Early Christmas presents

Early Christmas presents in sports
Published : Tuesday, November 22, 2011 00:00

IT’S still five weeks away but already you can see Christmas coming.

You can always tell when it’s getting close because television shows start making their countdown, and stores, parks and streets, especially in the more-affluent areas like Makati and Manila, are now adorned with brightly-lit Christmas lights and decorations.

Big, lighted Christmas trees put up along major avenues produce one of the great sights on earth.

It makes us like Christmas above anytime of the year.

It’s still a little too early to think about Christmas presents, but this is the time I usually think about them.

Several years ago, I listed some Christmas presents I would like to give to some of our favorite athletes and sports officials.

I have more this year.

World boxing champion Manny Pacquiao — a convincing win in his long-awaited title fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. that will further cement his status as the world’s greatest boxer ever and a long and happy family life with wife Jinkee and their children during his retirement.

Chess sensation Wesley So — another major international chess title that will finally put him in the list of the world’s top 50 players in the FIDE (World Chess Federation). Failing to win the gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games in Palembang, a morale-boosting win in the coming ‘Battle of GMs’ would surely put the 18-year-old Filipino pride on the right track before his 2012 campaign.

More here.