SportsKenya: KUSA University Leagues- Can this be the future of Kenyan sports?

Friday 20 February 2009

KUSA University Leagues- Can this be the future of Kenyan sports?

Over the last few years, our analysts for this blog have been taking a
keen interest on university sports development in the country. There have been some interesting advances made at various levels we can reveal.

Mitch Ocholla-Player/Coach Strathmore University Rugby team

Going by the soon-to-be revived Kenya Universities Sports Association –KUSA (see link here), we can say sports development is about to witness a revolution. Though established years ago, KUSA has been dormant as most institutions especially the public ones engage in sports more out of recreation than anything else. With fairly good infrastructure, most of these institutions became ‘more academic than the academia’ and great opportunities were lost.
As far back as 1987, when Kenya hosted the All-Africa Games, huge potential was there from these institutions and the inspiration from watching these Games led to quite a number of sport s enthusiasts in some of these institutions taking up the challenge and launching into sports. University of Nairobi’s Mean Machine-rugby and Terrorists-basketball as well as Kenyatta University’s Black Blad-rugby and Pirates-basketball were some of the budding teams able to compete at higher levels of regional and national leagues respectively.
The entry of private institutions saw a small renaissance of sorts with institutions like United States International University (USIU) and Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) ruffling feathers with the former featuring in both hockey and basketball while the latter even managed to win the Division 2 League in 1999-2000 only for the authorities to back out at the last minute and boycott the Kenya Basketball Federation’s Premier League.
The 2000s has seen more private and public universities in the country and with this the number of competitive teams in the various disciplines can easily make a competitive league. Among them includes; rugby 7s and 15-a-side, hockey, basketball, football to name but the main ones.
The existing infrastructure can be enhanced and others developed, like the current development of a sports complex at Strathmore University. This can ensure good grounds for developing and nurturing our youth. The cohesion and time spent by students is good enough to develop competitive teams. Most institutions would also be well-suited to manage the games since they have fully fledged sports departments and sports offices. Why not even offer degree courses in sports – management, business and the world around sports? At least that way, we can eliminate some of the mediocre fellows running most sports associations and federations in Kenya.
We can pick notes from collegiate leagues in developed economies like the US where college basketball almost rivals the NBA and has proved to be a favourable hunting ground for NBA scouts. The same can be said with their American football. In the UK, universities and colleges have competitive rugby league teams and rowing teams which have developed rivalries which are legendary at many quarters.
Coming from the East Africa Universities Games at Kampala, this year will see a new chapter in University Games and Leagues. This can be the call for Kenya to start developing a stable and lucrative sports forum not just for now but future generations. It’s a thought ….

3 comments:

Old Faithful said...: You couldn't have said it better.; 21 February 2009 at 09:48
The Real KRFU said...: You may have a point.; 23 February 2009 at 11:27
Anonymous said...: Appreciated; 24 February 2009 at 14:36

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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Friday 20 February 2009

KUSA University Leagues- Can this be the future of Kenyan sports?

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