Ocean-to-Ocean race April 6-8 As usual, Panama's cayuco racing season will culminate on the weekend before
Easter this year. Several new boats have been built or are under construction,
and while the youth categories that have been competing since the Canal Zone
council of the Boy Scouts of America started the races more than a half-century
ago will continue to be dominated by students from English-language or bilingual
private schools, the open category is expected to increase with more canal workers
participating. In recent years the race has attracted participants from the
United States, but so far it has not made its deserved breakthrough as an important
international athletic competition or as a major tourist attraction.
Extreme Panama Challenge On April 7 at least 15 teams, some from as far away as Finland, will take
up the "Reto de Panama." The challenge is an extreme race that begins on the
road from Capira to Lidice and ends at the Hotel Campestre in El Valle, with
running, hiking, orienteering, mountain climbing, swimming and mountain biking
over the Cerro Campana and Cerro El Picacho ridges. Each team will consist of
four members, at least one of whom must be a woman, and the whole team must
finish each part in order to avoid disqualification.
Coparropa’s an All-American In her freshman season at Auburn, Panamanian swimmer Eileen Coparropa earned
All-American honors with fifth-place finishes in the 50-meter and 100-meter
freestyle and her participation in squads that took third place in the 200-meter
freestyle relay, fourth in the 400-meter medley relay and fifth in the 200-yard
medley relay. The Auburn women's swimming and diving team finished the season
fourth in the nation.
All Stars take to the field April 11 On April 11 the All Stars from Panama's national baseball tournament will
face one another at the National Stadium. This year's junior tournament was
by most accounts lackluster (though it still attracted a number of professional
scouts from the US), but the adult championships have been well balanced and
well played. The National Stadium, an excellent facility near Cerro Patacon,
will be host to a Panamanian professional league that attracts a few major leaguers
starting next November, but this year the goal of hosting at least a few big
league spring training games has remained elusive.
