MANILA, 14 December — Manila bagged its last pair of gold medals through its boys in taekwondo to emerge as the new overall champion of the third Batang Pinoy Youth Games at the Panaad Park and Sports Stadium in Bacolod City.

Gyle Michael Genoso reigned supreme in the 128-136 cm division for 10-year-old boys while Paolo Miguel Angeles followed suit in the 144-152 cm class for 12-year-olds as they enabled the Big City to dethrone Laguna, the two-time overall titlist here.

Through their 17 gold medals in swimming, the 44-man team from the Big City snatched the overall lead away from Cebu province and held it until the end to improve its third-place finish behind host Laguna and Muntinlupa in the second version of the games last January.

Laguna, which had ruled the event for young athletes aged 12 and below since its inaugural here in the city of smiles in 1999, trailed Manila by seven gold and five silvers at the end of competitions and needed a wonder to complete a three-peat.

Its prayers were seemingly answered when the officials in charge of the event results initially credited the province with 14 golds for winning the Little League softball tournament, confusing mediamen who had already proclaimed Manila as the new champion.

But a check with the Batang Pinoy’s deputy project director and technical committee head confirmed that Laguna could only be credited with one gold in the overall medal tally for winning the team sport.

The province from southern Luzon, which reportedly spent 5 million pesos to keep the event’s general championship, thus settled for a final record of 17 golds, nine silvers and 12 bronzes following a victory in girls’ volleyball and a third-place finish on the boys’ side.

Peñalosa gets another crack at WBC title

Gerry Peñalosa, who lost three times in his bid to reclaim his world title, gets another shot at the World Boxing Council (WBC) against reigning champion Masamori Tokuyama if the Japanese.

But that would only materialize if Tokuyama is still world superflyweight champion by next year.

The WBC ordered the rematch after it found merit in the protest of Rudy Salud, Peñalosa’s manager, that the Filipino former world titlist got the wrong end of the decision in their Sept. 24 fight when a review showed the Japanese fighter head-butting Peñalosa six times.

In a resolution signed by the WBC president Jose Sulaiman and Salud, who is attending the WBC Convention in Pattaya, Thailand, Tokuyama was allowed to defend his title against Ryuko of Japan “or any other challenger” by March 2002.

Under the resolution, should Ryuko win the title then he will have to stage a mandatory defense against the Filipino jawnbreaker within 90 days.

However, should Tokuyama retain the crown, he will be allowed to fight “another challenger of his choice” by May 2002.

It was disclosed that Tokuyama, who is expected to beat Ryuko, will defend the title against Kawashima, also of Japan, in May in a fight that the promoters hope to stage in North Korea.

Viloria turns professional

Viloria is now a professional light-flyweight campaigner. He has so far compiled a 3-0 win-loss record as a pro in the 112-lb division, all by knockout.

The 22-year-old Viloria suffered a controversial loss to Brahim Asloum of France in the 2000 Olympics, but he is now highly regarded to be one of the most promising boxers in the professional ranks.

Viloria started boxing at the age of six. He was born in Hawaii but lived in the Philippines for the first five years of life and was raised by his grandparents.

Boxing runs in the family. Viloria’s grandfather taught the sport to his father, who then passed it on to Brian.

When Viloria moved back to Hawaii, he found out that he had a brother that he didn’t know about. While Viloria was being raised in the Philippines, his mother had stayed in Hawaii.

Viloria’s parents have been big supporters of their son throughout his life.

They have done nothing but push Brian towards achieving success both in and out of the ring. He has come a long way since his first competitive bout.

Woeful campaign by Filipino tennisters

Eight-seeded Dmitri Mazur of Uzbekistan ousted the last Filipino hopeful, Joseph Victorino, 6-1, 6-0, to reach the quarterfinals of the $15,000 Tru-Flex ITF Philippines Men’s Futures 2 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

The world’s No. 477 Mazur, a member of the Davis Cup team for the past two years, advanced against Maximilian Abel of Germany.

“I wasn’t expecting an easy match. I think he didn’t play well today,” said the 22-year-old Mazur, who needed only 45 minutes to dispose of Victorino, who was entered as a wild card.

Earlier, Filipino pair Johnny Arcilla and Adelo Abadia lost their first-round match to third seed Juraj Hasko and Roman Kukal of Slovak Republic, 7-6 (5), 6-2.

Third seed and first leg champion Daniel Andersson of Sweden, No. 4 Radoslav Lukaev of Bulgaria and No. 5 Benjamin Cassaigne of France downed separate opponents to book quarterfinal slots.

Andersson outclassed Leif Meineke of Germany, 6-0, 6-1, to advance against sixth seed and Taiwan’s No. 1 Wang Yeu-Tzuoo while Lukaev rallied past Korean Lee Seung-Hun, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), to advance against unseeded South African Dirk Stegmann, who eliminated No. 7 and first leg losing finalist Kim Dong-hyun of Korea, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.

Cassaigne outplayed Tsai Chia-Yen of Chinese Taipei, 6-1, 7-6 (3), to arrange a quarterfinal showdown with Japanese Toshihide Matsui, who won over fever-stricken Hendri Susilo Pramono of Indonesia, 6-1, 2-1 (ret).

Southwoods bags Fil golf crown

CAP Manila Southwoods won its third straight crown in the Fil division of the 52nd Fil-Am international golf championship in Baguio City.

CAP went for the jugular and, despite a two-point deduction on Jerome Delariarte’s miscue, opened up a massive 36-point lead that was enough to crown itself the champion of the prestigious event.

Its bid for a double three-peat celebration, however, was spoiled when Juami Rocha’s scores for the first two rounds in the Am division were thrown out due to rule violations, leaving the Cavite squad, supposed to be up by 30 points after 54 holes, trailing Mizuno DHL by six instead.

The lead in the Am division fell on the lap of Mizuno DHL after Juami Rocha admitted he delegated the marking chores to his caddie in the first two rounds, a no-no under new tournament rules being implemented only this year, and was disqualified.

Counting Lyndon Barril’s disqualification in the first round, Southwoods lost a total of 59 points and stood on the verge of losing the Am crown it had won convincingly the last two years.

‘Elevator’ tops on MVP list

Chester Tolomia leads all candidates in the Most Valuable Player (MVP) race after first round of eliminations in the Philippine Basketball League Challenge Cup.

Tolomia, also known as the Elevator and last conference’s MVP, was one of the biggest factors that propelled Shark Energy Drink back on top from a dismal 1-2 start as he garnered a total of 236 points — 161 on statistics and 75 on won games.

He led the scoring department with 18.7 points a game, shooting 33 percent (14-of-42) from the three-point area and averaging 4.3 rebounds.

Hardworking Ana Freezers forward Roland Pascual was second overall with 210, ranking fourth in scoring with 15.7 points and sixth in rebounds with 7.3.

Two Welcoat Paint Masters followed — Yancy de Ocampo and Renren Ritualo.

De Ocampo was third with 203. He was sixth in scoring with 12.1 points and second in rebounds with 9.9 rebounds. He averaged 1.1 blocks.

Ritualo was fourth with 200, ranking second in scoring with 17.3, shooting 33 percent (18-of-54) from beyond the arc and 51 percent (23-of-45) from the field.

20 million pesos sports

center in Cabanatuan

A 20-million pesos sports complex, envisioned to become the venue of future regional sportsfests and athletic meets, is set to be constructed early next year at the sprawling Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology (NEUST)-Sumacab campus in Cabanatuan City.

The proposed sports complex project is seen to spark a renaissance of interest in various sports disciplines and become the spawning ground of homegrown talents who could later be tapped for future national and international competitions.

Third district Rep. Aurelio Umali said NEUST officials are making available five hectares within the 24-hectare Sumacab Campus to house the sports complex which will be financed through his congressional initiative allocations.

Umali said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is now working overtime to finish the blue-print for the sports complex which is essentially the first serious attempt to establish a long-overdue multipurpose facility and convention center in this city, home to the Nueva Ecija Patriots.

He said the sports complex will house an air-conditioned gymnasium, an Olympic-size swimming pool, basketball courts, tennis courts and a baseball field, among others.

The amount of P20 million is considered the biggest single allocation for a sports facility in the city.

Karatekas shine abroad

Filipino karatekas brought home 12 medals, four of them gold, in two international tournaments recently, including the 3rd Karate-do Goju Kai World Championships in Perth, Australia.

Joel Mallillin, the reigning national open champion, won the gold in the men’s-70 kumite while Norman “Sonny” Montalvo of Jose Rizal University topped the boys’ 12-14 years old boys’ kumite divisions in the world meet last Nov. 30-Dec. 2.

The national team to the world meet, coming from the Association for the Advancement of Karatedo Philippines, also bagged three silver and two bronze medals.

Montalvo also won the silver in the boys’ individual kata while Rebecca Torres and Muriel Farinas, both of St. Paul-Pasig, settled for second in the kumite competition of the girls’ 8-years-old and 12-14 divisions.

Former SEA Games and Asian medalist, Kristina de Jesus-Laforteza won a bronze in the women’s individual kata, the same medal won by Miguel Velasquez of Don Bosco Makati in the boy’s individual kata.

Ateneo’s Vincent Pante and Stephanie Lim settled for fourth place in the boys individual kata and women’s individual kata in the world championships that attracted participants from 35 countries.

The AAK Team Philippines to the Asia Pacific Shito-Ryu Championships in Singapore won two gold and three bronzes medals last Dec. 1-2.