Sport: The Every-Day Enabler Of Extraordinary Things, CGF President tells CHOGM leaders

The Commonwealth sporting movement will play a key role in engaging and inspiring the next generation of Commonwealth citizens, its president pledged today. Addressing senior government and civic leaders at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta (Sunday, November 29) recently-elected Commonwealth Games Federation President, Louise Martin, shared the movement’s ambitions for transformational change – and an impact that reaches far beyond the Commonwealth Games spectacle. She urged Commonwealth leaders to support their Games Associations, sports leaders and athletes and put them at the vanguard of making Commonwealth goals a reality for citizens and communities.

Welcoming guests to a leaders’ Sports Breakfast, Prime Minister of Malta, the Honourable Joseph Muscat, said that celebrating the positive power of Commonwealth sport was the perfect way to bring the CHOGM programme to a close. The event was attended by a packed audience of senior government and civic leaders from across the Commonwealth, including the Commonwealth Secretary General, His Excellency Kamalesh Sharma.

Commonwealth Secretary General, His Excellency Kamalesh Sharma said:

“Sport is one of our most cherished and visible Commonwealth traditions. More than that, sport can make vital contributions to inclusive social progress. The theme for this 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting speaks of the Commonwealth Adding Global Value.

“Sport for Development and Peace is central in our work to advance respect and understanding. Innovative approaches such as this to inspire our youth are needed more than ever, with the challenges and tragedies we face in the world today.

“The Commonwealth Games Federation, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and organisations in our wider Commonwealth family are able to draw on immense goodwill and tremendous energy as we carry this work forward in partnership.”

CGF President Louise Martin told CHOGM leaders that the Commonwealth Sporting movement was committed to delivering ‘Transformation 2022’ a new strategic approach – overwhelmingly adopted by members at the CGF General Assembly in Auckland in September – and which marks a historic change in the movement’s focus from the four-year cycle of hosting Commonwealth Games to a wider role of delivering sports leadership within the Commonwealth, based on partnership, engagement and value generation.

The plan prioritises delivery across four key areas: Innovative and Inspirational Games;
Good Governance and Management, Strong Partnerships and developing Commonwealth Sport as a strong valued brand.

Louise Martin

Addressing delegates, CGF President Louise Martin, CBE said:

“The Commonwealth Games is a great sporting spectacle which creates an extra-special magic when it combines passion, professionalism and warmth in a city that embraces the opportunity.

Sport can be an every-day enabler of remarkable things and beyond the spectacle of great games, our obligation at the CGF is to make the most of the truly impactful opportunities for empowerment and transformational change.”

The CGF President also announced that the Bahamas has formally expressed interest to host the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games, with Northern Ireland keen to host the event in 2021. Established in 2000 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Youth Games has become an increasingly important and relevant part of the Commonwealth sporting movement’s strategic engagement with young athletes emerging onto the global sport scene. The Games has provided an important springboard for many future stars. Commonwealth Games, Olympic, Paralympic and World Championship legends such as Kirani James, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Chad le Clos and Caster Semenya all experienced the early thrill of representing their home nations and territories as teenage competitors at previous Youth Games.

Louise Martin, CGF President, added:

“The Commonwealth Youth Games is an incredibly vital way that we can share the connective and life-changing experience of a Commonwealth united in its diversity with a new generation of athletes and citizens. As Samoa has just shown, hosting such a inspirational international sporting occasion like the Youth Games, empowers even the smallest nations to have a profound and distinctive impact – not just on their own young people or their own communities – but on a global scale.

“The CGF team looks forward to working with our friends and colleagues in both the Bahamas and Northern Ireland as we undertake the evaluation process to understand how we can collaborate with them through the unifying power of sport, helping to write positive new chapters in their own stories.”

Other contributors taking part in the event include Dr Lachlan Strahan, Australia’s senior representative to the Commonwealth – Gold Coast, Australia will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games – and Team Malta athlete Rebecca Camillieri, a multi-medal winning long jumper and sprinter who has represented Malta at the Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Meet Raineri Ghost FC

The Raineri Ghost team will be participating in TPL6 which kicks off December 19th 2015 at the Campos Mini Stadium. It’s a team made up of friends who have been playing football together for over 6 years.

Most members of Raineri Ghost FC have full time jobs which is one of the requirements to be a member of the team. The team has 30 players, 4 coaching staff (with coaching experiences in and out of the country on semi and professional level) and 4 medical staffs (3 are fully trained practicing doctors and 1 currently in medical school).

