In brief - 2004-07-15

  • 2004-07-15
Australia's Shane Warne equaled the world bowling record when he took his 527th wicket. The impressive feat came on the final day of the second test against Sri Lanka in Cairns, Australia. Warne is now equal with Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

Michael Schumacher gave another master class in Formula One racing when he won the British Grand Prix on July 11 and notched up his 10th win of the season. Despite starting in fourth position on the grid, Schumacher stole the lead when he held out for a pit stop until the 15th lap, by which time he was comfortably in the lead. McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen came second, and Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello came third.

Real Madrid's recently reelected President Florentino Perez has again expressed his desire to sign Arsenal's French midfielder Patrick Viera. His comments infuriated the London team, which is desperate to hold on to its highly rated playmaker. Perez said that it was Madrid's policy to sign the best player in the world for each position, and that, in his opinion, Viera is the best player in his position. But Arsenal's Chairman Peter Hillwood called the remarks "irritating" and reiterated that Viera, who still has three years left of his contract, was not for sale.
Exactly a month before the start of the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, the city was crippled by a power failure that also affected much of the rest of the country. The blackout was described as the worst in 10 years and left millions of people sweltering in a heatwave. Embarrassed officials blamed the failure on human error, while other sources said it was due to a surge in the use of air conditioners. Officials pointed out there was no way the Olympics could be affected by such a power cut as the games would have massive back-up power generators.

The Tour de France continued with its zero tolerance approach to cyclists involved in doping inquiries when it expelled two cyclists, the Slovenian Martin Hvastija and the Italian Stefano Casagrande, both of whom are under investigation in Italy for doping offences. Tour officials are also awaiting further information on two other riders, the Italian Stefano Zanini and Lance Armstrong's Czech team-mate Pavel Padrnos. All four riders were caught up in doping inquiries in Italy following a police raids at the 2001 Giro d'Italia.