The Colombian pilot is the first foreigner to classify in the Nascar Sprint in US when he stayed withing the 10 position in the 26 first rallies of the season 2009 with 3.251 points.

The leader is the American Denny Hamlin. The rally of 400 tours spent 3 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds and got some yellow flags, but they did not affect the drive of Montoya.

It is definitely the year of Montoya with 2 positions among the first five ones, 12th top ten and one of the four pilots to fight for the title without winning a race. Mark Martin will lead the positions of the Chase. He was the victor of 4 tests and started the 10 other races with 5.040 points against the 5.000 of Montoya.

Montoya – his full name is Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán, – was born in Bogotá in September 20, 1975. He is currently a race car driver in Nascar and he was a Formula One and Cart driver.

The bronze medals were for Houda Miled from Tunisia and Mina Watanable from Japan.

Alvear was champion in the Bolivarian Games 2005, bronze in the Central American Games 2006, Bronze in Odesur, gold in the Pan American Games of Canada 2007 and bronze in the Pan American Games of Miami 2008. She participated in the Olympic Games of Beijing where she lost before the Spaniard Leire Iglesias.

Ippon is a Japanese term of Judo to grant the victory when the fighter apply the strokes in a correct way or the opponent is defeated in a way s/he falls completely on his/her back.

Related

• Yury Alvear, nueva campeona de judo. Caracol Radio.

Kid Pambelé, the twice world champion in the Welter Junior Category (1972 – 1975; 1977 – 1980), tried to overcome his addiction in Cuba, but it was a failure. Last week he was interned in a mental hospital of Cartagena de Indias for his symptoms of aggressiveness derived from his addiction, but soon he was moved to Medellín to receive professional assistance.

The man who gave so many moments of national pride to Colombians during the 70s, comes from a poor family of the traditional Barrio Chambacú of Cartagena. He began in the ring at 18 years old. He fought as an ordinary fighter and it made him infamous by the time. It was in Venezuela where he would become a professional of the ring with entrepreneur Ramiro Machado and the coach Melquíades Sanz.

He was world champion for eight years in the Welter Junior Category between 1972 and 1975 and 1977 and 1980.

The homage took place in the Atanasio Girardot Stadium in Medellin and was visited by many other eminent personalities who came to honor one of the best Colombian footballer of the last decades and also well-known for his adventures with women, his nudes and goals.

He solemnly arrived to the Stadium in a white limousine and walked to the center of the playground on a golden carpet as a hero. He was so as one who shone in teams like Italian Parma, the English Newcastle and the Brazilian Palmeiras and Fluminense.

The spectators did not forget to stop clapping one of the most world famous Colombians in sport, as his former companions of the Atletico Nacional, the Colombian national team and the guests from foreign teams like Palmeiras. They made a way for their celebrated companion, the same that have made more goals in the international football, for example 43 in Parma, 18 in Newcastle, 17 in Brazil, 5 in Chile and 3 in Mexico.

‘Tino’ went to the dressing room and wore the classical white&green Atletico Nacional uniform, the same of the team’s golden time on the 1990s. The 1991’s Atletico Nacional did score three goals and the spectators could appreciate the abilities of the veteran players who made fame some decades ago.

At the 25th minutes of the second half, a model came into the playground with a bunch of flowers for ‘Tino’ Asprilla, then the game was over with claps, embraces and few drops of tears.

If I were Brazilian or Argentinian…

“Tal vez mi carrera deportiva hubiera sido más brillante si fuera argentino o brasileño, por decir algo. Porque a nosotros nos han marcado por ser colombianos. A la hora de los votos estamos en desventaja”

“Maybe my sport career had been more brilliant if I were to be an Argentinian or Brazilian, to say something. Because we are marked for being Colombians and discriminated  At the time of the votes, we are in disadvantage.” he said in an interview by El Colombiano and declared that what he did with Parma was so big as any other sport star of clubs like Barcelona, Juventus and Inter.

He said also that his worst moments in his career  were when he was in Parma, he lost his  mother and  late footballer  Andrés Escobar was assassinated in Medellín for a discussion after his own goal during the initial round of the 1994 World Cup in United States. He was also separated from the World Cup for discussions with coach Hernán Darío Gómez.

Faustino ‘Tino’ Asprilla is an amateur to horses and guns. For this last one he has had problems with authorities for doing shots in the air, quarreling and he has been arrested sometimes. He had also a romance with porn star Petra Scharbach and he himself posed naked, he says even these events helped him to increase his fame.

“Me sirvió para el currículo. Para sumar, como las copas. Quedan recuerdos hermosos…”

“It helped me for my curriculum. To add, for the cups. Beautiful remembrances remain,” he commented and says that he does not regret nothing and that it is the prize of fame.

