Two weird and unfortunate things happened in Manila last weekend, and this wasn?t exactly good news for Cebu sports. Worse, it happened in two separate events in Metro Manila. There?s a saying that says that one may have won the battle, but didn?t win the war. This was swak for Cebu?s performances in Pinoy Pride 17 and the Milo Little Olympics National Finals 2012 which were both held in the big city.
We all know what happened in Pinoy Pride 17 by now, don?t we? In a Philippines vs. The World showdown, the Philippines won the dual meet, 5-1, but we still lost the war when AJ ?Bazooka? Banal failed in his bid to win the WBO bantamweight championship of the world. Sure, Randy Bullong, Marlon Tapales, Michael Domingo, Jason Pagara and Boom Boom Bautista won over their respective foreign opponents for five wins, but what really mattered most was the main event which was worth more than ten times the five points on the dual meet scoreboard. I?m willing to take only one win for as long as it?s the main event. This is exactly what happened, but the other way around when Puanglung Sor Singyu TKO?d Banal in the ninth round to win the WBO world bantamweight title. The moment Tony Weeks stopped the fight and declared Sor Singyu as champion, the entire Mall of Asia Arena was stunned. This wasn?t the script written by the event?s scriptwriters. This wasn?t envisioned for the first ever boxing event at the posh MOA Arena and televised over broadcast giant ABS-CBN. Simply put, this wasn?t supposed to happen. But it did. The previous five wins of the Pinoys earlier in the evening suddenly felt like big fat zeroes. Ironically, the score was still 5-1 and we did ?win? the dual meet. We won the battle, but we didn?t win the war.
The Milo Little Olympics, which was held in Marikina, was something similar for Cebu Sports or Team Visayas. The Bisdaks are three-time defending champions, winning every edition of the event since it was launched in Cebu in 2009, and we were looking for a unprecedented fourth straight. We rejoiced when we won events like elementary and secondary football, girls secondary tennis, boys elementary tennis, all four divisions of badminton, and boys and girls secondary chess. We also won individual medals in swimming, athletics and other events, but the bad news is that these weren?t enough to pile up points for a fourth straight over-all championship. When the dust cleared, we placed runner-up to host National Capital Region (NCR). The final score (points garnered) was, 614-575. Officials of Team Bisdaks were uptight last Sunday (last day of competition) as they monitored all the various championship games and events that were being played in the afternoon. Team Bisdaks was trailing NCR in the point standings, and needed precious points from all those who still had games to play. But it wasn?t meant to be. NCR held off the rally of the Bisdaks and romped off with their first ever over-all championship of the Milo Little Olympics.
One weekend. Two events. Two wars lost. What a tough two days for Cebu sports. Rubbing insult to injury was that typhoon ?Ofel? stranded the Milo Olympics athletes at the Manila pier from last Tuesday until cleared to depart only yesterday. Still sulking from the loss of the over-all title, they have to deal with an extra six days in Manila which weren?t part of the script. Sound familiar? Some of those in the delegation posted on Facebook how relieved they were that they were finally cleared to go home. How much worse can it get? How much more bad news can come your way?
But let?s now leave the crying and look at the bright side. In sports, we all know that you can?t win ?em all. Fate will show the way for deserving people or teams to win and that?s what happened. Sor Singyu and NCR did what they had to do and they came out on top. Both studied the opposition, broke down the opportunities to take, and maximized every extra break to come out on top. For the Thai boxer, he took the best of Banal?s punches early on, and then worked out a way to land his own punches from the fourth round onwards until Banal wilted. He saw cracks in Banal?s defense, exploited this, and stunned Banal (and all Pinoy boxing fans). On the other hand, Banal didn?t make any adjustments to the Thai?s game plan and paid dearly for it. Sor Singyu also benefited from the point deducted from Banal for the low blows and a cut inflicted on Bazooka due to a headbutt. Tough, but these are breaks that are part of the territory. These things happen and you can only wish these go your way.
NCR also did a Sor Singyu on us. They scored crucial points in events at our expense in a simple scenario where they won and we placed lower either at second, third or fourth places. There was an event whose four divisions we swept last year, but we won only one this year, bowing to NCR. There were other events which we didn?t win last year, placing second. But we dropped a notch lower in the same event this year, to third or fourth.
Motivational coaches and preachers always say that losing or committing mistakes aren?t bad per se. These are just learning opportunities to make on stronger and tougher. Let?s make this our learning venue, adjust and refine, then go out to win the war, and not just the battle.
