Sports Eye
Cycling, chess and basketball
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
AFTER my brief meeting with Palarong Media overall chairman Andy Estrada last January 21 about the format of the table tennis event that I have to handle on February 11, I quickly motored to San Fabian to catch the start of the 3rd San Fabian Mountain Bike Challenge organized by Arnold Aquino, son of my former RCPI office mate Federico Aquino.
The bikefest, divided into six categories, had more than 180 contestants showing up. Contingents from Baguio City, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Tarlac, Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela, Manila and as far as the Bicol region came to strut their mettle against Pangasinan boys. As expected, three of the six events were won by our local bets spearheaded by former PHL national cyclist Reynaldo Navarro of San Jacinto who won the open-elite category. Laoac’s promising rider Mark Bordeos, 16, topped the 17-and-below division and Pitaki Boyz member Joshua Carino, 18, of Mangaldan conquered the 18 to 36 year-old class. The 33-kilometer on-off-on road event, flagged by the host town’s Mayor Irene Libunao, had all the contestants traveling the mountainous and rugged terrains of barangays Palapad, Lipit, Inmalog, Pedped Marzo and Bigbiga, and finished at Caballero Street near the municipal hall.
On the same day I also watched the town’s chess tourney conducted at the San Fabian Sports and Civic Center briefly that had the 3rd District Board Member Mojamito Libunao, husband of hizzoner Irene, as the guest of honor and speaker. The wood-pushing tourney dubbed as the “First U.S. National Master Solomon Bautista Memorial Cup Open Chess Tournament” was in honor of their chess hero Bautista who died in an accident on November 2, 2010. The San Fabian chess genius was walking by the shoulder of the national highway in Barangay Tempra in that town when a wayward truck (maybe the driver was drunk) suddenly sideswiped him, causing his untimely demise.
The two sporting events were in conjunction with the celebration of the San Fabian town fiesta. The Libunao couple promised to hold these two sporting events annually plus other sports competitions like boxing.
Keep up the good work, señora y señor. San Fabian townspeople, especially the sports-minded, will really support you, particularly when the 2013 poll comes.
After those two hectic events, I decided to watch some games of the Mangaldan SK Inter-Barangay Basketball Tournament. I wanted to see how the tournament was proceeding under the watch of with my daughter Raisa being the tournament’s technical director and also to watch the game of my barangay (Buenlag). It was remarkable is how the spectators that packed the Macario Ydia Development Center, cheered and, yes, jeering some of the players and the official timer due to their big blunders. Luckily my barangay, coached by my son Jazy and my cousin Alex Aquino, with the full support of our barangay and SK councils led by our Kap Melchor D. de Guzman, has so far registered three victories and no defeat, on the way to the quarterfinals with four more clashes left.
Invited by some officials of the Pangasinan Merchant Marine Academy (PAMMA) to the opening of the school’s intramural meet on January 24, I watched two of their six basketball scrimmages that saw the HRM Club, nipping All Star, 56-54 and Marine Transpo trouncing Marine Engineering 3rd Year, 63-58. According to Rey Ata, assistant coach of the PAMMA quintet, other scores were: Sea Warriors 53, BSMT 2nd Year 41; SRC 55, ROTC 38; BSME 1st Year 58, Automotive 37; BSMT 1st Year 49, BS Criminology 45. The tourney, dubbed this year as PAMMALYMPICS Guillermo B. dela Cruz, Jr. Cup, had Dagupan City’s Veem Belen Fernandez delivering an inspirational message as their guest of honor and speaker.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. GALATIANS 6: 7-8
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