Medal potential

Floyd Mayweather is once again throwing verbal punches to the air when he called Manny Pacquiao as ‘not one of the sharpest.’

While many would say that Pacman is indeed one of the sharpest, let us not argue with guys like Mayweather, who seems to be looking at another career being a stand up comic before his boxing days are over.

If we look at his career plans this early, it doesn’t look he has a future as one. Stand up comics take pot shots at people in the audience to play into the crowd.

Mayweather, on the other hand, will end up realizing that the joke is on him. Yeah, just like the old song.

Pacquiao has been a favorite target of Mayweather and just recently new NBA star Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks.

So far, he hasn’t really connected with any of his words. Like throwing punches into the air, this kind of gets tiresome. For sure many boxing fans are tired of Mayweather’s big mouth.

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I received a message through Facebook from Charisse Ramirez-Pinkerton, about a Cebuano teener, who is now in the United States.

This is her message:

I actually thought about you after I had a “catch-up with life” chat with my friends Lorelie Sanchez-Araneta and Zac Araneta. We talked about ice skating/speed skating/ice hockey most of the time since their sons are very much into the sports.

I’ll always remember you for the wonderful support you gave us during the Philippine’s first-ever International Ice Skating Competition that was held in Cebu, so it is not so far out that I thought about you and a Facebook post you once had asking to us to nominate or give you a name of a Cebuano making waves in sports – or something in this nature.

Dunno if you’ll still be interested pa… it’s a story of our 14 year old homeboy from Banawa, Zachary Araneta, who migrated to the US in 2006. About 4 years ago, he taught himself how to ice skate after 3 months later he joined try outs and made it to the local ice hockey team, then was invited to join the traveling ice hockey team and became the most consistent scorer.

But what makes this story extraordinary was just less than 2 years ago Zach was encouraged by his mom to try speed skating. They finally found an ice skating rink that would allow him to do just that. Unbeknownst to them an Olympic Trainer, Wilma Boomstra was in the rink watching Zach. She approached him and also talked with the parents. She was probably blown away by the raw talent she saw because she right there and then offered to coach Zach. Wilma Boomstra, an Olympic maker told Zack parents if he trained with her everyday, in a few years Zach will make it to the Olympics.

In 2011, less than a year of training, Coach Wilma Boomstra encouraged Zack to join the California State Championship just to gain experience. This was Zach’s first ever tournament in speed skating and he brought home the silver. Just two weeks ago, he finally got the gold in the 2012 California State Speedskating Championship! He now is on his way to the nationals. Some skaters from this elite DeMorra club have been in training for years.

The trained eye of head coach Boomstra saw Zach’s potential and is already reaping results in less than 2 years. Zack trains on ice everyday for hours in speedskating and also for ice hockey. He plays for the LA Junior Kings Under16 AA hockey team that just won gold in their last meet. Cool huh?

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Thanks for the great news Charisse. Maybe Zach can win the Philippines a gold medal in the Winter Olympics soon.

If you want to know more about the young boy from Banawa, you can check out these sites:

http://culvercity.patch.com/articles/culver-city-teen-wins-speedskating-medal#photo-first

http://zachspeedskater.com/Zach_Speed_Skater/Home.html

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MILESTONES: Happy birthday greetings to Anabelle Lumapas and Aracheli Lipardo-Galan, who both turn a year older today.

Advance greetings go to Daisy Bonachita, Dr. Larisa Diaz-Roa, Jonas Panerio, and my wife’s niece Julie R. Barns, who are celebrating tomorrow.

More power to all of you! - THE FREEMAN