Lingayen’s sports heroes

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

BY the time you read this piece, the Philippine National Games (PNG) which was held this year at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center (NRSCC) in Lingayen is already over. It’s our first time to host a national multi-sporting event after six years of waiting. The NRSCC already hosted many national meets like the Palarong Pambansa (twice), Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), PRISAA National Games (twice) and the Luzon Leg of Batang Pinoy.

Unlike the Palarong Pambansa, Batang Pinoy and the PRISAA National Games which were exclusively for students, the PNG organized by the Philippine Sports Commission in coordination with Philippine Olympic Committee, is exclusively for in-and-out of school Filipino athletes. It is also the qualifying tournament for the national pool to represent our country in the 2017 Malaysia Southeast Asia Games.

I watched the table tennis competitions last Wednesday, as expected, the national team ruled the event with much gusto. As of this writing (Thursday), like in the past, the 500-strong Nationals (out of 20 teams) are lording it over the annual hostilities with 12 gold, seven silvers and five bronzes way ahead of second runner Cebu City with nine gold, four silvers and six bronzes and Manila (6-0-1) for third. Our Pangasinan squad is tied with Zamboanga City landing ninth/tenth position with a single gold (dance sport) two silvers (chess and dance sport) and two bronzes (dance sport). But I was surprised to learn that there are no basketball, volleyball, baseball, football games as well as bowling, among others. I wonder why.

Meanwhile, I’m sure many of you, my dear readers, especially the young ones, are not aware that the host town Lingayen already produced four well-known athletes in the Philippines. The foremost was the late senator Ambrosio Padilla who the skippered the Philippine national basketball team as a point-guard in 1936 Berlin Olympic Games that landed fifth. That’s the best finish for an Asian country in the Olympics, so far. Padilla was the first president of Basketball Association of the Philippines, then the national governing body of basketball, and also the former president of Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association.

Other Lingayeños who brought honors to the town were Edmundo de Guzman of barangay Tonton who bagged the 1962 Tour of Luzon, Ronnie Magsanoc of PBA’s Shell Team and the latest was Teresita Victoria Agbayani (daughter of the late former governor Aguedo Agbayani) who won the gold in the muay thai event in the 2005 Southeast Asia Games. Victoria is also a former recording artist, like this writer.

After watching the PNG last Wednesday, I bumped into retired P/Sr. Supt. Sonny Verzosa and Engr. Manny Arenas at the office of Engr. Rodolfo “Boy” Dion. The Lingayen-born Verzosa, who is running for mayor and a cycling fanatic, said that if elected, he will also build a bike route along the seashore of the Lingayen Gulf that could also be used for bicycle racing in a criterium ‘hotdog shape’. He said it will be added tourist attraction since Pangasinan is the heart of Philippine cycling. Dion and Arenas who are diehard fans of cycling expressed support for Verzosa’s plan. In fact, the trio is contemplating a plan to hold a three-day series bicycle road race in the province that will start and end in Lingayen. Verzosa also said that health, moral values in education, livelihood and peaceful living are the top priorities in his platform. I support these.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 1 PETER 5: 5

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