Sophie

This is Sophie, 3-year old girl fairy genius. She's from Darwin, Australia and she's simply amazing.

Master Blaster, May 11, 2009

Mothers know best
MASTER BLASTER
BY NEIL BRAVO

DARWIN, N.T., AUSTRALIA—For the third time in my lifetime, I touched ground on this wonderful city at the Top End of the Land Down Under.

I first came here as pool writer for the Mindanao-Philippines delegation in 1997, the first time that a team from Mindanao represented Philippines in an international event. That delegation was led by the then Davao City sports consultant. His name? William Ramirez.

At that time, Ramirez, known around the sports circles as Butch, was known as a motivational sports leader among collegiate athletes.

Of course, we know who Ramirez is right now, after the former teacher-turned-coach-turned sports consultant-turned sports commission-turned sports commission chair evolved to become one of the very few well-loved sports leaders in the country.

In 2001, I was back in the Arafura Games as a coach and team manager for tennis for a group of young athletes better known in Davao Oriental as “Olympkids.”

Early Sunday, I saw the bright lights of Darwin once more from the skies before touching down barely having sleep after a 36-hour stopover in Singapore.

A dozen years have passed since my first Arafura coverage. Nothing much has changed from the natural beauty and serenity of this harbour city. The noticeable changes are the new batch of foster homes opening their doors to fellow Pinoy athletes and officials. Even the Filipino Community Center of the FAANT is now a sprawling complex.

After a welcome breakfast at sun up at the FAANT FCC, the lean Philippines-Mindanao delegation, which is comprised of athletes from Davao City, Panabo City, Gen. Santos City and Bukidnon, were fetched by the foster parents here.

My foster parents are the Hansons—Gilbert, a successful businessman from Tasmania who is married to Filipina doctor Melanie from Iloilo. The Hansons live at the upscale village in Tiwi, a few blocks away from the venue in swimming at Casuarina Pool.

This is another year for the fast-growing Arafura Games, aptly described by councilor Pete Laviña as the Olympics of the non-Olympians.

The Arafura Games, which began in 1991 as the Arafura Sports Festival, is a multi-event Olympic type competition for developmental athletes of the Asia-Pacific Region and beyond.

Some 30 countries are competing here regularly in 26 events. This year’s staging incorporates the Oceania Paralympic Championships to the regular Arafura events. The delegation of Mindanao-Philippines is headed by Councilor Pete with Joy Encabo as the designated deputy of the absent Ramirez.

We will be shooting stories of the exploits of our youth-laden delegation whose funding is sourced from either the LGUs or personal resources. No corporate funding is allowed among participants in keeping with the Olympic standards of the event. Thus, even this lean delegation has no corporate backings, believe me.

I have to thank mine partly through the gene-rosity of Bong Go, chief of staff of Mayor Rody Du-terte, and mostly from personal resources. But I have a designation to perform around here as pool writer of the delegation. I am not on vacation. So mustn’t everyone.

From the early breakfast after a gruelling four-hour flight from Singapore, the sleepless swimmers plunged into action here on Sunday. I took a quick look at the swimming competitions and saw parents of some swimmers personally doing the time monitoring of the heats. They make for better coaches, I believe.

Yes, mothers know best.

I doff my hat to these moms, Happy Mothers’ Day!

Arafura Games, May 11, 2009

Davao swimmers splash for 4 medals,
GenSan girl bags bronze in Arafura
By Neil Bravo

DARWIN, N.T. AUSTRALIA—Davao swimmers Haroon Cali and Allan Jovero bagged three medals in the 2009 Arafura Games here just as swiftly as they slept.

The two tankers from Davao City spent a few minutes of naps in between the giddy four-hour flight from Singapore, had a quick breakfast of toast and juice on arrival before being whisked quickly to the pool for competition.

Not an easy thing to do considering these boys are not used to long flights before competitions.

At the end of the day, Cali barely missed the gold by an arm and Jovero had three bronze medals draping on his neck. Not bad for a team decimated by last minute pullouts, visa and funding delays.

The 21-year old Cali finished with a silver medal in the 17 and over 50-m backstroke with a 30.15 seconds clocking while Jovero checked in at third for a bronze in 31.07. Scott Van Burck of Queensland frustrated the Davao tankers with an amazing swim in the finals in 29.12. Cali had earlier topped the morning heats with Van Burck in second position.

Earlier, Van Burck also blew away Jovero in the boys 17 and over 100-m butterfly with a fast time of 59.32 while Northern Territory’s Josh Barnes came in a distant second with 1:04.85. Jovero came in with 1:05.29 for bronze.

Jean Baptiste L’Huillier of Caledonia frustrated Van Burck in the boys 17 and over 50-m free style with a swim of 24.41 seconds while Van Burck settled for silver with 24.47 and Jovero booked another bronze with 26.14.

The triple bronze feat of Jovero came after he endured some visa glitch in Manila and had to stay behind for half a day to await his visa. He caught up with the delegation in Singapore Friday afternoon.

“Mabuti na lang at nanalo pa ng medal si Allan. I was so worried dahil di nga nakatulog ang mga bata,” said Allan’s mother Leah, who along with co-parents Rosalinda Tudio and Judy Ann Cantil, personally attended to their sons and daughters and monitored the clockings of the competition.

General Santos City’s Tiara Bebony Tudio also booked herself a bronze medal in the tough girls 13-14 50-m breaststroke finishing third with a 37.74 clocking. Montana Colreavy of West Australia won the gold in 36.27 while Lily Burrow of Northern Territory was second in 36.93.

Councilor Peter Lavina immediately sent his message of congratulations to the medallists. “Despite the odds, we were able to make it. We’re proud of them,” Lavina said. Lavina, who also heads the Davao City Sports Council, and fellow councilor Rachel Zozobrado, arrived with the delegation here.

The Davao delegation is backed up by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Vice Mayor Sara Duterte through the City Sports Development Office headed by chief of staff Bong Go and officer-in-charge Moses Billacura. (NJB)