A Columbian High School graduate will take her athletic talents east this fall. Erin Conti, daughter of Marcus and Gayla Conti, will run track and cross country as she continues her education at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea.
Conti ran track for the Tornadoes for four years, earning three varsity letters. Specializing in long jump and sprints, Conti won a Northern Ohio League title in 2002 and a second place finish in the NOL her senior year this past spring.
She was a District Runner-up both years.
Erin also earned three varsity letters as a cheerleader at Columbian. She has not yet decided her college major.
You probably haven’t heard the name Ralph Firman before. No, he’s not the LA detective who didn’t know when to keep his opinions to himself and then turned it into a career as a writer and consultant.
Firman is a rookie on the Formula One racing circuit. He’s from England and drove in an FI race in his home country for the first time a couple weekends ago, in the British Grand Prix.
He finished 13th.
This week he was to experience another first. A kind of weird one at that.
Firman, who drives for the British Jordan team, will drive, or ride in, a Jordan FI car on a roller coaster.
It’s called “The Big One” in England. It’s the tallest and fastest rollercoaster in Europe and it’s located at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in northwest England.
What they’re doing is taking a Jordan FI car, pulling the engine out and then bolting it to a rollercoaster with 23 bolts.
A spokesperson for Jordan said that the team’s tech director, Garry Anderson and engineers for the coaster builder all went over the safety measures and signed off on them. The engineers have been planning the Jordan Grand Prix ride at Blackpool for the past six months.
Might work better than a vertical dragster ride.
Just wanted to point out that Major League Baseball’s All-Star game had its lowest TV ratings ever this summer … a 9.5 rating. I seem to remember that the NBA All Star game did not generate much TV fan interest either. Got no use for All-Star events and I’m pleased to see so many others agree.
They have no meaning. They have little if any team play. You might see a strong individual performance … usually not, but maybe. If a particular athlete does put up especially big statistics, it still doesn’t matter. They don’t count.
I can understand a youngster’s Mom and Dad attending an AllStar game in which their son or daughter is a participant. Otherwise, they’re just income for the promoters.
Want to hear more about Kobe Bryant?
Me neither.