… from my sports archive 

By Ejikeme Ikwunze

In the course of my deep rooted research work on the history and statistics of global football, I documented some soul-stirring information which I will like to share with you…

At the 728 BC Olympic Games in Athens Greece, the  runners of that time had very primitive tracks at their disposal ( grass or sand).They had separate lanes, though, in order not to handicap one another and all the sprinters tied loin cloths.

On that occasion of the 15^th Olympic Games, there was a dramatic finish that ended in delightful oddities. Orsippos an ambitious young man from Megara lost his loin cloth which was at the time regarded as modern-day tracksuits in the race. The other sprinters who felt that they were at a disadvantage, threw their loin cloths away and all of them finished the race naked..Pause a while and take a mental picture of the scene..better still scenario.

At the Olympic Games in 544 BC a woman was responsible for one of the most fantastic stories regarding boxing as a sport.

In men’s clothes Kallipeteira..a great boxing afficionado, entered  the stadium to see her son participate in the boxing contest.

When the grandson of Diasgora defeated his opponent after a barrage of cruel blows which landed on target ,Kallipeteira in excitement jumped into the ring embracing and kissing the winner.

She was not executed  because it was remembered that her father had been an Olympic winner in his time..It was then decreed that the boxers enter the boxing ring wearing no clothes.

At the Olympic Games in Saint Louis USA in 1904, the marathon race proved to be the biggest sensation of all. An American marathoner Lorz wanted to win it by way of a trick better still fraud.

After about 9miles( 14.4kilometres), It was quite certain that he would not even have an outsider’s chance.

So he hired a car and took another route towards the finishing line and in perfect condition but he was disqualified as he did not look as someone who had ran close to 42.195 kilometres.

At the Olympic Games in London in 1908 another dramatic scene was recorded in the marathon race.

An Italian marathoner Dorando was clearly in the lead but just a few metres from the finishing line, he broke down from exhaustion.

Some of the spectators put him back on his feet but he collapsed again. So they had to carry the unconscious athlete across the finishing line. This was against the rule and so Dorando was disqualified. Dorando’ grief was allayed to a certain extent that the Queen presented him with a gold cup. The gold medal however went to the American Hayes who had been second behind Dorando.

At the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles California, another oddity was recorded during the 3000 Steeple chase. One of the officials in charge of counting the laps covered by each athlete suddenly lost interest in his job and simply walked away. The runners had to cover 3,450 metres instead of the official 3,000 metres.