Sport

Now that the child’s play (gymnastics, swimming, equestrian, kayaking etc) in Beijing is over the JOGOO of Africa roars (as much as a JOGOO can roar anyway).

The only country that is worthy of a seat next to Kenya is Jamaica. As for the rest of you, you can steal our athletes with PetroDollars, LegoDollars and MacDollars but until you start eating ugali you haven’t got a chance.)

In other news

our dear (younger) brothers from Uganda, this is what we meant last time. Hehe ati dethrone Kenya in Nairobi. Never talk badly again!

(Balanced, non jingoistic, rational coverage continues after the Olympics etc)

Viewers of today’s feature presentation, The Massacre at Anfield 3, may feel they are watching a repeat of last years feature, which we reviewed on Mentalacrobatics here.

We would like to assure all our viewers that we at Anfield are professionals and thus will never tire of spanking Chelski in the Champions’ League semi-finals.

We would also like to point out to our viewers that it is not our fault Chelski suck. Like many of our viewers we are disgusted that sub standard teams such as Chelski are allowed to participate in such a prestigious competition.

We would like to remind our viewers that winning the Champions’ League requires pedigree, power, passion, panache, pride and a Liverbird on your chest.

YNWA

God really must be Liverpool fan.

Destroy Arsenal in the quarter-final
Demolish Chelsea in the semi-final (again) HAHAH ROTFLMBBAO
HUMILIATE ManUtd in the final

You couldn’t ask for a better end to a season

We’ve won it 5 Times
We’ve won it 5 Times
In Istanbul
We Won it 5 Times

We’ll Win It 6 Times
We’ll Win It 6 Times
In magic Moscow
We’ll Win it 6 Times

It’s only on Loan
It’s only on Loan
In magic Moscow
We’ll Bring It Back Home

Meanwhile …

From: Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenya (NBO)
To: Moscow, Domodedovo Airport, Russia (DME)
To: Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenya (NBO)
Passengers: 1 Adult
Cabin: Economy
Departing: Tuesday, 20 May, 2008
Returning: Thursday, 22 May, 2008
Price: USD 1936.00

WHOA - perhaps I’ll watch it on TV instead.

(Yo Nyiloh, this time it’s on!)

Congratulations to the Pharaohs Kings of Africa once again after beating Cameroon 1-0 in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.

I was lucky to have the pleasure, for the first time, of watching the final of a major football tournament in one of the countries that was contesting that final. It was not planned, it was a complete fluke as I just happened to be in transit in Cairo between Istanbul and Nairobi. My six hours in transit coincided with the match. I walked around Cairo International Airport looking for a TV screen that was not showing the usual airport advertising pap and for a while I was scared that I would miss the game. How ridiculous that would that have been. Luckily sanity prevailed and most of the screens switched over to Accra as soon business began at the Ohene Djan stadium. Before kick off the airport staff were all polite and diplomatic when I asked, cheekily, if they would support Cameroon. Once the match began it was another story. Shouts, screams, hands in the air, fists shaken at TV screens. Yes indeed, football at its most passionate.

While I was watching the game I was struck again by the immense power of sport. Especially at international level. To put it plainly I sincerely believe that if Kenya had qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations and had done well in the tournament the violence that rocked Kenya would not have been intense as it was. Imagine a commanding Luhya player (the captain naturally) a towering midfield destroyer, passing the ball to Luo player, the creative and flamboyant midfield maestro, passing the ball to a lanky but lethal Kalenjin striker, who blasts in the winning goal cheered by his Kikuyu goalkeeper. The unity the players would have to show on the pitch to be successful would serve as a constant and real reminder of the unity Kenyans would have to show off the pitch to be successful.

This is not just sentimental hogwash. in the run up to the 2006 World Cup with Ivory Coast bleeding from civil war Drogba fell on his knees live on TV and sent out an emotional appeal for the warring factions to lay down their arms. It would be naive to claim that Drogba’s gesture ended the civil war. It would be equally naive to pretend that Drogba’s gesture did not have any effect at all. “All the players hated what was happening to our country and reaching the World Cup was the perfect emotional wave on which to ride.” Togo and Angola qualifying for the same World Cup in German helped heal both nations after decades of civil war. Beyond Africa as well there are numerous examples of the power of sport to unite a nation. Remember how the then new country of Croatia, which gained independence only 7 years earlier, played excellent football to reach the semi finals of the World Cup in France 1998 uniting their country in a sense of pride? Or how much the symbolism North and South Korea marching together at the opening ceremony of the Asian Games (although they did not compete in joint teams) meant to their people?

