Sports Eye
Pangasinan heroes, yesterday and tomorrow
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
UNKNOWN to many, especially the young ones, our beloved province of Pangasinan has already produced a lot of national and international sports celebrities, then and now. Forget about basketball and cycling, which this place is noted for producing numerous luminaries, diadems, unmatched by other provinces.
Let’s talk about boxing, chess, karate, body building and track.
In boxing, I believe only few of us know that we already have a world champion in Roberto Cruz, the stocky-muscled person from Bugallon town.
The best I could recall was summertime in 1965 when Cruz stunned the world boxing aficionados by scoring a sensational first round knockout against Raymund “Battling” Torres, a Reynosa, Mexico son, to wrest the junior welterweight crown of the World Boxing Association (WBA). The Bugallon born Cruz was given a hero’s welcome at his hometown with much fanfare.
Unfortunately, on the same year, Cruz, mandated to defend his title against the number one challenger American Eddie Perkins, lost in a unanimous decision. That epic battle was held at Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
After his off-and-on performances, Cruz finally retired. And unluckily in the mid-80’s, Cruz met his untimely death due to a land dispute somewhere in Laguna, according to my kumpadre, boxing well-known analyst Recah Trinidad of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
In chess, during the 60’s we had Anda genius Rodolfo Tan Cardoso, considered as Asia’s first international master but unable to get a grandmaster norm.
In karate, my barangay mate Jaime Aquino – my relative – seized the national crown in 1974. He has since migrated and now resides in the US.
In body-building, there are two people who made us proud. The first was Herminigildo Tigno of Sta. Barbara town as Mr. Philippines in 1961 and a certain Carino from barangay Banaoang, Mangaldan. (Sorry, I forgot his first name and the exact year of his reign also as Mr. Philippines).
In track, we had Rogelio Onofre from Dagupan City, establishing an Asian Games record of 10.4 seconds in the 100-meter sprint in the elimination heat and eventually bagged the bronze medal during the 1962 Jakarta Asiad final.
After Onofre, beautiful lass from Aguilar town named Agrifina dela Cruz captured the limelight by dominating the 1979 and 1981 Southeast Asia Games 100-meter hurdles event.
These two Pangasinan track stars’ stint in the RP national squad lasted for almost two decades.
And now comes the most bemedalled athlete during the 2nd Philippine Olympic Festival held early this month at Vigan City, Ilocos Sur. Her name is Lany Cardona, a 16-year old daughter of a poor fisherman from Bolinao town, conquering the 10,000m 5,000m, 3,000m and the 1,500m runs and landing second in the 800m. And she runs barefoot in competitions, as in no footwear whatsoever. Her sterling feat has automatically qualified her to the national games in Manila.
In fact, prior to her sojourn to the Vigan meet, the gutsy senior student from Pilar National High School in Bolinao snared gold medals in the 3,0000m and 1,500m runs and snatching silver in the 800m during last month’s IRAA games held at San Carlos City.
A national star from Pangasinan is in the making here. Ika nga, depende yan sa kanyang training at disiplina sa kanyang katawan.
My unsolicited advice to her is to always join invitational meets wherever and whenever given the opportunity to prove her mettle in national competitions like the categorized Milo marathon.
And of course, with the financial support from the leaders of her school, municipality and especially the provincial government, her goal will become reality. Remember, whenever she wins, we the Pangasinenses are also victorious.
The Vigan game was a prestigious affair participated in by 11 provinces and three cities in central and northern Luzon. Baguio City was the overall champion as far as medal harvest was concerned. Pangasinan landed second.
Dagupan, a chartered city, did not send a separate delegation unlike the other big cities like Baguio, Olongapo and Angeles. Don’t ask me why. Ask the city’s sports leaders led by Charisse Perez, the city’s SK federation president. She might have a big -and flimsy- alibi.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/sports-eye/)
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