F R I D AY : J U LY 17, 2 0 1 5
A15
SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph
Cone headed to Gin Kings? By Jeric Lopez IS Tim Cone in the process of moving to Barangay Ginebra? The answer might be yes as reports indicate that the winningest coach in the Philippine Basketball Association is likely leaving Star and heading to the Gin Kings’ camp in hopes of turning around the fortunes of the strong, yet underachieving crowd darlings for next season. This comes out just a few days after Star management denied that Cone will transfer to Ginebra in a coaching carousel that officials of the San Miguel Corporation are orchestrating. But reliable sources intimate that SMC management is finalizing Cone’s move over to Ginebra and assistant coach Jason Webb is the most likely candidate to be promoted and succeed him as the Hotshots’ next coach. Rumors have been swirling around that Cone, the all-time coaching leader with 18 championships, might be headed to Ginebra to turn things around after the Gin Kings continued to disappoint in this 40th PBA season, only going as far as the quarterfinals twice. Despite boasting one of the league’s most loaded rosters, Barangay Ginebra’s lackluster play continued. In the last two years, Ginebra had five coaching changes. The head mentoring chores went from Alfrancis Chua, to Ato Agustin, to Jeffrey Cariaso, back to Agustin and then just before the Governors’ Cup, to Frankie Lim.
Caitlyn Jenner steps out to collect sports award LOS ANGELES—Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner issued an impassioned plea for transgender acceptance Wednesday in her first public appearance since coming out as a transgender woman, defying a blizzard of derision on social media.
Honoree Caitlyn Jenner accepts the Arthur Ashe Award For Courage onstage during The 2015 ESPYS at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. AFP
PH Golf Course Management Conference backed Fajardo... USA-based The Toro Company was one of the gold sponsors of the 2015 Philippine Golf Course Management Conference held recently at Orchard Golf and Country Club, attended by representatives, superintendents and grounds personnel from different golf clubs nationwide. The leading worldwide provider of innovative products for outdoor environments including turf, snow and groundengaging equipment, and irrigation and outdoor lighting solution for over 100 years, The Toro Company is represented in the Philippines by The Turf Company which has been their distributor for over 25 years. Andrew Price, the Toro Company’s sales manager for Asia Pacific conducted a field demonstration of the new lightweight TORO Reelmaster 3550D fairway mower with attendees from different golf clubs nationwide. Some participants were given the chance to operate the demo fairway mower to feel the comfort and ease of us-
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Andrew Price, the Toro Company’s sales manager for Asia Pacific Price, shows the participants the use of Toro’s Reelmaster 3550-D Fairway Mower.
ing the said machine. Another highlight of the sponsorship was the display of other TORO equipment models like the heavy duty Reelmaster 6500 Fairway Mower with a higher horse power (another equipment purchased by Orchard Golf and Country Club), Dingo Trencher, Proforce Debris Blower and SandPro Bunker rake machine.
Aside from Toro, other allied products carried by The Turf Company also co-sponsored the event including Foley United, USA and Syngenta. Foley United is the one selling grinders that sharpen reel blades and bedknives of mowers while Syngenta ‘s products are fungicides , herbicides and insecticides used also for turf maintenance.
in statistical points over other contenders including Terrence Romeo of GlobalPort, Jayson Castro of Talk ‘N Text, Paul Lee of Rain or Shine, Greg Slaughter of Barangay Ginebra and Ranidel De Ocampo of Talk ‘N Text. The same can be said for the Rookie of the Year award. Top pick Stanley Pringle of GlobalPort, who is slowly establishing himself as one of the league’s top players even in his first year, is likewise comfortably ahead of fellow newcomers Matt Ganuelas-Rosser, Chris Banchero, Jake Pascual, Anthony Semerad and Jericho Cruz. The Defensive Player of the Year and the Most Improved Player awards are the ones that seem to be up for grabs. Should Fajardo’s lead hold up and he becomes the MVP, he will only be the second player in league history to win the most coveted individual award backto-back after his mentor Danny Ildefonso did the feat back in 2000 and 2001.
Formerly Bruce Jenner, the US decathlon champion of the 1976 Montreal Olympics seized the moment for transgender advocacy as she collected the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the nationally televised ESPY sports awards gala in Los Angeles. “If you want to call me names, make jokes, doubt my intentions, go ahead— because the reality is, I can take it,” said Jenner, 65, dominating the stage in an elegant form-fitting white gown and wavy shoulder-length hair. “But for the thousands of kids out there coming to terms with being true to who they are—they shouldn’t have to take it,” she said to robust applause from a theater full of top US college and pro athletes, including the World Cup-winning US women’s soccer squad. It was Jenner’s first major public appearance since coming out as a transgender woman in an televised interview in April where she discussed how she had been grappling her gender identity since childhood. Named for the US tennis star who died of AIDS in 1993, the Arthur Ashe award has in past years gone to athletes like Billy Jean King and Muhammad Ali and non-athletes including Nelson Mandela. But throughout the three-hour primetime ESPY broadcast, hundreds of posts appeared on Twitter demanding to know why the Olympian turned reality TV star on “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” was being honored for courage, four decades after a gold-medal triumph. Many thought Lauren Hill, who fulfilled her dream of playing college basketball in Ohio despite a brain tumor that took her life in April at the age of 19, was more deserving. She instead was recognized with a “best moment” award, presented to her parents, for a game in which she scored the first and last baskets. Jenner, whose mother, sister and children attended the awards, said her life going forward would be dedicated to doing whatever she could “to reshape the landscape of how trans people are viewed and treated ... (and) to promote a very simple idea—accepting people for who they are.” AFP
LOTTO RESULTS
6/49 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0.0 M+ 6/42 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0.0 M+ 6 DIGITS 00-00-00-00-00-00 3 DIGITS 00-00-00 2 EZ2 00-00