Will Go Teng Kok boycott SEA Games? | Inquirer Sports
In Huddle

Will Go Teng Kok boycott SEA Games?

/ 09:45 PM September 28, 2011

NBA legend and 10-time All-Star Clyde Drexler said he has always wanted to come to the Philippines.
“I’ve heard so many good things about this country and its warm hospitable people from fellow NBA cagers and from friends who have come here to play as imports. I wanted to experience the place first hand,” said the former Portland Trail Blazer who won his first NBA championship with the Houston Rockets in 1995 just before he retired.
Drexler said there had been a number of occasions when he could have  come to the Philippines, but there was always a conflict in schedule and he never made it until now.
“And now that I’m finally able to make it, look what greets me. A typhoon!” said the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall-of-Famer during the  NBA Madness press conference held at the Palladium of the New World Hotel in Makati.
* * *
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players of all time, Clyde “The Glide” is here in Manila with a troop of lovely and vivacious cheerdancers from the Orlando Magic and the Portland Trailblazers.
The cheerdancers, who will conduct free dance clinics for campus dance teams, will make school stops and participate in the search for the team spirit school champion.
Drexler, on the other hand, has a long list of fun activities guaranteed to give the local NBA fan a grand treat.
* * *
Here’s the latest buzz from my  scribe-friend The Inquisitor.
“I have a feeling Patafa/Karatedo head Go Teng Kok may boycott the forthcoming Southeast Asian Games in November,” he said.
The Inquisitor said he has a sound basis for this suspicion.
“I think the Philippine Olympic Committee infuriated GTK when they told him to cut down his list of athletes for the SEAG from 25 to 15 and he is now contemplating on not sending a contingent at all for track and field,” said my colleague who, reminded me that the deadline for submission of entries to the SEA Games is drawing close.
* * *
When I asked him to confirm the report, GTK did not give me a straight answer.
He said he did not want to involve the athletes in his fight with POC president Peping Cojuangco, “who obviously doesn’t want Patafa to give a creditable performance in the SEA Games.”
Expelled as a member of the POC, GTK fought back and secured a temporary restraining order from the courts.
“It’s back to status quo,” he said.
After a meeting with his coaches Wednesday, the group decided to send 22 athletes to compete in the SEA Games. All of the 22 are very competitive, according to GTK, and all are potential medal winners.
Track and field has been the richest source of gold medals for the Philippines in the SEA Games. GTK’s athletes brought home seven gold medals from Laos two years ago, nine from Thailand two years before that.
GTK predicted six gold medals in this year’s SEA Games.
* * *
Boxer Drian Francisco didn’t want to talk about an incident in Thailand  before his fight with Michael Domingo last Friday at the Makati Coliseum.
He didn’t want people to think that he was already putting up an excuse in case he loses.
Drian said that while seated in his corner during the fight, somebody threw some kind of powder in his direction, which made him dizzy.
After that, while fighting in the  ring, he felt that he was floating, with his feet a few inches above ground.
He felt like he was throwing very powerful punches, but it was only an illusion, he told close friends.

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TAGS: Basketball, Clyde Drexler, Go Teng Kok, NBA, Patafa, POC, SEA Games, Sports

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