Category Archives: A little bit of sport
A Look at the Sport of Goalball
With the London Paralympics nearing commencement it’s time to have a look at another of the 21 sports that will be a part of the 2012 Games. After taking a look at the rough and tumble of Wheelchair Rugby, otherwise known as ‘Murderball’ it’s time for a change of pace and time to look at the rather unique sport of Goalball.
THE PARTICIPANTS:
Goalball is a sport for vision-impaired athletes that was developed to help blind World War II veterans in their post-war rehabilitation. It became a Paralympic sport at the 1980 Paralympics after being a demonstration event at the 1976 event.
A game of Goalball consists of two teams of 3 visually impaired athletes, with one centre player and two wingers on each team. Three substitutes are also permitted.
The athletes with a lower level of blindness wear blindfolds when competing in the sport which allows for less visually impaired athletes to compete in the sport with people that have a higher level of blindness.
THE GAME ITSELF:
The game is played by the teams participating taking turns at rolling or throwing a ball that has a bell in it toward their opponents goal with the aim of the defensive team being to block the ball, by listening to where the bell sound is coming, from going into the goal at their respective end of the field.
The players must throw the ball within 1o seconds or an infraction has occurred.
The game has two 10 minute halves.
PENALTIES:
Possession is generally lost if a player throws the ball before the match official has indicated for play to begin, if the ball goes over the sideline, or the ball rebounds off a defending player, crossbar or goalposts and goes back over the centre line.
For more serious rule breaches a penalty throw is awarded if:
- Players interfere with their eyeshades
- Excessive noise is created which distracts from the ability to hear the bell in the ball
- If coaching comes from the benches after the referee has said “quite please”
- The ball does lands short of the opponents court, too long or too high
- Not being in team area when defending your goal line
- Delaying the game in a deliberate manner
- If the same player throws the ball for a 3rd time in a row
- For conduct against the spirit of the sport
When a penalty is awarded only one defender is allowed on the court, effectively like a football goalkeeper during a penalty shootout.
THE DEFENDING CHAMPIONS:
At the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, the women’s Goalball final was won by the United States of America in a very tight match with the USA prevailing over host nation China 6-5.
The men’s gold medal match was won by the Chinese team over Lithuania after being two goals down with less than a minute to go in the game, closing the gap and winning by one in the end.
The bronze medal was won in the men’s competition by the Swedish team and by the Danish team in the women’s event.
Wheelchair Rugby: ‘Murderball’ Explained
With just 96 days to go until the London 2012 Paralympics, it’s time to start taking a look at how some of the sports that are unique to a Paralympic Games are played. The first in this series is Wheelchair Rugby (Quad Rugby in the USA) also colloquially referred to in the biz as ‘Murderball’ because of the rough and vigorous nature of the game where injuries like broken digits are not uncommon.
The sport was also made famous with a documentary named Murderball made about the sport.
The current world number one team (as at 11 November, 2011) in the sport of Wheelchair Rugby is the United States of America, who are also the reigning Paralympic and world champions looking to defend their title and ranking in just a matter of months in London. They are closely followed by Australia in second place on the list and Japan in third, with Sweden and Canada rounding out the top 5 sides in the world.
ELIGIBILITY:
Players must have a functional impairment of both the arms and legs to form a part of a team in the sport. The most common cohort in the game are those with spinal cord injuries, but people with multiple amputations and neurological disabilities like Cerebral Palsy also qualify to play.
Players are given a classification based on functional ability between 0.5 and 3.5 with the former being the higher end of physical impairment and 3.5 being the highest level of physical ability.
THE TEAM:
There can be up to 12 players in a team with 4 players on the court at any one time. These 4 players must have a combined classification total of no more than 8 points at any time.
THE PLAYING FIELD:
Murderball is played indoors on a basketball court. Instead of the basketball key area an 8 metre wide and 1.75 metre deep forms a goal area with cones marking the dimensions. The end line is the goal line.
THE BALL:
The sport is played with a regulation size volleyball that must be 280 grams and white in colour.
