No Pain, No Gain: Gilas begins training in Spain

MANILA, Philippines – After over 20 hours of travel from Miami, Florida all the way to Vitoria, Spain, Gilas Pilipinas hardly felt fatigue and jet lag.

Three hours after they arrived at Jardines de Uleta Suites hotel, their home for the next few days, Gilas captain Jimmy Alapag and new naturalized player and former Brookly Nets center Andray Blatche went to the Mendizorrotza Stadium for a shootaround to bring back spring to their tired legs.

The team also went to check out Vitoria, the capital of Alava province and is considered the second largest Basque (‘bean eaters’) city.

They had their first team meeting on Wednesday night (Thursday Manila time).The team will have a twice-a-day practice before plunging to a series of tuneup games starting off against a selection from Liga ACB, Spain’s pro league, on Aug. 10. Then they will participate in a 4-nation pocket tournament in Antibes, France where Marc Pingris will be reunited with his father Jean Marc, Sr after foregoing last year’s plan to visit him due to a conflict with his Gilas commitment.

Related story: Father-and-son reunion inspires Pingris ahead of World Cup

They will face France, which will play without their top player and San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker, on Aug. 15, Australia the next day and Turkey on Aug. 17.

Also in their schedule is another tournament that will feature Euskadi on Aug. 20, Angola the next day, Dominican Republic on Aug. 24 and Egypt on Aug. 25 before going to Seville, Spain where the group stage of the FIBA World Cup will be played.