Pinoy Bridge Players bring home SEAG golds
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 01 Dec 2011
?It was a wonderful feeling.?
This was how Southeast Asian Games gold medalists Francisco Alquiros described his feeling having represented the country for the first time in the last 26th edition of the biennial sporting conclave held in Indonesia.
A feeling, he said, his teammates in the national bridge squad shared.
?Napakasarap talaga (It was really nice). Especially when we were given the official Philippine team jacket. Proud na proud talaga kami,? exclaimed the 54-year-old industrial management engineering graduate of La Salle, who emerged one of only two Filipino athletes to have brought home a pair of gold medals.
Alquiros, father of three children who manages a farm in hometown Mauban in Quezon teamed up with George Soo in ruling the doubles event of men?s butler as well as the mixed doubles with Gemma Mariano Tan.
?Malalaki ang jacket na naibigay saa amin, puro extra large. Siguro yun na lang ang naiwan matapos ipamigay sa ibang member ng delegation (The jackets given us were all extra large maybe because they were leftovers of those given to other athletes),? Alquiros smiling. ?But that was enough for us to really play the best we could even if that was the first time that bridge was included in the Games calendar.?
Alquiros, actually is the national contingent?s winningest campaigner having won, too, a silver medal in the mixed event in a team up with Soo, Allen Tan, Victoria Egan, Mylene Encontro and Gemma Mariano Tan.
That was better than co-double-gold winner Iris Ranola, gold medalist in women?s 8-ball and 9-ball singles in billiards
?I beat Iris for the winningest honor kasi gold medal lang siya, ako dalawa at may silver pa, di ba? ? he said with eyes sparkling. ??That?s why we, in the bridge team, are saying, our performance could be the best among the 500 plus athletes despite being first timers and in spite of the fact that no one believed we can win medals. They didn?t even want to include me in the delegation.?
Turning serious, Alquiros noted that like chess, which happened to be his first love, bridge is one sport where the Filipinos can be at par, if not better than the best in the world.
?Bridge is a mind game like chess. And we know that we are excelling in chess in the international arena. Matatalino tayo eh. Ganun din sa bridge, kung matutulungan lamang in one to four more years, puede tayong maka-produce ng world champion, ?he observed.
?With our victory, hopefully our sports leaders will start noticing us and our sport, which has been knocking at the POC (Philippine Olympic Committee) door forf quiet sometime until this year,? he remarked.
Incidentrally, the Philippine Table Bridge Association has yet to produce a single medal in the world championships were several Philippine women?s teams have qualified in the past.
Alquiros, who inspired by La Salle Brothers moved to bridge from chess, and five other players ? Encontro, Nene Quimson, Joe Han and husband and wife Phil and Sonia Manalang left last Sunday for the United States to carry the country?s colors in the U..S. National Open set in Seattle, Washington.
The 13-player Philippine team ended up second overall in bridge in the SEA Games behind eventual overall champion Indonesia, considered as world-class in the sport. The Filipinos had a 2-gold, 2-silver and 1 bronze medal harvest behind the host country?s 4-gold haul of nine at stake.
The Filipinos? other silver medal winning came in the mixed buttler team courtesy of Soo and Mylene Encontro and the bronze in the women?s team of Encontro, Gemma Mariano Tan, Sylvia Alejandro, Victoria Egan, Mary Ann Cristy de Guzman and Rosemary Unson.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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