Cool Runnings 2? The Jamaican bobsledders are back

Cool Runnings is the title of a 1993 American sports film directed by Jon Turteltaub which starred Leon, Malik Yoba, John Candy, Rawle D, Lewis and Doug E. Doug released on October 1, 1993 in the United States. The movie was inspired by the true story of the Jamaica national bobsled team’s debut in the bobsled competition of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

In the real scheme of things, the Jamaica national bobsled team featured a relatively unknown and unskilled team in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for the very first time in their history. They were clearly underdogs in that competition but their belief and aspiration was heralded, for a tropical nation taking part in a winter sport. They made similar forays in the Winter Olympic events of 1992 (Albertville-Savoie, France), 1994 (Lillehammer, Norway), 1998 (Nagano, Japan) and 2002 (Salt Lake City, United States).

This year, the two-man team comprising of Winston Watts (Driver) and Marvin Dixon (Brakeman) will hoist the Jamaican flag high at the XXII Winter Olympics, starting on Friday, February 7 and ending on Sunday, February 23 in Sochi, Russia and make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, ice tracks in a gravity-powered sled. Since the Jamaican bobsled team landed qualification for the winter Olympics, they immediately faced another stern qualification malaise: They needed to raise competition funds of over $80,000 in a few days if they are to realize the Sochi dream.

And in a travesty of fortunes, a team needing only $80,000 is heading to Sochi with over $120,000. After the qualifying weekend, Winston Watts, the major force behind the team quipped, “In truth, we still don’t really know at the moment if we’d even have enough funds or sponsorship to fly to Sochi itself for the games itself.” Watts stated that. The handwriting was almost on the wall again as it was in 2006 and 2010 when they missed out of the Winter Olympics in Turin and Vancouver respectively due to lack of funds. 

Watts, who had already financed the team’s qualification with more than £100,000 of his own money declared to BBC. “It’s not been cheap,” he said. “If we had been able to go over to Switzerland for the final qualification races, or some of the earlier ones, I’m convinced we could have confirmed this a lot sooner.” He suggested he and brakeman Marvin Dixon will need some funding if they qualify. “We need about $40,000 for travel and also to buy new runners for the sled because we can’t go to the Olympics with only one set.”

Today that dream is a reality thanks to the Dogecoin Foundation who has facilitated the team’s participation at the Olympics by creating a charity for fans of the cryptocurrency to make donations. More than 26.5 million Dogecoin worth around $33,000 have been donated by the community within two days. The team’s website and other social media sites were used to clamour for funds while a further $80,000 was raised through Crowdtilt.

Good luck to the Jamaican team in their quest to conquer Sochi. 

Stanislas Wawrinka slams Nadal in Melbourne to win first Grand Slam

Switzerland’s Stanislaus Wawrinka raised an extra notch in his tennis artistry by defeating world tennis no.1 Rafael Nadal to win his first ever Grand Slam title.

One of the highlights of the game was when Nadal took a medical time-out in the second set at 2-1 down and an initially irate Wawrinka being left in the dark concerning Nadal’s injury took his cool to return a perfect service game to go into a 3-1 lead. Nadal returned to serve subsequently and faulted twice after 15-15 to gift Wawrinka 15-30, which became 15-40 and Wawrinka took the last point by a deep slice into the base line to break Nadal and take a 4-1 lead.

Nadal was immediately stretched on the floor and got a quick back massage from the physio. Wawrinka continued to serve in the sixth game of the second set with two quick aces of serve with Nadal turning the third serve into the net. . Nadal showed some resurgence to try and turn things around by holding Wawrinka to deuce but a fired Wawrinka served an ace to get the advantage and played a backhand winner to go 5-1.

It was a topsy-turvy seventh game of the second set as Nadal showed a lot of difficulty traversing the court and it was evident his serve had departed from him, deucing twice but holding on to win. Wawrinka returned to serve and after double faulting in his first serve he stretched a disinterested Nadal to win the second set at 6-2.

Nadal subjected his lower back (left side) to the physio again at the interval reeling in agony as the physio worked away to prepare him for the third set which looked like his last for the night. He took the first two sets right under Wawrinka’s nose, serving the first and breaking Wawrinka subsequently in the second. In a quick change of fortune Nadal rose to a 3-love lead even when it was obvious he could hardly move around the court. A dejected Wawrinka barely did anything special and Nadal looked like he was going to run away with the set at 5-2 but Wawrinka pulled a perfect service gave to restore some hope and reducing the deficit to 5-3 after which Nadal survived a deuce to win the third set at 6-3.