THE RULES OF THE GAME:
Play starts in the back court of the player whose team is in possession of the ball. The player in possession of the ball must advance the ball into their opposition’s half within 12 seconds.
Players must pass or bounce the ball every 10 seconds in any manner necessary.
A team has a total of 40 seconds to score a point or must give up possession of the ball and the attacking team cannot be in the key area with the ball for more than 10 seconds without scoring.
The defensive team is not permitted to have any more than 3 players in the key defending their line at any one time.
In defending their line, the team can attack the player in any manner aside from attacking a player from behind or physically interfering with another person.
Defensive fouls are remedied with a 1 minute penalty and offensive fouls lead to a loss of possession.
The clock is stopped and possession reversed if the ball goes out of bounds.
When the player in possession of the ball has two wheels over the end line a goal has been scored.
100 Days to Go, But What’s the Paralympics All About?
Today marks just 100 days until the event the world will be watching, no not those games starting with ‘O’ and ending in ‘pic’, but the widely known about and often reported on Paralympic Games- well, this is true in an ideal world anyway. From the 29th of August until the 9th of September the London 2012 Paralympic Games will take place in the shadow of the Olympic Games which will have ceased just a short period of time prior to the commencement of the Paralympics.
Little is known or reported about the Paralympic Games, so what’s it all about?
THE COMPETITORS:
The Paralympic Games are open to competitors with a physical disability, including those who are visually impaired or deaf. The Paralympic Games have also included athletes with an intellectual impairment in both the 1996 and 2000 Paralympics, but these participants were excluded from both the 2004 and 2008 Paralympic Games after cheating on the part of the Spanish team particularly in the intellectually disabled basketball team. These athletes will return to the Paralympic Games in London for the first time since the Sydney 2000 Paralympics.
The London Paralympics will be the biggest to be held so far with approximately 4,200 athletes from 165 countries participating in the event and 16 of those nations will be competing for the first time in London.
THE SPORTS:
The 4,200 athletes participating will compete in a total of 21 different sports, with the majority of sports included in the Paralympics also featured as Olympic sports save for some modifications to cater for differing levels of impairment.
This year athletes will compete in:
- Archery
- Athletics
- Boccia
- Track and Road Cycling
- Equestrian
- Football
- Goalball
- Judo
- Powerlifting
- Rowing
- Sailing
- Shooting
- Swimming
- Table Tennis
- Sitting Volleyball
- Wheelchair Basketball
- Wheelchair Fencing
- Wheelchair Rugby
- Wheelchair Tennis
The sports that are unique to the Paralympics are:
- Boccia, which is similar to Bocce
- Goalball which is similar to European Handball for visually impaired participants
- Powerlifting which is Weightlifting but performed different for participants with a higher level of physical impairment
- Sitting Volleyball which is similar to regular Indoor Volleyball, but performed seated on the court
- Wheelchair Basketball which is similar to Basketball but undertaken in a wheelchair
- Wheelchair Fencing which is like regular Fencing but for people in a wheelchair
- Wheelchair Rugby which is also know as “Murderball” and involves similar play to the multiple forms of rugby but is performed indoors
- Wheelchair Tennis which is like Tennis but competitors play in a wheelchair
The Australian team is expected to do well, particularly, as has been the case historically, in swimming, athletics, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball where medal prospects are traditionally very strong.
One of the best sports to watch is the swimming which sees people with a range of impairments competing in classifications with people who have similar abilities and compete in the same manner as those in the Olympics. It is amazing to see double arm amputees finish the race head first on the touch pads.
Wheelchair Rugby or “Murderball” is one of the most spectacular sports to observe that involves people in a wheelchair. This sport sees players with specially designed wheelchairs with heavy duty protection play in much the same way as rugby players but by “tackling” each other by careering into their opponents wheelchair when they are in possession of the ball. The objective, like in the rugby codes is to get the ball over a line.
Wheelchair Basketball is another brilliant sport and very similar in sheer physicality to Wheelchair Rugby and as mentioned previously is practically identical to everyday Basketball but with the added difficulty of shooting for baskets from a sitting position in a wheelchair.
