Opal
Early days for the Australian ladies world champion basketball team, which has a lot in common with the Australian National gemstone the Opal, the team simply a called the Opals which Australia supplies and 97% of this rare and beautiful unique gemstone to the world, as the Chinese have a passion for gemstones and as China is opening up to the world the Australian National gemstone will be sought after more and more as the Chinese developer a middle-class. there is a Opal gemstone for all budgets from magnificent gem black Opal for the rich and famous, Opals for the commercial market middle-class and of course you can have very inexpensive if not downright cheap small pieces of Opal for people with really no money at all. During the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games you will see the world champion coach wearing a beautiful black Opal from lightning Ridge the capital of the black Opal industry of the world ,Jan Stirling has surrounded this large gemstone with five clear diamonds you can view this Opal at www.grahamblackopal.com on the homepage. The design is a beautiful design from South Australia the jeweller that Jan chose is a specialist in Opal having shops internationally also.
The Australian women’s basketball team continued their charge towards the gold medal play off game at the Beijing Olympics by downing Korea 90 -62 last night.
The Opals were always in control and led 47-33 at half time in front of a crowd of 11,083. Penny Taylor and Suzy Batkovic led the way for Australia both scoring 18 points.
Batkovic also dominated at the other end of the court with 10 defensive rebounds.
“Our bigs did a good job of getting out and running – (Kristi) Harrower did a great job of getting them the ball on the run,” Taylor said.
Korean coach Jung Duk Hwa gave a frank assessment of the game and conceded they were totally outclassed by the reigning world champions.
“Australia are tall and strong,” Jung said. “So some of our players lost confidence at the beginning of the game.”
The Opals are now 3-0 with previous victories against Belarus (83-64) and Brazil (80-65).
Australian coach Jan Stirling remains conservative about her team’s gold medal chances.
“I’ve been speaking to (USA head coach) Anne Donovan and she and I agree that Russia are one of the form teams,” Stirling said. “So is Latvia on its day.”
“People can perceive this is a two-horse race between the Opals and the US, but I certainly don’t see it that way.”
The Opals take on Latvia tomorrow, with tip off at 1.15pm (Australian time).
“They’re just another European team” Australia’s star WNBA forward Lauren Jackson said.
“They’ve got a great player in Jekabsone-Zogota. Playing them leading up to playing Russia is going to be a really big test for us.”
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