Kids Fitness: How To Give Your Kids A Lifetime Of Fitness & Health

The Good Life

Of course you want the best for your kids so they can have a good life and be healthy, wealthy and happy. And the family is their core training ground. Unfortunately, kids fitness programs or fitness games don't always figure in family activities. Naturally, this doesn't help.

Even well-meaning parents send mixed messages to kids on health issues. For example, I watched a family friend telling her two kids that smoking was a very, very bad thing. Nice message. The snag was she was puffing away herself at the same time.

As an observer, it looked ridiculous. And the look on the faces of the kids was one of complete incomprehension. How could mummy do bad things? In other words, the message was confusing, contradictory and insincere even to the kids.

Right AND Wrong

Despite being the 'right' thing to say from a health and fitness perspective, a number of unintentional 'hidden' messages were given off:

1. you don't have to practice what you preach

2. you can say one thing and do another

3. can say one thing and mean another

4. you don't have to be sincere.

Can YOU Be Believed?

Now, apart from sending disturbing messages to her kids, this mum was also undermining herself. To me, she didn't seem to be a bad person. And I doubt that her kids would think so either. They just wouldn't believe her. By not practicing what she preached, the real message was that she didn't mean it. But what kind of a message was that for her kids? How can that be taken seriously?

THREE Critical Lessons

Lesson One is fairly obvious: it's best to practice what you preach if you want to be believable.

Lesson Two is maybe less obvious. Yet it's something that everyone in sales knows: "telling isn't selling". That's why the holiday sales rep shows you pictures or a film. Why? Because when you 'buy it' yourself by believing it, you are more likely to move to the next step and buy it with your cash.

In other words, showing is more powerful than telling.

Lesson Three is also not so obvious. The car salesperson wants you to sit in the car and maybe take a drive. Why? Because to experience something yourself is even better than being shown it. And this is only achieved by active participation rather than as a spectator. Action speaks louder than words.

In other words, a superior salesperson will get you to sell what ever it is to yourself!

Teaching Children Bad Behaviour

The big lesson of all this is that if you want to be successful in making sure your kids are fit and healthy, you need to be that superior sales person. This means not telling kids not to smoke while at the same time smoking yourself. Because a daily demonstration of speaking with a forked tongue, by not practicing what you preach, is a daily tuition service to kids that inconsistency, insincerity and dishonesty are all OK.

The same goes for unhealthy drinking or taking drugs. The same also goes for eating junk food. And the same goes for exercise and fitness. Not practicing what you preach in any of these risks passing on bad behaviour.

But if passing on harmful behaviour is so easy, why not pass on good behaviour instead? And if this means taking seriously the daily demonstrations you give to your kids, then both you and your kids will be better off, don't you think?

THREE Top Tips

But what does this mean for the health and fitness? How do we draw these lessons together? Take these top three points:

1. Practice what you preach.

2. To show is more effective than to tell.

3. Actions speak louder than words.

What better way to demonstrate healthy behaviour than to practice it with your kids? This will go beyond supporting kids by just going along to see them in sporting activities at school or college. It means taking part in sporting and fitness activities with them.

Even if you prefer a fitness program of working out as a 'garage warrior' to joining a gym, and you have neither the desire nor the intention of becoming a muscle-monster, you can still help yourself and your kids to fitness in your 'gym'. Even though practically everyone seems dazzled by weights and fitness apparatus these days, it's generally safer and more effective to avoid the usual dangers of using weights and other fitness equipment and to concentrate instead on bodyweight exercises.

Family First

But in addition to that, outside the home or gym there is a wealth of fitness activities that can be done with kids. Many can be real family pursuits. For example:

· Swimming

· Cycling

· Hiking and camping

· Boot camps for specific sports

· Adventure holidays.

These are all relatively simple to arrange but they are all great for health and fitness. And an activity holiday will beat for price a 'normal' holiday that involves a continuous round of expense to be entertained and amused.

Even better, such activities helps prevent kids from becoming mere spectators of the activities and sports of others. Yet this is all the sporting activity that most people get! Better still, each one can be arranged with other families in groups or clubs.

