Barcelona

DIVINGAmericans Owen, Clark gain platform finalBARCELONA, Spain -- World champion Fu Mingxia of China never wavered in her march to the finals of the women's 10-meter platform finals.The steady performance by the 13-year-old contrasted with the uneven efforts of a pair of Americans who chased her.Fu was rarely flashy, but her methodical precision showed in the results. She finished first on two dives, grabbed a second and a third in other rounds, and saved her best stuff for the more challenging optional dives.

TUESDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS Autos World of Outlaws: Syracuse (T) SPEEDNoon Baseball Taiwan All-Star Series, Game 1 MLB9 C. foot. Navy@Notre Dame (T) MASN11 a.m. Fordham@Army (T) CBSSN4 Northern Illinois@Toledo ESPN27 Delaware@Towson (T) TCN8 West Virginia@Rutgers (T) ESPNUMidnight Illinois@Penn State (T) ESPNU2 a.m. Northern Illinois@Toledo (T)

A thriving Mediterranean port since antiquity, Barcelona is culturally rich, tolerant, hospitable and stylish. Besides the Summer Olympics, which will be held there July 25 to Aug. 9, there are other sites and activities for visitors to see and do.It's a city for eating, dancing, shopping -- and above all, a great place to take a walk. As much as any city in Europe, Barcelona rewards the walker with sights worth staring at. There are sumptuous buildings from many eras, richly adorned with wrought iron, stained glass and statues; a wide array of shops, food and artifacts; and a handsome population passionately involved in its own days and nights.

WEDNESDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR Sprint Cup Brickyard 400 (T) SPEEDNoon Autos Silk Way Rally (T) VS.4 MLB Orioles@Kansas City (T) MASN9:30 a.m. Atlanta@Washington MASN1 Yankees@White Sox ESPN8 Orioles@Kansas City MASN8 Atlanta@Washington (T) MASN11:30 Yankees@White Sox (T) ESPN3 a.m. Baseball Big League final: teams TBA ESPN26 Big League final: teams TBA (T)

NEW ORLEANS -- Butch Reynolds is 400 meters from his most difficult race.Tonight, he can control the outcome in a final duel of speed and courage in the men's 400 at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.But if he wins that test, he will again be at the mercy of lawyers, courts, and an international sports federation, as he tries to bypass a two-year ban for steroids and run in the Summer Olympics of Barcelona, Spain."In my heart, I believe I'll be on that track in Barcelona," Reynolds said.

BARCELONA, Spain -- There is an Olympic stadium perched on a hilltop and a boxing arena that fronts a bar. A marina juts out like a grand boulevard in the Mediterranean, but the sea is so polluted, sailors guzzle bottles of Pepto-Bismol to ward off a bacteria battle in the belly.The athletes' village is crammed with video games, bowling lanes and TV sets locked on MTV. But the apartment rooms have no air conditioning, and the village bars serve nothing stronger than soda.The Summer Olympics have come to the city of the three-hour lunch, the seven-hour workday and the midnight dinner.

Working to maintain its nuts and bolts reputation in manufacturing, the city has helped one of its own keep shelling out products in Baltimore. Managers of the 76-year-old Barcelona Nut Co. used city and state loans to buy and expand the West Baltimore company, which they purchased Aug. 1 from their bosses for an undisclosed sum. A $250,000 loan from the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development arm, helped the managers buy Barcelona's South Fulton Street processing and packaging plant, said Tony Tsonis, president and one of three new owners.

Years ago, there was an absent-minded Baltimorean who had a copy of Barcelona, by the art critic Robert Hughes, that he always meant to read. He had never been to Barcelona or even to Spain, but there was something about the book - just the look of it, plus that sibilant-sounding title - that made him want to know what was inside. But in one move or another, Barcelona was mislaid, like so many other good intentions. Yesterday, the newly restored Roland Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library reopened after a lengthy and pricey construction job. Contented patrons ambled about here and there, appraising the intermingled new and old, largely paid for by private donations raised in the surrounding well-to-do community.

The longest preseason is coming to a close. Four years, three continents and dozens of tournaments later, the U.S. Olympic women's volleyball team is in its final countdown for the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain.Tonight at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va., the United States takes on China in an exhibition. In four months, the matches will be for real and for gold."It's getting close, and it's getting exciting," said U.S. setter Lori Endicott. "We were in Barcelona last October, and you could see the city getting ready.

WEDNESDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR Sprint Cup: Bank of America 500 (T) SPEEDNoon W. Series Gm. 1: Texas@St. Louis 45, 57:30 C. foot. LSU@Tennessee (T) ESPNU9:30 a.m. Yale@Lafayette (T) MASN10 a.m. Michigan@Michigan State (T) ESPNUMidnight Georgia Tech@Virginia (T) ESPNU2 a.m. PGA N'wide: Miccosukee Champ., Final (T) GOLF11:30 a.m. PGA Grand Slam of Golf, Day 2 (T)

The clubs were the same, as were many of the players. The stadium was stuffed with supporters in Manchester United's red and FC Barcelona's claret and blue. But the trophy was not for winning the European Champions League. Rather, NBA star Kobe Bryant presented a sponsor's trinket to defender Nemanja Vidic to mark United's 2-1 victory in a friendly Saturday before an announced 81,807 at FedEx Field — a record crowd for a soccer match in the Washington area. The outcome won't soften the disappointment of losing to the Catalan club in the prestigious continental final in May at Wembley Stadium but will provide a dose of gratification heading into the English Premier League season in two weeks.

Move over, Chad Ochocinco. Justin Bieber is the latest star to cross over to the soccer field. The dreamy Canadian pop sensation, who was in Spain for a concert, practiced with FC Barcelona on Wednesday. You know you want to watch this video.

You've been to Barcelona. So what? Unless you've experienced a match in Camp Nou, the home of FC Barcelona, the national football team of Catalonia, you haven't really been to Barcelona. Catalonia? What? Barcelona is in Spain, right? If you say so. Just don't ask a local. Barcelona pulsates with history. You can feel it as you stroll the Bari Gotic (Gothic Quarter) or ping-pong off people during the Festival of Santa Lucia. It's the home of Gaudi and his improbable edifices and the dark, narrow contrast of Barceloneta, or Little Barcelona.

Starring Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz. Written and directed by Woody Allen. Released by the Weinstein Co. $28.95 (Blu-ray $34.95) *** 1/2 Who would have thought Woody Allen would find a new muse in Spain? With Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Allen, that most American of filmmakers, the man who never seemed comfortable setting foot outside New York City, has made his friskiest, most delightful movie in more than a decade. Not that any new territory is trod. Allen still is a chronicler of relationships that result in little genuine happiness; the human heart, he continues to insist, is the most vexing, inexplicable, insatiable of creatures, one humans trust (or even listen to)

It used to be said that Woody Allen's best movies were about "sex in the head," as if his characters simply had to relax and let it travel through their bodies. In Allen's affectionate, enlightening and, best of all, blissfully entertaining Vicky Cristina Barcelona, he shows how much residue sexual desire or experience leaves in the brain and gut and heart. It's a summery idyll: his most entertaining picture since Bullets Over Broadway (1994) or maybe Sweet and Lowdown (1999). Scarlett Johansson plays Cristina, an artist looking for an art; Rebecca Hall plays Vicky, a grad student studying Catalan culture; and Javier Bardem plays Juan Antonio, a painter with romantic and critical reputations.

Years ago, there was an absent-minded Baltimorean who had a copy of Barcelona, by the art critic Robert Hughes, that he always meant to read. He had never been to Barcelona or even to Spain, but there was something about the book - just the look of it, plus that sibilant-sounding title - that made him want to know what was inside. But in one move or another, Barcelona was mislaid, like so many other good intentions. Yesterday, the newly restored Roland Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library reopened after a lengthy and pricey construction job. Contented patrons ambled about here and there, appraising the intermingled new and old, largely paid for by private donations raised in the surrounding well-to-do community.

BARCELONA, Spain -- The Olympics are upon us, and you're probably asking yourself, "What does that have to do with Wilfred the Hairy?"Well, everything.No, he's not a central European shot-putter, although that's a good guess. Wilfred's a ninth-century national hero. And by national I don't mean Spanish, because, as you may know, Barcelona -- the site of these Olympics -- is not exactly in Spain, unless your imagination is bound by some lines drawn on a map. They don't rely on maps here, which may explain all the traffic.