Lebanon ran away with the HSBC Asian 5 Nations Division IV title last night at The 7evens in Dubai, beating top seeds Pakistan 45-12. It was the third successive Division IV finals appearance for Lebanon and their convincing win sees them advance to next year’s Division III competition. In the final, winger Joseph Zidan grabbed a hat-trick of tries and flyhalf Karim Jammal added 15 points through three penalty goals and three conversions as the Cedars’ 15-man approach proved too much for Pakistan. [Source]
The Lebanese Rugby Union team finally won the Division IV title after 2 previous attempts in the past two years and convincingly advanced to Division III. I had the chance to meet one of the players and you should know that these guys are really working hard to produce strong results and advance from one division to another.
Congrats to the whole team and wishing you the best of luck next year!
What is the Asian Five Nations?
The Asian Five Nations is an annual international rugby union competition held between the top five Asian national rugby sides. The teams play a round-robin competition held on five consecutive weekends throughout April and May.
The competition represents the highest tier of international rugby in Asia, and is the apex of a multi-divisional Asian international calendar. [Wiki]
I’ve been playing Basketball for more than 10 years now and I remember going to the Streetball challenges that used to be held long time ago at the Forum De Beirut back in the late 1990s. It’s a lot of fun and Streetball (3 on 3, 1 on 1 ) for me is more fun than a 5 on 5 game.
If you guys feel the same, then you sure don’t want to miss out this year’s edition of Red Bull’s King of the Rock. It’s a 1 on 1 game and basketball in its purest form. Qualifiers kick off today and go on until June 2. The Final will be held at a cool place, the Old Bus Station in Mar Mikhael, Beirut on Saturday 8th of June 2013 at 8:00 PM.
I won’t be able to make it this year but I will get myself ready for next year hopefully!
You can check out more information about this event [Here].
QUALIFIERS:
Balamand University, Tripoli – May 21
Safra Marine, Safra – May 22
USJ, Sodeco – May 24
Mocean, Kaslik – May 25
Hoops, Beirut – May 26
LCU, Jeita – May 29
Hoops, Antelias – June 1
Anibal, Zahle – June 2
Registration starts at 4:00 PM
Games start at 5:00 PM
PS: There’s an Instagram competition that you can join as well. All you need to do is upload cool shots from the games or crowd and use the hashtag #KingOftherock and mention @RedBullLeb of course.
Event Description: Skydiving Concept: “Participation & Shows” Location: Hamat Air Base, North Lebanon Date: From the 9th till the 25th of August 2013 Daily Time: From 10:00am till 6:00pm Altitude: Above 4,200 Meters Jumps Participation: Open for Public “Lebanese & Foreign Participants”
Skydiving Ticket Price: Tandem Jump with Photos & Video: 444 Euros Extra Photos & Video: 111 Euros Prices include: Jump Certificate, Local and International Insurance, TAX.
You can check out more details [Here] and contact the following number [+961 70 722264] if you are interested.
The story keeps getting better and better! In case you missed the original story, check it out [Here].
In case you haven’t visited Sietske’s blog yet, read [Here].
My housekeeper, as you may remember, runs for pleasure. And so her trainer sent me a message me yesterday to make sure she got to this 10 kilometer cross-country race in Arsoun this morning. I had no idea she was signed up, but he’s signing her up for all kinds of races, and she’s loving it!
Well, he just sent her picture through on WhatsApp; First place in her age category, and what’s even more cool, First Place in the overall category. So she seriously kicks ass! Her next race is on May 26, for the 10K women’s Challenge Race, and her trainer (I should name him, he’s really awesome in taking her under his wings, Roger Bejani. And her team mates, who run with her as well!) says she’s got ‘podium possibility’. Watch out for her, and come and cheer her on!!! [Link]
The Beirut Marathon Association is organizing a women’s race that will take place on May 26, 2013 in Beirut. The race is meant to:
- “Empowering Women” through running
- Portraying a positive and powerful image of Lebanese women, one that negates some of the preconceived stereotypes that the world has of them.
- Providing Women with a chance to compete in confidence
- Raising funds and awareness for causes through running.
This is a good opportunity to shed the light on Women rights in Lebanon in regards to the Nationality Law, Marital Abuse. and so-called honor crimes. Unfortunately though, I don’t see any changes happening anytime soon, at least not with the current government.
Considering that Messi hasn’t been injured since the 2010-2011 season, that’s a very lucky guess from Lebanon’s favorite fortune teller Michel Hayek (or maybe he’s a Real Madrid and has been wishing Messi harm since ever and it worked this year).
