After the first day of the SEC Championships, Georgia has two men in the top-5 of the decathlon andone Lady Bulldog in the womens heptathlon, Lucie Ondraschkova, who currently sits in eighth place.

Ondraschkova began her day with a season-best in the 100-meter hurdles, where she clocked a 14.35, just .06 seconds behind her personal record.

WAYNE NORTON

The time had the Opava, Czech Republic native finishing eighth.

By the end of the day, however, Ondraschkova hadachieved a personal record in a separate event.

Ondraschkova finished the 200-meter dash in 25.56 seconds, also placing eighth.

The two eighth-place finishes came outside of a seventh place finish in the high jump and a sixth place finish in the shot put.

The 36 feet, 7.50 inch shot put was the second best of her career.

Ondraschkovas totals leave her with 3,083 total points, 372 pointsbehind Arkansas junior Makeba Alcide, who holds first place.

Lucie had some good things happen and a couple struggles, said Bulldog multi-events coach Petros Kyprianou. She started off with a strong 100 hurdles and ended with the best 200 time of her career. The thing about Lucie is that she is a gamer.

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Georgia’s track team finds early success in decathlon, heptathlon in SEC Championships

Fri, 11 May 16:29:00 2012

With the kind of timing publishers must dread, this month sees the release of Colin Shindler's latest memoir.

The author sold an awful lot of copies of his earlier tale, "Manchester United Ruined My Life", which was released well over a decade ago. It was a book which suggested that, in its rapacious, commercially-driven quest for monopoly, the Old Trafford operation was driving much of the joy out of football.

As a City supporter, Shindler might be expected to think that. But his tome was nicely argued, fluent and funny and found plenty who agreed with its critique of the rapacious red menace and all it stood for.

About time, you might think, for Shindler to cheer up a little. After all, this Sunday a City captain is poised to lift the English championship for only the second time in his lifetime. A championship title, moreover, which has been won at the glorious expense of the Salford beast. Just the right timing to publish a celebration of all things sky blue, you might think. Except Shindler's latest is called "Manchester City Ruined My Life."

In it he laments all the things that City have lost in their relentless pursuit of supremacy. Not just that old, traditional, comical ability to shoot themselves in the foot, but the sense of community, the sense of shared value, the sense that the players on the park are representing the regulars in the stand. The idea that they are all in it together.

What City always were, Shindler argues, was different from United. Now, he believes, that in their unrelenting desire to best their neighbours, they have become everything he loathed about the reds. In short they have ceased to be a football club and become a sporting corporation.

Quite what Shindler would have made of the revelation in the Telegraph this week that City had spent close to a billion pounds in pursuit of the prize is too late to include in his book. But not even United, the old buyers of trophies, can come close to that sort of outlay. Nor, with a bunch of parasitical American owners to satisfy, are they likely to in future.

And how Shindler must have winced when he watched television coverage of the Manc derby the other week. On the advertising hoardings around the Etihad pitch were not the usual commercial messages for Bet Fred or Carling lager. What there were instead were ads for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, holidays in the Emirates and the endless number of destinations offered by Etihad airlines.

What City, the cosy, oddball, local institution Shindler once loved, have become is something of a different order altogether. They have become the promotional vehicle for an entire nation.

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Premier League - Jim White: Has success come at a cost for City?

ARROYO GRANDE The Paso Robles High School swim team topped of an amazing 2012 season with peak performances at the Pac 7 League Championships this past weekend in Arroyo Grande as the Bearcats amassed 83 personal records over the course of three days of preliminaries and finals.

Nearly every swimmer on the team, J.V. and varsity included, earned a spot among the top 16 finishers at prelims to qualify for the league finals meet.

At the league finals, the varsity girls' medley relay team of Ryan Springer, Kylie Pugh, Sierra Mosely and Zoe Zepp kicked off the day with a CIF consideration time to finish fourth.

"The success was extremely contagious," PRHS swim coach Jennifer Brown said.

Next up, the varsity boy's medley relay team of Morgan Moore, Tyler Zepp, Collin Moore and J Young also earned CIF consideration as they crushed their time from prelims by six seconds to finish fifth overall.

"From there, the whole team just kept building momentum throughout the meet," Brown said.

