the mad sports man

last long weekend of summer it's the beginning of the last long weekend of the summer.  people wil lbe ou of town or watching cfl football.   this weekend is considered the beginning of the cfl run for the playoffs.  montreal already beat b.c. 30-25.  on sunday it's winnipeg at saskatchewan and on labor day monday has toronto at hamilton and edmonton at calgary.  next weekend has the second half of the home and home labor day games.  its a good weekend already.

end of fringe is end of summer of festivals with the fringe ending today ends a busy summer festival season.  with the street performers, capital ex (now renamed klondike days), heritage days, the indy car race and taste of edmonton, it was quite the summer.  with the weather going from being hot to stormy to fall like (there was even hail on thursday - yikes), that made summer interesting.  one more week of summer before the labor day weekend, but one more week till school resumes for the year.  enjoy

a marathon ball game in st.louis the pittsburgh pirates and st.louis cardinals played 19 innings and 6 hours and 7 minutes before the pirates won it 6-3.  three in the top of the 19th did it.  close to 20 pitchers used as well.  nowhere near the major league record, which i think was 26 inninngs.

a perfect afternoon at the park felix hernandez of the seattle mariners pitched a perfect game in a 1-0 win over the tampa bay rays.  it is the 23rd perfect game in mlb history.  congrats and attaboy to felix.

closing ceremony wrap up the london 2012 olympics are done, the flame is out, let the road to rio de janeiro begin.  christine sinclair brought in the canadian flag and boy was she ever proud of brining in the flag.  she had the biggest smile on her face.  and very proud.  loads of british music capped of by the who.  it was 16 days of highs, lows, controversy and excitement.  it was pretty succesful.  oh and loads of world records.  i mentioned the next summer games in 2016 in rio de janeiro, brazil.  the next winter games are in sochi russia in 2014.  until then....

road racing in watkins glen marcos ambrose beat out kyle busch and brad keselowski to the finish and want in watkins glen.  some finish  busch was second and keselowski was third.  jimmie johnson finishe fourth and now is the new poits leader, by one point over matt kenseth and greg biffle.  defending champ tony stewart finished 14th and is now 8th in the points

final day of games the last day of the games and what a games.  great britain was awesome winning i think 28 golds at home and over 60 medals overall.  the u.s. finished first with golds and overall (46 and 101), china was second.  canada finished with 18 (they had 19 but they were disqualified for lane violation at the 4x100m event.  jamaica won in world record time).  canada had the highest tally of medals with only one gold.  3 hours and 17 minutes to the closing ceremonies.  the who, the rolling stones and the spice girls are scheduled to perform.  i heard annie lennox is to be there as well.  and the handover presentation to rio de janeiro 2016. oh by the way christine sinclair will carry in the canadian flag at the closing ceremonies.

bronzed kayaker another medal in the kayak as mark de jonge picked up yet another bronze in the K1 200m event. seen the result on the ticker. must have been a good race.  congrats to mark.  thats now 1g 5s and 12b for 18 medals.  stay tuned on www.ctvolympics.com or www.london2012.com for more results.

a bronze long distance swimming style richard weinberger got yet another bronze for canada, this time in the 10 km marathon swim.  great job by him and congrats.  that is now 1g 5s and 11b for 17 medals and hopefully more tomorrow.  32 event finals tomorrow so loads of chances then.

silver soccer pitch and a bronzed mat canada's soccer team beat out france 1-0 to win bronze in soccer.  sandra schmidt scored in injury time in the second half to win it.  first team medal since 1936 in berlin when mens basketball won silver.  congrats to our soccer ladies for their bronze. meanwhile on the mat tonya verbeek won a silver in t he 55kg wrestling event.  she faced a japanese lady in the gold medal match and the japanese controlled the match and won the two rounds needed to win the match.  congrats to tonya.  the medal count now stand at 1g 5s and 10b for 16 medals.  thats two behind 2008 beijing.

two in the water and one on the mat adam van koeverden picked up a silver in the K1 1000m event to go with a bronze in 2008 and a gold and i think a bronze in 2004.  congrats to adam. afterwards, mark oldershaw picked up a bronze in the C1 1000m event.  he is the first medallist from his family to win.  his grandfather Bert (1948 london, 1952 helsinki and 1956 melbourne), uncles Dean (1972 munich and 1976 montreal) and Reed (1976 montreal) and dad Scott (1984 los angeles) have been in the games.  congrats to mark. and on the mat, carol huynh picked up a bronze in the wrestling 48kg event.  that goes with her gold from 2008.  congrats to her.  that now brings canada to 14 medals, 1g, 4s and 9b.

high jumping bronze derek drouin picked up a bronze in the high jump.  cant remember the last time there was a medal in that.  congrats to derek.  canada now has 11 medals.  1g 3s and 7b. he was in a three way tie, but got it thanks to a countback (dont ask no idea)  he go it with fewest attempts.  last canadian to win a medal in high jump was greg joy with a silver in 1976 in montreal.

pocono 400 and mens 100m final the rain ended the race at lap 99 and jeff gordon ended up winning.  jimmie johnson had a flat tire, spun (i dont know how he saved it) causing matt kenseth to spin trying to avoid him  jimmie finished 14th and matt finished 23rd.  dale earnhardt jr finished 32nd with transmission troubles.  jr leads by five points over matt kenseth, jimmie is fourth 8 back.  defending champ tony stewart finished 5th and is 53 back in 6th in the points.  next race is in watkins glen for some road racing. while it's pouring (literelly, theres a thunderstorm passing through) in pocono, usain bolt defended his 100m gold medal from beijing by winning it in 9.63s.  that is an olympic record.  he had an amazing run.  he has a 200m run to race and a 4x100m relay to do as well.

silver lining in the pool ryan cochrane has just picked up a silver in the 1500m freestyle.  china's sun yung won by 8 seonds and a world record.  congrats to ryan. that is now ten medals 1 g, 3s and 6b.

bronzed cyclists in team pursuit canada just picked up yet another bronze - this time in womens team pursuit.  congrats to tara whitten, jasmine glasser, and gillian carleton beat out the aussies to claim the bronze.  that now brings canada's medal total to one gold two silvers and six bronze for nine medals

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD in trampoline rosie maclennan has just won canada's first gold with an amazing performance in trampoline.  her score w as just oer 57 points.  karen cockburn ended up fourth and off the podium.  congrats to rosie - olympic champion.

how about a little olympic soccer no medals yet but this goes to canada's soccer team on going to the semi's after beating great britain.  canada has a shot at a medal now.  i don't know who they are playing yet, but i will find out.  tune in to www.ctvolympics.com or www.london2012.com  for more info. ok i checkes and saw canada won 2-0 and will play the united states on monday in the semi finals.

silver ladies rowers the womens eights took the second silver of the games. they finished a good second ahead of the bronze.  a very good race for them.  congrats to them.  canada now has two silvers and five bronze and its only day six.

silver rowers and bronzed swimmer first the silver.  it came in the mens eights in rowing.  they were third most of the race and caught the british as they were starting to fade near the end.  i saw the race at lunch.  it was quite a race. this one i just seen.  brent hayden picked up a bronze in the 100m freestyle swimming.  i actually seen the result.  great jub by brent and congrats to him and the rowers.  we now have six medals - 1 silver and 5 bronze.