Sports Eye
Two promising Pangasinan athletes
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
IF YOU are truly a lover of sports and have been following our provincial athletes’ stints in national and international competitions, then you would know who our heroes are, both of yesteryears and our current cream of the crop.
Our beloved province has already produced a lot of sports superstars especially in the field of basketball, cycling, taekwondo, track and field, swimming, body building, boxing, karate and chess to be specific. No need to elaborate because I have written time and again about them.
My subject now is chess, a mental game, where this province already produced one big name: Asia’s first international master, Rodolfo Tan Cardoso.
For reasons we don’t really know but I do believe it is because of his age the genius guy from And unceremoniously vanished from national and international competitions. And because of that, he never got his grandmaster norm, which many say he could have if he had continued to push the pieces.
I believe the retirement of Cardoso affected the morale of his protégés, especially the young ones. The interest and passion of the Pangasinenses for this sport dwindled a lot. Since then, I never heard of anyone who seriously wanted to follow the footsteps of Cardoso, until this year. Finally, two kids of this province emerged as national champions in their respective categories and clinched international honors in Thailand just last month.
Carrying the Philippine flag for this year’s ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Age Group Championships held last month at Pattaya, Thailand, unheralded and little known Haridas Pascua of Mangatarem achieved his goal in the region by winning two gold medals to top the Under-14 division, while his compatriot and provincemate Samantha Glo Revita from Rosales duplicated Pascua’s feat by upsetting top seed Dharsha Raja Jawahar of Indonesia to bag the gold in the girls’ Under-8 category.
According to former Rep. Prospero “Butch” Pichay, president of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines who bankrolled the trip of the 28-member Philippine squad, the triumphs of the two Pangasinenses have given them the slot to compete in the World Youth Chess Championships slated Nov. 17-28 in Turkey this year.
I don’t know much about the eight-year old grade 2 pupil Revita because I have not met her. But I know some about Pascua because I already I met him personally in his hometown five years ago. That was before he flew to Washingtonn, U.S.A. to compete in an international tournament.
I watched him play the game held at a bicycle store owned by Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Ayento. And believe me, despite his raw years in age at eight, his moves were really stupendous, easily beating all his matured and experienced opponents one after the other.
After the scrimmage, I told some of his townmates, particularly his father, that the boy will go places and will soon become a reliable flag carrier for our province as well as our country.
And I was right. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to meet him again since.
If I get lucky to be appointed as the provincial sports coordinator again, I’ll advise the newly elected governor and sports-minded Amado T. Espino to help these two athletes with great potentials in their immediate needs and in their chosen career. I’m very sure the two will bring more international honors for Pangasinan and for Philippines. Hindi ka mapapahiya sa kanila.
Mark my words.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/sports-eye/)
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