BROADCASTING OF THE PARALYMPIC GAMES
The Paralympics will again be broadcast on television and radio by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation who have been a strong supporter of the Paralympics and broadcast over 120 hours of content from the previous Paralympics in Beijing in 2008. There will be some live coverage and some highlights packages as there has been previously.
Both the opening and closing ceremony will also be televised by the national broadcaster.
SO THERE’S THE BACKGROUND
So with just 100 days to go before the London 2012 Paralympic Games commence, you now have a bit of a background (presuming you didn’t prior to reading) of just what the Paralympics are about and why they are so amazing and hopefully a million more reasons to take an interest and watch or listen to some phenomenal sporting performances of the highest level.
A Sporting Obituary of Sorts
This morning Australians awoke to the news that a true Australian sporting champion would be leaving the sport in which he reached its pinnacle. Casey Stoner, the 26 year old, two-time world MotoGP champion (2007, 2011) amazed the sporting world when he announced his retirement on Thursday afternoon European time, ahead of the French Grand Prix this weekend.
Both family reasons and the way the MotoGP set-up is heading were cited by Stoner as reasons for his impending retirement at the end of the 2012 season as was a lack of enthusiasm when he fronted the press overnight to explain the move.
It seems a strange move for someone who is again on top of his sport in another year, after finishing 1st in the last MotoGP race which turned out to be, in the latter stages a very competitive race, but the current world champion ultimately prevailed and at worst is looking a good chance to defend the championship he won last year for the first time since 2007 when he won his first.
The Australian Stoner follows in the footsteps, big ones, of 5-time 500cc world champion not to mention his idol, Mick Doohan who won all five of his championship titles consecutively between 1994 and 1998 and would’ve been a good chance to equal the tally of championships that Doohan acquired over his time in the sport.
From now until the end of the season rumours will now abound as to the next move that Casey Stoner will make after his retirement from motorcycles. He might choose to take a year, or more off to evaluate his options and spend time with his wife and their new baby born in February this year before contemplating a possible return to some form of motorsport, whether it be on two or four wheels or behind the scenes on the team or corporate side of things.
If Stoner testing a V8 Supercar in the MotoGP off-season provides any indication, then the 26 year old may well decide to return to Australia full-time and embark on a four wheel career which, even though completely different, for a person of the stature of Casey Stoner, would attract a lucrative salary up there with the long-time champions of the sport like Craig Lowndes.
In the meantime, all eyes will be on Stoner and whether, with the weight off his shoulders, he can power through to the end of the season and win his third MotoGP title and all indications are, despite his lack of confidence in himself and the authorities of the sport, that he will be able to give his title defense a real good shake.
You will be missed in the sport Casey and by lovers of motorsport. It has been and will continue to be a pleasure to watch the way you race, at least until the end of the season.
Why the Mighty Maroons Can Make it 7 in a Row
The best Queensland team to have ever pulled on their football boots has won an amazing 6 State of Origin series in a row, rewriting the record books to a point where the winning streak may never be broken. Overnight the Queensland team for the first game of the series next Wednesday in Melbourne was named and again appears to be a virtually unbeatable squad of players despite the absence of one of the legends of the game at club, Origin and international levels.
This series will be the first in the post-Lockyer era of State of Origin, an Origin career between 1998 and 2011 during which Lockyer only missed one full series, not through poor form, but through injury.
There has been much said about the Queensland State of Origin team hopes in the wake of the retirement of Darren Lockyer, with the player who holds god-like status in the game of rugby league, not to mention a statue outside his home stadium and a road named after him near his home town. The knockers have said it will be harder without him, it undoubtedly will be.
But the haters have also said that they might not win without him and that sounds ridiculous to many who follow the game, some like it’s a religion, some because they are proud Queenslanders, come May with the beginning of the State of Origin series.
