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Philippines, 24 Nov 2024 |
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FILIPINO WORLD CHAMPIONS By Red Dumuk PhilBoxing.com Tue, 26 Mar 2024  Seventy-six National Sports Associations (referred to as National Governing Bodies—NGBs--in other countries like the United States) enjoy recognition from the Philippine Sports Commission. Such recognition stems from their regular or associate membership in the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) or simply a POC recognition. Nearly all of these NSAs benefit from government largesse through PSC. However, a measly 15% have produced world champions. A century ago, Pancho Villa (born Francisco Guilledo) emerged as the first Filipino athlete to become a world champion when he ascended to the vacant world flyweight throne on June 18, 1923, five years before swimmer Teofilo Yldefonso gifted the Philippines its first Olympic medal, a bronze. There were no NSAs in existence then and Philippine Sports governing body was the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF), founded in 1911 but chartered 14 years later. It was only during the PAAF’s golden anniversary that NSAs, as we know today, were formed. With the establishment of the Department of Youth and Sports Development in 1975, PAAF was dissolved and the Philippine Olympic Committee sprang to life. 
Pancho Villa is the first Filipino world boxing champion. At the professional level, the Philippines has been undoubtedly a world power. Manny Pacquiao, the People’s Champion, and Nonito Donaire, a promising heir to Hall of Fame-bound Pacquiao, have collected 12 titles in separate weight divisions between themselves—the former with eight and the latter four. The strong world championship tradition started by Pancho Villa counts no less than 45 other titleholders, three of whom were enshrined to both the International Boxing and Philippine Sports Halls of Fame. Promoter par excellence Lope “Papa” Sarreal played a pivotal role in nurturing and strengthening the tradition, having a hand in installing 22 world champions. The “Grand Old Man of Philippine Boxing” was inducted to International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005. To underscore the well-roundedness of Philippine professional boxing, Carlos “Sonny” Padilla, Jr., a referee/judge, was inducted to the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in 2022. Padilla, best remembered as the third man in the ring during the 1975 “Thrilla in Manila”, the third and final match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, is the tenth Filipino non-athlete to be enrolled in an international sports hall of fame. At the amateur front, boxing’s success in the Olympic Games has yet to be paralleled in world championships. Until Josie Gabuco swiped a gold medal in 2012, boxing had been a non-entity like swimming and athletics with regard to gilt output in world championships. Gabuco was a bronze medalist in the Women’s World Boxing Championship four years earlier as pinweight. In 2019, featherweight Nesthy Petecio snared PHI’s second boxing gold medal. This was sandwiched by his silvers in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the 2014 worlds. PHI has had gold medalist in only four other Olympic sports—weightlifting, golf, taekwondo and gymnastics. Gymnast Carlos Yulo is the most successful Filipino athlete at the worlds. With his two-gold, two-silver and two-bronze medal harvest he has propelled PHI to 34th position in the all-time medal table of artistic gymnastics world championships. Only 53 of the 160 national federations have won a medal. Salvador del Rosario lifted a gold medal in the 1970 World Weightlifting Championships flyweight clean & jerk. Del Rosario competed in the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympics. 
Hidilyn Diaz bags the Philippines' first Olympic gold medal. Hidilyn Diaz snaffled PHI’s first ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo 2020 finally staged in 2021 on her fourth Games to presage his romping off with all the 55-kg class three golds in the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships. She has collected a silver and six bronzes since the 2015 worlds; and three golds from 2020 World Cup. HD also owns PHI’s third Olympic silver medal, making her one of the only two PHI’s Olympic double medalist. Dorothy “Joy” Delasin, then the youngest golfer to rule a leg in the US LPGA Tour, swung in the title in the 2001 Samsung World Championship. In 2008, Delasin and Jennifer Rosales topped the 4th Women’s World Cup of Golf, birdying the last 4 holes. The triumvirate of Rani Ann Ortega, Camille Alarilla and Janice Lagman triumphed in the 2009 World Poomsae Championship. (Poomsae is not an Olympic discipline of Taekwondo.) In 2011, the men’s trio of Sabido brothers (Jean Pierre and Brian) and Ray Anthony Matias equaled the feat. Taekwondo jin Roberto Cruz was frustrated three consecutive times in his quest for the gold in the worlds (1995, 1997 and 1999). He had to content himself with the silvers in all his three attempts. PHI has been making waves in the so-called Puyat sports—bowling and billiards. The Puyats have been and continue to be the No. 1 patrons of these two sports. Rafael “Paeng” Nepomuceno, married to a Puyat scion, and Olivia “Bong” Coo were the very first Filipinos to have barged into an international hall of fame. The duo, together with a Swedish, voted 1987 Female Bowler of the Year, were the inaugural inductees to the International Bowling Hall of Fame in 1993. Lita de la Rosa was inducted posthumously seven years later. Nepomuceno and Coo, both cited in the Guinness Book of World Records, are multiple world champions. Nepomuceno is the only winner of four World Cups (all in Olympic year—1972, 1916, 1992 and 19960) and the youngest to become one. Paeng also holds the record for most appearances—19. Coo had collected three gold medals in the FIQ Championship (staged every quadrennial) and one championship in the World Cup. 
