SportsKenya: Road to Olympics : 2000

Friday, 13 July 2012

Road to Olympics : 2000 - The Millenium Games

Sydney - Australia had the honour of hosting the millenium Games which marked the second start of another 100 years of the Olympics heritage. That the city down under got the Games was only the second time they were being hosted in the Southern hemisphere ( Melbourne still in Australia had hosted the Games in 1956).

The backdrop of the Games was the fact that Greece the spiritual home of the Games had been beaten by Atlanta in hosting the previous ones which marked 100 years of the modern Olympics. It was also coming in with less tensions across the world but with the soon-to-change security situation - thanks to concerns about terrorism.
The Games also stuck out for the cultural festivals around Australian and Aboriginal cultures which are rich and at times colliding. That Cathy Freeman would be the torch-bearer and go on to win infront of her home crowd is not an understatement to what significance the Games held to the local populace.

Kenya had had dismal performances in the 1990s and this would not change much in the 2000 Games.But before that here's a preview of the main highlights;

Highlights:

3-in-1 mascots

Cathy Freeman - an Australian of Aborigine origin won the 400m becoming the first person to light the torch and go on to win gold in an event in the same Games;
Marion Jones won 3 gold medals after trying to gun for 5 potential ones. These came in the 100m, 200m and 4 X 100m relay races. She confessed to using banned performance-enhancing substances and was stripped of all her medals;
Ian 'Thorpedo' Thorpe became an instant sensation winning 3 Gold and 2 silver - in the swimming competitions becoming the Games poster boy;
The Cameroon football team shocked the world by beating Spain to claim gold in the men's competition. The team was led by Patrick M'boma and a young prodigy by the name of Samuel Etoo;
Michael Johnson won the 400m flat, as well as the 4 X 400m relay ( but this was cancelled after the 3 other athletes admitted to use of performance-enhancing substances);
China - the roaring Asian tiger would stealthly work its way to the top of the medal rankings - finished 3rd after US and Russia. By 2008, China would overhaul both these countries to emerge top medal winner at the Beijing Games.
Paul Tergat & Haile Gebreselassie would treat the world to one of the most exciting finishes of the longest stadium race - 10,000m with Haile using his lethal finishing kick to narrowly beat Tergat to silver.

Kenya Figures;

56 athletes were sent to the Games including 34 male and 22 females;
They participated in 6 disciplines including archery, athletics, boxing, cycling, swimming and volleyball;
2 Gold, 3 Silver & 2 Bronze were all won in athletics - Gold: Reuben Kosgei ( 3000m steeplechase) & Noah Ngeny (1500m); Silver: Wilson B. Kipketer (3000m s'chase), Paul Tergat (10,000m) and Eric Wainaina (marathon) and Bronze : Joyce Chepchumba (women's marathon) and Bernard Lagat (1500m)
Future World champion Vivian Cheruiyot placed 14th in 5000m - she hopes to beat the Olympic jinx & win her first medal ever in 2012.

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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, 13 July 2012

Road to Olympics : 2000 - The Millenium Games

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