what we heard "It's like there's a spell over the tour." Kim Cliisters on Venus Williams injuring her left ankle at the German Open this weekend. Serena Williams, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Clijsters and Jennifer Capriati also have injuries.
off the bench
8A the university daily kansan
monday, may 10, 2004
Can's best friend
George, a two-year-old mutt, soaked in a tub of beverages during Saturday's Lawrence Humane Society's Mutt and Strutt benefit at Sunflower School. George attended the event with his family, Sheldon, Evan and Molly Weisgrau. The Weisgraus adopted him from the Lawrence shelter.
Weightlifter aims for first at Olympics
Athlete wants to increase lift weight by more than 100 lbs.
The Associated Press
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Shane Hamman can dead-lift more weight than any Olympic athlete in America, Imagine being able to hoist the back end of a Ford Focus or a Dodge Neon above one's head, and you get the idea.
While he has become something of a celebrity in a sport in which few Americans can name a single participant — he regularly makes TV appearances and expects to hit Letterman and Leno before the Olympics — Hamman's biggest athletic challenge will come in the next three months.
During a time span that, for weightlifters, is a relative blink of the eye, Hamman must increase his lifting significantly if he is to medal in Athens.
His two-lift total of 903 3/4 pounds during Saturday's U.S. Olympic trials
sounds exceptional, but is far below the 1,041 1/2 pounds hoisted by gold medalist Hossein Rezazadeh of Iran during the 2000 Olympics.
Rezazadeh, perhaps the best-known athlete in his country, has since had combined lifts of 1,047 pounds in competition, and is talking about raising even more weight in Athens.
In a sport in which even minimal increases in performance require months of exhausting training, Hamman seemingly has an insurmountable gap to close to substantially improve upon his 10th place finish in Sydney.
Hamman is convinced he can do it, even though these next 90 days already looked jammed with numerous media appearances, commercial endorsements and dealing with the prerequisite attention that is splashed upon Olympic athletes once every four years.
"That's what's going to be determined in my next three months of training, if I'm able to close that gap or not," said Hamman, of Mustang, Okla.
"That's exactly what I'm expecting to do. I'm not looking at finishing fifth or something, it's going to be all or nothing
"I'm not looking at finishing fifth or something, it's going to be all or nothing for me at
this one."
Shane Hamman Weightlifter
for me at this one. I'm going to load up the weight, and I'm going to try it," he said.
For all his infectious enthusiasm and optimism, Hamman understands the challenge ahead.
Nevertheless, Haworth's female counterpart, 2000 bronze medalist Cheryl Haworth said, "They're all scared of him," a reference to the rest of the men's field.
"I'm going to be adding a lot of kilos to my total," Hamman said. "I have numbers in my mind but it's all going to come
No American super heavyweight has won a weightlifting medal since Mario Martinez took a silver in the Russian-boycott Los Angeles games of 1984.
down to what I need (to medal). That's
what I'm training for."
Hamman will be joined on the U.S. men's team by the 185-pound Oscar Chaplin III, also a 2000 Olympian, and 170-pound newcomer Chad Vaughn, who held off hometown favorite Pete Kelley of St. Joseph for the third and final spot.
Hamman, Chaplin and Vaughn began the trials ranked 1-2-3 based on past performance and weren't bumped, even though Chaplin managed to complete only one of four lifts on achy knees. Kelley, who was No. 4, looked ready to bump Vaughn when he set a U.S. weight-class record in the snatch.
The only U. S. weightlifting medalists in Sydney, Tara Cunningham (gold) and Haworth, will form a downsized two-woman team after holding off all challengers Saturday.
The United States lost two of the four women's slots it had in Sydney because of a low finish in last year's world championships, when Haworth — who usually supplies 40 percent of the U.S. scoring — was injured and could not compete.
KC ends road-game skid in Boston
The Associated Press
BOSTON — Bill Mueller put Jaime Cerda's first pitch over the Green Monster — foul — missing a game-tying grand slam by a few feet.
Mueller then fouled off eight more pitches in a 13-pitch at-bat.
With a full count, two outs and the baseloaded. Cedda then got Mueller to
base loaded, Corda's ground out to third base to squelch Boston's biggest threat and secure the Kansas City Royals' 8-4 victory against the Red Sox yesterday.
After the first pitch,
"I turned and looked
and thought, 'Wow,
that wall in left field is
pretty close,'" said
Cerda, who had never
royals 8
red sox 4
neble blue jays at
royals
records: royals 9-
20 blue jays 13-
18
Cerda, who will been to Fenway Park before. "The electricity out there was unbelievable. Nine pitches in a row and the crowd is getting louder and louder and louder. It was real fun. I'll tell you that."
Darrell May earned his first victory of the season and Carlos Beltran drove in four runs on three hits to help the Royals snap a four-game losing streak. May (1-3) allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk, striking out five before leaving with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth.
Cerda came in to face Mueller, who hit a two-run homer in the second inning and was batting 5-for-10 with four homers and seven RBI in his career against May. After the first shot went foul, Mueller took two balls before fouling off eight consecutive pitches.
The next pitch was high to make it a full count, and then Mueller hit an easy bouncer to third to end the threat.
Cerda went two innings and allowed one run on one hit — Manny Ramirez's solo homer in the eighth. Mike Sweeney was 2-for-2 with three intentional walks and Kelly Stinnett stimmed for the Royals, who won on the road for just the third time all season.
"When a ballclub's struggling, to win a ballgame can mean a lot," manager Tony Pena said. "It might turn around something. It's time."
Derek Lowe (3-3) gave up six runs on five hits and five walks in 5 2-3 innings and Boston lost for the first time in five games. He gave up two unearned runs in the third and ran into more trouble after bringing a 2-2 tie into the sixth.
With Mark Malaska pitching, Beltran doubled to clear the bases and make it 6-2.
The Red Sox had a chance to tie it in the bottom of the sixth, when they loaded the bases but came away empty handed.
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