Fencing rules

Fencing practice and techniques of modern competitive fencing are governed by the "Fédération Internationale d'Escrime" (FIE), though they developed from conventions developed in 18th- and 19th-century Europe to govern fencing as a martial art and a gentlemanly pursuit. The modern weapons for sport fencing are the foil, épée, and sabre.
Playing area.
A fencing bout takes place on a strip, or "piste", which, according to the current FIE regulations, should be between wide and long. There are two "en-garde" lines (where the fencers stand at the beginning of the bout) either side of the midpoint. There are also two warning lines two metres from either end of the strip, to let a retreating fencer know that he or she is nearly out of space. Retreating off of the strip scores a touch for the opponent.
Participants.
There are at least three people involved: two fencers and a referee, formerly called a "director" or "president of the jury". The referee may be assisted by a jury of two or four "line-judges". This was common practice prior to the introduction of electronic scoring. Their function is somewhat similar to that of linesmen in soccer. Their primary job used to be to watch for hits scored. Consequently, the arrival of the electronic scoring apparatus has rendered them largely redundant. Under current FIE rules, a fencer may ask for two side-judges (one to watch each fencer) if they think that the referee is failing to notice some infringement of the rules on their opponent's part such as use of the unarmed hand, substitution of the valid target area, breaching the boundary of the "piste" etc.
Protocol and rules.
The referee stands at the side of the piste. The fencers walk on piste fully dressed, aside from the mask. If necessary, they plug their body wires into the spools connected to the electronic scoring apparatus and test their weapons against each other, to make sure everything is functioning. They then retreat to their en-garde lines.
Prior to starting a bout, the fencers must salute each other. Refusal to do so can result in a fencer's suspension or disqualification. Both fencers must salute each other and the referee. They may choose to salute the audience. In non-electric events the four judges should also be saluted. There are many variations of the salute, including some fairly theatrical ones, but the common theme is that the fencer stands upright, mask off, facing whomever they are saluting and raises their sword to a vertical position with the guard either at or just below face level, and then lowers it again. Various apocryphal stories about the origin of the salute circulate, like gladiators saluting each other in the arena, crusaders pointing their sword heavenward in pre-battle prayer, duellists showing each other that their swords are the same length, etc. The most likely source of the modern fencing salute is the "Present arms" command from military drill, which originated in the 16th century.
After the salutes are completed, the referee will call "En garde!" The fencers put on their masks and adopt the fencing stance with the front foot behind the en-garde line and, in foil, with the blade in the sixte line. They are now in the on-guard ("en garde") position. The referee then calls "Ready?" In some countries, the fencers are required to confirm that they are. Finally the referee will call "Fence!", and the bout will start. Judging is often done in French, in which case the referee will say "En garde! Prêts? Allez!" or, if both fencers are female, "En garde! Prêtes? Allez!" (In some circles, beginning the bout with the order "fence" is deemed incorrect, but in others the use of "play" is discouraged due to the phonetic similarity with the French "prêts". The use of "fence" is contrary to the rules in certain countries.)
This is the start of a "phrase" i.e. an any unbroken chain of recognizable offensive and defensive actions, such as lunging or parrying performed by the two fencers. The phrase ends, when a referee has reason to stop the bout, such as "corps a corps" (the action of two fencers coming into physical contact with one another with any portion of their bodies or hilts), a hit (on or off-target), or a penalty, or when both fencers return to passivity. To interrupt the bout the referee calls "Halt!" (if judging in French, the term is "Halte!", pronounced like "Halt!" in English), a bout may be interrupted for several reasons: a touch has been made, the rules have been breached, the situation is unsafe, or the action has become so disorganized that the referee can no longer follow it. Once the bout is stopped, the referee will, if necessary, explain their reasons for stopping it, analyze what has just happened and award points or give out penalties.
If a point has been awarded, then the competitors return to their en-garde lines; if not, they remain approximately where they were when the bout was interrupted. The referee will then restart the bout as before. If the fencers were within lunging distance when the bout was interrupted and they are not required to return to their en-garde lines, the referee will ask both fencers to give sufficient ground to ensure a fair start. A common way of establishing the correct distance is to ask both fencers to straighten their arms and to step back to the point where their blades no longer overlap in the referee's view. If a fencer needs to stop the bout to adjust their mask or tie their shoe, or something else requires the referee's attention, they may do so by tapping their back foot and/or waving their back hand and the referee will generally call a halt. Tapping the front foot is called an "appel" and is actually a tactical move, intended to distract the opposing fencer; thus, the referee may ignore a front-foot tap.
This procedure is repeated until either one of the fencers has reached the required number of points (generally, 1, 5, or 15, depending on the format of the bout) or until the time allowed for the bout runs out.
Fencing bouts are timed: the clock is started every time the referee calls "Fence" and stopped every time they calls "Halt!". The bout must stop after three minutes of fencing (or 8 touches in saber). In 15 point bouts, a 1-minute break occurs in between the three-minute intervals. If 9 minutes of fencing time elapse in a 15 touch bout, or 3 in a 5 touch bout, the bout is over and the current scores are taken as final. If the score is tied when time runs out then the director determines priority randomly. After priority is determined the fencers bout for one minute. If a point is scored, then that fencer wins, however if no points are scored then the fencer with priority wins. Note that this concept of priority is not the same as the priority used in foil and sabre to determine right-of-way.
Priority ("Right of way").
Foil and sabre are governed by priority rules, according to which fencer first initiated a correctly executed attack, as described in the following paragraphs. When both fencers hit more or less simultaneously, only the fencer who had priority receives the point. If priority cannot be assigned unambiguously, no points are awarded. These rules were adopted in the 18th century as part of teaching practice. Their aim is to encourage "sensible" fencing and reward initiative and circumspection at the same time, in particular, to reward fencers for properly made attacks, and penalize fencers for attacking into such an attack that lands, an action that could be lethal with sharp blades. The risk of both duellists charging onto one another's swords is kept to a minimum. At least in principle, in a prolonged phrase, the initiative passes smoothly from one fencer to the other, and back again, and so on. In practice, most phrases are broken off quickly if neither fencer lands.
Penalties.
Modern fencing also includes the addition of penalty cards or flags. Each card has a different meaning. A fencer penalized with a yellow card is warned, but no other action is taken. A fencer penalized with a red card is warned, and a touch is awarded to their opponent. A fencer penalized with a black card is excluded from the competition, and may be excluded from the tournament, expelled from the venue, or suspended from future tournaments in the case of serious offenses. Black cards are rarely given to a fencer, though. Note that spectators can be (and occasionally are) carded or expelled.
Offenses are broken down into four groups, and penalties are assessed based upon the group of the offense.
There is also a specific penalty for putting one or both feet off the side edge of the piste: halt is called, and the opponent may then advance one meter towards the penalized fencer. The penalized fencer must retreat to 'normal' distance before the bout can restart - that is, the distance where both fencers can stand on-guard, with their arms and swords extended directly at their opponent, and their blades do not cross. If this puts the fencer beyond the back edge of the piste, the fencer's opponent receives a point.
Scoring.
Electronic scoring.
Electronic scoring is used in all major national and international, and most local, competitions. At Olympic level, it was first introduced to épée in 1936, to foil in 1956, and to sabre in 1988. There are, however, still traditionalists within the fencing community who have fundamental objections to the practice (discussed later on in this section).
The central component of the scoring system is commonly known as "the box". In the simplest version both fencers' weapons are connected to the box via long retractable cables. The box normally carries a set of lights to signal when a touch has been made. (Larger peripheral lights are also often used.) In foil and sabre, because of the need to distinguish on-target hits from off-target ones, special conductive clothing and wires must be worn. This includes a lamé, (a jacket of conducting cloth) for both weapons, a body cord to connect the weapon to the system, a reel of retractable cable that connects to the scoring box and in the case of sabre, a conducting mask and cuff (manchette) as the head and arms are valid target areas.
Recently, reel-less gear has been adopted for all weapons at top competitions. In this system, which eliminates the spool (by using the fencer's own body as a grounding point), the lights and detectors are mounted directly on the fencers' masks. For the sake of the audience, clearly visible peripheral lights triggered by wireless transmission may be used. However, the mask lights must remain as the official indicators because FIE regulations prohibit the use of wireless transmitters in official scoring equipment in order to prevent cheating. The development of reel-less scoring apparatus in épée and foil has been much slower due to technical complications. The first international competitions to use the reel-less versions of these weapons were held in 2006.
In the case of foil and épée, hits are registered by depressing a small push-button on the end of the blade. In foil, the hit must land on the opponent's lame to be considered on-target. (On-target hits set off coloured lights; off-target hits set off white lights.) At high level foil and épée competitions, grounded conductive pistes are normally laid down to ensure that bouts are not disrupted by accidental hits on the floor. In sabre, an on-target hit is registered whenever a fencer's blade comes into contact with the opponent's lamé jacket, cuff or mask. Off-target hits are not registered at all in sabre. It has been proposed that a similar arrangement (non-registration of off-target hits) be adopted for foil. This proposal is due to be reviewed at the 2007 FIE Congress. In épée the entire body is on-target, so the subject of off-target hits does not arise (unless one counts the hits which miss the opponent entirely and land on an ungrounded section of the floor - needless to say doing so on purpose is considered cheating). Finally the competitors' weapons are always grounded so hits against an opponent's blade or coquille do not register.
In foil and sabre, despite the presence of all the gadgetry, it is still the referee's job to analyze the phrase and, in the case of simultaneous hits, to determine which fencer had the right of way.
Criticism of electronic scoring.
"Electric" fencing has not been without its problems. One of the most talked about has been the registration of glancing hits in foil. Traditionally, a valid, "palpable" hit could only be scored, if the point were fixed on the target in such a manner, as would be likely to pierce the skin, had the weapon been sharp. However, the electric foil point (the push-button on the end of the blade) lacks directionality, so hits which arrive at a very high angle of incidence can still register.
Flicking.
In the 1980s, this led to a growing popularity of hits delivered with a whip-like action (commonly known as "the flick"), bending the blade around the opponent's parry. Many saw this as an unacceptable deviation from tradition. In fact, the disputes over the flick grew so bitter that a number of traditionalists advocated (and still continue to advocate) complete abandonment of electronic scoring as something detrimental to fencing as an art.
2004-2005 Season timing changes.
