Howling at the moon

Philippine sports officials can howl in protest as much as they want to but I think Myanmar won’t budge on its plan to reduce the number of events and then add four traditional sports where the host country is expected to scoop up most of the medals at stake when it hosts the 27th Southeast Asian Games in December,

The Myanmar SEA Games Organizing Committee (Myasoc) plans to remove the Olympic sport
ts of badminton, lawn tennis, table tennis and water polo, events that obviously offer no medal potential for the hosts in the biennial games.

Myasoc intends to add the combat sports of Kempo, tarung derajat and vovinam, and the traditional game called chinlone to its program where 58 gold medals will be at stake. Kempo and vovinam alone will have 18 gold medals up for grabs while tarung derajat and chinlone have 14 and eight, respectively.

Dragon boat or traditional boat race, a forte of Myanmar athletes, offers 17 gold medals.

The addition of the strange sports to the program puts at risk the Philippines’s bid to at least keep its sixth-place finish two years ago in Indonesia, where Myanmar placed seventh.

The 27th SEA Games will be held in the cities of Naypyidaw, Yangon and Mandalay from December 11 to 22. Myanmar already hosted the Games in 1961 and 1969 when they were still called the Far East Asian Games.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bishop Hagemoen challenges pilgrims to be Prophets of the New Millennium

Image
SASKATOON — As Catholic youth gear up for the 2023 World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, Bishop Mark Hagemoen urged those who participated in the Mount Carmel Pilgrimage Site to embrace their role as prophets of the new millennium. On the Day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel feast, hundreds of pilgrims gathered at the Mount Carmel Pilgrimage site on Sunday, July 16, to participate in the annual liturgical services, and the day commenced with the recitation of the rosary and Marian hymns, culminating in a concelebrated mass led by Bishop Hagemoen. Bishop Mark Hagemoen During his homily, Bishop Hagemoen echoed the words of Pope Francis, calling on the pilgrims to embrace their prophetic calling and spread God's word to all. He emphasized that each individual, through baptism, has received the gift of Messianic prophecy, becoming a prophet themselves. "The pope says, ‘Each of us, brothers and sisters, is a prophet. In fact, with baptism, let us all receive the gift of the Messian
Read more

Papal visit hopes to repair relationship with Indigenous Peoples

Image
SASKATOON — The Vatican has released the official itinerary of Pope Francis with the pontiff heading straight to Edmonton to make his first visit to Canada to meet with Indigenous Peoples, especially residential school survivors. The Holy Father will leave Rome on July 24, Thursday, at 9:00 a.m. local time and will arrive at the Edmonton International Airport for the official welcome at 11:20 a.m. the same day. Rome is eight hours ahead of Alberta, which follows mountain daylight time. The theme of the papal visit is “Walking Together” which will focus on reconciliation and healing the strained relationship between the Catholic church and Indigenous Peoples, especially the survivors of the abuses caused by attending the Canadian residential school system. Pope Francis’ six-day trip is a combination of public and private events and meetings, especially with Indigenous Peoples. The visit comes after a few months when a historic meeting between First Nations, Inuit and Métis delegates in
Read more

A letter to Tatay

SASKATOON—My father died in February 2018, more than a month after our last vacation in the Philippines where we get to spend Christmas and New Year with our family and friends. I have no idea that would be the last time we would see Tatay alive, the last time he would see my family and spend time with two (Macky and Nathan) of his more than 10 grandchildren, and the last time I would speak to him in person and my last time to mano before heading to the airport the early morning of Jan. 9, 2018. He died while we were back on Saipan, thousands of kilometres away east of the Philippines; while I was busy covering House and Senate sessions at the CNMI Legislature or busy hounding the governor about a local or federal issue, and while I was working on an island surrounded by the ocean in the Western Pacific. I haven't mentioned this to anyone—and I'm not sure if Nanay or my sister who was then taking care of him remembers this—but I got furious at him when we talked on the ph
Read more