see it being enough to stop them. International BB is different to the NBA but still, the 2012 squad might not be 92 Dream Team levels but they have players that would have made that team with ease in LB, KD, Kobe. I predict a 105 90 Final to USA V Spain.

Oh, and just about to set off for Manchester to watch team USA V GB ..... Luol is going to need to pull something magic out the bag for this not to turn into a one sided All Star game.

How was it? Watched on tv and the crowd seemed really quiet.
Were there a lot of non basketball people there? My one fear for the olympics is venues full of people who don't realise you can shout and put the opposition off during free throws.

[Tiggsy]

Full report later, but for a basketball fan.......that was about as good as it gets, unless Jordan came back!

[Tiggsy]

egor110 said:

How was it? Watched on tv and the crowd seemed really quiet.
Were there a lot of non basketball people there? My one fear for the olympics is venues full of people who don't realise you can shout and put the opposition off during free throws.

Bit more here:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

The place was ok....seen a few NBA games and it was on a parr with that. There where plenty of non-ballers there but the vast majority knew what they were watching. Davis came out to chants of "FEAR THE BROW" for example!

Lots of people wanted to be pro GB but the warm up summed it up....the whole GB squad doing cross court stretching drills like Woody Harrelson while the yanks where throwing alley opps to each other while the crowd went nuts for it! (Russel Westbrook dunking....most incredible athletic thing I have ever seen. For someone just over 6ft in his socks he was throwing it down easier than anyone else on the court)

[egor110]

Do you have any olympics tickets?

I think if your supporting G.B basketball you need to look at the irish in the euro's this year, you know your teams going to get smashed so drink, be merry, make lots of noise and support them.

Do you watch any uk basketball? My teams in div3 but not sure if they'll field a team this year?

[Tiggsy]

couldnt get olympic tickets - glad this chance came up.

Who's your team? I do the MC work for Reading Rockets who are in the EBL Div 1 (my kids play for their junior squads and southern england)....we're hoping to go to the BBL next season.

[egor110]

taunton tigers, we had our best time 05-07 where we won up from div3 to div1 each season. We didn't have the budget for it though so pulled out , were relegated to div4 and now hanging around in div3.

If they don't put out a team this year i'll watch bristol or plymouth although have family near worcester to could watch them?