'All his father could do was hug me': Team-mate consoles family who watched in horror as motorcyclist is killed during Malaysian Moto GP

-Rider lost control of his bike before he appeared to be hit by Colin Edwards and then Valentino Rossi


By Daily Mail Reporter


Italian motorcyclist Marco Simoncelli died in a horrific crash at yesterday's MotoGP race in Malaysia, in full view of his devastated family and girlfriend.

The 24-year-old was flung from his bike and skidded across the track, before apparently being hit by competitors Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi.

His mother Rossella, father Paolo and girlfriend Kate watched in horror as Simoncelli's bike was smashed to pieces after his dramatic loss of control in the second lap.

They wept in shock as the unconscious rider was taken to the medical centre at the track in Sepang for treatment, but his injuries to the chest, head and neck were too serious for him to be saved.

Simoncelli's fellow Honda rider Dani Pedrosa, who had fallen out with Simoncelli earlier in the season, said: 'I've been with his father and all we could do was to hug, nothing else matters.

'Everybody in the paddock remains in shock. Many times we ourselves forget how dangerous this sport can be and when you lose people on the way nothing has any meaning. It's clear that we all do what we like, what we love, but on days like today nothing matters.'

He added: 'In a tragedy like this there is not much to say. I just want to give my condolences to his family and all the people who love him.'

The rider's girlfriend, Kate looked ashen-faced and she walked through the deserted MotoGP garages.

Fans were also spotted huddled near the track sobbing over the rider's death. He had only moved up to MotoGP level last year.

The fatal accident comes just a week after British IndyCar racing driver Dan Wheldon died after crashing in Las Vegas.

Organisers cancelled the race soon after Simoncelli's accident and said in a bulletin reported on website Autosport: 'Race cancelled as the medical centre staff is focusing on treating Marco Simoncelli and track action cannot be resumed in the current circumstances.'

The rider was given CPR in the ambulance which continued for 45 minutes but Simoncelli was declared dead at 4.56pm local time.

Devastation: Simonelli's mother Rossella is comforted outside the medical centre after her son's fatal crash

Agony: Marco Simoncelli's father is comforted as he waits outside a medical centre where the rider was taken following a crash at the Malaysian Grand Prix

Deadly: The rider (No 58) is seen sliding from his bike and colliding with two other riders in a horrifying crash

Empty: Simoncelli's girlfriend Kate walks through an empty Honda garage after the shocking accident

Yesterday tributes were posted on Twitter in memory of the talented rider.

British Formula One driver Jenson Button wrote on his account: 'R.I.P Marco... Such an exciting talent lost. My thoughts are with his family, friends and everyone involved in MotoGP. Motorsport can be so cruel...'

And Button's Formula One teammate Lewis Hamilton wrote: 'My thoughts are with his family, friends and team at this extremely sad time. Another tragic loss at such an early age.'

Newly-crowned MotoGP champion Casey Stoner said: 'I'm so shocked and saddened by the loss of Marco. When things like this happen it reminds you how precious life is.

The Australian told BBC2: 'As soon as I saw the footage it just makes you sick inside. Whenever the helmet comes off, that's not a good sign.'

Tragedy: Simoncelli (centre) takes the first corner on his second lap moment before the fatal crash at the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix


Crew members of the Honda team of Marco Simoncelli of Italy console each other as they gather outside a medical centre where the rider was taken following a crash at the Malaysian Grand Prix

A message on the MotoGP website read: 'Marco Simoncelli succumbed to injuries sustained in Malaysia.'

Simoncelli's compatriot and Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso said: 'I watched the images and I'm shocked: in a race you fight and push hard and disaster is often around the corner.

'Marco was a strong rider and he always pushed hard. We raced together since we were kids, I saw him always pushing to the maximum, he crashed many times, but without major injuries, he was seemed invincible. What happened today seems impossible.'

Moment of horror: Simoncelli loses control and is seen coming off the bike

Disaster: Simoncelli fatally falls off of his Honda after colliding into Colin Edwards

Fall: Edwards spins off the track along with Simoncelli's bike as the 24-year-old Italian devastatingly lies motionless

Race marshalls attend to Honda rider Simoncelli (C) following his fatal crash just four minutes after the start of the Malaysian MotoGP race

Devastated: Colin Edwards of the US who was involved in the crash stands at the side of the track after the fatal crash

The last death in MotoGP came at the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix, when Japan's Daijiro Katoh died from his injuries.

