After months of stock shortages and surging new-car prices, there was some good news for buyers today, as some of the biggest brands appear to be getting on top of supply issues.
More than 84,400 new cars found a home in July, a slight increase on the Covid-19 lockdown affected month the previous year.
Hyundai, Kia, Toyota and Mitsubishi all showed strong growth in July compared to the previous year, as stocks of popular models improved.
Utes and family-focused SUVs were the strongest performers last months.
The Toyota HiLux ute was the best selling vehicle in the country with 6441 examples finding a new home. It was followed by the Ford Ranger, which found just 2934 buyers. Ranger sales are expected to skyrocket in the coming months, though, as a new model has just landed in showrooms.
Family-focused SUVs filled the next places on the sales chart.
Toyota’s RAV4 (2437), Mazda’s CX-5 (2346) and Hyundai’s Tucson (2186) rounded out the top 5.
Sales of the Kia Sportage were up more than 200 per cent for the month and the Hyundai Tucson grew more than 72 per cent on the back of improved supply.
Australia’s love of big four-wheel drives and utes continued with the Toyota LandCruiser (2146), Isuzu D-Max (1930) and Mitsubishi Triton (1879) all making the top 10.
The Toyota Corolla (1982) was the only hatchback or sedan to make the bestsellers list, showing the monumental change in Australia’s buying habits in the past 10 years
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief, Tony Weber, doesn’t think the market is out of the woods yet.
“Vehicle and component manufacturing operations remain affected by plant shutdowns caused by Covid-19. Logistics, including shipping, remain unpredictable,” said Mr Weber.
“While small growth on the same month in 2021 is encouraging, we do not expect the supply of vehicles to Australia to stabilize in the near future.”
“Once again Australia is following the global trend of demand for new vehicles exceeding supply,” he said.
European brands such as Volkswagen and Skoda have been particularly hit hard, with sales down about 40 per cent for the year. Luxury marques such as Lexus and Mercedes-Benz are also struggling.
Mitsubishi Australia boss Shaun Westcott said the supply and semiconductor unpredictability wouldn’t end any time soon.
“The world is in a very unpredictable phase at the moment, which extends beyond semiconductor supply and these things will resolve themselves eventually. But we are talking about three, four or five years,” said Mr Westcott.
He also said that the increased prevalence of electric cars and plug-in hybrids, which require three to four times more semiconductors than petrol cars, was crunching supply even more.
“Every car maker has supply chain issues – a five or six month backlog. So not only is there the backlog to recover, there is also a surge in demand as more EVs and PHEVs are built,” he said.
“There is a catch-up game that is going to take a number of years to play out here.”
Tesla is showing how outside factors are affecting its supply. In the past three months the American electric car maker has sold about 200 vehicles after shipments from its Shanghai factory dried up due to Covid-19 closures.
Employees walk past the logo of SK Hynix at its headquarters in Seongnam, South Korea, April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
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SEOUL, Aug 3 (Reuters) – South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc (000660.KS) has developed its most advanced NAND flash chip made up of 238 layers of memory cells for use in PC storage devices and later smartphones and servers, the world’s second- largest memory chip maker said on Wednesday.
SK Hynix described it as the “industry’s highest” NAND flash chip and it follows US rival Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) saying last week it had begun shipping a 232-layer NAND chip. read more
SK Hynix said the new 238-layer chip is the smallest NAND flash chip in size, boasts a 50% improvement in data transfer speed over previous generation chips and power efficiency as well, as it cuts the volume of energy consumed for data reading by 21 %.
The company plans to start mass production of the chip in the first half of 2023.
SK Hynix and Solidigm, the new name of Intel’s NAND business which SK acquired, hold a combined 18% share of the NAND flash market, behind Samsung Electronics with 35.3% and Kioxia with 18.9%, according to first-quarter data from TrendForce.
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Reporting by Joyce Lee; editing by Jason Neely
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The US dancer, perhaps best known as Australian singer Sia’s muse, hit the red carpet at the Bullet Train premiere in Westwood, California, yesterday, wearing a daring low-cut black gown.
The 19-year-old, who in recent years has transitioned to acting, walked the carpet alongside Brad Pitt for the upcoming David Leitch-directed thriller, which hits cinemas in Australia on Thursday.
