Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Rama: Judo: floored and getting up
By Karlon N. Rama
Stage Five
THE gentleman’s martial art of Judo, in Cebu City at least, is experiencing a renaissance. It got slammed down hard when internal politics all but killed the Philippine Amateur Judo Association-Cebu (Paja-Cebu) sometime in the ’90s. And it didn’t appear capable to get up until two men, who came across and fell in love with the sport as college freshmen at the University of the Philippines-Cebu College, worked to resuscitate the decades-old organization sometime in the year 2000. Now, Paja-Cebu isn’t only up. It is also running about and moving forward like someone possessed by a demon. For the last seven years, it’s been organizing matches, helping open new judo clubs and sending athletes to competitions in Manila and the rest of the country. At the Philippine Olympic Festival-Visayas Division, held from Sept. 11 to 16 in Jaro, Iloilo City, Paja-Cebu athletes, playing as Team Cebu City Judo, bashed all other contenders in the event held at the De Paul College Gymnasium and emerged the overall champion with seven golds, four silvers and four bronzes, with one silver and a bronze clinched from open-weight events. The win earns them a slot as Cebu City’s representative to the Philippine Olympic Festival to be held at the PSC Compound in Manila on Nov. 12—16 for slots in the Beijing Olympics. Rebirth. Paja-Cebu, since its rebirth, has been in the capable albeit sometimes weary hands of one man—Vicente “Inting” Fernandez II. “Over the years, I’ve called several meetings to schedule an election but nobody comes. I’ve been sitting in a hold-over capacity all these years.” It is not because he is tired of the job, he quickly clarified. Rather, he said, it is because there are still so many other things to do for Cebu’s Judo. “We need to have more matches. They must be organized well enough to draw players from other parts of the country, including the National Team, to come here. This is the only way we can improve the skills of our athletes.” His thrust for the upcoming year is to convince all private schools to organize their own Judo clubs and join Paja-Cebu. “I’ve heard that Judo has been reinstated as one of the events in Prisaa (Private Schools Athletics Association). They must have teams to join.” Other than the head of Paja-Cebu, Inting, while donning his blue judogi, is also the head coach of the Team Cebu City Judo, whose office, where membership is offered free to everyone, may be found at the 2nd Floor of the Cebu City Sports Center. And because in his immaculately pressed white barong, he represents the second surname in the old-school “Fernandez and Fernandez Law Offices” sign outside his home (the first Fernandez is his motorcycle-riding, cigarette-smoking, beer-guzzling and Colt Python-owning spitfire lawyer-dad, Hector), he is also both Paja-Cebu and Team Cebu City Judo’s representative to associations like Prisaa. School teams. Lawyer Augusto Go’s University of Cebu is among the first to heed the call of having judo varsity teams, having formed one and appended to the school’s Department of Criminology. Go’s athletes, Inting said, is showing so much potential that five of the seven gold medals earned during the Philippine Olympic Festival-Visayas Division came from UC athletes—Wendell Resma (minus 52 men), Ronest Agan (minus 66 men), Alford Marimon (minus 73 men), Roselle Garciano (minus 52 women) and Joana Gelig (minus 63 women) – who made it into Team Cebu City Judo. UC would have been credited for six golds had Apple Rose Caneco, who competed and won the gold in the minus 45 women event, not dropped out of school in search of a job, Inting explained. “We were lucky she didn’t quit the team altogether.” “We are now trying to ask Atty. Go, through the dean of criminology, to extend to these students any form of recognition or incentive for their accomplishments. It was by no means small,” he said. The other wining athletes included Virgillo Cosedo (minus 55 men, silver), Richum Ortiz (minus 66 men, silver), Alexander Zapanta (minus 73 men, silver) and Resma (open weight, silver), Alvin Antigua (minus 60 men, bronze,) Glenn Michael Vincent Java, son of shooter Glenn Java, (minus 60 men, bronze), Joaquin Nicolo Fernandez, Inting’s youngest son, (minus 55 men, bronze) and Marimon (open weight, bronze). knrama@gmail.com
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here.
(September 19, 2007 issue)
THE gentleman’s martial art of Judo, in Cebu City at least, is experiencing a renaissance. It got slammed down hard when internal politics all but killed the Philippine Amateur Judo Association-Cebu (Paja-Cebu) sometime in the ’90s. And it didn’t appear capable to get up until two men, who came across and fell in love with the sport as college freshmen at the University of the Philippines-Cebu College, worked to resuscitate the decades-old organization sometime in the year 2000. Now, Paja-Cebu isn’t only up. It is also running about and moving forward like someone possessed by a demon. For the last seven years, it’s been organizing matches, helping open new judo clubs and sending athletes to competitions in Manila and the rest of the country. At the Philippine Olympic Festival-Visayas Division, held from Sept. 11 to 16 in Jaro, Iloilo City, Paja-Cebu athletes, playing as Team Cebu City Judo, bashed all other contenders in the event held at the De Paul College Gymnasium and emerged the overall champion with seven golds, four silvers and four bronzes, with one silver and a bronze clinched from open-weight events. The win earns them a slot as Cebu City’s representative to the Philippine Olympic Festival to be held at the PSC Compound in Manila on Nov. 12—16 for slots in the Beijing Olympics. Rebirth. Paja-Cebu, since its rebirth, has been in the capable albeit sometimes weary hands of one man—Vicente “Inting” Fernandez II. “Over the years, I’ve called several meetings to schedule an election but nobody comes. I’ve been sitting in a hold-over capacity all these years.” It is not because he is tired of the job, he quickly clarified. Rather, he said, it is because there are still so many other things to do for Cebu’s Judo. “We need to have more matches. They must be organized well enough to draw players from other parts of the country, including the National Team, to come here. This is the only way we can improve the skills of our athletes.” His thrust for the upcoming year is to convince all private schools to organize their own Judo clubs and join Paja-Cebu. “I’ve heard that Judo has been reinstated as one of the events in Prisaa (Private Schools Athletics Association). They must have teams to join.” Other than the head of Paja-Cebu, Inting, while donning his blue judogi, is also the head coach of the Team Cebu City Judo, whose office, where membership is offered free to everyone, may be found at the 2nd Floor of the Cebu City Sports Center. And because in his immaculately pressed white barong, he represents the second surname in the old-school “Fernandez and Fernandez Law Offices” sign outside his home (the first Fernandez is his motorcycle-riding, cigarette-smoking, beer-guzzling and Colt Python-owning spitfire lawyer-dad, Hector), he is also both Paja-Cebu and Team Cebu City Judo’s representative to associations like Prisaa. School teams. Lawyer Augusto Go’s University of Cebu is among the first to heed the call of having judo varsity teams, having formed one and appended to the school’s Department of Criminology. Go’s athletes, Inting said, is showing so much potential that five of the seven gold medals earned during the Philippine Olympic Festival-Visayas Division came from UC athletes—Wendell Resma (minus 52 men), Ronest Agan (minus 66 men), Alford Marimon (minus 73 men), Roselle Garciano (minus 52 women) and Joana Gelig (minus 63 women) – who made it into Team Cebu City Judo. UC would have been credited for six golds had Apple Rose Caneco, who competed and won the gold in the minus 45 women event, not dropped out of school in search of a job, Inting explained. “We were lucky she didn’t quit the team altogether.” “We are now trying to ask Atty. Go, through the dean of criminology, to extend to these students any form of recognition or incentive for their accomplishments. It was by no means small,” he said. The other wining athletes included Virgillo Cosedo (minus 55 men, silver), Richum Ortiz (minus 66 men, silver), Alexander Zapanta (minus 73 men, silver) and Resma (open weight, silver), Alvin Antigua (minus 60 men, bronze,) Glenn Michael Vincent Java, son of shooter Glenn Java, (minus 60 men, bronze), Joaquin Nicolo Fernandez, Inting’s youngest son, (minus 55 men, bronze) and Marimon (open weight, bronze). knrama@gmail.com
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here.
(September 19, 2007 issue)
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