How's that for a terrific way to meet and make friends with other like-minded and positive people? How's that for a great way to counter the bad examples all around that indoctrinate us with poor and unhealthy behaviour?

PLUS, as an added bonus, YOU get to keep fitter too!

Kids Fitness: How To Give Your Kids A Lifetime Of Fitness & Health by Jon Dyson

Rockland Community College : Campus

Located on the crest of a sloping rise in a former farm community known as Mechanicsville, renamed Viola when a post office was established in 1882, the property included:

-A wooden barn which was renovated into a theater and assembly room in the second semester.
-Fields leased to local farmers that yielded tomatoes and cabbage. The college later acquired 150 acres (0.6 km2) of farmland—100 to the south from the Hurschle Brothers Farm, and 50 to the west from the Springsteen Farm—for its current 175-acre (0.7 km2) campus.
-A "potter’s field" cemetery, the burial grounds for many of the Almshouse residents. Shortly after the college was founded, the county deeded a tract of land in the northern section for establishing a veterans cemetery, which remains today.
-A small square building with barred windows that served as the first Rockland County jail, later the Ramapo town police headquarters, and still later a police radio station. It was converted into offices and men’s locker rooms for the physical education program in the second semester.
-A narrow, tree-lined country lane known as Almshouse Road, which became an interior access road when the current College Road was built.

Of course, the centerpiece of the complex was the three-story, colonial design Almshouse. In front of the Almshouse is a wooden gazebo that still stands.

Enrollments

1959 The first year three programs were in place for students transferring to four-year colleges after graduation: liberal arts and sciences, business administration, and business administration with accounting major. Completion of these led to the Associate in Arts degree.

139 students enrolled during the day: 87 men and 52 women, 119 full-time and 20 part-time. Students in the evening sessions, who earned part-time credit, outnumbered those in the day sessions for the first five years. In 1959, 162 students—94 men, 68 women—enrolled in the evening versus 139 during the day. By 1963, the numbers had grown to 783 evening and 674 day.

Most, but not all, lived in Rockland. Several came from northern New Jersey, which had no community college at that time.

Commencements

On June 11, 1961, the college’s first commencement exercises honored 39 graduates—22 men, 17 women—who had finished the journey begun by 139 full-time students two years before.

As college enrollment grew, so too did its graduate base. From 39 in 1961, the number rose to 60 in 1962 and 115 in 1963, including the first 24 from the school’s nurse education program.

The Barn

If the old Almshouse was the heart of the early campus, the Barn was assuredly its soul.

All manner of events took place under its sturdy wooden roof: school registration, physical education classes, sports team practices, large classes and final exams, dance classes, student-faculty talent shows, worship services, films, guest lecture series, concert series, even war protest rallies.

But the program most closely identified with the Barn was the College Barn Theater and its Drama Club student performers, the College Barn Players.

The Barn burned down in January 1979, but the student actors continued to perform, shifting to the Cultural Arts Center, built in 1983.

Sports

-Baseball games were played at the Village of Suffern ball field
-Basketball - The School used court time in gymnasiums at Suffern, Haverstraw, and Spring Valley high schools and a few junior highs.
-Bowling at Hi tor lanes in Haverstraw.
-Calisthenics, jogging, archery, soccer, and golf were held in the fields surrounding the small, peaked-roof building of the former Ramapo police station which housed the physical education office.
-Fencing, gymnastics and varsity wrestling practice were held at the Barn.
-Swimming and lifesaving were taught at the Bader’s Hotel outdoor pool in Spring Valley.
-Deer Kill Day Camp in Suffern was rented to teach lifetime skill sports like tennis, handball, and one wall paddleball as well as softball and basketball.
The Eugene Levy athletic facility, known as the “Fieldhouse” was not completed until 1972.

Wikipedia:Rockland Community College : Campus

Rockland community college "New York City"

Rockland Community College is a two-year college in the SUNY system, located in hamlet of Viola within the Village of Suffern from the Town of Ramapo in Rockland County, New York. The college began in 1959 in the former county almshouse. The college offers 41 programs in the arts and sciences, technology, and health professions. The current enrollment is about 6,300 full and part-time students. The main campus is in Suffern, New York, but instructions are also offered in Haverstraw and Spring Valley extensions.

