Resurgence of sports in RP

Title

Language

English

Subject

Sports -- Philippines

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

[This article presents the renaissance in Philippine sports industry. Progress on various sports activities and some of the country's achievements are highlighted.]

Fulltext

Spor’ts Decathlon champ Arthur Pons: one of the young new stars. Some say that the amount of time people spend for sports and recreation indicates, to some degree, the extent of their nation’s development. Others say people spend a great deal of time in sports activities for no other reason than to master Nature, and mountain climbing may well be proof. Still others say they master sports to test the limits of their capacities; in short, to master themselves. Whatever the reason and whatever the season, there is today a resurgence of sports in the Philippines. And, as in other fields of activity in the country these days, there are the common qualities — enthusiasm and a striving for excellence. ' At the Rodriguez Sports Center in Marikina, softball’s Blu Girls have been training a rigorous three hours a day, leaving Sundays out, for each department of the game — batting, fielding, base-running, pitching and catching. In past seasons, they per formed well enough to be invited early this year to New Zealand and Australia for a 25-game series. When they returned, they had won 21 of their 25 games. Their current training is for the world women’s softball cham pionship in Stratford, Connecticut, U.S.A, in 1974. The Philippine Foot ball Association, under Governor Isid ro S. Rodriguez, has only grand praise: “The team we have now is much better than the 1970 squad which finished third in the second world meet in Osaka, behind Japan and the United States.” Sports enthusiasm and excellence have caught on. Volleyball buffs have been seen all over private courts, campuses, town plazas, barrio ricefields and AFP grounds. First, practically the whole of Luzon answered the Rizal Me morial’s call to the national inter secondary boys and girls champion ship series. Second, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Burma, Taiwan and Indone sia accepted the country’s invitation to the Asian invitational tournament in Manila in August. Third, the Philip pine team has an invitation to the international women’s volleyball tour nament in Djakarta, Indonesia. And fourth, the team is girding for the 7th Asian Games in Teheran, Iran and the Asian volleyball championships come 1974. Judo has beefed up its roster of judokas. The first months of 1973 saw twenty-eight judokas elevated to First Dan, Third Class Brown and Second A PROUD TRADITION Resurgence of sports in RP Class Green. For the beginners, throwing and grappling techniques have been demonstrated in seminars on this “gentle art.” Car races — go-kart plus, junior and senior divisions, professional and ama teur category — have screeched past screaming fans and nervous wives in Ortigas Avenue, Commonwealth Ave nue and Rizal Park. The country’s racing luminaries have scared not a few Macao racers and brought home trophies plus. Philippine sluggers held the 1973 ABAP Metropolitan amateur boxing series early 1973 in Tarlac. Knock outs were the Philippine Army boxers in Class-A and the Philippine Navy in Class-C. Meanwhile, the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) moved to discipline the boxing ranks with a crack-down on inactive fighters even as it encouraged out-of-the-country bouts. Wrestling has reached the drug RP-Australia game during Asian baseball championship. Host team won, 8-3 dependents of the NBI Rehabilitation Center. The country’s wrestlers back from the free-style and Greco-Roman events of the wrestling Olympics in Ulan Bator, Mongolia brought home more than tempered skills; they brought home the good will of the people they met, including those they wrestled with. The resurgence of sports should be no surprise. Philippine sports history has, after all, been a proud one. There were the Far Eastern Games of 1913 to 1934 with a total of 10 tournaments. Of these 10, the Philip pines won — in track and field, 6 championships, 5 of them in steady succession; in swimming, 4 champion ships; in tennis, 3 championships; in volleyball, 5 championships; in foot ball, 1 championship; in baseball, 6 championships; and in basketball, 9 championships or a record 1-miss. The country has been in the thick of international sports since the 1924 World Olympics in Paris to the 1972 Munich games and has no plans of thinning its participation out. The first Philippine champions, Simeon Toribio, won the high jump event with a 1928 4th place and a 1932 3rd place, and, Teofilo Yldefonso, won 200-m breakstroke with 3rd places for both 1928 and 1932. The latest Philippine product of Olympic caliber was Anthony Villanueva in the fea therweight boxing division with a 1964 2nd place in the Tokyo-based World Olympics. The