60 year old Brunswijk played for 54 minutes in Inter Moengotapoe's 6-0 loss to CD Olimpia of Honduras in Paramaribo made big news, why ?
Seoul Olympics 1988 is fresh in memory. The games were boycotted by North Korea and its ally, Cuba. Ethiopia, Albania and the Seychelles did not respond to the invitations sent by the IOC. Nicaragua & Madagascar did not participate because of financial reasons. In its final Olympics, the Soviet Union utterly dominated the medal table winning 55 gold and 132 total medals. No country came close to this result after 1988. Soviet Vladimir Artemov won four gold medals in gymnastics. Daniela Silivaş of Romania won three and equalled compatriot Nadia Comăneci's record of seven Perfect 10s in one Olympic Games. Tennis returned to the Olympics after a 64-year absence, and Steffi Graf added to her four Grand Slam victories in the year by also winning the Olympic title, beating Sabatini in the final. U.S. sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner set an Olympic record (10.62) in the 100-metre dash and a still-standing world record (21.34) in the 200-metre dash to capture gold medals in both events. To these medals, she added a gold in the 4×100 relay and a silver in the 4×400. Canadian Ben Johnson won the 100 m final with a new world record, but was disqualified after he tested positive for stanozolol. There is another name that was flashed in the media !! - a post on that country, more specifically on the 60 year old mentioned at the start.
Suriname is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, French Guiana, Guyana and Brazil. At just under 165,000 square kilometers (64,000 square miles), it is the smallest sovereign state in South America.Suriname has a population of approximately 575,990, most of whom live on the country's north coast, in and around the capital and largest city, Paramaribo. It is a tropical country dominated by rain forests and has abundant natural resources of bauxite, Gold, petroleum and agricultural products.
Suriname was inhabited as early as the fourth millennium BC by various indigenous peoples, including the Arawaks, Caribs, and Wayana. Europeans arrived in the 16th century, with the Dutch establishing control over much of the country's current territory by the late 17th century. During the Dutch colonial period, Suriname was a lucrative source of sugar, its plantation economy driven by African slave labor and, after abolition of slavery in 1863, indentured servants from Asia. In 1954, Suriname became one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On 25 November 1975, Suriname left the Kingdom to become an independent state, but continues to maintain close economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties. The first President of the country was Johan Ferrier, the former governor, with Henck Arron (the then leader of the NPS) as Prime Minister. Dutch is the native language of 60% of the Surinamese; while Sranan Tongo, an English-based creole language, is a widely used lingua franca.
The 60 year old mentioned at the start is - Suriname Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk who took a break from his political duties Tuesday to play a football match -- a pro-team CONCACAF league match. At age 60, Brunswijk may be second in line to the presidency, but he's captain of the Inter Moengotapoe football team. He's also the team owner. Brunswijk played for 54 minutes in Inter Moengotapoe's 6-0 loss to CD Olimpia of Honduras in Suriname's capital Paramaribo. Wearing the number 61 -- symbolic of 1961, the year of his birth -- the vice president played in the forward position alongside Damian Brunswijk, who happens to be his son.
"Ronnie Brunswijk (Vice-President of Suriname and President of Inter Moengotapoe) becomes the oldest player (60 years and 198 days) to play in an international club match," the sports commentator known as "MisterChip" tweeted. A former army sergeant and ex-rebel leader, Brunswijk participated in Suriname's civil war in the 1980s against then-dictator Desi Bouterse. Today Brunswijk is a wealthy businessman as well as a politician, but in 1999 he was found guilty in absentia of drug trafficking and sentenced to eight years in prison by a court in the Netherlands, Suriname's former colonial power. A French court found him guilty for the same crime and in 2000 sentenced him to 10 years prison. Brunswijk however is safe at home, as Suriname does not extradite its citizens.
First elected to parliament in 2005, Brunswijk formed an alliance with the head of the main political opposition, former justice minister Chandrikapersad Santokhi. In July 2020 Santokhi was elected president for a five year term, with Brunswijk as his vice-president. Brunswijk will not join in his team's second leg tournament game in Honduras, since he cannot leave the country without risk of facing legal trouble.
In Seoul Olympics - Anthony Conrad Nesty made the name of his country Surinam known to everyone. He made a big upset defeating Matt Biondi in the 100-metre butterfly event in 1988, by one one-hundredth of a second.
23rd Sept. 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment