All's well that ends well

CEBU - First CESAFI denied having the rule, then retracted and ultimately scrapped it. The errant ground rule drew the ire of Rep. Eddie Gullas who called it “stupid, crazy and unpatriotic.”

The rule disqualifies athletes who have been a member of the national team, training pool, etc. from playing for his or her CESAFI team. According to CESAFI, they formulate the ruling, with the athletic directors of member schools, after some Manila schools started “pirating” Cebuano players who would try out for the national team.

For a moment, Gullas took measure to protect UV’s 6-11 center Greg Slaughter to the extent of keeping him from the national team.

Now that CESAFI Board rescinded the rule, I guess all’s well that ends well.

Greg Slaughter got the invite to try out for the national team that Yeng Guiao assembled. The team has the talent but again lacks big men to patrol the shaded area. The center position has been the weakness of past national teams and this current team is no exception.

Slaughter’s bulk could help the team. The young Fil-Am has the size to fight for the rebounds and is a decent shot blocker. With proper training, the giant could be a better big man than the likes of Bonel Balingit, EJ Feihl or even Marlou Aquino.

An intriguing question though came up after discussion with a friend. He asked me if the “sudden” withdrawal of UV from VAAA has something to do with CESAFI’s decision in rescinding the errant rule.

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I’ve been following our chess team in the 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany. As I write this column, our team lost 1-3 to Spain in the sixth round after beating a surprisingly strong Iranian team in the fifth.

So far, GM Wesley So and IM John Paul Gomez are playing well. In the loss to Spain, Wesley drew his Board 1 match with Alexei Shirov, one of the top GMs in the world with an ELO rating of 2726. Gomez, on the other hand, drew with Miguel Illescas (ELO 2604). The rest of the team Philippines lost their matches.

Another story that caught my attention was that of Nigerian IM Odion Aikhoje. He won a gold medal in 1998 while playing Board 2 for Nigeria.

FIDE is honoring him with a plague for the medal he won 10 years ago because he has yet to receive that medal! Odion was absent during the awards ceremony because of conflict in his itinerary. Nigerian Emmanuel Omuku, the former Executive Director of FIDE, received the gold medal on behalf of Odion.

Omuku sent the medal with a letter to the ministry of Sports in Nigeria but a certain Theophilus Caifas, at that time the chairman of the Nigerian Chess Federation, intercepted the package and promised to deliver it personally to the ministry.

It turned out that Caifas had an axe to grind with the Nigerian Sports Ministry. He claimed that the ministry owes him money because he sponsored the chess team and refused to hand the medal to Odion unless the ministry pays.

While it was true that Caifas had sponsored the Nigerian chess team, someone else sponsored Odion. Despite appeals by the Nigerian sports ministry, Caifas has not given the medal to Odion, thus FIDE awarded Odion a plaque instead!

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For comments, please write [email protected]. (THE FREEMAN)