SportsKenya: CECAFA- Missed opportunities

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

CECAFA- Missed opportunities

Yesterday marked the final game of the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup and if not surprising, Uganda managed to win the title pipping Kenya 1-0. Though most teams had sent their weaker sides, the competition was supposed to be a good opportunity for Kenya and other teams preparing for the Africa Cup of Nations/World Cup qualifiers to test their charges.

While Kenyans take consolation finishing second, the FIFA rankings reckoned otherwise- Kenya’s currently placed 84th and its neighbour Uganda at 68th- another opportunity to capitalize on placing our country in a steady position (You know we can’t send our players to some professional leagues if we are below 70th position- like the English Leagues?)
With the invitation of a guest team the competition was supposed to have a competitive edge to it and at least give value for money for sponsors and pay Tv channel GTV which signed a contract to air the games. This didn’t quit live to the billing though the bigger teams seemed to struggle earlier in the tourney. The wider African audience may have been amused by the level of competition exhibited.
Watching the games from the comfort of our seats was not shared by our players who kept complaining of the pathetic conditions of the pitches- especially what looked like a grazing field in Jinja. Can CECAFA attract serious funding with such grounds?
Why live up to such mediocrity?
What was worrying too was the timing of the tournament, which meant there were few fans getting into the gates of the stadia. Missed opportunity for revenues!
With the next tournament to be held in Kenya, there should a lot going for it. My belief is that Kenya will still be in the running to qualify for the Cup of Nations. As for the World Cup, I would like to share my optimism but with no proper management and tactical plans are in place to guarantee this. Tunisia which is also in the same Group had sent its personnel to analyse our game. Do we bother to do such assessment on our opposition?
Let’s hope Kenya will redeem the image of the tournament.

2 comments:

Louis said...: I agree.. as an outsider looking in it is very hard to find information about the CECAFA tournaments.

They should look to set up a website where they can post information and find sponsorship.; 20 January 2009 at 02:29
Anonymous said...: True dat ! There are not enough or any sources with the history about African and even Kenyan sports. Challenge to us truly !Keep bloggin Louis !; 20 January 2009 at 11:10

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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Wednesday, 14 January 2009

CECAFA- Missed opportunities

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