PETE’S PUNCHLINE

The National Sports

  • A friend of mine quipped about a word he found misapplied in a sports story in the other daily. The word was “anonymously” when what should have been used was “unanimously” to describe how a president of a sports body was elected. I chuckled about it but then thought, the word may have been the wrong one but it perfectly decribed the process of the election. The president was voted in unanimously by a group of anonymous voters (associations and individuals nobody ever heard of).
  • Champion South African middle distance runner Caster Semenya recently lost an appeal at the International Court of Arbitration to compete in international events because she has unusually high testosterone levels. I think that’s a terrible decision because whatever advantage she has over the field, its natural. The key word is “natural” not due to any artificial enhancement. How can an international sports body ban her and at the same time allow transgender (male to female) athletes to compete. The hypocrisy of it all.
  • Semenya’s case is no different to a 6’11” guy being a better basketballer or a lock in rugby than an athlete with smaller dimensions. Or a guy with great natural stamina being a top marathon runner as opposed to someone with average or above average natural stamina. It’s all natural. The athlete with the better genetics does better provided their training, diet and coaching is all equal.
  • What happened to Edene Gebbie? Heard he joined the Lae Tigers. Where are all the tries? Oh yeah, I forgot, this is the Digicel Cup, even Darren Lockyer in his prime would have struggled to make an impact here.
  • If LeBron leads the Lakers to a title then he’ll move past Larry Bird (No.5) in my top 10 of all time great NBA players. If he repeats the dose next season then he’ll be right behind Magic Johnson (No.3) all time.
  • Oh man, the Raptors got knocked out by the Celtics in Game 7 (92-87). They just didn’t have that extra oomph to get over the line. They need a big name up there in Toronto next season. They should be targeting someone like Joel Embiid and tack on a guy like Kyle Kuzma as well. Those two are stagnating where they are (Sixers and Lakers) but for different reasons.
  • So much for my hot tip on the Cowboys upsetting the Storm. Must’ve read the tea leaves wrong, again.
  • Ron, a chess aficianado, says while moving pieces on a board mightn’t be as taxing physically as playing snooker or darts, it’s arguably more nerve racking and sweat inducing. Why? Because you’re using your brain, dummy.
  • Happy 45th Independence, y’all. – PGTP ([email protected])