In 2004-2005 the FIE brought in rule changes to address such concerns. The dwell time (the length of time the point has to remain depressed in order to register a hit) was increased from 1 millisecond to 15 milliseconds. This change has been rather controversial. While it has not eliminated the flick altogether, it has made it technically trickier thereby denting its popularity. However, there have been some serious problems with apparently "palpable" hits not registering. Moreover, the imperative to make clear "square-on" hits has led to a number of unforeseen results, which, it has been argued, have made foil less rather than more classical. The following have been reported:
Having said that, every one of the above claims is a subject of dispute.
In sabre, the inadequacy of existing sensors has made it necessary to dispense with the requirement that a cut must be delivered with either the leading or the reverse edge of the blade and that, once again, it must arrive with sufficient force to have caused an injury had the blade been sharp (but not so forcefully as to injure one's opponent with a blunt weapon.) At present, any contact between the blade and the opponent's target is counted as a valid hit. Some argue that this has reduced sabre to a two-man game of tag; others argue that this has made the game more sophisticated.
The other serious problem in sabre (universally acknowledged as a problem) is that of "whip-over." The flexibility of the blades is such that the momentum of a cut can often "whip" the end of the blade around the defender's parry. The low success rate of parries (compared to other weapons) is seen by many as impoverishing the tactical repertory of the weapon. In 2000 the FIE brought in rule changes requiring stiffer blades. This has improved matters but not eradicated the problem altogether. There has been talk of making the sabre guard smaller, in order to make attacks on preparation and counterattacks easier and thus slow down the momentum of the attack, giving the defender more of a chance.
Finally, the cut-out times deserve a mention. The cutout time is the maximum time allowed by the box between two hits registering as simultaneous (if this time is exceeded, only one light will appear). In épée this time is very short: 40 milliseconds. This means that, so far as human perception is concerned, the hits really do need to arrive at the same instant. In foil and sabre, where priority rules apply, the cutout times are considerably longer (hundreds of milliseconds). This was a source of two problems:
For those reasons, in 2004-2005 the FIE slashed the cut-out times for foil and sabre from 750 milliseconds to 350 milliseconds and from 350 milliseconds to 120 milliseconds respectively. While these changes were controversial at first, the fencing community now seems to have accepted them. Some concerns remain at sabre, where immediate renewals frequently "time out" indirect ripostes.
Non-electronic scoring.
Prior to the introduction of electronic scoring equipment, the president of jury was assisted by four judges. Two judges were positioned behind each fencer, one on each side of the strip. The judges watched the fencer opposite to see if he was hit. This system is sometimes called "dry" fencing (USA) or "steam" (United Kingdom, Australia) fencing.
When any of the judges thinks they saw a hit, that judge raises their hand. The president (referee or director) then stops the bout and reviews the relevant phases of the action, polling the judges at each stage to determine whether there was a touch, and (in foil and sabre) whether the touch was valid or invalid. The judges answer "Yes", "Yes, but off-target" (in foil and sabre), "No", or "Abstain". Each judge has one vote, and the president has one and a half votes. Thus, two judges could overrule the president; but if the judges disagreed, or if one judge abstained, the president's opinion rules.
Épée fencing was later conducted with red dye on the tip, easily seen on the white uniform. As a bout went on, if a touch was seen, a red mark would appear. Between the halts of the director, judges would inspect each fencer for any red marks. Once one was found, it was circled in a dark pencil to show that it had already been counted. The red dye was not easily removed, preventing any cheating. The only way to remove it was through certain acids such as vinegar.
Despite the problems mentioned in the section on electronic scoring, the vast majority of fencers consider it a great improvement over non-electric system described here. As described in an article in the London newspaper, The Daily Courier, on June 25, 1896: "Every one who has watched a bout with the foils knows that the task of judging the hits is with a pair of amateurs difficult enough, and with a well-matched pair of "maîtres d’escrime" well-nigh impossible." In addition there were frequent problems with bias and collusion, leading to the wry expression that a dry jury consisted of "4 blind men and a thief". Some fencers, particularly in sabre, would hit hard to ensure their touches could not be missed, and dry sabre could be an extremely painful undertaking despite the protective jackets. Even in the best of circumstances, it was very difficult to accurately score hits, and it systematically under-reported valid touches to hard-to-see areas, such as the back or flank under the arm. Consequently, even though there are limitations and controversy over electronic scoring, and despite its rejection by the classical fencers, electronic scoring is by far the dominant method used to determine if touches land.
Techniques.
Bladework.
The nine classical parries comprise basic bladework. The first parry that most fencers learn is "quarte", known commonly as "parry four". Parries are named for the "line" that they defend from attack: parry four would defend line four, which is the high inside line. Offensive bladework consists of the various means of scoring a touch on an opponent. The straight attack is a direct extension towards valid target. As it is easily defended against, fencers often use numerous feints to deceive their opponent into parrying and then disengage around the blade. As a preparation for an attack, fencers may execute a prise de fer, or attack on the blade. This includes the simple "beat", a sharp rap on the opponent's blade, and the more complex "bind", in which the fencer forces the opponent's blade to a different line.
Footwork.
In a fencing bout, a great deal depends on being in the right place at the right time. Fencers are constantly maneuvering in and out of each other's range, accelerating, decelerating, changing directions and so on. All this has to be done with minimum effort and maximum grace, which makes footwork arguably the most important aspect of a fencer's training regimen. In contemporary sport fencing defense by footwork usually takes the shape of moving either directly away from your opponent or directly towards him/her.
The most common way of delivering an attack in fencing is the lunge, where the fencer reaches out with his/her front foot and straightens his/her back leg. This maneuver has the advantage of allowing the fencer to maintain balance while covering far more distance than in a single step, yet allowing a return to the defensive stance.
Competition.
Fencing tournaments are varied in their format, and there are both individual and team competitions. A tournament may comprise all three weapons, both individual and team, or it may be very specific, such as an Épée Challenge, with individual épée only.
And, as in many sports, men and women compete separately.
Individual events.
Generally, an individual event consists of two parts: the pools, and the direct eliminations.
In the pools, fencers are divided into groups, and every fencer in a pool will have the chance to fence every other fencer once. The size and number of the pools is determined by the number of athletes who have registered for the competition.
Pool bouts are three minutes long, and are fenced to five points. If no fencer reaches five points, then the one with the most points after three minutes wins. Pool results are recorded on a scoresheet, which must be signed by the fencers after their last match. The referee will write down how many points each fencer scored in the bout, although normally if a fencer won with five points a "V" (for "victoire") is written down instead of a 5. Losing a pool match does not eliminate a fencer from the tournament.
In some tournaments, there are two rounds of pools, with the second round following the same format, but with pools of different fencers.
After the pools are finished, the direct elimination round starts. Fencers are sorted in a table of some power of 2 (16, 32, 64, etc.) based on how many people are competing. There are rarely exactly the right number of people for this to work out perfectly, so the lowest ranking fencers may be eliminated, or they may be included in the next highest power of 2 with the top fencers receiving a bye.
Once the table size has been chosen, fencers are slotted into the table like this: first place vs. last place, second vs. second last, third vs. third last etc. A fencers place is decided by three factors: their victories divided by matches fenced, their indicator score, which is calculated by the numbers of hits for and against during the pool rounds, and finally their hits scored. If there is no way of separating the fencers beyond these three indicators, then they are considered equal and draw random lots for their place in the table.
The elimination round matches in foil and épée are fenced in three periods of three minutes each. In between each period, there is a one-minute break. Sabre matches are so much faster that the three-minute mark is almost never reached. Therefore, in sabre, when one fencer reaches 8 points, there is a one-minute break.
In all three weapons, the match goes until 15 points. If no one has reached 15 points, then the fencer with the most points wins. The rules for ties are explained above under Protocol. The winner carries on in the tournament, and loser is eliminated.
Fencing is slightly unusual in that no one has to fence for third place. Instead, two bronze medals are given to the losers of the semi-final round. The exception to this is team events at international level, and individual events at the Olympic Games where a 3rd place play-off must be fenced.
Team events.
Team competition involves teams of three fencers. A fourth fencer can be allowed on the team as an alternate, but as soon as the fourth has been subbed in, they cannot leave again. The opposing team must be alerted of this substitution at least one round before it happens.
The modern team competition is similar to the pool round of the individual competition. The fencers from opposing teams will each fence each other once, making for a total of nine matches. At the beginning of the team match, each team fills out one side of a score sheet with the order they will fence in. Teams are not aware of the order their opponents will be fencing in, although the sheet is designed so that no two athletes will fence each other twice.
Matches between teams are three minutes long, or to 5 points, as in the pools. There are important differences, however: each match the score carries over, and the maximum score for each match is increased by 5. For example, lets imagine that Fencer A from Team 1 and Fencer X from Team 2 finish their first bout at 5-3. Next, Fencer B and Fencer Y step on the piste. They will be fencing to 10 points, but Fencer B starts at 5, and Fencer Y starts at 3, right where their teammates left them. This means that Fencer Y can still pull ahead, if she scores 7 points before Fencer B scores 5.
Imagine, however, things go slowly, and after three minutes the total score is 8-6. Although neither fencer reached the limit of 10 total points for this match, the next pair to fence will still be able to go as high as 15. In other words, the maximum score for each round continues increasing by 5 regardless of how many points were scored in the previous match.
Since there are 9 matches, the highest score possible is 45 points. However, the winner is simply the team with the highest score at the end of the ninth match, even if it is less than 45. While sabre almost inevitably goes to 45, it is not unusual to see an épée score in the mid to low thirties. If there is a tie at the end of the ninth match, then the usual tie-breaking rules apply, and it is the same two fencers who will do the tie-breaker match.
Team tournaments sometimes use pools and elimination rounds, although given the possible length of a team match (often a half-hour each), this is not so common, and they usually begin in a direct elimination format. The seeding of the teams in this case can be random, or based on the performance of the individual members (if it is a tournament with both), or even based on the results of the same team at other tournaments (for example if it is a national team). Unlike individual tournaments, teams must almost always fence for bronze.
There is also an older team format, no longer in popular use. Under these rules, the teams were still three members each, and still consisted of nine matches round-robin tournament style. However, scores did not carry over. The team to first win 5 matches (a majority) was declared the winner.