Ziegler, who shot to fame aged eight on the US reality series Dance Momsgained wider recognition since 2014 after featuring in Sia’s music video for Chandelier.
She went on to forge a successful partnership with Sia, appearing alongside the singer on red carpets, during her tours and starring in several other music videos.
Ziegler was also hand-picked by Sia to star as an autistic girl in the widely-panned 2021 film, Musicopposite Kate Hudson.
RELATED: See all the best celebrity pictures from red carpets around the world
Her casting became a controversial topic, with the movie criticized for its “offensive depiction of autism.”
Ziegler addressed the criticism in an interview with independent at the time, saying she understood the outcry.
“I’ve actually stayed out of all of it just because, you know, I’m 18 years old and it’s a lot of pressure … (But) I understand why people would want someone who’s actually on the spectrum with autism to play this character.
“But in terms of the dance sequences, I think that’s why Sia chose me to bring the dream world to life. It was all [made] with good intentions and with a good heart.”
Elsewhere on the Bullet Train red carpet, fellow former child star Joey King, who stars in the film, also rocked a plunging gown.
The 23-year-old kissing booth stars plays British assassin Prince in the action film, which also stars Sandra Bullock.
Bullet Train follows trained killer Ladybug (Pitt) who wants to leave his life as an assassin behind, but is roped back in by his handler Maria Beetle (Bullock) to collect a briefcase on a bullet train heading from Tokyo to Kyoto.
On-board the train, Ladybug bumps into fellow competing assassins who discover their missions are connected.
Several employees of a collapsed footwear company suspected the retailer was on its last legs for some time as they were accosted by angry creditors and customers on a daily basis, endured pay runs that were weeks late and never received their final entitlements.
Controversial luxury shoe retailer Sneakerboy went into voluntary administration in early July but two former staff members told news.com.au this was not surprising.
Five companies were included in the administration notice, Sneakerboy Pty Ltd and two related companies under the Sneakerboy name, and Luxury Retail Treasury Pty Ltd and Luxury Retail Group Pty Ltd (Sneakerboy’s parent company).
ASIC documents seen by news.com.au show the embattled company and its related companies owe $17.2 million to more than 100 creditors, including $200,000 to Nike.
A whopping $500,000 is also owed to 120 past and current staff members through unpaid wages and entitlements.
Elliot* worked for Sneakerboy since 2017 and is owed $15,000 from 220 hours of annual leave and roughly 12 months of superannuation that he never received after quitting in January this year.
“Since 2018 there were a few warning signs (at Sneakerboy), pay was occasionally a tiny bit late, like a day late,” he recalled to news.com.au.
“Then over the years it started to get out of control, in the last year it would be one to two weeks late. It was insane.”
The Melbourne worker, 34, was struggling to pay rent and groceries from the late payments and now works elsewhere, adding: “You get paid on time (at this new place), it’s crazy, it feels like such a treat.”
Elliot said from the beginning of his stint at the company he had doubts about the way Sneakerboy made money
“I felt like it wasn’t a sustainable business model, it was predicated on taking money from customers and using that as a loan to buy the shoes which is insane,” he said.
Customers would fork out cash for a pair of shoes, which was usually thousands of dollars as Sneakerboy sells sneakers by brands like Balenciaga and Canada Goose for well north of $1000. This money would then be used to actually buy the shoes — but the products would usually arrive weeks or months later as it was a pre-purchase order.
Wait times for sneakers usually blew out to weeks or months, causing angry customers to ring stores multiple times a day requesting for refunds.
Elliot said his store got “a lot of refund calls.”
“You would try to delay it as long as possible,” he added.
Things reached a head when one customer spent between $40,000 to $50,000 on sneakers — with plans to sell it on at a higher price at her home country of China. However, the shoes didn’t arrive for months.
“She put her own lock in front of the store, she put a bike lock on the front door,” Elliot said with a laugh.
“They had to get a locksmith. Some people were mad about it, but she spent tens of thousands of dollars and had n’t received her product from her so it was fair enough”.
It’s understood from creditors there are in excess of 1000 customers who prepaid for products which may now never arrive.
News.com.au has contacted Sneakerboy and its two co-owners for comment.
Do you know more or have a similar story? Continue the conversation | [email protected]
Struggling to pay rent
There were times when Elliot couldn’t afford rent because his pay arrived so late and he had to sell some of his own stuff.