The varsity Bearcat girls finished third as a team, an improvement from last year's sixth place finish.The varsity boys finished fourth to better last year's finish of fifth place.The PRHS swimmers also improved upon their CIF qualifying times from last season.In 2011, the Bearcats had two events qualify for CIF consideration, compared to the current season with 11 CIF consideration times, plus two CIF automatic times.

"It is truly astounding how many swimmers achieved their life-time best performances at League Finals," Brown said. "Coach Mara put together a perfect seasonal training plan that paid off, with swimmers reaching their peak at the exact right time."

Varsity girls

The top eight finals performances for the Bearcats in the varsity girls division came from Ryan Springer, Amanda Oliver, Sierra Mosely and Zoe Zepp.Springer eclipsed a five-year-old PAC 7 league record in the girls' 100 freestyle with a time of 54.28, but finished second to Teagan Griffith of San Luis Obispo.Springer was league champion in the girls 50 freestyle with a time of 24.92 and she earned CIF automatic qualifying times in both of her events.

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Swimming to success - Bearcat boys, girls amass 83 personal records

SAN FRANCISCO In revealing his support for same-sex marriage, President Barack Obama attributed his change in thinking to a series of key conversations and experiences. Talking to members of his staff and gay service members in committed relationships made it more difficult to justify why they should not have the right to marry, he said.

Just as influential in his thinking, according to Obama, were dinnertime conversations with his 13- and 10-year-old daughters, who have friends with two mothers or two fathers.

"It wouldnt dawn on them that somehow their friends parents would be treated differently," the president said. "It doesnt make sense to them and, frankly, thats the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective."

While separating the personal from the political is impossible in the presidents case, others who have moved in the same direction on the issue say they immediately recognized themselves in Obamas remarks. Once comfortably opposed, they found their views shifting as a result of sometimes uncomfortable dialogues taking place at churches, workplaces, soccer fields and statehouses.

"I had the same conversation with my daughter," New York Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, a Democrat representing the Manhattan suburbs in Westchester County. "My daughter told me, Mom, youre old fashioned. What difference does it make if people love each other? Everyone should have their rights. She really just totally disagreed with her mom."

Galef, 72, credits those talks with moving her from voting in 2009 against a bill that would have legalized same-sex unions in the state to voting for a similar bill two years later.

"My daughter, I think, really opened my eyes to the fact that I grew up in a different age and just made it so clear that I wasnt thinking like a more modern person on this topic," she said. "When the president said this, I could just relate to myself having gone through the whole scenario."

Before Obama became the first sitting president to endorse marriage rights for same-sex couples, other politicians had attributed changes of heart on the issue to having gay people leading comfortably conventional lives in their worlds. The leader of the Iowa Senate, Mike Gronstal, held back a constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage in his state in 2009 after his daughter changed his mind on the subject. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and San Diego Mayor Jerry Saunders also came out for same-sex marriage after learning their daughters were lesbians.

Gay rights activists have recognized for decades that having a close friend or family member who is gay was a powerful predictor of how Americans felt about gay rights issues. Now that marriage is high on the movements wish list, they have become even more convinced that sharing stories and common experiences will be key to its success.

"Pretty much everybody these days knows someone who is gay or lesbian, but it is knowing them well, or well enough to have a real conversation about why marriage matters to them, that moves people forward," Marc Solomon, the national campaign manager for Freedom to Marry, a New York-based group that advocates for same-sex marriage and actively encourages gay people to initiate discussions on the topic.

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Personal ties can change gay marriage attitudes

The Hockey News columnist Ken Campbell has a question why isnt Alex Ovechkin being lionized for sacrificing personal success for team success the way Steve Yzerman was in Detroit?

Campbell also has a theory:

This wouldnt have anything to do with a bias against Russians would it? Didnt think so.

We dont need to get into Ovechkins reduced ice time under Capitals coach Dale Hunter. If you still dont know the story there, just scroll PHT and youll find a few thousand posts on the topic.

But some of you might be less familiar with Yzermans career progression.

From a 2006 Sports Illustrated article, well let Red Wings GM Jim Devellano bring you up to speed.

We had some really good teams in the early 90s, but we couldnt get it done in the playoffs, said Devellano. So we brought Scotty Bowman in to get us over the hump in 1993. Up until then Stevie was a tremendous one-way player, which wed encouraged. In his early years we needed his goals and assists and, well, his glitz to sell tickets and to promote the team. Scotty didnt care about any of that. He was determined that players were going to play his way.

