SportsKenya: Weekend Wrap

Monday, 18 June 2007

Weekend Wrap

Yeah, yeah, yeah ! It's back to another drugde of a day...Monday ! For most of us this is the worst day of the week and also the longest. Well, for those who were winning over the weekend, the dream is over.Wake up !
Soccer:

Real's Reyes,Guti and Carlos celebrate their equalizer against Mallorca
In the last major European League matches,Real Madrid won the Spanish League by beating Real Mallorca 3-1 in the last games of the 2006-7 season. Barcelona had seemed to wrap the title with a 5-1 drubbing of Gymanstic. This saw David Beckham depart the team with his first and only League title with the team.
In African Cup of Nations qualifiers, Angola qualified for the 2008 Cup to be held in Ghana by beating Swaziland 3-0, while Cameroon held to beat Rwanda 2-1. Sudan also overcame their 32-year wait by beating Seychelles 2-0.
Golf:
Angel Cabrera (Argentina)beat Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods to win the US Open by a single shot. Prior to this,Cabrera had claimed six top-10 finishes in majors but none above the 4th position. Now the European Tour member is only the second Argentine to win one of golf's big prizes, emulating Roberto de Vicenzo's 1967 Open triumph at Hoylake.
Basketball:
In the local Kenyan scene, Co-operative Bank of Kenya beat Kenyatta University Pirates 69-62. This maintained the team's unbeaten run within the season. Other games saw Mennonites 99- Crusaders 36,Nairobi Pentecostal Church 67 -African Nazarene University 63, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology 85 Blazers 58.
Motorsport:

Hamilton pops the champagne for his own in US GP.Lewis Hamilton proved that latest week's victory in Canada was not a fluke by claiming his second 1st place. He beat his team-mate Felipe Messa to claim this victory for the US Grand Prix. The young lad is proving that he will be the person to beat for the overall title for the Grand Prix.
Other news:
The English Premier League fixtures for the 2007-8 season are out. Check out www.soccernet.com (Barclays Premier League fixtures 2007-8).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: Felipe Massa drives for Ferrari and is not Lewis' team mate. Fernando Alonso is.; 18 June 2007 at 10:56
Anonymous said...: even if the homeboys were tandikwad they at lease deserve a mention; 18 June 2007 at 12:39
Anonymous said...: Thanks Anon 1, I guess it was an oversight. All the same, he did beat the field too including both Massa & Alonso.

Anon 2, I decided awhile back on this same blog to give Kenyan football , black-out. Reasons being that KFF has not been able to get their act together. I'll not be suprised if heads roll after Kenya was bundled out by of all others Eritrea from the Cup of Nations qualifiers; 18 June 2007 at 15:32

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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Monday, 18 June 2007

Weekend Wrap

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