Torben Ulrich

Torben Ulrich (born October 4, 1928) is a Danish writer, musician, filmmaker, painter, director, performer, and former professional tennis player. He is the father of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.
Life and career.
He was born on October 4, 1928, in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of Ulla (née Meyer) and tennis player Einer Ulrich. Torben played on the tennis tour from the late 1940s into the 1970s, and on the Tennis Grand Masters tour in the 1970s and 1980s. He became a professional tennis player when he signed a contract with the World Championship Tennis promoters in early 1969 at 40 years old. In 1976 he was the top-ranked senior player in the world. Ulrich played more than 100 Davis Cup matches for Denmark. In 1977, at a month shy of 49, he became the oldest Davis Cup player in history.
Ulrich apprenticed at Reuters news agency in Copenhagen in the late 1940s and began writing for Danish jazz magazines. In the 1950s he wrote primarily on music for the Danish newspapers Information and Politiken, wrote for contemporary jazz music trade journals and was co-editor (with Gustava Brandt and Bengt Janus) of the literary magazine "Bazar". In the 1960s he had a weekly music column and wrote jazz reviews and roving reports on assorted cultural themes (with illustrator Klaus Albrectsen) for the Danish daily newspaper BT. In the 1970s he contributed to the music periodical "M.M." and in the 1980s and 1990s returned to Information writing on music, film, athletics and culture. In 2003 an anthology of his writings from the 1940s to the 2000s, "Jazz, bold & buddhisme", edited by Lars Movin, was published (in Danish) by Informations Forlag. Two books of his thin columns of poetry-like texts (in English) were published by Forlaget Bebop: "Terninger, tonefald: 12 Lines, 36 Off-lines" (2005) and "Stilhedens Cymbaler" (2007).
In the 1950s, Ulrich had a New Orleans-type jazz band, playing clarinet. In the 2000s he was invited to collaborate using voice and texts with the Copenhagen free-jazz trio Clinch (Claus Bøje on drums, Peter Friis Nielsen on bass guitar, Christer Irgens-Møller/keyboards); they released the 2006 album "Dice, Done" (also with Lotte Anker (saxophone) and Steffen Poulsen (electronica)). In 2005 he founded the collaborative improvised music group "Instead Of", composed of Lori Goldston, cello; Angelina Baldoz, trumpet and flutes; Jaison Scott, drums; and Ulrich on voice/texts and "bag of tricks", releasing in 2007 the album "Live on Sonarchy". In 2007 he began recording with Danish pianist Søren Kjærgaard, releasing three albums over the next six years: "Suddenly, Sound: 21 songlines for piano, drainpipe, etc." (2009), "Alphabet, Peaceful, Diminished: 29 Proposals from the Towers of Babble" (2010) and “Meridiana: Lines Toward a Non-local Alchemy" (2014).
Ulrich began painting in 1971 when the Lions Club of Copenhagen asked a variety of politicians, actors, writers and others to make "a blue elephant" for a charity exhibit to benefit a senior center in Denmark. Instead, he explored what the imprint of the tennis ball might be, and in subsequent years created several series of works, "Imprints of Practice" and "Exsamplings of Play", using played tennis balls, skipped rope, and racquet frame and grip, primarily on rice paper. The works have been exhibited in Copenhagen, Paris, Dublin, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Seattle, among others.
He has appeared in two Jørgen Leth films, "Motion Picture" (1969) and "Moments of Play" (1986). He co-directed (with Gil de Kermadec) and appeared in "The Ball and The Wall" (1988), and co-directed (with Rick New and Molly Martin) and appeared in "Body & Being: Before The Wall" (2002).
In 2011 Ulrich began development with choreographer-dancer Beth Graczyk and composer-musician Angelina Baldoz on the dance project "Cacophony for 8 Players", which premiered in 2014 in Seattle. Ulrich is director and a performer in the work.
In 1986 he received the Gerlev Prize from Gerlev Idrætshøjskole in Denmark for athletico-cultural contributions. In 2006 he received an award from Klara Karolines Fond, "for his inspiration to artists of many kinds and for his views on athletics, art and existence". In 2013 the Ulrich family received the Davis Cup Award.
Singles performance timeline.
The following lists main draw appearances for Grand Slam tournaments only.
Note: 1 First round bye


2002 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans was an automobile endurance race held for Le Mans Prototype and Grand Touring cars from 15 to 16 June 2002 at the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France. It was the 70th running of the event, as organized by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923. A test day was held five weeks prior to the race on 5 May. The No. 1 Audi Sport Team Joest car of Tom Kristensen, Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro won the race overall and Audi's third consecutive victory in Le Mans, extending back to the 2000 event.
Background and circuit changes.
The 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 70th edition of the event and took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe from 15 to 16 June. The race was conceived at the 1922 Paris Motor Show by the automotive journalist Charles Faroux, Georges Durand, the president of the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and the industrialist Emile Coquile as a means of prompting car manufacturers to test the reliability and fuel-efficiency of their racing vehicles and equipment. It was not held in 1936 because of a general labour strike during the Great Depression, and heavy damage sustained to the circuit in World War II caused its cancellation from 1940 to 1948. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is considered one of the world's most prestigious races and is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport.
After the Bugatti Circuit was reconstructed, the organisers of the race and automotive group, the ACO, announced improvements requested to the circuit by the governing body of motorcycle racing, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, between the Dunlop Bridge and the entry to the Esses complex of corners. The track was lengthened by and widened by due to the addition of a new left-hand corner for a better transition from the Circuit de la Sarthe to the Bugatti Circuit. New gravel traps were also added to the area. Construction cost ₣15 million and took place from November 2001 to February 2002.
Entries.
The ACO received 96 applications by the deadline for entries on 22 February 2002. It granted 48 invitations to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and entries were divided between the LMP900 (Le Mans Prototype 900), LMGTP (Le Mans Grand Touring Prototype), LMP675 (Le Mans Prototype 675), LMGTS (Le Mans Grand Touring Sports) and LMGT (Le Mans Grand Touring) categories. A special invitation category was created by the ACO for the Panoz and Lola prototypes fielded by the DAMS team to allow for the filming of the 2003 film "Michel Vaillant" by Luc Besson.
Automatic entries.
Eight automatic entry invitations were earned by teams that won their class in the 2001 24 Hours of Le Mans, or victories in two rounds of the worldwide Le Mans Series that the ACO designed as "qualifying events" – the Petit Le Mans of the American Le Mans Series and the 1000km of Estoril of the defunct European Le Mans Series. They were Audi Sport Team Joest in the LMP900 class, Corvette Racing in the LMGTs category and Seikel Motorsport in the LMGT class. Audi and Corvette also earned berths for securing victories in their respective classes at the Petit Le Mans race and Pescarolo Sport of the LMP900 category, GTS entrants Ray Mallock Limited and Freisinger Motorsport in the LMGT class were granted invitations for winning the 1000 km of Estoril. Prototype Technology Group were the only team not to accept their automatic invitation as the team's car supplier BMW had withdrawn from the American Le Mans Series due to a technological dispute.
Entry list and reserves.
On 21 March 2002, the selection committee of the ACO announced the full 50-car entry list for Le Mans, plus six reserves. In addition from the eight guaranteed entries, 17 regular season entries came from the American Le Mans Series, while the remainder of the field was filled with one-off entries only competing at Le Mans. Team Rafanelli announced that their Ferrari 550M would be withdrawn on 26 March, after the team decided to focus on the GTS championship in the American Le Mans Series. This promoted the 27 Chamberlain Motorsport MG-Lola EX257 to the race entry as a result and increased the number of LMP675 entries to seven. All of the reserve entries were deleted from the entry list on 31 May.
Testing.
A mandatory pre-Le Mans testing day split into two daytime sessions of four hours each was held at the circuit on 5 May, involving all 48 entries as well as all six reserve cars. The two four-hour sessions were held in cold and overcast weather conditions. Audi set the day's pace with a lap of 3 minutes and 30.296 seconds from the No. 2 Audi R8 of Rinaldo Capello in the final ten minutes of the second session, followed by Stéphane Sarrazin in the No. 14 Team Oreca Dallara SP1 in second. Slower traffic restricted Tom Kristensen's No. 1 car to third and his teammate Michael Krumm put the No. 3 vehicle in fourth. The No. 27 MG-Lola EX257 driven by Mark Blundell was fifth overall, and he was in front of the sole LMGTP entry, Eric van de Poele's No. 8 Bentley EXP Speed 8 in sixth overall. In the LMGTS class, Tomáš Enge, driving the No. 58 Prodrive Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello, set the category's fastest time and he was more than two seconds faster than Christophe Bouchut in the No. 50 Larbre Compétition-Chereau-entered Chrysler Viper GTS-R. The No. 81 The Racer's Group-fielded Porsche 911 GT3-RS was the fastest car in the LMGT category, followed by the PK Sport Ltd. Porsche in second and the third-placed JMB Racing Ferrari 360 Modena.
Qualifying.
Eight hours of qualifying divided into four two-hour sessions was available to all the entrants on 12 and 13 June. During the sessions, all entrants were required to set a time within 110 percent of the fastest lap established by the fastest vehicle in each category to qualify for the race. Jan Lammers' No. 16 Racing for Holland Dome S101 set an early pace of 3 minutes and 31.355 seconds just before the end of the first qualifying session's first hour. The lap was not bettered by any other car, giving the entry provisional pole position. The fastest Audi R8 was the No. 1 car of Kristensen who was 0.414 seconds slower in second but more than three seconds faster than Capello in third and Krumm in fourth. Olivier Beretta was the fastest Dallara in fifth and van de Poele put the No. 8 Bentley in sixth. A red flag was necessitated when the No. 26 MG-Lola EX257 of Jonny Kane had an engine failure on the Mulsanne Straight and his team changed engines. The first two positions in the LMP675 class were occupied by Warren Hughes and Julian Bailey's MGs, with the No. 28 ROC Organisation Course Reynard 2KQ-LM driven by Mark Smithson in third. Rickard Rydell in the Prodrive Ferrari led the LMGTS category by more than four seconds over the leading Corvette of Andy Pilgrim and the LMGT class was topped by The Racer's Group Porsche 911 of Lucas Luhr. JMB Racing's No. 71 Ferrari got beached in the gravel trap at the Dunlop Curve, bringing an early end to the session with ten minutes to go.
The second qualifying session had Capello go faster than Lammers' time from the first session to take the provisional pole position with a lap of 3 minutes and 30.347 seconds in its eighth minute. Kristensen remained in second as he improved the No. 1 car's best lap. He demoted the No. 16 Racing for Holland Dome of Lammers to third overall although the latter entry bettered its first session time. Krumm's No. 3 Audi maintained fourth and Blundell advanced the No. 27 MG-Lola from seventh to fifth overall despite a collision with a LMGT Porsche through the Tetre Rouge Esses complex of corners at about . The MG-Lola crashed into a barrier beside the circuit and damaged its steering arm. Blundell drove the car back to the pit lane for extensive repairs to it. Four minutes before the conclusion of the session, Andy Wallace's No. 8 Bentley and a slower car made contact on the approach to Indianapolis corner, causing the Bentley to run into the trackside gravel trap. Yannick Dalmas in the No. 5 Audi Sport Japan Team Goh car lost his right rear wing endplate from possibly hitting debris on the Mulsanne Straight and the car launched airborne before resting against a barrier. In LMGTS, Oliver Gavin's Chevrolet Corvette C5-R and Alain Menu in the Prodrive Ferrari battled for the provisional pole position with Menu ending the session top of all the entrants in the category with a time of 3 minutes and 56.730 seconds. The LMGT class continued to be led by The Racer's Group Porsche 911.
After the second session, the No. 16 Racing for Holland Dome had all of its lap times deleted due to a fuel infringement caused by possibly its fuel tank not being extensively cleaned. Teams running with more powerful engines for qualifying stopped utilising them and installed the power units they would use for the race in order to comply with an ACO regulation that forbade teams changing engines before the final qualifying session and the race. The 13 June's first qualifying session had Capello improve provisional pole position with a 3 minutes and 29.905 seconds lap that he set late in the session and broke the overall lap record held by Martin Brundle in a Toyota GT-One since the 1999 race. He was followed by Kristensen's No. 2 Audi in second after the latter was delayed by a slower car and Sarrazin's third-placed No. 14 Team Oreca Dallara though he aborted his first timed lap due to traffic. The No. 3 Audi remained in fourth place, and Blundell's No. 27 MG-Lola maintained fifth though his engine failed at the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. Dalmas' session was ended early with an electrical failure that caused him to abandon his Audi at the side of the track. Although it stopped on its first lap with a transmission fault, the Prodrive Ferrari continued to lead the LMGTS category, and The Racer's Group Porsche maintained the LMGT class lead despite Luhr making a driver error that put the car into the gravel trap at the Dunlop Chicane, and a broken water sealant when Kevin Buckler was driving the vehicle. The session was stopped halfway through for ten minutes to allow marshals to dry a large amount of spilled oil at the Ford Chicanes.
As temperatures cooled in the final qualifying session, over a third of the field improved their fastest laps, but Capello's pole position time was unchallenged. Kristensen led the session in the No. 2 Audi with a lap of 3 minutes and 30.219 seconds while his teammate Krumm moved the No. 3 car to third place as the Audis concentrated on race testing. It was Audi's third consecutive pole position at Le Mans, extending back to the 2000 event. Franck Montagny and Sarrazin qualified the No. 14 Oreca in fourth and Lammer qualified the Racing for Holland Dome in fifth. The No. 27 MG-Lola fell to sixth as it did not take part in the session as it underwent an change of engine and Beretta put the No. 15 Team Oreca Dallara in seventh. The No. 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo, driven by Bryan Herta, caused the session's only stoppage halfway through the session for ten minutes when the car caught fire and stopped at the Dunlop Chicane. Enge earned Prodrive the LMGTS pole position by improving the class' fastest lap time to a 3 minutes and 54.091 seconds although he damaged the rear of his Ferrari in a crash against a trackside wall. The Racer's Group Porsche 911 of Luhr lowered its best lap to 4 minutes and 10.803 seconds and took pole position in the LMGT category.
Qualifying results.
Pole positions in each class are denoted in bold and by a ‡. The fastest time set by each entry is denoted in gray.
Race.
The 2002 edition saw Audi Sport Team Joest, with drivers Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen, and Emanuele Pirro, taking their third victory not only as a team and manufacturer, but also as a driving team, marking the first time a set of three drivers won the event three years in a row.


