Sports Stars: March 2011

Saturday, March 26, 2011

diego sanchez fotos 2011 news best top

Diego J. Sanchez (born December 31, 1981) is an American mixed martial artist (MMA) with a background in wrestling and Gaidojutsu, system of submission wrestling developed by his longtime trainer Greg Jackson Sanchez was the winner of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter reality series and currently fights as a welterweight with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). From 2007-2009, he lived in San Diego where he trained at The Arena MMA gym and the University of Jiu Jitsu with Saulo Ribeiro. In 2010, Sanchez moved back to New Mexico prior to his fight with John Hathaway. He now trains at Greg Jacksons MMA again.
2 Mixed martial arts career
2.1 Move to Lightweight
2.2 Return to Welterweight
3 Personal life
4 Championships and awards
4.1 Mixed martial arts
4.2 Submission grappling
4.3 Amateur wrestling
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 References
7 External links
Sanchez was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He attended Del Norte High School, where hebecame a state champion wrestlercitation needed
Diego Sanchez wrestled in New Mexico before starting training MMA while working for UPS. Sanchez eventually joined Jackson's Submission Fighting, still while working for UPS, managing the time between work and training. In 2002, he made his MMA debut for King of the Cage where he also later became a champion

His UFC debut came when he was chosen as a participant on the first season of the reality show, The Ultimate Fighter. Presented as a young, focused middleweight who only had one goal, to become a UFC champion, he won a contract with the UFC after winning a fight against Kenny Florian, becoming the middleweight winner for the first season of the show. On the show, Sanchez was known for being the "odd-ball" of the group, practicing yoga at odd moments and trying to extract "energy" from a lightning storm, and was also a self-proclaimed "Zen master". Shortly after, Sanchez dropped to welterweight, defeating Brian Gassaway, Nick Diaz, John Alessio, Karo Parisyan and Joe Riggs.

Sanchez' last fight before his loss to Josh Koscheck was against Joe on December 13, 2006 at UFC Fight Night 7. Sanchez landed a right hook that knocked down, followed by a running knee that knocked Riggs out. Sanchez won at 1:45 of the first round, scoring the first UFC knockout of his career.

Diego Sanchez

Friday, March 25, 2011

Stephanie Louise Rice OAM (born 17 June

Stephanie Louise Rice OAM (born 17 June 1988 in Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian swimmer. She currently holds the world record in the 400 m women's individual medley, and won three gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Rice is trained by Michael Bohl from the St Peters Western Swimming Club in Brisbane. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2009.o 1.1 2007 World Championships
o 1.2 2007 Other events
o 1.3 2008 Australian Olympic Trials
o 1.4 2008 Summer Olympics
o 1.5 2009 World Championships
o 1.6 Awards
* 2 Personal life
* 3 References
* 4 External links
Rice was the gold medallist in the 200 metres individual medley at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia where she defeated Olympians Brooke Hanson and Lara Carroll to claim the gold medal in the event in a time of 2:12.90, a personal best by 1.19 sec. She also won the 400m individual medley.

At the 2007 Melbourne World Championships she won a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley in a time of 2 minutes 11.42 seconds, breaking the previous Australian record by a second. American Katie Hoff won the gold in 2:10.13, with Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe in second place. Rice once again placed third, earning her second bronze medal in the 400m individual medley final. In a new personal best time Rice finished in 4:41.19, taking 0.54 sec off her previous best.
Rice was the gold medallist in the 200 metres individual medley at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia where she defeated Olympians Brooke Hanson and Lara Carroll to claim the gold medal in the event in a time of 2:12.90, a personal best by 1.19 sec. She also won the 400m individual medley.

At the 2007 Melbourne World Championships she won a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley in a time of 2 minutes 11.42 seconds, breaking the previous Australian record by a second. American Katie Hoff won the gold in 2:10.13, with Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe in second place. Rice once again placed third, earning her second bronze medal in the 400m individual medley final. In a new personal best time Rice finished in 4:41.19, taking 0.54 sec off her previous best.

