Ang Kalatas Volume IV February 2014 Issue | Page 20

20

SPORTS

Volume 4 | Number 5
February 2014
www.kalatas.com.au

For Updates, go to
www.kalatas.com.au/category/sports/

Ang Kalatas. Bringing into focus Filipino presence in Australia

FMA in MAD Historic PNG Rugby League
Int’l games in Clark

The Filipino Martial
Art Balintawak
Arnis will be starting
classes at the Martial
Arts Development
Gym in Smithfield.
llBalintawak Arnis is a weapon
based FMA utilising a 28-30 inch
rattan stick. This form of martial arts basically teaches how to
defend oneself. The movement
puts the body in a specific form
to be ready to defend, or to attack. Safety and control is foremost and is taught from the beginning.
Mitchell Badelles has had
training in NNG Balintawak in
the mid-1980s and has recently
been allowed to receive new learners in the Western Sydney area.
His Filipino Martial Art background started when he was 13,
learning ACJK – American Combat Judo Karate. He also learned
boxing from his maternal grandfather who was a 1940s boxing
champ in Western Visayas. After arriving in Australia in 1986,
he then pursued knowledge in Tae
Kwon Do and in Aikido.
NNG Balintawak does not
award grading belts. Progress is

assessed based on how quick the
student absorbs the basic forms
and defense groupings. It is designed to be a simple but effective defense system.
Martial Arts Development
Gym is at 639 The Horsley Drive,
nearest corner, Cumberland
Highway, Smithfield. MAD are
martial arts specialists providing
the best instructors and training.
Mad also offers classes in
Mixed Martial Arts, Muay Thai
and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and fight-

er training. MAD Gym offers
coaches who have competed professionally, are national champions, lived and breathed martial
arts their whole life. They are
focused on teaching you. Visit
www.martialartsdevelopment.
com for more details.
Classes will be every Sunday afternoon at 5pm, after the
Wing Chun classes. Contact Mr.
Badelles on sydneybalintawak@
gmail.com or visit www.nngbalintawak.com.

The first-ever Papua
New Guinea Rugby
League International
games were held last
month in Clark City
pitting PNG nationals
against their Filipino
counterparts.
Ric Raymond Bellen
llThe historic meet held at the

Challenger Field in Clark was organised by James Franson of Site
Skills Training and Ric Raymond
Bellen of the Maritime Academy
of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP)
Rugby League and Union Club.
Papua New Guinea (PNG)
is the only country in the world
where Rugby League is the national sport of the country.
120 PNG nationals are in-

volved in a training program in
Clark city organised by Site Skills
Training, Site and Orion Project
Services (PNG) and the Ipatas
Foundation Inc.
The program provides residential training at Site Skills
Training Clark for the PNG nationals from the Enga Province
in areas of heavy diesel maintenance, construction and fabrication as well as camp services, cookery and logistics.
The PNG nationals were
formed into five teams: Orion,
SITE: Skills Training, The Chefs,
The Builders and the Bird of Paradise (Female team).
Filipino Rugby League players
came from Maritime corporations
based in the Philippines: Anscor
Swires with 16, Hartmann AG

with 15, TMS with 16, 30 male and
students from Quezon City Polytechnic University (QCPU) and
17 players from the Manila Vipers
Rugby Club who were trying out
Rugby League for the first time.
The tournament was a great
and fun day for all Rugby League
participants with the games
watched by around 200 people. 
The Chefs took out the Rugby League tournament while the
TMS Titans took the men’s touch
games. The QCPU took the women’s touch games.
Organisers said the tournament was “just the beginning” as
they plan to support and assist in
organising more Rugby League
tournaments in the future and
help develop an appreciation of
the game in the Philippines.