Dr. Peter Mancao, who’s now in America to run the New York City Marathon, just sent me an e-mail (Sunday dawn, RP time) with the following update: Hi john! greetings from new york new york!!! we just came from the U.N. where we watched the start of the continental airlines friendship run. it was awesome with the different international participants some in their native country costumes/colors.
Martina Hingis: Believe her or not?
She doped. Snorted cocaine. In the middle of Wimbledon last June, the 27-year-old Swiss Miss was routinely tested for drugs—like all athletes are—and, when the Sample “A” result came back, she was told, point-blank: You tested positive.
“Throughout my career, I have always been open and honest with you,” said Martina Hingis in a press conference three days ago. “I find this accusation so horrendous, so monstrous… My weapon on the tennis court is and always was one single thing: the game, the ingenuity on court. And for this style of tennis, there is only one performance enhancer – the love of the game.”
So, did Hingis do drugs?
As I said, you never know. But maybe she did. You see, cocaine isn’t like steroids. No, I’ve never taken it—and never will—but based on what I’ve researched, cocaine “increases self-confidence and creates a type of euphoria” while steroids, well, we know, builds muscles as big as, say, Barry Bonds.
‘White Christmas’ in Manila
Did you know that in our country’s capital city, it snows? Yes. Just like in those Christmas movies or, if you’ve been to Boston or Berlin in February, a place where it’s, like the song… White Christmas? I’m not kidding. I saw it, felt it, smelled the white flakes, and slipped on slippery ice. It’s called the SM Mall of Asia.
Three weeks ago, my wife Jasmin and I brought our eight-year-old daughter Jana to Manila. Right after landing, we wasted no time in hailing a cab and zooming straight to the sixth largest mall in the world. Snow? Inside? For real? Yes. It’s called the Ice Skating Rink. And ever since we brought Jana there last year, she’s been pleading to go back. And so we did.
Dr. Yong Larrazabal eyes the NYC Marathon
Dr. Yong (center) with John Pages (left) and Dr. Peter Mancao at the Adidas Run early this year
With five days left before the world’s biggest 42-K race—the New York City Marathon—one of the 40,000-plus runners is still here in Cebu, busy at work.
Dr. Potenciano Sto. Domingo Larrazabal III, or “Yong,” has to fulfill his promised appointments with patients and his full load of surgeries.
“I have work today and tomorrow,” he told me last Sunday after we ran the “Pink October” race. “On Nov. 1, I’m leaving for New York with my wife Donna. We’ll take Cathay Pacific, pass through Hong Kong, then L.A. for a short stop, until we land at JFK Airport.”
Federer Express Flies
Roger Federer is the year-end world no.1 for four straight years. With his win at the Swiss Indoors, he joins the rare company of Pete Sampras, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl as the only male players to end the year ranked No. 1 four or more times since the ATP rankings started in 1973.
“It’s always emotional at the end,” said Federer. “I remember being here as a ball boy myself. I know 50 percent of the people working at the tournament. It’s nice to win again and go into the next year as No. 1 again.”
New York, New York!
Dr. Peter Mancao runs. From his clinic at the Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital to his patients‘ rooms to the Operating Room where he presides as one of the top cardiovascular surgeons—he’s always on his feet, on the go.
But exactly seven days from today—on Nov. 4—Dr. Mancao will engage in a different run. Yes, he’ll do the same hop, skip and sprint, but this time, not wearing a surgical mask or doctor’s gown. Next Sunday, he’ll wear a pair of Asics running shoes and will sweat beside 40,000 others to run the world’s largest 42-K race: The New York City Marathon.
Nice Photo
Guess who it is…
Boom-Boom as tough as Pacquiao? Let’s see…
When Daniel Ponce de Leon dismantled and pulverized an explosive firecracker named Boom-Boom in a first-round KO last August 11, he didn’t just flatten Rey Bautista—he devastated him, humiliated his ego, extinguished his spirit. So much trauma ravaged the previously-undefeated Boholano that when he landed from a half-day-long flight from America to Manila, Boom-Boom sat terrified. Upon his arrival at NAIA—with his fellow boxers who just steamrolled past Mexico, 5-1, to clinch the “World Cup of Boxing”—Bautista didn’t want to step out the tarmac and face the crowd.
Daniel Ponce De Leon
“Boom-Boom was embarrassed,” said Antonio Lopez Aldeguer. “As team captain, he knew that he let his teammates down, that he let the country down… he was ashamed.”
But while Bautista emerged with his head bent down, the crowd acted otherwise. “They gathered around and cheered him,” said Aldeguer, “more than all the other boxers combined.”
Still, that wasn’t enough to uplift Boom-Boom. When he arrived in Cebu, again he longed not to face the faces of his sparring mates at the ALA Gym.
Next, when they landed in Bohol, added Aldeguer, “that was the worst.” Tagbilaran City Mayor Dan Neri Lim organized a motorcade along the streets and, while AJ Banal and Edito Villamor stood at the back of the pickup vehicle and waved to spectators, Boom-Boom hid himself. He stayed inside, behind the cover of tinted glass windows.
Photos with Rey Bautista
Boom-Boom (center) with (from left) John Pages, trainer Edito Villamor, Atty. Jingo Quijano and Jun Migallen