Sound familiar?

However, with all due respect to Campbell, thats where the comparisons stop. Because not only did Yzerman become a better two-way player, he became the best two-way player, winning the Selke Trophy in 2000.

To state the obvious, Ovechkins nowhere close to winning the Selke. He hardly sees the ice when the Capitals are trying to protect the lead, and he hasnt spent a single second killing penalties in the playoffs.

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PHT: Hold off on Ovechkin-to-Yzerman comparisons

Buy photos Anthony Redfern. (s)

DROITWICH Dolphinss Anthony Redfern produced a number of excellent swims when competing in the Midland Regional Youth Championships in Coventry.

Having set personal bests in the 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle events on the Saturday, he returned the following day to swim the 50m freestyle.

As his qualification time saw him entered behind 45 other swimmers in the 15-16 age group, hopes were just for a good swim and maybe a personal best.

Not only did he set his personal best, beating his old time by a massive 1.1 seconds, he qualified for the final in third place in a time of 26.09.

Disaster struck at the start of the final when his diving block broke, resulting in him finishing a distant last.

Once repaired, he was offered a reswim of the final and had to swim with only two other swimmers alongside him.

It was then testament to his guts and mental self control that he was able to recover and break his personal best again with a time of 25.88 which placed him fourth overall and quicker than all other 15-year-olds. His time was also a new junior club record.

The club are always on the lookout for new members, visit http://www.droitwichdophins.co.uk for more information.

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Swimming Redfern races to success

By JOHN R. BECKER , The Leader Herald

AMSTERDAM - The owners of the Crystal Ristorante on Lyon Street have filed for personal bankruptcy to protect their personal assets during foreclosure proceedings against the restaurant.

Tony and Carolyn Centi filed a Chapter 7 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of New York. A summary of the petition lists $857,050 in assets, including the restaurant itself, which has a value of $611,000, and $2.14 million in liabilities, including more than $1 million on the mortgage they took out to build a new banquet hall, $110,000 owed to the Montgomery County Industrial Development Agency and $85,000 to Advance Me Inc., a Georgia-based company which gave Centi a personal loan.

The list of creditors includes several regional food and beverage distributors, among them Quandt's and Bartyzel's, both in Amsterdam. The amounts owed to many of these vendors are listed as unknown.

"I filed personal bankruptcy to protect my home," Tony Centi said Friday.

The foreclosure originally was scheduled to take place May 5 but was postponed by Ciena Capital, the bank holding the mortgage. Ciena Capital was formerly known as BLX Capital.

No new date has been set for the foreclosure. Meanwhile, business continues as usual.

"The restaurant is open just as normal, from 11 a.m. to closing," Centi said. "We're booking parties. Nothing's changed on my end."

Without a new date for the foreclosure, Centi doesn't know how long the restaurant will remain open.

"The restaurant is open until the foreclosure takes place," Centi said. "I don't have an answer that on such-and-such a date it's going to be closed."

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Crystal Bar owners file for personal bankruptcy

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA (PRWEB) May 11, 2012

From personal trainer career resources to business mentoring and from unique personal training business models to personal coaching, a brand-new website at http://personaltrainerbusiness.biz/ was created as the go-to resource for personal trainers interested in growing their fitness business.

The personal training career and business solutions site offers a variety of targeted programs for personal fitness trainers of all levels across the globe.

Whether you want to make more money as a personal trainer, develop a specific niche, build your social media presence, earn a new personal fitness training certification or focus more on nutrition and exercise, this site is designed to help you reach your personal training business goals, said John Spencer Ellis, founder John Spencer Ellis Enterprises, a fitness and personal development solutions company. We want to help personal trainers find the coaching and business models they need to grow their business, their clients and their overall success.

In particular, the website offers personal trainer business models, business coaching and business systems, including:

Fitness Fortunes: A personal trainer coaching and mentoring program that benefits personal trainers and other fitness pros interested in career growth, Fitness Fortunes offers a blueprint for success that helps personal trainers boost their business. In addition to full-length online training videos which provide a proven, step-by-step blueprint for unlimited financial success in personal training and fitness businesses, the program includes a variety of special bonuses and is now available for just $1 for the first month. FitNews.TV: A fitness marketing solution for personal trainers, coaches and fitness instructors, FitNews.TV offers social media integration for trainers who want more leads, connections and business. This business system includes email newsletters, text campaigns and complete mobile marketing outreach for personal trainers.

