SportsKenya: Strathmore –Sure to Conquer !

Tuesday, 22 May 2007

Strathmore –Sure to Conquer !

It’s been an interesting observation in the last few years as I peruse and cover sports events. I have come across this name at least 4 or 5 times and in different disciplines if I may say.
Strathmore University-one of the latest kids on the blocks in provision of higher education in Kenya! It is a private institution run under the strict tutorship of Catholic-ties Opus Dei. It’s emerged as one of the leading institutions to produce players in rugby, basketball, football, hockey to name but a few. In fact, the hockey men’s team recently won the East Africa Club championships held in Tanzania a few days ago. The men’s basketball last year qualified for the Kenya Basketball Federation Premier League.
I’m encouraged when I read such stories. It shows a couple of things to note;
a)Capacity- given the number of students that such an institution attracts, it is reasonable to say that there loads of reservoirs to draw players from. Being attractive to high schools or institutions such as Maseno, Mangu, St. Mary’s, Rift Valley Academy etc it ought to have capacity to have players in all disciplines possible
b)Publicity- through sport, the institution is able to sensitize the public on not just the name of the institution but also the avenues that exist for those willing to pursue not just a professional career such as Commerce and IT but also engage in sports.
c) Multi-faceted- as I stated above, it is important to have well-rounded people working for your organization. What better way than to recruit from such an institution where they are tutored in academics but also molded into to disciplined sports people.
d)Competitiveness- this will be on one side for the individuals participating in sports and also for the institutions that have existed before. The individuals will engage in sports making it highly competitive amongst them. The existing institutions will also try to outdo this Johnny-come-lately and hope to upstage it in any discipline they may send representatives.

In future I believe institutions in Kenya should look forward to developing fully fledged departments and faculties that will draw people interested not just in participating in sports, but also be professionals running sports in managerial or other capacities. This can be in either sport marketing, sports law, sports management or related fields…… (Think of Strathmore Sports Management School…possible!).Have a check at their website and get a sneak preview of what they are all about ! www.strathmore.edu
We can have our own University College of Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Illinois, Pittsburgh University. These institutions provide talent for fields in sports such as NBA, American Football and baseball. It is important to note that college basketball is such a huge attraction in the US that they even screen it on ESPN……competitive and lucrative! Can somebody hear me?

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Profile of a Kenyan Sports Personality

This is a look at a Kenyan personality who may have influenced and continues to affect sports in Kenya and inspires all and sundry in sports. It is our hope that you shall reflect on this, take a moment to appreciate the sacrifices and efforts these heroes made. We do take a bow and wave our hats as we cheer true Kenyan patriots in sport!

This one takes a different twist. Having seen individuals grace this column, we have sought to recognize a team of individuals who did some exemplary work and set what has been an unbeatable national and indeed continental effort.

Kenya has never been a major power in shorter races 400m downwards. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this was a different script especially with the more exciting relay races. It is in 1968 when Kenya’s dominance came into play and with it a retinue of athletes who would become legends of their era.

The 4x400m races are usually the climax in the athletics calendar of events and in Mexico ’68, Kenya’s team including Charles Asati, Naftali Bon, Munyoro Nyamau and Daniel Rudisha ( the latter being the father to David Rudisha - current World and African champion in 800m) had other ideas coming 2^nd to USA.

In 1972, the 4 x 400m team was tweaked a bit and the final race was run by Charles Asati, Munyoro Nyamau, Robert Ouko and Julius Sang blazing the track to come up with the only other Gold medal from the Munich Games. But for this unprecedented move and none that has been done before by any other African nation, we salute our compatriots making them the Kenyan sprint legends!

Know your Sport

Swimming

Recently at some social setting we were engaged in a club quiz and one of the questions was about swimming. This sought to know which stroke was not among the competitive ones till 1956. One of our team-mates (we were 6 said that it was back-stroke while I argued it was butterfly, and the majority thought the former ….guess we should have stuck with my answer though!)

All the same, this sport has become one of the most competitive sports in any major sporting extravaganza in the form of the All-Africa Games, Commonwealth or indeed the Olympic Games. Kenya has lately featured in this very involving and energy-sapping sport. Thanks to the exploits of the Dunford brothers who have shone the spotlight on the country away from traditional sports in athletics, football, boxing and rugby. But what do you understand from the sport? Here’s a brief of it from different sources;

According to Wikipedia, swimming is based on the human act of swimming, that is, locomotion in water by self propulsion, with the goal of completing a given distance in the shortest amount of time. Swimming is distinguished from other aquatic sports (such as diving, synchronized swimming, and water polo) that involve swimming but the goal is neither speed nor endurance.

Competitive swimming consists of four strokes: butterfly, breaststroke, freestyle (or front crawl), and backstroke. When all four strokes are done during a race, it is called medley swimming (otherwise known as the individual medley, or I.M.). It is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA).

The goal of competitive swimming is usually to have the fastest time to complete a given distance. Competitive swimming became popular in the nineteenth century. Swimming is an event at the Summer Olympic Games, where male and female athletes compete in 13 of the recognized events each. Olympic events are held in a 50 meter pool (long course).

There are 36 officially recognized individual swimming events – 18 male events and 18 female events; however the International Olympic Committee only recognizes 34 of them – 17 male and 17 female. Most swimming sport events are held in special competition swimming pools, which are either long course pools such as those used in the Olympic Games (50 m) or short course pools such as those used in the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) (25 yards or 25 m). Competition pools have starting blocks from which the competitor can dive in, and possibly also touch-sensitive pads to electronically record the swimming time of each competitor.

In most competitions, the competitors are required to wear swimwear/swimsuits to adequately cover their bodies for the dip. However some suits have created controversies which have seen FINA coming up with standards to adhere to ensure competitors do not have undue advantage over each other.

The sport can also be pursued for personal fitness and is considered by fitness enthusiasts as one of the few that does an all-round job body of keeping the body in shape. It also requires healthy diets and rehydration (yes even if your body’s dipped in water)! Famous names in the sport include Mark Spitz – 7-gold medals winner 1972 Olympics and Michael Phelps – 8 gold medals - Beijing 2008.
For more info, check www.fina.org

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Tuesday, 22 May 2007

Strathmore –Sure to Conquer !

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