Sport and especially team sport is a democratic and universal symbol of nationhood which becomes even more important in a country like Kenya where most of the other symbols of nationhood are inaccessible to ordinary citizens.

Two weeks ago a special friend invited me to watch a preseason rugby friendly between the University of Nairobi’s Mean Machine RFC and Mwamba RFC, one of Kenya’s oldest rugby clubs. As with most preseason games the match was a relaxed affair played in a lively spirit. After the game the players from both sides gathered in the centre of the pitch and knelt together in prayer.

This is a regular ritual conducted at the end of many rugby games. This time, however, it was wonderful to see the symbolism of a united Kenya across ethnic, religious, economic, political lines.

Click here for a larger image.

We, the good people at Mentalacrobatics Towers, never shy away from making big calls in our sporting predictions. We are not soothsayers-in-reverse who wait until the games are finished to boldly start saying, “si I told you so” acting all smug!

Now that the rugby world cup has reached the business end side of things here is the Mentalacrobatics blueprint. If you support the All Blacks or England you won’t like it much.

Quarter Finals

QF1: Australia v England: Australia
QF2: New Zealand v France: France
QF3: South Africa v Fiji: South Africa
QF4: Argentina v Scotland: Argentina

Semi Finals

SF1: W QF1 v W QF2 = Australia –v- France: Australia
SF2: W QF3 v W QF4 = South Africa –v- Argentina: South Africa

3rd place play-off: France –v- Argentina: France

Final: Australia – South Africa: South Africa

1. South Africa
2. Australia
3. France

Why?

The All Blacks should be on a liquid diet because they always choke. And they are the overwhelming favourites and I never go for the overwhelming favourites (World Cup 2006 Brazil fans where are you now? Champions’ League 2005 final AC Milan fans where are you now?) So the All Blacks will not win. But who can stop them?

The big three of the southern hemisphere know each other inside out. The All Blacks know too much about the Springboks and the Wallabies to be surprised by them. So they would beat those two teams. It would take a team of irritatingly inconsistent players to have the game of their lives to knock the All Blacks out of the tournament. Step forward France. They’ve done it before and I think they will do it again. They are due one superior performance in this world cup, unfortunately the All Blacks will be on the receiving end. Then people will start talking about the “French Jinx”, remember where you heard it first.

The rest is obvious really.

Hash et al. I’ll be expecting your wise predictions soon! All of a sudden this post has become popular again. I should move those downloads to YouTube or something!

Football is not just a matter of life and death: it’s much more important than that!
Bill Shankly

It is wonderful to read some different and good news about Iraq for once. This victory and the excitement it has generated is yet another example of the positive role sports can play in uplifting a country. If you do only one thing today then make that one thing reading what the Iraqi bloggers are saying!

Well done Iraq – winners of Asian Cup 2007.

See you in the World Cup 2010! Final: Kenya – v – Iraq!

Well done to Milan, worthy champions. Koppites, we’ll meet in Moscow.

The way Gattuso was wandering around after the final whistle like a mad man I wonder what he would have done had they lost again hehe.

Silver linings and all that:
The good thing about nights like last night is that you get to meet real fans. Sitting in Crooked Q making noise long after the final whistle was brilliant. People were walking to us and saying, “Didn’t you guys lose?” Yeah yesterday we lost, but tomorrow we will win, so today we will sing.
(By the way I have final found out the reason CrookedQ exists. Still have no idea what the point of JKs, Tamasha, Sohos etc is.)

Looks like the foundations for a official Nairobi (or indeed Kenya) branch of LFC Supporters club are all here. Watch this space.

Surreal moment of the night was being stopped by police with various Liverpool flags hanging from the car and YNWA blasting from the stereo and then being escorted, flashing lights and all, to Nairobi Safari Club because they decided that we were part of the Burundi delegation in Nairobi for the COMESA summit. HEHE. Yani one look at us and they were like bilaz these nutters can not be Kenyan!

I would post pictures but let me not push my luck.

Walk on, the Rafaloution year 4.

No one likes a know it all
Even if the know-it-all is always right
Even more so if the know-it-all is good looking
And especially when the know-it-all says, “I told you so.”

But heck – who cares?

I TOLD YOU SO!

The Mighty Reds of Anfield lock horns with Meeeeeeeeeelan in Athens in a repeat of the 2005 Champions’ League final.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the Champions’ League trophy is the most fussy of mistresses. She only lets a very select few battle for the right to call her their own.

Liverpool and Meeeeeeeeeeeeelan happen to be amongst those few.

Manchester Buccaneers and Spartak Chelski do not happen to be amongst those few.

Chelski: “we’re chasing a historic quadruple.”
Liverpool: “NO you are not.”

What a routine win, it was a walk in the park really, no sweat. Chelski have been crying all season about how they never get awarded penalties, look what happened when they got 5. Useless.

Buccaneers: “We’re gonna win the treble.”
Meeeeeeeeeeeeelan: “NO you are not.”

Hehehe!

As for the Buccaneer fans who had the audacity to come in here and start talking about history and “big clubs”, where do I even start educating you?

Quote of the day

“I guess when you’ve invested £500m it’s a fantastic season to win the League Cup.”

Rick Parry wins the battle of wits against Mourinho

We won it five times; we won it five timeeeeeeeeees, in Istanbul we won it five times!

It’s only on loan; it’s only on looooooan, in ancient Greece we’ll bring it back home!

Tonight for One Night Only
Showing at a screen near you

The Massacre at Anfield

A Liverpool Football Club Production

Directed by Rafa “The Gaffa” Benitez

Starring

Steve “Captain Fantastic” Gerrard MBE
Luis “Semi Final Goal Scorer” Garcia
Momo “So good they named him twice” Sissoko
Jamie “The Minister of Defence” Carragher
Peter “Crouchigol” Crouch
And The Koppites a.k.a The real Special Ones as the 12th man.

Prediction: Liverpool will beat AC Milan in this year’s Champions’ League Final in a repeat of the greatest game of football ever played.

Steve Cram is one of Britain’s top all time athletes. He won gold medals in the Commonwealth Games, European Championships and World Championships and a silver medal in the Olympics all in 1500m in the mid 1980’s.

You would think that a guy with his experience on the track field would know one or two things about respect and fair play but his article in The Guardian is anything but fair play and is, frankly, borderline racist.

Cram’s main beef seems to be the Kenyan crowd cheering when Bekele pulled out of the race on the final lap. How can Cram be so sure of the reasons behind the crowds’ celebrations? After all they had just seen the junior Kenyan men and women totally dominate and sweep the medals. Maybe the crowd were still on a high because of that. Anyone who has been to a major Kenyan sporting event knows that it is noise and singing the whole may through. If you do not believe just ask any non Kenyan who has been to the LA Sevens or London Sevens rugby tournaments. It doesn’t matter if Georgia is playing Argentina in the semi-final of the bowl, you can be sure that the Kenyans will still be making noise.

Anyway back to the article. According to Cram the crowd’s celebrations were “shocking” and the crowd was “delirious”. Apparently Kenyans showed a, “distasteful example of sporting rivalry prompting unacceptable levels of animosity [and] … proved to be lacking in the sportsmanship that athletics is used to.” He goes on to mention that next year when the championship is held in Edinburgh, the crowd will be “partisan but sporting”. Ok so when the Kenyans (read Africans) celebrate they are shocking, distasteful, full of animosity and delirious, but when the crowd in Edinburgh (read Europeans) celebrate they will be, “partisan but sporting”.

He then goes on to suggest that holding the championship in Mombasa was a mistake because of the extreme weather conditions. Yes it was hot and humid. Cram then goes on to say that the driving rain of Edinburgh would be better.

OK what? If this guy had his way all athletic events would be held in the rain of Great Britain. These same bogus excuses they are spouting now about the weather being unacceptable in Mombasa is the same stuff they said about the Olympics in Athens when many European athletes found the conditions too hard. Biggest example: Britain’s Paula Radcliffe.

I remember reading an article on one the greatest athletes we will ever see (and my close personal buddy) Michael Johnson. One evening during a training session the heavens open and torrential rain started pouring. All the other athletes went in but Johnson and his coach stayed out running and practicing in the heavy rain until they finished their session. When the reporters asked Johnson why he stayed out he told them, “One day I may have to race under these conditions and I want to be ready.” Now that is preparation for you. Only the Ethiopians know why their challenge at this year’s Cross Country championship went pear shaped. There had been rumours of some discord in the Ethiopian camp and this article mentions just how ill prepared for the conditions they were.

