Sports Eye
Donaire, Arida’s triumphs eased PH grief
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
DETERMINED to provide hope and inspiration to compatriots in the land of their birth who suffered from a monster of a disaster that killed thousands of people and flattened countless farmlands brought on by Super Typhoon Yolanda, our Fil-Am boxer, the Bohol-born Nonito Donaire Jr. and our Miss Universe beauty pageant representative Ariella Arida managed to remain focused on their missions to bring glory to the country. Their success in their respective assignments and somehow eased the heavy burden on our brother Visayans’s shoulders who continue to endure long days of hopelessness and despair.
We saw when the former three-time world champion Donaire was on the verge of another defeat after eight rounds of calculating fight with two of the three judges scoring it 78-74 for Darchinyan. The third judge surprisingly tallied it even, 76-76. Aware of his low score after the eighth, Donaire, nicknamed “The Filipino Flash”, smartly unleashed a knockout punch like what he did in their first meeting six years ago and successfully landed a vicious, well-timed and well-executed left hook, followed by a right to score an unexpected come-from-behind technical knock-out victory on the ninth that shocked the garrulous Armenian-born, Australia-based Vic Darchinyan. The win will now erase the doubts of critics who said that their first meeting on July 7, 2007 that ended in the fifth round by Donaire was a fluke. That was when they were still in the flyweight division (112 lbs).
Right after the bout, Donaire proudly dedicated his victory for the typhoon victims in eastern Visayas and announced he’s hoping to square off anew against his latest tormentor, Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba. Well, that’s laudable (But if you ask me, he should have donated a portion of his purses for his kababayans if he’s truly and deeply concerned about them.) It was Bob Arum, the top honcho of Top Rank Promotions that promoted the ‘grudge rematch’, who announced after the match that he will donate P1M for the typhoon Yolanda victims. I doff my hat to him for that. It’s heartwarming also to see the NBA of America promising to donate $250,000.00, our Philippines PBA committing P1M, the world basketball governing body FIBA also promised to help with a still unspecified amount. I hope that some other big international sports groups like the FIFA and the IOC will do the same.
Miss Arida may have just landed 3rd runner-up (4th place) but to me to finish in the top five in a Miss Universe beauty contest is already a great achievement for any contestant considering that the Miss Universe beauty spectacle is the most prestigious of all beauty pageants with 86 countries participating. This was the first time in the history of the Miss Universe competition that the top five winners were all from Latino countries, except the Philippines. This year’s winner Miss Venezuela Gabriela Isler, was followed by Patricia Yurena Rodriguez of Spain, first runner-up Constanza Baez of Ecuador, second runner-up; and Jakelyne Oliveira of Brazil, fourth runner-up.
I consider the Philippines as a Latino country because most of our surnames are of Spanish origin and loads of words that we use in our daily conversations are rooted in Spanish. In fact our Miss Philippines’ last name Arida is a Spanish word which means “dry”. Then, there are two places in the Philippines whose dialects are 80 percent Spanish, namely the cities of Zamboanga, and Cavite. That should make us partly a Latino country, the only one in Asia.
It’s a good thing the Batang Pinoy National Games which was supposed to be held on Nov. 19-23 in Bacolod City was postponed to Jan. 28-Feb. 1 due to Yolanda. The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) rescheduled the event in the same venue in consideration of Bacolod City’s neighboring places like the much-devastated provinces of Leyte, Iloilo, Aklan, Samar, Cebu, and Bohol, to name a few. For sure their athletes are now ill-prepared (and hopefully did not die) because of the two disasters (earthquake and typhoon) that they had just suffered. My deepest and sincerest sympathy to the affected victims. Hopefully this will not happen anymore. But only the omnipotent God knows. Amen.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Therefore says the Lord: “Behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.” JEREMIAH 11: 11
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