The fourth set was all about a nervy Wawrinka and how he would cope mentally judging from the fact that it seemed he had pressed a self-destruct button, empathizing with his injured opponent. Things continued to go down well with Nadal as he even boldly stopped the match to review a call on Wawrinka’s stroke after the umpire had erroneously called it in, and eventually levelling the fourth set at 2-2. Wawrinka took his serve to lead at 3-2 and returned to his resolute self to break Nadal and lead 4-2, but Nadal broke right back with a glimmer of hope at 4-3. And when you thought Wawrinka was slipping through it, he broke Nadal’s serve and served for the match at 5-3 quickly racing to a 40-0 lead before playing a forehand winner on Nadal’s return of his second serve to become the 2014 Australian Open winner; winning in 6-3; 6-2; 3-6; 6-3

Enroute to the finals, Wawrinka dislodged favourite and defending champion Novak Djokovic becoming the third man since 1993 at the French Open to defeat both first and second seeds in a Grand Slam. He was a champion in the making as was evident after enduring a gruelling semi-final loss to Djokovic this time last year. He also becomes the third Swiss to have won a Grand Slam title after Roger Federer and Martina Hingis. He will also rise from his no. 8 ranking to be no. 3 in the world tomorrow morning. He goes home with $2,650,000 (Australian Dollars). Congrats Stan.

Pantera Negra "Black Panther" Eusébio dies at 71

Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, born 25 January 1942 has died on Sunday 5 January 2014 aged 71 years.  The Mozambican-born Portuguese football forward, simply known as Eusébio, is considered as one of the greatest footballers of all time. He was born in Lourenҫo Marques to an Angolan father, Eusébio and Played for the Portuguese team since his home country was an oversea territory and their inhabitants were considered Portuguese.

He was such a gifted footballer that the sobriquets O Rei (The King), the Black Panther, the Black Pearl were part of the many trappings of his legend. He scored 733 goals in 745 matches of his professional career. He possessed a thunderbolt of a shot in his right foot making him a prolific goal scorer and adept at taking free-kicks.   

He was mainly associated with the Portuguese club, Benfica and played 15 years of his 22 as a footballer scoring 638 goals in 614 official games to become the team’s all-time top scorer. He helped the Portuguese national team secure third place at the 1966 World Cup, starring as the top goal scorer of the tournament with 9 goals and receiving the Bronze Ball award. He won the Ballon d’Or (top footballing accolade in European football for a player) award in 1965 and was runner-up in 1962 and 1966.

His footballing career was that outstanding and worthy of accolades that he was regularly listed in best player football lists and polls. This led to his election as the 9th best footballer of the 20th century in a poll by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics, IFFHS and the 10th best footballer of the 20th century in a poll by the World Soccer magazine. Even the great Pelé, in his 2004 FIFA 100 list, named Eusébio as one of the 125 best living footballers. He was selected as the Golden Player of Portugal by the Portuguese Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years during the celebration of UEFA’s Jubilee in 2004 and he has been ascribed as Africa’s greatest-ever player. He was the 7th in the online poll for the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll.

Eusébio receiving the prestigious UEFA President's award from Michel Platini

The UEFA President, Michel Platini, paid tribute after learning of the death of Eusébio at the age of 71. “Today football has lost one of the greatest players ever. On the field, Eusébio was a true legend, both in the colours of Portugal and Benfica. But also off it, he was a true ambassador for Portuguese football on the international stage. He was more than a footballer. A good and charming man, Eusébio will be sadly missed.”

In February 2010 at the UEFA President’s award; the incumbent president, Franz Beckenbauer, spoke of Eusébio early career: “That fine Benfica team was the only team that could measure up to the great Real Madrid in the early 60s. That team had a hero – his name was Eusébio, he came from Mozambique and he became famous as the Pantera Negra (or Back Panther). Eusébio’s worldwide reputation began in May 1962 in the European Champions Clubs’ Cup final against Real Madrid. Eusébio scored two goals and gave a superb exhibition, showing all the skills which made him popular – astonishing speed and a powerful shot.”