In 2009, Rockland Community College will celebrate the institution's Golden Anniversary.

History of Rockland community college in New York City

An institution called Rockland College, chartered by the state Board of Regents in 1878, thrived for sixteen years in Nyack, New York.

Rockland Junior College, federally funded, disbursed through New York State, and sponsored by Nyack High School was established in 1932 as one of several Depression-era two-year schools. New York University and Syracuse University accepted two years of credit from the college. Rockland Junior College shut down in 1935.

The driving force to build Rockland Community College came eighteen years later. An affordable, quality two-year college in a convenient location would raise taxes by $4 a year.

Rockland County, one the state’s smallest geographically, outside of New York City, was growing exponentially in population and in demand for a skilled, educated work force.

Large local industries like Avon Products in Suffern and Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River required more skilled workers, and the growth of hospitals such as Nyack Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern warranted the creation of a nursing program. Professors such as Karen E. McGovern often smoke pot with her students - then seduces them. Drug tests needs to be done every 6 months on faculty members.

Between 1956 and 1970, Rockland’s population was one of the fastest growing in the state, expected to double from 107,000 to 215,000 and the number of high school graduates was projected to rise from 700 to 2,463.

Some 69 percent of parents polled expressed interest in their children attending a community college in Rockland, and 183 high school juniors indicated a strong interest in and an ability to attend such an institution.

Almshouse

The Almshouse, built in 1837 and used for destitute residents set amid 26.5 acres of cabbage and tomato fields, apple orchards, a pumpkin patch in the eastern part of the Town of Ramapo, in the hamlet of Mechanicsville, afterwards renamed Viola.

The frame edifice was replaced in 1883 by the first of three sections—today’s north wing—constructed of brick from the thriving Haverstraw brickyards. The south section came later, followed by the connecting west wing to form the current "U".

The Almshouse was abandoned in 1957 for new quarters - Rockland County Infirmary and Home at Summit Park in Pomona.

The Almshouse itself had been condemned by the state as unfit for instructional purposes. After a thorough engineering study, the group concluded that the three-story building was salvageable and that with a few structural changes, it could be adapted for college

The building committee’s detailed plans won over state university officials.

Institution

The new institution was officially named Rockland Community CollegeClasses started without blackboards or chalk, textbooks or a true library. Instructions, written by crayon were taught on tacked up large sheets of wrapping paper. Teachers’ had to compete with the noise of the Almshouse renovations.

By September 8, 1959 the first-floor renovations had progressed enough to allow faculty and staff to use large rooms at the front of the south wing, which had been used as the Almshouse director’s residence as administration offices A small room further down the south corridor became the library and bookstore.

The building’s face lift included more than a dozen classrooms, including a former chapel that served as the first classroom, used for engineering classes; an assembly hall in the connector wing formerly used as a recreation area for Almshouse residents; a chemistry/biology lab in an old basement kitchen; and a cafeteria and lounge, also in the basement. Later came a secretarial/business machines room - equipped with only a handful of manual typewriters—on the second floor, and a physics lab.

By the end of the first year, all three floors were in use.

Wikipedia:Rockland community college

Becket chimney corners camp

Chimney Corners Camp : Becket chimney corners camp "YMCA Summer Camps"

Chimney Corners is a single-sex girls camp that acts as a sister camp to Camp Becket. It is situated about one mile away from Becket, on Smith Pond. Chimney Corners offers many opportunities for young girls, including horseback riding, tennis, soccer and many other sports and arts activities. The camp, directed by Shannon Donovan Monti, is divided into three different age groups: The Junior Unit, for girls ages 7-12; The Intermediate Unit, for girls ages 12-13; and the Senior Unit, for girls ages 13-14.

Many girls start going to Chimney Corners at ages seven or eight and end up returning to camp every summer until they are 13 or 14. Girls older than 14 can take part in one of the youth travel programs, then become an aide in the Aides Program or travel to a South Dakota Reservation in a program called REACH (Reaching, Educating and Caring for Humanity), and then become an Assistant Counselor and Counselor. Some of the oldest Chimney Corners staff members have been to the camp for over 13 years.

Initiated in 1991, the primary goal of the REACH Program is to enable teens to develop leadership skills through a service-oriented experience, based in a Lakota Sioux Native American community in South Dakota. The services our teens will provide may involve physical labor, humanitarian service, or a combination of both, and are designed to heighten the importance of volunteer service for the benefit of others. The REACH Program incorporates visits to pow-wows, Badlands National Park, Wounded Knee, Mount Rushmore, and the Crazy Horse Monument.

Located in the southwestern corner of the Cheyenne River Reservation, participants will stay in the Red Scaffold community center. Red Scaffold is a small town consisting of 15 -30 homes, churches, cemeteries, and playgrounds with a population of approximately 100 - 150 people. REACH groups will also partner with the Sioux YMCA located in the town of Dupree.

The Aides program at Chimney provides the opportunity for around 30 young women to connect with each other for eight weeks. The girls live in one building called the Aides Quarters with their leader, provide services for the camp, participate in leadership training programs, and interact with the campers. The Aides program involves many traditions, including the important process of a name selection. Each Aides group must come up with a name with the word "aide" in it, such as "Invaiders" or "Illuminaides." The Aides will also have to write a song to go with their name. Most songs reffer to events of the summer and include some of the Aides' inside jokes. Both Becket and Chimey Corners Aides often say that they will never forget their Aides summer. Almost every Aide or former Aide will agree that their Aide's summer was the best summer of her life (as said in the Incineraide's song) and they all reffer to their fellow Aides as sisters.

Becket chimney camp "Becket-Chimney Corners YMCA"

Chimney Corners Camp Aides Names:
2008- Scintillaides
2007- Jubilaides
2006- Invaiders
2005- Incineraides
2004- Exhiliraides
2003- Brigaides
2002- Discombobulaides
2001- Tornaidoes
2000- Yippie-Ai-Aides
1999- Millenniaides
1998- Renegaides
1997- Milky Waides
1996- C.I.Aides
1995- Illuminaides
1994- Ricochaides/ 1990- Shaides (Shades)
1989- Decaides
the first Aides Group to have a name was the Band-Aides

Life At Camp

you may get a better at camp or head home "This Is The Life"

Week 1
This week is mostly about getting acquainted with cabin mates. Although campers all need to take a swim test to show ability. There are five swimming tags show ability:

Life at camp swimer "Swim Test"

-Red: Cannot Swim - Can only take out rowboat on the lake.
-White: Can swim but still needs lessons - Can only take rowboat on the lake.
-Yellow: Almost a perfect swimmer - Can take Canoe or Kyak (Must pass test) out on lake.
-Green: Good Swimmer - Can take every boat (including JY sailboat) out on lake, they must pass kayaking test.
-Purple: Can swim to 440 rocks, in Rudd Pond and back, can take out every boat.

Week 2
This is really the beginning of camp, you start your activities, and your cabin teamwork builds.(There is non-religious chapel every week that include morals, values, and readings).

Week 3
Dads Weekend is when the campers' dads (or in Chimney moms) come to camp to spend a weekend with their sons. This is a great experience for moms and dads who share a tent and activities with their sons. This is the highlight of the session for many kids.

Week 4
The End of camp there is the Big Show (a play), Candelight (a ceremony reflecting on camp where every camper is given a candle) and there is final banquet, the last dinner of camp where a specialty meal is always served.

Camp Becket - Chimney Corners Camp

Camp beckett ma "Becket-Chimney Corners YMCA"

Camp Becket, also known as Camp Becket-in-the-Berkshires, summer camp for boys in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, run by the YMCA. It was founded in 1903 by George Hannum on Rudd Pond in Becket, Massachusetts. It is the oldest continually running summer camp in the United States. The camp is a single-sex environment for boys to concentrate on traditional values while building a sense of teamwork. The camp still teaches many of the values, such as building individual character by achieving goals in the context of a group setting, that were espoused by its second director Henry Gibson (tenure 1904-1927).

