Category: Sports

Around 6 years ago I posted about these amazing baseball fields off the 6th Ring Road right before 360 Mall (pictured above). There were two fields stuck next to each other and they both stuck out like an oasis in the desert. Well for some odd reason the fields are not there anymore. Below is how the baseball field currently looks like, it’s depressing.

It’s like they were never there! Luckily I took a few pictures of the baseball field back then and you can check them out [Here]

Parkour fans are going to love this bit of news since it turns out this year Red Bull is including Kuwait in their world wide parkour event. Their event called Art of Motion pits the world’s top free-runners against each other in a globally staged contest. This year the event is going to be held in the USA, Japan, England, Brazil, Greece and Kuwait. Parkour has gotten pretty popular in Kuwait the past few years and a team recently competed in Arab’s Got Talent. The event is supposed to happen sometime in October and it will take place on Failaka Island. If you don’t know what parkour is just watch the video below:

[YouTube]

A friend of mine just posted some great pictures of Extreme Sports in Tilal Complex. I’ve written about them before but never really had my camera with me to take any pictures. You could check his shots out [Here]

Our friends over at GulfRun are setting up a 26 hour endurance karting race. The race is going to be held on the 25th of November but registration has started already. Since it’s a 26 hour race each team is required to have at least 4 drivers or a maximum of 12. They’ll be building their own track in Kuwait City for this race which will be regulated by UK marshalls according to FIA regulations.

If you’re interested here is the link with more information [Here]

As I’ve posted before I am now riding to and from my gym on my bicycle. The combined distance is around 16.5KM, it takes around 30 minutes each way and I end up burning around 600-700 calories in the process. Since I go to Core three times a week that means I’m basically burning around 2000 calories a week just by riding my bike to the gym.

The way I look at it is every time I ride to the gym that’s an extra 700 calories I’m burning which means I can have a burger that’s also around 700 calories and I would even out.

What this means is I now ride to eat. If anyone is looking for a way to burn calories I highly recommend riding. Even with this hot weather it’s not bad at all, it’s actually not that hot at night. Just park your car near Corniche Club on the Gulf Road and then ride to the Kuwait Towers and back. Easy as that.

First time I hear of this project and I’m curious to know if it will ever get executed. The idea behind Sport City is to create world class Olympic level sporting facilities in Kuwait:

The concept consists of a plan in the shape of infinity, around the existing Jaber Stadium and a new man-made lake on which will float three Olympic sized stadia. Contained within the main superstructure are another Olympic stadium, a five star hotel and a shopping centre. The tower, working within the long tradition of Kuwaiti tower-based architectural icons, contains a seven star hotel as well as luxury apartments, VIP suites for the stadium, and a Michelin star restaurant with extraordinary views. [Source]

I found out about this yesterday and I think it’s a great idea. The 3 Club along with Viva are launching a campaign to collect a thousand pairs of wearable running shoes from now till the end of Ramadan. Once all the running shoes is collected they will be sending them to Africa and given to people who really need them. So if you have sneakers lying around you don’t wear anymore (I know I do), then follow the instructions below.

For more information check out the The 3 Club blog [Here]

The donation boxes as of now are currently located in the following locations:

Extreme Sports – Tilal and Salmiya
Viva HQ – Salmiya
Lashes Salon for ladies – Yarmouk
Baking Tray – Kuwait City
Tatami – Kuwait City
AUK – Salmiya
ACK – Mishref

Since I’ve started running and biking I was using the Nike+ GPS app on my iPhone to calculate the distance and amount of calories I was burning. But it had limitations and a few bugs so I decided to invest in a watch that would do a better job at it. The first watch I looked at was the Nike+ SportWatch GPS but it wasn’t cheap at $200 and it didn’t come with a heart rate monitor which was another $70. It also wouldn’t work well with biking. After a bit of research I finally ended up getting the Garmin Forerunner 305 for a number of reasons while I will list below.

The Forerunner 305 has a built in GPS, a very large screen and it comes with a heart rate monitor. The amount of information it can collect during a run (or bike ride) is overwhelming. For example, you can find out the distance traveled, your top speed, average speed, max hear rate, average heart rate, amount of calories burned, the elevation, the duration, the length of your rest breaks, what zone your heart rate is in and a few more details all of which you can be uploaded onto the Garmin Connect website and get it displayed as maps, charts and numbers.

