Sports Eye
Dreaming the impossible dream?
By Jesus A. Garcia, Jr.
AS of this writing (Friday), our lone survivor in boxing for gold medal lightweight, Charly Suarez, is fighting Mongolian Dorjnyambuu Otgondalala, 17th ranked in the world. Our three semifinalist pugs headed by Olympian and 2013 Southeast Asia Games flyweight gold medalist Mark Anthony Barriga, bantamweight Mario Fernandez and middleweight Wilfredo Lopez fell one after the other to fighters from Jordan, Korea and China. I watched their fights on TV and the officiating of the judges was spotty, favoring the host Korean boxers.
Boxing is my second favorite sport and we are not blind not to see how our three boxers Ian Clark Bautista, Barriga and Fernandez were robbed of victories. Same thing happened to Indian female boxer Sarita Devi who eventually refused to accept her bronze medal because of unfair scoring of the judges. Then an Iraqi runner placing fourth was awarded the gold medal because the top three finishers were deemed to have committed infractions. The 17th Asiad in Incheon Korea is definitely the most controversial meet since its birth in 1951. We’ll just pray that Suarez will eventually capture the gold to duplicate BMX cyclist Daniel Caluag’s gold.
Prior to this Asiad, as usual our sports leaders especially Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richie Garcia (no relation to this writer) predicted and bragged that we could break our 3-4-9 (gold, silver, bronze) harvest in Guangzhou, China four years ago. But it did not happen. I believe Mr. Garcia doesn’t believe what Jesus Christ said in the Good Book that says “be humble and you’ll be exalted and exalt you are and you will be humbled.” It’s a shame that small countries like Hongkong, Macau, Singapore, only city-states, can beat us soundly. “Nauuna kasi ang para sa bulsa nila kaysa sa kapakanan ng ating mga atleta.” said Antonio Manal of Infanta, Pangasinan. And because of our misplaced national sports development program, we are now paying the price. Same thing happened to our Gilas Pilipinas that despite our unselfish and generous assistance of tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, we just landed 21st in 2014 FIBA World Cup and finishing only seventh in Incheon Asian Games.
This is our worst position in this quadrennial meet that we used to dominate in 1951, 1954, 1958 and 1962, the last time we bagged the gold. “Sana huwag natayong magfocus sa ang larong ito dahil alam naman natin na wala tayong pag-asa sa World at pati sa Asia na imbes na mag-improve tayo ay lalo tayong bumababa,” said Alex Borras of Bonuan Gueset, a businessman and former cager who shifted his passion to cycling. Share na lang natin yong gagastusin sa basketball para sa ibang laro para tumaas naman ang morale ng mga batang atleta sa ibang sports at hindi puro basketball na lang tayo,” he added. He’s right. Yes, we played scintillating games in the just concluded FIBA World Cup but remember we only won one game (Senegal) a no-bearing match.
But note, the four countries Greece, Argentina, Croatia and Senegal of Group B (where PH belonged) who qualified for the round-of-16 were all knocked out and did not qualify for the round-of-eight (quarterfinals). This means that Group B where Gilas fought was a weak group unlike the groups of A, C, and D whose eight teams qualified for the quarterfinals where where the Americans finally reigned, again.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: And Jesus Christ said “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads o life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7: 13-14)
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