Paeng Nepomuceno is the Philippines' best bowler. Owner of 119 career titles, Nepomuceno was named by the FIQ, world’s bowling governing body, as the “International Bowling Athlete of the Millennium”. He was the only bowler to have been awarded the IOC President’s trophy. Toting a record 135 championship titles with at least a Masters title for 28 consecutive years, Coo is also the top Filipino gold medal producer in the Asian Games with five. She received an Achievement Diploma from the IOC for “her outstanding contribution in promoting the development and participation of women and girls in sports”. Our bowlers’ best performance in the FIQ Championship (now World Tenpin Bowling Association Championship) was seen in its inaugurals in Manila in 1979. Lita de la Rosa emerged as the Masters and ladies singles champion. Coo struck gold in the all-events (she repeated in 1983) and in the doubles (with De la Rosa). Ollie Ongtawco grabbed the men’s single gold. The other FIQ golds were mined in the women’s trios (Liza Clutario, Liza del Rosario and Cecilia Yap) in 2003 and men’s Masters in 2006 (Biboy Rivera). Over at the World Cup, aside from Nepomuceno’s titles in 1976, ’80, ’92 and ’96, there were De la Rosa’s in 1978, Coo’s in 1979 and Christian Jan Suarez’s in 2003 and Krizziah Tabora’s in 2017. In 2003, Efren “The Magician” Reyes, with more than 80 major pool championships in his pocket became the first Asian to be inducted to the Bowling Congress of America’s Hall of Fame. Francisco “Django” Bustamante followed suit in 2010. 
Efren 'Bata' Reyes. Reyes, considered the best all-around and one-pocket pool player in the history of the game, blazed the trail in 1999 for other Filipino 9-ball world champions: Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan in 2004, Renato “The Volcano” Alcano in 2006, Bustamante in 2010 and Carlo Biado 2017. This he did, likewise, in 8-ball in 2004. Alcano succeeded in 2007 and Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo, the money-game king, in 2011. Reyes partnered with Rubilen Amit, the 2009 and 2011 ladies 10-ball world champion, for the World Mixed Doubles Championship they have dominated in 2009 and 2011. The Reyes-Bustamante duo topped the 2006 and 2009 World Cup of Pool followed by Orcollo-Lee Van Corteza tandem in 20113 and James Aranas-Johann Chua pair in 2023. Amit, Biado and Chua collaborated in grabbing the gold medal in the World 10-Ball Team Championship. Crowding the bowlers out from top billing are the wushu athletes who kicked off their campaign in their own world championships in 1991, four years removed from the inception of the Wushu Federation Philippines. Thirty-tw0 years later, they have 17 gold medals to display: seven in taolu (routine exercises) and 10 in the sanshou or sanda (combat). Samson Co was best performer in taolu. He garnered back-to back golds in 1991 and 1993. The other gold medalists included Alfonso Que (1995), Lester Pimentel (1995), Mark Robert Rosales (1997), Arvin Ting (2003) and Willy Wang (2007) and in sanda, Rene Catalan was, likewise, back-to-back gold medalist (2003 and 2005) along with Benjie Rivera (2005 and 2013) and Arnel Mandal (2015 and 2019). Rexel Nganhayna (2005), Dembert Arcita (2011), Jesse Aligaga (2011) and lone woman Divine Wally (2015) were the other gold medalists. Catalan and Mandal were also back-to-back champions in the Sanshou World Cup (2004 and 2006) and (2016 and 2008), respectively. Rivera added another gold (2006) as did Aligaga (2014), Jean Claude Saclag (2014) and Wally (2016). Wang snared a gold medal in the Wushu Championship organized in conjunction with the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Although the championship was not an official event of the Games, Wang’s gold and the silver and bronzes of his three teammates served as balm to the Olympic Team Philippines suffering from another medal shut out. Jethro Dionisio was the toast of the practical shooting world in the first half of the ‘90s. In 1992 and ’93 Dionisio and Valerie Levanza were the fastest guns alive as they dominated the Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championship. From 1993 to 1995, Dionisio was also the World Shootoff Champion. He shifted from pistol to shot gun and went on to show his wares in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Athena Lee was the fastest female shooter in 2002 to 2003 following Valerie’s sister Cathy (1998). Lee also snatched a gold medal in the International Practical Shooting Championship in 1999 as did Kaye Cabalatungan in 2002 and Jeufro Jag Lejano in 2005. Paul del Rosario became the first Filipino jetski world champion when he topped the 2010 QuakySense-IJSBA World Finals. Del Rosario pulled the rug from under his topnotch rivals to capture the Premium Open Expert Runabout crown in the International Jetsports and Boating Association (IJSBA)-organized event. Comebacking after a 7-year hiatus, del Rosario splashed away with the gold medal in the ski modlites category, considered as part of the ski/stand up type class and the hardest division in all jet ski races. The only team sport where PHI had reaped gold medals in world championships is dragon boat. Team Philippines has secured gold medals, and setting world records in the process, in the 2007, 2009 and 2011 world meetings under the aegis of the International Dragon Boat Federation. PHI had never stepped on top of the podium since dragon boat was subsumed as a discipline under International Canoe-Kayak Federation. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Red Dumuk.  |
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