SportsKenya: March 2008 -Main Highlights

Wednesday, 5 March 2008

March 2008 -Main Highlights

The year started a bit too fast for some of us and the lack of blogs articles and comments can clearly attest to this.
All the same, we seem to be catching on well and hope that this year will be one memorable year in some of the sports events lined up. Let's take a quick tour on the month of March;
Soccer:
UEFA Champions League :Knock-out Rounds and Quarter-Finals
English FA: Quarter-finals for the FA Cup as the Premiership League continues
Other European Leagues: Spanish La Liga, German's Bundesliga, French Ligue 1 to name but a few reach some crucial stages as this being as European Nations Cup year, most of these will end earlier than usual.
Tennis:
Dubai Open takes place with some good prize money is enticing. Trust the Arab emirs to pull a fast one as they attract more and more crowds to the desert dunes transformed to paradise on Earth.
Athletics:
The World Indoor Championships start in Valencia,Spain from 7th - 9th.
The 30th IAAF World Cross Country Championships take place in Edinburgh on the 30th
Motorsport:
Rallying:
Argentine Rally on the 27th
Formula 1:
The supremacy battles start all over again between the two main teams on the 16th March 2008 in Australia, Melbourne and a fortnight later on 23 March at Malaysia, Sepang's track to be held under floodlights -a first for Formula One. Ferrari will hope to retain its title while McLaren will try get Hamilton to get his first championship
Motorcycle:
The rounds move to Qatar on 9th and onto Spain on the 30th
Golf:
From tomorrow, 6th - 9th the European Challenge Tour: Tusker Kenya Open, Karen Golf Club, Nairobi, Kenya. This has been a good round for golfers hoping to move to the more lucrative PGA Tour. It has hosted such greats as Seve Ballestros-Spanish great.
Rugby:
Bamburi Rugby Super Series is on after Bamburi pledged to continue supporting it at a tune of Kshs.9 million.
6-Nations rounds continue with Ireland v Wales ,Scotland v England and France v Italyfacing off this weekend and the ties change to England v Ireland, Italy v Scotland, and Wales v France on the 15th

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: Check out www.rugbykenya.blogspot.com for some whacky rugby reviews.; 6 March 2008 at 12:48
SportsKenya said...: Hey Anon, thanx for the comment. I like the blogspot. Do I assume it's your undertaking ? All the same I'll add this to MUST VISIT Blogs on mine.
Muchas gracias !; 6 March 2008 at 19:21
Anonymous said...: TM, yes, it is my undertaking. Trying my hand at writing, don't know if I can sustain it.; 7 March 2008 at 10:08
Anonymous said...: TM, yes, it is my undertaking. Trying my hand at writing, don't know if I can sustain it. Thanks for the support; 7 March 2008 at 10:08
Anonymous said...: hi,
check out www.kcbrfc.blogspot.com for all the news and info on KCB rugby Club, the kenyan champions.

kcbrfc@gmail.com; 10 March 2008 at 09:33

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, 5 March 2008

March 2008 -Main Highlights

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