Sports
Sports in Barranquilla are promoted at the governmental level by the Ministry of Sports and Deportes de la Alcaldía Distrital. Since the early twentieth century, the most important sports have been football, baseball and boxing. Also practiced are basketball, athletics, swimming, chess, cycling, skating, bowling, tennis, golf, shooting, karate, taekwondo, paragliding, BMX, go-karts, motor sports, fishing, squash, surfing, weightlifting, softball and bowling.
Barranquilla has hosted the Colombia national football team during World Cup qualifiers for Italy (1990), USA (1994), France (1998) and Germany (2006). It was home of the XIV National Games in 1992, co-host of the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2006; host of the 5th Central American and Caribbean Games in 1946, home of the Bolivarian Games IV in 1961 and hosted the games in Group A in the Copa América 2001. In 2011 it host the opening match of the U20 World Cup to be held in Colombia from July 29 to August 20.
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Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“Come, my Celia, let us prove
While we may the sports of love;
Time will not be ours forever,
He at length our good will sever.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“Falling in love is the right adventure for those who dislike sports and travel.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“In the end, I think you really only get as far as you’re allowed to get.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 87 (June 17, 1991)