Pangasinan athletes shine anew

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

LAST week I wrote about our victorious Pangasinan pedal pushers conquering two separate big races in the southern part of Luzon.

They were San Jacinto son Reynaldo Navarro and Mangaldan’s promising amateur star Ariel Flores clinching the annual one-day Tour de Calatagan in Batangas in a one-two fashion finish and Asingan  pride Baler Rabina ruling the yearly one day Tagaytay City Challenge.

Both events were run in the mountainous terrain of the provinces of Laguna, Cavite and Batangas.

Navarro received P10,000 plus P2,000 for capturing the ‘mountain king’  plum, Flores netting P8,000, and Ravina bagging P15,000.

I raised a glass to them for bringing another honor to this cycling-crazy province.

And last Sunday was another lucky day for our Pangasinan road players when San Fabian ace cyclist Sherwin Carrera captured the opening leg of the elite open division of the 2008 Hitachi National Criterium Grand Prix at the Rizal Park in Manila to pocket the P5,000 top prize.

Provincemate and former RP national standout Nilo Estayo came in third to earn P2,000.

Defending Padyak Pinoy king and Tour of Indonesia-bound Victor Espiritu got hemmed in by the huge lead pack and was never a threat in the race.

And in the mixed Masters-Executive category, former Tour veteran Hector Padilla from Urdaneta City rulled the event worth P2,000.

And also last Sunday here in our province, Flores proved to the visiting Nuevo Ecijanos and his Pangasinan co-cyclists that his second place victory in Batangas was not a fluke by winning convincingly the all-amateur UPang bikefest.

I doff my hat to them. No wonder our national scribes call this province “the cradle of Philippine cycling”.

No doubt about that. The record speaks so no need to elaborate.

Of the five that brought honors to the province, three are members of the Pitaki Boyz squad, namely: Navarro, Flores and Carrera. This squad is sponsored by Guam based Jazy Sportswear.

I hope and wish the top performance of these Pangasinenses continues especially when the annual summer Tour comes.

A one-day competition is very different to a multi-stage bicycle racing. I have 32 years of competition experience in this two-wheeled sport and I found out that there were a lot of cyclists who excel in single day competitions but can’t do better in multi-stage racings.

Ask the tour veterans, they know this for a fact.

* * * * * *

Kudos also to Krisia de Asis who won the gold medal in the International Invitational Shotokan Karate Tournament held in Manila last Sunday.

Krisia, 18, a second year nursing student of Saint Louis University in Baguio City, is a ‘yellow belter’ from the Wado Ryu Karate Club and the eldest daughter of Chief Inspector Ferdinand “Bingo” de Asis and wife Romae, the vice president for administration in the Mangaldan-based Metro Dagupan Colleges.

I believe Krisia can even be better at it if she can be more focused in her chosen sport. I’m predicting that this young girl born in Dagupan City will win more international medals someday soon with proper coaching and discipline.

Bingo said Krisia’s second sport is practical shooting and plans to compete in this sport too.

The good-looking and newly-promoted Bingo, now the chief of police of Mangatarem, is also an avid lover of badminton, basketball, cycling and practical shooting.

Many times he has been donor of ‘summit sprint’ prizes during the province cycling races under my directorship.

I believe he will donate another ‘sprint summit’ prize when the Mangaldan bikefest called “Werweran” unfolds on March 2.

Mabuhay again ang Pangasinan.

With the two weeks of victories, I’m hoping too that we could defend our tiara in the Ilocos Region Athletic Association, which officially opens today.

(Readers may reach columnist at biking.jess@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/sports-eye/
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