Fri Fix: tears to cheers, the pub sesh that delivered an iconic run
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ABC News
27 minutes ago
- ABC News
Pallister claims silver in 'race of the century' as McEvoy and McKeown become world champions
Australia's Olympic stars have delivered at the swimming world championships in Singapore, with gold medals to freestyle sprinter Cameron McEvoy and backstroke superstar Kaylee McKeown. Alexandria Perkins and Lani Pallister claimed silver. Pallister won silver in a thrilling final of the women's 800m freestyle in a race that has already been described by swimming pundits as the "race of the century". The gold was won by US superstar Katie Ledecky by just 0.36 seconds with Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh 1.31 seconds behind Pallister. Ledecky's time of 8:05.62 is the fourth fastest time in history, while Pallister now slots in at sixth. The three women swam in a virtual straight line through the gripping final, with less than a second separating the trio at every change. The crowd was deafening, realising that they were witnessing one of the great distance swimming races in history. Ledecky kicked in the final 50m, but Pallister stuck doggedly to her way as McIntosh dropped marginally back. The American's gold is her 23rd world championship and her seventh in the 800m alone, 12 years after she won her first. Pallister dropped an astonishing five seconds from her personal best and 10 seconds this year. "Coming home with a silver behind the greatest distance swimmer of all time [Ledecky] is wicked," Pallister said. "Turning with them was so surreal. "I didn't really feel I was in it — I feel like I was watching them two go about their business and I was like on the side going, oh, who's going to win?" Ledecky said it was not the first time she had been involved in a "race of the century". "It was really fun to be part of it," Ledecky said. "Yeah I mean, I think I've been a part of a race of the century maybe six times in the last decade. "It's up to you guys to say what is the race of the century." Pallister said she had been inspired by Ledecky at the start of her career. "To be at the point where it's this exciting and it can be that close for an 800 I think is just incredible for the sport," Pallister said. Ledecky paid tribute to Pallister and her improvement over the past year. "I think just moving forward it's going to be an amazing few years. I can't wait to see what she can do, can't wait to see what Ariarne [Titmus] can do," Ledecky said. "I think there's just a high level of respect we have for each other." McIntosh, who had hoped to win five individual gold medals at these world championships, was bitterly disappointed at coming third. "I hate losing more than I like winning and I think that's a mentality that I've carried with myself throughout my entire career," she said. "The feeling right now is something that I never want to feel again." McEvoy reacted fastest and extended his lead throughout to win the men's 50m freestyle final — the same event he won at the Paris Olympics. McEvoy's time of 21.14 was the fastest this year, beating the 21.30 he recorded in the semifinals and the Australian swimming trials. His win caps off a momentous few weeks, after his wife Maddi gave birth to a baby boy, Harley, last month. McEvoy has spoken openly about his quest for the perfect 50m, as he seeks to break the world record of 20.91 set by Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filho in 2009, during the super suit era. "That's my third quickest time ever, for the prep, exceptional, I'm super happy with that," McEvoy said. He was visibly delighted at his win, punching the water in joy after he finished. He said he was looking forward to some time out of the pool and with his wife and newborn. "I'm going straight to the newborn trenches," he said. "I'll start to do the night routines, learn about Harley more, help Maddi do what she has to do and enjoy the bubble — not rush it." Fresh from qualifying for the final of the men's 50m backstroke final, Australian Isaac Cooper paid tribute to McEvoy. "I've never idolised anybody on the team and I've never said it to his face either, but if there was one person I was going to, it would be Cam," Cooper said. "He's consistently proven that he's the greatest sprint freestyler probably ever and has consistently been on or around world record times. It's quite unbelievable." Minutes after McEvoy's win, McKeown delivered a superb come-from-behind swim to defeat her US rival Regan Smith in the 100m backstroke with a championship record time of 2:03.33. McKeown has now claimed the 100m-200m double, repeating her efforts of the past two Olympics. Smith was 0.03 seconds ahead of McKeown at the 150m mark, but the Australian was brilliant in the final 50m to win by just under a second. After she finished, she looked visibly spent from her exertions as she gasped for air on the lane rope and at one point looked nauseous. "I really wasn't feeling too great heading in you know," she said. "Bit of illness and stuff going around, dealing with a bit of a shoulder, so I just think I had to put my best foot forward tonight and I dug really deep. "I'm really happy with the time that I posted." McKeown and Smith almost invariably swim next to each other in lanes four and five but tonight was a rare exception with Smith in two, and McKeown in six. McKeown said the four lane gap between the rivals worked in her favour. "Something that my coach and I have really been working on is focusing on my own race and I think it really helps being on the outside lane, not seeing the other girls around me and just really focusing on what I've been working on," McKeown said. Australia's Alexandria Perkins set a personal best time to win silver in the women's 50m butterfly, which was won by American Gretchen Walsh. Walsh won in 24.83 seconds, almost half a second ahead of Perkins. Another Australian, Lily Price, came sixth. America is on top of the swimming medal table with eight golds and 26 medals overall. Australia is in second with seven golds, four silvers and six bronze medals.
