CyprusVista

The Cyprus Olympic team for the forthcoming Beijing games will be led by skeet shooter Georgios Achilleos. Achilleos is the world champion at the sport, and is the island’s best medal hope. Marcos Baghdatis, a finalist in the 2006 Australian Open of the same sport, is also on the team. Cyprus has a good record in the sport; the Junior Men’s Team recently set a new world record of 356, achieved in Cyprus on July 9, 2008 at the European Championships.

Skeet shooting is one of three types of competitive shotgun shooting sports, the others being trap shooting and sporting clays (or clay pigeons). Competitors shoot at clay disks hurled into the air at various angles within a field of 180 degrees. In Olympic skeet shooting, the clay discs are 100mm in diameter, smaller than the average dinner plate, and just 25 mm thick. Hitting them takes a great deal of skill, timing and mental awareness, not to mention accuracy with a double-barreled shotgun or similar.

International skeet shooting has been an Olympic sport since 1968. Such is the popularity of the sport in Cyprus that there are five shooting clubs, including the Nicosia club with its Olympic shooting range. If you would like to shoot while on your holiday in Cyprus, you can discover more at the Cyprus Shooting Sport Federation website at cssf-shooting.org.

And finally… When the sport was first invented back in 1915, it was known as clock shooting. The original USA course involved traps that shot across a complete circle, but this had to stop when a chicken farm was set up next door to the original range…

Photo of skeet shooting by maverick2003 at flickr.com

Popularity: 23% [?]

With soaring temperatures in Cyprus this week, one person definitely feeling the heat is Kyriakos Kyrrou from the Cyprus water department. The problems with the supply of water shipped from Greece and brought to Limassol via on offshore pipeline continues, with an air bubble blocking the pipe and causing a shut-down that may last until Sunday.

Limassol needs the first batch of over 8million cubic metres of water due to be shipped from Greece - and needs it fast. The city’s reservoir has only 800,000 cubic metres of water remaining to supply this busy holiday destination, which normally uses 45,000 cubic metres of water a day. The authorities are currently investigating diverting some of the output from the country’s two desalination plants, which produce 100,000 cubic metres of water a day, from Nicosia to Limassol.

Meanwhile, North Cyprus has been given the green light for a 110km water pipeline from Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that; “The project should be completed at the latest within three years beginning in June next year (2009). The government has given the necessary instructions to the environment ministry so the project can be finalised.”

Up to 80 kms of the new pipeline will run under the sea from the Turkish coast to North Cyprus, transporting up to 75million cubic metres per year. The pipeline, and similar water shipping schemes to the current south Cyprus arrangement have been under discussion for several years in North Cyprus.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Cyprus basketball players are not usually known for their militancy, but you can only push these guys so far.

The Cypriot players are threatening to strike over the quota of foreign players allowed in the Cyprus league. Two years ago, it was agreed that two American and four Bosman players were the maximum quota allowed, but some teams have been asking for an unlimited number of Bosman players. The national squad members (understandably) want to keep Cyprus basketball Cypriot, and have threatened industrial action against changes to the quota for the league.. The Cyprus basketball team bosses must decide on the quota by 24th July if the strike is to be avoided.

Basketball is very popular in Cyprus, with nine teams in Division A and a strong women’s league. In addition, and perhaps ironically, Cypriot players also play for foreign teams in Australia, the UK, the USA and Greece. Basketball coaches also work abroad; the coach of the UK basketball team the Bristol Academy Flyers is Cypriot!

In the UK, followers of UK Premier league football teams have long welcomed foreign players to help boost their team’s chances of success. Whilst there are strict rules on the number of foreign players allowed to play in a national squad, the current first team at Manchester United, for example, includes players from Holland, France, Portugal, Brazil, Korea, Serbia, Poland, China, Ireland, and Argentina…

Popularity: 13% [?]

The arrival of a tanker full of drinking water off the coast of Cyprus this week will bring welcome relief to the island’s dwindling water reserves.

Two tankers a day for the next six months will leave the port of Elefsina in Greece to sail to an offshore pumping station at Limassol in Cyprus, ferrying a total of 8 million cubic metres of water. Cyprus water supplies are at their lowest since 1908 due to four years without significant rainfall. The emergency shipments, dismissed back in early spring as “pure science fiction” according to a BBC report, will cost the Republic of Cyprus government 38 million Euros.

The Senior Engineer at the Cyprus Department of Water Development, Kyriacos Kirou, explained how the fresh water from Greece has been fully tested before being pumped along a specially constructed underwater pipeline. Most of the imported water will join the supply network in Limassol, with some channeled to the storage depot near Yermasogeias to cope with tourism requirements. Any surplus will join the southern pipeline to supply the Famagusta and Larnaca districts.

Cyprus is not alone in shipping in water to alleviate water shortages. Back in May this year, the Spanish city of Barcelona was forced to bring in tankers of water after the city’s main reservoir dropped to below 18% capacity. 2008 has been the driest year since records began in Spain in 1948. Each shipment of water to the parched Spanish city contains 28 million litres, with up to 12 shipments arriving every month.

Water is also at the heart of negotiations between Israel and Syria over the Golan Heights area. This large plateau provides around 30% of Israel’s fresh water supplies.

Popularity: 15% [?]

The Republic of Cyprus parliament has approved the so-called Lisbon Treaty, bringing the total of EU countries who have ratified the document to 20. However, all 27 EU members must approve the treaty, designed to simplify decision-making processes, before it can take effect. The treaty also paves the way for further EU expansion into the former Balkan states, and to create an EU president to represent a stronger, united EU.

A major stumbling block occurred when the Irish people rejected the treaty in a referendum held in June. This poses a serious problem for the EU, as the Irish vote has effectively stalled the whole process. The EU will be exerting pressure on the new Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Brian Cowen, to find a solution. Ironically, Cowen himself campaigned for the ‘yes’ vote, but the Irish people voted 53.4% against. After the results, Cowen acknowledged: “The Irish people made a sovereign decision. It was made at the ballot box and it must be respected.”

Ireland is the only EU country to hold a referendum on the treaty so far, and post-voting research into why people voted ‘no’ has shed fascinating light on the outcome.
• 22% said they voted ‘no’ because of lack of information
• 12% said they voted ‘no’ to protect their Irish identity
• 6% said they did not trust politicians and voted ‘no’ to protect their tax system
• only 1% voted ‘no’ to control immigration
• 50% of those who did not vote at all said they stayed away from the polls as they did not understand the issues

Such an outcome, of course, has interesting implications for any future referendums on unification of North and south Cyprus. Clearly, the most important lesson to take on board is the sheer number of people who stayed away or voted ‘no’ in the Irish referendum because they simply did not understand what they were voting for. Any future proposed North/south solution must be crystal clear and easy to grasp, so people know exactly what they are voting for, to give unification of Cyprus the best possible chance at any future polls.

Popularity: 15% [?]