SportsKenya: What a Weekend !

Monday 4 June 2007

What a Weekend !

Well well well ! If your weekend was like mine, I guess then you'll have not recovered from the schedule that was. The intensity in the weekend action in almost all the activities that were. And there was suprises and upsets galore, take a shot here.....
Soccer:
There were Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers where Kenya was among the teams playing. A draw against Swaziland gives Kenya a slim chance of qualifying as one of the 3 best losers (second-placed teams) in the groups. The next game features Eritrea with the last game having Kenya against Angola, who lead the group with 10 points. In an upset of sorts, Nigeria were pipped 1-2 by Uganda but still lead their group with 2 games in hand.
In international friendlies, England held Brazil to a 1-1 draw at the first international game held at Wembley stadium.

Image courtesy of IRB Sevens website www.irbsevens.com
Rugby:
Kenya caused excitement at the IRB Sevens ,Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens,when they upset Australia 17-10 and later beat Portugal 22-7 in the third match of the series. However they were bundled out of the Main Cup by losing by a try to Samoa 14-12. They then lost 31-7 to Fiji in the Plate Final. Thus Kenya got 4 points to increase their tally to 22 points & finish just outside the top-10 bracket.
This will give the Kenyan team the much-needed impetus to play their hearts out in the upcoming Safari Sevens tourney in Kenya on June 8-10.
Basketball:

Image courtesy of Getty Images

Against all form books (well even my own expectations !) Cleveland Cavaliers recovered from a 2-0 deficit to take the Eastern Conference title against Detroit Pistons (Game 6 : 98-82). The heir apparent, Lebron James made a sweetsong for Cleveland who the last time they came closest was in 1992 when they lost to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. He led the team in rebounds and assists but got much help from rookie Daniel Gibson who has been pivotal in their attack of the championship. They are only the third team in NBA history to come from a 0-2 deficit to win the play-offs finals ( othes being 1971 Baltimore Bullets and 1993 Chicago Bulls).
They play San Antonio Spurs in game 1 on Thursday.
Motorsport:
In the test of the 4x4 machines on Kenyan real rugged terrain in the Rhino Charge held at Baringo on June 2nd, Ian Duncan emerged the winner.Mahesh Bahtti, the 2007 Rob’s Magic Quattro Charge winner took second overall,1999 winner Alan McKittrick in a Land Cruiser was third. The winner is usually the team that covers the least ground to reach all the checkpoints.
Photo courtesy of EA Standard

Ian Duncan driving his Toyota KTM Cruiser,visited all the 13 checkpoints in the shortest distance of 58.167km within the cut off time of 10 hoursThere are several prizes up for grabs for the winners. But more important than winning is the taking part in the event and helping raise funds for the Rhino Ark foundation that is building an electric fence around the Aberdare Conservancy.A total of 68 chargers participated in this year’s event that raised Sh68 million.
WRC Acropolis Rally-Greece

Image courtesy of BBC www.bbc.co.uk

In the Greek Acropolis Rally, Marcus Gronholm held on to the lead to beat Sebastien Loeb and win the Rally. He now leads the championship standings by 9 points as they head to the Rally of Finland which Gronholm has won consistently over recent years. Here's how they finished on Sunday;
1.Marcus Gronholm (Fin) Ford 3hr 49min 22.6sec
2.Sebastien Loeb (Fra) Citroen at 38.6sec
3.Petter Solberg (Nor) Subaru at 1min 34.1sec
4.Mikko Hirvonen (Fin) Ford at 2:41.3
5.Henning Solberg (Nor) Ford at 4:52.7
6.Chris Atkinson (Aus) Subaru at 6:31.7
7.Jan Kopecky (Cze) Skoda at 8:15.8
8.Manfred Stohl (Aut) Citroen at 8:56.2
9.Guy Wilks (GB) Ford at 9:53.2
10.Matthew Wilson (GB) Ford at 10:39.6

Athletics:
Athletics action had the Prisons Provincial Games held at Nairobi where top athletes representing the Prisons department were having their day at Nyayo National Stadium. Catherine Ndereba,Edith Masai are but a few of the athletes involved in the meet.
Tennis:
In the French Open, Serena Williams kept the US hopes alive by beating D.Safina and set up a meet with Justine Henin-Hardenne. Maria Sharapova saved two match points before beating Patty Schnyder a quarter-final game yesterday.
In the men's court, Roger Federer made history again by equalling John McEnroe's record streak of 11 consecutive straight-sets win in Grand Slams. Though not at his utmost best, it was enough to beat Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in the French Open fourth round. In what might be a main match today Rafael Nadal faces Lleyton Hewitt in round 4 of the Open.

Image courtesy of BBC

For more on this log on to www.rolandgarros.com

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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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Monday 4 June 2007

What a Weekend !

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