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At a flattened apartment block known as Los Cocos in northern Venezuela, civilians toiled with little support to pull the living and the dead from the rubble. In neighbouring Colombia, when residential towers in Cali collapsed, officials poured in to help. Devastating earthquakes weeks apart in Venezuela and Colombia have exposed sharply different government capacities to respond to disaster, according to witnesses in both countries, aid workers and a security firm. In Venezuela, civilians led rescue efforts after two back-to-back quakes in late June, finding survivors and victims as confusion, lack of equipment and delayed orders stymied the official response. In Colombia, civilian volunteers were also vital in the first hours after Monday’s quake. But at least a dozen official entities were soon on the ground, coordinating the response in the hardest-hit cities, leading to hundreds of rescues in the crucial 72-hour window after the disaster. Venezuela’s twin 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes, which struck especially hard in coastal La Guaira, led to a national death toll currently standing at 6,300 people. The Colombia quake, which had a similar magnitude and was felt in neighbouring countries, killed at least 285 people, with some 380 still missing. To be sure, magnitude is not the only factor determining the damage an earthquake will wreak. In Venezuela, soil instability and the shallowness of the tremors likely contributed to their toll, while the Colombia quake struck much deeper. However, Venezuela has been battered by shortages, hyperinflation and brain drain for years. The government blames sanctions by the US and other countries, while critics say corruption has sapped state coffers as mismanagement and underinvestment have cratered the country’s top industry, oil. Venezuela’s interim government has vehemently denied any problems in its response. “We did not wait one, two or three days. We acted immediately,” interim President Delcy Rodriguez told reporters in early July. She said 4,000 officials had been deployed the first day, rising to 14,000 the next, and lashed out at what she called a “media narrative” of a chaotic response. In La Guaira, most buildings of a landmark 1,100-unit social housing block named after late President Hugo Chavez collapsed in the June quakes. Families, neighbours and some local officials spent weeks digging through rubble with bare hands, buckets, and sticks, helped by international rescue teams and a small contingent of Venezuelan federal officials. Volunteers arriving from other states provided generators, food, water and other supplies. Locals carried bodies out on old mattresses and other bits of debris until one or two forensic specialists appeared several days afterward with body bags. Locals called for heavy machinery and more official presence at the site, known colloquially as Los Cocos. A month later, two cranes were operating along with other heavy machinery to remove rubble. Civil protection officials who had tunneled six stories into the rubble needed multiple body bags to contain decaying remains, which they removed with soldiers’ aid. An army sergeant whose unit was finding and removing bodies said some of the equipment was broken and they were approaching those still searching for family members to assess who needed help. Things played out differently at Cali’s Torres del Limonar, a five-story residential block in a quiet southern neighbourhood of Colombia’s third-largest city.Neighbours and volunteers who pulled some 20 people from the rubble in the first hours were quickly backed up by local firefighters and then joined by more than a dozen official entities, including police and navy rescuers and search and rescue officials from other cities. Within two days the site was strictly organised, with volunteers allowed only certain jobs in an effort to avoid overcrowding and let rescuers listen for survivors. A constant rotation of dump trucks removed rubble in the shadow of two cranes. Related Story Source link
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Audrey Werro’s thrilling European 800m victory over Keely Hodgkinson sets up a lively track rivalry that should thrive for seasons to come, with the added goal of breaking an elusive world record.Before Werro outgunned Hodgkinson for continental gold in Birmingham in a championship record of 1min 54.81sec on Friday, the pair had last met at the Stockholm Diamond League in June.The Swiss athlete had then also outpaced Hodgkinson, timing 1:53.98 for the victory to become the first woman to dip under 1:54 since 1983.That was the year that Jarmila Kratochvilova of then-Czechoslovakia ran the two-lap race in 1:53.28.It remains the oldest world record in track and field, albeit one that is highly contested having come during a period when systemic doping of athletes was prevalent. Kratochvilova, however, never failed a doping test.Werro is just 22 and Hodgkinson 24, meaning the pair – injuries and form notwithstanding – could realistically be looking at a decade of rivalry ahead of them.Throw 26-year-old Femke Broeders-Bol, the twice world 400m hurdles champion who has transitioned to the 800m and remarkably won bronze in Birmingham, into the mix and it makes for a heady concoction.”We are both young, so we will have a great rivalry for years to come,” said Olympic champion Hodgkinson of herself and Werro.”We can keep challenging each other. And Femke is not much older and still learning the 800m, so it is going to be a competitive distance for years to come.”Hodkinson added: “There have been so many rivalries over the last couple of years. I have only been in this game for five years, hopefully I’ve got another 10 in me.”There will always be competitors coming along and you don’t know when someone is going to have a breakthrough.” Faster and fasterWerro, who has only been a full-time professional athlete for one year, was in no doubt about what lay ahead for her.”I hope to be faster and faster next year,” she insisted.Werro was clipped in her semi-final on Thursday and only made the final on a successful appeal, not ideal for championship racing.”I’m glad I had a second chance and I just took it,” she said.”In the last 100 metres I was just thinking about all those hard training sessions I’ve done over the last few weeks.”Out of the corner of my eye I could see something happening behind, so I knew I couldn’t let anything go.”The world championships in Beijing are next year, dollowed by the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.But Werro said she was content to take a minute to just bask in continental glory.”I’m just happy to have won my first senior European medal. I’m just going to enjoy this moment.” Embrace the lacticHodgkinson acknowledged that it had been a “fantastic race”.”I gave it my all,” she said. “Going into that last 100m I really thought I could catch her but sometimes you just don’t have enough and that was the case.”We have more Diamond League meetings to come this season and the Ultimate Champs so hope I can get back to winning ways.”In an astonishing run for bronze, Broeders-Bol equalled the Dutch national record of 1:55.54 set by Ellen van Langen in 1991.”It was such a cool race and I really gave it my utmost to make sure I would get that medal,” she said.”To come away with a medal, racing against some of the best of the world, is amazing.”It is really great to see the progress I’m making. I still feel I have a lot to learn for the 800m, I need to embrace the lactic a little more.”All eyes will now turn to the August 21 Diamond League meet in Lausanne where wavelight technology and highly efficient pacemakers will be utilised to maximise times.On the fast track in Switzerland, Werro will bask in the limelight of home support and get her head down in pursuit of a 43-year-old record.More opportunities come at meets in Silesia, Zurich and Brussels before the Ultimate Championships in Budapest in September. Related Story Source link
A former champion at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters was knocked out on Friday by a South American clay-courter while the tournament’s 2022 finalist survived into the second round.With 64 seeds in the men’s and women’s draw of the last major warm-up prior to the August 30 US Open only going into action from Saturday, interest focused on the fate of 2017 winner Grigor Dimitrov and 2022 runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas.The popular Dimitrov was unable to hold onto a 4-1 lead in the third set against Argentine Sebastian Baez, exiting in the first round 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 as he lost the last five games of the encounter.The 35-year-old Dimitrov, his ranking down to 138 and playing on a wild card, was bidding for his first Cincinnati victory in five years.Baez goes on to next play American Learner Tien, a semi-finalist this week in Montreal.Tsitsipas, a one-time world number three now standing 49th after a months-long slump in form, got past Valentin Royer of France 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 after struggling somewhat to close out the victory, which sent him into a match with second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.The Greek led a set and 5-2 but was broken as he served for victory, with Royer saving two match points on the way to 5-all.Tsitsipas managed a late break two games later on his sixth match point to advance in two hours.”I’m trying to come to the net as much as possible,” Tsitsipas said. “Whenever a ball is short I try to capture it inside the baseline. That’s where I shined the most.”I felt confidence running through my veins. My offensive strategy helped me today, my composure was excellent.”Tsitsipas admitted he was tested at the end as he tried to close out against Royer, and found himself stalling as he missed conversion on winning chances.”It was nerve-wracking at the end with those match points I was not able to capture,” the Greek said. “It would have been easy to get tight.”I had to remind myself to stay loose and play aggressive. If I was going to miss, at least I knew I had done the right thing.”Tsitsipas, now several months into his coaching split with his father, has lifted his ranking to 49th after coming through qualifying at the Montreal Masters, where he lost in the second round. Venus skid hits 14Hubert Hurkacz, a 2023 semi-finalist, advanced 6-2, 6-4 over qualifying lucky loser Sho Shimabukuro while Italian Matteo Berrettini defeated Thomas Droguet 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, playing only his second match since Wimbledon due to injury.In the WTA draw, Colombian Emilia Arango handed Venus Williams a 14th straight loss dating to July of last year, defeating the fading seven-time Grand Slam champion who is currently ranked 615th in 66 minutes by 6-2, 6-2.The 46-year-old Williams was given a wild card entry at an event where she reached a semi-final a dozen years ago. She has played and lost 11 times this season while competing on organiser free entries.Czech Sara Bejlek allowed compatriot and 2016 titleholder Karolina Pliskova only two games in a first-round 6-0, 6-2 rout. Related Story Source link
Afghan journalist Zahra Joya poses for a photograph following an interview with AFP in London on August 14,…
Scottie Scheffler of the United States lines up a putt on the ninth green during the second round…
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