Archive Category: Sports

Pen Spinning Club in Thailand and Other Amazing Video Clips

We’ve featured pen spinning before on Neatorama, but this activity is virtually a popular sport in Asia. There’s even a club of pen spinners [warning: self-starting audio] in Thailand made up of (all young males, as far as I can tell) pen spinning enthusiasts.

Urlesque blog has a selection of some of the neatest pen spinning tricks ever posted to YouTube. And to think that all I can do to my pen now is chew its end! Link

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Paragolfer Machine Lets Paralyzed People Golf

[Skip the intro to mark 1:00 for the good stuff!]

Being paralyzed shouldn’t stop someone from engaging in a sport lovingly described by Mark Twain as "a good walk, ruined," thanks to the Paragolfer machine by Parabasetec.

Check out the paragolfer in action (yes, it’s a promo video, but it’s amazing nonetheless): Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]. If you want one, be prepared to shell out upwards of $26K.

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Church Turned Graveyard Into a Parking Lot for Wimbledon

It seems that the St. Mary’s Church in Wimbledon village has maneuvered itself into a rather tight spot: church officials let tennis fan park their car on top of graves for £20!

The Church later apologized:

Reverend Mary Bide said that although the cars look ‘odd’, they were only parked in the oldest part of the graveyard and funds raised would make a ‘valuable contribution to the Church and the Diocese’.

But the church has since apologised for the car parking arrangement and has stopped the use of the churchyard.

‘Over many years, during the Wimbledon Championships, the parish of St Mary Wimbledon has offered this service to the public,’ a church spokesman said.

‘Each year three designated charities benefit from some of the money raised by allowing the cars to park and the rest goes towards work within the parish. Sadly, this year, some cars were parked in inappropriate places.’

Link (Photo: National Pictures)

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8th Grader’s Amazing Basketball Shot

Aaron Shutway, an 8th grader from Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School, makes an amazing half court shot to put his class in a frenzy.

- via sports

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

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Bat Swinging

(YouTube link)
Since when is this possible? Long Beach Armada outfielder Josh Womack shows off a bit at training camp. Can I learn to do this, or would I just hurt myself? -via Reddit

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Olympics Hopeful “Discovered” While Running After a Bus

Missing the bus may have been the best thing that ever happened to UK sprinter Jeffrey Lawal-Balogun:

"Then one day I was on my way to college and had to run after the bus. I must have been quite fast because a girl came up to me afterwards and asked if I ran with a club."

It turned out the girl was from Kent Athletic Club and she introduced him to leading sprint coach Clarence Callender, who was immediately impressed. Jeffrey, now 23, of Mottingham, South London, is already carving out a name for himself - and encouraging children to take up athletics at an early age. [...]

He added: "I never thought running after a bus would lead to all this. And the funny thing is, I missed it."

Link | Jeffrey’s profile at The Stellar Group

(Photo: Stellar Group Ltd)

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A Manly History of the Sweet Science of Bruising

George Foreman famously said, "Boxing is the sport to which all other sports aspire." Here’s a brief history of one of the most testing sports one could participate in.

All sports have the potential of becoming about much more than athletics, transforming into symbols of a culture’s and country’s mood, insecurities, conflicts, and hopes. But perhaps no sport lends itself to this kind of transposition more than boxing.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by msaleem.

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Naked Rugby Match Interrupted by Dressed Streaker

Rugby players aren’t afraid of anything, including playing naked! A match in the nude over the weekend in Dunedin, New Zealand went off without a hitch, except for chilly weather and a streaker!

The nude rugby international, which started as a celebration of New Zealand’s national nude day, was held yesterday as a warm-up – although temperatures were reportedly cold enough to prove embarrassing – to the forthcoming match between the All Blacks and France.

Needless to say, there were plenty of tackles flying about with only one interruption … when a fully-clothed streaker ran on to the pitch.

Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Stephen Jaquiery/Otago Images/Otago Daily Times)

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Damien Walters

(YouTube link)
Olympic gymnast Damien Walters does what (usually) only superheroes can do. Watch him show off his parkour moves and more! And don’t miss the "stripping" sequence.

