EmmaGoodEgg

Usain Bolt Post-100m Finals

No one says it better than Philip Hersh in his 'You can't accuse Bolt and not Phelps, can you?' story at the LA Times Blogs about Usain Bolt's jaw-dropping record-busting 9.69 secs win in the Beijing Olympics 100m Men's Finals. 

Photo by Matt Dunham, Associated Press

The Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council In Defensive Mode

[From BruDirect's Have Your Say - 13 August 2008]

BDNOC Clarification on Beijing Olympic Games 2008

The Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council (BDNOC) would like to clarify with regard to “Brunei expelled from Beijing Olympics Games”, “Brunei excluded from Olympic Games” and “Brunei failed to register athletes on time for the Olympic Games” as follows:

The participation of Brunei Darussalam athletes any International Sports event such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the regional Southeast Asia Games must have the prior sanction from the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports, Brunei Darussalam, who are responsible for preparing and selecting athletes subject to meeting the preconditions and requirements for selection.

The BDNOC had officially written in March 2008, to the Youth & Sports Department under the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports, and identified two potential athletes from the Athletic sport events, Shot Put and swimming who could be most suited to represent Brunei Darussalam at the Beijing Olympic Games given the fact that they had done well at the recent SEA Games 2007 in Korat, Thailand, and also base on their achievement locally.

Furthermore, the International Olympic Council (IOC) had accepted the participation of these two athletes after they had been given the go ahead by the International governing bodies of their respective sport namely, International Association of Athletic Federation (IAAF) and International Swimming Federation (FINA) to partake under the “unqualified athletes” quota. The IOC had accepted and approved the participation of more than 20 other National Olympic Councils (NOC) including Brunei Darussalam under this category.

Brunei Darussalam’s participation in the Olympic Games is based on the Olympic Charter where under the by-law on Rule 28-3, it states that:
“The NOCs have exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games and at the regional, continental or world multi-sports competitions patronized by the International Olympic Council. In addition each NOC is obliged to participate in the Games of the Olympiad by sending athletes.”

From March 2008 until early July 2008, the Council did not receive any communication on the proposed choice of athletes from the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports on their decision to send or not to send athletes to the Olympics. However with the deadline 23rd July 2008 for “Sport Entry Registration” looming nearer, the Council took the initiative to register both these athletes while still eagerly waiting for an answer or approval from the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports.

With no reply as of 4th Aug 2008, a BDNOC member left to attend the “Delegate Registration Meeting” (DRM) in Beijing, which is compulsory for all the NOCs to attend and confirm their participation. Early in the meeting, BDNOC were informed not to attend this DRM as a result of non-confirmation of athlete’s participation to the Olympic Games. The outcome and consequence of this IOC decision was the President, officials and guests will not have accreditation cards or passes to the Opening Ceremony, Games village, Sports venues and other designated areas. The IOC had given BDNOC until midday Friday, 8th Aug 2008 to confirm the participation of its athletes to the Olympic Games, but to no avail.

The Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports in a letter dated 7th August 2008 addressed to the BDNOC, received on Friday 8th August at 11.45 hrs, through the Embassy of Brunei Darussalam in Beijing, informed its decision of non approval for the two athlete’s participation due to injury and no Regional and International achievement. Consequently, BDNOC confirmed to the IOC that Brunei Darussalam would not be participating in the Beijing Olympic Games.

The following is an extract from the IOC letter dated 8th August 2008, addressed to the President of BDNOC, received after the deadline for registration at 13.00 hrs on Friday 8th August 2008.

Quote…“Following a number of discussions with your NOC over the past few days, it transpires that, due to the restrictions on the athletes who were due to participate, your NOC will not be able to enter them to participate in the Beijing Olympic Games.

Unfortunately, the deadline that the IOC had set to remedy this situation has now passed and therefore we would like to formally confirm that we have instructed the Beijing Organizing Committee to take all appropriate measures to exclude the Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council from participating in the Beijing Olympic Games. Therefore, all accreditations for your NOC (athletes, officials and guests) will be cancelled forthwith, access to the Opening Ceremony for all guests will be denied, all references to your NOC will be removed from the Olympic venues (in particular flags) and any reference to your NOC will be removed from the Opening Ceremony’s programme (parade, flag, announcement of delegation).

The IOC Executive Board will be informed of this situation and will undoubtedly take all the necessary measures with respect to an NOC that has failed to live up to its obligations as stipulated in the Olympic Charter.

We deeply regret this situation knowing that we have worked tirelessly to guarantee the participation of at least one athlete in the Games. We remain at your disposal for any clarification you may need.” .End quote.

