Outside Edge: Don't knock highly strung Nock

Andrew Tong
Sunday 06 February 2011 01:00 GMT
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Outside Edge's distant cousin Over The Edge sends us news of the remarkable bouncing man.

Adam Potter was climbing Sgurr Choinnich Mor near Ben Nevis in Scotland when he fell about 1,000ft, the same height as the Eiffel Tower. He tumbled over three cliffs but only sustained minor injuries. When the rescue helicopter arrived, he was standing up reading a map.

Unfazed, Potter plans to climb Everest in two months' time. We're sure there's nothing amusing about the Glaswegian's job description: landfill manager.

Freddy Nock luckily stayed on his feet as he set a world record for the highest cable car tightrope walk near St Moritz, Switzerland. The German circus performer descended 5,249ft from the 10,836ft Mount Corvatsch without a harness or safety net.

Special mention to Nick Corrales for his half-time acrobatics at an NBA game between Phoenix Suns and Charlotte Bobcats. As well as catching the ball and scoring in mid-air after jumping off a trampoline, he dunked himself head first. Oops!

$1.3m

Prize money put up for the Ladies Professional Golf Association's inaugural RR Donnelley Founders Cup in March. The problem is it's a "mock purse" – it doesn't exist. Players will be credited for official money lists but won't get any dosh.

Not even pin money. There must be a hole in the finances.

Rage against the mowing machine

The International Paralympic Committee's Athletics World Championships ended in farcical circumstances in Christchurch, New Zealand, when France's Denis Lemeunier crashed out of the wheelchair marathon because the roads had been left open to traffic. He sustained minor injuries while several racers pulled out and other team members had to act as traffic marshals.

Triple gold medal-winner David Weir said: "It was ludicrous. I didn't want to risk getting run over."

There was another close shave in New Zealand last month, at the Lake Hayes Agricultural Show near Queenstown, when a ride-on lawnmower race descended into a brawl – apparently between two feuding mower shop managers. It erupted when one of the riders was shunted after the race ended and blows were traded while the machines were still moving. Call the cut man!

Good week

Jenny Tinmouth became the first woman to be chosen to ride full-time in the British Superbike Championships – the 31-year-old will compete for the Splitlath team, who will be making their debut in the competition...

Adam Smith hit two holes-in-one in the first nine holes in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire – at odds of around 67 million to one – including one with his first shot, before having to rush off halfway through his round to look at a new car...

Super Bowl fans, all 300,000 of them, after Dallas bar owners issued a nationwide "Send Over Strippers" appeal.

Bad week

Richie Benaud, the former Australian cricketer and doyen of commentators, whose childhood home in Parramatta, Sydney, was demolished after the state government rejected efforts to turn it into a museum...

Sal Alosi, the New York Jets conditioning coach, resigned after he was banned for tripping Miami Dolphins' Nolan Carroll as he ran past him on the sidelines...

British women, who were found to be the fattest in Western Europe with an average body mass index of 26.9, up from 24.2 in 1980.

Champion sausage-eater is frying high

It's been a week in which athletes have scaled the heights and plumbed the depths. Thomas Dold, a student from Stuttgart, won the race up the stairs of the Empire State Building in New York for a record sixth consecutive time. He scaled the 1,576 steps to the 86th floor in 10min 10sec.

Francine Kreiss of Hyères, France, was crowned Queen Of The Bubbles in the first ever World Underwater Bubble Blowing Championships, held in a 100ft-deep pool in Brussels. Contestants were trying to blow the largest, clearest, longest-lasting and most perfectly rounded rings.

Hill Taylor of the University of Texas broke the 50m backstroke record by almost a second but was disqualified for swimming the entire race underwater. And there was a sizzling performance from Peter Dowdeswell, 60, who claims to hold 309 eating and beer-drinking world records. He has set a new benchmark for sausages, eating 75 in two hours in Norwich. Then the bench collapsed.

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