A Manila City Journal ... (Journal Info)

Decades by Spain, Years by America and that's what made the Manila today.

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A blog created for educational purposes for the module - Tourism, culture and society


( Layout Credits )
Layout done by 16thday :) Banner from The Fading Night, mini icons from Hello-love.net. Inspired by The Atlantic.


SPORTS IN MANILA
Thursday, December 9, 2010, 10:46 PM

Arnis, a form of martial arts, is the national sports of Philippines that emphasise weapon-based fighting with sticks, blades and improvised weapons.

Sports in Manila are part of its culture from very early times. The most popular sport at Manila is Basketball. Manila even has its own basketball team named Metropolitan Basketball League (MBA). Other popular sports include Golf and Polo. There are number of golf courses and clubs in Manila and in neighbouring places. Fort Bonifacio Golf Club and Manila Golf & Country Club are the two well-known golf clubs located in Manila.

Horse racing generally take place on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday and San Lazaro Hippodrome and Santa Ana race track in Manila. Betting on horses is a big-time operation. Major races include the Gran Copa, National Grand Derby, the Founder’s Cup and Presidential Cup

Manila Polo Club is the well-known polo club of Philippines.
Several other favourite pastime sports activities include Cock fighting, Drag Racing, Ice skating, Kayaking, Rollerblading, Sailing and Parachuting.

Cock fighting




Cock fighting is one of the sports that are much popular with the people in Philippines ever since the pre-Hispanic times. Now, this activity is usually one of the Sunday passions of the country.

The fight began when two cocks, each with blade on the left leg are brought into the arena. When they began fighting, the crowd will try to get their bets in place. There is no tote, no desks and no receipts. The betting will be done just by hand signals across the crowd.



The cocks fight by jumping on each other and if the leg made contact with the opponent, it will usually be the end of the game when the referee would lift the lifeless bird and drop it onto the ground to make sure the fight was gone out of it. Sometimes when there was no blood, the birds simply ground each other down until they were barely able to stand with exhaustion.

This bloody and brutal activity however, is one of the most authentic and popular sports among the Filipinos.

Jai Alai

This is a fast-moving racquetball game imported from the Basque region of Spain and found only in Manila. Its future is uncertain since the game was reintroduced in 1999 only after being banned for 10 years.