Rice continued her strong performance, setting a new personal best time in the 400m individual medley at an Italian meet in June 2007. Rice went a 4:40.79, edging closer to the elusive 4:40 barrier in the event. At the 2007 Japanese Open Championships, Rice smashed her personal best time in the 400m individual medley and finally cracked the 4:40 barrier. In placing second to Zimbabwean champion Kirsty Coventry, Rice set a new Australian and Commonwealth record of 4:37.18, a personal best by 3.61 sec.

At the 2008 Australian Olympic trials, Rice broke the world record in the 400 m individual medley. Rice stopped the clock at 4 minutes 31.46 seconds, 1.43 seconds off American Katie Hoff's mark of 4:32.89. On 29 June 2008, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Hoff regained the world record from Rice with a time of 4:31.12. Rice claimed her second world record of the meet, when she broke the 200 m individual medley world record, clocking 2 minutes 8.92 seconds to slash almost a full second off the previous record held by China's Wu Yanyan.

At the Beijing Olympic Games, Rice received her first-ever Olympic medal, Australia's first gold medal of the games and its 400th summer Olympic medal, winning the 400m individual medley in a time of 4 minutes 29.45 seconds. In the process she reclaimed the world record from Hoff bettering the mark by 1.67 seconds, thus becoming the first woman to break the 4:30 in the event, (Kirsty Coventry also went under 4:30 in taking the silver).

stephanie rice

Steven Gerrard walking with his daughter Gallery

Steven George Gerrard MBE (pronounced /ˈdʒɛrɑrd/; born 30 May 1980 in Whiston, Merseyside, England), is an English footballer who plays for and captains Premier League club Liverpool. He also has 89 caps for the England national team. He has played much of his career in a centre midfielder role, but he has also been used as a second strike and right winger. Gerrard is best known for his tremendous long-range striking ability and has scored in numerous cup finals, including the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final and the 2006 FA Cup Final. Zinedine Zidane considers Gerrard one of the best footballers in the world

Gerrard, who has spent his entire career at Anfield, made his début in 1998 and cemented his place in the first team in the 2000–01 season, succeeding Sami Hyypiä as Liverpool team captain in 2003. His honours include two FA Cup wins, two League Cup wins, a UEFA Cup win, and a UEFA Champions League win in 2005. In 2005, Gerrard came third in the voting for Ballon d'Or, given to the top player in Europe.

Gerrard made his international debut in 2000 and has represented England at Euro 2000 and Euro 2004, as well as the 2006 World Cup, where he was the team's top goalscorer with two goals. Gerrard is the current vice-captain of the England national football team. However, he captained his country at the 2010 World Cup in the absence of regular captain Rio Ferdinand who missed the tournament through injury. Gerrard came second in the 100 Players Who Shook The Kop, a Liverpool F.C. fan poll
* 1 Club career
* 2 International career
o 2.1 International goals
* 3 Personal life
* 4 Career statistics
* 5 Honours
o 5.1 Winner
o 5.2 Runner-Up
o 5.3 Individual
* 6 Awards
o 6.1 Ballon d'Or
o 6.2 FIFA World Player of the Year
o 6.3 Others
* 7 References
* 8 External links
Born in Whiston, Merseyside,Gerrard started out playing for hometown team Whiston Juniors, where he was noticed by Liverpool scouts. He joined the Reds' youth academy at the age of nine. Gerrard then had trials with various clubs at fourteen, but his success wasn't immediate—Gerrard never made it into the England Schoolboys team. Gerrard's trials included Manchester United, which he claimed in his 2006 autobiography was "to pressure Liverpool into giving me a YTS contract He signed his first professional contract with Liverpool on 5 November 1997
Gerrard made his Liverpool first-team debut on 29 November 1998 in a match against Blackburn Rovers as a last minute substitute for Vegard Heggem. made thirteen appearances in his debut season, filling in the midfield position for injured captain Jamie Redknapp and playing on the right wing, but he scarcely contributed in the short on-pitch time he received, due to nervousness affecting his play. Gerrard recalled in a November 2008 interview with The Guardian, "I was out of position and out of my depth." The Liverpool hierarchy nonetheless remained convinced that he would improve Gerrard saw himself as a defensive player primarily, looking to make key tackles rather than push the team forward

