Visiting Dubai

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

I FAILED to make my column last week because I was in the city of Dubai, a well-known city in United Arab Emirates, a booming, ultra modern city, but with blistering heat climate. Unlike my previous trips overseas, I didn’t bring my tablet believing I could do my piece in internet shop. Sure enough, the internet shops were easy to find but services were very expensive. That was my very first failure to submit a column since I started Sports Eye in July 5, 2005, that’s more than 14 years ago.

I took that flight to Dubai after my nephew and former Mangaldan team basketball standout Engr. Alexis Lopez Aquino asked me to visit the place for a change of ambiance, and possibly for a chance to meet my Mangaldan co-cyclists, the former Pitaki Boyz members: Rex Gonzales, Adrian Malanum, the siblings Renato and Jesus Sembrano, Rainier Clauna of Bugallon and Ferdinand Pablo of Umingan. However, it was only the Tour veteran Pablo who dared to sacrifice the blistering heat to meet me four times in the hotel where I was billeted and helped me tour the shining city with my nephew Alexis. The others failed to make it because of work pressure.

Evening of October 4, Alexis and his co-engineers and I decided to watch the first of two-day PBA games scheduled at the Dubai Coca-Cola Arena featuring San Miguel Beermen against NLEX Road Warriors. As expected, Filipino basketball die-hards (I guess 90 percent of the spectators) trooped to the venue and watched the tension-filled hostility and tight-action-packed skirmish that the Beermen won, 98-94, after leading precariously in the first three quarters, 20-18, 42-41, 71-69, and eventually marred by injuries among NLEX players because of flagrant fouls committed by bulldoggish Kelly Nabong and three-point specialist Terence Romeo. The situation prompted the three referees to eject them both out of the game. (We failed to watch the second wrangle the following day, (October 5) between NLEX and the multi-titled Ginebra Kings held in the same venue). Last that I heard, NLEX won by two points after leading by 25 points. Knowing the never-say-die and ‘darling of the crowd’ Ginebra Five, I guess that perhaps was a record breaker that made them suffer humiliation under the tutelage of grand-slam and illustrious coach Tim Cone. Why? Your guess is also like mine.

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Like our national basketball squad called “Gilas” that failed to notch the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games berth, our national cycling team also failed to grab the Olympic slot by garnering only 270 points to finish 75th overall in Asian UCI sanctioned races. Top gunners in the Philippine squad who contributed were Marcelo Felipe of Nueva Ecija with 109 points, our province mates Dominic Perez of Sto. Tomas and Ronald Oranza of Villasis with 51 and 33 points, respectively, Jan Paul Morales of Marikina City with 27, Junrey Navarra of Mindanao with 15, Junel Carcueva and Ismael Grospe of Nueva Ecija with 14 and 11, correspondingly, and Mangaldanon Joshua Cariπo with 10. With only 50 countries to qualify, China barely made it landing the last slot with 744 points.

Asian countries that failed as well were Hong Kong (51st), South Korea (53rd), Taiwan (59th), Singapore (60th), Malaysia (61st) and Indonesia (73rd).

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics was the last Philippine cycling stint represented by SEA games gold medalists Domingo Villanueva and Norberto Oconer. Olympic qualifying races started in 1996 Atlanta Olympics but Filipino cyclists failed to qualify, then and until now.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. JAMES 4: 16-17

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