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MetroVanIndependent.com
October 2015
sports
Vancouver welcomes the Raptors
By Luisa Marshall
Ever since Vancouver lost the Grizzlies
basketball team years ago, basketball fans
and enthusiasts are thrilled that an NBA
pre-game between the Toronto Raptors
and LA Clippers were scheduled at Roger’s
Arena.
“It’s a great city for basketball!" said
Raptor’s head coach Dwane Casey. "I
wished we had a team in Seattle and also
in Vancouver. Two great basketball cities,
basketball fans. And even if they had an
expansion team, the fans here are great.
It was packed every time we came. The
enthusiasm was powerful and it was a great
organization and great city for basketball.
They need an NBA team here.”
After hours of training, the Raptor’s
star player DeMar DeRozan said, “I’m very
appreciative. I lost count on how many
times I’ve been to Vancouver to play with
the Raptors so it’s definitely great to go out
there and see all the fans.”
“They were great last year when we
played here at Roger’s Centre. Enthusiastic
fans, they knew the game, they knew the
players. So we’re excited about playing
here.”
Toronto Raptors trained Friday and
Saturday at Fortius Sport & Health in
Burnaby.
Raptors star DeMar DeRozan interviewed by Luisa Marshall during training camp.
Photos by MetroVan Independent News Team
Check out www.metrovanindependent.
com for the interview.
“It’s a great city for basketball!
...the fans here are great."
- Toronto Raptor’s head coach
Dwane Casey
Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey with Luisa Marshall.
Toronto Raptors at training camp.
Sawal holds ground vs.
top caliber world athletes
By Alex Mino
John Sawal in one of his finest forms that shoved him to the 7th place of Karate 1 Premier League in
Coburg, Germany.
Fi l i p i n o C a n a d i a n J o h n S awa l
surpassed his past performance and
landed a respectable seventh place over
the weekend at the conclusion of 2015
Germany Open Karate 1 Premier League
held in Coburg, Germany.
Indeed a sterling performance for the
19-year-old lad to be in the top ten among
96 competitors from Europe and Senior
Worlds.
The eldest among the brood of two,
Sawal finished the tournament tied in 7th
with Khai Truong of Sweden.
The product of Winston Churchill
Secondary school started the competition
on a bright note after blanking John
Georgas of Australia, 5-0.
He followed it up with a 3-2 victory
over Michal Toure of Slovakia, although
he suffered a shut out at the hands of
European World champ Daniel Quintero,
0-5, he quickly bounced back in the fourth
round.
Sawal beat Jonas Glaser of host
country, Germany, before bowing out
against Man Cheng of Hong Kong, China.
He considers it an honour to be in the
elite group of top athletes and to land in top
ten out of 96 competitors was a complete
satisfaction on his part.
“It’s no medal but this experience
shines the brightest compared to all my
medals, thus far. It has been extraordinary
fighting against the top athletes of the
world,” declares Sawal.
He added that he’s totally satisfied with
his performance and still raring for more
challenges to get much better results in
his next outing.
Meanwhile, it was 1-3 finish for
Germany after Ilja Smorguner pockets the
gold while his compatriot Paul Baum took
home the bronze together with Colombian
David Felife Contreras.