The team currently meets twice in a week for training and once every three months for our charity outreach. We also have a backroom staff of 4 which oversee its Legal, public relations, event and planning. The team has a cordial relationship with prominent TV/Radio sports broadcasters like: Deji Omotoyinbo, Biola Kazeem, Sayo Owolabi and Sola Rogers.

About The Twitter Premier League

The Twitter Premier League (TPL) is a football tournament that seeks to tap into the football loving passion that Nigerians show on social media.

The aim is to identify the fans who can back up their online football passion with talent, hence the official slogan being “Don’t just Tweet Football, Play football”. So fans are expected to “walk the talk”. The inaugural TPL edition held on the 29th of May (Democracy day), 2014 at Meadow Hall, Ikate Lekki featuring four male teams (The Guns, The Rebels, The Blues and The Red Devils) and two female teams (The Panthers and The Tsarinas), entirely sourced on Twitter.

The maiden edition sponsored by Samsung Mobile Nigeria, was won by the Red Devils (male championship) and the Tsarinas (female championship).

The massive online interest generated by the inaugural edition necessitated a second edition at the Campos Mini stadium, a third edition at the Children’s International School Lekki, and then fourth and fifth editions at the Campos mini stadium again.

Raineri Ghost FC, photo credit: @Therainerifc

The TPL has now grown into a twelve team league with interested teams from other major cities in Nigeria requesting their own editions of the TPL.

The TPL has evolved to become the biggest social media driven, semi-professional football tournament the state of Lagos has ever seen.

The TPL gives back to the community by partnering with charity outfits such as Stay in school Nigeria and Christmas on the Streets by participating in charity matches, events and outreaches.

Crowned in Denmark, Gao Lei And Li Dan Embrace The Role Of Olympic Favorites Heading Into Rio

Pocketing World titles in Men’s and Women’s Individual Trampoline on the final day of competition at the 2015 World Championships in Odense (DEN), China confirmed its supremacy heading into next summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (BRA).

Trampoline

Gao Lei smokes the competition, starting with his teammates

With nine months before the start of the Rio Olympic Games, Trampoline has found a new prince in Gao Lei. The 23-year-old Chinese gymnast, who until now has lived in the shadow of teammates Dong Dong, the 2012 Olympic champion, and Tu Xiao, the reigning World champion, took his first World individual title Sunday, asserting himself as the Olympic favorite.

With levels of talent deeper than a Trampoline bed, a gymnast like Gao first needs to defeat their own teammates before being permitted to take on the world. In advancing to the medal round, Gao had already won a major victory by eclipsing Dong, and Tu in the preliminary rounds. In finals, the Shanghai native nailed an exercise that included six triple saltos to grab the gold.
In exchanging his bronze from 2014 for silver this year, Uladzislau Hancharou (BLR) affirmed his position as a challenger for the 2016 Olympic crown. Hancharou, who turns 20 December 2, finished a few thousandths of a point ahead of bronze medallist Andrey Yudin. The battle for the podium was tight, with Japan’s Masaki Ito, fourth, and 2012 Olympic silver medallist Dmitry Ushakov (RUS) fifth, both less than half a point behind Hancharou.

Dong Dong and Tu Xiao

Li Dan returns to the top
China’s Li Dan has survived the ups and downs of a long international career and is once again World champion, five years after her taking first and only World individual title in 2010. The 27-year-old withstood the pressure of competing last in the Women’s final, delivering a magnificent routine worthy of her immense talent, something she has not always done in major international competition. Li’s dainty and difficult exercise was enough to overtake her teammate, 2014 World champion Liu Lingling, who performed a less difficult but no less eye-catching routine. Fourth in 2014, 34-year-old Tatsiana Piatrenia displaced 2012 Olympic champion Rosie MacLennan (CAN) to win bronze, her first-ever individual World medal after a dozen years on the international circuit.

Hard times for China’s Olympic champions

Neither 2012 Olympic gold medallist Dong Dong nor 2008 champion He Wenna advanced past the semifinal round of Sunday’s competition, a shock for Dong, who has stood on the podium at every World Championships and Olympic Games since 2007. The most successful gymnast since the legendary Olympic champion Alexander Moskalenko (RUS) was cast back down to earth by superior performances from younger teammates, who advanced to the two-per-country final in front of him. He for her part failed to finish her routine after hitting the padding surrounding the Trampoline.

