Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts

Monday, March 29, 2010

The Standard:The day Kenyans sang national anthem 8 times (dap @ Jacky)


The day Kenyans sang national anthem 8 times
Published on
By James Waindi in Bydgoszcz, Poland
It took Kenya 11 good years to win the 12km senior men’s race, but when the victory came, it came in style.

Kenyans living in Poland who flocked the Myslecinek Park to support their team, some coming from as far as Warsaw which is one hour by air, were not disappointed as the Kenyan anthem played a record eight times on Sunday afternoon during the 38th World Cross Country Championships.

Apart from winning the coveted 12km men’s title that had proved to be elusive over the years, the team under head coach David Leting managed also to bag all the other gold medals at stake in the competition, which included individual and team title and in the process dwarfing archrivals Ethiopia and the other 62 countries that participated.



Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku winning the 8km men’s race
The last time Kenya had a similar feat was 26 years ago in Budapest, Hungary. Repeating the achievement has been a tough task over the years. Mercy Cherono opened the party, leading a 1-2-3-4 sweep in the first race of the day — the junior women race which Kenyans last won in Mombasa 2007, then Caleb Ndiku staged a similar feat in the junior men’s race as Emily Chebet soared high in the senior women’s event, before Ebuya put icing on the cake.

"It is great to hear your anthem played in all the prize giving ceremonies. We worked hard for this and we deserved it," said Leting.
"Winning could be easy but defending is certainly the toughest task. So we have to lift our heads up and ensure we maintain the standards," said Leting.

Kenya’s anthem was the only one played in the entire competition as they swept all the key prizes on offer.

Read entire story @ The Standard | Online Edition :: The day Kenyans sang national anthem 8 times

tags: athletics, sports, kenya, track and field, poland

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Our Dominican Brothers and Sisters

I pinched this one from blogger Cappuccino Soul

See also:

• Not Hispanic! Not Latino! Not La Raza! Reconsider Columbus Day 

• A Rising Voice: Afro-Latin Americans

Our Dominican Brothers and Sisters
When I read about Los Angeles Angels baseball player, Torii Hunter’s comments regarding some Latinos posing as “black imposters” in the Major League Baseball association, I was not surprised and somewhat amused.


During a 5-day USA Today panel, formed to discuss how to improve professional baseball, Hunter said the MLB reaches out to Latino players from places such as the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, instead of giving more attention to African-American players in urban areas of the U.S.


“People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they’re African American,” Hunter said at the USA Today event. “They’re not us. They’re impostors,” he said. “Even people I know come up and say, ‘Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?’ I say, ‘Come on, he’s Dominican. He’s not black.’ ”


Guerrero, a Texas Rangers right fielder, hails from the Dominican Republic. Take a look at Mr. Guerrero:


Is he black?


Read more @ Cappuccino Soul