Sports
Ambateños enjoy a variety of sports, but none so much as soccer. Ambato plays host to two teams professional teams, playing in Ecuador's highest leagues: Macará and Técnico plays in Serie B. Both teams play in the centrally located Estadio Bellavista. Neither team has been wildly successful in Ecuador or beyond, however both maintain a loyal following of spectators. Matches between Macará and Técnico U. are known as El Clásico Ambateño (English: The Ambato Derby). In 2007 both teams briefly played in Serie A for the first time in over ten years.
There are many other sports popular among Ambateños including basketball, tennis, swimming, and Ecuavolley. Ecuavolley is a variation of volleyball, played specifically in Ecuador. It features three players per team on a small court with a high net. Players normally use a soccer ball in place of a volley ball. Ecuavolley is extremely popular in Ambato and the surrounding regions.
Basketball is also gaining popularity in Ambato. There is a very fierce rivalry in basketball between two of Ambato's largest high schools, Colegio Nacional Bolívar and Colegio Técnico Guayaquil. These games are usually hosted in the Coliseo Cerrado de Deportes, the large coliseum across the street from Estadio Bellavista. The Coliseo Cerrado is also the venue for the beauty pageant portion of the Festival of Fruits and Flowers.
Read more about this topic: Ambato, Ecuador
Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one’s behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“There be some sports are painful, and their labor
Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters
Point to rich ends.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The whole idea of image is so confused. On the one hand, Madison Avenue is worried about the image of the players in a tennis tour. On the other hand, sports events are often sponsored by the makers of junk food, beer, and cigarettes. What’s the message when an athlete who works at keeping her body fit is sponsored by a sugar-filled snack that does more harm than good?”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)