“You’d have weeks where it’s like ‘cool, gotta sell a bunch of my own sneakers to pay rent’, it’s pretty cooked,” he said.
Although it looked like superannuation was being deposited into his account according to his pay slip, he knew this wasn’t the case.
“We’d all known for a couple of years our super wasn’t being paid properly, when you got the pay slips it said you were getting super but obviously they weren’t,” he added.
The Fair Work Ombudsman confirmed to news.com.au that it was investigating Sneakerboy over concerns from workers regarding their wages and entitlements.
A spokesperson told news.com.au the government department “has ongoing investigations in relation to Sneakerboy”.
“As these matters are ongoing, it is not appropriate for us to comment further at this time.”
Elliot said he could “tell Sneakerboy was going badly” because it was doing 40 per cent off sales even when they didn’t have stock available.
“It was fully desperate,” he said. “They were struggling for cash flow all the time.”
‘Blocked the exit’
Adam* worked at Sneakerboy’s Sydney store for four years and he claims the run-ins with angry customers and creditors made him develop depression.
“The constant pressure from management to keep selling on my day off and angry creditors have affected me mentally,” he told news.com.au.
“I had to visit a psychologist and psychiatrist to combat my depression.”
The 26-year-old resigned three months before Sneakerboy collapsed and said his mental health has improved since then as he has “moved on to better things”.
He alleges one of the worst interactions he had was with the landlord of his store who had not been paid rent for months.
“They were shouting at me and acting aggressively,” he said. “They blocked the exits, spoke very rudely and kicked me and other staff members out of the shop.”
He also said they got angry calls from contractors, including third party cleaning companies and delivery partners over unpaid bills.
“Customers were the most frequent and the worst,” Adam continued.
“They would abuse the staff members by shouting, swearing, acting aggressively, throwing fits, and threatening the staff member.
“Imagine you are getting this at least seven to nine times a day through phone calls or coming to the store.”
He added: “From my observation, every time Sneakerboy desperately needed money, they always start massive sales by offering high discounts for branded products.
“If you recall, last year, they did four or five massive warehouse sales, which is unusual for a business.”
Stephen Dixon from insolvency firm Hamilton Murphy Advisory was appointed as administrator at the beginning of July.
There are 36 potential buyers circling to try to acquire Sneakerboy, according to Mr Dixon.
“This interest has come from a range of international and Australian parties across a broad industry spectrum,” a statement from the company read.
“We appreciate and understand the concerns that all stakeholders to the Sneakerboy Group have, especially employees and customers,” Mr Dixon said.
“We continue to urgently work towards a sale of the business, as we believe that this will be the best outcome for creditors. Employee obligations are a critical part of the negotiations we are having with potential buyers.”
Volkswagen has drawn up battle plans to make the new Amarok the must-have ute of 2023.
Based on the new Ford Ranger, the new Amarok represents a significant leap beyond the previous model.
It shares core underpinnings and diesel engines with the Ranger, as well as new safety features including auto emergency braking, active cruise control and blind-spot monitoring.
Volkswagen’s best-selling model is also likely to share the Ford’s 3.0-liter V6 turbo diesel engine, a motor that sends 184kW and 600Nm to all four wheels through a 10-speed automatic transmission.
But it won’t get the 292kW/283Nm petrol V6 exclusively offered in Ford’s Ranger Raptor.
Ford elected not to offer the Australian Ranger with a 2.3-litre turbo petrol engine found in some Amarok models, one that delivers 222kW and 452Nm of performance.
But the cars are not identical.
VW’s machine wears butch styling shaped by a Melbourne-based design team.
It has the same core interior as the Ranger, though high-end Amarok models have fancier 10-way electric seat adjustment than the Ranger’s eight-way chairs.
And Volkswagen’s 12-inch digital dashboard display is larger than the 8-inch readouts fitted as standard to the Ranger.
Top-grade Amarok variants ride on 21-inch wheels that are significantly larger than the 18-inch rims of a Ranger Wildtrak, which could return more car-like precision from a steering wheel shared with VW’s passenger cars.
VW says the new machine, built in South Africa as opposed to the Thailand-sourced Ranger, benefits from shorter and more frequent shipping routes than the older model, which came from Argentina.
