MANILA, Philippines—For sheer magnitude, impact and cash involved, Manny Pacquiao’s exploits were unmatched in 2008.
But so many times in the fading year, local sports was more than just the billionaire boxing hero.
From the fairways of South Africa, to chess venues in Dubai and a boxing arena in Moscow, heroes abound.
The failure to break out of an Olympic funk in Beijing cast a pall of gloom on the national sporting landscape and showed Filipino athletes that the level of competition is moving up rapidly.
Still, there was an abundant source of pride and joy for the Filipino sports fan. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reviews some of the biggest victories fashioned out by our athletes in this capsulized report.
GOLF
Dorothy Delasin and Jennifer Rosales kicked off the year with a come-from-behind victory for the Philippines in the Women’s World Cup at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, South Africa.
The country won another world title in June, this time in the amateur front as Dottie Ardina claimed a third crown in the Callaway Junior World Golf Championship, winning in a sudden-death playoff for the girls’ 13-14 crown at the Oak Glen course in San Diego.
The ICTSI-backed amateur golfers made waves in the United States with Cyna Rodriguez winning the PNGA Women’s Amateur and Mia Piccio scoring a record-breaking victory in the Amateur Junior Golf Preseason Tournament and the Burgett H. Mooney Jr. Classic.
Mia Legaspi ruled the 9-under division of the US Kids World Championship at the Longleaf Golf Club in North Carolina and Tonton Asistio emerged triumphant in the Bay Regional Championship in Berkeley, California.
Angelo Que claimed the Philippine Open title and also earned a slot in the British Open. Artemio Murakami also made his first appearance in a golf major at The Masters in Augusta.
In the Mercedes Asean Tour, Cassius Casas returned to the limelight by ruling the B-ing championship in Chonburi, Thailand, in September.
BILLIARDS
A resurgent Dennis Orcollo shot his way to three major crowns in 2008. He overcame a field of 200 players from around the world to top the 2008 Japan 9-Ball Open in Tokyo, then beat Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, 13-5, in a battle between the world’s top two players for the Qatar International Open 9-Ball title.
Orcollo also topped the penultimate leg of the Guinness 9-Ball Tour in Guangzhou, China. Francisco “Django” Bustamante bagged the title in the second leg of the International Pool Tour 8-ball challenge by beating Corey Duel, 15-8, in January.
Alex Pagulayan rallied to beat Mika Immonen, 8-6, to win the Party Poker.net World Pool Masters at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Unheralded Demosthenes Pulpul also burst into the world scene with a fourth-place finish in the World Ten Ball Championship in Manila in October.
Marlon Manalo won the IPT 8-ball challenge, RP vs. US in Los Angeles.
On the local front, Antonio Gabica beat Manalo, 13-8, for the Mandaluyong Mayor’s Cup title that went with the $30,000 champion’s purse.
CHESS
Chess welcomed two new grandmasters in Jayson Gonzalez and John Paul Gomez, but teenage wonder Wesley So remained as the country’s most consistent performer.
Gonzalez became the country’s ninth GM in January, earning the last of the required three GM norms in the Asean Masters Chess Circuit in Tarakan, Indonesia. He got his first two GM norms in Spain four years ago and in the Asian Zonal eliminations in Kuala Lumpur in 2005.
The 15-year-old So sustained his impressive form, topping the 10th Dubai Open Chess Championships in April via tiebreak and prevailed in the battle of the Filipino GMs in May. So wasn’t finished, though, as he added the individual gold medal in board one of the World Under-16 Chess Olympiad in Turkey.
Summoning the form that made him one of Asia’s most prominent players, GM Eugene Torre, left out of the RP Team to the Chess Olympiad for his failure to join the qualifying tournament, edged Chinese GM Li Chao and Singaporean GM Zhang Zhong for the 3rd PGMA international championship. Torre was later named non-playing captain of the Olympiad squad in Dresden which finished a disappointing 46th overall.
The bright spot in the Olympiad campaign turned out to be Gomez, who achieved his GM norm after scoring six points, on four wins and four draws.
BOXING
While Pacquiao remained as the face of professional boxing for the Philippines, Harry Tañamor typified the roller-coaster year in the amateur front.
Tañamor won the AIBA President’s Cup in Taiwan, raising hopes of a medal performance in the Beijing Games. But the Army sergeant from Zamboanga City turned out to be a flop, bowing out of the Olympics in the first round.
Tañamor did not end 2008 with a bruised ego, though, as he redeemed himself with a gold medal in the World Amateur Boxing World Cup in Moscow.
The country’s three other world champions, Nonito Donaire, Gerry Peñalosa and Donnie Nietes made successful defenses of their titles.
Donaire retained his International Boxing Federation flyweight title with a sixth-round TKO of Moruti Mthalane of South Africa; Peñalosa also knocked out Ratanachai Sor Vorapin of Thailand to keep his World Boxing Oraganization bantam crown in April; and Nietes scored a second-round stoppage over Eddy Castro of Nicaragua in their WBO minimumweight title fight in August.
WUSHU
The country continued to be a force in wushu as Willy Wang surpassed himself and bagged the gold in the men’s nanquan and nangun combined at the Wushu Tournament Beijing 2008, a special side event held simultaneously with the Olympics.
Mary Jane Estimar bucked an injury on her way to a fighting silver medal finish in the women’s sanshou 52kg while Benjie Rivera and Marian Mariano won bronze medals in the men and women’s 56kg. sanshou, respectively.
Steven Luis Ngo capped the swashbuckling year for the sport with a gold in the spear event of the World Junior Wushu Championship in Bali, Indonesia.
Henson See and Francesca Bernasconi also bagged silver medals in the broadsword competition.
