Results tagged “sports” from VANTAN.ORG

These lads aren’t just big on the field, they’re also big-hearted, raising money for a children’s hospital. And they look adorable in their furry costumes!

Nicknames I’ve thought of for each of them, based on what they’re wearing:

• Theo “the Leo” Walcott
• Cesc Fa-bear-gas - waitaminute, is that a bear or a lamb? I’m making myself imagine it’s a bear, because I don’t want our key midfielder to be eaten by the Chelsea ‘wolves’ tonight
• Andrei Ar-shark-vin (or Ar-Shark-fin if you’re Chinese)
• Bird-cary Sagna (can’t think of anything that fits with ‘owl’)

If you watched the US Open ladies’ semifinals match between Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams, you’d have witnessed a stark contrast in mindsets. At some points, it was a close match. But what won in the end was emotional intelligence.

After blogging earlier about Daniel Goleman’s book, Working with Emotional Intelligence, I re-read the chapter on Self-Control and watched a replay of the match, which Serena lost due to unsportsmanlike conduct. It was “unfortunate”, as Kim put it, but she herself stayed focused and didn’t lose her cool.

According to Daniel Goleman, self-regulation is one of the personal competencies of emotional intelligence. Self-regulation is defined as ‘managing impulse as well as distressing feelings’. These form the core of five emotional competencies, one of which is self-control - ‘managing disruptive emotions and impulses effectively’.

People with this competence:

• Manage their impulsive feelings and distressing emotions well
• Stay composed, positive, and unflappable even in trying moments
• Think clearly and stay focused under pressure

Kim was amazingly calm, whether or not she won or lost a point. Serena on the other hand lost her cool, broke a racquet and confronted a linesman who had called her out on a foot-fault. This resulted in her being penalised and losing the match.

Worse, this emotional fallout occurred in a very public setting. Serena’s angry words were reported (albeit with some variations) by news media. Her aggressive stance was captured and replayed repeatedly on TV and discussed on forums and Twitter, making the incident stand out even more. Hopefully she will cool off, reflect on this and come out mentally stronger. IMHO she should apologise for her behaviour too.

Let’s see this as a good lesson given by both players on how, and how not, to react under pressure.

And before we all forget the quality of the match itself - Kim, you did play a great game.

[Update: Kim wins the US Open!]

Day 3 began nicely. I arrived at the club early enough to catch captains Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak tee off at the first hole. Before that I was videoing and photographing all the players at the driving range, so by the time I arrived at the hole there was a sizeable crowd in front of me. I could just about see the 2 players, in between heads and hats.

Sorenstam was clearly determined to beat Pak, who is also lesser-ranked. This is Sorenstam’s second last chance to win anything before retiring. By the first two holes she was 3-up as Pak overshot and missed the green, losing strokes. The mostly Asian crowd was rooting for Pak, cheering for her when she did well and groaning when she didn’t, and some looked disappointed when they saw Sorenstam winning. Pak made amends and by the 9th hole Sorenstam was just 1 up.

I was quietly rooting for Sorenstam. Later on I heard a Caucasian lady shouting her support in Swedish, but she and her lady friends were in the minority. I wondered if one day we would support players regardless of whether we shared the same race or nationality.

I followed Sorenstam and Pak all the way to the 9th hole and stopped to grab lunch. Then it was announced that play was suspended due to rain. I chatted with a nice couple I met the day before, and checked out the other hospitality tent that I was entitled to visit. I watched the TV coverage of the event and saw Taiwanese world no. 3 Yani Tseng make a beautiful chip off the green which rolled straight into the hole. We applauded appreciatively. By that time the drizzle had ended and I started to make my way back to my car.

Just outside the tent, I noticed a large crowd gathering around the players, who were coming out to resume their matches. Sorenstam was driven out on a buggy as with most of the remaining players. Then I noticed Natalie Gulbis waiting for her buggy. One girl came forward to get her autograph. Then others had the same idea. At first, being shy I thought maybe I’d just take a photograph of her (which I did):

Then I thought, go for it! There was a photograph of her in the programme, which she could autograph. I even brought a marker pen for this purpose. So I went forward and Gulbis signed my programme immediately. I said hi and thanked her. It happened so fast, then Gulbis was on her buggy and out of sight.

Woo hoo! I got Natalie Gulbis’ autograph!!!

It would have been perfect if I had gotten Sorenstam’s too, but better than nothing.

Overall, it was a great day, not as hot as yesterday and I took more photos and many more videos.

Read on only if you want to hear my rants about the etiquette of the audience… otherwise have a good Sunday!

The action

The Lexus Cup is back in Singapore, and finally it’s come to my club, so I no longer am a second-class member of the audience who has to arrive by shuttle, wait in line to pay for food and sweat in the sun while watching people in VIP tents sip beer in air-conditioned comfort.

This time, I was in the tent! Bwahahar. Well, actually most of the time I was following two of the teams. I arrived late to catch Natalie Gulbis, Angela Sanford (USA/Team International) versus Candie King (Taiwan) and Mayumi Shimomura (Japan). The Asian girls were doing much better.

Gulbis in swinging fashion.

