SportsKenya: Take Your Pick - Octoberfest for Sports...

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Take Your Pick - Octoberfest for Sports...

This month marks some major sporting events in the country and what promises to be a busy last quarter of the year 2011 for Kenyan sports fans.These involves both local and international engagements for our sporting individuals and teams as well;

First off is the much-hyped Kenya v/s Uganda game for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers for 2012. This though is being played in Kampala but being close home, the number of fans both from within Uganda and those travelling to Kampala's Namboole (fondly named Nelson Mandela) Stadium shall be teeming with one too many Kenyans.
Still in Football, the Kenya Premier League continues with the first 5 teams having a 6-point difference between them thus making it still an open contest. 2nd-placed Ulinzi FC got some reprieve after its earlier docked points are now theirs to lose after KPL Disciplinary Committee decided to have the 2 games played. From the fixtures though, the final standings will take shape this month.

Impala Floodies - Lights, Rugby Action !

For you the Rugby fan, you have the 30th edition of Impala Floodlights coming to you early thanks to the re-adjusted Kenya Rugby Union calendar. Starting on the 8th October, the games run every Saturday till 29th October when the final take place. Most of the rugby sides are likely to play their younger squads though as the games progress the prize money may change the playing units slightly. Reigning champs of the Impala Floodies Strathmore will be hoping to repeat their exploits earlier this year to beat more fancied sides.

In volleyball we have Kenya's own Kenya Prisons team representing the country in the FIVB Club World Championships taking place in Doha, Qatar from October 8th -14th. These championships make a comeback after a long break since 1994. We shall be hoping our girls can make an impact and be among the top 3 teams of the 6 in the tournament.

Chicago Marathon logo - courtesy of www.chicagomarathon.com

In Athletics, the Chicago Marathon starts us off on 9th October. With last year's winner the late Samuel Wanjiru not in the field, we shall be hoping another Kenyan takes the lead as they have taken the world this year by storm. This race is part of the World's Marathon Majors of which the late Samuel Wanjiru was ranked first in 2010. 3 local road races are planned in the Rift Valley; Kebirigo, Eldoret and Kipkelion. There is also the Standard Chartered sponsored Nairobi Marathon which is slowly becoming a nurturing course for future marathoners for the country. It also part of a series of other Standard Chartered marathons, dubbed 'The Greatest Race on Earth' featuring Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong as host cities.

Cricket fans, don't be so gloomy, we have the East Africa Premier League T20 featuring teams from the 3 East Africa countries. The boon for these games are the agreement by SuperSport to screen them live.
In basketball, the final games of the Kenya Premier League come to an end this month with the play-offs expected to start on or before the last weekend of October. This year, the League has gotten a boon from the #FridayNightBasketball games organised in partnership with CodeRed DJs, General Motors and media partners 1FM. Here's a review of some past Friday games...

Dunk-over-Bike by Mandela - image courtesy of www.kenyahoops.wordpress.com

Make time for any of these sporting events taking place and enjoy supporting your favourite teams and individuals as we seek to develop and grow local sport.

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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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Wednesday 5 October 2011

Take Your Pick - Octoberfest for Sports...

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