|
JOE S. ANTONIO
Filipino athletes leave in batches starting this Sunday for the 15th Asian Games , hopeful of striking medals in some events but fearful of going home empty-handed in several others as they do battles against the finest in the region.
Athletes, coaches and officials from table tennis, baseball, rowing, badminton and equestrian, 48 in all, comprise the first big group of Pinoy bets going to the super-rich city of Doha, Qatar Sunday afternoon for the region’s biggest sports undertaking set Dec. 1-15.
Philippine Sports Commission Chairman and Team RP Chef de Mission Butch Ramirez left quietly three days ago, and said again that the Filipino athletes are able and ready to surpass their three-gold medal performance four years a go in Busan, South Korea.
Ramirez, who is reportedly on the way out as PSC boss, stuck to his prediction of a five-gold medal harvest this time despite the formidable odds, saying the rigorous, no-nonsense buildup by the athletes despite limited funds will carry them through.
“I have complete trust and confidence in our athletes. They will do us proud nothwithstanding the world class opposition,” Ramirez told sportswriters after the send-off party last week inside the Rizal Memorial Complex last week.
In lovely Busan, Team Philippines struck through the now retired Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski in equestrian, Francisco ‘Django’ Bustamante and Antonio Lining in 9-ball doubles event and Paeng Nepomuceno and RJ Bautista in bowling’s men’s doubles.
A total of 351 athletes, coaches and officials make up Team RP this time, one of the biggest ever assembled for this regional conclave that will feature crack Chinese, Japanese and Korean athletes who’ll most likely compete in the Beijing Olympiad in 2008.
Two-hundred-twenty-nine of these are athletes, most of them gold medallists in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games held in Manila , where they gifted the country its first ever overall victory in the Games.
The Filipinos will see action in 32 of the 39 sports in the calendar, including boxing, billiards, bowling, taekwondo, golf and wushu where the five gold medals projected will likely come from.
Without admitting it, Team RP officials are resigned to the fact that Filipino athletes stand no chance in many events like table tennis, baseball, squash and gymnastics considering the quality and depth of the opposition .
“Masakit sabihin, pero malamang mahihirapan sa maraming events,” said one athlete who requested anonymity.
The first group of athletes to set foot in Doha was the sailing team which left early last week, although a six-man advance party headed by PSC Commissioner Ritchie Garcia has been there since the second week of the month.
The aquatics squad leaves on Nov. 27, followed by the teams in swimming, beach volleyball, boxing, ches, gymnastics, judo, sepak takraw, and equstrian on Nov. 29, bowling, cycling, rowing, cue sports, shooting and tennis on Nov. 30, sailing and canoing on Dec. 1, taekwondo, athletics and triathlon on Dec. 3, equestrian on Dec. 4, golf, wrestling, bodybuilding, archery, fencing and cycling on Dec. 5, diving, squash and wushu on Dec. 7 and karate on Dec 8 and 9.
As advance party, Garcia, administration officials Moying Martelino, and Nestor Ilagan are tasked to inspect the 25 apartments assigned to Team RP, start installation of necessary equipment, verify rate cards to be used for purchasing, and make arrangements for the arrival of the RP flag-bearer Nepomuceno.
Boxing, always a source of medals, lost a big hopeful with the sacking of the veteran Harry Tañamor for disciplinary action last month.
Tañamor won a silver medal in Busan. Taking his place in Doha is Godfrey Castro, who topped the eliminations held to look for Harry’s replacement.
Taken from Journal Online
http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php?issue=2006-11-23&sec=7&aid=2574
|
De otro lado, algunos medios aseguran Culotte slips no se tienen registros de que la querella presentada por Flores haya procedido hasta ahora.La modelo rusa de 21 años, novia del ropa interior calvin klein mujer del Real Madrid, posó con el cuerpo pijamas calvin klein mujer en una sesión fotográfica.
Posted by Culotte slips at July 23, 2011, 8:19 am