Halfway through I decided to join a larger group of followers at another hole, because I figured they had to be following someone more famous. Sure enough, I found my favourite, Annika Sorenstam (Sweden). This is her second last tournament before she retires, so you won’t be able to see her again.

Annika and the other players

Finally I took a break at the tent, had nice mushroom quiche, fried chicken, free flow of Tiger beer and Coke, fruits and scones! We had a good view of the 18th hole so I caught Paula Creamer in action as well.

Paula chips

My impressions of Western versus Asian golfers

Team Asia and Team International were 3-3 even yesterday, and when I left today it looked like Team Asia were winning. However, I have to say that while I could recognise players from Team International, I had difficulty identifying the Asian players unless I looked at their caddy’s jackets. Obviously I am not a hardcore golf fan or else I would probably know ALL of them. I speak as an occasional golf watcher who would only know the best or the most unusual players.

Firstly, we Asians are smaller-built, so beside the taller Westerners we don’t grab people’s attention. And some Asian players may not speak English well, so they are relatively quiet. They also don’t seem to have any distinguishing techniques or personal styles. In contrast, Annika was the former world no. 1 so everyone knows her. Another good player, Paula Creamer, is legendary for always wearing pink. I even heard random Singaporeans say, “Tomorrow’s the last day - she’ll be using her pink ball”. Then there’s Natalie Gulbis, the pinup girl of golf. The men were perking up when she arrived at the 18th hole.

So, somehow, I didn’t feel the same excitement for individual Asian players even though some were trouncing the International players. They’re already good, so as the next step they could market themselves better.

The only unusual player of Asian origin was Christina Kim, who has an intimidating figure and yet is also known for having cute pigtails. But she was playing for Team International, as she’s a US citizen. If Michelle Wie was here she’d probably be categorised as ‘International’ as well and playing against the Asians. That would look a bit strange, but I’ve noticed that people of Asian origin but born in the West, tend to have much weaker ties to Asia.

Which brings up another point - some good Asian sportspersons will migrate to the West (or other countries more affluent than theirs) but how often do good Western sportspersons migrate to Asia? There is obviously an imbalance and outflow of talent. Beyond golf, look at how many table tennis teams were originally from China. Even if a European country had won, we’d shrug it off as we know the players were originally from China.

So, considering all these factors and being pitted against the top talents from the rest of the world, I take my golf cap off to Team Asia for doing well so far.

More rants…

I’m fine with Maria Sharapova as a tennis player, apart from the shrieking. Now I’m more ingrigued to learn that Maria has now turned to her fans for advice online, since this smells of Web 2.0 spirit.

According to the Beeb, she’s protesting against a WTA ruling that she and other stars must do a publicity shoot possibly a day before the matches.

Her official website announcements are generally written in the third person. However, Maria’s personal tone of voice comes through in this message, which seems to be written by her (or someone on her behalf):

This links to the online poll, where you can also vote.

You can also view the results. Right now most of the 4,000 odd fans have voted for her to refuse to do the photo shoot.

Personally, I think she should just do the photo shoot but insist that the WTA refrain from such requests in future. To kick up a big fuss is not very sportsmanlike, and besides, other big tennis stars also have to do the same. It is usually easier to convince the authorities to chance a policy when you aren’t giving them bad PR in the first place.

Just read that Formula One champ Fernando Alonso has been showing his ugly side again. If he wants to prove he's still number one, he should show it through his superior driving skills and not by doing nasty things like spreading conspiracy theories that his British constructor (McLaren) is biased in favour of a British team-mate, Lewis Hamilton. The latest tactic? Holding up Hamilton by 10 seconds so that he lost his lead at the Hungarian qualifiers.

It seems that McLaren was also to blame for holding things up for the first 20 seconds, though they can appeal their points deduction. Alonso does not have this luxury. He stalled for an additional 10 seconds which just makes his actions more suspect. His excuse? He was asking if his car had the right tires on.

Now, I know he is Spanish but I'm sure his English has been decent enough for the past few years or else he'd have had a lot more problems at the pit stop.

I mean, how on earth can you take 10 seconds to ask if you've got the right tires on?

How's this for time:

Alonso: Is my front right tire correct?
McLaren team: Yes.
Alonso: Is my front left tire correct?
McLaren team: Yes.
Alonso: Is my rear right tire correct?
McLaren team: Yes.
Alonso: Is my rear left tire correct?
McLaren team: Yes.
Alonso: I guess I can start now...

What an a***hole.

But maybe it was a blessing in disguise. With the cheats punished, Hamilton started in pole position. And the sweetest revenge (should the lad even have been contemplating that thought) is to win, which he incidentally did. Keep it up, young man. Talent wins fans, not cheating.

McLaren isn't even happy about Hamilton winning. To quote a CNN report [my comments in brackets]:

Hamilton said his team mate had not spoken to him since Saturday's controversy... [Hello? The guy who played him out doesn't want to talk to him? No big loss.] McLaren team chief Ron Dennis was far from happy after Hamilton's triumph... "Both drivers have to take some responsibility for this." [It seems McLaren knows something extra about Hamilton that we don't, perhaps?]

Moral of the story: Don't go pole-dancing. You might get stripped.