AFTER THE REGGAE PLAY THE BLUES....

      

Yeah I've done it again. 

Narcissistic me taking pride of place 'On top of blog' with my homeboy TJ who happens to be a friend's son and Minister Of Enjoyment's nephew. 

As you know there is always method in the madness, so obviously today we will be discussing all things 'Sport'. And as you wonder what's sporty about that pic, well I put it to you that me wearing that t-shirt embossed with a silhouette of my idol, Reigning Olympic Champion, Jamaican Usain St. Leo Bolt striking his famous pose is the closest you will get me to doing anything sporty. That t-shirt is 'The Truth' and those of you that know me well will know about my addiction to him and that coincidentally we also share the same birthday. I've had the T-shirt since the 2012 London Olympics,  a gift from my brother, I think his reasoning at the time would have been 'ah, this girl is showing passion in something apart from food, let's encourage her'. I cherish it, it's brought out periodically and worn with so much pride. 

I am an honorary Jamaican anytime Bolt is about to perform his magic as I expect him to do once again in the Men's 100m, 200m and 4x100m Sprints at Rio's Olympics for his 3rd and what he says will be his final Olympics where he competes. Bolt is going for gold none of that 'it's the taking part that counts' stuff. Earlier this week that British diving chap wore tight 'pint', jumped inside water in Rio and won bronze since then they 'have not let us hear word'. Not hating just saying!

So here we are another Olympics, my memory takes me home to Naija, I've always had an interest in the 100m sprint events and recall how we were all so excited during the 1988 Seoul Olympics when a Jamaican born Canadian, Ben Johnson broke the world record and won a gold medal. Double jubilation as we were able to watch the race without the defunct Electricity Power company (NEPA) 'disappointing themselves' and taking the light. Anyway a few days later Ben Johnson was striped of his medal because he had 'doped' ie taken an illegal substance to enhance his performance/ endurance. 'Haa what is all this' I shouted at the time. I had never heard of this 'doping' business before. I remained glued to TV over the next days as story unfolded and the media quenched my thirst for details about this type of cheating in sports. 'Ewo...what have my eyes seen, why would fine guy do something like this' (isn't it funny how we like to qualify people by looks when they do some thing bad? What has his 'fineness' got to do with the cheating matter on ground??)  I wondered. His sports coach argued at the time that Ben Johnson had simply used the performance drugs so he could perform on an even playing field with other athletes from other countries who were also doping!!  

Anyway over the years we have watched many an athlete fall from grace over this doping  malarkey. One of the most interesting cases though was that of Lance Armstrong, the Road racing cyclist who won Tour de France for 7 consecutive years from 1999 to 2005, the gods were smiling down on this uncle until his 'village masquerade started dancing'  and he was outed by the Agency US Anti-doping as the ringleader of "the most sophisticated professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen" he was striped of all his achievements including his 7 Tour de France titles. As my people would say 'His cheating did not have a part 2' (i.e. was on an another level) and involved him having frequent blood transfusions to hide the drugs!

Na wa all these advanced countries and their high tech methods they engage in to rob 'our' developing world athletes of what rightfully should be theirs. It's so unfair. 

CAN ANYONE GUESS WHERE I'M GOING WITH THIS ONE??

The Africa Cup Of Nations Under-17 Football Tournament will take place in Madagascar in April 2017. The qualifier matches are to be played June - October this year, eligibility for players is that they are born on or after 1st January 2000 in other words under 17 years old. 

Over the years Nigeria Under 17 team has 'given itself a name', on the pitch our 'boys' look somewhat stout, stocky, thick set and mature in comparison to the under 17 youth counterparts representing other countries, you should see the yam ( muscles) on their legs and width of their necks. This has raised eyebrows and  there have been allegations that these our 'boys' have been playing for years now so how can they possibly still be under 17. Last year Nigeria's under-17 team, Golden Eaglets as they are called, won the Under 17 World Cup for the fifth time!

Anyway FIFA have introduced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) screening as a means to confirming the age of player's prior to the qualifying matches and guess what? 26 of our 'boys' failed this test based on this screening and were found to be over aged.   Apparently MRI is used to scan the wrist plate of players to accurately check their true age. There have been all kinds of defences and explanations for this failure claiming our diet, African bone density etc. But haba, 26 of them? That's 2 football teams disqualified, please let me switch to wafi 'nor bi 11 members dey football team?' If for argument sake the machine is only 50% accurate that's still 13 players found to be over the cut-off age. This is unfair, God is watching all this behaviour in 4-D. 

Had a thought for all those birthday's we attend, you know the type where 45 year old Boo is 'claiming' 40 or the 26 year old Bae is 'forming' 21. Let's bring out the MRI Scanner I say and let the bone density reading validate the age before we celebrate these people. 

Anyway it's like I've digressed, Our 5th Annual Nigerian Sport Foundation Family Fun Day has come around again taking place Bank Holiday weekend, Sunday 28th August 2016, change of venue this year to Allainz Park, Greenlands Park, Hendon, NW4 1LR. 12 Noon to 7pm. Free parking and £2 entry fee. Looking forward to seeing the usual suspects plus many more this year clad in their Lycra. For details of what to expect at this event please see a previous blog post covering event here. 

On that note, myself and Usain have a 100m sprint to prepare for. Thanks for your patronage. 

A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms ~ Unknown