Manipur, the sports powerhouse of India

Manipur, a small strife torn state in the north-eastern corner of India has emerged as the sports powerhouse of the country. At the recently concluded 34th National Games held in
held from 12 February 2011 to 26 February 2011 at Ranchi in the state of Jharkhand, they came second with a total of 108 medal including 46 gold, 33 silver and 29 bronge medals behind Services (Services Sports Control Board - SSCB), which was a combined team of the Indian armed forces. Manipur took the best state award.

What makes it more amazing is the fact that "35 Manipuris won medals for the Services Board, 17 of them won medals for Jharkhand, 11 for Delhi, six for Kerala, 34 for Madhya Pradesh, two for Uttar Pradesh, one for Karnataka, two for Andhra Pradesh, 21 for Assam, two for Orissa and one for Bihar."

Manipuris have been making a mark internationally as well and during the Common Wealth Games, 2010 at Delhi, Manipur players have won 3 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze Medals. Among those who have made their mark internationally is MC Mary Kom,a mother of two who is five times World Boxing Champion and aiming for a Olympic Gold in 2012. She follows in the footsteps of Dingko Singh, another boxer who won the gold medal at 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok.

This is pretty amazing for a state which makes up only 0.1% of India's population (2,388,634) and has seen a violent separatist insurgency since 1964. According to a journalist friend of mine, the state has had more people die due to the violence as compared to Kashmir, another troubled state but has been out of the international media spotlight. The state has no particular industry of note and government jobs are in high demand. Successful sports people are often given huge cash prizes and jobs in the public sector, especially in the armed forces and thus this is a huge incentive to take up sports as a career.

I wonder whether investing in sports might be a better strategy for the Indian Government to defeat the insurgency rather then sending more troops into the state.

Ricoh Arena

The Ricoh Arena is just a couple of minutes drive from my house. It is the home of the Coventry City F.C. and has a stadium that seats 32,609 people. Japanese company Ricoh paid £10 million to get it's name on the stadium for 10 years. However, the stadium which will be one of the football venues during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, will be known as the City of Coventry Stadium as sponsorship names are not allowed.

The first and only time I have been inside the stadium was when I attended the Academy of Marketing Conference 2010 last month which was held here. I quickly took some pics using the Nokia N900 before my presentation.








The Bryan Adams bar
This was taken using my Samsung Galaxy Portal and you can clearly see the difference in the picture quality.

Datuk Nicol David

A few years back I wrote a blog post "Datuk Nicol", calling for reigning world woman's squash champion Nicol David to be awarded a Datukship. However, I never thought that it would become a reality considering her age, etc. etc.

Well today, I learnt that she was awarded the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN) award which carries the title Datuk, by the Penang state government. Only 25 years old, she is the state's youngest Datuk.


Photo from "Nicol David Online".

Congratulations Nicol. You deserve it.

Ladies into golf

A lot of my friends are golf crazy and their wives have resigned to the fact that they can't compete with the game. However, of late I have noticed a new developments. A lot of ladies have also caught the golfing bug. Many started out accompanying their husbands on their weekend golfing sessions. Tired of waiting in the restaurants, they started hitting some balls on the deriving range and that was it.

Some of the ladies are there on the green, every chance they can get and some of them are really good. I am sure some of you reading this post are one of them. Several special golfing shops targeted at women and specializing on golf apparel ladies have come up. Loads of great comfortable and cool clothes and shoes to choose from.

Design your own golf shoes

Are you fond of golf? I used to be a member of a golf club once but I was never that crazy enough to make my wife a golf widow. I would usually hit a few balls on the driving range and that was it. Went down to the green only a few times and yes, it's really addictive.

Anyway, even if you are not fond of golf, design MyJoys Coolest Pair on the Planet and you stand a chance to win a $1000 gift certificate. The winner will be the unique golf shoe design with the highest rank at the end of the contest.

All you have to do is go on over to the Golfballs.com site, design your customized pair of golf shoes and then post your pair of shoes on your blog/site. Then invite people to vote for your design.

Here's my design. I call it Pro Eccentrix. Should bring some color to the green.

FootJoy Golf Shoes

$1000 for the coolest pair!

Ski equipment

If you're a skier, you probably know that generic type of skis simply won't do. There are different types of skiers ranging from beginners to experts and those who are carvers to freeriders. There are even different types of skies specially designed for women.

Al's Ski Barn is a family owned online ski outlet, which carried a number of low priced ski equipment. I was really surprised at the bargains on some of the branded names on the site as I know that ski equipment are not really cheap. One of the bargains is the latest 2007 Salomon 1080 Gun Skis. This replaces the old Pocket Rocket which was specially created by Salomon for their Freeride Team. Last year's Gun S Lab is now the new 1080 Gun. They were redesigned and they are not only wider but are more versatile as well.

The online stores sells other skiing equipment including boots. One of the hottest items is the 2007 Salomon Foil Park Ski Boots. With soft mono-material shell and cuff and a shock-absorbing custom sole, it is designed for freestyle tricks and jumps in the park and on-piste. I won't be in the Olympics though, that's for sure.

The site also has some ski themed e-cards/postcards.