Darren Lockyer, regardless of the massive star he was and he was the biggest of the big, hard to emulate, is but one player in the fabric of a Queensland team that has so dominated over 6 years. Yes, he set up or took advantage of many of the attacking plays over 12 series in the game, but he was surrounded by people like Johnathan Thurston and Allan Langer before him and also Kevin Walters early on too and that’s just the players surrounding him on the field, there’s also many others who would take a long time to list that also make up this great team.
There’s people like Petero Civoniceva, in his last season in the game and Billy Slater, Greg Inglis and new captain of the Maroons Cameron Smith. There’s also top players like Sam Thaiday and Matt Scott providing the brute force for the Queensland team on the field of play, in the pressure cooker atmosphere that is representative football.
The Queensland team has so much depth that players like Ben Hannant, David Taylor and David Shillington will probably be on the bench, a reserve of four that also includes rising star Matt Gillett.
Not only that, but a side that counts as its second string halfback and 18th man, another star in the making, Daly Cherry-Evans, is sure to count its chances in the series ahead as very good.
Even with Johnathan Thurston switching to the number 6 jersey, a very similar position, the Queensland team can count its first choice halfback, Cooper Cronk as probably above all others in Australia and around the world.
The biggest enemy of the Queensland team at this stage is complacency. The series is theirs to win, but also there for them to lose if they don’t turn up with their game heads on, that’s State of Origin, it brings out the best in people, even the young blokes who may not have had a jersey to their name can step up if the Queensland team are lacking concentration.
The new and relatively new players and new combinations in the New South Wales team offer an air of unpredictability too which always has the ability, if plays are executed well, to bamboozle even experienced players like those who will don the Maroons jumper again from next Wednesday.
But all in all, if the Queensland team bring their attention and A game next Wednesday, then by Thursday next week, the Queensland team should find themselves just one win away from a magical 7th series victory in a row.
There’s just one word left to say: QUEENSLANDER!!!
A Sometimes Roar Fan, But A Fan This Weekend
I must confess, I’m not much of a soccer fan, okay purists yes I mean football. I find it, for the most part a dull and boring sport where it can take an inordinate amount of time to inch the ball into even the same postcode as the goal, at which point in time many more shots miss or are saved by the “goalie” or goalkeeper, with, I concede a high degree of athleticism from time to time.That said, I am a sport lover and intent every weekend and when sport provides me an opportunity, during the week to watch as much sport as I possibly can that falls within the realms of my sporting tastes.
This weekend, the A-League football season reaches the point where all clubs in the competition want to be when they set out at the beginning of the season, hoping to win as many matches as possible to put themselves in the best position to get themselves into the grand final of their competition. The two teams that found themselves in a good enough position at the end of the regular season and won all required finals matches, a feat in itself, Brisbane Roar and Perth Glory will take to the field on Sunday, feet at the ready to run and kick themselves to the point of being able to hoist aloft the league trophy after 90 minutes.
I’m from Brisbane and even though I don’t particularly enjoy football as a sport, I will at least be listening as they try to make it two pieces of silverware in a row, just days after another Asian Champions League loss, thankfully at home, so overseas travel didn’t knock the bejesus out of them, even if the loss did have that effect. I will be cheering while listening to it on the radio, it’s not something I would go out and watch at a pub, or the ground, I would prefer to be able to potter around a do other things while keeping an ear on the unfolding events.
Being not that keen on the sport of football, I would consider myself a sometimes Roar supporter. One of those people you hear that will support their team when they are up, but happily bash them when they are down.
The Brisbane Roar started the season extraordinarily well and I thought that they would dominate throughout and back-to-back trophies were a very distinct possibility given the start. But then, from round 9 of the competition, the team began to hit that wall that a team which has performed record-breaking feats will inevitably encounter at some point.
The team lost the next 5 games in a row and looked as if exhaustion had caught up with them. It was at that point that I found myself caring less and less about my parochial support for the local team in a sport I could easily avoid. I stopped caring so much about the season and the end result, it wasn’t going to involve the Brisbane team in any capacity other than them watching at the ground or on television as far as I was concerned.
Then something extraordinary happened. All of a sudden I started hearing of wins and the regular draws that are experienced all too often in the round ball game, though it took me a few wins to actually realise that this was occurring and my interest was piqued.