That “ensures steadier supply”, according to Volkswagen.
But it will also mean the Amarok is subject to a 5 per cent vehicle import tariff that does not apply to the Thai-built Ranger, a factor likely to make the VW more expensive than its Blue Oval cousin.
VW will reveal prices for the Amarok closer to its official debut in the first quarter of 2023.
Rohan Browning has produced his best run of the year to send a message at the Commonwealth Games.
The 24-year-old won his heat in a time of 10.10 in a spectacular turnaround from the World Championships in Oregon last month where he was unable to get out of the heats.
The cult hero, popularly referred to as ‘The Flying Mullet’, said he even has more power in the tank to go quicker in Birmingham.
Browning, who famously ran 10.01 to win his heat at the Tokyo Olympics last year, looks like he is the real deal once again.
His time sees him go through to the semi-finals as the equal-fourth fastest runner, but the fact that he did it while easing up at the back end says everything.
“The gun went and he reacted well and he stayed relaxed through those middle phases. Even at the back end, he looked like he switched off a little bit and looked to his side of him and said ‘I’ve got this’.
“This is very similar to his heat at Tokyo. He opens up that leg stride. I have got
a nice forward lean. You can still tell he is looking across and he has got a bit more. Look at that face. He is so relaxed. That is exactly what you want to see from a sprinter running at top pace. He will be very happy with that.”
He was.
It’s a sign that the magical 10.0 second mark could finally fall for him.
“I always planned on running this round hard, at this level you have to treat every round with respect, but there’s two more rounds to come,” he said.
“I don’t want a repeat of Tokyo where I was out in the semis. I want to keep a bit of powder dry for the finals.”
He said part of his bounce back from the world championships is the “humiliating” factor of failing to reach the semi-finals.
“I try not to take it to heart,” he said.
“There’s always that humiliation element when you get run out in the heats, but just trying to bounce back from it and not take it to heart and just trust that the form is there, it’s just in the execution. I think I’ve tapped into a good vein of form.”
Jake Doran, Australia’s second-fastest man, also qualified for the 100m semi-finals, finishing second in his heat with a time of in 10.39 seconds.
Browning’s time was just 0.04 seconds short of being the fastest in the heats.
Team Australia dominated the Commonwealth Games medal tally in Birmingham in the opening four days, sitting comfortably in front – thanks largely to more dominance in the pool.
Australia claimed a stunning eight gold medals on day one, including five of a possible seven in the pool! On day two, Australia added five more golds.
The gold rush continued with nine on day three, highlighted by Emma McKeon making history with a record-breaking 11th Commonwealth Games gold medal when she took out the Women’s 50m freestyle final.
Australia has dominated again on day four with another NINE gold medals, coming in judo, lawn bowls, cycling and gymnastics — along with the usual big haul in the pool.
Australia has opened day five with a 72nd medal of the Games, this time a bronze in the men’s vault in artistic gymnastics.
DAY 5 LIVE: Athletics begins as Browning opens 100m campaign; McKeon and Simpson eye final swim day
DAY 4 WRAP: Aussies win NINE golds in wild Games medal blitz; Chalmers win ‘hard to enjoy’
Read on for more details and the full medal tally.
Australia sit on top of the medal tally with 31 gold, 20 silver and 21 bronze (71 total!), ahead of England and New Zealand.
The Aussies topped the tally with 198 medals — including 80 gold — in the Gold Coast four years ago.
You can track the live medal tally for every country here, with key Aussie wins and updates as they happen.
Click here for a full list of EVERY Aussie medal winner!
Commonwealth Games kick off in style | 00:34
SCHEDULE: Sport-by-sport guide to every day
AUSSIES: Our top hopes to watch
INTERNATIONALS: The big names set to light up the Games
COMMONWEALTH GAMES MEDALS TALLY (AS OF 5:30AM WEDNESDAY)
RANK/COUNTRY/GOLD/SILVER/BRONZE/TOTAL
1. Australia — 37, 28, 30, 95
2.England—28, 30, 17, 75
3.New Zealand—13, 7, 5, 25
4. Canada — 10, 14, 19, 43
5. South Africa—6, 5, 5, 16
6. India — 5, 4, 3, 12
7.Scotland—3, 8, 15, 26
8. Wales—3, 2, 8, 13
9. Malaysia — 2, 2, 3, 7
10. Nigeria — 2, 1, 4, 7
See the full live medal tally here.