Steven Gerrard

Happy birthday: Samuel Eto'o news 2010 pics

Samuel Eto'o Fils (French pronunciation: [samɥɛl eto fis]) (born 10 March 1981) is a Cameroonian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Italian Serie A club Internazionale. He is also the current captain of the Cameroon national team. Eto'o trained at Kadji Sports Academy He also holds a Spanish passport to enable him not to count among the "foreign players" in the European Union.

Eto'o scored over 100 goals in five seasons with FC Barcelona, and is also the record holder in number of appearances by an African player in La Liga. 2010, he became the first player to win two European Continental Trebles following his back-to-back achievements with Barcelona and Internazionale. He is the second player to have ever scored in two separate UEFA Champions League finals and the fourth player, after Marcel Desailly, Paulo Sousa and Gerard Piqué, to have won the UEFA Champions League two years in a row with different teamsHe is the most decorated African player of all time having won the African Player of the Year award a record four times in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2010.

As a member of the Cameroon national team, he was a part of the squad that won the 2000 Olympic tournament; he has participated in three World Cups and six African Nations Cups (being champion twice) and is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the African Nations Cup, with 18 goals.
* 1 Club career
o 1.1 Real Madrid
o 1.2 Mallorca
o 1.3 Barcelona
+ 1.3.1 2004–2007
+ 1.3.2 2007–2009
o 1.4 Internazionale
* 2 International career
o 2.1 International goals
* 3 Personal life
o 3.1 Racism
* 4 Career statistics
* 5 Honours
o 5.1 Club
o 5.2 International
o 5.3 Individual
* 6 References
* 7 External links
Samuel Eto'o joined Real Madrid in 1997, but he could only train with Real Madrid B, as he was still a minor. Real Madrid B were relegated to the third tier, Segunda División B, where non-EU players are not allowed, and as a result he was loaned to second-division CD Leganés for the 1997–98 season, when he was only in the tenth grade. After making 30 appearances for the club and only scoring 4 goals, he returned to Madrid following the end of the 1998–99 season. In January 1999, he was loaned out to Espanyol but failed to make any appearances for the club.

Samuel Eto'o

Yanina Wickmayer Mesha takes out Sveta in 3.

Yanina Wickmayer (born 20 October 1989 in Lier, Belgium) is a Belgian professional tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 20. She rose to prominence with her semi-final appearance at the 2009 US Open. She is noted for her distinctive "whoopee" scream every time she hits the ball.She is a baseline player who is mentally very strong on court and has been known to say she does not consider herself to be very talented.
* 1 Personal
* 2 2006
* 3 2007
* 4 2008
* 5 2009
* 6 2010
* 7 2011
* 8 WTA Tour finals
o 8.1 Singles finals: 6 (3–3)
o 8.2 Doubles finals: 1 (0–1)
* 9 Career ITF finals
o 9.1 Singles: 10
o 9.2 Doubles: 8
* 10 Performance timeline
* 11 References
* 12 External links
Wickmayer's mother died at an early age.Her father's name is Marc Wickmayer, of Austrian origin. Her name was inspired by the name of former Argentine soccer player Diego Armando Maradona's daughter. Yanina speaks Dutch, English and French. She personally admires Kim Clijsters.Wickmayer obtained her first real successes: 3 singles ITF titles and 2 ITF doubles (see
Wickmayer continued her success on the ITF circuit by winning several tournaments in Asia during the fall season (see external links). It was around this time that Wickmayer surpassed Caroline Maes as the number two Belgian female tennis player. At the start of the year, Wickmayer was number 534 in the world but by November 2007 was around number 170. Wickmayer has now won 8 singles titles and 7 doubles titles on the ITF circuit.

