SportsKenya: With IRB 7s 2015/16 season done and dusted, can we conquer in Rio?

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

With IRB 7s 2015/16 season done and dusted, can we conquer in Rio?

IRB 7s Series 2015-16
The 3rd weekend of May 2016 was always going to be a momentous one for Kenyan rugby fans, more specifically for the 7s game. Well, after the Singapore and Paris rounds of the HSBC 7s IRB Series, the expectations would only get higher. Unfortunately the Kenyan 7s team, affectionately known as the Shujaa Pride, seemed to have run out of steam in the final outing in London's Twickenham Grounds.

Collins Injera - image courtesy of www.osbke.com

One Collins Injera had other ideas though. The winger who is celebrating 10 years since making his debut to the Kenya 7s team topped the tries to become leading try scorer of all time. After passing the previous record of 230 tries, he went on to add 4 more tries on the last day to increase his tries at 235. Below is a list of the top 5 leading try scorers;

Collins Injera (Kenya) - 235 tries;
Santiago Gomez Cora (Argentina) - 230 tries;
Ben Gollings (England) - 220 tries;
Dan Norton (England) -210 tries;
Fabian Jurles (South Africa) - 179 tries.

{Special mention too to Humphrey Kayange, Collin's elder brother who is 8th on the rankings with 159 tries}.
Congratulations to Collins Injera and the Kenya 7s team for achieving this feat! Commendable job by the team finishing 7th in the log of IRB 7s teams with 98 points , 1 point less than the highest ever points.
The team came of age this season winning at least 1 of the circuit series in Singapore though they featured in less Main Cup action than would have been anticipated. The team has also been able to withstand initial woes of delayed salaries (though not fully resolved yet). They have also had a fairly common front with the team management. This stability has ensured less rocking and more focus on the team's deliverables.
With the IRB 2015/16 circuit coming to an end, the second half of the tough year starts almost immediately. These include;

Rio Olympics Games
Kenya 7s circuit in the 3rd and 4th Quarters of 2016 (to be reviewed in Sep 2016)
IRB 2016/17 Circuit (to be reviewed in Oct 2016)

Rio Olympics Games

Having qualified among the last slots as Africa representatives, the Kenya 7s team saw its resurgence which formed the basis of the current success. However this will be banished first due to its sterling performances making them marked by the bigger teams.

The success too has meant the team has kept within its current players utilising a minimal number as substitutes along the season. This may again work as double-edged sword as the experience will serve them well. The negative though is the exhaustion from a tough season and the harsh weather in Rio.

Again the limited pool of players (sic) may hurt the team going from the circuit to the Olympics and onto to the new season 2016/17. No belittling the achievement of the Collins Injeras and Humphrey Kayanges of the team, it is also time new talent gets to step up and take the place.

The more realistic target would be for a medal bracket - Bronze medal at the worst. Gold and Silver would be ideal but you can lest assured the big boys in Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, fellow African reps South Africa as well as Argentina and USA will be no pushovers for the summer festival of Games.

Preparations will also be key to how the team performs. Here we invoke the GoK and the sponsors who first need sort out the payments to ensure players are fully remunerated. Being one of the few semi-professional sides in the top 10 of the IRB circuit, the players make heavy sacrifices. Its only fair they get rewarded their hard-earned monies.

Still relating to preparations, the pre-Games camp will be integral to ensure the team doesn't run rugged in the humid conditions of tropical Rio. Ideally a few days in Mombasa or such a location would mimic the conditions down in Brazil.

Finally the Olympic team for Kenya under GoK and NOCK supervision would make ours a worthy Games. Previous Games have seen #TeamKenya get a raw deal with arguments over non-essential travel parties ( Sports CS READ THIS) making the Games at the expense of players and essential technical team members.

Once these are addressed, we can sit and enjoy an entertaining debut of the 7s rugby game in Rio, watching our only team hopefuls for #TeamKenya repping the country. Over to you KRU, GoK and NOCK!

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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, 24 May 2016

With IRB 7s 2015/16 season done and dusted, can we conquer in Rio?

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