Site announcements

THURSDAY - 28 JULY 2022 - DAY 1

THURSDAY - 28 JULY 2022 - DAY 1

by Deleted user -
Number of replies: 0

RHS ESSENTIAL 

R

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

B

Rethabile Lerefolo (Grade 9)
Kagiso Makgale (Grade 8)


history

2005:Reported arrest of London bomb mastermind, Rashid Aswat

2004Library and clinic names are changed in Pretoria

2004South Africa gets a new R5 coin with distinct security features designed to outsmart counterfeiters

1976: An earthquake in the industrial city of Tangshan, China, killed more than 240,000 people.

1914World War I begins. Using the assassination of the Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand as a pretext to present Serbia with an unacceptable ultimatum, Austria-Hungary declared war on the Slavic country on this day in 1914, sparking World War I.

1844Gerard Manley Hopkins, who was one of the most individual of Victorian writers and who influenced many leading 20th-century poets, was born in Stratford, Essex, England.


news

Commonwealth Games set for glitzy launch in Birmingham


Birmingham is hosting the 22nd Commonwealth Games

Birmingham is hosting the 22nd Commonwealth Games. AFP/Paul Ellis

BIRMINGHAM - More than 5,000 athletes are primed for action in the English city of Birmingham from Friday at a Commonwealth Games lacking several track and field stars but still boasting elite performers.

Competitors from 72 nations and territories -- many of which are former British colonies -- will be vying for medals in 19 sports over a jam-packed 11 days in the Midlands.

Away from the marquee athletics and swimming events, women's Twenty20 cricket makes its debut and 3x3 basketball will feature for the first time while sedate lawn bowls is a fixture.
There is an integrated para sports programme in some events.
The Games, held every four years, are often criticised as a quirky sporting relic but will be launched in style at Thursday's opening ceremony, headlined by 1980s pop band Duran Duran, formed in Birmingham.
Sporting powerhouse Australia have topped the medals table at every Games since 1990 except in 2014, when England finished top in Glasgow -- the last time the event was held on British soil.

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete as separate teams during the Commonwealths rather than as a combined British outfit.

In the pool, Emma McKeon, Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown and teenage sensation Mollie O'Callaghan will lead the charge for a star-studded Australian team.
The Commonwealth Games comes hot on the heels of the world athletics championships in Eugene, Oregon, which only finished on Sunday.

Adam Peaty will be one of the star names in the pool at the Commonwealth Games

Adam Peaty will be one of the star names in the pool at the Commonwealth Games

The worlds were rescheduled from last year after the coronavirus pandemic forced a delay to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but that has created a headache for athletes in a crowded schedule.

Olympic champions Andre De Grasse, Kirani James and Neeraj Chopra will definitely be absent from Birmingham.

Chopra, who won javelin gold for India in Tokyo last year, said he was "hurt" at not being able to defend his Commonwealth title after suffering a groin strain during the world championships, where he won silver.
There are major doubts over the participation of Jamaican sprint trio Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah, who swept the 100m podium in Oregon.
Jackson, who previously suggested she would be competing in Birmingham, followed up her 100m silver at the worlds by running the second-fastest time in history in the 200m.

In another blow, British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith announced on Wednesday she had withdrawn from the England team due to a hamstring injury she sustained in Oregon "due to the short turnaround".

https://www.enca.com/sport/commonwealth-games-set-glitzy-launch-birmingham