SportsKenya: AFC Leopards v/s Gor Mahia - Kenya's Biggest Football Derby '12 Second Edition

Friday 21 September 2012

AFC Leopards v/s Gor Mahia - Kenya's Biggest Football Derby '12 Second Edition

KPL and football pundits are rubbing their hands with glee as the biggest football derby in the country comes to fruition this weekend at the newly refurbished Kasarani grounds ( MISC if you like). A couple of weeks ago, it looked like AFC Leopards had all but sealed the top spot going into the 2nd and final leg of the 2012 season of Kenya's premier football league. But the last couple of games have ended in draws and a more recent loss to Western Stima in Nakuru reduced the gap between the top 3 teams by 2-points ( NB: reigning champions Tusker FC lead by virtue of a better goal advantage but are equal in points with AFC at 45 points).
On the other hand, Gor Mahia have been on the rise after brushing aside on their worst starts to the league earlier this year. They had to change the management and are currently under Croat Zdravko Logarusic who has steered the ship back into title contention with an unbeaten run 19-games, they look every bit as champions already. Marshalling one of the biggest fan base (and most emotive too), the club shall hope to maintain this streak come Saturday.
It must be the gods blessings that the current season sees both teams in contention for the title and as such making it a mouth-watering game whichever way you look at it. And with 8 games left, the title race is still any club's taking. This should be the motivation for both teams who's touch on the top prize in the last 3 years has been close yet so far.

Interesting Facts:

Both AFC Leopards & Gor Mahia have won the Premiership title 12 times each;
Both teams are currently coached by foreigners Dutchman Jan Koops (AFC Leopards) and Croat-born Z. Logarusic;
Gor Mahia finished 4th and AFC Leopards 5th respectively in the 2011 season;
Both clubs have the largest corporate sponsorships with Gor Mahia's Brookside shirt sponsorship tipping AFC's Mumias Sugar deal;
Both teams were recently incorporated into a fan-base drive by one of Kenya's leading media group dubbed Toklezea na Jalee meant to encourage both clubs' fans to buy merchandise that will help build their respective kitties.
Both clubs have the biggest fan-base between them, fondly referring to each other as Shemeji, thanks to the politics of the day...which are very fluid in this part of the world.
The 1st leg was Gor Mahia hosting AFC Leopards with the game briefly abandoned before ending in a draw - though with officials from both sides blaming each other for fan trouble. This 2nd leg is AFC's though Safari 7s necessitated the move to MISC and also change of date from Sunday to Saturday.

Saturday 1600hours is the kick-off at the Kasarani stadium ( with SuperSport 9 East screening the game live for those not brave enough to venture into the hallowed grounds) !

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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 21 September 2012

AFC Leopards v/s Gor Mahia - Kenya's Biggest Football Derby '12 Second Edition

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