Tag: 2004

THE UST Male Paddlers showcased their own version of a back-to-back championship as they succesfully re-established their dominance on the table, sweeping this year’s UAAP Table Tennis wars last Sept. 18, 19, 25, and 26 at the UST Gym.

Winning all their 14 assignments, the España-based paddlers showed nothing but relentess assault in their victory over the wards of the University of the East (UE) in the finals, 3-2, to retain the title. The wards of head coach Henberd Ortalla finished the tournament dropping only five sets against 42 qon sets.

PINAMALAS ng UST Lady Tracksters ang kanilang kamandag sa palakasan nang makamit nila ang ilang medalya sa nakaraang Inter-Religous Peace Sports Festival noong Hulyo 20 hanggang 27 sa Asan, South Korea.

Bagaman wala si Mercy Caña, ang kanilang team captain, nakuha pa ring umani ng parangal ng Tracksters. Hindi pinalad si Caña na makalahok sa nasabing kompetisyon dahil sa kawalan ng visa.

“WHAT won the general championship for us was not skill but heart.”

It was how athletic moderator Felix Michael Silbor described the University’s championship run in UAAP season 66.

This year, UST’s campaign for a 32nd UAAP title is faced with tough opposition from perennial title contenders University of the Philippines (UP) and De La Salle University (DLSU). Both schools were tied at second place last season registering 258 points, while UST garnered 284 points.

WHOEVER thought that Wimbledon, perhaps the most elite international lawn tennis tournament, is an impenetrable territory to Filipino athletes is sorely mistaken. A Filipino reached the exclusive Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships 24 years ago the second to do so since Johnny Jose. And he was a Thomasian.

TEN YEARS of high-octane dragon boat rowing.

For an international sports squad to survive this long even without the luxury of having a regular team sponsor or even a school to represent, it is correct to say that the Aqua Fortis Dragon Boat Rowing Team (AFDBRT) is truly a product of pure passion. In its 10 years of existence, this Thomasian-laden team has gone to restless bodies of water to pocket strings of medals and place the country’s name in the international dragon boat racing circuit.

A VARSITARIAN sportswriter placed second in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) Libre Sportswriting competition last July 1.

Sportswriter Dino Paolo Maragay’s article was chosen out of 30 pieces by campus paper writers from De La Salle University, University of the East, Adamson University, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Systems Technology Institute and San Sebastian. The competition’s first placer was a writer from the UP Collegian.

THE TIGER Shuttlecockers ended up short again.

With a depleted lineup, the España-based female shuttlecockers bowed out of the JVC Open Badminton Championships last July 25. The Female Shuttlecockers lost to the Far Eastern University Lady shuttlecockers in the finals, while the Tiger shuttlecockers bowed to the Morayta-based shuttlecockers in the semis.

The Tigers did not only fall short of won matches, but also fell short of players.

Female shuttlecockers

A minute left in the game, two points behind, and our favorite Growling Tiger lies injured on the hard court—at the most crucial moment down the stretch. Benchmen rush out to aide him, while a hoarse coach calls for a timeout. The game hangs by a thread.

While all eyes are on the game, the Varsitarian takes the spotlight away from the jersey-clad players to the people in the mainstay.

Fellow Thomasians, meet the people behind the making of a Tiger.

Inside the den

IMAGINE how big a treat it would be if Shaquille O’ Neal or Tim Duncan would come to UST and conduct a basketball clinic. But a similar scenario already happened in the University 23 years ago.

NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. before he converted to Islam) held a rare basketball clinic at the UST Gym in 1981 with noted local coaches and basketball enthusiasts around Metro Manila.

FANCY crossover moves, dribbling prowess and pure exhibition. These were the definitions of basketball for the Flip Ballaz squad, who stormed the campus cage crowd in an exhibition game last July 5 at the Engineering Complex.

“We’re not into ordinary basketball, but we’re more into a show—one-on-ones, ball-handling tricks and pure streetball,” Thomasian Earl “Tha Pearl” Real explained.

Real, a College of Engineering junior and the lone Thomasian in the group, headed the Flip Ballaz team in their exhibition stint at the University.