WHO WILL SAVE OUR ASIAN GAMES CAMPAIGN?
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 30 Sep 2014
Who can the Philippine contingent turn to avoid going home empty-handed in the ongoing 17th Asian Games in the coastal city of Incheon in South Korea?
Going into the last four days of competition, the 150-athlete delegation has yet to come up with at least one single gold medal harvest with only medal-rich athletics, boxing, taekwondo, rugby, softball, BMX cycling, karatedo and wrestling still being contested of the 26 the Filipino athletes are seeing action.
Should no Filipino steps up at the top of the victory podium until Saturday?s closing rites on Saturday, this year?s contingent will face the ignominy of suffering the fate experienced by another delegation the country sent 40 years ago in Tehran, where the national delegation could only bring home a pair of silver medals during the seventh staging of the quadrennial conclave.
Despite running out of time, Philippine Sports Commission chair and chef de mission Ritchie Garcia remains undaunted and he has reasons to sound optimistic.
Boxer Charly Suarez has already assured himself of a bronze medal and needs two more victories to translate that software into gold in the lightweight category of the martial arts event.
Middleweight Wilfredo Lopez is short of only one win to claim his bronze, which if successful and like Suarez can add another gold in the team?s collection.
Taekwondo, a sport the Philippines has a rich triumphant tradition in international arena but has yet to win a gold medal in the Asiad, but, if Garcia is to be believed, can end that draught in this 17th edition of the Games and so are the Filipino campaigners in BMX cycling, karatedo and wrestling.
In 1974 in Tehran, the Filipino athletes went home with their heads bowed in shame with only a pair of silver medals wrapped in the neck of swimmer Ral Rosario, who finished second in his favorite events 100-meter and 200- meter backstroke.
Eleven of Rosario?s teammates though managed 11 bronze medals.
Also that year, the last of an all-amateur squad the country dispatched to regain the gold medal in basketball, ended up fourth, losing to emerging force China in the battle for the bronze medal.
Led by Robert Jaworski and Ramon Fernandez then of Toyota and Atoy Co and Philip Cezar of arch-rival Crispa, the Filipinos though downed the Chinese in the elimination round to barge into the Final Four.
The Philippines, actually, was headed to return home with big flat eggs on their heads on three separate occasions, but thanks to the boxers and cue artists, such an embarrassment didn?t happen.
The first was in 1970 in Bangkok where bantamweight Ricardo Fortaleza prevented a shutout by ruling the 118-pound division in boxing. Twenty years later in Beijing, the Philippines was, for days struggled to manage a gold medal to no avail until another fighter, Roberto Jalnaiz, also a bantamweight, pummeled his finals opponent at will to save the day for the embattled national delegation. Adding glory to Jalnaiz?s gold medal heroics was the silver medal won by the national basketball team, coached by, who else, but local basketball?s living legend Jaworski.
Then, eight years later in 1998, again in Bangkok, the Filipinos looked destined for a no-gold medal campaign, when suddenly, the unheralded tandem Romeo Villanueva and Gandy Valle broke the jinx by wining the men?s 9-ball doubles event.
Photo: The Philippine boxing contingent remains the best hope to bring gold in the current Incheon games.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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