That’s still though not a reason for Lebanese TVs to give fortune tellers so much importance. I was flipping through channels yesterday and saw Layla Abdel Latif predicting stuff on LBCI. To be honest, I was truly surprised by how serious the show host was when discussing Layla’s predictions as if they were of any value.
Picture of Alex with Barcelona player Andrés Iniesta – [Source]
Alex is originally from the town of Jdita and is still in school. He took part in a competition organized by Nike in Dubai in collaboration with FC Barcelona and was one of three players to make it to the final selection. The young man caught the attention of our National Team Coach Theo Bücker who asked him to join the team in their latest game against Thailand.
Speaking of which, Lebanon crushed Thailand 5-2 as part of the Asian Cup qualifications games.
I was visiting friends in Dbayeh on Sunday when I noticed a sign that said “360 Skate Park” so I followed the sign until I got to a skate park right before O’Ciel venue. It was a rainy day so there was no one there but I asked some guy who apparently works at the park and he told me it is packed on weekends usually. I couldn’t find any online information on the park or its entrance fees but I am guessing it shouldn’t be that expensive if not for free.
Check out this [cool video] on Skateboarding in Lebanon.
Video taken by Skateboard fans at the 360 Skatepark:
According to Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, ex-Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola used to go as far as spy on his players to make sure that they are staying fit and not drinking or smoking or partying too much. Now this may seem a bit extreme but it shows how dedicated Guardiola was to keep his team in great shape and achieve victories (And it clearly paid off).
The video that I posted yesterday about the referee who got attacked during a local football game made it to Eurosport’s website under the Football Videos page.
The title said: “Thought the United-Real ref had it bad?” in reference to the red card that was given to Nani during the Manchester United – Real Madrid Champions League game yesterday.
As if we need more embarrassment after the match-fixing scandal that hit the Lebanese Football.
For those of you interested in joining the Bikeathon 2013, here’s the full day program as it was mentioned in the press conference:
Program for the 14th of April 2013:
Location: Beirut By Bike New Water-Front, Beirut Souks, Ein El Mreyse, Beirut.
7:00 Distribution of bicycles
8:30 National anthem followed by the event kick off
9:00 Start of the 10K fun ride
10:00 10K Results and Beirut Fun Ride Kick off
12:00 End of Beirut Fun Ride
14:00 Closing Ceremony
Cost is 10$ with a free bike for the first 1000 participants.
I can’t believe none of the players from both teams tried to protect the referee and stop others from attacking him. Even the ISF officers and army men were standing still as if they’re not concerned.
Sagesse – Sporting 2002 finale fight: The recent fights we’ve re witnessing in Lebanese Basketball have been happening for years
To be honest, I didn’t follow up closely what happened during the Champville and Sagesse game few days back but from what I’ve read, Sagesse brought more fans that it was allowed to, a lot of rules got violated, the whole game was a total mess and should not have taken place. Both teams got penalized, including Champville’s Coach Ghassan Sarkis and as a result of this fight, Champville’s president resigned from the federation.
I’ve repeated on several occasions the real cause behind these problems in the Lebanese Basketball League and obviously no one wants to listen but I have a question to ask here:
- Who’s the genius that decided to limit the number of Sagesse players and fans combined to 38 in an away game? Are you seriously asking a team as popular as Sagesse to restrict its number of fans to 10 or 15? What sort of logic is that?
- سنداً لاحكام المادة 210 التي تجيز للجنة الادارية اتخاذ اي عقوبة تراها مناسبة ، حيث ان نادي الحكمة خالف تعاميم الاتحاد وتجاوز عدد جمهوره 400 شخص في المباراة المذكورة بالرغم من ان العدد المحدد هو 38 بما فيهم اللاعبين والجمهور مما خلق جواً من البلبلة والفوضى وخسّر أفضلية جمهور للنادي المضيف، قرّرت اللجنة الادارية توقيف جمهور نادي الحكمة في اول مباراتين على ارضه.
Georges Eid is the only Lebanese competing and wants to bring the title home. Let’s wish him luck!
Al Batal is a unique concept for Arabic TV that will promote Arab fighters around the region and internationally as MMA becomes increasingly popular. The show will first showcase 14 of the finest amateur welterweight Arab MMA fighters that ADFC team had chosen from different organizations.
Al Batal will start airing on Fox Movies, Fox Sports and FX this April. The shooting is currently taking place in Abu Dhabi, UAE. It’s gonna be legendary. Wait for it! [Source]
Source: 