Medical director at Clinica Mobile Dr Michele Macchiagodena said at a press conference yesterday that U.S. rider Edwards had suffered a dislocated shoulder in the crash but it had been reset and he was 'fine'.

When asked about Simoncelli's helmet coming off, race director Paul Butler said at the press conference: 'I think if I may reply, that will be for another occasion. Quite clearly the consequences and circumstances surrounding the accident will be thoroughly investigated.'

Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber wrote on Twitter: 'R.I.P Marco A special talent that will be missed... Thinking of your loved ones, and all the motogp paddock..mark.'

British MotoGP rider Cal Crutchlow tweeted: 'RIP Marco Simoncelli ! A great rider and all round nice guy. My thoughts are with all his family & friends. I will never forget today.'

Tribute: Driver Lewis Hamilton described Simoncelli's death as 'another tragic loss', coming just a week after IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon was killed in a racing accident

Inconsolable: Stunned fans wept after the brutal accident killed the MotoGP star

Just after the accident, Tony Elias, Moto2 world champion, had spoken of his prayers that Simoncelli's injuries were not serious.

'We just hope Marco is OK - that's my wish,' he said.

Last week British IndyCar racing driver Dan Wheldon died after he was catapulted helplessly into the air in a 225mph smash before landing on a barrier and suffering fatal head injuries.

Just days earlier the father-of-two joined a number of other drivers in expressing the fears over the speed of cars and overcrowding on the oval-shaped track.

But in a blog post, he had promised fans he would go out to win and put on a show of 'pure entertainment'.

Grief: Simonelli's spare motorcycle sits in an empty garage after the race was abandoned one lap in after his sudden death









source:dailymail

Pippa at 13: The 'tough' sports star with a winning smile

By JO MACFARLANE

Gifted: Pippa Middleton was the star of the school's netball team

Fresh-faced and long-limbed,a young Pippa Middleton smiles proudly for the camera in the green kit of her school netball team.

The 13-year-old, already a star on the sports field, according to her former teachers at St Andrew's School in Berkshire – is shown sitting alongside her team-mates as they giggle and pose for the photograph.

Another previously unseen shot reveals the Duchess of Cambridge's sister in her smart school uniform, relaxing with friends in her housemaster's flat.


Sociable: Pippa, centre, and friends in their housemaster's flat


With her shoulder-length hair already tied in what looks like an early version of Kate's wedding demi-chignon, she looks like any other carefree schoolgirl .

The pictures were taken by Kevin Allford, who was housemaster to Pippa and Kate at the £13,000-a-year preparatory school in the Nineties.

Mr Allford, who now lives in Carmarthen, said: 'Pippa was like her sister and did everything at 100mph. They both loved sport, but Pippa was particularly talented.


SPORTY: Pippa, far right, with the school netball team


'She always smiled and was forever winning medals and trophies. The reason everyone thinks she's got a wonderful figure is because of the amount of time she's spent playing sport in her lifetime. With Pippa, it was hours and hours a day.'

Pippa, now 27, is two years younger than Kate, who had already left the school when these photo-graphs were taken.

The sisters were sent to the all-girls school as day pupils when they were eight. They stayed at St Andrew's until they were 13, ¬boarding for their final two years.



Runner: At 27, Pippa is still sporty and ran a triathlon last month


The girls were both known for their bright personalities and sporting talent but they did differ, according to Mr Allford.

'Pippa was tough, not like Catherine. She never seemed anything other than bright and ¬bubbly. If she fell down, she picked herself up and just got on with it.

'She knew exactly who she was and was a delight. There were never arguments with the other girls, never a piece of lost kit or grumbling.'

source: dailymail

A death foretold: The rapid rise and tragic fall of Amy Winehouse, the deeply flawed soul prodigy

By PAUL BENTLEY


In just 27 years, Amy Winehouse has managed to leave behind her a soul legacy, with a band of modern British female soul singers - Adele, Duffy, Jessie J - celebrating success across the world borne almost entirely in her wake.

Sadly, however, the immeasurably gifted singer is unlikely to be remembered for her talents, which were so often starved; drowned by drink and tranquillised by drug abuse.

Amy Winehouse's death was one foretold by gruesome pictures of bloody plimsolls and near death experiences from drugs publicly retold by her lovers. It almost seems unsurprising that, in death, Winehouse joins many of her heroes - Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison - all of whom died aged just 27.