Ivan Barrow

Ivanhoe Mordecai Barrow (6 January 1911 – 2 April 1979) was a Jamaican cricketer who played 11 Tests for the West Indies.
Barrow was born to Hyam and Mamie Barrow, two Sephardic Jews on 6 January 1911, a twin to Frank Norton Barrow. He attended Wolmer's Schools.
A wicket-keeper and opening batsman, he was the first West Indian to score a century in a Test match in England, which he did at Old Trafford in 1933. He also toured Australia and New Zealand during the 1930–31 season, and England again in 1939. In Adelaide in 1930, he became the first batsman to be dismissed by Don Bradman in Test cricket. Bradman took only one other Test wicket, that of Wally Hammond in 1933.
Barrow was one of the most notable Jews in Jamaica, and as of 2010 was the only Jewish cricketer to have scored a century in a Test. He died in Kingston in 1979.


Crimson Trail

Crimson Trail is a hike located near the southwestern mouth of Logan Canyon in northeastern Utah. The trail has a path along the top of a cliff formation that runs parallel to the sides of the canyon. It has views of Cache Valley, Beirdneau Peak, Third Dam, and the Wind Caves through spring, summer, and fall. It has many maples that turn red in the fall. The looped trail begins and ends at Spring Hollow Campground, and is about five miles total hiking.


Ohio University Southern Campus

Ohio University Southern Campus is a regional campus of Ohio University located in Ironton, Ohio. While not as large as the main Ohio University campus located in Athens, Ohio, several degree programs are offered. The Southern Campus also features an extension located in Proctorville, Ohio, and the Ohio Horse Park located in Franklin Furnace, Ohio just off U.S. 52. OUS also has an on campus eating area called the Southernmost Café.
The university began in 1956 when it hosted college-level classes in Ironton High School with an initial enrollment of 90 students.
History.
Buildings.
The main Ohio University Southern campus in Ironton has four distinct buildings.
The Nature Center no longer exists
The Ohio University Proctorville Center in Proctorville has one structure.
The Ohio Horse Park in Franklin Furnace has several buildings. Which offers a Therapeutic Riding Course.
Ohio University Southern now has quality childcare for OUS students through a partnership with the Lawrence County Early Childhood Academy. It is located only from the Southern Campus in Hanging Rock. The building was a former elementary school for Rock Hill Local School District.
Academics.
Ohio University Southern Campus offers 11 associate degrees and 8 bachelor's degrees.
The Resource Commons.
The library contains 25,000 volumes, 200 periodical subscriptions, as well as microforms, audiovisual materials, CD-ROMS and electronic databases. The Library has a Quiet Study Room and a Group Study Room available for student use.
Nature Center.
The Nature Center at Ohio University Southern no longer exists.
The Ohio Horse Park.
The Ohio Horse Park, located in Franklin Furnace, Ohio, is a large 184 acre (745,000 m²) horse farm. It contains an outdoor show, dressage, indoor and indoor therapy arena. It has 44 stalls for show rental, two classrooms and one common area and camper hookups for shows and travelers. It is home to the Ohio University Southern Reproduction Center, the Ohio Horse Park Center for Therapeutic Riding, Ohio University Southern Equine Studies Program, Ohio University Southern Southern Equestrian Teams, Ohio University Southern Community Lesson Program, and events from ten different organizations.
It also offers rental of facilities for shows and clinics to the public.
Two disciplines of horseback riding at four different levels are taught at the horse park. In the beginning level of either discipline, either Hunt Seat 1 or Western 1, the groundwork is laid for basic horse care, proper horse handling, and basic riding skills. The riding classes become more difficult at each subsequent level, and require that more and more of a student's time be spent at the horse park.
Ohio University Proctorville Center.
Ohio University Proctorville Center began offering classes in trailers at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds at Proctorville in the late-1970s. It moved to schools in Chesapeake and at Fairland before opening a new center on Ohio State Route 7 in downtown Proctorville in 1992. An increase in enrollment led to cramped conditions and calls for a new facility.
In 2000, Proctorville resident Marshall L. Smith donated land on Ohio State Route 775 for the new Proctorville Center. Design work for the . structure began in 2004. Ground breaking for the new building was held on July 12, 2005. It was completed in September 2006 for $4.9 million, most of which came from donations from the community. The new, permanent structure includes 14 classrooms, including a distance-learning room, a computer lab, a commons room and a resource room. The building is named Greg Smith Hall in honor of Marshall L. Smith's late son.
It offers numerous Ohio University Southern classes and many community-oriented classes, including ballroom dancing and computer basics.