DAY-BY-DAY MEDAL LIST
DAY FIVE
James Bacuetti claimed Australia’s first men’s gymnastics medal of these Games, winning bronze in the men’s vault. 20-year-old English sensation Jake Jarman won gold – his FOURTH of the Games – ahead of Fellow Englishman Giarnni Regini-Moran.
Aofie Coughlan took home the gold medal in the women’s 70kg judo final while Eileen Cikamatana set a new Games Record en route to a gold medal in the women’s 87kg weightlifting final.
in the swimming, Mollie O’Callaghan produced a stunning upset to win the gold in the womens’ 100m freestyle as Elizabeth Deckers won the women’s 200m butterfly.
nina kennedy secured the gold in the women’s pole vault.
DAY 5 LIVE: Athletics begins as Browning opens 100m campaign; McKeon and Simpson eye more gold
DAY FOUR
Australia ended day four with 31 gold, 20 silver and 21 bronze (71 total!), ahead of England and New Zealand.
Georgia Goodwin narrowly won gold in the women’s vault over Canada’s Laurie Denommee, while at the track, matthew glaetzer won gold in the men’s 1,000m time trial. Ellen Ryan won gold in the women’s lawn bowls singles and Tinka Easton caused an upset by claiming gold in judo.
in the pool, Kyle Chalmer won the 100m freestyle, Kaylee McKeown won the 200m backstroke and matthew levy claimed gold in the men’s 50m freestyle S7. Emma McKeon then narrowly clinched gold in the 50m breaststroke to extend her Games record to 12 golds, while the Aussies ended the night with victory in the men’s 4x200m freestyle.
Aussie weightlifter robbed of Gold?! | 00:26
Elsewhere, 49-year-old legend Jian Fang Lay has led the Aussie team to bronze in the women’s table tennis team event.
It began with victory in doubles alongside Yangzi Liu, who won her own singles game before Jian Fang Lay sealed the 3-0 over Wales with a singles victory of her own.
Kyle Bruce claimed silver in the men’s 81kg weightlifting after a heartbreaking jury decision overruled his final, gold-winning lift.
The Aussie men’s triples claimed silver in the lawn bowls, fighting back from 12-1 down in the final to level the score at 12-12 against England before falling 14-12.
DAY 4 WRAP: Aussies win NINE golds in wild Games medal blitz; Chalmers win ‘hard to enjoy’
GOLDEN HEARTBREAK: ‘Devastated’ Aussie in tears after gold ‘stolen away’
CHALMERS GOES ALL IN: Legends not surprised by last-minute withdrawal
BIG BLOW: Diamonds’ dream run soured as star sidelined with calf injury
Jian Fang Lay led the Aussies to bronze in table tennis!Source: Getty Images
DAY THREE
Australians Sam Harding and Jonathan Gorlach kicked off the day with superb silver and bronze medals in the men’s PTVI triathlon final.
Emma McKeon and Kaylee McKeown then added two more gold in the pool taking out the Women’s 50m freestyle and the 100m backstroke respectively.
McKeon led home meg harris in silver with Shayna Jack (24.36) finishing third.
In the men’s 50m breaststroke, Zac Stubblety-Cook (59.52) took home bronze.
The Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team then completed a dominant campaign in the pool by breaking the world record.
Georgia Godwin won the all-round rhythmic gymnastics women’s final.
Australia’s Women’s 7s rugby side then put the pain of Tokyo behind them to claim gold in the final against Fiji.
In track cycling, matthew richardson won the men’s final sprint.
Kristina Clonan took home gold in the 500m time trial.
Georgia Baker won the women’s 25km points race, while Jessica Gallagher picked up her second gold medal of the Games in the Women’s tandem 1000m time trial with pilot Caitlyn Ward.
Day 3 WRAP: ‘Extraordinary’ Aussies break world record, McKeon makes history
‘It is shocking’: Thorpe stunned as England World record holder toppled in ‘unbelievable’ boilover
SHOCK CRASH: Cyclist catapults into crowd in horror scenes after Comm Games crash
‘Lost my s***’: Boxall goes bonkers AGAIN as Aussie coach celebrates WR win
‘Took all my courage and energy to swim’: Chalmers stuns in raw, emotional interview
DAY TWO
madison de rosario took out the women’s T53/54 marathon in style, dominating the field to win with a Commonwealth Games record time of 1:56:00.
