Motor-car Sports.

Horse Racing

Greyhound Racing

Football

Association football is controlled by separate football associations in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England 340 clubs are affiliated to the Football Association (FA) and more than 42,000 clubs to regional or district association. The FA,

 

 

founded in 1863, and the Football League, founded in 1888, were both the first of their kind in the world.

During the season, which lasts from August until May, over 2,000 English League matches are played.

In England the major annual knock-out competitions are the FA Cup and the Coca Cola Cup (the League Cup).

Greyhound racing is one Britain’s most popular spectator sports and takes places at 37 major tracks. Meetings are usually held three times at each track, with at least ten races a meeting. The main event is of the year is the Greyhound Derby, run in June at Wimbledon Stadium, London. There are also about 50 mainly small tracks which operate independently. Like the major tracks, they are licensed by local authorities.

The rules of the sport are drawn up by the National Greyhound Racing Club, the sport’s judicial and administrative body. The representative body is the British Greyhound Racing Board.

Horse racing takes two forms – flat racing and National Hunt (steeplechasing and hurdle) racing. The main flat race season runs from late March to early November, but all-weather flat racing and National Hunt racing take place throughout the year.

The Derby, run at Epsom, is the outstanding event in the flat racing calendar. Other classic races are: the 2,000 Guineas and the 1,000 Guineas, both run at Newmarket; the Oaks (Epsom); and the St Leger (Doncaster). Floodlit racing takes place at Wolverhampton all-weather racecourse. Britain has 59 racecourses and about 13,000 horses currently in training.

The most important National Hunt meeting is the National Hunt Festival held at Cheltenham in March, which features the Gold Cup and the Champion Hurdle. The Grand National, run at Aintree, near Liverpool, is the world’s best-known steeplechase and dates from 1839.

The British Horseracing Board is the governing authority for racing in Britain. Its responsibilities include the fixture list, race programmes, relations with the Government and the betting industry, and central marketing. The Jockey Club, as the regulatory authority, remains responsible for licensing, discipline and security.

The main four-wheeled motor sports include motor racing, autocross, rallycross, rallying and carting. In motor racing the Grand Prix Formula 1 World Championship is the major form of the sport.

The governing body for four-wheeled motor sport in Britain is the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) Motor Sports Association. The Association issues licences for a variety of motoring competitions. It also organizes the Network Q RAC Rally, an event in the contest for the World Rally Championship, and the British Grand Prix, which is held at Silverstone as part of the Formula 1 World Championship.

British car constructors, including McLaren and Williams, have enjoyed outstanding success in Grand Prix racing and many other forms of racing.

 

Exercise 229. Read the text. Pay attention to the words in bold type. Match the words on the left with the word or phrase of similar meaning.

 

Track and Field: Running Events

 

Track and Field is the name given to a variety of events that require running, jumping and throwing. They are called track and field because the running is done on a dirt part that is called a track, and the other events are done in the open, grassy area called a field.

Running is a very simple sport. The object is to run from one place (starting line) to another (the finish line) faster than one’s opponents. Running may be the oldest human sport because of its simplicity. Running events, called races, are very popular with spectators and television viewers.

There are several kinds of running events of different lengths. The shortest race is 100 meters long and is called a sprint or dash. The runners line up at the starting line with their feet braced on starting blocks. Each runner is assigned a path, called a lane. The starter fires the starting gun and the runners run as fast as they can to the finish line. The first runner to cross the finish line wins the race.

There are two short races that require the runners to jump over low barriers, which are called hurdles, as they run along their lanes. This kind of race is called hurdles, and there are two distances – 110 meters (100 for women) and 400 meters (for men and women).

Longer races, called the middle distance events, are held on a 400 meter oval track. Therefore, the 400 meter run is one lap around the track, and the 800 meter run is two laps. One might expect the 1,600 meter run to be four laps around the track, but in fact, it is 1,500 meters. This race is sometimes called the “metric mile”. In the middle distance races, the runners do not have to stay in their lanes, so they all run as close as possible to the inside of the track.

The long distance races require stamina, rather than speed. The longest race is the famous marathon, named for Marathon, a city in Greece where the Greeks won a great military victory over the Persians, in 490 B.C. A Greek soldier named Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens, a distance of about 25 miles, to bring news of the great victory. Today, the marathon race is 42,195 meters long.

There are also three other long distant races. One is called the steeplechase, which is a 3,000 meter race that requires the runners to jump over hurdles and water. The other two races involve walking, instead of running. The walker must maintain a stride in which he always has one foot touching the ground.

The relay is a team event in which four runners each run part of the total distance. Each runner carries a stick, called a baton, and passes it to the next runner. A good exchange of the baton is as important as speed, and many relays have been lost because of a poor exchange.

 

1. track a. once around the track
2. opponent b. measurement along the ground
3. race c. a race involving a baton
4. spectator d. a dirt path
5. brace e. a step taken by a runner
6. distance f. support
7. lap g. competitor
8. stamina h. a running event
9. stride i. endurance
10. relay j. one who watches

 

Exercise 230. Make a presentation on some particular kind of sport. Choose one and follow the plan.

1. Introduce the topic. Why have you chosen this particular kind of sport?

2. Talk about the history of this kind of sport. When and where was it established? Is it a team sport? What are the rules? Can both men and women go in for it? Are there international championships? Is it an Olympic kind of sport? Is it developed in our country?

3. Do you go in for this kind of sport? Why? Can you recommend going in for this kind of sport? Why?