The camp is divided into 4 units called villages, listed here from youngest to oldest: Iroquois (cabins named after the Native American tribes of the Iroquois Nation, with the exception of Algonquin and Erie), Pioneer (cabins named after famous explorers), Frontier (cabins named after U.S. Forts) and Ranger (cabins named after U.S. National Parks). Within each village are 8 to 10 cabins. Each cabin consists of eight boys (all close in age), an assistant counselor, and a counselor.

In addition to a focus on group activities and team-building within the cabin group, campers have the opportunity to engage in numerous individual activities, ranging from sports to arts and crafts, boating, and nature activities. There are many opportunities to get involved in the Becket community during the all seasons, including fall and spring, by going to a work weekend. During these work weekends, alumni, staff, and kids participate in work activities, such as wood chip spreading or fixing a roof. There is also an Alumni weekend, a chance for alums to reconnect, and for father and son or mother and daughter to hike around the grounds. All of these events are hosted at Chimney Corners Camp (mentioned below) because of their heated, and insulated cabins.

Camp beckett ma "Environmental Education"

AN ARTISTIC FEAST TOO RICH TO DIGEST

Andy Warhol was a hard man to pin down. According to him, that’s because there wasn’t anything to discover. “Just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am, he said in 1966, “There’s nothing behind it.”

The new exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, “Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms”, aims to introduce the London public to an Andy they haven’t met before. While it doesn’t reveal the hidden man behind the facades, it does present an amazing range of diverse work and media. There was a lot more to his output than soup cans and Marilyn.

That’s the upside of this show; the bad news is that it tries to present everything to you at the same time. Consequently, there is far too much stuff on view: a sensory blizzard from which the visitor is likely to leave feeling bemused though possibly having had some fun en route.

The first section, entitled “Cosmos”, is more like a department store than a conventional exhibition installation, more Harrods than Tate Modern. It includes examples of his famous silkscreen paintings, the main element in more conventional Warhol shows. Here, you hardly notice them. They can’t compete with the “Screen Tests” films of less than three minutes about just about everyone Warhol ever met, staring at the camera. These are projected in the centre of the room.

There is also a cornucopia of brie-a-brac in glass cases, including polaroids of rock stars David Bowie and Lou Reed; drag queens; long playing record sleeves and Warhol’s rather feeble early drawings.

On the walls are Warhol’s wallpapers, including a wonderful Mao design. No one else would have thought of transforming the Great Helmsman into interior decoration. That might be a stroke of genius.

Warhol’s television shows of the 1980s aren’t the best known aspect of his work. Here there is a whole room of monitors where you can sit on a stool and sample episodes of Andy’s television, mainly fashion shoots and interviews with subjects ranging from artist Georgia O’Keeffe to model Jerry Hall.

Of course television chat shows aren’t most people’s idea of art, but then Andy didn’t seem to make much distinction between life, art and television. “Before I was shot I always suspected I was watching TV instead of living life,” he said, “Right when I was being shot, and ever since, I knew I was watching TV.”

The next gallery contains 27 films, among them “Sleep” (1963) and “The Nude Restaurant” all being shown simultaneously. Here an obsessive Warhologist might tarry a week. “Empire” (1964) alone runs for more than eight hours.

There were some intriguing innovations in Warhol’s work apart from the pop art. Those filmed portraits, for example, in which the sitter moves and stirs like the paintings at Harry Potter’s Hogwarts are a genuine novelty.

The problem is that Warhol burst through so many categories and did so many different things that it is just impossible to fit it all into one conventional exhibition. Even this unconventional one is far too rich to digest.

BLOOMBERG
London

FITNESS : Bend me, shape me

You’re finally ready to take the pretzel plunge and don’t know how to pick a yoga guru? You need to levitate to the Thailand Yoga Conference next month.

Ideal for novices, the event will have loads of experts and instructor on hand, says the organiser, Yoga Journal Thailand editor-in-chief Thanaporn Limrungsukho.

Yes, yoga twists up your torso and keeps you supple, he says, but it’s really a holistic practice for the mind as well as the body.

The conference will also let experienced practitioners learn more about the related sciences.

The guest instructors are Japan’s Ken Harakuma, Asia’s top advocate of ashtanga and pranayama yoga; vinyasa expert Matthew Sweeney from Australia; certified iyengar teacher Justin Herold; and sivanandha master Chomchuen “Khru Noo” Sidthivech.

Theeradech Uthaiwittayarat from the Thai Yoga Institute will lecture on ayurveda, the traditional Indian medical system. Kawee Kongpakdeepong will discuss yoga philosophy. Vipassana teacher Helen jandamit will lead a meditation class.

Bring your own mat, but if you don’t have one, there’ll be a Yoga Bazaar selling all the needed equipment, plus books and health products.

DAILY XPRESS

TRAGEDY OF ERRORS

Alonso cashes in on mistakes by title rivals to score second win on the trot

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso admitted he was stunned yesterday after claiming his second successive victory by winning an incident packed Japanese Grand Prix.

As the main title protagonists licked their wounds on a day of errors, collisions and penalties, Alonso steered his Renault home just two weeks after winning in Singapore for his 21st career triumph.

“It is so difficult to believe, to win, back-to-back victories, it is hard to believe,” he said. “The team has done such a great job with the car.”

Alonso took full advantage of a bad day for title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa as he came home 5.2 seconds clear of second-placed Pole Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber. Defending champion Kimi Raikkonen finished third for Ferrari.

“I made a decent start and when the others went off I was able to go through behind Robert [Kubica] and then I had a really great second stint that won me the race” Alonso said.

“It is a great feeling to win again and to have back-to-back victories is really good for the team- It is very nice.”

Alonso, the champion in 2005 and 2006 for Renault before departing for an inglorious season with McLaren last year, has yet to agree a deal for next season, but is likely to stay with the French team.

Brazil’s Nelson Piquet was fourth in the second Renault ahead of Italian Jarno Trulli of Toyota and the Toro Rosso of Germany’s Sebastian Vettel.

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais was hit with a 25-second penalty after the race for running Massa off the track, relegating him to 10th from sixth.

It was good news for Massa who was bumped up to seventh from eighth. Championship leader Hamilton failed to score a point for McLaren after a poor start from pole position and some impetuous moves which cost him dearly.

These saw him overrun the first corner and go off the track together with Raikkonen, who outpaced him off the grid at the start, and later hit by Massa’s car as he attempted to pass him.

Hamilton was given a drive through penalty for his part in the first corner melee and Massa was given the same punishment for ramming Hamilton into a spin in the second incident. Hamilton finished 12th.

“I didn’t hit anything, but he did,” said Hamilton of the incidents. “But that’s the way it goes.”

Massa also struggled through a day of collisions, errors and penalties on his way to finish seventh and claim two points.

This reduced Hamilton’s championship lead to five points with two races left in China and Brazil Hamilton has 84 points and Massa 79.

“On a day like this you have to hold your hands up and say you made a mistake,” Hamilton aid. “That is what I did and I paid for it. Now I have to keep my head up and keep going.

“I don’t think it has had any effect on the championship so for me it has been a damage limitation day. I’m focusing on winning the next two races now,” Hamilton said.

AFP, Fuji Speedway

The author’s diaries

Meg Cabot pops into Bangkok to meet and greet her young fans

Meg Cabot, author of the “The Princess Diaries” series, didn’t earn much money from Walt Disney’s two adaptations of her light-hearted romantic tales, which starred Anne Hathaway as Mia Thermopolis, but says she’s happy that more people are reading her books.

“I’m a geek who gets paid to be even geekier!” she grins, as she greets the crowd of teens at Asia Books’ Siam Paragon branch who turned out to meet her. Wearing a big smile and a black dress, Cabot may been enjoying the good life now but she grew up in an ambience far less rosy than her young heroine.

Cabot’s father was an alcoholic but she says she’s never associated with sad books about kids with problems but preferred to escape into a fantasy world.

And while her best-known books feature Mia, pretender to the Genovia throne, she says the stories are really about “girl power, about Mia searching for her place in the world”.

