OK, you might want to sit down for this,
but there is other sport happening outside of Germany. A quick wrap of the weekend’s major events:

Dye
in danger. Popular jockey Shane Dye, veteran of 90
Group One wins in Australia, is in a life-threatening condition after a race fall in Hong Kong. Dye had reportedly
not regained consciousness after surgery to ease swelling on his brain,
following the fall. The New Zealand-born 39-year-old landed heavily when his horse, Ambitious
Marju, fell in the second race at the Sha Tin racetrack. Although awake when he
left the track, Dye reportedly lost consciousness on arrival at the hospital
and was rushed into surgery. His family were flying to Hong Kong this morning.

Schu
eats Alonso dust (again). In Formula One, Fernando
Alonso won his fourth straight race, and moved to 25 points clear in the
driver’s championship, at the Canadian Grand Prix over the weekend. His
performance was so good that it moved The Times correspondent to declare that
the shift of power from German legend Michael Schumacher to the Spanish driver
is now close to complete.

Scud
alert. If the various Australian football codes
feel unloved and ignored because of the World Cup, spare a thought for
Wimbledon. Yep, allegedly the
most famous tournament in the world starts tonight, Australian time;
not that
you’d have noticed – apart from Andre Agassi ensuring the whole
thing will
be an emotional Andre-fest after announcing his impending retirement.
Defending
champion Roger Federer (attempting to join Borg and Sampras as the only
Open-era men to win four Wimbledons in a row) has a reasonably tough
first-rounder against Frenchman Richard Gasquet to
open
proceedings on centre court. For Aussies, the No. 3 court is the one to
watch
as a certain M Philippoussis attempts to win a match, this time
against 32nd
seed Paul-Henri Mathieu. What
could go wrong? Alicia Molik will also
be in action tonight.

English
Humiliation Dept. England’s
cricket form seems to be getting worse and worse as the Ashes approach, not to
mention the one-day cricket World Cup in the West Indies early next year.
With injuries to many of the starting line-up and a strangely uninspired air
about their cricket, England was absolutely hammered by Sri Lanka
again in a one-day match yesterday. The Guardian‘s correspondent, Vic Marks,
sighed, “England have endured some rough moments in recent times in one-day cricket but
rarely such abject humiliation.” Sitting on a beach somewhere, enjoying his
off-season, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting will no doubt raise a beer in
celebration.