Day 16 Paris 2024 Olympics: the Games end

11 August 2024: Women from start to end - the women’s marathon started the last day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the women’s basketball ended it.

It was estimated to be 34C today in Paris as 91 women started the women’s Olympic marathon. Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands took gold with an Olympic record time of 2:22:55. She also won a bronze medal in the 5,000m race and a bronze in the 10,000m race; being the first woman in Olympic history to take medals in all three events.

Ethiopian Tigst Assefa took silver, three seconds behind, with 2:22:58, while Kenyan Hellen Obiri took bronze with a personal best of 2:23:10.

Australian Jessica Stenson finished 13^th with 2:26:45. Eleven runners did not finish the tough course under the heat.

Bhutan’s Kinzang Lhamo found fame in her marathon effort to finish 90 minutes after the leader to resounding cheers from the supportive crowd. Her time was 3:52:59 – a personal best.

Australia has already won bronze in the women’s basketball, as the Opals defeated Belgium 85-81. France and USA fought to the end, with USA taking the gold medal by one point: 67-66.

There is a two week break before the Paralympic Games takes place over 10 days in Paris from Wednesday 28 August to Sunday 8 September. My volunteer involvement steps up significantly for the Paralympics with full time work in Press Operations at the Grand Palais.

MARTINA NICOLLS

MartinaNicollsWebsite I Rainy Day Healing I Martinasblogs I Publications I Facebook I Paris Website I Paris blogs I Animal Website I Flower Website I Global Gentlemanliness

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES

Martina Nicolls is an Australian author and international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, and foreign aid audits and evaluations. She lives in Paris.

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...

Shindi: the Georgian Cornelian cherry

The Cornelian cherry – shindi in Georgian – is a fruit with medicinal and decorative properties. It was grown from ancient times, according to the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). It is also commonly called the European cornel. It is native to southern Europe from France to Ukraine as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. The Cornelian cherry tree ( Cornus mas ) can be grown in orchards, but it is often seen in the forests of Georgia where it grows up to 1,350 metres above sea level. It is a medium to large deciduous tree, growing from 5-12 metres tall. The flowers are small with four yellow petals in clusters, which flower in February and March. The Cornus mas has three botanical varieties: (1) var. typica Sanadze with cylindrical red fruits, (2) var. pyriformis Sanadze with pear-shaped red fruits, and (3) var. flava vest with yellow fruits. The fruits are oblong red drupes about 2 centimetres ...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog