MANILA, 4 July 2003 — Filipinos reaffirmed their supremacy as National Master Ronald Dableo ruled the Asian 3.2a zone chess championship with another RP bet placing second and joining him in the prestigious world championship in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The 24-year-old Dableo completed his fairy tale campaign with victory over Indonesian Fide Master Irwanto Sadikin in the final round to top the tournament with 7 points and earn the first ticket to the prestigious world joust in Minorca, Spain next year.
Dableo’s more illustrious compatriots, Grand Master Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr. and GM-candidate Mark Paragua were tied for second place with 6.5 points each.
Antonio, who drew with ninth-round foe GM Wu Shaobin of Singapore, and Paragua, who won a point at the expense of Indon IM Sitanggang Salor, were playing in a two-game playoff match for the second berth to the Fide world championship.GMs Eugenio “Eugene” Torre and Buenaventura Bong Villamayor, did not do badly either, as they shared fourth spot with Wu with 6 points.
In the women’s side, WIM Arianne Caoili drew with WIM Le Kieu Thien Kim to wind up in fourth place with a 5.5 card. Top seed WIM Nguyen Thi Thanh An took the women’s tiara with seven points and the lone slot to the world championship.
Pacquiao Begins
Training in US
Lone Filipino world champion Manny Pacquiao begins rigid training in Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California, next week.
Pacquiao has already racked up a total of 30 rounds of sparring in Davao and Manila, but is expected to double that in a matter of days when Roach sends three different fighters up the ring to work out with the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super bantamweight champion.
Buboy Fernandez will act as one of Pacquiao’s cornermen when the Filipino southpaw defends his crown on July 26 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles against Mexican Emmanuel Lucero.
Fernandez has spent time learning the training methods of Roach, a former featherweight contender in the 1980s, in sunny California last year. Pacquiao has left for the US with Fernandez and business manager Rod Nazario.
New Pro Boxing League
Adopts Unique Format
A newly-established professional boxing league set to be launched next month is involving all of the country’s boxing stables in a unique tournament offering over half-a-million pesos in prizes.
Dubbed the Philippine Pro-Boxing League, the league has adopted the stepladder and is envisioned by its proponents, veteran boxing promoter Lito Mondejar and broadcaster Mon Liboro, to succeed where others failed before. It can be done, according to Mondejar, adding the unique format of the event makes it doubly interesting.
Rebellion Might Cost Women
Chessers Their SEAG Berths
International Master Christine Rose Mariano and Fide Master Sheerie Joy Lomibao said National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) President Matt Defensor’s inaction as to the suspension of their Philippine Sports Commission’s (PSC) monthly allowances could mean their non-inclusion as well in the national chess team’s official lineup for the 2003 Southeast Asian Games set in Vietnam this December.
Mariano and Lomibao said Defensor has turned a deaf ear into their plea, while NCFP secretary general Samuel Estimo appears to have “took their questions to the chess federation hierarchy personally” resulting to the suspension of monthly allowance.
Ballester Tops Inaugural
Manila Run
National team mainstay Allan Ballester had a leisurely run but still ended up with the top prize in the 1st Manila Marathon.
Two hundred and sixty men and women responded to the starting gun at 5:30 a.m. in front of the Rizal monument with several young hopefuls and veterans hoping to grab a piece of the limelight in the race that doubled as qualifying event for the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam later this year.
Luzon Earns Tour Points
for Tagaytay Win
Bernard Luzon, one of the cyclists outside the national team who shook the recent Tour Pilipinas 2003, made his presence felt in the cycling scene again, topping the recent one-day Tour of Tagaytay at the noted highland resort city. Luzon, of team Patrol 117 in the Tour Pilipinas, clocked 4:51:28.13 in the 200-km race, wheeling in first in a three-man group that included PagcorSports’ Rhyan Tanguilig, another national team outsider who made an impact during the summer Tour and the little-heralded Arnel Espino, also of PagcorSports.
