Sports Illustrated» Celebrate South Africa: Gold Medal, Athens 2004|Sports Illustrated

Celebrate South Africa: Gold Medal, Athens 2004

gareth rosslee — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:27:07 +0000

Darian Townsend, Lyndon Ferns, Mark Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling

The September issue of the Sports Illustrated magazine hit the shelves today in South Africa.

In this edition there is a section of the magazine dedicated to celebrating some of the greatest moments in South African sport.

There is a delightful spread which includes pictures of South African greats such as Gary Player, Baby Jake Matlala, Chester Williams and many many more…

We’d like to hear from our readers what you think of the moments we’ve selected and which moments made you proudly South African. If you’ve got any memories of the moments we’d like to hear those too as well as sending us any pictures you might have taken if you were lucky enough to attend. Email your photos to us on this address.

Throughout the month we are going to relive some of our greatest moments. And one of the benefits of the internet is that we can show you videos and photos that didn’t make the magazine. So enjoy and get talking about your proudest moments.

We start off with the gold medal winning 4×100m freestyle relay team that won in Athens almost exactly six years ago. Enjoy.

XV Reasons To Be Excited: #1 Beast

gareth rosslee — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:05:33 +0000

The Beast is the first of XV Boks we'd like to see more of in the Green and Gold.

What started off as such a promising season for the Springboks in 2010 imploded in rather spectacular fashion on an unsuccessful away leg of the Tri-Nations.

Injuries to key players, fatigue and an unwillingness from the coaching staff drop misfiring players all contributed to the winless trip.

We’ve compiled a list of fifteen players who didn’t get a chance – either through injury, cooling their heels oon the bench or being left out – to play in the Tri-Nations to prove to you that things aren’t all doom and gloom in South Africa.

We’ll be unveiling our team over the next week. Keep logging on to see who we’ve selected and have your say on our facebook page.

1. Beast Mtawarira

The Beast’s unfortunate, and rather unfair, suspension from Springbok duty has been somewhat overlooked due to the good form of Gurthro Steenkamp. His pace around the park and high impact game shouldn’t be so quickly forgotten. His mobility makes him as effective as another loose forward and that speed allows him to fly into the collision – something that has been missing from the Boks this season. It’s time for Gurthro to take a well earned rest and for the Beast to put the spark back into the Springbok pack.

Here is an interview we did last year with The Beast and Francois Steyn to get to know them better.

One to watch: Wicus Blaauw

The Stormers prop continues to battle with injury, but looks to have all the makings of a future Springbok prop. He’s young, mobile and doesn’t shirk the hard work up front.

Don’t forget to head over to our facebook page to have your say…

NZ Likely To Tour Zimbabwe In 2011

jaya — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:07:47 +0000

New Zealand Cricket Team

New Zealand will resume cricket ties with Zimbabwe next year following talks today between Zimbabwe sports minister David Coltart and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Justin Vaughan.

Vaughan said he had positive talks with Coltart in Christchurch.

“The tour by the Black Caps in May 2011 was the principal topic of my discussion with Mr Coltart; however, we are also considering the possibility of other cricketing exchanges, such as the potential for a New Zealand A team to tour Zimbabwe at some stage in the near future,” Vaughan said in a statement.

Sport and recreation minister Murray McCully had also held a “positive” meeting with Coltart in Wellington this week, Vaughan said.

“It’s clear from that meeting that our government’s position is that they would not oppose the Black Caps touring Zimbabwe next year,” Vaughan said.

“It is important to stress that any tour by New Zealand cricket teams to Zimbabwe would need to be prefaced by full safety and security checks, which are standard practice for New Zealand Cricket.”

Coltart, a member of Zimbabwe’s transitional inclusive government, said there were no security problems for visiting sportspeople.

Zimbabwe has a lower crime rate than most other African nations, including South Africa, and recently hosted the Sri Lankan and Indian cricket teams as well as the Brazilian soccer team for a warm-up match before the World Cup.

In March, Vaughan announced the decision not to tour Zimbabwe in this month, saying it had met little resistance from Zimbabwe.

The primary reasons for pulling out of the tour were the collapse of Zimbabwe’s health system and its generally unstable environment.

Zimbabwe is scheduled to make its test cricket comeback with a home series against Bangladesh next May after withdrawing from tests in January 2006.

The Zimbabwe team had been left depleted following confrontations between senior players and the Zimbabwe Cricket board.

The ICC agreed Zimbabwe was ready to return to test cricket after implementing the recommendations of a task force which visited Zimbabwe in November, 2008.

Chief among them were re-establishing a credible domestic championship, electing an inclusive ZC board, and achieve better results in one-day internationals, Twenty20s, and four-day games.

