Champions all

It’s been a good couple of weeks for Philippine sports.

First, Ronnie Alcano survived the barrage of Pinoy cue masters getting elimated, and came out on top of the heap, now about P7 million richer, a Champion for Life medal around his neck, and the adulation of an idol-hungry populace. Truth is, there’s more where Ronnie Alcano comes from; aside from Bata and Django and the well-known pool champions, there are many other cue talents whose names are not–at least not yet–household names but are known and respected in pool circles worldwide. They even hold "special skills" visas when they travel abroad for competition.

Drawing far less attention were the victories of two Fil-Am tennis players who participated in the recent back-to-back Holcim-ITF tournaments. Arranging our interviews with Czarina Mae Arevalo and Denise Dy (please see page 4), who will represent the country in Doha next month, I took in a few of the games and watched Stacey Tan beat her Thai opponent, who had earlier bested Czarina Mae. Maureen Diaz claimed the championship at about the same time Roger Federer claimed his Masters Cup in Shanghai, and I got the news about both via text message from my friend Jocelyn, who celebrated both victories with capital letters and exclamation points in her texts.

Grabbing lunch a couple of hours later, Robinsons Galleria was one big cheering squad as Manny Pacquiao took the Grand Finale in the third round, a beaten Erik Morales wisely–to me, at least–refusing to get up for more beating. Despite a fever and a sore throat, Pacquiao demonstrated fine form indeed, although the countless replays on television were almost torture to watch, with commercials taking up much more airtime than the very short fight.

Finally, golfer Juvic Pagunsan took Rookie of the Year honors on the Asian Tour with a runner-up finish at the UBS Open in Hong Kong, pocketing a cool $222,220 as prize. Perhaps more importantly, he also earned a coveted slot in the Sony Open of the US PGA tour in Hawaii in January, after he competes in the final leg of the Asian Tour in Bangkok next month.

With a whole lot of heart but with little support from sponsors or government–at least until they make it big, and then everybody swarms around–our athletes strive on their own to excel in their sport, training long and hard, often on their own, just to be the best they can be, and give us reason to be proud.