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The
Cacoy Doce Pares World Eskrima Federation will host the 3rd Annual
World Eskrima Tournament on the 24th to the 26th of November, at the
Cebu Coliseum.
Eskrimadors
belonging to affiliate Cacoy Doce Pares clubs from the United States,
England, Poland, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines, will take
part in the organization’s most prestigious competition that will
culminate in a special seminar to be facilitated by the Grandmaster
himself.
Other
Eskrima Clubs in Cebu have also expressed their intent to join the
competition that has a total of 150 awards up for grabs and is made
possible with support from the Cebu City Government, the International
Martial Arts and Boxing Academy, which based in California, the
International Combative Martial Arts Academy based in Australia, and
the United States Martial Arts Association.
This year’s event will feature the 1st Master Edgar Cañete Challenge, an open-weight category sparring competition.
At 86, Manoy Ciriaco "Cacoy" Cañete is a young man no more.
But
to us who took part in the last Eskrima session he supervised here in
Cebu early February, he sure didn't move like he was somebody's grandpa.
In
demonstrating a disarm-and-throw technique involving a wrist lock and
stomp kick, he slammed unto the Tatami mat an Australian Kenpo
blackbelt that was towering high and over twice his weight.
After
the exercise, and with the Australian blackbelt massaging his behind
while walking back towards the line, the Grandmaster looked at me and
asked if I wanted to Uke his Nage. I wisely chickened out.
It's too bad that not many Cebuanos are drawn into Eskrima, something endemic to our very ethnic roots.
I hope I will never wake up to the day when the art has faded into obscurity and our Grandmasters faded with the times.
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