Baylon’s Heir Apparent

HARDKNOCkS 02-15-08



Baylon’s Heir Apparent
His name is Gilbert Ramirez. If there is anybody in the roster of national judo training pool that intrigues, RP’s judo exponent, John Baylon, he would pick
Gilbert Ramirez, a youth in his early twenties, his partner in most of his daily workouts and a never-say-die judoka.

Gilbert could match the stamina and the firepower of 7th Dan, Red and White belter, John Baylon and 9time SEA Games medalist. Ramirez has two gold’s, but failed in his third bid to capture gold in last SEA Games in Thailand this year, due to severe leg injury he sustained during training in Japan earlier.

The injury raised some questions on the merits of hard training abroad when competitions are to close for comfort. The humbling defeat in Thailand was indeed a big blow to the team’s morale, since a lot was expected of Ramirez.

Tall and muscular as Baylon, Ramirez is country’s next best judoka after Baylon, whose superb record is a legendary.

Senales, the De La Sale champ and highly-touted member of the national team managed to land the Bronze finish, while the rest of lady judokas romped off with minor awards to stave off disaster in the hands of their Thai and Vietnamese counterparts.

The unfortunate injury had its telling effect on Ramirez’ SEA Games Thailand performance, which had negated all the gains attributed to his hard work, perseverance and focus to be the Baylon successor in the future.

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