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Sports Bits
Bacolod squads off to world series
Three Bacolod City baseball squads left for the United states to
represent the country in separate age-group World Series competitions
this August.
The team from Paglaum Village National High School competes in
the 13-14 division junior league championships to be held in Kirkland,
Washington on August 13-18. The teen squad will try to go one higher
from their runner-up finish in the same contest last year.
Coinciding with the junior league meet is the senior division finals
(14-16) in Jefferson, Kentucky with the troop from Domingo Lacson
National High School reperesenting the Philippines.
Another contingent from Paglaum Village, this time from the elementary
division (11-12) vies for the Little League World Series crown in
Portland, Oregon on August 10-15.
The trips were sponsored in part by the city government and the
Philippine Sports Commission.
La Salle, Ateneo favorites to win UAAP plum
Despite the monumental drubbing inflicted by the University of
the East Warriors (58-79), July 21, the De La Salle Green Archers
are still the team to beat in the ongoing UAAP varsity basketball
tournament which got underway July 14.
Expected to carry the charge for a 4th straight championship is
star guard Renren Ritualo together with teammates Michael Cortez,
William Wilson and BJ Manalo.
The Ateneo Blue Eagles can also match the firepower of the Archers
pound for pound with the highly regarded Enrico Villanueva at the
helm and support from Rich Alvarez, Larry Fonacier and Magnum Membrere.
But the other squads UST, UE FEU, UP, NU and Adamson University
should also not to be dismissed.
As of this writing, all teams are about even with the Blue Eagles
slightly ahead in winning quotient, with two wins and a loss.
The Archers easily disposed arch rival Ateneo on opening weekend
91-76 but got the shock of their lives when they received severe
blows from the Warriors in their next outing.
Menk's status still in limbo
A year after team owners required foreign-bred cagers to have Department
of Justice clearance before they are allowed to play in the PBA
and while his Mobiline conterpart Fil-Tongan Asi Taulava has been
strutting his wares since June, talented Fil-Am Eric Menk is still
languishing in the sidelines.
Due to a technicality in his mother's naturalization papers, the
Tanduay stalwart is nowhere near getting the long-awaited DOJ nod
to be declared eligible for PBA play.
With the league nearing the completion of the Commissioner's Cup,
there are still no signs of Menk suiting up for his ballclub as
early as this year's Governor's Cup.
One of PBA's most dynamic big men, 6' 7" Menk exudes court
craft and sheer power on court and would surely be an asset in future
national teams.
Flying Finn wraps up world pool crown
Finland's Mika Immonen could have been a losing quarterfinalist,
instead at week's end he found himself $65,000 richer and the owner
of the title "Best Pool Player in the World."
The London born Finn who now lives in New York subdued the valiant
efforts of Germany's best Ralf Soquet in the finals of the gruelling
race to 17 racks, 17-10 at the World Pool Championship in Cardiff,
Wales.
Trailing 2-4 at the start, the Finn capitalized on the German's
mistake in the seventh rack and never looked back. Immonen, 26,
one of the game's perennial favorites, jumpstarted his run with
a victory over Filipino Rodolfo Luat in the qualifying stages. He
then beat US prodigy Corey Deuel, Malta's Tony Drago, qualifier
Anthony Ginn, Dutchman Niels Feijen and Canada's Alain Martel in
the knockout rounds.
It should be noted that he beat three Filipino conquerors. Drago,
Feijen and Martel thrashed Django Bustamante, Bata Reyes and Dodong
Andam in previous matches, respectively.
In reaching the quarterfinals, Andam matched Luat's feat last year
for the Philippines for the country's best finish since Bata Reyes'
winning the whole thing in '99. Reyes bowed out in the round of
32 while Antonio Lining lost in the round of 16. Bustamante and
Ramil Gallego were ousted in the first round. Warren Kiamco and
Luat were one win short of getting into the round of 64.
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