Team Army's best

Manila – With a couple of hours to burn before my flight home, I dropped by the Office of the Chief Public Affairs of the Philippine Army to visit my mistah Maj. Samuel Sagun and their chief, Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr.

The visit became timely as Lt. Col. Brawner will also be leaving his post to head to the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Camp Aguinaldo as spokesman of the AFP.

This is not really about the military and how it works, but about one soldier, who I also had a chance to meet yesterday at their office, Sgt. Harry Tañamor.

Harry is a top notch amateur boxer, who has served the country well and is one of the prides of Team Army.

He was there to bring his medals and his championship trophy of the recent World cup in Moscow for a photo shoot that will be used in one of the projects of Team Army.

I have met many members of the national team, who serve the AFP, but it seems that this champion boxer is one of a kind.

My mistah told me that unlike others, Harry is willing to do his regular duties as a soldier despite his lofty status in the field of sports.

I think this is one major reason why the man has reached this far as an athlete. The discipline of both being part of Team Army and Team Philippines have pushed him to the great heights.

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Last weekend, the City of Lapu-Lapu launched its sports tourism program. I wish I had the time to be there.

I won’t be surprised if many people continue to have a very limited idea of what sports tourism really is hearing many talk about it in the various places of the country that I have visited.

Just to set it straight, this program doesn’t treat sports and tourism as two different animals, but as one.

The concept is holding sports events to bring in the visitors, who will join the competitions or maybe watch them.

I still have to get a clearer picture of what Lapu-Lapu City is going to do, but I am confident that the city will do it right.

With its many beaches, Lapu-Lapu can host competitions related to water sports or the beach.

While the focus of many people would be the beaches, there is one facility in Lapu-Lapu City that has long been a venue of sports tourism events – the firing range of the Cebu Pistol and Rifle Association.

The CPRA has played a very active role in bringing visitors to Cebu and Lapu-Lapu with the events that it has hosted highlighted by the World Shoot XII in 1999.

Then sports tourism wasn’t really talked much about, but now that the local authorities are all gung ho about it, I hope this will usher back the big shooting competitions at the CPRA.

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MILESTONES: Tomorrow will be a very important day for my family as our little sweetheart – my daughter Nina Andrea, who we fondly call Andi, turns 7 years old.

If it were not for my daughter’s special day tomorrow, I would have extended my stay here in Manila to attend the assumption of command of Lt. Gen. Victor S. Ibrado as the chief of staff of the AFP.

More power!   – THE FREEMAN