Hard work pays off for karateka from Tacloban

NAYPYITAW—Life was never easy for karatedo’s Ramon Antonio Franco.
Despite the odds, the 28-year-old fighter got fortunate twice this year.
Franco ruled the men’s individual kumite 55kg, his first gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games since 2007, and his family was spared from the wrath of a recent supertyphoon that whipped his hometown Tacloban City.
“I guess somebody up there is watching over me,” said Franco a day after pulling off an escape act, 8-6, against a favored foe in Brunei’s Muhammad Fidaly Sanif late Saturday night.
It was the fourth straight gold for the country on the same day after Filipino boxers won three earlier, increasing the Philippine output to seven gold medals overall after Saturday’s action.
“All those difficulties I experienced in training and being away from the family while the storm hit Tacloban, it made me a stronger individual, both mentally and physically,” said Franco, a criminology graduate and part of the silver medal men’s kumite squad in the 2011 edition of the meet in Palembang.
He showed the new-found strength by downing three opponents for karatedo’s lone individual gold in these Games. /inquirer