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Ken Borland



Not once has Ewing said Pro League is easy, and it will be no easier in Argentina 0

Posted on May 16, 2022 by Ken

Not once has South African men’s hockey coach Garreth Ewing suggested that the FIH Hockey Pro League will be anything but daunting, and it will get no easier for his team as their next assignment sees them travel to Argentina to play the 2016 Olympic champions in two Tests on April 23 and 24.

Having hosted a leg of the tournament in Potchefstroom in February, in which they lost all eight matches and conceded 52 goals against Germany, France, India and the Netherlands, South Africa are now well aware of the high standards in the competition.

“It was harder than we expected, I must admit,” Ewing told The Citizen. “But it was really disappointing that it took us a bit long to adjust to the tempo, admittedly against very good sides.

“There was improvement through the tournament though and we were quite disappointed not to get a couple of results in the end.

“Although it was a mentally and physically tough tournament for us, it was a very valuable exercise based on the squad we had, the rotation of players and the opportunities we gave them.

“We also made some tactical progress in terms of the areas of the game without the ball – how you pressurise the ball and utilise space. And there were glimpses of good counter-attack,” Ewing said.

South Africa will be bringing a new-look squad to Argentina, due to the unavailability of some of their players, the bulk of whom are amateurs. But, on the positive side, regular captain Tim Drummond returns, having been absent during the local leg of the Pro League.

“We’ve had selection issues and the unavailability of players is an ongoing challenge. So there will be quite a few changes,” Ewing said.

“Having Tim back will make a big difference, especially in terms of his experience and leadership. We’re playing in Buenos Aires, so we’ll be up against big crowds, which we are not used to over the last couple of years.

“There are still some technical weaknesses we need to sort out, both in attack and defence, in terms of how we hang on to the ball when we have it and the pressure we exert without the ball.

“There was a bit of a lack of continuity due to getting things wrong at just the wrong time. But at times we were really good but just didn’t get good outcomes. We would get to the circle but just not get the ball in the goals,” Ewing said.

Viljoen’s only expectation is to have fun & showcase her talents in cricket … but the fire still burns 0

Posted on January 17, 2022 by Ken

Olympic silver medallist Sunette Viljoen’s only expectation as she resumes her cricket career is that she has fun and is able to showcase her talents in another sport, but such is the competitive fire that burns within the 38-year-old that she believes she can make it back into the Proteas team.

South Africa’s most successful javelin thrower with her second place in the 2016 Rio Olympics and two Commonwealth Games golds (alongside Marius Corbett – gold medals at the 1997 World Champs & 1998 Commonwealth Games), Viljoen has been included in the Northerns Titans training squad for their Senior Provincial matches starting in January.

Viljoen actually first made her name in cricket, debuting for South Africa in 2000 as a 17-year-old out of Hoerskool Rustenburg. At the time, she was the youngest to ever represent the women’s national team and she played in the World Cup in New Zealand that year and played one Test and 17 ODIs for the Proteas before switching her focus to athletics. Her last representative game of cricket was in 2003.

“I always knew I would go back to cricket for a new challenge and after my shoulder injury kept me out of Tokyo last year,” Viljoen told The Citizen. “I have severe competitiveness and that fire burns very high in me.

“I started back at the bottom with Irene Villagers in August/September last year and I’ve done really well – I scored 141, 102 and 80 recently, and took a few wickets. That got me into the Titans training squad.

“I’m really looking forward to the new year, I can’t wait for the opportunity to play for them and I think my game is strong enough.

“There’s no pressure on me to perform, the most important thing is for me to enjoy myself, show my talent and how much I love to play cricket. But I want to play for the national side again and I will go fully for that,” Viljoen said.

Of course the game has changed immensely since Viljoen last played at provincial level – her memory is of it basically being a hobby for the participants – but her experiences at the highest level of athletics means the all-rounder is confident she has the mettle to handle the increased professionalism that is now evident in women’s cricket.

“I am going to be fearless, believe in my own game and my capabilities, I am not going to stand back for anyone. My mental strength is very good.

“I had to overcome a lot on the international stage in finals at World Championships, Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. I will bring the same mentality as on the athletics field.

“It’s you against the bowler or batter and I’m used to staying sharp for an hour-and-a-half in an Olympic final. There’s a lot to carry over from my athletics career, but I have always enjoyed team sports as well.

“I’ve been an individual sportswoman for such a long time, so it’s nice to be in a team environment again. My personality enjoys being amongst other people, but cricket is still quite individualistic,” Viljoen said.

Cameron & Chad win gold … and immense respect 0

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Ken

The Olympic medals around their necks were not all Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos won in 2012.

Winners abound in sport and at the London Olympics there were 590 sportsmen and women who earned gold medals. But none of them could possibly be more charming, good-natured and likeable than the two South African swimmers who won immense respect not only for their performances against the odds, but also for the way in which they conducted themselves.

Swimming is not the easiest sport in which to excel. From a young age, hopefuls have to spend hours, normally around the crack of dawn, training in the water. It’s cold and we all know what else happens in water when people spend hours in it…

Swimming meetings take a long time and only those at the absolute pinnacle of the sport get to make large sums of money out of it. For South Africans, there is the added complication of the sport not being part of the mainstream and our young talent has to put up with sub-standard facilities and financial hardship, or go and train in one of the swimming powerhouses like the United States. Countries like the U.S., China, Australia and Japan boast massive swimming programmes and yet our “underprivileged” South African swimmers can still beat them on the greatest stage.

For Le Clos to win the 200m butterfly, he had to overcome his childhood hero and the greatest Olympic swimmer ever, Michael Phelps.

Van der Burgh had to put the tragic death, just three months earlier, of his friend and competitor Alex Dale Oen, who died of a heart attack aged 26, behind him as he won the 100m breaststroke in a world record time.

Winning Olympic gold does not come easy and Van der Burgh typified the determination required when, as a 16-year-old, he broke his ankle but kept going to gym to keep the rest of his body toned.

Van der Burgh’s younger years were clouded by a mild form of ADD, with his parents pushing him in the direction of sport rather than Ritalin, which dampened his spirit.

Even his preparation for the 2012 Games was disrupted, with coach Dirk Lange moving back to Germany and his local coach also leaving the country unexpectedly. Van der Burgh had to fly to Richard’s Bay for two days a week to work on technical matters with a former coach, Francois Boshoff. And then he flew Lange out for some intensive training just before the Olympics.

Van der Burgh, the first South African-based swimmer to win Olympic gold, was followed to the top of the podium two days later by Le Clos, the 2012 African Swimmer of the Year, coincidentally taking the title from his countryman who had won it the previous three years.

The 20-year-old Le Clos, with his boyish smile and the most supportive of fathers at poolside, was one of the media darlings of the 2012 London Games and was the most Googled South African of the year.

If he can ensure the trappings of celebrity don’t undermine his day job, then Le Clos can begin positioning himself as Phelps’ successor as the King of the Pool. The determination and the brilliant way in which he executed the race-day strategy in beating Phelps in London show Le Clos has what it takes to increase the medal haul from one gold and one silver when Rio 2016 comes around.

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-12-14-swimming-in-2012-chad-and-cameron-against-all-odds

‘I tried my best’ – Semenya 0

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Ken

Caster Semenya, the 800m Olympic silver medallist, on Tuesday defended herself against allegations that she had not tried to win the two-lap race in London at the weekend.

Semenya, the South African who was forced to undergo gender testing after her 2009 world championships triumph, started poorly in the final, sitting at the back of the field until she produced a late burst to finish second to Mariya Savinova, 1.04 seconds behind the Russian.

Her performance led to speculation by television pundit Colin Jackson, the three-time 110m hurdles world champion, that Semenya had deliberately avoided winning so as not to stir up fresh controversy like that in 2009.

“I tried my best, whatever people say. There is always talk, but these people know nothing about athletics,” Semenya said at Johannesburg International Airport on Tuesday, where she received a heroine’s welcome.

South Africa’s sports minister, Fikile Mbalula, praised Semenya, a shy girl from an obscure rural village in South Africa’s northern-most province of Limpopo, as an inspiration to all those coming from similarly modest upbringings.

“I don’t know about her strategy in the race, but she has made us very proud. Nobody gave her a chance, but she showed the greatest guts of a young African woman,” Mbalula said while choking back tears.

“She has toiled out of difficulty to become a symbol of greatness and has shown that it doesn’t matter where you come from. From her small village in Limpopo, where the people are full of poverty, she has become the symbol of a courageous young woman.”

Semenya’s time of 1:57.23 was top-class and she said she was satisfied with a silver medal, but would be looking to go one better in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“I am happy with silver, but it was hard work. I said to myself that I must get something from the race and I saw that the other ladies were tired. I had to pull out my turbo-boost,” she smiled.

“I’m concentrating now on next year, the world championships in Moscow, that is my main focus. The Olympics are still four years away and we learn by mistakes so hopefully I can do better next time and win the Olympics,” Semenya said.

 

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    John 13:35 – “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

    “The Christian’s standards are the standards of Christ and, in his entire conduct and disposition, he strives to reflect the image of Christ.

    “Christ fills us with the love that we lack so that we can achieve his purpose with our lives. If we find it difficult to love, … open our lives to his Spirit and allow him to love others through us.” – Solly Ozrovech, A Shelter From The Storm

    His loveliness must be reflected in our lives. Our good deeds must reflect his love.

     



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