LEAVING on a high note is always a good option and is the anti thesis of refusing to quit when the time to quit comes.

For the latter, this is normally the case for aging boxers who deny the fact that one cannot beat Father Time in sports, or in everything for that matter.

That is why I like what I heard from former muay thai secretary-general Pearl Managuelod, who has given up her position after seven years as she leaves behind a much stronger and solid National Sports Association (NSA).

And she believes she has prepared and trained her successor former assistant Sec-Gen Francis Amandy even as her father, retired PNP Gen. Lucas Managuelod, also stepped down as President but remained chairman of the NSA in its recent general election.

President now is Stehen Arapoc.

A traditional Thai martial arts, muay thai has grown a lot in the country since 2019 when we won 3 golds together with 4 silvers and 2 bronzes in the SEA Games we hosted , followed by 2 golds and 5 bronzes in 2022 in Vietnam where Pearl earned the tag Protest Queen after she fought tooth and nail to make sure we got those gold medals.

A joke then in the SEAG community was that Pearl was on the wanted dead or alive by the Vietnamese immigration and may not even be allowed to leave the country.

And she lived up to her feisty reputation when she joined the khun bukator team as manager in Cambodia who did not include muay thai.

Well, this pretty mother of two boys, never mind her age, actually is a muay thai practitioner and used to train with the national team before, and just recently returned from New York where she completed her second full marathon after doing her first in the same race 4 years ago.

She clocked 4:40 in 2019 and a bit slower last month in 4:50 in the New York Marathon.

Actually, there is another anecdote about Pearl in a zoom meeting and one speaker was questioning what she was saying and she snapped at him that she had a Master’s degree on top of her college diploma in psychology and that she knew exactly what she was talking about.

I believe that was the end of the questions.

Now why is she moving out of muay thai as a serving officer, she was sec gen for seven years?

Well, she feels she has done what she set out to do for the sport and has ran out of challenges, and that whatever is left, she has trained her successor well to do the job and sustain what she has started.

Among others, she estimates the base of local muay thai adherents to have grown from 400 to 2000 from 2018 to this year, clubs have also mushroomed from 20 to around 200 But maybe the best indicator is the number of entries in the last National Muay Thai Open which attracted close to a thousand participants from the 200 registrants in 2018.

The sport has also grown in different areas aside from the traditionally strong Baguio like Zamboanga, Benguet, Olongapo, Laguna, and GenSan. Visayas though us proving a tougher nut to crack with a low interest level.

Pearl has accomplished that by setting up grassroots development system outside NCR, delegating responsibilities to local people abd doing regular monitoring of activities.

What lies ahead she is still uncertain but she will definitely continue teaching Masteral students in UP, but her being a director in the Philippine Olympic Committee( POC) she is leaving to the group to decide if she can finish as she is no longer Sec-Gen in her NSA.

One thing sure Pearl will still be involved in sports but wait how things develop okay?

* * *

Thanks to former PBA player and an old friend of mine Mike Advani who invited me to the recent Advani Aparrel employees’ Christmas party night at Shakey’s Pioneer, their first face to face celebration since the pandemic.

Again, I saw the kind heart of Mike when it comes to taking care of his employees, digging into his own pockets on top of what the company had budgeted.

And as in the past he also gave his donation to my out reach program for street kids in Manila and indigent childrenin Banahaw where I am set to go on December 16 for my annual gift giving to benefit more than a hundred kids, thanks to kind hearted people who have been helping but would rather remain unnamed like a pretty lady who donated her entire cash prize in a Christmas party contest for street families.She knows who she isbless her heart.

* * *

See you for the PVL semis Game 2, i got the cast right, Creamline versus Chery Tiggo and Choco Mucho up against Cignal.

Game 1 went as expected , Creamline sweeping Chery 3-0 and I will bet they will finish the series today.

For the Choco Mucho- Cignal series, I said it will go either way, it went Cignal’s way in a five setter with the ube squad racing to a 2-0 lead only to collapse and allowed Cignal to take a 3-2 victory.

Should be a good rematch in Game 2.

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