INQUIRER Sports

PHILIPPINE sports, despite the seemingly endless squabbles among its leaders, ended the year with a flourish, thanks to the exploits of ring icon Manny Pacquiao and those of the national athletes, who achieved their modest target in the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos.

Pacquiao stopped the bigger Miguel Cotto via a 12th-round technical knockout to become the first fighter to collect world crowns in seven weight classes on a cold November night at the MGM Grand?s Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The methodical beating wrought on the former two-division world titlist from Puerto Rico prompted Pacquiao?s Hall-of-Fame promoter Bob Arum to label the Filipino as the ?greatest fighter of the era.?

?I know I get carried away a lot,? Arum said. ?But Manny Pacquiao is the best fighter I?ve ever seen, and that includes (Muhammad) Ali, Sugar Ray (Leonard) and (Marvin) Hagler.?

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao?s American trainer agreed: ?He?s the greatest fighter of his era, for sure. 100 percent.?

Using his dizzying hand speed, Pacquiao showed he could handle the best shot of the heftier Cotto, knocking him down in the third and fourth rounds to highlight a dazzling performance in the bout set at a catch weight of 145 pounds.

Celebrations of Pacquiao?s victory, however, was tempered by the disaster that befell bantamweight Z Gorres, who suffered a serious head injury following his victory over Juan Melendez of Colombia in a fight card in Las Vegas earlier.

Gorres is still in the United States recovering from the surgery done to reduce swelling on his brain after he collapsed seconds after he was declared the winner.

With the row between the Philippine Sports Commission and Philippine Olympic Committee intensifying in the runup to the SEA Games, little was expected from the delegation to Laos.

Nothing illustrated the rift better than when Team Philippines touched down in Vientiane, Laos, in two chartered flights, minutes apart.

When the dust of battle settled, though, the 251 Filipino athletes in 22 sports harvested 38 gold, 35 silver and 50 bronze medals to land fifth overall, one rank higher than the country?s worst ever placing two years ago in Thailand.

Emerging as the top Filipino athletes in the Games were long jump queen Marestella Torres and hammer thrower Arniel Ferrera, swimmer Miguel Molina, women?s billiards queen Rubilen Amit, Chihiro Ikeda of the women?s golf team and ageless Fil-Am netter Cecil Mamiit.

Also basking in the limelight were evergreen judoka John Baylon, shooter Nathaniel ?Tac? Padilla, archer Jennifer Chan and the five boxing winners led by Annie Albania and Charly Suarez.

Taekwondo contributed four golds with Olympians Mary Antoinette Rivero and Tshomlee Go ruling their events, while wrestling notched three titles, through brothers Margarito and Jimmy Angana and Jason Balabal.

Double gold medalist Amit and Ronnie Alcano averted disaster in billiards, following the stunning first-round exit of world doubles champs Efren ?Bata? Reyes and Francisco ?Django? Bustamante.

But politics still reared its ugly head in the Games? cycling competition, where Maritess Bitbit was pulled out of the competition by the POC officials in the name of ?solidarity? with her teammates.

Bitbit, the defending women?s road race champion and a solid medal contender in two other events, had a license to race from the international cycling federation (UCI) unlike the rest of the cylists, who belonged to a group backed by the POC but not recognized by the UCI.

Men?s billiards actually had a big year. Reyes and Bustamante won the World Cup of Pool for a second time in September and Lee Van Corteza settled for second to Mika Immonen in the World 10-Ball Championship in December.

Also in September, Mamiit and fellow Filipino-American, Treat Conrad Huey, who were the nucleus of the gold medal-winning RP squad at the SEA Games, led the country back to Group 1 in the Davis Cup after a 4-1 win over New Zealand.

In a year when he became the country?s highest-rated Grandmaster, Wesley So had an awe-inspiring performance in the 2009 World Chess Cup in Russia where he stunned the likes of super GMs Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Gata Kamsky of the United States.

Another thrilling collegiate basketball season ended with Ateneo ruling the UAAP for back-to-back titles and San Sebastian ending San Beda?s three-year reign with a sweep in the NCAA finals. The Eagles validated their status as the top college team by ruling the Champions League early this month.

College basketball, however, remained dogged by rumors of game-fixing.

Though team officials did not admit it, speculations were rife that ace guard Mark Barroca was sacked by Far Eastern U for alleged game-fixing. Barroca, a member of the Smart Gilas national team pool, denied any wrongdoing. In October, the Presidential Organized Crime Commission initiated an investigation zeroing in on game-fixing.

San Miguel Beer ruled the import-flavored PBA Fiesta Conference in July, nipping sister team Ginebra in seven games for its 18th title in franchise history.

Basketball in the Southeast Asian region also turned a new page with the launch of the Asean Basketball League where the country is represented by the Philippine Patriots.

University of Santo Tomas swept the Shakey?s V-League season, punctuating the sweep with a dominant showing in the second conference early this month with a victory over Adamson.