SportsKenya: Elgon Cup, London Marathon, El Classico

Friday 20 April 2012

Elgon Cup, London Marathon, El Classico - Busy Sporting Weekend

The second last weekend of April represents a nice offering for Kenyan sporting fans. What with all the rains pounding much of the country, it's a mostly indoors affair for Kenyan (save for the fact that @KenyaPower may have other ideas depending on your side of the hood...)
This one has quite a flurry of activity and sporting events to look out for;

Rugby

Elgon Cup poster

Kenya's rivalry with Uganda for the 2012 Elgon Cup is renewed tomorrow at the famous Kyadondo Grounds in Kampala. The last few haunts to that ground have not been very successful for Kenyans. The coach Mike 'Tank' Otieno has introduced quite a number of fresh players hoping to expose these to the tougher and longer version of the game ( 15-a-side). We pray for a Kenya win and wish the best in their Kyadondo outing.The game will be screened live on SuperSport.

Football
The local league continues with some interesting fixtures such as the AFC Leopards v/s Tusker in Mombasa, Gor Mahia v/s Ulinzi Stars in Nakuru, among others. Leopards is slowly building a gap at the top, but these are early stages and 2-3 games can quickly change what may have seemed like a sterling season. Gor Mahia will be playing their first game after the decision to discipline their fans for the fracas during the AFC v/s Gor Mahia game. There is also the #BongaBoli follow on Twitter @BongaBoli promo seeking a Kiswahili football-caster for SuperSport as they develop content for their East African channel 9. This weekend they visit the lakeside town of Kisumu.
Internationally there is the EPL big one Arsenal ( which enjoys quite a following around this part of the world) and Chelsea. It's the feature game on Saturday starting at 1445hours. Later in the evening is the biggest derby in club football in Spain where Barcelona faces up Real Madrid for the title race. Each of these sides came out of UEFA Champions League licking their wounds. It ought to be a cracker as Lionel Messi tries to outscore Cristiano Ronaldo - for the Pichichi Award.

Athletics
After a fairly successful outing of Kenyan marathoners last weekend in Boston, Sunday, the London marathon is back! After taking both the men's and women's title, this will be no walk in the park as the Ethiopians and also some Chinese will hoping to make the podium.
This race will help (or further complicate...) the selection process for the Kenyan team for the Olympic Games which come back to this city in July-August later this year.
Emmanuel Mutai will be hoping to defend his win last year but will have to give chase to 3-time winner Martin Lel, world record holder Patrick Makau and world champion Abel Kirui. A tough call to pick the winner right there!
Mary Keitany leads the women's charge and will be given a run by one of the Dibaba sisters Ejegayehu Dibaba.

Formula One

Bahrain GP

Yes this sport has developed quite a following in the country even when some of the races are in some ungodly hours of Sunday morning or evening. This weekend sees GP teams visiting the Arab state of Bahrain. The first practice session today saw Lewis Hamilton emerge tops amidst controversies and tomorrow the cars and drivers take back to the track to see who attains pole position in the starting grid.

All the above action is available on the SuperSport channels for those who feel like staying indoors. If you can afford to hang out at a pal's or your local hang-out, then these too can provide you with some nice weekend action!

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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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Friday 20 April 2012

Elgon Cup, London Marathon, El Classico - Busy Sporting Weekend

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