Despite Fiba ban, Ravena still coming to Cebu

THE BASKETBALL skills and performance workshop featuring beleaguered PBA and Gilas star Kiefer Ravena slated for June 16 at the City Sports Club-Cebu basketball courts will be pushing through.

This is according to Epic Performance and Fitness owner and event organizer, Pio Solon.

The event is set to bring Ravena and his personal trainer, Mark Caron, to Cebu for an extensive training workshop for people of all ages.

The event was placed in jeopardy after Ravena was slapped with an an 18-month ban imposed by Fiba after testing positive for performance-enhancing substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

“This morning, I received messages questioning our decision, and if we wanted to cancel the workshop after the news on Kiefer testing positive in WADA’s random testing protocol,” said Solon.

“My decision today is to push through with the workshop because it was an honest mistake. I appreciate Kiefer being forthright, and his willingness to own up to this honest mistake. More importantly, I see this as an opportunity for our participants not to only learn about basketball but also how to handle these real-life situations with grace and strength. It will be very inspiring to see Kiefer bounce back strong from this situation,” Solon said.

Solon added that the workshop would be an ideal platform to educate the campers about sports nutrition.

“We will also use this workshop as an avenue to educate our younger players about the do’s and dont’s of sports nutrition. This will also be a great teaching point that at the elite level, one must always be mindful of all the details in your training and nutrition.”