Wife Carrying

Estonian-style (the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband's shoulders, holding onto his waist).

For those that have watched Wide World of Sports in Australia (WWOS), you may have seen the sport of "wife carying". The sport apparently originated in Finland where the world championships are held every year. The championship will be in October this year.

The object is to run an obsticle course carrying your wife in any fashion you wish. The basic rules are as follows (per Wikipedia):

• Length of track - 253.5m
• 2 dry & 2 water obstacles with 1 being at least 1m deep.
• The "wife" - can be yours, your neighbours or maybe someone further afield, but she must be over 17 years of age.
• Min weight - 49Kg (A rucksack will be added with weights to make up any difference).
• The wife must wear a helmet and the carrier is the only one allowed to wear a belt.
• All participants must have fun
• Also there is a category for the most entaining couple, the best costume and the strongest carrier.
  

Our hats go off to the "wives" that participate in this unusual sport.

Augusta - 2010 US Masters Golf Tournament - Day 1

Tiger has finished his first round and is only 2 shots off the pace.

1. F. Couples -6 (66)
2. T. Watson -5 (67)
L. Westwood
P. Mickelson
Y. Yang
K. Choi

Woods is tied 7th with 4 other players.

The highest placed Aussie is Adam Scott in 12th at -3 (69)

Tiger's Back

Hat's off: Tiger Woods keeps autograph hunters happy during a practice round at Augusta. Photo: REUTERS.

Tiger Woods is back. Do we care? Well, yes I do! What Tiger did in his private life (not so private really), is his business. What he did was wrong in my opinion, but should not have a bearing on whether the man should or shouldn't be playing golf. Leave all that to his wife, his kids and their lawyers.

Look at the way he plays. Look at his style and finesse. Look at his competiveness. Look at the way he brings the field up closer to his standards. Look at the way the crowds turn up to watch him play. He is a delight to watch and a definite crowd pleaser.

Tiger is in Group 31 on day 1 paired with M.Kuchar (US) and K. Choi (korea), with a hit off time of 1:42 pm (EDT).

Dangers of Recreational Fishing

Recreational fishing is one of Australia’s largest sports. Unfortunately though, some people don’t respect mother nature. People die because they don’t respect what the elements can do. They don’t keep an eye on the waves when they are rock fishing. They don’t wear the proper clothing. People even are so stupid they overload their boats and don’t take out the appropriate safety gear with them. Then when the weather turns nasty, they wonder why they capsize or sink.

The smart fishermen respect the rivers and the sea. They take all the safety precautions they can, including looking at the weather reports before they go and telling someone where they will be and when they intend to be back.

There is another kind of danger to fishing, it is the danger to our ecosystem, our environment. True fishermen across Australia fish for food and fun, but only take what they need and of a size that is legal. But there are those out there that take everything and it will be those people that will say, what happened to all the fish, where are they. If we over fish or take the breeding stock, we are left with nothing.

Please be careful and be aware of yourself and others.

Sports and Politics just don’t mix

Pakistani cricket fans burn an effigy of the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi during a protest in Lahore over the snubbing of the country's players in the IPL auction.

As I lay on my couch one late night, I flicked trough the multitude of channels. Most of which had nothing but depressing late night news, “bombing is Iraq”,” terror level raised in London” or “the us is warning ...” none of that cheerful good news you hear on the 6 clock news, this was hard hitting stuff. After some more channel surfing I finally found something a lot more joyous the ‘Indian Premier League’ better known as the ‘IPL’. The IPL a cricket fans heaven and all on free to air TV (channel 10 signed a 5 year contract for an estimated 15 million dollars). It was the Kings XI Punjab vs. Kolkata Knight Riders both teams owned by the BIGGEST names in Bollywood. I sat back and watched Chris Gayle (captain of the West Indies cricket team) hit six after six and thought this is great, way better than all the disheartening news reports of terrorism and politics.

But as I looked closer at the players in the teams I realised that not a single one of them was Pakistani. Pakistan are the current T20 world champions and yet not a single player is in the IPL, then like some sort of religious awaking I remembered a news article I had read a few months back and suddenly the IPL wasn’t so far away from terrorism and politics as I once thought.

Could it be a mere coincidence that not a single team placed a bid for any Pakistani player for was it part of a wider conspiracy. Some have suggested that they were not bought because the Pakistani players have not been up to scratch, that they were judged on their performance rather than their nationality. This sounds reasonable until you look at the finer details, while it is true that some players have been under performing this is mostly in the longer versions of the game. It is true that Pakistan didn't win a single game here in Australia during the summer, but they put up a good fight and nearly won on several occasions. On the other hand the West Indians didn't win any games this summer, and on most occasions they were nowhere close, and yet most of their players went for a lot of money during the IPL auctions.

Thus I’m lead to another reason. India and Pakistan’s relation has always been on a knives’ edge with many wars and constant border skirmishes. But after the Mumbai attacks (ten coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across the city of Mumbai killing 173) on 26 November 2008 by Pakistani terrorist, tensions have been extremely high. This event is no doubt the reason for the exclusion of the Pakistani players, of course this has been extensively denied by the IPL organizers and the Indian government. Before the auction even started the Indian government had be extremely slow in handing out visas to the Pakistani players. Sport has been a unifier on many occasions; it has turned ordinary men and women into little more than Demi –gods, and to let all this be corrupted by politics is very distressing. Even in ancient Greece warring tribes, fractions, states and even countries used to come together to participate in the annual games, to not attend was a sign of great disrespect, and to not welcome each other with open arms was an ever bigger disrespect.

So if it could be done over 2000 years ago why not now, like the old cliché goes ‘sports and politics just don’t mix.’ I hope next year I will see Shahid Afridi out there hitting all those sixes.

PS: Kings XI Punjab won by 8 Wickets

Pro Wrestler, Chris Kanyon (Chris Klucsaritas) Dies at Age 40

Chris Kanyon (whose original name is Chris Klucsaritas), an openly gay wrestler, was found dead at his home in Queens on Friday. He was 40 years old.

According to reports, Kanyon died of an intentional overdose of prescription pills. Nothing, however, is official until the coroner releases their report.

Kanyon has tried to take his own life in the past. In 2003, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after trying to commit suicide. As recently as last week, he was also evidently struggling with depression and talking about ending his own life.

After graduating from the University of Buffalo and working as a physical therapist, Kanyon left that field to become a professional wrestler in 1992. He worked for both World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment (then known as World Wrestling Federation.)

The WWE issued a statement onits website, saying, "World Wrestling Entertainment would like to express its deepest condolences to Christopher Klucsaritis' family and friends on his trajic passing". Klucsaritis was under contract with the WWE from 2001 to 2004 when he retired, although he still occasionally did battle in the ring.

Many wrestlers from WWE, TNA and other associations have expressed their deepest sympathies to Chris' friends and family and have said how great a person he was.

My condolences to Chris Kanyon's (Chris Klucsaritis) family and friends.

(Part of the information for this blog is from "http://www.cbsnews.com")

Sports Fail of the Week

You know you're not having a good day when you manage to kick a ball into your head, and score an own goal at the same time.