Innocent: Winehouse before the career, the drugs, the drink and the scandal. Aged just two (left) and eight


Her parents split when she was nine years old and she and older brother Alex moved to live with their mother in Southgate, North London - just minutes away from The Priory, the rehab clinic favoured by celebrities, which she would revisit just months before her death.

'She was always very self-willed,' her father Mitch told Rolling Stone in 2007. 'Not badly behaved but...different.'


Keeping things simple: A fresh-faced Amy performs wearing just a white T-shirt and jeans back in 2004 and at the Q Awards the same year


The balance between her precocious musical talents and a seeming inclination to self-destruct were clear from a young age. At just 12, Winehouse enrolled at the Sylvia Young Theatre School but was expelled not long after for getting her nose pierced.

She had previously - aged 10 -formed a rap group, Sweet 'n' Sour - Winehouse was Sour - that she later described as 'the little white Jewish Salt 'n' Pepa.'

She joined the Brit School and by 16 her otherworldly soul voice - deep, full and knowing but light and fresh and fragile at the same time - had won her a contract with Simon Fuller's management company, which led to her being signed by Island Records.


A tattoo appears: Winehous still looking fresh faced in 2005, and sporting her new tattoo the next year


In 2003, she would release her first album - to much critical acclaim - while also meeting the man with whom she would share possibly the most destructive celebrity relationship of the decade.

The jazz-influenced debut, titled 'Frank', was critically praised for its gems - the anthemic Stronger Than Me, about a weak, feminine boyfriend and F**k Me Pumps, in which she ridiculed tired female gold-diggers, and earned Winehouse an Ivor Novello songwriting award, two Brit nominations and a spot on the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize.

But Winehouse soon expressed dissatisfaction with the disc, saying she was 'only 80 per cent behind' the album.



Losing weight: The singer has acquired more tattos at the 2007 Brit Awards, left, and looks gaunt at the MTV music video awards in Losa Angeles in the same year


That same year, she met Blake Fielder-Civil at a bar and swiftly had his name tattooed above her heart.

The relationship was on-off and infamously tempestuous, involving drug and drink binges. In one picture from 2007, she was seen with bruises on her face and blood seeping from her pink ballet shoes.

She grips Blake, as he displays a face full of scratches after a particularly viscious late night bust-up.


The voice: Amy Winehouse's talent was such that it has opened doors for many other young female soul singers who have earned huge success since her breakthrough. She is pictured performing in 2008


By 2006, after three years with Blake, rapid weight loss, an ever-expanding beehive hairdo and documented drug and drink problems, Winehouse released Back to Black, her breakthrough album, which made her a huge star across the world.

Working with producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi and soul-funk group the Dap-Kings, Winehouse fused soul, jazz, doo-wop and, above all, a love of the girl-groups of the early 1960s with lyrical tales of romantic obsession and emotional excess.

Back to Black was released in the United States in March 2007 and went on to win five Grammy awards, including song and record of the year for Rehab.






'I did [go to rehab], for just 15 minutes,' she told The Sun at the time. 'I went in and said, "Hello" and explained that I drink because I'm in love and have f****d up the relationship. Then I walked out.'

Winehouse's rise was helped by her distinctive look - black beehive of hair, thickly lined cat eyes, girly tattoos - and her tart tongue.

She was famously blunt in her assessment of her peers, once describing Dido's sound as 'background music - the background to death' and saying of pop princess Kylie Minogue, 'she's not an artist ... she's a pony.'

The songs on Black to Black detailed her relationship with Blake with a similar frankness.


Big night: Amy climbs into a car at the end of an evening out drinking at Balans in Soho


Wrecked: Amy is bruised, smudged and has blood on her feet, while Blake's face has been scratched



Happier times: Amy is seen here looking healthier with her father Mitch


Triumphs: Amy Winehouse hugs her mother Janis Winehouse after accepting a Grammy Award in London on February 10, 2008


Winehouse stood by 'my Blake' throughout his trial, often blowing kisses at him from the court's public gallery and wearing a heart-shaped pin labelled 'Blake' in her hair at concerts. But British newspapers reported extramarital affairs while Fielder-Civil was behind bars. They divorced in 2009.

After the split, Fielder-Civil described how he thought Winehouse had died in his arms following a three-day drugs binge.

Amy went into a seizure at a party at her home in Camden, North London, and had stopped breathing.