ABC News
27 minutes ago
- ABC News
How synaesthesia has shaped the music world for generations
For most of us, music is mainly a feast for our ears. But people with synaesthesia experience music with more than their sense of hearing. Some see musical harmony in vivid colours, others have visceral physical reactions such as pins and needles. Some even experience music in textures like jelly or cloth. For people with synaesthesia, a neurological condition where stimuli can be experienced by multiple senses, music can invoke something profound or disruptive. "The main thing about synaesthesia is that it is an added sense that your brain uses to interpret whatever information is going on around your body," says Stéphanie Kabanyana Kanyandekwe, ABC Classic's Passenger presenter and synaesthete. It's not just seeing colours when hearing sounds. "The permutation is almost endless," Kabanyana Kanyandekwe says. We talk to musicians who are living and working with synaesthesia, its upsides and downsides and how musicians have harnessed this brain quirk for generations. The most well-known form of synaesthesia in the music world is chromesthesia: seeing sounds as colours and patterns. French composer Olivier Messiaen associated specific chords with vivid colours, and jazz legend Duke Ellington experienced orchestral textures in shifting shades of light and fabric. Jessica Cottis, Canberra Symphony Orchestra's artistic director, also sees instrument groups as colours. "The woodwinds are bright blue and the brass section is spring green," Cottis says. Meanwhile, "the string section is always a deep red." But no two experiences are alike. Composers Rimsky-Korsakov and Scriabin assigned different colour-charts to musical key signatures. Kabanyana Kanyandekwe found out her experience was different when she sat with another synaesthete at university. "I said this chord was blue, and they said it was yellow," she recalls. It's common for people to experience a few forms of synaesthesia, Kabanyana Kanyandekwe says. Although she primarily experiences chromesthesia, some sounds can also give her physical sensations. Sometimes music makes her feel lighter than air; other times a squatting weight. This physical reaction to music can impact her concert-going experience. "My synaesthesia also makes me experience the concept of time as a massive spiral in space," Kabanyana Kanyandekwe says. "Playing or listening to music is the only thing that helps me process the movement of time in a linear fashion." Kabanyana Kanyandekwe says that synaesthesia is considered a form of neurodiversity. "Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that covers many different conditions and the ways the brain works," she says. Kabanyana Kanyandekwe believes synaesthesia is common in young children, but the experience can fade as people get older. "As people's brains work out what information is important, most shave off the extra [sensory] information," she says. Kabanyana Kanyandekwe describes: "Synaesthesia may interfere or impact people's understanding of music, their ability to appreciate music, even capacity to sit and listen to music." Although most people think of synaesthesia as a harmless party trick, for some it can be profound or disruptive. Initiatives like providing sonic stories which describe what sounds people will hear during a concert can help synaesthetes and people with other forms of neurodiversity to make decisions to manage their experience. "[In some concerts], I wear certain earplugs that help me attenuate the sound in a way that doesn't harm me and allow me to appreciate the music," Kabanyana Kanyandekwe shares. Being able to choose where to sit is another way for people with synaesthesia to enjoy concerts. Some like to be seated right at the front to increase the intensity of their experience. Others prefer to sit at the back so they can step out if the music gets overwhelming. The musical potential of synaesthesia has long been explored by composers such as Messiaen and Scriabin, among others. Messiaen's Couleurs de la Cité Céleste (Colours Of The Celestial City) is a depiction of a multi-coloured, heavenly city based on his experience of synaesthesia. Cottis is using her gift in a more practical way: to help her rehearse with the orchestra. She experiences harmony as "mists of colour that are always in flux". "If I'm rehearsing and [the orchestra] is out of tune, the colours become less clear in my mind in addition to hearing it," Cottis says. "Having these two senses fused can help me to understand what's happening very quickly." In 1915, Scriabin invented a musical instrument called the "Clavier à lumières": a keyboard which could project coloured lights based on the composer's specifications. Each colour was assigned to different notes of the scale, for instance C is red and D is yellow. The instrument was invented for the performance of his Prometheus: The Poem Of Fire. Researchers have cast doubt on whether Scriabin's musical colour system was an expression of synaesthesia or something he created for pure aesthetic value. But associating music and colours isn't confined to composers with synaesthesia. Scriabin's instrument invention remains one of the earliest attempts to create an immersive concert experience. An Australian performance artist and researcher who has also used the multi-sensory nature of synaesthesia is Jocelyn Ho. The Synaesthesia Playground project, which Ho ran in 2016 and 2017, brought together musicians, computer scientists, visual artists, and fashion designers to create an immersive and interactive concert. "This project was based on my research in how we experience music with our bodies, such as spine-tingles and goosebumps," Ho says. One of the ways Ho made these physical reactions visual was by wearing a fibre-optic dress that pulsed in response to what was going on inside her body. "People could see when my heartrate quickened because I might be feeling a bit stressed, for instance" Ho says. "It stripped off my performer's mask because they could see my vulnerability." What musicians who live or work with synaesthesia show is that music is more than a feast for our ears but a full-body experience. And you don't necessarily have to live with synaesthesia to experience a taste of it. Ho says: "In musical memory, for instance, all of these senses such as sight, sound, smell and touch are integrated, they are not separated."
