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!
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