Zimbabwe received test status in 1992, and won eight of 83 tests.

The New Zealand Government had previously discouraged tours to Zimbabwe due to its poor human rights record, and the lack of what it saw as a democratically elected Government.

The current power-sharing Government in Zimbabwe is more accepted by New Zealand.

Courtesy of stuff.co.nz

Fans To Have More Say In Premier League

jaya — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:24:09 +0000

Premier League fans to have more say in the teams.

The British government is to unveil radical proposals that would give football fans first option to buy their clubs when they were put up for sale and require clubs to hand over a stake of up to 25% to supporters’ groups.

The ideas, are designed to give fans a far greater say in how their football clubs are run and overhaul the way the game is governed.

It is believed that this would tackle growing public disquiet at the level of debt carried by some clubs, the ownership model of others and the dysfunctional structure of the Football Association.

Portsmouth’s financial collapse, the outpouring of anger in response to the leveraged buyouts at Manchester United and Liverpool that loaded the clubs with combined debts of more than £1bn, and last week’s shock resignation of the FA chief executive, Ian Watmore, in protest at the “vested interests” on the board are all understood to have persuaded the prime minister to act.

The plans include:

• Requiring clubs to hand a stake of up to 25% to fans in recognition of their links with their local community.

• Implementing a change-of-control clause that would allow fans a window to put together a takeover of their club if it was up for sale or went into administration.

• Giving the football authorities a deadline to reform the FA and remove “vested interests” from the board, and streamline decision making.

• Introducing a unified system of governance that co-ordinates issues such as club ownership and youth development.

• Allowing professional leagues and the FA additional oversight of club takeovers.

The plans are likely to put Gordon Brown on a collision course with the Premier League, which has vigorously defended its free-market model in recent years, but he will claim that the proposals are for the good of the game.

Reflecting the view that they will succeed in democratising ownership only if there is stronger leadership from the top, it will also set football a deadline of up to a year to overhaul its governance system.

Under the scheme to give fans a stake, supporters’ trusts with elected representatives, audited accounts and Financial Services Authority recognition would be responsible for maintaining the link between clubs and their community and ensuring fans are not priced out of the game.

The government could, however, face legal challenges from existing owners over the dilution of their shares. It has echoes of the model proposed by the so-called Red Knights attempting to buy Manchester United.

Wealthy fans will contribute 74.9% of the overall purchase price, but supporters will hold a “golden share” of just over 25%, giving them a blocking stake on any change of ownership and an influential boardroom voice.

Courtesy of The Guardian

HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you think it is wise for the government to get involved in the soccer world?

Chinese Children Must Get Fit – For War

ernie4bogey — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:55:21 +0000

China must urgently address the physical fitness of the nation’s youth or run the risk of raising a generation incapable of fighting the Japanese in a future war, the head of the country’s top sports university said on Thursday.

The government must immediately invest some of its new wealth in ensuring that children take regular exercise, Beijing Sports University president Yang Hua told the sports group of the largely ceremonial advisory body to China’s annual parliament.

“It is time for the Chinese nation to improve the physical fitness of our next generation,” said Yang. “If we miss the next three to five years a whole generation will be next to useless.

“If there was another war against Japan, would the younger Chinese be able to fight the Japanese one-on-one?

“The government has enough money for banquets and for luxurious office buildings, do they not have money for children’s physical education?” he added.

Japan invaded and occupied much of China between 1931 and 1945. Rancour over Japanese wartime atrocities has subsided as a diplomatic flashpoint, but it continues to shape Chinese public attitudes towards Japan and its people.

The fitness of China’s young dominated the opening session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference’s sports group, a normally sedate gathering turned into a media circus this year by the presence of hurdler Liu Xiang.

The former Olympic and world champion 110 metre hurdler, unconventionally dressed in jeans with his shirt tails hanging out, was making his first appearance as one of the 22 members of the committee.

“A healthy body is the foundation of everything,” he said.

“I hope I can be an example to attract more attention to athletics, and encourage our children to be stronger and stronger.”

The emphasis on academic education in China — Chinese teenagers preparing for the university entrance exams often study for more than 12 hours a day — has been blamed for the lack of exercise undertaken by young.

A year after China’s elite athletes succeeded in topping the medals table with a cascade of gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, August 8 was declared “National Fitness Day”.

“A survey has shown that Chinese teenagers are behind their Japanese peers in almost every indicator it measured,” Jiang Xiaoyu, a senior member of the organising committee for the Beijing Games, told the meeting.

“The physical fitness of the young is a matter of strengthening our country and our Chinese race.”

With thanks to timeslive.co.za