Cram then goes on to say that when the Cross Country championship is held in Edinburgh next year Cross Country will be, “really home.” LOL. What a muppet. Kenya is the spiritual home of long distance running Cram, upende usipende.

Now this article got me thinking. It is clear that Cram has something against Kenyans. So I did some quick investigating. When you look at all the medals Cram has won, which I mentioned above, there is one medal missing from his collection, that one medal which is the King of Medals, the Olympic gold medal. Cram never won an Olympic gold medal. In Seoul in 1988 he was the favourite to win. Instead he was upstaged by a young upstart called Peter Rono who won the Gold. Which country did Rono win the Gold medal for? Well you do not need me to tell you that. Suddenly Cram’s distaste for Kenya makes sense. Oh well, another one bites the dust. Cram should just be happy he was running long distance before Kenyan athletics organised itself to be the force it is today. Otherwise even the few medals he won would just be rumours.

A quick update to the official dictionary

domi-na-tion
n.
1.
a. Control or power over another or others.
b. The exercise of such control or power.
c. The Kenyan Cross Country team

Cross Country came home and we showed the world how long distance running is done. Domination has a new definition.

From the podium sweep in the junior women’s race that opened the competition to the top-four sweep in the junior men’s, the hosts clearly illustrated that, for now, no nation on earth can match the cross country depth produced in this east African nation.

Ati for now. For now, for yesterday, for tomorrow, for the day before yesterday, for the day after tomorrow. Forever. I wonder why some of the countries turned up to be honest. But I guess a holiday in Mombasa for one hours running isn’t such a bad deal.

Where we really show our domination is in the team standings and in the team medals. To do well in the team events you can not have one superstar and 5 Muppets. You all have to be on point.

Senior men:
1st Kenya: 28 points (the lower the points the better)
2nd Morocco: 146 points!!!!

That is a spanking of 118 points between first and second! One hundred and eighteen points. Hehehe. That is the equivalent of a 10-0 spanking in football.

Senior women:
1st Ethiopia: 19 points
2nd Kenya: 26 points

We pushed the Ethiopians hard. And oh yeah the Dutch lady who won this race is called Lornah Kiplagat. Yeah go figure.

Junior men:
1st Kenya: 10 points (i.e. basically a perfect score)
2nd Eritrea: 44 points

The junior men just take the cake. They won their ninth title in a row and have won 19 of the last 20 championships. This year Kenyan runners came in 1,2,3,4.

Junior women:
1st Kenya: 13 points (i.e. near perfection)
2nd Eritrea: 33 points

What a day!

The good: the immense pride the Kenyan athletes showed. The heroes in the Junior men’s team could hardly walk on to the podium to receive their medals. That’s how much effort they put into the race.
The crowd, Kenyans came out to support their athletes but also to support all the runners clapping all the athletes around the course.

The bad: I found the coverage in the Kenyan press of Bekele’s retirement one lap from the end distasteful. There is no need to gloat childishly. If the Kenyan athletes and crowd can show Bekele respect then reporters can to. Remember this is a man who many said was too scared to take the Kenyans on in their own backyard when he nearly retired from Cross Country last year. He came, he ran, he didn’t finish. We won yes but that guy is still a champion.

The ugly: How in the hell did that soldier manage to hoist up the Kenyan flag upside down during the Junior women’s medal ceremony? I mean upside down? How? On the bright side he managed to complete confuse Baks who was looking at the flag like huh?? That soldier will be posted to Mandera for the next 10 years.

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Meanwhile the next day the Harambee stars were busy beating Swaziland 2-0 at Kasarani. Cue for politicans to talk about, “bringing football home to Kenya like we brought cross country home” as they start to talk of a Nairobi Olympic bid for 2016.

It is not losing to New Zealand that is hard to take, they are a top side, it is the manner in which we lost. To lose by 148 runs is hard to take. We bowled adequately but there was no real threat there and we looked half hearted in the field. You can’t give away 29 extras including 21 wides when you are playing a better team and expect to remain competitive.

After winning the World Cricket League Division 1 championship in Nairobi last month, the Kenyan cricketers were quoted saying they had won “their world cup” implying that the real world cup is just gravy. Perhaps this subconsciously affected their play. There was a lack of intensity amongst our play. Intensity in sport is learnt. It comes from playing regular and competitive 1st class games.

The ICC need to get their act together and schedule more regular matches between the test nations and association nations. The current format of meeting every two years in a tournament is bogus for the development of the game.

