Pirate Galaxy » buck Russia when the IOC wouldnt? Or th

Ama Agbeze hopes she can lead England to victory in next months Netball Europe tournament after being named as the new team captain. The Loughborough Lightning player has taken over the role from Sara Bayman for the competition, which will see England take on Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland from May 12-15 at University of Northumbria.Agbeze, who has been nominated for the Sky Sports Vitality Superleague Player of the Season award, admitted she was left stunned after being offered the captaincy by head coach Tracey Neville. I was really surprised, Agbeze told Sky Sports. It sort of came out of the blue. I was just shocked, but now Im really pleased. A week ago, I was thinking: Im never going to be England captain, and then I get a phone call from Tracey. Ama Agbeze A week ago, I was thinking: Im never going to be England captain, and then I get a phone call from Tracey.She joked: My family hardly ever go to see me play, so Im hoping they might come out and see me. Ill probably start crying, but hopefully Ill be able to keep it together. Ill be very proud and excited.England suffered a 3-0 Tri-Series defeat to world champions Australia and Agbeze is fully aware that Neville will be seeking a response from her players when they line up against their British rivals. England will enter the tournament with high expectations On a personal level, we need to win the tournament, so I wont get too ahead of myself, said Agbeze. We need to win that European tournament.If I can perform consistently as well, and the team can do that, it will definitely be a step in the right direction.Sky Sports experts have singled out Loughboroughs defensive star as player of the match on three occasions, but the Lightning still fell short in their pursuit of the top four and Agbeze has given an honest assessment of their season. Agbeze was named player of the match after helping Loughborough Lightning to victory over Team Northumbria. I think we didnt actually have belief in ourselves, or confidence, she said. At times when the pressure is on, if you dont have belief youre not going to make it.I think we have the talent. Sasha Corbin is injured and Jade Clarke left, but I think people stepped into their places.We have shooters who can shoot, we have defenders who can turn the ball over. Its basically the belief and dealing with those pressure situations. Possibly you might argue that people who are inexperienced do not know how to handle that pressure.Hopefully Loughborough will have made a learning curve during the season and can draw on the experiences next year. Not just be in the top four, but actually win it. Also See: Agbeze to lead England WATCH: Annas netball diary Vote for player of the season WATCH: Roses down Diamonds Clearance MLB Jerseys .S District Court against Major League Baseball, the Office of the Commissioner and his own union, the MLBPA. Wholesale Baseball Jerseys . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. https://www.mlbjerseyschina.us/ . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR. Cheap MLB Jerseys From China .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Cheap MLB Jerseys Authentic . Colin Wilson had two goals and an assist, and Mike Fisher scored a goal and helped set up two others in the Predators 6-4 victory over the Red Wings on Monday night. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Russia will walk into the Rio Summer Games opening ceremonies Friday, a tad depleted but still nearly 300 strong, in its accustomed place: late in alphabetical order and high in geopolitical influence.Russian whistleblowers Yuliya and Vitaly Stepanov will watch from their temporary home in the United States.That split-screen visual has felt preordained for months now. It is the embodiment of the near-complete undermining of an 18-year effort to harmonize performance-enhancing drug regulations across borders and continents.The evidence of state-sponsored doping across all Russian sport gathered in two separate World Anti-Doping Agency investigations over the last nine months is compelling and detailed. While time constraints kept the latest chapter from being exhaustive, it should have been enough to sideline the delegation.The entire Russian team in Rio represents an exception to the rules hammered out since WADA was born. Or rather, a rewriting of the rules that has taken place in a matter of weeks. The solution to the eligibility question was jammed through an ad hoc quasi-legal pipeline created for one purpose: to make sure as many Russian athletes as possible received the benefit of the doubt, a benefit many thought should be forfeited.International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach spoke of justice and individual rights at a packed media briefing Thursday. He says he has a clean conscience. For me, the guiding principle was, after this decision, you have to be able to look into the eyes of all the athletes, he said. During my visits to the Olympic Village, I have been looking into the eyes of many athletes.If thats the case, its hard to imagine he didnt see a lot of disappointment staring back.So much information, so little time to process it. Such a shame. We must protect the innocent. That has been the drumbeat from IOC officials up to and including