SportsKenya: Why I am not celebrating yet

Tuesday 19 August 2008

Why I am not celebrating yet

Photo courtesy of Reuters

While my fellow countrymen cheered and looked on as our Kenyan athletes made it to the finish line to win Kenya 2 gold medals, I was not up there cheering. At least not just yet!
I have said previously that we have perfected the art of gifting mediocrity in Kenya. Don’t get me wrong here now. Jelimo Pamela truly deserved the gold she won at the Games breaking the junior record and becoming Kenya’s youngest gold medalist to date and first woman gold medalist. I’ll be repeating what other media services have regurgitated about the 3000m steeplechase.
I will not be cheering because;
1.In the history of the Olympics, we were taking one of the smallest teams ever- 54sportspeople with 37 athletics, 4 boxers, 2 swimmers, 2 martial artist (tae-kwon-ndo) and 1 rower. Back in 1972, we had not just athletics represented; we could afford range shooters, hockey, and boxers; the diversity serving us well in medal chances.
2. Secondly, 40 years ago we won 3 gold medals; 20 years ago 5 and right now I don’t think we will honestly win another gold medal. We have been surpassed by Ethiopia, Russia, Morocco, and even the US is busy chasing us especially in the longer distance races such as 800m,1500m to name but a few.
3.Even in the celebrated athletics we can only sing about the 3000m steeplechase race which is also looking vulnerable-look at what the Frenchman did. 1972, our young men led by Charles Asati, Hezekiel Nyamau, Robert Ouko anchored by Julius Sang won Kenya a 4x400m gold beating even fancied countries like USA, Germany and then USSR. Can we seriously say we have such chances now with the shorter races looking too strong for our athletes?
I’ll not dwell on the solutions for these since we always have a report done by the officials as led by the Chef de Missio (sic)…. I’ll enjoy what is left of the Games. With the likes of new heros such as Usain Bolt and other new champions, the Games do not disappoint. I’m also not very patriotic right now not when we don’t put ourselves higher than what we are now.

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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 19 August 2008

Why I am not celebrating yet

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