Talking with some friends on Saturday we were debating what tactics Kenya should employ if they found themselves having to chase 300+ runs for a win. We all agreed; forget batting “within yourselves” and taking the chances that fall your way. You need madness and in cricket that means you need to get into Twenty20 mode from the get go. The purists of the game will probably choke on that, but you watch the South African domestic Twenty20 cricket championship and it quickly becomes clear how they were able to chase down Australia in March last year in the greatest One Day International ever played. Australia made 434 the highest score ever made in a one day international by a distance. Then the South African batsmen came to the crease with a Twenty20 on steroids attitude and chased down the total making 439. That’s what Kenya should have done. It you’re going down, go down in blaze of glory! Kidogo madness!

I still think we can beat England with or without their redemption song flowing in their ears. If they bat first and post a huge total, I hope our batsmen come out looking like madmen on a mission! If the rain comes we are screwed, that 148 runs loss has messed up our run average. On the bright side though, winning the World Cricket League Division 1 championship meant we qualified for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup to be held in South Africa later this year, we’ll be sure to pick up some tricks!

[MsK stop watching cricket – you see what you did!]

Tags: cricket | cricket world cup | cwc2007

First of all watching the TV shots of the crowds at the games it is clear that I am currently a few hundred miles from where I should be. I wish Kenyan women would take a leaf from their West Indian counterparts and come bask with me in the sun. No wonder cricket is increasingly becoming popular around these parts.

As shown below, Kamande has the best wicket celebration of any bowler at this world cup.

Saturday was a brilliant day at the Cricket World Cup with the revenge of the minnows, Bangladesh beating India and even more spectacular, Ireland beating Pakistan, and on St. Patrick’s weekend too.

The African teams have had mixed results with, Kenya and South Africa easily winning their opening games. Zimbabwe drew with Ireland and lost to the West Indies leaving them with a must win game against Pakistan.

It looks like in every major tournament Kenya suffers some serious bad timing. In the middle of 1999 World Cup Tendulkar lost his father. He flew back to England to play immediately after attending his father’s funeral. The match was against Kenya. Of course the man was on a mission as he was batting for his father and scored the first century of that World Cup in a fantastic innings. This time round, we play get to play England after half their team was caught drunk and their main player Flintoff had to be rescued from the ocean on his paddle boat. They were all fined or dropped for their match against Canada and have been slaughtered in the international and local press so they all want redemption and are eager to play the best game of their lives. Who is that game against? Kenya.

Today’s match against New Zealand will be a tough one to say the least. But I feel Kenya can spank England. England have no wicket takers, their formidable bowling attack of Monty and Flintoff averages one wicket each per match in ODI, and they only have two batsmen Pietersen and Collingwood. Sunday should be a good game. Of course I still believe we can beat New Zealand today, and then the match against England would be very very interesting.

As for South Africa, those guys are on a mission and they look menacing. Gibbs six sixes in an over was amazing to watch, unless you were Daan van Bunge (hehehe ati the guy is called bunge – perhaps we should get Gibbs to come and knock some of our MPs for six). Luuk van Troost, the Dutch captain said, “I didn’t know where to put my players anymore, it was a nightmare!” and on the bowling side Makhaya Ntini hasn’t even played yet and must be raring to go after the birth of his second child.

R.I.P Bob Woolmer.

You hear a lot of nonsense about why Kenyans dominate long distance running. I’ve blogged about it before so no need to repeat myself there. I believe most important reason Kenyan runners are so dominating is because no one else trains like them.

In school we used to have some crazy sports teachers. One of them used to tell us that he would push us so hard so that nothing in game could ever come close to the intensity of training. That way when in the middle of a tough match you could draw the team together and tell them, “listen this is no where near as bad as that session we had last week, if we survived that surely we can beat these clowns.”

That seems to be the approach the Kenyan Cross Country Team coaches have taken. With less than two weeks before the World Cross Country championships take place for the first time on Kenyan soil in Mombasa, the Kenyan Cross Country team moved to Embu on the slopes of Mt. Kenya. In one of those sports reports which do not make it to the online edition of the paper, some members of the team had a couple of training session which involved running up the side of the mountain through in the bush. Up a side of the mountain, through the bush. Don’t give me any crap about Kenyans winning medals simply because they have, “these massive lungs”.