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by oezicomix.

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The 15 Greatest Sports Cheats Of All Time

Cheating has been at the forefront of sport in recent years, what with all the doping and steroid use. Soccer Lens has an article showing that this isn’t a new phenomenon. Athletes have been cutting corners and doing everything they could to get an edge for many years. Take this truly despicable human being, boxing trainer Panama Lewis:

The lowlight of Lewis’ career was the 1983 fight between Lewis Resto and Billy Collins Jr. in which Lewis removed most of the padding from Resto’s boxing gloves. He also soaked the tape that went on Resto’s hands in plaster of Paris, meaning Resto was basically beating Collins Jr. with a plaster cast for ten rounds. Collins Jr.’s vision was blurred after the fight, leading to depression and a death nine months later in a car accident that some believed to be a suicide.

Pictured is Billy Collins, Jr. after the fight in question. Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by redsfaithful.

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Basketball Dog

(YouTube link)
Zeke has a basketball jones. Sign him up for the pros! -via Bits and Pieces

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World’s Youngest Pool Shark

Whatever you do, don’t bet on a game of pool with two-year-old Keith O’Dell Jr! Neatoramanauts, meet the world’s youngest pool shark. He may still in diapers, but this pool prodigy can surely whip my butt!

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

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Personal Trainer’s New Year’s Resolution: Get Fat!

Most people’s New Year’s resolutions usually involve losing weight, but Australian underwear model and personal trainer Paul "PJ" James’s was the exact opposite: he wanted to become fat to better understand his obese gym clients!

Matt Johnston of the Herald Sun has the story:

PJ, 32, has already gone from 80kg to 100kg since making his New Year resolution to boost his flab.

"I have always found it easy to tell clients what to do to lose weight, but it’s hard to tell where a client is coming from and how they are feeling," he said.

"There are health risks, I won’t shy away from that. But I’m trying to do it as responsibly as possible, with regular blood pressure and health checks."

He said his body had tried to reject the fat at first, but he had worked hard to make sure he stacked on the kilos, and was now starting to notice people looking at him differently.

"Especially when I’m trying to train clients and they are doing sit-ups and I’m standing there with a massive gut," he said.

"My gut is pretty big. That’s where most of the weight seems to be going."

Link (Photo: Rebecca Michael) | More pics at Australia-Bodybuilding Blog

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Four Really Fast Runners

I’ve been training for a 20k that takes place at the end of May, and I can definitively say that you will never find me on anyone’s “Fastest Runners” list. “Slowest Runners,” “Saddest Runners,” “Runners with the Worst Form,” “Runners Who Hate GU the Most,” maybe. But not “Fastest Runners.” However, if you’re looking for some inspiration to give your jogs a little boost, here are four guys who should do the trick.

Roger Bannister

Sir Bannister is the first man in history to run a mile in less than four minutes, but he wasn’t the only one in pursuit of the elusive goal: American Wes Santee had been clocking in at 4:02.4 and Australian John Landy was down to 4:02.00. On the magic day, May 6, 1954, Bannister almost scrapped the whole run. It was windy and he preferred to save his energy for another run when the wind wouldn’t ruin his time. But Mother Nature smiled upon him - the winds died down and Roger consented to race. When the announcer took the mic to tell the excited stadium what the final time was, he purposely drew out the announcement as long as possible to tease the masses. When he finally said, “3…” the crowd went nuts and drowned out the rest of the result, which was 3:59.4.

He only held the record for six weeks, though: John Landy surpassed the sub-four-mile mark by just a sliver (3:57.9). On August 7 of the same year, though, Bannister got his chance to win the title back when he and Landy faced off at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games. Although Landy led for the majority of the race, Bannister came up with his famous “Bannister Burst” in the last quarter of the race and sped past Landy to win. Too bad Landy ended up retaining the record anyway: they both came in at times slower than Landy’s previous 3:57.9. You can watch it here - it’s pretty fascinating. I can’t imagine running a mile in less than four minutes and still losing. The current record of 3:43.13 was set by Hicham el Guerrouj of Morocco in 1999.