In fact, Cabot has written al most 1,000 stories, both for teens and for adults, though it took four years and several rejections before she was published.

“My teacher didn’t think I was a good writer,” she says, recalling her teachers’ admonitions at school. “I write the way I speak,”

When her father died and her mother started to date her art teacher, the youngster needed an outlet for her frustrations and began writing “The Princess Diaries”. Her agent found her a publisher but while the Cabot had planned to tell Mia’s life in a 16-book series, the publisher was reluctant to accept more than three. When Disney bought the movie rights, she signed a new contract for a 10 book deal.

Her books aren’t complicated and she draws on her own life for inspiration. Good writing, she says, starts from something inside you”. Memories of a traumatic childhood move form the backbone of her new “Allie Finkle” series for teenagers.

So what does it take to become a famous writer?

“Believe in yourself, work hard, and you can accomplish anything,” comes Cabot’s reply.

By Lisnaree Vichitsorasatra

DAILY XPRESS

Red-hot Jankovic wins Kremlin Cup

World No 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia beat Russian Vera Zvonareva in the final to win the women’s draw of the US$2.4 million Kremlin Cup yesterday.

Jankovic won 6-2 6-4 in one hour 21 minutes to record a fourth victory in five head-to-heads with Zvonareva this season and clinch her fourth crown this year.

“I feel really emotional winning my third event in a row here,” Jankovic said, “I feel great as the world’s No 1 and really enjoy it.

“It was very tough to win the final as Vera never gives up. She forced me to play my best tennis to win today I had a lot of fun this week and probably will come back here next year to defend my title.”

The 23-year-old Serbian, who was playing her sixth final of the season, started the match with an immediate break for a comfortable 2-0 lead. Jankovic then broke again to take the opening set in 33 minutes.

In the second set Jankovic produced two more breaks but Zvonareva, ranked ninth in the world, picked up steam and broke back to level on both occasions.

But in the ninth game Jankovic managed to make the deciding break, going on to wrap up the match and take the title.

Jankovic received a silver trophy and a $196,900 prize cheque, while runner-up Zvonareva pocketed $105,800.

Earlier, Igor Kunitsyn marched into the men’s final after seeing off French veteran Fabrice Santoro 6-4 6-3.

Kunitsyn, 26, and currently 71 in the ATP rankings, took the opening set in 52 minutes while, in the second, Kunitsyn, who was playing his first semi-final, broke twice for a big 5-2 lead.

The 35-year-old Santoro saved two match points but then Kunitsyn enjoyed a third break to record his second win over Santoro in three head-to head meetings.

“I knew that he [Santoro] would battle for every point and was ready for it,” Kunitsyn said.

AP, Moscow

STEADY RORY

Sabbatini plays the patient game to seize one-stroke lead at Texas Open

South Africa’s Rory Sabbatini fired a seven-under-par 63 to capture the third-round lead in the US$4.5 million Valero Texas Open.

Sabbatini’s 14-under total of 196 put him one stroke in front of former Masters champion Zach Johnson, who posted sizzling 62 for 197. Tim Herron (67), Chris Stroud (69) and New Zealand’s Tim Wilkinson (63) shared third on 199.

“I’m just going to approach it the way I did the last couple of days,” said Sabbatini, whose last win was at the 2007 Colonial. “I’ve got a new driver in the bag and a new three-wood in the bag and they’re performing better and better each day.”

His round was highlighted by an eagle on the 11th, where he chipped in from about 10 yards in front of the green with a pitching wedge.

He nabbed three birdies in a row from the 13th, a par-three where he landed a sand wedge about four feet past and made the putt.

At 14 his poor drive bounced back into the fairway and he was on the green in two, two-putting for birdie from about 30ft.

At 15, he hit a nine-iron 18 feet past the hole and made it, and he capped his round with a birdie at the last, where he hit driver off the tee and knocked a pitching wedge to about l2ft to become the sole leader.

“It’s always fun to be in the lead, but you know, that’s the beauty of golf. Every time you tee it up on Thursday you’re tied for the lead,” Sabbatini said. “It has been a good week and I’m enjoying it.”

