Populous 12 by Alma Media International

Photos: Laura Radford

Showing off their musical skills, Populous’s company band – known as Pop Band – played their debut gig in September 2014 at The Half Moon, one of London’s smaller live venues. The line-up comprised Soaad Islam on vocals, Kristijan Cebzan and Lucas Porto on guitars, Paul Shakespeare on bass, Mark Craine on drums, and Pavol Knapo on keyboards and harmonica. One of London’s longest-running live spots, The Half Moon has been rocking audiences since the early 1960s. Such luminaries as the Rolling Stones, The Who, U2, Elvis Costello and Kate Bush have played there in the past.

02 WELCOME

CONTENTS 03

Rod Sheard

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8874 7666 Email: popmag@populous.com Web: www.populous.com Editor-in-chief: Rod Sheard Editorial team: Nick Reynolds Michelle Morgan Chris Lee

Populous magazine is published by: Alma Media International London, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 8944 1155 Email: info@almamedia.co.uk Web: www.almamedia.co.uk

Images: Cover: Getty Images Laura Radford Getty Images Corbis AP Images Hendo Hoverboards Universal Studios Q4media NFL Media Nathan Gallagher Kellan Stover Vision Sports Back cover: Peter Glenane

LEFT FIELD

BACK IN BLACK

Discover how aerial drones are shaking up sports TV coverage. Marvel at the new skateboard that hovers magnetically above the ground.

REAL LIFE

From his command centre in New York City, Dean Blandino oversees officiating in every NFL game ever played. The destiny of the sport lies in his hands.

PAY PER LAUGH

Real tennis (or court tennis, as it’s known in the USA) is struggling to recruit new players. Rob Fahey, world champion for the last 20 years, is trying to reverse the sport’s decline.

A comedy theatre in Spain is using computer software to charge spectators every time they laugh. Could this technology revolutionise live shows worldwide?

HAVE GLOVES, WILL TRAVEL

Soccer goalkeeper Lutz Pfannenstiel has played at 25 clubs across six continents. His adventures include kidnapping a penguin, dying of a heart attack, and being imprisoned for “making suspiciously good saves”.

THE HIGH LIFE

The rivalry between two of today’s greatest tightrope walkers is almost as intense as the stunts they pull on the high wires.

DRINKERS OF THE WIND

Arabian horse racing, so long in the shadow of the more popular Thoroughbred racing, is finally getting the recognition it deserves, as Liz Price, from Paris-Turf newspaper, discovers.

FINISH

© Alma Media International Ltd 2015 All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of Alma Media International is strictly forbidden. The greatest care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine at the time of going to press, but we accept no responsibility for omissions or errors. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Alma Media International or Populous.

THE POWER GAME

Class 1 is the top echelon of offshore powerboat racing. Multiple world champion Steve Curtis explains how these vessels go so frighteningly fast.

Favourites to win this year’s Rugby World Cup, the All Blacks have always dominated international rugby. Gavin Mortimer, of Rugby World magazine, finds out how.

“NEW YORK CONFIRMS”

Publisher: Tony Richardson tony@almamedia.co.uk Editor: Dominic Bliss dominic@almamedia.co.uk Art direction and design: Deep www.deep.co.uk

MARGARET COURT ARENA, MELBOURNE. HOME OF THE AUSTRALIAN TENNIS OPEN.

Later this year it’s the Rugby World Cup – one of the many great sports events that regularly unfold on this small planet of ours. And we’re excited about it, to say the least. After all, Populous worked on several of the stadia that will stage the tournament in England and Wales in September and October. So which nation is favourite to win the tournament? The All Blacks of course. Our lead feature this issue analyses why the big lads from New Zealand are – and always have been – so dominant in rugby. Turning to another oval-ball sport, we have a behind-the-scenes look at the NFL’s command centre where the man in charge of officiating uses video technology to adjudicate on the sport’s most controversial plays. Even though he’s thousands of miles away from the action at the league’s various stadia, the destiny of the entire sport lies in his hands. Worry not – we haven’t forgotten the spherical ball in this issue. There’s an interview with the world champion in real tennis, a celebration of golf’s holes-inone, and the amazing story of Lutz Pfannenstiel, the German soccer goalkeeper who, during his career, played at 25 clubs across six continents. Along the way he kidnapped a penguin, medically died of a heart attack and was jailed for “making suspiciously good saves”. What a wonderful career. Elsewhere, ever eclectic, we cover Arabian horse racing, jump records in athletics, powerboating and tightrope walking. In the world of entertainment, there’s even the bizarre story of the Spanish comedy club that charges members of its audience every time they laugh. Our magazine, on the other hand, is completely free of charge. It will cost you nothing whether you choose to laugh or even cry. Enjoy reading about our world of sport and entertainment.

START

Contents

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01 Covers _Issue 12 paginated.indd 3

ISSUE TWELVE

24/02/2015 17:18

Populous magazine is sent to our clients and friends around the sporting world.

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ONE JUMP AHEAD

The world records in high, long and triple jump have remained unchallenged since the 1990s. Jason Henderson, editor of Athletics Weekly, finds out what’s needed to break the stranglehold.

HIGH ON FLYING

Populous founder and senior principal Chris Carver reveals his passion for flying aeroplanes.

ACES HIGH

The hole-in-one – or ace – is golf’s most exciting shot, winning pros luxury cars, cash prizes, even trips into space. It occurs a lot more than you’d think.

POP HISTORY

Real Madrid’s 2014 Champions League Final win over Atletico Madrid (in the Populous-designed Estadio da Luz) will always be remembered as La Decima – the 10th.

LEFT FIELD 05

04 LEFT FIELD

LEFT FIELD

THE DESIGN OF SPORTS PRODUCTS AND EQUIPMENT IS EVOLVING FASTER THAN EVER. HERE WE INTRODUCE YOU TO SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING INNOVATIONS.

IT’S REPULSIVE! REMEMBER MARTY MCFLY’S gravitydefying skateboard in Back to the Future II? It seems science fiction has now become science fact thanks to a new invention called the Hendo Hoverboard – a skateboard that slides, spins and hovers centimetres above the ground, a bit like a primitive magic carpet. It’s the brainchild of architect Greg Henderson and his California-based company Arx Pax. But how does it work? It’s a phenomenon known as magnetic levitation, or maglev – the same technology used in Asia’s super-fast bullet trains. Beneath the board there are strong electromagnets. Place those electromagnets above a non-ferrous

surface (in Hendo’s case it’s a copper half-pipe), and a repulsive magnetic field is created, pushing the magnets and the hoverboard upwards so that they remain suspended in the air. (The photo below, left, shows professional skateboard legend Tony Hawk trying it out.) Originally Henderson had wanted to design whole buildings that could hover above the ground when threatened by earthquakes or floods. “If you can levitate a train that weighs 50,000kgs, why not a house?” he says. His dream is “to build structures – from family homes to hospital rooms to factories to skyscrapers – in such a way that, with almost a flip of a switch, they can be

literally lifted out of harm’s way. In a nutshell, if the earth starts moving, raise the building above the movement and, voilà, problem solved.” Although the technology is similar, levitating an entire building is obviously far more ambitious than a hovering skateboard. Yet Henderson remains undaunted. “It’s a big dream, we know,” he says. “And it’s long-term. But we believe in its possibility. The hoverboard is the first step to bringing this technology to the world.” Arx Pax hopes their Hendo Hoverboard (current price US$10,000) will be on sale in late 2015. Coincidentally, that’s the very same year that the fictitious Marty McFly hopped aboard his own flying skateboard.

EYE IN THE SKY AERIAL SPORTS FOOTAGE is all the rage right now, with flying drones used to capture the most amazing images of live sport – all from a bird’s-eye view. Photographers and cameramen are getting high on the new technology. Look how flying-drone footage at the Sochi Olympics spiced up TV viewing of snowboarding and ski jumping events. Other major sports to use drones include Formula 1 motor racing and PGA Tour golf. Sports coaches have leapt onto the bandwagon, too, with Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals and various US college American football teams filming practice sessions and using the footage to analyse strategy of play. But it’s in lower league and recreational sport that drones have been most prolific. They’ve been used to capture images from just about every sport you care to mention including baseball, American football, polo, soccer, cricket, skateboarding, BMXing, road cycling, surfing, golf,

mountaineering, kayaking, mountain biking, athletics and skiing. As Mike Hagadorn, from Coloradobased aerial videographers Cloud Level Media, says: “Anything you can dream of – and as long as you don’t crash – you can make it happen.” The latest generation of drones (or unmanned aerial vehicles, to use their proper name) feature impressive technology such as high-definition cameras, anti-gravity motors, video transmitters, gyroscopic stabilizers, video goggles for the operator and as many as eight rotor blades. The battery life on most models is still fairly short, yet they are considerably cheaper than hiring helicopters or mounting cameras on cables above the field of play. It’s their manoeuvrability that is their greatest asset. Sports such as golf, trail running, mountain biking, rally driving, horse racing, surfing and sailing take place over large distances, often in places camera crews can’t easily access. But with drones,

TV spectators are always right in the thick of the action – halfway up mountains, in the middle of the desert, out at sea, or lost in the rough. The possibilities are endless, and technology is improving exponentially. Michael Perry works at China-based drone manufacturer DJI. “Somebody was asking me recently, ‘If this were a baseball game, what innings are we in, in terms of the technology?’,” he told technology magazine Wired. “I’d say we’re still waiting in line for tickets.”

