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No problem atoll
Relations between the Philippines and China have been strained because of overlapping claims on the Spratly Islands, an atoll between the two countries. But now things are getting chummier: China is willing to give the Philippines some coaching in fencing and diving.
President Fidel Ramos said as much during a visit to Manila by Deng Pufang, son of China’s patriarch Deng Xiaoping. Deng told Ramos he hopes to see more exchanges in sports between the two countries.
On the other hand, help in fencing and diving could mean walking off a plank at the point of a sword.
Chi Chi had a little lamb
Somewhere in his bloodstream? So it seems.
Only months ago, the charismatic 60-year-old golfer had considered retiring, so shot was his golf game. He’d finished 53rd on the 1995 Senior Tour money list, the worst ranking of his career.
“But now I feel so good,” he said, “it’s scary.”
Is it the lamb hormones? “Absolutely.”
Doctors at a clinic near Munich have administered injections of lamb hormones, which supposedly have the power to stall - or perhaps halt and turn back altogether - the process of aging.
“It turns your life span back by one-third,” Rodriguez explained. “Before I went there, I couldn’t hear out of my left ear. Now I can. See, when you are old and your cells die, they are not replaced like they are when you are younger. All the lamb shots do is replace those cells.
“You know, a bunch of movie stars know about this - they just don’t want people to know about it.”
But he thinks you should have the information. This is a man, after all, who says he’s twice seen God.
“But I don’t talk much about that,” he said, “because people will think I’m crazy.”
The daily adult requirement of alphabet soup
Boxing statistician Bob Yalen reports the sport’s many governing bodies - the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO sanctioned 174 “world championship” bouts in 1994. That’s roughly one every two days.
Never let the fax get in the way of a good story
Durell Price wasn’t about to apologize for pulling a switcheroo on Ohio State last week.
The Sylmar High School All-American tailback had a drug store employee fax his letter of intent to Ohio State. But the Buckeyes didn’t receive the page with Price’s signature and called to notify him of the problem. Given a chance to re-evaluate his decision, Price signed with hometown UCLA.
“I was a Buckeye from 2:30 to 5:30,” he shrugged.
Meanwhile, Sylmar coach Jeff Engilman spent 45 minutes on the phone trying to cool off Ohio State coach John Cooper.
“He says, ‘This is the first time in 33 years this has happened to me,”’ Engilman recalled. “And I said, ‘Hey, this is the first time it’s happened to me.”’
Said Price, “It’s like 1,000 pounds off my back.”
Coop must have gained some weight since he blew the Michigan game.
The last word …
“As an ice facility chain, we’re only as strong as our weakest rink.”
- New York Ranger Luc Robitaille, part owner of several skating facilities
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo