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SPRING LATVIAN NCAA STARS

2013-05-22T22:05:08-08:00

PART 1 and to continued

This has been an incredible year of star athletes performing in the college lever of NCAA sports – perhaps the riches field I have ever seen. As I continued to dig I found an endless array of new athletes popping up across the college scene and although my usual spring focus has been Track & Field and Crew – I was frankly blown away by the tennis and yes, even golf competitors from Latvia participating at various levels in the college ranks. But what really speaks volumes is the pursuit that these kids have for getting their college degree while letting athletics leverage that goal – they truly fit the old creed of Scholar Athlete. Enjoy! And if you are aware of any athlete I am leaving out, please let me know.

TRACK & FIELD

Besides numerous qualifications of some fine athletes for the NCAA Outdoor East and West Regionals last weekend, immediate congratulations should go to several outstanding performances earlier this year at the NCAA Division I - 2013 Indoor Championships at Fayetteville Arkansas on March 8-9.

Leading the group is Agata Strausa who finished 3rd in the One Mile Run. Her time was 4:36.91 behind the winning time of 4:29. Agata is a junior at Florida State and this is my first notice of her running. From what I can find, she also qualified for the NCAA Finals last year. She has listed times for running 3,000 meters and 3,000 M Steeplechase and is a member of the team’s Distance Medley Relay. As of last weekend, Agata has the #3 qualifying time for the East Regional NCCAs this weekend in Greensboro, NC. Below is a nice link to a video interview with her:

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/250024-2013-NCAA-D1-Indoor-Track-and-Field-Championships/video/699432-Agata-Stausa-suprise-third-place-finish-2013-NCAA-Indoor-Track-and-Field-Championships

Last week senior Mara Griva of the University of Nebraska was honored by the Big Ten coaches as the Conference Field Athlete of the Year after repeating the long and triple jump titles at the 2013 Big Ten Outdoor Conference Championships. She finished first in the long jump with a season-best leap of 20-9 (6.32) and took first in the triple jump with a leap of 43-5 ¼ (13.24). Griva ranks 17th in the long jump and is #5 in the nation in the triple jump. This qualifies her for both events at the Western Regionals at the University of Texas this weekend. Earlier this year at the Indoor NCAA Championships she placed 10th in the triple jump with 12.9M or 42’4” and got 10th in the Long Jump with 6.08M or 19’11 ½”. She is from Ventspils and has earned seven All-American recognitions during her career at Nebraska. This last weekend, she won both the long jump and triple jump at the highly regarded Drake Relays. Last year she hit the national spot light as a sophomore, claiming four Big 12 titles and earning four All-America honors. Her list of results is excellent and well stated on the Nebraska Track & Field website for your examination. Mara’s best in Latvia has been 3rd in both events at the Latvian National Championships. Couple links below show nice pictures of her winning the Drake Relays this weekend. I also caught a good interview of her on TV last weekend which should be the next link below. (she is the second interviewee on this tape)

http://www.huskers.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=772350&db_oem_id=100

http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=207445364

http://bigstory.ap.org/photo/mara-griva

Also, her Nebraska team mate, Janis Leitis took 4th in the triple jump at the same meet Big 10 Conference meet qualifying him for the Western Regionals on May 23-25 at the University of Texas in Austin. He also appears to have qualified for the 200M as a #21 seed with a time of 21.1. Earlier this season he had a long jump which placed him with the 7th best jump in this year’s NCAA outdoor season at 25”9 1/2” or 7.86 M. And, in February at the NCAA Division I 2013 Indoor Championships, Janis, a senior, earned two 9th place finishes in both the Long Jump - 7.73M or 25’ 4 ½” and in the Triple Jump with a distance of 15.78 M or 51’ 9 ¼”. Leitis also helps the Nebraska men’s 4x400 meter relay team. He has good sprint times having an indoor personal best of 6.92 in the 60 meters and 21.43 in the 200 meters and 46.71 in the 400 meters. He has also earned All-America honors in both jumping events.

Janis competed at the 2012 London Olympics, recording a time of 46.41 in the 400 meters advancing to the quarterfinals. He won the 2009 European U23 (under 23 years) long jump title with a mark of 25-11. Janis is the son of Eriks Leitis and is a nutrition and health sciences major at Nebraska. An interesting tidbit in one article states that Mara Griva and Janis Leitis have been dating couple for several years. Please see nice link on personal article written about Janis in Omaha.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130131/HUSKERS/701319864/sports.omaha.com/2013/04/11/submit-your-photos-for-our-salute-to-husker-fans/

Latvians on Pikes Peak

2013-05-24T07:09:56-08:00

http://www.delfi.lv/auto/motorusports/dambji-un-eo-atkal-gatavi-parsteigt-autosporta-pasauli.d?id=43345205

Pretty impressive machine. Rullē!

http://www.gtspirit.com/2013/05/12/all-electric-latvian-driveeo-pp01-to-contest-pikes-peak-international-hillclimb-2013/

A russian remainder for May 9.

2013-05-02T09:05:44-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrs71u5j_JA

Let them eat pirogi…...............

2013-05-22T06:16:21-08:00

http://qz.com/86685/the-audacious-plan-to-end-hunger-with-3-d-printed-food/

Suppose we could 3D print a gun that shoots pirogi…..............beam me out of here.

Latvians on the Middle East Wars

2012-12-16T04:14:34-08:00

Latvians on the Middle East Wars

As Latvia is a member of NATO, and NATO is ever deeper involved in Middle East Wars, perhaps also contributing in creating one in Syria; moreover, as the Latvian government appears to be in full support of such an involvement; and as almost every day brings fresh news of a war “slouching to be born”, there ought to be a site where English speaking ‘ordinary’ Latvians can contribute their thoughts and share links not only on the Palestinian question as at another post, but share comments on the Middle East as a whole.

Here a contribution from RT: http://rt.com/news/eu-rebels-syria-humanitarian-131/

A Must Time for Legalizing Healing Johns Grass

2009-02-01T04:14:43-08:00

Latvia is dying. Slowly but surely the country is going under financially, economically, and spiritually. In all these ways Latvia is going bankrupt.

1. For our financial untergang (demise) we may thank our banks, with the Scandinavian banks in the lead.

2. For our economical untergang we may thank our political parties, which are in essence corporate SIAs taking advantage of a law that allows a corporation to present itself before the law as an individual with all of an individual’s rights.

3. Our spiritual untergang is the result of Latvians having been forced some centuries ago to abandon their Gods, especially Saule and Jānis, and accept as their “religion” a foreign import from a Nevernever heaven. Indeed, the native Latvian’s self-sacrificial brother (brālis) and God Jānis (John), whose Feast occurs on Midsummers Eve, has been belittled and denied, and his feast day has been turned into a day for picnics and, no less, as a day for drunks. No institution (least of all neo-Christianity) is interested in returning Johns Eve to its original meaning, that is, a religious celebration. One institutional exception is the police. However, the reasons for the interest of the latter is to try reduce the carnage on Latvia’s roads due to drunk driving.

This blogger has been arguing for some time that the Latvian Gods Saule and Jānis (the former a mother figure, the latter her son) belong to a prehistoric religion, which we may call arch-Christianity. Saule’s daughters (meitas) are of course also Saule’s priestesses. John-Jānis is of course Saule’s priest. Women’s and men’s folk dresses still illustrate how these priests and priesteses dressed. Because these Gods and their Children (ordinary Latvian men and women) celebrated Johns Eve at Midsummer’s solstice, a time when many of the grasses are in bloom, Johns Day was known also as Zāļu Vakars (Eve of the Grasses, Krautabend in then mostly German Riga).

The current Latvian government in cooperation with the authorities in Brussels and elsewhere is exterminating Latvian small farm expertise in agriculture and decimating the ranks of small farmers by denying them crops that would enable them to survive. As a result, the Latvian countryside is experiencing a demographic crash. Latvian country people cannot survive under the puritanical yoke of its oppressive post-Soviet government, which is allegedly democratic, but exercises its formal powers against the interests of the people of Latvia.

One of the ways the Latvian President, the Saeima, its ministers, and the police (their executive arm) work against their people is to ban all healing grasses—if not explicitly, then implicitly—under the label of narcotics. Only the government with its overpowering neo-Christian bias is given the right to determine which of the healing grasses are not narcotics. This is how a traditional herb, known by Latvians as kaņepe (cannabis), which was used for its strong fiber as rope and packing sacks, for healing farm animals, and drunk at home as kaņepu tēja (cannabis tea) has been banned as a narcotic with allegedly hideous side effects. Moreover, the issue is presented as if there is no way for a government to institute an intelligent program of use for this herb, which—contrary to government and media propaganda—can contribute significantly to Latvia’s economy.