WITH DRONES, TV SPECTATORS ARE ALWAYS RIGHT IN THE THICK OF THE ACTION – HALFWAY UP MOUNTAINS, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT, OUT AT SEA, OR LOST IN THE ROUGH. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.

06 RUGBY UNION

RUGBY UNION FAVOURITES TO WIN THIS YEAR’S RUGBY WORLD CUP, THE ALL BLACKS HAVE PRETTY MUCH DOMINATED INTERNATIONAL RUGBY SINCE THEY ENTERED THE SPORT 130 YEARS AGO. GAVIN MORTIMER, OF RUGBY WORLD MAGAZINE, FINDS OUT HOW.

RUGBY UNION 07

08 RUGBY UNION

RUGBY UNION 09

IT’S ONE OF the more extraordinary sporting conundrums: how has a small island nation in a far-flung corner of the planet with a population of just 4.5 million dominated one sport for so long? The country in question is New Zealand and the sport is rugby union. Of course, they’re better known as the All Blacks – a nickname they’ve had courtesy of their kit since their first tour to Europe in 1905 when they also introduced to the world their pre-kick off haka, or Maori war dance. On that ten-month trip, the All Blacks won 31 of their 32 matches, scoring 830 points and conceding just 39. Ever since then they’ve maintained a similarly stunning success rate. The 1924 touring side to the British Isles was dubbed ‘The Invincibles’ after winning all 32 of their matches, and the most recent squad to visit the spiritual home of rugby defeated England, Scotland and Wales on consecutive weekends last November. The All Blacks will be back in Britain later this year, arriving in September to defend the Rugby World Cup they won four years ago in New Zealand. Incredibly, since lifting that trophy they have lost just two of the 42 Test matches they’ve played (against England in 2012 and South Africa in 2014). In those 42 matches they’ve scored 154 tries – 3.6 per match – and set new standards of sporting excellence. New Zealand have their eyes on an unprecedented third World Cup victory. It would take a brave individual to bet against them. Here we analyse the tactical, physiological and sociological reasons for the All Blacks’ dominance.

The 2015 Rugby World Cup (Sept 18th to Oct 31st) will be the eighth world championship for rugby union. 20 national teams will compete at 13 venues across England and Wales. (See map.) Nations are separated into four pools, with the top two teams in each pool then advancing to the knock-out stages.

POOL A Australia, England, Wales, Fiji, Uruguay Newcastle

POOL B South Africa, Samoa, Scotland, Japan, USA POOL C New Zealand, Argentina, Tonga, Georgia, Namibia

Leeds Manchester Birmingham

POOL D France, Ireland, Italy, Canada, Romania

Leicester

Milton Keynes

Gloucester Cardiff

London

Populous designed four of the 2015 Rugby World Cup venues, and worked on two others.

Brighton Exeter

The All Blacks’ Brodie Retallick (right) grapples for the ball.

FEAR OF FAILURE

ALL-ROUNDERS

COMMITMENT TO LEARNING

PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE

NURTURING TALENT

IN THE GENES

THE SMALL BLACKS

SENSE OF IDENTITY

More than any other nation, New Zealand do not accept defeat in their national sport. “There has been an ethos or legacy of winning since the 1905 and 1924 teams that has been carried on,” explains Kiwi author and academic Tom Johnson. The stats bear this out. The All Blacks’ win ratio of 402 victories in 526 Tests played between 1903 and 2014 is a staggering 78.23 per cent. The next best team is South Africa who have won 66.09 per cent of their 441 Test matches (281 wins). Then come England who (as of early February 2015) were on 57.2 per cent, successful in 364 of their 680 matches.

New Zealand don’t channel all their energy into dominating Test match rugby. Their under-20 side, the Baby Blacks, has also won four of the last seven world titles; the New Zealand women’s side, the Black Ferns, won four consecutive World Cup titles between 1998 and 2010; the national rugby sevens side has scooped 12 of the 15 Sevens World Series titles. Sevens coach Sir Gordon Tietjens – knighted for his rugby achievements in 2013 – has said this code is “a great sport because it teaches young players to be unified, to work hard, to be dedicated to the team and to the game”.

The 1905 squad that toured Europe weight-trained on the ship over to prepare for the matches, a form of fitness training unknown in British rugby at the time. Ever since then, the All Blacks have been rugby’s innovators, be it introducing specialist scrummaging positions on that 1905 tour or the ferocious rucking style pioneered in the 1930s. Then in the 1990s, the All Blacks revolutionised back play by selecting the mammoth Jonah Lomu and Va’aiga Tuigamala on the wings. In more recent seasons they have once again led the way by reverting to smaller, speedier backs such as Cory Jane and Ben Smith, both 14 stone – mere whippets by rugby standards.

“At international level, to be able to execute, it’s often not about skill or ability but instead having [a cool] head under pressure,” said All Black fly-half Colin Slade after his last-gasp kick had edged out Australia 29-28 in October 2014. It was the latest example of Kiwi coolness at the death. A few months earlier they had beaten England 20-15 with a try three minutes from time, while in 2013 against Ireland they clawed back a 19-0 deficit to win 24-22 with a last-minute try. Mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka is the man who makes the All Blacks mentally the strongest side in world rugby.

The All Blacks have a tradition of nurturing young talent and allowing it time to blossom at Test level. The 15 players who took to the field for New Zealand’s final match of 2014 – the victory over Wales – boasted 752 caps, yet only six had been in the starting 15 in the 2011 World Cup final. Younger players, such as wing Julian Savea and lock Brodie Retallick (the world player of the year in 2014, pictured above), had been introduced into the team in 2012 to allow them time to develop for the 2015 World Cup.

Indigenous New Zealanders, the Maoris, have been inextricably linked to rugby ever since the sport was first played in New Zealand in 1870. The first touring party to leave New Zealand was the 1888-89 Maori side that played 107 matches during a tour of the British Isles and Australia. For the big, powerful and athletic Maoris, rugby gave them a sense of identity among the Pakeha New Zealanders (the white European settlers). As of 2013 there were 35,000 Maori rugby players in New Zealand – a five percent increase on the 2008 figure. More recently the All Blacks have been further strengthened by players of Pacific island heritage, with 10 of the 38-man All Blacks squad in 2013 having Polynesian ancestry.

Every primary school in New Zealand boasts a grass playing field so that, from the age of four, kids can get used to handling rugby balls. Until the age of eight, Kiwi kids don’t tackle, kick or scrum. “Everything we do is about four key skills: catch, pass, run and evade,” explains Brent Anderson, a former All Black and now manager of New Zealand Rugby Football Union’s community programme. Once the children have mastered rugby’s basics, they are introduced to tackling at age eight. It’s not until they turn 11 that they take part in 15-a-side games.

In 1890, 20 years after rugby was introduced, there were nearly 700 clubs in New Zealand. It was a sport that appealed to the tough individualism of the white settlers who saw it as an opportunity to forge a national identity by beating the home nations of Britain at sport. “We had early success at rugby at a time when nation-building was a very important thing,” says Professor Toni Bruce, a sport sociologist at Auckland University. “New Zealand beating British teams at rugby was used by politicians to promote the virtues of the healthy, virile Kiwi lifestyle.”

POWERBOATING 11

10 POWERBOATING

THE POWER GAME POWERBOATING CLASS 1 IS THE TOP ECHELON OF OFFSHORE POWERBOAT RACING, WITH V12-ENGINED SPEEDBOATS REACHING SPEEDS OF OVER 160MPH. MULTIPLE WORLD CHAMPION STEVE CURTIS EXPLAINS HOW THEY MOVE SO FAST.

“AT SPEED, THE BOAT IS BARELY TOUCHING THE WATER. THEY’RE ESSENTIALLY FLYING. IT’S HALFWAY BETWEEN AN AEROPLANE AND A BOAT.” STEVE CURTIS, THROTTLEMAN AND TECHNICAL MANAGER FOR SPIRIT OF QATAR

SO EXPENSIVE AND HIGH-TECH is powerboat racing that, in the world’s top series – the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship – there are just six teams competing this year. Armed with V12 engines that push them to speeds of over 160mph, the five-tonne boats are crewed by a two-man team of driver and throttleman. But it’s the mechanics and design of the boats much more than the operators that make them so fast. Throttleman and technical manager Steve Curtis won the Class 1 eight times. He says the lion’s share of powerboat speed is down to the catamaran design of the boats’ hulls. “There’s a wing between the two hull sections,” he explains. “When the air goes across the wing very fast it creates lift. At speed, the boat is barely touching the water. They’re essentially flying. It’s halfway between an aeroplane and a boat.”

Then you must factor in the lightweight materials of the boats’ bodywork (mainly carbon fibre, alloys and titanium) plus the astonishingly powerful V12 Lamborghini engines (limited to 850hp). Finally there’s the design of the propellers. As Curtis explains, Class 1 uses what are called surface-piercing propellers which, at high speeds, operate half in the water, and half above the surface of the water. There is less drag because the propeller’s shaft, hub and struts are lifted out of the water. But, even more crucially, the propeller sucks air down with it as it rotates into the water. This means it’s passing through air even when it’s underwater, thereby reducing friction. This year Curtis switched from the Class 1 series to a new USA-based series called Offshore Powerboat Grand Prix (OPGP), still with the Spirit of Qatar team. He says this allows him to run even bigger engines – 1650hp instead of 850hp – and increase top speeds to around 190mph. “The acceleration is monstrous,” he says. And as we all know, sports fans love monsters. Given the greater speeds, perhaps OPGP will eventually leave Class 1 in its wake.

TIGHTROPE WALKING 13

TIGHTROPE WALKING

THE HIGH LIFE

TIGHTROPE WALKING

WIRES CROSSED

THE RIVALRY BETWEEN TWO OF TODAY’S GREATEST TIGHTROPE WALKERS IS ALMOST AS INTENSE AS THE STUNTS THEY PULL ON THE HIGH WIRES. JOHN LEWIS DISCOVERS THE CRAZY WORLD OF FUNAMBULISM.

Great moments in the history of tightrope walking.

1859 Charles Blondin crosses the Niagara Gorge (on the USA-Canada border) for the first time. He’d later do it blindfolded, in a sack, with a wheelbarrow, on stilts, in a bear costume, and with his manager on his back.

1877 Henri L’Estrange conducts three walks across Sydney’s Middle Harbour (Australia).

1917 Female Barnum & Bailey circus star Bird Millman performs outdoor high-wire walks in New York City as part of an exhibition to sell war bonds.

KARL WALLENDA, a 73-year-old circus performer, became something of a celebrity across America in 1978 when he announced that he was to cross a high wire stretched 37 metres (121 feet) between the twin towers of a 10-storey hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As always, he refused to use a net. “Nets are for women’s hair,” he scoffed. Karl knew the risks. He’d had a double hernia, an injured collarbone and arthritis, and was recovering from heart surgery. He’d also seen six members of his circus family – cousins, uncles, grandparents – die from high-wire falls. However, he believed himself invincible. He’d walked thousands of tightropes since he was a small boy, sometimes on a unicycle, sometimes doing handstands, sometimes as part of a seven-person human pyramid. This time he wasn’t so lucky. Halfway across the wire, high winds pushed him off target and he lost his balance, plunging to his death as a crowd of thousands looked on. Karl’s great-grandson, Nik Wallenda, born a year after that dramatic death, made sure he didn’t suffer the same fate. In 2011 he successfully completed the crossing in Puerto Rico that had killed Karl. In 2012 he traversed the Niagara Falls; a year later the Grand

Canyon; a year after that the Chicago River between two skyscrapers, conducting one journey blindfold. A global audience of more than a billion have watched him perform on TV. Wallenda pursues a noble tradition that has its origins in Ancient Greece, spread to Rome around the 2nd Century AD, and became hugely popular across Europe during the Middle Ages. Funambulists, as they were known, used to ascend inclined ropes attached to high bell towers and cathedrals, often dancing above the heads of spectators at public events. In London, at the coronation of Edward VI in 1547, a performer walked on a wire from St Paul’s Cathedral to the River Thames. Around this time, ropewalkers would regularly perform at St Peter’s Square in Venice. By 1560 Parisian priests were complaining that parishioners were deserting Sunday Mass to watch funambulists. In response, city authorities had the latter restricted to the run-down suburbs. French aristocracy and clergy hated ropewalking, but the people loved it. After the Revolution it became a symbol of French liberty, with renowned ropewalkers such as Pierre Forioso and Madame Saqui performing for Napoleon. Then the tightrope walker became a staple of the circus and the vaudeville show –

usually aided by a safety net and a harness. By the mid-19th century Charles Blondin emerged as a huge star in France before travelling to America and staging a series of ropewalks over the Niagara Falls in 1859. More than a century later, another French master crossed the Atlantic to pull off the most audacious tightrope walk in history. It was August 7, 1974 when New Yorkers saw Philippe Petit walking the 60-metre (200-foot) void between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 110 storeys above the streets of Manhattan. Petit spent 45 minutes on the wire, crossing eight times, performing tricks and taunting police officers as they tried to capture him. The event has since become the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary, Man On A Wire, which captured the months of painstaking preparation – the reconnaissance missions, the faked security cards, the 450lbs of steel cable hidden in a store cupboard, and the bow and arrow used to connect the high wire across the towers. Petit had already performed grand stunts in Paris and Sydney, and would go on to perform a world tour. But he and Nik Wallenda represent very different approaches to tightrope walking. Wallenda is the seventh-generation

“TIGHTROPE WALKING SHOULD BE OPERA ON A WIRE. TO WALK WITH BIRDS, TO DEFY DEATH, TO BE AT ONE WITH NATURE. IT IS A SPIRITUAL THING.” TIGHTROPE WALKER PHILIPPE PETIT (BELOW)

member of a circus family who has found a way of monetising his stunts using pay-per-view TV deals and corporate sponsorship. Petit, by contrast – despite some huge spectacles in Israel, Austria, Japan, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland – has made little money and has turned down sponsorship deals. Petit is a charismatic intellectual and atheist, with celebrity friends. Wallenda, by contrast, is a family man and born-again Christian who thanks God after every crossing. The two have fallen out spectacularly. For 30 years Petit had been planning to cross Hellhole Bend, a gorge in the Grand Canyon, consulting Navajo Indian tribes and studying the geology. In 2013 Wallenda found the exact same spot and crossed it, live on cable TV. Petit was furious. “If that person was another artist with a creative soul then maybe my anger would turn into respect,” said Petit. “But I know this person will just get his ass across, as they say sometimes in America, and nothing else.” For Petit, Wallenda is graceless and workmanlike, forced to use safety harnesses. “Tightrope walking should be opera on a wire,” Petit insists. “To walk with birds, to defy death, to be at one with nature. It is a spiritual thing. It should not be cheapened by commercialism.”

1919 Australian Con Colleano performs the first recorded forward somersault on a wire.

1962 Czech Rudy Omankowski Jr. makes a 1,250-metre (4,100-foot) skywalk between two mountains in the Vosges (France). It is, to date, the longest ever tightrope walk recorded.

1998 Canadian Jay Cochrane records the longest and highest blindfolded skywalk – 240 metres (800 feet) long and 91 metres (300 feet) high – in Las Vegas, USA.

2010 Adili Wuxor lives for 60 days on a wire at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium in China.

Main image: Karl Wallenda walks above Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium in 1976.

14 AMERICAN FOOTBALL

AMERICAN FOOTBALL 15

NEW Y RK C NFIRMS

AMERICAN FOOTBALL FROM HIS COMMAND CENTRE IN NEW YORK CITY, DEAN BLANDINO OVERSEES OFFICIATING IN EVERY NFL GAME EVER PLAYED. ED SMITH MEETS HIM ON A BUSY GAME DAY.

