Sports Eye
My first Olympic stint
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
SINGAPORE–I came here to fulfill one of my dreams: to watch an Olympic Games.
My visit to this beautiful and clean city-state to watch the Youth Olympic Games is hopefully a prelude to my trip to the regular Olympic Games, either in the 2012 London Games or the next spectacle, the 2016 Rio de Janiero Olympics. It was a fruitful stint with my able cumpadre Recah Trinidad calling the shots for our daily work here. But, unfortunately, our sojourn here was mixed with sadness and grief, not only because of the failure of our kababayan athletes in swimming, taekwondo and basketball, but also because of what happened at the Luneta last week.
We had just returned to our hostel after watching the boys and girls 3-on-3 basketball finals, which saw China edging Australia, 33-29, and Serbia routing Croatia, 22-9, when we were met with the very bad news about the horror-filled Luneta siege.
Another disheartening item was our failure to send a delegation to compete in the cycling event here. I believe it was because of the unresolved conflict between our national cycling leaders. It was frustrating to watch the road event without the Pinoy bikers last Sunday, which saw a young Columbian marquee rider named Brayan Ramirez taking home the gold. A Dutchman came in second and an Italian (sorry, I forgot their names) landed third. As usual, our RP national cycling leaders gave the excuse that our beleaguered nation did not send a contingent because we don’t have enough good youth riders to compete against the best in the world. That’s not true because in our province alone, I could give them at least ten who are of international caliber. And I can name more with great potential four years from now for the second Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. Of course, I realize they have to pass the qualifying test, and hopefully there will be one.
My stay here was also mixed with happiness with the victory of my half-blood bet, Miss Mexico, who won this year’s Miss Universe contest in Las Vegas. It was Mexico’s second Miss U title after 1991. Fortunately, or unfortunately, our Miss Philippines landed fifth because supposedly of a gaffe during the question-and-answer portion.
PRISAA-UCAAP UPDATE
By the way, here are the results of the August 23 games of the 2010 PRISAA-UCAAP Inter-Collegiate Basketball Championship (per UCAAP executive director Seato Gonimil): UPang routed PAMMA, 71-57; LNU nipped CdD, 88-86; and UL edged AIE-C, 80-78.
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