West Visayas Sports
It’s been a few weeks since I wrote my column. Please forgive me but I was just too busy traveling around Western Visayas, performing as Elvisaya on some occasions. I was in Bacolod City first week of November to attend the Uytiepo Grand Reunion at Sugarland Hotel. I wanted to beg off as the theme of the event was Beatles, meaning everyone has to come, dress and sing like the Beatles. As a true trouper I got a mop-top wig in a jiffy and belted “I saw Her Standing
There” and “Till There Was You”. Well, being in Bacolod also allowed me to take a look at the ongoing Philippine Super Liga Grand Prix at the University of St. La Salle Gym. Bacolod fans were excited no end watching the likes of Jaja Santiago, Ilonggas Aby Marano and Kim Dy, imports Kennedy Brian, Maria Jose Perez, Hillary Hurly and Sara Klisura. Meanwhile in Iloilo City, Barotac Nuevo dominated the Iloilo leg of the 2017 Puma Sevens Football Cup. Iloilo is likewise still talking about the Lapaz athletes who bagged the title in the rapid division of theVisayas leg of the National Rapid Team and Individual Chess Championship here at Robinsons Galleria recently. Lapaz district is the hometown of my “agaw” GM Eugene Torre. The Ilonggos are also looking forward to the San Miguel Beermen and TNT KaTropa game during the Dinagyang Festival early next year. Two Ilonggos made it to the PBA, these are Kiefer Ravena (NLEX) and Raymar Jose of Pontevedra, Negros Occidental who was picked by Blackwater Elite.
NEW SWIMMING POWER
A new swimming power is fast rising in the Visayas. Palarong Pambansa multiple gold medalist Kyla Soguilon and teammate Michael Lozada won four gold medals on opening day of the Batang Pinoy. Other Aklan gold medalists are Jemmel De Leon and Maria Keina Nazareta. As I write this column, Lozadaonly 10 years old, won the boy’s 200m backstroke for his third gold. Iloilo has always been a power in swimming, boasting of Olympians Nancy Deano and Haide Coloso.
DID YOU KNOW?
Punk rocker Alice Cooper once pointed a loaded .38 revolver at Elvis Presley and thought about pulling the trigger. But seconds later, the gun was out of Cooper’s hands and he was on the floor. Cooper now 69, says it happened in 1971 at the Las Vegas Hilton after Elvis summoned him. Cooper said Elvis a karate black belt wanted to demonstrate how to disarm a gun-wielding person.
SCOTT BROOKS
Washington Wizards coach, used to pick walnuts in Modesto, California from sunrise to sundown. He also worked as a janitor in an automotive plant and used a bike going to work. The plant is four miles away.
WRONG ANTHEM
Although he’d undergone an appendectomy only 40 days before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Ethopian Abebe Bikila won the marathon. During the awarding, the Japanese band had no idea what the Ethopian national anthem sounded like. So while Bikila received his medal, the band played the Japanese national anthem instead which confused the spectators. “Abi nila ang nidaug,Hapon”. In the 1936 Berlin Olympics Louis Hostin of France won a weight lifting gold, but organizers accidentally raised the Turkish flag and played the Egyptian national anthem.