Over here in Oz we're into the last week of Spring, which means Summer is very close. At this time of the year there are stacks of things happening in Sport. Just about every Sport has a major competition or something big coming up.
When I think of Summer, I think of the sun, the beach and Surf! Australia has been very successful in the Sport of Surfing ever it became professional. At the moment the world's most prestigious, biggest and best surf 'comp' is being held. The Pipeline Masters in Hawaii produces the some of t
he biggest and most dangerous waves out of all the 'pro comps' and is the one 'comp' that every Surfer wants to win, it's the pinnacle and always in their dreams. There are a few Aussie Surfers that have a great chance of winning it, especially Taj Burrow, Andrew King and Joel Parkinson who at the moment is leading.
Surfing, being an Extreme Sport brings me to the 'Extreme' Sports competition that will be held in Melbourne soon. The best 'Extreme Sports-people' from around the world will come and compete in the comp.
One of the biggest sporting events that was held in Oz recently, apart from the Olympics, was the Paralympics. The Paralympics were Australia's most 
successful ever . We won stacks of medals and finished on top of the medal tally for the first time ever. Great Britain came second. The best thing, though, was that we finally beat USA! Overall I think the Paralympics were just as exciting and good to watch as the Olympics, sometimes even better. Recently there has been some talk in the news that Spain and a few other countries put some able-bodied athletes in their Paralympic teams. In other words they may have cheated, no doubt we may hear more about this in the next few weeks.
Just a few days ago, as you probably know, the final of the Rugby League World Cup was held at Old Trafford, England. Australia beat New Zealand in what was a very successful tournament for the Aussies. The victory capped off our Rugby Union World Cup win last year, which was also in Great Britain.
Another big event happening in Oz at the moment is the Cricket series between Australia and the West Indies. So far they have played one test ,which Australia won very easily. That victory meant Australia equalled the record of the West Indies side in 1984 for the most consecutive test match wins- 11. Australia will be looking to break that record in Perth where they play their next match very soon.
Big news in Aussie cricket, at the moment, is Brett Lee, arguably the fastest bowler in the world at the moment. He has been known to bowl faster than 156 km an hour (about 98 m.p.h). He is very close to breaking the record of 160.6 km an hour (99.7 m.p.h) set by Jeff Thompson and many people think he will do it this coming test match. So watch out Poms in the Ashes series next June!
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ome other news in Aussie sport, 19 year old Aaron Baddley had back to back wins in the Australian Golf open. Baddley, who was only playing his second tournament as a pro golfer, won the big tournament last year but was only an amateur at the time! Recently Australia's Soccer team (or to some, Football team) played against Scotland. Australia and won 2-0 in a great match. Hopefully the Soceroos will be able to qualify for the world cup in 2002. Finally, the Davis Cup final in Tennis is coming up and Australia will play Spain. Australia won the cup last year and are looking to win back to back.
I'll leave you with a few names of some young guns to watch out for and some Aussie sporting legends who've recently retired after great careers:
