News Articles - WMD 2008
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BOBS Commemorates World Metrology Day 2008
' Measurement in Sport '
BOBS soccer team was leading Geoflux soccer team by 4-0 when they went for a half-time break. Of course all the BOBS team supporters were jubilation mood considering that the same team has beaten BOBS 4-0 in the last match. Then came the second half-time, Geoflux started scoring as if there was no goalkeeper at the goal-post. BOBS won the match 6-5 in a pre-event game played on 17th may 2008 in commemorating the World Metrology Day. Geoflux made a tremendous come-back considering that at one point BOBS was leading 5-1 during second half of the game, what went wrong? Perhaps one pair of goal post may have been wider than the other hence in favour of both teams, the length of the football pitch seems to have been tempered with, or the referee’s time was questionable as the match could have ended when the score was 5-2 in favour of BOBS or Geoflux team was favoured by the high speed of the wind? Well these may have not necessarily contributed to the come back of the Geoflux team, but these are some of the attributes that needed to be considered beforehand for sport events that involves grounds. Is the area (length and breadth) of the soccer pitch measuring in accordance to the laid down rules? In a soccer match for instance the fourth match official time should be harmonized with that of the match referee, as a match can be lost in a split of a second? All this questions point out to the role played by ‘measurement in sport’ World Metrology Day 2008 theme.
.On the 20th May, the internationally designated date for World Metrology Day, Jwaneng Town known for its diamond mines was a place to be at. BOBS with students and teachers from Jwaneng Schools and other sports’ persons paraded the streets of Jwaneng to enlighten the public about the importance of World Metrology Day. The parade ended at Mokala Logde where a seminar was held to sensitize the sport fratenity on the importance of measurement in sport. Deliberations on this year’s theme were made by different Officials with one of the Officials emphasizing on the slogan for this years’ theme “No games without measurement”. Delivering welcome remarks at the seminar, the Director of Commercial Enterprises Mr. Keeper Morgan, indicated that this year’s theme was a recognition of the upcoming Olympics games which will be held in Beijing, China during August (8th to 24th) this year. One of the areas where measurement is critical in sports is in the detection of performance enhancing drugs in athletes’ bodily fluids. Although this topic has been controversial lately, it can not be ignored as a way of ensuring fair competition among athletes in the various sporting codes. The guest speaker for the day, Ms. Utlwanang Kerekang (District Officer, Jwaneng Town Council) emphasised that races can be lost by hundredths of seconds while field events can be lost by fractions of millimetres. Therefore, it is through accurate and reliable measurements, that outcomes can be totally relied upon. Mr. S. T. Kajane explained the use of different measurement fields in sports as summarised below. Boxing
Horse Racing
Track and Field athletics
Motor Racing
Ball Sports
Swimming
The audience was given an opportunity to seek clarification from presenters through questions and answers time. As part of its social responsibility programme, BOBS presented verified measuring tapes to the various Jwaneng schools and committed itself to verifying them for free for the next two years. This was one of the ways of showing the participants that indeed BOBS is serious about measurement in sport. Kgosi Charles Koitsiwe (Jwaneng Customary Court) delivered vote of thanks for the informative session on behalf of all the attendees. BOBS indicated that as the way forward it intend to work with Botswana Nationals Sports Council and Botswana National Olympics Committee in finding ways of spreading the message among the sports fraternity. ‘No games without measurement’
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