My local team could even challenge for the top spot in the competition, though they were to finish 2nd on the ladder behind the Central Coast Mariners, their very worthy and challenging opponent in last year’s championship showdown. Fortunes were switched when the Roar ended up beating the Central Coast Mariners to progress to the biggest day of the 2011-12 season.
I will be paying attention to see if the local boys can do it for Brisbane again after what sounded like an enthralling contest at the end of last season. A game that not even I as a bit of a knocker of the sport can say was anything other than an unbelievable contest between two teams with nothing between them, save for the undying determination and patience of the Roar outfit which was able to pounce twice within the last 10 minutes.
C’arn Brisbane Roar! Keep up that winning.
The A-League Cough is Developing Into a Potentially Deadly Flu
Soccer in Australia, or football as the purists call it has had its ups and downs over the decades in the Australian sporting landscape, with competitions coming and going, being reformed and re-badged into different competitions but ostensibly returning with franchises from the same main cities in each reincarnation albeit with a club or three or more added here and there. We have ended up now with the present A-League, a competition of 10 teams this current season, now heading for the grand final qualifiers.
But alas, what should be the kind of happy and celebrated last weeks of the A-League season have been thrown into chaos, first by the removal of the Gold Coast United license for next season just months ago, a franchise owned by billionaire Clive Palmer who, towards the end of the road did not see eye-to-eye with Frank Lowy, Ben Buckley and the FFA.
What has occurred today however, has turned the cold that the A-League was suffering from into a flu. Today, the FFA learned from the owners of the Newcastle Jets franchise that they can expect to have the license for theclub lobbed back at them after an unexpected announcement that nobody saw coming.
FFA boss Ben Buckley responded saying that the Jets are contracted to participate in the competition until the 2020 season but what are they going to do with a team in their main competition who has an administration that does not wish to be there? The players might be keen, but why would an administration pump resources into maintaining a team in a competition they do not believe in?
Far from that, this latest major hiccup proves that there must be something sick within the FFA organisation itself, now with two clubs that have had major grievances with the governing body of the sport in Australia.
Club grievances with the umbrella organisation are not the only problem that the A-League and FFA face. In the wake of the unceremonious exit of Gold Coast United from the competition, the FFA decided, weeks later to award a franchise for a western Sydney club to fill the Gold Coast void from next season.
Ben Buckley and the FFA have said that the concept of a western Sydney team had been worked on for some time and obviously when the events in Queensland with the Gold Coast team an opening was seen and the FFA jumped swiftly to plug that gap with a team from the west of Sydney.
But this western Sydney team will have a matter of months to form a coherent team and a strong administration to even go close to competing in the 2012-13 season. Such a quick turnaround will be a challenge for the team and it will need some time to attract marquee and other players. If the Newcastle Jets exit goes ahead, the new side will not be short of top talent to try to tempt from going overseas, though the higher prices many may attract in Europe and Asia would likely prove insurmountable for a club that has to rush to attract sponsor’s money before they can even think of how much to purchase any player for.
The A-League are also the last of the football codes, aside from rugby union to venture into western Sydney, with the NRL having long been part of the sporting community, from junior rugby league clubs to senior teams like the now Wests Tigers and Penrith Panthers. Consequently, the new franchise may struggle for crowds as they attempt to grow crowds in an already very competitive western Sydney sports market which now has a team playing in the AFL, albeit not well.
The A-League and FFA certainly have some lessons to learn and must begin to throw caution to the wind. They must begin looking at how the league can evolve gradually, without making bold moves in a competition that needs to endure where previous top-tier competitions in the same sport have repeatedly failed. But the cough is certainly a dangerous flu and the governing body either needs some strong antibiotics or “hospitalisation” to keep damages from recent events to a small part of the FFA body.