First countries qualify for the Rio Olympic Games

China, Russia and Japan each earned the right to send two gymnasts to Rio to compete in Men’s Individual Trampoline, while Belarus and France each earned one spot as the first Olympic berths were allocated Sunday in Odense. In the Women’s competition, China, Belarus and Great Britain each won two places for their gymnasts at the Games.
Several other countries will battle for the final Olympic berths at the Pre-Olympic Test Event, to be held April 20 in Rio. In all, 16 men and 16 women will compete in Trampoline at the Games.

Gao Lei

Yang Song, the Tumbling Prince of Denmark

Already crowned World champion in 2011 and 2014, Yang Song (CHN) was the man to beat this year as well after dominating the qualification round. Unfazed by the pressure of a three-peat, Yang remained untouchable in a final in which three World champions were represented among the eight competitors. His flipping, twisting tumbling lines lifted him above the competition, while his teammate Zhang Kuo earned bronze. After helping his team win gold Saturday night, Russia’s Timofei Podust earned himself an individual silver, sandwiched between the two Chinese.

Double Mini-trampoline: Erin Jauch doubles down on World titles

If that was indeed Erin Jauch’s final routine at a World Championships, it was a great way to go out. The reigning World champion, who has been contemplating retirement, stuck her double layout full out second pass to earn her second consecutive World title in Women’s Double Mini-trampoline. Silver and bronze medallists Jasmin Short (GBR) and Lina Sjoberg (SWE) contributed to the stick party in finals as well, with Sjoberg, a former Artistic elite gymnast, earning Sweden its first-ever World medal in Women’s Double Mini.

Polish Sailors Make Strides At Para World Sailing Championships

Poland’s Monika Gibes and Piotr Cichocki are making strides at the Para World Sailing Championships in Williamstown, Melbourne, Australia as they bid to qualify their country for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

The 2015 Para World Sailing Championships is the final opportunity for sailors to seal a Paralympic Games berth and Gibes was direct when asked about her aims for the event, “I’m here to qualify for Rio 2016 and to make the Polish national sailing team. That’s the first goal and we need to achieve it.”

As one of seven teams aiming to qualify for Rio 2016 in the SKUD18 the stakes are high. Just five more places are available, meaning two teams will leave Williamstown and the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria bitterly disappointed.

Compared to the sailors around them in Williamstown, Gibes and Cichocki lack experience in the pressure pot of a world championship. In fact, they have only sailed at one event together in the build up to the 2015 Worlds, finishing 11th at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in May this year, but they have a vision, drive, determination and strong coaching that pushes them forward.

Sailing – Para World Sailing Championships 2015, Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, Williamstown (Aus). 29/11/2015. . Photo: Teri Dodds.

That drive was evident on the first day of competition as they laid down a marker by taking the first race win. An eighth, sixth and sixth followed and they end the second day of competition fourth overall and in the driving seat for Rio 2016.

Not bad for a crew who only recently started sailing together as their coach, Grzegorz Prokopowicz, explained, “Monika has actually only been sailing for one year so she’s very much a beginner in some aspects but she has spent about 100 days on the water this year.”

But how did she get into sailing in the first place? “In Poland we have meetings and a sports congress for people who are disabled,” continued Prokopowicz.

“Peter, her crew, went to a meeting and asked, ‘who wants to go for a sail with me?’ And Monika said, ‘I would like to try sailing’. It was about a year and a half ago and then she came to us this year and told us she was ready to go.”

Gibes is wheelchair bound having been born with meningomyelocele which is a type of spina bifida but that certainly hasn’t held her up sailing in the SKUD18, a boat that can be adapted to suit the needs and requirements of severely disabled sailors.

“The wheelchair is part of her body,” said Prokopowicz, “she is in a wheelchair and cannot walk but every day Piotr and Monika work really hard on their boat. We are a young crew and we only have one year of SKUD18 experience so we watch everyone, every day and we do a lot of things from what we see and what we learn.

“Monika gets better and better each and every day.”

Sailing – Para World Sailing Championships 2015, Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, Williamstown (Aus). 29/11/2015. . Photo: Teri Dodds.

Whilst Gibes only has one year of sailing experience the same certainly cannot be said of Cichocki who clocks up 30 years of sailing know-how that includes windsurfing, multihulls and offshore racing.

A former able-bodied athlete Cichocki is relatively new to Paralympic sailing with two Para World Sailing regattas under his belt but he has a firm understanding on the sport. Cichocki sailed non-stop around the world in The Race in 2000 on-board Warta Polpharma where he finished fourth with Roman Paszke as skipper.