Jess Stenson won the women’s marathon with an incredible run, going better than her two bronze medals in Glasgow and the Gold Coast.
It was another ripping day in the pool, with katja dedekind winning a gold meal in the women’s 50m freestyle S13 while both the men’s and women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay finished first.
There were silver medals for maeve plouffe in the women’s 3000m individual pursuit, Brendon Smith in the men’s 400m IM, Emma McKeon in the women’s 100m butterfly and the artistic gymnastics team.
DAY 2 NEWS
WRAP: McKeon makes history amid swim gold rush; rugby stars win thriller
‘A load of s***’: Chalmers explodes at media for ‘ruining it all’ over love triangle claims
‘Dream big’: ‘Extraordinary’ journey behind ‘one of the great’ Aussie athletics triumphs
‘I was just guessing’: New Aussie cult hero’s shock reveal after ‘epic’ career-best run
DAY ONE
matt hauser had the honor of being the first Australian to win a medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, taking home the silver medal in the Men’s Triathlon Sprint Distance Final.
Ariarne Titmus won gold in the women’s 200m freestyle, 18-year-old Aussie Mollie O’Callaghan claimed silver in an unbelievable late charge, ahead of Madison Wilson.
Elijah Winnington won gold in the men’s 400m freestyle, ahead of fellow Aussies Sam Short and Mack Horton. Zac Stubblety-Cook won gold in the men’s 200m breaststroke while Kiah Melverton took silver in the women’s 400m Individual Medley.
In the final race of night one, Australia won gold in the mixed 4x100m relay.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Malaysia’s Parliament Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun pose for photographs during their meeting at Malaysian Houses of Parliament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 2, 2022. Malaysian Department of Information/Famer Roheni/Handout via REUTERS
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KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 (Reuters) – A US air force jet that flew House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Malaysia left the country on Tuesday and flew close to the Philippines, in the day’s most followed flight on tracking site Flightradar24.
Reuters could not immediately establish if Pelosi or her delegation were on flight SPAR19, but authorities in the Philippines, a US ally, said no request had been received from the United States for her to visit or transit in the country.
The plane left Kuala Lumpur at 3:42 pm (0742 GMT) and flew east towards Borneo on a route that skirted the South China Sea.
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It was last seen on the tracker off the southernmost Philippine region of Mindanao, however, flying along the country’s Pacific east coast.
Pelosi was expected to arrive in Taipei later on Tuesday, sources said earlier. read more
Like SPAR19, a second US air force plane arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday morning. According to Flightradar24, SPAR20 had not left the Malaysian capital.
A visit to Taiwan by Pelosi, who is second in the line of succession to the US presidency and a long-time critic of China, would come amid worsening ties between Washington and Beijing.
She has not confirmed if she would visit the self-governed island which Beijing claims as its own.
Both the Philippines air force and its Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said they had received no word from the United States that Pelosi might land in the country on Tuesday.
“The DFA has not received any request from the US government or their embassy in Manila for Speaker Pelosi to transit and/ or visit the Philippines as part of her current swing of visits to the region,” the DFA said in a text message to reporters .
As of 1130 GMT, SPAR19 was flying just south of the Philippines, according to Flightradar24, in a route tracked by as many as 300,000 people on its website.
A normal flight from Kuala Lumpur to Taiwan’s capital of Taipei would cross the South China Sea, with a typical flight time of under five hours.
Since last week, China’s People’s Liberation Army has conducted various exercises, including live fire drills, in the South China Sea, Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, in a show of Chinese military might.
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Reporting by Ebrahim Harris and Rozanna Latiff in Kuala Lumpur and Ryan Woo in Beijing; Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in Manila; Editing by Martin Petty, William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Rohan Browning has produced his best run of the year to send a message at the Commonwealth Games.
The 24-year-old won his heat in a time of 10.10 in a spectacular turnaround from the World Championships in Oregon last month where he was unable to get out of the heats.
The cult hero, popularly referred to as ‘The Flying Mullet’, said he even has more power in the tank to go quicker in Birmingham.
Browning, who famously ran 10.01 to win his heat at the Tokyo Olympics last year, looks like he is the real deal once again.