The best times

For ‘Tino’ the best moment was the season with Parma (1992-1993) when he contributed to take the 58 unbeaten dates from Milan and he was among the four candidate players to receive the Golden Ball.

“Recuerdo otros grandes momentos, como las campañas con Newcastle de Inglaterra y con la selección de Colombia”

“I remember other great moments, as the campaign with Newcastle of England and with the Colombian team,” he said to El Colombiano.

Who is ‘Tino’ Asprilla

‘Tino’ is the short name for “Faustino”. He was born on 10th November 1969 in Tuluá, a city of the department of Valle del Cauca and he belongs to a generation of great Colombian figures like Carlos ‘Pibe’ Valderrama, René Higuita, Freddy Rincón, Leonel Alvarez, Adolfo “Tren” Valencia and many others of the golden age of the football in 1990s.  His first games in football were in the sports school “Carlos Sarmiento Lora” and he was sent as a player of the Cúcuta Deportivo. From Cúcuta he went to Medellín to be a part of the Atlético Nacional team where he became well known in Colombia and to the rest of the world.

He left Colombia for the first time in 1994 to integrate the Parma in Italy and soon he became an authentic star contributing in the defeat of Milán. His international importance became evident when he was nominated among other three chosen sportsmen for the Golden Ball for twice. But Tino is not only a figure for the playgrounds but also he made news for yellow press when he got in romance with a porn star, something that some observers consider the reason for his decline.

From Italy, England was the second foreign country to see this South American star of football in Newcastle. Also there his performance was of brilliant  with a hat-trick against FC Barcelona in the first phase of the Champions League of UEFA. He got a delicate injury in the knee and it marked his decline to end in Parma at the 1998 season. In 1999 he returned to South America, this time to Brazil as a forward player in Palmeiras club to participate in international events like Copa Mercosur, Libertadores de América and Intercontinental Club. In 2001 he went to Mexico to join Atlante team and he returned to Medellín in 2002.  The following year he went to Universidad de Chile giving to the Austral team a good seson with five goals in 13 games though he had the persistent problem in his knee. His last presence in a professional football team was with Estudiantes de La Plata of Argentina where he played just two games and was not able to play due to the injury in his  knee, then he returned to Colombia. Even then, he received an offer from Sport Ancash of Peru in 2008, but it was not possible for him to accept the invitation, because he was already out of sport activity.

Editor: Joseph Kizhakkedath, Kerala, India.

Just five years after Ben Curtis won The Open at his first attempt Colombian young gun Camilo Villegas has the chance to do the same.

A dazzling finish of five successive birdies gave the 26-year-old Colombian – not even in the event until American Kenny Perry turned down his spot two weeks ago – a five under par 65 and rocketed him into second place in the clubhouse, just one sjhort back from two-time winner and current leader Greg Norman.

Villegas, one over at halfway as a result, summed up his impression of British seaside golf in one word. “Funky”.

On the final hole, for example, the colourful South American found himself in a bad lie in the left rough and 176 yards to the flag.

Yet he pulled out only a pitching wedge and watched as it flew downwind, hit the pin and rolled 25 feet just off the back edge of the green.

After making the putt he said: “That tells you how funky it is to play golf around here.

“When you get on the first tee you never think about a score. You just think about every single shot because you don’t know when the weather is going to get like it was yesterday.

“I bogeyed the first two holes (to be eight over), but somehow my caddie just told me to keep battling, keep grinding. I obviously played unbelievable and I’m very excited to be right in it.

“When I say ‘funky’ I don’t mean anything bad. I’m just saying it’s so different.

“I mean, downwind you can hit a driver that goes 370 yards and then into the wind it’s 230.”

The conditions are not totally alien to Villegas, who comes from the town of Medellin unfortunately best known, of course, for drugs and crime.

He appeared in two British amateur championships at nearby Hoylake and Royal County Down in Northern Ireland.

“I love it – it requires a lot of imagination.”

As for his roots and the Florida-based player commented: “I love my country first of all. It’s a great, great place and I really, really miss it.

“Just like every country it’s got its’ problems and we tend to have that reputation – fortunately enough, I’ve never been directly involved with what goes on there – but I guarantee everyone when you guys visit it’s completely different than what the news says.

Colombia, a country with a sport tradition in football, was also the headquarters of the Youth South American Cup 2005 with the participation of nowadays figures of the international sport like Lionel Messi from Argentina. The organization of such event four years ago was a good precedent to make Colombia preferred by FIFA after the strong campaign made by Venezuela as the main candidate for the 2011 event.

The Coffee country tried to gain the spot for the 2014 World Cup that finally was granted to Brazil, however this time FIFA gave the opportunity once more to a country that is also famous for its football and sport tradition. Venezuela got however the organization of the Sub-15 in that same year.