Write to the Editor

Following on from the article recently written by Chris Kelby it is fascinating that, in an age when many of the golf headlines are made by the longer ‘power’ hitters in the game, it is one of the ‘shorter’ players, Luke Donald, that has made it to the official ranking as the world’s best golfer.

Donald ranks only 156th on the PGA tour in terms of distance. Furthermore, this does not even bring him world leading accuracy – while he ranks better as No. 33, he only hits 65 per cent of fairways.

He has also spent the last five years in the US accumulating $22 million in prize money without winning a tournament, leading to some in the media labelling him ‘Plod’. They also refer to the ‘Luke Donald Disease’ which supposedly relates to him turning up to collect large sums of prize-money without ever winning. No more!

He attributes this turnaround to working with a new sports psychologist – Dave Alred (who used to work with rugby star Jonny Wilkinson) – who has targeted succeeding under pressure and adopting a positive mindset, even under adversity, where he sees success as inevitable. At Wentworth, while others were complaining about the changes to the course making it too difficult and ‘no fun’ (sound familiar in Bahrain?), Donald simply focused on the challenge of getting around in the fewest shots. -  Golf Fan, Saar.

Editor’s note: See Golf Scene on Page 21

I have been sincerely moved by the comments made by readers calling for the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix to be rescheduled and I admired the way you have recently devoted your entire letters pages to messages to F1’s Bernie Ecclestone.

It was with huge relief and happiness to hear that the campaign has been successful and it’s up to the people of Bahrain to unite and prove to the doubters like Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber wrong.

He needs to know that sport is a unifying force – and all Bahrainis and expats stand together in welcoming this race to our shores once again! - Isa, Riffa.

In February of this year, St Christopher’s Senior School students, along with approximately 200,000 other budding mathematicians worldwide, entered the UK Mathematics Challenge, which is organised by The University of Leeds.

In the UK Mathematics Challenge, certificates are awarded to the top 40 per cent of students of whom six per cent are presented with a Gold Award.

This year, 5,500 Gold Awards were presented, representing three per cent of the total student entry. Four students from St Christopher’s were presented Gold Awards.

These elite students were then invited to participate in the ‘Pink Kangaroo’ mathematics competition. The term derives its name from Australia and has been preserved in recognition of the origin of the competition.

Unfortunately, this competition was scheduled to take place during the recent school closure and one of the St Christopher’s Gold Award students was unavailable to take the examination, however, three students – Devi Nair, Aadam Goucem and Yasmeen Zainal – expressed a very keen interest in sitting the examination to pit their mathematical skills against the very best mathematicians in the world.

The venue for the examination was the head of mathematics’ residence in Bahrain as school classrooms were temporarily inaccessible. The three students have recently received their results and we are delighted to report that they have successfully passed the examination. - Nick Wilson, Head Teacher, St Christopher’s Senior School.