Hectic Days

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

FOUR of the last five Sundays, I was vexed and exasperated due to the heavy workload preparing four cycling events, plus some basketball games that I covered and organized.

The latest was the much-awaited and touted Mangaldan bikefest dubbed as “Werweran” held last Sunday and the basketball Goodwill Games last Monday at Macario Ydia Development Center.

Both events were projects of Mayor Herminio A. Romero and the bike tilt was assisted by VM Pedro A. Surdilla, Jr., the town’s fiesta executive committee chairman, Dr. Demosthenis Ydia, Councilors Alberto Fabia, Johnny Valencia and this piece maker.

Despite a road crash that occurred in the second of the third races of the day that inflicted injuries to three riders, the events turned to be successful, thank God.

It’s no joke preparing for a star-studded event which you know will be watched by tens of thousands of spectators, like the the ‘open’ race event that featured Tour champions like defending titlist Victor Espiritu, Santy Barnachea, Warren Davadilla, Arnel Quirimit, plus RP national riders and Pangasinan’s pride, the Pitaki Boyz of Jazy Garcia.

My golly, that was really a hassle. I wasn’t surprised then that I ended up losing three pounds.

Parang sumali din ako sa karera, ‘ika nga, dahil sa pawis ng problema. But it was good for my health.

Another event coming up on March 15, under my directorship anew, will be in Aguilar, in conjunction with its town fiesta. It’s a shorter race compared to the Werweran, just an approximate distance of 110 kilometers of well-paved and flat trek.

Top guns in Philippine cycling like Barnachea, Quirimit, Ericson Obosa, Sherwin Carrera, Reynaldo Navarro and Ariel Flores, to name a few, are again participating.

The road battle will be sponsored by Gen. Leopoldo N. Bataoil, the new PNP director of public community relations based in Camp Crame. The title of the race will be “3rd Gen. Bataoil Cycling Challenge” with the theme ‘Siklista kontra sa droga’.

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The Goodwill Games, held March 3, featured four teams led by my town’s Mangaldan Selections, 2005 Pangasinan-PRISAA champion University of Pangasinan (UPang) Webczars, the visiting Baguio City’s Cordillera Carreee Development Colleges (CCDC) and La Union’s Think God.

The UPang boys of Cesar T. Duque led from the start and never relinquished the pace to trounce the stubborn CCDC, 68-63.

The victory was a sweet revenge for the Webczars mentored this time by head coach and Bonuan Gueset chieftain Angel Gumarang.

Their first ‘goodwill’ meeting of the year held last January 27 was a 79-71 debacle staged at San Fabian Sports and Civic Center and steered by assistant coach Jay Ronquillo.

“I know that the CCDC quintet is tough to beat, but I was confident we could defeat them in a fair and square match with good officiating,” Gumarang said.

Think God edged the newly formed Mangaldan five, 78-74, in a game watched by about 2,500 fans.

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My big kudos to UPang’s high school basketball team for bagging the 3rd runner-up plum in the 62nd National Students Basketball Championship held in Cebu City.

The junior Webczars was under the tutelage of coaches Jay Ronquillo and Robert Amado Jr.

Likewise to the University of Luzon Golden Tigers senior squad for bagging the same position in the college division under the mentorship of Jack Vidal.

I doff my hat to you guys! You deserve an applause.

(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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