Why Stuff.co.nz is crap

To further the new segment of our podcast (which you'll hear soon) we bring you "why Stuff.co.nz is crap". This will be us posting (and podcasting) the terrible sports-reporting being done by "New Zealand's source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news". Feel free to send us anything you find and we'll put it up.

Today's Stuff-crapiness comes from Dom who was reading about the World Swimming Champs in Melbourne.

Champion United States swimmer Michael Phelps already has one giant hand on the gold medal after cruising through the second semi in 1min 55.13sec, more than a minute outside his own world record set last year.

My God, less than 55 seconds to swim 200 metres. Was he actually in the water when he set that record?

Highest one day partnership. Ever.

Indian schoolboys Shahbaz Tumbi and B Manoj Kumar knocked up a partnership of 721 runs for the opening wicket in an under-13 forty overs inter-school match at Secunderabad in southern India on Wednesday.

The article states they were playing St Philip's High School, who were bowled out for 21 in the run 'chase', but fails to mention whether the St Philip's pupils were, in fact, blind, eight year olds, mentally retarded, or all of the above.

Apparently they broke three records with the stand: surpassing the previous highest stand record of 664 (held by batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli) as well as the highest total and highest margin of victory - in any form of limited-overs cricket at any level.

From the BBC article...

Staff and pupils at the school have not stopped celebrating since the record was set on Wednesday.

The school band is almost more exhausted than the cricketers after playing tune after tune in honour of the young heroes.

Twelve-year-old Mohammed Shahbaz Tumbi and his class mate B Manoj Kumar were playing as openers in the under-13 school cricket tournament of the Hyderabad Cricket Association.

Shahbaz scored 324 runs - with 57 boundaries - off 116 balls.

His partner and close friend Manoj scored an equally scintillating 320 runs - with 46 boundaries - off 127 balls.

A whopping 77 extras meant that the total from their partnership went up to 721 runs for no wicket.

Interestingly not a single six was hit during the trail blazing innings.

Early nomination for Sportsmen of the Week, perhaps?

Athletes of the Week

This page will be our archive of our "Athletes of the Week"

Week 1: Epiphanny Prince

Epiphanny Prince of Murry Bergtraum High School scored 113 points in a game Wednesday, breaking a girls' national prep record previously held by Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller.

Week 2: Richard “Dick” Cheney

US Vice President Dick Cheney shot Henry Wittington in the face while on a quail hunt. Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong said Mr Cheney had turned round to shoot at a bird, unaware that Mr Whittington was behind him. "The covey flushed and the vice-president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by God, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good," she said.

Week 3: Jonathon “Fatal1ty” Wendel

Jonathon “Fatal1ty” Wendel (note the “1” in Fatal1ty) just took out the Painkiller tournament in Sweden. Wendel is part of the CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) Tour and made roughly USD$200,000 last year. At 24 years old Wendel is known as the “Tiger Woods of professional gaming”.

He is currently single.

Week 4: Jason McElwain

Jason McElwain is a student at Greece Athena Highschool and is the assissant coach and manager of the schools basketball team. He is incredibly passionate about the sport. He also has autism. In the team's last game of the regular season the coach let him "suit up". With roughly four minutes remaining in the game. The coach stands up and points at young Jase and in he goes. His first shot is a gigantic airball, his second also misses. Then he sinks a giant 3-pointer. Then another. And another. He keeps firing and sinking until at the end of the game he sinks a buzzer beater to get 20 points in four minutes (5 points per minute). The crowd has at near riot levels and when the clock showed all zeroes Jason was swept onto their shoulders and carried from the court.

Awesome. (See the video of Jason's feat here)

Week 5: George Bush Jr.

The big W visited Pakistan recently. During his visit he met the Pakistani cricket team and, after speaking to captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, gave the game a go. After correcting his baseball stance Inzamam bowled him a few balls. George managed to belt the first one, so ul-Haq bowled him a googly which actually hit the president on the shoulder. Lucky for the captain they were using tennis balls. George stared him down and then smacked the next ball as well.

Condoleeza Rice was a close runner-up for her new exercise regime that she has exposed to the world.