No tears of Joy

After placing ninth in last year’s Palarong Pambansa in Antique, CVIRAA jumped to fourth place behind perennial champion NCR, Calabarzon and Western Visayas. In the recently-concluded 61st edition of the Games in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, CVIRAA officials are elated with the results, saying this is the region’s usual place but Councilor Joy Augustus Young is not Joyful at all. Joy who recommended training expenses for the CVIRAA athletes believed the Region could improve and aspire for a higher finish rather than set their minds on fourth

place. Reminds me when I was coaching the Nike Running Club which won 12 team championships in the PAL Manila Marathon. Contending teams aimed for a second place finish. “Wala pa ang boksing, pilde na daan.” When interviewed, the team captains would already concede the crown to our team. I lambasted them saying that’s a bad attitude, even how strong our team was, “Basin magkalibanga kami tanan, daug na ang contra.” So I share, Joy’s sorrow on CVIRAA’s lack of fighting spirit. Perennial second placer WesternVisayas knows that NCR is hard to beat but still they never gave up, even winning the overall championship twice.

I was saddened by news coming from Bago City in Negros Occidental that my friend 1984 and 1988 Olympian Leopoldo Cantancio died after a motorcycle accident. Bago City is considered the breeding grounds of boxers. Atlanta Olympics silver medalist Onyok Velasco and his brother Barcelona Olympics bronze medalist Roel, also hail from the City.RIP Leopoldo.

DID YOU KNOW?

Dolph Lundgren who hit the big screen as Ivan Drago, the 6’4” Russian killing machine in the movie Rocky IV, is a black belt in Karate. Lundgren won the British and Australian karate Opens. Lundgren almost didn’t get the

part as he was too tall, but Sly Stallone called him six months later. There were 5,000 aspirants who auditioned for the part. Dolph who starred with Jean Claude Van Damme in three “Universal Soldier” movies, was asked what would happen if they fought in real life? “Van Damme was never a real fighter, he was a great fighter in films. I have at least 30 pounds on him and I think he wouldn’t last that long” said Lundgren. During the filming of Rocky IV, Dolph hit Stallone quite hard (As per Instruction of Sly to make it realistic), sending the Rocky star to the hospital for two weeks. By the way, because of his karate talent Dolph got a Full bright scholarship at MIT where he finished his Ph.D in chemical engineering. He owns a $300,000 custom-made Ferrari 612 Scaglietti GT and once had a long relationship with singer Grace Jones, Grace was in a James Bond movie starring Roger Moore.

KAREEM ABDUL JABBAR one of the greatest players in the NBA had a quadruple bypass surgery in April 2015. Jabbar suffered many heart problems in his lifetime and even his uvula was removed in 1997. But the greatest scare was in 2008 when he had diagnosis of leukemia. Thanks to advances in targeted therapeutics, many leukemia could be treated. Jabbar was monitored by his son, Amir, now an orthopedic resident at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.