Fitness N Sport

Archive for July 15th, 2009

There are a lot of times in sport where one member of the team will have made it possible for them to get through to the final – the place where they really want to be, and had maybe wanted to be for many years. But sometimes bad luck and or fate would have it that so that the one team member who most deserves to be there doesn’t make it. A prime example of this was Laurent Blanc who made it possible for his team to get to the last eight of the 1998 Football World Cup. He had been one of the most popular and stylish players and the leadership qualities he displayed in the run up to the World Cup earned him the nickname Le Président. Blanc unfortunately was sent off in the semi-final after ‘pushing’ Slaven Bilic of Croatia, injuring his right eye. TV replays however showed that any contact between Blanc and Bilic was below the neck, but he was still suspended.

Another sportsmen who missed out on glory was Nomar Garciaparra. He had played for, and was the face of the Boston Red Sox for 10 years, and for those ten years it was his and the team’s dream was to win the Baseball World Series. However he was traded to the Chicago Cubs on Major League Baseball deadline day in 2004. He was quoted as saying at the time ‘If it was in my control, I’d still be wearing a Red Sox uniform. That’s the place I know, I love, all those fans, I’ll always remember’. Three months later the Boston Red Sox won the Baseball World Series for the first time in 86 years.

Filbert Bayi broke the 1500m world record in the 1974 Commonwealth Games, narrowly beating local hero John Walker. They would have competed against each other again in the 1976 Olympics had Tanzania not boycotted the Olympics in protest at a rugby union tour of South Africa , by the New Zealand team. Needless to say Walker won the gold medal at the games.

Miguel Angel Martin missed out on the Ryder Cup in 1997 due to being axed from the team three weeks before the tournament. The reason? He refused to play 18 holes to test a wrist injury.

Micheal Jones, the All-Black flanker refused to play matches on a Sunday due to his faith, and therefore missed the semi-final of the World Cup in 1991, where the All-Blacks were playing Australia, who eventually won.

Jenny Gunn, who has been playing cricket since she was 10 years old, had to be replaced before the Cricket World Cup final this year when she sustained a calf injury in the warm up to the game. It was England’s first time in the Cricket World Cup final in 16 years.

And there’s Roberto De Vicenzo, who has had to endure the sting of making one of Argentina’s worst sporting mistakes. No South American has ever won the Green Jacket of the Masters but their (and his) chance of victory in 1968 was lost when he inadvertently submitted an incorrect scorecard, thereby giving American Bob Goalby a one shot victory instead of sending the year’s first major to a playoff.

The Irish Grand National is one of the most exciting steeplechases in the world and the winners board reads like a who’s who of national hunt greats. It is an annual racing even which takes place at Fairyhouse Racecourse in County Meath in the Republic of Ireland, just 12 miles northwest of Dublin. The race traditionally takes place on Easter Monday. The first race took place in 1870, for a prize of 167 sovereigns and was won by Sir Robert Peele. The winner of the second race was Scots Grey who won again in 1875 – the first dual winner of the Irish Grand National. The race has taken place every year since then bar two – 1919 and 1941 due to the First and Second World Wars. The 2010 event will be the 138th running of the race.

The racecourse is 3 miles 5 furlongs short – it is in fact the shortest of the Nationals. But there are 25 fences to clear, which is quite an amount for such a short course. The event is Ireland’s most prestigious steeplechase event, and is a handicap race for horses five years or over. Steeplechasing is the ideal kind of race for staying horses, and although a gruelling race, it is a fair one and attracts the best contenders from around the world.

One of these contenders was Arkle who won the Irish Grand National in 1964. Arkle was so good that two weighting systems were created for the handicap – the first was used when Arkle was running and the second when he wasn’t! This meant that in 1964 he had to carry 2.5 stone more than all the other horses in the race. And he still won! In the same year he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup for the first time. He won 27 out of his 35 races but had to stop racing after he injured his hoof in the King George Chase, and was put down at 13 due to arthritis. His name does however live on as the best steeplechaser ever.

Another legend of the Irish Grand National was Flying Bolt who won the race in 1966. As well as this huge achievement Flying Bolt won at the Cheltenham Festival three times – in 1965 he won the Champion Chase and a day later he came second in the Champion Hurdle. Flying Bolt was trained by the same trainer as Arkle, Tom Dreaper. Flying Bolt contracted Brucellosis aged 7 and he was never the same afterwards, winning only one race until he turned 11 and was retired.

Rhyme N Reason won the Irish Grand National in 1985, one of a very few horses to have won both the Irish and English Grand Nationals. He also won the Grand National and the Racing Post Trophy in the same year – remarkable achievements.

Desert Orchid was another extremely popular steeplechaser who won the Irish Grand National in 1990. Desert Orchid won almost every steeplechase race, including the Whitbread Gold Cup, the Tingle Creek, the Racing Post Chase and the Victor Chandler.