Biggest BPO run

Don't look now but the Spirit of Wipro Run that fires off on September 30 at the Cebu Business Park is undoubtedly the biggest BPO run in Cebu or perhaps even in the country.  Wipro's PJ Escudero and Dan Pestano said over 15,000  runners coming from the company and guests have already registered.  Last year's edition of the run had 7,000 runners.  Wipro added a 10k distance to the 5k run in response to the clamor of the  more serious runners.  A 3k kiddie run will also be held.  I wanted to beg off from directing the race but I just can't say no to Wipro officials including country head  Aseem Roy.  Veteran technical director Precing  Capangpangan and Lyle Larida will be assisting me.

After two hard games, the De La Salle Archers have emerged victorious and they did it without last year's UAAP basketball MVP Ben Mbala.  Ben is currently playing for his Cameroonian team and is scheduled to join the Archers on Wednesday when La Salle plays Adamson University.  The Archers are getting heads up plays from Aljun Melecio, Kib Montalbo, Jolo Go and the Rivero brothers, Ricci and Prince.  With the return of Mbala , The Archers are looking forward for a back-to-back championships.  Animo La Salle!

Did you know?

Mike Tyson– became the youngest ever world heavyweight champion at 20 when he won the WBC version the title in 1986, beating Trevor Berbick.  He also won the WBA title with a win over  James "Bonecrusher" Smith and unfied the championship when he defeated Tony  Tucker for the IBF version in 1987.  In 1990 however, he was knocked out by James Buster after 10 successful title fights.  In 1991, he was given a six-year prison sentence for rape.  After parole in 1996, he was again WBC world champion when he beat Frank Bruno.  He lost his title to Evander Holyfield and during a rematch  in 1997, he was disqualified when he chewed  Holyfield's right ear.  "Abi ni Tyson "chicharon bulaklak"ang dunggan  ni Evander."

Flying  Finn

In the 1924 Paris Olympics,the "Flying Finns" dominated track and field.  Paavo Nurmi won five gold medals including a unique double of 1500 and 5000 meters.  But the beauty here  was, he ran the two events within 100 minutes on the same afternoon.  Eric Cray of the Philippines should learn from this.  If you recall in the recently-concluded Sea Games  in Malaysia, Cray ran two events in a span of one hour.  Going back to Nurmi, he won the  10,000m cross country race  on a day when the temperature rose to over 40 degrees Centigrade.  In that race, more than half of the 38 starters failed to finish.  If Nurmi was not excluded from the 10,000m track race, he would have won that too. 

Incidentally, the race was won by countryman Villle Ritola.  The 1924 Paris Olympics has been immortalized in the movie "Chariots of Fire" where Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell won the 100m and 400m, respectively.