Sports Illustrated’s April 5 issue featured a story about a “runty racehorse [who] has captured the imagination of a country that has fallen on hard economic times.” No, it’s not Seabiscuit. It’s an 8-year old Japanese mare named Haruurara (Japanese for “gentle spring”). Although the horse has lost all 106 of her starts, fans have thronged to her races, and the government has even presented her with 440 pounds of carrots, for “services to tourism.”

In her most recent race, on March 22, 13,000 spectators crowded in to see her romp home 10th in the 11 horse field, despite the fact that, for the first time, she was being ridden by the country’s top jockey.

Good article with more background information.

There was a really touching story in the March 29 issue of Sports Illustrated about the rebuilding of Iraq’s sports infrastructure and its efforts to send a team to the Athens Olympics this summer.

In 1986, Saddam Hussein’s son Uday took over the leadership of the Olympic committee in Iraq, and used intimidation and torture to obtain good results from the country’s teams. He turned the Olympic headquarters into a prison and torture chamber, and as a result, Iraqis who were athletes were often reluctant to participate in sports at any level, for fear of attracting Uday’s attention. Many young athletes were forbidden by their parents from joining any organized sporting competition at all.

Since the fall of the Hussein regime, Iraq has been getting some help from the IOC to send a team to Athens this summer. Though it’s unlikely the team will win any medals, the presence of Iraqi athletes competing without fear of consequences for the first time in many years will make these a very special Olympic Games.

The Games for Small States of Europe were established in 1985, and take place every two years. They provide a venue for eight small European countries to compete amongst themselves in ten sports. The competing countries are Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, San Marino, and Malta. The sports contested are athletics, basketball, judo, sailing, shooting, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball.

The most recent Games took place in June 2003 in Malta, and were dominated by Cyprus, who won 34 Gold, 20 Silver, and 27 Bronze medals. For the record, Cyprus didn’t win a single medal of any colour at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

The Games are sponsored by each country’s NOC (National Olympic Committee) and thus the games are affiliated with the Olympic Movement.

Though the focus of this time of year is almost exclusively on the Division I Men’s College Basketball Championship (the NCAA Tournament), there is an even older tournament that has been relegated to the role of hosting the teams that didn’t qualify for March Madness. The National Invitation Tournament (or NIT) was established back in 1938, the year before the NCAA Tournament began. It seems almost ironic that this year’s final was played on April 1st. It’s also ironic (and frankly, sad) that the winner of the tournament isn’t even posted on the official web site yet. Despite the fact that it was played at Madison Square Garden, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who knows who won. The 2004 winner? The University of Michigan, who topped Rutgers 62-55.

A bit of trivia. The NIT also hosts a preseason tournament and this year’s winner was none other than Georgia Tech, who finished as, you guessed it, runner-up to National Champion Connecticut by a score of 82-73.

As many of you know, I’ve been keeping a weblog called Consolation Champs since 2000. The name was one that would have been my band name had I had any musical ability. I’ve always been fascinated by so-called “losers” and found the stories of the runners-up and the also-rans often more interesting than those of the “winners”. They’re stories that don’t often get told, though.

Enter Runner-Up! On this site, I plan to draw your attention to things that often get overlooked by the victory-hungry media. These stories didn’t receive any acclaim or even attention, but I’ve found them fascinating and thought you would too. They won’t all be sports stories, though a fair number of them will be. I also want to draw your attention to films, books, historical figures (yes, even politicians) that didn’t “win” anything but who are still worthy of a look.

In the next few months, I’m hoping to grow this site into a team effort. If you have any ideas, get in touch with me! And welcome again to Runner-Up: Where 2nds Count!