Roni Porokara

Roni Porokara (born 12 December 1983) is a Finnish former international footballer.
Club career.
FC Hämeenlinna.
On 15 May 2003, at age 19, Roni Porokara made his league debut in a match between FC Hämeenlinna and KuPS. During his two-year spell with Hämeenlinna, he made 46 league appearances and scored 6 goals.
FC Honka.
He joined FC Honka in 2005, and played there until the end of 2007, making 76 league appearances and scoring 24 goals.
Örebro SK.
In 2008, Porokara moved to the Swedish Premier Division side Örebro SK staying there until the end of 2010, making 84 league appearances and scoring 11 goals.
At the end of the 2009 Allsvenskan season, after playing for a year in Örebro SK, Porokara entered into negotiations with Israeli clubs, Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Porokara attracted interest from Maccabi Haifa due to his eligibility to receive Israeli citizenship under the law of return. He was set to transfer to Maccabi Haifa in January 2010, for $700,000, but the deal fell through.
In August 2010, Porokara attracted interest from number of clubs in Europe. Wigan Athletic from the Premier League was the big name out of this clubs along with Cesena from Serie A, and a few clubs from Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland. After Örebro finished third in 2010, Porokara announced that he would not renew his contract with the Swedes.
Beerschot AC.
On 3 December 2010 he signed with Beerschot, where he stayed until the summer of 2012, before moving to Ironi Kiryat Shmona in Israel.
Back to FC Honka.
Porokara returned to FC Honka in 2015 after the team was relegated to Kakkonen due to financial problems. After appearing five times and scoring once, Porokara was forced to retire from active football because of a hip problem.
International career.
On 13 April 2005, Porokara made his only appearance for the Finnish under-21 side in a friendly match against their Estonian counterparts. His full national team debut came a year later on 25 May 2006 in a friendly against Sweden. Porokara was a late substitute and only got a minute on the pitch.
On 8 November 2010, Porokara scored the winning goal against Belgium in friendly game.
International goals.
"Updated 12 December 2009"


2003 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship

The 2003 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship was held at Tijuca Tênis Clube, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


Leo Seltzer

Leo A. Seltzer (April 5, 1903 – January 30, 1978) is generally credited as the creator of the sport of roller derby, and was the founder and head of the original Roller Derby league from 1935 until his son Jerry Seltzer took over the business in 1958.
Early life.
Seltzer was born in Helena, Montana on April 5, 1903.
Seltzer attended Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon where he was a member of the school's basketball team. He competed in the amateur and semi-pro basketball circuits in Portland after high school.
As a young adult, Seltzer was in the motion picture distributing field with the Universal film company. This eventually led him to own a chain of struggling movie theaters in Oregon.
In 1929, after observing the popularity of cash prize-awarding dance marathons among out-of-work contestants and spectators, Seltzer sought ways to capitalize on the trend. In 1931, he helped organize and promote "walkathon"s, which at that time was another name for dance marathons, since most dancers ended up merely shuffling around for the duration of the contests, which could run as long as 40 days. His first commercial walkathon was held in Denver, Colorado, with twenty-two more to follow, including events at the Lotus Isle amusement park in Portland, Oregon. He grossed $2 million before retiring, citing that the events had become "vulgar."
Seltzer moved his family to Chicago in 1933, and began booking events into the Chicago Coliseum, a fortress-like structure at 15th & Wabash.
Transcontinental Roller Derby.
Sometime in early 1935, Leo read an article in "Literary Digest" magazine that said ninety-three percent of Americans roller skated at one time or another during their lives. Discussing the article with some of the regulars at Ricketts, a restaurant in Chicago's Near North Side, Seltzer was challenged to come up with a sport utilizing roller skating participants.
Bicycle races and dance marathons were very popular at the time, and in previous decades there had been successful 24-hour and multi-day roller skating races, at least one of which was called a "roller derby" in the press.
Seltzer began jotting ideas onto the tablecloth, incorporating these popular entertainment forms with a roller skating theme. The name Roller Derby was trademarked on July 14, 1935 (No. 336652), and on August 13, 1935, twenty thousand spectators filled the Chicago Coliseum to see 'Colonel' Leo Seltzer's Transcontinental Roller Derby, a mythical marathon race from one end of the country to the other which incorporated both male and female participants on a banked track.
Seltzer's decision to use women was a double-edged sword for the sport, since it guaranteed a large female audience at a sporting event, but the presence of women athletes made the mainstream press view Roller Derby as a sideshow, not a legitimate sport. The premier race in Chicago was a tremendous success, but subsequent engagements throughout the country were not as successful, and Seltzer's entire enterprise almost ended with a tragic bus crash in 1937 when nineteen members of a touring group of Roller Derby skaters and support personnel were killed. The number 1 was never worn again in Roller Derby, as a tribute to Joe Kleats and the other skaters who died in the crash.
In December 1937, sportswriter Damon Runyon saw the game in Coral Gables Florida, became enthralled, and with Leo Seltzer created a more structured game with more contact between the skaters and a new version of Roller Derby was created. Seltzer's game and traveling troupe of skaters evolved and continued to have moderate growth, but it was not until November 29, 1948, when Roller Derby, broadcast on television from New York City's 69th Regiment Armory, captivated the nation. Roller Derby was finally the smash hit Leo Seltzer had always envisioned, although within a few years, the sport was overexposed on TV, the brand new medium that had catapulted it to prominence.
Roller Derby's fluctuating popularity.
With dwindling attendance, Roller Derby left America to tour Europe in 1953, but returned the following year. Seltzer moved the headquarters to the West Coast, a few years before major league baseball would make the same move. Leo never lost his vision that the game would once again be embraced by the country, but by 1958, it was time for son Jerry to take over day-to-day operation of the family business. Jerry Seltzer (born June 3, 1932), once again took the sport to great heights by syndicating Roller Derby telecasts, featuring the San Francisco Bay Bombers, which were shown on a network of 120 TV stations across the country. Roller Derby broadcasts beat all competition in most markets.
Derby's national tour became so successful that by 1969, the Bay Bombers were broken up into a San Francisco and Oakland team. These two units filled arenas across the country from 1969 through 1971, when a third unit was added.
Leo Seltzer lived to see his game once again break attendance records all over the country and become the darling of the mainstream press under Jerry's guardianship. However, the original Roller Derby skated its last game on December 8, 1973, when Jerry closed the family business.
Leo was married to Rose Weinstein Seltzer from 1926 to 1942 when she died from breast cancer. Their two children were Gloria (born May 23, 1929) and Jerry. From April 19, 1942 to December 11, 1944, Seltzer was married to Lois Reynolds Atkins. Atkins had been employed by Seltzer as the manager of his Arcadia Roller Rink in Chicago. When she married, Atkins turned over management of the rink to a relative named Phil Hayes, but she continued to draw income from a concession business she operated there. One month after their marriage, Seltzer turned over operation of the rink to Atkins and a partner, Fred Morelli. In late 1943, Seltzer asked Atkins to transfer her half of the partnership to him, but she refused. In January 1944, Seltzer colluded with Hayes to overdraw the Atkins-Morelli partnership's account. The partnership was then replaced by one in which Atkins, Morelli, Seltzer and Sol Morelli had equal interests. Atkins claimed, in a 1950 lawsuit disputing her income taxes, that Seltzer, seeking to evade taxes, only allowed her into the new partnership after she agreed, in writing, to deposit her earnings into a joint bank account the two of them shared for payment of living expenses. She filed for divorce two months after the partnership was formed, and the divorce was granted that December.
Death, honors, and hope.
Leo Seltzer died January 30, 1978. In 2005, during the 70th anniversary celebration of the first Transcontinental Roller Derby, Seltzer posthumously became the first inductee into the Executive Wing of the National Roller Derby Hall of Fame in Chicago. His son Jerry, was inducted at the same celebration.
Leo Seltzer had always wanted roller derby to be a legitimate sport and to be in the Olympics. His son Jerry said that with the recent grassroots movement of roller derby, including the advent of WFTDA, he thinks roller derby can now be an Olympic sport.


2002 Racquetball World Championships

The International Racquetball Federation's 11th Racquetball World Championships were held in San Juan (Puerto Rico) from August 3 to August 10, 2002, with 32 men's national teams and 19 women's national teams; and several players in the Singles and Doubles competition.


Raymond Coulter

Raymond "Ray" Orville Coulter (April 12, 1897 – January 23, 1965) was an American sport shooter who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics.
He was born Hadley, Illinois.
In 1924 he won the gold medal as member of the American team in the team free rifle event and the bronze medal in the team running deer, single shots competition.
In the 1924 Summer Olympics he also participated in the following events:


Bught Park

Bught Park (Gaelic: Pàirc nam Bochd ) is the largest park in the city of Inverness, Scotland, and is situated on the western bank of the River Ness. It is home to the Inverness Highland Games and a small scale outdoor music festival. It is located next to the city's sports centre, swimming pool and BMX track. The Bught Park is also the name for the sports stadium situated within the confines of the park which regularly hosts both the Camanachd Cup Final and the Composite Rules Shinty/Hurling Internationals and is considered one of the finest parks in shinty. It is also home to Inverness Shinty Club who have played there since the 1920s. The park is situated on land that was formerly the Bught House estate. An 18th century stately home on the site was demolished for the creation of the Ice Centre in the 1960s.
The capacity of the stadium is 5000, comprising standing and the wooden grandstand. The stadium was the centre of controversy in June 2009 when Highland Council, having evicted Inverness City from the Northern Meeting Park offered the use of the facility to the football team without consulting with the shinty club.