The 305 has a large screen which as a result allows you to display a lot of information on it. The screen can be divided into 4 sections with each displaying information of your choice. For example I have it set up to show me:

– The current duration of my run
– The amount of calories burned
– The distance I’ve traveled
– The current time

All the above in one screen and if with a press of a button I can flip over to a second screen with 4 more pieces of information. If that’s a lot of information you could also divide the screen into 1, 2 or 3 sections. I also got two accessories with the watch, one is a bike adapter so I could mount the watch onto my bike and have the information in front of me. The second accessory I got is a velcro strap since it’s thicker then the rubber strap that comes with the watch and personally I think looks much better.

There are two negatives about the watch, nothing major but ones that are worth mentioning. Because of the GPS, the battery on the watch lasts for just 10 hours before needing a recharge. 10 hours is more than enough time since my runs are a lot shorter but I already have too many devices I need to charge and don’t really need another one. The second issue is the way it looks. This is not the best looking watch out there. But on the positive side it is very light and I would rather have an ugly watch with a large screen over a good looking one with a smaller one. But still, this watch would probably rank high up in my Top 10 Ugliest watches ever list.

I’ve saved the best thing till the end which is the price. This watch cost me just $128! It’s literally a steal right now since the newer Forerunner 310 came out. This watch originally cost over $400 and at $128 I don’t think there is any other watch in the market with similar features at this price point. This is a good deal, just ignore the way it looks. You’re not supposed to look good working out anyway, if you do then you’re doing it wrong.

Here is the link to the Forerunner 305 [Amazon Link]

I know this might sound a bit odd but the weather at night isn’t bad at all for riding your bike. I used to ride my bike only during winter but the past 2 weeks I’ve been riding it in our current summer heat and I’ve really been enjoying it. It’s really not as hot at night as it is during the day.

The first time I went riding was last week when the weather was very humid. I dropped my car in Kuwait City to get detailed and since I needed to leave it there overnight I ended up riding back home on my bike. I thought the humidity would bother me but it actually helped keep me cool. Then this week I started riding my bike to the gym and back home. It’s a 30-40 minute ride (depending on the headwind) from my house in Salmiya all the way to my gym which is just before the Kuwait Towers. Because I take the Gulf Road sea path the weather is a bit cooler and I don’t end up feeling too hot or bothered.

So if you’re looking for an activity to do in the summer then biking can be a good one. There are a bunch of places in Kuwait that sell bikes but my favorite brands are Cannondale, Trek and Specialized. The Cannondale dealer is Sultan Motor Sports (tel 24826723) but they don’t bring a large variety of models sadly. The Trek dealer is Extreme Sports (tel 22254567) and they have a very large and nice showroom in Tilal Complex in Shuwaikh (pictured above) as well as a decent website [Here]. The Specialized brand of bikes I haven’t been able to find in Kuwait yet. You can also find some bikes at Go Sport in Avenues including a few Trek models and there are a few shops in Salmiya that carry new and used bicycles, you can find them with Google maps [Here]

There is also a bike club which organize rides nearly every week. You can check out their website [Here]

I think I’m going to continue to ride to the gym all summer long. If you have a bike you really should take it out. Keep in mind I’m talking about night time riding here (7PM and onwards) and not daytime riding. I would highly recommend not riding during the day!

The Kuwait Scorpions rugby football club is one of the oldest clubs in the Gulf. They were formed back in the 1940s when the Kuwait Oil Company and the British Army played the region’s first ever recorded rugby fixture and they’re still around today and still very active. The pictures below are of the Kuwait Scorpions dating back to the 1950’s.

Here is the link to the clubs website [Link]
Here is a link to the the pictures in high resolution [Link]

Thanks Tron

Kuwait will be facing Philippines in the second first leg of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers later this month. If you’re interested to go watch the match here are some details:

Date: Saturday, July 23
Time: 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: Mohammad Al Hamad Stadium, Qadsia
Tickets: Available at the entrance or at the Kuwait Football Association Headquarters in Adiliya between Kazma (former FILBACK gym) & Adiliya Coop.
Price: KD1, KD2 or KD3

Thanks Abdullah

Sidekick Academy, the local mixed martial arts training center just participated at the 2011 US Open Martial Arts Championships in Orlando, Florida. They ended up leaving with a total of 17 trophies and medals. This is how they ended up ranking:

MMA competition:
Nasser Alqattan 1st Heavy Weight Division
Abdullatif Alothman 1st Middle Weight Division
Abdulrahman Aljasser 2nd Heavy Weight Division
Mahmooh Geragh 3rd Light Weight Division

Continuous Sparring:
Abdullah Alameeri 3rd Over 170lb Division

Point Sparring:
Shaikha Alshuaib 1st Intermediate Belts Light Weight Division
Abdullah Almarta 3rd Begginer Light Weight Division
Abdulrahman Aljasser 3rd Intermediate Belts Over 170lb
Hamad Alnabhan 3rd Advanced Belts Under 169lb

Forms:
Abdulmohsen Albabtain 4th Master Black Belts Tradional Division
Hamad Alnabhan 5th Advanced Belts Division
Abdullah Almarta 2nd Begginer Belts Division

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu:
Nasser Alqattan 2nd No-Gi Middle Weight Division
Nasser Alqattan 3rd Gi Blue Belt Middle Weight Division
Abdulrahman Aljasser 3rd No-Gi Heavy Weight Division
Abdulrahman Ajasser 1st Gi Blue Belt Heavy Weight Division
Abdullah Almarta 3rd Gi White Belt Light Weight Division

I think that’s an incredible accomplishment, for more information you can visit the Sidekick Academy facebook page [Here]

UFC legend and hall of famer Royce Gracie is going to be back in Kuwait next week for another Jiu-Jitsu seminar. He’s going to be holding two sessions this time around, one for beginners and one for advanced. Both will be held at the Sidekick Academy next to Tilal Complex.

Beginners
Date: June 14th, 2011
Time: 6 to 9PM
Location: Sidekick Academy

Advanced
Date: June 15th, 2011
Time: 6 to 9PM
Location: Sidekick Academy

Price is KD35 for the session. For more details their number is 99975562. Here is a link to the Sidekick Academy Facebook page [Link]

Last weekend I decided to try and walk home from work. The distance was around 12KM and took me 2 hours and 20 minutes. Today I decided to try and beat the time and try to get home in 2 hours or less. So I ran, and ran and ran. I don’t think I’ve ever ran as much or as far as I did. It wasn’t non stop running since I’m not that fit but I ran a lot more than I walked. To my surprise, I managed to cover the exact same distance but this time in 1 hour and 39 minutes! Not bad for a guy who can barely make it on a treadmill for 30 minutes. The above time is todays run while the below time is from last week.

I’ve had a lot of iPods but I don’t think I’ve been impressed with one recently as much as I have been with the latest iPod Shuffle. I got it to use while I am running or walking since the new Nano although small and light, it doesn’t have any physical buttons which makes it difficult to control without looking at the screen. The Shuffle on the other hand is super light and has buttons which for me makes it the perfect iPod for exercising.

Of course the downside is that there is no screen.. you would think but it isn’t. The shuffle has a nifty feature (like the nano) called voice over. There is a little button that you press and a guys voice comes in over your music to tell you what song is currently playing. Click that button twice and the voice tells you how much battery is left. Hold down the button and the voice will flip through your playlist and when you decide on one just press play. This feature is extremely helpful since it really allows you to control the shuffle and find out what you’re listening to all by just feeling your way around the buttons.

Price wise the shuffle is cheap. Sheeel had them on sale for just KD10 and I should have bought one then but I didn’t, instead I bought one from the market for around KD17. Still not too bad, it’s more expensive than Amazon but if you include the shipping cost it comes out the same. The Nano sells for around KD50 here as well so the shuffle is less than half the price. Really the only problem I have with the shuffle is the fact that there is no hold button which is annoying since I accidentally managed to press the forward button a few times by brushing against it. Because of that I was going to give the shuffle a 4.5 out of 5 BUT, I just decided to check the manual and make sure there isn’t a way to put the shuffle on hold and guess what? Turns out there is a hold mode, I just need to press the play/pause button for 3 seconds to activate it. So now it’s perfect. If you’re looking for a music player you don’t want to worry about scratching, breaking or losing and if you prefer physical buttons over a touch screen then the Shuffle is perfect for you. Final score is a 5 out of 5.