Blake told The Sun: 'She started having a fit on the bed. She slid down on to the floor before I could stop her. She started quivering again and it suddenly grew into what seemed like a full-blown epileptic fit.

'I was panicking. I didn't know know how to help her. I was out of it on drugs as well - and was sobbing and crying out, "Amy!"'


Trial: Amy is photographed as she is led to court for an appearance


'At first nothing happened. So I did it again. I was feeling for her pulse because I thought her heart might have stopped.

'Then she spluttered - and I saw her chest rise. I was still sobbing and panicking but I just felt this huge relief that she was alive.'

In June 2008 and again in April 2010, Winehouse was taken to hospital and treated for injuries after fainting and falling at home.

Her father said she had developed the lung disease emphysema from smoking cigarettes and crack, although her spokeswoman later said Winehouse only had 'early signs of what could lead to emphysema.'


Stern: Winehouse was accused of attacking a theatre manager in Milton Keynes

She left the hospital to perform at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert in Hyde Park in June 2008, and at the Glastonbury festival the next day, where she received a rousing reception but scuffled with a member of the crowd.

She also, in 2010, pleaded guilty to assaulting a theatre manager who asked her to leave a family Christmas show because she'd had too much to drink.

She was given a fine and a warning to stay out of trouble by a judge who praised her for trying to clean up her act.

In a bid to save her ailing health and desperate addiction problems, Winehouse most recently booked herself into rehab in May.

A month previously she had pulled out of her European tour after she was jeered while appearing drunk on stage at her comeback gig in Serbia.

She left the stage frequently, with her band having to improvise in her absence, and was said to have mumbled through parts of her songs.

After the disastrous gigs, the stint at The Priory in May was hoped to have been a means finally to refocus the young singer.

Winehouse, however, checked herself out after just one week.

Amy Winehouse dead at 27 - is she another member of the 'Stupid Club'?


Memorable: The singer is unlikely to be forgotten for a long time - for her music as much as for her troubles


Tragic: Amy Winehouse at the peak of her powers, wowing crowds with her incredible voice and haunting lyrics


Amy Winehouse - Love Is a Losing Game (Live Mercury Prize)


Winehouse Booed Off Stage in Serbia


Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty on drugs



source: dailymail

The super yacht that comes with its own VOLCANO: Multi-million pound boat which is a paradise island

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Luxury: This yacht will soon be cruising the oceans with its very own floating tropical islands

This is the next super-yacht set to hit the world's oceans - which comes complete with its own functioning volcano and floating tropical islands.

The vessel - dubbed the 'Tropical island Paradise' - has been designed by British boat builders Yacht Island Design, from Derby, Derbys - some 90 miles from the sea.

The extravagant 295ft ship boasts a towering volcano with a cascading waterfall which feeds the swimming pool.


Spectacular: There is also a huge helicopter landing pad for those quick trips to shore


And playboys will feel right at home with the ships helicopter landing pad and huge bar set behind a series of beach cabanas.

Studio director Rob McPherson at the Derbyshire firm, who have also created the Streets of Monaco super-yacht, said: 'The exterior was designed to give the impression of waves breaking around a volcanic island, whilst maintaining the look of a contemporary yacht design.

'It comes with its own private beach cove and a waterfall cascading down from a volcano.

'This design centres around a secluded island paradise, with elements inspired by the islands of the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Polynesia. It is set to be a big hit when it comes onto the market.'

The lavish yacht can accommodate up to 10 guests - and can travel along at a top speed of 15 knots.

The main deck is a secluded beach 'cove' of cabanas surrounding a massive ocean view swimming pool.


View from the top: The lavish liner can accommodate up to 10 guests and has a landing pad and huge bar set behind beach cabanas


And should the millionaire future owners get tired of taking a dip in the pool, they can sail out into the sea on their very own floating island complete with deck chairs and palm trees.

McPherson added: 'We had two reasons for designing such a boat. The first being that it's good fun, and secondly the current market is pretty saturated with designs that look fairly similar.

'Our mission is to work on incredibly fun designs and carve a niche for ourselves within the market, a place where other designers fear to tread.'

Inside the huge, towering volcano is a cinema, library, games room, gym, spa and VIP suites - including an owners pad spread over two decks.

The boat - which has yet to hit the market and hasn't had a price set - is causing waves in the boat building world with its unique design.

source: dailymail