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Our first match at the cricket World Cup starts in 30mins time. 16.30 Kenyan time. What excuse can you give your boss to leave the office early knowing that the man will never appreciate your passion for the game? If we work out a list of excuses we can rotate them amongst us and we’ll all end up watching the game. Anyone know of any pubs in Nairobi showing the matches live?

At the world cup itself Michael Holding’s comments that “minnows” should not be allowed to compete at the World Cup are just silly. First of all Mr Holding should remind himself that a cricketing minnow country called Kenya spanked his very own West Indies in the 1996 world cup in what is one of the greatest sporting upsets of all time. And Kenya made it to the semi final last time around and although test nations like to say that was just because New Zealand refused to play in Nairobi (because Cape Town is so much safer you see) they conveniently forget we had to beat Sri Lanka to get there and nearly, nearly beat India in the semis as well.

Back to the West Indies a couple of years ago the Australian press were wondering, loudly, what the point of Australia playing the West Indies in a test series was as the WI were, according to the Australian press, crap. Legend after West Indian cricket legend appeared on Sky Sports to tell the Australians to shut up and remember that when Australia was crap at cricket the West Indies were amongst their strongest supporters arguing for their right to play test cricket. How quickly these legends forget. After Kenya I normally support the West Indies, this time forget them, its all about minnow power. (Yeah I know the government will probably not recall ambassadors on the back of this blog post but who knows.)

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I have a video clip from the first few minutes of the Mater Heart Run. Watch it and see if you can spot the Vice President’s undercover security team. They really blend into the crowd.

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A decade or so or more ago when I was in high school if students wanted time away from school they go on strike protestesting against the, “quality of the food”, the “quality of the teachers”, which would result in the whole school being suspended by that authorities = holiday. Now days school kids are on a whole new level, they manage to hire some ghosts to possess the whole school. I wonder how long that Kenya Times writer has been waiting to use the words “ghost buster” in an article. These ghosts/spirits are a bit strange in that they calm down once comforted by the blood of a white goat. I’m trying to imagine approaching my old headmaster, whom we called simply “THE Doctor”, and telling him,

“Sir, everyone has gone mad sir. We think its ghosts or evil spirits or something. We need the blood of a white goat.”

“Inform the school any pupil who has the misfortune of being possessed will have triple detention on Sunday.”

Before I even start this post properly check out this out:

Now that right there is a piece of history ladies and gentlemen. (If you do not know who Joginder Singh and David Doig are and do not know the significance of this Mitsubishi Colt Lancer 1600 GSR and dare call yourself a fan of the Safari Rally, run to wikipedia and get yourself an education before you embarrass yourself here.)

Ok let’s beginning:

Let me be honest here, the main reason we love the Safari Rally is that it gives the opportunity to mess about like kids again.

You get to put stickers on your car without looking like muppet, comme ca:

You get to wear a shirt with many badges without looking like you mugged a scout, comme ca:

The spectator stage at Athi River was brilliant but dustier than Michuki’s copy of MauMau Heroes

That’s a rally car, honest.

Oh look, there’s another one.

I hear last year they sent trucks around to sprinkle water to hold down the dust, this year we got the proper full rally experience.

Sanity, however, finally checked in and we headed to the more majestic surroundings of KICC for the finish.

As usual Mzee Jomo was area, nothing moves that man, he just sits there challenging you to impress him.

First up to try and impress Mzee Kenyatta were Conrad Rautenbach and Pete Marsh, winners of the Safari Rally 2007.

Conrad is the youngest winner ever at only 22 years old. So while Mugabe spent his weekend beating up his own people a couple of Zimbabweans (who happen to be white) were busy beating other rally drivers and flying their country’s flag proudly.

Here is the winning car. Did you know that it (insert your own car statistics that you managed to download from Google a minute before to impress the people around you.)

Here are the top three cars of Safari Rally 2007.

And here are the men who drove and navigated them. Conrad Rautenbach/Peter Mash (Zimbabwe, Subaru Impreza - on the ramp) 2:3043; Carl Tundo/Tim Jessop, (Kenya, Subaru Impreza - the blue car) 2;32.54; Andrea Navarra/Guido d’Amore (Italy, Fiat Punto - the one not on the ramp and not the blue one) 2:34.04. Enjoy the champagne guys!

I will upload the full sized pictures and a couple of more pictures on to flickr sometime this century. If anyone has a picture of Steve Gacheru’s car bursting into flames in Elmentaita which almost started a bush fire please share!