DEAN BLANDINO, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, runs perhaps the most sophisticated and highly evolved form of adjudication in world sport. The main man at Art McNally GameDay Central – NFL’s New York City-based officiating command centre – he uses cuttingedge technology to monitor and review ambiguous or illegal actions on the field of play. “My job,” he says, “is making sure a referee doesn’t make a mistake.” This principle of “preventative officiating” lies at the heart of the NFL’s innovative approach. “On average, there are three mistakes per game,

one of which will be overturned on review,” Blandino explains. “That’s about 98 per cent accuracy overall.” That is exceptionally high compared to most sports. But Blandino sounds matter-of-fact, as though he’s aiming for more. From the moment the week’s matches kick off, Art McNally GameDay Central (named after one of American football’s most legendary officials) becomes the NFL’s nerve centre. High up in an imposing skyscraper in midtown Manhattan – think global big business, not charming sports memorabilia – the video review facility captures every match, every play, from every angle. The scene feels like NASA before lift-off. 88 gleaming television screens interrogate each aspect of the ten NFL games that are being simultaneously broadcast. A team of 20 NFL staff monitors the action across all the matches. Blandino mostly stands in the middle of the room, partly watching the screens himself, partly overseeing the whole scene. After each play is completed, video analysts slow down the action, freezing and restarting the pictures with X-Box-style consoles. A second or two later, a message from New York is fed back to the headsets of on-field umpires – even

AFTER EACH PLAY IS COMPLETED, VIDEO ANALYSTS SLOW DOWN THE ACTION, FREEZING AND RESTARTING THE PICTURES WITH X-BOX-STYLE CONSOLES. A SECOND OR TWO LATER, A MESSAGE FROM NEW YORK IS FED BACK TO THE HEADSETS OF ON-FIELD UMPIRES.

Dean Blandino, the NFL’s officiating guru.

though they are hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles away. Usually the crucial phrase from GameDay Central is “New York confirms”, signifying that the on-field verdict will stand. It is when New York does not confirm, however, that the system comes into its own. Like rugby and cricket, the NFL has a decision review system. Challenges can be issued by team coaches who disagree with the on-field verdict. The analysts at GameDay Central gather the evidence before the on-field umpire reaches his own replay monitor by the touchline. “If there is a tight play,” Blandino explains, “I’m already looking at it before the challenge flag is shown.” By anticipating which plays will be reviewed, GameDay Central shaves two minutes off the average length of an NFL game. The second type of review is issued by on-field officials who want a second opinion. In reality, this is two-way traffic, with New York constantly guiding the on-field officials. There is enormous potential for stress inside GameDay Central. Think about it. The destiny of whole matches, seasons, careers – all hingeing on the assessment of people who are entirely removed from the action, without any physical or emotional connection to the drama

out on the field of play. In that context, players and coaches have almost zero tolerance for mistakes. But the mood is not frantic and anxious, instead it’s business-like and measured. Blandino radiates judicious confidence and the whole room takes its lead from him. As athletes have to learn, concentration, far from being a strained or willed state of mind, is actually the absence of irrelevant thought. That is why great players, at moments of apparently epic stress, seem so calm. They keep things simple, even when the task is complex. The same is true of officiating. In fact, Blandino’s attitude to his job – deep knowledge, constant self-improvement, the desire to move forward as well as to master existing technology – is reminiscent of top athletes. Above all, he seems to be doing the job he was born to do. One day, with luck, every elite sport – even those that cannot afford the high-tech wizardry of GameDay Central – will expect the same attitude from every top umpire or referee. Populous planned the last 31 Super Bowls for the NFL. The 2015 venue in Phoenix, Arizona, is also one of the 15 current NFL stadia designed by Populous.

USA CONFIRMS All of the United States’ top four sports now use centralised video replay facilities. In addition to the NFL’s Art McNally GameDay Central, the National Hockey League has its Situation Room, based in the Canadian city of Toronto; Major League Baseball has its Replay Operations Center, in New York City; the National Basketball Association was last to jump on the bandwagon, opening its Replay Center in Secaucus, New Jersey, at the start of the 2014/2015 season.

REAL TENNIS 17

REAL TENNIS

REAL LIFE

REAL TENNIS REAL TENNIS (OR COURT TENNIS, AS IT’S KNOWN IN THE USA) IS STRUGGLING TO RECRUIT NEW PLAYERS. ROB FAHEY (LEFT), WORLD CHAMPION FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS, TELLS DOMINIC BLISS HOW HE’S TRYING TO REVERSE THE SPORT’S DECLINE.

Photos: Nathan Gallagher

UNBELIEVABLY, FAHEY HAS BEEN UNINTERRUPTED WORLD CHAMPION FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS. IT’S AN ACCOLADE AND A TOTAL DOMINANCE RARELY SEEN IN ANY SPORT. WELL OVER US$1 MILLION to build a court. No wonder the sport of real tennis can boast only 40 or so courts across the entire planet. With facilities so sparse, recruiting new players is obviously a tough call. Generous estimates are there are fewer than 8,000 active players worldwide – and with so few youngsters signing up, the average age of them is getting older with every year that passes. One man determined to buck this trend is Rob Fahey, the current real tennis world champion. He has helped establish a charity in the UK (one of just four countries worldwide, alongside Australia, France and the USA, to have real tennis courts) that introduces school kids to the sport. It’s called the Dedanists Foundation, named after the dedans (French for ‘inside’), the opening on a real tennis court behind the server. Fahey admits that both the lack of facilities and the perception that real tennis is an elitist sport (a false perception, he counters) are immense barriers to newcomers. Then there’s the utter dearth of television coverage, the old-fashioned, asymmetrical wooden rackets, the handmade cork-and-wool balls, the

droopy net, and the frankly quite bizarre court anatomy with various window-like openings – the galleries, the hazards, the grille and the aforementioned dedans. (See diagram.) Finally there are the sport’s complex rules, including something called a chase, where the outcome of a point is suspended so that a player who fails to return the ball is given the chance of bettering his opponent’s winning shot the following point. Confusing? Yes. Despite these barriers, Fahey is in a better position than anyone to inspire the next generation of real tennis players. Not only is he the current world champion, but, unbelievably, he’s been uninterrupted world champion for the last 20 years. It’s an accolade and a total dominance rarely seen in any sport. The real tennis world championships are normally staged every two years. Fahey first won them back in 1994, and then defended them successfully, without a break, up until the last championship in 2014. He’s 46 years old now. So far, middle age hasn’t sapped his winning ability. Real tennis takes place within a four-walled court so that balls hit against the walls are often funnelled

into a fairly small area of play, meaning older, more experienced players can still reach them. Then there are the many kill shots struck hard and fast to the opposite end of the court. “You could be Usain Bolt but you’re not going to get near those because the ball is going so fast,” Fahey explains. He has also been exceedingly lucky never to get injured in the lead-up to a world championship. “In this sport you might have a bad injury mid-season but still have 18 months left until the world championships. So you’re fine. Compare that to a soccer player who has a bad injury mid-season. That’s his whole season screwed.” Fahey lives in London these days but originally hails from the Australian island of Tasmania. His introduction to the sport was through a court built in the Tasmanian capital Hobart in the 1800s by a wealthy trader called Samuel Smith Travers. It’s the oldest court in Australia. For most of his life Fahey has earned a living through coaching real tennis (in all four of the real tennis nations) and fairly modest amounts of prize money and sponsorship.

Recently, however, with one eye on the future, he has been working for a London financial firm. This second career behind a desk is sure to earn him a lot more money than his first career on the court did. That’s the problem with little-known sports that rarely feature on TV. If Fahey had been world champion for the last 20 years in tennis or golf or Formula 1, for example, he’d be the richest sportsman on the planet. “It’s been an amazing career and I’ve loved every bit of it but if I could snap my fingers and be Cristiano Ronaldo for 20 years…” He suddenly breaks off. “Actually I wouldn’t choose Ronaldo. I’d love to be a good golfer instead. 20 years of strolling around the golf course, getting a million dollars just for turning up at a tournament. Golfers have the best possible life, don’t they?” Of course, if he’d opted for golf, Fahey would be one of many small fish in a big pond. In real tennis, he’s arguably the biggest fish the sport has ever seen. Since the real tennis world championships first started all the way back in the 1700s, there have been just 24 world champions. (The event used to be far more infrequent than every two years.) The only one of those close to Fahey’s record 12 world titles is a French player called Pierre Etchebaster who won the title eight times between 1928 and 1952. “There’s always been a debate about me versus Etchebaster,” Fahey says when asked if he considers himself the greatest player of all

time. “But how can you ever measure this in the first place? And who cares who’s better? Once you’ve made it to the final two, I’ll take that.” Although he’s threatened to retire before, Fahey insists 2016 will be his last ever world championship. “I’m trying to tell as many people as I can so that whatever happens in 2016, I’m definitely done,” he says firmly. But that won’t be the end of the Fahey dynasty by any means. His wife Claire is the female world champion, and since she’s only 23, she still has a long career ahead of her. So dominant is she in the women’s game that she’s started competing in men’s tournaments. Husband currently coaches wife. “She recently competed in the men’s British Open,” Fahey says of his other half. “She’s so far ahead of everyone in the women’s game, it’s just weird.” Imagine if future Fahey offspring took up the sport. The current male world champion looks horrified at the prospect. “Straight into golf,” he says without a moment’s hesitation. Tomorrow’s champions, it seems, will have to emerge from his charity, the Dedanists Foundation, instead.