Bach.The absurdly conflicted entities responsible for safeguarding clean sport shielded their eyes instead of pulling out binoculars, starting in 2010 when Russian Anti-Doping Agency employee Vitaly Stepanov began corresponding with WADA. Because WADA -- twice -- didnt act until its hand was forced by investigative journalists. Because it was in the IOC leaderships interest to make that timeframe as compressed as possible, to avoid a major doping scandal on the eve of the Rio Games.They almost succeeded.The normally genteel world of Olympic governance has seen an extraordinary bloodletting over the past few days. The IOC has turned on WADA, correctly accusing the agency it created of foot-dragging, while conveniently neglecting the fact that their interests are deeply intertwined.WADAs former chief investigator, former U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Jack Robertson, eviscerated WADA for a lack of interest in pursuing the truth, and similarly castigated the IOC for ignoring it when it emerged.The action the IOC took has forever set a bar for how the most outrageous doping and cover up and corruption possible will be treated in the future, Robertson told ProPublicas David Epstein. Those involved in running sport are former athletes, so somehow I figured that they would have honor and integrity. But the people in charge are basically raping their sports and the system for self-interest.Completing the accusatory circle, Richard McLaren, the Canadian law professor who led a compressed but still informative probe that began in May at WADAs behest, Thursday accused the IOC of misrepresenting his findings.McLarens mandate was to probe the extent of Russian state involvement in doping beyond track and field -- an effort that the WADA Athlete CCommittee had asked for months before.dddddddddddd His assignment came only after ex-Moscow lab director Grigory Rodchenkov revealed the creative, concerted sabotage of drug testing at the 2014 Sochi Games in an interview with the New York Times.McLaren made substantial progress in a short two months. He found a scratches and marks expert to prove that tamper-proof urine sample bottles used at the Sochi Games were not adult-proof. He detailed the steps taken to cover up positive tests, and showed that systemic doping had touched a wide range of Russian sports.His report prompted WADA to call for the exclusion of the entire Russian delegation. A coalition of national anti-doping organizations, including the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, also advocated a blanket ban.The IOCs Executive Board promptly abdicated responsibility and punted the dirty work of determining one-by-one which Russian athletes were clean to their respective international sport federations.McLaren, a veteran arbitrator who generally comes across as a measured academic rather than a firebrand, is deeply disturbed by that outcome.Look at what is there and what the data is and make a decision on that basis and dont turn it into what it isnt -- a doping results management investigation of specific athletes, McLaren told The Guardian.He also took issue with continued references to his report as allegations, a term Bach repeated Thursday.I wouldnt put anything in the report that I didnt have evidence of and wouldnt meet the criminal standard in any court around the world, McLaren said.Bach defended the process again Thursday with a rhetorical question: Can you hold any athlete responsible for the wrongdoing of his or her country? That misses the point. The athletes and national machinery are too intertwined at this point to separate with any fairness or logic. It defies belief that a government-sports-industrial complex would open its doping toolbox to some sports and not others, especially when that complex was succeeding at hoodwinking the world.Handing off to the international federations was specious from the start. Did anyone really expect individual sports fiefdoms to buck Russia when the IOC wouldnt? Or that fencing would defy the Russian oligarch who serves as its president? Judo made Russian president Vladimir Putin its honorary president, and swimming conferred its highest honor on him.It will be interesting to see how the Russian athletes are received Friday. However, their entrance will not be the most dramatic of the evening. That distinction will belong to the Refugee Olympic Team, a group of athletes the IOC granted special dispensation to compete.The Refugee Team is an example of the spectacular symbolism that sport can provide, and illustrates that the IOC can bend and shape the eligibility rules for its showcase event any way it wishes.Yuliya Stepanova could have been shown that same consideration by being allowed to run the 800-meter event in neutral colors. She is rusty and injured and not a medal threat. It would have been an easy gesture, a way to thank her and her husband for exposing corruption and becoming forced exiles.Instead, the IOC interviewed her by phone and twisted her words. Asked whether she would compete under the Russian flag, Stepanova said she would, but didnt think she would be welcome, given the level of hostility against her and her husband. The ensuing IOC statement portrayed her as unwilling.Since shes not here, we will be left to wonder what Thomas Bach would see if he looked into her eyes. ' ' '