A tearful Victoria Pendleton today declared her sixth Track Cycling World Championships sprint title as the most important of her career as she moved into pole position for the London Olympic Games with victory in Melbourne.

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Festival Guide 2012: A spotter's guide to festival excess

Smug Tweeters. Gurning Techno stilt loons. Naked am-dram mums. Bewildered teens. Key parts of any festival, says Nick Moore

Shaolin Soccer
Hannah Miley revels in a second national title in four days after setting the fastest time of the year in the 200m individual medley

Swimming: Miley adds to medley of medal hopes

For the second time in four nights Hannah Miley stood on top of a podium in the venue for July's Olympics and, after she produced the fastest swim of the year in the 200 metres individual medley, it only added weight to the burgeoning expectation that the 22-year-old Scot will be back there come Games time.

Real Estate, Sebright Arms, London

Tonight; a low-ceilinged, Lilliputian basement in a pub off Hackney Road. Tomorrow night; a high-ceilinged, velvet-clad hyper-venue in Mornington Crescent with a capacity nearing 2,500.

Scotland back Sean Lamont wary of new-look England

Sean Lamont is wary of Scotland shedding their underdog tag ahead of Saturday's RBS 6 Nations opener with a new-look England.

Matt Prior stressed England’s need to regain ‘clarity’ yesterday in the build-up to the second Test this week

Prior gives straight answer to dangers posed by Ajmal

England are desperate to move on from their abject defeat in the first Test. The 80-mile road trip from Dubai to Abu Dhabi yesterday should have helped them enormously, the exchange of one opulent desert sheikhdom for another providing a journey designed to put this oddest of international cricket tours into perspective.

Aidan O'Brien: The trainer is aiming his top older horse at the world's richest race

So You Think lined up for Dubai prize

Perhaps smarting from recent remarks by Ireland's official handicapper, connections of So You Think yesterday targeted a prize commensurate with the reputation that preceded him from Australia.

Nicolas Sarkozy is campaigning like an outsider who happens to be President, firing off new proposals on a daily basis

Too close to call: French voters undecided about next President

With 100 days to go before the country decides, Sarkozy is campaigning as an outsider

Album: Phil Spector, The Philles Album Collection
(Sony Legacy)

Not for nothing was Phil Spector known as the Tycoon Of Teen: Philles, the label he formed a year earlier with old-school record executive Lester Sill, became in 1962 Spector's alone, making him, at 21, the youngest label head in America.

Weekend Work: Time to clean out the vegetable garden

What to do

A man for all seasons

It's easy to build a classic but current capsule wardrobe. Lee Holmes selects the everyday essentials that will see you through rain and shine

The thin white duchess: Tim Walker captures the mercurial appeal of Tilda Swinton

As Walker's stark, striking and weirdly stunning set of pictures show, the actress has long been inspired by David Bowie

Child Wonder, By Roy Jacobsen, trans. Don Bartlett with Don Shaw

You've got a sister," his mother tells Finn, "a half-sister." This news heralds the first of several profound changes to Finn's life in the watershed year of 1961. Inevitably it makes him more aware of the occluded history of his father, who deserted his family for another woman, and died in a crane accident: "I can neither remember him nor the divorce, nor the accident, but Mother remembers for us both."

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Day In a Page

Grace Dent: If you were on your first foreign trip for 24 years, would you want Bono to be a part of the package?

Grace Dent

If you were on your first foreign trip for 24 years, would you want Bono to be a part of the package?
Ireland's austerity D-Day: How much pain can it take?

Ireland's austerity D-Day: How much pain can it take?

After years of savage cuts, the Irish now face a stark choice: do they hand over control of their economy to Europe – or go it alone without the safety net of future bailouts?
Is doctors' fixation on treatment making us ill?

Is doctors' fixation on treatment making us ill?

Advances in medicine have made the impossible, possible. But an over-reliance on healthcare threatens to bankrupt the world – and make all of us sick
The most complained-about advertisements of all time

The most complained-about advertisements of all time

The ASA has received 430,000 complaints during its existence, with a record 31,548 in 2011
Olympians: They're fit and don't we just know it

Olympians: They're fit and don't we just know it

From Tom Daley's six-pack to scantily clad volleyball players, Olympic athletes are being sold on their sex appeal. Why can't we appreciate talent, not totty?
Return of the unacceptable face of capitalism?

Return of the unacceptable face of capitalism?

Sir Richard Needham's resignation from the board of Lonrho brings back bad memories of the group's controversial past
Off the rails in Bermuda

Off the rails in Bermuda

Best known for beaches, it's also home to a stunning hiking trail that follows the route of an old railway line
Get ready for a royal good time

Get ready for a royal good time

There are plenty of events to help you fly the flag during the Diamond Jubilee long weekend and half term
Spain: World football's marathon men

Marathon men: Are Spain running out of puff?

They have every right to be exhausted after four taxing years of almost non-stop action but the chance to claim a unique treble is spurring them on
Usain Bolt: The Bolt show runs on

Usain Bolt: The Bolt show runs on

Friday's 'slow' 100m has done nothing to dent Jamaican's supreme confidence he will triumph in London
The weirdest and most wonderful Diamond Jubilee memorabilia

Weird and wonderful Jubilee memorabilia

Coronation Chicken ice cream and Jubilee jelly moulds
'I may be deaf, but you can still talk to me'

'I may be deaf, but you can still talk to me'

Being a teenager is hard enough – for those with hearing loss, it can be even more complicated
A right royal trip down the river

A right royal trip down the river

A new exhibition celebrates the glory days of London's mighty Thames
The 10 Best lawn mowers

The 10 Best lawn mowers

From petrol-fuelled to self-propelled
Every second counts

Why does life appear to speed up as we get older?

Matilda Battersby finds out how the clock plays tricks with our minds