Shaolin Kempo Karate

Shaolin Kenpo Karate (or "SKK") is a martial art style that combines the Five Animals of Shaolin Kung Fu (Shaolinquan), the core competency of Kempo, the hard-hitting linear explosiveness of traditional Karate, as well as the power of Western boxing and the felling and grappling arts of Jujutsu, Chin Na, and Mongolian wrestling. This system was founded and developed by Fredrick J. Villari (a former black belt student of Nick Cerio and William Kwai Sun Chow), who devised a hybrid system which integrated the four ways of fighting: striking, kicking, felling, and grappling to eliminate the inherent weakness of martial arts systems that focus on just one or two of fighting techniques.
Shaolin Kenpo Karate is primarily taught through a chain of Villari's Martial Arts Centers in the United States and Canada, although there are several unaffiliated organizations that teach variations of the style. These include schools founded by former students of Fred Villari.
History & Development.
The roots of Shaolin Kenpo Karate can be traced back to three main sources of Asian martial arts:
Because of the diversity of Asian, Polynesian, and American culture in Hawaii, the arts of Kenpo, Kajukenbo (which was an early hybrid martial art), and Kenpo Karate were formulated mostly by street fighters like William Chow and Adriano Emperado. Ed Parker helped bring Kenpo to mainstream America through his work in Hollywood and with celebrities such as Elvis Presley and Bruce Lee. Through later work of George Pesare and Nick Cerio, Kenpo was brought to the East Coast of the United States, where Cerio would meet and train Villari. Villari's use of Kenpo, which he later changed to "Kempo," would be the vehicle by which he would bind together the principles of the traditional martial arts:
Villari's martial arts training started early in his life. After being introduced to Western and Chinese boxing by his father, Villari went on to study jiujitsu and wrestling with the LeBlanc brothers in his middle teens. By the time he was 18, Villari realized his martial arts training was stagnating and sought out Nick Cerio as an instructor of Chinese kenpo. After completing his requirements as second degree black belt with Cerio, Villari traveled to the West Indies where he traded his techniques for karate and kung-fu training. While in the islands, Villari also studied under a Chinese-Australian instructor Soo, and gained his third and fourth degrees. After working with another master Len Chou, Villari received his fifth degree and soon decided to open his own school.
The original Shaolin Kenpo Karate school was United Studios of Self Defense, later becoming Fred Villari's Studio of Self Defense. It was under this name that the SKK style spread across the United States and throughout the world. At its peak, there were more than 300 Villari franchised martial arts schools worldwide.
The development of the system consisted mainly of mastering several existing martial arts, removing movements Villari deemed inefficient, and then integrating the remaining movements into a cohesive system. Fred Villari borrowed heavily from the following in the development of SKK:
Aside from use of specific and traceable Asian lineage, a wealth of material was created by Fred Villari himself, and still further material was "Demystified" for the sake of being shared with the masses. From this breadth of source material and original work by Villari, Shaolin Kempo Karate was codified to include 108 fighting combinations and the following katas:
Two Man Fist Set, Sho Tun Kwok, 12 Hands of the Tiger, Nengli South, Nengli North, 11 Hands of Buddha, Invincible Wall, Branches of the Falling Pine, Lost Leopard, Iron Fortress, Tai Sing Mon, 1000 Buddhas, Five Dragons Face the Four Winds, Sneaky Snake, Sad Snails, Wounded Tigers, Immortal Monkey and the Plum Tree Blocking System.
Four Ways of Fighting.
Shaolin Kempo Karate is built on the notion that all martial arts styles can be characterized as using one or more of the "four ways of fighting"
Belts:
White,
Yellow,
Orange,
Purple,
Blue,
Blue/Green,
Green,
Green/Brown,
Brown (With various degrees.),
Black (With various degrees.),
Master Belt (Black with red stripes.)
Shaolin Kenpo Karate has eleven belt ranks (excluding dan ranks). New students begin at white belt and progress as they demonstrate requisite proficiency. Ranks are represented by the color of belt worn. In addition, there are also multiple midterms for belts purple and above. Belts are given every two months from white to green, 4 months for green to brown, and 6 months for black belt ranks.
The grading in Shaolin Kenpo Karate consists mainly in the demonstration of techniques, combinations, and forms as well as application of knowledge in sparring. In addition, students are placed in various situations that will help them develop a stronger and more logical mind in simulated self-defense scenarios. Forms consist of a display of footwork with kicks and punches as well as displacements.
Controversies.
Largely due to the both rapid growth of his chain of martial arts schools and claims Villari had made regarding his codification of an "unbeatable" fighting system, Villari and his business have been the subject of criticism in the martial arts community. Most typically, this came from practitioners of the highly traditional forms of Kung Fu and Karate who claimed that Villari did not have the authorization to modify existing systems or tamper with very specific and traditional forms, katas, stances, and styles.
Among the most frequent criticism of Villari is his alleged self-promotion to 10th degree in the later 1980's, then later to 15th degree (by 7 of the highest ranking master black belts in Shaolin Kempo Karate), Villari justifies this elevation by highlighting the creation of a new, unique martial arts system, with new techniques and combinations which had not previously existed. However, a few members of the traditional martial arts communities felt that Villari lacked the authorization necessary to be considered a Grandmaster, but among The Shaolin Kenpo and Kempo communities he is considered one of the greatest Grandmasters of all time.
Another frequently criticized aspect of the Villari business organization is the ability of "distance learning", in which students are able to learn ranks through black belt by purchasing a series of DVDs and then filming themselves performing the techniques. Villari claims that one of the key reasons for online or DVD training is to reach the masses where martial arts or Shaolin Kempo Karate do not exist.


Slovakia national ball hockey team

The Slovakia men's national ball hockey team is the men's national ball hockey team of Slovakia, and a member of the International Street and Ball Hockey Federation (ISBHF).


Maccabi Rehovot (handball)

Maccabi Rehovot is a handball team from the city of Rehovot, Israel.
Maccabi won the first championship of Israel and were the biggest handball club in the country at the 1950s and early 1960s, they won 5 championships and have appeared in the finals of the Israeli cup numerous times.
In 2005 the team was rebuilt after 3 years of not competing, they got promoted back the top division in 2010.


Jon Mead

Jonathan Mead (born April 10, 1967 in Regina, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian curler from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Mead played third for Wayne Middaugh's rink (except for provincial playdowns) until the end of the 2009–10 curling season. Beginning in the 2010–11 curling season, he again played third for Jeff Stoughton's Manitoba team.
Career.
Before joining Middaugh, Mead was the longtime third for Jeff Stoughton, whose team he joined prior to the 1999 season. That year, they won the Manitoba provincial championships, the Brier and a silver medal at the World Curling Championships. They would return to the 2000 Brier, and again to the 2006 Brier but would not win again.
Mead also won the 1986 Canadian Junior Curling Championships as a third for Hugh McFadyen and won silver at the 1987 World Junior Curling Championships.
In March 2007, it was announced that Mead would join Wayne Middaugh's team for the following season on the World Curling Tour. This was mainly done for a run at the 2010 Winter Olympics, as Mead would be unable to play for the team in the Brier, as he is not a resident of Ontario.
In April 2010, it was reported that Mead would once again play with Jeff Stoughton's rink. He will continue playing at third, while Reid Carruthers, also joining the Stoughton team, will play as second. The reuniting was a success, as the team would go on to win the 2011 Tim Hortons Brier and the 2011 Ford World Men's Curling Championship.
Personal life.
Mead works as a Business Development Consultant. He is married and has two children.
Mead served as an analyst for Shaw TV's coverage of the 2009 and 2010 Safeway Championships.


Nik Zagranitchni

Nik Zagranitchni (ניק זגרניצ'ני; born November 21, 1969) is an Israeli Olympic wrestler.
He is Jewish, and made "aliyah" (emigrated to Israel) from Ukraine in early 1991.
Wrestling career.
His sports club was Hapoel Tel Aviv, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Zagranitchni came in 8th at the 1991 Wrestling World Championship in 48.0 kg Greco-Roman.
He competed for Israel at the 1992 Summer Olympics, at 22 years of age, in Barcelona, Spain, in Greco-Roman Wrestling--Men's Light-Flyweight (48 kg). In the first round he defeated Omer Elmas of Turkey, in the second round Zagranitchni lost to Mark Fuller of the US, and in the third round he was defeated by Wilber Sánchez of Cuba who went on to win the bronze medal. He tied for 11th place. When he competed in the Olympics, Zagranitchni was 5-3.5 (162 cm) tall, and weighed 115 lbs (52 kg).
At the 1993 European Championship at 48.0 kg Greco-Roman, Zagranitchni won the silver medal. At the 1994 World Championship in 48.0 kg. Greco-Roman he came in 11th, and at the 1994 European Championship at 48.0 kg Greco-Roman he came in 11th.
At the 1995 European Championship at 52.0 kg Greco-Roman he came in 14th, and at the 1995 World Championship at 52.0 kg Greco-Roman, Zagranitchni came in 22nd. At the 1996 European Championship at 48.0 kg Greco-Roman he came in 7th.


Langdi (sport)

Langdi is a traditional Indian field sport played in Pandiyan Dynasty called "Nondiyaattam" , similar to hopscotch. It is described by Marathis as a sport with a Marathi ethos.
Langdi is considered to be useful in training for sports like kho kho, volleyball and gymnastics. The National Langdi Federation received national recognition in 2010.
Langdi in Maharashtra is a popular childhood pastime, it is described as the foundation of all sports. Suresh Gandhi, Secretary of Langdi Federation of India acknowledges playing langdi isn't financially rewarding. Stake holders have to arrange for funds out of their own resources. Mumbai University will be the first Indian university to introduce langdi at the college level, for female students thus revitalising the traditional sport. 5 lakh female students study in the university in 700 colleges affiliated to it. C. N. Vidyamandir, a school in Ahmedabad, encourages participation in traditional sports such as langdi as these cost less money to play and are mentally and physically refreshing for children addicted to the electronic media and games. According to Mahesh Vichare writing in Maharashtra Times, English medium schools, both secular and those run by Christian institutions, in Mumbai, tend to neglect traditional sports like langdi. Chauhan, national president of "Krida Bharati", has stressed that the organisation would endeavour to revitalise traditional sports like langdi in order to create healthy youngsters. Krida bharati is an organisation that promotes sport in India. According to Arun Deshmukh, recognition from the Indian Olympic Association is in the pipeline. This recognition results in facilities like concessional railway travel being made available, thus ensuring in growth of the sport.
Expatriate Indians have associated in the effort to popularise langdi in other countries, such as Thailand. Video films of the sport being played have been prepared in order raise interest internationally.
Brief Rules.
The rules of this sport have been standardised by the "Akhil Maharashtra Sharirik Shikshan Mandal".
Langdi is a team sport between two sides, played 12 players a side, and an additional three extra players. A match lasts 36 minutes. It is played in four innings of nine minutes each. The team that wins the toss defends. The chasing team sends chasers who hop on one foot and try to tag the defenders. The chasers can step out of the ground as long as they keep on one foot. The defenders are declared out if they step out of the ground or commit a line fault. The team that tags most defenders is declared the winner.
National events.
The fourth National Men's and Women's Langdi Championship was held in Chandigarh, in May 2013.


