Heartbreakers
14 Philippine Sports Tragedies
by rick olivares

You think your girl wrenched your heart when she dumped you for some other guy? Reality check, bud. It’s not the end of the world. But when the heartbreak is repeatedly inflicted upon the entire country – and for quite a spell now – that is something that grafts itself unto the national psyche and pisses us all off.

It’s like we’re the underdog of the underdogs.

Heartbreak is defined as “an emotion of great sadness caused by a physical loss of a loved one, something of great value, or an event related to disaster or sports competition.”

For this February, we are sharing with you 14 heartbreaking sports stories that we should remember like the Battle of Tirad Pass, Bataan and Corregidor, or even the Dos Palmas kidnappings.

There are a whole lot more but if you ask me, the single most heartbreaking story in our distinguished sports history is that after every regional or global event, we come home distraught with calls for an inquiry. Yet nothing happens. It’s the same old crap from the same old people.

But that’s the great thing about coming off the old year – we can still hope. These are but reminders and hopefully, we will all get better after this. We just have to suppress the heartache.

The Atlanta Heist (or How Onyok Velasco got robbed in broad daylight)
In 1996, the Philippines sent a 16-athlete team (we had an even larger contingent of officials and hangers-on) to the Atlanta Olympics. Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco was one of the few boxers on the team and in his lightflyweight class, defeated Taiwan’s Chih-Hsiu Tsai, Cuba’s Yosvani Aguilera, Morocco’s Hamid Berhili, and Spain’s Rafael Lozano in succession to make to the Gold Medal match and the country’s then-latest attempt to win it’s elusive first place finish.

Velasco was up against Bulgarian Daniel Petrov Bojilov. Throughout the games, the Filipino dominated his foes and won by a mile. But even as Velasco’s punches connected, they were automatically and incredulously awarded to the Bulgarian who thumped the shocked Filipino in points 6-19.

The protests fell on deaf ears and Velasco picked up the country’s second boxing silver medal since featherweight pugilist Anthony Villanueva won in Tokyo in 1964.

She or he (the Nancy Navalta Controversy)
She was on her way to sprinting towards athletic glory. She ran the 100-meter dash in 11.44 seconds and there was talk that Nancy Navalta was going to inherit Lydia De Vega’s mantle of the country’s fastest woman.

Or was she?

The whispers and insinuations about her true gender grew into a scream, one Navalta couldn’t deal with.

It was bad enough that she was born to an impoverished family in La Union then just as she found her chance to lifting her family out of their miserable state, she was questioned because of her manly build that included a whisker of a mustache, a flat chest, and muscled build.

She was made to undergo tests at the University of the Philippines General Hospital and the University of Santo Tomas before the Southeast Asian Games where she was pronounced as “genetically male.”

Local and foreign officials advised Navalta to cease from competing and to get on with “his” life.

She disappeared as fast as she made tracks in the athletic scene.

Do you believe in magic or luck? (Efren Reyes collapses in the 2006 World Pool Championships)
He is the Michael Jordan of billiards. A man so fearsome in his reputation for wringing out magical wins will sublime skills and steel verve. Such is it when cue artists are in a room with Efren “Bata” Reyes.

Yet in the opening day of the 2006 Philippines World Pool Championships at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, Reyes seemed to have left his bag of tricks at home against his young competitor from the United States, Tony Crosby who raced to a 7-4 lead as the packed venue groaned with every miscue and missed shot.

When all seemed lost, Reyes found his mojo as he leveled the match at 7-7 with some excellent shot making. Suddenly there was magic in the air as the now frenzied crowd smelled a victory. In the position to win the match as all he had to do was slot in the 9-ball, Reyes missed as the room fell deathly quiet.

A disbelieving Crosby couldn’t believe his good fortune as his jaw sank and he covered his face in disbelief. He took a moment to compose himself as he wasn’t sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him. But the collective anguish of all the spectators confirmed Reyes’ horrendous miss. The American sank the ball and the heart of millions of Filipinos.

A stab at our Seoul (How Korea breaks our hearts in the national pastime)
You can say what you want about the country’s fascination and passion for basketball even if we’ve lagged far behind in the international game, but this is the one sport that defines us. If Manny Pacquiao is the Mexicutioner, the Koreans are our tormentors when it comes to basketball.