News.com.au
27 minutes ago
- News.com.au
‘Disgraceful': Rugby rocked by foul play by Lions captain as Wallaby concussed
British and Irish Lions star Dan Sheehan has been cited for a 'disgraceful' act of foul play during the Wallabies' big win on Saturday night in Sydney. The acting Lions captain will be forced to front an Independent Foul Play Review Committee (FPRC) hearing on Sunday after an ugly clean-out left Wallabies fly-half Tom Lynagh concussed. It was a sad end to a hard-fought engrossing series as the Wallabies showed impressive courage to win 22-12 in a chaotic third Test interrupted by lightning. However, the win has been soured somewhat by the ugly scenes of Lynagh failing his head injury assessment (HIA) following a shoulder to the head from Sheehan. Commentators, including Wallabies great Tim Horan, and fans were left flummoxed that the cleanout from Lions player Dan Sheehan that led to Lynagh's injury went unpunished. Many were stunned the incident was not looked at by the Television Match Official (TMO). Leading Irish rugby journalist Rúaidhrí O'Connor wrote on X: 'Dan Sheehan is incredibly lucky this wasn't a red card'. Aussie sport journalist Mark Gotlieb posted it was 'unforgivable by the TMO'. The Times rugby reporter Will Kelleher pondered if it was a 'dodgy clearout'. Rugby journalist Tom Decent wrote: 'Disgrace. Red card every day of the week. So dangerous. 'You can see Lynagh brace as he knows it's coming.' Veteran rugby reporter Iain Payten posted: 'Match officials do nothing. Ya kidding at this point'. Incredibly, Lynagh remained on the field for several more minutes before he was called off to undergo the HIA. Irish hooker Sheehan faces a potential suspension. World Rugby said in a statement: 'British & Irish Lions player Dan Sheehan will have a citing complaint reviewed by an Independent Foul Play Review Committee (FPRC) after being cited by the independent citing commissioner Adrien Menez for an act of foul play'. In bouts of torrential rain at Sydney's Stadium Australia, the hosts went to the break with an 8-0 lead after an eighth-minute try before showing steely nerve to finish the job. Dylan Pietsch and Max Jorgensen both dotted down to put them 15-0 clear. The Wallabies had thrown away an 18-point advantage to lose the second Test in heartbreaking fashion last week, but learned their lesson. They largely controlled the contest in front of 80,312 fans, swift at the breakdown and with plenty of attacking flair despite atrocious conditions. 'It was a disappointing week after such a tough loss,' Wallabies captain Harry Wilson said. 'To bounce back the way we did, I'm so proud of everyone. To get the win was so special.' The teams were forced from the field two minutes into the second half because of a lightning warning, with play suspended for 35 minutes. 'We spoke about that before the game, that it could happen,' Wilson said. 'We had a few plans in place. We just wanted this game so badly, whatever we had to do we were going to do.' Victory ensured the Lions' six-week visit ended in disappointment after winning all eight previous tour games. 'Our goal before the series was to try to win 3-0,' said Sheehan, who was the Lions acting captain after skipper Maro Itoje went off concussed. 'We gave it everything under harsh circumstances. The Wallabies have been in every Test and I thought they deserved the win. 'It was a bit disappointing on our end to finish with this.' The Lions won the first Test comfortably 27-19 in Brisbane before clinching a controversial 29-26 series-winning victory in the last minute last week in Melbourne. That loss was gut-wrenching for Joe Scmhidt's Australia, the head coach rallied his injury-hit troops to bank the biggest win of his tenure. In doing so, they denied the Lions a first unbeaten series since 1974 and gained some much-needed confidence heading into the Rugby Championship this month.
