Oscar Pistorius apologises over timing of blades comments

Oscar Pistorius has apologised for the timing of his comments about the running blades used by T44 200 metres gold medallist Alan Fonteles Oliveira immediately after last night's race.
The South African hit out at the International Paralympic Committee for failing to act over the length of some athletes' blades after Oliveira, wearing noticeably longer ones, came from way back to pip him at the line.
The Brazilian took gold in 21.45 seconds, leaving Pistorius to settle for silver, coming home in 21.52secs with stunned quiet from the 80,000 spectators greeting the result.

John Henry defends Liverpool transfer policy in open letter to fans

Liverpool's principal owner John Henry has defended the club's summer transfer business but admitted his disappointment at failing to add to their strike force before the end of August.
Manager Brendan Rodgers offloaded misfit Andy Carroll to West Ham on loan a day before the deadline in the belief he would bring in a replacement more suited to his style of play.
However, the window closed without any new arrival and that has led to criticism from fans, with Rodgers admitting yesterday he would not have allowed Carroll to leave had he not been very confident of bringing in someone else.

Robin van Persie hits Manchester United hat-trick but rues his penalty dink against Southampton

There are not many footballers who win a game in injury time with their hat-trick goal and then feel obliged to apologise to their team-mates afterwards, but then there are not many who can hold a candle to the extravagantly gifted Robin van Persie.
The old belief that every brilliant footballer must conquer his flaws as well as his genius was never so evident as in Van Persie's performance, which included a 68th-minute penalty miss, a preposterously self-indulgent "Panenka" saved by Kelvin Davis with Manchester United trailing 2-1. It was Van Persie at his wasteful worst, a bad case of I-dink-therefore-I-am.