The NESTA Personal Fitness Trainer certification: The online, self-paced certification, which costs about 30 percent less on average than other certifications and is valid for four years, rather than just two, is approved and recognized by all major gyms and health club chains. In addition, the training includes easy-to-follow blueprints for launching and running a successful personal training business.

Boot camp, martial arts, nutrition programs and more, all designed as a complete personal training business and career resource.

All of the information on personal training business systems and coaching is available at http://personaltrainerbusiness.biz/.

About John Spencer Ellis Enterprises John Spencer Ellis Enterprises is a solutions provider for fitness and coaching professionals around the world, providing education, turn-key business programs, coaching and resources for new and advanced fitness and coaching professionals. For more information about John Spencer Ellis Enterprises or personal trainer business ideas and resources, please visit http://personaltrainerbusiness.biz/

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New Personal Trainer Business Resources Website Offers Business Models, Coaching and Ideas for Personal Fitness ...

Friday, May 11 14:20:08

Incoming President of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Tom Murray, said today that any further delays in publishing the Personal Insolvency Bill will harm business development and job creation.

His comments were made to senior financial professionals at the ACCA's Annual General Meeting, which was held in Dublin today.

In his address, encouraging the Government to publish the legislation no later than the revised June deadline, Tom Murray stated that he recognised the Government's need to get the Bill right, and accepted that there are a significant number of issues that need to be considered in the drafting of what could be the single most important piece of legislation that this Government enacts.

"It is no secret that a significant number of people are waiting to see the final Bill in order to understand what options they may possibly have. Experienced business people are in limbo due to personal debt, which in many cases arises from personal guarantees given to support businesses. As it stands the options available are bankruptcy under the current archaic system in Ireland or the availing of 'bankruptcy tourism' in the UK. In this context, without the timely introduction of the Personal Insolvency Bill, many experienced business people in Ireland remain paralysed by the uncertainty, and as a result are not in a position to contribute to the overall recovery of the economy. Unfortunately, this is having a negative knock-on effect on the SME market and its capacity to create sustainable employment," he said.

Calling on the Government to prioritise the matter and ensure that the deadline date does not slip any further, he said that there is a real danger that Ireland could lose many talented and experienced people to the UK and beyond, which in turn will only continue to slow down the process of job creation and recovery.

A Chartered Certified Accountant, Tom Murray is a leading corporate recovery specialist. A partner with Friel Stafford, he also specialises in Forensic Accounting and is a Certified Mediator.

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ACCA want no delay in insolvency Bill

attleboro

exposition of the blessed sacrament/adoration: National Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette Church, 947 Park St., Saturdays in May, 1-4 p.m.

portuguese healing service: National Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette Reconciliation Chapel, 947 Park St., Sunday, May 13, 2 p.m. with the Rev. Almir Urbano, M.S. (Brazilian Portuguese).

st. padre pio prayer meeting: National Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette Reconciliation Chapel, 947 Park St., Monday, May 14, 7:15 p.m. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Led by the Rev. Brother Bob Russell, M.S., S.D.

33-day novena: National Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette Church, 947 Park St., Monday, May 14-Friday, June 15, 7:15 p.m. St. Louis de Montfort "Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary" will be led by Anna Rae-Kelly. You must attend all 33 days to gain all the graces from this novena. Bring your family!

DARTMOUTH

mosque prayer service: Masjid al-Ehsan, 2 Cove Road, Fridays, 1-2 p.m. Contact Sherif El Wakil for more information.

fairhaven

coming of age Sunday: Unitarian Memorial Church, 102 Green St., Sunday, May 20,10:30 a.m. The youth will offer their religious beliefs and their thoughts about the world at this time in their lives, as they move into young adulthood.

connecting for change film series: Unitarian Memorial Church Parish House Auditorium, 102 Green St., Thursday, May 24, 7 p.m. "Journey of the Universe" is the final film in the series. Narrated and co-written by author and evolutionary philosopher, Brian Swimme, this film takes us from the Big Bang theory to the epic impact humans have on our planet today. In a period of growing environmental and social crisis, "Journey of the Universe" is designed to inspire a new and closer relationship with the Earth.

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