What I Would Rather be Watching in London This Year
London has all the major international sporting athletes and attention descending on it in under 200 days, for two weeks of intense sporting competition equal to nothing in depth and breadth. The 2012 London Olympic Games begin in just 126 days, running for two weeks from the 27th of July-12th of August at and in the vicinity of historic English sites. Our prospects look better than they did just 12 months ago with some of our swimmers putting in very strong performances at the Australian Swimming Championships which came to an end last night in Adelaide. Other athletes in different sports, including Sally Pearson in athletics also add to medal promise of our Australian Olympic team.
But it is our Paralympic athletes in the pool that I will be watching when the Paralympics commence in London in only 159 days at the same venues as their Olympic counterparts. Our swimmers with a disability have shown over the past week of competition that they have what it takes to not only win more gold medals, but to also break more world records in the process.
Over the whole Australian Swimming Championships, Paralympic hopefuls broke an astonishing 25 world records in striving to make the team for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. How many did our Olympic athletes achieve? Zip, donuts. That’s not to say that our Olympic medal prospects are bad, they are not. The men’s team has strengthened much over the 4 years since the last Olympics from China, with stars like James Magnussen agonisingly close to achieving world-beating times and our men’s and women’s relay teams looking as strong as ever.
It will however be our Elite Athletes with a Disability that lead the way in London in the “real Olympics” with 25 world records surely converting into a gold medal in at least a bare majority of these events come the Paralympics later this year.
Our swimmers to compete in the Games are far from household names and they should have at least been mentioned in a breath of news coverage of the disastrous comeback campaigns of the likes of Ian Thorpe et al. Names to watch include Matthew Cowdrey, Prue Watt, Ellie Cole, Michael Anderson, Kayla Clarke, Jacqueline Freney and Blake Cochrane to name just some of our gold, let alone broader medal hopes.
These swimmers will now head back to the pool after perhaps a short break to refresh and refocus their minds on the big task of stepping up another level in London in just months. They will go in knowing that if they keep their focus and training is maintained and they stay injury-free that their chances are very strong of replicating the amazing efforts over the last week and a bit that have gone disgracefully unreported as is unfortunately the case on a too regular basis. I know I would rather watch our Paralympic swimmers, but I love the sport, so I will be watching both, hoping that our Olympic swimmers really do show up to compete and smash the world. The difference is, with our Paralympians, I don’t need to hope.
Swimmers with a Disability Results for Thursday 22nd of March
WOMEN’S 50m BREASTSTROKE
1 Prue Watt S13 36.27
2 Madeleine Scott S9 39.96
3 Tanya Huebner S6 47.62
4 Dianne Saunders S6 47.94
5Amanda Fowler S14 38.91
6 Monique Beckwith S15 39.07
7 Emily Schmidt S14 41.33
8 Maddi Elliott S8 47.88
MEN’S 50m BREASTSTROKE
1 Blake Cochrane S8 37.29
2 Matthew Levy S7 37.63
3 Richard Eliason S14 32.03
4 Jay Dohnt S7 41.59
5 Ahmed Kelly S4 53.41
6 Jeremy McClure S12 36.34
7 Jesse Aungles S8 42.39
8 Michael Auprince S9 37.28
Results for Swimmers With a Disability for Wednesday 21st of March
Tonight was the second last night of competition in the pool at the Australian Swimming Championships from Adelaide. This means that there are now even fewer opportunities to make the Paralympic and Olympic teams for the London 2012 Games.
WOMEN’S 100m BUTTERFLY
1Amanda Fowler S14 1:11.56
2 Prue Watt S13 1:08.39
3 Sarah Rose S6 1:34.70
4 Teigan Van Roosmalen S13 1:08.89
5 Ellie Cole S9 1:11.48
6 Katherine Downie S10 1:12.64
7 Madeleine Scott S9 1:13.23
8 Maddi Elliott S8 1:20.06
MEN’S 100m BUTTERFLY
1 Timothy Antalfy S13 54.92
2 Mitchell Kilduff S14 1:01.18
3 Matthew Cowdrey S9 1:00.76
4 Daniel Fox S14 1:02.09
5 Brendan Hall S9 1:01.58
6 Aaron Rhind S6 1:14.19
7 Sam Bramham S9 1:02.24
8 Andrew Pasterfield S10 1:00.05
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