Sports Eye
More down than up for PH sports in 2013
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
FEW days to go before the year 2014. Hopefully with the Almighty God’s guidance and blessings, the coming year will be prosperous for all of us, unlike 2013 when our troubled nation suffered from a series of calamities, i.e., the collision of two cruisers in Cebu City, the Sabah stand-off, Zamboanga City siege, Bohol-Cebu earthquake, the pork barrel scam issue and most recently, from the super typhoon Yolanda that killed almost 8,000. The only arena where our country achieved world superiority and fame that tranquilized the sadness of our country mates was in international beauty pageants where our national beauties bagged at least four honors, a feat that other nations have been unable to accomplish. We had Miss World Megan Young, Miss International Bea Santiago, Miss Supranational Mutya Datul and Miss Universe third runner-up (fourth place) Ariel Arida. Arriba for that unequalled accomplishment.
In sports, we have been down more than up in 2013. Our Philippine national delegation to the just concluded Myanmar Southeast Asia Games, landed only seventh overall in gold medal harvest (29), our worst since we started to participate (1977) in this biennial meet after wresting the overall championship in 2005. I am wondering why a country with 98 million inhabitants could only land seventh and beaten in many events by tiny city-state Singapore. Something is really hugely wrong in our sports development. If you ask me, we should hire a true professional in world sports to address our real problems for too long. We should stop being pretentious by having some guys masquerading as genius trainers or coaches, earning a thousand bucks as stipend, with no real knowledge bout their tasks. Our officials in national sports associations (NSAs) should repudiate the “who you know and what you have” (palakasan) system that continues to plague our nation’s sports growth. If we don’t, cellar countries like Cambodia and Laos will soon beat us too and we’ll be relegated to eight or ninth overall out of eleven countries. When that happens, that would be our ultimate embarrassment. Sana naman hindi mangyayari. The failure of the athletes, coaches and trainers can only be attributed to our sports leaders. “Command responsibility” ‘ika nga.
Year 2013 was also a disappointment for our international professional boxers with Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire Jr. heading the cast by losing his WBO super bantamweight belt to Cuban two-time gold medallist Guillermo Rigondeaux last April. Donaire, considered by Filipino boxing experts as the next Manny Pacquiao managed to redeem his world image seven months later by knocking out former arch rival Vic Darchinyan in a non-title featherweight bout. But the first to fall was Brian “The Hawaian Punch” Viloria who lost his WBO flyweight crown to Juan Francisco Estrada of Mexico by a split decision last April. On the upside, WBO light flyweight champ Donnie Nietes escaped with a majority draw verdict over former WBO minimum-weight titleholder Moises Fuentes last March in Cebu City to retain his crown. He also knocked out in three rounds Sammy Gutierrez of Mexico held last month at Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. In the same venue and date, WBO minimum weight titlist Merlito Sabillo defended his crown by scoring a split draw against Nicaraguan Carlos Buitrago and International Boxing Federation (IBF) light flyweight king Johnriel Casimero successfully defended his title by demolishing Mexican brawler Felipe Saguero in Makati City last December 13 while International boxing Organization (IBO) super flyweight champion Dapudong (I forgot his first name) seized the crown from champion Gideon Buthelezi of South Africa via first round knockout last June. And the last and the biggest good news among our Filipino boxers was when our boxing icon Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao scored a convincing victory over Mexican Brandon Rios last month.
Yes, many Filipino pro boxers tried to attempt a world crown this year but failed to win. The cast included the well-known Milan Melindo, Denver Cuello, Malcolm Tunacao, Silvester Lopez, Ana Julaton, and little-known Renan Trongco, John Mark Apolinario, Virgilio Silvano, Gretchen Abaniel, among others when they all fought abroad. But the new generation fighters like the Penalosa brothers Dave and Dodie, Jr., Jason Pagara, Arthur Villanueva, Genesis Servana and the two grandsons of former world junior champion Grabriel “Flash” Elorde, brothers Juan Miguel and Juan Martin, won all their bouts in 2013. I have a strong feeling that the latter group will soon become by-word names in world boxing with great potential win world crowns. Hopefully I’m not wrong.
In basketball, after 36 years in world caging, our Gilas Pilipinas finally placed second in the FIBA Asia which we hosted and our runner-up win means a trip to the 2014 World FIBA Cup to be held in Spain. In chess, Cavite-born Wesley So posted five triumphs in 2013 significantly notching the gold medal in this year’s Universiade Games and now carries a norm of 2719, the highest ever by a Filipino. He’s now ranked 30 in the world rating and dreams to be in the top 15 in 2014. In billards, it’s off-and-on for our cue masters led by former number one pool player Dennis Orcollo. That’s all folks for the year that I know to be important in sports.
A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. LUKE 2: 10-11
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