Sailors such as Grant Dalton, Loick Peyron, Skip Novak and Steve Fossett, to name but a few, competed in The Race but many have linked Cichocki’s time in The Race to his avascular necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head that affects his legs.

Prokopowicz said, “Peter is a really experienced sailor. He had been sailing for 30 years with no disability but now he has problems with his legs.

“He sailed in The Race in 2000 and people think that this round the world race caused his disability as he was on the sea for three to four months. The doctors were unable to establish how it happened as well but many people do think his time in The Race affected him.”

Sailing – Para World Sailing Championships 2015, Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, Williamstown (Aus). 29/11/2015. . Photo: Teri Dodds.

It’s fair to say that Gibes and Cichocki do not let anything hinder their progression, personified by their performance over the first two days of the Para World Sailing Championships.

They have seven more races over four more days of racing remaining to see if they are to achieve their dream of simply making the Paralympic Games. If they make Rio 2016 from 100 days of sailing, how might they fare with 283 under their belt as the day by day countdown to the Paralympic Games rolls on?

Nigerian Rugby Football Federation Suspends Hafiz Ayinla For 12 weeks

Following a report by President’s Cup tournament officials manager over the conduct of Hafis Ayinla of Cowrie RFC during the final game of the tournament against Marlins RFC from UK, a 4 man committee set up by the Nigerian Rugby Football Federation has found him guilty in line with article 10.4(s), 10.4(m) of the International Rugby Board.

Hafis who was shown a red card for engaging in a verbal altercation with the centre referee, Denis Clement, decided to take laws into his hands after the decision which he perceived unfavorable.

After a thorough investigation and reviews of video evidences, Hafis was found guilty of a verbal attack on the referee and also conducting himself in a manner that negates the spirit of good sportsmanship.

Hafis Ayinla of Cowrie RFC Breaking a Tackle at SWL Fixtures against Eco II RFC

In line with regulation 17 of the IRB which deals with players’ indiscipline and foul play on the field of play, the Cowrie RFC of Lagos player has therefore been suspended from participating in any NRFF sanctioned tournament for 12 weeks.

The committee further recommended that more stringent punishment should be handed out to the players in case of future acts of misconduct inorder to protect match officials and the integrity of the sport.

Great Britain wins 2015 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Final

Great Britain has defeated Belgium 3-1 to win the 2015 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Final in Ghent on Sunday 29 November.

This is Great Britain’s tenth Davis Cup title, placing them third on the all-time list behind USA (32 titles) and Australia (28 titles). It is Great Britain’s first title since 1936, with the gap of 79 years being the longest gap between Davis Cup titles in history.

Andy Murray has become the first player to win eight live singles rubbers in a calendar year since the introduction of the World Group in 1981. He is just the third player to achieve an 8-0 World Group singles record in a calendar year.

Andy Murray, 2015 Davis Cup
photo credit: Marianne Bevis
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Murray is only the second player to win 11 live singles and doubles rubbers in World Group history after Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic in 2005. He is the first player since Pete Sampras in 1995 to win three live rubbers in a Davis Cup Final.

Andy and Jamie Murray are only the third set of brothers to win the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas title after fellow Britons Reggie and Laurie Doherty (4 titles: 1903-06), and Bob and Mike Bryan of USA in 2007.

Tyson Fury Is The New Undisputed Heavyweight Champion OF The World

Great Britain’s 26 year old Heavyweight boxer was labeled a chatterbox and rabble-rouser by many people before he stepped into the ring with long standing Boxing heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Fury was seen by many as a pretender, he could talk a good game but can he pack a punch they wondered, did he have what it takes to defeat a man who with his brother Vitali has kept a stranglehold on the heavyweight boxing category.

The answer to that and so much more was provided tonight in Dusseldorf, when the Briton did enough to put paid to the plans of Wladimir Klitschko to retire as a champion.

Tyson Fury had promised to sing a song after defeating Klitschko, he said he didn’t know which song but he he was sure he would sing after the bout, and sing he did, minutes after he had been adjudged the new winner of the IBO, IBF, WBA and WBO following a decision by the judges to award him the bout on points.

Fury won 116-111, 115-112, 115-112 to become the new undisputed heavyweight champion of the world creating what is arguably the biggest upset in world boxing in recent times.

The Briton proceeded to sing “I don’t wanna miss a thing” by Aerosmith to the capacity crowd in fulfilment of his promise to his fans.

So as it stands now Great Britain’s Tyson Fury has successfully defeated the Longstanding heavyweight champion of the Wladimir Klitschko, exciting times are ahead for heavyweight boxing.