THE PHUKET NEWS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2012
WORLD SPORT
Paralympic Games: events explained
PARALYMPICS
to ensure fairness. Brazil won gold in 2004 and 2008.
LONDON 2012
FOOTBALL 7-A-SIDE
Agence France-Presse
ome Paralympic sports require no explanation, but some might be a little unfamiliar. Here is an explanation to some of the events at the London Paralympic Games from August 29 to September 9:
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ATHLETICS The biggest sport in the Paralympics, with some 1,100 participants, athletics features lightning-quick sprinters with prostheses, powerful throwers, intellectual disability athletes and runners with sighted guides. South Africa’s ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius – a triple gold medallist at Beijing 2008 – is likely to be a major draw, having become the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics when he ran in the 400m heats and 4x400m final. China won 77 track and field medals in 2008, including 38 gold – three times as many as their nearest rivals Australia, South Africa and Britain.
BOCCIA Introduced as a competitive sport in the 1984 New York Paralympics, Boccia is a game of skill and accuracy played from a wheelchair by athletes with cerebral palsy, quadriplegia and other conditions affecting limb function. The game, similar to bowls, is to land balls as close as possible to the target ball or “jack”. It consists of four rounds in individual and pairs competitions and six in the team event.
FOOTBALL 5-A-SIDE A Paralympic sport since Athens in 2004, five-a-side football is open to athletes with visual impairments. Each game lasts 50 minutes and although the rules are similar to the non-disabled game, the ball makes a noise when it moves, there is no off-side and everyone apart from the goalkeepers uses eye shades
Introduced in 1984, seven-a-side football is for players with cerebral palsy and is similar to the able-bodied game. Matches last 30 minutes, the playing surface is smaller, there are no offsides and players can take throw-ins with one hand. Ukraine are the current champions, but The Netherlands are strong contenders.
GOALBALL
Requiring lightning reflexes and razorsharp hearing, goalball made its debut in the Toronto Paralympics in 1976 but was initially devised to rehabilitate visually impaired veterans from World War II. Games consist of two halves of 12 minutes, with two teams of three players each wearing blackout masks on court. The aim is to roll the ball, which has a bell in it to help orientate players, into the opposite goal.
SITTING VOLLEYBALL
Sitting volleyball is played on a 10m x 6m court with a lower net. Games are best of five sets, with the first team to reach 25 points with at least a two-point lead winning a game. The game involves two teams with six on the court at a time. Athletes have to keep their pelvis on the ground at all times. Service blocks are allowed. Iran are defending champions and will be hotly favoured to take out a sixth gold in the event.
WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL One of the Paralympics’ most popular sports, wheelchair basketball involves two teams of five playing on a regulation court with standard 10ft-high (three-metre) hoops. Basketball is open to athletes of all levels of physical ability, with players rated between 1 and 4.5 depending on their functional ability. Teams must not exceed 14 points on court at any time. Australia are Olympic men’s champions with the USA winning gold in the women’s.
WHEELCHAIR FENCING Open to men and women with amputations, spinal-cord injuries and cerebral palsy. Athletes’ wheelchairs are fastened to the piste during competition and the distance between them fixed. Points are scored by hitting target areas on the opponent with their foil, epee or sabre.
WHEELCHAIR RUGBY Also known as “murderball”, wheelchair rugby is a no-holds-barred mix of wheelchair basketball, ice hockey, handball and rugby. Four players per side are allowed on court at one time for four periods of eight minutes each. Points are scored by crossing the opponents’ goal line with two wheels on the floor and the ball in the players’ hands. Players in possession have to bounce the ball or pass within 10 seconds of receiving it.
WHEELCHAIR TENNIS
SWIMMING The second-biggest sport in the Paralympics. Competitors are classified according to the type and extent of their disability, including learning difficulties. The undisputed star of the pool is South Africa’s Natalie du Toit, who is hanging up her goggles after a stellar career. The United States won 44 medals in Beijing, including 17 gold, followed by China (52) and Ukraine (43).
Introduced in Barcelona in 1992, wheelchair tennis follows able-bodied rules although the ball is allowed to bounce twice. Categories are for players with disabilities in three or all limbs (quad) or one or both lower limbs (open). Competitors have to have a permanent or substantial loss of function in one or both legs and can compete in singles or doubles in best-of-three set matches.
India begin life after Dravid, Laxman CRICKET
Agence France-Presse
Last legend standing: Sachin Tendulkar.
Photo: AFP
INDIA ARE CURRENTLY experiencing life without retired batting stars Rahul Dravid and Venkatsai Laxman, with their two-Test series against New Zealand in Hyderabad beginning yesterday (August 23). Dravid bid farewell in March and Laxman called it
quits last Saturday, leaving Sachin Tendulkar the only surviving veteran of the golden generation of Indian batsman that included Sourav Ganguly. The main task for India in the busy home season that also features four Tests each against England and Australia is to find replacements for Dravid and Laxman, who had a combined tally of 22,069 Test runs in 298 matches. The batsmen
in contention for the two vacant slots, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suresh Raina and Subramaniam Badrinath, have a combined tally of just 20 Tests. Ajinkya Rahane has yet to debut in the five-day game. India will also miss Dravid and Laxman in the slips. Both were gifted with safe hands with Dravid taking a Test record 210 catches and Laxman 135.
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IN BRIEF Henry joins Auckland Blues coaching staff World Cup-winning coach Graham Henry will join the Auckland Blues as a technical advisor to help the Super 15 franchise rebuild after a disappointing season, the club announced Wednesday. The Blues said Henry would work with new head coach John Kirwan, who replaced Pat Lam last month after the three-times champions finished 12th on the ladder. Henr y, who stepped down as All Blacks coach after guiding the team to victory in the 2011 World Cup, was in charge of the Blues from 1996-98, when they won two of their titles.
Adebayor returns to Spurs Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday announced that Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor has returned to the club on a permanent basis after signing from Manchester City. Adebayor, 28, spent last season on loan at White Hart Lane from City and scored 18 goals in 37 appearances to finish the campaign as the London club’s leading scorer. Spurs did not reveal how much they had paid to secure Adebayor’s services but reports in the British media claimed the transfer fee was £5 million ($7.9 million, 6.3 million euros).
Pietersen out of T20 squad Kevin Pietersen was left out of England’s World Twenty20 squad announced on Tuesday. The South Africa-born batsman was the man of the tournament when England won the 2010 World Twenty20 in the Caribbean – the first time they had lifted a major piece of International Cricket Council silverware. But he was dropped from the England team that lost the third Test against South Africa at Lord’s by 51 runs on Monday after sending “provocative” text messages.
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