REAL TENNIS COURTS ARE THEY THE WORLD’S STRANGEST SPORTS VENUES?

SIDE PENTHOUSE

SERVICE WALL

LAST GALLERY

SECOND GALLERY

DOOR GALLERY

FIRST GALLERY

FIRST GALLERY HAZARD

DOOR GALLERY HAZARD

SECOND GALLERY HAZARD

WINNING GALLERY SERVICE PENTHOUSE GRILLE PENTHOUSE GRILLE

THE REAL DEAL

Populous has created new show courts and arenas for lawn tennis venues Wimbledon and the Australian Open. In London, Populous is masterplanning the famous Lord’s Cricket Ground, home to one of the world’s few real tennis courts.

Real tennis pre-dates all the other racket sports by hundreds of years. Although it has its origins in an early form of French handball called jeu de paume, it wasn’t until the 16th Century that rackets were used and the court moved to an enclosed area. By the late 1500s it was so popular in France that there were reportedly around 250 courts in Paris alone.

FAULT LINE

GENEROUS ESTIMATES ARE THERE ARE FEWER THAN 8,000 ACTIVE PLAYERS WORLDWIDE. WITH SO FEW YOUNGSTERS SIGNING UP, THE AVERAGE AGE OF THEM IS GETTING OLDER.

SERVICE LINE

HAZARD END DEDANS

TAMBOUR Over the Channel, in England, it was King Henry VIII who famously espoused the sport, especially on his court at Hampton Court. Legend has it his doomed wife Anne Boleyn was arrested while watching tennis, and that Henry himself was playing the sport when he was told of her execution.

THE MARKER

SERVICE END Rob Fahey (far end) practises at Queen’s Club in London.

The sport waned somewhat under English Puritanism and after the French Revolution, before enjoying a revival in Victorian times when it was exported to Australia and the USA. By the start of the 20th Century it had been eclipsed by the newer lawn tennis.

COMEDY

HOW MUCH IS A LAUGH WORTH? One US dollar? Fifty cents? At one theatre in the Spanish city of Barcelona the box office decided to charge audience members 0.30 Euros per laugh, with facial recognition software embedded in seat backs detecting and counting every theatre-goer’s individual chortle. At the end of the show each visitor was presented with a bill corresponding precisely to their evening’s enjoyment. “Entrance is completely free,” boasted signs outside the theatre in April 2014 when the system was last used. “If the show doesn’t make you laugh, you don’t pay anything. But if you laugh, you’ll have to pay.” Just in case certain spectators got over-excited, the maximum bill payable was capped at 24 Euros, or 80 laughs.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE CLEVERLY ANALYSES EACH PERSON’S FACIAL SHAPE DURING A PERFORMANCE: THE ANGLE OF THE MOUTH; WHETHER THE MOUTH IS OPEN OR CLOSED; THE ARC OF THE EYES.

It was a genius idea borne out of economic necessity. In 2013 the Spanish government increased the tax on theatre performance from eight to 11 per cent, causing audiences to drop by a third. Teatreneu, an independent theatre in Barcelona, decided to fight back. Teaming up with advertising agency The Cyranos McCann, they implemented their revolutionary pay-per-laugh system for a series of improvised comedy shows called ImproShow. “The aim was to break down consumers’ reluctance to choose a form of leisure like the theatre and so build up audience numbers and at the same time increase average ticket prices,” explains The Cyranos McCann. “The strategy was to design a ground-breaking, attractive and fair system of payment whereby they would only pay at the end and according to the laughs generated by the show.” Ticket prices rose by an average of six Euros, while the inevitable publicity increased attendance by 35 per cent. The theatre and agency are now planning to revive the system at Teatreneu for April 2015. There is healthy interest from other theatre and cinema owners across Spain, and globally in USA, France, South Korea and Finland. Oriol Bombi was part of the team at The Cyranos McCann which originally devised the system. He explains how the computer software – created by Barcelona company Glassworks –

cleverly analyses each person’s facial shape during a performance: the angle of the mouth; whether the mouth is open or closed; the arc of the eyes. Bombi is confident his system will revolutionise the world of comedy. He says “it’s a fair deal for spectators because they pay only if they laugh”. But he also feels it removes much of the risk for theatre owners wishing to book unproven acts. Stand-up comedy, for example, could benefit enormously. “Venue owners might say: ‘I will pay you only if you make them laugh a certain number of times’,” he explains. “And it ensures comedians work much harder to please their audiences.” He says pay per laugh also adds an extra element to the whole theatrical experience since spectators can watch themselves laughing on the computer screen, and then share their glee on social media if they so please. Different comedy fans of course have massively different comic tastes and thresholds. One man’s belly laugh is merely another man’s chuckle. Which begs the question of whether some of the visitors to Teatreneu were able to avoid laughing altogether. “Absolutely,” says Bombi. “There were people who tried to cheat the system. At the start they were trying not to laugh. But if the play was good enough they soon forgot about that and let themselves go.”

Illustration: Kellan Stover

A COMEDY THEATRE IN SPAIN IS USING COMPUTER SOFTWARE TO CHARGE SPECTATORS EVERY TIME THEY LAUGH. DOMINIC BLISS FINDS OUT IF THIS COULD REVOLUTIONISE LIVE SHOWS WORLDWIDE.

S TZ LUB R LU 25 C EPE T E A K L ED GOA LAY HAN ER CER E’S P MORE T C C H C O . S D SO ITH S LE ONG LIFE L HA ENTS, W URES AL MAN. AT A E I H T W T E NS TIN VEN S TH NNE X CON D AD S MEET I PFA S N S A R S OS NDE APE ACR SCR RIS SAU W E AF . CH WAY THE

HE MAY NOT BE a household name, but his exploits are certainly the stuff of legend. Lutz Pfannenstiel has played goalkeeper for 25 soccer clubs in 13 countries, in the process becoming the first person to play professional football in all six FIFA confederations. Along the way he’s been jailed in Singapore, lived in an igloo for charity, kidnapped a penguin, been carjacked, played against David Beckham, and died on the pitch. Three times. It could all have been so different. Born in the small Bavarian town of Zwiesel, Pfannenstiel represented Germany at youth level and, after a stint at lower league club 1. FC Bad Kotzting, almost signed a contract at giants Bayern Munich. “At 17, I was the best goalkeeper in my age group in the country,” he says. “My confidence was very high. If they had offered me a full professional contract, I probably would have signed. But they only offered me a reserve team contract. I knew I wouldn’t be happy in the reserves.” So, while still a teenager, Pfannenstiel packed his bags and headed to Malaysia where he won his first professional contract at Penang FA. His soccer odyssey had begun. “I’m a chameleon. Spin the globe, throw me somewhere, and I’ll

adapt. For me, the amount of money on offer was much less important than playing regularly.” Referring to his nomadic lifestyle in his book The Incredible Adventures of the Unstoppable Keeper, he says: “Try to imagine what it’s like to move on every year, usually to a different country, and be watched by hundreds of thousands of highly emotional spectators whenever you go to work.” Over the next seven years he played for clubs in England, Finland, Germany and South Africa, before finding himself on the books of Geylang United in Singapore. There, his career was savagely derailed when he was caught up in a match-fixing scandal. Bizarrely, he was accused of making “suspiciously good saves,” and sentenced to five months in one of the worst prisons in the world. He was released after 101 days for good behaviour, and now talks openly about the physical and mental abuse he suffered at the hands of both the authorities and other prisoners. “I took all the negative things out of my brain,” he says. “Being beaten up, treated like an animal, losing my dignity. I learned how to be a better person. Apart from what happened in Singapore, I have a clean police record all over

the world. Anyone with half a brain looks at my case and says, ‘What the heck is that?’.” By his own admission, after leaving prison, Pfannenstiel was a broken man. He needed to rebuild his career, so he moved to England to sign for non-league Bradford Park Avenue. Fitness restored, his next stop was New Zealand, where he once stole a penguin from a nature reserve and beat up a cat burglar. However, he soon grew restless. Soccer seasons in various parts of the world run on different cycles, meaning there is always someone playing somewhere. For a man like Pfannenstiel, the opportunities are endless. Having already formed a strong bond with Bradford Park Avenue, in late 2001 he returned to the Yorkshire club on loan. This led to the second life-changing (and very nearly life-ending) event in the

“MY LUNGS COLLAPSED, I SUFFERED MAJOR ORGAN FAILURE, AND MY HEART STOPPED BEATING. I BASICALLY DIED THREE TIMES. THE MATCH WAS ABANDONED.”

