MANILA, Philippines — If it were up to Manny Pacquiao?s fans, the definitive moment of Philippine sports in the year 2007 should have been captured this way in a photograph: The Filipino ring sensation, sweat dripping down a finely chiseled body that had earlier struggled to make the weight, standing over a fallen Marco Antonio Barrera, yet another Mexican Hall-of-Famer who had hoped to conquer the Pacman.
Instead, it ended up with Pacquiao and Barrera caught in a snapshot sealing a brand-new friendship, moments after the Mexican somehow managed — albeit with the help of a little foul punch toward the end of their fight — to stay on his feet for 12 rounds against the jackhammer-like punches of the Filipino.
It seemed that in the midst of the knockout hopes and the flurry of pugilistic exchanges, only Freddie Roach saw what made Pacquiao?s conquest of Barrera special.
?Manny boxed well and showed good footwork, which was what we worked at,? said the American trainer. ?Manny cut him off and moved him to the right, which was a beautiful thing.?
The people manning the Inquirer Sports desk saw the same thing and voted Pacquiao?s story –and that of the country?s newly minted world champions — as the year?s sporting highlight.
Here, in nuggets, are the rest of the best — and the worst — of Filipino exploits in the sporting arena in 2007. The Sports desk ranked the 10 best stories according to their impact on local sports:
1. Donaire, 3 others world?s best
Very few had heard of Nonito Donaire until the morning of July 8, when his story landed on the front pages of newspapers. The report, coming out of Bridgeport, Connecticut, stated that the Filipino-American had just given the Philippines a world title.
Donaire knocked out the undefeated Vic Darchinyan in the fifth round of a scheduled 12-rounder, claiming his Armenian-Australian victim?s International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight title.
On that same day, another unheralded fighter made it two world crowns for the country. Florante Condes showed tremendous fighting heart in flooring champion Muhammad Rachman twice en route to snatching the IBF mini flyweight (105-lb) crown via a split decision, right in his opponent?s hometown of Jakarta.
That kicked off what?s to be a banner year for pro boxing in the country.
Gerry Pe?alosa became the third Filipino world champion in two months, on Aug. 12, dethroning Mexican World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez with a seventh-round knockout at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, California, during the Philippines vs Mexico boxing dual meet, dubbed as the World Cup.
The 35-year-old former World Boxing Council (WBC) super flyweight champion put away the Mexican for good with one punch to the body late in the seventh round.
And then late in the year, Donnie Nietes capped the RP world title spree by forging a unanimous decision triumph over previously undefeated Pornsawan Kratingdaenggym of Thailand to capture the WBO minimumweight crown at the Waterfront Cebu Hotel on Oct. 1.
For sheer hype — and cash purse — none of those bouts came even close to matching the enormity of the Pacquiao-Barrera match held in Las Vegas on Oct. 7. Or even Pacquiao?s fight against Mexican Jorge Solis on Apr. 15 in San Antonio, Texas. Heck, they even failed to grab the same kind of spotlight as the battle Pacquiao waged — and lost — against the wispy Darlene Custodio for a seat in Congress.
But those fights have the one thing Pacquiao?s battles, those inside the ring, sorely lacked, at least for the moment: a world title.
Pacquiao is scheduled to slug it out with reigning WBC super featherwight king Juan Manuel Marquez — the last of the Mexican greats standing in the way of his dictatorial rule in the super featherweight ranks.
2. Bittersweet basketball
After years of putting up with a dysfunctional Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP), sports officials and other major stakeholders of the sport decided to unite and take drastic action.
After years of mudslinging, band-aid solutions and politicizing, basketball finally found a new federation to rest its hopes on: The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP).
After a Unity Congress that patched up the cracks in a fractured basketball landscape, the international basketball federation (FIBA) informed SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan that the federation was finally lifting its ban on Philippine participation in international tournaments. It was a ban that lasted two years and denied the country a gold-medal bid in the 2005 Manila Southeast Asian Games basketball competition.
But the light of the inspiring breakthrough failed to put in the shadow the one ugly, glaring reality in basketball in the country: While Unity Congresses make for good photo-ops and program-hatchings, they don?t put the country any closer to its cherished dream: An Olympic participation again.
?We have to be patient,? Pangilinan said then. ?The problems of basketball isn?t going to be fixed overnight. It?s going to take a really determined effort to improve Philippine basketball.?
After a successful Seaba stint that flaunted the country?s hoop might — sadly, only in the Southeast Asian region — the country?s best shot at the Olympics came up via the FIBA Asia qualifier in Tokushima, Japan.
There, the Olympic dreams of a nation lay crushed under the wealth of Asian talent.
With China seeded into the Olympics by virtue of its hosting the 2008 edition, Philippine hopes soared as an extra slot was made available for Asia. All the country needed to do was win the qualifier.
Unfortunately, even after an inspiring victory over a second-rate Chinese squad, the Philippines fell short, kicked out of the race during the elimination round by a pair of losses to rising Middle Eastern powers including Iran, which went on to win the Asian title and the Beijing ticket that went along with it.
3. Sinking to the depths of SEA
Miguel Molina will always be remembered as the one face that saved the country?s participation in the 24th Southeast Asian Games, which will go down as the edition of the biennial meet where a defending champion surrendered its crown faster than its athletes could get to the finish line.
After claiming 113 gold medals in 2005, the year the Philippines hosted the small-time meet among members of the Southeast Asian community, the country tumbled to its worst finish ever, collecting just 41 gold medals to finish in sixth place.
?We prepared hard, but the rest prepared harder,? Philippine Olympic Comittee president Jose ?Peping? Cojuangco and Philippine Sports Comission chair William ?Butch? Ramirez both said.
Molina was half of the main story of that SEA Games. And his was a story to be proud of. Trained in the United States, Molina won four gold medals as the country proved its might in swimming competitions.
The other half of the story? The boxing team. Depending on where you?re looking from, the national boxing squad, hyped as the country?s best chance to end an Olympic gold-medal drought, was either a turncoat who treated the Games as a freebie supplied by taxpayers? money or a patriot who let it be known that Filipinos were not going to take an assault on its pride sitting down.
Threatening to boycott the Games in the northern Thai province of Nakhon Ratchasima after its women fighters got whitewashed by Thai counterparts — save for Annie Albania?s knockout triumph — the RP boxing team instead decided to show up for the men?s finals. However, the male fighters, plucked from the ?B? ranks of the national pool, either walked off their match or surrendered midway.
While officials and other parties were quick to defend the move as a stand against cheating, a lot also indicted the RP boxing team on charges of farcically disgracing the Philippine participation in the SEA Games.
In between Molina?s heroics and boxing?s debacle were stories of triumph and defeat. For every Jaime Asok who drug-rehabbed his way out of a nightmare and into a gold medal, there was a bowling squad that competed in a trail of controversy and paid dearly for it. For every Cecil Mamiit who fought tenaciously to fell a well-funded foe and win the tennis singles gold, there was an athletics squad that fell way short of expectations.
4. Frankie and Juvic
For the longest while, Philippine golf has been hoisted on the shoulders of the fashionable Jennifer Rosales and Fil-Am Dorothy Delasin, who have managed to carve their niche — however small — in the US LPGA.
Men?s golf? It seemed that it was consigned to feeding off past successes of its greats.
And then this year, everything started to turn around. While Rosales and Delasin fell off the LPGA radar, with hardly anything to show for the 2007 season, the country?s male golfers started to make their mark in Asia.
Frankie Mi?oza and Juvic Pagunsan made Oct. 28 a red-letter day for Philippine golf, winning tournaments in Asia that was an end of a drought for one and a breakthrough for another.
Mi?oza ended a six-year drought in the cash-rich Japanese Tour in the most dramatic of fashions. He proved steadier than Korean Lee Dong-hwa, claiming a victory with a birdie on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff for the ABC Championship in Hyogo prefecture after both players ended up tied at 274.
It was the first championship in Japan for Mi?oza — who won this year?s Philippine Open for the second time last February — since ruling the Fujisankei Classic in 2001, a long drought for a man many line up alongside the legendary greats of the sport.
Mi?oza later said that he would try his hand in the PGA seniors tour once he becomes eligible for it age-wise.
Pagunsan, on the other hand, is just at the beginning of what many expect to be a lucrative golfing career. The many-time national team standout has already made his presence felt on the Asian circuit, but had never scored a victory until he saw action in the Pertamina Indonesia President Invitational in Jakarta.
Ranged against the likes of Ryder Cup star Lee Westwood, the 29-year-old Pagunsan shot a blistering final-round 65 to hold off Westwood, who eventually finished third, runner-up Gaganjeet Bhullar of India and American Anthony Kang.
?I am speechless, it was the perfect finish for me,? said Pagunsan. ?I?ve enjoyed my time on the Asian Tour and this is what I?ve been waiting for in my career.?
Mi?oza and Pagunsan received cash windfalls for their achievements. Frankie?s victory was worth about $210,300 (about P8.67 million) while Juvic pocketed $55,475. Pagunsan?s victory also catapulted him in the Asian Tour?s UBS Order of Merit. From his spot at No. 80, Pagunsan ended the year inside the Top 20.
Juvic?s victory came after Antonio Murakami, whom Mi?oza had also rated highly, also became a first-time winner on the Asian Tour by topping the Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia in October.
Tony Lascu?a also performed strongly in the Asian circuit even as Mars Pucay and Angelo Que scored victories in the inaugural edition of the Asean Golf Tour.
5. He isn?t so-so, this Wesley
If the grandmaster title is chess? version of immortality, then Wesley So has already achieved an ageless status.
On Dec. 7, after a relatively unspectacular draw with Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami in the final round of the Prospero Pichay International Open chess tournament, So finally completed his GM requirements.
He thus became the country?s newest grandmaster, one of two players to achieve that feat this year. Darwin Laylo, suspended earlier in the year for alleged game-fixing, also joined the ranks of chess masters of the highest order.
But what made So?s feat spectacular is the fact that he was the seventh youngest chess player to achieve the status, completing his GM requirements at 14 years, one month and 28 days old. Likewise, he is currently the world?s youngest GM.
He joins Eugene Torre, who became Asia?s first GM in 1974, the late Rosendo Balinas (1976), Rogelio ?Joey? Antonio Jr. (1998), Buenaventura ?Bong? Villamayor (2000), Nelson Mariano (2004), Mark Paragua (2005) and Darwin Laylo (2007) on the elite list of Filipino GMs.
The 27-year-old Laylo clinched his GM title by landing seventh in the Asian Individual Chess Championship held at the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City in September.
?This is a memorable year for local chess,? said Pichay, who is president of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines. ?We produced not only one but two GMs in a span of three months.?
