Weekend review: Cause for celebration

Track and field: Lessons in one-upmanship. On Friday, Tyson Gay closed out his resurgent Diamond League campaign with another standout 100m run (9.79 seconds) at a meet known as the the Belgacom Memorial Van Damme (no relation to Jean-Claude). Not to be outdone, Jamaica's Nesta Carter ran a 9.78 in Rieti, Italy, on Sunday to equal the American for the fastest time in the world this year. At the same meet, Kenya's David Rudisha went ahead and upstaged everyone by lowering his own world record in the 800m for the second weekend in a row.

FIVB World Grand Prix: Excellent strategy. The U.S. women had not won a FIVB World Grand Prix title since 2001, so they decided to unleash an innovative game plan: stop losing. The Americans closed the tournament with 11 consecutive wins, defeating Japan in their final match to secure their third Grand Prix title.

FIVB World Tour Hague: Thank you for your patience. Casey Jennings had never won an FIVB title, and Kevin Wong had last claimed victory on the FIVB circuit in 2002. So naturally, when the two longtime rivals teamed up, the result was a victory at the season-closing World Tour event in just their second tournament as a team. In addition to giving Jennings his first international title in 44 FIVB appearances, the win made Jennings and Wong the first American men other than Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser to win an FIVB gold since May 2008.

Vuelta a Espana: Try not to be upset. With race leader Mark Cavendish dealing with an illness, Yauheni Hutarovich of Belarus declared himself to be in strikingly good health with an upset sprint victory in Stage 2. Afterward, Hutarovich commented that "I proved today I'm in no need of improving to be up there with the best sprinters in the world," then proceeded to douse everyone in his vicinity on the podium with a very healthy dosage of champagne.