She was also selected by team captain Sabine Appelmans to represent the Belgium Fed Cup team at the 2007 Fed Cup. She lost to Venus Williams 6–1, 6–2 in her World Group match before winning one rubber and losing the other against Chinese opposition.In the 2008 Fed Cup tie versus Ukraine, Wickmayer sprung a surprise victory over reigning Australian Open women's doubles champion Kateryna Bondarenko.Wickmayer qualified in singles for the French Open, but lost 2–6, 5–7 in the first round to Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan.

She reached the final of the DFS Classic, but lost 6–7, 6–3, 6–7 to Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine.At Wimbledon she lost in the first round to Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6–4, 6–2.

Yanina Wickmayer

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Novak Djokovic Tennis Star Selection 2010 tops

Novak Djokovic (Serbian: Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković pronounced nɔvɑk ˈdʑɔːkɔvitɕlisten); born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player, who is ranked World No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals

He has won two Grand Slam singles titles, the 2008 and 2011 Australian Open championships, becoming the first player representing Serbia to win a Grand Slam singles title and the youngest player in the open era to have reached the semi-finals of all four Grand Slam events. He is also the youngest player in the Open Era to defeat the top 3 players in succession. It was recently reported on the Tennis Channel that Djokovic has the record for being World Number 3. in both total and consecutive weeks. He is also one of only four players (Nalbandian, Murray, and Nadal being the other 3) to beat Roger Federer 3 times in one calendar year.

He is one of only two players to have defeated Roger Federer at the semifinal stage or later multiple times in Grand Slam tournaments, and also at consecutive tournaments (the other being Rafael Nadal). He was also the runner-up at the 2007 and 2010 US Open tournaments (to Federer and Nadal, respectively), and a bronze medalist representing Serbia at the 2008 Olympic Games. In addition, Djokovic won the Tennis Masters Cup in 2008 and has won six Masters Series tournaments. In 2010, he led Serbia to win the Davis Cup. Djokovic finished the ATP Tour as World No. 3 for four consecutive years between 2007 and 2010 (behind Nadal and Federer). Djokovic's highest ranking to date is World No. 2, achieved in February 2010.
He is a double winner of the award The Best Sportperson of Serbia and award for The Best Sportsman by Olympic Committee of Serbia.
* 1 Biography
* 2 Tennis career
o 2.1 Early career
o 2.2 2006
o 2.3 2007
o 2.4 2008
o 2.5 2009
o 2.6 2010
o 2.7 2011
o 2.8 Davis Cup
o 2.9 Rivalries
* 3 Playing style and equipment
* 4 Grand Slams
o 4.1 Grand Slam performance timeline
o 4.2 Grand Slam Finals
+ 4.2.1 Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)
* 5 Career statistics
* 6 In popular culture
* 7 See also
* 8 References
* 9 External links
Novak Đoković was born in Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia, on 22 May 1987 to parents, Srđan and Dijana Đoković. His two younger brothers, Đorđe and Marko, are also tennis players with professional aspirations. He has been in a relationship with fellow Serb and Belgrade native, Jelena Ristic for the past five years

He started playing tennis at the age of four, and was spotted by Yugoslav tennis legend Jelena Genčić at the age of eight, who stated: "This is the greatest talent I have seen since Monica Seles. At 12 years old, he spent three months at Nikola Pilić's tennis academy in Munich, Germany, and at age 14, his international career began, winning European championships in singles, doubles, and team competition He currently resides in Monte Carlo, Monaco and has been coached by a former Slovak tennis player, Marián Vajda; in August 2009 he also began working with former US top-five player Todd Marti

Đoković is also known for his often humorous off-court impersonations of his fellow players, many of whom are his friends. This became evident to the tennis world after his 2007 US Open quarterfinal win over Carlos Moyà, where he entertained the audience with impersonations of Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova He also did an impression of American tennis great John McEnroe after his final preliminary game at the 2009 Open, before playing a brief game with McEnroe, much to the delight of the audience.