Martin world news: Sports edition (but trust me, it's good)

So as you have noticed, I've had a hard time lately getting in non-'regularly scheduled' posts, due mainly to the fact that the boating public thinks I should give 6 days and 56 hours of my time making them boat covers, boating furniture covers, and of course, er, 'barstool covers'.  So while I had a little time before the Indy 500 on Sunday, I thought I'd do a 'big-event' sports related post for MWN.  It started with the question, "what is the biggest sport everywhere", and took me to a sight where it ranked no less than 100 different world sports.  It even divided up the top 50 as 'dominant', 'huge', 'major', 'medium', and 'fringe' in the nations it is played.

Not surprisingly, soccer/association football was top dog, and they rounded out their top ten with basketball, tennis, cricket, Formula one, baseball, athletics (assuming by the picture they mean 'track and field'), American football, boxing, and golf.  Ice hockey got 11th, NASCAR beat IndyCar 21-36, Rugby Union and League took 15 and 34, and Aussie Rules Football came in 42nd.


But the entertaining part comes with the many obscure sports that made the top 100.  Curling fans, you got #52.  But there were several that I had never heard of, and upon looking them up, had to lift the proverbial eyebrow.  These strange activities included:


KABADDI (#54)

While most of these I was able to come up with a "Chris's version" of what happened, this one I just have to share the wiki version...

Kabaddi is a contact team sport played between two teams of seven players each. The objective of the game is for a single player on offense, referred to as a "raider", to run into the opposing team's half of a court, tag out as many of their defenders as possible, and return to their own half of the court, all without being tackled by the defenders, and in a single breath.

In a single breath????   In addition to being hard to do, how would you judge it?  This is the national sport of Bangladesh, I learned, and this surprises me, as I would have thought that their national sports were "increase the population" and "dodge the monsoon".


DRAGON BOAT RACING (#85)

This is a specialty of the Pearl River delta, Guangdong Province, China, and consists of what looks like a super-sized kayak with a dragon head up front, with 18-20 rowers and assorted navigators.  When looking at a "10 things to know about Dragon boat racing" article, the first entry was, "Your butt will never be the same."  I think I'll opt out.

SEPAK TAKRAW (#81)

This one's easy- kick volleyball.  Popular in south Asia, this one I could actually compete in- that is, as long as I don't need to hold my breath.


PENCAK SILAT (#90)

 A very rough Indonesian full-contact martial art.  Based on a legend of an ancient warrior who came to Java and dethroned (and possibly decapitated) the local king in single combat, it seems more like Klingon martial arts, with over a dozen kinds of weapons involved, such as the kerambit...

Yes, I am opting out here, as well.


PADEL (#99)

A much safer game, Padel is a favorite in Spain, Andorra, and Mexico.  It basically amounts to tennis with a paddle rather than a racquet, and the walls like a squash court, so that the rules are basically tennis with squash-y tweaks.


KOPAR (#100)

Now this HAS to be my favorite, something that Genghis Khan and his boys in Central Asia would've played.  Something along the manner of polo without the civilized conventions, the teams are mounted and try to put in the goal THE CARCASS OF A GOAT.