German’s long and storied career. “What happened?” he says, arching an eyebrow. “During a match on Boxing Day I went to the ground and tried to scoop up the ball. Clayton Donaldson, the forward who was running in, fell over me, and his knee went into my sternum. It was like someone hitting the off switch. My lungs collapsed, I suffered major organ failure, and my heart stopped beating. I basically died three times. The match was abandoned, and I woke up in hospital hours later. Not knowing what had happened, the first thing I did was get angry about being substituted. The people at the hospital thought I was insane!” Evidently, not even clinically dying three times can keep a good man down because, just a week later, he was back between the sticks. “I was mentally killed in Singapore, and physically killed in Yorkshire,” he explains. “But I’m a positive person. I had to overcome the fear. Even now, if I go to watch the team, the stadium announcer will say, “Please welcome the man who gave his life for Bradford Park Avenue!’.” In his book Pfannenstiel says he loves soccer so much that he would willingly have died for the sport. What he laments most about his near-death experience, however, was the

less-than-gorgeous club physio who gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the pitch. “I only ever received mouth to mouth once but, instead of Pamela Anderson giving me the kiss of life, I end up with a sweaty smacker from a 60-year-old Yorkshireman.” Incredibly, Pfannenstiel made a full recovery and was soon playing professional soccer again, the next phase of his career taking him to Norway, Canada, Albania and Armenia. “By 2008, I had played on five continents. One day my agent called me and said I could be the first person to play professional soccer on six. A few months later I became the first ever German in the Brazilian league. As a kid, it was always my dream to play in South America. I finally achieved that dream at 35, and one of the proudest moments of my career was when I ran out on the pitch at the legendary Maracana Stadium. That great feeling lasted about ten minutes, right up until the opposition scored against me.” Having so much life experience has given Pfannenstiel a level of insight that eludes most. “When I look back, there were decisions I made that could be considered questionable,” he admits. “But you have to find your own way. The role of the goalkeeper has changed a lot over the

years. In my time he was just the big, ugly guy at the back who kicked or punched the ball as hard as he could. Now it’s probably the most important position on the pitch. He is the first attacker, and the last defender.” After hanging up his playing boots, Pfannenstiel went into coaching and management, and now holds a full-time position at Bundesliga club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. “I’ve worked there since 2011, which is a long time for me,” he jokes. As head of international relations and scouting, his role includes transfers, training camps and searching out new players. There’s also lots of media work, coach instructing for FIFA and the German FA, and his charity, Global Football FC. “That is my baby,” he says. “My life used to be all about cars, clothes, shoes and women. It was very superficial. After my experiences, I decided to give something back. The great thing is I can combine everything because soccer is the glue that holds everything together.” Populous-designed soccer grounds around the world include London’s Wembley Stadium, Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium, Sydney’s ANZ Stadium and the MLS stadia in Houston and Kansas City.

22 SOCCER

SOCCER 23

8 7

17 23 28 27 12 13 15 4 3

19 24

91 14

EON. L E M A CH “I’M A HE GLOBE, SPIN T ME THROW HERE, SOMEWLL ADAPT.” AND I’

2 10 6

y is raph . biog blishing o t u a u tiel’s Sports P s n e n ision Pfan Lutz hed by V s li b pu

18 11 20 16

ITCHY FEET Lutz Pfannenstiel is the only soccer player to compete professionally in all six FIFA confederations – Europe, Asia, Africa, North & Central America, South America and Oceania. His CV reads like the back of a pop-band T-shirt, and his air-miles account is bulging, as evidenced by this map.

1991–1993

1. FC Bad Kotzting (Germany) 2

1993–1994

Penang FC (Malaysia) 3

1994–1995 Wimbledon FC (England)

1995–1996

Nottingham Forest (England)

Tampereen Pallo-Veikot (Finland)

1996–1997 Orlando Pirates (South Africa) (on loan)

1997

Sembawang Rangers (Singapore)

1997–1998

1998 FC Haka (Finland)

1998–1999 SV Wacker Burghausen (Germany)

1999–2000

Geylang United (Singapore)

2001

Dunedin Technical (New Zealand) 12

2001–2002 Bradford Park Avenue (England) (on loan)

2001–2002

Huddersfield Town (England)

2002 2002–2003 Bradford Park Avenue (England)

Dunedin Technical (New Zealand) 17

ASV Cham (Germany) 15

2002 2003

Baerum SK (Norway) 18

2003 Dunedin Technical (New Zealand)

2004

Calgary Mustangs (Canada)

FC Bentonit Ijevan (Armenia) (player-manager)

2004–2006 Otago United (New Zealand)

2007

2007 Vancouver Whitecaps FC (Canada)

2008

America FC (Brazil) 26

2008–2009 Flekkeroy Idrettslag (Norway)

2009 IL Manglerud Star (Norway) (player-coach)

2008 Clube Atletico Hermann Aichinger (Brazil)

Baerum SK (Norway)

2006–2007 KF Vllaznia Shkoder (Albania)

2007

2009–2010 Ramblers FC (Namibia) (player-coach & technical director)

HORSE RACING 25

DRINKERS OF THE WIND

THE BRITISH have their cricket, the Americans have their baseball and the Middle East has its Arabian horse racing. Just as cricket and baseball have been exported abroad, so Arabian racing is now reaching as far afield as Europe, America and Australia. Arabian horses – known in Arabic folklore as ‘drinkers of the wind’ – are sensitive, fiery and headstrong animals, and have played an essential role in the history and tradition of the Middle East. Held in the highest esteem by the rulers of the Arabian Peninsula, where for centuries they have competed in the deserts of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar (and further afield in Iraq and Egypt), Arabians are now regularly seen at famous Western racecourses such as Ascot, Longchamp, Santa Anita Park or Moonee Valley. In the West, knowledge of the purebred Arabian had, up until not very long ago, been almost non-existent. Recognised as the foundation sires of the English Thoroughbred, purebred Arabians have in fact for centuries lived in the shadow of their admittedly much faster relatives. In Britain and the United States, where Thoroughbred racing has enjoyed more than 200 years of history, breeders found it difficult to embrace the purebred Arabian, believing that only the English Thoroughbred was worthy of being classed as a racehorse. That antiquated perception is, however, slowly fading as Arabian horse races are becoming more common and providing just as much excitement as their Thoroughbred counterparts. Over the last decade purebred Arabian races have made their way onto the cards of some of the most prestigious race meetings in the world – Paris’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, for example, or Doncaster’s St Leger. The rise of Arabian racing is closely linked to important partnership deals between Middle Eastern powerhouses and major sporting events. The rulers of Dubai (most notably Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum) have always ensured that while they embraced and supported the Western sport of Thoroughbred racing, they also continued to uphold their own tradition of Arabian racing. Sheikh Hamdan’s UK-based Shadwell Stud, for instance, stands both Thoroughbred and Arabian stallions. In 2008 Qatar agreed to a multi-million-dollar sponsorship deal with the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on the condition that a purebred Arabian race (now known as the Qatar Arabian World Cup) would feature on the main card. Worth one million Euros, it is the world’s richest race for Arabian horses. Meanwhile, in the United States, a group 1 race for Arabians (the President of the UAE Cup Stakes) has featured on the same card as the Preakness Stakes, one of the top three American Thoroughbred races,

ARABIAN HORSES HORSE RACING ARABIAN HORSE RACING, SO LONG IN THE SHADOW OF THE MORE GLOBALLY POPULAR THOROUGHBRED RACING, IS FINALLY GETTING THE RECOGNITION IT DESERVES. LIZ PRICE, FROM PARIS-TURF NEWSPAPER, ADMIRES THESE ‘DRINKERS OF THE WIND’, AS THEY’RE KNOWN IN ARABIC.

The most significant physiological difference between the Arabian and the Thoroughbred is the number of vertebrae: 23 in the former and 24 in the latter. The Arabian is also smaller in stature and can be identified by its chiselled head and slightly dished face. It also has a high tail carriage and a more arching neck than a Thoroughbred.

Arabian horses in full racing action.

“YOU MUST NURTURE ARABIAN HORSES THROUGH A RACE AND CONVINCE THEM TO WIN. THEY ARE VERY INTELLIGENT AND CAN TAKE EVEN THE MOST EXPERIENCED JOCKEY BY SURPRISE.” CHAMPION JOCKEY OLIVIER PESLIER

thereby introducing thousands of new fans to Arabian racing. The Breeders’ Cup, one of the biggest equestrian events in North America, has also played host to that race. However, while the sport has taken off in terms of prestige and exposure, it is still struggling to expand and to attract more Western owners. In the UK, for example, Arabian racing is still an amateur sport, while countries like Holland and Germany don’t have enough breeders to supply the numbers needed for an extensive racing programme. As a consequence, many major events such as the Dubai Kahayla Classic, the opener on Dubai World Cup Night at Meydan Racecourse, and HH The Emir’s Sword in Qatar, remain firmly in the hands of Middle Eastern owners. As for the jockeys, not all of them are able to switch from Thoroughbreds to Arabians. Because of their individuality, their intelligence and their quirkiness, Arabians offer a far less straightforward ride. As Epsom Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe-winning French jockey Olivier Peslier says: “You have to be much more patient with Arabians. You must nurture them through a race and kind of convince them to win. They are very intelligent and can take even the most experienced jockey by surprise.” Populous has worked on new facilities at famous racetracks including Ascot in the UK, Happy Valley in Hong Kong, and Churchill Downs in Kentucky, USA.

