Sports Eye
A cyclists’ union
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
UNKNOWN to many sports fans, including cycling aficionados, the organizers of two multi-stage cycling races held annually in the country award cash prizes only to the top three winners in the individual category. The fourth placer up to the last finisher don’t receive any money and only collect their due share in the team prizes as all squads are compensated based on their placing in the overall classification.
That was not the case during my cycling era, the 60s to 70s. At that time, all of us surviving participants received a certain amount from the sponsors, from the champion to the last placer. It made the race worth surviving for, unlike in the setup of the Tours today, which I would describe as unjust and discriminating for the weaker participants. This practice should be stopped because it’s also demoralizing and exploitative.
And because of this bad practice, which our cycling leaders in Pangasinan have themselves observed in the last five years, some well-known cycling groups in the province are now forming a cycling union, initially province-wide.
A first meeting was held on September 11 in Villasis, at the house of Engr. Hubert Padilla, a well-known executive rider and one of the cycling leaders in eastern Pangasinan. The meeting was attended by 22 people, among them Roy del Prado (Urdaneta), Juluis Repollo (San Manuel), Cornelio Carpio (Sto. Tomas), Elmo Ramos Jr. (Binalonan), and my son Jazy and yours truly for Mangaldan.
The union is tentatively called “Katipunan ng mga Siklistang Pilipino, Inc.”. The main aim is to fight corruption, tyranny and exploitation in cycling. And we, the leaders, have reached a consensus that if successful, we will expand the group and make it nationwide. We will register the group with the Securities and Exchange Commission to acquire a legal personality.
We have invited other leaders in Mapandan, Malasiqui, Bugallon, Pozorrubio, Laoac and Dagupan City and we will hold a second meeting on October 4 at Del Prado’s residence in Urdaneta City. The third assembly, tentatively scheduled on November 15 to be hosted by Mangaldan under the management of my son Jazy, will elect the officers,
I am anticipating it to be a bloody costly effort, but we can afford it and we will make the necessary sacrifices for our love for cycling and the cyclists in particular. It’s about time we make this move after many years of patience.
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The first match of the best-of-three finals series of the 2009 PRISAA-UCAAP Inter-Collegiate Basketball Championship between Lyceum Northwestern University (LNU) and Pan Pacific University of North Philippines (PUNP) held last September 14 at LNU gym was a cliffhanger with the more-experienced boys of Atty. Gonzalo Duque prevailing by a mere two points, 107-105 (see related story on this page).
As expected, brouhaha ensued after the tight match. A woman from the PUNP group unleashed a profanity-laced, finger-pointing tirade against the two referees, Jun Pontaoe and Marlou Prado, for poor officiating, especially in the dying minutes of the game. She said the referees’ bum calls caused their defeat. I’m not belittling the capability of the Pontaoe-Prado tandem but I’m wondering why the two, especially the less-experienced Prado, was assigned to officiate a championship. Prado and Pontaoe, both under the BARECOM group, had little jelling with senior and national referee Jun Amado of NARECOM, and that made the big difference that caused the gaffe. My unsolicited advice is – all three referees of a game should be class-A whistle-blowers from either BARECOM or NARECOM (never as a combination of) should be assigned. They should never be mixed. Jelling among the referees is also essential in officiating especially in a title match.
The game didn’t have to end that way.
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