Eamonn Coghlan

A sub-four-minute mile is incredibly impressive, no doubt, but it’s even more impressive when you’re over 40. And so far, Irishman Eamonn Coghlan is the only man older than 39 to have clocked 1600 m in under 240 seconds. Ever. Eamonn was no amateur runner - in the ’70s, famous track coach Jumbo Elliott offered Coghlan a scholarship to come run for Villanova. Coghlan accepted, and there he won four NCAA titles. He ran his first under-four in 1975 and has since accomplished the feat 83 times, including his record-setting over 40 run in 1994. He was 41 at the time. Interestingly, a sub-four over the age of 50 has never been accomplished, so maybe we’ll see another record out of Eamonn Coglan yet. And if the name sounds familiar to you, but the sport seems all wrong, that’s because Eamonn’s son, also named Eamonn, is a golf pro in the U.S.

Bill Rodgers

Rodgers wasn’t the first person to win three consecutive Boston Marathons, but he is one of the most well-known. And in the later ’70s, runners were probably cursing Boston Billy - in ‘78 and ‘79 he won both the Boston and New York Marathons. In fact, he dominated the New York Marathon for the latter half of the ’70s entirely, with wins every year from 1976 to 1979. He broke two course records in Boston during that time. His personal records include a 4:18 mile, a 13:25 three-mile, a 46:35 10-mile and a 2:09:27 marathon (which was the American record at the time). Suddenly I feel very bad about myself. Bill has been out of the racing game for a while - he says now when he runs marathons and other events, he’s just there to run, not to compete. He finished his first Boston Marathon in 13 years this year and clocked in at 4:06:49. That might seem a little slow for someone who once finished in almost half the time, but bear in mind that Boston Billy is now 61 years old and was recovering from prostate cancer surgery. Be that as it may, he’s not satisfied with the time. “I gotta train more,” he said after the race. “I want to get under four hours.”

Usain Bolt

Unless you were hiding under a rock last summer during the Olympics, you’ve probably heard of Usain Bolt. But you may not know that the 100m world record holder actually started his athletic career with cricket. It was his sport of choice at William Knibb Memorial High School in Trelawny, Jamaica, until his cricket coach took note of how unusually fast he was and recommended that he try out for the track team. He did, and the coach was right: Usain was fantastic. He took silver in the high school championships, seemingly without even trying. It might seem to us that he rose overnight in the running world, coming from nowhere to handily win his Olympic golds last year, but the truth is that he had been training for more than five years for that moment. In 2002, at the age of 15, he set a new personal best for the 200m and won a gold medal in the World Junior Championships for his time of 20:61. It also made him the youngest world-junior gold medal winner ever. To put it in perspective, Michael Johnson’s gold medal-winning Olympic performance for the 200m was 19:32. Johnson was 30 when he set that record, and 15-year-old Usain Bolt was barely a second from breaking it. That’s pretty impressive… and also a sign of things to come. In 2004, he became the first junior sprinter to break the 20 second mark for the 200m, and squeaked by Johnson’s world record at the 2008 Olympics, clocking in at 19:30. His current world record 100m, 9:69, was also set at the Beijing Games. Here’s the record-setting 100m - if you don’t want to watch the warm-up, the actual race starts around 1:24.

I think I’ll do a follow-up on amazing female runners next. If you have some suggestions, leave me a comment and let me know!

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Penguin Sports

The Penguathlon is a sporting event for penguins at the Kelly Tarlton Arctic Encounter in Orakei, New Zealand. Penguins compete in five events: football, Frisbee, surfing, swing ball, and waddle races. This is no joke! New Zealand is home to nine of the 16 penguin species, and the colony at the Arctic Encounter has 80 King and Gentoo penguins in its colony. The sports are showcased as an enrichment exercise for the birds.

“New Zealand has the greatest diversity of penguin species and is arguably the best place in the world to see them. As well as being great fun, the Penguathlon gives people a fantastic chance to get up close with them as well as gaining a better understanding about their welfare”, said Gregg Anderson, Tourism New Zealand’s Regional Manager for UK and Europe.

