AUSTRALIAN AMBASSADOR OPENS RP-AUSTRALIA GOODWILL GAMES
Ambassador Rod Smith (3rd from left) and Coca Cola President Kandy Anand (4th from left) recently opened the Motolite RP-Australia Goodwill Games at the Araneta Coliseum. The games featured a match-up between crowd-favourite Powerade Team Pilipinas and the Hoopdreamz Australia Great White Sharks. The Australian team was led by National Basketball League players, including former MVP Bruce Bolden, swingman Graeme Dann, Anthony Susnjara and Eban Hyams.
Organised by the PBA, the RP-Australia Goodwill Games represented a further opportunity to strengthen sports linkages between Australia and the Philippines. “The intense passion of Filipinos for basketball is also shared by Australians, whose love for the game has seen the Australian team consistently rank among the top three nations in the world for women’s basketball and the top ten for men,” Ambassador Smith said.
Also shown in the photo are (L-R) Sonny Thoss and Asi Taulava of Powerade Team Pilipinas, Hoopdreamz guard Eban Hyams (partly hidden) Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner Sonny Barrios (partly hidden) and Hoopdreamz centre/forward Anthony Susnjara.