SPORTS roundup iraq
SPORTS roundup iraq banned from olympics Citing political inference, the International Olympic Committee has banned Iraq from competing in the Summer Olympics, which begin August 8 in Beijing, China. About 40 Iraqi athletes competed at the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece, but only seven were scheduled to go this time. These included two rowers, a sprinter, a discus thrower, a judoist and an archer. Missing from the list was the soccer team that finished an amazing fourth in Athens. It didn’t qualify to compete in Beijing. It’s not surprising that Iraq’s Olympic program is in shambles. More than 100 Iraqi athletes have been killed since 2003. Former Iraq Olympic Committee chairman Ahmed al-Hadjiya was kidnapped in 2006 and is still missing. Olympic Committee deputy secretary general Raad Jabir was killed by a gunman in April. The country’s sports and fitness infrastructure has been battered. Because of the dangers of training in Iraq, all of the country’s Olympic athletes are working out abroad. “Terrorists want to target our qualifications and our brains,” Olympic Committee chairman Bashar Mustafa told Reuters reporter Aseel Kami. The IOC move stems from an Iraqi government decision in May to suspect the country’s Olympic Committee and form a temporary committee instead. The government said the original committee was holding meetings without quorums, had officials serving one-year posts for more than five years, and had many officials who lived outside Iraq, CNN reported. Iraq has won just one Olympic medal. Weightlifter Abdul-Wahid Aziz earned a bronze in 1960 in Rome. SOCCER TEAM BOOTED Less than a year after uniting the country while winning the Asian Cup with a victory over heavily favored Saudi Arabia, the Iraqi national soccer team was disbanded and Coach Adnan Hamad was fired. AP PHOTO BY ALAA AL MURJANI BY STEVE STEIN The Iraqi Football Association took those actions in late June after a 1-0 loss to Qatar ended Iraq’s hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. Iraq needed only a tie to advance to the next round of qualifications. Hamad was named the team’s coach in February, replacing Norwegian Egil Olsen. Iraq’s soccer team hasn’t played a home game in years. It trains and plays abroad, mostly in Persian Gulf nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Players of Najaf soccer team warms up during a training session in Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad. Sports has been one of the few things unifying Iraqis in recent years but the team has been disbanded. RUNNING FORWARD In local news, runner Mike Atchoo has set some lofty goals for his junior year at Troy High School. “I want to finish in the top 10 in the state cross country meet, and win the 1600-meter run at the state track meet,” he said. Considering what the 16-year-old has accomplished the past two years, neither aspiration is that far-fetched. When he was a freshman, Atchoo was the only ninth-grader to qualify for the Division I state cross country meet as an individual. He placed 139th overall and sixth among the freshmen in 16:56.4. Atchoo zoomed up to 31st place in a field of 249 runners last fall in his sophomore season. His clocking of 16:00.1 was third-fastest among the 36 sophomores in the race. Despite dropping nearly a minute in his time and moving up 108 places from the previous fall, Atchoo fell agonizingly short of his goal of earning All-State honors. The top 30 runners are All- State. “I was a little bummed out about not making All-State, but I got over it quickly,” Atchoo said. “You can’t let things like that get to you because running is such a mental sport.” In addition to his high school accomplishments, Atchoo has done well in regional and national races in the past several months. He competed in the mile in the 26th annual National Scholastic Indoor Championships at the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in Washington Heights, N.Y., in March. He won his heat and placed 16th overall in 4:20.62. Lisle, Illinois, was Atchoo’s destination in June to compete in the Midwest Distance Gala. He placed seventh in the mile in 4:15.74. GOING TO THE DAWGS Ray Lousia reunited with an old friend from North Farmington High School when he stopped by to watch his cousin Joey Hamama play a winter season championship game in the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit’s Kenny Goldman Basketball League. That old friend was Jeremy Brandt, Joey’s coach on the Dawgs ages 12-and-under team. “I hadn’t seen Ray for years,” Brandt said. “He was a great basketball player in high school and a real popular guy, soft spoken and humble. Everybody liked him.” Brandt asked Lousia if he was interested in being an assistant coach for the Dawgs in the upcoming spring season. Lousia agreed, and he became a great help to the team. “Our team was solid defensively, but I needed an assistant coach who could improve our offense,” Brandt said. “When we needed a basket, I just counted on Joey to take over.” Lousia devised an offensive scheme that was not only effective, but distributed the ball to all the players on the floor. “It took the kids a little while to grasp Ray’s system, but they got better and better at it as the season wore on,” Brandt said. Lousia also helped the players improve their individual skills. “I’m a motivational guy. I try to get our kids to do their best. Ray really knows his basketball,” Brandt said. “He worked 1-on-1 with our players and showed them how to be better shooters and dribblers.” Send your sports story tips to info@chaldeannews.com. 42 CHALDEAN NEWS AUGUST 2008
AUGUST 2008 CHALDEAN NEWS 43