His time sees him go through to the semi-finals as the equal-fourth fastest runner, but the fact that he did it while easing up at the back end says everything.
“The gun went and he reacted well and he stayed relaxed through those middle phases. Even at the back end, he looked like he switched off a little bit and looked to his side of him and said ‘I’ve got this’.
“This is very similar to his heat at Tokyo. He opens up that leg stride. I have got
a nice forward lean. You can still tell he is looking across and he has got a bit more. Look at that face. He is so relaxed. That is exactly what you want to see from a sprinter running at top pace. He will be very happy with that.”
He was.
It’s a sign that the magical 10.0 second mark could finally fall for him.
“I always planned on running this round hard, at this level you have to treat every round with respect, but there’s two more rounds to come,” he said.
“I don’t want a repeat of Tokyo where I was out in the semis. I want to keep a bit of powder dry for the finals.”
He said part of his bounce back from the world championships is the “humiliating” factor of failing to reach the semi-finals.
“I try not to take it to heart,” he said.
“There’s always that humiliation element when you get run out in the heats, but just trying to bounce back from it and not take it to heart and just trust that the form is there, it’s just in the execution. I think I’ve tapped into a good vein of form.”
Jake Doran, Australia’s second-fastest man, also qualified for the 100m semi-finals, finishing second in his heat with a time of in 10.39 seconds.
Browning’s time was just 0.04 seconds short of being the fastest in the heats.
Today I was minding my own business, trawling the internet for interesting hotels when I came across the formidably named Special Hotel ‘Crazy’ on booking.com.
And I would like you to come on a wild, frightening and mind-boggling journey with me as we drink in the photos from this utterly bizarre themed hotel on the outskirts of Moscow.
(The words “kiss”, “love” and “sex” give a not-so-subtle hint as to what this room is all about. That’s right: crosswords.)
Oh wait, we have more clues. Turns out there’s a bath on a tiled roulette wheel in the other corner. It’s a Vegas-themed room I guess? Also love the curtain in the corner, for a window that is probably very much wished for, but doesn’t exist.
One of my worst nightmares is entering a hotel room to find someone “in character” in the room. As such I find many of these images rather triggering.
Oh god, no room is safe. REFUND! REFUND!
My friend from primary school had Italian grandparents and I swear their bedroom in the 1980s was the inspiration for this particular room.
It’s particularly charming how nobody quite knew where to put the television.
“I know, let’s put it right next to the very eye-catching reverse cycle airconditioning unit.”
This is either some kind of medieval inn vibe, or a ski chalet, or an Early Settler Furniture showroom.
Oh wait, no, *that* is the ski chalet.
The soccer room is very well done. Especially the way they have strung 900 lights up on the ceiling so you feel like you are in the middle of a stadium. It’s very relaxing.
I finally see what hotel rooms have been missing: A mosaic-tiled face that judges you while you’re on the toilet.
Imagine you accidentally booked this with a colleague on a work conference …
… Somebody is calling HR first thing on Monday morning.
To the right is the door you run screaming through.
Another one that is slightly difficult to nail down. Parisian brothel from a rather poor neighbourhood?
Ohhh… it could be an old-timey dress shop. Or a visual merchandising training facility.
This must be the Presidential Suite, because that room has an actual window. Doesn’t even matter what the theme is. Window! We’ll take it.
… on second thoughts.
Another thing we didn’t realize hotels had been missing until now – port holes in the bathroom so you can keep an eye on your partner at all times.
This has just the right amount of kitsch to actually work. Crank that big old oil heater up and pretend you are in the Maldives instead of on the outskirts of Moscow.
Okay what have we here? Are we in Nepal? India? In a wooden crate filled with items bound for an Ishka store?
Oh, we’re in the Karma Sutra room. Don’t look too closely at the images on the wall, children.
This must be the budget room. Geez it looks nice and peaceful.
So it seems the directions to the rooms are done in the style of an airport terminal? Don’t hate that. Points for originality.
It actually turns out, upon further investigation, that “the style of the individually decorated rooms represent different countries and cities”.
So you have the “Royal – Moscow” room, the “Inquisition – Madrid” (oh so *that’s* what that was all about), and the “Sports – London” for example.
Imagine spending a week there and traveling the world through their different themed rooms.
