Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Some may be grateful for the end of the formal football season after Barcelona comfortably claimed their treble by lifting the Champions League. Despite there being none of the ‘major’ global events, a summer of sport is truly upon us, writes Abu George.
Last weekend witnessed Serena Williams claim her 20th Grand Slam tennis title inching her closer to Steffi Graff’s career total while Novak Djokovic missed another opportunity to complete his ‘career slam’ by claiming the French Open, meaning it is only the younger Williams sister who is on course to claim all of the majors in the same calendar year.
One of the most remarkable, yet ‘off the beaten track’ events was in London at the former Olympic velodrome where Sir Bradley Wiggins was attempting to become only the sixth rider in history to win both the Tour de France and claim the UCI’s Hour Record. Despite adverse weather conditions he comfortably beat the old record although he remains short of the all-time mark set on a Superman bike.
For those seeking their ‘sport fix’ then tune in to watch the inaugural European Games with the opening ceremony being held in Baku on Friday.
With just a little over a year until the 2016 Olympics in Rio the European Olympic Committee decided to create an event similar to the Asian and Pan-American Games (both have been held every four years since 1951) that provide a variety of sports the opportunity to sample a ‘village’ atmosphere.
To add a little spice a number of the 20 sports competing will use Baku as a qualifying event for the trip to Brazil while Judo also doubles as the European Championships after the scheduled event in Glasgow was postponed over a sponsorship dispute.
Sixteen of these are Olympic events meaning that karate, beach football, 3-on-3 basketball and sambo can be sampled and the event can be used as a platform to make the step-up.
In total 150 Olympic medal winners, including 59 gold medallists, will compete in Baku, amongst the 6,000 athletes, confirming the strong appeal of this inaugural event as they seek to become the first-ever European Games champions from the 253 medal events.
Azerbaijan may be a controversial choice given its poor human rights record although it is another country that became rich after breaking away from the Soviet Union in 1991 thanks to its reserves of oil and gas. They have spent billions on the infrastructure for the Games including new venues for athletics, aquatics, gymnastics and BMX.
Final events will be held on June 28. The next European Games will be held in the Netherlands in 2019.
