lucylily's blog: "ght"

A late surge in the final 50-metres of the mens 400-metre individual medley took Michael Phelps into his first Olympic final of the London 2012 Olympic Games on Saturday morning. "When I saw the time, I was like, Oh. It is going to be a challenge." Phelps, who famously won eight Olympic gold medals at the Beijing Games in 2008, got off to a strong start in his heat, setting a world-record pace through the butterfly stroke. But he fell to second behind Hungarian Laszlo Cseh in the breaststroke leg of the race.  Phelps would continue to trail until the final metres of the race, touching the wall in four minutes, 13.33 seconds -- just seven-hundredths ahead of Cseh and more than 10s off of his world record Olympic final in 2008. At the end of his heat, Phelpss time was the third-fastest of the morning. A strong final heat, however -- including American rival Ryan Lochte -- nearly knocked Phelps out of the running altogether. Five swimmers from that heat beat out the two-time Olympic 400m IM champion, bumping him to eighth. The top-eight swimmers qualify for the final. Alec Page, of Cortes Island, B.C., made his Olympic debut in the same race, swimming alongside Phelps in Heat 4. The 18-year-old swam to a time of 4:19.17, 23rd overall. He did not advance to the final. Other qualifiers were: Kosuke Hagino (JPN)Chad le Clos (RSA)Ryan Lochte (USA)Thiago Pereira (BRA)Thomas Fraser-Holmes (AUS)Luca Marin (ITA)Yuya Horihata (JPN) More to come... Ryan Wendell Jersey . And the fact that Canadas figure skating star triumphed over a competition he called the most difficult of his career is both a major victory and a huge lesson learned, he said, less than two years out from the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Aaron Dobson Womens Jersey . Malhotra will be joined by Philadelphia Flyers scout Patrick Burke and march with players from the Vancouver Cutting Edges, billed as the only gay hockey club in Western Canada. http://www.footballpatriotsteamshop.com/womens-aaron-dobson-nike-jersey-rt-68.html . Errani dominated from the start and needed only 75 minutes to beat the eighth-seeded Czech player for her fourth title of the year. Tedy Bruschi Womens Jersey . The referee issued a red card to Camara, so he will be suspended a total of two games. Earthquakes defender Victor Bernardez received a one-game suspension and was fined for endangering the safety of Montreal midfielder Lamar Neagle in the 25th minute of the Impacts 3-1 victory Saturday. Julian Edelman Womens Jersey .C. Lions 17-6 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in CFL action Saturday night.MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Playing without Chris Paul proved no problem for the Clippers. Not having Rudy Gay was a much bigger issue for the Memphis Grizzlies. Reserves Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes each scored 16 points, and the Clippers easily routed the Grizzlies 99-73 Monday night with Paul missing his first game this season because of a bruised right kneecap. "Missing the best point guard in the world in Chris Paul, we all had to play collectively and step it up, and I thought we did a good job of that," Crawford said. The matchup between two of the best teams in the West wasnt close after the first quarter. While Paul watched from the bench, the Grizzlies were without their leading scorer: Gay was excused for his grandmothers funeral in Baltimore. This also was the Clippers first trip to Memphis since they won Game 7 of their opening-round playoff series last May. All they did was match their largest margin of victory on the road this season while holding the Grizzles to a season-low in points and their worst field goal shooting percentage on their home court in franchise history. "Thats why I said before the game that theyre the best team in the West, maybe the best team in the league right now," Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said of the Clippers. Eric Bledsoe, starting for Paul, had 14 points, and Blake Griffin scored 10. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro was able to give nine players at least 17 minutes each before heading to Houston for the second half of a back-to-back Tuesday night. "We want to be the best team we can, and thats our goal as the season moves on," Del Negro said. "I thought we were lacking a lot, but I thought we played well." Zach Randolph had 15 for Memphis, which lost its second straight blowout, after losing 104-83 at Dallas on Saturday night. Wayne Ellington added 11 in a rare start in place of Gay, and Darrell Arthur had 10 as the Grizzlies shot just 30.3 per cent (27 of 89), a franchise-low at home. Randolph said they really missed Gays ability to drive and relieve pressure. "They clogged up the paint on us, make us shoot from outside, make us pass the ball up because theyre doubling as soon as we catch it," Randolph said. "Theyre coming from every direction, and that makes us pass out to the perimeter." The Clippers had a 40-36 scoring edge in the paint as DeAndre Jordan and Griffin helped limit Randolph to 5-of-16 shooting and Marc Gasol to 4 of 13. "Thats where most of their points were coming from since Rudy wasnt playing," Bledsoe said. "I think DDJ and Blake, in taking Zach Randolph out of the game, that kind of stopped their offensive game.dddddddddddd" Both teams were coming off losses, but the Clippers responded much better to being without their point guard on the first night of back-to-back road games. The Clippers scored the first five points of the game and went on a 17-2 run in grabbing a 32-19 lead. When Memphis pulled to 36-30, the Clippers answered with a 17-4 spurt and led 53-34 at halftime. Los Angeles got a big boost from its bench, which outscored Memphis 28-4 in the first half and finished with a 54-26 edge. The Clippers advantage was so big Griffin played only 25 minutes. The Grizzlies knew how good the Clippers have been on the bench and had their production written on the board in their locker room. Memphis couldnt match the Clippers intensity, and Hollins pointed out his Grizzlies couldnt hit teammates for layups on the fast break or down in the post. "That whole game summed up just that we werent competing on a high level," Hollins said. "They came in here and wanted to show us, and they did." The Grizzlies brought back rookie Tony Wroten from Reno in the NBA D-League for depth. Hollins even joked before the game that he was unsure who hed be subbing in since he started Ellington and Quincy Pondexter was out with an injured knee. Memphis had its lowest scoring half this season in what was just part of an ugly night all around. The Grizzlies passed 20 points only in the fourth quarter (21) and were so sloppy that at one point in the first half Mike Conley stole the ball off Griffins pass only to hit Tony Allen in the face with a pass on the other end. The Clippers didnt ease up in the second half either, opening the third quarter with a 15-6 run. They pushed their lead to 16 points, 68-42, on a pair of free throws by Bledsoe with 4:03 left in the third, and Ryan Hollins alley-oop dunk with 2:41 gave the Clippers their biggest lead of the night, 95-68. NOTES: After missing this game, Paul is day to day. ... The Clippers also won by 26 Dec. 15 at Milwaukee. ... The Clippers are 22-6 when their reserves outscore the opponents bench. ... The Clippers now are 23-2 when leading after the first quarter. They came in second-best in the NBA in that category. ... The Clippers largest road victory was by 28 on Nov. 6, 2009, at Golden State. ... The Grizzlies previous low first half was 37 points Dec. 29 against Denver, and they had just 36 against Atlanta on Dec. 8 in the second half. ... Memphis scored 80 twice previously this season, winning Dec. 17 against Chicago the last time. ' ' '