“There’s always first time in life”
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
“THERE’S always first time in life,” one of the world’s popular cliché, that happens to me time and again.
Last January 15 during the “First. Jesus Rivera Garcia, Sr. Lingayen Gulf Landing Memorial Race” an amateur bikefest, I sponsored for my first bikefest in San Fabian in honor of my beloved late father, a former U.S army soldier who landed at Lingayen Gulf during the Second World war led by the late Gen. Douglas MacArthur. I did it because I recalled what my father told me when I finally met him personally in Pharr, Texas on April 22, 1978. He said that unlike the other U.S. soldiers who landed in Dagupan and Lingayen, his company landed on the shore of San Fabian called ‘White Beach’ in Barrio Mabilao and Bolasi.
The bikefest was originally slated on January 9, the date of the Lingayen Gulf Landing in the capital town Lingayen but I decided to postpone it to January 15 due to time constraints and to avoid traffic congestions that I expected on the 9th that could result in road accidents among participants. (I realized January 9 was a Monday and it was the first school day of the week, meaning there would be plenty of vehicles going to-and-fro the national highways of Lingayen and adjacent towns that will be among the routes to be passed by the cyclists during the bikefest).
The short and simple cycling road race was run in two divisions, exclusively for 25 years and below and for 50 years and above. It started and wound up at the Bikers’ Den in Barangay Inmalog and all the 41 competitors traversed the Mabilao–Rabon national highway three times before finally climbing the 3.4 kilometers Lipit-Inmalog mountain barangay road.
It was a successful affair because there was no accidents, or so I thought. But “expect the unexpected,” as the axiom says. Some confusion among the top ten finishers at the finish line in the boys division arose but fortunately, the issue was amicably solved. Of course, cash prizes and medals were awarded. Aside from being the sponsor for the first time, I also directed the bikefest and it was my first time to encounter a confusion at the finish line after directing 245 races in my life since March 7, 1974. Yes, “nobody is perfect” as the maxim says and admittedly, I was not ‘perfect ‘on that memorable day.
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After that historic victory finish of Ginebra Gin Kings over the visiting Hongkong-based squad Bay Area Dragons in the just concluded PBA’s Commissioners Cup, numerous opinions and observations were posted on social media about that seventh and final collision of the Asia’s two giant professional basketball teams. I observed that the visiting quintet were not only outshot, outrebounded, outsmarted but their loose defense also played a major role in their disappointing performance while their opponent did their best in every way. The Gin Kings engineered a physically suffocating defense particularly on the Dragons’ two reliable playmakers Myles Powell and the Laotian-American Kobey Lam, including their seven-foot-five center Liu Chuanxing who was blocked three times under the goal by power-forward Justin Brownlee, a Filipino-naturalized hombre. The final game was attended by 54,589 spectators. It was another first in the history of professional Philippines cagefest.
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Meanwhile, to the delight of the Filipino and American fans of the Miss Universe 2022 beauty pageant held last January 15, it was Houston, Texas born Filipino-American R’Bonney Gabriel representing U.S.A., that won the globe’s prestigious beauty contest. The Fil-Am beauty’s father is a Manileño named Remegio Bonzon Gabriel and her mother Dana Walker is from Texas. Yes, another first time.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. DEUTERONOMY 28: 59
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