The decision by the IOC to bar Brunei Darussalam from participating in the Olympic Games is a standard procedure by the IOC on its members failing to discharge their obligations as stated in the Olympic Charter, hence missing out on a great opportunity to be part of the “One World One Dream” theme of the Beijing Olympic Games.

The Council wishes to clarify to its citizens, that the failure to register the athletes on time was due to its inability to get necessary approval and the belated decision from the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports not to send the two athletes to the Olympic Games.

It is much to the regret of the Council, that this assessment of not intending to send both of the athletes due to reasons of injury or non achievement of standards, could have been conveyed to the Council much earlier, enabling the Council to take right measures, to avoid misunderstandings between the Council and the IOC and clarify issues and state its position on significant matters as the governing body for sport in Brunei Darussalam.

This post was submitted by bdnoc.

The Lighter Side Of The Beijing Olympics

Wikipedia says the Clean & Jerk is one of two weightlifting events.  It's also known as the King Of Lifts because it looks damn difficult, and it is 'because more weight can be lifted above one's head as compared to any other known weightlifting technique'.

Just look at the faces of weightlifters during a clean and jerk!

I, for one, have no upper body strength.

Beijing Olympic Games 2008

Photo from Zimbio.com

If I owned a DVD store, the weekend of the 8 August 2008 at the start of the Beijing Olympics I’d follow Brandon Hammer’s suggestions and have these 3 movies on a special promo; Chariots of Fire, Cool Runnings and Munich.  All three movies share the same Olympic theme.  I’d do it simply to participate as best I can towards a world event.  Even more so because my country was not only participating in the Opening Ceremony by taking part in the traditional march past, but was also sending 2 athletes, 15 year old Maria Grace Kon and 20 year old Mohammed Yazid Yatimi Yusof to take part in swimming and the short put respectively.  Both are pretty much the best in the land.

Out of the 3 movies, Cool Runnings is a favourite and embodies the true spirit of the Olympic games.  A Jamaican bobsled team taking part in the Winter Olympics in Calgary 1988 is inspiring in its simple message.  An endeavour undertaken to be among the world’s best.  It doesn’t matter that your country is one of those whose athletes reign supreme, or those that are poorest.  The Olympic games is all about participating and experience, whether you win or lose.

According to Wikipedia, in 1988 Brunei’s first participation in the Olympic games was limited to the Opening Ceremony Parade with the lone official but no athletes.  It wasn’t until the 1996 Games in Atlanta, USA that Brunei started competing in Olympics, and then every games since then with a single athlete.  In Athens 2004, Jimmy Anak Ahar competed in the 1500 meters and finished last.  The Times has a wonderful story on the ‘finished but not beaten’ participants of the 2004 Olympic games in Athens:

Yet despite our relentless obsession with victory, despite the well-funded gold-medal strategies of sporting giants like the U.S. and China, despite the lure of multimillion-dollar advertising contracts for the most winsome of gold medalists, the Games were as much about those who finished dead last in their events as about those who took home gold. How else to explain the giddy joy of Katura Marae, proud citizen of the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu? The 14-year-old came in last in her heat of the 100-m dash, yet still clocked her fastest time of the season, 0.02 seconds behind Tit Linda Sou, Cambodia's lone female sprinter, who ran the best time of her life in her Olympic debut. "I am so excited," rejoiced Marae, who qualified for Athens through a wild-card slot and made up half of her country's Olympic contingent. "Being here is just as wonderful as winning a gold medal. Thank you, thank you to everyone."…

…One of the most poignant final-place finishes, though, came from Brunei's Jimmy Anak Ahar, the Southeast Asian nation's sole Olympic athlete, who straggled far behind the pack in the 1,500 m, erasing his country's dreams of Olympic respectability. Still sucking wind after his 4:14.11 time, 40 seconds slower than gold medalist El Guerrouj, Ahar swept past reporters, his head downcast. Yet the Bruneian's performance was surely more honorable than that of Uzbekistan's Olga Shchukina, who not only finished last in her qualifying group in the shot put but later tested positive for an anabolic steroid…

As it turns out the Beijing Olympic Games, underfoot as I post, will have no Brunei competitors.  We still wanted to bask in the glory of the ceremony parade despite no athletes, which led to my country making breaking news on the Inquirer.net with a screaming headline "Brunei expelled from Olympics' opening ceremony".  We've blipped on the radar now.

Approving a Brunei athlete entrance to the Olympic Games should have been a no brainer.  The country must back its athletes all the way because being small doesn't mean we can't strive.