Sports Eye
PH fails again
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
I’M DOING this piece earlier than usual to give myself time to sort out the November 28 bikefest in Bugallon, to be held in conjunction with the celebration of the town fiesta. Details of the bikefest was in last week’s issue.
After that much-ballyhooed Pacquiao-Margarito title fight which the Filipino boxing icon won convincingly, the talk of the town now is the Guangzhou Asian Games. So far, our Philippine contingent has bagged only two gold, two silver and eight bronze medals, and we’re in the 17th position out of the 42 countries participating from this largest continent of the world. Like in the past years, powerhouse China is dominating anew this quadrennial meet with 164 gold medals while South Korea and Japan are far behind with 64 and 33, respectively.
We won two gold courtesy of Biboy Rivera in tenpin bowling and Dennis Orcollo in 9-ball singles billiards, both non-Olympic events. We are lucky these two disciplines are included in the Asiad because if not (like in the Olympic Games) we would still be zero.
Filipino sports connoisseurs say we have a big chance to win another gold medal, and that would be in boxing with our three amateur pugilists, the Saludar brothers Vic and Rey and Annie Albania, scheduled to clash with their respective foes on November 24. They’re already assured for bronze. I agree with them. I believe too that we can break our three gold medals harvest in the 2006 Qatar Asian Games. We placed 19th overall in that year with 17 medals including five silver and nine bronze.
Pundits also say we don’t have any chance to win the gold or even any medal in basketball. I go with that too.
Yes, we have been badly beaten again, including in my favorite sport, cycling. Our road racer Mapandan son-in-law Irish Valenzuela unfortunately suffered a crash at the elbow turn 800 meters away from the finish to place 19th. Hong Kong ace Won Kam Po, who was the winner in this event in 1998 and 2006, won again. Po was also the 1997 Marlboro Tour king.
Another rider from Pangasinan, 2005 and 2007 gold medalist Marites Bitbit, ran out of steam in the last hundred meters to finish 9th in the 100-km road event which Chinese Taipei Hsiao Mei Yu ruled. Santia Trikusuma of Indonesia settled for silver and China’s stalwart Zhao Na took the bronze.
Prior to the Asiad, our national sports leaders bragged and predicted that at least 10 gold medals will be earned by our PH delegation. Yes, like in the past, they ate their words again. And even if PH could surpass the three gold medals that we collected in the 2006 Asiad, it’s still a failure because we were outdone anew by smaller places like Hong Kong and Singapore, which so far gathered already eight and four gold medals, respectively. We have a population of 90 million and these two places are just as big as our capital, Metro Manila, and have a much smaller population.
I said it before and I will say it again: something is majorly wrong with our sports development programs. At ang Isang malaking dahilan dito ay ang awayan ng mga sports national leaders natin.
It’s really demoralizing. Amen.
* * * *
Congrats to Bonuan Gueset Kap Angel Gumarang for being elected as chairman of the prestigious Provincial Integrated Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council. Keep up with your new task and remain humble.
* * * *
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.” “For many will come in My name saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.” “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. “For false christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Matthew 24: 4-5, 11, 23-24.
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
