Rings of certainty
To the surprise of nobody, the IOC has extended its claw and painfully raised an arthritic thumb to golf's inclusion in the 2016 Olympics. Despite concerns over its exclusivity, the sport was given the nod for the first time since 1904 after delegates watched a pre-recorded message from Tiger Woods, world's richest sports person . . . uh-huh.

Gold medals will be hung around the necks of the man and woman who triumph over their rivals in 72 holes of match play, the same format in which the USofA fixed up the Internationals in the Presidents Cup overnight.

Of course, history has shown that favouritsm in spurious Olympic sports does not guarantee gold for America.

Medals will also be handed out for rugby sevens, the world's most pointless and boring football code*. The good news is that, with seven years until the Rio games, New Zealand and Australia have plenty of time to poach all of Fiji's best players in a desperate bid for gold.

* In related news, the New York Giants easily beat the Oakland Raiders in a game of American football.

Football heaven
While Australia and the Netherlands played out a scoreless draw every bit as damp as Sydney's weather on Saturday night, the real action was over the seas where a host of nations battled it out in critical World Cup qualifiers.

The most dramatic finishes saw powerhouse Italy qualify with a last-ditch equalizer against Ireland, while Argentina kept its hopes alive with a stoppage-time winner over Peru.

The latest round of matches means 19 nations have now booked their places for South Africa, and The Circus truly hopes Argentina and Ireland end up joining them – that way, South Africa 2010 may end up looking a little like this.

The other cloud is probably what Olympic golf 2016 will end up looking like.

Bloody idiot
On the same weekend as thousands of pissed blokes with serious mullets watched Holden end Ford's recent dominance at Bathurst, a badly hung over bloke with a light-hearted mullet showed that sometimes, drinking and driving don't mix.

Brisbane Roar coach Frank Farina recorded a blood alcohol reading of more than twice the legal limit on his way to a 7:00am training session on Saturday morning. In The Circus' experience that equates to many too many drinks the night before, or just a couple too many the morning after.

And if you think a voddy or two upon waking at 5:00am sounds a bit much, you should try coaching this mob.

Blood, sweat and beers
It was a weekend of foolish physical pursuits with the Melbourne marathon, Chicago marathon and Hawaiian Ironman all being contested by extremely fit people with no regard for the proper limits of human endurance.

Australian Craig Alexander made it back-to-back victories in Hawaii, completing the 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42.2km run in the time of eight hours, 20 minutes and 21 seconds.  

Afterwards, Alexander celebrated with a couple of cold beers  . . . maybe Frank Farina had completed a triathlon prior to his Saturday morning training session?

Numbers game
1,2,3 – positions held by Holdens in the 2009 Bathurst 1000 V8 car race
4 – years since a Holden has won the race
2003 – the last time the winner of the race started from pole position
179,000 – number of spectators who made their way to the Mount Panorama circuit over the four days of qualifying and racing
17,184,000 – number of beers downed by spectators over the four days . . . approximately

Quote of the day
"Normally I don't speak about referees but this time I am changing my mind."
– England manager Fabio Capello goes against all his managerial instincts following the team's loss Ukraine on the weekend.

Headline we'd like to read
IOC includes American Idol in 2020 Olympics after seeing US TV ratings


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