1) During the 1986 Seoul Asian Games semi-finals, the Joe Lipa-mentored squad faced the host team for the right to play China for the Gold.

The Korean sharpshooter Hur Jae kept the Filipinos at bay with his three-point shooting. But the Philippine Team behind Avelino “Samboy” Lim, brothers Jerry and Harmon Codinera, the late Jack Tanuan, Allan Caidic, Alvin Patrimonio, and Ronnie Magsanoc launched into a spirited rally that saw them down by one point with the game’s conclusion a few seconds away and the ball in Korea’s possession.

Caidic poked the ball away from his man. The Filipino sharpshooter raced to his side of the court to go one on one with his guard as Samboy Lim trailed. Caidic went straight to the rack for a lay up when a whistle blew.

Instead of calling a blocking foul on the Korean, the referee whistled the Filipino for an offensive foul and with almost no time on the clock, the game went to the hosts. Recalled Joe Lipa of that call, “For me to say that the call was biased for Korea might sound self-serving so I’ll just say that it was very controversial.”

2) Sixteen years later at the Busan Asian Games, the Philippines met Korea – once more the hosts – for the opportunity to play Yao Ming and the heavily favored Chinese for the gold.

Olsen Racela drained a huge trey with 51 seconds left in the game to put the Philippines up 68-66. Korea missed on their next possession and Racela was fouled with 23.9 seconds left. The point guard for San Miguel Beer in the PBA has always been steady at the stripe with a 92% accuracy rate but on this Black Saturday in Busan, he inexplicably missed both shots that would have given Team Philippines a four point lead.

Korea rebounded the ball and worked the ball to Lee Sang Min who at the point was having his own miserable game as he tossed up brick after brick from three-point land. Min hit a trey of his own at the buzzer to give Korea the improbable 69-68 victory and a place in the finals.

Why don’t we start them young (The 1992 Little League World Series)
In 1992, the Philippines was represented by Zamboanga City in the Little League World Series held at Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

The team kicked serious butt and took names at the tournament and in the finals against Long Beach, California, the RP Team crushed the home squad with a seven-run first inning en route to a 15-4 rout. The Zamboanga team was crowned the 46th Champions of the annual event and they came home to a heroes’ welcome.

But not long after the victory, word filtered out that the team had used ineligible players including star pitcher Roberto Palacios. After an embarrassing investigation where it was indeed proven that several players were over-aged, the title was stripped and handed to the Long Beach team.

A Greek Tragedy (Toni Rivero and the Missed Athens Gold)
On a beautiful Monday afternoon on the 30th of August in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, Maire Antoinette “Toni” Rivero, bruised and battered after a grueling elimination round, needed was one more win to barge into the medal round. As expected, a hostile Greek crowd awaited the then-16 year old. The Greeks’ Sydney Games medal winner Michailis Mouroutsos lost in the under 58 kg category and that left Elizavet Mystakidou (like Rivero) their medal hopeful in the women’s under 67 kg event.

Even at that age, Rivero learned to block out the external sounds and focus on the match. And despite a thigh and hand injury, she was outpointing Mystakidou much to the shock and anger of the Philippine coaching staff and delegation. “I was getting some good hits but the judges were not scoring them,” she remembers like it was only yesterday. “But it was clearly a home court decision.”

Toni finished fourth and couldn’t contain her disappointment. She left Athens in tears but came back stronger with some great performances in the SEA and Asian Games. Mystakidou on the other hand, has never won in a major competition since.

The medal drought continues (the 2008 Beijing Olympics)
The Philippines sent 15 athletes to Beijing in dogged pursuit of the country’s first Olympic gold medal and very much like the ones that preceded them, they came home empty, humbled, and angry. The final showing of the Philippine delegation was said to be worst ever in the quadrennial meet.

The swimmers as led by Mark Molina it seemed were only good for the Southeast Asian Games even if they did break several national records.

Harry Tañamor, the country’s lone boxing hopeful shockingly lost in his first bout to a virtual unknown from Ghana.

In taekwondo, where the Philippines also pinned its medal hopes, Toni Rivero and Tshomlee Go never got past the opening round.

Although Wushu’s Willy Wang won a gold medal, it didn’t reflect in the standing as it is only considered a demonstration sport.

What made it even more tragic was the usual finger pointing and calls for inquiries that follow the Philippines after every international event. There is much talk but nothing ever really changes.

