Following on (slightly) from the last post, the eventual winner of the golf tournament here was a Singaporean, by the name of Mardan Mamat. He became the first Singaporean ever to win on the European Tour and good luck to him for his deserved win.
I expected a bit of a write up in the papers the next day, but jeepers, they almost canonised him! Then I read why! Prior to this, the only international sporting success of note that Singapore has had to boast about appears to be the following:
1. An Olympic silver medal in weightlifting (Rome, 1960).
2. A swimmer who had the fastest time in the world once, for a while.
3. A 4th place in ladies ping pong in Athens (2004).
Now, I've gone on a bit about how the population of Singapore and Ireland (North & South) is about the same, so that sports record must be pathetic or else we've been punching above our weight, big time.
I mean, we've had world/Olympic/major champions (and other medallists) in many sports, including athletics, rowing, cycling, snooker, boxing, showjumping (not counting Cian!), swimming(albeit tainted!), heptathlon, shooting, yachting and golf. Not to mention all our soccer and rugby stars/teams down the years. And just the other day we got a new sprint world champ! Hell, we even almost won a medal at the Winter Olympics with that "toff on a tray" a few years back!!
With all the facilities here, you'd think they'd do a bit better. And maybe it's time we patted ourselves on the back for a change, instead of always kicking ourselves in the ar*e!!
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
It's not ping pong, it's table tennis
I don't know - maybe there is such a thing as 'the luck of the Irish'!
I was just being facetious, as the man said, about the table tennis!
Someone else is getting my dollop of luck, if so, Kieran!
Yeah it's TABLE TENNIS to you, and leave our Cian alone - that horse was a junkie. And so what if they found too much whiskey in Michelle's pee - sure they could disqualify the lot of us (except yourself Aidan, I'm sure your's is pure as the mornin' dew).
For the week that's in it http://www.snag.ie today's word is 'Comhairle'. Also worth checking out Sharon NíBheoláin - cailín deas, nach í?
I think the poor horse was a schizophrenic, Owen, judging by the "prescription" it had! In that event, it should have got an extra gold medal! (to rejig the Andy Goram joke!)
Don't get me wrong - I'm more on their side than not. Sport is pretty rotten nowadays - they just got caught. Fair play to Michelle at her age and body type winning all those medals in '96, I say. I enjoyed it immensely at the time. Poor old Jim Sherwin nearly died of excitement! At least she didn't disappear when gender testing began, like the 2 Soviet "sisters" years ago!
Cinnte, Tá Sharon an ghleoite ar fad! To the uninitiated, Owen had the onerous task of filling my shoes in Comhairle in Dublin. Any chance of my job back?!!!!!!!!!!
ps no whiskey or other alcoholic substance in my mountain dew at any time, as I'm one of the rare ones keeping the national consumption average down!!
Just keeping your seat warm. The old dears still ask after you. They're looking evermore wistful each week - I think they've been hitting the Sanatogen pretty hard since you left.
Aontaim le Owen, cailin go han-deas ar fad, is pictiur aontach é.
Tiger O Dí
Aidan, This new format for your blog is not as good as the original. Less professional! I've tried to like it over a number of readings....but can't.
It was cruel of me to leave everybody like that, I suppose!!!
I'll have to come back and beg forgiveness!
Thanks for the feedback for the new look (even if it was to the wrong post!)
I must admit that I'm in two minds about it myself.
One positive and one negative comment only thus far. If there's a torrent or negativity in the next few days, I'll change it back. Maybe I'll try a different template every day! However, that probably breaks all interface design rules. Plus, none of them are great!
Post a Comment