Ramsay relishes Olympic experience

LONDON – Popular TV and movie star Derek Ramsay is a self-confessed sports freak and witnessing the Olympics here up close as a broadcaster with the TV5 coverage team is a dream come true.

Ramsay and female broadcaster Lia Cruz are in town to provide updates, interviews and stories on the progress of the Games, particularly how the country’s 11 athletes fare. They are joined by production head Dong Capinpuyan, production unit manager Dyana Garcia, engineer Vergel Cleofas, editor Oliver Embradora and cameraman Ramir Bulatao. The team is billeted at the Copthorne Tara Hotel.

Over 1,500 hours of Olympic footage will be shown on TV5, Aksyon TV on UHF, Hyper on Cignal cable and Cignal pay-per-view HD and SD. Hyper and Cignal are airing the Olympic coverage on a 24-hour basis. The telecast will include all basketball games from the preliminaries to the finals, boxing, swimming, volleyball, athletics, football and beach volleyball.

“It’s all about Laban Atletang Pinoy,” said Capinpuyan. “We’ll do interviews, live reports as the action happens and recaps. We’ll hook up with our celebrity commentators at the Manila end. In London, our team is stationed in the Philippine booth at the International Broadcast Center in the Olympic Park. The Olympic Broadcast Service is sending us 10 simultaneous feeds of events from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.”

Before the Olympics began, the team reported on a dinner for the Filipino delegation hosted by Philippine Ambassador to the UK Enrique Manalo. Two Filipinos – occupational therapist Reymund Enterina and youth leader Steven Cheung – who participated in the Olympic torch relay attended. The team also interviewed James and Phil Younghusband in their English home near Heathrow Airport. The Younghusbands are in the process of selling the home as their English father and Filipino mother are now both gone.

Cruz is excited to watch her favorite Olympic hero Michael Phelps but her main focus is to keep track of the Filipino athletes. “I’m hopeful and optimistic that we do well and bring home at least a medal,” said Cruz who has covered the Southeast Asian Games and the NBA All-Star Weekend in Dallas. It’s her first Olympic experience and she’s extremely thrilled.

As for Ramsay, he’s just as excited to live the Olympic experience in the country where he was born. Ramsay’s father Derek Arnold, a former Scotland Yard detective inspector, is English and his mother Remedios Paggao is Filipina-Spanish from Ilocos Norte and Isabela. “They met in King’s Cross where my mom used to work in a hotel and my dad was patrolling the district,” he said. “My mom had lots of suitors but chose my dad and they’ve been married over 30 years.”

Ramsay’s parents now live in Manila. His father just sold his highly successful company Guard All Electronic Security Systems to a Hong Kong group. The company was set up about 18 years ago and from a manpower of only two, it has grown to 300.

Ramsay said his boyhood ambition was to become a professional football player. “I was born in Enfield, near Tottenham and that’s why I’m a huge Spurs fan,” he said. “My first passion was soccer. But as a boy, I also played rugby and cricket. When I was in my early teens, I represented the Philippines at the Gothia and Helsinki Cups. My friend Freddie Gonzalez enlisted me to play for Pachanga in the UFL but while I’m in the lineup, I couldn’t get out of my schedule to train properly so I haven’t played a match. But my main sport at the moment is Frisbee. I played for the Manila Spirits against the US early this year and broke my left arm. Doctors had to insert 15 screws and three titanium plates to put it back in place.”

Ramsay, who transferred from ABS-CBN to TV5 recently, played at the recent World Cup of Frisbee in Osaka where the Philippines finished 7th of 21, beating France, Russia and South Africa among others. The Philippines was the 14th seed and created a stir by winding up a strong seventh.

Ramsay said he tries to visit London once a year to see his grandmother, now in her 90s living in Kent. “What I miss about London are my grandmother, kebabs, beer and football,” he said. “In the Olympics, anything can happen. On a good day, we might be able to beat a ranked opponent on his bad day. Who knows? We can do it in boxing, archery, shooting, weightlifting and the others. It’s already a major accomplishment for our athletes to be here. Wearing our country’s colors is a huge honor. I know what it feels like having played for the Philippines in the World Cup of Frisbee. In boxing, I like Mark Anthony Barriga’s chances. You’ll never know what will happen in the ring. Even in BMX cycling, Danny Caluag might pull a surprise and our shooter Brian Rosario has scored just one below the world champion’s mark. I was in Beijing to witness the Olympics as a spectator but now, I’ve got a close look as a broadcaster and I’m excited to share my experiences with our people.”