The Golden and Missed Opportunity (the Louie Espinosa Story)
Oscar De La Hoya considers him one of his boxing idols. The original Golden Boy to be exact.

Louie Espinosa is a two-time former world champion who finished his career with a 47-11 record with 26 KO’s on the strength of his powerful left hooks.

Unfortunately, like many other prize fighters, it was Espinosa’s career that soon got knocked down for good after he was duped by false promises, a meddling wife, and unscrupulous promoters. Espinosa instead fell by the wayside working odds jobs in the United States to eke out a living. The former bantamweight and featherweight champion made an appeal to authorities to procure his promised purse of $150,000 purse for successfully defending his World Boxing Council featherweight crown against Argentine Carlos Rios in 1997 in Koronadal, Cotabato. Rios was knocked out in the sixth round.

“I just want what I earned so I can rebuild my life,” said a disconsolate Espinosa. “It has been so long. I want my life back.”

When the Silver doesn’t mean anything (Anthony Villanueva and a loss that haunted him a lifetime)
It is rare that a father and son have a chance to represent their country in the Olympics. Jose Villanueva won a bronze medal in a bantamweight bout with Joseph Lang during the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. And 32 years later, his son, Anthony had the opportunity to not only do the father one better but make the whole country proud.

In the gold medal featherweight match versus Russian Stanislav Stepashkin, Villanueva seemed to be ahead convincingly as he peppered his opponents with devastating combinations. Yet when the decision was announced, the Russian was named the winner prompting the veteran and late sportscaster Joe Cantada to scream into his microphone, “We were robbed! We were robbed!”

Villanueva was awarded the silver medal, the Philippines’ first ever in the competition. But years later, broken down and without money, he offered to sell his medal just to pay for his medical bills.

The Hometown Hold-up (Z Gorres finds out that homecourt advantage doesn’t mean anything in boxing)
In February of 2007, WBO Super flyweight champion Fernando Montiel, the orthodox fighter from Mexico entered the ring in Z Gorres’ hometown of Cebu where he took on the Filipino in a 12-bouter.

Strangely enough Gorres was twice deducted a point (in the 10th and 12 rounds) by referee Samuel Viruet – without any warning – that may have ultimately spelled the difference in the split decision awarded to the defending champion.

A Game of Nerves (The Great World Pool collapse of Roberto Gomez)
It isn’t easy to come to an opponent’s home country and take his heart, the World Pool title, and $60,000 in cash. But England’s Darryl Peach did just that by upending Superman as Roberto Gomez is nicknamed.

The Englishman wasn’t any pushover as he crushed Ronnie Alcano the previous year making a case for himself as a cue artist to watch. But down against Gomez 12-15, he began an unlikely comeback as Gomez lost a game of nerves because of overconfidence.
Gomez was easily breezing to a win, leading 15-12, but Peach responded and tied the match at 15-all.

The 31st rack, was taut and filled with suspense as both players seemed to succumb to their nerves missing one shot after another. Gomez inexplicably tried to finish off his opponent by rushing his shots prompting his to miss.

His crucial miscues allowed Peach to calm down and finish him off by taking the next two racks for the Grand prize. An emotional Gomez broke down in front of the cameras and was inconsolable.

Three strikes and we’re still not yet out (The FIBA Suspension and the chaotic basketball scene)
How it must gall the Golden Generation to see how far the mighty have fallen? From Asian champion to chumps. The Philippines has not only lagged far behind its neighbors in terms of the economy and development but also in the national sport that is basketball.

Although at best, the accusation that the pro league has been party to our decline in the world basketball scene is nothing but speculation. Maybe we refuse to simply accept that the world has passed us by when they put their minds to learning the game.

But as we tried to regain our past glories, we were slapped three times with debilitating suspensions that have not helped our cause. The first one was in 1963 after the Philippine government refused to allow the participation of communist bloc countries. The second came briefly in 2001 when warring factions vied for the presidency of the BAP. But it was the third – also a power struggle between different parties -- that was not only lengthier but even more damaging.

By the time the suspension was lifted after two years, the other Asian countries that we used to routinely beat, were now inflicting crushing losses to us.

Although the FIBA suspension has been lifted, all is still not well within the local basketball scene as there are those who still oppose the current leadership or even the involvement of foreign coaches in the national team.