Andres Marin

Andres Marin (born 22 April 1983) is a competitive ice climber. He was born in Ibagué, Colombia, and graduated from the Champagnat High School. He moved to the United States where he found his passion for climbing in all types of terrain. He has represented the United States in the Ice Climbing World Cup that takes place in Europe. He also is pursuing his guide certification through the American Mountain Guides Association.


Highland Cross

The Highland Cross is an annual charity race, established in 1983, across the Scottish Highlands by foot and bicycle from Morvich, Kintail in the west through Glen Affric and Strathglass to Beauly in the east. Although it is known as a "duathlon", it does not use the three part, run-bike-run, format of the athletic event of this name governed by the International Triathlon Union.
The 50-mile duathlon (20 miles on foot, 30 miles on bicycle) is a sponsored race between teams of three to raise funds for causes that benefit local Highland people disadvantaged by disability, ill health or social need. In 2019, 735 competitors started the race, all but five completed it, and among the volunteers assisting were grandchildren of some of the original volunteers.
History.
The Highland Cross began in 1983 as "the Midsummer Madathon" initiative by the Inverness branch office of the Fire Services National Benevolent Fund in the Northern Fire Brigade to raise funds for the Highland Scanner Appeal.
It became an annual event in 1989 and now comprises 265 teams of three allocated by ballot. The event raises money each year for Highland causes; by 2019 the total raised was £5.3 million.


Guy Starik

Guy Starik (born May 3, 1965) is an Israeli sport shooter who has competed in four Olympics. He has won gold medals in shooting at both the European Championships and at four World Cups, and shares the world record in the 50 meter rifle prone competition.
Biography.
Starik is Jewish, and was born in Jerusalem.
Shooting career.
In his early years of competition, Starik did not have an experienced coach, and was self-taught. He started shooting in 1978, and started to compete in shooting in 1982. He practices at the National Olympic Ranges in Herzliya.
He competed on behalf of Israel at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States, in the Men's 50 metre rifle three positions, in which he came in 13th, and in the Men's 50 metre rifle prone, in which he came in 26th.
In 1998, Starik finished fourth at the 1998 World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.
He competed on behalf of Israel at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, despite a bout of meningitis, in the Men's 50 metre rifle three positions, in which he came in 32nd, and in the Men's 50 metre rifle prone, in which he came in 25th.
In 2003, Starik won a gold medal at the World Cup Marksman Championship in Munich, Germany, in the Men's 50 metre rifle three positions. His total of 702.5 points was a new Israeli record. The following year, he was ranked second in the world in his event by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF).
He competed on behalf of Israel at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, in the Men's 50 metre rifle prone, in which he came in 16th.
In 2005, Starik won the gold medal in the Men's 50 metre rifle prone at the European Championships in Belgrade, Serbia & Montenegro. In 2006, he won a bronze medal at the ISSF World Cup Final in Granada, Spain.
In May 2008, he tied the world record and set a new Israeli record in the 50-meter rifle prone competition, with a perfect 600 score at the 2008 ISSF Rifle & Pistol World Cup in Munich, Germany.
Starik competed on behalf of Israel at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, in the Men's 50 metre rifle prone, in which he came in 12th.
In May 2009, he won the Men's 50 metre rifle prone event at the 2009 ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany, ahead of 2004 Olympic champion Matthew Emmons. It was his fourth world cup gold medal; he had previously won World Cups in 1997 in Milan, in 2003 in Munich, and in 2004 in Athens.
In 2010, Starik finished fifth at the 2010 World Championships in Munich with a 598, and won a silver medal at the 2010 ISSF World Cup in Belgrade with a 597.
Coaching career.
Starik also coaches Israeli Olympic sport shooters Doron Egozi and Gil Simkovitch, and 2012 Olympian Sergei Richter.


Surr

Surr () is a sport played in the areas around Ayodhya in northern India.
Surr is played between two teams, each of which needs to have a minimum of four players. A rectangular ground is divided into four equal quadrants. One team gathers in the first quadrant, while the other team gathers along the lines of defence at the borders of the adjoining quadrant.
Rules.
Surr is organised by a set of tightly defined rules:


Ioannis Melissanidis

Ioannis Melissanidis (; born March 27, 1977) is a retired Greek artistic gymnast and the 1996 Olympic champion on the floor exercise. He was also the 1994 European Champion on floor and the first Greek gymnast ever to medal at the World Championships.
Early life and career.
Melissanidis was born in Munich, Germany to parents Evaggelos and Aikaterini, Greek nationals who were working in Germany. He hails from Vyroneia, Serres, and has two siblings, Maria and Spiros. When Melissanidis was 2 years old his family returned to Thessaloniki, which he considers his hometown.
Melissanidis began training gymnastics and classical ballet at the age of 9 and a half. His parents were not originally supportive of the idea, and, according to Melissanidis, only relented and took him to the Spartakos Thessaloniki gymnastics club after he refused to eat for two days.
At his first Junior European Championships in 1991 Melissanidis placed a modest 18th in the all-around, but earned a bronze medal on the floor exercise, placing ahead of future World Champions Ivan Ivankov and Yordan Yovchev. Two years later, in 1993, he won the floor title at Junior Europeans and placed third on the vault.
In 1994, his first year competing as a senior, Melissanidis enjoyed success on the world stage. He won the floor exercise title at the 1994 European Championships in Prague. At the 1994 World Championships he tied with Great Britain's Neil Thomas for the silver medal on floor. With this win, Melissanidis became the first Greek gymnast, male or female, to medal at the World Championships. Melissanidis' fortunes changed after 1994: at the 1995 and 1996 Worlds he did not qualify for a single event final.
However, at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Melissanidis was the surprise winner of the floor exercise gold medal, winning the event with a score of 9.850. The win marked the first Olympics gymnastics medal for Greece since 1906.
Melissanidis continued competing after 1996, winning the vault title at the 1998 European Championships in Saint Petersburg. He represented Greece at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, but, struggling with injury, competed only on vault and high bar. In 1996, Melissanidis publicly came out as gay.
Skills.
Melissanidis has two vaults named after him in the "Code of Points;" both are variations of the Yurchenko double back. In the current "Code of Points," his vaults carry A-score difficulty ratings of 5.2 and 5.6.
Post-retirement.
In recent years, Melissanidis has been active in various social and athletic causes. He is a supporter of Greenpeace, and, in 2003, publicly supported the Melina Mercouri Foundation's campaign to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. A gymnastics hall in his hometown of Thessaloníki has been named in his honor. He was also one of the torchbearers in the 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Athens.
As of 2008, he was a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles. He was also an invited guest of the 2008 Olympic competition in China and toured Chinese universities as an International Olympic representative.
In 2017, Melissanidis was selected by ANT1 to be a judge on the show "So You Think You Can Dance".


Hans Wuthrich (icemaker)

Hans R. Wüthrich (born in Brügglen, Switzerland) is a Swiss-Canadian top curling ice technician.
Born in Switzerland, Wüthrich emigrated 1976 to Canada when he was 19.
He has been making ice since 1993 for major events around the world such as the Brier and World Curling Championships. Wüthrich was the recipient of the 2003 Canadian Curling Association's 'Award of Achievement' for his significant contributions in the development of new pebble heads and ice scraper technology. He lives in Gimli, Manitoba.
On June 11, 2007, the World Curling Federation announced that Wüthrich was appointed as the technician in charge of the curling sheets at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Dave Merklinger, of New Westminster, was his assistant.
Wüthrich also was the technician in charge of the ice at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.


NWL Ladies Championship

The NWL Ladies Championship is the top women's professional wrestling title in the National Wrestling League promotion. It was created when Bambi defeated Heidi Lee Morgan to become first champion in 1990. The title was defended primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast, most often in Hagerstown, Maryland, but also in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It was originally retired in 2003, reinstated as the NWL/HoPWF Ladies Championship in 2005 and the NWL Ladies Championship in 2007. There were 12 recognized known champions with a total of 21 title reigns.


Golden Bear of Zagreb

The Golden Bear () is an ISU annual international and inter-club figure skating competition held in Zagreb, Croatia. Held since 1986, the event is organized by the Medveščak figure skating club. It is the equivalent of the Golden Spin of Zagreb intended for Junior and Novice skaters, as well as skaters below the Novice level (Cubs and Chicks). In 2012, senior-level events were added. Skaters may compete in three disciplines: men's singles, ladies' singles, and pair skating.


Treibball

Treibball is a positive-reinforcement, competitive dog sport which originated in Germany and entered sanctioned competition in 2008. The dog must gather and drive large exercise balls into a soccer goal.
Eight balls of approximately 45–75 cm are set in a triangle formation, similar to billiards, with the point ball farthest from the goal. The object of the game is to get all eight balls into a confined space the size of a soccer goal within a set time period, usually about 15 minutes. The handler may not move outside of an area that contains the left half of and several feet beyond the goal area. The dog works in close cooperation with the handler, who is only allowed to use whistles, verbal or hand signals to direct his dog. No verbal or physical corrections are used in Treibball. The dog and handler must communicate effectively to herd one ball at a time into the goal, in fifteen minutes time. The dog and handler team are scored on cooperation and direction, within that fifteen-minute time limit, and can earn extra points or accrue demerits accordingly.
The balls have been referred to as "rolling sheep" in recognition that this sport stems from herding for dogs who do not have access to regular sheep.
History.
Originating in Germany in about 2003, formal competitions were first held in 2008. Treibball is thought to have started as a substitute sport for herding dogs who did not have access to sheep, but who require mental as well as physical stimulation.


