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11
Insight
Women’s boxing
wins 2012 approval
The International Olympic Committee
voted to include women’s boxing in the
London 2012 programme. Three women’s
weight classes will be added to the Olympic
programme for 2012 Games in London,
with one of the 11 men’s classes dropped to
make room. Women will fight at flyweight
(48-51kg), lightweight (56-60kg) and
middleweight (69-75kg).
‘Women’s
boxing
has come on a
tremendous amount
in the last five years
and it was time
to include them,’
said IOC president
Jacques Rogge.
Fears were that the sport was not competitive
in enough countries, which could lead
to potentially dangerous mismatches.
However participation has since boomed
with 120 international federations having
female boxers. There are now nearly 600
registered female boxers in England, up
from 50 in 2005.
FINA to ban new
swimsuits from January
World swimming governing body FINA
has announced that the controversial
performance
enhancing,
non-textile
swimsuits will be banned from 1st January
2010.
Twenty-nine world records were set in
the first five days of the FINA World
Championships in Rome this year. Only
two of the current world records, both
men’s and women’s, were set before the
introduction of polyurethane suits in 2008.
The return to common textile suits would
mean world records would be almost
impossible to better in the short term.
Since the introduction of the Speedo LZR
swim suit 135 long and short course world
records have been broken.
Aussie Rules footy major cause of
head injuries in school-age children
Recent research from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in
Victoria, Australia found that football was a major cause of head
injuries in school-age children.
While falls, sports and motor vehicle accidents were the main causes
of head injuries, 30% occurred playing Australian Rules Football.
Though most of the head injuries were mild, 26 of the children were
admitted to intensive care and two died.
The researchers surveyed 1,115 children up to age 16 who had been
admitted to the Royal Children’s Hospital with head injuries over a 12-
month period and it was found that 90% were classified as mild, 8%
as moderate and 3% as severe and males and children under 3 years
had the higher attendance rates. Over 50% of the injuries happened
in the home and most injuries to infants were due to falls from beds,
sofas, prams, change tables, stairs and high chairs and the injury
level fell as the children got older.
School, sports venues and playgrounds were also found to be
dangerous areas and while boys and girls under two were found to be
equally at risk, in the older groups males dominated and for school-
age children, sports were a major cause of head injuries, with almost
a third due to football.
The researchers have called for better public education and say many
causes of head injuries appear preventable, in particular, falls from
heights in infants and injuries in sport.
touchline
on track
CONTINUED...
o t ac
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