The Penguathlon, which will run the rest of this month, may become an annual event. Link (with video) -via Arbroath

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Volcano Boarding

Sliding down a mountain on a snowboard is a completely different experience when the mountain is an active volcano! The new sport is drawing snowboarders and surfers to the foothills of Nicaragua’s Cerro Negro mountain.

Surfers, dressed in protective jump suits, knee-pads and helmets, can reach speeds of up to 80 km/h (50mph) on their specially-constructed plywood boards.

Phillip Southan, owner and manager of Bigfoot Hostel and Green Pathways Tours, said the unique trip is a world first.

‘We started offering this trip on 2005 and its has become so popular,’ the 26-year-old from Barbados said. ‘This is a unique tour as nowhere else in the world can you board down an active volcano.

‘This is the fourth year and to date we have taken over 10,000 people on this tour,’ said Mr Southan. ‘It is a 45 minute hike of easy to moderate difficulty.

Cerro Negro last erupted in 1999, and the crater is still smoking. Link -via Unique Daily

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Strange Costumes at the London Marathon

Buzzfeed collected pictures of the 50 best costumes spotted at the London Marathon last week. This carrot ranked #7. Can you imagine running 26 miles like this? Link

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Bicycle + Treadmill Hack

Photo: frankh

Remember the mobile treadmill posted on Neatorama a while ago? Well, Flickr user frankh spotted a DIY version at MIT (where else?). Apparently, it’s what you get when you cross a bicycle with a treadmill - via GadgetLab

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Drag Racing the Police

If you’re over 18, can get to the Miami area, and have $25, you can race your car against police officers driving cruisers -legally! Officers from several local departments race at County Line Drag Way once a month in an event called Beat the Heat.

“You could bring your mother’s minivan. You can bring a pure racing car. It doesn’t matter,” said Officer Jose Ayala with the Medley Police Department.

“We’re actually getting a lot of kids and adults alike come here and say, ‘We used to race in Davie. You probably used to chase us around, and now we’re here on the track and we want to race your car,’” said Officer Ron Bradley with the Davie Police.

Officers said they have seen a drastic reduction in illegal street racing since Beat the Heat started in 2007.

The next Beat the Heat race is May 23rd. Link -via reddit

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The Bike Wanted To Win

Ghost Riding - The best bloopers are here

Now here’s something you don’t see everyday. The bike wanted to win with or without the rider! I wonder if he eventually got the bike?

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Parkour on Two Wheels: Danny MacAskill Rides a Bike

Most of us can ride bikes, but I bet you not like Inspired Bicycles team rider Danny MacAskill. Here’s a video tape of a collection of what can only be described as parkour on two wheels: Link [YouTube clip]

Kids, don’t try this at home. Or on the streets, either.

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Kings Firecrackers: Now THIS is Jumping Rope

Holy moley. I remember jumping rope as a kid, and always thought I was pretty good; heck, I could get through most of the Alphabet (eg: A my name is Alli, etc.). Boy, was I wrong. These young ladies make Double Dutch look like sleep walking.

The Kings Firecrackers are a group of elementary and Jr High school girls from Kings Local School District in Ohio who, besides doing their school work and keeping their grades up, practice for 5 days a week, 2 hrs a day jumping rope. And it pays off; they’ve been on Late Night With David Letterman, in the Macy’s Day parade, at one of Bush’s inaugurations as well as in American Girl magazine.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to take a nap. Just watching them has me exhausted. If you’re not too wiped out, you can take a peek at their blog: Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Allivymar.

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Steampunk Snowboard

Zaskoda started out to mount a camera on a snowboard and ended up designing a steampunk model, complete with sails and a “generator”! Link -via Unique Daily

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Rube Goldberg Basketball Shot

At the 20th Annual Richard Opie Tournament at Pewaukee, Wisconsin, a the Pewaukee Longhorns battled the Wildcats in a close game of basketball.

With a tie game and seconds left in the fourth quarter of the final game of the championship, the Wildcats took one final shot from the other end of the court and … you’ll just have to see the shot for yourself!

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Christophe.

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Didi Senft: Cycling Superfan and Builder of Outrageous Bicycles

Ever sport has got its hardcore fan, and cycling is no different: it has Didi Senft, a 56-year-old cycling superfan better known as "El Diablo" (yes, he wears the devil’s cape everywhere he goes).

Didi is quite famous in the cycling world; he has over 100 unusual and record-breaking bicycles. Deborah of Life in the Fast Lane has more on this guy:

Didi Senft has also built a recumbent double-decker tandem, and a giant rickshaw 42 feet (12.4 meters) long, on which the passenger sits at a dizzying height of 21 feet 10 inches (6.65 meters) above the ground.

Didi made the world’s largest soccerball bicycle out of more than 100 footballs and rode it around to promote the World Cup 2006 in Germany.

Link

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6-Year-Old Ping Pong Whiz

Don’t mind the noise this 6-year-old ping pong prodigy makes while she slams the ball (She’s serious!)

Little information is provided about this little girl on her YouTube channel. The title of the video, however, does anticipate a 2020 Olympic Game champion…

- via wonderhowto

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Rmansur.

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Japan’s Marathon Monk

A 44-year-old Japanese monk named Genshin Fujinami has just completed what probably is the most grueling race in history: a 7-year 24,800 mile (~40,000 km) journey - an equivalent of a trip around the world!

Since 1885, only 46 other so-called “marathon monks” of the Tendai sect have survived the ritual, which dates to the 8th century and is believed to be a path to enlightenment, according to temple officials. The last monk to complete it returned in 1994.

A few have done it twice; many more have not lived to finish. Traditionally, any monk, or gyoja, who can’t continue to the end must take his own live, either by hanging or disembowelment.

A rigorous regimen dictates that in each of the journey’s first three years, the pilgrim must rise at midnight for 100 consecutive days to pray, run along an 18-mile trail around Mount Hiei — stopping 250 times to pray along the way. He can carry only candles, a prayer book and a sack of vegetarian food. [...]

His most difficult trial, however, comes during the fifth year when he must sit and chant mantras for nine days without food, water or sleep, in a trial called “doiri,” or “entering the temple.”

In the sixth year, he walks 37.5 miles every day for 100 days. And in the seventh, he goes 52.5 miles for 100 days and then 18 miles for another 100 days, before returning to the temple, located in Otsu city, about 234 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Link (Photo: Kyodo/AP) - via martialdevelopment

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by neatodev.

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Clever See-Through Kayak and Canoe Designs

Someone told me there was a canoe in this picture … but I have to admit I got distracted and did not see it right away. Regardless, the canoes are great but the kayaks are even better: they are light-weight, easy-to-collapse and therefore not only entertaining in the water but highly manageable on the shore compared to their conventional and opaque counterparts.

The only question is: what do you do when it gets dirty? Hopefully each dunk back in the water cleans it off. OK, one other question: what else can we make transparent? Cars, maybe even planes, or are the skies the limit in this case?

Glass-bottom boats are nothing new on scenic tours, but with a see-through canoe you can go wherever you want and have a personal up-close view of whatever is below you. Lighter than a wood or aluminum canoe, tough as bullet-proof glass and entirely transparent on the bottom, these designs provide a completely new way to experience water life around you.

link

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8 of the Manliest Sports

This list of manly sports include a couple I’ve never heard of, including Calcio Fiorentino.

This Italian sport originated in 16th century Florence. Called Bareknuckle Football, it’s a manlier version of, well, everything. Punching, head-butting, and choking are all legal. In 50 minutes each team tries to score as many points (cacce) as possible. In simpler terms this means that whichever team beats up the other more effectively will win. The closest thing we have to modern day gladiatorial combat. Seriously, they used to release prisoners to perform. Manly.

Most of the sports listed are violent or injury-inducing, but not all. Link -via the Presurfer

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Parrot Plays Golf and Basketball

This is one brilliant bird. He can not only play dead, but also plays sports. I’d love to see his training techniques.

Link Via Metro.CO.UK

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