GUANGZHOU—The memory flashed in Charlea Lagaras’ mind like a nightmare that couldn’t be chased off. Here was the Philippine dancesport team, fresh from getting swept by overwhelming competition, on the verge of yet another painful shutout.
“Never again,” she told herself.
A day later, she found redemption.
With a steely resolve, Lagaras and perennial partner Ronnie Vergara won a couple of dancesport bronzes for the Philippines in the 16th Asian Games Sunday, dancing their way to a victory of sorts in two Latin events —cha-cha-cha and paso doble—where even spectators felt they could easily have finished second.
China again swept the gold medals on the final day of dance competitions, but the Philippines broke a China-Korea-Japan stranglehold of the event and allowed Lagaras a chance to redeem the PH team from a previous shutout.
“When I was in the bus after (Saturday’s) loss, I remembered this happened before to us already,” she said. “We got swept in the first day of competitions and then in the second day, our morale was low and so we lost all our events again.”
That event took place in the Asia Pacific championships in Korea last September. This time, there was no repeat.
“We just wanted to enjoy our dance and do our best,” said partner Vergara. “We didn’t want to put pressure on ourselves too much because we felt that the judging was a bit off, so we did not want to have too many expectations.”
Several other participants in the Zengcheng City gymnasium also applauded the Filipino effort with some, according to acting coach Emma Nieto, telling them that they were good for the silver medal.
“We are so happy, especially with the praise we got from other people after the event,” said Nieto, who with Gloria
Alcala assumed coaching duties after original mentor Victor Bienavides of Spain failed to get accreditation.
The hosts ended up winning all 10 gold medals at stake in the weekend competitions, hiking its total gold count to 34 at press time.
But it hardly mattered to the dancesport team that validated its status as a dark horse as far as medal contribution to the Philippine delegation was concerned.
“Everybody was just screaming and even if I felt that we should have won the silver, we were still happy,” said Nieto.
“There are no words I can say right now but I’m just really, really happy,” Lagaras said.
Lagaras and Vergara, who are actually real-life sweethearts—an advantage in a sport where adjudicators take into consideration the “romance” in the movement between couples, finished second in the recent Asian championships in the Latin five dances.
MOST READ
LATEST STORIES