Hopes high for RP contingent

If sports is the rallying point in a country’s struggle for progress, the Philippines should go all out to make a dent at the 14th Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, on Sept. 29-Oct. 14.

No doubt, the Filipino contingent of 218 athletes is determined to figure prominently in the medal stakes. National pride is at stake. With victory comes the honor and glory of proudly wearing the country’s colors. There is no more defining moment in an athlete’s career than stepping onto the dais to receive the gold medal and singing the national anthem as the flag is raised to celebrate the triumph.

For the Philippines, hitting paydirt has been a difficult goal in the quadrennial showcase that is Asia’s version of the Olympics. Since the start of the Asian Games in New Delhi in 1951, the country has garnered only 53 gold medals. To illustrate the depth of Asia’s sports hierarchy, China bagged 129 golds at the last Asiad in Bangkok four years ago and th Philippines–toting a single gold from billiards–placed 21st of 43 nations.

Boxing has contributed the most first-place finishes for the Philippines in Asian Games history–12, including five in 1954 and three in 1994.

Athletics is next with 11. Others in the honor roll are swimming (10), shooting (6), bowling (5), basketball (4), tennis (3), golf (1), and billiards.

But since fighters Mansueto (Onyok) Velasco, Elias Recaido and Reynaldo Galido struck gold in Hiroshima in 1994, boxing has been a disappointment in the Asian and Southeast Asian Games. In Bangkok, only Eric Canoy brought back a medal–a bronze after losing to Tuyikonbav Turgunov in the featherweight semifinals.

The Philippines’ shiningest performance in the Asiad came in the second edition here in 1954. Filipinos captured 14 golds–their most ever–and basketball showed the way for the rousing showing. The cagers who breezed to the throne were Caloy Loyzaga, Tony Genato, Nap Flores, Bay Mumar, Eddie Lim, Francisco Rabat, Ning Ramos, Bayani Amador, Florentino Bautista, Jose Ma. Cacho, Paeng Hechanova, Mon Manulat, and Ponciano Salonga. Five fighters also trooped to the podium–flyweight Ernesto Sajo, bantamweight Alejandro Ortuoste, lightweight Celedonio Espinosa, lightwelterweight Ernesto Porto, and middleweight Vicente Tunacao. Swimmer Haydee Coloso-Espino claimed golds in the 100-meter freestyle and butterfly. She would later enter the record books as the most bemedalled national athlete in the Asian Games, collecting three golds, five silvers, and two bronzes in swimming in 1954, 1958, and 1962. Two other tankers who won golds in 1954 were 100-meter backstroker Jocelyn Von Giese and 200-meter butterflyer Parsons Nabuila. The other gold medallists were shooters Chito Feliciano, Martin Gison, Albert Von Einsiedel, and Hernando Castelo.

The black mark in the Philippines’ Asiad history came in Tehran in 1974 when not a single Filipino pocketed a gold. Ral Rosario, now the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association (PASA) secretary-general, was the country’s lone hero that dark year as he swam to a pair of silvers in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke.

Thrice, the Philippines was nearly blanked in the race for gold. At the 6th Asiad in Bangkok in 1970, only bantamweight boxer Ricardo Fortaleza earned a gold. Another fighter, bantamweight Roberto Jalnaiz, averted a shutout when he clinched a gold at the 11th Asian Games in Beijing in 1990.

And in Bangkok four years ago, Andy Valle and Romeo Villanueva beat the fancied Taiwanese duo of Chang Hao Ping and Lai Chia Hsiung in the finals of the 9-ball doubles billiards competitions.

Aside from the billiards gold in the last Asiad, the Philippines also produced five silvers (one from taekwondo and two each from golf and wushu) and 12 bronzes (two from swimming, three from taekwondo, two from wushu, and one each from basketball, boxing, cycling, women’s golf, and men’s bowling).