MANILA, 1 February — Yancy de Ocampo completed his collegiate stint in grand style, pouring in a team-high 29 points to lead St. Francis of Assisi to their second consecutive National Capital Region Athletic Association (NCRAA) men’s basketball title with a 91-81 win over a tired Lyceum squad at the Rizal Coliseum.
De Ocampo, who emerged the No. 1 pick in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) rookie draft recently, drilled in 12 of his total in the fourth period as the Doves broke away from a slim 66-64 lead to cap its big comeback following a sorry 78-77 defeat in Game One.
SFACS also prevailed in Game Two, 79-72, of the finals series. De Ocampo will spearhead Welcoat’s charge against Shark Energy Drink in a best-of-seven showdown in the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) before joining Federal Express in the PBA on Feb. 10.
Paragua ties for second place
Grandmaster-candidate Mark Paragua, who earned his first GM norm in Mondariz, Spain, early this month, tied for second with three others in the Jaen International Rapids Open in Jaen, Spain.
GM Alexander Rustemov topped the eight-round Swiss system event with seven points. Paragua, the former world Under-14 rapid chess champion, finished with 6.5 points in a tie with GMs Cifuentes Parada, Stuart Conquest and Fernandez.
The Filipino drew with Rustemov in the third round, Among Paragua’s victims in the 98-player field were Conquest, GMs Oleg Korneev and Davor Komljenovic.
Before the Jaen event, Paragua also scored 6.5 points in nine games to share 12th place with seven others in the 187-player Sevilla Open in Seville, Spain. GMs Cifuentes Parada, Vladimir Epishin and Mihai Suba tied for first with 7.5 points apiece.
Pacquiao might fight
on Hamed’s undercard
Murad Muhammad, the American promoter of Manny Pacquiao, said that the lone Filipino world champion might be included on the undercard of Prince Naseem Hamed’s comeback fight to be held March 23 at the London Arena in England.
Fresh from a trip to London, Muhammad told Pacquiao’s handlers from his homebase in New Jersey that plans are afoot for Pacquiao to stake his International Boxing Federation (IBF) super bantamweight title against a British opponent named Michael Brodie.
Apparently, the Hamed headliner is the only date which could accommodate Pacquiao since the other Home Box Office (HBO) events are already fully booked.
Hamed, who has not fought since losing badly to Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera in April last year, will most likely square off with European feather titlist Manuel Calvo of Spain.
Penalosa in deep training
Gerry Penalosa, with his eyes set on reclaiming the world title, is currently training in Baguio in preparation for his showdown with compatriot Joel Avila on March 2 at the Makati Coliseum.
Penalosa, younger brother of former world champion Doddie Boy, has vowed to go all-out against Avila knowing that his lofty World Boxing Council (WBC) super flyweight No. 2 rating is at stake and the International crown on the line.
So he’s not taking Avila lightly.
Instead of training right in Manila, Penalosa has decided to go up to the mountains of the country’s summer capital to prepare for his fight against the ferocious Avila, who beat up Jhunver Halog in his previous fight last year in Pampanga. It was in Baguio where Penalosa had held his training during his past world title fight preparations.
POC limits list to 120 athletes for Pusan Games
Chief of mission Tom Carrasco said no more than 120 athletes will make up the Philippine delegation to the Asian Games in Pusan, South Korea.
Carrasco made the announcement after the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) executive board approved the criteria for selection of athletes to the quadrennial regional games. An athlete is qualified for the team if he meets the following qualifications: a gold medal in last year’s Southeast Asian Games; a gold in any Southeast Asian level competition between 2001 and August 2002; a bronze in Asian championship-level competition between 2001 and August 2002; for measurable sports, a recent record equivalent to the minimum third place mark in the 1998 Asiad and a bronze in world-level competitions. Silver medalists in the 2001 Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) or any SEA-level competition between 2001 and August 2002, gold medalists in other SEA-level competition from year 2000, and those with "acceptable performance" in Asian-level meets would also be admitted to the delegation "subject to justification and evaluation."
Salvador wins in triathlon
Fast-rising Noel Salvador, a member of the Philippine training pool, beat his more experienced opponents in the Iloilo leg of the National Triathlon Series over the weekend.
The 28-year-old Bacolod native negotiated the strength-sapping 51.5-kilometer swim-bike-run event in a total time of 2:10:16.