Palla

Palla (Italian for "ball") is a traditional Tuscan ball game played in villages between Siena and Grosseto. It is also called palla EH! (or pallaeh!) because players call out "eh!" before serving.
Small handmade balls contain a lead pellet wrapped in rubber and wool with a leather cover. The game is played by facing teams who strike (not catch) the ball with either a bare or gloved hand. Courts are marked out with painted lines on town streets, but there is no net, and players can move between sides. Adjacent buildings, objects, and sometimes spectators, are considered "in play." Play does stop for oncoming automobiles. Similar to real tennis, a second bounce can result in a "chase" rather than an outright point, marked in chalk where the ball stops rolling.
Scoring is identical to that of tennis (15-30-40-game). In the variant called pallaventuno (or palla 21) each game counts as 7, and a set is won with three games (7 for the first, 14 for the second, and 21 for the third, hence the name given to the game). In the other variant, games are simply counted in progression (game 1, game 2). Pallacorda (or palla della corda) is an extinct form of the game where a cord was strung across the street. Pisa, Prato, Rome, Siena, and various Tuscan towns still have streets named "via Pallacorda" or "via Della Corda".
Historical significance.
Palla is of interest to those who study the history of tennis, as it provides some insight into the development of the more contemporarily popular sport. Given the similarities of scoring and the use of chases, it is highly likely palla and tennis share a common sporting ancestor, the various games of palla being more primal in form.
The fact that real tennis was originally played without racquets is
well documented. The name of the sport in French is
jeu de paume, or "game of the palm" (of the hand). However, the development of the net is documented less well. In real tennis the net is also referred to sometimes as "the line." Palla eh! uses only a line painted on the ground to mark territory, and this is probably all it was originally. The cord was added for pallacorda probably just to keep the players on their respective sides of the court, and a ball that went under the cord, yet across the line, was probably still a fair shot. Later illustrations of pallacorda and tennis show tassels hung from the cord to indicate if a ball went below the cord. The net was merely an enhancement on the tassels, and it now serves three functions: marking territory, controlling player movement, and restricting the flight of the ball. When modern lawn tennis adopted real tennis' net, it also brought with it these three functions.
The fact that variants of palla are all street games, and that they are clearly related to real tennis suggests something of the development of the latter sport's court. It had been assumed that a real tennis court developed from the layout of monastery cloisters. This is mainly due to the early popularity of the game among clerics, and similarities of some court features to a cloister. However, this theory has two problems. Cloisters are usually square, while a tennis court is much longer than it is wide. Secondly, some of the similar features of tennis courts were actually introduced in the 16th century, and earlier layouts were less similar to cloisters. The study of palla has led many to suggest that the first tennis courts were made by those who wanted to play the street game, but could afford a more private and much cleaner setting. Similarities to cloisters in later court designs could either be coincidence, or intentional innovations. The proportions of the court and features such as penthouses and windows could easily relate to medieval streets.
Locations currently hosting the game.
The game is still practiced today in six villages in Southern Tuscany. Normally the game is played from Spring through Summer.
Tournaments are held in each village between July and August. The actual schedule of the tournaments is confirmed each year a few weeks before its start.


Jessica Carter

Jessica Carter (born 27 October 1997) is an English football midfielder who plays for Chelsea.
Early life.
As a youth, Carter captained the Warwick Juniors to the County Cup championship. In June 2013, she joined the Birmingham City Academy.
Playing career.
Club.
In March 2014 at the age of 16, Carter made her debut for Birmingham City in a match against Arsenal in the first leg of the 2013-14 UEFA Women's Champions League quarterfinal. She was subsequently named player of the match.
International.
Carter has represented England on the U19 and U20 national teams. During her debut for the England U19 team, she scored against Norway. Carter was called up to the senior England squad for a qualifier against Kazakhstan and made an appearance, replacing Lucy Bronze, in the 77th minute as England won 5-0.
Personal life.
Carter is in a relationship with her Chelsea teammate Ann-Katrin Berger.
Carter is an ambassador for an all-female football academy run by former Arsenal youth player, Judan Ali.


Liga Gimel

Liga Gimel (, lit. "League C") is the fifth and bottom division of Israeli Football League, a position it has held since 2009. From Liga Alef and downwards to this, each league is separated by region as well.
History.
Liga Gimel was first established in 1951 as a third division, below Liga Alef and Liga Bet. In 1955, after designating the first tier as Liga Leumit, Liga Gimel was demoted to the fourth tier. Further demotions followed in 1976, after the second tier Liga Artzit to the fifth tier and in 1999, after the establishment of Liga Ha'Al to the sixth tier. At the end of the 2008–09 season, Liga Artzit was scrapped and Liga Gimel was brought up back to the fifth tier.
Since its establishment Liga Gimel was divided into geographical divisions, to lower operating costs for the clubs, the number of which changed according to the number of club which registered, with as many as 16 divisions in the 1966–68 season. During this period promotion to Liga Bet alternated between direct promotion and through promotion play-offs, which were used to set eight teams for promotion. Following the establishment of Liga Dalet, in 1969, Liga Gimel were divided into 8 divisions, from which one team was promoted directly to Liga Bet and one relegated to Liga Dalet. After the dissolution of Liga Dalet, in 1985, and until the end of the 2001–02 season, the league was divided into 12 divisions, with promotion playoffs.
Although currently Liga Gimel is the bottom tier in the Israeli league pyramid, from 1969–70 and up until the 1984-85 season a further tier, Liga Dalet was below Liga Gimel, until it was scrapped due to declining number of teams.
Structure.
Since the 2013–14 season, Liga Gimel consists of eight divisions, four in the north and four in the less-populated south. Each league may contain between 12 and 16 clubs.
The top club from each division is promoted at the end of the season to Liga Bet (the fourth level). Teams are assigned to their new Liga Bet divisions based on their geographical locations, with each of two division feeding to its corresponding Liga Bet division (Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee to Liga Bet North A, Jezreel and Samaria to North B, Sharon and Tel Aviv to South A and Center and South to South B). The second and third placed teams in each division enter a promotion/relegation play-off, at the end of which four teams from Liga Gimel meet the loser of the Liga Bet relegation play-off match (between the 13th and 14th placed team in their corresponding division) for a place in Liga Bet.
As it is the lowest division, no clubs are relegated.
Current members.
The following teams participating at the 2020-2021 season:
Liga Gimel Upper Galilee
Liga Gimel Lower Galilee
Liga Gimel Jezreel
Liga Gimel Samaria
Liga Gimel Sharon
Liga Gimel Tel Aviv
Liga Gimel Central
Liga Gimel South
Defunct division champions (since 1996–97).
Western Galilee
Bay Area
Haifa
Gush Dan


Mary Ormsby

Mary Ormsby (born 1960) is a Canadian sports editor for the "Toronto Star". She appears on the sports talk radio show Prime Time Sports approximately once a month as heard on the Sportsnet 590 The Fan.
Background and education.
She was born in Toronto, Ontario, where she attended St. Richards Catholic Elementary School and Senator O'Connor High School. After completing grade 12, she received a full scholarship to Ohio State University as a member of the Women's volleyball team. She was a two-time OSU Scholar-Athlete; team captain in 1979 and 1980; an all-Big Ten selection in 1980; and won three OAISW titles and the 1979 MAIAW regional championship, which was part of a school-record-setting 37-win season. She graduated with a degree in journalism and returned to her native Toronto in the early 1980s to begin a career in sports journalism with the Toronto Sun.
Career.
She was subsequently hired by the "Toronto Star", Canada's most widely circulated newspaper. Mary then married Paul Hunter and had four children.
In 1995, she was inducted to the new Ohio State University Sports Hall of Fame. She continues to work as an assistant sports editor at the "Toronto Star", as well as a columnist at that same paper.


Lowell Bailey

Lowell Bailey (born July 15, 1981 in Siler City, North Carolina) is an American biathlon coach and retired biathlete who competed from 2001 until 2018.
Career.
His first World Cup podium was a 2nd place (following a disqualification) in the second sprint event at Kontiolahti (FIN) in 2014., and his first World Cup victory came in the 20 km event at the 2017 Biathlon World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria. He thus became the first biathlon world champion from the United States, as well as the oldest individual gold medalist at the World Championships in biathlon history, at 35 years and 216 days.
At the 2006 Winter Olympics, he finished 27th in the individual, 46th in the sprint, and 48th in the pursuit events.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics, he finished 36th in the 10 km sprint event and he also finished 36th in the 12.5 km pursuit.
He decided to retire at the end of 8th leg of 2017–18 Biathlon World Cup. In 2019 Bailey was appointed as the U.S. Biathlon Association's High Performance Director, working alongside former team-mate and Director of Athlete Development Tim Burke.
Results.
All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.
World Championships.
"1 medal (1 gold)"
Individual victories.
"1 victory (1 In)"


Irving Chernev

Irving Chernev (January 29, 1900 – September 29, 1981) was a chess player and prolific Russian-American chess author. He was born in Pryluky in the Russian Empire (now in Ukraine) and emigrated to the United States in 1920. Chernev was a national master-strength player and was devoted to chess. He wrote that he "probably read more about chess, and played more games than any man in history."
Chernev's deep love for the game is obvious to any reader of his books. Chess historian Edward Winter commented:
He wrote 20 chess books, among them: "Chessboard Magic!", "The Bright Side of Chess", "The Fireside Book of Chess" (with Fred Reinfeld), "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played", "1000 Best Short Games of Chess", "Practical Chess Endings", "Combinations: The Heart of Chess", and "Capablanca's Best Chess Endings", the last of these being highly regarded by Edward Winter:
In 1945, he and Kenneth Harkness wrote "An Invitation to Chess", which became one of the most successful chess books ever written, with sales reaching six figures. Perhaps his most famous book is "Logical Chess: Move by Move", first released in 1957. This takes 33 classic games from 1889 to 1952, played by masters such as Capablanca; Alekhine; and Tarrasch, and explains them in an instructive manner. An algebraic notation version was published by Batsford in 1998, with minor alterations to the original text. Chernev died in San Francisco in 1981. He was survived by his wife, Selma Kulik, and their son Melvin Chernev.