TRACK AND FIELD 27 JUMPS RECORDS in athletics have survived countless attacks over the past two decades. While running events have seen a quantum leap in performances, the best marks for high, long and triple jump have not improved by a single centimetre. If these stubborn records are ever going to fall, what will it take? “A conspiracy of factors,” believes Dan Pfaff, jumps coach at the World Athletics Center in Phoenix, Arizona. These include improvements in everything from training and technique to synthetic surfaces and shoes. Increased media coverage and prize money would also help by luring more talented athletes to these disciplines. And what about atmospheric

Populous-designed athletics stadia have hosted the Sydney 2000 and London 2012 Olympic Games, the Incheon 2014 Asian Games, and the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

HIGH JUMP

LONG JUMP

TRIPLE JUMP

Dick Fosbury, the inventor of the flop technique that has dominated high jump for the past 40 years, once predicted he would see a jump of 2.50m in his lifetime. “But 2.45m seems a mental and physical barrier,” he said recently.

“The long jump is technically static,” says Olympic coach Tom McNab. “What separates the best from the rest, in a technical sense, is their steering ability. The key to long jumping is arriving at the take-off board in balance and with the correct postural fix. Only then can an effective vertical take-off strike be made.”

Olympic coach Tom McNab says of Jonathan Edwards’ world triple jump record: “No jumper will ever match his technique. He was a joy to watch, flowing easily from one phase to the next in perfect balance.”

Pfaff believes poor training is to blame. “Athletes and coaches are not having a broad enough vision of the trends in their event,” he says. “For example, I see high jumpers running 300-metre workouts in the autumn, which has absolutely no biological contribution to high jump at all.” Furthermore, Pfaff is critical of standards of sports medicine. “If you look at world junior medallists and why they fail so badly, in nearly every case it’s an injury they never got back from. As sports medicine evolves and athletes are able to string together more training sessions then we might see some movement towards these older records.”

ONE JUMP AHEAD

conditions? Long and triple jumpers always hope for the maximum allowable tailwind speed of two metres per second, while the thin air that helped Bob Beamon to his groundbreaking world long jump record of 8.90 metres at the 1968 Mexico Olympics is also beneficial. While the triple jump world records were broken in the mid-1990s, the long jump and high jump world records have stood even longer.

Certainly, we are unlikely to see new techniques such as the Fosbury flop, which revolutionised an event previously dominated by the straddle jump. “We have reached a point where there is unlikely to be much radical change in technique in any event,” says Olympic coach Tom McNab. “What we are seeing is a gradual standardisation; a coalescence of techniques throughout the world.”

Consequently, breaking the record is not as simple as sticking Usain Bolt on the runway. World record-holder Mike Powell explains: “If you think about it in a physics way, speed times height equals distance. You’ve got to go as fast as you can but at a speed that you can control.” Pfaff, who coached Greg Rutherford to Olympic long jump gold in 2012, says: “I’m a bit of a reactionary. Physics is physics, biomechanics is biomechanics and kinesiology is kinesiology. If you watch Jesse Owens long jump, the event really hasn’t changed much since the 1930s. He was taking 14 strides on a dirt track and jumped eight metres. Today, guys run 18 or 20 steps, so they are carrying greater velocity and they’re on much better tracks, yet eight metres is still a good jump.” Given this, Pfaff adds bluntly “As coaches, we are failing the event.” He does, however, mention one uncomfortable, unavoidable factor. “Current drug testing and the biological passport have changed the field somewhat. I don’t want to write it all off to that, because there are pretty clean athletes knocking on the door now, but it takes more time and it is harder in this era of doping control.”

FACTORS INCLUDE TRAINING, TECHNIQUE, SYNTHETIC SURFACES, SHOES, INCREASED MEDIA COVERAGE, PRIZE MONEY AND ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS.

RECORDS

TRACK AND FIELD THE WORLD RECORDS IN HIGH, LONG AND TRIPLE JUMP HAVE REMAINED UNCHALLENGED SINCE THE 1990S. JASON HENDERSON, EDITOR OF ATHLETICS WEEKLY, FINDS OUT WHAT’S NEEDED TO FINALLY BREAK THE STRANGLEHOLD.

RECORDS MEN

WOMEN

MEN

2.45m

2.09m

8.95m

Javier Sotomayor (Cuba) 1993

Stefka Kostadinova (Bulgaria) 1987

Peter Stanley, Edwards’ coach, laments the fact that no current jumpers have the generation of speed to and from the board, plus the rhythm, agility and balance to conserve that energy throughout the phases. “If there is a template to break Jonathan’s superb world record, it will be a very light athlete with great strength-to-weight ratio,” he says. “He will be fast, agile and have the ability to control his body shapes whilst resisting external landing forces and creating energy from fast contacts. All while maintaining a disciplined stability throughout.”

Mike Powell (USA) 1991

WOMEN

MEN

7.52m

18.29m

Galina Chistyakova (Soviet Union) 1988

Jonathan Edwards (Great Britain) 1995

WOMEN

15.50m

Inessa Kravets (Ukraine) 1995

28 POP STAR

“IT’S ABOUT FREEDOM. IT’S LIKE WHEN YOU TURN 16 AND YOUR FATHER GIVES YOU THE KEYS TO THE CAR FOR THE FIRST TIME. BUT THIS IS EVEN BEYOND THAT BECAUSE YOU HAVE THREEDIMENSIONAL FREEDOM.”

POP STAR POPULOUS SENIOR PRINCIPAL CHRIS CARVER HAS A PASSION FOR AVIATION. HE FLIES AEROPLANES, HE LIVES THEM, HE BREATHES THEM. HE EVEN MAKES MODELS OF THEM.

CHRIS CARVER is a self-confessed aviation geek. The walls of his house are adorned with aircraft memorabilia, and he pores over “all the magazines and all the books”. Downstairs in his basement he constructs radio-controlled model aircraft. Most importantly, at his local airport he keeps two small aeroplanes that he flies in his spare time. Other men his age play golf or tennis. Chris takes to the skies. “It’s about freedom,” says this Populous founder and senior principal who works at the company’s Kansas City, Missouri office. “It’s like when you turn 16 years old and your father gives you the keys to the car for the first time. But this is even beyond that because you have threedimensional freedom. You can go anywhere you want at any time.” Chris also admits he gets a thrill from the danger involved. He is qualified to fly under both visual flight rules (where clear weather allows him to see where he’s flying) and instrument flight rules (where bad weather means he relies solely on instruments). Under the latter, “your ability to survive is based on how well you’ve trained and how much you have your head in the game,” he explains. “You have to be tremendously focused to fly in those conditions – when you can’t see the ground, and you’ve no idea apart from your instruments whether you’re right side up, upside down, diving into the ground, or climbing into a stall.” Two years ago Chris experienced his hairiest moment at the controls. He was flying

west from Kansas City to Denver when the weather deteriorated and he was forced to fly under instrument flight rules. “For an hour and a half I had no reference to the ground at all,” he remembers. “Approaching Denver, I didn’t actually come out of the clouds and see the runway until I was 300 feet above the ground. I’m talking to air traffic control, he’s giving me vectors and keeping me out of the way of other aircraft. There are lots of big commercial aeroplanes flying round there because it’s close to Denver International Airport. You see that altimeter drop and you’re getting closer and closer to the ground. Then at the last minute the runway appears right in front of you. Let’s say you’re very focused at that point, very aware that you’re alive.” Chris first took up flying ten years ago. Since then he has ticked off the various qualifications, and has clocked up around 700 hours of flying time. He now owns a Piper Arrow II and a Cirrus SR22 which he keeps at his local airport – the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City. (“Just a stone’s throw away from my office.”) Most of the flights he makes are for vacations – to Alabama, Texas, Colorado – although he has been known to commute on the wing to Populous board meetings in Denver. “Much better than driving or a commercial flight,” he says. He has yet to convince his wife of the benefits of private air travel. “Interestingly

enough, she hasn’t been real wild about me taking up flying,” he says. “I finally talked her into joining me last summer, and she took a trip with me to Scottsboro, Alabama, where we visited some friends. I’ve got her lined up for several more trips now.” When he’s not airborne, Chris spends much of his spare time building his radiocontrolled model aircraft – some with wingspans eight feet (2.5 metres) across. Often he will spend up to a year on a single model. Previous creations include a Nieuport 17 WWI biplane, a Piper Cub light aircraft, and two WWII fighters – a Spitfire and a P-51 Mustang. It’s the World War period of aviation that Chris finds most alluring. “It was a very romantic period to be flying, even though it was turmoil at that time,” he explains. “The innovations that were necessitated by the World Wars made these aeroplanes incredible. And I love the stories of the old aviators. There aren’t many of them left now.” His ultimate dream, he says, is to get behind the controls of a Spitfire or a Mustang. “I’d love to own one or just to fly one but they are so expensive; way beyond my means.” In the meantime he will have to settle for the radio-controlled versions. Chris Carver is a global specialist in designing NBA and NHL arenas. Projects include Amway Center (Orlando), Pepsi Center (Denver), and the new Las Vegas Arena.