For one, cannabis is smoked mostly by youths, yet its traditional use in Latvia was as tea. In a poverty-stricken nation, where most of the elderly people cannot afford expensive medicines, cannabis tea serves not only to decrease physical pains and aches, but also to lower stress and a sense of isolation. It is a help to cancer patients in preventing nausea from treatment. There ought to be no obstacles in preventing the tourist industry to advertise “Johns tea”, while educating the public that this is the desirable way of consuming this relaxant. To maximize the economically beneficial effects from kaņepe containing THC, the government may limit the amount of land (say, 0.25 hectars) used in growing the plant. This would certainly be sufficient for home use and enough to entertain tourists on the farm the year round. As for policing the restrictions, the economic benefits should more than pay for it.

The Latvian government must reverse the laws against the growing of kaņepes (cannabis) on Latvian farms. This is the only way countryside people will be able to survive the catastrophic decline in the price of agricultural products and still keep the countryside populated by people living their lives above poverty, not to mention provide farmers’ with the wherewithal to educate their children. http://tinyurl.com/bzswbx

[See http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com for complete blog.]

Georgians on the war path

2013-05-18T20:01:24-08:00

Georgians on the war path.

According to AP:

Thousands of anti-gay protesters, including Orthodox priests, occupied a central street in Georgia’s capital Friday, with some threatening to lash with stinging nettles any participant in a gay pride parade which was to take place there.
. . . Those occupying the street held posters reading “We don’t need Sodom and Gomorrah!” and “Democracy does not equal immorality!”
. . . A number of protesters carrying bunches of stinging nettles threatened to use them on gay activists. They insist that homosexuality runs against Georgia’s traditional Orthodox Christian values.
... “We are against the propaganda of homosexuality,” 21-year-old student ... said. “If we need to allow parades like this in order to become a member of the European Union or other Western organizations and blocs, then I’m against joining these organizations.”

——————-

Would it not be nice, when at least some of Latvian youth would shed the brainwashing of anarchistic one-world dictates and embrace Christian way of life of responsibility and morality, as their Forebears did for centuries? I assume, there are enough nettles in Latvia, did “Latvji” run out of mettle?

Mr. L. L.

Andris Nelsons >> Boston

2013-05-16T10:10:17-08:00

Here is good news for Irena, Lauris, other Bostonians as well as east coast Latvians.

Andris Nelsons has been appointed as the New Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Bravo!

http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2013/05/16/artspublish/2348918494.html

For those interested in opera, Latvians have been making big waves in the opera world, well beyond the proportional size of the small nation - Latvia.

Cheers, Ivars

Saulanais Maijs

2013-05-15T05:36:41-08:00

Today is that special time of year when Mr. LL rises up from his hermit cave to greet every real Latvian with the murder of democracy on May 15, 1934.

Nadal vs Gulbis

2013-03-13T07:49:47-08:00

You are here: Tennis ATP / WTA Tour Indian Wells Preview: Nadal vs Gulbis
Indian Wells Preview: Nadal vs Gulbis
Wednesday, 13 March 2013 12:20 Ajay Chacko

Twenty four year old Latvian Ernests Gulbis is arguably enjoying the best run of his career so far. In the last 17 days he’s been on a 13 match unbeaten streak and pocketed the Delray Beach title along the way. His consistent performance has earned him a showdown with Rafael Nadal in a highly anticipated fourth round match at the BNP Paribas Masters at Indian Wells.

Very few players have a CV that can boast of wins against players like Federer, Djokovic, Berdych and Del Potro, but Gulbis has failed to do justice to the enormous talent that he’s been blessed with. After reaching a career high ranking of 21 in 2011 his career went on a downward spiral by the end of 2012, where he finished outside the top 100. Gulbis’s career has been plagued with injuries but it’s his lack of discipline and mental toughness that has failed him to make inroads on the big stage.

Nadal on the other hand is the epitome of hard work and mental toughness. His warrior like mentality has got him back on the courts after a hiatus of over seven months. Since his shock defeat against Argentine Horacio Zeballos, Rafa himself is on a 10 match winning streak, winning two titles in the process on his beloved surface, clay. His dismantling of countryman David Ferrer in the Acapulco finals was enough to sound the battle cry to all his rivals. Nadal was a gifted a free ride into the fourth round but whether the walkover aids him in protecting his knees or whether it deprives him of hard-court match practice remains to be seen.

Rafa has beaten Gulbis in each of their four previous meetings but the Latvian hasn’t gone down without a fight in any of those matches. Apart from their last match on the hard courts of Qatar, Gulbis has managed to take a set off Nadal in all the other matches.

Gulbis, by his own admission, believes that he can beat Nadal if he plays his best but would Nadal allow him to play his best is the big question. An in-form and supremely confident Gulbis would not go down easy and Rafael Nadal definitely has his task cut out to book a dream quarter-final showdown with Roger Federer.

Good luck, Erno….................just keep your eye on the prize!