Ilocos rarin' to strut PnB wares

LAOAG City - Former Gintong Alay chief Michael Keon, chairman of the Ilocos Norte Sports Development Council which is in charge of honing up the province's athletes, has vowed a strong showing by his delegation in the Palaro ng Bayan (PnB) to be held in Gen. Santos City starting Sunday.

The provincial sports czar, who is known for his tough training stance, is looking forward to the sportsfest to further gauge the skills of his athletes some of whom have seen action and won in the recently-staged Ilocos Region Athletic Association meet (IRAA).

Expected to vie for medals are those competing in sepak takraw, track and field, volleyball, swimming, baseball, softball, gymnastics, taekwondo and basketball.

The province bagged the golds in gymnastics and taekwondo in the Batang Pinoy sportsfest held in Bacolod City recently and was the national champion for sepak takraw (elementary division) in last year's Palarong Pambansa. Its basketball team was crowned junior champion in Region I during the competition staged by FedEx and Basketball Association of the Philippines in February last year, according to Keon.

He pointed to delegations in southern Philippines as the athletic teams to beat saying they have strong sports programs and "enthusiastic" local officials backing them up. "Down south, sports has high priority," he told The STAR.

In Ilocos Norte, he said he just "started from scratch" in 1998 when his cousin Ilocos Norte Gov. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, after winning the elections, appointed him as sports development consultant.

He inherited what he described "medieval-state" sports stadium allegedly used by cows and goats for grazing but at the same time acknowledged the presence of an eight-lane Olympic size swimming pool built during Rep. Rodolfo Farinas' term as governor as excellent for his swimmers.

The former Gintong Alay head who spearheaded the training of winning Filipino athletes like Lydia de Vega, Isidro del Prado, Bea Lucero, Eric Buhain and Leopoldo Cantancio plans to use the proceeds of the P20 million check given by President Estrada last week to upgrade the Marcos stadium. -