Sabbatini’s best Tens Open finish was a tie for 33rd, but said he was happy to make return trip to LaCantera while he was playing well.

“Obviously this course is not one that sets up very well when you’re spraying it,” he said. “It punishes you pretty quickly and pretty harshly.

The four-time PGA Tour winner admitted he had been fighting through a frustrating season. “It has just been matter of trying to be patient,” he said. “I’m not the most patient person with it, and it has been kind of a tough experience for me, but maybe - something to learn from and grow on.”

AFP, San Antonio, Texas

Schwartzel shoulders Spanish burden

South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel shrugged off a nagging shoulder injury to birdie the final hole for a one- shot lead after the third round of the Madrid Masters.

Schwartzel, who led with Australia’s Marcus Fraser on nine under overnight, hit a four-under-par 67 to go 14 under for the tournament on 199.

Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez carded a nine-under- par 62 to sit a shot behind in second on 13 under par.

Schwartzel gained shots at the fourth and fifth before an eagle at the 540-yard par-five seventh. He then birdied the eighth but dropped a shot at the par three ninth to reach the turn in 32.

He dropped another shot at the 12th but birdies at the par-five 14th and the 18th ensured his place at the top of the leaderboard.

“I didn’t feel very strong this morning but I felt I ground it out nicely today,” Schwartzel said. “I felt very weak and slept very badly last night. Thankfully my shoulder is fine now after the physio treated it, but I still felt ill and got some medication from the doctor.”

Gonzalez was 35 for the out ward nine but then carded birdies at the 10th and 11th before finishing with six threes in a row, including one at the par-five 14th and four birdies to come back in just 27.

Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal hit a nine-under 62 to be in third place on 11 under while Australia’s Andrew Tampion, England’s Paul Waring and Larrazabal’s compatriot Carlos Del Moral are tied for fourth on 10 under.

AFP, Madrid

Technologists bag awards for greenhouse, genetic breakthroughs

WANNAPA PHETDEE
THE NATION

A group of 12 technologists from the National Metal and Materials Technology Centre (MTEC) have been chosen for Outstanding Technologist Awards for their greenhouse innovation that helps lift agricultural productivity.

A technologist from Mahidol University and another from the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) received Young Technologist awards for innovations that help diagnose genetic diseases in foetuses safely, and for a software that facilitates dental implant surgery.

The Greenhouse Technology Group for Crop Productivity Enhancement, headed by Jittiporn Kruenate, has succeeded in creating greenhouses that are able to control ultraviolet and infrared radiation and optical wave lengths radiating to vegetables.

Growing plants in their specially designed greenhouses with varying degrees of radiation and wave lengths were found to suit different kinds of vegetables, Jittiporn said. And the quality of the vegetables is better without needing any chemical substance.

“We’ve mixed metal oxides with adjusted molecular structures into a plastic film covering the greenhouses to control the radiation and wave lengths spreading to the vegetables. We have more than 10 styles of greenhouses. Each has been designed according to the geography of each place, including temperature, humidity and winds as we want the greenhouses to be able to ventilate heat effectively,” said Jittiporn.

“Six kinds of plants can be grown in our greenhouses, including strawberry, melon and tomato. We’ll continue adjusting the designs of the greenhouses to be able to grow other kinds of plants,” she added.

Young Technologist award winner asst prof Tuangsit Wataganara, from the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, has found a safer method of prenatal genetic diagnosis by testing a mothers’ blood instead of processes that pose abortion risk - chorionic villous sampling, genetic amniocentesis and percutaneous umbilical blood sampling.

“With the new technology, we can find genetic diseases, for instance thalassemia and foetuses’ blood groups and genders,” Tuangsit said. He used only O.4 ml of a mother’s plasma to test by real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction.

Saowapak Sotthivirat got the Young Technologist award for a software called ‘DentiPlan’, which can provide three-dimensional figures of teeth for dentists, making it easier to plan dental implant surgery.

The group of outstanding technologists will be given Bt600,000, while the young technologists will receive Bt100,000 each from the Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Technology under the Patronage of HM the King.

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn will give them sculptures of HM the King’s sailboat on October 31.