Philippine record in the Asian Games is even more impressive. The 1st Asian Games held in New Delhi, India in 1951 saw 31 Filipino athletes bringing home 5 gold, 6 silver and 8 bronze medals out of 4 sports events. The 2nd Asian Games, 174 Filipinos with 14 gold, 14 silver and 16 bronze medals out of 8 sports. The 3rd Asian Games, 148 athletes sporting 48 medals bagged from 12 sports. The 4th and 5th Asian Games, a total 310 athletes bannered 80 medals out of 25 sports. And the 6th Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand in 1970 saw 76 Filipino athletes bringing home 1 gold, 9 silver and 12 bronze medals out of 8 sports. The sporting tradition has been respected in the main because organ ized expertise has been duly concern ed. The Philippine Amateur Athletic Association was authorized by R.A. 3262, later revised to become R.A. 3135, to develop the country’s sports. The PAAF has 19 member associa tions, which have launched various sports development programs. There was, first, the recognition of the need for young recruits. They advised closer association with the Department of Education and Culture in whose helm was gathered thousands of athletic potentials. Thus, a Joint Declaration between the PAAF and the Department came to be. With this hopefully, “physical education and fitness (and the) establishment of sports centers, public playgrounds and recreational facilities” may be en couraged. In the provincial level, a major project of the PAAF men was the multi-event Cebu sportsfest stretching over five-weekends. At the Cebu Abellana Oval — track and field, judo, softball, volleyball, cycling, football, archery and weightlifting; at the Cebu fire department, table tennis; at the Physicians Club, chess; at the Cebu Coliseum, boxing; at the Aznar Coliseum, basketball; and still other gyms and other sports. In the national scene, the biggest projects of this group of sports buffs were the 1st and 2nd Palarong Pilipino. The Palaro is the country’s local Olympics running for nine days. The 1972 Palaro drew eight Philip pine records. The 1973 Palaro, while setting only six records and equalling one, proved the games’ success with the strong entry of young and “new” athletes and a commercial break through in ticket sales and operational expenses. The series was a sports fiesta, with AFP spikers ramming through the coliseum’s net while 14-year-old Nan cy Deano broke her own Philippine record in the 100 meter breast stroke. Gabriel Navarro’s total lift of 240 kilograms bested the old Palaro mark by 26.5 kilograms while 20 to 40 boxers, four of them Munich Olympians, traded muscled punches. The greenhorn Arthur Pons ended the 12-year monopoly of Noriel Roa in decathlon. Outside the PAAF group, there is the Sports Development Foundation (SPODEPHIL) which is also active ly promoting sports. SPODEPHIL boasts of a near-Pl million fund accumulation, the forma tion of a Philippine Youth football team, the revival of sipa and the attention to research with a Princeton Poll survey of the Filipino’s attitude to sports as a first project. The country’s sports program has not been without problems. The PAAF, for one, has its traumas. Its present charter (R.A. 3135) decentralized its powers, giving powers of supervision and control to the PAAF president but then again giving autonomy to the 19 National Sports Associations. PAAF President Am brosio Padilla says, “There are times when my authority is questioned by some national sports associations which claim their autonomy is im paired.” Apart from structure, the PAAF’s handicaps extend to monetary limita tions. The grouo receives Pl million, more or less, In the main, however, Philippine sports has not allowed organizational and financial problems to deter its movement. Philippine baseball saw action in the 10th Baseball Federation of Asia held April, 1973. While the group landed in 4th position behind Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in that order, Japan’s Isao Odachi said, “Years ago, the Filipinos were teach ing the Asians, including the Japanese, good, solid baseball. They were the kingpins in the Far Eastern Games and many years thereafter . . . There’s no thing- the matter with (today’s) Philippine baseball that a return to the fundamentals won’t cure.” This “return to the fundamentals” may yet give the Philippine league sounder placement in the 11th Asian Baseball Tournament in Tokyo in August, 1975. Cycling, after a three-summer res pite, has come back strong. Next year’s Tour of Luzon, the 15th, pro mises to be even more ambitious, circuiting Lucena, Pangasinan, Baguio and on to Leyte. Track and field stars, come Nov ember of this year, will compete for 120 medals alongside 15 Asian coun tries’ finest track stars in the 1st Asian track and field championship in Manila. After some faltering steps, Philip pine sports has come back, by all indications, for good. THE REPUBLIC 16June«1973 Page 5

pages

5

Media