GOLF 31

ACES

GOLF THE HOLE-IN-ONE – OR ACE – IS GOLF’S MOST EXCITING SHOT, WINNING PROS LUXURY CARS, CASH PRIZES, EVEN TRIPS INTO SPACE. AND IT OCCURS MORE OFTEN THAN YOU’D THINK, AS DOMINIC BLISS DISCOVERS.

“IT WAS ONE of those freak things that happen in sport. I doubt my record will ever be broken.” Back in 1971 British professional John Hudson cemented his place in golfing folklore by shooting two consecutive holes-in-one. To this day it is still the only occasion that professional golf has witnessed such a quirk of fate. By some estimates, the odds of it happening are less than one in six million. Hudson’s amazing feat took place at the Martini International, staged at the Royal Norwich Golf Club. “It’s my only claim to fame, really,” he says modestly. “You’d like to be known for winning a tournament rather than doing that. But thanks to my two holes-in-one I’ll probably be remembered for longer.” Given the amount of golf played on this planet, and the centuries human beings have been playing it, there have been thousands of holes-in-one throughout the sport’s history. (Most of them resulting in the perpetrator buying everyone a drink at the 19th.) Nonetheless, the thrill of witnessing one or, better still, slotting one in, never diminishes. And now that virtually every professional tournament around the world is televised, we all have so many more chances to enjoy golf’s flukiest shots. The flukier the better. Like Leif Olson’s hole-in-one at the 2009 RBC Canadian Open when his tee shot landed on the green and ricocheted off playing partner Chris Blanks’s ball straight into the cup. Or Vijay Singh’s skip across the lake and into the hole at the 2009 Masters. Who can forget the 2008 Dubai Desert Classic where Miguel Angel Jimenez accomplished

what’s known in the sport as a swish shot, teeing off and seeing his ball dive in a perfect parabolic curve straight into the hole, without bouncing first? Then there was James Kingston’s ace at Houghton Golf Club in South Africa in 2002 when his wide tee shot rebounded unceremoniously off the trees before rolling very ceremoniously into the cup. But the greatest ace of all, immortalised in a video clip that no sports fan could ever tire of watching, is surely Fuzzy Zoeller’s at the 2006 Allianz Championship in Iowa. His 170yard drive came to rest on the fringe, just off the green. For 10 seconds it sat there, motionless. Then something quite bizarre happened: somehow it dislodged itself, started moving again and rolled slowly across the green, straight into the cup. “It’s a crazy game,” Zoeller said afterwards. “I’m just glad I don’t have to do it for a living.” The prizes offered for holes-in-one can be jaw-dropping. On the professional tours it’s normally a luxury car but in amateur events holidays and cash prizes are occasionally won. Some club players have even fluked up to US$1 million in promotional shoot-outs. In 2014 British golfer Andy Sullivan won a flight into space in a sub-orbital space plane, complete with an experience of zero gravity. A fellow player suggested that if he’d won he’d have awarded the flight to his caddy. “One way,” he added. Mathematically, holes-in-one are exceedingly rare. According to National Hole-in-one, an insurance company which indemnifies tournament organisers against paying out for hole-in-one prizes, the chances of such a shot are around 2,500 to one for a pro golfer, and between 5,000 and 12,500 to one for an amateur. Yet, given the number of par-3 holes on courses, aces occur with reassuring regularity. It’s estimated there are around 150,000 holes-inone every year from a global 490 million rounds of golf. Since 1971 (when aces were first recorded), the PGA Tour has seen over 1,200 holes-in-one – an average of almost 28 every season.

Among American professionals, Mancil Davis holds the record for the most holes-in-one – a staggering 51. “A hole-in-one for most people is like their kid or grandkids,” this self-styled ‘King of Aces’ from Texas told USA Today. “If they’ve had one, they’re going to tell you about it. They’ll tell you the date, the yardage, the club and how far the ball rolled.” Davis believes the magic of a hole-in-one is that, for amateur golfers, it is the apogee of their golfing existence; a once-in-a-lifetime “shot that can never be beaten”. Of course, some amateur golfers are greater than others. Take former North Korean president Kim Jong-il, for example. According to his country’s official news agency, on his first ever round of golf he shot an astonishing 11 holes-inone. On Jong-il’s death in 2011, former pro golfer Brandel Chamblee paid tribute, albeit with a hint of sarcasm. “The world’s greatest athlete could have just died, for all we know,” he said. “Imagine the schedule he kept. 8am to 11am: enrich uranium. 1pm to 4pm: destroy the world. 4pm to 7pm: play golf, shoot 11 holes-in-one and call it a night. I don’t remember him popping up at the Masters. He should have tried to get his tour card.”

IT’S ESTIMATED THERE ARE AROUND 150,000 HOLESIN-ONE EVERY YEAR FROM A GLOBAL 490 MILLION ROUNDS OF GOLF. SINCE 1971, THE PGA TOUR HAS SEEN WELL OVER 1,200 HOLES-IN-ONE – THAT’S AN AVERAGE OF ALMOST 28 EVERY SEASON..

THE MONEY SHOTS

HIGH

Like golf’s hole-in-one, other sports have spectator-delighting feats thanks to which athletes responsible can dine out for weeks afterwards. The difference is that none of these happen by fluke.

DARTS NINE-DART FINISH

CRICKET SIX SIXES IN AN OVER

SNOOKER 147 BREAK

TEN-PIN BOWLING 300-POINT GAME

A perfect leg in darts where players check out from a total of 501 using the minimum nine throws. Well over 100 nine-dart finishes have been achieved in professional darts.

Six consecutive over-theboundary shots off six balls in an over. In 1968, West Indies batsman Gary Sobers became the first to hit six sixes in an over in first-class cricket.

The maximum break achievable on a snooker table, comprising 15 reds, 15 blacks, and all six colours. In 1982, England’s Steve Davis completed the first 147 break in professional play.

The highest possible score in a single game, comprising 12 consecutive strikes. In 1953, New Yorker Grazio Castellano was the first to roll a 300-point game live on TV.

POP HISTORY

POPULOUS IN

HISTORY

2015

WHERE? ESTADIO DA LUZ, LISBON, PORTUGAL

EUROPEAN GAMES

WHEN? 24TH MAY 2014

BAKU 2015, BY THE NUMBERS

2015 sees the inaugural European Games coming to the Azerbaijan capital Baku. Europe is the last continent to have its own continental games. Staged, from now on, every four years, it joins the existing Asian Games, Pan-American Games, All-Africa Games and Pacific Games. Populous is the project architect for three of the Baku 2015 venues – the National Gymnastics Arena, the International Broadcast Centre, and the Athletes’ Village.

20 245 IT WILL ALWAYS BE remembered as La Decima – the 10th. When Real Madrid beat local rivals Atletico Madrid to win the 2014 UEFA Champions League Final, they secured a record 10th win in Europe’s top soccer competition. However, the action – the Battle of Madrid, you might call it – didn’t take place in Madrid but in Lisbon’s Populous-designed Estadio da Luz. With 90 minutes played, and Atletico 1-0 up, Real looked to be losers. Then, suddenly, three minutes into added time, Sergio Ramos headed home an equaliser. It was a cruel blow. Carrying the momentum through into extra time, Real then rubbed salt into their rivals’ wounds, scoring two more goals and a penalty to win 4-1 overall. Madrid football writer Juanma Trueba summed it all up thus: “Hello from the past, citizens of the future,” he wrote in Diario AS. “What you lived through was true. Madrid won, and it was the Decima. Although this page will yellow as time passes, the value of this page is as an official certificate. It happened. And it was unforgettable.”

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POPULOUS // THE TEAM We are true individuals – innovative, fun and highly creative architects and designers who enjoy working together to give our clients unique design services. Whether it’s bespoke design, sports stadia, entertainment venues or convention centres, we are passionate about everything we do.

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo brandishes the Champions League trophy.

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