PINOY hopes and aspirations are always high when the Asiad rolls along.
The 18th edition of the Asian Games officially opened on August 18, and will run through September 2 in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia.
For three weeks, the best athletes from the region will compete in 36 sporting events : aquatics, athletics, archery, badminton, baseball and softball, basketball, bowling, boxing, canoeing/kayaking, cricket, cycling, equestrian, fencing, golf, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabbadi, karate, modern pentathlon, rowing, rugby sevens, sailing, sepak takraw, shooting, soccer, squash, table tennis, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.
Also called The Asiad, the Games evolved from the Far Eastern Games, which was created in 1913 by Elwood Brown, then president of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Association, who proposed the creation of a “Far Eastern Olympic Games” to China and Japan. The first event was held at the Manila Carnival grounds (that would later become the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex) on Febryary 4, 2013. The Philippines played host to China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong.
We were then one of the powerhouse teams, particularly in basketball. Filipino cagers captured the basketball crown in the first-ever Far Eastern Games—the Asian version of the Olympics (which is what the Asian Games still is at present). In fact, the Philippines won 9 out of 10 basketball championships, bowing only once to China (30-27), with some quarters blaming it all on “bad officiating.” We won the overall title as well in 1921, and during one game the Philippines caught Asian (if not world attention) through the eye-popping efforts of one Filipino cager. Lou Salvador (who fathered and grandfathered all of local showbiz’s Salvador clan) made an all-time record that stands to date: an individual score of 116 in a single game in an international competition.
The Far Eastern (Championship) Games became the Asian Games in 1951, with the Philippines as one of the founding members of the Asian Games Federation. (This was later replaced by the Olympic Council of Asia, which still runs the Games to date.)
Our most memorable Asian Games participation would probably be in 1962, also in Jakarta, when the Philippines, led by Caloy Loyzaga, lorded over the basketball event, defeating both Japan and South Korea. Other members of that team were Boy Arazas, Narciso Bernardo, Kurt Bachmann, Gerry Cruz, Pons Marquez, Manny Jhocson, Rhoel Nadurata, Eddie Pacheco, Cristobal Ramas, Alberto “Big Boy” Reynoso and Ed Roque. The Philippines had remained undefeated in basketball through four consecutive Asian Games, culminating in the brilliant 1962 finish.
That year the country also ranked third overall with seven golds, four silvers and 16 bronze medals—a total harvest of 27 medals.
Since then, the country’s medal haul has consistently declined, except for 1966 when we bagged a total of 42 medals, two of them gold. The medal tally varies, with the following totals : 1970 (22), 1974 (13), 1978 (14), 1982 (14), 1986 (18), 1990 (10), 1994 (13), 1998 (18), 2002 (26), 2006 (19), 2010 (16), and 2014 (15). However, our 2014 participation in Incheon was the only Asiad where we came home with just one gold medal courtesy of Fil-Am Daniel Caluag in BMX cycling.
At that time the Philippine delegation’s main goal was to just surpass the country’s three-gold, 16-medal haul in the 2010 Guangzhou Games. It didn’t quite come close. Incheon was a heartbreak, although record-wise, our worst finish would still be Tehran 1974 when we failed to produce even just one gold medal.
To this date, the most illustrious finish the Philippines has ever had in the Asiad remains to be Manila 1954. The country bagged 14 golds, 14 silvers and 17 bronzes for an overall second place status behind overall champion Japan.
In the current Asiad, we no longer pin our hopes on sports that have brought us precious Asiad jewelry in the past: swimming, shooting, bowling and athletics. Instead we rely on our steady medal earners for the past four years in the combat sports of boxing, taekwondo and wushu.
Thus far, our medals have come courtesy of combat sports: two bronzes from poomsae (men’s and women’s) one more bronze from taekwondo (Pauline Lopez) plus one more bronze from wushu (Agatha Wong). On Tuesday Hidilyn Diaz, our gallant champ, has finally given us our first gold in weightlifting.
Maybe it’s true that Filipino athletes are naturally and culturally “designed” for the martial arts. Current ONE Championship athletes like former ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang and top ONE Championship strawweight contender Rene “The Challenger” Catalan, were Asian Games competitors who brought honor to the country in different Asiads. Before topping ONE Championship’s 77.1-kilogram division, Folayang was a two-time Asian Games medalist in Wushu, capturing Bronze in the 2002 Busan Asian Games and Silver in the 2006 Doha Asian Games. Rene Catalan was a gold medalist in wushu in Doha 2006.
Now all eyes will be on the Philippine boxers who are set to begin their campaign on August 24. Team Philippines made up of Rogen Ladon, Eumir Felix Marcial, Mario Fernandez, Carlo Paalam, James Palicte, Joel Bacho, Irish Magno and Nesthy Petecio will compete in eight of ten categories and are looking to add to the medal haul and salvage Filipino pride. Will they make it?
Hope springs eternal in the Pinoy heart.