Sports, as an activity, has always been associated with a lot of seriousness, focus and dedication from the sportsman. Team sports as well as individual sports have the same amount of dedication and determination involved, that being the essence of champions and champion teams. True sportsmanship is a quality that people, and not just sportsmen, aspire to possess…on the playing field as well as in their respective personal lives.
But spots cannot be relegated only to the serious. These sportsmen at a number of times are the butt of jokes for their antics, their remarkably funny quotes or some bizarre activities that makes for some seriously funny sports news. It is amazing to watch a mind that is normally so strong, focused and channelized on the field just loose itself once off it. Sports news and other entertainment providers have a field day airing these events and we, as viewers have a good time watching them.
Funny sports news does not just consist of these funny antics but extends to some hilarious and sometimes bizarre sports competitions. There are some news providers who track down these seriously funny sports competitions an bring these to their viewers.
The Finnish people take their beer seriously and how! They have come up with a festival that is a walking competition with a twist. The all male participants have to cover a 253.5m long course covered with obstacles over land and water while carrying their wife on their back!! The winner receives a mobile phone and most importantly, the equivalent of his wife’s weight in beer!
The participants have to be careful of dropping or bouncing the wife as that includes a fine. Traditionally the participants had to be married to the woman, but in recent times any suitable female will do as long as she is above 17 years of age and weighs over 49 kg.
For the person in search of some action head to Pamplona in Spain for their annual event, the Running of the Bulls! This sport involves a bull chasing the vast number of participants through the narrow lanes of Pamplona for nearly a kilometer. The chase ends finally in the bullring where the bulls are left to fend for themselves. Every year the crowds go crazy during this event leading to some seriously funny moments.
For the compassionate who do feel a little revolted by the gory nature of the Running of the Bulls event comes a compassionate alternative. The Festival of San Fermin is commemorated each year with the ‘thrilling’ Running of the Nudes events. Quite similar to the Running of the Bulls, this event too demands people running through the winding streets of Pamplona; the only catch is that they are completely naked! A fitting reply, one can say, towards the barbarity involved in bullfights.
A boat race could hardly be called funny. But not the Henley on Todd Regatta, an annual sports event held in Alice Springs. The Alice Springs version of the very English Henley on Thames regatta involves boating all right, but on a dry river bed. This is so as Alice Springs has no active water body as it is very near Central Australia. This seriously funny sports event has been in the news for its large boats that have no bottom and sees the participants making a mad dash for the finish line running inside these hollow boats.