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Sunday, 14th July 1996

International:

Young Aboriginal short distance runner Cathy Freeman is making the French sit up and take notice. In her last race a couple of days ago she ran the world's second fastest time over the 400 metres with a stunning 49.59 seconds.

I remember when I ran long distance back in the 1970's the men's record had just reached that mark.

You might recall the French 400 metre star Marie-Jose Perec said a few days ago that Freeman was scared of her. Well lady, I reckon that you won't be having to look over your shoulder to find Cathy Freemen in the finals of the Atlanta Olympics women 400 metres race.

Enjoy second place Frenchy (if you are lucky)!

In this time of the gun lobby and the fight to ban automatic guns it might then come as a bit of a surprise that a Queensland company has developed a gun which can fire 1,000,000 bullets a minute or 27,000 rounds of ammunition per second.

The gun is currently being evaluated by America's largest defence contractor, Lockheed Martin.

Hopefully they won't make any sales here.

Business:

Investors in the new Commonwealth Bank shares seem to be on a winner or so the hype goes. The overscubscribed public share offer of 259 million shares was complimented by a buy back of 100 million shares by the bank and the issue of 120 million shares to the institutional investors.

Sport:

What a great rugby union match in the start to the Tri-Nation series.

The Australian Wallabies matched up against the South African Springboks who had won fifteen international matches in a row. But it all came to an end last night, and the Australians had everything to lose. After being humiliated last week by the All Blacks in oscene weather they needed to at least perform well.

Man of the match had to go to Wallaby big John Eales who was everywhere. The stats showed that the Springboks dominated possession and territory but the sparkling moves by players like Tim Horan saw the Aussies win by a 5 point margin 21-16.

What a difference from the no-match in the Australian Rugby League international against the Fijian team earlier last week. I believe that the final score line was 84 - 14. Enough said.

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Geez it was cold yesterday. The temperatures reached the mid teens but who would have known with this strong, cold and gusty wind ripping right through you. Today the blue skies above and the peaceful Brisbane river below cannot hide the fact that the cold wind is still with us. Hope it gets warmer soon... I am freezing!

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