COE Blog: Porto and Dutchy in Canberra

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Forget Michael Bevan, Mark Higgs and James Hird - Marc Portus is definitely Canberra’s favourite son.

After just a four-year stint in the nation’s capital as a sport scientist at the AIS, our Sport Science Sport Medicine Unit Manager, the man we call Porto, clearly left more of a mark in his time at our nation's capital than any of Bevan’s runs or Hird’s goals ever did.

In the five days the group stayed there, it seemed like everyone we ran into knew of the great man. From the newly crowned defence minister (John Faulkner ) to well known doctors, sport personalities, even the great man himself K-Rudd (the Prime Minister) wanted a piece! The phone calls, well wishers and stops for a chat got so much in fact, Porto was forced to end his tour a little prematurely and return to Brisbane for some peace and quiet.

All-in-all, the Canberra trip was interesting to say the least. Some of our more regular readers will recognise the name Jon Holland as someone who has copped some stick in previous COE blogs for his serious general hygiene and odour problems.

The Flying Dutchman (Holland) gave one of the toughest displays of boxing ever seen in the annual showdown between the AIS boxers and cricketers. Dutch sat on the ropes for 6 minutes letting the Australian amateur heavyweight champion pepper him with combos never seen before. The crowd applauded as they watched what they thought was Holland’s use of Ali’s ‘rope-a-dope’ technique. While Ali (or Will Smith if you watched the movie) sat on the ropes to tire George Foreman out before going in for the kill in the later stage of the fight, Dutchy absorbed 132 kidney punches before going down without endeavouring to throw a punch.

Better luck next time mate.

Tom

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